“Who is this?” Gulchina asked in a loud voice as she surveyed her men.
No one answered. The silence made Reva shiver.
“Who is this man?” Gulchina repeated, her voice booming.
The second-in-command stepped forward, a stocky man with a thick black beard and a cybernetic eye implant. His only name, so far as Reva could tell, was Wolf. No one on the Temujin had ever referred to him by any other name.
“His name is Corporal Sarnai, sir.”
That wasn’t his birth name, of course. Gulchina gave a new name to everyone on her crew—it was one of the many ways she controlled them. Which made it all the more disconcerting that she still called Reva by her own name.
“Why is he here?”
Even though it was obvious that Gulchina had ordered the man’s execution, she put on a damn convincing act. It was as if she had nothing to do with the brutality of the man’s torture, and was only now learning of it.
“The corporal was planning to betray us, sir. He had prepared an outrider shuttle and hidden a month’s worth of provisions aboard.”
“He planned to betray us?”
Gulchina’s disbelief sounded absolutely genuine. Cognitively, Reva knew she was lying, but her act was so convincing that Reva felt as if she’d stepped into a parallel universe.
“Yes, Captain.”
Gulchina turned to the crowd. “Do any of you know this man?”
A low rumble spread through the crew, but no one gave her an answer. Once again, Commander Wolf spoke up.
“We all knew him, sir.”
“Was he not your friend?” Gulchina asked the room. “Did you not share the same food? Breathe the same air? In battle, did you not fight alongside him?”
The crowd fell as silent as death. Reva’s heart began to hammer.
“We are, all of us, outcasts,” Gulchina continued. “Hated by those who once loved us, hunted by those who now fear us. There is no civilized world that would welcome us, no far-flung outpost that would offer us refuge. Those who are not with us are against us, and those who will not join us are our enemies.”
She surveyed the room with a gaze stronger than steel. Reva hardly dared to breathe.
“It is a hard life we lead, here on the fringes of human space. But we are strong. We will prevail. It is the destiny of mankind to conquer the stars, to subdue the galaxy and all that may be found therein.
“Of all alive today who belong to the human race, we alone claim that destiny. We alone reach for it. The corrupt and decadent empires of the settled stars, the spineless obeisance of their planetborn subjects, and the weak-willed resistance of the so-called starfarers—none of them claim their birthright. And what is that birthright? Our birthright?”
“The stars!” someone in the back of the room shouted.
“Yes,” said Gulchina. “And not just any stars: The unknown and unexplored, the billions upon billions that have yet to be visited by man. That is our birthright. That is our inheritance. For while we, as Columbus, venture into the vast unknown, like the legendary Cortes we, too, shall conquer!”
Captives in Obscurity, book 5 in the Sons of the Starfarers series, will be available in ebook form on May 15th. Pre-order or find out more below:
Captives in Obscurity
There is no escape beyond Star's End.
Isaac and Reva are running out of time. Gulchina's cruelty knows no bounds, and on the edge of known space, no one can stop her. But an unexplored planet holds an ancient alien secret that may prove to be a game changer.
There is no escape beyond Star’s End.
The deadliest pirates in the galaxy have stolen the technology that will transform it. Now, on the edge of known space, they are poised to start an empire of their own.
Isaac and Reva are running out of time. Neither of them knows the extent of Gulchina’s plans, or whether the madwoman will keep them both alive after she achieves them.
But an unexplored planet beyond the Far Outworlds holds an ancient alien secret that not even Gulchina has uncovered. That secret will tip the balance in
SONS OF THE STARFARERS
BOOK V: CAPTIVES IN OBSCURITY
