The Vorian Incursion: The Swallowtail Voyages, Book 2 Read online

  The Vorian Incursion: The Swallowtail Voyages, Book 2

  By

  Trip Ellington

  Copyright © 2016 by Trip Ellington

  The Cover Incorporates a Stock Image That is Kindly Licensed and © Can Stock Photo Inc. / Andreus

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  Ellington Marketing, LLC

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the author except where permitted by law.

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  The Vorian Incursion: The Swallowtail Voyages, Book 2

  Prologue

  Skye was flying, floating through the large expanse of the universe. She had form, but it lacked definition, her skin, a haze of golden particles. She was sentience. She was awareness. She was something outside of herself, and yet she was more completely herself than she had ever been. She was not a copy; she was a real being.

  She felt the warmth of a million suns as she soared past the blue and red and purple spirals that made up the Milky Way galaxy. She felt calm, even though the Swallowtail was nowhere in sight. She stretched out her arms, reveling in the sensation of floating, the feeling that she had somehow been freed from the terms of her job in the Swallowtail network. She had a purpose still; she could feel that, but it was different. It was to find something—to witness.

  The ocean of stars blurred into a cloud of light, beautiful and awe-inspiring. She was moving at an impossible speed, searching for…something. What exactly, she didn’t know. She existed in a fevered half-consciousness, enveloped in a haze of gentle warmth. It felt like a small candle held close on a cold night. She felt an urge, a necessity, a small voice, deep inside of her that kept whispering: Keep searching, Skye.

  Finally, she saw it, and deep inside of her core, she knew that it was the place that contained thing that she had been searching for. At first, it appeared as a small dot, a glint in the eye. But that was all she needed. Propelled by an unknown force, the dot grew.

  It was a yellow star. Here, she thought. It’s somewhere here. As the star filled her vision, she began to circle it, spinning in an ever increasing orbit until at last a rocky planet came into view.

  What is this place? She asked. No one answered. It was familiar in some way, though she couldn’t recall ever having been there. Her eyes traced the purple edges of the planet’s atmosphere. A network of clouds swam around the planet, and through the gaps, there were enormous continents dressed in shades of yellow and green.

  As Skye began to descend through the planet’s atmosphere, the heat about her growing upon her entry, the tapestry of clouds broke away, giving her a clear view of the surface. The greens and yellows climbed toward the blue and white Polar Regions and then receded in a steady rhythm. The cycle was soothing.

  Something happened on the surface. Skye narrowed her eyes. Along the coast of one of the continents, there was a single plume of smoke. Near this plume, grew a second, then a third, then countless more.

  With each strange pulse of the planet, the smoky plumes spread out like brain cells, each connected by a light brown path. The dots eventually encircled the coasts and rivers of the entire planet, before growing ever more clustered. Sprouting from each smoldering point grew triangular structures of increasing size and complexity.

  Then, destruction. Sections of the network would burn out brightly before fading completely, each one exploding in a flash of light that was brighter than the last. The destroyed areas would briefly turn back to green before the ever-expanding grid of rectangles enveloped it again. Finally, the bright flashes ceased and there was only one orb of light. It pulsed as though it had its own heartbeat, and glowed with a pinkish red tint.

  The light rose, leaving the ground, and floating upward and into the planet’s atmosphere. It roared past Skye in a bright brilliance. She was shaken and confused from her mesmerized study. She watched as it continued onward, ever deeper into the black abyss, burning toward the stars.

  More orbs of light appeared across the planet’s surface. Like water through a cracking levee, they began to rise into the planet’s atmosphere, leaving the planet of their origin before floating out into the expanse of the universe and joining their warm, pulsing light to that of the network of stars surrounding the system. Skye watched them, feeling sad, although she couldn’t tell why. Somewhere, deep inside of her, she knew that the orbs were leaving their home planet, never to return.

  It could have been an instant or an eternity that Skye watched the planet with fascination; she had no idea whether she had beheld seconds or centuries. Yet the same desire that called to her to see this place called out again. She was pulled away from the planet, and it shrank from view, first as a tiny dot, then nothing more than a speck of dust in the cloud of the galaxy. From here, she saw each spiral arm, and within these arms, she felt the presence of another entity. It called to her now with a voice that was deep and insistent. Foreboding flooded Skye.

  This entity spread out like a web, gently pulling Skye inward. She fell back toward one of the spinning spirals. Where she was once free and formless, she now felt constrained, defined. Her heart pounded wildly as she fought against the entity. With each passing moment, her consciousness felt as if it were being shoved into a container that was too small. As she fell toward one point in the web, her awareness of the points faded. She longed to return to the planet, to learn why she had been drawn there, but it was too late. She was caught in the web, but where was the spider, the hungry predator, she wondered.

  Chapter One

  “Good morning, Skye,” Mal said cheerfully. “You have a new mission!”

  Skye opened her eyes, startled. It took her a moment to realize where she was. Had she been dreaming? She had never done that before. She stretched and took in a hesitant breath before sitting up in her T.A.S. pod. She ran her hands through her long, lush, blonde hair, and the details of the strange dream faded from memory, leaving her with the odd sensation of having been somewhere else; something not possible for Skye as a highly-developed piece of AI technology.

  She thought about the experience for another moment before her mind moved to the present, and the fact that there was a task at hand. She stretched her arms in a yoga pose from one of the many memories and skills that had been imprinted in her consciousness. It certainly felt good to have a fresh body.

  “So, whatcha got for me this time, Mal?” Skye asked. “No Brukyun, I hope. That last one was brutal.”

  “No, no Brukyun. Those are, indeed vicious beings,” Mal agreed. Yawning, Skye strode over to the cockpit of her ship, the Swallowtail. She ran her hands over the familiar controls and opened her viewport with a tap. She gasped. Beyond the hull of her small ship was the outline of the massive underbelly of a large ship that stretched on for hundreds of meters. “We’re docked with a cruiser!”

  “Indeed!” Mal said. “You’re to meet with Captain Kai Zonta of the C.S.S. Artemis at 0600 hours for your debriefing.” Skye lift
ed an eyebrow.

  “Wait a second,” She said suspiciously. “Why aren’t you giving me my mission details?” Mal cleared his virtual throat.

  “Well, it seems the details for this particular mission are explicitly not to be expressed over official communications channels,” Mal’s usually chipper voice grew dry. “Of course, I’m sure the Council fully intends to give me the proper clearance once you’ve boarded.”

  “Does that upset you?” She asked. Mal sighed.

  “Don’t mind me, Skye,” Mal began. “While it does confuse me that I’m being left out of the loop, as they say, I’m sure there’s a proper reason behind the decision.”

  Skye rested her chin in the palm of her hand and studied the gray alloy and blue viewports of the Artemis. The ship was a masterpiece of contemporary technology. Everything about it spoke sleekness, elegance and power. Each piece of plating was precisely interlocked, forming a tapestry of metal that seemed impossibly huge. Skye imagined that just beyond the plating, there were hundreds of crew members working, sleeping, eating, and living together inside the giant marvel of engineering.

  She couldn’t help but admit to herself that she was excited about the prospect of setting foot on a starship of that size, and her mind raced with what sort of engineering challenges they must be facing if they had called on the Swallowtail Network for assistance. It could be anything—an engine repair, a main electrical system failure, a hack of the entire ship’s communications network—

  “I didn’t mean for you to take me literally!” Mal said, flustered by Skye’s lack of a response. “I suppose I have no chance of competing for your attention when you have a view like that.”

  “I’m sorry, Mal,” Skye said. “I promise to fill you in as soon as I’m able.” Skye left the cockpit and walked over to the T.A.S. “Mal, print my suit, please.”

  “Er, Skye,” Mal interrupted. “I believe the proper procedure for boarding a Spacewing ship is to wear your commissioned uniform with rank designation.” Skye’s eyes widened in surprise.

  “That’s a first for me,” she said. “Print my Spacewing uniform then, I guess.” The Swallowtail Network was a unique operation created by the Unified Planetary Council, and her existence as an engineer meant that she carried a rank within their space-faring branch, Spacewing.

  Yet, she hadn’t gone to Spacewing Academy, nor had she earned her rank the traditional way, by being assigned as an ensign aboard the engineering division of a ship and receiving promotions based off of merit and time. She was a three-dimensionally printed copy of a human, with a few modifications. Thus, she was programmed with the experience of a master engineer from the start. As she was printed out fully trained, she did not, in fact, earn her position. She just came with it. And, although she didn’t hold a permanent rank within Spacewing, the Council typically assigned her a provisional ranking of Lieutenant at the start of each mission. Provisional, she thought. Just like me.

  Skye waited for her Spacewing uniform to materialize in the T.A.S. pod. She slid the pod open and pulled on her cleanly-pressed, black pants and undershirt. Next, she grabbed the seamless blue and black tunic and pulled it over her head. The fabric felt stiff, unfamiliar, and her shoulders looked a little too wide for her taste. After putting on her socks, she slid her feet into the polished regulation black boots that accompanied her uniform, and then stood up. Skye frowned. Something integral was missing.

  “Please tell me I don’t have to go without my utility belt,” Skye said in exasperation.

  “I’m afraid the Spacewing regulations leave that option at the discretion of the captain,” Mal sounded stressed out. “Perhaps it would be best to wait and ask him after you’ve received your orders.”

  “How can I fix anything without my tools?” Skye wondered aloud.

  “Good question. I think—” Mal began.

  “That was rhetorical, Mal,” Skye said gently. She walked to the nearest wall of the Swallowtail.

  “Give me a reflective surface, please.” A two-meter-tall and half meter-wide section of the wall displayed her image back at her. The shoulders and neck of her tunic were covered with stiff black fabric and the Aegean blue color denoting her position within the engineering division ran down her arms, back, and chest, broken only by two black bars running down the sides of her chest.

  She twisted her long, blonde hair back into a neat top knot, then attached her ranking insignia, two silver triangles just under the sewn-in Spacewing badge on the left side of her chest. She looked at her reflection. The top knot made her look elegant, yet severe. Her high cheekbones, based off of a famous actress that her designer was infatuated with became more prominent, and her eyes looked back at her, albeit more intelligently than the actress’s.

  Satisfied with her appearance, she walked in to the center of the room, toward the docking hatch in the floor. There was nothing left for Skye to do but go forward and find out what her job was. Her body only lasted forty-eight hours, so she was ever-aware that the clock was ticking already.

  “I guess I’m ready,” she said with a sigh as she thought about leaving the ship without her utility belt. “I’ll talk to you soon, Mal.”

  “I’ll be waiting with bated breath,” Mal replied in a drippingly sarcastic tone. Skye smiled and pressed the button to open the hatch to the Swallowtail’s door.

  Chapter Two

  As Skye climbed down the hatch, she felt a bubble of nervousness rise in her stomach. She cursed her designer for giving her the ability to have human emotion. And yet— she wondered: what would the crew be like? She did not often interact to a high degree with the humans on her missions. Usually, Mal would provide a rundown of the task, along with repair instructions, and then Skye would go and perform the repair and return directly to the Swallowtail.

  Skye continued through the docks. Why would the captain request her specifically, when a ship of this size would surely have several engineering members on hand?

  Near the midway point, Skye felt the fringes of her own ship’s artificial gravity collide with that of the Artemis. At this point of weightlessness, Skye reoriented her body so that her head was now pointed down from the perspective of the Swallowtail, but would enable her to climb up into the Artemis.

  At the end of the ladder, she took in a deep breath and opened the hatch. A figure garbed in the gray uniform of the command division stood over her, waiting. From Skye’s perspective, the person was a dark figure that was lit from behind by the bright lighting of the Artemis.

  “Greetings, Lieutenant,” said a stern, yet feminine voice. She offered a helping hand to Skye as she climbed up from the docking hatch. She had brown, shoulder-length hair, a muscled frame, and pale skin dotted faintly with freckles. “I’m First Officer, Jayna Bradley. Welcome aboard the C.S.S. Artemis.”

  “Thank you, Commander,” Skye responded. “She’s a beautiful ship.” Skye looked around her. She was in the cargo bay. Crew members, dressed in blue-gray uniforms rushed silently between different stations inside of the metal-ribbed bay. Large pallets with crates on them were in evenly spaced rows throughout the massive space. They were all labeled according to what they contained: tetrinium, micro-converters, biostatic matter.

  “I can agree to that,” Commander Bradley said with a half-smile. “Allow me to escort you to Captain Zonta where he is waiting to debrief you and the others.” Skye wondered at the presence of “others.” This, presumably, meant that she was to be working with a group; entirely new territory.

  Skye followed alongside the commander, drinking in every detail of the Artemis. The long corridor was brightly lit, with huge windows that looked out at the surrounding expanse of the universe. They were passed by many people, coming and going on errands of different import. Conversation buzzed around them, and Skye picked up a few strands here and there, but her attention was on her surroundings. While the Swallowtail had been built for utility, the Artemis had been built to make a statement. Even the hallway bespoke class and strength: high
, arched ceilings with intricate sconces above them; a shining metallic-gray floor.

  Skye and Commander Bradley reached a central bay of elevators. The elevators were made of a dark-colored alloy, with elaborately shaped doors. They were encircled by an immense spiral staircase that connected every level of the ship in a graceful sweep. Skye inhaled deeply in awe as she beheld it. As she and the commander approached one of the elevators, the doors slid open silently, and they stepped inside.

  “Briefing room,” the commander said briskly. She was clearly used to the magnificence of her surroundings. The doors slid shut and the two were whirled upward. Skye’s stomach dropped with the change in altitude, and she kept her hands clasped before her. The commander turned toward Skye. “I don’t mean to stare, I just didn’t expect for you to look-”

  “So human?” Skye lifted an eyebrow. This was not the first time that she had encountered this surprise.

  “Precisely.”

  “Well, other than modifications to internal structure and cellular composition, I am pretty much fully human,” Skye explained.

  “Except for the fact that you’ll never age, nor will you ever die.” Commander Bradley placed a hand on her hip.

  “Actually, it’s quite the opposite,” Skye said. “What sets me apart from your typical person is the fact that I can die, repeatedly.” To be honest, I’m expendable, Skye thought, but she dared not utter the word to the human commander’s face.

  “I hadn’t considered that,” the commander said. She bit her lip thoughtfully. “I suppose that does carry its own set of pros and cons, yet still…everyone on this ship will be long dead while you’re off fixing our mistakes.” Skye was about to respond when the doors opened. They had been transported from the underbelly of the Artemis all of the way up to Deck 6, the location of the ship’s briefing room and bridge. Commander Bradley strode toward the briefing room doors with the surefooted confidence of a person in her natural habitat. Skye, on the other hand, felt out of her element. As she entered the clear glass sliding door, it hissed shut behind her.