Veil of Shadows (Book 2 of The Empire of Bones Saga)

Veil of Shadows

Book Two of The Empire of Bones Saga

by

Terry Mixon

Veil of Shadows

It’s always darkest before the dawn!

In
Empire of Bones
, Commander Jared Mertz and Princess Kelsey scored a stunning victory over the savage Pale Ones. Yet they paid a terrible price for it, one that left their ship crippled and changed the Princess forever.

As Kelsey struggles to master the combat enhancements the Pale Ones forcibly implanted inside her and Jared works feverishly to resurrect an ancient battlecruiser, they discover the Pale Ones aren’t as defeated as they seemed.

Jared and Kelsey race to unravel the secrets behind the ancient rebellion that destroyed galactic civilization and thwart unseen foes determined to take their new ship and their lives. If they fail, an entire planet dies.

Works by Terry Mixon

The Empire of Bones Saga

Empire of Bones

Veil of Shadows

Command Decisions
(December 2014)

Anthologies Terry Has Work In

Dirty Magick: Los Angeles

Short Fiction

The Man Who Stole History
(Alternate History/Time Travel)

War Fish
(Military Science Fiction)

Do you want Terry to email you when he publishes a new book or when one goes on sale? Go to
TerryMixon.com
and sign up. Those are the only times he’ll contact you. No spam.

Veil of Shadows

Copyright 2014 by Terry Mixon

Published by Yowling Cat Press

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including information storage and/or retrieval systems, or dissemination of any electronic version, without the prior written consent of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review, and except where permitted by law.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover design and composition by Donna Mixon

Cover Image copyrights:

Deposit Photos / Andreus (Andrea Danti)

Deposit Photos / innovari (Luca Oleastri)

NASA and NSSDC / Jeff Hester and Paul Scowen

Print edition design and composition by John McCarthy

Follow him on Twitter: @SurfsideJack

He may be reached at: [email protected]

Logo Design by Emily Karnes

She may be reached at: [email protected]

Dedication

This book wouldn’t exist without the support of my wife Donna and daughter Felina. I love you both very much.

Acknowledgements

First up, I want to thank my family for putting up with all my writerly nonsense. I know it can be difficult with a hermit clattering away on the keyboard in his own little bubble. Your support made this book possible.

Next, many thanks to my podcasting co-hosts: Justin Macumber, Paul E. Cooley, and Scott Roche. Talking with you every week about writing helps keep me rolling. And thanks for holding me accountable for producing content. We all know that the biggest challenge in writing is getting your butt in the chair.

Finally, to those who beta read this novel: Tracy Bodine, Michael Falkner, Cain Hopwood, Kristopher Neidecker, Bob Noble, Jon Paul Olivier, Felix R. Savage, Christa Wick, and Jason Young. I would look like such an amateur without your keen eyes and incisive commentary. Thank you so much.

Special thanks go to John McCarthy for formatting the print version of this book. And for putting up with me. Seriously. Thanks also go to Tracy Bodine for making a final pass proofreading this book. I’m deeply indebted to you both.

Numerous others have participated through comments in one way or another. Thank you.

Chapter One

Kelsey Bandar, second in line to the Imperial Throne of the Terran Empire, fell with a crash loud enough to turn every head in the physical therapy center. She lay there in the deafening silence, staring at the metal support bar in her hand. She’d ripped it completely out of the floor. And
bent
it.

“Really?” The blonde noblewoman snorted bitterly and dropped the mangled bar. It landed with a substantial clang. She rolled onto her back and stared at the white-tiled ceiling.

“That may be a first for me,” Doctor Lily Stone, Chief Medical Officer of the Imperial Terran Fleet destroyer
Athena
, said dryly. “Normally, the patient gives out before the equipment. You’ll forgive me if I don’t offer you a hand up.”

“I suppose I can’t blame you for wanting to keep your arms attached to your body.” Kelsey stretched her back. The cool floor felt good. “How the hell do the Pale Ones learn to walk without someone helping them?”

Those forcibly enhanced savages certainly had no problems walking. Or fighting. Kelsey was glad her friends had rescued her before the monsters turned her into one of them, but something wasn’t right with the old Empire equipment the bastards had put inside her. Even after a week, she still couldn’t do simple things without destroying everything around her.

With a few exceptions, the hospital staff gave her a wide berth. Poor physical control and super strength didn’t mix. The damage she’d done to the bar proved their caution wise.

The dark-haired doctor’s face showed her concern and sympathy. “They learn to walk the hard way, I’d imagine. Move before the others do horrible things to you.”

“That would be a powerful motivator,” Kelsey admitted. “While I’m glad that isn’t one of my many problems, I’m beginning to suspect that last machine you saved me from did something to help them adjust more quickly. In addition to enslaving everyone it operated on, of course.”

The doctor glanced at the two Imperial marines standing nearby. “Gentlemen, if you’d be so kind as to get the Princess back into her grav chair.”

Kelsey held out her arms and the two men moved her into the floating chair with no trouble whatsoever. At barely one point five meters, Kelsey wasn’t hard to move. Astonishingly, the full-body modification had only brought her up to fifty kilograms, though she wasn’t sure she should count it as part of her real weight.

Grav chairs normally had a small control for the patient to direct their own movement, but Lily had removed it after a hand spasm had sent Kelsey into a wall. Technically, Kelsey had removed it herself. Much like she’d uprooted the support bar. Lily promised they’d reinstall the controls once Kelsey’s fine motor skills improved. If they
ever
improved.

Since the Pentagarans hadn’t managed to miniaturize the requisite grav drives, the supply of grav chairs was limited to what the Terrans had brought with them. Kelsey hoped they could fix the one she’d broken.

Lily used a remote to send Kelsey floating out of the physical therapy center and into the halls of Capital Hospital. The Pentagaran doctors in their bright white smocks, and the nursing staff in a much wider spectrum of colors, nodded and smiled politely as they passed. On the other side of the hall.

“I know it seems like this is taking forever, but you’re improving at an incredible rate. You couldn’t even stand two days ago. Today, you’re walking.”

“For certain values of walking, I suppose,” Kelsey grumbled.

“You fell because you yanked too hard on the support bar. Once you can stay upright, you’ll be walking without any problems.”

“It sounds so simple when you say it like that. I ripped a metal bar right out of the floor. I laugh at the thought of ever handling eggs again.” Her gaze slid over the marines accompanying them. “Or any other…delicate objects.”

“And yet you will,” Lily said firmly. “It’s all a matter of re-learning control. I’m sure that the old Empire marines had no problems with their fine motor skills. We’ll get you back in shape. Just look at how quickly your vision recovered.”

That was true. Kelsey’s vision had stabilized in less than a day. And, honestly, she was improving. She could stand on her own. Mostly. The problems started when she tried to move around on her own. The artificial muscles woven into her natural ones jerked and exerted more force than any five men could bring to bear.

Lily took Kelsey to a room she’d never visited before. It smelled as though someone had been doing construction. That made her wonder again why her eyes had given her trouble, but her senses of hearing and smell hadn’t.

The old Empire surgical machine had put three cranial implants in her head, all connected by thin wires that ran throughout her brain like a roadmap. Her eyes had artificial lenses, and her nose and ears had some kind of modifications. Yet, her senses of hearing and smell seemed normal. What made them different? Just one more question she might never know the answer to.

Kelsey looked around the new room curiously. Someone had laid the room out much like the medical center on
Athena
, but the high ceilings and wide windows common in Pentagaran architecture added a sense of space. Their peoples’ styles complemented one another well.

Several people from
Athena
stood waiting. She saw members of the medical staff and scientific teams present. At their sides were what she assumed to be their Pentagaran counterparts.

A week in the company of their new allies had been educational. They still had so much to learn from one another. One thing was clear, however. Many of the Pentagarans—most really—seemed like wonderful, caring people that were intensely grateful
Athena
had stopped the Pale Ones’ invasion of their solar system.

The price tag had been hideous. Dozens of Fleet personnel and marines killed, hundreds wounded, and
Athena
crippled. Kelsey still couldn’t imagine how they were going to get home, even with the help of their new friends.

From her hospital bed, Kelsey had finalized the official alliance between the Terran Empire and the Kingdom of Pentagar. They’d share every bit of technical data they recovered from the wreck of the old Empire battlecruiser
Courageous
in exchange for the Kingdom’s support. She knew any number of people back home wouldn’t be happy that she’d been so trusting, but the move had felt right.

And, of course, their alliance had a military aspect. No one knew how many systems the Pale Ones occupied. The pre-Fall Terran Empire had been vast before the genocidal civil war that had almost exterminated humanity. The corpses of countless worlds no doubt filled the void once occupied by the greatest civilization that had ever existed.

Jared Mertz, their mission commander and her half-brother, had brought their science ship, the converted freighter
Best Deal,
through the flip point to take a herd of Pentagaran scientists back to study the derelict. The old Empire Fleet battlecruiser was a treasure trove of technology far beyond what either of their civilizations could now manage.

After drifting disabled in space for half a millennium, the ship was slowly coming back to life. Kelsey had heard they’d repaired one of her fusion plants and that the ship was operating under her own power again. Dennis Baxter,
Athena’s
Chief Engineer, had been chortling about it the last time he’d come to visit.

She was glad he had something pleasant to focus on. There were pitifully few of those moments these days.

Kelsey took a deep breath and pushed her dark thoughts away. She’d already flogged herself over the damage she’d caused. Now she had to move on and make up for it.

And to do that she needed to be able to walk. Back to her current problems.

She smiled at the people she knew and nodded to those she didn’t. “It looks like you have a new medical center, Lily.”

“Almost.” The dark-haired doctor stopped the grav chair beside a piece of equipment that Kelsey knew all too well. The old Empire medical device that had mapped her body before the Pale Ones’ implant procedure. Beside it sat the tank that had cut her open and installed everything.

Actually, procedure was too antiseptic a term. It had cut her open while she lay there screaming. She’d passed out before it put all her new hardware inside her, but she still woke from horrible nightmares every night. She suspected the memories would haunt her dreams for the rest of her life.

She mentally shook herself. The third piece of equipment they’d recovered was missing. The one she presumed was supposed to reprogram her implants so that they controlled her, rather than the other way around.