Act of God Read online

  Act of God

  Defiance #3

  Jason Krumbine

  Contents

  About This Book

  Books in the Defiance Series

  previously

  A Long Time Ago

  Chapter 1

  Now

  Chapter 2

  USS Defiance

  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

  Someplace Else…

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  USS Defiance

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Apaka 2221

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  USS Defiance

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Apaka 2221

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  USS Defiance

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Earth

  Chapter 47

  Untitled

  Untitled

  About the Author

  Also by Jason Krumbine

  about this book

  In this explosive follow up to the Hand of God, the crew of the USS Defiance find themselves on the edge of UPA space, cut off from any assistance, floating helplessly among the stars.

  Across the ship, systems are failing.

  Repairs could take days, maybe even weeks, but with limited life support, the crew only has hours.

  While the ship threatens to come apart around them, Lt. Commander Nax is slowly going mad, haunted by the ghost of his dead lover.

  Tactical Officer Cayden Keane lies in critical condition, barely clinging to life after suffering at the hands of the Unity.

  Trapped in what appears to be a no-win scenario, the crew of the Defiance turns to their captain.

  Except Captain Gavin Mitchell is missing.

  He’s not on the ship.

  He’s not in their sector.

  Gavin Mitchell isn’t even in their universe anymore.

  Books in the Defiance Series

  Defiance

  Hand of God

  Act of God

  previously...

  Dispatched to investigate a mysterious SOS signal transmitted in a code that hadn’t been used in hundreds of years the Defiance stumbles across a vessel from another universe entirely.

  After Captain Mitchell dispatches a boarding party to investigate, he’s visited by an all-powerful entity named Steve.

  According to Steve, their universe is simply one of many, stacked atop one other. Steve is from the top of the Stack. The Unity is from the bottom and it’s slowly working its way up, consuming every universe in its path. He warns Mitchell to bring the boarding party back before it’s too late.

  The boarding party is made up of Lt. Commander Nax, Doctor Dheer, Lt. Commander Keane and Chief Engineer Warrick.

  Unbeknownst to the rest of the crew, Nax has been unable to sleep since the death of his lover, Grace Hawkins, the former first officer of the Defiance. He finds himself haunted by what appears to be her ghost.

  Dheer and Keane discover a member of the Unity imprisoned on the ship. According to the ship’s logs, this member of the Unity seems to be unwell, which is what allowed them to capture it in the first place.

  In an attempt to restore main power to the vessel, Warrick and his people set off some kind of self-destruct protocol that not only results in a meltdown of the main power core but also releases the Unity. Once free, the Unity attacks, nearly killing Keane.

  With the ship about to explode, Mitchell implores Steve to save his crew. Frustrated with the fact that Mitchell doesn’t seem to be listening, Steve does bring the boarding party back. However, the Defiance is too close to the vessel as it begins to explode and cannot get away in time.

  As soon as the boarding party returns, Steve disappears taking Mitchell with him and leaving the Defiance to their own fate.

  A Long Time Ago

  Someplace Else

  1

  The man stood in front of the door. He was overwhelmed with anticipation, his body practically vibrating.

  All the systems flashed green.

  And yet…

  The man did not reach for the door.

  His hands did not move to grasp the handle of the door.

  Why?

  He stared down at his hands with an alien expression. These were his hands, yes? The same hands he had been born with? They must be, he concluded. If no other reason, he could not recall a time when his hands were replaced.

  But if they were his hands, why did they not feel like his hands? Why did they not look like his hands?

  The man looked up at the door again.

  Of course.

  Perception was everything.

  And everything was about to change.

  Once he opened that door, he would no longer be the same man he was. His hands would no longer be the same hands he had been born with.

  Reality itself would no longer be the same.

  He held his hands in front of his face and chuckled.

  Perception was everything.

  Of course they were his hands.

  He turned his hands around to look at their backs. Yes, they were most definitely his hands.

  He had known they were his hands all along, of course. They hadn’t changed. They couldn’t change.

  No. He was the one who was changing and that was okay.

  He wasn’t particularly fond of the man he was.

  They laughed at that man. They mocked him. They called him a fool. And then they had laughed at him again.

  They had all laughed so much at him.

  So, no, he wasn’t going to miss that version of himself.

  Because now he was going to become the man who changed everything.

  He lowered his hands and took a deep breath, closing his eyes to savor the moment.

  Everything.

  Behind him something beeped. An alert. On this side of the door time was infinite.

  On the other side of the door, however, time was not.

  It beeped again, reminding the man of this.

  He exhaled slowly and opened his eyes.

  Yes, of course, time.

  He glanced up at the glass covered observation deck.

  It was empty, as he knew it would be.

  Despite how they mocked him endlessly, he had invited them all.

  And why not? This was history in the making. Had they all become so jaded that they couldn’t see that?

  He shook his head.

  Of course they had.

  He knew they weren’t going to come. He hoped they would have. But he knew such hope was in vain.

  And yet, hope was what brought him to this moment today.

  He couldn’t help himself.

  Behind him the alert beeped again. He imagined it sounded almost impatient this time. Time, it reminded him, was running out. If he did not open the door soon, he would not have another opportunity to do so for a very, very, very long time.

  But, of course, time was relative.

  But even he didn’t want to have to wait that long.

  But, the man decided he could wait just a little bit longer.

  He glanced back at the observation deck once more. They wouldn’t all come, of course. But, maybe, just maybe, she might?

  Certainly he could wait for her.

  As if in response, the alert beeped again, nagging him. No, it insisted, he really couldn’t wait for her. History waited for no one.

  The man turned back to the door.

  History waited for no one.

  Except in the past where it waited for everyone.

  The man steeled himself.

  He shook off his insecurities, his doubts, his fears and his loneliness. He tossed them aside as easily as he tossed aside the man he was for the man he was going to become.

  He took a step forward, reaching for the door.

  His hand brushed across the polished chrome of the handle and a chill ran down his spine. Anticipation, he told himself.

  His calculations were sound.

  His theories were about to become fact.

  “This is going to work,” he whispered and before his doubts could get another word in, he grabbed the handle of the door and flung it open.

  The abyss.

  The end of everything.

  The beginning of everything.

  The man stared into the yawning abyss, looking for an end to it, but instead found himself growing dizzy by the sight. Of course there was no end. The abyss simply was.

  The man nearly giggled.

  It was exactly as he imagined it would be.

  He took a moment and tore his gaze away from the open doorway to double check the readings. Everything remained g
reen. The singularity fields were holding.

  Of course they were.

  Because he was right.

  Everything was going to be different now.

  Everything.

  He turned back to the door and took it all in.

  The darkness on the other side stretched out for eternity.

  This was the very end of reality.

  This was the beginning of reality.

  This was what they had mocked him for seeking and here that would end as it would lead to a new beginning.

  His mind raced with the possibilities.

  The discoveries.

  The Laws of Reality were going to be rewritten and he was going to have the honor of authoring them himself.

  Absently he noticed his cheeks were wet.

  His fingers brushed across the moisture tentatively, as if coming into contact with an alien substance. He almost laughed when he realized what it was.

  He was crying.

  Of course he was.

  This was his life’s work.

  Everything had led to this moment. And it was…

  Something shifted in the darkness.

  His eyes tried to pin it down, but it was impossible to separate the darkness from itself.

  The man blinked. His eyes must have deceived him. There was nothing there.

  He rubbed his eyes.

  The darkness moved again, swirling around itself. It moved as though it was both separate from itself and wholly part of itself all at once.

  This was not possible, he knew.

  Behind him there was a new alert. A harsher sound. A screeching alarm. But it seemed distant to him, as though coming from the other side of creation.

  There was something in the darkness. What was it?

  The new alarm grew fainter as he leaned forward, anxious to see a thing that should not, could not, exist here in the abyss of reality.

  The darkness surged forward towards him.

  The man realized his mistake. The distant alarm suddenly coming back to him.

  But by then, it was much too late.

  The darkness reached for him, wrapping itself around him and pulling him in. It pierced his skin, digging into his very essence. Unimaginable pain exploded across his body.

  He struggled in vain against it. He opened his mouth to shout an alarm, someone needed to know what was out there, and the darkness poured down his throat before a single sound could escape him.

  The man could feel the darkness consuming him, digesting bits and pieces of his body, his mind, his identity.

  Fresh tears streamed down his face. They were quickly consumed by the darkness.

  There was a spark as the darkness yanked him through the singularity field.

  A new alarm sounded and the door to the abyss slammed closed.

  Now

  Starbase Atlantic

  2

  Much to her surprise, Commodore Kathryn Straub found herself deeply engrossed in a torrid romance.

  To anybody who might pop into her office, it would appear that she was simply reviewing the day’s reports with rapt enthusiasm. A reasonable assumption to make, considering that she was, after all, on duty.

  But daily reports did not have the seductive sizzle that Straub found herself currently engrossed in.

  It was not, traditionally, considered good form to be reading for pleasure while on duty. And reading the type of romance novel as she was, even less so.

  But her job came with a certain amount of…stress.

  Usually, Straub dealt with this stress by simply chewing out her subordinates in such a manner that would leave nearly anyone a weeping puddle in a darkened corner.

  It had recently been suggested, after breaking one particular new ensign, Straub might want to consider another form of stress relief.

  So she decided to start reading romance novels while on duty.

  On the surface, it didn’t seem to be a particularly inventive solution.

  However, she quickly found that the romance novels afforded her an immediate disconnect from the stress-ridden environment around her.

  Of course, she also soon discovered they created another problem that she had difficulty dealing with as well. But she decided it was still probably better than emotionally and mentally tearing down her subordinates.

  Somebody cleared their throat and Straub looked up, surprised and startled.

  Lieutenant Commander Mallozzi stood awkwardly in the doorway. His long arms were clasped behind his back and his narrow eyes seemed even more narrow as they squinted at her.

  “I knocked,” Mallozzi said.

  Straub took a long moment, mentally running back the last minute. Exactly how engrossed had she been in her book?

  “You didn’t answer,” Mallozzi added.

  “Of course.” Upon realizing that sounded unusually high-pitched, Straub cleared her throat and set the datapad on her desk, screen down.

  Mallozzi eyed the datapad suspiciously. That wasn’t the usual response for showing up unannounced in the Commodore’s office. “Is everything okay?”

  Straub rubbed at her throat, avoiding his eyes for a second. “Fine. Everything’s fine.”

  “Fine?”

  “Fine.”

  Something that passed for bemusement appeared on Mallozzi’s face. “You don’t sound particularly fine.”

  “It could be because my third shift commander just popped into my office unannounced,” Straub said.

  “I’m not exactly a stealthy creature,” Mallozzi said. “There’s a good reason why there’s never been an Aztix in covert ops.”

  “So I’ve been told,” Straub said diplomatically.

  “I’m just saying, I’m not known for quietly entering a room.”

  “There’s several things you’re not known for doing quietly,” Straub said. “I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve had to speak with you about your bathing routine.”

  “Well, you could always move my quarters down to C deck,” he suggested.

  “That’d probably get me into more trouble with the Fleet’s diversity team,” Straub replied. “I don’t want to have to explain why I moved my Aztix officer next door to the trash recyclers.”

  Mallozzi shrugged his slender shoulders. “Personally, I would find the smell far preferable to what I normally have to put up with from my fellow officers.”

  Straub sighed, rubbing her tired forehead. “Is there a legitimate reason you’re here? Or is this just another roundabout way to argue your case for moving your quarters again?”

  Mallozzi glanced at the datapad. “I’m not interrupting something, am I?”

  “Of course you’re interrupting something,” Straub said. “You’re always interrupting something. You live to interrupt things.”