Skylar Mars and the Mysterious Armada Read online

  Skylar Mars

  and The

  Mysterious Armada

  by Drew Seren

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  Except where actual places are being described for the storyline of this novel, all situations in this publication are fictitious; any resemblance to living persons or places is purely coincidental.

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  Copyright 2018 © MysticHawker Press

  http://www.mystichawker.com/

  ISBN: 13- 978-1-945632-27-3

  Edited by Cat Lauria

  Cover design by Silver Circle Images

  1

  Unexpected Guests

  Skylar Mars sat in the copilot’s chair next to Philaneo Clawson as Phil’s ship emerged from the stargate near Stars’ End Academy, the space station where Skylar studied to gain control of his psychic skills. Since leaving Hummassa, the planet he’d been born on, his life had been one adventure after another. Most of them were things he kept stumbling upon, but all in all, he wouldn’t have changed them for anything.

  “That’s not right,” Phil muttered as the frantic blurring of light and darkness caused by traveling through the stargate faded, replaced by normal space, and they got a look at Stars’ End.

  A huge armada of ships was near the space station.

  “Shouldn’t they have moved on by now?” Skylar peered closer at the ragtag collection of vessels. They’d appeared in the space near the school right before Skylar and the other students had departed for a scheduled break.

  “Exactly.” Phil tapped his com. “Stars’ End, this is Philaneo Clawson on Rescue Paw One, please come in.”

  “What’s going on?” Solaria, one of Skylar’s closest friends and Phil’s niece, asked as she came into the cockpit from the back of the ship.

  “There are lots of people scared,” reported Filzbalm, the Solar Drake Skylar had bonded to several months earlier. Filzbalm stood tall on Skylar’s shoulder, using Skylar’s ear for balance. Long talons lightly touched Skylar’s skin as Filzbalm used his bright orange and gold wings to keep from moving much. His neck curved, so he could rest his almost equine head on Skylar’s hair.

  “Scared?” Skylar leaned a little forward in his seat.

  “Phil, are you part of the rescue we’ve requested?” Ms. Grissom, the school’s head counselor asked through the speaker.

  Skylar was a little surprised that Phil had put his com channel on speaker, but then he’d done that previously when Skylar was flying with him. Skylar often thought Phil was discreetly trying to teach him things about starship etiquette by example. Being a level ten feeler, it was likely he’d picked up on the excitement that always filled Skylar when he was in space, traveling from one place to another. Although over the past few months, just being on Stars’ End and floating around a gas giant on a distant arm of the Milky Way Galaxy excited him daily—it was so much better than being on a planet all the time.

  “Rescue? Fiona, what are you talking about?” Phil glanced at the com link and then at Solaria and Skylar like he was thinking about taking the com off speaker, but didn’t do anything.

  “Can you see the armada?” There was a quaver in Ms. Grissom’s voice that Skylar had never heard before.

  It sent a chill through him, and he realized she was one of the sources of fear Filzbalm was picking up on. He had no idea how many of the students, teachers, and staff had stayed on the station while the rest went on break. He wasn’t even sure how early they were coming back from Pantheria, where he and Solaria spent the break with her parents. Of course, it hadn’t been much of a break—they’d ended up helping save the planet from an ancient being named Freyandor bent on reclaiming it from the Pantherians and humans who had imprisoned her nearly a thousand years earlier.

  “Yeah, we see it. We figured it would been gone by now.” Phil tapped a control and the view on the screen zoomed in.

  “It should at least be on the other side of the sun by now. The ships are old, ancient, and we can’t sense any lifeforms, but they turned and surrounded us right after we pulled our probes back.” Ms. Grissom paused. “They’ve just launched a ship toward us. It’s moving slowly. Phil, can you intercept?”

  “And do what?” Phil reached up, tapped the screen and enlarged a spot near one of the star ships that was nearly the same size as Stars’ End. The spot revealed a sleek silver ship flying toward the space station.

  “You’ve got a couple of movers on board. I know your ship doesn’t have weapons, but maybe they can do something. None of the stronger movers who went on break have come back, and Professor Toridon is down with a head cold. He can’t move a tissue, let alone a ship.”

  “A ship?” Solaria sounded a little put out. “She wants us to move ships? Is she crazy?”

  “We could link up and do it,” Filzbalm suggested as he flapped a bit to land on Skylar’s head.

  “Is that a good idea?” Skylar asked. The last time they’d linked up, they’d had the crystal claw on Pantheria and used its focus to re-imprison Freyandor. An ancient artifact designed to merge psychics into unified force, the crystal claw had tipped the scales of battle to their side, but the battle had cost Solaria’s Aunt Blizza her life. He wasn’t sure they should link up to give Solaria the strength to move an ship.

  “No, it’s not a good idea,” Solaria snapped. “Even after several days, I’m still wiped out. Unless we could find some stimpatches, that would help.”

  “Filzbalm was suggesting we link up and amplify our powers,” Skylar relayed, although he was a little worried that someone in the cockpit might think they should try.

  Phil shook his head. “I’d rather we don’t do that. I don’t want us to inadvertently do something that could damage any of you, let alone all of us. Other than Skylar and Filzbalm, who have a permanent mental bond, no linking of minds and powers unless there is no other choice, which means we get boarded, they’ve got guns, or the station is blowing up.”

  Relief flooded Skylar. During the final battle with Freyandor, Blizza had been the center of their focus and when she died, Skylar had taken up the crystal claw and directed their power until the claw exploded. Having several people’s minds and power in his control was disconcerting, and not something Skylar wanted to do again any time soon. He was too untrained to have that kind of power under his control—even though Filzbalm and the Mother of Drakes had been in his mind with him, it had been terrifying.

  “So, what do we do?” Solaria asked, leaning on the back of Skylar’s chair and stroking Filzbalm’s head. Skylar couldn’t see her actual hand moving, but the way the Solar Drake’s weight shifted on Skylar’s head, he knew what was going on. Solaria was probably scratching his horns which seemed to grow more each day.

  Phil fiddled with the controls. “We’re faster than they are. We can reach the station first, even if they are closer right now.” He tapped his com. “Fiona, have you noticed any weapons on their ships?”

  “There’s a lot of things that we can’t identify for sure,” Ms. Grissom replied. “They might be old and slow, but they seem to adapt to our scans, and since the first day they’ve been able to block us. For all I know, they’re blocking our coms out of the solar system. Our messages go out, but we never get a reply.”

  “Are any of the other students back from bre
ak yet?” Phil made some final adjustments and a course appeared on the viewscreen as the image zoomed out from the close-up of the silver ship moving closer to the station.

  “No, you’re the first. Wait a minute, my scans of your ship are working just fine, but you’re several students short of what you left with.” An agitated tone entered Ms. Grissom’s voice, sounding more like her regular voice than the scared tone she’d been using seconds before.

  “I’ll explain in a little while.” Phil grabbed the yoke. “I can beat the ship to the docking port at the main hall. Meet us there.”

  “Will do, we’ll drop the shields when you need to clear them.”

  Although Phil didn’t do anything, there was a soft click as the connection between the coms ended. A look of grim determination creased Phil’s brow. “Solaria, get in the back and make sure everyone’s buckled in. This may get a little bumpy if they try to stop us from approaching.”

  “We’re going through their fleet?” Skylar asked as he followed Phil’s instructions and buckled his seatbelt.

  “I hope all their ships move as slowly as the one they’ve launched.” Phil’s hands tightened on the steering yoke. “As long as they don’t start shooting at us, we should be fine. Although tractor beams would also be bad.”

  Skylar had to agree as Phil piloted the ship along the course he’d plotted.

  “Phil, do you mind if I ask a question?” Skylar said as they went along.

  “As long as I don’t have to get up from here, we’re good.” Phil didn’t look away from the main screen.

  “I’ve never seen you actually plot a course before, at least not on the viewscreen like this.” Skylar waved at the screen in front of them, that had become a hybrid of the actual view out the glass and the graphic overlay with a dashed line Phil was following.

  “I don’t normally have to navigate through obstacles like this. There have been times, such as rescues in asteroid fields, or after a ship-to-ship battle where there’s debris floating around I had to account for. Luckily, those things don’t pop up very often. Mostly it’s an easy flight from a stargate to my destination. I’ve come through the gates we’ve just traversed so often I could do it in my sleep.”

  It made Skylar wonder if the ship they’d “borrowed” when they’d tried to take Filzbalm home to Armstrong’s Rings had had a display like that. Del, his roommate and best friend, had plotted their course, but the display had been opaque, not a hybrid like Phil’s. In his mind, Skylar started making a list of the things he wanted when he got his own ship after graduating from Stars’ End and went to work for Intergal Rescue, like Phil. He added the hybrid display to that list. It was a great piece of tech.

  “That explains it. Thanks.” Skylar settled back in his seat, and Filzbalm crawled off his head to drape across the headrest. Even though Phil had adjusted Skylar’s emotions when they’d first met, dulling the effect of Skylar’s mother’s death until he was in a safe place and could deal with it properly, Phil was normally straight with him, and he appreciated that. A lot of the times with some of the teachers at school, Skylar felt like they were keeping things from him and the other students.

  “I’ve got no doubt that in a few years, you’re going to make a great pilot and will be just like me, knowing your regular routes like the back of your hand.” Phil turned the yoke and adjusted the ship to follow the course laid out before them.

  “I hope so.” There wasn’t anything Skylar wanted more than to explore the universe. He’d never even considered it before he left Hummassa. Since leaving that backwater tropical world, he wanted to keep going and see everything the universe had to offer.

  A blast of red light shot out of the closest large ship.

  Phil yanked hard on the yoke and the ship swerved to avoid the beam. “I thought this was going too easy.” He pressed the button for the internal com. “Hang on everyone. We’re under fire.”

  “Let’s hope they haven’t figured out our most direct course.” Phil flew erratically as they continued to follow the path he’d set up on the screen.

  “Anything I can do?” Skylar gripped the arms of his seat. He never dreamed he’d end up in a space battle, just trying to get back to school. For a second, it felt like an exciting game, until the ship shook when one of the beams passed too close to them.

  “At this point, just stay in your seat and hold on,” Phil said as he turned the yoke and they dropped down from their current path.

  Filzbalm’s talons sank into the soft material of the headrest causing the cushion to squeak slightly. “This isn’t any fun.”

  “We have to trust Phil,” Skylar replied. His pulse was hammering away and he wished there was something he could do.

  More beams shot out of the ship, coming from different locations.

  Phil opened a connection to Stars’ End. “Stars’ End, this is Philaneo Clawson. We’re taking fire from the ships surrounding the station.”

  “Then break off.” Ms. Grissom sounded angry. “I’ll not have those children in danger! Do you hear me, Phil?”

  “But the school needs help,” Phil objected as he spun the ship away from another barrage coming from the large ship on the other side of them.

  “Not at the risk of the students you have on board.”

  The second ship to fire on them spat out several more ships, smaller than the one that was still flying toward Stars’ End.

  “Phil, we’ve got incoming.” Skylar pointed at the viewscreen.

  A wave of calm and peacefulness rolled off Phil. It was broad, and unfocused. It took Skylar a second to realize that he was hoping to influence the oncoming ships. In one of Professor Aduncus’s lessons on using his powers, the professor had explained that feelers like Phil could influence people at great distances, but they needed something to focus on to be their most effective. If Phil was trying a broad range empathic projection, he was desperate.

  “Phil, if you’re trying to influence the ships, don’t,” Ms. Grissom’s voice came over the speaker. “We’ve been trying every time they get close. They’re as immune to our powers as they are to our scanners. Turn around and get the students to safety.”

  Risking a bond with Phil, Skylar touched his furry arm and opened up his mind, letting Phil pull some of his power in hopes of making a difference. For a moment, his power drained out of him, feeling like a tugging in his mind. He grew lightheaded. The sense of peacefulness increased even as more shots were fired and Phil continued to roll the ship this way and that.

  “Let go, Skylar,” Phil grumbled. “We’re not doing any good.”

  “It’s empathic and at a distance–how can you tell?” Skylar didn’t want to give up. He wanted to give them the edge they needed to get through the ships and to Stars’ End.

  “I’ve been doing this long enough. I can tell.” Phil pulled his arm away from Skylar, breaking their connection.

  “But there’s more of them coming.” Skylar pointed to the screen again as another dozen or so ships came from the closer vessel.

  Phil sighed and shook his head as he pulled up on the yoke. “There’s too many of them.” He hit the arm of his chair. “All right, Fiona, we’re breaking off. I’m heading back through the stargate to get everyone to safety. I’ll round up help and come back.”

  “They penetrated our shields a couple of hours ago. We’ve cobbled together repairs, but if they hit us too hard again, we’re defenseless. We’ll do what we can.” She cut the com connection.

  “Damn,” Phil muttered as he continued to dodge the blazing energy beams that came from the larger vessels as the smaller ships fell behind them. “I just hope they don’t follow us.”

  “We’re going through the stargate–how can they follow us?” Skylar stared at the viewscreen and the stargate was just a small dot in the distance. It was going to take them a while to get there.

  “If they manage to lock the coordinates, they’ll be able to use our destination.” Phil gripped the yoke as he leveled out their fli
ght. “We should be out of weapon’s range, unless they waited until we were close to open fire—”

  A bolt of energy hit the ship.

  Everything shuddered. For a moment, it felt like the ship was about to fly apart. Skylar squeezed the armrest so hard, he thought he was going to rip into it.

  Filzbalm’s talons dug into Skylar’s shoulder as the little Solar Drake was thrown off the headrest. “That was a bad hit.”

  “Let go!” Skylar did his best to not holler out in pain, but it was the first time Filzbalm had ever hurt him, even unintentionally.

  After less than a second, Filzbalm let go. “Sorry.” The little Solar Drake rubbed his head against Skylar’s neck, and the feeling of love and compassion that went through him was so intense there was no way Skylar could be mad at him.

  Phil jerked the yoke from side to side and the ship slowly responded, but it wasn’t moving nearly as fast as it had been.

  “Everyone call out. Are we all okay?” Phil shouted, not bothering to use the internal coms that would project his voice through the ship.

  “Fine!” Solaria said.

  “Shoulder’s hurt, but otherwise okay,” Leonada replied. She was the only other Pantherian student from Stars’ End who survived their break. She had just told them all she was pregnant as well.

  “Hang tight.” Phil tapped buttons frantically. “Skylar, check the screens to your right. Anything flashing?”

  Skylar turned and looked over the screen that he had no idea what they did. “The third and fourth ones are both flashing.”

  Phil exhaled. “Great, life support and food services.” He punched a button a little too hard, and left a hole in the screen where his claw had hit it. Up until that point, Skylar hadn’t noticed that Phil’s claws were out. Other than a couple of times back on Pantheria, he’d never even seen Phil extend his claws, unlike Solaria who seemed to have hers out a couple of times a day. A lot of the Pantherians at school seemed to like flashing their claws to make points.