Terror on Terradia

Terror on Terradia

The Cavaliers: Book 5

Scott Ashby

Copyright 2019, The Electric Scroll

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. Published in the United States of America by The Electric Scroll. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the publisher. For information contact The Electric Scroll, 745 N. Gilbert Rd. Ste 124 PMB 197, Gilbert, Arizona, 85234.

The characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and entirely in the imagination of the reader.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

About the Author

Books by Scott Ashby

Cavaliers' Timeline

Connect with me online

Dedication

With gratitude for doctors' waiting rooms, restaurants, motels, and other assorted 'writing rooms' where I hand-penned this in steno pads; without these places, this book would not exist.

Thanks to the patient nurses who waited 'while I finish this sentence' and waiters and waitresses who brought me 'just one more glass of water' as I wrote.

Extra thanks to Blakely who got so excited there was a writer at one of her tables that she said I could sit there and write as long as I wanted to. She was unfailingly positive despite having a difficult night. When reminded that having problems was part of being human, she expressed a desire to be an alien. Blakely, your wish is granted.

Day One

~ 1 1 : 1 5 ~

~ Terradia Orbit: Descending Shuttle ~

JENNA BOUNCED HER FEET AGAINST the shuttle's deck plate, eager for this flight to end. The lieutenant sitting opposite her caught her eye, then looked pointedly at her feet. The lieutenant was right, as a cadet about to graduate from the Academy, she was expected to behave with decorum at all times.

With great effort, Jenna flattened both feet against the floor and calmed herself – at least externally. Internally, she decided, she could be as excited and anxious as she wanted. Emotion wasn't behavior, and the regs only dictated behavior. Just fifteen minutes until she'd make planetfall, then she'd have half a timepart to meet her friends at the Fountain of Peace. It had been eleven years since they'd seen each other. They'd lost contact by the design of higher powers immediately after they'd arrived on Terradia as frightened orphans. It had been easily accomplished – they'd all been simultaneously issued new datapads with new contact codes, and taken away in different directions to who-knew-where. There'd been no way to reestablish contact with each other.

After the way the personnel on the Chobee had treated them on their trip from Decima, they'd guessed there might be something of the like in the works, so they'd vowed to wait eleven years, until they had all reached adulthood, and then meet at the Fountain of Peace in front of the Fellowship Council Hall on Founders' Day at noon. It would be close, but Jenna thought she'd be able to make it on time.

She only hoped her friends would also be there. Would they even remember? She was five years older than they were, and that gap had been a lot bigger when they were eight and thirteen than it was now at nineteen and twenty-four. Even though the whole matter had been classified and they'd been forbidden to speak of the Klodfon raid on Decima and the events that followed, she'd never forgotten.

Jenna clutched the jump bag at her feet tightly with her left hand as she waited for the shuttle to land. Her right hand hovered near the release lever for the safety harness snugged across her hips.

The moment the shuttle came to a complete stop, she popped the release and shot to her feet, heading toward the door. She had an appointment to keep, and she didn't intend to be late.

Since she'd seen her friends, she'd been busy completing her secondary and post-secondary education. Her schoolmates had jeered at her as she strove for – and earned – top-level grades in every class she'd taken.

Now, she'd just finished her first tour of duty on board the Dragonstar Cormorant – her cadet cruise. Tonight, she'd formally graduate from the Academy and be sworn in as an ensign. Her captain and the commander from the Cormorant had already written their recommendations, and her next assignment was already known to everyone concerned – except herself. Cadets were never given their assignment until after they were sworn in. She hoped to be posted to a dragonstar, but she'd take whatever was offered. Nothing could disappoint her. Tonight, she would complete her childhood dream of becoming a cavalier.

She wasn't going out to party with the other graduates afterward. She and her Uncle Xavier already had plans for a quiet celebratory dinner. Now that she was out of school, Xavier was free to give up the ground-based assignment he'd taken when, as her mother's brother and nearest living relative, he took on her care eleven years ago. He'd now been offered command of the dragonstar Octavia, the flagship of the Fellowship's fleet. They'd have one last dinner together celebrating their new assignments before going their separate ways.

For now, Jenna had most of the day free. She didn't have to be anywhere until an hour before graduation. She momentarily considered a stop at cadet quarters to ditch her jump bag, but if she did that, she'd be late to meet her friends. She was sure they wouldn't mind if she still had her jump bag with her. She hurried through the Academy's terminal building at the spaceport and out into the street, moving as fast as she could without actually running. There were plenty of hire-flitters waiting outside, and she climbed into the nearest.

Cadet quarters, Ma'am? the driver asked her.

She smiled. As a cadet, she was the lowest of the low, technically not even a cavalier until she graduated. It was strange, yet nice, to hear the deference given anyone in a cavalier uniform by the civilian population of Terradia.

No, Jenna answered, The Fountain of Peace, outside Fellowship Council Hall.

It's Founders' Day, Ma'am. That entire area's going to be jammed, and many of the streets are going to be closed for the celebration.

Just get me as close as you can.

The driver gave her a two-fingered salute and maneuvered the flitter into traffic.

Jenna checked her chrono – the same one she'd been wearing since she stole it from the stores room on Decima. If the flitter driver hurried, she might still make it on time.

Please, go as fast as you legally can, Jenna said. I have to be there by noon.

The driver nodded and pressed the controls to increase his speed. The flitter shot ahead and momentarily pressed Jenna deeper into the seat cushion.

~ 1 1 : 4 5 ~

~ Terradia: Fellowship Council Hall ~

SOME TEN MINUTES LATER, AND with a quarter-timepart to spare, the driver pulled to a stop.

You've got about three blocks to go, Ma'am, he said, indicating the direction she should walk. This is as close as I'm going to be able to get you.

Thanks.

Jenna pressed her wrist band to the payment plate hanging from the back of the flitter's front seat, flicked her fingers across the screen to give him a tip, and bounded out of the flitter, her left hand still holding her jump bag by its shoulder straps. She flipped it onto her back and settled it in place as she walked swiftly down the street.

A crowd of children played in and around the fountain, and Jenna caught herself searching their faces before she realized she shouldn't be looking for children – the children from Decima she was here to meet would be adults now, just finishing their first year of post-secondary education. They would have a lot of catching up to do.

A handsome, sandy-haired young man wearing the uniform of a first-year cadet stood near the fountain chatting with a woman whose long, dark hair reached nearly to the waist of her medical-student tunic.

The cadet looked up, then grinned broadly and waved to catch Jenna's attention. She acknowledged him with a nod, then continued looking for a larger group of people. There should be six of them. Then the recognition hit her. The cadet was Kevin!

She strode over to him and was surprised that he opened his arms for a hug. When they stepped back from the embrace, he introduced the medical student next to him as Amanda.

You've both grown! Jenna said as she hugged Amanda.

Amanda laughed. What, did you think we'd stay third-graders forever?

I didn't really think about it, Jenna confessed.

You didn't grow much, Kevin said, reaching out and ruffling her dark, shoulder-length hair. Jenna could have given him a hard time for touching a superior officer in such a personal way, but she accepted the gesture out of the friendship and camaraderie it represented.

Let's go in, Amanda said. The others are holding a place in line for us. We thought we'd do the museum tour while we're all here anyway.

Good idea, Jenna said. The three of them linked elbows with Kevin in the middle and moved off toward the main entrance of the Fellowship Council Hall together.

As soon as they joined the others in line, the group made the exchange of their contact codes their first priority, passing their datapads around in the circle until everyone had put their own code into the others' datapads. Now, they would never be separated again.

~ 1 3 : 0 0 ~

~ Council Hall: Chapel of the Fallen ~

THE TOUR DIDN'T TAKE MORE than a timepart. Being Founders' Day, the guides were trying to get as many people in and out of the museum as rapidly as possible.

At the end, the seven lingered in the Chapel of the Fallen as the rest of their tour group left. They would have a few minutes of privacy before the next crowd entered.

John produced likenesses of Suzie and Marcus, though how he'd gotten his hands on them, Jenna couldn't begin to guess. They walked together to the candle garden, and