Eden's Mirror: (LUMINA Book 2) Read online

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  Also by the Author

  THE LUMINA SERIES

  INTO THE FIRE

  EDEN’S MIRROR

  THE HEAVENFIELD SERIES

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  HEAVEN’S WAR

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  The Third Book in the LUMINA Series

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  EDEN’S MIRROR

  BOOK TWO OF THE LUMINA SERIES

  by

  I G HULME

  CHAPTER ONE

  DREAMWALKERS

  It was like stepping back through a dream.

  So many memories revisited, only this time Ryann was walking the dream in reverse, travelling backwards, returning to the source.

  But this dream was shattered.

  Everything that Ryann had held in his memory was now broken and burned.

  The Lumina invasion had passed them by, marching its inexorable path towards the Core-Systems, towards Earth.

  The immediate danger was gone for now, and when the Defiance had emerged from its hiding place in the impenetrable nebula of the Halion Belt, the universe felt empty, drained of all life.

  Now Ryann and Angelique were part of the scout teams going on ahead, searching out the safest route. They took the Raven through the once vibrant planetary system of Viridis, where they had hunted the busy spaceports for Mellarnne only a matter of months ago. But now all they encountered were the innumerable charred husks of destroyed spaceships, ragged groups of refugees that had been caught by the advancing tide of the Luminal invasion. Most of the blackened hulks were in groups of ones and two’s, forlorn reminders of the futility of any attempt to escape.

  But occasionally they would come across great refugee fleets, their wrecks closely-packed together in glittering fields of debris like some man-made asteroid belts.

  Ryann and Angelique had explored them out of a morbid curiosity, alongside the slender hope that the Luminal guns had left something salvageable behind. Ryann had piloted their battered Raven — once a state-of-the-art hunter-trade ship — into the mass of slowly-spinning hulks of twisted metal, Angelique deftly navigating them through. The vessels on the outer edges of the field had been the smallest, the most vulnerable. Cargo skiffs towing container barges, or hull repair craft, tugboats, utility ships — even a couple of old construction platforms, an encrustation of cargo pods lashed between them. Anything that could be used to carry the fleeing tide of humanity had been utilised, and hundreds of frightened refugees had crammed aboard, often at the price of everything they owned.

  But it hadn’t been enough.

  The refugees couldn’t flee fast enough, and now the silent cargo pods were torn and twisted, and the frozen bodies of the dead spilled out to mingle with the sea of debris.

  Ryann had tried to look away as his ship crept slowly through the field, the silence occasionally punctuated by the soft thump of smaller pieces of debris glancing off their hull as they pushed their way to the centre.

  Through the glittering cloud, Ryann could make out the dark silhouettes of several larger craft, star-liners and converted freighters. Their broken hulls belched frozen fuel crystals into space, creating a shimmering sea that reflected rays of light in every hue from the distant sun of Viridis. This display of colour would have been spectacular had it not been for the thousands of bodies that tumbled out with it, slowly spiralling around the wrecks.

  “There’s nothing we can salvage here.”

  Ryann heard Angelique’s solemn whisper from behind him at the navigation-station. “Everything’s dead.”

  “I think you’re right,” he replied.

  “They haven’t left a single sign of life,” she murmured, her face cast in an eerie red glow from her readouts. “It’s hard to believe the Lumina were once human.”

  “Plot us a course back to the Defiance at Lunar-15,” said Ryann, his eyes never leaving the glistening cloud. “We’ll report back that the debris field is too dense for her to traverse, but should mask our scanner signal from the Lumina if we skirt the outer edges. Mellarnne was scouting out the waypoint settlement en route to Viridis-6 — if we can get the Defiance to there we can hide up again and send the next wave of scout ships out.”

  So this is how it would be from now on, thought Ryann sadly to himself. Endless hours spent scouting out the way ahead, just so their new home, the Defiance, created in the likeness of an enemy battleship — just so it could inch a little closer back towards the Lumina source.

  It took them a further hour for Angelique to navigate the Raven out of the wreck-field. They didn’t dare use their main thrusters out in open space this close to the invasion front. There was too much risk of alerting the Lumina, who were known to patrol newly-taken territories, scanning for any signs of survivors as they emerged from hiding. Even now, Ryann could make out a far-off glow over towards the Arachne system, a bright new star born in space as a planet burned.

  So, instead of their main engines, Ryann flew the ship on docking thrusters alone, propagating a tumble until they span slowly in their intended direction, appearing to any deep space probes as just another piece of dead wreckage.

  “Phew, good work getting us out of the wreck-field Angelique,” muttered Ryann, as the concentration of hulks began to thin out. “Angelique?” He turned around in his chair to see her hunched over the navigation console peering intently into her displays. “What is it?”

  “I’m not sure,” she replied distantly. “I thought I caught an echo of something on the passive scan.”

  “What do you think? A Luminal ship?” Ryann looked urgently about the hemispherical display screen that surrounded his pilot’s station, giving him almost an all-round view. The dark wrecks drifted about them as they span silently in space, and Ryan quickly spotted what he was looking for: a burned-out tanker ship, her cargo hold split clean in two, drifted a little way off. Ryann coaxed his ship towards it, careful not to use his thrusters too frequently for fear of increasing his heat signature, anything that might give them away to Luminal scans.

  With a final dab on his docking jets, he brought the Raven alongside the tanker and quickly powered down the ship’s systems. They waited, hidden silently within the deep shadows of the hulk’s empty hold.

  “Drive systems offline, talk to me Angelique, what have we got? Is it Luminal?”

  Angelique didn’t respond for a moment, lost in concentration.

  “Dammit! It’s one of ours!” she cursed at last. “A single mark just clearing the Halion Belt — running hot, full thrusters.”

  “What?” exclaimed Ryann. “From the Halion Belt? Can you get an ID on them?”

  “Not on passive scanners,” she replied. “Do we risk an active scan? The Luminals might catch it if they’re looking.”

  “It hardly matters,” cursed Ryann. “That ship’s going to bring every Luminal in the system down on us? What the hell are they doing, burning up their drives like that?”

  “Well, by the looks of it, I’d say that they were being chased,” said Angelique. “Another ship has just appeared out of the Belt, same heading as the first. What do you want to do?”

  “Aw hell, what can we do?” he spat. “We can’t hail them, the Lumina will pick up our transmission for sure.”

  “Well, they’ll spo
t those drive trails soon enough,” replied Angelique. “It might take a little longer, but it’s only a matter of time.”

  Ryann sat in silence, trying desperately to come to a decision.

  “Ryann?” cut in Angelique. “If they bring down a Luminal ship, there’s every chance they’ll discover us too.”

  “I know, I know!” he muttered. “How far away are those ships from us?”

  “Still a fair distance. At their present speed they’ll fly right past our position in about ten minutes.”

  “Then we wait,” said Ryann nervously. “And hope that we’re lucky and they don’t bring down every Luminal ship from here to the frontlines.”

  “Wait? Ryann, they’re on a course for Lunar-15. If they alert the Lumina they’ll lead them straight to the Defiance!”

  CHAPTER TWO

  THE IBIS

  “Anything on the scanners?” asked Ryann; his throat was dry and his voice came out as no more than a hoarse whisper.

  “Not since you last asked a minute ago,” snapped Angelique without looking up from the scanners. “Though it’s a wonder the whole Lumina fleet hasn’t shown up yet — those ships are burning up their drives like they’re trying to get caught. They’re lighting a trail across this sector like a damn beacon.”

  “Can you make out anything about them yet?” breathed Ryann. His position, out in the dark and silent hemisphere made him feel isolated, unable to help out now that all his systems were offline.

  “Not yet. Only, judging by the thermal signatures, the lead ship is a lot bigger than the one behind. A lot bigger. If I had to make a guess, I’d say it was something like an inter-system supertanker or a passenger ferry. From the heat that they’re giving off they’re pushing the drives way past the redline. The trailing ship’s much smaller, but it’s gaining on the first. Weren’t all the ship’s in New Eden meant to have been disabled?” she muttered, her eyes never leaving the displays.

  “That was the plan — all except a small security force of single-seat fighters,” replied Ryann.

  New Eden. A fanciful name perhaps — an attempt to bring some small shred of hope to the survivors, who, if the Defiance ever completed its mission and defeated the Lumina, then New Eden would be the wellspring from which humanity would rebuild itself.

  Deep within the Halion Belt were the ones that the crew of the Defiance had left behind — the families of the Ghost-Runners, brought with them for their safety when the refit of the Defiance had begun. And then there were the construction workers and their families — the refitters, scientists, engineers — all the hundreds of personnel that had been recruited by Grayell and Mellarnne.

  By the time work on the Defiance had been completed there was a workforce of over three hundred, plus several hundred families with children. They had all joined the cause on the promise of sanctuary, hidden within the impenetrable ice clouds of the Halion Belt as the Luminal invasion swept over them.

  And then, towards the final moments before the Lumina scorched through the Viridis system, the Ghost-Runners had taken in as many refugees as they were able, those trapped aboard inner-system craft unable to jump to safety.

  The numbers within New Eden had swollen rapidly, until the heart of the Halion Belt was a mass of ships all huddled together, fed power and life-support by two old C-class space stations at the centre of the ragged flotilla.

  It was thought that the refugees would be safe there, hidden from Luminal scans by the dense magnetic fields of the Belt.

  But everything relied upon secrecy. Nothing could go in or out of the Halion Belt without running the risk of giving them away.

  To that end, every ship in New Eden, apart from the security force, was supposed to have been disabled. No exceptions.

  So, why in hell were two ships blasting out across the sector, risking everything? cursed Ryann to himself.

  “I’m reading a power spike in the trailing ship,” came Angelique’s urgent voice, snapping Ryann instantly back into the moment. “Looks like they’re powering up their weapons!”

  “What?” exclaimed Ryann, sitting up in his seat. “These guys are insane!” Angelique looked up in alarm as Ryann began bringing the Raven’s systems back online. “Plot us an intercept course, full-speed!” shouted Ryann, and the ship shuddered as he gunned the engines. The Raven swept out from its hiding place, its thrusters sending the burned-out tanker spiralling back into the wreck-field.

  “What the hell are you doing?” called Angelique in horror as Ryann increased their speed. “You know the risks if that ship starts loosing off its guns — they might as well light up a big sign for the Lumina to see!”

  “If we can get to them quickly enough —”

  “And then what? Wave to them through the window? We can’t risk hailing them!”

  “We’ll work it out! Just get me that intercept course!”

  For the next minute they urged the Raven on, Angelique poring over her sensors for any signs that the Lumina may have been alerted to their presence.

  But they were never going to make it to the ships in time. Even before they were in visual range, Ryann spied the unmistakable flashes of laser fire off in the darkness as the trailing ship finally caught up with its prey.

  Ryann cursed and pressed on towards them.

  “What the hell is that thing?” muttered Angelique as she began to make out the dark silhouette of the lead ship, lit up in the laser fire.

  “It’s the Ibis,” replied Ryann in surprise. “It’s a colony-ship, full of Outlanders from beyond the Edge.”

  “How old is it?” Angelique peered into her scanner display as they raced towards the two ships. “It looks like an antique. It wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Great Expansion.”

  “You may well be right. Those Outlanders don’t have much to do with civilisation. They work the asteroid fields that nobody else thinks are worth the risk — live their whole lives onboard their ships, entire families. They keep themselves to themselves and don’t much like us Inlanders, as they call anyone that was born on solid ground.”

  “So what the hell are they doing in New Eden?” asked Angelique in confusion.

  “They were running from the Lumina like everyone else,” replied Ryann. “They were one of the last groups of refugees to come in, but that old ship broke down just off Viridis Prime. My dad and some of the others towed them into the Halion Belt literally minutes before the Lumina broke through the frontline.”

  “Well, it looks like they got their ship up and running again,” said Angelique shaking her head in disbelief. “I guess that someone from New Eden is trying to stop them from getting away.”

  The Ibis lit up in flashes of blue and orange light as the trailing ship poured shot after shot upon the larger vessel. Arcs of electricity coruscated over her tortured shields.

  And then there was a blinding flash and the blue trails of the Ibis’ drives began to fade. One by one, the lights all over the ship flickered and then went out. She drifted down into a slow tumble, her power-plant obviously disabled.

  Ryann leaned forwards, squinting at the view screen to make out the shapes in the distance. He could just discern the second ship now, a small single-seat Patroller by the looks of it. As he watched, the little craft approached the Ibis, docking against the underside of the vessel; it looked tiny in comparison to the great colony ship.

  “What is that? Is that old Jenna’s Patroller?” murmured Ryann as they approached the two ships.

  “Jenna?” asked Angelique in a distracted tone, still focussed upon her scans. “The big ship’s lost all power completely — and that Patroller’s powering down its weapons now.”

  “Yeah, I’m taking our systems offline again,” murmured Ryann, and the throb of the engines quickly fell away to silence. “We’ll coast in from here. Old Jenna is one of the security officers on New Eden. Dad introduced me once. She used to be one of the Ghost-Runners but took a hit from a Luminal out on Asheen — left her just about crippled. She
used to be one hell of a pilot from what dad says. Doesn’t fly as much now, but I bet she has a few stories to tell.”

  As they drifted towards the silent bulk of the Ibis, they could just make out arcs of light from the underside of the Patroller as it cut its way through the outer airlock doors.

  “I guess those Outlanders on the Ibis must have tried to leave New Eden for some reason and old Jenna has come after them,” continued Ryann as he surveyed the lifeless ship.

  “So much for disabling all the ships in New Eden then,” muttered Angelique, the relief palpable in her voice now that their systems were offline. “Let’s hope we’ve been lucky and got away with all of this. No sign of any Luminal activity yet.”

  “Good. Let’s hope it stays that way,” agreed Ryann. “I’ll take us in and see if we can get Jenna’s attention — she might need a hand dealing with the those Outlanders. Though judging by the state of their ship, I think they’ll be grateful for a tow back to New Eden now.”

  “I don’t fancy our chances trying to tow that hunk of scrap through the Halion Belt,” muttered Angelique, studying the ancient craft. “It must be about fifty-thousand tonnes, maybe more.”

  Ryann nodded distractedly as he let the Raven drift slowly around the dark shape of the Ibis, traversing the length of her pockmarked hull. He could just make out the small shape of the Patroller in the shadows, still clamped to the main airlock.

  “Jenna sure gave them a pounding,” muttered Ryann as he counted multiple laser blasts along the hull. “Doesn’t look like their shields were up to much. I think I’ll set the Raven down beside her and then suit up for a —”