Prophecy: A Space Opera: Book Seven of The Shadow Order Read online

  Prophecy - Book Seven of The Shadow Order

  Michael Robertson

  Contents

  Edited and Cover by …

  Mailing List

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Masked - A Psychological Horror

  About the Author

  Also by Michael Robertson

  Email: [email protected]

  Edited by:

  Terri King - http://terri-king.wix.com/editing

  And

  Pauline Nolet - http://www.paulinenolet.com

  Cover Design by The Cover Collection

  Prophecy: Book Seven of The Shadow Order

  Michael Robertson

  © 2016 Michael Robertson

  Prophecy: Book Seven of The Shadow Order is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, situations, and all dialogue are entirely a product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously and are not in any way representative of real people, places or things.

  Any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Mailing List

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  Chapter 1

  The attention of the room remained on Seb. He stared back at them, shaking from the adrenaline surging through him.

  Then the door burst open, and Seb spun around to see SA standing there. She’d only been gone a minute. Her mouth lifted in a half smile, and her eyes widened. You’re okay.

  The image of his love blurred as Seb cried freely. I am. You did it!

  We did it.

  SA ran forward, shoving Owsk and Buster aside. She kissed him so hard it hurt, his lips pressing against his teeth. Not that he cared.

  Seb breathed her in, everything else vanishing around him. When they pulled away from one another, he held onto her hands. “I’ve missed that.”

  The others waited, giving them their moment.

  When they broke apart, Moses walked over to Seb and hugged him. Although he brought his usual smell of fish, and his rough leathery skin scraped against Seb’s face, the large shark emitted an uncharacteristic warmth. Strangely paternal, Seb squirmed because of its tenderness.

  Moses pulled away, and Seb’s attention went to the glazing of his onyx eyes. The deep bass boom of his voice took on the slightest distortion as if his words caught in his throat. “I’m so glad …” He stopped to cough. “I’m so glad you’re okay, son.”

  While this happened, Seb couldn’t help noticing Sparks tapping away on her computer—the consummate professional. Always working, she waited for Moses to finish before she projected an image onto the conference room’s wall where Enigma had just been. “Seb might be okay—and that matters—but look at everywhere else.”

  The footage showed several major spaceports, including Aloo. Chaos already ran through them. Blasters were being fired, swords wielded, and blood spilled.

  Seb shook to watch it, his energy at rock bottom. “This is all our fault. The second we kidnapped that slaver, we sent a flare up for Enigma to see. If we’d have gotten out quietly, we would have had time to track them down without them knowing.”

  While holding his hands in front of his chest, the tips of his long fingers pressed together, Mr. H shook his head. “Not necessarily. We were expecting something to happen soon. The slaver going missing might have forced their hand, but we believe an attack was imminent anyway. We’ve been trying to find Enigma for years and haven’t managed it. Maybe this is the way we need to do it. And you know what? If we have forced them to play their cards earlier than they would have liked, that might give us an advantage too. They might not be fully prepared. Besides, I’m sure your hostage will be able to help us in some way, and the information we have on the slaves gives us a good starting point. We know what’s happening out there isn’t to do with the beings committing crimes; it’s much more about the programming they’ve gone through. We know we need to go after the puppet master rather than getting dragged into a battle on the ground. They’re victims in this like anyone else. They’re the noise to distract us. The intelligence you’ve gathered might just be the thing that saves the galaxy.”

  “Whatever happens,” Seb said as he continued to watch the chaos, “we need to act now.” As he looked at the rest of his crew, he saw determination in all of their faces. “You all with me?”

  “What about your rest?” Buster said.

  “I’ll rest when I’m dead.”

  A lifted eyebrow, the reptile’s voice dropped. “That might come sooner than you plan.”

  Buster’s stark honesty forced Seb to face what he’d been trying to avoid. A buzz of exhaustion shuddered through him. So he could remain upright, he rested both hands on the back of a nearby chair and pulled deep breaths into his tightening lungs. Could he really do this? He almost laughed at himself. Like he had a choice! After a glance at SA, he straightened his posture. If he had her beside him, he could do anything.

  With an impatient flick of his tail, Buster looked around the room before his dead gaze returned to Seb. “So, what’s the call?”

  The footage didn’t play out as a projected image on the wall anymore, but Seb could still see Sparks staring down at her tablet. She swiped two fingers against the screen to flick through different scenes on different planets as she watched chaos erupt around the galaxy. Not close enough for him to get a clear sight of what she watched, it still gave him enough of a feel for what was happening out there. They were lucky to be in the Shadow Order’s base, protected by the water surrounding it. He looked at the others for ideas. Then he saw SA and pointed at her. “Your nose.”

  SA pushed the back of her hand to her top lip. When she pulled it away, some of the blood that ran from it had been stamp
ed on her skin. She looked up at Seb, a paler yellow than before. Always hard to tell because she never moved her mouth, but it looked like she wanted to say something. Then the calm bioluminescence of her gaze snapped back, showing just the whites of her eyes. A moment later her legs folded beneath her and she went down.

  Even with his world in slow motion, Seb didn’t react quickly enough. He lunged for her as she fell and smashed her head against the back of one of the chairs in the room with a loud whack!

  Chapter 2

  The spray from the water lit up cold pinpricks against Seb’s face, his eyes stinging from the salty onslaught as he scowled in the direction they were heading. Aloo’s spaceport lay on the horizon. Still unable to see much of the chaos, the large clouds of smoke rising up in several spots told him enough. Within minutes of Enigma’s transmission, the comms between the Shadow Order’s base and the spaceport had been cut off. The fires must have had something to do with it.

  Owsk acted as skipper, with Buster beside him. Old friends, the two of them had been inseparable since they’d rescued Buster from his underwater captors. Sparks and Bruke had also boarded the vessel with Seb and SA. Bruke looked around at the other boats in their fleet, and Seb recognised his own anxiety in his friend’s crushed features. Sparks glanced from her computer to the spaceport and back to her computer. They were travelling fast enough for the wind to send her black bob of fine hair streaming out behind her. None of them spoke.

  Despite the saline onslaught both burning Seb’s eyes and leaving the taste of salt on his tongue, he continued to face it as he watched the horizon, their boat rising and falling with the undulating sea. He had wanted to travel to the spaceport from the Shadow Order’s base by air, but he’d been outvoted. He understood why.

  As if to highlight their correct decision, Seb watched a small freighter take off in an attempt to leave Aloo. The sky had seemed relatively quiet until the vessel rose up into it. Suddenly a multicoloured show of pyrotechnics exploded from the ground. A fireball engulfed the freighter, smoke lifting into the air while the husk of the vessel fell. A large splash punctuated the failure of the ship’s bid for freedom, Seb’s stomach sinking almost as fast as the wrecked shell had.

  SA must have sensed his anxiety because she squeezed his hand harder than before. When he looked at her, she smiled. The colour had returned to her skin since she’d fainted, and she insisted she felt fine. Although he had to take what she said at face value, he still kept an eye on her.

  If they’d heard Enigma’s broadcast in the Shadow Order’s base, they had to assume every device that could receive the message on Aloo had also heard, and the trigger had found the ears of all the slaves who needed to hear it. And if the footage on Sparks’ computer gave them anything to go by, it looked like the same thing had happened on many other planets.

  At least eighty percent of the personnel in the Shadow Order’s base had taken to boats like the one Seb currently rode in. As he looked to both sides, he saw many tight jaws and many pale faces. Nearly every one of them stared ahead at the burning mess on the horizon. Occasionally, one of the Shadow Order soldiers would look across at him as if for guidance. They were the lead ship. The chosen one had to be the first into battle and had to show them what needed to be done.

  The boats moved over the sea, rising and falling with the waves, unrelenting in their forward progress. When they hit the next wave, their ship took off. Seb’s stomach lurched with the vessel, and he squeezed SA’s hand maybe a little too hard.

  Although she winced, she looked at him and smiled. She understood. After all, she’d seen him trying to swim.

  Another wipe of his face to clear the saline mist, Seb said to her, “Are you sure you’re up for this?”

  Both Sparks and Bruke looked over at them. It took their attention to make Seb realise just how condescending he’d sounded. Before he had a chance to reword it, SA called him out. And from the way Buster and Owsk flinched, she’d obviously said it so the others heard too. I’m fine. Like I’ve already told you. It was a funny turn, nothing more. I think you should focus on how you’re feeling at the moment rather than put your anxiety on me. She let go of his hand and turned away from him.

  “I’m sorry.” Seb reached out to hold her hand again, but she ignored his gesture. “You’re right, I hate being above so much water. But I do care how you’re feeling. I want to make sure you’re okay. I didn’t mean to patronise you.”

  The usual warmth had left her brilliant glare when she turned it back on him. What we’ve been through so far has been tiring for all of us. I passed out; I’m fine now. End of story.

  After nodding at her, Seb looked at the others. They all regarded him through narrowed eyes. Before he could defend himself, a dark silhouette rose from the ground in his peripheral vision. He looked at the spaceport in time to see the thing burst free from the low-lying smoke. A teardrop-shaped missile, it lifted in the sky, its wide arc heading their way.

  Chapter 3

  Although he kept his attention on the large projectile, Seb could sense the others in the boat looking at the missile too.

  “What is it?” Bruke said.

  Sparks pressed her computer to her ear while staring at Seb. When she pulled it away, she said, “I’ve just spoken to Moses, and he said he hasn’t got a clue. It’s nothing to do with Aloo’s defences. It must have been launched from one of the ships docked over there. With so many vessels we know nothing about, they could throw anything at us.”

  The roar of the boat’s engine shook through the flimsy vessel, and they got air off the next several waves. They had straight-line speed, but they weren’t nimble. The boat didn’t have it in it to dodge at the last minute to avoid being sunk. While pulling his sodden hair from his forehead, Seb continued to watch the missile. They were powerless to the attack heading their way.

  Seb looked left and right again. At least thirty boats had left the Shadow Order’s base. Many of those on board the ships watched the missile, their jaws hanging loose. It continued on its upwards trajectory as if it could block out the sun.

  The second Seb had boarded the boat, he’d worked out where the life jacket was. Were it not for the pressure he felt to lead, he would have had it on from the start. But it wouldn’t have filled the rookies with confidence to know the chosen one got palpitations when he went too close to a puddle. However, as the missile hit its apex, he reached for the bright orange safety vest. If they wanted something to lose their nerve over, it wouldn’t be him wearing a flotation device. Not anymore.

  Before Seb could grab the life jacket, something tugged on his fists, stopping him from reaching down. His world flipped into slow motion. As he looked up at the teardrop-shaped projectile and saw the red blinking light on the front of it, his stomach sank. The missile now flew at them with intent. He called to the others, “It’s a large magnet!”

  The missile travelled down at twice the speed it had gone up at. Its flashing red nose zeroed in on them, flying straight and true. His fists now dragged above his head, Seb looked at the orange vest by his feet. It taunted him, berating him for not being safety conscious from the start.

  The magnetic pull tugged harder on Seb’s fists. Just before he lifted from the ship, Bruke and SA both grabbed a hold of him, keeping him anchored.

  Within a few metres of hitting them, the red blinking light on the missile turned off. The pull on Seb’s hands desisted, and he fell backwards with SA and Bruke. All three of them landed in the metal base of the boat with a loud tonk. Cold water soaked through the back of his shirt while he lay on his back and watched the missile fall.

  Seb sat up in time to see the teardrop crash into the ship next to them. The contact triggered an explosion that sent out a loud thoom of a shockwave. It hit him in the face, throwing him to the other side of the boat and giving him tinnitus as his world spun.

  The large splash from the explosion rose at least ten metres into the air, creating a thick wall of water that obscured Seb’s sight
of the boat it hit. His vision swam as if he’d been whacked with a sledgehammer. As he sat up for a second time, the water landed on them, knocking him back again.

  The splash cleared to show both ends of the struck ship lift into the air and meet in the middle as the vessel sank. The boat then vanished from Seb’s sight as the rising swell from the hungry sea consumed it.

  Owsk cut the motor, and Seb watched on as all the others in the boat leaned over the side to pull in the passengers from the wreck. As much as he wanted to help, he looked at how their ship tilted with the crew leaning out of it. His heart beat so fast his head spun. He moved as far over to the other side of the boat as he could to provide a counterweight to their activity. He pulled the life vest towards him and hugged it to his chest.