Pursuit

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  Pursuit

  Val St. Crowe

  PURSUIT

  © copyright 2018 by Val St. Crowe

  http://vjchambers.com

  Punk Rawk Books

  CHAPTER ONE

  “What’s that beeping?” Captain Gunner Jisse vaulted over the top of the ladder into the cockpit of his ship, the Star Swallow. “That what I think it is?” There were numerous different beeps and bips the ship had been programmed to emit, signaling various dangers, and he couldn’t keep them all straight. But he was pretty sure this was the enemy-craft beep.

  Pippa Grovve looked over her shoulder from the control panel, one hand still on the stick that she used to maneuver the ship when she needed to. She was the pilot, a kid in her early twenties. If she wasn’t so brilliant, he wouldn’t have her on the crew at her age. Gunner tended to take dangerous jobs, and young things like Pippa didn’t need messed up in that. However, there wasn’t a better pilot this side of the galaxy, and so Pippa stayed on. She grinned at him. “It’s a leon. Out on the edge of our sensors, though. They haven’t spotted us.”

  Alien ship, then. Not good. Gunner peered over Pippa’s shoulder at the array of instruments and readings on the control panel. He was a fair pilot himself, although he hadn’t flown a ship this size since the war. He noted the course Pippa had set. They were headed for Boshire, the spaceport on the planet Ceymia 4.

  “I’ll lose ‘em, no problem,” said Pippa. The beeping stopped as she switched it off.

  “And if they chase us?” said Gunner.

  Pippa scrunched up her nose. “Eh, that might be bad.”

  “Yeah,” said Gunner. They could end up leading the Xerkabah, the aliens who had the whole galaxy under their thumbs—well, when they had thumbs, anyway, considering they shifted shapes when it suited them—right to the spaceport.

  Humans weren’t supposed to go into space anymore. They weren’t supposed fly ships. They weren’t supposed to leave the two planets of the Ceymia system. If the aliens discovered that humans were breaking these rules, they tended to destroy first and ask questions later. So, the Xerkabah could not be allowed to catch them.

  “Best play dead,” Gunner said. “Hope they mistake us for space trash.” There were lots of ships floating around in space these days, especially in the orbits of planets like Ceymia 4, where a fair amount of battles had been fought during the war. If they were lucky, they’d fade into the rest of the debris and be practically invisible.

  “Yes, sir,” said Pippa. She buzzed down to the engine bay. “Breccan? We’re going dark. Leon on the horizon.”

  “Copy that,” replied the ship’s engineer.

  “On my mark,” said Pippa, flipping switches and adjusting readings on the control panel. “Three, two, one. Mark.”

  There was a lurch and then everything in the ship switched off except the onboard life support systems. It was suddenly dark, frightfully dark. Gunner sometimes forgot how dark space was. He peered out the forward window into the inky blackness ahead of them. Couldn’t see the Xerkabah ship from this angle. It was out there, though, too close for comfort.

  A yelp from the depths of the ship. “Little warning, captain?” called the voice of his communications specialist from below.

  “Sorry, Saffron,” he called back.

  Saffron Primo, wife of Breccan the engineer, climbed up the ladder into the cockpit. “We got trouble?”

  “Hopefully not,” said Gunner. “Leon ship out there. We’re waiting here and hoping it passes us by.”

  Saffron sat herself down next to Pippa, pulling up a screen and squinting at it as her fingers danced over it.

  “They probing us?” said Gunner.

  “Not so far,” said Saffron.

  He waited. It was quiet. It was dark. Out the window, he could see small pinpricks, the light of faraway stars.

  Once, in the war, he’d looked out at that empty vastness from the observation deck of a leon ship just like the one that hovered out of sight.

  The stars had been visible through the docking bay, wide open to space, where a group of human prisoners clung to each other for their last seconds of their lives.

  He and another group of prisoners of war were forced to watch as the others died. Their bodies swelled from the lack of atmospheric pressure—their eyes bulged and their tongues protruded, purple and swollen.

  When they were all dead, the Xerkabah went out in space suits to kick the bodies out into the blackness and close the docking bay again.

  Gunner had escaped or he would have been subjected to the same fate the following day.

  But he never forgot the way the aliens tossed the dead aside like garbage. If he ever needed a reminder of how little the Xerkabah valued human life, that was all he needed to think about.

  Saffron made a noise.

  Gunner started. His heart picked up speed. She’d startled him. Or maybe it was the memory of being held captive by the Xerkabah, not knowing if he’d make it from one moment to the next, terrified that they’d discard him as easily as they did his fellow prisoners. He moved close to Saffron. “Probe?” For some reason, he was whispering.

  “No,” said Saffron, also whispering. “But they’re moving. They’re heading straight for us.”

  And now Gunner could see the ship through the window. It was a tiny dot in the distance, but it was moving rapidly, coming closer and closer.

  They all stared at it, mesmerized and still.

  “Captain,” breathed Pippa. “Let’s run now.”

  “No.”

  “They see us,” said Pippa.

  He shook his head, gazing at the approaching ship. With every moment, it grew more massive as it came closer and closer. The leon ship was quite a sight to behold, a large silver oval with huge plascannons jutting out against its smooth surface. It slid through space, sleek and deadly.

  This one was coming right for them.

  “Captain.” Pippa’s voice was a squeak.

  He gripped her shoulder. “They don’t see us. Or if they do, they don’t notice us. We’re not important. No probe, right, Saffron?”

  “Right,” she murmured.

  “Stay put,” said Gunner, although part of him wanted to tell her to run. Part of him wanted to get his ship as far away from that monstrous thing now, before it blew them out of the sky, before it ended them.

  His heart thumped.

  Pippa let out a tiny, high-pitched noise.

  The ship was practically on top of them now. It rush
ed at them, and the whole window was full of nothing but the hull of the leon.

  Gunner flinched, in spite of himself.

  Pippa threw up an arm over her face, as if to ward it off.

  And then it was gone, rushing past them as if they weren’t there, as if they didn’t matter, as if they were nothing.

  Gunner let out a shaky breath.

  “Close one,” said Saffron.

  Pippa shuddered. “Too close.”

  * * *

  “It’s today, isn’t it?” said Zephyr Toril when Eve Harlowe appeared in the doorway to her sleeping cell.

  “It’s today,” said Eve.

  Eve and Zephyr had spent their whole lives in the Cloister, a labyrinthine underground structure where a group of humans stayed clear of both the Xerkabah and everyone else. Those in the Cloister hadn’t gotten involved in the war. They’d known how it was going to turn out, after all. No point.

  They stayed in the Cloister because they knew it was safe.

  Every once in a while, someone got an idea to go out into the world. Nine times out of ten, right on the heels of the idea was a slew of visions, the consequences of the action, which were usually utter annihilation of the Cloister and sometimes of the human race.

  But now and again, the tenth time happened, and the visions said it was safe to go, even necessary to go.

  Take Eve, for instance.

  She’d been slated to leave the Cloister as far back as she could remember. She’d had visions of the day, all the leaders’d had visions of the day. It was unanimous.

  Eve had to leave. That was her destiny. That was her fate. That was the way that she would save the human race from the Xerkabah.

  No pressure or anything.

  Eve peered in at her friend. The cells were all the same. Tiny spaces only containing nothing more than a small cot. The members of the Cloister lived simple lives. They didn’t need distractions. They needed to stay in touch with their visions. “I came to say goodbye.”

  “Oh, Eve.” Zephyr rushed over and gathered her friend into a hug.

  Eve thought she might start crying. “I should have come by earlier. I wanted to. It was only that it seems so surreal, and I can’t quite get my head around it.”

  Zephyr held on tight. “I should have come to you. I knew it was happening.”

  They embraced for several long moments. But then they let go, both wiping at their eyes.

  “I’m going to miss you,” said Eve.

  “Maybe it won’t be all bad,” said Zephyr. “Just think. You get to leave. You get to see the sun. You get to go into space. It’s an adventure.”

  Eve nodded. Right. An adventure that led one place. To her getting knocked up and bringing the savior of the human race into the world.

  “You’re important,” said Zephyr.

  “I’m a glorified brood mare,” Eve said. She didn’t really know what a brood mare was. They had books here in the Cloister and some of them were old. She’d read about horses, but she’d never seen one.

  “No,” said Zephyr. “Don’t say things like that.”

  Footsteps at the end of the corridor.

  Eve turned to look and saw Brother Lorcan coming down the narrow passageway. “Sister Eve?” he called.

  Eve bit down on her lip. She turned back to Zephyr. “What if I don’t want this? What if I don’t want any of this?”

  Zephyr’s eyes widened. “Don’t be an idiot.”

  “What if I’d rather just stay here and—”

  “I’d trade places with you in a heartbeat if I could.” There was something in Zephyr’s eyes that had always been there, but Eve had never seen it before. Envy.

  Eve took a step back.

  “Sister Eve,” said Brother Lorcan. “It’s time.”

  Eve swallowed. She gave Zephyr a sympathetic look. “I’d bring you along if I could. You have to know that.”

  Zephyr nodded.

  Brother Lorcan stopped next to Eve.

  She turned to him.

  “It’s time,” he said again.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Eve and Brother Lorcan had to go through the city to get to the spaceport. The city was where the bulk of the humans lived on Ceymia 4. It was where all of the humans were supposed to live. There was a similar city on Ceymia 1 for the rest of what remained of the human race. As far as the Xerkabah knew, that was where all the humans were.

  They didn’t know that there were hidden outposts and small settlements all over the planet and on various other planets in the galaxy. If the Xerkabah found those people, they killed them.

  Eve had never been in the city before, and she’d never seen visions of it either. Visions of the spaceport, yes, because she knew it was her future to go there and leave the planet. Visions of the ship she left on, yes. Visions of other planets, too, and visions of space battles and lots of other things. But she’d never seen the city.

  Eve stared with interest out the back window of the hexacraft that Brother Lorcan was driving.

  There were a lot of buildings in the city. Tall, tall buildings. Nearly three-fourths of them had been damaged in some way. They were missing glass from the windows or half the sides were caved in. Most of the damage had been done during the war, Eve guessed. But the ruined buildings were full of people. There were people everywhere—small children running through the streets in ripped and dirty clothing, yelling at the top of their lungs; women with red faces running after the children, screaming for them to come inside; young men leaning against the buildings, smoking hand-rolled cigarettes. The city was crowded and dirty and depressing. It was a ghetto where the humans were herded together and left to die.

  Eve knew that there was a shortage of food. The Xerkabah did not always provide the promised foodstuff rations they promised, not that any one enjoyed the tasteless bars of nutrients. Growing food was difficult due to lack of land and resources. What food that was grown was often stolen. There was a lot of stealing and violence in the city.

  All in all, Eve was glad to get through the place and get to the spaceport.

  The spaceport looked abandoned from outside, but that was by design. Before the war, it had been a bustling place of business and trade. There was a still a vast, multi-level garage that stretched out next to the main building. It was three levels high.

  Brother Lorcan took the hexacraft to the far corner of the garage and powered down the vehicle in the shadows. He tuned the onboard radio to the Resistance station and waited.

  The radio crackled. “We’re at five minutes to go time, ladies and gentlemen. Wait for it.”

  Brother Lorcan turned so that he was leaning over the front seat to see her. “We’ll wait here for the signal.”

  “Of course,” said Eve. The signal was given twice daily during the changing of the Xerkabah guards. During that time, there was about fifteen minutes in which humans could get in and out of the spaceport, because the Xerkabah weren’t looking at their scanners. All the ships that wanted to land or take off had to move at that time. To do so otherwise was to risk detection.

  “Are you all right?” said Brother Lorcan.

  She wasn’t, not really. She was terrified. She’d known since she was about ten years old that this was her destiny when she’d begun having a series of confusing visions. Young children at the Cloister were meant to report their visions to those in charge, but Eve had kept them to herself, because they were embarrassing and confusing.

  The one about the spaceport, about meeting the captain and getting onboard his ship, that one was okay. The other one, where her hands were wrinkled and the man with eyes that looked like hers was showing her the defeated fleet of the Xerkabah, that one was okay too. But in the middle, there were others that she didn’t know how to talk about.

  Why was the captain of the ship not wearing any clothes and what was he doing to her? Why was his face so close? Why wasn’t she wearing any clothes either? What did any of that mean?

  It was only a few years later, when
others began having visions of her future that it all became clear to her.

  The visions were limited in some ways. One couldn’t control when a vision came or what vision one had, and one could only see one’s own future. The visions were limited to two senses—sight and sound. There was no smell or sensation.

  In truth, she’d never told anyone about the visions of her future self having sex with the captain of the ship. (She understood what it meant, now that she was older.) She’d never explained that he was the father of her future child. And it didn’t matter that she hadn’t.

  Brother Lorcan had visions of taking her to the spaceport, setting up passage for her on a ship out of system. Others had visions of her returning some years later, with a small boy in tow—her son—and leaving him at the Cloister. Others still had visions of her son grown up, organizing an army of humans to fight against the Xerkabah. Some of the same people and also some others had visions of the eventual victory.

  It all began with Eve leaving the Cloister and taking passage on the ship. That was the first step to their eventual freedom.

  So, no one asked if Eve wanted to leave the Cloister or if she wanted to become a mother or if she wanted to have sex with the captain of the ship. It wasn’t relevant. She wanted free of the Xerkabah, so she must want this. And besides, it was for the good of the human race. She had to do it. It was destiny.

  Eve tried to smile at Brother Lorcan. “I’m fine.”

  “Good,” said Brother Lorcan. “I know this must be frightening for you, but you must realize this is fate. You are on the proper path, and this is the beginning of something bigger than both of us. Something very important, and very exciting.”

  “Yes,” said Eve, feeling scolded. Of course, she should focus on what was important instead of what she was feeling.

  “What you do today puts a series of events in motion that will end the tyrannical grip of the Xerkabah on the human race. This is history, Eve.”

  Right. She knew that. And it wasn’t as if she enjoyed living life under the heels of the Xerkabah. If she had a part to play in order to free her people, she would play it. And she would do her best not to allow things like fear and confusion to enter her thoughts. She couldn’t afford that now. She had to move forward.