Campbell The Doomed Earth: Destiny's Way

1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-80336-729-3
Verlag: Titan Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Band 2, 480 Seiten

Reihe: The Doomed Earth

The New York Times-bestselling author concludes the desperate and action-packed saga of the refugee from the future, and the one naval space officer who believes her, trying to avert the apocalypse as all forces turn against them. Earth was destroyed on June 12, 2180. Lieutenant Selene Genji watched it happen. And only she can prevent it. Thrown forty years into the past, into a time before the Universal War began, Genji can only guess what to do to change the events that led to the death of all humanity. She has no way of knowing the long-term impacts of her actions and can only depend on her instincts. But many of the people Genji's trying to save want her dead. Her creation was an experiment: a fusing of human and alien DNA. To them, she's a monster who can't be trusted, a tool of the aliens who have just made first contact. Fortunately, she has an unshakable ally in Lieutenant Kayl Owen, who has risked everything to help her mission. Declared a traitor to humanity by Earth Guard, Owen is determined to help Genji save the Earth. Even if he dies trying.

Jack Campbell is the pen name for John G. Hemry, whose books have been translated into fifteen languages and sold four million copies worldwide. He is a retired Naval officer and graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. As Jack Campbell, he writes The Lost Fleet series of military science fiction novels. He also wrote the Stark's War and JAG in Space series under his real name.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Campbell, Jack

Leseproben

2

SELENE GENJI? SELENE GENJI?” The voice was pitched low, trying to carry without carrying too far. “We’re friends. If you’re out there, please let us know. Selene Genji?”

“It seems a little too obvious for a trap,” Owen said.

“Should we risk it?” Selene asked him.

“We’re out of options,” he said. “If we don’t get clear of this area soon, they’re going to find us.”

“So that’s a yes.”

“That’s a yes,” Owen reluctantly agreed.

The boat had continued moving slowly along the coast, a little ways out, navigation lights shining, but no other lights visible above deck except that of the binnacle near the helm. It was almost opposite them now, and Kayl could see that the yawl seemed to be about ten meters from bow to stern.

“Selene Genji?” the voice called again. It sounded like a young woman.

“Here,” Selene called back. “I’m here.”

“Selene Genji?”

Owen waited, wondering what they could do if this did turn out to be a trap. If they ran, the drones overhead would spot them in no time.

“Yes,” Selene called again. “I am Lieutenant Selene Genji. Are you friends?”

“Yes! Yes! Can you swim out to us? We can’t risk getting any closer to shore without grounding.”

Selene waded out carefully, trying to make as little noise as possible, while Owen did the same behind her. Despite the darkness, he felt fearfully exposed walking slowly through the water.

The bottom shoaled slowly before suddenly dropping away, leaving Owen and Selene swimming the last part of the journey to the boat.

A rope ladder dropped over the side. “Can you make it up?” the young woman called.

“No problem,” Selene said. She went up carefully, the water dripping off her sounding tremendously loud to Owen as it hit the surface of the bay.

He followed as soon as she was on deck.

“She’s already below,” a young man said. “Get down there with her in case someone checks us out.”

The boat’s crew didn’t look anything like security personnel. Owen let willing hands urge him along a brief stretch of deck and down a short ladder into the boat’s cabin, where a blackout sheet at the foot of the ladder prevented light from shining upward.

Past that was a small but efficient cabin, with multiple fold-down cots toward the bow and some fixed berths along the sides that could also serve as seats.

Selene, sitting on one of the berths, waved him over. She’d already drained half of a glass of water, offering him the rest.

Owen sat next to her, drinking greedily and gratefully, acutely aware of their dripping wet clothes.

Also in the cabin were two women and a man, all of whom seemed a little younger than twenty-two-year-old Selene. “We’ve got more,” one of them hastened to say, bringing out additional water. “Are you guys hungry?”

“Very hungry,” Owen said.

“I hope you like trail mix and jerky,” one of the women said, offering them bags.

“Thank you,” Owen said, feeling dizzy from the sudden shift in their fortunes. “It’s a lot better than our last meal.” He ripped open a package of jerky, offering some to Selene.

The young woman sat down on the berth opposite them. “We might get asked questions about people, so we’re not going to ask what your names are, and for tonight our names are Pandora, Alera, and Gus. We just picked up a couple of people, that’s all. And we’re going to drop them off where they want to go. We’re assuming that’s the coast across the bay from here.”

“As long as it’s not too far,” the young man going by Gus said. “We’re not supposed to be out too long.”

“It’s not your boat?” Owen asked.

“Nah. It belongs to the college. St. Mary’s. We’re just out doing a night sail.” He grinned. “A lot of people with boats are out there right now. Just in case someone needed a lift off the Eastern Shore. Everybody knows something happened at Wallops. There are a lot of rumors about who was involved. We figured they might need help.”

“You haven’t done anything,” the young woman called Alera said. “Except good things. We wanted to help.”

“It’s been hairy out here with all the people and things looking for whoever escaped from Wallops,” Gus added. “But we don’t know anything about that! We’ve already turned to head back west across the bay, sort of easing along like people with no special place to be.”

“Quiet!” someone called down from on deck.

Owen and Selene stopped eating and drinking, trying not to make any noise. The small group sat, listening to the water running along the hull, until an amplified voice suddenly sounded. “This area is temporarily restricted. Move offshore a minimum of ten kilometers. Do not approach this close to the shore again until notified that the navigational restriction has been lifted.”

“Okay, man! You can see we’re heading out already!” a man called from on deck.

“Why are you out here?” the amplified voice demanded.

“We’re just doing a night sail! Pleasure cruise! Is that, like, a crime now?”

“Have you seen anyone near the coast?”

“Huh? Is someone lost?”

“Just get away from the coast,” the voice ordered. “A minimum of ten kilometers. Understand?”

“We got it,” the student on deck said. “Fine. See? We’re heading out into the bay. Happy?”

Silence fell except for the creaking of the boat’s hull and the rush of water.

After a couple of minutes, someone on deck spoke again. “Okay, they’ve moved off toward the coast.”

“Let me see what happened,” Gus said, dodging through the blackout curtain. He was back in about a minute. “A military bird was up there. They scanned our deck when they ordered us out of here, but didn’t notice anything.”

“Why are you helping us?” Owen asked.

Pandora looked at Selene. “Because so much of what’s going on seems wrong. We’ve all seen what you said on Mars. What was wrong with that? But they tried to kill you! And whenever we ask exactly what it is you’ve done that’s so terrible, we either get told it’s classified or that you’re still preparing to do something.”

“Some of us have ancestors who got that treatment,” Alera said. “Locked up because they might do something because they weren’t like everybody else.”

“Supposedly they’re trying to capture you guys,” Gus said. “But then at Wallops they had some sort of major battle. What was that? How do you capture people by blowing up everything?”

“I fired a few shots there,” Selene said. “But only at drones. Everything else was aimed at us, or at . . .” She swallowed, looking toward one side. “Have you . . . have you heard anything about Krysta?”

“Is that the girl at Wallops?” Gus said. “The one who got hurt?”

Selene’s eyes fixed on him. “Hurt?”

“Yeah. There are reports a girl got shot a few times. But sources are saying she’ll be okay.”

“She’s alive?” Selene stared at the others, her eyes wide. “Krysta’s alive?”

“Yeah,” Pandora said. “I guess you couldn’t check any news or rumor sources while trying to maintain a low electronic profile. Most of them are saying she got shot up pretty bad. No one’s explaining how that happened, but she’s supposedly out of danger.”

“She’s alive.” Selene buried her face in her hands, shaking with reaction. “She’s alive. Kayl, she’s alive.”

“Yeah,” Owen said, putting one arm about Selene, blinking to stop his own tears. “Someday we’ll get to yell at her for not doing what she promised to do.”

“I am going to have a long talk with that girl.” Selene stopped herself, looking up as she lowered her hands and wiped away tears. “She’s really alive?”

“She’s really alive,” Pandora said, smiling and looking as if she, too, was about to cry. “What happened?”

“She was supposed to go to ground when we told her to,” Owen explained. “So she’d be safe. Instead, she took off on her own to distract everyone. She was trying to protect us. But the last thing we wanted was for her to get hurt.”

“Why was she with you?” Alera asked.

Owen looked at Selene, who was still trying to control her breathing. “We ran into her on the Moon. She was with a guy, much older, who’d bought her as a bride when Krysta was eleven.”

Several seconds of silence followed. “That still happens?” Pandora whispered.

“It still happens,” Owen said. “I’m learning that a lot is still happening that never shows up in the official databases.”

“Did you do anything to the guy?” Gus asked, his voice gone hostile.

“He’s dead,” Selene said.

“We didn’t kill him,” Owen added quickly. “We wanted to get Krysta to an organization that would help her. She really wanted to get back to Earth first, though.”

“We shouldn’t have caved on that,” Selene said. “It was too dangerous for her. Sorry that I lost it back there. Thank you so much for letting us know about Krysta.”

“You didn’t react much like a heartless alien monster,” Pandora replied. “Are you . . . are you really an alien?”

Selene inhaled deeply, still calming herself. “I’m part alien, mostly human. Some of my genome is Tramontine DNA.”

“That’s true?” Pandora said in amazement. “So humans and these aliens can reproduce?”

“No,” Selene...