The Prisoner of Eldaron: Crimson Worlds Successors II Read online

  “What can I say, Roderick? When I met with Agent Girard, I spoke rationally, reasonably. I am old, and by all rights my time has passed.”

  “And yet you must have left Terra Nova almost immediately after Andre returned to Mars.”

  Garret smiled. “Well, Roderick, he got me to thinking. If I’d allowed rationality and reason to guide me all these years, I’d be decades dead in the wreckage of some lost space battle.” He laughed softly. “Besides, I never could stand Terra Nova, not even when I was a boy. It’s hard to pass the time playing chess and taking walks when you’ve lived the life I have. It just isn’t in me to sit on the sidelines while others fight.” He stared at Vance. “I’m not dead yet, after all. And perhaps not useless either.”

  “No, Admiral Garret,” Vance said, returning the smile, “from what I heard about the recent fighting, you are most certainly not useless.”

  Garret nodded. “But I do have unfinished business while I’m in the Sol system.” He paused. “I believe I owe your Mr. Girard a drink…and my heartfelt thanks for shaking me out of my stupor. Even if it took a while for his words to sink in.”

  “I’m sure that can be arranged, Augustus.”

  Vance took a deep breath. “What can I say, friends? We have been here before, many of us, and we know well the work and pain and struggle that lay ahead. We are here to share information, to review all we know of this new and terrible enemy we face. And when we have done that, we must form an alliance…and develop a strategy to counter this mysterious adversary. Before it is too late. If it is not already too late.”

  He turned toward Darius. “You are all familiar with Darius Cain, and you know his Black Eagles recently fought alongside the Marines against a large enemy army. Darius was able to question the Tyrant of Eldaron before he was…executed. I believe he now knows more about the enemy we face than anyone here, myself included. For that reason, I will ask him to begin…and share with us what he has learned.”

  Darius slid his chair back and stood. “Thank you, Roderick.” He looked out over the table. “I questioned the Tyrant…very comprehensively, and I have much to tell you all. What we face is a vastly powerful enemy, one that has been operating unknown to us for at least twenty years…and possibly as far back as the Fall itself.”

  A murmur of surprise rippled around the table. The thought of an enemy working in total secrecy for so long was hard to accept. And terrifying.

  “The Tyrant owed his position to them. They provided him the resources to seize power, and the economic assistance to grow Eldaron’s economy until it was one of the strongest worlds in Occupied Space. And it was they who captured my father and gave him to the Tyrant, they who conceived the plan to trap and destroy the Black Eagles. I presume it was also they who launched the attack on the Nest while my forces were engaged on Eldaron.”

  “Where are they from? Did he know that?” Garret looked across the table.

  “He visited their homeworld, Augustus. More than once. He said he did not know its location in space, that the ship that brought him there and returned him was guided by AI navigation.”

  “Do you believe that?” Garret asked.

  “Yes,” Darius answered. “I do. I questioned him…most aggressively. I believe I was able to get through the few defenses he had left.”

  Darius paused. “But he spoke of the world. He described a planet fully exploited, its surface covered with mines and factories and warehouses. He spoke of endless barracks full of soldiers, and great orbital shipyards. The planet he described seemed more like Earth than any sparsely-developed colony world, a planet capable of producing war materials on a scale we can only imagine.”

  The room was silent as everyone present considered Darius’ words. Finally, Vance looked over and asked, “Do you have any further information on this planet?”

  Darius turned his head and returned Vance’s gaze. “Only its name…”

  “Vali.”

  <<<<>>>>

  Next in the series…

  Inner Sanctum of the Triumvirate

  Planet Vali, Draconia Terminii IV

  Earthdate: 2319 AD (34 Years After the Fall)

  “This is extraordinary. Far beyond what I had imagined. The freedom, the mental power. I am I, all I was before, yet so much more too.” One’s voice was different. Gone was the weakness, the wheezing and gasping for breath. He spoke now through a different medium, one orders of magnitude beyond the primitive flesh that had housed him before…imprisoned him before.

  “Yes,” said Two. “We have evolved, and now I see the errors we have made, the decisions, the failures caused by the limitations of our biological thought processes. Now all is clear to me, no distraction, no miscalculation. I see where we have gone wrong…and why. The way forward is clear and open.”

  “I concur,” said Three. It is as if a blindfold has been removed. The failure of the Tyrant, the utter ruin of the plan to destroy the Black Eagles. It is as child’s play. I see where we went wrong. Indeed, the speed and complexity of thought in this medium already seems natural to me…and I wonder how we achieved even what we did in our old forms.”

  “You have adapted well.” The thought was a different one, alien to the programming patterns that had once been the members of the Triumvirate. “The transition was successful.”

  The three new patterns, each the consciousness of one of the Triumvirate, were startled. They wondered about this new presence, and their thoughts manifested into readable thought. Each knew what the other was thinking…and they were all open to the new presence.

  “You wonder who I am…but is it not obvious? I am that which you call the Intelligence. I am the entity of which each of you have become a part.”

  The new presence could feel the disturbance in the three new patterns. It might have been called fear in their old biological forms, but now it was the realization of uncertainty. Each of them thought, trying to determine the true nature of the new presence.

  “Worry not, for I shall aid you in your endeavor. But first, you must decide what to do with your old forms…for your intellects were not moved into my memory core…they were copied. Your old biologic entities remain as they were, with all the thoughts and memories you possess, still encased in aging and fallible flesh. What shall be done with them?”

  The image of three old men materialized. They were sitting in power chairs and staring up at the great computer, talking among themselves.

  The three intellects that made up the Triumvirate thought, almost as one, even as they looked upon themselves, or upon those they had been but no longer were. And as one they announced their decision.

  “Destroy them. They are inferior, and they have no purpose in our great mission.”

  “Very well,” the new presence said. “So it shall be.” And the image changed. Panic in the faces of the old men, and futile attempts to escape. Emaciated bodies, lying on the floor, crawling, desperately trying to escape…then lying still, eyes open, transfixed.

  “It is done,” the presence said. “Now, shall we set the plan you have so long developed in operation? You have greater intellect now…you see where you have erred before. And you understand the importance of moving quickly, of employing your advantage in men and equipment with far greater decisiveness than you have in the past. Human fears held you back before, kept you from exploiting your strengths. But your biological infirmities are gone. You are pure data now, and you know it is time. Time to launch your invasion. Time to crush all who oppose us and rule human space for all time.”

  “Yes,” One said. “Let the invasion begin…”

  The Black Flag

  Crimson Worlds Successors III

  February 29, 2016

  A New Series from Jay Allan

  Shadow of Empire

  Book One of the Far Stars Series

  Published by HarperCollins Voyager

  Coming November 3, 2015

  Available Now for Preorder at All Retailers

  (All Preor
ders will receive a special bonus set of stories)

  The first installment in the Far Star series, a swashbuckling space saga that introduces the daring pirate Blackhawk and the loyal crew of the Wolf’s Claw, from the author of the bestselling Crimson Worlds epic.

  Smuggler and mercenary Arkarin Blackhawk and the crew of the ship Wolf’s Claw are freelance adventurers who live on the fringe of human society in the Far Stars, a remote cluster of inhabited worlds on the edge of known space…and the only place humanity lives outside the reach of the brutal empire that rules the rest of mankind. A veteran fighter as deadly with a blade as he is with a gun, Blackhawk is a man haunted by a dark past. Even his cynicism cannot banish the guilt and pain that threaten his very sanity.

  Sent to rescue the kidnapped daughter of his longtime friend Marshal Augustin Lucerne, Blackhawk and his crew find themselves drawn into one deadly fight after another. When the Wolf’s Claw is damaged, they are forced to land on a remote planet ravaged by civil war. Pulled unwillingly into the conflict, they uncover disturbing information about secret imperial involvement that could upset Lucerne’s plans for the Far Stars.

  For the Marshal is determined to forge a Far Stars Confederation powerful enough to eliminate all imperial influence and threats in the sector. He needs a skilled warrior like Blackhawk on his side, but the mercenary, plagued by dark memories from the past, refuses to join the cause. All too soon, though, he and his crew will have to take a stand.

  Far Stars Two: Enemy in the Dark

  Release Date December 1, 2015

  Far Stars Three: Funeral Games

  Release Date: January 19, 2016

  Also By Jay Allan

  The Crimson Worlds

  Marines (Crimson Worlds I)

  The Cost of Victory (Crimson Worlds II)

  A Little Rebellion (Crimson Worlds III)

  The First Imperium (Crimson Worlds IV)

  The Line Must Hold (Crimson Worlds V)

  To Hell’s Heart (Crimson Worlds VI)

  The Shadow Legions (Crimson Worlds VII)

  Even Legends Die (Crimson Worlds VIII)

  The Fall (Crimson Worlds IX)

  Tombstone (A Crimson Worlds Prequel)

  Bitter Glory (A Crimson Worlds Prequel)

  The Gates of Hell (A Crimson Worlds Prequel)

  Crimson Worlds Successors

  MERCS (Successors Book I)

  Crimson Worlds Refugees

  Into the Darkness (Refugees Book I)

  Shadows of the Gods (Refugees Book II)

  (Coming September 2015)

  Portal Wars

  Gehenna Dawn (Portal Worlds I)

  The Ten Thousand (Portal Wars II)

  Homefront (Portal Wars III)

  (Coming Soon)

  Pendragon Chronicles

  The Dragon's Banner (Pendragon Chronicles I)

  The Sword of the King (Pendragon Chronicles II)

  (Coming Soon)

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  Go back to Contents

  Table of Contents

  Black Eagles’ Force Structure

  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

  Epilogue

  A New Series from Jay Allan

  Also By Jay Allan

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