Galactic Frontiers: A Collection of Space Opera and Military Science Fiction Stories Read online

  I let my heavy lids fall, hoping that the memories would not be in my dreams.

  ***

  Where the hell am I? I think as I open my eyes, and everything around me is pitch black, it takes me a moment to realize I’m on a spaceship, traveling through space. And if we had a window in our room, which we don’t (cause we’re not important enough) it would be as black outside as it is inside. Not being able to see daylight it the morning is, one thing I don’t think I’ll get used to know matter how hard I try. Well that was when I worked the normal day shift, instead of the graveyard shift. But because there is never any daylight about the shift, it’s hard to work out what time it is. And I don’t like that, it’s like were trapped in some weird limbo state of not knowing. Sometimes the not knowing is worse than the knowing, like when you build yourself up for a test, like to get my wings,, something which apparently, I’m a natural at, my nerves didn’t to seem to think that way anyway. Anyway, back to the point, the test was way easier than I’d built it up to be, and I would have gotten a better score if I’d not been up all night worrying about it. But, the score was pretty damn good, if I say so myself. I got 99 out of 100. Only one other person on the ship got a score higher than me, and that was my mom. That’s totally a memory for another day, I’m starving.

  I jump down off my bunk, grab a clean set of blue top and pants, same as everyone wears on the spaceship. It reminds me of a uniform you’d wear if you worked in a fast food joint. Not for Space Cadets to be galaxy cops. I look down at my chest, imagining the gold star badge that you get from McDonald’s. I would have had wings, if you’d got any type of badge, now I’d have a mop. The idea makes me laugh and want to cry at the same time.

  Instead, I slump down into the chair in front of the mirror, and unlike Nova, I have no makeup. It’s weird, because back on earth I never wore it, my friends did, and now I want it for some reason. I think because I can’t have it.

  I think today, I’ll go for the normal look, I brush back my brown hair into a pony tail, in a tight no nonsense way. I’m glad I don’t have bangs, because there isn’t anyone on the spaceship that cuts hair, and there are few people who think they can and let’s say clearly can’t. Yeah Nova keeps going to them. I’m sure one day she’ll take scissors to them.

  I pinch my cheeks for some reason, there is a flush of color on my pasty white skin. That’s basically my makeup routine done. I stare at the mirror, and my brown eyes stare back at me, I wish I had some damn tweezers. Soon my eyebrows will look like Nova’s without having to be drawn in.

  Jezz, when you have nothing to do, you drag out the basic stuff. Time to get out of here before cabin fever takes over.

  I head out of our cabin, the door swooshes behind me then self-locks itself. Nova and I have the bracelet to get into it. You have to wave it in front of the bar code scanner, it’s a made of a light weight silver. I have it on the same wrist as my golden amber bracelet, which I was given when I got on the ship. These two little babies never leave my wrist, luckily both are waterproof. Munroe, the captain of the spaceship, has the override bracket to everything. A kid that’s only a few years older than me, runs this whole place. Crazy really when you think about it, a kid running a Space Cadet program on a spaceship, that’s the size of my old elementary school. Which wasn’t the biggest in the district, but you get the idea. There are over a 1000 kids on here, all of us are eighteen or a few years older. There is no, zero, nada adults on the spaceship, which is weird, right?

  “Hey, Brooke,” Kevin…no, Calvin, says as he walks towards me, like I said, there are way too many kids here to remember all their names.

  “Hey,” I nod.

  “Setting anything else on fire?” he laughs, that’s why I didn’t remember his name, he’s a jerk.

  “Yeah, I’ll set your clothes on fire if you want?” I shake my own head as I say it.

  “Whatever,” he laughs, walking away from me. Brooke, you really need to work on your comebacks, I scold myself. I just totally confirmed I’m the crazy fire starter they all think I am. If only I’d listened to Nova’s damn briefing, instead of thinking I know best like always.

  I keep my eyes down. I walk to the canteen, trying to block out the whispers as I walk by, soon I’ll be old news I tell myself. Well, I hope I’m right.

  I take a tray and pile it with some comfort food, God knows what time it is, I’m not sure if I’m meant to get breakfast, lunch or my evening meal.

  I look down at my tray. It looks like lunch stuff, cold food, a sandwich and a huge giant cake. That is one good thing about the spaceship, there are some great chefs on it.

  I pushed the sandwiches to the side and make a beeline for the cake, chocolate sponge cake, with chocolate whipped cream. Saliva fills my mouth as I bring the spoon to it, the piece I cut off looks bigger than my mouth, but I’m going to try to get it anyway.

  Lights start flashing in the canteen, then a wailing siren goes off, the whiff of cake drifts up my nose. The sound of boots pounding down to the hallway distracts me from the cake, “what’s going on?” I say to the person sat at the next table.

  “Don’t know,” he says.

  I look around the room, some people are looking confused, others are leaving the canteen in a hurry. I try to remember what they told me in training about lights flashing and sirens going off. Damn, I wish I’d paid more attentions in class, instead of being distracted by my worst mistake. Jeez I’ve got a list of mistakes now. And this isn’t going to be another. I drop my fork and get to my feet, then I quickly pick up the fork and shove the cake into my mouth. I let myself enjoy it for a split second.

  “Brooke!” Nova yells beside me, making me jump, I can feel her rolling her eyes at me.

  My mouth is full of cake, so I can’t say anything, and I can feel cream on my lips, I quickly wipe it off.

  “What’s going on?” I ask, trying not to reveal the food in my mouth.

  “Did you pay any attention in the class?” Nova waves her hand, “forget I even asked that. There’s a Kryt loose on the ship.”

  “And?” I raise my eyebrow at Nova.

  “Jesus, Brooke. Kryt is an alien bacteria that lives in humans and eats away at their inside then duplicates. It leaves their body just before it shuts down the human. In this case, Jeremy. Dies.”

  “What? It’s like all these aliens want to eat humans. How did it get on the spaceship?”

  Nova nudges her head, and we walk towards the canteen wall away from the kids, “it was in the lab. They’ve been trying to find it all morning. Then, they found Jeremy’s body, and his organs, were…well, gone.” Nova gulps. “Do you know anything about the Kryt missing from the lab, that’s where you clean, isn’t it?”

  ***

  “I didn’t see anything,” which isn’t a lie.

  “Kryt are chameleons, they can transform into different shapes and colors, whatever they need to do to change color.” I lean back into the walk. “What is it? What do you know?’

  “Last night when I was cleaning, a glass jar shattered. I was nowhere near it, I was across the other side of the lab. I looked, and there was nothing there, so I just cleaned it up,” I looked down at my hands. “Does that mean the Kryt is in me?” I gulp.

  Nova’s eyes budge and the black outline only makes the whites of her eyes even bigger, she’s not making me feel any better at all. “Let’s get to the medics,” she says, already making her way out of the canteen, pushing people out of her way as she goes. I’m not sure she’s worried about me or her, “are you coming?” She yells at me over the chaos which has started to erupt in the canteen.

  Nova and I run down the hallway, weaving around people. My stomach feels empty. I’m not sure if it’s cause I’m starving or because the bug is inside of me is eating away at my organs. My mouth dries up at the thought. I stop being polite to people and push people out of the way. I need to get to the med’s lab.

  We stop in our tracks when we get there. It’s full! I’ve never seen it t
his busy before, normally it’s got people trying to get out of working their shift or some accident from an assignment. This is utterly crazy.

  “She may have been in contract with the Kryt,” Nova tells the nurse, that’s currently scanning someone else’s body.

  “You’ll have to wait your turn.” She says pointing towards all the other people who got here before us.

  “Brooke is a pilot,” Nova tells her. I look at Nova wondering why she told her that, but go along with it.

  “Yes, I’m a pilot,” I say proudly.

  “Why aren’t you out on assignment?” She says sharply.

  “Less of your questions, do you want to be the person that crashes the mothership?”

  The nurse looks at Nova then me, then the person she was seeing to. She looks at the device in her hand which reads blood, “your fine.” She says to her patient, “go on, move on,” she hurries him off the bed. “Get on.” She says to me.

  I look at Nova trying to ask her what the hell is gone on with my eyes, but she just stares back at me.

  The nurse leaves us for a second, “here is a Kryt in Munroe,” Nova says, I feel my own eyes budge with the revelations that the captain of the mothership has an alien inside of him.

  “Is he…”

  “Dead? No. He was the first to be screened and the first to be put on ice.” Nova nods to the door at the back of the med lab, that’s where the freeze pods are. An alien technology which we use to freeze the body until we find a cure. Not all aliens are bad by the way, just a lot of the ones which we deal with.

  “How many have been put on ice?”

  “Ten that I know of.”

  The nurse returns with her device and a clean needle, well I hope it is. She injects it into my vein. The needle has a sharp bite to it, why hasn’t an alien worked out a new technology to withdraw blood without pain? Actual a lot have, they kill you first!

  We all stare down at the device, I’m not sure I know what I’m even looking for. Clearly the nurse does as she watches it intensely. The numbers go up and down on the screen. Then stop.

  I quickly look up at her, squeezing my sweaty palms together. “Well?” I ask as my throat dries up.

  “Captain. You’re clear of the Kryt.” I let out a sigh of relief.

  “Wait what? Am I really the only pilot on the ship?”

  “Yep. You got your wings back.” Nova smiles.

  About the Author, H.J. Lawson

  H.J. Lawson is an English author who currently resides in New York. When she’s not writing, she spends her time watching movies and hanging out with her family. She is the author of the following young adult books: The War Kids Series and The Sanction Series.

  Find H.J. online: Facebook | Twitter | Amazon | Website

  Books by H.J. Lawson

  The Sanction Series

  War Kids Series

  The Embrose Contract

  By C.C. Ekeke

  “Hey human! Hot pink flesh!”

  Really? Elena Valdez scowled and ignored the catcall. She kept weaving her way through Zyra’s muddy and crowded streets with purposeful strides.

  Ella wiped rain drizzle from her bangs and ponytail with dainty fingers. She glanced down at her shorter companion, a bald humanoid girl with grey-green skin who matched her pace despite Ella’s longer strides. “You seeing this Rayaal place?”

  “No.” Jaelynn looked up at Ella, the baby-blue star-shaped irises of her indigo eyes filled with judgement. The Tarkathian teenager seemed to live for questioning her human partner’s decisions, until they turned out correct. “Starting to think this place doesn’t exist.”

  Me neither, Ella griped internally, but refused to give up until they’d combed every inch of this crappy township. “Let’s keep looking.”

  The skies of Embrose, the moon containing Zyra, were a perpetually overcast grey or the occasional shit brown.

  A flock of chattering Manorks passed—lanky humanoid torsos with no arms and four spider-like legs. Their single eye socket was filled with bulbous eyes that reminded Ella of red fish eyes clustered together. Despite not finding this supposed location, she felt especially stubborn about a potential lead on the largest catch of their short bounty-hunting careers.

  The bounty, put out by a Mulkeavian crime lord, had been widecasted on a shadow virtual world that Ella frequented for their jobs.

  Ronen Omaegus. One of the Lawless Regions’ most notorious space pirates. Ella got starry-eyed just thinking of the ginormous reward. No more bottom-of-the-barrel jobs with shitty pay after they caught Omaegus. No doubt he’d be a difficult catch, with a cutthroat crew protecting him.

  But previous bounties usually never saw the unlikely combo of an earthborn human pilot and a nearly thirteen-year-old female Tarkathian hunter coming. That advantage not only allowed Jaelynn and Ella to survive in this deadly profession, but thrive...barely.

  But Ella had a good feeling about this one, putting out as many feelers as they could afford to get some kind of a lead on Omaegus’s location. A sometimes reliable databroker had come through, and not cheaply, receiving word of an anonymous contact on Embrose who knew where to find Omaegus. All they had to do was come to Rayaal hostellaris and follow the fox tail. Those were the exact words. Ella grimaced.

  “What if we don’t find Rayaal or this fox tail?” Jaelynn inquired.

  Ella shrugged. “We’ll search other townships on Embrose. This moon isn’t that big.”

  “And what if that doesn’t work?”

  “It will,” the human stated adamantly. She’d turned down two easy bounties for this. That had to mean something. “I have a good feeling about this gig.”

  “You’ve said that before,” Jaelynn remarked sourly.

  Ella clenched her teeth, fighting for patience. “This one’s different.”

  “You’ve said that before too.”

  Ella had heard enough attitude. “Are you going to help me find this place or just snark uselessly?”

  The Tarkathian tilted her head innocently. “I am at your service, Ella,” she replied with smirking insolence.

  Pendejita. Ella shook her head and kept walking.

  They made an odd pair to the casual observer. A tall full-figured Earther woman and an adolescent Tarkathian just above five feet in height. It weirded Ella out when their four-month-old partnership had begun. Now, the disproportions amused her.

  “You hard of hearing, human?” Someone reached out and grabbed Ella’s arm, forcing her to stop. She turned her head and recoiled. By the skin resembling craggy rocks, humanoid build, and flinty nodules atop his head, Ella knew he was Aesonite. His eyes raked her up and down with wayward intentions, turning her stomach. “You and your servant look lost.” He offered a dismissive glance at Jaelynn. “May I offer some assistance?”

  Jaelynn leveled a murderous look at the Aesonite. Her posture coiled to attack.

  Ella gave a brief headshake that conveyed I got this. “May I have my arm back?” She jerked from his grip. “I think we’ll manage.”

  The Aesonite didn’t take the hint. He reached for her waist to reel her back in. “Be reasonable. Whatever you’re looking for, I’ll help you find in a quarter of the time. For a fee of cour—AGGH!” The Aesonite gagged and stopped talking. A pulse pistol muzzle digging into one’s throat usually had that effect. Ella was improving at quick-drawing her ArmoryTek DraCross long pistol. Bystanders took in the scene with glances or gapes. Two Kedri, mountainous reptile humanoids with shortlong mullets of hair, grunted something to each other and kept walking. Sentients minded their own business on Embrose, legal or illegal, unless money or their own welfare were involved.

  “Like I said. I think we’ll manage.” Ella knew she was a looker, but had no fucks to give for the Aesonite’s grabbiness. “I should shoot you just for that piss poor come-on.”

  The Aesonite’s craggy face pulled into an expression resembling pleasure. “Think again, Earther,” he croaked proudly. Ella glanced behind Jaelynn and gaped. Th
ere stood three towering Cressonish, orangutan-orange in shaggy body fur and black beak-like mouths that opened sideways instead of up and down like a human’s. Ella’s sighed. They’d been targeted for a shakedown. Not uncommon in Embrose or anywhere within the Lawless Regions of known space.

  The Aesonite’s smile grew obnoxious, despite the gun at his throat. “You know the deal. You and your little servant hand over all currency and weapons.”

  Alone, Ella would have complied. No need to die in a cutthroat place like Embrose over pride.

  But she had backup. The human locked eyes with the petite Tarkathian at her side and grinned. “Think again, thief.”

  Jaelynn attacked, a blur of violence. The first Cressonish collapsed clutching his throat, dark purple blood leaking through his furry sausage-like fingers. Jaelynn dashed past the second Cressonish, who stood at least a foot and a half taller, swiping her arm upward. He stumbled backward, sliced opened from belly to throat, violet blood fountaining down his furry torso. A flurry of quick strikes later and the third bodyguard crumpled, furry barrel-wide torso stained with wet puncture wounds. All in less than fifteen nanoclics of time.

  Despite witnessing Jaelynn’s lethalness many times, Ella still marveled.

  The Aesonite, a first-timer, let out a high-pitched shriek.

  Jaelynn stood over the three Cressonish corpses, her small serrated dagger dripping with purple blood.

  Ella lowered her pistol and squeezed the trigger. A bright orange flash burned through the Aesonite’s thigh. With an agonized scream, he dropped in a heap, clutching at the charred hole through his leg.