FreeFall Read online

  FREEFALL

  Backworlds Book 7

  M. PAX

  ©2017 M. Pax

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover by: edhgraphics / Graphic Artist Erin Dameron-Hill

  Editing by Kelly Schaub

  An Untethered Realms World

  This ebook is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and incidents are fictional. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons is entirely coincidental.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment, and may not be re-sold or given away without express written permission from the author.

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  FreeFall, Backworlds Book 7

  by M. Pax

  Chapter 1

  His chest tightened, and Craze’s hand twitched, the thick pads of his burly fingers knocking against his muscular thigh. Either the new weapon would work and the war would with the Quassers would never happen, or it would fail, and Craze would die along with the Backworlds.

  The Backworlds had to survive. He had become the most hated man in the galaxy for negotiating a pact with one enemy to defeat a more despicable one. All to give his people a chance.

  The tenuous alliance with the Foreworlds had produced a plasma-based EMP, a weapon calculated to hobble the minds of their common enemy, a race of aliens with no conscience—living, sentient ships known to Backworlders as the Quassers. If the Quassers’ telepathic abilities were overcome, their insidious mind control would end. If so, their defeat would become a thousandfold easier. Then Craze could return to his normal life—a nobody barkeep eking out a living on the edge of the known galaxy instead of envoy to a questionable ally.

  One cloud-like Quasser ship lurked outside the view panels of the well-armed cruise liner. The lonesome Quasser had broken off from its pack gathered beyond the star systems of human expansion and had been picked up by tracking. The alliance of Backworlds and Foreworlds reacted quickly to take advantage. Too quick? Craze wouldn’t put it past the Quassers to have devised some sick trap. Everything the aliens did smacked of a twisted, murderous psychology, a race priding itself on immense cruelty and no mercy.

  Every precaution had been taken. The weapon had been placed on a separate vessel surrounded by warships. The fleet had been surrounded by a minefield. A second barrier of mines protected the spacecraft on which Craze and other diplomats observed the effectiveness of the plasma-based EMP. A proven defense against the enemy had been activated to its most powerful setting: a device which dampened the Quassers’ mind control. A secondary fleet waited in a neighboring star system. Force fields were up. Scanners had been set to full sensitivity.

  Yet Craze didn’t feel safe. He stared at the Quasser with an intensity that should send it into the next universe. His efforts only produced a headache.

  Made up of spheres, the orbs of the enemy vessel moved in a constant, hazy blur, almost a figment of the imagination. Craze knew it wasn’t; the sentient ship was a nightmare. The Quassers hurled death and misery on all who encountered them, doing horrible, unthinkable things. The alien ship couldn’t live. Nor the other eight hundred forty-seven like it.

  On the navigation console beside Craze on the command deck, the clock ticked down. In fifteen seconds, fate would be decided. He had sacrificed everything for this one moment of “maybe.” The “maybe” had to be a victory.

  The air grew thick. The acrid scent of fear wafted around the deck, planting itself in Craze’s wide nose. Silence pounded against his sensitive ear holes, despite being surrounded by twenty-six people.

  On one side of Craze stood Ambassador Sanjy Strom, the Foreworld liaison, the person with whom he had brokered the filaments of the fragile new alliance. At six feet and two inches tall, she came close to matching Craze’s height. Her long, flat face held onto a stoic expression, and her steel-blue gaze didn’t waver from the Quasser, daring the alien to defy her. Yet her fingers flexed over and over.

  The twitch over her brow hinted at secrets. Craze studied her, as worried about the Foreworlders as the Quassers. He couldn’t imagine how the new weapon could be modified to be used against the Backworlds, but he didn’t have the Foreworlds’ capacity for cruelty. Time and again, he attempted to think like them, and time and again he failed. Whatever the Foreworlders planned, it wouldn’t happen today.

  One of Craze’s closest friends stood on his other side, Dactyl. Two of Dactyl’s elite unit were with him: Tria and Midge Marlin. They’d been summoned as another precaution. The three of them could resist the Quassers’ mind control. For an extra layer of safety, the rest of Dactyl’s crew had been shut away in isolation chambers. If all went wrong, they’d take over.

  Sweat beaded on Dactyl’s broad forehead, and his long, brown hair had matted where he kept swiping. Like everyone else, a heavy knot pinched together his brows.

  “Do you sense anythin’ from it?” Craze whispered.

  Dactyl shook his anvil-like head. He had once been enslaved by a Quasser and had a telepathic connection with the evil things. “Nothing, which is worrisome. It should be thinking something. There’s no way it doesn’t know we is here.”

  Craze had expected bad news, but hoped for his luck to turn. The universe had been dishing shit at him since his pa threw him out of the house. Six years ago. Seemed longer. Craze would have bet two lifetimes had passed since then. He rubbed at the stiffening muscles of his clenched jaw, failing at putting his faith in the firepower around him.

  Out the view panels, enormous warships peppered the black ether of space. Their hulls blended with the nothingness, adding their vigilant witness to the most momentous event, the first shot of a new war. Smaller vessels hung farther back, ready to zip away and give warning to the secondary fleet.

  Craze slid his hand into his pants pocket and clutched onto a round, metal badge. It was dented and pitted, badly used. Orange letters on a faded blue background read Carry On . He checked the status of the mind-control blocking device one more time.

  The lieutenant manning the command console licked his lips every half second, eager to strike. His complexion was the same shade of olive as Craze’s, but he couldn’t be more than twelve. The Foreworlders insisted young people had faster responses, and speed was crucial in war.

  “We need every possible benefit,” Ambassador Strom had said. No matter how many drams of his finest malt Craze had poured down her throat, she wouldn’t change her position on the matter.

  His stores of handcrafted malt neared empty, but that wasn’t why Craze had given in. He had traded the point to attain critical research the Foreworlds had amassed on the physiology of folks immune to the Quassers’ mind control, yet the idea of children serving on the frontlines would never be okay. When they had nothing left to squabble about, he’d bring it up again.

  The lone Quasser closed in on a dim planet at the edge of Backworlds’ territory that had in its orbit the unsavory moon of Wism. Cutthroats, traitors, and dastards populated the dark moon, which was always in the shadow of its planet. The murky planet had a sad ring, as if the globe had expelled its last breath in a wimpy effort at generating interest.

  It had been six years since Craze had visited Wism, and on that sad moon four newly-made friends had become his family. One of those four was Dactyl. Craze took a step closer to his friend and couldn’t help but think warmly of Wism despite not wanting to set foot on it. No one sane wanted to dock on Wism.

  The alien moved slowly, sometimes stopping and shifting direction, but never in a way to indicate acknowledgement of the allied ships nearby.

  “It’s not behaving as it ought.” Ambassador Strom wore a ju
mpsuit the color of shadows. What good would it do? If the Quasser attacked, there’d be nowhere to hide. Everyone would be jettisoned out into the nothing to die among the uninspiring rocks of the Wism system until some future race found their bodies and the awful Quassers. Then the cycle of war and death would begin anew.

  “No, it’s not, but we took every precaution.” Craze said it mostly to reassure himself. It was what he hadn’t thought of that worried him.

  Five other Backworlders clumped beside Dactyl and his squadmates. Two were in the diplomatic corps with Craze. The other three were important BAA, Backworlds Assembled Authorities , officials. Around Strom were twelve important Foreworlders—battle tacticians, engineers, admirals, and specialists in bio extinction. Craze edged away from those folks. They were the ones who had created plagues and other dastardly weapons to annihilate Backworlders. It didn’t matter they had turned their focus to the Quassers.

  The countdown reached three. Craze held his breath, his hopes cresting. They rolled in his mouth in a dry heap.

  Two… one… The massive cannon mounted on the neighboring ship sent the plasma-based EMP toward the Quasser, encapsulating it, stopping it. The Quasser froze in orbit around Wism and lost altitude. The orbs of its odd hull ceased to gyrate. Not one flicker.

  “Dead?” Craze gripped his thigh, and his living hair coiled into tight curls, pinching his scalp, slanting his dark eyes. “Did it work?” His whisper cracked in a dry croak.

  “There are no readings either way, Envoy Craze.” The boy lieutenant had quit licking his lips, a smile hovering at their corners.

  Craze blinked, and a warm shiver drummed in his chest. His fist balled and he shook it at the window. “Take that you sons of shits—”

  The spheres of the Quasser pulsed. Spots glowed in its orbs. The bright spots left the Quasser and zoomed at the Foreworld and Backworld ships. The sparks flashed in glaring brilliance, roaring the Quasser’s commands—mind control on radioactive steroids.

  The alien invaded Craze’s thoughts, his heartbeat, the breath in his lungs. The boy lieutenant set the ship’s self-destruct. Craze laughed.

  A Foreworld diplomat ripped wires out from the science station and wrapped them around Craze’s neck. He didn’t fight, and his tongue formed the most awful words. “I want you to kill me.”

  Chapter 2

  “Frickin’ ‘n shit.” Dactyl lunged for the command console and threw the switch to disable the self-destruct. He knocked the boy lieutenant to the floor with a solid punch. “Midge, see to it Craze doesn’t die.”

  For a Foreworlder, she was all right. She never minded orders, following them loyally, always putting the crew ahead of the Foreworlds. She had proved it time and again in each encounter with Quasser.

  Dactyl and his team had chased the one who had tried to destroy the alliance before it began and had been able to tag it with a tracker to learn of its habits. When Dactyl’s team continued to be unaffected by its twisted charms, it had left Backworlds territory. Now Dactyl understood why it had come back: to test more powerful mental abilities. It couldn’t be allowed to live.

  “I’ll take care of it, Dact.” Midge Marlin elbowed the Foreworlder in the nose, knocking him out. He thudded to the floor, hitting with such a force he bounced. Craze went down with him. Midge pulled a knife from her sleeve—she wore the uniform of the Backworlds—and sliced through the wires strangling Craze. He didn’t stir. “What’d I do?” She checked Craze’s pulse. “He seems to be asleep.”

  “Verkinns hibernate when they don’t have enough air,” Dactyl said. “He’ll be okay.”

  Dactyl wasn’t sure about the other ambassadors. Foreworlders battled Foreworlders and Backworlders. Everyone hated each other, ripping clothes, ripping flesh. A ship in the near distance exploded, taking two others with it.

  Dactyl stepped between the Foreworld Admiral and a BAA protocol officer, pushing the badly wounded Backworlder away, wishing he had defied Craze’s orders and brought a stunner.

  “Tria, check on the Quasser defense. It doesn’t seem to be working,” he said. The device had been installed on every ship and in the armor of every soldier. It had effectively severed the Quassers’ mind control. Until now.

  Part cybernetic, part human, and a twin to the love Dactyl had lost, Tria wrestled with two BAA commanders. Her violet eyes brightened with the effort, the light reflecting softly on her chrome cheeks.

  Dactyl hadn’t yet determined why she wasn’t affected by the Quassers’ mind control. When he had worked up the nerve to ask two months ago, her best guess had been an acquired immunity from having been stuck with one under a glacier for several centuries.

  She couldn’t recall how she had become stranded in the ice and offered to let Dactyl deactivate her to examine her corrupted memories. He had let his Rainly be reprogrammed for a chance at winning the war. She had insisted and he could never say no, yet he had lost her, their years together erased from her soul as if they had never happened. He wouldn’t let her twin risk the same sort of death by poking around in her cybernetic synapses.

  What Tria recalled of her time with the Quasser was that the ice had prevented a full connection, but enough of one for her to invade Quasser’s mind and learn to mirror it. Her theory had been proven at each Quasser encounter. Every time she connected with it, it had believed her thoughts to be its own.

  Tria huffed, hogtying the two BAA officers who wanted to die. “Maybe the device requires maintenance or new coding.” She went to check.

  “There’s something very different about that Quasser,” Midge Marlin said. “For the first time, I can feel its pull.” Dark and lithe with big eyes, Midge was usually immune to Quasser because of a head injury she had sustained.

  Something similar had happened to Dactyl when he had served in the Minions of Dusk. On a particularly brutal mission, he had been viciously wounded and his connection with Quasser had forever changed, a blessing and a curse. The blessing was escaping the demented alien. The curse was recalling every heinous act he had done for Quasser in grave detail.

  His nerves quivered, a million bad memories crawling over his skin. Being under the influence of a Quasser was worse than death. Dactyl hadn’t just killed, he had slaughtered and maimed and done so with glee. Nothing had been more important than pleasing Quasser, a sickness worse than any plague unleashed by the Foreworlds.

  The boy lieutenant rolled across the floor in stops and spurts then grappled with the underside of a seat. He pulled out a laser gun, jumped to his feet, and shot laser bullets at anyone in his sights. The victims jerked; holes seared into their chests, the wounds weeping crimson, staining the composite flooring of the command deck. The sickening sweet odor of death permeated.

  Craze came out of hibernation, lumbering to his feet. The boy lieutenant aimed the laser pistol at Craze.

  “Frick ‘n bits, no!” Dactyl tackled the boy.

  A race of Backworlder called a Quatten, Dactyl was only four-foot tall, but much wider and denser than most folks, especially a child. Quattens were designed to live on planets of great gravity, and Dactyl had immense strength he had to hold in check. Not the wisest decision. He was fighting Quasser, not the boy.

  He’d been prepared for the eerie burst of strength, but the boy still pushed him off, flailing arms and legs in a furor, denting the navigation console with a wicked punch. Forced to unleash his might, Dactyl snapped the youngster’s arms. Another tick for him as dastard of the universe.

  “Sorry, kid.” Dactyl frowned.

  The boy didn’t quiet. He thrashed and yelped. His foot reached for the weapon. Before he touched it, Protocol Officer Bemmy of the BAA grabbed for the laser pistol. Her fingers shook and tears soaked her cheeks, but she pointed the muzzle at the remaining bigwigs. Craze marched to the front of the line, holding his arms out wide, asking for it.

  “Bemmy, put down the gun. Yous want to. I can see it in yous face.” Reaching out, Dactyl approached her slowly.

  Midge dove for Be
mmy, bested her, and secured her to the navigation console. Before she finished, another ambassador leaped for the weapon. Dactyl tripped him and kicked the pistol across the deck.

  The battle wouldn’t end until everyone was dead, tied up, or Quasser was sent away. The alien had the mental strength of five, and Dactyl doubted he could convince it to go. He winced and softly chanted, Go away. Go away .

  Craze bent oddly, and his body jerked. He lurched toward the laser pistol. Dactyl scurried after him. Burly and tall, Craze was a hefty size and his dark, living hair lashed out, drawing blood from Dactyl’s cheek. Dactyl slapped him and grabbed him by the collar. Craze threw Dactyl down and pinned him to the floor, punching Dactyl in the head again and again.

  Tria ran over, her violet eyes brimming with tears. “Stop hurting him. Stop.”

  If Dactyl squinted just right, she was his Rainly. His heart stung worse than his head. Craze shrugged her off, toppling her over the navigation console.

  Finding a well of strength, Dactyl socked Craze one good in the jaw. “The device, Tria. Did yous fix it?” He deflected a blow aimed at his chin and elbowed Craze in the chest. “Hurry.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with the device.” Her chrome cheeks flushed pink. She grabbed one of Craze’s arms, struggling to pull it behind his back.

  “What do yous mean?”

  Dactyl held his hands up to lessen impacts. Craze’s hair whipped across Dactyl’s fingers. He sucked in his lower lip to keep from yelping.

  “The device is working perfectly, but the Quasser isn’t affected. It must have new weaponry. Like we do.”

  “That’s why it lured us out here.” Dactyl grunted as Craze bounced on his chest.

  “I’m going for a stunner.” Tria raced off the bridge.

  “There’s only one way out of this.” Midge wrestled with three Foreworlders pulling chords and wires out of the control consoles. “Use your gift against the Quasser, or we lose.”

  “The alien is too strong. It didn’t hear my suggestion over its roar of commands.” Dactyl groped for Craze’s nose and pinched his wide nostrils together. The lack of oxygen did the trick and the big lug went into hibernation once again.