The Shadow Order: A Space Opera Read online

  Seb scrabbled back about ten metres away from the mouth of the tunnel and stared at the large and fiery orange eye that peered in after him. The roar, slightly diminished from the monster turning its head to peer through the hole, rattled in Seb’s chest nonetheless and shook the ground. A cry of defeat; the monster had lost, and it knew it.

  As Seb lay on the cold and hard ground, his lungs tight from the smoke inhalation, and so sweaty his clothes clung to him, he looked up behind him at Sparks and smiled. “Thank you.”

  The small girl shrugged and then laughed as her wide purple eyes spread even wider. “Damn, that was close.”

  Chapter Forty

  With the smell of bonfire still stuck to him, Seb breathed in the cooler air of his surroundings. A sharp sting shot through his lungs every time he inhaled past a certain point, forcing him to take more frequent and shallower breaths.

  They’d walked on a slow incline for at least half an hour, each step bringing them closer to a fresher breeze. The temperature had dropped a little, and they could hear the sound of the wind as it raced across the mouth of the tunnel, but they couldn’t yet see their exit.

  Seb laughed. “Who’d have thought that sound would be comforting?”

  “I just hope we’re near the spaceport,” Sparks said. “I don’t know what we’ll do if we still have a way to go in that wind.”

  “We’ll wait ’til dark,” Seb replied. “I’ll wait for a couple of days as long as I don’t have to face the thing down there again. What was that creature anyway?”

  “A balrog.”

  Seb stopped.

  A few paces later, Sparks turned around to look at him. “You hadn’t worked that out?”

  At a loss for words, Seb’s heart galloped. After a few seconds, his body shook and he blew out a puff of air that bulged his cheeks. “Damn. Of course it was. Wow, I’m glad I didn’t realise that at the time. I would have crapped my pants and stopped running had I known. A balrog!”

  “Come on,” Sparks said, and walked off again.

  Seb shook his head. “Damn!” He then took off after Sparks in search of the cooler, fresher air above.

  ***

  “I never thought I’d be glad to see this place again,” Seb said when they reached the mouth of the tunnel and peered out across the glassy onyx wasteland of Zenk. Although, when he looked into the distance, his slight relief vanished. He dropped his shoulders and shook his head. He looked at Sparks. She’d clearly already seen it.

  “We’re farther away than before,” Seb said.

  Before Sparks could reply, a deep growl shook the ground.

  Seb poked his head from the cave’s entrance and saw a huge transport vehicle approaching. “Do you think it’s heading to the spaceport?”

  Sparks already had her computer in her hand and scowled down at it as she tapped at the screen. “I’m not sure, but we have to guess it is.”

  She didn’t say anything else; her face lit up as her eyes shifted from side to side. Her fingers turned into the usual blur as she tapped away at the screen.

  Loose rocks bounced on the ground in response to the deep rumble of the large truck. Seb continued to look from the huge black transporter to Sparks and back to the transporter again.

  As the vehicle passed them, Sparks tapped her screen one last time and looked up.

  The transporter’s engine cut out and it rolled to a groaning halt. Before Seb could ask any questions, Sparks tugged on his arm. “Come on, let’s go.”

  Although the fierce wind stung and Seb could feel the cuts it instantly opened in his skin, he followed the diminutive Sparks to the back of the transporter. The door had a pass code, but within seconds, Sparks had opened it and popped the door free. She held it open for Seb, and then she climbed in after him before she closed the door behind them.

  The second he entered the transporter, Seb grabbed his nose. A reek of manure and animals smothered him and he fought against his heave. Full of pens, the transporter clearly had to move livestock from one place to another.

  Each animal had been stored by itself, so Seb unlatched the pen closest to the door, slipped inside, and encouraged Sparks in after him. Once she’d entered, they closed the pen behind them.

  Although Seb didn’t recognise the creature being transported, the huge animal looked like a member of the schtoo family. A large quadruped—easily four times the weight of Seb—the docile beings were traded for their meat. They had a shrill call that could be heard from miles around whenever batches of them went to slaughter.

  The creature slowly turned around so it faced Seb and Sparks. Its eyes widened at seeing the pair and it drew a deep breath. At that moment, Seb’s world slipped into slow motion and he noticed a spot on the creature’s chest. He drove a swift kick to it, cutting the creature’s call off before it could make it. Its front legs went first as it folded down onto the floor and landed on its chin.

  After it had fallen, the large creature lay breathing on its side on the dirty floor. Seb looked at Sparks, her large purple eyes wide behind her thick glasses. “It’s fine,” he said. “It won’t wake up.”

  Without another word, Sparks lifted her tiny computer, her face lit up again by the screen. Several taps later, the transporter roared to life again.

  Seb couldn’t help but smile as he leaned forward and patted Sparks’ shoulder. “Amazing.”

  With her eyebrows raised, Sparks leaned against the wall of the pen. “We just need to hope they’re heading to the spaceport and not away from it.”

  Chapter Forty-One

  For most of the journey, Seb crouched down next to the unconscious schtoo and stroked it. The creature had seemed distressed until Seb placed his hand on the side of its warm face. After a few seconds, its breathing slowed down and its muscles relaxed. The least he could do was offer the thing a little comfort after what he’d done to it. Guilt twisted through him to look at the great beast, but he couldn’t let it give them away. As much as he loved animals, he didn’t love them anywhere near enough for a stretch in prison, especially a prison where every prisoner awaited execution.

  The transporter came to a halt and shoved Seb forward in his crouch. He nearly fell over the large schtoo. He jumped to his feet and looked at Sparks. She’d already switched on her mini-computer and her fingers danced over the touch screen.

  A couple of seconds later, Sparks looked toward the back of the transporter, and the back door popped open with a thunk. After one last stroke of the downed schtoo, Seb followed Sparks out of the pen and to the back door.

  The pair slipped from the back of the large vehicle as quietly as they could and looked around. They’d been backed into what looked like a cargo bay. With no ship currently docked to it, the pair had an escape route.

  Without a word, Sparks looked at Seb and pointed at the exit from the bay. Seb nodded and followed her again. Because of her stature, Sparks seemed to move easily without sound. Seb did his best to mimic her as he ran on tiptoes, but the scuff of his feet called out for any ears keen enough to hear.

  The area beyond the cargo bay opened up into a huge spaceport. Busy with all sorts of beings, Sparks slowed down to a fast walk and Seb fell into stride beside her. Both of them frowned as they stared straight ahead, walking like they had a place to be.

  “I’m glad we didn’t have to wear a uniform in that prison. That would have made blending in a hell of a lot trickier, eh?” Sparks said from the side of her mouth.

  Seb looked around at everyone as they went about loading and unloading ships, and breathed a relieved sigh. “I think we’ve made it, Sparks.”

  “Don’t speak too soon. We need to get off this hideous planet first.”

  As they walked, Sparks removed her computer again. “What are you doing?” Seb asked.

  Without looking up, she said, “Finding out which ship will get us out of here.” After a couple more taps, she looked up from her screen at a large black ship on the other side of the docking bay. “That one. It’s carryi
ng fabrics to Ameldia.”

  “I’ve heard it’s nice there.”

  “And we don’t have to travel with livestock,” Sparks added.

  With the muddy, sweaty smell of the schtoo still up his nose, balrog smoke clinging to his skin, and the excrement from the hanging creatures in the cave coating his trousers, Seb screwed his face up and laughed. “There is that.”

  Were it not for the spaceport being full of grimy mechanics, livestock, and farmers, he might have stood out by a mile.

  ***

  As they got close to the ship, Sparks looked up the walkway that ran through the centre of the spaceport and her entire frame sank. “Oh, damn.”

  Seb’s pulse accelerated and he scanned the crowd. “What? What is it?”

  For a moment, Sparks didn’t reply. Instead, she stared at three beings in uniform as they headed straight for them. All three of them stared directly at Sparks, their jaws locked with determined grimaces, their eyes narrowed. At about eight feet tall, the one in the middle stood head and shoulders above the other two. The beast had yellow skin covered in welts and warts, and green eyes. It looked like a walking disease. To stare at it for too long turned Seb’s stomach. A Mandulu walked on either side of it.

  Sparks said, “Now they’ve seen me, they won’t let me go.”

  “How do you know they want you?”

  “Firstly, look at their faces. Who else do they want in here?”

  “Okay, it does kind of look that way. And secondly?”

  “I robbed them back on Aloo. They were docking when I blew their ship’s electronics, broke into their private quarters, and stole all of their personal belongings.”

  Despair sagged through Seb’s frame. “Why do you do it? Surely you know someone’s going to catch up with you at some point.”

  “They saw me leaving with their things. It would have been the perfect job were it not for that. Look, Seb, there’s nothing you can do. Any fuss and we’re both getting caught. You go and slip on that ship and I’ll take the rap. Whatever they try to do to me, I’ll probably just end up back on The Black Hole anyway. I reckon I can get out of there if they lock me up again.”

  As Seb looked from the angry beings to Sparks and back to the angry beings again, he raised an eyebrow. “How did you get out of your cell on The Black Hole anyway?”

  The three beasts closed down on Sparks and she shook her head. “If you don’t break off now, they’ll take you down with me.” Even as she said it, Sparks had started to separate herself from Seb.

  A look from Sparks to the creatures who wanted her and back to Sparks again, and Seb broke away from her. He slipped into the shadows beneath the ship he planned to escape on. As he walked through the darker parts of the docking area, he listened to Sparks.

  “All right, it’s a fair cop,” she said. “I’m here, just take me, okay.”

  When he heard the angry buzz of a taser, Seb stopped dead. Sparks’ scream echoed through the spaceport as she spasmed with the electric shock, and the three beings closed in around her.

  Despite a desire to go and help her, the port seemed too busy. If he kicked off in the middle of the walkway, they’d both be on The Black Hole again in a flash.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Seb kept to the shadows as he snuck toward the open cargo hold. With half of his attention on his escape, the other half remained with Sparks and wherever the three brutes were taking her. Although the harsh buzz of the taser had stopped, Seb could still hear her swear, shout, and scream as the creatures carried her off.

  The disturbance distracted the grunts loading up the ship’s cargo. Three of them in total, the huge creatures looked like they could lift most crates presented to them with their own brute strength. The sweating thugs stopped their work and all looked out into the middle of the docking bay as Sparks continued to turn the air blue. Maybe she did it to give Seb a better chance of escape.

  Seb took the distraction as his opportunity to slip into the open ship and hide behind a large stack of crates. It didn’t make sense to risk his life for Sparks. Were it not for her, he wouldn’t have gotten into any trouble in the first place. By robbing him, she forced him into the fighting pits.

  A rich smell of dye hung in the cargo hold. Sparks had been right about the material being moved in the ship; he hoped she’d been correct about its destination too.

  Only aware of just how tense he’d been now he let it go, Seb sat down in a dark corner he’d found and breathed a relieved sigh as if deflating. It wouldn’t be long and he’d be away from the stinking planet. Once he landed at their destination and got off the ship, he could acquire himself a new identity and start working again—and this time he wouldn’t fight anything. Sure, he could save Sparks, but she had her own path to tread. There had to be consequences for the life she chose to live, and she had to face them.

  In the moment of stillness, Seb thought of his dad. How would he judge him now? After everything he’d been through over the past few days? He promised his dad he wouldn’t fight again, and maybe that had been an unrealistic promise. Not only because Seb had fighting in him, but sometimes he needed to fight. Sometimes life required it of him. As much as he wanted to honour his dad’s memory, the guy had been an arse. Maybe it would be less stress to ignore what the judgemental old fool demanded of him and get on with his life.

  Seb leaned back against the wall, rubbed his still-stinging face, and closed his eyes.

  ***

  Once the three grunts had loaded up the cargo bay, the huge monsters lifting crates big enough for Seb to stand up in two at a time, Seb watched the cargo door close.

  Anxiety twisted in his gut when the ship rocked and vibrated as it started up. Maybe he’d made the correct choice and maybe he hadn’t. Either way, he’d made it now, so he had to stick by it. The time had come for Seb to stop making decisions based on guilt or a perception of what his dead dad would think. Seb needed to use his intuition more and live with the consequences.

  As the ship lifted from the ground, Seb nodded to himself. He’d made the right choice. It had been the only choice he could have made.

  Back in the shadows of the docking bay, Seb watched the ship he could have escaped on pull away. A large space remained where his ticket to freedom had been. The changeover would no doubt happen quickly because most docking bays had ships waiting to land. Seb took his opportunity with no one around to head back into the huge open spaceport.

  Surrounded by various beings of all shapes and sizes, Seb couldn’t see where Sparks had gone. The inside area with spaceships backed up to each docking bay had many places they could take someone. Then Seb saw a docking bay with the lights out, and he smiled to himself.

  After another quick glance to be sure no one watched him, Seb strode toward the darkened area. He couldn’t have flown out of the spaceport without his friend; despite being a sneaky little thief with no conscience, she had waited for Seb in the cave and saved him from the balrog.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Seb knew he’d chosen the right option, but when he saw just how many guards had jammed into the docking bay with the lights out, he drew a deep breath to steady his flipping stomach. Any one of them would be a walkover one on one, but all of them?

  The guards hadn’t seen him yet. And why would they? Even when they took Sparks away, they didn’t seem interested in him. A quick headcount and he saw at least nine of them, probably more. The shadows made it hard to tell. No doubt the lights would be out for weeks.

  Each of the nine guards had a weapon on their hip. Blasters of all shapes and sizes, the motley security crew no doubt loved the opportunity to use them.

  Seb walked past the guards at first. A collection of large creatures from all over the galaxy, even the smallest towered over Seb. He had to do something. Even if he could catch the first two or three by surprise, that would make the others much easier to deal with.

  When Seb walked back across the front of the docking bay, closer this time, he watch
ed the security guard at the front of the pack in his peripheral vision. Covered from head to toe in brown fur, the brute had huge brown eyes and a large mouth full of sharp teeth. It had a blaster that took two of its large hands to hold, and a second one on its hip.

  When Seb got to within a metre or so of the hairy brute, he caught the smell of it. A reek like it had bathed in its own waste for the past week, it added to Seb’s nauseous anxiety and he heaved. How did the thing get a job smelling like that? At least it made Seb’s current lack of personal hygiene less offensive.

  A couple of steps closer and Seb pulled a deep breath into his body. His world dropped into slow motion. One more glance at the monster and he saw it focus on him. It suddenly knew Seb’s intentions. Before it could act, Seb sprang to life and drove a heavy blow between its wide eyes. The brown irises turned white as they rolled back in its head and the creature flopped to the ground.

  Seb grabbed the two-handed blaster from its grip as it fell, and turned it on the next guard. With his abilities, he didn’t need to murder anyone. Instead, Seb blasted the thing’s kneecap. An explosion of blood popped from where the blaster fire hit, and it too fell to the ground.

  On his way to the next guard, the creature raising its weapon as it readied it for use, Seb kicked the one he’d kneecapped in the face. With his focus on the spot just beneath its chin, he listened to the wet slap as its head snapped back. He’d done this enough times that he didn’t need to check to see if he’d knocked the creature out.

  Before the next guard had raised its weapon, Seb shot its gun hand with his blaster. The guard screamed as its weapon fell to the ground. It lifted the bloody stump that used to be its hand and screamed louder.

  Because of the creature’s size, Seb kicked its kneecap, which knocked it down, and drove the butt of his blaster into the top of the monster’s head as it fell. By the time the beast had hit the ground, it had turned limp.