Planetfall infinitys end.., p.1
Planetfall (Infinity's End Book 6), page 1
PLANETFALL:
INFINITY’S END BOOK 6
ERIC WARREN
Part of the Sovereign Coalition Universe
PLANETFALL – INFINITY’S END BOOK 6
Copyright © 2019 by Eric C. Warren All rights reserved.
Book design and SCAS logo are trademarks of Eric Warren Author, LLC.
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means electronic, mechanical, printing, photocopying, recording, chiseling into stone, or otherwise, without the written permission from the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. For information regarding permission contact the publisher.
Cover Design by Dan Van Oss www.covermint.design
Content Editor Tiffany Shand www.eclipseediting.com
Table of Contents
The Sovereign Coalition Series
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1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
BROKEN LINKS, INFINITY’S END BOOK 7 SNEAK PREVIEW
Map Piece
Map Key
GLOSSARY
Author’s Note
About the Author
For the brave, may they never lose their will
The Sovereign Coalition Series
Short Stories
CASPIAN’S GAMBIT: An Infinity’s End Story
SOON’S FOLLY: An Infinity’s End Story
Novels
INFINITY’S END SAGA
CASPIAN’S FORTUNE (BOOK 1)
TEMPEST RISING (BOOK 2)
DARKEST REACH (BOOK 3)
JOURNEY’S EDGE (BOOK 4)
SECRETS PAST (BOOK 5)
PLANETFALL (BOOK 6)
BROKEN LINKS (BOOK 7)
The Quantum Gate Series
Short Stories
PROGENY (BOOK 0)
Novels
SINGULAR (BOOK 1)
DUALITY (BOOK 2)
TRIALITY (BOOK 3)
DISPARITY (BOOK 4)
CAUSALITY (BOOK 5)
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CASPIAN’S GAMBIT and SOON’S FOLLY!
1
As Caspian Robeaux stared at the emerald planet in the distance, he realized he was looking through something other than the viewscreen. He was looking through himself. The smoky image reflected a person he didn’t recognize, and someone who would have been foreign to him just a few short seasons ago. His face betrayed none of the discomfort or pain which he’d become accustomed to long ago. Cas had to give himself credit; he’d made big strides. There had been a time when stepping back on a shuttle had seemed like an impossibility, but he’d managed this mission without any trouble. Though, when twenty-five percent of your body wasn’t your own, it tended to change one’s perspective on things.
Cas had always prided himself on his resilience, and this often included his physical characteristics. He’d managed to survive childhood without breaking any bones or needing the removal of errant or malfunctioning organs. He’d had perfect eyesight and straight teeth for as long as he could remember, and he’d never needed any artificial augmentation. So maybe he didn’t hit the gym much, but that hardly mattered. The point was, his body had always been reliable. He’d never worried about it shutting down on him.
But all that had changed because of Diamant. Four days ago, he’d woken up in sickbay having been informed three major organs had been regrown and new skin had been grafted onto dead tissue. Doctor Xax had done an excellent job; he couldn’t see a difference at all. But he could feel the difference. And for the first time in his life, he didn’t quite feel like himself. Maybe that was where he found the willpower to continue to go on shuttle missions again and again. Maybe it came from the other him. The new him. Or maybe he no longer had anything to protect.
Then again the fact their ship was only days away from losing all life support might have had something to do with it.
“Bring her around for another go?” Box asked from the pilot’s seat.
Cas shook his head. “We’re not getting anything else out of this trip, the atmosphere is too thick. If the captain wants to know what’s on the surface, she’s going to have to send a team.”
They’d found this planet two days ago, after a harrowing series of events with the Bulaq. Their leader, Diamant, had attempted to steal their ship for his own purposes. He had also been the man responsible for all of Cas’s injuries, and Cas had almost died trying to stop him. But in Cas’s haste to retake the ship, he’d damaged the USCS Tempest more than she already had been. They couldn’t even access the bridge, as it was open to space.
The only recourse had been to use this planet as a temporary haven, except they had no idea what was on the surface. Three survey missions covering different parts had all come up with little to nothing. They could see the surface itself; it was about sixty percent water and forty percent land, with ice caps on the poles and a deep green atmosphere which made everything appear a different shade of olive. Parts of the planet had dense forests and deserts that stretched for kilometers, all tinged a shade of green. But the scanners couldn’t read through the atmosphere. And as far as they could see, there didn’t seem to be any cities or settlements anywhere on the surface. Though the captain insisted the planet had to be inhabited.
“Are you sure?” Box asked, his mechanical hands moving over the controls. “We could always…penetrate.”
Cas turned up his nose. “Why do you have to say it like that? Nobody is penetrating anything. The captain was clear, we stay out of the atmosphere and gather whatever information we can. Nothing else. As much as I know you’d like it.”
“But the situation seems to require…thrusting through the atmosphere in a strong, deliberate movement, like one might see in—”
“Stop. Stop it right now. You’re not even supposed to be here. Aren’t you supposed to be ‘doctoring’ down in sickbay?” Cas used finger quotes to emphasize his point.
“A person can be more than one thing,” Box replied. “I can be a doctor and a pilot. And don’t forget, it was my piloting skills that saved your ass out in space and my doctoring skills that did it again in sickbay.” Box made a sound like a sigh. “But I guess I shouldn’t expect too much from someone who has never been anything more than an engineer.”
Cas wasn’t about to let him win. “We both know the only reason we’re even here was because you wouldn’t stop pestering Evie about your superior piloting skills and how you could come up with more than the other survey teams had. Wasn’t that what you said?”
“I never said that.”
“Funny, because whenever you hear something pleasant you always seem to conveniently have it recorded. But when it’s something not to your liking—”
“Captain Diazal could have saved herself a lot of time if she’d assigned me on the first survey mission. I would have informed her without…certain actions…we’ll never figure out what’s down there.” He glanced over at the series of rings circling the planet. “At least I figured out there are some useful materials in those. None of the other survey teams checked the rings.”
Cas scoffed. “Not that we have time to gather them. We’ve got maybe another two or three days before we have to evacuate anyway. That’s barely enough time to load all the shuttles. If that’s what she decides to do.”
Box turned to him, his yellow eyes blinking in a pattern Cas recognized as annoyance. He’d been with Box so long he’d learned to read the patterns in his eyes, which—since Box had no other facial features except for a faceplate and a visor covering those eyes—was the only way he could tell what was going on in that mechanical mind of his. “I’m sorry, why are you here again? Other than to take up space?”
Cas laughed and stretched his arms out in front of him. They’d been in the shuttle for a few hours; he was ready to get back to Tempest. “I’m here to make sure you don’t abscond with a shuttle.”
Box made a sound like the sharp inhalation of breath, despite not having lungs. Or a mouth for that matter. “I am appalled. Shocked and appalled. If anyone should be monitored for stealing shuttles it is you, my good sir,” he replied in one of his annoying accents.
He grinned. Box wasn’t wrong. There had been a time when he would have taken full advantage of this situation: him and Box in a shuttle with undercurrent capability, and Tempest out there, unable to mov
“What’s so funny?” Box asked in his regular voice.
“All of this. If we’d been in this position a few seasons ago I would have told you to fly to the far side of the planet and engage the undercurrent as soon as we were out of scanner range from Tempest. We would have been gone.”
“Ahem. You might have been gone, but I’m quite happy in my position thankyouverymuch. You would have been flying off by yourself. And since everyone knows you can’t fly worth a damn, you would have ended up crash-landing on the planet, destined to spend your days on a remote world. And I would have covered all of it up, altered the ship’s scanners to make it look like the shuttle disintegrated on re-entry. I would regale them the tale of your tragic, yet foolish venture to escape to parts unknown. Simple, really.”
“It bothers me you’ve planned that far ahead.”
“You didn’t think I was going to stay with you forever, did you? I always needed a contingency plan,” Box replied. “One can only fly a ship for so long before they grow…restless.” He tried to say it with a sinister tone, but it ended up coming out comical. Box had never been sinister in his entire life.
“Well, it seemed like you were pretty happy watching net dramas all day.”
“You have no clue, boss. I was three days from dropping you on the next planet when Captain Diazal showed up.”
Cas rolled his eyes. “Can we head back yet? Or do you want to keep stalling?” The planet peeled away from view as Box altered the shuttle’s course, only the rings circling at a forty-five-degree angle visible through the viewscreen. “Speaking of which, I can’t wait for you to tell Evie about our success.”
“It’s your fault we didn’t make more progress. You didn’t let me p—”
“Don’t…say it,” Cas interjected. “If I hear that word one more time, I’m going to reach in there and wipe it from your processor.”
Box made an errant sound, but Cas paid him no mind. He thought about everything that happened since he’d been that person who Evie had found back on Devil’s Gate. It hadn’t been that long ago, but now he couldn’t even imagine leaving Tempest to her fate. There was too much at stake; yet despite all their efforts they were even further from their goal than ever. The Coalition was at least two seasons away, and the mysterious threat known only as Andromeda was headed for Earth. After Diamant had told them about their encounter with the powerful and destructive aliens, Cas was more convinced than ever the alien’s only goal—once they reached the inner planets of the Coalition—was to destroy them. And despite the fact the Coalition was thousands of years old, the loss of the inner systems would completely destabilize the region; Cas didn’t think they could survive. And while he had no love for the organization that had once exiled him, he couldn’t stand by while trillions of innocent lives were at risk.
He ran his hands down his face as Tempest came into view, her gray hull standing out against the field of black. Even from this distance the damage was visible, whole sections of the ship blown out by either mines from their brief encounter with Andromeda or their attempts to retake the ship from the Bulaq. Whatever the reason, Tempest was in dire shape and needed serious help. He only hoped this planet might provide a temporary solution until they could get her up and running again. Cas realized Box said something but chose to ignore it, instead hoping nothing else would go wrong. If they could just get the ship repaired—that’s all it would take.
At least, that’s what he kept telling himself.
2
Captain Evelyn Diazal surveyed the situation in front of her. At their temporary stations her crew was working their asses off, doing everything to keep her ship in one piece. But they were fighting a losing battle, and everyone knew it.
Since the final battle with the Bulaq she’d relocated the senior staff down to Engineering, which would serve as the command center for the ship. She would rather have chosen somewhere less busy but with so many systems offline, Engineering made the most sense as they could route the bridge controls down here.
Exhaustion beat at her and her feet ached. She’d been on them for at least sixteen hours already, monitoring the survey missions, putting out fires wherever she could and trying to keep the crew calm. Most of them were doing a good job, though some weren’t taking it so well. Lieutenant Ronde, for example, seemed much more on edge than normal and she’d had to relieve him. His bloodshot eyes and jittery hands screamed impending panic attack, so she’d decided to nip it in the bud. They didn’t need their pilot as Tempest was essentially stuck in space. Upon entering orbit of this strange planet, the undercurrent system had given out; its patchwork repairs from Sesster and Zenfor finally succumbing to reality and cutting them off from all faster-than-light propulsion and any way out of this system. Evie didn’t even know why she bothered sending teams to survey the planet. It was clear they’d all be headed there eventually no matter what.
“Incoming message from Robeaux,” Zaal, her operations officer, said in his characteristically deep voice.
“Go ahead,” she replied, resting her head against the nearest vertical surface, which just happened to be one of the undercurrent conduits. If she didn’t get some food soon she might pass out.
“He reports, with emphasis, he and Box found no new information during their mission. Should I send them back?”
She shook her head. “No. Despite our best efforts this planet isn’t going to give up its secrets so easily. Call them back in.” She slid her gaze to the side to meet Laura’s, standing over at the makeshift tactical station. She gave Evie a supportive smile which caused Evie to smile back, even though she didn’t much feel like it. Laura had been her one constant through all of this, her steady hand. She wasn’t sure she’d have made it this far without her.
Evie pushed off from the bulkhead and walked over to the far end of Engineering, where Commander Sesster rested in his cradle, though his long, tentacled arms were plugged into multiple systems at once. He was the one keeping everything running. Lieutenant Tyler, his translator, stood off to the side, studying diagrams on some display. Behind him Zenfor sat on a chair, her long back arched over a terminal as she worked.
Not wanting to disturb the consul, Evie approached Tyler instead. Tyler was one of the few people on the ship who were receptive to Sesster’s thoughts. “Any good news?”
Tyler took notice of her and pointed to an image on the screen. “Looks like Box found some valuable materials in the planet’s rings. Centraxium and alchuriam.”
“Isn’t alchuriam obsolete?” Evie asked.
“Maybe for the rest of the Coalition, but we can still use it in emergencies. It won’t hold up as long as galvanium or cyclax, but it will do the job. I suggest we put the ship in orbit close to the planet’s rings, so we can mine the ore without wasting a lot of fuel.”
Evie nodded. “I think we can arrange for that. At least their mission wasn’t for nothing.”
“You didn’t tell her the bad news,” Zenfor said from her station without turning to face them.
Evie’s stomach dropped. She wasn’t sure how much more bad news she could take. “What is it?”
“Vrij’s repairs to the life support system were unsuccessful,” he replied.
Evie pressed two fingers to her temple and rubbed. While it wasn’t unexpected, she’d held out a small amount of hope Vrij might have been able to do something the rest of them couldn’t. His people were brilliant engineers and builders after all. She glanced back to Tyler whose mouth shut like he’d just been caught in a lie.
“Anything else?” she asked, louder than necessary to make sure Zenfor heard her.
“That’s all for now,” Tyler replied.
She stepped away. Taking on Vrij had been a risk, especially after his people had tried to take the ship for themselves. But he’d held his own and even helped them remove the remaining Bulaq, sending them back to the Hub where they’d come from. And he’d done it at significant cost to himself. The Bulaq were born with a pair of sharp, scissor-like mandibles that could extend from their backs, though Vrij had lost his and replaced them with a mechanical pair. Unfortunately one had been sheared off in their battle with Diamant and Xax hadn’t quite figured out how to replace it yet. Even with Zenfor’s help, the two of them marveled at how complex the technology was. But because Vrij had made such a sacrifice for the good of her ship, she couldn’t force him to leave once the threat was gone, even though she’d considered it. He was another drain on their already limited resources, but she wouldn’t turn away someone in need. It wasn’t the Coalition’s way. Or at least, not the Coalition she thought she knew.
