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  IceFlight

  Book One of the Iron Altar Trilogy

  Casey Lea

  © Casey Lea 2012

  The authors assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this book.

  ISBN - 978-0-9922632-5-6

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction.

  The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authors’ imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-copying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

  To Grandma,

  Who always provided the encouragement to keep writing.

  With love and thanks to Gary, Mike, Taryn and Miffy.

  Thank you also to Lesley, for your invaluable expertise, Carolyn Jewel for your oh-so-accurate prologue prejudice and Michelle for that first, constructive criticism.

  Love Struck

  A Casey Lea Novella

  For another gut-wrenching adventure, click here for a free copy of our latest release.

  Haze is a man on a mission. It was never his plan to be a gladiator, but plans change. When Harvesters steal his wife he tracks them down. It takes a year, all the money he has and most of his soul, but Silk is worth it. When he finds her she’s a slave, fighting for her life in the worst arena in space. His search is over, but his problems are just beginning.

  Haze has to face gigantic killers hardened by battle, feral beasts trained to stalk gladiators, weaponized weather and the most dangerous enemy of all - his wife.

  Silk is a deadly fighter, so it’s too bad she doesn’t remember him…

  Memory stripped and struggling to survive she has no interest in Haze. The idiot claiming to be her husband is just another target. One more body standing between her and freedom, but not for long. She’ll take down anything and anyone she has to.

  Can Haze live long enough to win Silk’s love? Unlikely. It’s the end of the season and this is the last fight. They’re about to enter the Carnival of Death, which leaves only a single survivor. Today one of them will die…

  One Love. One Arena. One Day.

  1

  Taken

  On her second mission past Jupiter, Science Officer Darsey Ice was abducted by aliens. She never saw it coming, although she was the first to see them arrive.

  They showed on her screen as colors, replacing the black void of space ahead of her tiny craft. She started, then leaned forward and there was a moment of stillness, with her mind as blank as the void had been. What she was staring at unblinking was impossible. A rainbow vortex spun in front of her, growing with each turn to fill the monitor.

  A hand fell on Darsey’s shoulder and she jumped, until it gave a warm, familiar squeeze. “What the hell is that?” Will murmured in her ear and she finally moved to relay her image to the main monitors. Red, gold and violet shot from every screen on the Victor's bridge, drawing a low whistle from Will.

  Darsey looked up to offer him what she hoped was a steady smile and the ship’s engineer grinned back, before raising his eyebrows in amazement.

  “You ever seen shit like that, Cap?” he drawled over his shoulder and Darsey turned further to check her Captain’s reply. The Victor’s leader was on the lip of his seat, glaring at the strange rainbow ahead. His face was statue still, apart from the scar that caught his upper lip in a permanent sneer. The disgusted look suited Hito, who tended to take anything unexpected as a personal insult.

  Darsey’s smile became more natural and she swivelled back to her own screen. The Captain used to terrify her, but Will’s easy banter had made it clear that Hitoshi Moriwaki was actually a teddy bear. At least with his crew. She relaxed further and swiped her fingers across her screen to bring up a range of spectraI scans, but before she could learn more the impossible vortex began to spin faster. It gathered momentum and within seconds became a brilliant cone with a dark centre.

  Darsey could only stare and even Will had nothing to say. All five of the Victor’s crew sat silent and transfixed. Lightning streaked the surface of the vortex as it turned with increasing speed and colors streamed toward their ship from a giant whirlpool hanging in space. Darsey swallowed hard, before managing to look from the funnel confronting them to the four men who shared her small, steel world.

  “Science Officer Ice,” her Captain growled, “what readings can you get from that?”

  Darsey gulped again, but managed to turn back to her view screen. Her motion seemed to cue another change in the image before them. The darkness at the centre of the glowing circle began to grow. It distended at the upper edge to become an arrow, and then a wedge. The new silhouette lengthened and then abruptly broke free, leaping forward into the swirling tunnel to grow with startling speed. A dark diamond, sharply flared along each edge, broke into the solar system. Darsey realized what it was at the same time as the ship’s engineer.

  “Damn,” Will gasped, with his usual disregard for protocol. “It’s a ship.”

  “What do you mean a ship?” the Captain demanded sharply.

  “An alien ship,” Darsey agreed, and was surprised by the steadiness of her voice. “I’m analysing as fast as I can, but I think we should redeploy the sail. Full spread.”

  “Indeed,” the Captain agreed grimly. “Deploy the sail, Pilot.”

  “Solar sail deploying, sir,” Jeetan answered laconically, but his actions were quick and precise.

  Darsey licked dry lips, while continuing to throw scan results at the main screen.

  “Remind me why we colonists were so keen to get out here,” Will murmured behind her. “In a damn jerry-rigged sardine can, at that.”

  “For the fun of doing this first,” Darsey answered, and this time her voice did tremble.

  Will squeezed her shoulder again and leaned forward with a grin, his teeth flashing against dark skin. Darsey had a sudden irrational urge to kiss him, as if it might be her last chance, but instantly crushed the idea. This was no time for emotion. She looked back to her monitor, but was jerked from her work by the rattle of a hatch opening beside her. Had they been boarded? By… something?

  Darsey crouched frozen in her seat, her eyes so wide she could hardly focus. A figure stood over her. It wore a bulbous white suit, hard and gleaming, with a curved helmet that reflected her face. She saw her mouth gaping even wider than her eyes and then thought returned. She was looking at a spacesuit. Her own spacesuit. It must have been ejected from storage by emergency release.

  “Party clothes, people,” the Captain ordered, and Darsey concentrated on levering herself from her seat and into the rigid shell that stood over her. She slipped into that bright, white armour and it clicked shut, sealing around her.

  Darsey shuffled forward to free herself from the extended arms of the suit's delivery cradle, grabbing the padding for her helmet as she went. She pulled that soft inner layer on brusquely, calmed by the routine actions, although the clinging fabric was always hard to position. The bulky protection for her head and face, which included computer interfaces, made it thick and unwieldy. However, the struggle was a familiar one and her heart had slowed to its normal rate by the time she finished.

  A glance around the bridge calmed Darsey even more. Everyone was in their suit and Dr. Trilligar was already wearing his helmet. Trust Trill to do a rabbit and be the quickest dressed. He took good care of all the crew’s health, but always looked after himself first.

  Darsey reached for her own helmet and glanced back at the video feed. Abruptly her pulse became glacial. She felt as if she had truly frozen. She stood completely st
ill with her helmet clutched to her chest.

  The alien ship had closed on them and it filled her screen. It was an enormous vessel, far bigger than anything mankind had ever sent into space. Dark specks appeared around it as aliens swarmed from the strange craft. They were abruptly lit by the white glare of an energy discharge. Two lines of light shot past the Victor, one on either side. Darsey blinked, but that was the only movement she could make. On her screen the attackers accelerated hard and their front ranks leapt into focus. It was clear they were humanoid, because they hurtled through the void without spacesuits of any kind. Somebody behind Darsey swore and then something hit them. Their small craft shuddered as it was tossed backwards through the dark.

  Darsey was thrown from her feet. She was briefly weightless, before momentum slammed her into the shuddering floor. She skidded over it and her magnetic boots scrabbled for grip. She tumbled the length of the bridge to collide with the far wall and lay there stunned, while cracks appeared in the metal behind her.

  Will pushed off to join her and tugged at her helmet with one hand, ignoring his own, but she was too frozen to help. He yelled at her over the rush of escaping air, his face pressed close to hers, but she still couldn't move. He tried to pry her fingers from her helmet, but she clung to it grimly.

  Darsey forced herself to shape a single word that was impossible to hear over the wind. “You.” Her eyes moved between his bare head and his helmet, still dangling from his other hand. However he released it and it spun away in another blast that made the ship buckle.

  Darsey’s eyes followed it vaguely. What was Will thinking? He needed his helmet, needed to put it on now, but he grabbed for hers instead. He managed to pull it away from her using both hands, but she watched in confusion when he raised it over her head and tried to push it into place. Too late.

  Before Darsey could convince him to save himself her air was gone. She drew a desperate breath, but instead of filling her lungs they were sucked empty. Will's hands flew to his throat and his cheeks seemed to collapse, even as his eyes bulged and his mouth opened in a silent scream.

  Horror sliced through Darsey’s brain, freezing all thought and darkness tried to follow.The vacuum reached for her too, but before her blood could boil a shadow fell over her. She cowered away from that darkness, but the shade grew, stretching across the crumpled floor and then further still, up the far wall. She turned her head awkwardly in its padding to stare up at a hulking silhouette. This time, something had come for her.

  2

  Meet and Greet