The Zygan Emprise: Renegade Paladins and Abyssal Redemption Read Online Free

damage to the sidecar of his motorcycle
could easily be repaired, he reassured me. It was me he was worried
about. Squeezing his hand, I told him there was no need to worry
about me. After my cut healed, I could wear a helmet and ride
behind him on the seat instead. He promised he’d drive the bike
slower in the future, but I was glad he didn’t. I liked the feeling
of the wind blowing through my hair, and I was grateful I had a
brother who did, too. Helmets were for chickens. We were eagles. We
were meant to soar.
    The answer found me. Not only would I soar
into space on John’s trail, I would do him proud.
    So, on my own sixteenth birthday, I joined
the Zygan Intelligence team and started my training as a catascope
at Mingferplatoi Academy in Zyga’s bustling intergalactic capital
city of Mikkin.
     
    * * *
     
    Mingferplatoi Academy—one year ago
     
    “It doesn’t mean I have to like it,” I
grumbled as I instructed nav to begin our first practice mission.
As the only two Terrans in our Academy class, Spud and I had been
matched as partners for our upcoming internships. The thought of
having to orbit Earth in a cramped ship for the next six months
with Spud the Stiff wasn’t brightening my day. The Scooter lurched
and bucked as we lifted off from the Academy’s lush chartreuse
grounds.
    “Zygint endeavors to assign species to duty
near their home environments. Fewer chances of accidental discovery
when we resemble our charges,” Spud rationalized, adding, “However,
you are not the only one who is dubious regarding this
arrangement.” Smiling, he reached over and tweaked the antigrav
settings on the nav holo, smoothing our ascent through the Zygan
atmosphere.
    I wasn’t about to thank him. “Let’s just get
through this test, okay.” I turned my attention to navigating
through the maze of guard buoys sprinkled through the planet’s
stratosphere by Zyga Traffic Control.
    His tone was cold as he returned, “You do not
wish to wait for the pedagogue?”
    I rolled my eyes. “I’ve done this course
hundreds of times on the simulator.” The virtual experience had
bolstered my confidence. “She’ll catch up. Contact metrics?”
    “Working.” Sighing, Spud ran his fingers
across his holo in front of his post. “Cygnus in ninety-two
minutes. Rendez-vous with the target on Kepler 6b, metrics
established.”
    After flawlessly achieving apogee, I couldn’t
resist sending Spud a smirk. Clear of planet Zyga, I gave the
Scooter the command to shift into hyperdrive and speed us towards
the Milky Way. Spud remained silent, focused on tracking our route
on his nav holo, and scanning for signs of our pedagogue’s ship on
our trail.
    The constellation of Cygnus soon appeared on
our viewscreens, a bright cross nestled in a ring of nebulae.
Spud’s holo had highlighted our landing site as an ‘X’ at an
uninhabited peninsula on a southern continental shelf of planet
Kepler 6b.
    “Cygnus is derived from the ancient Greek
word for swan,” Spud ventured, “and contains two of this octant’s
most populated planets orbiting Deneb and Albireo. Kepler 5b and 6b
are among a ring of exoplanets that include the Glieser
homeworlds.”
    I yawned, hoping he’d get the hint.
    He didn’t. “Cygnus is included in the Zodiac
sign of Sagittarius, along with—“
    I raised a hand. “I’ve uploaded all the
Zygfed cosmography I’ll need, thank you. And medicine, science, and
history. You shouldn’t overfill that ‘brain-attic’ of yours,
anyway. Or mine.”
    Spud’s eyes narrowed. “You are implying that
one’s accumulation of knowledge could be finite. I should consider
that possibility—
    CRASH!
    “Andarts!” I shouted as our Scooter rocked
with the force of the attacking torpedoes launched no doubt by the
fearsome terrorists. CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! We were being battered
from all sides by the swooping projectiles.
    “Armor’s holding,” Spud reported, his eyes
darting from one holo screen to another as flocks