Dark Empire Book One: Shadows Approach Chapter One Scene One

 

Welcome to Dark Empire’s first book, Shadows Approach. Forthose who have wondered about Clan Piras’ fate following Alien Outcast, they’respying on the conquered Bi’is…and they’re no longer alone. Here is the firstscene of Chapter One:

 

Captain Kila’s spyship

Specialist Hope Nath hid a yawn behind her hand. She peekedat the spyship’s bridge crew to make sure no one noticed her boredom during anoperation classified as dangerous.

She smirked as she tucked a wayward brunette lock of hairbehind her ear. The planet Bi’is hadn’t been a threat since the KalquorianEmpire had devastated the hostile race’s invading space fleet five years prior.Its danger was long past. She couldn’t be the only one who found theirassignment tedious.

As if to reprimand her for her careless attitude, CaptainKila growled, “What the hell is that?”

Admiral Piras was at his shoulder in an instant. “Main vidscreen, enlarge.”

The hum of quiet conversation on the bridge snapped intosilence. Hope’s eyes widened in concert with her Kalquorian shipmates.

Barely aware she was doing so, she echoed her commandingofficer and Nobek clanmate’s question. “What is that?”

The semi-circle bridge’s entire forward section wasdominated by the vid screen. It depicted the upper curve of Bi’is, anorange-tinged blue planet the phased spyship orbited. Beyond it, stars gleamedin their multitudes, constellations of scattered bits of glitter Hope had grownfamiliar with after five years of sentry duty.

Several of the well-known star patterns had been eclipsed.Inky darkness spread before her gaze, blotting them from existence. Hope watchedas several more stars appeared to wink out.

She’d already noted what Kila had: the stars weren’t goingout. Something was approaching the ship, eclipsing their view of distant sunsand planets. Whatever it was, it was huge.

Admiral Piras, who was also Hope’s clanmate, frowned. Noalarm registered on his delicate features, offset by a surprisingly strong jaw.He hadn’t recognized it as an enemy. “Computer, scan the oncoming object andidentify.”

“Scans identify no object approaching the ship,” themasculine electronic voice answered.

“I’m looking directly at it. There’s an object in SectorBeta-Seven-Seven-Five.” Even his shoulder-length black hair bristled to becontradicted. Piras had little patience when it came to ignorance of theobvious.

“Visual evidence confirmed. However, scans do notrecognize the existence of any object in the indicated sector.”

“We’re fucked.” Com officer Veko’s whisper, probablyunintended for anyone’s hearing, reached Hope. She gazed at the long mop ofblack hair hovering over the com station. Kila’s longest-serving crewmember’sface was rarely seen, and his opinions typically assumed the worst.

Kila scowled at his own station’s computer readouts. Hisusual smirk was nowhere in evidence within his black beard. “No signal, no poweremissions, nothing. It’s as if it isn’t there.”

“Except I see it. Or at least, a hint of it.” Piras glancedat Hope, his brows drawn together.

“No details. Just…black.” She hurried to the engineeringstation, obeying his unspoken command. Her readings suggested less than whatphysical vision offered. She enabled tracking on the object and thumbed theautomatic communications frequency. “Chief Engineer Lokmi to the bridge.”

“On my way.” Her third clanmate’s tone was excited, so hewas already aware of the situation.

“Unknown object entering Sector Alpha. It has assumed orbit,fifty-four point sixty-eight kilometers off our bow, matching our speed,” shereported to Kila. She kept her tone clipped, not admitting her relief theshadow hadn’t attacked them.

“Computer, give me an outline of the unidentified object.”Piras had apparently tired of squinting at it.

A bright blue border traced the unfathomable black. Hopeblinked. “It looks like a squid.”

“A what?” Kila and Piras glanced at her.

“A sea creature on Earth. It had tentacles extending from anoblong body, sort of how that thing appears.” She warmed and shrugged. “Whichhas nothing to do with what we’re looking at. Apologies, Captain, Admiral.”

“Keep observations to what’s helpful, Specialist Nath.” Piraswinked at her before returning his attention to the ‘space squid.’

Hope suppressed a smile. Any other member of the crew wouldhave had his ears blistered to have offered such a useless statement. Being awoman and a clanmate to the commanding officers had its privileges.

Kila narrowed his gaze. “Helm, alter orbit so we can see thetarget against the planet.”

“Altering orbit, Captain, by forty-five degrees.”

The angle of Bi’is changed on the screen, bringing the oddobject into silhouette against the orb. Its edges were crisp against theshining planet. It definitely seemed to have tentacles, which waved and curledlazily for no discernable reason. It displayed no other details. The shapemight have been cut out from space, a bizarre hole in the fabric of reality.

“If we weren’t phased, I’d put a light on it. It can’t bejust a black blank,” Kila said. His muscled frame, obvious despite the armoredpadding of his black fleet uniform, thrummed with energy.

Despite his readiness to engage a potential enemy, he andPiras still displayed only concerned curiosity. No alarm. Because the ship wasphased, occupying a space between their dimension and a supposed seconddimension, it would be invisible to the visitor and in no danger from anyattack.

Small black dots issued from the object, falling from itsunderside between the wavering tentacles. They fell toward the planet.

“Interesting. Computer, give me a closeup of one ofthose…emissions,” Kila ordered.

Hope tapped on her computer, trying to get a reading onthem. Again, scans picked up no signs of entities of any sort. Their resultswere as empty as the large shadow.

“They’re miniatures of the parent vessel.” Piras’ mutterbrought her attention back to the main vid. It showed one of the descendingobjects. “How large are they?”

“I still can’t get readings on them. I’m calculating size bycomparing them to other measurable objects,” Hope answered as her fingers flewover the podium interface. “The smaller objects are about twelve meters inlength.” The size of a city bus on old Earth, she estimated. “You could fitaround fifty Kalquorians on board.”

“Hold on. It’s happening again.” Kila’s voice held a growlas he glared at the supposed vessel.

Hope gaped. Smaller versions were spewing from the bus-sizedobject the vid had zoomed in on and racing twice as fast to the planet. Awidened view showed the rest were also ejecting miniature versions ofthemselves, which collected together and descended as a group.

Suspicion bloomed, and she flew through additionalcalculations. Her stomach dropped as she confirmed her hunch.

“Captain, they’re zeroing in on the location where our awayteam is.”

The chief engineer and her Imdiko clanmate Lokmi wassuddenly at her side. “That can’t be good,” he muttered. His strong buthandsome features were set in piercing intentness, framed by wavy black hair.

“We’re fucked,” mop-haired Veko agreed in another whisper.

Hope moved over to give Lokmi room at the console. “You’vebeen following what’s going on?”

“Everything but the pictures.” He eyed the vid brieflybefore checking the readings.

“Open frequency to the away team, Veko.” Kila’s attentionwas riveted on his own console.

“Frequency open, Captain.”

“Subcommander Selt, respond.”

Silence answered. Kila shot a look at the waterfall of hairhovering over the com station.

“I can’t confirm they’re receiving us, Captain. There’s nosign of frequency disruption, but the weapons subcommander isn’t answering.”

“Use all frequencies. Away team, this is Captain Kila.Respond.”

Nothing.

Weapons Commander Jado’s lips had drawn into a snarl, buthis voice was calm. “They’re operating phased, Captain. They should remainundetected by whatever those are.”

“I know, but I don’t like the situation. What are the oddsthe alien objects would head straight to where they are? I want to talk tothem.”

“I’m giving you a power boost, Veko. If that thing isjamming us, maybe it’s as impossible to read as the scans.” Lokmi tossed aglance over his shoulder. “Any luck?”

The hair swayed a negative. “I’m issuing the alert signal,and there’s still no sign of interference, but they aren’t responding.”

Hope had continued her calculations. “Based on the rate ofdescent, the smallest objects should have reached the planet’s surface by now,Captain.”

Kila leveled what Hope thought of as his evil smile on her,Lokmi, and Veko, betraying his patience was fast failing. “Half a dozen of ourbest men are down there. Get me a com connection immediately.”

Hope checked the helm, where the first officer, DramokDeram, piloted the spyship. It was impossible to see his model-perfect face; hewas almost directly in front of her, facing the vid. She thought the set of hisshoulders appeared tense, but his fingers ran smoothly over his console. Henever uttered a word except to direct the navigator to his right.

Weapons Subcommander Nobek Selt was Deram’s clanmate, and adamned good officer. He was also a good man, unfailingly upbeat. Almostcivilized, for a Nobek.

It was her worry for Selt’s and the away team’s safety, morethan Kila’s growing frustration, that kept her trying every avenue to forge acom link. She tried them again when they failed.

As the minutes stretched and she continued to search for ananswer, she was aware Lokmi wasn’t merely trying to find a path to restore thecoms. He ran computations, which appeared to have nothing to do with thecommunications issue. No surprise; his engineering brilliance allowed him towork on multiple issues at once. Under normal circumstances, Hope would haveasked him what he was up to, but her energy was focused on confirming the awayteam’s safety.

Kila snarled, “I’ve waited long enough. Weapons CommanderJado, put together another away team to find our guys—”

“Captain.” Lokmi spoke at a normal level, but his tone goteveryone’s attention. “I believe the alien objects are phased.”

Piras took a step toward him, his elegant frame floating inunconscious grace. “How can you tell without any readings?”

“We’ve been tied into Bi’is’ alert system since we beganmonitoring the planet five years ago. Anything that doesn’t burn up in theatmosphere sets it off, unless it’s phased as we are.”

“The alarms aren’t going off?”

“No, Admiral. The objects are passing through the grid as ifthey’re not there.”

“Based on rate of descent, the larger twelve-meter objectsshould be reaching the ground now,” Hope grimly reported.

Kila rounded on Jado. “Get the second team to the planet.”

“Yes, Captain. Captain!” Jado pointed at the vid.

The massive inscrutable alien craft was moving out of orbit.It abruptly shrank and blinked out of sight.

The bridge crew chorused gasps. It took a couple of secondsfor Hope to realize the tentacled vessel hadn’t shrunk. It had raced away at avelocity impossible to fathom.

“It left its invasion team behind?” Piras gaped.

“It would appear so.” A member of the Nobek warrior breed,Kila appeared less shocked, but his gaze remained on the screen, as if hehadn’t quite grasped what had just happened.

“Do you think it was an invasion?” Hope broke protocol byquestioning the senior officers, but she was willing to take advantage of herprivilege.

“Most likely reconnaissance,” Kila muttered. “What I want toknow is who…what they were.”

“I have the away team on com, Captain,” Veko said.“Subcommander Selt confirms his group is fine and awaits your instructions.”

“They saw nothing? No little dark creatures with tentaclesdashing around?”

“Nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Nath, you were certain they were homing on the away team’slocation.”

Hope squared her shoulders. “For as long as the ship wasable to keep a visual on them, it was their trajectory.”

“Confirmed.” Lokmi winked at her. “I’m certain they werephased.”

“As is the team, Chief.” Kila pointed out. “If they’d shownup, our guys would have seen them. The unidentified objects might have veeredoff course once they were beyond visual range.”

“I agree, Captain.”

Kila scowled, making his crooked nose seem more so. He andPiras exchanged a glance. “I trust Selt to handle any trouble coming his way.But leaving his team down there when we don’t understand what we’re dealingwith—”

“It doesn’t sit right with me either, Captain.”

“Veko, tell them to get their asses back to the ship now.Chief, Nath, go over what information we gathered. I know it’s only visual, butbefore we confront the minions of whatever that was, I want as much intel aspossible.”

“The Bi’isils don’t have phasing tech,” Hope pointed out.“They won’t realize there’s something alien on their planet.”

Kila’s devious smirk gleamed. “Yeah, well, since they’vetried to obliterate my people for the past few centuries, that’s their toughluck. Your space squids are welcome to them.”

* * * *

A new planet. A newenemy. Is the end coming for the Kalquorian Empire?

In the aftermath ofthe Kalquorian civil war and the defeat of the Bi’is invasion fleet, the empirehas enjoyed peace. A new Earth has been born. A Kalquorian leads the GalacticCouncil of Planets. An era of harmony seems assured.

However, new dangersarrive on the horizon. Governor Stacy Nichols finds herself at odds withpowerful opponents who want Earth II to return to the old ways that led to thedemise of their original planet. They’ll do anything to stop her, especiallywhen they discover her newfound romance with Clan Rihep of Kalquor.

After five years and aterrifying encounter with an unknown entity, Clan Piras is finally leavingtheir spy duties in Bi’is space. Now they must face enemies closer to home: thefamilies of those they sacrificed while on a secret mission during theKalquorian civil war.

A new threat to theexistence of Kalquor and the entire Galactic Council of Planets arrives in themidst of these challenges, a dark menace unlike anything faced before. Oneyoung, inexperienced spyship ensign is all that stands between the galaxy andutter destruction. Can he warn the empire in time…or is it already too late?

DarkEmpire 1: Shadows Approach releasesAugust 4. Pre-order now at Amazon, Amazon UK, Nook, Smashwords, Kobo, Apple, and print.