Stargun Messenger by Darby Harn

Author:Darby Harn [Harn, Darby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fair Play Books
Published: 2023-05-04T16:00:00+00:00

Too many.

Dozens. Hundreds. I switch on the proxy’s auto-targeting and let loose with my blaster. Dark energy abysses the plinth. Scath ghost in and out of definition. Kibir swings his war hammer. Binja his blasword. Gilf scratches his trunk in confusion and I grab Emera right out of Welkin’s arms and pull her behind the terminal.

“Get out of here,” I say. “Get to the Glass Star.”

Emera shakes her head. “CR-UX is too far…”

“Just keep your comms open. Hurry, Em.”

Light frets through her. “I’m not leaving without Welkin…”

I shoot blind back into the dark. “Just go.”

“How did they find us?”

“No one knows we’re here,” I say. “No one but us.”

“What?”

“Emera. How did you escape the tanker?”

“I don’t know…”

Confusion variegates in her eyes. “I woke up in the canister. Welkin said we escaped and we were going to find the star.”

Scath swarm Welkin. He smashes through them on the plinth. A good show. This only makes sense if the Scath let Welkin go to find the Glass Star. Not just for Emera. Maybe not even for her.

For himself.

Emera flares. “You’re wrong…”

Dark energy burns through the air. We can’t stay here. “Go – ”

“No,” she says and the sky catches fire.

Energy streams from her hands into the exposed Scath. Shadows burn into the plinth. Embers rain on me.

I guess we’re fighting.

I come out from behind the terminal shooting. Plasma lashes the miniature cosmos above and Scath ships erupt in flames. Ban Minda. That’s half a fleet up there. Scath troopers scurry back into the dark. Binja chases after them with his sword, Kibir close behind. That’s suddenly very endearing. Gilf looks at me, his hands empty.

“Well, pick something up,” I say.

Gilf yanks a broken rod protruding off the deck out of its socket and charges off after his brother. Stay close, I say, or I’m about to but a sword cuts into existence before me. The Scath manifests as he moves in for the kill and I crack his helmet open with my fist. Inky dark trails out of him. The Scath tries to hold it in and I give him a shove.

He plunges into the abyss below.

If we can just keep the Scath away long enough we’ll be ok. We can get out of here and the prominences flaming off Emera crumple. Filaments streaming off Emera violently loop in on themselves, tangling together in torrid knots. Her light tangles between two Scath with magnetic lances, twisting and pulling her light.

A roar quakes through the stellar atlas.

Welkin becomes rage. The Scath become plumes. Some he rips their arms off. Others, he tears off their helmets, exposing them to Emera’s light. Have to say, I didn’t think shadows could wrinkle.

Scath try to swallow Welkin’s anger in the dark energy of their lances. Nothing leeches from Welkin’s pearlescent shell except the dust he exhales as he storms through the startled and suddenly corporeal ranks of the Scath. Screams echo within the stellar atlas. When he’s finished with them, Welkin pounds his fists against his chest.

Ban Minda.

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