Shadow Stars (Universe on Fire Book 2) Read online

  SHADOW STARS

  UNIVERSE ON FIRE SERIES

  BY IVAN KAL

  Copyright © 2018 by Ivan Kal

  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.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Interlude I

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Interlude II

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Interlude III

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Epilogue

  PROLOGUE

  A stranger walked on the hill, his long coat brushing against the grass. He was a stranger to this world, even though he had been born on one that was its mirror image. This was not the stranger’s world; it was not even his universe. He had left his birth place behind long ago in pursuit of things that mattered to him most of all. Yet there was something here that tugged at his heart—this world was the same, yet not. It was an alternate version of his home, but the air smelled the same.

  His childhood had not been a happy one, and in truth he had not spent much time on his Earth; his childhood was just a drop in a life that stretched for a time nearly incomprehensible for mortals. And in truth, the stranger himself was surprised that he could still feel such emotions. The Earth of his birth universe had been destroyed long ago, and since then he had visited many others: some in universes where the timeline had progressed far ahead of that in his birthplace, and others where it was still behind. And every time he had done so, he felt the same feelings of peace.

  He looked around at the green grass swaying in the wind under the bright blue sky. It was still home. This Earth was about as old as his was when he had been born. Parallel universes did not all come into existence at the same moment, and so the timeline lagged behind in all those after the first. The stranger wondered if there was an alternate version of him somewhere out there, just born, or soon to be; or perhaps he was already a man. The stranger shook his head at the thought. It was unlikely. His counting of the lag was not precise, and he did not care to take the time and figure it out precisely, but the history of this Earth had diverged from the history of his home relatively recently, a hundred or two hundred years ago at most. And while the history up until then was similar enough to look identical on first glance, the stranger had visited enough universes to know that while the broad strokes could be similar enough, there were always differences. He would most likely not be born here, and there was no point in dwelling on that. He had left his old life behind, in order to become something else.

  Turning to the reason he had come to this world, the stranger returned his attention to the portal deep beneath the ground. A fissure between two universes from different clusters: a magic-based universe, and this one. The event that had caused this was still an enigma to the stranger, but he would figure it out eventually—he always did. For now, he could just observe the result.

  The stranger cast away his physical form, and his body disintegrated in the gentle wind. But he was already falling through the ground, going deep down to the portal connecting the two universes. He fell through the ceiling of a massive domed room, where people walked about or sat at their stations gazing at computer screens. But in the center of the room was a large metal ring, cables connected all over its arch, and in the middle was the tear between the two universes. The stranger floated over to the portal, unseen by human eyes and undetected by their instruments. After all, they could not detect souls. He passed through the portal and found himself on another world. The room looked similar to the one on Earth, with just as many people working around it. The stranger floated upward, passing through the ceiling and then into the light of day. He looked down on the camp, the military barracks and the walls, and then he flew away and came to a stop on a hill a few kilometers away.

  The stranger drew his power around him, gathering the nearby matter and creating a physical body for himself around his soul. He had ascended long ago, had learned complete control over his soul and his power. But he had still been born with a physical body; he was not like Chaos and Order. He could not survive for any great length of time without a physical body, as he was a matter-based being. His new body finished, he cast his mind around himself. He noticed immediately that the breach connecting the two universes was stable, which was a surprise. He had observed events such as this one before, but every time it had occurred the universes merged fully, and violently. By the time the merging was finished there was nothing left of what had existed before.

  But here, it was different.

  The breach had somehow merged the two universes in a somewhat controlled manner. The stranger could clearly feel that the rules here were the same as on the Earth that existed through the portal—the laws of both universes had been changed, yet both had survived. It was unprecedented, at least in his experience. The stranger focused his mind and looked deeper, searching for any signs of Chaos and Order. He didn’t feel their presence, not even the echoes that he had felt in the other universe. They were not here yet; they might not even know about what had occurred. The two could not cross over to matter-based universes easily, and they rarely did so, instead putting just a piece of themselves through, which was often enough for their purposes.

  The stranger sighed in relief. If they hadn’t noticed yet, he had a chance to strike at them. He knew that a piece of them was on the other side of the portal, and he needed only to find that piece. He allowed himself a small smile. After several thousands of years he would finally have a chance at retribution. Slowly, he started pulling his senses back, when his power brushed against something else. Immediately the stranger cursed, trying to think of something to mask himself, but it was already too late.

  He felt a new presence behind him as another being stepped out of a tear in space and onto the ground.

  “Who are you?” the being, a Titan, asked.

  The stranger grimaced without turning around. He had no time to waste on one of them.

  “I have not seen you before. Tell me who you are and what you are doing here or I will kill you where you stand,” the Titan threatened.

  The stranger rolled his eyes before turning around. He didn’t like interacting with the being’s little
club. Their arrogance grated on his nerves. The stranger turned and studied the being for a moment. He had long blond hair and pointed ears. He looked almost exactly like the beings in the stories he liked as a child.

  That, however, did not mean that this was the Titan’s true form.

  “I was not aware that this cluster had been claimed by one of you. Hestia did not mention it,” the stranger said, hoping that Hestia’s name would prevent any rash actions on the being’s part.

  The being narrowed his eyes at him. “Hestia?” he said, and then his eyes widened in understanding. “You are one of the new ones, aren’t you?”

  The stranger inclined his head, but didn’t otherwise respond.

  “She told us that a few more have ascended,” the being said. “She also told us that you refused her offer to join us.”

  “I saw no point,” the stranger said, and immediately he saw the Titan’s face darken.

  “Being a Titan is an honor,” the Titan said. “I was surprised when Hestia told us that she allowed you all to leave unsupervised. She should’ve known better. New Titans require guidance from their elders and betters. But then again, she had always had a soft spot for the young ones. She should have forced you to join.”

  The stranger did not like the way that the Titan spoke to him. He’d had enough interactions with the other Titans to know that they looked down on him because of his age. The stranger was young, at least according to the Titans’ standards.

  He turned around. He really didn’t want to stay in the Titan’s presence—he had far better things to do. He had to find Chaos and Order. He prepared to leave, but the Titan put his hand on the stranger’s shoulder.

  “And I see that she failed to teach you the proper respect for your betters,” the Titan said. “You are coming with me.”

  The stranger took a deep breath. He didn’t care for the Titans and their rules, nor did he care about their little club. He released the air from his lungs and unfurled his power. Reality bowed to his will and the Titan was smashed to the ground, his body flattened as cracks appeared in the earth around him. Air shimmered above the Titan, and gravity twisted, pulling him down.

  The stranger heard him grunt, and then felt the Titan try to fight back.

  “I guess that Hestia left out the part where she tried to force me to join your club. You should ask her about it sometime—it did not go well for her,” the stranger said as he crouched low to look at the struggling Titan. The being’s power flared widely, but he had no chance in fighting off the forces keeping him crushed to the ground. The stranger was stronger.

  “Do you want to know why I didn’t join you, Titan, when Hestia offered? It was because I saw how arrogant you all are. You think that age gives you wisdom and power. But despite all of you being so much older than me, you are nothing before my power. You play at being gods, toying with mortals and then calling it guidance… But I know what you have done. I know how you abandon them the moment anything threatens you. You are hypocrites, and you are all sad little things. For all of your power, you do nothing. Chaos and Order take from you, and what do you do? You run away. I do not pretend to have any lofty ideals, I do not declare some moral superiority—I know what I am, and I live my truth. You…you hide behind your grand words and false principles. And for as long as that is true, I will not join you. Any one of you who dares to stand in my way will pay the price.”

  The stranger stood up, and after one last glance at the Titan he turned, tore a hole in space, and stepped through.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Emissary Anthony Smith sat in a meeting room on the Trinity space station and listened as the two other emissaries bickered beside him. The emissaries of Qash’vo’tar and the Zhal Confederation did not like each other, and rarely could the two control themselves in each other’s presence. No human diplomat would allow themselves to act in such a manner, but then again Anthony knew that the two great powers had a lot of history between them. Still, he couldn’t do much but keep quiet; Earth was aware that it was a minor player and that the only thing that kept them free was the fact that the neither the Qash’vo’tar nor the Zhal wanted to let Earth fall under the other’s influence.

  The Qash’vo’tar emissary Jahija slammed her fist on the table, bringing Anthony’s attention back to the conversation.

  “It’s been two years since your supposed sighting of Val’ayash. And in all of that time we have seen no evidence to support your claim that they have returned!” the tall and bluish-skinned Qash’vo’tar said. The Qash’vo’tar emissary was of the same race as the majority of the ones who had been stationed on Earth while it was occupied. Tall, humanoid, with bluish skin and larger eyes, their race was an old one. They had been part of the Zhal’Qash Empire long ago, and so their descendants were members of both the Zhal and the Qash’vo’tar. The emissary’s race was called Eriji’ha, in the Zhal at least. The Qash’vo’tar did not have names for the individual races that were their members; they were all simply Qash’vo’tar. They took great pride in the fact that they had abandoned their racial identity to become Qash’vo’tar, united in purpose and name. They were a homogenized society, and Anthony found that inconvenient. It made dealing with Qash’vo’tar far harder than dealing with the Zhal, who took pride in their individuality and their diversity. The core of both star nations was made up out of mostly the same races, which meant that in the Zhal Confederation, beings of one race were referred to as their race, and in the Qash’vo’tar they were simply Qash’vo’tar. In many ways the Zhal were much like humanity, which in Anthony’s opinion made them easier to deal with—and it also made them far more dangerous as an opponent.

  The Zhal emissary took a long moment before it responded to the Qash’vo’tar. “You verified the data yourself, and you know that we have been expanding our patrols over the neutral zone, as have you. It is only a matter of time until we find them,” the Zhal emissary, Gork, said calmly. The Zhal emissary was a Trell, a race of large bipedal aliens whose skin had properties similar to those of rocks, both in appearance and composition. It made them look somewhat like walking mountains. They didn’t have genders, but instead reproduced by a method similar to mitosis.

  “This is folly, we are not ready for them,” Emissary Jahija said.

  The Zhal emissary glanced at Anthony, and then back to the Qash’vo’tar. Anthony resisted the urge to wince—he had spent enough time in these meetings to know how this conversation would flow next.

  Gork turned back to Jahija. “It is folly to turn a blind eye and let them act in the shadows.”

  “Still, we are not ready to face them. If they have truly returned, then based on the data you provided they hold the might of the Old Empire, and we have only scraps,” Jahija said, softening her voice.

  Anthony saw right through it, but he still remained quiet. He had to give them props, they’d nearly had him with their argument—but then again, he had spent a lot of time with them. He knew that animosity between the two star nations was real, but he also knew that they were willing to work together to get what they wanted. He wondered how long they would beat around the bush before getting to the point.

  Gork tapped large fingers on the table, each tap sounding more and more like a stomp. Then a few moments later, Gork turned to look at Anthony.

  “Perhaps if your people, Emissary Smith, are willing to reconsider their stance on signing the Fourth Accord?”

  And there it is, you fuckers. Anthony couldn’t help but grind his teeth. It took you a while, but you are finally ganging up on us.

  “You know where Earth stands, Emissary,” Anthony responded. “The Fourth Accord has little value to us as it stands. Earth’s territory doesn’t border any other nation’s, we have no enemies near us, and I doubt that any would dare break your Compact.”

  Anthony noticed the tiny tightening of the granite-like skin around the Trell’s eyes, and he knew that he had hit the spot he was aiming for. The Zhal and the Qash’vo’tar had been enforcing the
Compact for a long time, ever since the Zhal’Qash Empire had collapsed after their war with the Val’ayash and split off into the Zhal Confederation and the Qash’vo’tar. So long, in fact, that no other star nation would dare break it. And that meant that the neutral zone, the territory which served as the buffer between the Zhal and the Qash’vo’tar and which had also been the heart of the Zhal’Qash Empire, was off limits to all.

  Earth was in the center of that zone, and the only threats to humanity were the Zhal and the Qash’vo’tar, but neither would dare act against Earth because that would mean breaking that very Compact. Of course, the Qash’vo’tar had already broken it when they conquered Earth nearly a century ago, and every side present here knew it—but this delicate balance was only maintained because Earth hadn’t made any accusations against their former jailers, and because the Zhal were willing to pretend to believe the Earth-and-Qash’vo’tar story.

  Anthony and every other person on Earth knew that they wouldn’t have been able to keep their freedom had they not found the Val’ayash. The Qash’vo’tar breaking the Compact would’ve triggered a war between them and the Zhal, had they not been afraid of their old enemy. And so the fragile peace had been established, and Earth appointed as a neutral system and an arbiter between the two.

  Of course, it was all mostly a front. The Qash’vo’tar had conquered Earth because they thought humanity was too dangerous to be allowed into space. In their eyes, humanity was on the same path as the Val’ayash. But with the Zhal now involved, the situation was far more complicated.

  And then there was the fact that both sides wanted Earth’s technology, or rather its magi-tech.

  Yet that was Earth’s only advantage. Decades ago, Earth had accidentally opened a portal into another universe, and in doing so they had changed the very natures of both universes. Magic was now possible here, and Earth had been exposed first and in the most direct manner. Some humans had magic, and with their connections on the alternate version of Earth—Ethorria—they had acquired the knowledge on how to use it. Their magi-tech was a secret, known only to a select few, and Earth could not afford to let that advantage slip its grasp, not yet. They knew that eventually it was inevitable. Already Earth’s agents in other star systems had reported that there had been whispers in the alien scientific communities; they were aware that something was wrong, that the laws of the universe had changed. They just hadn’t figured out why, or how.