Blackstar Command: The Complete Series: A Military Space Opera Box Set by A.C. Hadfield

Author:A.C. Hadfield [Hadfield, A.C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2021-11-29T14:00:00+00:00

24

With their wormhole journey thankfully over with, the Blackstar shot out of the shortcut through space and time and instantly fired thrusters to equalize their velocity.

As usual, Kai swore with the engagement of the engines and the exit. Although this time, he had made sure they weren’t shown the swirling universe beyond them on the holocube or screens.

The hypnotic patterns only served to disorientate him.

Kai glanced around the bridge, staring at the various screens of info and the holocube in the center of the semicircular arrangement of couches.

Nothing alerted him to any major failures or damage.

He leaned forward and gestured across the terminal to bring up video streams of their surroundings. According to the data of their location, they had arrived within ten minutes of Azelia’s gravity well.

The front video screen flashed to life and focused on their destination.

Azelia looked like a white marble in an infinite void of darkness. It was the only planet in the system, orbiting its remarkably small sun with no moons or rings or any other stellar phenomena.

“Wow,” Senaya said. “It looks so pure, but—”

“Anticlimactic?” Kai suggested.

“Kinda. I mean, it’s cool-looking and all, but I was expecting… well, I don’t know what I was expecting, but something more. Bigger perhaps.” She shrugged off the chest straps holding her to the crash couch and winced.

“Are you okay?” Kai asked.

“Yeah, that exit wasn’t as bad as previous ones,” Senaya said with a smile. “And I got some rest despite that not-quite-there feeling of wormhole travel. I don’t think I’ll ever truly get used to that. I almost feel like we shouldn’t be doing it, you know? It’s like a big cheat to the universe.”

“I know what you mean.” Kai stood up from the crash couch and stretched his limbs. “Eesoh, can you confirm the Rapier exited with us?”

The amorphous face appeared on the holocube and inclined its head in acknowledgment. “The Rapier is due out… right about now.”

“Open the comm channel.”

“Channel open.”

“Thanks.” Kai turned his attention to Senaya. “Sen, can you and Eesoh go through pre-conflict checks. Make sure all weapons and arrays are charged, online and fully working. We don’t know what we’re going to find down there, and I want us to be ready.”

Senaya gave him a salute before sliding out the terminal panel and getting to work.

Kai confirmed with his mother that the Rapier was in full working order and everyone was physically and mentally prepared for landing. As they approached, Kai had Eesoh run scans for any other crafts or entities nearby.

Nothing.

Not even the Navigators themselves showed up on the scan—despite Kai sensing their presence manifesting as a barely perceptible tingle in the back of his mind.

One thing that did clearly show on the scanners, however, was the force field mentioned in the journal entries. It was clearly coming from the coordinates and spread across the planet, dampening a swathe of frequencies. Kai also felt it in his bones—perhaps reacting to his latent, slumbering Navigator abilities.

“We seem to be the only ones here,” Kai’s mother said over the channel.

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