Out Of The Shadows…

Literally years have past since I’ve felt ready to come out of the shadows. Or…hiding, if you will. Perhaps that explains the working-title change to Kimura’s Shadow. It’s been a weird and wild couple of years, but I’ve never stopped working on this series. Books IV through VI continue to go through changes, ever evolving. Characters have come and gone, while the plot keeps…growing.

Still, it’s well beyond high-time that I shared a glimpse into Sigrid’s next chapter, so here it is. Keep in mind, this is a work in progress, which means that dates, names, and events may yet still change.

Enjoy (and sorry for disappearing for so long!).

From The Girls from Alcyone IV

Kimura’s Shadow

Chapter 1:

A Wolf In The Fold

(working draft scene)

copyright 2019 by Cary Caffrey

 

June 9, 2357

Wolf 1061c.

Fed-Cor Settlement FS-243. Sixteen light years outside the Federated Quarantine Zone.

The shield doors of the troop transport ground open, letting in a blast of roaring, swirling nighttime air. Lieutenant Jr. Grade Valeri Lawther risked one quick glance at the glowing monitor strapped to his armored wrist. The altimeter showed their airspeed and elevation: thirty-four hundred meters, twenty-seven hundred, eighteen. They were dropping fast, accelerating in a full-powered combat descent. Above, nothing but a blanket of stars, no clouds to obscure the night sky. No moon, either. Below, the scarred and blackened surface of FS-243 rushed up to meet them.

Lt. Valeri Lawther turned up the gain on his visor, bringing the world into a monochrome of silvery-grey. He didn’t know what awaited him down there. None of them did. Only that someone on that rock had set off the planetary disaster beacon. That was two weeks ago. There hadn’t been another signal since.

They’d be down in moments; either that or be blown out of the sky, never knowing what had hit them, never learning what had wiped out every last living settler on the surface below. Such was the life—or death—of an orbital drop-trooper.

Valeri took a quick look behind him. The yellowed visor-lights of seventeen drop-troopers shone back at him. The glow of their visors cut through the gloom of the drop-bay like tiny beacons. Corporal Asiah Gellhorn stood next to him on the ready line. Her metal fingers drummed out a rhythm against the worn hand grips of her sidearms. She sensed danger here. And so did he.

THIRTY SECONDS.

The signal broadcast through each suit’s comm unit, and each trooper moved into position. The entire drop sequence was locked in from here on, pre-programmed and automated. They were fully committed, no abort, no turning back. Live or die, they’d be down in moments.

Valeri braced as he heard the rumble, then the crushing force of the ship’s landing thrusters blasting away at full power. It was a textbook eighteen-G maneuver designed to minimize their exposure and get them on the ground in the shortest possible time. The dropship’s dampers absorbed some of the force, his powered fighting suit doing its damnedest to minimize the rest. It didn’t stop him from feeling like his spine was about to collapse in on itself.

Just as abruptly, the thrusters ceased, their roar giving way to an eerie silence. They were in free-fall again, dropping the last thirty meters to the ground.

Valeri leapt off the landing ramp first, not waiting for the small craft to settle in on its landing columns. First off, last on. It wasn’t exactly the Mercenary way, but it was the Lawther way. His family’s way. Junior grade or not, this was his command—his first command. He’d be the first to step out from the armored protection of the drop ship, the first to face whatever threat remained on this godforsaken rock.

He dead-dropped the last five meters, the powered fighting suit taking the brunt of the landing. His training took over then. Tucking and rolling—not easy wearing a half-ton of metal-composites—he sized up the nearest cover and sprinted for it. Eighteen drop-troopers followed behind them. They spread out, weapons at the ready as they began their sweep.

With his gauze rifle cradled in front of him he scrambled up a short rise, hitting the dirt hard at the top of the crest. The suit’s optics performed a full 180-degree scan. Threats, soft-targets, survivors. If there was anything out there, the suit would let him know. But there was no need. There was nothing to report.

Even through the suit’s filters, he caught the familiar sent, the sickly-sweet smell of scorched flesh and melted metal. It was the stench of death. The entire surface was a charred, smoldering wasteland, a lunar landscape of destruction that stretched from horizon to horizon. Clusters of buildings, most of them only half-built, were laid to waste. Plasteel girders more than a meter thick and ten meters long were reduced to splinters. They littered the landscape like a sea of broken bones. Universities, hospitals, modular habitats, they were all gone. More than twelve million people reduced to nothing more than dust and ash, scattered to the winds and forgotten.

There would be no heroic rescue of the settlement or its inhabitants, no triumphant return to Vincenze Station, no admiration from his Mercenary clansmen. Because absolutely nothing remained of the colony or its inhabitants. There was simply no one left to save.

The crackle of a comm-channel opening sounded in his ear. “Sir! I think I found something.”

Valeri ground his teeth together. “Identify yourself, trooper.”

“Barbarà, Sir.”

“LT, I think you better get over here.” This from his second in command, Asiah’s voice sounding icy-cool in his head.

“Go, Corporal. Report.”

“Easier if you just see it.”

Valeri keyed the locater. She was one-hundred and fifty meters away. They both were, just on the fringe of where the settlement’s main habitat once stood. Most of the colonists would have headed there for shelter, for all the good it did.

“Survivors?”

There was a moment of dead air, static. “Just…get over here. Sir.”

Rising, Valeri lumbered off in their direction, the powered armor clearing the distance in seconds in great leaping strides. The main habitat was one of those prefab jobs Fed-Cor was always pushing. Nearly as big as a frontline cruiser, it was more ship than building. They built them in orbit then towed them wherever they were needed dropping them down through the gravity well. Built to survive the hardships of space, they were durable, if nigh indestructible, yet this thing had been crushed like it was made of nothing more than paper. Somewhere inside that rubble were two of his platoon.

He had to crouch low, picking his way through the rubble, forcing huge slabs of permacrete aside to make way. He found Asiah and Barbarà deep inside one of the few chambers not collapsed. Seeing him, she shone the light strapped to her wrist on the walls around them. 2200 lumens lit the chamber in yellowy light, casting long shadows.

“What the hell was so important?”

“You’re going to love this.” Asiah lifted the torchlight upwards.

Valeri craned his head up, felt his blood run cold.

Thirty-seven bodies, scorched and bloodied, hung from the walls and ceiling above them. They were set in a near perfect circle, all of them with their wrists and ankles bound, all of them dead, and each one of them missing their head. They hung perfectly still, with not a stitch of wind to disturb them.

“Looks like you were right, LT,” Asiah said. “The Guild’s not going to be able to deny this anymore.”

“They might.”

“How? This is exactly like what we found on Trappist, isn’t it?”

“Not exactly,” Private Barbarà said. “Look.”

He was staring down at the ground. Valeri stepped back, realized he was stepping right in it. All around him, filling the entire circumference of the chamber, someone had carved an intricate pattern into the earth. It took him a moment to grasp what he was seeing. The markings were crude, the head of an animal, maybe a bear or wolf, set in front of the wings of a bird. Nothing like this had appeared on any of the other destroyed colonies.

Valeri stared back up at the corpses, their charred remains. Whoever had done this wanted to make a point, and that point had been made. Yet something didn’t feel right.

“We only found five bodies desecrated on Trappist,” Valeri said.

“And thirteen on Pallas—twenty-three on Vega,” Asiah said. “Now…thirty-seven.”

Barbarà swiveled his head between them. “All prime numbers?”

“Could be coincidence?” Valeri said. “And what about these markings? They don’t match anything we’ve seen before—”

“Blast the markings!” Asiah said. “You can’t tell me you don’t see a pattern. Even the commodore confirms it: the bombardment matrix is virtually identical. The weapons’ signatures and radiation levels are a near match from what we found on Trappist and Pallas. You know this.”

“We weren’t sent here to guess, Asiah. We were sent here to find evidence.”

“And we have it.” Asiah placed an armored hand on his shoulder. “We know who did this, LT. We both do. And we know why!”

The fact was, he didn’t. Not for certain. Not for a fact.

Not enough to prosecute a war.

But what she was insinuating… “If you’re suggesting—”

“I’m not suggesting,” Asiah said. “I’m telling you: Fed-Cor’s been placing these settlements all over Independent territory for years. They wanted to piss them off! They’re trying to start a war.”

Private Barbarà leaned back on his heels, about the only way to look up in a fighting suit, staring up at the bodies hanging from the ceiling. “Looks like they already have.”

Valeri shook his head. It was a good theory: place a colony just close enough to Independent space to make them nervous, really nervous. The Indies would push back, like they always did. Now, when word got back to Vincenze that four settlements were totally annihilated, one-point-seven million colonists dusted—the call for all-out war would be irresistible. Not a single clan in the Guild would refuse the call. The Mercenary Guild would be dragged back into another war, and the Independents, whatever was left of them, would be blown out of existence.

“You really think the Independents would do this—wipe out an entire Federated settlement?”

She shrugged; not easy in an armored suit weighing nearly half a ton. “No, I think the Independents wiped out four settlements. Fed-Cor wanted a war.” She stared upwards, considered the corpses hanging above her. “Looks like they’ve got one.”

And if they happened to hang a few million Federated colonists out to dry in the meantime? Valeri ground his teeth; yeah, that sounded about right.

A chill wind snaked through the rubble, blowing up dust and setting the thirty-seven corpses to swinging. Their dead weight bumped one another, sending them tottering and swaying. Valeri shuddered.

“Begging your pardons, sirs,” Barbarà said, “but can we get the hell out of here? This place is giving me the creeps.”

But Valeri wasn’t ready to go. Not just yet.

Kneeling, he passed his gloved hand through the fine powder that covered the ground. It covered every square spec of the landscape. It didn’t escape him that the dust contained remnants of the planet’s dead inhabitants. He shook his hand, wiped it clean on the armored plating on his leg. Maybe he couldn’t save the colonists, but he wasn’t ready to doom the Federation to another six years of all-out war. The Indies were terrorists, a level of scum even worse than freelancers, but genocide? It simply wasn’t in their MO.

From the harness at his hip he unclipped a palm-sized scanning device, switched it on.

Asiah placed two metal plated hands on her hips. “And what do you think you’re going to find with that?”

“Answers, Corporal,” Valeri said. “Tell the rest of the platoon to finish their sweep then head back to the drop ship.”

“That’s not our mission, sir: rescue the colonists, secure any surviving assets and return them to the Guild for compensation. The colonists are dead, and, well I don’t see any assets.”

“I’ll meet up with you as soon as I finish here.”

“With all due respect, LT,” Asiah said, clamping an armored hand on his arm. “I’ll stay and share the risk.”

“Corporal—”

Lieutenant!” More softly, she said, “I ain’t going to be the one who has to report your dead-sorry-ass to your grandmother when we get home without you. You follow? Better to die here than suffer her wrath.”

At the mention of his grandmother, Valeri winced. It wasn’t a secret who he was—or rather, who she was. She was Admiral Marylyn Cairistìne Lawther, Condottiere of the Mercenary Guild, and probably the second-most powerful person in the Federation of Corporate Enterprises. He knew what the women and men in his command must think, that he only had this position because of her, but he was determined to prove them wrong.

“Sorry, Corporal, but we still don’t know what happened here. I’m not going to expose the women and men of my command to any unforeseen danger.”

Asiah grinned. “We’re drop-jocks, LT. Unforeseen danger’s what we—”

“Lieutenant? Albors here. I’m picking up something…signals, small, moving in from the east.”

“Survivors?” Barbarà said hopefully; there’d be a bonus for any colonist rescued.

Valeri doubted it.

“This…it doesn’t make sense, sir. I just scanned that sector.”

Stepping up to his side, Asiah linked her comms. “Take it slow, Albors, by the numbers. What are you picking up?”

“There was nothing out there, sir—sirs. I swear it. But now…I’m seeing three—make that seven! Goddamnit, I’m scanning sixteen signatures!”

Valeri heard Asiah curse at his side. “Specifics, Albors. I want a precise fix; speed and bearing.”

Valeri heard the muffled sound of Albors breathing. She was on the run; heading toward it, or away, he didn’t know.

“…definitely sixteen. I’m reading sixteen signals—too small for vehicles or sub-orbitals. They’re on the ground, moving… Sir, I’m clocking them at one-sixty-seven-point-seven KPH.”

“So much for survivors,” Barbarà said. “Ain’t no lily-soft settlers moving like that.”

“Could be some of ours,” Asiah said. “Speed’s about right for powered armor.”

Valeri shook his head. His platoon was spread out, continuing their sweep through the rubble. All seventeen of his troopers’ signals showed brightly in his HUD; location, ECG, body temperature. He had readings on all of them. Private Albors showed on the far left flank. Whatever was out there, whatever was coming at her, it wasn’t one of them.

Raising her own palm-scanner, Asia held it in the direction Albors indicated. She shook it in her hand and gave it a good whack. “Well, I’m not seeing anything. She probably just scanned debris blown from the wind. I swear, Albors, if you scanned another tumbleweed—”

Then, just like that, Albors’ signal went dark. All her telemetry flat-lined at once. Valeri replayed the last ten seconds to verify: no spike in heart rate or blood pressure to indicate a fight, or even a warning. Just nothing.

Barbarà’s gasp echoed in their comms. “Jesus…”

Valeri and Asiah exchanged glances.

Without waiting for a response, Valeri sprinted, crashing through the rubble of the habitat using all his suit’s available power to shove aside every bit of debris in his way, not stopping to worry about what he was dislodging or might come crashing down on him. Once in the clear, he locked in on Albors’ last signal and accelerated to the suit’s maximum speed of one-hundred-and sixty kph. You didn’t run in a fighting suit as much as you leapt and soared above the scorched surface.

Through his helmet’s speakers he heard Asiah’s breathing as she hurried after him. Her armored footfalls sounded close on his heels. She was already signaling commands to the rest of the platoon, splitting them into three columns and fanning out in a flanking maneuver to converge on Albors’ last known location, not four hundred meters away.

They covered the distance in long sweeping strides, pausing at the edge of a wide crater. Whatever structure had existed here, it had suffered a direct hit. The entire building had been blown apart. Several fractured slabs of permacrete were all that was left of the building’s superstructure. The slabs lay teetering at steep angles, their monolithic forms casting long shadows into the crater below.

Albors, or what was left of her, lay at the center of the crater. She was sprawled across a splintered slab of permacrete, her back broken, her arm severed below the elbow, her hand lying in the blackened earth near her feet, still clutching her weapon.

The sensors of Valeri’s armored suit kept up their active scans. If there was something—or someone—down there, even hiding amongst the rubble, he’d see it.

“Sir—Valeri!” Asiah said. “Her head…?”

Valeri saw it too. Just like the bodies from the habitat, her head was gone. Not just sliced off or severed, it was…gone.

“What the hell would do that?” This from Private Barbarà.

“Animal?” Chalmers piped in.

“Look around. There ain’t no animals here, Barbie.”

“Don’t call me that!”

“Blast it, keep the comms clear, asshats!” Asiah ordered.

Always cool, Valeri heard the nervousness in her voice. He felt it too. He keyed her private channel. “Form a perimeter. Keep the platoon to high ground. If something moves, blast it.”

“And where the hell do you think you’re going?”

He nodded ahead. “Down there. I’m not leaving her behind.”

Scrambling, sliding down the loose shale, Valeri descended into the pit. A small avalanche stirred behind him; he didn’t need to look to know Asiah had ignored his orders and was following him down.

Valeri spun, searching the shadows, scanning. Nothing showed on thermal or electrical imaging, and nothing on infrared. Only the crumbled and buckled walls of the surrounding tower answered back. He didn’t bother ordering her back to the safety of the perimeter. Truth be told, he was glad to have her at his side. Who better to have his back than a fully-armed, badass orbital-trooper?

Four leaps took him to the center of the pit. He chanced a glance upward, saw half of his platoon looking down. Their shoulder-mounted lights flashed in the dark. Albors lay dead center, sprawled over what had to be one of the structure’s main pillars. Her back was broken, splayed at a sickening angle. Taking her one good arm, he hoisted her over his shoulders, the knees of his powered armor nearly buckling under the half-ton weight of her combat armor.

Asiah unslung her rifle. Sweeping back and forth, she searched the shadows, her finger twitching on the trigger. “Begging your pardon, LT, I think it’s time we bug the hell out of here.”

“I think you may be right—”

If he hadn’t had the external mics on his suit switched on he’d never have heard it: the telltale ching of over-tensed metal. If he hadn’t been looking right at her, he never would have seen that micro-thin filament of metallic cord snap out from the shadows.

More than thirty meters long, the threadlike cord shot out, straight and level to coil around the armored collar of her neck. Asiah jerked to a halt, as if at the end of a tether. Her eyes bulged wide, first in realization, then in terror. Her weapon fell from her hands as they flailed and grasped for the cord tightening about her neck. In desperation she grabbed hold, only to slice off all eight of her fingers and one thumb, the filament slicing through her armor as if it were paper. Then, the cord tensed, pulled, and just like Albors, Asiah’s head was lifted free of her shoulders, sailing, rolling, bouncing sickeningly across the cratered floor until it disappeared into the shadows.

The silvery, whisper-thin cable, along with her head, were gone.

Cold sweat trickled down Valeri’s forehead and into his eyes. Asiah’s body fell forward, landed with a thud. All her telemetry lights went dim, then dark. And not just hers. Seven more signals winked out in that same instant. Eight mercenary soldiers, almost half the women and men in his command, dead in an instant, their bodies tumbling down the embankment.

And it was all he could do to gape, helplessly.

The chatter of small arms fire snapped him back from the brink—the women and men of his platoon firing back. Years of brutal training took over. Shirking off the weight of Albors, Valeri used all the power of his suit to leap upward and back. The leap took him out of the pit, landing atop one of the higher slabs left standing. Gauze rifle at the ready, he searched for a target, anything. Finding nothing, he fired blind, not stopping until he’d emptied an entire magazine.

Forcing calm—first into himself, and then his voice—he called out, “Barbarà, Zlatan, lay down suppressing fire. Everyone else, fall back to the LZ. Now!”

The order was pointless. Three more signals went dark, Barbarà’s included. The others were already on the run. Fumbling a new magazine into his rifle, he almost missed it: movement, four figures, bursting from the cover of the shadows.

Coming straight at him. Fast.

Until now he hadn’t had time to consider who his foe was—at least not beyond the obvious: Independents. He’d fought his share of Indies, but Independents were just terrorists, woman and men, guerrilla fighters sworn to bring down Fed-Cor. But what he saw…

It wasn’t their speed that surprised him; he could run more than one hundred kilometers an hour in his powered armor over short distances. But these figures weren’t wearing armor. It didn’t look like they were wearing any protection at all, not against the rain of ordnance fired their way, not even against the radiation permeating the surface of Wolf TEN61c. Their black clothing appeared light, even flimsy, more of a second skin than pure armor. Yet their movements were as fluid as any dancer, and their speed was impossible.

They didn’t even have weapons, just the long metallic tethers which they wielded to deadly effect.

And their skin? Maybe it was just the gain of his night vision cranked up against the darkness, but their flesh looked light, inhumanely pale.

A soldier next to him unloaded eighteen rounds, high explosives that landed right in their midst. Nothing. No effect. Wherever the grenades landed, those figures, those wraiths, they simply weren’t there.

But they weren’t wraiths, were they. Whatever they were, as strange as they might appear, they were human. His suit’s scans showed as much. And that meant they could be killed.

Lt. Valeri Lawther leveled his weapon, sighted and fired.

Welcome to Stosie Prime

Because I’m a sucker for punishment, I’m posting another rough draft  of a chapter from the upcoming Girls From Alcyone IV: Embers of Alcyone. Did I mention this is from the rough, working draft?

Like all my draft scenes and chapters, things may change or be eliminated all together. Names may change…or may have even been intentionally altered to disguise certain revelations. But even saying that, I’m saying too much.

I hope you enjoy it.

Embers of Alcyone (working title)

Chapter X: Stosie Prime

(working draft scene)

copyright 2017 by Cary Caffrey

 

June 9, 2355

Kolchis City, Stosie Prime. Unclaimed Space.

He was being followed.

It took all of Riku’s wits to keep his pace even and steady. He didn’t dare run or bolt—which was precisely what his wits were telling him to do now. More than two years had passed since he’d felt that familiar tingling at the base of his spine. Two years since he’d dared to think himself safe, or that his enemies had given him up for dead.

He should have known better. He was a fool and he knew it. But fool or not, that tingling—the unmistakable tightening of the muscles—was back.

Cursing, he did his best to navigate the crowded street. His eyes darted back and forth between each of the passersby, the narrow alleyways, people lurking under neon-lit awnings. They were a miserable lot. Perhaps even more miserable than he was. Soaked and sullen, their worn shoes sloshed through the deep puddles. Shoulder to shoulder, they slogged along, jostling each other as they did their best to make their ways, all of them wanting to be left alone, just as he wanted. Though in Riku’s case that was no longer possible.

They’d found him.

Pushing through the crowd, Riku kept waiting for one of them to reach out and grab him and haul him down. Or worse, kill him outright. But of course, none of them did. They didn’t even bother to look up., didn’t seem to notice him at all. To a woman and man, they kept their hands thrust deep into their frayed pockets, their heads down, their collars turned up, as if that might help protect them from the heavy rains that pummeled each and every one of them.

The narrow alleys of the barrio acted as a cattle chute, pushing the mob of pedestrians even closer together, and closer to the walls of the stacks of shanties. Water streamed down, pouring over the ledges of the sheetmetal rooftops soaking Riku as he sidestepped a heavyset man. This did, however, grant him the opportunity to flash a glance behind him.

Riku spotted what he needed: the man in the grey canvas coat. It was the same man he’d seen in the Tubeway as he’d left the train. But this time he wasn’t alone. There was a woman at his side. She was definitely with him. No question. And they were both looking his way.

Not just looking, Riku realized. They were coming for him.

There wasn’t any point in pretending any longer. They’d seen him, just has he’d seen them. Turning, Riku ran, shoving his way through the crowd. Angered pedestrians pushed back at him as he tried to shove them aside. He heard a woman shout, and then a man as he reached for him. Riku shrugged off his grip, then ducked the blow as a fist came toward him. As much as the tussle slowed him, at least it was slowing his pursuers, as well.

The pedestrianway was no good, too crowded. Riku made for the street, darting and weaving between the crawling ground traffic. Cars, hovering on their repulsors skidded, breaking, honking their anger. A young woman risked the soaking rains to stick her head out her window long enough to favor Riku with a few choice epithets. She waved a middle finger before moving on.

Crossing the thoroughfare, Riku ducked low, doing his best to disappear into the crowd of pedestrians on the other side. Practically on all fours now, he scurried behind the stall of a vegetable vendor, darting for the dark opening of the alley to his right. The alley was filled with refuse and waste—human, judging by the smell—but at least he was clear of the rabble behind him.

Riku ran. Not for freedom—he’d given up any notions of freedom long, long ago—but to the one place he knew he had to go. Home.

He didn’t doubt that his pursuers would follow. If they’d found him here in the markets then it was just as likely that they knew where he lived. But that didn’t matter. He had to make certain she was all right. It was his fault she was here in the first place. If not for him, she’d still be on Earth in that factory. A slave, perhaps, but a safe slave, fed and clothed.

If anything happened to her…

Four blocks. Around the corner. Up the rusted fire escape. Through the open window. No lights. That was good. Reya was smart. She knew better than turn the lights on at night. With luck, she was inside and waiting for him. She might even be asleep. Yes, of course she was. She would be there waiting for him. He’d wake her. They’d pack what they could carry. And then they would run. They were used to running. They were good at it.

Riku practically rolled over the open windowsill to collapse in a dripping heap on the cracked plastic floor of their meager rooming apartment. Lying on his back, breathing in lungfuls of air, he called out.

“Reya!”

Three lights flicked on—handheld torches. The beams were blindingly bright and focused. They shone down on him.

Rolling onto his knees, Riku reached for the small hideout pistol in his pocket—only to feel the sharp crack of a steel-toed boot smack against his chin. The blow was enough to lift him from his feet and send him tumbling backwards. Hands were on him, pummeling him, driving him down. He wasn’t even aware of the small pistol being yanked from his grasp.

“Enough!” A low voice from the dark.

Panting, Riku lifted his hand, doing his best to shield his eyes against the glare of the lights. Bloodied and bruised, he was only vaguely aware of the footfalls; a man walking toward him.

Wiping the blood from his mouth, Riku looked up. The man stepped in front of the others, blotting out the lights they held. Riku saw him in a dark silhouette. It took all his strength to focus. He expected to see the man who’d tailed him from the train, but this was someone else, though who it was, he had no idea.

Whoever he was, he was young. Younger than Riku. And tall. Riku saw he was easily nearing seven feet. As impressive as his towering height was, that wasn’t what struck Riku. It was his eyes. The irises were milky white. And his skin… Riku gave a gasp. His flesh was pale, ghostly white, like porcelain or fine paper. Staring at him, Riku knew this man, this creature, was anything but delicate. As white as those eyes were, there was a fierceness to them. Those eyes had seen things, and what they had glimpsed was the stuff of nightmares.

“Who—who are you?”

Ignoring the question, the creature reached behind him. He grabbed Riku by his collar and hauled him up until his feet left the floor.

“Where is she?” The voice was a low, rasping purr, like someone not used to speaking aloud. “Tells us.”

Riku blinked his confusion. Where…? Then the realization set in. If they had to ask, then they didn’t have her yet. Reya was still free, and he would tell them nothing.

“I won’t ask you again,” the creature said. “Where?

“She has nothing to do with this. Leave her be.”

The creature tilted his head. Like a dog sniffing its prey, he bent his head closer. “Reya?”

“That must be the girl’s name,” another voice said—it was a woman’s voice. Riku craned his neck and glimpsed her. Nearly as tall as the thing that held him—her skin just as pale, her eyes just as milky white. She swung the light she held, illuminating the corner of the room.

Huddled in shadows, bound and gagged, was a young woman. Terrified eyes glanced up at him.

Reya!

“Let her go. She hasn’t done anything—ughh—

The blow caught him hard, slamming into his shoulder and driving him to his knees. Riku heard the brack as his clavicle shattered. The blow felt like it had been delivered with all the mechanical might of a jackhammer. And the pain…it was like nothing he’d felt before.

The creature reached down and took hold of his chin, tilting his head upright. He pointed to the girl in the corner. “Whether she dies or walks out of here is entirely up to you.”

Cursing his frightened whimpering, Riku did his best to hold himself together, not to panic. He was alive. Reya was alive. Where there was life there was still a chance. His eyes darted from figure to figure. There were three of them in. The man holding him and two women. They were all dressed in the same black fatigues.

“I know who you are,” Riku croaked through choking coughs, spitting out blood. “I know you. You’re Andraste. You’re from Alcyone.”

The fist smashed down again, beating him all the way to the floor. Riku was only vaguely aware of Reya’s terrified screams from the corner.

“No,” the creature said. “We are not from Alcyone.”

“Then…then who are you?” With one of his eyes swollen shut, Riku did his best to glance up. Staring at the creature holding him, another more pressing question occurred to him. “What are you?”

“Your salvation,” the creature answered.

“What do you want?”

“With you? Nothing. It is your sister we are interested in.”

“Suko?”

For the first time in what felt like years, Riku Tansho permitted himself a smile. It was small, only the corners of his mouth turning up. He even chuckled, though that merely caused him to wince in pain from his broken bones.

“Suko? If you’re looking for Suko,” Riku said defiantly, his bloody teeth gleaming crimson in the light of the held torches, “then I hope you find her. I really do. She eats little vermin like you for breakfast. And what she doesn’t finish, she’ll feed to her bitch. They’ll pick their teeth with your bones.”

The fist cuffed him hard across the jaw. The only thing that kept him upright was the hand that grasped his throat.

“Not Suko,” the creature purred.  “Hanako. We want your sister Hanako. Hanako Tansho.”

100k Is Messing With My Head!

Perhaps a testament to my laziness, I finally sat down and tallied up some sales numbers (first time in a year). What I found (106k books?) has left me a little dumbstruck (Confounded? Nonplused? Speechless?). I mean, I knew this number was coming up, and I know it’s totally small potatoes in the grand scheme of things; many other indie-authors have achieved far, far greater numbers. Still, it’s kind of messed me up. It’s like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop, like I know that at any moment that ‘person-of-authority’ will come up and tap me on the shoulder and say, “Just kidding. It wasn’t you, it was that other guy.”

Imposter syndrome aside, one thing is 100% clear: I owe you guys (you know who you are – readers, reviewers, friends, authors and allies) a really, really big THANK YOU!

So, yes, thank you! I really mean that. Thank you for slapping down your money. Thank you for taking a chance, and thank you for taking the time to read all my nonsense.

I promise there’s more to come. Lots and lots. And sooner than later. Sigrid Novak has many journeys and adventures to come.

Katayoun (draft scene from TGfA IV)

I’ve been silent on all things TGfA the past few months (no secret there), but I thought it was time to break that silence. Rather than tell you what I’ve been up to, or what might be in store for Sigrid and Suko, I thought it might be fun to start posting some scenes from the rough draft.

This scene introduces a potential new character in Katayoun (Kat for short). Whether or not Kat survives the editing and rewriting process is anyone’s guess, but here she is!

NOTE: This excerpt is raw, rough and unedited, and certain to be filled with plenty of errors. Read at your own peril.

Embers of Alcyone (working title)

Chapter X: Katayoun

copyright 2016 & 2017 by Cary Caffrey

“Ah! Look who it is,” the girl named Miriam said. She was eighteen and the oldest of initiates, something she made certain none of the girls ever forgot. “We were just starting to wonder. We thought we’d have to start without you.”

Out of breath, flushed and sweating from having to run all the way from the training area by the beach, Katayoun Bahrami came skidding and sliding around the corner of the billet. Still dripping from her twenty kilometer swim, she left puddles along the bamboo flooring; puddles she needed to mop up before the night’s assignments were dispensed, else there would be hell to pay.

“Forget something?” another girl asked. The girl looked her up and down before tossing a crumpled garment at her.

Katayoun caught the small article of clothing in her left hand, letting it hang from the tip of her finger. It was her bathing suit; identical in every way to the suits most of the other girls wore on their marathon swims. Kat tossed it back. Inwardly, she rolled her eyes. She, of course, wasn’t wearing one, just the towel she wore wrapped around herself. She never wore the suit. There was no shame in that, of course. And, their headmistress never wore one either, so why should she?

Let them have their five minutes of fun. Five minutes, and it would all be over. Five more minutes of snickering and torture, and then she could shut them up for good.

Kat folded her arms, waiting for the onslaught.

“She thinks she’s Lady Novak,” one said.

“As if,” said another.

“Nobody likes a suck-up, Kat.”

“And don’t you get cold?” another girl asked. “The water’s freezing this time of night!”

“She looks cold,” a girl behind her said. “Kat, you’re turning blue.”

In fact, she was cold, standing there, fresh from the ocean, dipping wet with sea water, her hair plastered to her back—not that she’d ever admit this to any of them. But the cold water never seemed to stop their headmistress from swimming each and every day and night. Twenty kilometers. Rain or shine. If it didn’t stop her it wasn’t going to stop Kat either.

“I don’t get cold,” Kat lied.

She might not feel the cold,” Miriam said, “but we do.”

Miriam was referring of course to their headmistress, the Lady Sigrid Novak. Upgraded by a decade of complete genetic restructuring, augmented by a dizzying array of bionic enhancements, women like her mistress would never feel cold from something as benign as the ocean waters of New Alcyone, or the wilting heat from the midday sun when Pegasi was at its zenith. But, of course, Kat had only just begun her treatments, and was years behind the other girls around her; something Miriam wasn’t about to let her forget.

Miriam was circling her now, studying her. Kat thought she looked quite pleased with herself too. “You’re not fully Activated yet, Kat. Not until you graduate. If you even graduate at all.”

Kat chewed firmly on the inside of her mouth—anything to keep herself from arguing back. How many years had she lived with these same girls in this billet? Four—five years? Long enough to have learned her lesson.

Ignoring the snickers and stares from the other girls, she pushed through the group surrounding her, moving to her bunk. She dressed quickly, pulling on the black one piece uniform that was standard dress for all the girls.

Well, not quite standard. If her uniform happened to sport two scarlet slashes across the arms and shoulders—the standard markings of the Kimuran mercenaries—well, that was just coincidence as well.

Let them have their laughs. It didn’t bother her. Not really. Kat had other things on her mind.

She pulled on her boots, not bothering to lace them up and headed out into the night.

In her haste to get away she hadn’t bothered to dry her hair and she shivered in the cool night air. The command and communication center wasn’t far off. Nothing was far from anything on their small island home, just up a sandy trail, not more than four hundred meters. The trail took her through the cluster of habitats; rows of small wooden structures propped up on stilts above the sandy ground, with peaked tiled roofs.

The C&C was atop a small rise. She entered, finding herself in the small darkened room. She was glad to be here, glad to be away from the snickering of her billet-mates. Gladder still they let her come, watch and observe. Mercenaries and technicians sat in silence at their consoles, intent on their duties. It was their task to monitor the surrounding space, keeping in touch with the handful of ships charged with patrolling in orbit above New Alcyone, always watchful, always vigilant.

There had been a time when their small colony had been safe, its location hidden from the rest of the federation. But all that had changed years ago. Everything had changed after Procyon, and not for the better. Now, one ever knew what might emerge from the warp relay, that spindly halo-like construct parked in orbit some 35,000 kilometers overhead. It was their gateway to the galaxy. But for others, it was also the way in.

Mostly, the only thing to emerge in their space were the transport ships, vessels friendly to the Kimuran mercenary group, vessels laden with life-sustaining supplies.

Mostly.

Kat took her familiar place, standing to the back of the command center on the small raised platform. She didn’t have any official duties here. Mostly, she just wanted to get away from the other girls, but she was also fascinated by the Kimuran soldiers. They were so professional, so dedicated to their matriarch.

At least, this group was.

Kat had heard the stories. There had been a time—before she’d ever been brought here—where five times the number of mercenaries had lived here. Back then, their ranks had numbered in the tens of thousands, with fleets of ships parked in orbit. But that was before Procyon. That was before the Night Witch.

Kat shivered. Four thousand Kimuran marines lost. All of them killed by…

No. Kat refused to believe that. Her mistress hadn’t killed those women and men. She couldn’t have. It wasn’t possible. It was the Independents. But of course, not all of the Kimurans agreed.

Procyon had torn everything in half, ripped their alliances apart. Now, fewer than two full companies of mercenaries remained here, and New Alcyone’s once grand fleet of more than one hundred frontline ships was reduced to a mere seventeen. Most of those weren’t much more than converted freighters and scout-chasers. But their crews, the women and men who’d stayed behind to serve Lady Hitomi Kimura, their loyalty to her, to their home, it was absolute.

And so was Kat’s. Oh, Kat knew what they called her. Her mistress might be the Night Witch, but she had saved Kat from…

Kat shuddered, quickly pushing the memory aside. That was the past. She was here now. She was free. And she would serve her till the day she died.

Red lights flashed on the forward monitor, and Kat looked up. Relay traffic. Incoming. Somewhere above her, high up in orbit, a ship had emerged from warp space, right here in their system.

Kat had to stop herself from rushing to the monitor. That wasn’t her place. The duty officer knew what she was doing. Kat observed her practiced grace as her fingers brushed the smooth surface of her console, tapping various switches, scanning the streams of incoming data. Her demeanor never wavered, still the calm, cool professional.

Unlike Kat’s.

“Is it a ship? Are we being invaded?” Kat blurted, unable to bite her tongue any longer. She cringed as she heard her voice crack at the question—like some bloody cadet, jumping out of her boots at hearing her first alarm.

The duty officer, swiveled around in her chair, turning to face her. Kat saw the grin on her face—and the small data module she held in her outstretched hand.

“It’s only a courier, kid. Message coming through the relay.”

Inwardly, Kat cursed. Invasion? Phhtt. It was just a bloody courier, the small drone ships used for carrying message traffic through the system of warp relays, and Kat had reacted as if the Visigoths were charging over the hillside.

The officer must have seen the look on her face, the embarrassment at her outburst. The officer leaned forward, placing the data module into her hand. Then, she added with a wink. “But…it is marked urgent. Gor her eyes only. Perhaps you might deliver this to your mistress. Personally.”

Kat closed her fingers slowly over the small module. Whatever message the drone had brought with it, she now held that message in her hand. And she was to deliver it to…

“You—you want me to take this to—to her? To Lady Novak?”

The duty officer’s grin widened to a smile. “To Lady Hitomi actually.”

Kat blanched at hearing the name. “To—to Lady Hitomi? Me?”

The officer nodded. “Mm-hmm. Unless you prefer I send for her personal—”

Kat snatched the module from her outstretched hand. “No! No, I’ll take it. I’ll take it right now.” Yet for some reason Kat’s feet refused to cooperate. To see Lady Hitomi, their matriarch, in person…

The duty officer gave her a gentle nudge toward the door. “I wouldn’t keep her waiting. Not if I were you.”

The Audible Witch

The Girls from Alcyone III, Codename Night Witch has arrived on Audible. (want to find out how to get a free copy? Read on!)

To celebrate the release of Night Witch I am giving away Twenty copies of the Audible audiobooks (five copies of The Girls from Alcyone, five of The Machines of Bellatrix and ten copies of Codename: Night Witch.

To be eligible to get one, all you have to do is leave a comment below and let me know which book you would like. All I ask in return is that you post a short review on Audible. I ask this because reviews are gold for us Indie Authors (they really are).

That’s it! That’s all!

Cheers to all of you, for your support, and thanks as always stopping by.

Cary

Audible Machines

It’s official. Today the audiobook version of The Machines of Bellatrix went live on Audible and Amazon. Just like with book one, the production and voicing of ‘Machines’ is being handled by the lovely and talented Kristin KJ James — who in my mind has become Sigrid Novak. I can’t wait for you guys to hear her work. You can check out a sample here if you haven’t already had a chance to catch any of it.

POSTSCRIPT: Work on the audiobook version of book three, Codename: Night Witch, has all but wrapped. Expect more news on this and its release soon!

Cheers,

Cary

THE GIRLS FROM AUDIBLE!

THE GIRLS FROM ALCYONE ARRIVES ON AUDIBLE.COM & iTunes!

Some of you know this already, but for those that don’t, the entire Alcyone series is being produced for Audible and iTunes. Work turning books one and two into audiobooks is  done! The Girls from Alcyone launched last week. It’s available right now on Audible, Amazon & iTunes. Machines From Bellatrix will be released in a few weeks, with Codename: Night witch following soon after.

Production for the entire series is being handled by the amazingly talented Kristin ‘KJ’ James. She’s done (and she’s continuing to do!) a wonderful job performing everything, and I can’t wait for you to hear what she’s done.
This has been a thoroughly exciting experience for me. Getting to hear someone else interpret the books and the characters, bringing them fully to life, has been awesome.
It’s been a blast putting these together. I hope you enjoy them too!
Cheers!

The Girls from Audible

As Bernie would say, huge day today. Huge! Why? Because we just signed off on the completed production of the audiobook for The Girls from Alcyone. And…on the very same day we completed production for book two The Machines of Bellatrix.

That’s right. The audiobooks for books one and two are done, and we’ll be starting production on Codename: Night Witch right away.

Production for the entire series is being handled by the talented Kristin James (KJ the Voice Actor). It’s been a real pleasure to work with Kristin. She’s done an amazing job performing both books (this is definitely a performance, not a reading), and I can’t wait for her to start the third. Truth be told, I’m even more excited for her to get to work on Book IV (The Children of Karakoram? Rangers of Alcyone? Not sure yet. Gotta’ finish it first).

The Girls from Alcyone launches first in a couple of weeks, with two and three launching soon after. All three will be available on Audible.com, Amazon and iTunes. More news to come.

Audio Comes Alive!

While work is progressing on TGfA IV (tentatively titled Rangers of Alcyone, or who knows, maybe The Children of Karakoram – that just came to me last night), I thought I’d take a moment to shine the light on something new and (to me, at least) totally exciting we’ve got in the works. Yes, we’re producing the entire Girls from Alcyone series as audiobooks!

SIG SOLO WEB

The production is being handled by an amazing and talented voice actor and producer Kristin ‘KJ’ James. Listening to her work has been giving me chills. She’s doing an incredible job delivering a performance that feels more like a one-person radio play, than some dull, dry reading.

The first of the series, The Girls from Alcyone, is nearly in the can, and we’re getting ready to dive into The Machines of Bellatrix.

I’ll have much more news on this soon – release dates, and what have you.