Bringing Stella Home Read Online Free Page A

remain in your seats with your restraints securely strapped.
Do not panic.”
    Ben felt his stomach lurch and his
body fall back against his chair as the shuttle accelerated. He
reached up and pulled his seat restraints down over his shoulders
as they turned hard to port. To his right, Stella did the same. He
glanced at her; she seemed tense, scared.
    “ We’re going to be all
right,” he told her. “Just stay with me, whatever
happens.”
    She nodded mutely. Around them, the
screaming subsided, replaced with a tension so thick that Ben could
practically taste it.
    A minute passed. Ben stared at the
ceiling and counted the seconds, squeezing his armrests until his
fingers were numb. The shuttle turned hard to starboard, but his
seat restraints caught him. A few passengers shrieked, but most of
them kept quiet. When he glanced across the aisle, he saw that the
girls were on edge, eyes wide and arms tightly folded.
    “ What are we going to do
when we get to the freighter?” Stella asked.
    How should I know? Ben thought to himself.
    “ Stay together,” he said.
“Ride it out with them.”
    “ Will we make it to
the Llewellyn? ”
    “ I don’t think so. Not
right away.”
    “ Where will they go? Will
they be all right?”
    “ I hope so.”
    Stella’s eyes widened in fear. “What
about Lars? Will he make it out too?”
    Not if he’s already
planetside.
    The shuttle’s acceleration slowed. Ben
turned his head and glanced out the window. They were on the night
side of the planet now—the horizon showed up as a fading crescent,
a line between the stars and the glowing light of city domes.
Stella glanced up at him, then out the window.
    “ I don’t see the battle,”
she said. “Are we clear?”
    As if in response, a series of small,
soundless explosions puffed out among the backdrop of the stars.
The targets were nowhere in sight—probably too distant to be
visible, or obscured by the planet’s shadow.
    “ Oh no,” said Stella, “was
that another—”
    “ I don’t think so,” said
Ben. “Standard Kardunasian battle cruisers carry at least two dozen
jump beacons each, and they almost certainly launched them as soon
as the Hameji attacked. If they try to nuke us across space with a
jumped warhead, the beacons will draw their fire. Those explosions
are harmless.”
    Probably harmless. He hoped they were
harmless.
    “ So we’re going to make
it?”
    Before he could answer, a
series of brilliant flashes illuminated the entire sky, searing the
interior of the shuttle with light. Stella and the other passengers
screamed; Ben hurriedly grabbed her again and covered his
eyes. One one thousand, two one
thousand…
    After about ten seconds, he peeked
out. The interior lights had all died, but the afterglow of the
explosions was bright enough to illuminate the cabin, casting eerie
shadows across the aisle. Ignoring the screams of the other
passengers, Ben stared out the window.
    As he did, his eyes opened wide with
horror.
    He counted not one, not two, but five
diminishing fireballs, the auroral glow lighting the planet below
with intense light. The fragmented hulls of two KDF cruisers arced
overhead, barely missing the shuttle. Though they orbited past in
only a split second, Ben clearly saw that the ships were broken
apart, completely obliterated.
    A tactical Hameji fusillade—exactly
like the one at Tajjur that had defeated the Gaian Imperial forces
stationed there. Dozens of multi-ton bombs, jumped in impossible
unison—a clean sweep. Everything gone. Everything.
    Blood drained from his
cheeks, and he suddenly felt very weak. They’ve broken our defenses, he
thought silently to himself. The fleet is
crippled. The battle is as good as over.
    We’ve lost.
    Through the walls, he heard the
distant sound of metal scraping against on metal—the sound of the
shuttle’s docking gear making contact with another ship. A slight
lurch flung his head down, chin against his chest, but the ship
soon righted itself,