Stellar Cloud: A short story collection Read online

  Stellar Cloud

  A short story collection

  Charity Bradford

  Contents

  Preface

  1. The Rising

  2. The Sleeper

  3. Continuation

  4. Earth 4

  5. Exiled

  6. Instinct

  7. Perspective

  Thank you!

  About the Author

  Other books by Charity Bradford

  The Magic Wakes (Sneak Peek)

  Copyright 2013 ©by Charity Bradford

  Updated 2016

  All rights reserved

  charitywrites.com

  No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in print or electronic form without prior permission of the author. Please respect the hard work of the author and do not participate in or encourage the piracy of copyrighted materials.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, organizations and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Edited by: CD Coffelt and Hillary Sperry

  Book cover design by: Zak Whittington Designs

  This book is dedicated to all of my wonderful blog followers and friends. Thanks for giving me a place to try out new ideas.

  CB

  Preface

  This is a collection of unrelated short stories. They started as blogfest pieces on my blog. A host posted a prompt and the online writing community signed up to join the fun. After sharing a story, each of us would visit the other writers and comment on the stories.

  These are the stories I submitted that begged for more attention. Before each section is the prompt for that particular story.

  Enjoy!

  Chapter One

  The Rising

  A photograph by OmeN2501 on DeviantArt.com called Snatch sparked this story. Photo at http://omen2501.deviantart.com/art/Snatch-94494345

  "Briggs, get your squad out there! Anything moves, shoot it. You got that?" Captain barked in my face, spittle hitting my chin.

  "Sir, yes sir!" I turned and stepped out of the tent before allowing my brow to furrow. They should have tried to make contact first, but it wasn't my decision.

  Two men waited for me. My team. The only people I ever felt comfortable around. With a quick nod, I shoved a Beretta in the back of my waistband. I hefted an M72 LAW from a crate and passed it to Ding. He grinned like a kid, set it on his shoulder, and looked through the scope.

  “That’s for the worst-case scenario. Our orders are clean up and salvage. Prisoners if possible.” I watched Ding strap the anti-tank weapon onto his back.

  “Prisoners don’t sound like the Captain’s style.” Ding quirked an eyebrow.

  “Well, it should be,” I growled and grabbed a machine gun, checked ammo. “Chigger, take the scanners.”

  When everyone was ready, I waved them toward the hot zone. We spread out, moving from one piece of wreckage to the next.

  The aliens put up a good fight in the hour before the howitzers brought them down. That strange ship had hovered above the city systematically destroying everything in sight. There had been no shiny silver metal. No smooth surfaces or blinking lights. In fact, the spacecraft looked like a floating hunk of scrap metal. More like a fifty-foot oblong asteroid—lumpy, brown, rusted, and pitted from micro-impacts. It wasn’t the sleek ship the sci-fi crowd dreamed of, and yet something about it filled me with longing.

  It wasn’t hovering now. Or shooting at us. The only sound on the street was the crackle of fire. The only movement ours. Another gust of wind blew the heat at us. My eyes stung and my lungs burned as the hot breeze pummeled me with the smell of burning fuel, tar, and rubber. Sweat trickled down my neck as I called the men over to an abandoned tank. I brushed my face with my sleeve. A button scratched my forehead.

  “Chigger, you getting any readings?" I asked.

  The radio beeped before he could answer. He fumbled for the handheld unit hanging on his back. A click of the button and we could all hear the Captain yelling at us.

  “Return to base camp immediately!”

  “Sir, we’re almost to the ship,” Chigger answered.

  “I don’t give a flying—” static cut him off.

  Chigger shook the walkie-talkie and the noise faded to a soft female voice.

  "Nathan Briggs, they returned for us."

  "What the…" Chigger shook it again. "Who's that, Briggs?"

  "I dunno. Hand it to me." It felt solid and real in my hands. So why did I feel like I was having an out of body experience? "Who is this?"

  "Fight the training. Remember and come to me." The lilt of her voice stirred something inside me. A ghost from my past. A warm caress that sent longing through me but slipped from my mind before I could grab hold of it.

  "Man, she reminds me of someone. I just can't think who," Ding whispered. He leaned against a burnt out car.

  The Captain’s voice shattered the calm. “You get your sorry self back here. I’m sending in delta team instead. Do you copy?”

  “Sir, yes sir.” I handed the radio to Chigger who pushed it into his pack.

  "Why’d he order us back?” Ding frowned. “We can handle this.”

  “Briggs, let us check it out. It’ll take five minutes." Chigger lifted his machine gun to chest level and grinned.

  Ding nodded.

  Obey. Follow the command structure. It was ingrained in me. Yet this order didn’t make sense. The Captain sent us, but now he didn’t want the three of us here? But he was willing to send in someone else? We were the best. Not delta team.

  "Five minutes."

  I went left, they went right. My thoughts revolved around the voice and I tried to put a face with it. How did she know my name?

  That’s as far as I got before remembering the enemy plays with your mind. It was a trap and I needed to focus on the mission, block out the emotions that toyed with me.

  But her voice. What had she said?

  Q’tal, they returned for us.

  A scream ripped from my throat, and I grabbed my head. The blocked memories fought their way free, past the walls that hid them from me. I collapsed as the sensations filled me.

  Hip length brown hair flowing over iridescent wings.

  Smooth creamy skin hot against mine.

  My back rippled with the recollection of wrapping my wings around her body.

  “Briggs, you okay?” Chigger knelt beside me, Ding close behind.

  I drew in a breath and immediately coughed the burnt air back out. Back spasms drew another moan. I waited while the muscles tried to move in a way no longer possible.

  What did they do to me? My shoulder blades were too short, unable to extend and work my wings.

  I don’t have wings. Not anymore. They took them from me.

  Rolling my shoulders, I understood how heavy I had become without wings. I crawled to my feet as soon as the pain subsided. Ding and Chigger stared, and I wondered if they could see the change that had come over me.

  I remembered who I was and who they were. These were my truest friends. I only needed to remind them.

  “I am Q’tal et B’laani.” A spark ignited in my soul at the sound of my true name—the combination of mine and the name of my Heart. My life mate. It was her voice that called to me through the radio. B’laani, I’m coming for you.

  Recollections of our first contact with the humans stumbled over each other, begging for attention. Their double cross, the experiments, and finally the brainwashing. I grew angrier with each remembrance. The spark exploded and the flames in my eyes reignited.<
br />
  Chigger and Ding stumbled backward.

  “J’kale, Z’gul. Fight the training and remember.” My voice echoed with the power of our kind.

  The sound of their names produced the effect I desired. A spark flickered to life in their eyes. I only needed to wait for the memories to do the rest.

  Both men clutched at their heads and fell to the ground. The muscles moved under their shirts, tried to break free. That freedom remained elusive, just as it had for me. When they raised their faces to mine, their eyes blazed and I knew they were with me.

  "Q’tal!" Z’gul/Ding shouted. "Over here!"

  I trotted past a bombed-out car laying on its side and found my men digging through more rubble. Their eyes blinked through the sweat and grit they stirred into the air, but at least this bit wasn't on fire.

  "Is this it?" I asked.

  "Yes! I remember." He continued clawing at pieces of metal and concrete, clearing a path to the side of a building.

  This one had been hit especially hard. Most of the top floors had been blasted away, but that’s not where secrets are kept. We continued working our way closer until we reached a side wall and an elevator shaft going down.

  By the time we reached the bottom, I thought my arms would fall off. They pulsed and trembled uselessly by my side. Once again I wished for my wings.

  Just outside the shaft, the war zone continued. Small fires cracked and popped over shattered computer circuitry. The smell of ozone burned our noses and we pulled our shirts up to cover our faces. A blinking red warning light illuminated the darkness in slow flashes, but it was enough to expose the bodies. My men checked each one, moving quickly from one human to the next.

  We found our Hearts strapped to tables in the back room, their cream dresses stained pink from the emergency lighting. Three of them were conscious, but the fourth had been crushed by a section of collapsed ceiling. J’kale/Chigger rushed to her side while Z’gul and I both freed our hearts.

  “Q’tal.” B’laani sat up and enfolded me in her wings. She rested her head on my chest, and the emptiness I had lived with for two years evaporated.

  Over her shoulder, I saw Z’gul start his rebirth at the hands of Sh’mori. His back bubbled and shifted as he regenerated his wings.

  J’kale held T’vi’s crushed body to his and keened. Our kind mated for life. There would be no other for J’kale, and without a Heart, his wings were lost forever. If the vocalizers on the fallen ship still worked, the whole earth would feel his pain.

  I wanted them to feel it.

  All of it.

  J’kale kissed T’vi’s forehead and lay her down. After his keening, the silence emanated from him like a shield. He stood, eyes like blades and fists clenched tight. The humans had stripped him of his wings, and now his Heart.

  “Revenge must be swift,” he growled.

  I clasped him on the shoulder but turned to B’laani. “Do you have the strength?”

  She didn’t answer, but removed my shirt and placed one hand on my heart, the other on my back. I held on to the gurney with both hands. She fingered the thin scars and started to hum. Heat formed near my heart and spread to my back. I shook as new bone grew from my scapula. B’laani pressed tighter, holding me upright.

  Skin ripped. Blood dripped down my back in a thin line. I concentrated on my knuckles and tried to breathe in spite of the pain radiating through my body. When the bones fused into place, I shivered with relief.

  Then the tingling started. Toes, fingers, arms, and legs. The blood in my body redirected its course and flowed to my back, building and repairing what I had lost. My wings grew, stretching my muscles until I thought they would snap. Instead, my wings unfurled and a sensation of wholeness rushed through me.

  B’laani slumped. Her wings drooped and her breathing came in short gasps—her energy spent in my regeneration. I scooped her into my arms and nodded to the others.

  “It’s time to go home.”

  J’kale had freed the fourth female from her bonds. She had been the mate of B’laani’s brother. He hadn’t survived the human’s testing and “reprogramming.”

  “Without wings I’m useless. Wish I had a Z56 on me.” J’kale looked around the room until he found a discarded machine gun. “Guess this will have to do.”

  “You keep them off of us and I’ll carry you home.” The fourth female spread her wings.

  “Payback starts now,” J’kale pledged.

  Our wings carried us up the elevator shaft and straight out of the building. The humans were waiting, but we were safe within the circle of J’kale’s wrath. His aim was deadlier than it had ever been as a human. Anger enhanced his instinct and precision. The humans didn’t have a prayer.

  The ship’s crew welcomed us aboard as soon as we approached. The Captain embraced me.

  “Brother, we sensed your presence drawing near and waited for you. What are your orders?”

  “We have protected man for thousands of years from the less civilized species of the universe. They have now proven themselves to be more like those who would destroy them than like our kind.” I turned to the globe floating in the center of the room.

  With my powers restored, I scanned this world so full of potential. Every nation in the world had received ambassadors inviting them to join with us in an alliance. We had hoped for so much. The people on this world looked the most like us in size and shape—lacking only the wings and telepathic powers.

  The United States government did not accept us, but perhaps some of the others met more favorable circumstances.

  My search for the other delegates came up empty.

  “Let J’kale sit at the vocalizer. The earth should feel the coming of the end. The cleansing has come. There are no more of our kind left on the earth.”

  Chapter Two

  The Sleeper

  In August 2010, a blogger challenged us to rewrite a fairy tale in a different genre. I didn’t want mine to be anything like the original, but it’s still easy to guess which fairy tale I tackled. The trick is to figure out who is the real sleeper.

  2475 After Evac—Fourteen years until Earth flyby

  Six-year-old Gareth dragged his feet as he entered the Sony Mesmerizer room with the rest of his classmates. Ten boys. Tow-headed, brown-eyed. Strong and tall for their six years. Identical in every physical way, but as different in personality as the planets in the solar system.

  The dorm chaperone led them to the center of the room and instructed them to sit on the ground. The high black bulkhead of the Starship Destiny curved above them. Gareth had heard the older boys talk about this room. It would show him what Earth looked like before the End.

  “Boys, close your eyes while the Mesmerizer starts.”

  Gareth did as he was told and felt the floor move beneath him. He opened his eyes and found himself sitting on a sloped surface covered with something soft and green. Other boys cried out in surprise or delight, but Gareth remained silent. He moved his hands through the pointy spears and marveled when they bent beneath his weight.

  A slight puff of air ruffled his hair and an orange glow appeared above him. His face warmed as he looked up. The fiery orb hurt his eyes and he turned away only to become fascinated with the changing ceiling. The black gave way to a new color that he didn’t have a name for, but something about it made him feel happy.

  The ship’s automated voice sounded all around the boys, “This is the planet Earth. Below you is a plant we call grass. Above you, the sky is filled with the light of Sol. You will learn more about these things in future classes.”

  Gareth lay down in the soft grass and watched a new thing in the sky. White and fluffy, it drifted slowly toward him.

  The voice continued, “Today is Princess Amelia’s birthday. You will learn her story...”

  2484 AE—Five years until Earth flyby

  The image of the Princess hovered in the sky. Her dark hair curled over her shoulders covering her smooth amber skin. No one on board the ship had
skin that looked so warm.

  “One day, the Earth will be habitable again. Then the chosen one will find and wake the Princess. She will teach us how to live on the planet’s surface like we did before the End.” The automated voice echoed around Gareth and his classmates.

  He had heard the same story for the last nine years on Amelia’s birthday. Now fifteen, Gareth had it memorized and barely paid attention. It was a child’s story, empty of any real meaning. Even if it were true, he didn’t know if he would be the one chosen to go to earth.

  Other questions drowned out the ship’s voice.

  Did women really look so different from men? Not that he minded the softer angles in front of him. It was a relief to look at someone who didn’t look like him. He was faced with younger or older versions of himself everywhere he turned on the ship.

  It hadn’t always been like that, but a hundred years after Destiny started its endless circling of the solar system disease wiped out eighty percent of the crew. Only two women had survived. Humanity needed a new plan to avoid extinction. He was that solution perfected.

  Why didn’t they clone women too? No one would answer that question or allow it to be asked. Thinking about it always gave him a headache. Gareth focused on the one that had always calmed him.

  Why can’t we duplicate this color blue anywhere but inside the Mesmerizer? He lay back and counted the clouds as the voice rambled on.

  “Every seventy-five years, a man is sent down to find the Princess. The mission has failed in each of the previous hundred cycles and the planet has grown wild. One of you will get to try again.”