Real life has been somewhat cursed lately, and the effects have been widespread, even reaching Starship JJ Green in outer space! The resulting delay of about a month in the appearance of the latest episode in my space fantasy Star Mage Saga, Accursed Space, is minor compared to the impact on many lives, but I apologise nevertheless. I hate to miss deadlines and I especially hate it when it means disappointing readers.

But Accursed Space is now back on track and ready for release at the end of May. Carina Lin’s quest to reach Earth continues, but to get there she must cross an entire galactic sector, which means years in stasis. She discovers she’s entered the badlands of deep space and encounters a terror from her childhood.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting a chapter every Saturday as an introduction to this next installment in her story.

Chapter One

Carina Lin was hanging upside down by her knees in the Duchess’s gym when she received a message via her ear comm that the scanners had picked up Lomang’s inter-sector vessel.

She pulled herself up to grab the bar, crunching her aching gut one more time. After unhooking her legs she jumped down to the mat and then walked toward the exit, grabbing a towel to wipe the sweat from her neck.

“Where are you going?” Atoi asked, hanging from the same bar. “Wimping out already? I thought you wanted to get into shape?”

“After two months with you as my workout partner,” Carina replied, “I think I’m pretty much in shape. We can’t all be stronger than half the men aboard, you know.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Atoi said before muttering, “Lightweight.”

Carina smiled and stepped through the opening gym doorway. Then she turned back to her friend and called out, “You’d better make the most of your session. You’re gonna be on duty for the next few cycles.”

Atoi’s eyes widened in her flushed, puffy, upside-down face.

“We found the smuggler’s ship?” She gave a whoop, reached up to grab the bar and then kicked off from it, somersaulting onto the mat. “Earth, here we come!”

Carina strode quickly toward the mission room, where Cadwallader was waiting, though her excitement was giving way to tension. Meeting with the lieutenant colonel was something she’d been avoiding when she could ever since the ‘incident’ involving Sable Dirksen. But now the Black Dogs and she had the opportunity to take over the Lomang’s ship, she would need to work closely with Cadwallader to coordinate the merc and mage attack.

When she entered the mission room, Cadwallader was seated at the holo screen. He didn’t deign to look at her, let alone greet her.

The Duchess’s computer was building a translucent hologram of the inter-sector ship from the arriving scanner data. The image increased in detail by the second, refining the ship’s lines and bringing the equipment on the hull into relief.

Two can play at that game, Carina thought, strolling over to the holo screen. She studied the interface display to discover the ship’s dimensions. What she saw caused her to draw in a breath. She’d heard the starships that traveled the unimaginable distances across and between galactic sectors were big, but she hadn’t realized just how big.

Lomang’s ship was even larger than Nightfall, the Sherrerr’s former flagship. According to the display, it measured 2889 meters in diameter at its widest point and its longest dimension was 3523 meters. Carina had heard that colony ships were massive, and she guessed that was its original purpose.

No thought had been put into making the ship pleasing to the eye. It was a mess of bumps and lumps, a bulky, hulking mass of dull metal resting motionless in the void.

From what she’d heard, most of the ship’s capacity would be taken up by fusion engines but that still left plenty of room for living facilities. The extra space would make a welcome change from the cramped, overcrowded Duchess. Then there were the Deep Sleep capsules…

“It’s equipped with defensive weaponry,” Cadwallader said in his usual clipped tones. “It isn’t a warship, but we should be cautious when approaching it nevertheless.”

Carina sat down and looked upward at their target. The holo of the ship had begun to spin while the computer continued to add detail. She saw the armaments Cadwallader had referred to: lasers aimed at the docking ports and airlocks—presumably to deter illegal boarding—and plasma cannons spaced in three rough rings encircling the ship. These were short-range weapons intended to protect against take-over attempts, but, as Cadwallader had said, the inter-sector ship wasn’t a military vessel. It wasn’t carrying any long-range weapons. Perhaps these kinds of ships couldn’t afford to expend the energy needed for their immense journeys on pulse cannons or particle beams.

“Lomang will have put safeguards in place before leaving it,” said Carina. “If it’s entirely unmanned, he might have set booby traps and the stars know what else. I’ll Enthrall him and see what I can find out.”

Cadwallader nodded, maintaining his lack of eye contact. “Do that. The Duchess is already slowing down. I’ll wait to hear what he says before we proceed farther.”

Carina stood up and went to leave, but she stopped. She’d endured Cadwallader’s behavior toward her for longer than she cared to.

“Look, we’re going to have to work closely on this. Don’t you think it’s time that we put aside our differences and—”

“Our differences?!” Cadwallader gaped, finally looking at her.

Then he got to his feet and slammed his hands on the holo screen table.

“You jeopardized the safety of my crew and effectively banished me and the Duchess from this entire galactic sector, and you think we have a difference of opinion?”

Carina gritted her teeth. “I’ve already admitted I was too hasty in executing Sable Dirksen. I know I shouldn’t have taken the decision out of your hands, okay? What else do you want me to say? She deserved to die after what she’d done. Surely you’re not going to tell me you would have let her live after she tried to kill a child?”

“There are more things to consider when defying the Dirksen clan than yourself and your family, Lin,” said Cadwallader tensely. “The Black Dogs was already on their hit list after it took on the Sherrerr assignment to rescue your brother. The Dirksens must have figured out by now that their leader’s dead and we had a hand in it. Our future in this sector is over.”

He leaned over the table and glared at her. “You had no right to make yourself judge, jury, and executioner of Sable Dirksen, no matter what she did. I did not agree to allow you to decide the fate of our prisoners. You broke our contract and now we’re all suffering the consequences.”

She couldn’t deny the lieutenant colonel made some good points. The encounter with the Dirksen corvette and Commander Kee as they left Ostillon had sealed the Black Dogs’ fate. They had finally escaped the corvette that had trailed them—thanks to Darius’s Cloaking of the Duchess—but Commander Kee would not forget them or their ship in a hurry.

Cadwallader’s profile was too high to escape the Dirksens’ notice when they investigated their leader’s capture and disappearance, and the Duchess was an easily recognizable liability. The mercs who remained aboard her were also at risk.

Those who hadn’t wanted to embark on the years-long journey to Earth had already resigned and disembarked on a backwater planet. Providing they made up convincing stories about their past that didn’t include the name ‘Black Dogs’ they should be fairly safe from the Dirksens.

Yet, on the other hand, many of the mercs who had stayed seemed happy to come along on the journey to Earth. Atoi, Brown, Jackson, and Halliday had all signed up for the mission. Apparently, the prospect of not seeing their families for decades, or perhaps ever again, didn’t faze them. Perhaps for some, the Black Dogs was the closest thing they had to a family.

It had been that way for Carina.

Even sour-faced Chandu was sticking around, though Carina was less pleased about his presence, especially since the incident where he’d gotten fresh with Parthenia.

The Duchess remained nearly at capacity in terms of its military contingent, which was fortunate. The Black Dogs were dead mercs walking as far as the Dirksens were concerned. There would be no new recruits.

“Fine,” said Carina, meeting Cadwallader’s cold-eyed stare. “Hold onto your grudge. I’ve apologized and there’s nothing more I can say or do. I don’t regret what I did, if that’s what you want to hear. Not for a second. I would do the same in the same circumstances, and I will do the same to anyone who tries to kill a member of my family.”

She stalked toward the door. “I’ll bring Lomang back here, so you can question him with me. You probably know more about the potential hazards on his ship than I do.”

“I do,” said Cadwallader, fixing her with his ice-blue gaze, “and the hazards aboard this ship, too.”

I hope you enjoyed the snippet. Read part two here.