Dark Space: The Invisible War by Jasper T. Scott Read Free Book Online Page B

head swam dizzily. He grimaced and lay his head back against the chair, silently counting backward from 100 to distract himself until it was over.
    100 . . . 99 . . . 98 . . .
    *  *  *
    —THE YEAR 0 AE—
     
    Destra walked through the forest. Leaves, needles, and snow crunched underfoot. Here the snow was a thin patina on the colorful autumn leaves and old brown needles. The forest arced out over their heads in splashes of color, leaving shady patterns on the floor. It was as though winter hadn’t fully come here yet. Up ahead, Digger led the way, while Lessie and Dean kept pace beside her.
    “What are we doing here?” Dean asked in a small, whiny voice. “I want to go home.” He was tired from all the walking, and Destra was willing to bet he hadn’t had enough sleep.
    She turned to him with a smile. He couldn’t have been much older than her own son, Atton. “We’re going to play hide and seek.”
    Dean shot her a suspicious look. “My mom says I can’t talk to strangers.”
    Lessie shushed him with a tousle of his blond hair. “She’s not a stranger, Dean. She’s a friend. She and Digger are going to keep us safe.”
    “Safe?” Dean asked, looking up at his mom with squinty eyes. “Safe from what?”
    Destra smiled. “Safe from the people looking for us. We can’t let them find us, because then we’ll lose.”
    “I don’t care!” Dean said. “I want to go home.”
    “You can’t go home,” Lessie replied, her voice cracking on that last word.
    “Why not?” Dean insisted.
    Lessie abruptly stopped walking. “Because home is gone! It’s blown up! That’s why!” She stood there panting and staring at her son while he stared back at her with wide eyes and a trembling lip.
    Destra frowned. She turned and bent to one knee in front of the boy. “Look, I can see there’s no fooling you, Dean. You’re a smart kid, so I’m going to be honest with you. It’s time for you to grow up now; it’s time for you to be a man. Do you understand?”
    Dean hesitated before nodding his head.
    “Good. Then here’s the truth: everyone’s homes are gone, Dean. There’s nothing left. Everyone who hasn’t already left Roka in a spaceship is being hunted by very bad things, and they’ll kill us unless we hide from them.”
    Dean’s face paled again, and back was the shell-shocked look Destra had seen in the hover, but all things considered, he seemed to be holding it together better than his mother. “What things?” the boy asked.
    “Hoi! You three coming? We’re here!”
    Destra turned to see Digger waiting for them at the top of a short hill; the sun shone down through the trees to silhouette him in an angelic gold light.
    “We’ll be there in a minute!” Destra called back. Speaking to Dean once more, she said, “Come on, be brave little man. Your mother needs you to be.”
    Dean bobbed his head once and then turned to his mother, who was still standing where she’d stopped, watching them with a faraway look in her wide, staring eyes. “Come on, Mommy,” he said, holding out his hand to her. “I’ll protect you.”
    Something rose up inside of Lessie and shook her out of it when her son’s hand touched hers. Her expression softened, and she looked suddenly immensely relieved, as though the burden of lying to her son had been just more than she could bear. She turned to Destra with a shaky smile. “Thank you.”
    Destra shook her head. “Don’t mention it. We’d better go.”
    They hurried to catch up with Digger, and he greeted them with a frown to show his displeasure. “No more unscheduled stops, or I’ll leave you all out in the cold.”
    There was something about the petulant twist to Digger’s lips that Destra didn’t like, but she ignored it and nodded to the unremarkable stretch of forest which lay before them, sprawling down the other side of the small knoll which Digger had climbed.
    “Where’s your hidey hole, Digger? I just see more trees.”
    The man smiled and his