Mars Born (Shadows of the Void Space Opera Serial Book 8) Read online

  Mars Born

  Shadows of the Void 8

  J.J. Green

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Jas Harrington went through her training moves. Left jab. Right jab. Right kick. Spin. Left kick. Weave. Right hook. Left hook. Weave. Right kick. She’d made something that vaguely resembled a punching bag from a rolled and taped up bunk mat, and she’d hung it from the ceiling in the starship’s dining room. It was the only place on board that was large enough for her to train in. Between meals, she would detach the tables and benches from the floor and stack them against the walls before starting long exercise sessions.

  The center of the punching bag contained a long plastic bag filled with water, but the bag wasn’t quite heavy enough, and it swung wildly at Jas’ last, low kick. She side-stepped as the bag swung back, and she kicked it again, hard, as it passed her. On its second return she punched the bag, grunting with the effort. The bag swung away again, and as it came back, she stepped up to meet it and began jabbing it with increasingly fast blows.

  Her brow glistened and her breath came in soft pants. Her arms and legs ached and her knuckles and wrists were sore, but she didn’t want to stop. The exercise felt good, though no matter how fast or hard she punched and kicked, the effort didn’t dispel her feelings of frustration.

  Letting loose something between a gasp and a cry, she jabbed hard with her right fist. A soft pop followed, and water gushed from the bottom of the bag, drenching her feet.

  “Krat,” she exclaimed, backing away from the quickly spreading puddle. The punching bag swung like a pendulum, shedding water like an out-of-control fire hose.

  Carl Lingiari was sitting on the floor in the corner of the room, concentrating on an interface he’d balanced on his knees. “Woah,” he said as he heard Jas’ exclamation and saw the spilling water. He scrambled to his feet. “Must have been some punch, Jas,” he said, his eyebrows raised.

  Her feet had been soaked in the initial burst of water, so she gave up trying to avoid it. She stood in the puddle, her hands on her hips, watching the slowly swinging bag. She drew her arm across her forehead to wipe off the sweat. “No, not really. The plastic bag was too weak. Wish I had some proper training equipment.” Pulling off the surgical tape she’d wrapped around her knuckles, she went over to Carl, her feet squishing in her wet sneakers. “What are you doing?” she asked as she trod on the heels of her shoes to remove them. She bent down to pull off her socks.

  “Just the usual,” Carl replied. “Checking to see if there’s been any mention of the Shadows in the media. Isn’t it about time you gave the training a rest? You’ve been going at it a couple of hours now, and you were in here all morning too, weren’t you?”

  Gazing down at her red, battered knuckles and lifting one lip ruefully, Jas replied, “Yeah, maybe you’re right. It’s just that I don’t have anything else to do. It’s so boring here. We’ve been aboard this ship for three days. Three days. And we can’t seem to decide anything. Every discussion we have goes around in circles. We’re all cooped up on this starship talking, and meanwhile the Shadows are on Earth killing more and more people, replacing them with replicants, taking over the Government, companies, media, everything.” She wrung out her socks over the puddle in the center of the room. “If we don’t do something soon, I think I’m going to explode.”

  “Hard to know what to do until we hear from the Transgalactic Council.”

  “I know. I know now that the Lees’ house is destroyed, any reply from the Council is going to be lost. And I know that we have no idea who Sayen’s parents sent the message to.” She squeezed her eyes shut in frustration. “I get it. But knowing all that doesn’t make things any easier. We have to decide something, and soon. Or else we might as well say we’ve done our part and wash our hands of the whole problem. Just find ourselves a little corner of the galaxy to wait out the storm, and hope that if we ever return to Earth, it isn’t inhabited by Shadows.”

  “After what’s happened over the last few months,” Carl said, “that part about finding a quiet corner of the galaxy doesn’t sound so crazy. ’Cept I’d just want to pick up Flux first and say goodbye to my old home.”

  Jas’ heart ached at her friend’s words. She couldn’t imagine what it was like to know your parents had been killed by Shadows. She reached out to softly touch Carl’s upper arm. “Whatever we do, we’ll pick up Flux. We’ll insist on it.”

  “Yeah. Little fella’ll be wondering where I’ve got to.”

  They stood quietly for a moment. Jas didn’t remove her hand from her friend’s arm. They both lifted their eyes and their gaze met. Slowly, they leaned closer. Jas closed her eyes and froze. She was trying to force her way through a sickening dread and not turn away or stop what might be about to happen to not freeze Carl out as she had done so many times before.

  At that second the door opened, and Phelan Lee peered around it.

  “Oh, sorry,” he said, backing out.

  “No, it’s fine,” said Jas as she hastily drew back from Carl, avoiding his wounded look. Relief eased her churning stomach. “What is it?”

  “We’re having a meeting.” Phelan eyed the puddle in the middle of the dining room. He went to a small hatch in the center of the floor and pushed it down with his foot. The hatch popped open, revealing a floor drain. The water flowed away. “I thought you two would want to come along.”

  “You bet we would,” Jas said, too brightly.

  ***

  They followed Phelan toward the flight deck. Jas was still getting used to how much he resembled his sister. Though the two were three years apart in age, it was as if they were male and female versions of the same person. Both looked a lot like their mother.

  Phelan was as anatomically flawless as his sister, Sayen, no doubt due to the state-of-the-art genetic modding he’d received soon after his conception. The man’s physical proportions were exactly balanced, and his face was perfectly symmetrical. His blond hair was even cut to a similar cropped style as his sister’s. His personality, however, was quite different.

  “Hope I wasn’t disturbing anything back there,” he said, throwing a grin over his shoulder. “But, you know, there’s more comfortable places for that kind of thing than a soggy canteen.”

  “No worries,” Carl replied, “you weren’t disturbing anything.”

  Jas winced at the somber tone of his remark.

  Phelan seemed to pick up that he was skirting the edges of a touchy subject. “So,” he continued, “can I ask, was there a special reason you wanted to flood my crew’s dining area, Jas?”

  “Sorry about that,” she replied and went on to explain about the makeshift punching bag and the accid
ent.

  “You went to all that trouble just to make yourself some training equipment?” Phelan asked.

  “Yeah, I did. There’s nothing aboard. I like to stay in shape, and I wanted to pass the time. I hope that was okay. I’ll unroll the mat. It should dry out in a few hours.”

  “Yeahhhh,” Phelan said, drawing out the word. “The mat’s no problem. I was only wondering why, if you wanted something to train with, you didn’t just use the ship’s printer.”

  Jas nearly drew to a halt at her own stupidity. Of course Phelan had a printer on board. Every starship she’d worked on had carried a printer to create essential items or spare parts for repairs in an emergency. But because they were expensive to run, printers were locked away. Crew members were only allowed to use them with special permission. It hadn’t occurred to her to ask Phelan if he had a printer. “Krat. That was kind of dumb of me, wasn’t it?”

  “Kinda.” Phelan gave a short laugh. “Just kidding. You couldn’t have been expected to know that, I guess. But for the record, you can use whatever the crew use aboard my ship. No need to ask. You’re friends of my sis, and what’s mine’s yours, okay? I should’ve made that clearer sooner.”

  “Thanks, that’s generous of you,” Carl said. “How’s Sayen doing?”

  Phelan had fallen into step beside them. The three walking abreast took up all the room in the narrow corridor. Space was at a premium aboard Phelan’s mining ship, the Bricoleur.

  Sadness dimmed the man’s usually bright features. “Not so good. My parents’ deaths have hit her pretty hard. She was very close to them both, especially to our mother. Sayen hasn’t said so, but I think she’s so cut up because, when it came down to it, Mama chose our daddy over us. I think that hurts her almost more than the fact that they’re gone.”

  Reminded of the scene of their escape from the Shadows on the burning rooftop, Jas shuddered. The noise and heat of the flames, the sight of Mr. Lee bravely firing at the host of aliens speeding toward them, and Mrs. Lee pushing Phelan into the shuttle, forcing them to flee and leave the couple to their fate: these were things she’d never forget.

  Chapter Two

  The flight deck was the second largest room aboard the mining ship, aside from the equipment bay and the hold. Phelan sat in his captain’s seat, throwing a baseball from hand to hand, as he always did when he was thinking. The crew and guests ranged around the space, standing or sitting where a spare seat was available.

  Jas wondered if Phelan had excelled at the ancient sport of baseball as he and Sayen had no doubt done at most things while they were growing up. He threw the ball at the ceiling and caught it on the rebound. At the place where the ball had hit was a smudge of dirt, evidence of the captain’s long habit. She wondered if the practice irritated his crew as much as it did her.

  It was hard to tell. No one, apart from Phelan and the pilot was human. The whole company was there, from the lowliest miner to the second-in-command and engineer, Flahive. Everyone was looking bored after three days of inactivity. Everyone except Flahive. It was hard to tell how the engineer was feeling because he—if his species consisted of hes and shes—was encased head-to-toe in a pressure suit. Flahive came from a high-g planet, and if he didn’t remain inside the suit, his entire body would rapidly expand, eventually killing him.

  Flahive’s suit gave an indication of his species’ tripoidal anatomy. He had three stumpy legs and got around by jumping along on the foremost two while the rear leg kept balance. Carl had said he reminded him of a 'roo’. Flahive’s three upper limbs were equally spaced around his torso, about halfway between his legs and dome-like head. At the end of each upper limb was a highly flexible pad, and the alien could manipulate the one at the back just as easily as the two that were closer to his front, as he was demonstrating at that moment by working on the interface on the panel behind him. What his face looked like, Jas had no idea, for it was hidden behind a smoky panel.

  The miners were all one species. Hairy and cylindrical, they stood about half Jas’ height. They didn’t appear to have any method of holding or touching anything, and Jas had never figured out how they worked the mining equipment. She supposed they had some kind of retractable appendages.

  The ship’s navigator was an android similar to the servants of the Lees’ household. She acted and sounded human, but Jas had guessed what she was from her extremely deferential attitude and limited conversational ability. The android was also extremely attractive, and it had crossed Jas’ mind that navigation wasn’t the only reason Phelan had her on the crew list.

  Sayen had propped herself on the edge of an instrument panel as they were waiting to begin the meeting. Her face was pale and her head low. Makey was peering over the pilot’s shoulder at levels she was adjusting on her screen. A young woman, the pilot was very reserved and quiet and had rarely contributed anything to the discussions they’d had on what to do next.

  Thunk went Phelan’s baseball on the ceiling of the flight deck. On the rebound, it slapped into his palm. As he went to throw it again, Jas resisted the urge to snatch it in midair, run to the nearest airlock, throw it in, and press Purge.

  They were waiting on Erielle, the crippled underworlder. It felt like an age ago since Jas had first met her, though it was only a few weeks.

  The flight deck was crowded, and Jas wondered why Phelan had decided to hold the meeting there rather than the larger dining room. Maybe he was about to make a big decision, and he needed his spot on the ceiling.

  The deck doors slid apart, and Erielle walked through. Jas sat up in surprise. The underworlder had been getting around on crutches since her legs had suffered severe laser burns, but she’d replaced them with a frame of slim metal rods that encased her from her waist to her ankles.

  “Looking good,” Phelan said to the underworlder. “It worked then?”

  “Yeah. Thanks for the suggestion, hun. I really appreciate it. Hey, everyone, what do you think of my new leg supports?” For the first time in weeks, Erielle smiled.

  Sayen looked up, and her face brightened momentarily. “You look sneck. Did you print them?”

  Erielle nodded. “Your brother suggested it. My legs are still kratted, and they always will be unless I get them fixed, but with these supports I can walk normally. I can even run. And I’m a little more comfortable.”

  Makey went over to the underworlder and squatted down to inspect the metal scaffolding around her legs. “Wow. I bet these make you stronger than you were before.” He straightened up and turned to Phelan. “Can I have some too?”

  A general laugh echoed around the flight deck. Phelan shrugged. “I don’t see why—”

  “How about you concentrate on getting your body into shape first?” Jas interjected. At Makey’s crestfallen look, she added, “Supports are great for helping people with problems, but they don’t match the flexibility or responsiveness of natural legs. You wouldn’t want to be wearing leg augmentation in a fight. Am I right?” she asked Phelan.

  “She’s got a point, kid,” Phelan replied. “Though if you were running away...” He paused at Jas’ frown and gave a chuckle.

  Carl stood up to give Erielle his seat, and as the older woman sat down, Phelan cleared his throat. “Okay, we all know why we’re here. We’ve argued it out, we’ve thought about it, we’ve argued some more. We aren’t getting anywhere. Some of you think we should skedaddle back to the Outer Rim and carry on like nothing’s happened.” The miners fidgeted and mumbled. “Some of you want to return to Earth and start rooting out these Shadows wherever we can find them.”

  “That’s right,” Erielle said forcefully.

  “Though it isn’t clear how you’ll tell who’s a Shadow and who isn’t since this scanner you’ve told me about went up in flames,” Phelan said.

  “We’ll figure out a way,” said Erielle. “People are dying down there.”

  “And if we return to Earth we’ll likely die too,” Sayen said. “There has to be something more useful we can do. If
we can just contact the Council...whoever received my parents’ message packet must have informed the rest of them. They must—”

  “As I’ve said all along, the Transgalactic Council must receive a million messages a day from crazies all around the galaxy,” said Erielle. “Why would—”

  “No.” Sayen rubbed her tired-looking eyes. “My parents had connections at the Council, and we sent them the evidence.”

  “You think you sent them the evidence,” Erielle said.

  “We sent them the evidence,” Sayen replied with an edge in her voice. “Not everyone in authority is out to get you, Erielle. If we can’t trust the Council to help us, who can we trust?”

  Erielle opened her mouth to speak, but Flahive cut in. “Please, if you both don’t calm down I’ll have to ask for a minute’s silence and reflection.” The voice his comm unit generated was male, deep, and smooth. As always happened when the alien spoke, soft lights illuminated his face plate. Flahive had given the same warning at every discussion they’d had when things had gotten heated. Jas hadn’t yet figured out why, but Phelan never reacted or seemed to think there was anything out of the ordinary about it.

  Thunk. The captain caught his ball and tossed it from one hand to the other. “Listen up, folks. I’m gonna lay it on the line for y’all. Here’s my problem. I have a duty to my sis and her friends, I have a duty to my crew, and I have a duty to the good citizens of Earth. Only thing is, all my duties aren’t lining up. I can’t help one of you without hurting the other. If I help Sayen, I’ll be taking my crew into danger. If I try to keep y’all safe by hiding out somewhere until this all blows over, I’m neglecting to help my fellow human beings, and that isn’t right.

  “So, after listening to all your arguments, I’m gonna act like the captain of this ship that I am and make up all your minds for you. Or, leastways, I’m gonna make a decision and y’all can decide which way you’re gonna jump.