Mother of Stars: Shattered Stars, #2

By C. S. Gaymon

They thought the war was over… but they were wrong.

And now Mother is angry.

Against all odds, the ragtag team of aliens and draconic space marines have saved Earth from destruction, but they find themselves on the brink of an even greater catastrophe.

Connor and Skylar are split up when the mysterious AI, the Defect, seizes control of the Asturnian starship. Both are forced to bend to the will of the Defect under the promise that it will help them defeat Mother, the ultimate perpetrator behind the star-destroying superstructures. 

The space marines must remain vigilant. Connor and his friends managed to save the world once, but with an all-knowing AI plotting their destruction, will victory prove beyond their reach?

Mother of Stars is the second novel in the amazing Shattered Stars Duology. If you like gripping sci-fi battles, exotic alien starships, and unruly AI, you'll love Mother of Stars.

Get your copy now!
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: C. S. Gaymon
• Release date: Dec 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393593461

C. S. Gaymon

I am a sci-fi nerd born in California who had the fortune of being inspired to write a book, and seeing where life took me from there. Since 6th grade, I have been a regular golfer and I enter occasional amateur tournaments to give myself a challenge. I intend to enthrall my readers in the hopes they are struck with the gift of inspiration just as I had. Fun fact: My two favorite movies when I was three years old were Bambi and Apollo 13.

Book preview

Foreword

<- Warning: The Following Was Written By a Human ->

Previously...

In the event that you’ve taken a lengthy break in between Shattered Stars and this book, allow me to refresh your memory in a slightly cringy and hopefully humorous way. If you think you remember the relevant details, feel free to proceed to the first chapter.

——————

Our main character, Connor, was living a normal life, when he is suddenly abducted by aliens. He hears a creepy voice telling him how to save himself, then wakes up with the body of a dragon. White scales, silver mane down the spine from head to tail, all that weird stuff.

After a moment of indecision, he decides follow the voice’s advice to jump out of the alien ship because character motivation.

He somehow survives entry into Earth’s atmosphere and fall into the Pacific Ocean. Under the cover of night, he flies to land and manages to find his house, but he discovers his family was abducted as well.

Distraught and determined, he packs some supplies and sets off to some random location in California under the delusion that he knows what the hell he’s doing. Shortly after he arrives, he is confronted by the alien who helped him escape the ship.

Neval, the red-skinned alien of the species known as the Niiblan, explains that his home planet, Asturn, was just incinerated by his home star’s supernova. The few survivors of the catastrophe traveled to Earth in desperation, and they were planning an assault on humans to slowly abduct them and turn them into their own supersoldiers, and Neval was one of a few who disagreed with this plan. After some waterworks on Neval’s part, Connor decides he wants to help.

A few hours after Neval returns to his lander, a drone finds and attacks Connor out of nowhere. The brawl ensues for a few minutes until Neval shows up and magically takes control of the drone. He decides to take Connor to his lander to give him some upgrades, including access to a neural implant, camouflage, and a whole bunch of badass sci-fi jargon.

Connor uses the implant to help him train in combat while he sleeps, but then Neval wakes him up when the edgy antihero, Kyrom, a scaly Reckrin, arrives.

Kyrom reveals that he actually has four drones, and they are the rest of Connor’s family. An intense fight ensues, and Connor is eventually subdued and he blacks out.

He then spends the next few hours of his life as the artificial intelligence that operates the drones. His memories are restored when the Asturnians detect an anomaly in the sun and realize Earth won’t last long unless they warp to some random part of the Milky Way Galaxy and confront whatever was causing the anomaly.

Connor’s brother, Skylar, is also restored, but his parents (and his dog) were unrecoverable. After the ensuing rage and depression, Connor meets Neila, a brown raccoon-squirrel species called a Grephen, and subsequently learns that she has a mental condition where she is happy no matter what. And she’s also a genius.

The Asturnians use Cassini (R.I.P.) to communicate with NASA and arrange a meeting for negotiations. Kyrom, Neval, and one of the other Grephens, Vatria, return to Earth along with Connor. They explain their situation to the General and show them Connor, whereupon chaos almost ensues. They take Connor into questioning and realize everything they were told was true.

They agree to supply the Asturnians with soldiers within a day (which I’m sure is completely outrageous considering my research on military operations was admittedly shallow). During this time, Connor sees how much the Asturnians are traumatized from their disaster and decides to help, again, because character motivation. He also decides that Skylar will be coming along for the ride, because character motivation and this is totally not a giant plot hole.

The Asturnians take the soldiers to Titan, where they had taken refuge for the time being. They surprise the humans by telling them that they can turn them into dragons, called Drakes, as well. After some poorly written tension, they all follow the orders of Colonel Latrobe and agree to the offer.

The ship then heads on its way towards its galactic destination using lazy writi—, I mean warp drive! During that five-day trip, everyone gets used to their draconic bodies and Connor gets a little bit better at combat, while also getting Skylar to forgive him for his completely rational decision to join the suicide mission. Connor also finally starts to get revenge on his rival, Griff.

When the ship-which-I-forgot-to-give-a-name arrives, everyone realizes they’re all fucked. The Dyson ring is siphoning energy from the sun using a wormhole. They decide to go for it anyway and miraculously make it to the surface of the giant death-ring without losing any soldiers because plot armor.

After some unrealistically weak defense on the enemy’s part, Connor’s squad manages to find a way into one of the enormous vents and then immediately realize more work is needed. Connor is traumatized when he sees one of the alien-turned-Drakes get vaporized right in front of him, and then he barely escapes the nuclear explosions created by one of the dying Drakes, and then he blacks out over how un-thought-out this part of the plot was.

He awakes underground and escapes into a dark cavern as he is plagued by Phobos, the symbolic hallucination from his recent trauma. He finds Neila unconscious and slowly dying from the intense heat and lack of oxygen, and then Skylar finds him. They discover a mysterious being called the Defect that has multiple bodies that it controls. They also miraculously find Neval in a nearby cavern, who is dying of cancer and radiation poisoning from the nukes. The Defects suddenly are willing to help our desperate heroes because they happen to hate Mother, whoever that was.

They barely make it through the few lines of defense surrounding the controlling unit called the Core. Then in the final battle they nearly lose. Once Connor realizes he ran out of plot armor juice, he decides to finally take one for the team and intercept the plasma beam that would have destroyed the Defect running towards the Core. The beam is about to kill him, but it stops just at the last second thanks to Skylar’s completely unearned accuracy with a rifle. Connor then has more symbolic hallucinations whereupon he realizes he’s awesome. Then he basically goes Super Saiyan and kicks ass. The author was totally not self-indulgent in this scene.

As he defeats the final enemy and the Defect finishes its job, he realizes Neila is conscious but acting incredibly aggressive and vicious. He, Skylar, and the rest of the Drakes that had arrived in the nick of time make for their escape, which is again aided by the Defect. Connor and Skylar happen to get into different escape ships.

As they make their way toward the Asturnian ship, which had survived the initial fight somehow, the Dyson ring collapses into a black hole, all according to the Defect’s plan.

Just when everything seems to be alright, the Defect starts going off-script and talking about the Mother again. Before Connor could figure out what was really going on, the Defect turned the ship away from the Asturnian ship and warped to an unknown location, separating Connor and Skylar, and setting up a hopefully-compelling premise for the sequel.

1

Deja Vu - Connor

NO!

My mouth fell open in shock. We had been so close. We could’ve regrouped and figured out what information Neval kept from us. Now I was at the mercy of a rogue artificial intelligence.

I slumped into my seat, careful not to sit on my tail. Neila stirred next to me, her armor rustling against the seat. Stars flew past our little cruiser in streaks. The three humanoid Defects sat calmly in the spacious cockpit, reflections of the stars glinting off their purple skin.

Griff stomped toward the front, growling under his breath. He seized the middle Defect and shook it violently by its shoulders. Turn this fucking ship around. Now!

The thing didn’t resist one bit. It stared at him curiously, then replied, No.

Griff’s black wings twitched, one of which was slowly rebuilding itself from being lopped off. The tip of his tail ignited into a jet of plasma, and he brought it within inches of the Defect’s chest. I swear, I will kill you if you don’t. You lied to us once, and I’m not going to fall for it again.

If you kill me, you will not be able to pilot this vessel, it stated with an ounce of smugness.

I’m sure we could figure it out, Griff said, letting the tip of his tail drift closer to its chest. Smoke began to swirl from it, but the Defect remained unresponsive.

I contacted Griff through his implant. Don’t.

We can’t risk leaving them alive. His gaze never left the Defect.

I glared at him. We also can’t risk stranding ourselves in an alien spaceship.

After a few moments of silence, the Defect spoke, You should listen to your friend.

My eyeridges sprung up. Griff reeled his head back. You can still hear us?

I hear all.

He dropped the Defect and strutted back to his seat. He slumped forward and held his muzzle in his hands as his eyes vibrated furiously in contemplation. The Defect returned to its position at the front of the cockpit. Fear bubbled up inside me. How would we ever reason with this thing?

Neila stirred again, groaning. I scooped her up and put her into a more comfortable position in my lap. Her armored head fell to one side as I held her close to my belly. Her implant told me she was in some kind of coma, but I connected with it anyway. Neila, please wake up. We might need you.

She didn’t respond.

They are manipulating you.

I froze at the sound of the voice. There, in between the rows of seats and standing at the height of a wiener dog, stood the gnarled bipedal Drake-head from my worst nightmare. Phobos blinked his eye sockets. He looked real as ever, even as he gave me his ever-present evil grin.

I thought you were gone for good, I whispered as I averted my gaze to a corner of the ship.

Phobos’ bottom jaw bobbed as he chuckled. Aha. You forget all too quickly.

I blinked, and he was gone. His voice emanated from inside my head. Fear never leaves you.

I stroked Neila’s armored head, trying to calm my nerves. The last thing I needed was to freeze up just as I needed to act. Griff hadn’t moved much from his contemplative position.

Not even a minute later, the ship’s warp drive began to wind down. The stars halted. An enormous sand-colored planet zoomed up to our ship. It took up the entire viewing angle of the curved cockpit window. White ice covered the north pole, and we didn’t have a view of the south pole from our angle. The entire midsection of the planet was less defined than the top; it had a haze to it. My interface outlined it as a massive sandstorm, and we were aiming toward its upper edge.

<- Archived Planet Detected: Soruvis ->

Archived? I glanced at Griff and tried to contact him, but he rejected it. He looked up at me and pointed at the Defects, then at his ear. They’d hear us.

I nodded and gazed at the planet. If it was archived, then the Asturnians had been here before, right?

Why did you bring us here instead of to our ship? I asked.

We must get ahead. A large fleet is needed to face Mother, and your ship is far too slow.

Griff shook his head at me. He didn’t trust them, but did I? I had to admit, I did feel thankful to them for helping us take down the super-ring. Neila still hadn’t woken up yet, so it was up to us two. Except Neila had mumbled something not long ago, just before the Defects swept us away in their cruiser. Something about not trusting.

Our ship began to rattle as we hit the upper atmosphere of Soruvis. The Defects pitched it nose-up so it was entering belly-first. Flames began to shoot up the sides as the atmosphere thickened.

I clutched the chair in front of me for stabilization and locked my eyes with Griff’s. He pointed at the cockpit, then gave me a determined look and put his fist in his hand. I grimaced and shook my head. He nodded. I mouthed my response to him: Not during entry.

I see all as well, the Defect’s voice sounded in my head.

Griff rolled his eyes. Fuck it.

He swung himself over the seat, lighting his plasma claws. The Defects spun out of their seats and got into defensive positions. I set Neila down and scrambled to my feet next to Griff. The raging flames outside burned a dark orange. I nearly stumbled from the intense g-forces weighing on me.

I still think we should wait, I said as I surveyed the three pilots.

If we wait, we might not be able to escape if they’re taking us into a trap. I’d rather not risk that. He lunged forward in a blur of motion. The Defect on the right somehow bent around his swipe. It reached for Griff’s head, but he cut through its neck just in time with his other hand.

The other two lunged at him simultaneously. He met the hands of one with both of his own and used his foot to crush the Defect’s chest into the dashboard. The third one had almost reached his head. I snapped out of my stupor and leapt forward, swinging my leg out in desperation. The intention was to explode it with the force of my kick as I had done back on the superstructure. Instead, it flew back and smashed into the cockpit window.

Griff finished the damaged Defect, but I could only stare at the spiderweb of cracks the Defect had imprinted into the glass. Shit.

Griff stood back and followed my gaze. His armor swam around his head, encasing it in a uniform coat of black scales. He shot me a thumbs-up. Nice going, idiot. I didn’t mean to escape the ship too!

The cracks spread rapidly across the windshield. I dove for the row of seats where Neila lay. Her foot caught in my hand just as the glass shattered outward. I wrapped my arms around her, careful to not crush her with my strength. Wind yanked my wings open, dragging me toward the opening. Griff had already passed through the wall of flames.

"Not again!" I screamed as I tumbled backward. My head smacked into the dashboard before the wall of fire incinerated my side. Even with pain disabled, I could still feel the heat.

A mass of blue and orange swirled in my vision. The roaring wind threatened to destroy my eardrums. I fought through my terror and partially opened my wings to stabilize my fall. By pure luck, I ended up falling the way I intended: back first, so that Neila didn’t get fried.

An orange hue enveloped my peripheral vision as the inferno curled around my neck and limbs. I gritted my teeth, willing myself to not blackout like I had done last time I had free-fallen into a planet’s atmosphere. Not far above me was another meteor which my interface had labeled Griff.

I nearly did black out. A few vital warnings had popped up, but they went away as the army of nanobots within my body immediately went to work repairing it. The orange halo in my vision cleared, and I began to tumble again as my velocity decreased to a less frightening level. I tried to maneuver into a level flight, but my wings didn’t respond. The muscles had