Cadet: Star Defenders Book Two: Space Opera Adventure Read online

  Cadet: Star Defenders Book Two

  Star Defenders, Volume 2

  Pamela Stewart

  Published by Pamela Stewart, 2020.

  While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

  CADET: STAR DEFENDERS BOOK TWO

  First edition. November 13, 2020.

  Copyright © 2020 Pamela Stewart.

  Written by Pamela Stewart.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  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

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  Chapter Sixty

  Chapter Sixty-One

  Chapter Sixty-Two

  Chapter Sixty-Three

  Chapter Sixty-Four

  Chapter Sixty-Five

  Chapter Sixty-Six

  Chapter Sixty-Seven

  Chapter Sixty-Eight

  Chapter Sixty-Nine

  Chapter Seventy

  Chapter Seventy-One

  Chapter Seventy-Two

  Chapter Seventy-Three

  Chapter Seventy-Four

  Chapter Seventy-Five

  Chapter Seventy-Six

  Chapter Seventy-Seven

  Chapter Seventy-Eight

  Chapter Seventy-Nine

  Chapter Eighty

  Chapter Eighty-One

  Chapter Eighty-Two

  Chapter Eighty-Three

  Chapter Eighty-Four

  Chapter Eighty-Five

  Chapter Eighty-Six

  Chapter Eighty-Seven

  Chapter Eighty-Eight

  Chapter Eighty-Nine

  Chapter Ninety

  Chapter Ninety-One

  Chapter Ninety-Two

  Chapter Ninety-Three

  Chapter Ninety-Four

  Chapter Ninety-Five

  Chapter Ninety-Six

  Chapter Ninety-Seven

  Chapter Ninety-Eight

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Vega

  The six space stations hung like a warped jewel in our view screen. I'd never seen the Axis.

  Correction.

  I'd never seen the Axis from the outside. Sure, I'd viewed representations and 3-D renderings. I'd even gotten glimpses while I was in the barracks on the Mil-station. But I'd never really seen it in all its glory.

  Judging by the stunned silence from Amelie, she'd never seen it from the outside either, or else she'd be giving me some VIFs—very important facts. I'd come up with the name for her rambling during the third week of our journey across the galaxy. It was either observe ironically or murder her in her sleep. I chose the former.

  I set the shuttle's autopilot and drank in the sight.

  Bigger than a planet.

  Bigger than six planets, spanning the system. A massive structure with a central unit that served as the hub, the giant protrusion expanded in two directions. Thousands of satellites hung like moons around each station. Bright artificial lights flashed in a flood of hues from the thousands upon thousands of bars, homes, bases, and businesses.

  The Axis was not elegant. Oblong stations interconnected by tubes and tunnels jutting out at wild angles, a morass of interconnected living spaces. Radiation absorption material protected its fragile human occupants from the red-tinted light of Sol. As haphazard as they were, the stations worked together, rotating in tandem to create artificial gravity for the occupants.

  It was a fantastic creation of human intelligence and determination. My heart clenched slightly. Even if I’d come from U170, we’d all started here, the cradle of humanity. If our founders had not figured out how to cooperate, the human race would be nothing but stardust kicking around the nebula after the OE sun had burned out. But we’d done it. We were still here.

  “Should we wake the boys?” Amelie asked in a small tentative voice as if the image might burst like a disturbed hologram if she spoke too loudly.

  My eyes flicked up to the nav screen. “We have a bit before arrival, but they'll kill us if they miss this.”

  I was pretty sure Dax had never gotten a real view of the Axis from space. And Ethan—I had no idea—everything I knew about Ethan had been a lie to gain the crew's confidence.

  It'd been for a good reason, investigating our slimy ship’s captain, but that didn't mean I had to like it.

  Or that I had to forgive him.

  We'd barely spoken since leaving the Lazarus, and I was okay with leaving it that way.

  Amelie rose from the copilot seat and headed to the makeshift sleeping area in the cargo bay. We had sectioned it off and separated it from the rest of the ship with blankets hung on a cord. The shuttle had two chambers. One was for piloting. The second area was for eating, hygiene, exercise, navigation, and pretty much everything else, a tiny space for four teens traveling halfway across the galaxy.

  Over the first few days, we’d gotten into a pattern. Amelie and I would do the day shift, switching off as necessary. Dax and Ethan, who both preferred to stay awake during regular sleep hours, took nights.

  We’d attempted to vary the schedule but realized it didn’t work—for anyone. Amelie and Dax still had weird energy between them. They could talk and be friendly in a group, but when they were alone, the conversation stumbled and died. I’d listened to them the first few nights, still crazy curious as to what was going on between them after their drunken night.

  The answer?

  Nothing.

  Less than nothing, and it would appear that neither dared to bridge the gap.

  Pity. They would have been great together. Odd. But great.

  Ethan and I spoke when necessary. He’d tried chatting.
Tried joking. Tried telling me parts of the long, sad story of his life as a panhandler in the Hub, but I’d shut him down at every turn.

  I appreciated his help but could not stand his deceit. We were shipmates for now and nothing more.

  The boys’ loud, angry groans made me smile. They didn’t like waking up after their regular twelve-hour break. This was their version of torture.

  “Amelie! Cut it out.” Ethan. His voice wasn’t harsh but low and joking.

  I heard another grunt. “I’m up!” This time it was Dax’s annoyed tone. He’d not slept well since we left.

  “Hurry up, or you’ll miss it.” Amelie reappeared at my side and slid into the seat, arms crossed hard against her chest. “Next time, you wake the Cretans.”

  The boys pushed forward in between the pilot and the copilot seat.

  “What’s up, V? We had two more hours of sleep.” Dax choked.

  I'd been right. A look of amazement spread across his face like a child on Sol day. Ethan had taken the seat behind mine so I couldn't gauge his response, but he was quiet. We all stared out the window in reverent silence.

  “I can see the humbleball pitch from here. Look, Ethan!” Dax pressed forward, excitement making him uncharacteristically animated. His eyes darted over the center of the Hub. He pointed to a round, greenish orb in the center that was significantly larger than the other structures.

  He was probably right. I'd never been to their interstellar humbleball pitch, but it was a legendary event in the colonies—the Big Green.

  Amelie waved to a small group of satellites orbiting the Mil-station. “That’s where I’m from.”

  All of the stations are easy to categorize. Even from a great distance, their industries showed in their atmosphere, traffic, and foliage. Hundreds of satellites barreled around each station at incredible speeds. How Amelie could pick out where she was from was a mystery to me.

  But with a mind like hers, I wouldn't put it past her to be 100% accurate. She held a supercomputer’s worth of information in that too-beautiful head of hers.

  The only place I had been was the Basic Training Barracks, and I'd explored a bit of the civilian town that supported the weapons and the industries. The military station had whole communities, homes, and places of business that expanded over the centuries, but it was a Spartan landscape.

  Nothing like my homeworld of U170. Nope, that was all green and growing and wide. By Sol, I missed it.

  “What about you, Ethan? See anything that reminds you of home?” Dax was always trying to keep him in the conversation—stupid, nice Dax.

  Ethan didn't so much as sit up in his seat. After a long, long pause, he finally responded. “I’m assigned to the Mil-station. Over there.” His face compressed, closing in on itself.

  Curiosity and pity pounded through me.

  I knew he'd grown up in the Hub. I also knew, because of his tattoo, that he'd sold himself very young for food and sustenance. I blocked out those soft feelings. Just because he had a sad backstory didn't make him a good person.

  “We’ll be in orbit within the hour,” I said. “Unless we want to be debriefed for the next hundred years, we need to make sure we're all on the same page. I know from personal experience.”

  “I'm sure that Commander Wu’s messages have reached the Axis by now. We shouldn't have a problem.” Ethan’s positive attitude made a reappearance. He had faith in the system.

  Ha. The same system had allowed our last captain to nearly kill us.

  I’d had enough interactions with the brass to know that these situations didn’t always play out as hoped.

  “I'm going to get ready,” Amelie said. “I sent a wav home. My parents might even come to the docking bay.” She stood, her eyes clouding over. With practiced hands, she smoothed back her hair into a ponytail, nervously strapped it up, then took it back down. She rubbed her palms on her pants legs, and started for the rear.

  “They’ll be there if they get the message, Am,” I said.

  If my parents lived on the Axis, they'd be there. Amelie and her parents had a different and more complex relationship than me and mine. She hadn’t gone into detail, but for a satellite girl to land in the general military said a lot about her. And her parents.

  “Some of the stations are covered in radiation repelling material that makes them opaque like the interconnected tubes and tunnels. But others, like the Agri-station, need the rays of Sol to make the crops grow.” Amelie broke the silence with her normal unfettered geyser of information.

  Her stream-of-consciousness facts were interesting...most of the time. The Academy would probably frown on Amelie's desire to educate everyone in a two-foot vicinity.

  “Want me to take it? I've flown this route before. Threading the needle can be tricky.” Ethan’s voice sent a light thrill over my skin, like a gentle electrical current.

  “No, I got it,” I said a bit too sharply.

  I was tired. Dreams of the aliens had reappeared since our mutiny, and now there was the added fun of the Captain’s giant face affixed to the Old Earth squid body grabbing my parents and devouring them.

  Yeah, sleep, and I were not friends of late, and it made me crabby.

  “What is threading the needle anyway?” I aimed for nonchalant, trying not to sound stupid.

  “It’s the time it takes to get between the prongs of the interconnected transportation tubes.” Amelie’s voice drifted from the back. “Navigating the rotation of the stations as well as the satellites takes a good amount of skill. Approaching ships don’t dare to try during peak docking hours.” She had all the answers as usual. After a few more sounds of jostling, she appeared again in new clothes.

  My palms grew moist. I gripped the controls and took the ship off of autopilot. One of these computers had to have the timing sequence I would need. It couldn’t be that hard.

  I felt heat from behind me and didn't have to turn to know Ethan was leaning forward, looking at my instruments. “If you come in at that speed, we’ll be flattened by the Agri-station before we even get close to docking.”

  “I'm sure the computer navigation can assist. We don't need your help.”

  I didn’t want him to pilot us in. He wasn't one of us. Not really. I didn't want him to forget it.

  Ethan snorted and retreated. Dax smoothed his hair and avoided eye contact.

  Amelie settled back into the co-pilot seat. She had donned her dress whites.

  She had her hair pulled into its super-serious bun, all her curls tamed, making her look as posh and put together as the first day we met in the launch bay of the Lazarus. She also wore her magnifiers, which streamed information in long lines down the lenses.

  “The computer can help with manual docking, but it suggested to wait until between 1700 and 1900 hours,” she said. “If you attempt to land before then, it will be hazardous to try to navigate between the stations.”

  She paused, looking down at her lap, considering her next words.

  Since she rarely did that, I braced for what she would say and chewed on the inside of my lip.

  “Or we can let someone who has previously piloted the route take the controls.”

  I wanted to stay in the pilot’s seat out of spite. How little faith they had in me even after everything that had happened. But I sucked in a breath.

  She made sense. Just because I had issues with Ethan didn’t change the fact that he was a damn good pilot.

  Hell, he’d flown a Class A Battle Cruiser out of an asteroid field unscathed. To him, this would be like driving a hover scooter. But I still gave Amelie a look that I hope said I-thought-you-were-on-my-side as I squeezed out of the pilot seat.

  I waved my hand, indicating for Ethan to take it.

  He chuckled and slid into the seat. Flipping the switch, he snatched the handgrips of the yoke. I hoped he wouldn’t notice the sweaty imprints.

  With the ease and grace he'd had since day one, he swooped low and brought down our speed. His flying was impressive. He wa
s impressive. When he focused, his blue eyes darkened to navy in the light of the panel, and he hummed under his breath.

  I shook myself. Of course Ethan had ease and grace. He'd been trained at the Academy already. He was a spy and was going to report to the top brass as soon as we landed.

  Hopefully, I would never see him again.

  Dax’s eyes flitted from the viewfinder to Amelie and back to the viewer.

  “You ready for this?” His tone calmed everyone. He leaned one elbow on the armrest.

  “It's all I've ever wanted.” Amelie stiffened, and there was a tightness around her eyes.

  Dax reached forward and squeezed her shoulder.

  For some reason, he always sensed things about her way before I did.

  “I should probably get ready too.” I rose and finally tore my eyes from the interplanetary spectacle. Sidestepping, I shifted the blankets to get to our makeshift living area.

  The area looked and smelled like a moonya sty with cots covered in rumpled blankets, piles of clothing in heaps, a couple of magnifiers, empty bags of guzzle chips, and a holocard game projector.

  A teenage disaster area.

  I wasn't about to clean up after the boys, and the boys were not about to clean up for us, so we left it in shambles. There were no officers around to enforce the rules, so we allowed it to be.

  It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to clean it up before we arrived at the base. By Sol, I had no idea what to expect once we got there. Last time I'd arrived at the Axis, I'd been fresh off my U170 farm. I'd never seen anything like the buildings, the mass of people, the endless steel, plastic, and industry. And I'd only seen the inside of the barracks in part of the Mil-station.

  The Academy was going to be new territory. The graduates didn’t talk about it much.

  There were legends about recruits being fed to rogue aliens or floated for not being fast enough on the draw, but I figured it was all propaganda. Probably.

  I reached into my duffel and pulled out my over-sized dress uniform. Amelie had the right idea.

  With the information we were bringing back, we would be meeting higher-ups. And definitely would be debriefed. We’d be in processing for a long time.

  No second chances to make first impressions. At least, that was what my mom said.