Prime Guardian: Mission 4: Black Ocean: Astral Prime, #4

By J. S. Morin and M. A. Larkin

Magic and technology don't mix. Now, the one exception to that rule is up for grabs.

The ancient solution to get magic and tech to coexist lies within an alien structure older than any race in the galaxy. Now, the balance of power threatens to tip. As factions reinforce their fleets for a war to claim the ultimate technological prize, Hiroko finds herself trapped between three races—one of them her own—in a quest where even victory promises disaster.

Down beneath the planet's surface, Cedric delves into the workings of the mysterious alien technology that works like magic. Discovering the key to the untapped power it possesses may be Astral Prime's only hope.

Prime Guardian is the fourth book in the Black Ocean: Astral Prime series. It hearkens back to location-based space sci-fi classics like Babylon 5 and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Astral Prime builds on the rich Black Ocean universe, introducing a colorful cast of characters for new and returning readers alike. Come along for the ride as a minor outpost in the middle of nowhere becomes a key point of interstellar conflict.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Magical Scrivener Press
• Release date: Aug 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9781942642923

Book preview

Prime Guardian

PRIME GUARDIAN

MISSION 4

BLACK OCEAN: ASTRAL PRIME

J.S. MORIN

M.A. LARKIN

MAGICAL SCRIVENER PRESS

Copyright © 2018 J.S. Morin & M.A. Larkin

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

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Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

Ordering Information: Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address above.

J.S. Morin & M.A. Larkin — First Edition

ISBN: 978-1-942642-92-3

Printed in the United States of America

PRIME GUARDIAN

MISSION 4

More than a dozen ships now hovered outside Hiroko’s office window. As the station slowly rotated, she would catch glimpses of hexagonal zheen broodships, or Earth Navy cruisers, or eyndar destroyers. All of them drifted just out of weapons range of each other. Not, however, out of range of the station, giving her the distinct impression of having a few hundred guns and missiles aimed at her home.

Not a feeling she savored.

She glanced over her shoulder at her assistant. Kendra sat in Hiroko’s chair, spinning around with her feet just off the ground, contorting her face in what might have been an impression of a laaku.

What are you doing? Hiroko asked, unable to work much sternness into her tone.

You seemed to want to keep all threats in view. My way is faster.

Maybe if Hiroko’s entire office had been glassteel. It had a giant window, a dome, and even an observation deck, but that didn’t offer full panoramic views.

She sighed and turned back to the window. Freed from the vaieen’s presence in her mind, now she could sleep. But the demiurgical wizard had endowed Hiroko with uncharacteristic aggression that had served to bury anxiety beneath rage. Not that Hiroko found being possessed desirable so much as, now alone, she found herself forced to acknowledge the reality of her powerlessness to control the escalation going on outside those windows.

"You want me to have Veronica ring up the Aurora?" Kendra asked.

No. It didn’t matter. No one in the Earth Navy recognized Hiroko’s authority. Going lower in the chain of command wouldn’t help. They’d rebuffed her every overture, some captains refusing to accept her hails at all. To them, Fujita Hiroko was a civilian. When she had represented Maho Saigai Mining Concern, they might have acknowledged her with respect. Now she was no one, the owner of a near-derelict non-combatant station situated in the midst of a war zone.

Honestly, she might not have paid herself much heed if their positions were reversed.

All three factions had made it clear that any attempt to land on the planet would be met with deadly force. In other words, the three greatest powers in the galaxy were willing to go to war over this planet. It was almost enough to get Hiroko to drop Astral Prime into astral and make a break for it.

Assuming Cedric had even been up here to pull that off. The damn wizard refused to leave the planet’s surface. Not that Hiroko blamed him for that either. The powder keg up here notwithstanding, she’d have preferred to explore the ruins herself.

Well, Klxzark showed you friendship.

Hiroko suspected Kendra mistook mutual empathy for camaraderie, but Klxzark did at least show her respect. Yeah, ask her to come up here. Talking to the zheen ambassador couldn’t hurt.

Unfortunately, Hiroko suspected if someone were to ignite a shooting war here, it was most likely to be Earth Navy or the Eyndar Empire, both of which tended toward more impulsive belligerence than the zheen.

And send Rrolou a subtle reminder about the recording you made.

Kendra chortled. That should go over well. I’ll throw in an insult about his mother too.

Hiroko smirked, keeping her face to the window so Kendra wouldn’t see it. Blackmailing an eyndar was anything but diplomatic. Sooner or later, she’d push him too far, and Rrolou would turn on her. But for now, she just needed to keep him from letting his people shoot first.

Even if I can control the zheen and the eyndar, I have no hold over the Earth Navy vessels.

Astral Prime had worked with Captain Sevigny to bring down the shield, but the captain had now given Hiroko the brush-off.

Kind of ironic, right? Kendra said. In the end, it’s likely to be our own people who get us killed.

That managed to wipe even the hint of a smile off Hiroko’s face. She’d call it more tragedy than irony.

There had to be a solution to this. A way she could bring all three sides to the negotiating table. And Hiroko was going to find it.

With the arrival of additional zheen ships to the vicinity of Astral Prime, demands for Klxzark’s time steadily increased. The mounting workload came as a welcome distraction from dwelling on the fate of the creature responsible for powering the solar shield.

Responsible.

Curious notion, considering the creature was captive, held in a state of torment for an unfathomable length of time. While it provided the power, that power was taken unwillingly, siphoned from its biology without consent or perhaps even understanding. Hunting the smaller, wild ones for gravity stones had seemed harmless before. Now, it appeared that the human expeditions had merely scratched the surface of a power plant farm.

As she struggled to wrap her mind around the horrible reality, the comm was a constant parasite on her grief.

"Trade Ambassador Klxzark, we need to discuss …"

"We need an update, Trade Ambassador Klxzark."

"Trade Ambassador Klxzark, if you could just …"

"Please contact me at your earliest opportunity, Trade Ambassador Klxzark."

"Trade Ambassador Klxzark … Ambassador Klxzark … Klxzark …"

Klxzark squelched the comm unit. This was a protocol violation in the extreme, considering the tense situation beyond the station walls. The revelation regarding the vaieen had drawn mammals like flies to a corpse. The zheen had been forced to respond in kind, lest the ancient secrets fall into the hands of enemies sworn to zheen destruction.

However, Klxzark was in no fit state of mind to advise on military matters. After a moment of quiet, she reactivated the comm and sent a message to the orbiting fleet.

Disquieting activities below the planet’s surface require the Renewal Ritual. Stand by unless fired upon. I will contact when the ritual is complete.

There. She’d done it. Her action might not win her political allies back on Zhee, but Klxzark hoped that the ship captains would understand. Not all Renewal Rituals involved the consumption of a mate. Most. Not all. It was simply an expression of the purpose in death. In this case, that might mean first discovering such a purpose. The meaninglessness of the power plant dragon’s slaughter was what tugged at Klxzark’s antennae from the inside.

But whom to share this ritual with? Pulling ship personnel from the fleet seemed vain and reckless. That left the crew of Astral Prime.

Klxzark sent a wide-distribution to a number of inoffensive residents.

Attend zheen ritual of renewal at 1200 hours station time. Express grief at death of solar shield dragon. Bring food to share.

Klxzark shuddered at the last inclusion. It was, of course, a part of the ritual. Without a mate’s body to share, general purpose Renewal Rituals included a communal meal.

She spent the intervening time clearing space in her quarters for guests. The invite list had included seventeen names. With an expected acceptance rate of 50 percent, that meant Klxzark ought to find room for as many as eight humans and one stuunji—which rounded off to approximately twelve humans’ worth of space.

The chrono continued a steady advance as Klxzark lifted and hauled away zheen-specific furniture to make room and cleared decorative cultural items from her tables. Lastly, as the time approached, she dug into her nutrient stores for preserved proteins. Dehydrated and formed into easy-to-bite bars, the proteins mainly came from beetles and rodents.

A chime from the door alerted her to a visitor. Enter and be welcome.

Director Fujita entered, peering side to side. Am I early? She carried a plastic tray laden with spiral-rolled pucks of meat and starch.

By two minutes, Klxzark said. Please, complete your wait in comfort.

Then Scientist Heather arrived, bearing a bowl labeled Noodle-O-Rama. Hello?

Thank you for attending. Please sample my people’s nutrients.

Over the next few minutes, the modest quarters supplied by Astral Prime crowded with humans. The air circulation system struggled to keep up with the additional endothermic creatures present.

Then Myo Tam arrived.

The stuunji had what appeared to be a bale of hay slung over her shoulder. Upon delivery to Klxzark’s table of shared meals, it turned out to be a fine mesh bag containing a great many smaller hay bales. I hope I’m not late. I … I didn’t know what to bring. My people’s food isn’t usually to human liking, but I didn’t know what your kind eat.

Klxzark said nothing rude. The grasses, while non-toxic, would provide no worthwhile nutrition to a zheen. Thank you for coming. As one who expressed distress at the dragon’s death, I had hoped you would find this gathering helpful.

I’ve already prayed for it, Myo Tam replied. But I thought others might need help.

Just as Klxzark caught herself wondering at the oddity of a stuunji caring about the emotional well-being of humans, it occurred to her that this very gathering accomplished the same purpose. Klxzark conceived of holding the ritual to deal with her own issues, but the choice of guests was conscious. She did not invite Chief Engineer Kane or Technologically Gifted Criminal Jace to her Renewal Ritual. She had not invited Eyndar Ambassador Rrolou. None of them would have the feelings to soothe.

To her amazement, Klxzark realized that, even among humans, she could tell the difference.

To all who gather, let us think one kind thought about those among us, Klxzark announced. Do not feel the need to rush. Partake of nutrients your fellow guests have brought.

Taking her own advice, Klxzark browsed the offerings. Since any action she took could be construed with diplomatic undertones, she made a showing of selecting from Director Fujita’s starch and meat pucks. Her choice did not go unnoticed.

Hope it’s not a faux pas, but I picked those up at SushiGo on the way, Fujita said. They’re from my ancestor’s home region on Earth before my family emigrated to Mars.

Snapping up the tiny morsel, Klxzark found it slightly sweet and salty but lacking in crunch. There was neither bone nor chitin anywhere within it, a sure warning of troublesome digestion later in the day.

And yet, for the sake of camaraderie, she ate another. There was always the stuunji hay to try later if Klxzark needed roughage.

The ritual meandered through the early afternoon. Klxzark guided the mourners in suggesting of the purposes for the dragon’s death.

Its death freed us from the solar shield, Assistant Kendra pointed out. Maybe it didn’t have to die for that, but that’s how it happened.

We might learn from it, Heather said. As a biologist, her response was predictable.

It brought us all here together, Myo Tam said when her turn came. A purpose that folded in upon itself.

When it was Klxzark’s chance to express the light side of her sorrow, she added, In the wake of the dragon’s demise, I have discovered to whom I might turn in grief.

Director Fujita took the final bite of her zheen nutrient bar before making the last dedication. It showed me the kind of man our wizard is.

Calvin had made himself at home in the vaieen ruins. The compulsive need