The Shattered Empire (The Shadow Space Chronicles Book 2) Read online

  “I did, though it was a short conversation, I'm afraid,” Reginald said, his voice proper. “We were both running for our lives... she'd just sprung me from Shadow Lord Sanctus's prison cells.”

  “What?” Lucius demanded.

  “It's a long story,” Reginald said with a little wave. “But once we reached the spaceport, we split up and I came here. She told me to watch over you, to make certain that the Shadow Lords or their emissaries don't get a chance to twist you and to guard you against their assassins.”

  “Assassins?” Lucius asked. “You don't think...”

  “It's one of their tactics, to strike leaders that they know are too well protected or mentally fortified to be turned, my lord,” Reginald said. “It is what they did to Emperor Romulus I of Nova Roma. Also to much of the Amalgamated Worlds leadership leading up to its collapse.” Reginald frowned a bit, “Though, from what I understand, that was part of their plan all along, they particularly hated Amalgamated Worlds.”

  “So are you another one of these old psychics, like Shaden and Kandergain?” Lucius asked, his eyes narrow. He still didn't trust the other man, not without some outside source to vouch for him.

  “Oh, heavens no, my lord,” Reginald said. “I'm not nearly so powerful or dangerous as them, and quite a bit younger, I might add.” He sat up straight, his chin raised a bit in pride. “I'm more of a facilitator or organizer... rather than a direct action type. In truth, this is something of an assignment outside my normal skill set... but I'm all that's available at the moment. The Shadow Lords are very active, their agents are pushing us all across human space... and no small number of my companions have fallen in recent weeks, I'm afraid.” His tone was distant, yet his gray eyes held pain in plenty. Lucius gave him a moment to regain his composure.

  “So what can you do?” Lucius said as the moment passed. In truth, the admission that the other man wasn't an expert made him more inclined to trust him. It seemed to him that someone inclined to deceive him would claim to be exactly what Lucius needed.

  “I'm a telepath, which means I can screen people admitted to your presence for threats,” Reginald said. “It also means I can get messages to others, in case it looks like we really need some psychic muscle.” He frowned. “I can also protect you from the influence of other telepaths.”

  Lucius waited. Reginald sat back, an expectant look on his face. Finally, after a long and awkward silence, Lucius asked, “That's all?” It seemed very underwhelming compared to Kandergain's impressive list of abilities.

  Reginald looked a little hurt, “My good man, I'm very good at what I do. It is somewhat limited, I must admit, but I'm quite talented compared to the average psychic. I realize you have limited experience with us, but psychics like Miss Kandergain and General Mira are not common, not by any margin.”

  “I realize that,” Lucius said. He took a deep breath, “I apologize, I didn't mean to insult you.”

  “Right, well,” Reginald gave a nod. “I think it best if I take up some position where I can be present, yet not have any significant role. I can work best if I'm not distracted by the need for interaction. But easy access to the people I'll need to screen and protect would be best.”

  Lucius frowned. “I'd assume you can't just...” he wiggled his fingers, “slip in wherever you need to be?”

  “It's difficult to maintain that and do other things at the same time,” Reginald said in response. His voice made it plain that Lucius had ruffled his feathers somewhat.

  “I'll have to give it some thought,” Lucius said. He sat back in his chair. “I trust you have some way for me to contact you?” Reginald passed him a black hand-held comm unit. “In the meantime, you can let yourself out. I'd planned to use some free time to spend with my daughter.”

  Lucius waited until the other man had left before he picked up his personal comm unit. He waited a moment until the number he had dialed connected. “Matthew, yes, glad I could reach you. I'd like a moment with some of your engineers, the ones on loan from General Mira.”

  ***

  587E73 System

  Unclaimed Space

  August 4, 2403

  The Second Chance emerged from Shadow Space in high orbit above a green-brown world wrapped in dingy gray clouds. Lauren stared out the view-ports at the murky world. “You still haven't explained what this has to do with some pirate I never heard of,” she said sullenly.

  Mason gave her a smirk, “Not my fault you haven't properly educated yourself.”

  Lauren leveled a flat stare at him, but she needn't have bothered, he seemed even more cheerful at her obvious signs of irritation. Sometimes I hate men, she thought, overgrown boys, especially when they have a secret...

  “Fine then,” Lauren snapped, “What about our passengers? The lot of them haven't so much as poked their heads out of their rooms.” It was creepy, in a way, how they had all stuck to themselves. They all had the same looks, too, tan skin, dark hair and eyes.

  “Them?” Mason asked. “Ah, that I can answer. They're Druze, decent enough fellows, but they keep to themselves. Their elder owes me a few favors, so he loaned some of his boys to come help out.”

  “They haven't even eaten any of our stores,” Lauren said.

  “They'll arrange for their own food. Like I said, they keep to themselves,” Mason said. He shrugged, “More importantly, they won't talk, not to anyone. Especially not to any of Admiral Collae's men. For that matter, they're good at what they do.”

  “Which is what?” Lauren asked, for what seemed like the hundredth time.

  Mason didn't respond though, as he brought the light freighter in on a course towards the planet's surface. Lauren frowned, because he seemed to guide it towards a specific spot, though she saw no signs of civilization or even a landing beacon.

  Mason's target seemed to be a large island in one of the muddy, marshy seas. As they drew closer, a flashing light lit up on her screen. “Crap, Mason, something down there is targeting us.”

  “About time,” Mason muttered. “Alright, what day is it...” He peered at his console for a long moment in thought. He slowly began to type in a string of digits into the communication console.

  Lauren looked up as shrill alarms began to blare from the sensor station, “They have us locked!”

  Mason waved a dismissive hand at her and then hit send. A moment later, the alarms died and Lauren searched for any sign of their attacker. “What was that?”

  “Automated defenses,” Mason said, his voice calm as the Second Chance settled into a hover as the island rose out of the mist. Lauren stared without comprehension at the overgrown hills, covered in gray-green vegetation. She pulled up the sensors and plugged away at them. “Atmosphere is... well, bad. Very thick, looks like almost five atmospheres pressure. Not enough oxygen, though, and way too much carbon dioxide, methane, and even some ammonia. No wonder there's no colony here, they'd have to be buttoned up most of the time.”

  “Predators are pretty nasty too,” Mason said. He tapped something on his console and an image appeared on one of Lauren's screens. A large, birdlike creature flew past the Second Chance, the wingspan was over five meters. The huge claws that jutted from it's legs told what its preference of food would be... as did the beak shaped like a can opener. “But we don't need to worry about that for the moment.”

  He tapped in some additional commands. The image shifted to a rocky outcropping. Lauren bit back a cry of surprise as the surface of it split. A moment later, part of the hillside folded back, to send up a rush of other birds. Mason smiled a bit as they settled into the hidden hangar. “You didn't pick up anything on the sensors, thermal, visual, nothing?”

  “No,” Lauren said. She watched as the hidden hatch closed overhead. A moment later, her sensors reported that the air in the hangar was being swapped out. She turned in her seat. “What is going on?”

  Mason stayed silent as he went through the complete shut-down sequence. When he finally spoke, his voice was low, measured and
he clearly chose his words with care. “This is a hidden base, one that Tommy King made use of,” he met her eyes. “I haven't shown this one to anyone, not in a very long time. And everyone else I showed this place to is dead.”

  Lauren swallowed, “Why show me?”

  “Because I trust you,” Mason said. He patted the controls for his ship. “And because if something goes wrong with our mission, you can tell your Baron about this place and maybe someone can make some good use of it.”

  Lauren frowned, she didn't know why the Baron would be interested in some hidden base out in the middle of nowhere on an almost uninhabitable world. But she kept quiet, for now.

  Mason led the way down and out of the Second Chance. The hangar was huge, from the inside, clearly designed for ships much larger than the small freighter. Mason led the way over towards a personnel hatch. “This hangar can accommodate almost any ship up to the size of a destroyer.”

  “This hangar?” Lauren asked.

  He gave her a smirk as the hatch opened at their approach. He stepped into what looked like an elevator. There was a complex looking keypad as well as a hand print scanner and a retinal scanner. All of it looked odd, the panels looked old and archaic. Mason tapped in a code and then held his hand to the scanner and put his eye to the retinal scanner. At the same time, he spoke, his voice a sharper, more brusque tone, “Tommy King, access nine seven five three five seven delta three nine.”

  “Identified,” A soft voice spoke from overhead. “Please identify additional personnel.”

  “New recruit,” Mason said. “Initial clearance.”

  “New recruit, identify,” the soft voice said from the ceiling.

  Lauren looked over at Mason. He pointed at the scanners. “Just say your name and recruit.”

  Lauren put her hand up to the plate and put her eye to the scanner. “Lauren Kelly, recruit.”

  “Identified.”

  Lauren stepped back and looked around. The elevator had no obvious signs of controls, yet no sooner had she finished stepping back than the elevator went into motion. There was a disconnected feel, as the elevator shifted downwards and then to the side. The motion seemed muffled, almost as if it had inertial dampeners.

  “We'll talk more when we get to the command section,” Mason said, his face calm. “The automated security system is a bit touchy.”

  “Automated?” Lauren asked. She didn't know why so much about the base was automated. For that matter, she didn't know how a pirate, even a legendary pirate like King, had assembled that kind of setup. Automated security, even the simplest, wasn't cheap. For that matter, building it and keeping it a secret would be difficult, at best.

  Mason nodded, “It's hard to get trustworthy help, you know.”

  The motion settled to a stop. “Identify.”

  Mason went through the procedure a second time, followed by Lauren. The doors opened out into a utilitarian corridor. It was clearly underground. Piping and conduits ran along the ceiling. The lighting came on just after the doors opened. Lauren caught the sound of other machinery activating as they strode down the corridor.

  Lauren made careful note of the path they took, as they went down several identical access corridors and Mason led the way without pause. The place seemed like a warren and the echo of their footsteps carried off into a number of empty passages. She would hate to be lost down here, especially in the dark.

  They finally came to a stop in front of a large, vault-like access hatch. Written in bold letters across it was the word 'command.' It was also labeled in what looked like Chinese symbols and Cyrillic. Bright orange lettering warned 'authorized personnel only' and as Lauren looked around, she noticed hatches in the floor and ceiling around the door, the sort of hatches that would hide retractable weapons mounts.

  Mason stepped up to the access panel. He repeated his previous cycle. Then, while Lauren watched, he typed in an additional code. “Command, allow temporary access to Recruit Lauren Kelly.”

  “Temporary access granted,” the soft voice spoke from overhead. “Please note, temporary access is only good for forty-eight hours. You will be required to be read-on to the project, sign the waivers, and be fully in-processed by that time, is that understood, Recruit Kelly?”

  “Uh, yes?” Lauren said.

  “Your acceptance is binding under Amalgamated Worlds regulation seven, chapter five, paragraph three,” the automated voice said. “Thank you for your cooperation.”

  Lauren looked over at Mason, “Amalgamated Worlds?”

  He quirked a smile at her. “Go ahead and scan in and we can go inside. I can explain it all much better from there.”

  Lauren entered her retinal and hand scan and spoke her name. A moment later the hatch behind them snapped shut and the access hatch in front of them ground open. Lauren looked over at Mason. “This process seems a little slow. What would happen if someone outside needed to get to command in a hurry, like in an attack?”

  Mason shrugged, “There used to be a duty roster. Someone with full access was always on duty inside in case of emergency.” He shrugged, “As you can see, the facility is a little understaffed at the moment.”

  They stepped through the hatch and Mason led her down several other corridors and then finally into what was obviously a command room. Mason swiped a hand over a set of panels and the whole room began to come to life with lights and the hum of machinery. He pulled up a console and typed in a command, then gestured Lauren over to it. “This is the read-on and the waivers. Just flip next all the way through it, no one bothered to read it even when this place was fully operational.”

  Lauren glared at him. “How about an explanation?”

  “I'll get to that,” Mason said. “But I need to deactivate some fail-safes I left. And unless you want to put this planet into a nuclear winter, perhaps you'll let me take care of business?” He turned away before she could respond. Lauren sat down at the console and started to read through the read-on. It was, as far as she could tell, complete legalese gibberish. She tried to follow it, even so, but got lost somewhere where it referred to 'signee agrees to the appointment of the signee's assignment.' After that, she did what Mason had suggested and just hit next until it got to the point where it asked for her voice and biometric verification.

  That task completed, she found Mason on his way back. “Good, you're in the system now. You're now listed as a Lieutenant with full access to the facility. Congratulations on your promotion.”

  “I'm assuming that's a Lieutenant in the Amalgamated Worlds Fleet?” Lauren asked, with narrow eyes. He gave her a sardonic salute in response. “Just what is this place?”

  Mason leaned back against the console. “You heard the explanation about the Dreyfus Fleet, right?”

  Lauren nodded, slowly. “They were a sort of ark, to protect and safeguard humanity after Amalgamated Worlds fell.” That was what she'd heard anyway. She'd been a bit more focused on her decision to leave with Mason rather than the story of the Dreyfus Fleet, however.

  “Yeah,” Mason nodded. “Well, Amalgamated Worlds didn't know about them. As far as they knew, the Dreyfus Fleet was just as lost to them as the Agathan Fleet.” He gestured at the command consoles around them. “This is sort of a time capsule or maybe a rabbit hole, for a similar purpose.” He snorted, “Well, not so humanitarian as Admiral Dreyfus. Think more that the elite of Amalgamated Worlds wanted someplace they could retreat to... live comfortably, and then reemerge to restake their claim.”

  “So, how does Tommy King have access?” Lauren quirked an eyebrow.

  “Well, that's a question for another time,” Mason said. “But we aren't even here for what Amalgamated Worlds left. We're here for something that Tommy King put here, a few years back.” He activated the main display and then brought up the feed from a hangar.

  Lauren blinked, confused for a moment. A large, harshly angular ship took up most of the hangar. It had a sleek look, despite the harshness of it, and it tapered back to the engine pods
in a way that looked vaguely predatory. The ship had no turrets, she saw, but she saw what looked like armored bands that ran along the ship's top and flanks. The ship and hangar both seemed difficult to bring into scale, until she realized that the small dots along the side were access hatches. “What is that?” Lauren demanded. The ship had to be over three hundred meters in length at least, which meant it was much bigger than a destroyer. Her knowledge of the scale of warships was somewhat limited. She guessed it was a custom built vessel of some kind, though she couldn't guess where it was built.

  “It's a cruiser, the Kraken,” Mason said. “It is somewhat infamous as the flagship of the pirate Stavros Heraklion. He's a known enemy of Tommy King. They had something of a very public, longstanding feud. Stavros would be just the kind of scum to sign on with some of Mannetti's allies and if he made himself useful, she might just bring him and his crew into her inner circle.”

  Lauren frowned, “So we're going to take that ship and go try to join up with Admiral Mannetti?” She brought up the obvious question, “What happens when Stavros objects to the use of his name... and ship?”

  Mason gave her a level look.

  “Ah, so I guess Stavros won't be an issue,” she said. She gave a sigh, “Fine then, what about this Dread Pirate Roberto, or whoever he is, what does he have to do with this?” She glared at Mason as he burst out with laughter. As his laughter continued, she started towards him, fists clenched.

  He raised one hand as she advanced, “Roberts. That's Dread Pirate Roberts. And all shall be clear in due time.”

  ***

  Faraday System

  United Colonies

  August 5, 2403

  “Glad you finally had time to check things out up here,” Matthew Nogita said as Lucius stepped off the shuttle. “Got a lot going on, as you know, but I know it means a lot to the folks working up here to have you visit.”