IceFlight--The Iron Altar Series Book 1

  IceFlight – the Iron Altar Series Book 1

  © Casey Lea 2022

  The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this book.

  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, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  1 - Taken

  2 - Meet and Greet

  3 - Alien Welcome

  4 - Loyalty

  5 - First Blood

  6 - Hopes and Dreams

  7 - A Rocky Start

  8 - Snakes in Space

  9 - Out For A Walk

  10 - Bugs and Reptiles

  11 - Violation

  12 - Deadly Pact

  13 - Blast from the Past

  14 - How to get a Head

  15 - Assassination

  16 - The Hunt

  17 - The Fight

  18 - Partners

  19 - Friendly Fire

  20 - Framed

  21 - Jailbird

  22 - A New Ship

  23 - The Auction House

  24 - Sales Prep

  25 - A Promise Kept

  26 - Sold

  27 - Plasma Front

  28 - Ships That Pass in the Night

  29 - Kill Them All

  30 - Kill Them All Too

  31 - Mutiny

  32 - Future Deal

  33 - Reunion

  34 - Gratuity

  35 - Old Acquaintance

  36 - The Dance Goes On

  37 - Cold Blooded

  38 - Drafted

  39 - Hunted

  40 - On The Run

  41 - Quick Thinking

  42 - Escape

  43 - Out of the Frying Pan

  44 - Wheels Within

  45 - License to Kill

  46 - New Worlds

  47 - Planet Fall

  48 - No Going Back

  49 - Proposals

  50 - Traitor

  51 - Wedding Day Jitters

  52 - Confession

  53 - Betrayed

  54 - Plan B

  55 - Sunset

  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, 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 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 reaction. 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 screen. The Captain used to terrify her, but Will’s easy banter had made it clear that Hitoshi Moriwaki was really 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. “It’s a ship.”

  “What do you mean a ship?” the Captain demanded his voice as sharp as the scar twisting his mouth.

  “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 to give in to one of her crazy spur-of-the-moment ideas. At least not one that involved giving her immediate superior a hickey and a heart attack.

  She looked back to her monitor but was jerked from her work when the hatch beside her rattled. A narrow metal door swung open in her peripheral vision, and she froze. Had they been boarded? By... something?

  Darsey crouched 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 as wide as her eyes, before thought returned.

  She was looking at a spacesuit. Her own spacesuit. It had been ejected from emergency storage.

  “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 always kept the crew healthy but looked after himself with the extra care of a dedicated hypochondriac.

  Darsey reached for her own helmet and glanced back at the video feed. Abruptly her pulse became glacial. She felt as if she’d truly frozen and was caught unable to move with her helmet clutched to her chest.

  The alien ship had closed on them, and it filled her screen.

  Conflicting obsidian curves curled around each other at improbable angles until the craft looked like an Aescher print. Trying to follow its broken lines made Darsey’s head hurt. However, it was the alien ship’s size that held her in thrall. It was far bigger than anything mankind had ever sent into space.

  Darker specks appeared against the gleaming flanks of the approaching behemoth as aliens swarmed from the strange craft. They were abruptly lit by the white glare of an energy discharge.

  Two lines of light sizzled 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 leaped 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, whil
e 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 were sucked empty. Will's hands flew to his throat and his cheeks seemed to collapse while his eyes bulged. His mouth opened in a silent scream.

  Horror sliced through Darsey’s brain, freezing all thought and darkness tried to follow. Vacuum reached for her too, but before her blood could boil a shadow fell over her.

  A fresh breeze came with it and Darsey gulped greedily for the air even as she cowered away from the darkness that brought it. The shadow 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

  Darsey Ice dangled helplessly, head down and eyes shut, lost to the world. Her mind floated all alone, serene and still, with no link to its distant flesh. She was dimly relieved at such unexpected sanctuary, but, despite that, an innate stubbornness forced her to struggle for consciousness. The slow return to her body began with pain. Pain that drove through the darkness like headlights. Darsey moaned and something laughed in response. The laugh sounded achingly human, but Darsey knew it was not. She knew with soul deep certainty that the rest of her crew were dead.

  She shuddered, helping her mind and body rediscover each other. That link strengthened, with an awareness of light and the grasp of impossibly huge hands. Alien hands that were hooked like claws in her armpits. She realized she was moving, the toes of her boots scuffing helplessly as she was dragged face down, along a smooth surface. Still blind and limp, she felt nausea rise, along with her last memory of Will. His face had looked so strange wearing a scream instead of a ready smile. Voices intruded on her private agony. Voices that seemed to speak English before breaking into rough laughter.

  Insane, she thought sadly. Will would have loved it. Aliens using our language, aliens with a sense of humor.

  She blinked hard, but tears made it impossible to focus. Perhaps that was just as well. It seemed simpler to stay locked in the past, reliving her last moments with her friends. Those memories returned with gut-wrenching force and she let them take her, until they finally led her back to the vortex and the ship that first appeared as a diamond in the dark.

  Darsey quivered with the realisation that she must be aboard that alien ship. Not just aboard it but being dragged around like a new-born kitten. She felt like one too – blind and weak – which wouldn’t work at all.

  Not if she was going to make it home. Not if she was going to warn everyone.

  Escaping aliens wasn’t a goal she’d ever wanted but it was the only one she’d settle for now. A new warmth replaced the panic trying to fry her brain. Resolution, paired with some frantic blinking, drove the tears from her eyes.

  A stained cream floor slid past far too close to Darsey’s face. She gasped but managed to stop any futile attempts to twist away from her captors. Instead, she let herself hang limply between two massive aliens while they dragged her along a corridor.

  The creatures holding her tensed and their grip tightened, crushing the shoulders of her suit. Darsey winced at the pain, but it brought her closer to her surroundings. She felt the bunching of massive arms and then a surge when her captors leaped forward.

  They dragged her into an open space and she was suddenly falling.

  Darsey cried out when her stomach dipped and knotted. Panic returned with a rush, and she struggled not to throw up. Her fight against nausea only stopped when she realized she wasn’t falling, even though the floor had disappeared. The sensation twisting her insides was different to being dropped from a height but still familiar.

  I’m floating, Darsey realized. I’m weightless again.

  A single step had taken her from a corridor with gravity to a weightless tunnel. The lack of any transition zone was jarring. The aliens’ control of gravity was as frightening as anything else in this nightmare.

  Being wafted along feet-first didn’t help. Darsey tried to look ahead but it was like staring into a well between her boots. There was a distant circle of light beyond her feet that grew larger at startling speed. The sensation of falling returned and Darsey’s breakfast returned with it.

  She managed to turn her head so she wouldn’t fly through the lumpy gruel launched from her stomach. It exploded over the guard on her left instead.

  “DRAK,” the alien bellowed. He released Darsey and pawed at his bearded face, where his silver bristles were coated in a spray of vomit.

  Once she would have laughed but surviving first contact had changed Darsey. She was light-years away from hysteria. Every detail in the dimly lit tube around her was crystal clear.

  The frantic alien used a silver wrist guard to mop his face. It gleamed in the light that suffused the tunnel despite the lack of any lightsource. Each pass the bracelet made left clean skin behind. The alien’s flesh was largely hidden by silver fur, but his eyes, ears, and nose were clear. There was a hint of lavender in his otherwise pale skin.

  Darsey absorbed such details at a glance, but her attention was claimed by another silver bangle. It gleamed from the alien’s wide belt as brightly as the one around his wrist.

  Darsey tucked forward and made a gagging noise. She twisted her body as if about to vomit over the other guard.

  There was yelling and cursing... followed by waving arms from both sides when Darsey’s captors slapped her away to let her dift alone. She curled up around a smile and her left fist. She clenched her hand tighter, until she felt the smooth curve of a silver wrist cuff against her glove. Perfect. She’d claimed her first piece of alien tech.

  A practised shove stowed it in one of her suit’s many pockets. She didn’t care if it turned out to be nothing more than a vacuum cleaner. At least it was a start.

  A blow to the small of Darsey’s back sent her hurtling forward. Pain lanced up her spine but her rigid suit kept her safe as she tumbled along the weightless well alone. Her guards seemed happy to follow at a distance, which worked for her too.

  Ovals of light flashed past, studding the tunnel walls, and offering glimpses of corridors beyond. The sheer size of the ship was daunting. Darsey chewed her lip and narrowed her eyes. Both were involuntary but only closing her eyes was essential. She’d reached the bottom of the rabbit hole.

  A circle of blinding light opened around Darsey, and she left the tunnel behind. She braced herself, ready to be reclaimed by gravity but kept on floating.

  Fingers that felt like grappling hooks closed around her head. A blast of air brought tears to her eyes when it swept past her face to slow her with a jerk.

  The other guard shot past to one side, lifting a solid forearm with a wrist as large as Darsey’s thigh. A silver bracelet circled his wrist and fired a pulse of air that slowed him too. Her captor’s wristband fired again, and then again, decreasing their speed with each thrust, until her eyes (the only part of her face not protected by padding) were streaming.

  They finally reached a speed closer to a drift and Darsey’s vision cleared. Her eyes opened wide and so did her mouth. The room she’d entered was a hollow globe large enough to house her entire spaceship.

  Much of that startling space was empty, dark, and abandoned but its centre was crowded. The middle of the globe was packed with a dizzying array of seats and control panels. They were randomly slotted in, filling the hollow hub, and floating at all angles.