Shakazhan
is book 2 in my Lone Wolf Series. Having traveled out of the known
galaxy into another that doesn't even remotely resemble their own,
the crews of Hannibal and Flotilla are orbiting the mystical and
legendary planet Iyundo, when it something goes horribly wrong.
Hannibal
1350 GMT
Ben
sat in his ready room, feet on the desk, cap over his eyes. Something
woke him and he stood quickly, fully alert, listening. Had someone
called his name? Suddenly, he grew dizzy. The walls swirled together,
the floor gaped threatening to drag him under and he felt a great
sweep of fear as if a million voices had suddenly cried out in
terror!
Vertigo
overcame him and he dropped to the floor on his hands and knees,
gagging and vomiting. His vision cleared and his ears stopped
ringing. Small cleaning bots scuttled around him, vacuuming up the
mess. His door buzzed insistently. Calling feebly, he allowed entry.
His
eyes flickered open and he saw the worried and bewildered face of Ray
Schmidt. "Ben? You look like hell, buddy, what's wrong? I heard
you yell and then nothing."
Ben
saw two Rays for a moment, then realized it was Ray and Aisulov's
personal physician standing over him. Dr. Stan looked even more
concerned than Ray, something Ben didn't think was possible. He tried
to sit up. A fresh wave of nausea gripped him, threatening to cut
loose.
"I'm
fine, really I am."
Ray
pushed him none too gently back onto the floor. "Like hell you
are. Do you realize it's been ten minutes since I walked in here and
you've been out cold the entire time? Ben, what the hell is going
on?"
Ben
tried to speak, but his voice caught in his throat. The doctor handed
him a glass of cool water. He sipped with caution, fearing another
vomiting episode. However, it didn't seem to disagree with him, so he
drank a bit more, very slowly.
"Kind
of hard to explain."
"Try."
Ray
looked annoyed. He always looked like that when he was worried. God
knows, over the years, Ben had been the cause often enough.
Ben
started to nod, then decided not to. He hesitated, wondering the best
way to describe what had happened. Slowly and with many pauses for
questions, he told Ray and Dr. Stan what had transpired. Ray's frown
deepened and the doctor looked more placid. Ben knew that look too.
Stan always looked like that when he was about to diagnose. He let
Ben finish.
"That
explains a lot." Stan stood, head tilted sideways, arms crossed
in front of his chest.
"A
lot of what?"
"Explains
why I had over thirty people fall down in a dead faint about the time
you collapsed up here. Some sort of psychic upheaval has taken place.
I'm guessing on planet, but can't confirm it, of course, without a
report from the landing party. Some heavy shit is going down, Ben.
I'll be back." He turned on his heel, trotting for the door.
"Where
are you going, Stan?" Ray sounded angry.
"Going
to cross reference the files of the people who collapsed. See how
many of them tested positive for psyonics," he called the last
as he ran down the corridor to Medical.
"I
was coming to tell you something when all this went down." Ray
hesitated, not knowing quite how to proceed.
"What,
Ray? I haven't seen you look this worried since we got hit in the
jungle on Viotempe."
Ray
bit his thumb, frowning deeply. Not one for diplomacy, he couldn't
find a sugar coated way to explain. "I don't know what happened
or how, Ben. The entire planet disappeared."
©
Dellani Oakes 2015
No comments:
Post a Comment