Star Runners: Mission Wraith (#3)
Read Star Runners: Mission Wraith (#3) Online
Authors: L.E. Thomas
A novel by L.E. Thomas
Copyright © 2015 Shadow Max Publishing
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in any form without written permission of the Publisher.
Brief quotations may be used for inclusion in articles published for noncommercial use including written news articles and reviews. For permission requests, write to
[email protected]
, addressed
“Attention: Permissions Coordinator”
All characters in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to events or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Cover art by Andrei Bat.
For my wife.
Author’s Note
The first trilogy in the Star Runners’ universe has been one of the most exciting projects I have ever completed. I hope it brings you joy and a little escape. It would never have been possible without the support from my family and all of the emails from readers who have enjoyed the adventures of Austin and the Tizona Squadron. I have marveled at the range of questions, from who Austin would fall in love with to how the Galactic Legion government operated—thank you to all who sent messages. I love hearing from you guys. I will keep you posted on what’s next in the universe at
www.StarRunners.net
or on social media.
A special thank you goes out to the beta readers who helped with the final adjustments for Star Runners: Mission Wraith. Your support has meant more than words could ever begin to express.
For now, stay frosty!
L.E. Thomas
December 2015
Fadre Gree was not his real name.
He continued every day as if he were one of the Zahlian engineers. The staff dressed in their civilian clothing lined up in pairs behind the shiny black doors of the elevator taking them deep into Zone Ninety. A man behind him cleared his throat. Gree kept his gaze on the floor to avoid eye contact.
After a minute, the elevator pinged, and the black reflective doors opened. Two Zahlian Marines in their crisp crimson uniforms held laser rifles over their chests. The Marines stepped out of the elevator, their ice-like eyes steady on the engineers. Behind the Marines stood an officer with a silver tablet in one hand and a blinking metallic wand in the other. The officer swept the metallic device over the two engineers at the front and glanced at his tablet. The wand beeped and flashed green, signaling the first engineers could pass into the elevator. The Marines motioned with their laser rifles for the next pair to step forward. Their fingertips rapped on the rifle as they glared at each person waiting in front of the elevator.
Gree swallowed. The security to access the bowels of Zone Ninety was far more extensive than he anticipated. After seven months on Claria, Gree still had his movements monitored, and his correspondence surveyed. He hadn’t risked checking in with his superiors for two weeks. Now that he was about to descend into the depths of the complex, he wouldn’t be able to send or receive any communications. The building blocked all incoming or outgoing transmissions to maintain the security of the operation.
The Zahlian agents didn’t know he knew about the surveillance or the blocked transmissions. He spent what little free time he had to try to appear like a boring employee. But the agents had reason to keep an eye on the engineers working on this project for Baron Industries.
The Marines passed the next pair of engineers. They turned and gestured for Gree and the woman next to him to step forward. Her name was Ula Mara, an engineer from a local town on Claria. Gree had tried to get close to her in the past few months, but Ula kept to herself. During their one after-work drink in the company lounge, Gree discovered Ula had received accolades for her revolutionary designs in spacecraft hull plating. His cover story proclaimed him as a genius for optimizing the Lutimite Drive utilized by all spacecraft traveling within the Zahlian space lanes. The project supervisor charged him with advancing the engines on a Zahlian Interceptor, and Gree had wondered why.
Today, he hoped to find out.
The wand passed over his head, down his back and touched the back of his legs. Gree sighed and looked up at the ceiling. The officer’s wand flashed green, and Gree stepped into the elevator. The engineers packed into the rapidly shrinking elevator causing Ula to press against him, her eyes on the wall behind him.
The final two engineers shoved into the elevator. The officer stood at the edge of the door, surveying the group. He nodded while counting the number of employees packed into the car. He keyed for the level, and the doors hissed shut.
They reached their destination. Gree still couldn’t believe the length of the elevator ride down to this level. Guards escorted the workers from the first elevator to the locker room where they changed into their black lab coats. They had locked personal items into blue, plastic bins before the guards ordered them to another elevator. Gree marveled at the silence, the methodical efficiency of the Zahlian operation.
But today he could see it in the eyes of the Marines and officer. Today would not be another day of calculations and study. There was a bit of excitement in their faces.
The elevator slowed, bounced once, and came to a stop. With a snap-hiss of servos, the door parted to reveal an open room large enough to fit a Zahlian capital ship. White fluorescent lights buzzed in the ceiling several stories above the floor. Other technicians and engineers, all in black lab coats, worked at various stations around the room. Some carried tablets in their hands while others worked directly on a piece of equipment. The lighting increased in intensity in the center of the room where the floor lowered into a bowl shape.
“All right, move it,” the officer barked from near the elevator.
The engineers cautiously stepped out into the room, their eyes surveying the area fluttering with activity. Ula leaned back, her gaze on the ceiling high above their heads. A solid red line illuminated the center of the ceiling, stretching the length of the upper section of the room. The Zahlian guards dispersed the newly arrived group, sending them to their workstations. Gree watched the guards lead Ula away while he remained with engineers he didn’t know and hadn’t seen during his months in the Zone.
A Marine guard led him and the other engineers through various workstations. At one table, engineers focused on dissecting the inner workings of a laser canon. At another, engineers with red goggles studied the microscopic variations of a piece of metal.
His pulse quickened, but he tried to control his breathing. After months of being Fadre Gree, trying to work his way into a project so secret it existed hundreds of meters below the surface, he now walked into an underground operations room on Claria. His Legion contacts were not going to believe his report … if he would ever be able to give it.
Acting as if his upper arm itched, he scratched just behind his elbow and gently pressed the activation switch embedded under his skin. As he did so, his vision shifted and blurred like static for a brief moment. The implants attached to his retina warmed and activated, the images he saw now being recorded and saved into the thumb-sized device placed just under the skin on his arm. If all went well, and he could trust the Legion agent he met on the edge of The Fringe two years ago, he had thirty minutes of recording time. He hoped the image recorded clear and true—especially when he recalled the pain of the procedure. If the spacecraft at the center of this room were what he expected, the years of planning and execution would be worth it.
He rounded a line of tall cubicles. Before him stretched a pair of engines connected to computer terminals and colorful wires. Gree nodded at the Marine guard and stepped in front of the engine he had thus far seen only in schematics. When the trials of this engine were complete, it would be the fastest ship in the known galaxy. Nothing in the Legion even compared, but the Zahl project was still far from test flights.