Aurora Falling (Aurora Fleet Book 1) Read online

  AURORA FALLING

  Book one of the Aurora Fleet Series

  Finn Gray

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Aurora Falling (Aurora Fleet, #1)

  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

  About the Author

  A century ago, the Memnon War ripped the Aurora System apart.

  Defeated, the Memnons set off in search of a new home planet.

  They have returned.

  A young space marine trying to escape his past.

  A reckless pilot with a dangerous secret.

  A veteran commander ready to surrender his wings.

  An imperial princess without a purpose.

  Will they survive when Aurora falls?

  Battlestar Galactica meets Starship Troopers in this thrilling, epic space opera adventure!

  Aurora Falling

  Copyright 2017 by Finn Gray

  Published 2017 by GrayFinn

  All rights reserved

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons and places is entirely coincidental.

  Chapter 1

  Research Vessel Nomad

  Somewhere beyond the Aurora System

  First officer Naida Corwin’s eyes snapped open. Blinded by the sudden light and dizzy from hibersleep, she squeezed her eyes closed and sucked in slow, deep breaths. This was her first hibersleep. She felt like crap. All around her, she heard the sounds of her crewmates stirring.

  “Damn, has it been two cycles already?” Nolan Croyle grumbled. “My program didn’t complete. Somebody screwed up.”

  “Quit your bitching,” Mely Lezal groaned. “And not so loud. I’m not a morning person.”

  Naida couldn’t disagree. The heaviest sleep, the worst hangover, couldn’t begin to compare with what she was feeling right now. She felt as if her bones had turned to lead, her blood wet cement. Do I really have to get up? Of course she did. This was her first ever mission as lead officer. She didn’t need them to think of her as a laggard.

  With a supreme force of will she ran her finger along the cold, smooth the canopy of her hibersleep chamber, flicked the switch to open it, and sat up, eyes still firmly shut. A wave of vertigo hit her hard, but it passed surprisingly quickly. In fact, she was already beginning to feel normal. There was a disgusting taste in her mouth, and the air that flowed in from outside the chamber was stale. Finally, almost regretfully, she opened her eyes.

  The dim glow of the footlights that lined the corridor running down the center of the sleep cabin seemed bright as day after her deep sleep. It was all so strange, waking up from the programmed dream she’s selected for her journey. Moments before, she’d been walking on the beach at Spinner’s Bay, bathed in moonlight. She could still feel sand soft beneath her bare feet and the wind in her hair, hear the whisper of the waves, feel her hand in Zion’s. And now she was back in the real world.

  “I don’t even feel like myself,” Mely grumbled. “Hey, boss, do I look like me?” She turned toward Naida, a speculative look in her eyes.

  “You’re still pale, blonde, and have that look on your face like you just smelled something foul,” Naida said.

  “And you’re still a bi...big grouch,” Nolan said, correcting himself on the fly.

  “At least hibersleep didn’t change me.” Naida held up her hands in front of her face. The same smooth, dark brown skin. The same scar on her palm from a lab accident. She ran a hand across her scalp. Only a bit of stubble had grown there. She wondered what the state of her legs and armpits might be. She felt sticky. A long, hot shower was in order.

  Nolan clambered out of his chamber, stretched, and farted luxuriously. “That’s the ticket.”

  “Oh, for the gods’ sakes.” Mely fanned the air. “Even for a man, you are disgusting.”

  “Been saving that up since we left Hyperion.” Nolan began doing squats, his pale skin glowing in the dim light. “You awake over there, Summers?”

  Jay Summers, the final member of their crew, stood in the corner, pulling coveralls on over his rail-thin body. His receding hairline and prominent bald patch made him look much older than his twenty-nine cycles.

  “I’m awake,” he said, softly.

  “Still lost in your dream?” Mely asked. “Which one did you choose?”

  Summers shrugged. “Nothing special.”

  “You picked one from the mature section, didn’t you?” Nolan accused. “You know it doesn’t count, right? You’re still a virgin in the real world.”

  Summers’ cheeks reddened and he managed only a tight smile before turning away.

  “Leave him alone.” Mely turned to Naida. “How about you, boss? What was your dream?”

  “Tropical vacation. Me and Zion.”

  Mely stared at Naida from beneath hooded lids. “Seriously? You get to pick any dream in the world and you choose one with your husband?”

  Naida laughed. “I happen to like my husband, okay? And it’s not as if we could ever afford to visit an island resort back home.”

  “I chose the island, too. But I did not take Billy along.” Mely slid out of her chamber, not seeming to care how her tight skivvies clung to her figure.

  “You took me, didn’t you?” Nolan said.

  “Hardly. I took one guy and one girl and that’s all I’m going to say.”

  “Damn, I should have done your dream. I mean, the two girls part,” Nolan added quickly.

  “Sure, that’s what you meant.” Naida paused, frowning. Her dream had ended in the middle of a walk on the beach. That wasn’t right. The program was to have been set so that she and Zion would return home just before she woke. “Nolan, did you say your dream ended early?”

  “Totally. I was in the middle of the Memnon War, blowing shit up, and then, boom. Wide awake.” The big man spread his fingers in confusion.

  “That’s what you picked?” Mely asked. “To be a soldier in the worst civil war in history?”

  “Hells, yes. Killing Memnons, accepting the thanks of the local girls.” Nolan dropped to the floor and began doing pushups. “It’s the most action a scientist like me is ever going to get. Unless things on ARC-11 are a lot different than what we expect.”

  They’d been assigned to travel to a potentially habitable planet recently identified far from their home system. Their orders were to study from afar, and collect data and samples. If it appeared safe, they could make a landing at Naida’s discretion.

  “If ARC-11 shows signs of sentient life, we’re hopping back into our chambers and heading back to the Aurora system.” Naida spoke automatically. Her thoughts were fixed on the oddity of two dreams failing at once. “What about you two?” she said to Summers and Mely. “Did your dreams run to completion?”

  Mely scratched her head. “Now that you mention it, I don’t think so. I had fallen asleep on the beach, but that’s
not how it’s supposed to end, is it?” She turned to Summers. “What about you?”

  Summers shook his head. “I didn’t finish.”

  “Story of your life,” Nolan grunted as he heaved his bulk up from the floor.

  Naida’s heart raced. What if something had gone wrong? Her head now clear, she remembered her biowatch. It had been there on her wrist the whole time, but the remnants of hibersleep had clouded her mind, made her forget.

  She tapped it. Up came her vitals. All looked good. Another tap. The date and time. Her stomach lurched.

  “Oh, gods!”

  “What’s wrong?” Mely asked.

  “We shouldn’t be awake yet.”

  “For the first time, a flash of intelligence shone in Nolan’s eyes. “You mean, we’re not closing in on ARC-11?”

  “We’re not even halfway there.”

  Heart racing, Naida climbed out her chamber, pulled on her coveralls, socks, and shoes, and moved to the door. Summers stood there, waiting for her.

  “What could have caused us to stop?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. Could be a malfunction in one of a hundred systems, a manual override from home, or something interfered with our trajectory.” She tapped her code into the panel by the door and waited for the retinal scanner to identify her. Seconds later, the door slid to the side, opening onto the hallway that led to the bridge.

  “But Nomad has redundant systems to guard against such eventualities, and she’s programmed to adjust to obstacles,” Summers said, following along behind her.

  “I know,” Naida said. “Let’s just hope it’s nothing major.”

  They reached the bridge to find that it had come to life on its own. All the lights were on, as were the displays and manual controls. Directly in front of them, a large, high-res screen provided a virtual window to the outside.

  “We’re in the middle of nowhere,” Summers said. “I don’t see anything.”

  “Check everything. See if we can figure out why we’ve stopped.” Naida moved to the commander’s seat and consulted the readouts on her screen.

  Nolan and Mely hurried in and took their assigned places—Mely at the helm, Nolan at the comm. Summers sat down nearby and began checking sensory readouts.

  “Large object ahead,” Summers said. “Several large objects and lots of small ones. And they’re moving.”

  “That’s why auto-nav shut down,” Naida said. “Any idea what they are? An asteroid field?”

  “Um, I think I see the problem.” Nolan pointed at the screen.

  In the upper left corner, growing larger second by second, was a massive spaceship. It’s huge, wedge-shaped nose gave way to a thinner, rectangular body.

  “It looks like a pioneer ship. One of the really old ones,” Summers said.

  “It does in terms of overall shape,” Naida agreed, “but this thing is much bigger.”

  “Maybe they’re from ARC-11?” Nolan asked.

  “That would be quite a coincidence this far out,” Naida said.

  “Six hundred meters long according to the readouts,” Summers said, mesmerized by the data on his screen. “One hundred meters wide at its narrowest point. And we’re getting hits on several objects of similar size. Probably more of the same.”

  “The old pioneer ships didn’t have gun ports like those,” Nolan pointed at the screen. “It’s like the bastard child of a pioneer and a dreadnought.”

  “Are you saying it’s a ship of war that’s also equipped for generational interstellar travel?” Naida asked.

  “I ain’t saying nothing. Just that’s what it looks like.” Nolan’s voice trembled as he spoke.

  Naida bit her lip. She was a scientist. This sort of situation was far above her pay grade. What ought a scientist do when encountering potentially new intelligent beings? “Try hailing the lead ship. Standard greeting, all frequencies. Let them know we mean them no harm.”

  “Aye, aye.” Nolan tapped on his console. “Message away.”

  They waited for ten nausea-inducing seconds, and then Summers cleared his throat. “They’re scanning us.”

  “No reply to our message?” Naida asked.

  Nolan shook his head.

  “Mely, switch to manual control.”

  The pilot turned her head. “You think we can outrun that thing?”

  “I think trying might be our only option.” Naida felt a cold certainty in her gut. Whoever manned those ships had no interest in establishing communications, much less in making friends.

  “Something’s happening,” Summers said. “Their radiation signal just went off the charts.”

  “Mely, get us out of here!” Naida was thrown sideways as Mely hit the starboard thrusters and turned the craft about.

  “Split screen!” Naida ordered. An instant later, the visual display divided. The top showing what lay ahead of them, the bottom, the massive ship bearing down on their six.

  A dull, green glow emanated from a deep well beneath the bow of the huge craft. All eyes were on the strange sight as Mely guided Nomad away as fast as her engines would carry her.

  The light shone brighter, growing in intensity until Naida could barely stand to look at it. But she kept her eyes locked on the screen.

  “What the hells is that thing?” Nolan shouted.

  Even if Naida had known the answer, she had no time to formulate a reply. She was too busy screaming as a blinding flash filled their screen.

  Chapter 2

  Camp Maddux

  Hyperion

  Marshland stretched as far as the eye could see. The breeze rippled the seagrass and rustled the palm trees as it swept across the horizon. The late afternoon sun painted golden streaks upon the water. At the edge of the shore, a pelican turned angry eyes on the Maglev as it zipped by, an intruder in its wilderness home.

  Rory Waring smiled. Caren had loved birds. His heart sank at the thought of his sister and he turned away from the window. That was what he had come here to get away from.

  “Desolate, ain’t it?” His seatmate, a lanky black youth, said, misunderstanding the look on Rory’s face.

  “I suppose.” Rory realized his snippy reply made him across like an ass. The guy was only trying to be friendly, and Rory had been silent, lost in thought, since boarding the transport. “Rory Waring,” he said, offering his hand to shake.

  “Sid Crane, from New Soria. Where you from?”

  Rory hesitated before answering. “Koruza.”

  Sid’s face lit up. “No way. A farm boy? You gonna be right at home in the middle of all this.” He made a sweeping gesture that took in the vast expanse of marsh.

  Rory forced a smile. City people were always the same. No point starting a fight with the first guy he met. There’d be time enough for that once training began. “I don’t know,” he said. “Doesn’t look like corn to me.”

  “I’m just messing with you,” Sid said. “I love food, so I love farmers.” He rubbed his belly for emphasis. Considering the young man’s lean physique, Rory doubted Sid loved food as much as he claimed. That or he was one of those annoying people who burned it off as soon as he ate it.

  “Why do you think they put camp way out here in the middle of the swamp? It’s a pain in the ass to get to.” Rory turned back to the window and gazed once again at the marsh. Even with all the patches of green it was still more water than he’d ever seen in one place.

  “Why do you think? It’s in case you go worm on them.”

  Rory frowned. “Worm?”

  “Worm out. You know, give up and crawl away in the dirt like the pathetic little worm that you are. Not you, I mean,” Sid added. “You look like you can tough it out.”

  Rory made a small wave of dismissal to show he understood.

  “Some people don’t want to take the Walk of Dishonor, and they try to sneak away in the night. That means they’ve got to get through mud, water, quicksand, and all kinds of stinging plants. And then there’s the other stuff.”

  “Such as?�
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  Sid tilted his head slightly to one side. “No offense, but do they have academy out on the farm?”

  “Sure we do. I just didn’t want to assume I was an expert on this particular ecosystem. But if I had to guess, I figure you were about to tell me about the snakes and alligators.”

  Sid bobbed his head. “Damn right. And the damn bugs. The ones around here won’t kill you, but they’ll make you cry for your mama.”

  “If you wanted to leave, couldn’t you just run along the Maglev track?”

  Two rows in front of them, a pale, blond youth barked a laugh. He turned, locked eyes with Rory, and slowly shook his head in disbelief. “Farmers,” he mouthed before turning back around.

  Sid rolled his eyes and continued talking to Rory. “Invisible fences keep you away from the track. Plus, they got cameras so they can watch you piss yourself when you hit the fence. And believe you me, the instructors, they watch that stuff over and over.”

  “How do you know so much about it?” Rory asked.

  “Uncle was a marine. Did twenty cycles.” He said the last with a touch of pride in his voice.

  “Twenty? That’s a long damn time.” Rory wondered how long he’d remain in, that is, if he managed to complete basic.

  “He only left when he lost his second leg. They gave him cybers, but he figured he’d had enough at that point. Said he was afraid the injuries were working their way from the ground up, and the next thing he’d lose was something he didn’t think he could live without.”

  Rory laughed. “Can’t blame him for that one.” He paused. “Did he tell you anything about what we can expect?”

  “Nah. He made up some stupid ass stuff, trying to wind me up, but I could tell he was taking the piss. I think there’s some unwritten rule with the vets that they keep it a secret. Give the eggs more things to be afraid of.”

  “Eggs?”

  In the seat in front of them, a young woman whipped her head around to stare at them. Rory immediately noticed her long dark hair and big, brown eyes, but saw only scorn there.

  “Eggs,” she said. “Unhatched, fragile. Gods, some of you don’t know anything.”

  Rory supposed he ought to be embarrassed, but he was distracted by the girl’s beauty and her intensity.