Page 1 of Shadows Approach

Chapter One

Captain Kila’s spyship

Specialist Hope Nath hid a yawn behind her hand. She peeked at the spyship’s bridge crew to make sure no one noticed her boredom during an operation classified as dangerous.

She smirked as she tucked a wayward brunette lock of hair behind her ear. The planet Bi’is hadn’t been a threat since the Kalquorian Empire had devastated the hostile race’s invading space fleet five years prior. Its danger was long past. She couldn’t be the only one who found their assignment tedious.

As if to reprimand her for her careless attitude, Captain Kila growled, “What the hell is that?”

Admiral Piras was at his shoulder in an instant. “Main vid screen, enlarge.”

The hum of quiet conversation on the bridge snapped into silence. Hope’s eyes widened in concert with her Kalquorian shipmates.

Barely aware she was doing so, she echoed her commanding officer and Nobek clanmate’s question. “What is that?”

The semi-circle bridge’s entire forward section was dominated by the vid screen. It depicted the upper curve of Bi’is, an orange-tinged blue planet the phased spyship orbited. Beyond it, stars gleamed in their multitudes, constellations of scattered bits of glitter Hope had grown familiar with after five years of sentry duty.

Several of the well-known star patterns had been eclipsed. Inky darkness spread before her gaze, blotting them from existence. Hope watched as several more stars appeared to wink out.

She’d already noted what Kila had: the stars weren’t going out. Something was approaching the ship, eclipsing their view of distant suns and planets. Whatever it was, it was huge.

Admiral Piras, who was also Hope’s clanmate, frowned. No alarm registered on his delicate features, offset by a surprisingly strong jaw. He hadn’t recognized it as an enemy. “Computer, scan the oncoming object and identify.”

“Scans identify no object approaching the ship,”the masculine electronic voice answered.

“I’m looking directly at it. There’s an object in Sector Beta-Seven-Seven-Five.” Even his shoulder-length black hair bristled to be contradicted. Piras had little patience when it came to ignorance of the obvious.

“Visual evidence confirmed. However, scans do not recognize the existence of any object in the indicated sector.”

“We’re fucked.” Com officer Veko’s whisper, probably unintended for anyone’s hearing, reached Hope. She gazed at the long mop of black hair hovering over the com station. Kila’s longest-serving crewmember’s face was rarely seen, and his opinions typically assumed the worst.

Kila scowled at his own station’s computer readouts. His usual smirk was nowhere in evidence within his black beard. “No signal, no power emissions, nothing. It’s as if it isn’t there.”

“Except I see it. Or at least, a hint of it.” Piras glanced at Hope, his brows drawn together.

“No details. Just…black.” She hurried to the engineering station, obeying his unspoken command. Her readings suggested less than what physical vision offered. She enabled tracking on the object and thumbed the automatic communications frequency. “Chief Engineer Lokmi to the bridge.”

“On my way.” Her third clanmate’s tone was excited, so he was already aware of the situation.

“Unknown object entering Sector Alpha. It has assumed orbit, fifty-four point sixty-eight kilometers off our bow, matching our speed,” she reported to Kila. She kept her tone clipped, not admitting her relief the shadow hadn’t attacked them.

“Computer, give me an outline of the unidentified object.” Piras had apparently tired of squinting at it.

A bright blue border traced the unfathomable black. Hope blinked. “It looks like a squid.”

“A what?” Kila and Piras glanced at her.

“A sea creature on Earth. It had tentacles extending from an oblong body, sort of how that thing appears.” She warmed and shrugged. “Which has nothing to do with what we’re looking at. Apologies, Captain, Admiral.”

“Keep observations to what’s helpful, Specialist Nath.” Piras winked at her before returning his attention to the ‘space squid.’

Hope suppressed a smile. Any other member of the crew would have had his ears blistered to have offered such a useless statement. Being a woman and a clanmate to the commanding officers had its privileges.

Kila narrowed his gaze. “Helm, alter orbit so we can see the target against the planet.”

“Altering orbit, Captain, by forty-five degrees.”

The angle of Bi’is changed on the screen, bringing the odd object into silhouette against the orb. Its edges were crisp against the shining planet. It definitely seemed to have tentacles, which waved and curled lazily for no discernable reason. It displayed no other details. The shape might have been cut out from space, a bizarre hole in the fabric of reality.

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