Jupiter Storm
C. J. Darlington
JUPITER STORM
C. J. DARLINGTON
Copyright © 2016 by C. J. Darlington
All rights reserved.
Published by Mountainview Books, LLC
Author photograph copyright © 2011 by Dean Livengood Photography. All rights reserved.
Edited by Carol Kurtz Darlington
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Scriptures also taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-941291-30-6 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-941291-31-3 (ebook)
CONTENTS
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
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Thanks for reading!
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Chapter 1
Grey Alexander approached the comatose young woman and wondered why she’d thought this was a good idea. Dana Yurkutz’s dark braid lay flat across her pillow, loose and almost undone. A smudge of Jupiter’s glittery rainbow dirt marred her pale temple where the medics had missed cleansing her face. Grey eyed the nearly translucent oxygen halo enveloping her head and wondered if Dana could hear through it.
“Why did you do it?” she whispered.
A flash of movement caught her eye.
She studied Dana’s slender fingers. Had her thumb just twitched?
Grey hesitated then touched Dana’s hand. It was cold.
“Dana, can you hear me?”
She waited for a response, but the girl under the blue sheet remained as motionless as one of the sandstone rocks back in the Preserve. It must’ve only been a reflex. Grey let go of Dana’s hand. This was definitely a bad idea. She was probably breaking more than one rule just by being here, but at least she’d seen the girl who had saved her life.
She was about to leave when Dana Yurkutz’s eyelids flew open.
Grey jumped backward as Dana sucked in a gulp of air, her fingers clutching the flimsy sheet like it would protect her from whatever invisible enemy she saw.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Grey said, knowing it was partially a lie. Dana didn’t know about her mother yet, and when and if she was cleared medically she’d be heading to lockup as a prisoner of war.
Grey heard chiming in a barely audible, high-pitched frequency. She frantically scanned the room for a doctor or medic.
“Where is . . .” Dana’s body tensed, eyes shutting again.
Grey leaned over the bed. She wasn’t sure how much Dana remembered. “You’re in the med ward of a Yien cosmoship. On Jupiter.”
Dana grabbed Grey’s arm and gripped it tighter than she would’ve thought possible for a girl just coming out of a coma. Her fingernails dug into Grey’s wrist.
“They aren’t going to hurt you,” Grey said.
Dana’s arm started trembling, and Grey again searched for help. Why wasn’t someone here by now?
“Where is she?” Dana tried again.
She knew Dana was talking about her mother, Mazdaar General Evangeline Yurkutz, but Grey would not answer that question. It wasn’t the right time, and she was more convinced than ever she shouldn’t have come here. She did not want to be the one to tell Dana what happened after she had been shot with that laser.
“You’re going to get better,” Grey said, hoping it wasn’t another lie.
The young woman’s bloodshot eyes met Grey’s. There was clear recognition. A medic appeared before Grey had to lie again, and she edged from the cubicle. Dana needed medical attention, not disturbing news.
No one seemed to notice her leave. Out in the corridor Grey leaned against the wall and stared up at the cylindrical ceiling, suddenly yearning for her old home in the North American Wildlife Preserve. She’d only have to climb up to the top of the bluff where she could see for miles. Sandstone boulders, herds of zebra and elephant, scrub brush and sage blanketed the desert floor. On the bluff she’d breathe in the dry air and feel the wind rustle her sandy hair and know that everything her eye could see would be there in the morning.
But here on Jupiter she didn’t even know the names of the weird, twisty trees with the translucent yellow leaves. Or why the animals, many of them extinct on Earth, would often show up in hoards after the Jupiter winds, a phenomenon no one could explain.
“Specialist Alexander.”
Grey startled at the robot drone’s voice by her elbow. How had she not heard it approach? She turned to face the machine—she would never think of them as anything else—and forced herself to address the drone. The bioskin covering its metallic face looked as real as hers, but its dilated pupils were dead giveaway number one that this thing wasn’t anything close to the female human it was meant to resemble. Its long black hair flowed down a uniform of the same color, and the golden rising sun emblem of the Yien Dynasty was stitched to its shoulder.
“What is it?” Grey said.
“I am to take you to Commander March.”
“Why?”
“I was not informed.” The drone waved down the corridor. “Please follow me.”
Grey let out a sigh, hoping she wasn’t about to be reprimanded.
The drone led her up five levels to a ready room near the bridge. The outline of a door materialized in the wall, and the drone pointed for Grey to enter. This vessel was a Yien battleship that was currently berthed at Orion Settlement on the planet Jupiter, and its size still boggled her mind.
“Commander March is waiting for you,” the drone said.
Grey stepped inside, preparing an excuse for why she’d visited Dana unauthorized. Commander Fleur March stood in the middle of a room furnished with two couches, a long polymer table with at least ten chairs, and a food bar. She held a chipped teacup and saucer, and a holographic map hovered in front of her with dozens of screens open.
Grey had to remember to call the woman Commander to her face
even though she’d been her neighbor for years back on Earth. Mrs. March had lived over eighty years in a world dominated by the iron hand of Mazdaar. She was a survivor and had taught Grey and her younger sister Rin to be the same.
For a moment the snowy-haired officer didn’t acknowledge Grey as her eyes were fixated on the hologram. She wore a Yien uniform like the drone’s, but it somehow seemed sharper on her wiry frame.
Grey cleared her throat. She’d been told to salute her superiors, but back on Earth she probably would’ve given this woman a hug.
“Be at ease, dear.” Mrs. March walked through the hologram, and Grey caught a whiff of what could only be the sweet cactus tea the old woman had loved from the Preserve.
Mrs. March held up the cup. “Like some?”
Grey smiled, waving the beverage away. Mrs. March had served it to her each time she used to visit in the Preserve, but she’d never been able tell her she hated the stuff when her host offered her favorite delicacy so generously.
“You wanted to see me?”
“There’s not much time, so I will be brief.” Mrs. March’s normally erect shoulders seemed to droop slightly, and Grey wondered if she’d slept at all since arriving on the planet three days ago.
Grey nodded her understanding. War was coming. Everyone knew it, but no one was sure how bad it would be. Mazdaar was ruthless, and they’d fight with everything they had to claim Jupiter like they had Earth. Mazdaar’s fleet was estimated to arrive by tomorrow, and they were all praying the Yien reinforcements got there in time to defend the forces they already had on Jupiter.
“Jet Yien has ordered us to evacuate all civilians from the area by nightfall.”
The statement hung in the air like the hologram. Jet Yien was the emperor’s son and had come with the first wave of Yien soldiers. She hadn’t seen him since he’d commissioned her two days ago.
“But I enlisted.”
“And haven’t been sworn in yet. I’ve tried reasoning with him and my colleagues.” Mrs. March set down her cup. “They feel you’re too young. And with no training and no time to receive any, they won’t allow you or your sister to stay here. Mazdaar will target us, and your best chance is to evacuate with the others to a location they won’t suspect.”
A dread filled Grey. “What about Mom and Dad?”
“I won’t separate your family again.”
Grey tried to come up with a reason why Yien should keep her around when a battle was expected, but she knew they were right. She might know how to sneak under a border fence and smuggle contraband to wealthy elites in the Alamo Republic, and she might be able to keep her sister alive in the wilderness of the Preserve, but she didn’t know the first thing about war.
“I don’t want to leave you, Mrs. March.”
“We’ll meet again when it’s all over.”
The words were easy to say, but Grey knew Mrs. March couldn’t be sure she would survive the coming conflict. Without taking time to question protocol Grey gave the slender commander an embrace she hoped wasn’t their last.
Mrs. March returned the hug harder than she expected, then pulled away. “I want your family to escort a cargo ship of civilians away from the battle zone. We’ve set a rendezvous point over seven hundred kilometers away. Our intelligence is fragmented, but we believe this is where your mother’s people have gone.”
Five years ago her parents had crash-landed on Jupiter’s surface during a rescue mission. Captain Sue Alexander had eventually become the leader of a small band of ex-Mazdaar prisoners who’d been abandoned on the planet.
“What makes you think they’ll want to help?” Grey had met some of the hardened men and women her mother had led, and they hadn’t exactly given an outsider a warm welcome.
“We can’t predict with certainty, but your mother believes they will.”
Commander March flipped off the hologram and stood facing Grey. For a moment it felt like they were back in the Preserve, and it was just Grey and her zany neighbor discussing a smuggling run. She hadn’t realized then how much Mrs. March had looked out for them while their parents were missing. And even now she was taking the time to speak with her privately when much more important problems no doubt demanded her attention.
“Dana is awake,” Grey said softly.
By the way Mrs. March’s eyes widened, Grey knew the information hadn’t yet reached the commander.
“I should’ve gotten permission to go see her,” Grey said.
“Is she all right?”
“She was asking about her mother.”
“Did you tell her?”
Grey shook her head.
“I wish I knew what made her change.”
“She betrayed us pure and simple,” Grey said.
“But you didn’t know her before. She had so much potential.” Mrs. March picked up the holographic projector and placed it in her pocket. “I didn’t see this coming, but I should have.”
“What’s going to happen to her?”
“It hasn’t been determined.” Mrs. March guided Grey to the door. “I apologize, but I must head down there.”
Grey sent the commander a salute. She needed to find her sister anyway.
A smile touched Mrs. March’s lips as they parted ways. “Be brave and courageous, dear. No matter what comes.”
Chapter 2
Dana Yurkutz opened her eyes again and knew she was going to die.
“She’s awake, sir.”
Voices floated around her. She tried to move her arms, but they felt tied down. Her legs too. Even if she hadn’t seen Grey Alexander, she knew where she was—in the hands of the enemy. Her one sacrificial act could not make up for what she’d done to these people, and her pulse slammed through her veins as she imagined what they’d do to her. She knew Mazdaar would show no mercy to a traitor. For all their talk of fighting for freedom and the rights of individuals, would Yien be any different?
Dana blinked, trying to bring the room into focus.
Three men hovered over her. She thought she recognized the African with white hair in physician’s garb. The others wore the navy blue of a Yien MP.
“How are you feeling, Dana?”
She swallowed against the grit coating her throat. “You’re the doctor.”
He laid a small silver disc on her chest to assess her vitals, and Dana slowly took inventory of her body. She flexed her fingers then tried moving her arms again. They responded.
“You’ve been in a coma,” the man said.
Dr. Henry Lenoir. That was his name. The last time she’d seen him he’d been in a prison cell, and she held the key.
“But most of your injuries are healing,” Dr. Lenoir added.
Closing her eyes, Dana evaluated herself again. She felt little pain. They might have her jacked up with drugs, but her mind was clearing. She’d been shot—that much she remembered well. Dana pressed her hand to her belly where the violetflare laser had entered. The bandage, soft to her fingertips, covered an entry wound.
“Where is my mother?”
“I do not know,” Dr. Lenoir answered. He removed the disc from her chest, pocketing it in his green coat.
“The commander wants to interrogate her,” the MP said. “Is she stable enough?”
Interrogate? Dana tried to push herself up to a sitting position but ended up falling back onto the pillow, a strange dizziness pressing in on her. They most definitely had drugged her.
“Her vitals are within normal limits,” Dr. Lenoir said.
The guard glanced down at Dana with a grin that seemed too wide. “Good. I’ll tell her.” He backed away from the bed and said something she couldn’t hear to his companion.
“When can I get out of here?” Dana asked, as if she was just a normal patient waiting to go home.
Dr. Lenoir crossed his arms. “Your injuries were extensive.”
“Which means?”
“Please move your legs for me.”
She told herself to do it in her head, but her l
egs were as sluggish as her thoughts. Dana slowly hiked up on her elbow and stared down at what looked like two logs. She could feel the soft fabric against her skin, but as hard as she tried to bend her knee, there was only a flutter of movement in her foot.
“What’s wrong with me?”
Dr. Lenoir’s expression remained passive, but his blue eyes bore into hers in a way that made her wish she could sink into the floor. His oath would require him to treat her, but she knew he probably wished her dead as much as anyone else on this ship.
Tapping at a panel on the arm of her bed, Dr. Lenoir brought up her medical chart then swiped at the air as a scan of a human body hovered between them. He zoomed in.
“The laser entered here.” Dr. Lenoir pointed at the abdominal area. “It hit your liver and lower lung. We repaired those.” He brought the image in closer. “But it also grazed your spinal column.”
Dana stared at the hologram. She couldn’t see any damage, but Dr. Lenoir obviously did.
“How bad?”
“You have some movement, so that’s a good sign.” He snapped his fingers, and the hologram instantly disappeared. “Only time will tell if your body will continue the healing process. I have fused two vertebrae to eliminate further damage, but I can do nothing more.”
It felt like the cubicle was shrinking. “Will I be able to walk?”
“Perhaps.”
“There’s the chance I won’t?”
“Time. That’s the only remedy we have.”
She wanted to grab his arm and demand a second opinion. It was the twenty-second century! Mazdaar could practically build a human from scratch, and this man couldn’t ensure she would ever walk again?
But Dr. Lenoir was already leaving. “She needs rest,” he said to the guard.
Dana gritted her teeth, determined not to show weakness in front of this man or anyone. She was the daughter of a Mazdaar general. She was destined for greatness. But when Dr. Lenoir disappeared, Dana’s defiant smirk did too.
Chapter 3
Grey knew she’d find her sister outside with the animals. She jogged through the battleship until she arrived at Cargo Hold 1. Somehow Rin had managed to talk Mrs. March into allowing her to bring their two zorses Tram and Trif to Jupiter, and the crew had put her in charge of feeding not only them but the two Belgian tigers one of the officers had brought along for security.
