This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher. Pandora Project: Runaway Star TOP SHELF An imprint of Torquere Press Publishers PO Box 2545 Round Rock, TX 78680 Copyright © 2008 Anah Crow and Dianne Fox Cover illustration by Alessia Brio Published with permission ISBN: 978-1-60370-610-0, 1-60370-610-0 www.torquerepress.com All rights reserved, which includes the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever except as provided by the U.S. Copyright Law. For information address Torquere Press. First Torquere Press Printing: January 2009 Printed in the USA Prologue Life was perfect, or as close as it could come while death remained unsolved. People spoke often about whether or not Elysium had been attained in the land of the living. The old wounds that had scarred the Earth were healing, there was little hunger, and there was room enough for all. Slowly, the Earth was being returned to a garden state, and five great colonies hung in space around her like attendants to a queen. There were no armies, no wars, and little strife. It seemed that the human race had outgrown its terrible past; alone in all the universe, it had finally come to peace with itself. And then, one day, the noises came. They would've gone unheard save for a mining station listening at the verge of what humanity considered to be its territory. At first, they went unattended, but then they came with greater frequency until they could no longer be explained as random phenomena seeping out of the great unknown. They had a cadence to them that spoke of urgency and a pattern to them that could only be language. Quietly, in the recesses of government research centers, satellites were built and cast out into space, weaving a net to catch as many of the strange noises as possible. And in the basement of a small building on the colony of Tethys, everything heard was gathered to be deciphered. The team dedicated to the project was small, one professor of linguistics, two graduate students, and one intern. For five years they worked in secret, and one day, they understood what was being said. Something was coming. Something large, something dangerous. Something like a multitude. And they were coming, too. Two weeks later, a probe chasing whispers through deep space encountered something that had not been there before. It came from nowhere and hung floating in the void, whispering the message that they had been hearing all along. They called it Pandora, because they had no idea what might be inside her. In the face of opposition from those who thought the human race would be better served by staying home and minding its own business, a small handful of scientists, soldiers, and adventurers scraped together the funds and the approval of the Senate. They dusted off an old colony ship from the days when the human race thought it might like to reach further out into the stars, found long-abandoned plans for starfighters and weapons, and began making their preparations to go meet Pandora and find out what she had brought the human race. And, perhaps more importantly, to find out what might be coming behind her, of which she had tried so desperately to warn them. Chapter One "I can't believe you're doing this to us again." Macy sprawled on the bench by Sender's locker, hands tucked behind his head, watching Sender with an attempt at a pitiful expression. Unlike Sender, he was dressed for the weekend, looking relaxed in black fatigues. Sender shrugged into his flightsuit and ignored Macy's look, turning away to run a finger over the blessed icon that hung in his locker to watch over him. "I do it every time some desk jockey with a hand on the purse strings wants to take a run around the sky in a Harpy." He closed his locker with a bang that echoed in the empty room and headed for the mirrors to make sure he looked presentable. "Go on without me; I'll sign the squad out before I go up." "That's bad luck. You know we all have to go together." Macy rolled to his feet and tagged after Sender. "Besides, if I leave, who's going to help you hose puke out of the cockpit?" "I'll manage. I recall doing it after I took you up the first time." Sender looked at Macy in the mirror and laughed at his dark expression. Macy was usually sunny, blond, and good-natured; he didn't look particularly convincing when he glared. "Hey! I was just a kid then." Sender wet his hands and ducked his head to run them through his hair, hoping to settle his wild curls into some semblance of order. "Still are…" He needed a haircut; his hair was starting to take on a life of its own. The doors slammed open. Voices, laughter, and the sound of footsteps rolled into the locker room just ahead of Quirinus Squadron. "Trying to get prettier?" Lee, a lean, dark pilot with a wicked grin, smacked Sender on the ass on her way past. "Wondered what Callisto Squadron wasted its time on while the rest of us were learning how to fight." "I keep saying he's past his limit." Macy snickered and reached over to rumple Sender's hair while Sender was turning around to answer Lee. "I'm trying to look presentable," Sender muttered, giving up and turning away from the mirror. "Unless anyone else feels like taking the latest tourist up for me?" "Not me." Lee was half out of her flightsuit, and she stripped off her bra with a sigh of relief; her skin was sleek with sweat under the watery overhead lights. The cooling systems in the Harpies needed more work. "You're on your own." The lead pilot for Quirinus patted Sender on the shoulder. "They like you better, anyway." There wasn't any rancor in Iantu's voice, and his grin wasn't regretful in the least. "I'm sorry, man." "I hate you all." Sender ran his hand through his hair again. "Cut that out." Macy cuffed him. "You looked fine when you started. Shit, you looked fine when you rolled out of bed this morning. Shame all the pretty's wasted on me. You need a nice boyfriend to remind you." "Not this again. I'm going." Sender reached over and stole Macy's sunglasses off his head instead of going back to his own locker for a pair. They were probably his, anyway. He started toward the door and Macy slid ahead of him to check the door open with one shoulder. "I'll help you get Juvie One ready to go," Macy offered cheerily. "The sooner we get your sorry, favor-doing ass in the air, the sooner we get to go get drunk and laid." "Let no one suggest you haven't distilled the meaning of life." "Fuck, no." Macy sauntered on ahead toward the flight deck, hands in his pockets. "The sooner you recognize me as your guru, the happier you'll be." Sender rolled his eyes and decided not to argue the point. Macy was probably right, but Sender wasn't about to give in just yet. *** The monorail from the city out to New McMurdo Base swayed along a smooth curve around the massive water reservoir separating the two areas. Elios stretched his legs out and leaned back in his first class seat. "I appreciate this, Doc," he said quietly to the older man beside him. "You may be cursing my name before the day is out, once you've been up in one of those contraptions." Senator Darlington laughed and patted Elios on the knee. "Excuse me." One of Darlington's aides, a woman Elios thought he recognized, stopped by their seats, holding a datapad out toward Elios tentatively. "Doctor Campbell? You need to sign these releases before you can go up. Lieutenant-Commander Ozanne just sent them over." "I think if Doctor Campbell were going to sue the government for pain and suffering, he'd have done it when they assigned him to me as an intern seven years ago," Darlington said wryly. Still, he passed the pad over to Elios, who couldn't help laughing quietly. "I could hardly call the Pandora Project a hardship," Elios said, signing the releases without looking at them. There wasn't anything that was going to stop him from getting up into the air, not if he could help it. "I'm not sure where else I was going to get paid to solve language puzzles." "Thank you, Doctor. We'll be arriving on base in ten minutes." The aide took the pad back when Elios was done, then offered another to the senator. "Another message from Senator Tai, sir." She looked apologetic. "Perhaps I should be the one suing." Darlington took the pad and rolled his eyes. Elios laughed, feeling sympathetic, and reached for the mineral water he'd been served. Doc was having lunch, a light pasta dish with seafood, but Elios had passed it up in favor of not throwing up in the jet he was going to get to ride in. It was a small sacrifice to make. After the year he'd had, it was time that something special happened. As they trekked along the long curve of the torus, the lake on one side of them and a tree line on the other, Elios looked up through the clear ceiling of the monorail. Above him, the sky was a perfect, engineered blue devoid of clouds. In less than an hour, he'd be up there, almost close enough to touch. He'd never been ill on a shuttle in atmosphere; he was sure he'd be fine. Maybe he was hoping to leave a little of the past behind before launch. With luck --and some significant maneuvering from Doc --that would only be a few months away, and then he'd be up in space and up to his ears in new translations. The Pandora Project was already the most exciting thing Elios had ever been involved with, and the trip out into space to actually see the ship itself would just make it more incredible. Elios could hardly wait. *** Th...
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