Gravity masters order of.., p.1
Gravity Masters: Order of Scion book 2, page 1
GRAVITY MASTERS
ORDER OF SCION
BOOK 2
TOBY NEIGHBORS
Gravity Masters: Order of Scion book 2
Copyright © 2024 by Toby Neighbors
ISBN: 978-1-952260-75-9 print
978-1-952260-74-2 ebook
Mythic Adventure Publishing, LLC
Idaho, USA
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Author’s Note
Space Fever Chapter 1
Space Fever Chapter 2
Space Fever Chapter 3
Space Fever Chapter 4
Also by Toby Neighbors
CHAPTER 1
He could never say why he did it. Sometimes events happen in a person’s life and they report feeling like spectators watching from the outside and seeing themselves do things they would never have imagined. That was not what Mitch Murphy, Second Lieutenant, Colonial Marine Corps, experienced. He was fully aware, and fully in control, but what motivated him to follow the three strange aliens was a complete and utter mystery. It wasn’t until several minutes later, after watching the ship rise up and into space through the dust clouds caused by the Space Force bombardment, that he contemplated his decision.
“You are tired,” the alien called Arq said.
Mitch still didn’t know how they knew his language, or how their strange mouths could even form the words. All three of the aliens looked like animals. They stood on two legs and had two arms, but all four limbs seemed identical to Mitch. They all had split hooves on the ends instead of hands. They were all covered in short, white fur. They had heads shaped somewhat like bulls, with thick, white horns that curled around the back of their skulls. Their appearance was shocking to his mind and simultaneously calming. Mitch thought of them, especially Arq, as wise old men, sages, or counselors of some type. Perhaps it was the clothing they wore, which consisted of long strips of loosely woven fabric that were wrapped around them and hung loose from their shoulders and upper arms, forming what Mitch thought of as a robe.
“I’m fine,” Mitch replied. He was exhausted, hungry, and tense, but he didn’t want that to show. He was a guest on their very fine spaceship and the last thing he wanted to do was insult his hosts.
“Our vessel has many services available,” Qwii said. “We have everything you will need to be very comfortable.”
“He’s eager,” Juj said. “Who can blame him?”
“Maybe we can satisfy your curiosity enough that you will feel comfortable resting,” Arq said. “Food is being prepared for you. Soon you can bathe, then sleep. Our journey will last several Earth days.”
“Where are we going?” Mitch asked.
He was standing in what felt like a throne room, even though there were no thrones. It was a large space with a transparent wall that was so clear it almost looked like there was no wall or glass there at all. He could see so much, and it wasn’t like looking at a display screen showing live video, or a hologram. It was more like he was standing outside the ship rather than inside.
Nothing about the alien vessel was anything like human starships, which were small and cramped spaces. Mitch was seven and a half feet tall, and in most spaces on the S.F. Wellington, he had been forced to duck a little to keep from banging his head. In many of the corridors, he had to turn his shoulders to avoid banging into the narrow walls. But the alien ship was open and airy. Mitch admitted he had only seen two parts. They had entered via a ramp that led into what looked like a garage or staging area. There had been several platform vessels parked inside. But it had a tall ceiling and plenty of light, even at night. The light came from glowing orbs that hung suspended in mid-air. Mitch couldn’t see how they hung, or what they were exactly. There was no sight of a bulb or diode, just light.
From the garage, they passed into the observation deck. As far as Mitch could tell it was a huge room with no purpose. He knew the very existence on a spaceship was a grand extravagance. Through the huge window, Mitch saw the trio of battleships. They were spread out in a line hundreds of kilometers apart, but from a distance, they appeared close together. They were stubby, ugly vessels in comparison to the crescent-shaped alien starship. The battleships bristled with guns but didn’t seem like much of a threat as the alien vessel began to accelerate out of orbit. Mitch was no aerospace engineer, but he had seen a few documentaries on space travel and found it odd that the alien ship didn’t seem to be held back by the planet’s gravity at all.
“We will start on Vodex,” Arq said. “The Order of Scion has a spacious facility there that will meet our needs.”
“And what are those?” Mitch asked.
“Eager,” Juj said, with what Mitch learned later was considered a smile by the Nagani.
“A proper introduction to the Power & Knowledge,” Arq said. “It is not our intention to hold anything back from you, but we must pace ourselves. Too much of a good thing, too quickly, can still be bad.”
Mitch had a thousand questions, but at the top of his mind was the fight between the three members of the Order of Scion, and the other alien. Mitch had seen the aliens move in ways that didn’t seem possible. Juj had even floated in mid-air for a time. It didn’t seem real.
“How are you doing the things you do?” Mitch asked. “How did you fly?”
“We are Gravity Masters,” Arq said. “It isn’t magic. We don’t fly. But we can manipulate the gravitational forces all around us.”
“This entire ship is an example,” Qwii said.
“Propulsion is one of the easiest ways to understand,” Arq said. “You are aware of how your human vessels move through space. We manipulate gravity to move our vessels.”
“That’s impossible,” Mitch said.
“And yet, you are experiencing it now,” Arq said, waving an arm toward the opening.
Mitch could see the ship racing through the system. Things were moving too fast for any spaceship. New Terra and the Space Force battleships were lost to sight behind the alien vessel. Ahead of them were the system gas giants. It was like watching a movie. He could see their movement, but he couldn’t feel it. And so, his mind told him it wasn’t real.
“Gravity is the sinew that holds the entire universe together,” Arq said. “From the smallest hydrogen atom with its lone electron in constant motion, to the largest celestial bodies, they are all joined and fixed in space by gravity.”
“Even your human scientists have known this for hundreds of years,” Qwii said.
“It is the gift of the Creator, given through the Scion to the people of every system,” Arq said. “We are committed to helping restore the universe to the glorious state it was created in before the fall corrupted everything.”
Mitch suddenly felt weak. It was a novel sensation. His body was stronger than it had ever been. Despite being physically tired, he was still more capable than he had been on his best day before the LE Protocols had transformed him into a super soldier. But his mind was overwhelmed. The alien ship was still accelerating. It raced by one gas giant in a flash, as if he were watching a simulated flight through the Terra system on fast speed.
“Maybe some rest would be good,” he admitted.
“Yes,” Arq said. “Rest, nourishment, refreshment, those should be your priority now.”
“I will assist him,” Juj said. “Come with me.”
Mitch followed the alien. They went into a tower-like room with a wide spiral staircase. They went up and into a room that looked almost familiar. There was a wide bed with ivory blankets and square pillows. Two pieces of furniture took up the space on one side of the bed, one appeared to be a simple, wooden side table. The other was soft with a wooden frame that was covered with loose cushions of various colors. Juj walked to a nook built into the wall. A shelf rotated down with a tray of food on it. The alien took the tray over to the side table and set it down.
On the other side of the bed was a doorway. Mitch could hear water flowing. It sounded like a stream. He was beginning to question his sanity. It was such a surreal experience that he thought it was a dream.
“Food,” Juj said, pointing to the tray, then at the bed, “rest, and in that room is a place for washing. You will find simple garments there that you may wear. There will be time to clean
“Thank you,” Mitch said.
Juj gave a little bow, then left the room. The door closed behind him, and Mitch dropped onto the sofa. It was comfortable, even for his oversized body. The food was some kind of stew. A large bowl sat on the tray, with several small loaves of bread and small blocks of soft cheese neatly arranged around it. There was a smaller bowl of fruit and a large mug. Mitch settled the tray on his lap and tasted the stew. It was rich, with a touch of spicy heat. He could see stewed vegetables and some type of dark meat. There was no way to know what it was, or if it was natural or artificial. Most space vessels carried either vat-grown or protein imitation meat. Mitch didn’t care though. After one bite his stomach demanded more, as much as he could get. The bread was soft and excellent at soaking up the stew gravy. The cheese was a cool contrast to the stew’s spicy heat. And when he had eaten every last morsel from the bowl, he tasted the fruit in its own smaller container. It was fresh, perfectly ripe, and sweet. There were grapes, a plum, an apple, and even some blueberries. When he finished eating he returned the tray to the nook where the shelf rotated as it rose upward and out of sight.
“This place is a trip,” Mitch said.
He pulled off his armor. It was rank, spattered with dirt and gore on the outside, and soiled with his sweat on the inside. He carried it into the bathroom, which was nearly as large as the bedchamber. He hadn’t been wrong about the water either. It was a stream that started high on one wall and then flowed across a narrow channel that looked as if it were made of stones. The artificial stream wrapped around three walls before ending in a pool that looked deep enough to bathe in. Mitch bent down and touched the water. It was warm. There was a bar of soap on a bundle of towels. It made Mitch wonder how the aliens knew he would join them. Maybe he didn’t have a choice? Maybe they had gone to New Terra to harvest humans? Sure, they seemed nice enough, but it could all be an act. Yet try as he might, he couldn’t see Arq, Qwii, and Juj as a threat to him. He took a bath, scrubbing his entire body and letting the tension drain from his muscles in the warm water.
The clothes he found were simple. Linen pants that cinched at the top with a silky belt. A long, sleeveless tunic that slipped over his head and hung to his knees. The clothing was comfortable, and so was the bed. It was soft and warm. His oversized body sank into the soft mattress. The blankets were lightweight and wrapped around him. He didn’t even have time to ponder his strange circumstances before sleep overtook him. No dreams disturbed his mind as he rested from his labors. It would not always be so peaceful for him. Mitch wasn’t built for peace, but for war, and it was sure to find him, even on an alien ship in a system on the far side of the galaxy.
CHAPTER 2
Sergeant Mara James was perched on the edge of her bunk. She was one of the lucky SSO Marines. At only six and a half feet tall after the LE Protocols had altered her body, she could still fit on a standard bunk. Across the narrow bunkroom of the S.F. Marathon, her squad mates Flash and Jingo had to curl up on their sides and still, they barely fit on the Space Force bunks.
“That hurt?” Estelle “Hawk” Flemming asked as Mara flexed her foot. It was part of the physical therapy assigned to her by the ship’s doctor after her broken ankle had been scanned.
“Not really,” Mara said. “It was just a fracture.”
“By the time they scanned it,” Flash pointed out.
“It looked pretty bad on the ground,” Jingo added.
“It’s fine,” Mara said. “I’ll baby it a few days. They didn’t even keep me in the med bay.”
“No room for us,” Ninja said.
He was standing up with his shirt off. He had a small, hand-held shaving mirror in one hand, and his other lightly probed the bruise on his chest.
“I’d say we were lucky,” Flash announced. “Only one casualty. Kilo Squad is no more.”
“You hear something about Joker?” Jingo asked.
Flash shook his head. The run through Alpha Colony had been difficult and frightening. They were Marines, trained to put away fear and run toward danger, but giant spiders in the dead of night were stressful. They had succeeded in reaching the airfield for exfil only after one member of Kilo Squad was killed in action, and another severely wounded. The six-man team had already lost two members before joining Leo Squad for the run through the city. What would happen to the remaining two members was up to someone with a much higher pay grade.
“We’ve all lost people,” Mara said. “And we always move on. They’ll be okay.”
“Damn shame about the LT,” Flash said. “It was nice to have an officer I didn’t have to bend down to look in the eye.”
“What was he thinking?” Ninja said.
“He was thinking about that little girl,” Jingo said.
They had all seen Mitch Murphy jump from the shuttle as it began to lift off. And they saw the colonist with his little girl who was practically tossed inside the ship as the hatch began to close up.
“Wish he’d given us some notice,” Hawk said.
“You would have gone with him?” Mara asked.
She had been thinking the same thing but didn’t know how the other members of the squad felt. They were all fiercely loyal to one another, but Mitch Murphy had been their new lieutenant. He was the first, and to her knowledge, only officer to have gone through the LE Protocols. But he had barely been in charge of Leo Squad for a week. The field survival training exercise had been their first time together off Alpha Base. So maybe the others weren’t as attached to Mitch as she had been. But it appeared her thoughts on that score weren’t exactly on target.
“Hell yeah,” Jingo said.
“For sure,” Flash added.
Hawk only nodded. She was a naturally quiet person.
“I wouldn’t have liked it,” Ninja said. “But I’d rather be down there in the mud and blood with him than safe up here without him.”
“They’ll go back for him,” Flash said. “Right?”
Mara shrugged. Never before had she cared what her commanding officers did when they weren’t barking orders at her. She was the highest-ranking NCO on Leo Squad, but even she wasn’t privy to what the brass would do if one of their own went missing.
Before she could answer someone in the room shouted, “Officer on deck!” There were four SSO squads crammed into the bunk room normally occupied by a single regular platoon. Everyone was clustering together, and Mara hadn’t seen the officer come in, but she jumped up onto her good foot and stiffened into attention like every other Marine.
“Sergeant James,” a gruff voice called out.
“Sir, yes sir!” Mara replied.
“You’re with me,” the man at the hatch snapped. “Let’s go.”
“Dang, Mara’s in trouble,” Jingo said.
“Told you not to kiss the sailors, Sergeant,” Ninja joined in.
She ignored them as she slipped her bad foot back into the support boot and tightened the Velcro straps. Pain was starting to throb in her ankle, but she ignored it and hurried after the officer. She didn’t recognize the man, but the Lieutenant bars on his collar were easy to see. That meant he could tell her to do just about anything, down to and including scrubbing toilets with a toothbrush.
The man led through a narrow corridor. The Marine section of the ship was like a labyrinth. Every hallway was little more than a maintenance corridor with conduits running along the walls near the ceiling, and access hatches for various engineering spaces along the way. The rooms were sandwiched between other essential parts of the ship. They came to a stairwell, which was little more than a glorified ladder. She climbed it easily, despite the boot on her bad foot. At the top, they turned quickly into a series of offices. Captain Frank Marcs was waiting inside one.
“Captain, I’ve got Sergeant James,” the lieutenant said.
“Very well,” Captain Marcs said as he set his computer tablet down and looked up at Mara James, who stepped into the small office. “Have a seat, Sergeant.”
“Yes, sir,” she said. “Thank you, sir.”
For a moment there was silence between them. Mara was starting to feel uncomfortable. It was impossible not to feel like she was in some sort of trouble, although, to her knowledge, she had done nothing wrong. Then Captain Marcs sighed and leaned onto his elbows, reclining slightly in his desk chair.
