Beyond Sol: A Sci-Fi Thriller (Gunn and Salvo Book 8) by Joshua James

Author:Joshua James [James, Joshua]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-02-08T00:00:00+00:00

16

Daedalus Grey stared out into the star-studded depths of uninhabited space as the Dolus’ ship drifted through the black. He hadn’t moved in a very long time. He was too busy staring into the empty night, pondering the implications of what would happen when he and the general’s host reached Earth.

The hunger of his passenger gnawed at the back of his mind, but for once, he was able to ignore it—for the most part, at least. There was a different sort of urgency to its voraciousness now. One human life would not be enough. The death of a settlement would not be enough. Like the general, its intent was focused on the final prize, on this final, most satisfying meal.

In the depths of that infinite darkness, a single point of light became visible, glowing brighter still as they approached. The Ithacan Straits came into clearer focus with each passing moment.

According to Regency’s map, they were close.

He was so lost in thought that when a second pale-eyed figure appeared at his side, Grey didn’t register that he was no longer alone. He started when her reflection shifted in the glass. All he caught was a glimpse of light hair and a pallid, narrow face, so he expected Hecate Black. Instead, he found himself face to face with a woman whose dirty-blonde hair hung lank against her cheeks. He sized her up, noting her prosthetic leg and the cheekbones that jutted beneath her skin, sharp as knives. He remembered her from Ilium, but he had forgotten her name. Eldridge’s attack dog.

How clever of the general to add this one to her mismatched collection of vagrants.

“What will it eat,” the woman asked, “when creation has been unmade?”

She didn’t have to explain her question, and there was no point in wasting time on proper introductions. They knew everything about the other that truly mattered.

“The settlements first,” Grey said. “Then the stars, one by one. When the homeworlds are fully extinguished, we will snuff out the stars.”

“And then?” Allen asked.

“And then all other light,” he said, annoyed that she’d disrupted him to ask questions with such an obvious answer.

She wouldn’t be put off. “And then?”

Grey growled in annoyance and glared at her, but she was still watching him, waiting for something that hadn’t yet occurred. “What is your real question?” he snapped.

The mouth of the Ithacan Straits swirled outside the glass. Their ship wasn’t on target to enter the maw. Rather, they were headed for the shimmering wall of the magnetic field.

Grey saw the field before them. He felt the moment, just before the ship reached it, when the engines cut out. A perfect silence suffused them, and Grey thought of Kri and how still the settlement had fallen when Regency had pulled the plug.

Peace, at last. With no lights and no power, the void wasn’t just within the ship, but without it and overflowing it.

For a moment, his passenger was perfectly satisfied.

The ship’s trajectory carried them through the shield. Grey counted as the seconds passed, relaxing into the weightlessness of entropy.

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