The Terran Shepherd (The Terran Series Book 2) Read online

  Contents

  Title

  Copyright

  Author’s Note

  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

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  About the Author

  The Terran Shepherd

  Book Two in The Terran Series

  by

  Angus Monarch

  Copyright 2016 Angus Monarch

  All rights reserved.

  Author’s Note

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  Whether you loved it, hated it or just felt so-so about The Terran Shepherd I ask that you leave a rating. I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you!

  Follow Angus Monarch on Twitter @YourPALwrites.

  Chapter One

  The Hive’s shuttle touched down with a small jolt. I stood and rotated my neck listening to the joints crack. As the door to the shuttle opened I exhaled and held it letting the sensation of empty lungs try to overcome the jitteriness.

  Terrans had tried to found settlements. After the fight with Kaur and her people I wouldn’t have guessed it. I still didn’t know if they had been part of Kaur’s group who’d escaped at some point or a different band of settlers all together. Before we arrived The Hive showed me photos of the settlement, one settlement associated with this unknown group of humans, and I didn’t think there was anywhere else I wanted to be as badly as where we were now.

  The photos didn’t do it justice.

  I stepped out of the shuttle onto vibrant green, ankle deep grass. A few hundred yards down the hill in front of me were the huddled shells of prefab buildings I recognized from The Hive’s photos. A small river flowed nearby. The foliage in the plants around us swirled and waved in each small gust of wind. Yellowed leaves crunched underfoot as we walked. Snowcapped mountains towered over the settlement while tendrils of yellow, orange and red snaked up from the valleys and reached almost to the snowline. The clear, cobalt sky served to contrast and compliment the white of the snow.

  Seven of The Hive’s members filtered out from the shuttle behind me after I started down the hill. My momentum began as a walk then turned into a trot and became a full headlong run. As I continued down the hill a dilapidated playground came into view, a town square with the buildings set up around it, fields that had not been taken care of for months and a small graveyard.

  I bounded between the buildings and skipped to a stop in the main square. My lungs burned, and I sucked in air with greedy gasps. I longed to take my helmet off and breathed in the air as I imagined it would be cool and refreshing like the clear, thin mountain air in the mountains on Earth.

  “Don’t break your vacuum seal,” said one of The Hive members from behind me.

  My hands lowered from my helmet latches, and I said, “Fine.” The shuttle and everything in it, including ourselves, had been sterilized. The Hive didn’t want to cross contaminate. I thought it was being foolish, but it wasn’t my shuttle we rode.

  The rest of the members filed in and stood in a small group. They all looked straight at me and spoke in unison. “Do you wish to see the town?”

  I looked around me. Windows were broken out in some of the buildings. Curtains fluttered in the wind. Walls were corroded. Landscaping had started to go wild and native plants started to take over. It was obvious no one had lived here in quite some time.

  “I’ll take a look around on my own, if you don’t mind,” I said. Right now, even though we were investigating it felt like I was at a wake, and I wanted to be alone while I grieved.

  The Hive members nodded and moved towards one of the fields.

  I looked into the first building I came to. The door wasn’t locked. I flicked a power switch, but nothing turned on. The inside was orderly and well kempt under a thick layer of dust. The next building was a mess hall with dishes, cutlery stacked in drying racks, mummified food remnants in the refrigerator. The next building was a dormitory with beds made and clothing neatly stacked.

  It was the same in every building I went through: orderly, neat, dusty. The only buildings where items were out of place were the ones where a window was broken, but it was obvious that wildlife had gotten in and messed up the place. There were no signs of struggle or a fight or a rapid evacuation. It was as if everyone had simply disappeared.

  The final building I entered was wall to wall computer terminals. All of them looked to be untouched. In spite of The Hive’s warnings about cross contamination I unsealed my suit and took my glove off. As I moved down the row of terminals I ran my finger over each computer, caressing the keys or sliding my fingertip over the log-in pad. None of them booted up, but I hadn’t expected them to. The fusion generators didn’t seem to be working as nothing else in the settlement ran. I didn’t know why but it comforted me to run my hand over something used by humans and not corrupted.

  I looked around the room. Educational posters hung on the walls. A single large desk stood on the opposite side of the room with a single computer terminal on it.

  “A school,” I said in a whisper. It didn’t feel right speaking much louder. The room felt like a tomb.

  I walked to the teacher’s desk and sat down. From my vantage point I could see each and every one of the terminals. It brought me back to the time I was called up to the front of the room by Mr. Smart. He had a large bushy mustache that vibrated when he spoke and breath that stank but a stare that could cut one to the bone. I had shook as he reprimanded me for whatever it was that I had done, but when I turned around to go back to my desk I saw all of my classmates’ faces: every single one. One step to the right or left of Mr. Smart’s desk and some of the faces would disappear but right there, right in front, everything could be seen and known.

  I ran my finger over the computer monitor. A single furrow of dust cleared away. I wiped away the rest with the palm of my ungloved hand and sighed at the sight of my reflection. There was nothing here, nothing of use. The Hive would be around soon to take samples and look for clues. I couldn’t think of anything else to do.

  Anger and frustration began to rise. I grit my teeth. My foot tapped quickly on the floor. I drummed my fingers on the desk. The hollow sounds echoed throughout the room. I had to think of something. The Hive could have done an investigation without me; it had the capability. I knew bringing me along was a courtesy, but I still wanted to contribute.

  I gave a small groan of frustration, balled my hands into loose fists and slammed them down on the desk. One smashed into the keyboard and the other knocked over a cup which went crashing to the ground. It bounced then twirled on its edge before tipping over and rolling a small distance away.

  I took in a deep breath and closed my eyes letting my exasperation wash away. When I felt calmer I opened my eyes and reached down, picked up the cup and placed it back where it had been. It wasn’t my desk, and it seemed right to return it to where the owner had wanted it even if they were never coming back or would never know what I had done to their workstation.

  Turning back to the computer I was greeted with a load screen. I blinked in surprise as the des
ktop came up and a draft message appeared. The computer must have been asleep, stopped in the middle of the message for some reason and was still powered. Why it had never been shut down and the message never sent wasn’t something I cared to dwell upon.

  I scanned over the message. It was all of five lines: pleasantries, hated teaching, upcoming trip to Station Ter.

  My eyes widened, and I stood. I looked around the room hoping that one of The Hive members had come in without me noticing so that I could point with excited ferocity at the computer screen. There was no one.

  I ran out of the schoolroom and into the main square. The Hive members weren’t around, but they must have been sensing my thoughts. They’d spoken to me telepathically from greater distances, but I didn’t wait to see if it was rummaging around in my brain, and my impatience got the best of me.

  “I found a location,” I shouted. My voice echoed around the empty space

  What location?

  “Station Ter,” I said. My breathing came in hurried, excited gulps forcing my words out faster than I meant. “A message from the school teacher spoke of a trip to Station Ter.”

  Station Ter is an abandoned P’You settlement from the time before they joined the Confederacy.

  “Perfect place to go then,” I said. If there were human settlers trying to stay under the radar what better way to stay undetected than going somewhere no one wanted to go?

  One member of The Hive rounded a corner and began walking towards me. I saw another enter into the school. Two more emerged from another building. Where the others were I didn’t know nor cared at this time.

  “Where’s Station Ter?” I said, bouncing from foot to foot. We were wasting time standing around talking.

  “Unclaimed space,” said one member as it stopped in front of me.

  At the edge of the mapped galaxy.

  “So we can go there?” I said. If it wasn’t in Vantagax or Confederacy space I didn’t see a reason to not start heading there now.

  The Hive members focused on me. Their antennae bobbed back and forth as they conversed with one another. The one from the school joined the group.

  “There are rumors of beings from deep space that killed the inhabitants of Station Ter,” said The Hive. “The P’You doesn’t just abandon their stations.”

  I rolled my eyes. It couldn’t be worse than Kaur. Besides, The Hive didn’t seem to be one to put much stock in rumors. “Just because they abandoned it doesn’t mean they were all killed by some mysterious entity.”

  “You’re right,” said The Hive. The missing members joined the group, and they turned as one, heading back towards the shuttle. “It is a great distance from the nearest P’You world. It was most likely untenable.”

  “Are we going?” I said, lagging in the main square as The Hive continued to move away.

  Yes.

  I pumped my fist and smiled.

  Chapter Two

  Station Ter loomed large in the view screen. I gnawed on my lip and chewed on the inside of my cheek. It’d been weeks of travel to get here. During that time I had nothing to do but browse news feeds looking for any reliable information about humans or read up on Station Ter for the thousandth time. I could have walked its hallways with my eyes closed I’d studied the layout so much.

  “There’s a problem,” said The Hive member sitting at the controls of our ship.

  I looked up from my screen and said, “What?”

  An image of a ship appeared in my mind. It was docked on the opposite side of the station from us and dwarfed our shuttle. The ship transitioned to a Vantagax decked out in full military regalia.

  My blood boiled, and I clenched my fists until my forearms ached. No matter what I did in the galaxy it felt like I couldn’t escape them.

  “What are they doing?” I said.

  “I’m not sure,” said The Hive. “I’m detecting over a hundred life signs on the station.”

  “Vantagax or Terran?”

  The member’s antennae wiggled back and forth. “I don’t know,” it said. “They’ve deployed some kind of jamming device. I can’t reach out to any of the life signs, but that doesn’t necessarily mean some humans aren’t there.”

  I stood and walked behind The Hive and looked over its shoulder. The screen told me nothing as I didn’t know how to read what was on it, but I needed to do something besides sit in my chair.

  “Have they detected us?”

  “No,” said the member. “I’m masking our signal. Right now, if they were to look, we’d be nothing more than background radiation to their sensors.”

  I nodded and began to pace back and forth in the small space. I had five steps one way, turn, five steps back. My mind raced trying to think of some way to get on board.

  Humans were still an anomaly in the galaxy from everything I had read. If someone in the colony had sent a message about Station Ter there must have been humans here which meant there had to either be humans on the station or something that would lead me to others. I punched the headrest of the chair I had been sitting in earlier.

  “We have to get on the station to find out if there are any humans being held prisoner,” I said. It had to be done. I couldn’t leave anyone there to the Vantagax, and I couldn’t leave anything in the hands of the Vantagax that might lead me to more humans.

  “One of us has to stay with the ship,” said The Hive. “I can’t split myself. I’ll lose me.”

  “And I’m not staying here,” I said.

  The member’s antennae waved and bobbed around. Its mandibles worked open and closed.

  An image of me Traveling to a position just outside the station popped into my mind. I entered through an airlock while The Hive waited in the ship. The area of the station was empty, and I began creeping down a hallway.

  Without thinking I shivered at the similarities at this plan and the one that got me aboard Kaur’s ship, but before I could say anything the world disappeared around me in a flash of golden yellow light then popped back into existence in the now familiar manner with me floating just outside an airlock. Had I not been familiar with The Hive I would have been startled at the sudden Travel, but it had been in my brain and already known that I had everything I needed on my person.

  The Hive’s plan went without issue and soon I was aboard Station Ter. My suit told me that the section I was in had no atmosphere. It was dark with the ceilings soaring above my head. The hallway itself was wide enough for several humans to walk shoulder to shoulder. With only a few emergency lights on deep, dark pools of blackness appeared between the illuminations. I was afraid of turning on my helmet’s lights even though there were no signs of a living being anywhere near me, so I crept down the hall trying to stay in the darkness as much as I could.

  At the end of one passage a screen inset in the wall flared to life as I walked past. “Welcome” appeared on the screen to be replaced by an image of a computer rendered P’You. Its mouth moved, but I heard nothing. My suit registered a request for communication on a local signal. I looked up and down the hall then back at the computer screen. The P’You stared back at me.

  I accepted the request as the only logical thing that came to mind was that it was my new P’You screen companion.

  “Hello?” I said.

  “Welcome to Station Ter,” said the P’You. My suit auto-translated for me. “You appear to have entered into an uninhabited area of the station. Do you need directions or assistance?”

  I snorted. It was a tour guide. “I’m looking for some people,” I said. “They’re living on the station.”

  The P’You blinked and nodded. “While we have many living spaces there has been no one habiting on the station in seven standard months.”

  “Is there anyone like me on the station?”

  “No,” said the P’You. “The only lifeforms I’m detecting on the station are Vantagax. They are concentrated in the F-Ring section of the station.”

  “No Terrans?” said The Hive over the radio. It was w
eird hearing them through a headset because I was so used to hearing them speak to me telepathically.

  I shook my head. If they’d been here at all they’d have left long ago. It felt like I was on the right track as the colonists had been choosing out of the way places to live, and Station Ter was about as out of the way as you could get. At the same time the Vantagax presence could not have been a coincidence. I had a sinking feeling in my gut that I wasn’t the only one looking for humans.

  “Where is the closest, most recently used living space?” I said.

  A map of the station with a way marker popped up on my HUD. Green arrows appeared, hovering over the floor. Small yellow dots, which I figured were representative of the Vantagax, moved about the map. Thankfully none were near my destination.

  “Have a pleasant day,” said the P’You. It bowed and the screen went dark.

  I followed the arrows. My muscles were tense and tight. I kept one eye on the map and one eye on my path. My instincts told me that a Vantagax would pop out at any moment and attack. I had to tamp the worries down otherwise I would have never made it to my destination. Every shadow would have to be checked. Every corner would be peeked around then every shadow checked again.

  Instead I focused on my breathing as I moved along and stopped looking at the map, focusing on the next arrow in front of me. The Hive had controlled Vantagax soldiers from afar before. Maybe they could do it now. That could keep me safe. It wouldn’t help to dwell on how few of The Hive members came on the ship with me or that they were being jammed.

  The green arrows stopped except for one. It pulsed and bounced in front of a door. I was still in an area of the station that had no atmosphere, nowhere near where the Vantagax contingent was located.

  I stepped towards the door, which slid open, and the arrow disappeared. The first room I stepped into had a sofa, arm chair, table with four chairs, view screen and desk with a computer terminal on it. The high ceilings continued. The furniture felt too small for the space. Everything was covered in a fine sheen of what looked like frost. The door shut behind me, and I turned on my headlamps.