Where Nothing Ill Can Dwell: The Bard Nebula, #1

By Crista McHugh

For most of her seventeen years, Miranda Prospero has lived with her mother on a wild, uncharted world on the fringes of the Bard Nebula, never knowing there were others like them in the star system. All that changes the moment a ship crashes onto her planet and introduces her to another of her species—a handsome, young man named Ferdinand.

But this is no accident.

Miranda’s mother has waited for the perfect moment to extract revenge against those who stripped her of power and exiled her to this remote planet. She orchestrated the system failure that caused the ships to fall from the sky.

Caught in the storm of her mother’s vengeance, Miranda’s conscience is torn. Now she must choose between the only family she’s ever known or risk everything for the boy who makes her heart race with each smile and stolen glance.

The boy who happens to be the son of her mother’s enemy. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Crista McHugh
• Release date: Dec 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9781940559261

Book preview

Chapter 1 -ARIEL

An alarm roused me from hibernation mode. I analyzed the code. It was not one with which I was familiar. Normally, the code would tell me why the alarm had sounded, along with instructions on how to diffuse the matter. In the instance of a storm, I would ensure all the compound’s windows were secure and lock the doors to prevent my young mistress, Miranda, from leaving. My name stood for Advanced Response Intelligence Engineered Lifeform, and I was programmed to learn from my environment. But this code simply instructed me to alert my creator, Dr. Maria Prospero.

I rose from my recharging port and flew to my creator’s sleeping chambers. Unlike her daughter, Dr. Prospero’s sleep schedule did not follow the course of the sun or moons. She worked until she was exhausted and slept until she was recharged. One of my primary commands was to protect Miranda while my creator slept, and I began to wonder if the alarm had something to do with my young mistress.

The room was cool and dark, and the resonant rumble of my creator’s snores echoed off the metal walls. Dr. Prospero was one of the galaxy’s most brilliant minds, but an observer would never guess that from the way she appeared now. A line of liquid seeped from her open mouth, and her short gray hair stuck out in every direction. She lay crooked on the bed, one hand dangling over the edge.

I paused to calculate the most suitable appearance to take when waking her. My exterior was nothing more than a metal sphere, but my hologram generator allowed me to appear in whatever form was required. When Miranda was a child, I often took the legend-based likeness of an Earth sprite, but I came to the conclusion that the urgency of the alarm designated only one suitable form now.

Dr. Prospero’s mother.

I filed through my stored images until I found her and generated the appropriate likeness. A sound bite guided my speech tone and patterns. I stood, my hands on my hips, and yelled, Maria, wake up!

Dr. Prospero jerked in a spastic manner, and she tumbled out of the bed. Her extremities passed through my holographic projection. My features flickered, so I hovered back to maintain them.

Stop dawdling! I ordered, based on the memories my creator had programmed into my hard drive. Get up!

Dr. Prospero turned her sleepy gaze towards me and blinked several times. The initial panic in her expression eased when she realized that I was not her mother. Damn it, ARIEL. Haven’t I warned you not to access my mother’s files unless there is an urgent need?

There is. I turned off the hologram, and my voice shifted back to the flat monotone of my initial programming. Alarm 6521-A has been triggered.

Alarm 6521-A? she muttered. Although her tone was distant, her brain was already searching for the meaning of the code. When she discovered it, her eyes widened, and she drew in a deep breath. Finally!

Before I could inquire about the significance of the alarm, she dashed past me toward the command center of the compound. I considered checking on Miranda, whose sleeping chamber was in the opposite direction, but determined that Dr. Prospero’s attitude required more immediate attention. I whizzed after her and found her typing with a frantic speed I had only witnessed once in my memory.

I’ve waited for this day for almost fifteen years, she stated without looking back at me. Now I will make Alonso suffer as I have suffered.

I analyzed her words to decipher their meaning and realized their intent.

Revenge.

It was an emotion I was not programmed to understand or feel. But I had witnessed it in the words and actions of Caliban, the sentient lifeform my creator had enslaved. Dr. Prospero had explained that revenge was a base emotion, a primitive instinct an enlightened lifeform should be beyond experiencing or acting upon.

Which was why her words troubled me.

Should I warn you of the potential for personality regression implicit in your desired actions? I asked.

No, you should not. The image of a large spaceship appeared on the screen that encompassed an entire wall in command central. Dr. Prospero crossed her arms and watched the ship with a cold smile. I knew he’d wander to my part of the galaxy one day.

I searched through my database for this Alonso and found a match.

Admiral Alonso Santos, Leader of the Nebula Alliance Planetary and Lifeform Exploration Spacestation, or NAPLES. One of the men instrumental in my creator’s exile to this planet.

I could finally comprehend the source of her heightened emotions, but I still did not understand her need to make him suffer.

She rocked back and forth in her chair before typing again. I’m sending you new orders, ARIEL.

A transmitter relayed her commands, and I marveled at the complexity of her plan. Fourteen years was an extensive segment of time to plot revenge, and it seemed my mistress had thought long and hard about what she wanted to do to the leader of NAPLES.

My first command was to take over the ship’s navigation system, something easily done since Dr. Prospero had programmed their system before her exile from MILAN. The next step was far more complicated.

Dr. Prospero had ordered me to trigger a solar storm.

Chapter 2 - Ferdinand

I flicked the controls over to autopilot and leaned back against the seat of my two-man cruiser. Twenty hours at the helm had taken their toll on me, and I wanted nothing more than to doze for a bit.

Unfortunately, my father had other ideas. Just as I closed my eyes, my com screen flashed, and his image stared back at me. Your vitals suggest you’re tired, Ferdinand. Why don’t you dock inside the main ship and sleep in your cabin?

Because then you’ll find some excuse to find fault in me, rail at me for falling short of your expectations, and make me wish I wasn’t your son.

But saying the truth aloud would only earn me a never-ending lecture about how ungrateful I was, along with appropriate disciplinary actions. I might be the Admiral’s son, but he was still the Admiral. I just need some alone time, Dad, especially after all the political bullshit I had to endure during Claribel’s wedding.

It’s not bullshit. It’s an alliance that we’ve been trying to form with TUNIS for the last decade.

And my older sister happened to be the gift that sealed the deal. I wished I could scrub from my memory the look of panic on her face when she met her future husband last week.

The Transsteller United Nebula Intergalactic Spacestation, or TUNIS, was a rival command post to NAPLES, my father’s base. Both were home to mostly creatures with Earth origins, but the prior admiral of TUNIS had opened the station to other lifeforms, resulting in an odd community of alien creatures. The exoticness of the place had both intrigued and terrified me when I arrived for the wedding. But unlike Claribel, I was free to leave.

I still don’t think you should’ve left her there, I said. Admiral Hannibal is almost three times her age.

It was a good match. Besides, your sister knows how to follow orders, unlike some people. My father leveled his steely glare at me.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. It was just a night out with the boys.

That resulted in you insulting several dignitaries and forcing me to step in to smooth things over before you ended up in a TUNIS prison cell.

Once again, he reminded me of what a disappointment I was to him.

I toyed with the idea of turning off my communications line. Did you just call to berate me? Or is there a purpose to this conversation?

He flinched. I’m just worried about you, son. I don’t want you crashing because you fell asleep at the helm.

I wished I could believe his concern was genuine, but I knew the true meaning behind his words. I was his only son—his heir. For as far back as I could remember, he’d been grooming me to take over NAPLES once he stepped down. I’d never been free to make any decisions about my life. Like my sister, I was nothing more than a tool for him to use in his plans to rule his little quadrant of the Bard Nebula. If I crashed and died in a fiery explosion, he would have to spend another eighteen years grooming another replacement.

I have the autopilot on.

Maybe we should activate a tractor beam just to be safe.

More like tie a leash to me. Even if I wanted to flee, I couldn’t. My father knew too many people in too many places. They’d find me and turn me over to him. Then who knew what he’d do to me? I’d already pushed the limits of his patience as it was.

Dad, I’m eighteen and graduated at the top of my class in pilot training. I think I can handle this little cruiser on my own.

He shook his head and appeared far wearier than I’d ever seen him before.

And for a brief second, I was tempted to apologize for being such an ass to him.

When you change your mind and realize you’re safer with me, he said, tell the boatswain to open the rear hatch.

I’ll take my chances out here. Far safer than being on board with him.

The screen flickered off, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

I still hated the idea of Claribel being forced to marry Admiral Hannibal. The thought of her sleeping with him, of him violating her every night, was enough to make my stomach roil. I’d asked why she agreed to the marriage, and she’d replied it was all part of our father’s orders. She would play prostitute to lure secrets out of the ruler of TUNIS, and then feed what she learned to our father. And if our father gave the order to terminate his rival, Claribel would no doubt carry out that command too, even if it cost her life.

Such were the intrigues of the Bard Nebula.

I loosened the chinstrap on my helmet and closed my eyes, but no matter how hard I tried to relax, I couldn’t shake the cold thread of unease that wormed through my veins.

I dozed, but I had no idea for how long.

The rapid blare of alarms woke me. The first thing I saw was a nav screen full of blinking lights. Then I looked out my window at the wave of molten gas arching from the surface of the closest sun toward my father’s ship.

My heart wedged in my throat and squeezed so tightly it forgot how to beat. It was a solar storm like I’d never seen before. Even though we were too far out of range for it to disintegrate us, we’d still been caught in its turmoil. The electromagnetic fields were interfering with my controls, and my little cruiser was tiny compared to the behemoth of my father’s ship a few miles away. The lights there flickered, then doused, and his ship tilted precariously in space.

I squeezed the throttle to try and catch up, but my cruiser refused to respond. Like every other ship in the fleet, all power was lost. New alarms shrieked, warning me of my depleting oxygen supply. My skin burned from the heat of the solar flare and loss of my shields. The gravitational pull of a nearby planet grasped my cruiser, and I tumbled into its upper atmosphere.

I flicked the manual switches in a desperate attempt to override the system and restore power. A backup generator kicked in, but it was barely enough to power my rear thrusters. I tried to right my cruiser, to pull out of the flat spin I’d fallen into.

I’d barely regained partial control when my com screen flashed again.

Ferdinand, where are you? my father asked, his eyes wide with panic.

I’m trying to get out of the pull of this planet, I answered through clenched teeth. Steadying my cruiser was harder than usual without the navigation system’s help.

One of the officers—Gonzalo—laid a hand on my father’s shoulder and tried to pull him away from the screen. Chaos erupted behind him. Sparks flew through the background, and screams created a din that made my ears ring, but my father remained focused only on me.

Stay safe, son. I love you.

And for the first time in my life, I realized that he really did care about me. You stay safe too, Dad, I replied, my voice cracking.

The com screen blurred, and outside my starboard window, his ship nose-dived toward the surface of the planet. My breath stilled, and I was forced to accept that there was a good chance this was the last I’d ever speak to my father.

My generator failed, and my cruiser spiraled downward, out of control. The surface of the planet blurred into a swirling mass of greens and blues.

My head filled with thoughts and regrets, of things I wished I’d done and things I wished I’d said.

My oxygen levels dropped, and I blacked out.

Chapter 3 - Miranda

I woke to the sound of maniacal laughter echoing through the compound. After a moment, I realized it was my mother, and I immediately wondered if Caliban had slipped her some hallucinogenic herbs.

Pooka, my pet oolas, burrowed under my pillow, whimpering. He was a small, furry creature native to this planet and resembled a small dog from Earth in more ways than one. Next to ARIEL, he was my most constant companion.

I jumped out of bed and raced toward the sound of my mother’s laughter, only to find her rocking back in her chair in command central and watching the huge screen.

What I saw was no laughing matter. A spaceship like I’d never seen before teetered in the heavens. The momentary awe I experienced at seeing such a large ship vanished once I realized it had rolled to the side and was tumbling through space.

My pulse fluttered, and sweat prickled the back of my neck. I ignored Pooka, who’d followed me from my room and wedged himself between my ankles. What is this?

What I’ve always wanted. She leaned forward, her eyes intent on the screen, and began typing at a frantic speed. All the keystrokes blended into one continuous sound.

Horror laced my veins. I had no idea what species was on board or what planet they came from, but the ship was large enough to house hundreds of lives, and my heart ached for them. They’ll all be killed.

ARIEL buzzed around my mother in a sharp, zigzagging pattern that mirrored my worry.

Not once I’m in control. My mother punched a few more keys. I just need to make sure they are unconscious before I step in.

Unconscious? I stared at the screen and tried to make sense of it all. There were images of the ship, along with charts and graphs and calculations I didn’t have time to interpret. But my mother knew what they meant.

That should do it. She added a few more commands, and new windows popped up on the screen. The lights returned to the ship, and the course changed. The largest ship continued to descend into the atmosphere, but on a seemingly controlled course.

Then my mother paused and stroked her chin. That’s interesting.

A loud boom shook the walls of the compound, and ARIEL flew to the nearest window. I followed with Pooka yapping at my heels. My jaw dropped as a huge ship streaked across the sky, its sleek hull burning red like it was on fire. Mom!

I’m on it, she replied, and entered more lines of code into her computer.

Tears stung my eyes. It was the same ship from the screen. As the main ship neared the horizon, I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be two pods ejecting from its hull. I then noticed a third object—a smaller craft trailing in its wake. At first, the cruiser seemed to follow the main ship, but then its course veered toward our compound.

ARIEL shooed me away from the window. Stay back, Miranda, she warned. It’s not safe. She’d taken the holographic form of a young woman that I jokingly referred to as my older sister.

Panic choked me as I watched the cruiser’s trajectory. Pooka jumped into my arms, his whimpers growing even louder. Mom, there’s a ship heading straight for us.

I know, she shouted back.

But instead of wrapping me up in her arms so we could spend our last moments together, she remained at her computer, entering line after line of code.

The small craft stopped rolling, and the yellow glow of rear thrusters signaled that someone had regained control. The roar of its engine drowned out the throbbing of my pulse as the cruiser flew overhead and crashed into the forest a few miles away.

A cloud of purple-tailed mogharts scattered into the air above the dense trees. Their angry caws hid any clue to the fate of the smaller vessel.

I grabbed the medic kit and ran for the door, pausing only a second to enter the code to open it. If there were survivors, they’d likely need medical attention, and I was well versed on the medicinal herbs of this planet thanks to what Caliban had shown me. A tissue-regeneration laser couldn’t fix everything, after all.

Miranda, wait! my mother called, but her command didn’t halt me.

The six foot mass of shell and muscle standing outside did.

Caliban was the last living member of the race that had once inhabited this planet. He wasn’t human, but he exhibited enough human-like qualities to make him a higher life form. More brawn than brains, he possessed the intelligence to learn our language and stood like a man, but he curled up into an armored ball when threatened. The scales of his yellow skin shimmered under the sunlight like gold and contrasted with the stony brown plates that lined the posterior portions of his body. As a male of his species, he was every inch a warrior, and I became acutely aware of how I was still clad in my nightgown.

He turned his slit-like black eyes on me and flexed his claws. Careful, Miranda. You don’t know who they are or what they’ll do. Perhaps they’ll treat you like your mother did me.

Pooka growled at the sinister tone, and a shiver of fear coursed down my spine.

The memory of the day Caliban turned on me last year was still too fresh.

When Mom and I first landed on this planet, Caliban quickly became the closet thing I had to an older brother. He was a newly orphaned youth and I was only a three-year-old girl. We were friends, and he showed me the secrets of his world. He taught me the plants that were safe to eat, which could be used to heal, and which could be used to harm. He showed me the hidden dangers of the forest and how to calm the creatures that inhabited it. He even helped us discover the energy crystals that powered our compound and all of Mom’s computers. He was someone I looked up to, someone I admired.

Then one day everything changed. He’d grabbed me and forced me to the ground, lying on top of me. I still remembered the taste of dirt and blood in my mouth as he told me he was tired of waiting for his people to return so he could find a mate. He would take me instead.

If ARIEL hadn’t incapacitated him…

I shuddered, and my gaze fell to the metal collar around his neck. Now, whenever Caliban stepped out of line, he received a shock that brought him to his knees.

The lights on the collar flashed, and he fell to the ground with a flurry of curses.

I turned around to find my mother pressing the button on the small remote she always carried with her. His curses grew louder, and I moved toward her. Mom, that’s enough.

He knows better than to speak to you. Her expression harbored no mercy. She observed his suffering with a cool detachment.

He was just warning me to stay away from the crash. As much as I now feared Caliban, there was a part of me that recalled our past friendship.

My mother released the button and turned to me, one brow arched in a haughty manner. As he should. At least, until I have time to confirm the data.

She pressed another button on the remote, and ARIEL hovered in front of her, no longer bothering with a holographic shell. You know your orders, my mother told her.

ARIEL bobbed once—her version of a nod—and zoomed off into the forest.

Caliban rose to his feet,