The Lost Voyager: A Space Opera Novel by A. C. Hadfield Read Free Book Online Page A

around the immediate area. At the far end, part of the roof had collapsed; smashed debris littered the ground. The red sizzling ball struck an angular fidian pile driver’s transparent cabin and dropped.  
    A shadow moved across the far wall. Footsteps echoed around the walls, wind whistled through the gaping hole in the roof. On second inspection, it looked like the roof had taken a hit from a cannon due to the scorch marks on the edge of the downward-twisting metal.  
    Mach ran towards a pile of sacks directly ahead and knelt behind them. He leaned over one, sinking into its soft paper exterior, and scanned for signs of movement. Sanchez split to the right and skidded to the ground five meters away, behind the empty trailer of a small, grounded hover truck.
    The flare continued to throw up bright red light, and it would for another minute unless somebody stamped it out.  
    “Look out!” Sanchez shouted.  
    Mach instinctively swung to face him and ducked. A man in a dark blue corporate atmosphere suit had charged from behind them. He must’ve been hiding behind the air filtration unit by the door.  
    The man fired a laser. It speared to Mach’s left and hit the sacks, sending a puff of dust between them. Mach rolled to one side. The laser fired again, hitting his former position, belching out more of the sacks’ contents.  
    Sanchez, who must have had a clear shot, fired his last flare round. It zipped into the body of their attacker and he dropped to his back. The laser spilled out of his hand and the flare crackled next to his helmet, illuminating his human face.
    Mach immediately trained his rifle, sprinted over, and kicked the weapon away. It spun across the floor and clanked against a distant object. He aimed down at the man’s visor. “Start talking!”
    “You’re going to die,” the man said. “We’re all going to die.”
    Sanchez stamped out the flare with his heavy boot and swept his rifle around the warehouse. “Adira, what’s your location?”
    The distinctive snap of her rifle split the air. “One down,” she said.
    Mach focused on his attacker. The man glanced to his left.  
    “You ain’t getting the laser,” Mach said. “But you’re right about dying if you don’t tell me what the hell’s going on.”
    The man slid back and sprang to his feet. Mach didn’t want to shoot a crazy person in cold blood. He wanted to know what he was doing here and who damaged the roof.  
    “There’s another one here,” Sanchez said. “Amongst the debris.”
    “Do your work,” Mach said. He stepped toward the man in front of him. “Who are you, and why are you here?”
    The man pulled a domestic knife from his suit’s thigh pocket with a trembling hand and raised it. Not the most dangerous thing in the world, but enough to puncture Mach’s shell with enough force.  
    Mach took a pace back. “If you make one more move, I’ll shoot.”
    Sanchez fired a burst.  
    “I’m flanking left,” Adira said through the comm. “Wait a moment.”
    Confident that his crewmembers had the situation behind him at a manageable level, Mach returned his attention to the man in front of him. “We’re here to help you. I’m here on behalf of OreCorp. Put down the knife.”
    “You’re one of them. I won’t let you take me alive.”
    The man lurched forward. Mach fired his weapon; it struck a meter in front of the man’s feet. The caseless round sparked off the stone floor, ricocheting away with a whiz. “Who are they? Because I sure ain’t here to take you. I didn’t even know you were here.”
    “The monsters.”
    Mach frowned and shook his head. “What monsters?”
    The man sank to his knees and grabbed either side of his dusty blue helmet, still keeping the knife in his right hand. He clenched his teeth, squeezed his eyes shut, and grunted. Nasal mucus spattered against the internal side of the visor.  
    Adira’s rifle fired.
    “Clear,” she said through the comm.  
    “Any more in the