Lost Galaxy: The Complete Series (Books 1-6) (Complete Series Box Sets), page 75
Bowman took dozens of punches to his back and sides, but he didn’t care anymore. He wanted to inflict as much damage as possible. He couldn’t see whether Falkner had a blade and he wouldn’t be able to see when Falkner pulled it to finish Bowman.
Bowman fought on rage alone. He was going to kill Duke Falkner. All the love and respect he once held for this man mutated into murderous fury. The simple fact that he once loved Duke Falkner made him want to kill him even more.
Falkner’s betrayal galled him beyond tolerance because Bowman loved him—or he thought he did. The person Bowman loved ceased to exist long ago if he ever did. He loved someone who never existed.
Falkner yanked his head out of Bowman’s elbow. He delivered a punishing uppercut to Bowman’s chin and left Bowman reeling on the floor. Falkner reared on his knees and Bowman lost awareness of where his brother was.
At that moment, the door at the far end of the tunnel swung open. A shaft of light lanced into the darkness and Van Dyke’s voice echoed down the long passage. “Bowman! Are you in here?”
In that wink of light, Bowman looked up at his brother’s features distorted in deadly frenzy. Falkner’s hair fell over his lunatic countenance. He rose above Bowman’s prostrate body and the light flickered on a blade grasped in Falkner’s hands.
Falkner grabbed the handle in both fists and his body contracted to bring it down into Bowman’s chest. Bowman tensed for the blow and threw his left arm in front of him to protect himself.
The blade plunged and hit Bowman’s gauntlet. It glanced off and Bowman seized Falkner by the elbow. He guided Falkner’s momentum past him and flung his brother face down on the floor.
Bowman sprang up and pounced on Falkner’s back. Bowman landed his knee on Falkner’s clasped hands and his weight knocked the knife out of Falkner’s grasp.
Bowman struck out and punched Falkner in the back of the head. He pounded his brother’s face into the floor again and again. Running footsteps came closer down the tunnel. “Bowman!’ Van Dyke yelled.
Van Dyke made it a dozen feet into the tunnel before the door slammed shut behind him. The light disappeared and plunged the combatants into darkness.
Bowman punched down into Falkner’s lower back and felt his brother go limp under him. Bowman wound back his fist to pound him into oblivion, but he couldn’t hit a defenseless man.
He seized his brother’s collar and ripped Falkner off the floor. Van Dyke stopped running when the door shut and he approached at a walk. His fingertips dragged against the wall to check where he was.
He would reach Bowman and Falkner in a second, but Bowman already made up his mind. He didn’t come down here to take Falkner back to the Command Council alive and he wouldn’t let Van Dyke take Falkner back alive, either.
He spun Falkner to face him. Falkner wobbled on unsteady legs and his body flopped in Bowman’s grasp. Falkner barely held himself upright, but at the last second before Van Dyke reached them, Falkner wrenched out of Bowman’s grasp.
Falkner sidestepped into the dark and a faint click of a sidearm cocking told Bowman where he was. A brush of cold air caressed Bowman’s cheeks right before the weapon went off.
Something happened in the forgotten depths of Bowman’s consciousness. Without thinking, he stuck out his arm and his gauntlet erupted. A laser flared in the darkness and seared through Falkner’s weapon, through his hand, and through his head.
Van Dyke’s startled countenance flashed brilliant red and then vanished in a sea of black. The body hit the floor at Bowman’s feet and everything went quiet.
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
Van Dyke shot Bowman’s gauntlet a suspicious glance. They stood in the sunshine next to the Coyote, but Van Dyke kept eyeing the gauntlet like it might go off again at any second. “So… what happened? Why did it fire? I thought the Pterans shut it down.”
“I thought so, too.”
“So how do you explain what happened?”
“I don’t,” Bowman replied. “Maybe Onaeki left it activated just enough that I’d be able to defend myself… or maybe I did. I’m not sure.”
“Well, that’s useful.”
Phelps strolled over to them from the Messenger. “I reported Falkner’s death to the Command Council. They’ll do a full genetic survey to confirm his identity, but it’s an open-and-shut case, especially with Van Dyke acting as a witness.”
“Thanks,” Bowman replied. “Thanks for showing up when you did. It means the world to me.”
Van Dyke clapped him on the shoulder. “If you ever need a constable, call me. Life is gonna get real boring for me on Alleria from now on.”
Bowman had to laugh. “The Command Council needs a good constable on hand to keep them all in line.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to come back with me? The Republic needs a good brigadier more than a good constable.”
“The Republic doesn’t need another brigadier. This is where I belong.” Bowman feasted his eyes on his friends. “You two belong out there keeping the Republic safe from itself.”
“I sure wish you were coming with us,” Phelps remarked.
“I don’t. Now take that piece of shit out of here before he dirties up my house any more than he already has.”
Phelps and Van Dyke both laughed. They hugged Bowman again, but this time, they kept it short, sweet, and friendly.
Bowman walked them back to the Messenger. They entered the cabin and he waved to them until the hatch closed. He stepped back and waved again when the ship took off and flew away.
The silence that descended throbbed louder than before, but the wind sounded different. No sneaking suspicions disturbed that gentle voice. No one would come flying out of the sky to interrupt his thoughts. He was alone.
He went over to the Coyote and brought Jusha’s body out of the back. He laid it on the grass and got a shovel out of the barn.
He worked steadily for two hours and he didn’t even mind the difficulty of working the shovel with one arm or the blisters forming on his palms. The hard physical labor felt good and right and life-giving after so many weeks of running and fighting.
He finally lowered Jusha’s body into the grave and covered him up. When he tossed the last shovelful of dirt onto the mound, he retrieved from the Coyote the crisp, new blue uniform hat he took from the supply room on Ninida.
He placed the hat on top of the grave and stood back. Bowman lowered his head in reverential silence for a moment and then spoke the words he’d been waiting for years to say. “We’re home, Jusha.”
The End
FIND YOUR NEXT
BINGE READ…
CLICK HERE TO SEE
ALL THE BOX SETS!
A starship captain faced with an impossible choice.
An amnesiac awoken on an alien world.
A timecop lost in a constantly-changing history.
These stories and many more await inside the page of Portal, a short story collection from the mind of Daniel Young. Six distinct worlds with their own strange rules, pitfalls, and challenges.
Nothing is as it seems...
Enter the Portal if you dare!
ALSO BY DANIEL YOUNG
Outcast Starship: The Complete Series (Books 1-9)
Stars Dark: The Complete Series (Books 1-8)
Blackout: The Complete Series (Books 1-9)
Oblivion: The Complete Series (Books 1-9)
War Fleet: The Complete Series (Books 1-5)
Legacy of War: The Complete Series (Books 1-3)
Heritage of War (ongoing)
Copyright © 2022 by Daniel Young
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
FIND YOUR NEXT
BINGE READ…
CLICK HERE TO SEE
ALL THE BOX SETS!
Daniel Young, Lost Galaxy: The Complete Series (Books 1-6) (Complete Series Box Sets)
