Tales from the Starflare Universe & Beyond

By Simon Goodson

STARSHIPS. GHOSTS. DANGER.
An abandoned starship populated by phantoms.  The Panther's captain doesn't believe in ghosts... but that doesn't stop them coming aboard!  Can the captain overcome his disbelief in time to save his ship?
(Starflare Universe – Ghosts)

A LANDSCAPE DROWNED. A LANDSCAPE REVIVED.
He sits waiting for the tide to come in, but this is no ordinary tide.  It's taller than a tower, more destructive than a hurricane and is on a never ending journey around the world.  Yet he is sitting in the open waiting for it to arrive.  Find out why…
(Starflare Universe – The Tide)

GODDESS. DECEPTION. DAMNATION.
The Chosen go to serve the goddess.  They climb the mountain but never return.  The goddess is not what she pretends to be… but nor is the latest Chosen.
(The Sacrifice)

If you love fast paced science fiction, exciting fantasy, and being transported to worlds far stranger than our own, then you need to read Simon Goodson's Tales From the Starflare Universe & Beyond today!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon Goodson
• Release date: Aug 24, 2016
• ISBN: 9781910586044

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Starflare Universe – Ghosts

I’ve found something… something… I think… yes. Here. It’s here.

Sasha’s fingers flew across the keyboard entering coordinates, then she slumped back in the chair, sighing heavily. She blinked her eyes repeatedly, her focus slowly returning to her surroundings. She lifted a hand which still felt like stone, trying to rub away the headache that had settled in behind her eyes.

And it’s definitely a ship? asked Joe.

You know I can’t answer that, Captain. It’s the right size and it’s moving slowly, so it isn’t in hyperspace. I sensed a lot of metal. It’s probably a ship.

Like the last two you found? Doug asked, pitching into the conversation. Two lost bloody asteroids, both packed with metal we don’t have the resources to mine and both too big to bring aboard.

Sasha leant forward, eyes flashing dangerously.

You think you could do better? You think you could just reach out into the darkness and pluck the location of a ship out of thin air? Go on then! Let’s see how good your success rate is.

Hell, it ain’t that hard, Doug snapped back. "There’s plenty of outfits that get by fine without your… skills. Maybe we should do things the same way they do? Maybe…"

Doug, butt out, growled Joe. You know as well as I do they spend months trawling just to find half as many hits as Sasha found us in two days, and they still have to check them out just the same as we do.

Seriously Captain, she oversold herself. It wouldn’t surprise me if she’s just memorised the location of some rocks. We should dump her off when we’re back in port again.

That’s enough! You worry about the fighters and pilots, that’s what you’re here for. Now get off her case.

Doug stood up and wandered away, grumbling under his breath. Joe decided to let it go. He’d learnt the hard way that a critical skill for a captain was knowing when to stamp down and when to let things go. Too much time spent cooped up on a ship made everyone’s nerves fray, and ultimately his crew obeyed because they chose to, not because they had to. That had been a hard lesson to learn when he left the navy.

Do you think it’s a ship then? he asked Sasha.

I can’t say for sure. It’s a much stronger feeling than the other two.

Is there any danger?

"I don’t know! I’m not a bloody fortune teller. I can find where things are, I can’t tell you what they are."

Sorry, just thinking out loud. Ignore Doug. We’ll still make some cash from those two asteroids you found by selling the location to a mining company.

"He doesn’t think so," she said, nodding her head towards where Doug had ended up standing.

He’s just frustrated because he’s had nothing to do yet. Just ignore him. If he carries on like that I’ll sort him out.

I can take care of myself, Captain!

I’m sure you can, but that kind of sorting out leads to more trouble. Doug can be an arse but he’s an important part of this crew. If he’s causing you problems then you let me know, alright?

Sasha gave a curt nod.

Good, Joe said. Janine, you’re up. You’ve got the coordinates.

Aye, Captain, Janine replied. It’s not far and the hyperspace drive is already charged. We’ll be there in ten minutes.

Good.

Janine stood, heading for the flight deck. Joe followed. He wanted to see the contact as soon as they arrived. Despite his words to Sasha, he was starting to wonder if taking her on was such a good idea.

It had all seemed to make sense at the time. Running cargo made them regular money but his crew needed variety. Doug and his eight fighter pilots needed to do more than just routine patrols and the troopers needed to do more than just guard the ship while cargo was loaded and unloaded. Salvage jobs were more lucrative and gave both the pilots and the troopers something interesting to do.

The only problem was finding ships to salvage. That’s where Sasha came in. Joe had heard of people with her talent before, a form of psychic power which let them find objects in the vastness of space between systems. He’d got talking to her in a bar when already more than merry, and by the end of the evening he’d offered her a job which she’d accepted. In the cold light of day he’d started to have doubts but it was too late — Sasha was already aboard the ship. They’d gone ahead with the plan. So far it had been a big bust.

Still, Sasha seemed more certain this time. He told himself this one would be a ship. It had to be.

Joe grimaced as the Panther dropped out of hyperspace. The transition wasn’t exactly painful, but it was always unpleasant. For several seconds his body felt as if things weren’t quite in the right place. Then the universe snapped back into existence around them, distant stars and galaxies once more visible. And something much closer which the scanners were already identifying.

A ship! Janine shouted. She did it!

Of course she did, Joe answered. Did you doubt her? Dave, what have we got?

Dave was hunched over the scanners, studying the information being revealed.

A freighter. Quite a big one. If the cargo hold is full we’ll struggle to take everything.

Even if it’s not there should be plenty we can strip off the ship. What sort of state is it in?

It’s… it’s still powered.

What?

It’s powered. Engines, life support, everything. There’s no sign of damage.

Then what’s it doing out here? I don’t like this. He opened a comms channel. Doug, get four birds out. Two to recon the area, two on close defence. Get the others ready to launch too.

On it, Doug replied. I’ll lead the close defence. Trouble?

Maybe. Our target is powered and undamaged. That makes it being here damn suspicious.

Got it. On our way.

Joe saw the first pair of fighters appear on the sensors, swiftly followed by the second. The first moved in close to the Panther, ready to provide defence if needed. The other pair started to sweep the surrounding area, alert for any hint of danger.

Dave, are their weapons active? What about their shields?

All energy weapons are powered down. Shields are at baseline.

Joe pondered that. Baseline was a level somewhere between fifteen and twenty percent of full shield strength and was what ships would normally run with. Increasing the strength took exponentially more power, so every step up in defence took far more power than the last. Shields weren’t normally raised above baseline unless there was a risk of a fight or a dangerous environment with a lot of debris flying around. The ship having its shields at baseline suggested it wasn’t preparing for a battle.

The energy weapons were powered down, another sign of a ship that wasn’t preparing to fight, though missiles and solid matter weapons could still be ready to fire in moments. By contrast the Panther had its shields at ready level, roughly forty percent, and its beam weapons were charged and ready. So far their target didn’t seem dangerous… yet something definitely felt off.

Joe spoke into the comm again.

Blaze, were you listening in?

Of course, Captain. My men are getting kitted up for hostile action now.

Good. Make sure to remind them we don’t know what the situation is. This might be a civilian ship with a real problem that needs our help.

I will. Any response from them so far?

Joe looked over at Dave who shook his head. "Nothing except the identity beacon, Captain. The ship’s called the Sundrenched, the stars alone know why."

Nothing so far, Joe told Blaze. We should have lit up their sensors like a Christmas tree and Dave’s been hailing them too. If there’s anyone home they’re not aware we’re here, they’re ignoring us, or they’re laying a trap for us.

Oh great, Blaze replied. My three favourite scenarios. Whatever happens we’ll probably get shot at, the only question will be whether shooting back makes us heroes or villains.

Well, you’ve got a few minutes yet. No one is going anywhere till we’re sure there’s no nasty surprises lurking nearby. Speaking of which… Doug, they’ve had long enough to reply now. I don’t care about spooking them anymore, they’re doing enough of that to me. I want the rest of the fighters up. Two on intermediate defence, the other three on recon. If this is a trap I want us to have as much warning as possible.

Sure Captain, but how could this be a trap? How could anyone know we’d be coming here, unless… unless… Captain! Our new friend might have led us straight into a trap.

Sasha was sitting at a station several feet from Joe. He saw her stiffen, then turn to him with a face like thunder.

Captain! she shouted. I would never do that! You must believe me, I didn’t…

Enough! roared Joe. Doug, I think that’s a damn unlikely scenario. She didn’t even decide which bit of space to scan through, I did. Even if you were right it wouldn’t change what we need to do now. Just focus on your job and make sure we don’t get jumped by anyone.

Aye, Captain, Doug growled, killing the connection.

Joe hit a button to broadcast ship-wide.

All crew to combat stations. All crew to combat stations.

Most of the crew would be there anyway, not that it was a particularly big crew once the fighter pilots and troopers were taken out of the equation, but he wanted everyone to be ready. The ship’s turret weapons were already charged, now the crews in them would know they needed to be ready for action at a moment’s notice.

Dave, I need to know what you’ve got.

I’m not picking up any transmissions at all. There’s nothing moving on the outside of the ship and no sign of anyone trying to signal us in any other way. No lights flashing, nothing.

Alright, keep checking. Doug, is there anything out there?

If there is then it’s running so dark it’d take minutes to become a danger.

Alright. Keep two birds on recon. We’re going to send two shuttles over. I want you covering them all the way in.

On it.

Blaze, from the scans there’s an emergency airlock near the flight deck and a standard one near the engines. I want both areas secured, then start a sweep.

Kicking in the door by the flight deck might seem a tad hostile, Blaze replied. You sure?

I’m sure. I want you leading that team.

Alright. I’ll send four to the engine room, they can secure it. The rest of us will take the bridge then sweep from there. Do I get to fly?

No. The flyboys are all out, though. The doc and his intern can fly. As long as they keep the shuttles buttoned up once you leave they’ll be safe, and that way they’re on hand if they’re needed.

Sounds good. We’ll be ready to launch in two minutes.

Blaze checked the time as the shuttles lifted from the deck, smiling as he saw they’d lifted three seconds under the two minute estimate. He was in the lead shuttle, sitting in the co-pilot’s chair with Doc at the controls.

You got your bag of tricks? Blaze asked.

Of course, Doc replied. But maybe you clumsy oafs could try to avoid needing my help, just for once.

We hate to think of you getting bored.

Ferrying you lot to a ship sitting in the middle of nowhere, then waiting around to see who tries to break in once you’ve left? Yeah, sounds like I’ll be snoring in no time. Now be quiet and let me concentrate on getting us attached.

Sure, Doc.

Blaze watched carefully as they approached. He knew he could handle the manoeuvre far better than Doc, but that was part of the reason he wasn’t flying. The Panther’s crew was small enough that everyone had to be able to handle several roles and practice whenever they got a chance. Doc didn’t have the experience to handle the shuttle in a hot fire zone. Blaze or one of the pilots would be flying in that situation. Chances to practice hostile docking in relative safety didn’t come along often.

Not that Blaze was completely relaxed. If something unexpected happened, if the apparently quiet ship they were approaching became hostile, he’d grab control. His instincts were already screaming at him, reminding him that nothing was ever this easy.

The approach stayed quiet, though. Doc brought the shuttle in slower than Blaze would have, but still at a reasonable speed, spinning it around during the final approach so the landing gear would make first contact.

Blaze fought to keep his hands off the controls as the distance to the target vanished. The last thing Doc needed was to be distracted or to feel like Blaze was breathing down his neck. Doc hit the thrusters at the last minute so they crunched down rather than smashing into the ship.

The hostile docking measures were already primed. The moment the landing gear touched down powerful electromagnets activated and several harpoons blasted into the large ship’s surface. Claws on the landing gear bit down into the target ship’s surface. The devices worked perfectly, letting the shuttle cling on rather than bouncing back off.

Nice landing, Doc, Blaze said. We’re heading out. Remember not to open the door to strangers!

You think there’ll be anyone there that’s stranger than you lot? Doc shot back. Blaze chuckled and shook his head.

Joe waited tensely, listening as the troopers headed out of the airlock and onto the Sundrenched.

Exiting emergency airlock. Area clear. Moving towards the bridge.

Exiting main airlock. Area clear. Moving towards engineering.

Approaching bridge. Still no contacts. Bridge door is closed.

Bridge is not secured. Should we open it up?

Wait one, Blaze’s voice cut in. Captain, we good to go in?

"Yes, but try to avoid shooting anyone unless you really have to."

Roger that. Fumbles, Rat — you two are on point. Captain says if you shoot anyone you shouldn’t then you can damn well walk home. Got it?

Joe grinned at that. Other than Blaze the troopers weren’t in the comm circuit he’d spoken on. He was listening in to theirs and could interrupt if he chose to but most of the time he stayed out and let Blaze coordinate everything.

All was quiet for a few moments, then he heard the sound of a door hissing open followed by running feet.

Don’t panic. We’re here to help. We… area’s clear, Blaze. No contacts on the bridge.

Alright, lets secure the bridge, then I want two teams of three sweeping the ship. There must be someone somewhere. Sparks, how’re you doing?

Just entered the engine room, Sarge. No contacts. Everything looks in good shape. No signs of any problems down here.

Good. Keep it secured. We’ll sweep through the rest of the ship.

Joe listened in as the troopers explored the ship over the next few minutes, not finding anything particularly useful other than the fact there had definitely been a crew at some point.

Sarge, we’ve got… something.

Well Fumbles, don’t keep us all in suspense. What’s up?

Food. A meal. Well, it was a meal once. Must have been out here for a couple of weeks at least judging by the look of it. Seems like a group of the crew were eating and they all decided to get up and leave halfway through.

Any sign of a fight?

No. Other than the food being off I could imagine them coming back at any moment to finish the meal.

Alright. Keep your eyes open. Something must have happened. We need to know what.

That’s it, Captain, Blaze said over the comm channel. We’ve finished sweeping the ship. There’s no one here. No bodies and no sign of a fight, either. I guess this is a salvage mission again.

Maybe, replied Joe. I want to understand what happened there first, though. How’s Sparks getting on with breaking into their systems?

He’s nearly done. We should have access within a few minutes.

Good. Start cataloguing the cargo. I want to grab what we need and get out of here. Something about that ship feels off.

What do you think happened to them, Captain?

I don’t know. Every scenario I can think of involves them either being attacked or having a major systems failure, but both would leave signs of a fight or a rushed exit. We haven’t seen any trace of that.

Hopefully we’ll get more of an idea once Sparks has got us into their systems.

Yeah. Hopefully.

The ghosts… the ghosts… they’ve got into the generators! I don’t know how they did it but the generators are ready to blow. They’re running hot and every safety cut-out has failed. We can’t risk entering hyperspace, even if we made it we couldn’t get anywhere before the generators blew. We have to get off the ship. We have to get away! I think… I think we’ll have to take the shuttles.

Joe stopped the playback there. He’d watched the clip a dozen times already but it still sent chills through him. The video showed the captain of the Sundrenched and was the last but one recording Sparks had been able to retrieve.

Ghosts. Joe would have laughed if he couldn’t see the man’s eyes, the look of horror on his face. The captain had been terrified, so scared he was talking about using a short range shuttle to leave the ship while in the middle of interstellar space, rather than try to fix whatever was wrong with the generators.

Even then Joe would have written it off as a breakdown on the captain’s part if it wasn’t for the videos of the rest of the crew. He’d reviewed thirty or more now, all of them talking about ghosts. The stories varied from easily-explainable system failures to strange occurrences such as objects moving with video evidence they really did. Whatever happened on the ship, the ghosts got the blame.

There was no doubt the crew believed the ship to be haunted. Joe was starting to consider the fact they might be right. Several of his troopers had already reported hearing strange noises or seeing odd lights. Were they just submitting to the peculiar atmosphere and the tales of what had happened to the crew?

At least they were nearly finished with the deserted ship. Most of the cargo had been transferred already. Soon the salvage operation would enter the next phase — taking the high value items from the Sundrenched itself. They should be completely finished within forty minutes, then they could leave the haunted ship far behind.

He brought up the final video Sparks had retrieved. The Sundrenched’s captain was almost unrecognisable. The stress was gone, as was the fear. He looked calm, relieved. His voice was much firmer as he spoke.

"We’re saved. Thank the stars, we’re saved. I don’t know what the odds are of another ship being anywhere near here, let alone picking up our distress beacon, and I don’t care. The Dazanter is here and it’s taking my crew as fast as they can cycle through the airlock. There’s one more group going now, then I’ll go through on my own. The captain should be last off his ship, of course, but I’ll be more than happy to leave the Sundrenched to the ghosts… for as long as it lasts."

The video cut off there, leaving more questions than answers. One in particular was bugging Joe. He opened a comm channel.

Sparks, he said. Have you finished yet?

I’d have told you if I did, Captain.

I know. Sorry. Something about this whole situation has me on edge.

Just one thing? I can name five off the top of my head. Ah… wait a second… here we go… make that six things. I’ve finished searching the Sundrenched’s status logs. There was no instability in the generators at any time.

You’re sure? Not even a glitch in the systems which made it seem like the generators were in trouble?

No, nothing. The logs record what’s going on in the system and which alerts are being generated. I’m sorry Captain, there never was any problem with the generators.

How about the ship they transferred to… are there any records of that?

"Yes. It was definitely there and docked with the Sundrenched for twenty minutes or so. The airlock was cycled a number of times then it undocked and left."

Alright. Thanks. Let me know if you come across anything else important.

Yes, Captain.

Joe sat for several seconds, considering what he’d just learnt. He really needed an hour or two to think this through, to work out just what was happening, but his instincts told him they didn’t have anywhere near that long. He opened a different comm channel.

Blaze, terminate the mission. Execute a hostile withdrawal.

What… why Captain? No one has been attacked have they?

"No, not yet, but I’m getting a really bad feeling about the Sundrenched. I want everyone off that ship within five minutes and I plan to be leaving the area in ten."

Alright, you’re the boss. I just hope you know what you’re doing. Leaving with a part-empty hold without grabbing some of the goods over here is going to take some explaining to the lads.

Blaze, I don’t give a shit. You know me. You know my hunches are right more often than they’re wrong. Now get your men the hell out of there.

Aye, Captain.

Joe sat at the dinner table which was now being used for a meeting. Sitting with him were his core crew along with Doug to represent the pilots and Blaze the troopers. Sparks was there too, at Joe’s request.

Alright, Joe said. "Now we’re safely in hyperspace I want us to try and work out what the hell was going on with the Sundrenched. Does anyone have any ideas other than it being haunted. We’ll get to that last, I don’t want to get hung up on that… possibility."

Some sort of setup, said Janine. Maybe an insurance job. I mean, what’re the odds of another ship just happening to be in the same area of space in the absolute middle of nowhere so they could detect the distress signal? That’s a millions to one possibility.

Then why leave the ship intact? Blaze asked. Why not destroy it so there’s no evidence to contradict your story? Why leave the ship there waiting to be discovered?

The odds against anyone discovering it are huge, Joe said. Even with Sasha’s abilities it was still damn lucky that we found it.

Unless that was a setup too, Doug muttered. It seems awfully convenient. It stinks of a setup and your new pet freak is neck deep in it.

Sasha leapt to her feet. Joe motioned for her to sit down, even as he replied to Doug.

Cut it out Doug! Joe said. We’ve been over this already. I picked the area we would search, not her. There’s no way she could have influenced that.

Maybe not, or maybe so. She’s told us she’s psychic but maybe she lied about her powers. What if her abilities let her influence you? What if you picked this area because she wanted you to.

That’s enough! Have you ever seen anyone that could do that, that could force someone else to their will?

No, but my cousin did! Or was it my cousin’s cousin? Anyway, what if she was on that ship to start with? Maybe she made them all think the generator was going to blow, then she planned to come back and get the cargo…

Doug, just shut up, snapped Joe. This is serious and your paranoia isn’t helping.

You’re calling me paranoid? What do you expect when…

Enough! Joe roared. Silence fell, though Doug’s eyes narrowed. This won’t get us anywhere. We’ll pick this up again in half an hour. Doug, go find somewhere you can calm down.

Doug stood up without acknowledging the order and stamped away. The rest of the group broke up with quiet grumbling. Joe leaned back in his chair, worrying about Doug. The pilot had always been outspoken, but never so aggressive with it. Was something about the situation getting under his skin? Or was it something about Sasha, about her powers, that was the problem?

Joe shivered as a blast of ice cold air found its way down the back of his neck. As if they didn’t have enough problems, now the environmental controls were playing up. It wasn’t unknown for the Panther, or even unusual, but right then the last thing he needed was another problem.

Doug stamped off to the hangar, trying to bite down on the anger inside. He needed to make the captain understand how dangerous Sasha was, and to do that he needed a cool head. Otherwise his opinions would be dismissed.

He’d been suspicious of her from the moment she came aboard. Her meeting the captain while he was out drinking was just too convenient, and the speed with which the captain had decided to take her on was