Heaven's Call: A thrilling military science fiction book (LUMINA Book 3) I.G. Hulme (audio ebook reader .TXT) 📖

They surrendered when our fleets were at the gates to New Rome. Ever since the cessation, the Holy Empire cut itself off from the rest of us and expanded out beyond the Third Spiral.”

“But, that’s over half a galaxy away. What are they doing here? And more to the point, how is that fleet here — I thought we beat them didn’t we?”

“If by we you mean the alliance of the core systems with the various autonomous system states, the tech corporations and the trade guilds to form the Unity government we now know, then yes, we won the expansionist war. We overran the systems colonised by the missionaries that set out from Earth at the beginning of the Great Expansion.” Mellarnne gave a self-satisfied grin at the sound of his own explanation. “We fought the new empire to a standstill, until we’d taken every system that we now call the Outer Spiral Borderlands. After they sued for peace, that’s when they cut themselves off and destroyed all the trade lanes. Surveillance suggested that they struck out away from Earthspace, colonising the systems beyond the Spiral, but they never tried to expand back into Unity space again.

“Until now.”

“So, how have they managed to amass a fleet like this after we wiped them out?” asked Ryann.

“Believe me, we never wiped them out,” replied Grayell in a leaden tone, finally looking around as though he were only just aware of the others. “That’s just Unity propaganda that they teach kids in school nowadays. Those dreadnoughts — we’ve seen them before, haven’t we Mellarnne? A thousand deep off the ice-fields of Planet Aula, guarding the Holy Emperor in his palace fortress.”

“You’ve been to Aula, the gateway planet?” exclaimed Anders sitting forwards in his chair. “No outsiders have been into the Empire since the cessation — everyone knows that.”

Grayell merely glanced across to Mellarnne and gave him a knowing smile.

“Well, let’s say that we didn’t really choose to go,” replied Mellarnne with a grin. “We were invited by the Holy See to the audience chamber on Aula — you know it’s a kilometre long — it can house over a million pilgrims; it felt a bit empty with just the two of us.”

Ryann stared open-mouthed at the two old men.

“That’s a story for another day,” muttered Grayell self-consciously. “For now, we’re going to have to tread carefully. It looks as though the Holy Empire are striking back against the Lumina, and we’ve found ourselves in the middle of their war.”

“Do you think it’s an invasion? They could be taking advantage of the Navy’s weakened state against the Lumina.”

“Or they could be allies — we just don’t know.”

“So, should we try and make contact?”

“No,” said Grayell firmly. “We have our own course, and the Empire is not to be trusted. If their attack on the Lumina can distract them, then fine, but we stay hidden.”

The room fell into a heavy silence

“And what about that Luminal ship that crashed alongside us? Any signs of life from it?” asked Grayell eventually.

“Nothing so far — power’s out, it looks completely dead,” replied Mellarnne.

“Well, keep a close eye on it, we don’t want them getting a transmission out and alerting the rest of their fleet to our position.”

“We should go over to it.”

Ryann’s voice made the others look around in surprise.

“If there are any survivors,” he continued, “think of what we could learn — about their plans and capabilities.”

“You heard Mellarnne,” muttered Grayell. “That Luminal’s dead, there’s nothing left. We’ve got more important things to think about.”

“But, we don’t know what’s left,” protested Ryann. “This is an amazing opportunity to get aboard and find out more about the Lumina. We might be able to get some of their systems back online, study their technology.”

“It doesn’t work like that Ryann,” replied Grayell impatiently. “Once the Lumina are gone from a ship, they’re gone. They don’t leave anything behind. That ship’s nothing more than a husk.”

“But, you don’t know without looking — there might be survivors!”

“I said forget it!”

Grayell hit his hand down upon the table and the sudden noise trailed off into an awkward silence. After a moment, he turned to Mellarnne.

“I think now would be a good opportunity to get the refugee problem under control. We can hide up here for a few days at least and concentrate on getting everybody safe and housed. We need to clear the interior of all that wreckage as best we can.”

“It’s going to be difficult,” replied Mellarnne, his eyes glancing briefly across to Ryann. “It’s going to take weeks not days. We haven’t nearly enough accommodation for them. The control station is almost filled to capacity.”

“Just use whatever you can — strip the New Eden ships out to make more space, use cargo pods, storage containers — just get everyone seen to or we’ll have a riot on our hands.”

“I can’t believe I’m hearing this,” cursed Ryann under his breath. “We’re in the middle of a war zone and all you can talk about is building houses! This is crazy!” He got angrily to his feet, his chair scraping loudly across the floor.

“Ryann,” interjected Mellarnne, looking to Grayell with a questioning gaze.

“Let him go,” murmured Grayell without looking up. “He doesn’t understand.”

Ryann felt another surge of anger welling up inside. He went to reply, and then shook his head in frustration before storming out of the briefing room.

CHAPTER NINE

CONFRONTATION

“Look, I’m sorry for flying off the handle back there in the briefing this morning, but I told you before, I can’t have you undermining my authority all the time. I need you on my side.”

Grayell caught up with Ryann as he picked his way through the busy hangar, down on the flight deck levels.

“Even when I think you’re wrong?”

Grayell’s unshaven jaw clenched.

“I’m not wrong on this one Ryann. You’ve got to believe me. More than anyone alive — I know the Lumina. Now, we could do with your help — Anders needs good pilots to help setup the refugee structure — what