by Ben Hale
GALAXY OF TITANS
©2021 BEN HALE
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Contents
ALSO IN SERIES
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Epilogue
Thank you for reading Galaxy of Titans
More In Sci-Fi
ABOUT BEN HALE
ALSO IN SERIES
Books by Ben Hale in the Timeline of The Augmented
Listed in relative chronological order
—The Augmented—
Empire of Ashes
Rise of Renegades
Galaxy of Titans
—The Augment War—(Coming 2022)
Alliance of Outlaws
Beacon of War
Throne of Ruin
—The Age of Oracles—
The Rogue Mage
The Lost Mage
The Battle Mage
—The Shattered Soul—
The Fragment of Water
The Fragment of Shadow
The Fragment of Light
The Fragment of Fire
The Fragment of Mind
The Fragment of Power
—The Master Thief—
Jack of Thieves
Thief in the Myst
The God Thief
—The Second Draeken War—
Elseerian
The Gathering
Seven Days
The List Unseen
—The Warsworn—
The Flesh of War
The Age of War
The Heart of War
—The White Mage Saga—
Assassin's Blade (Short story prequel)
The Last Oracle
The Sword of Elseerian
Descent Unto Dark
Impact of the Fallen
The Forge of Light
To my family and friends,
Who believed
And to my wife,
Who is perfect
Chapter One
The dakorian soldier shoved Siena into the cage. She fell on her side, the seracrete shackles digging into her wrists. The three occupants of the cage barely stirred except to pull their legs back. The door creaked shut behind her and a magnetic lock engaged with a thunk.
The soldier ambled away, his heavy footfalls echoing in the confines of the cargo bay. At nine feet tall, the dakorian was armored in natural bone armor, with spikes protruding from his back, shoulders, and head. Those on his head curved forward, and he’d filed them to be as sharp as a blade. The guard approached his companion, another dakorian with tall, straight horns. The two quickly lost interest in the slaves and began talking about a female dakorian that worked three decks up.
Siena stood and scanned the cavernous chamber, her gaze passing over the other slaves. Several thousand humans were packed into cages stacked three high. Each had an orange earring in their left ear, marking their owners as House Jek’Orus. Like her, they’d been recently purchased by the powerful krey House to staff a farm on a distant planet.
Most of the slaves were asleep, and did not even wake when the Light of Everden pushed away from the space station. The ship was a Cavron-class starship, a midsize vessel designed for cargo. It was also ugly, with a command pod protruding from a flat, square hull like a head resting on a brick. It had been modified to carry slaves, and there were two more decks above that were each full. The complete cargo probably topped twenty thousand men, women, and children.
“Welcome to House Jek’Orus.”
Siena turned to the human male sitting at the back of the cell. She’d just turned eighteen and he looked to be close to her age, while the other two were much older. They eyed her with a disturbing glint, while the speaker merely yawned.
“I was picked up with a thousand others at the Cages on Riven-6,” Siena said. The lie came easily. Ero would be proud.
One of the older men licked his lips, his eyes wandering up and down her body. “Aren’t we lucky to have you in our cell.”
A woman in the adjacent cell reached through and slapped him on the head. “Don’t even think about touching her.”
“Why not?” he demanded as he rubbed the side of his head and scooted out of reach. “She’s the prettiest thing I’ve seen in years.”
“Doesn’t mean you get to touch her,” the youth in Siena’s cell said.
Siena kept her attention on the two dakorians, and marked the location of the others on this deck. She counted eight in total—a small number to contain six thousand humans, but they probably didn’t count on anyone attempting to escape.
“I’m sorry.” The neighboring woman scooted to the front of her cage and leaned closer to Siena. “They don’t usually put males and females together, but with your last group most of the cages are full.”
�
�It doesn’t matter,” Siena said with a comforting smile. “I can take care of myself.”
The woman seemed dubious, and her eyes flicked to the two men behind Siena, who were speaking too quietly to be heard. Not that she cared. She had much more pressing concerns than the two men.
“I’m Asara,” she said. “I was in the first shipment, so I’ve been here the longest.”
“What do you think of House Jek’Orus?” Siena asked, more to keep the woman distracted than anything else.
“It’s the same as every other House,” Asara said with a shrug. “All the krey are cruel and all humans are slaves.”
Siena would have agreed a year ago, but then she’d been purchased by Ero, son of House Bright’Lor. Impossibly, she and the krey noble had become friends, and Siena had enjoyed a wealth of freedoms from her new owner. Not to mention what she’d become.
A pair of dakorians ambled by, watching the slaves. Siena dropped her gaze and turned away, not wanting to draw attention to herself. The other slaves did the same. The two soldiers were armed with the customary hammer lances, a weapon that absorbed energy from impacts to power the ion lance extending through the rod.
“How many dakorians on the ship?” she asked Asara.
“Maybe thirty,” she said. “Why?”
“Any Bloodwalls?”
She shook her head. “Not that I know of.”
“Quiet,” a slave across the aisle hissed at them. “You want to get us burned?”
Asara made a rude gesture at the man, and he glowered in response before ducking back into the shadows. Siena guessed he was the overseer, a human that took care of other humans. His haughty demeanor marked him as one with power, and Siena resisted the urge to silence him. She hated humans that were cruel to other humans.
“I don’t think he likes you,” Asara said, her smile making it seem like a compliment.
“I don’t need him to,” Siena said.
“You’ll need to watch out for him,” she warned. “He may be a sniveling roak, but the krey listen to him, and if he says you’re a troublemaker, they will burn you.”
“He’s gotten me burned three times,” the young man in Siena’s cell remarked. He leaned against the front of the cage and picked at his fingernails.
“You deserved it,” Asara said.
“It was just a roak in his cell,” the youth said. “The man has no sense of humor.”
Siena glanced at him. He sat apart from the two bearded men, who continued to mutter in low tones. She didn’t like how they kept glancing in her direction, but they had no idea what she was, and she didn’t care about their intent unless it interfered with her plan.
The ship groaned as it accelerated, presumably headed into a projection Gate. She imagined the teleporting ring forming in front of the vessel, followed by a second and a third. The first Gate super-accelerated them into the second, and then the third, which launched them to hyperlight.
“The ship has a projection Gate,” the woman said.
Siena already knew that, of course. She also knew that the Light of Everden had not possessed a projection Gate when it had first been built. Most Cavron-class cargo ships didn’t. But House Jek’Orus had installed one recently, at enormous expense. There was a reason heavy cargo ships did not come with their own projection Gates, but its presence had made Siena’s plan possible.
The second of the two bearded men approached and stood between Siena and the young one. “What’s your name?”
“Siena,” she replied, her attention still on the dakorians.
He reached out and brushed his fingers through her hair. “You really are beautiful—”
Siena reached out, her fingers closing around his throat. She lifted him off the cage floor and slammed him into the bars, hard enough to shake him, not so hard to cause a commotion. Or break his spine. His eyes bulged at how easily she lifted his weight, and the other sleazy male retreated in shock.
“I don’t really have time for romance,” she said acidly. “And even if I did, you wouldn’t match up to the one I love.”
She tossed him to the back of the cell. He landed heavily, his hand on his throat as he gasped for breath. His companion dragged him away from Siena with a stunned, fearful expression. Siena extinguished the body augment and her strength returned to normal. As she continued to watch the guards, the young man chuckled softly.
“That was . . . interesting.”
She didn’t respond, and Asara eyed her warily. “How did you do that?”
Siena could understand their confusion. She was fit and slight of frame, with blonde hair and blue eyes. One would assume she could work hard, but certainly not lift a grown man off the floor.
“You’ll see soon enough,” she replied.
“How soon?” he asked, and waved to the cells. “It’s a twelve-day trip to our destination, and until we arrive, this cell is your home.”
Siena glanced at him and then beyond, to the woman that had spoken in defense of her. She was on her feet, staring at Siena with a mixture of surprise and fear. Siena could have lied to them, but she shrugged.
“I’m here to steal the ship.”
The man she’d choked growled. “You’re mad.”
“Keep talking like that and I’ll leave you behind,” Siena said.
She turned and watched the guards, noting their rotation. Two at the stern, two at the bow, with the other four roving between the cages. The cells themselves were stacked three high and two deep except for the outer rows, which abutted the hull. Siena had been placed against the starboard hull, near the bow. On her right was the last cell, where four men were asleep. On the opposite side were four women.
“Not that I doubt your intention,” the young man said casually, “but what’s your plan to get out of the cell?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” she said.
He smiled faintly. “Let’s pretend for a minute you actually had a plan to get out. Hypothetically, how could I help?”
She eyed him. He was probably in his early twenties, with black stubble on his chin and matted black hair across his forehead. His dark eyes were light and friendly, with no hint of the vile nature the other two exhibited.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Jevin.”
“And what makes you believe me?”
He motioned to the sullen man at the back of the cell. “Aside from the display you just put on, that patch over your throat is rather telling.”
Siena’s hand flew to her throat, to the synthetic patch obscuring an ugly scar. It had been almost a year since Laurik had burned and marked her as a ferox, a dangerous rebel that few krey would ever purchase. Apparently the heat in the cargo bay had partially melted the material, revealing the outline of the scar. She peeled it away, drawing a curse from the second man.
“A ferox?” he growled, rising to his feet. “You’re going to get us all burned.”
He jumped to the bars and tried to signal the nearest soldier, his mouth opening to shout. Siena got there first, and her hand closed on his face, cutting off his cry. Kicking his feet out from under him, she slammed him onto his back. His head bounced on the seracrete deck and lolled to the side. She released him and looked to the one she’d choked.
“Do you find my status disturbing?” she asked mildly.
He frantically shook his head. She eyed him long enough to ensure his fear would keep him contained. Then she returned to the front of the cage, where Asara reached through the bars and grabbed her wrist. Before Siena could pull free, she pulled her close and spoke in a harsh whisper.
“Are you really going to steal the ship?”
Siena felt the desperate hope in her gaze and gave a solemn nod. “I am.”
“Why?”
Siena found it interesting the woman did not ask how. But Siena supposed the why was more important. Were the slaves to be taken for a rival House? Rebels like the Burning Ghosts? To work a black mine until they died? She noticed the o
ther three women in Asara’s cage were now awake, and all were staring at her. Siena grappled with how to explain and then gave up.
“To take you somewhere better,” she said.
The woman released her wrist. “What can we do?”
Siena was again surprised. “You want to help? You do realize that if you are caught, you could be killed.”
“I don’t care,” she said savagely. “My son is on the other aisle, and if there’s a chance I can stay with him, I want to fight.”
“What she said,” Jevin said. “Except without the son part.” He was still cleaning his nails, but there was a sense of languid eagerness to his posture.
Siena shook her head. “I appreciate your offer, but I don’t want you to be killed.”
A faint hum entered Siena’s thoughts, and she turned away to listen. It wasn’t audible, but she always felt it easier to hear the thoughts of someone else when she imaged it as a sound. Ero’s words were barely an echo.
“Two minutes,” she said with a nod to herself.
One of Asara’s companions grabbed the woman’s elbow and tried to drag her away from the bars. “She’s a mad ferox,” she said. “Humans don’t get out of their cells, let alone kill dakorian guards and fly a ship.”
“This human does,” Siena said.
After stealing two prior vessels, Siena knew that it was just as important to instill hope in a few of the humans as it was to actually steal the ship. She needed them to trust her, especially when they were forced to endure the experiment.
