Shattered Space

By Barbara Lund

7th in the Platform Eight series of short stories:

When Amy Cordova’s grief over her lover is interrupted by an old acquaintance with a desperate mission, she must pull herself together long enough to strike at the very heart of darkness: the slaver fortress.

The only way in is to become the monster she’d slain, but even from beyond the grave, Gunnar Quinn is a tenacious foe that won’t let go once he has his victim...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barbara Lund
• Release date: Dec 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781944127183

Barbara Lund

Award-winning speculative fiction author Barbara Lund has several indie-published novels, dozens of short stories, and has been traditionally published in Daily Science Fiction and L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume 37 (November 2021).She won the Writers of the Future Golden Pen (2021), along with a First Place, three Silver Honorable Mentions, and two Honorable Mentions. She won the 24th Annual Critters Best Magical Realism Short Story.She's always working on new novels and short stories.Add a husband, two kids, and a martial arts obsession, and she keeps pretty busy.

Book preview

SHATTERED SPACE

PLATFORM EIGHT #7

Barbara Lund

Copyright © 2017 Barbara Lund

All rights reserved.

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced

or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission

of the publisher except for brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing, 2017

ISBN: 1-944127-18-6

ISBN-13: 978-1-944127-18-3

www.barbaralund.com

For those who are grieving.

"Amity Noelle Cordova-Guzman, get up."

The man’s voice sounded familiar as he named all my names, but after a second I realized it wasn’t the one voice I ached to hear again, so I buried my head deeper into the pillow and tucked my knees closer to my chest. Amy, I muttered into my pillow. Not Amity.

Someone ripped the blanket from me, exposing an awful lot of my skin to the cool air in my sleep bay, and I yelped in protest, but still didn’t open my eyes.

"Get your ass up right now, the man said, from somewhere above me. Or I’ll com your father."

No! Prying my eyes open, I squinted. The words, the tone, the rumble of the giant looming over me—a head taller and twice as wide as me—sounded so damned familiar… "Afa?"

The man who had been my partner a lifetime ago when I was a member of Space Enforcement, and whom I hadn’t seen since I’d transferred to EnnisCorp Security, still wore the Space Enforcement navy blue shipsuit, and glared down at me as if I’d hurt him somehow.

Like I’d hurt James.

Like I’d killed James.

Not that I had pulled the trigger, but it had been my plan, the one I’d worked on for months to protect the kids from the slaver, Gunnar Quinn, who had then shot my partner just before James tackled the bastard. James had killed the slaver, but the slaver had killed him back.

My fault.

Closing my eyes, I buried my face in the blue pillow that reminded me of my dead lover’s eyes, the pillow that still smelled faintly of him.

Nuh-uh, Cordova, Afa said, jerking the pillow from my arms. "They’ve tried nice, and all you’ve done is wallow. People die every day."

Tears filled my eyes and spilled down my cheeks as I stared at him, speechless.

I’ve been waiting two months for you, and I’m done waiting, he snarled. "For the first time in years we have a slaver’s ship, intact. We have his files, intact. We have a way to get back to his base, and you’re wasting my time."

You… you… My voice cracked, and I wondered how long it had been since I’d used it last. You don’t understand, I wanted to tell him.