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  Fatal Accord

  Galactic Space Opera Thriller #3

  by

  Trevor Scott and Trevor Schmidt

  Also by Trevor Scott

  Max Kane Series

  Truth or Justice (#1)

  Stolen Honor (#2)

  Relative Impact (#3)

  Karl Adams Espionage Thriller Series

  The Man From Murmansk (#1)

  Siberian Protocol (#2)

  The Spy Within (#3)

  Jake Adams International Espionage Thriller Series

  Fatal Network (#1)

  Extreme Faction (#2)

  The Dolomite Solution (#3)

  Vital Force (#4)

  Rise of the Order (#5)

  The Cold Edge (#6)

  Without Options (#7)

  The Stone of Archimedes (#8)

  Lethal Force (#9)

  Rising Tiger (#10)

  Counter Caliphate (#11)

  Gates of Dawn (#12)

  Counter Terror (#13)

  Covert Network (#14)

  Shadow Warrior (#15)

  Sedition (#16)

  Choke Points (#17)

  The Tony Caruso Mystery Series

  Boom Town (#1)

  Burst of Sound (#2)

  Running Game (#3)

  The Chad Hunter Espionage Thriller Series

  Hypershot (#1)

  Global Shot (#2)

  Cyber Shot (#3)

  The Keenan Fitzpatrick Mystery Series

  Isolated (#1)

  Burning Down the House (#2)

  Witness to Murder (#3)

  Other Mysteries and Thrillers

  Cold War Short Stories: Jake Adams International Espionage Prequels

  Cantina Valley

  Edge of Delirium

  Strong Conviction

  Fractured State (A Novella)

  The Nature of Man

  Discernment

  Way of the Sword

  Drifting Back

  The Dawn of Midnight

  The Hobgoblin of the Redwoods

  Duluthians: A Collection of Short Stories

  Also by Trevor Schmidt

  Galactic Space Opera Thriller Series:

  Quantum Trigger (#1)

  Reaper Corps (#2)

  Fatal Accord (#3)

  Science Fiction Novels:

  Symbiote

  Memory Leak

  Short Fiction:

  The Chosen (A Novelette)

  Replica (A Short Story)

  This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictitious and not intended to represent real people or places. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the publisher.

  Fatal Accord

  Copyright © 2019 by Trevor Scott and Trevor Schmidt

  Cover iStock Photo by Tiziano Cremonini

  trevorscott.com

  Trevorschmidtauthor.com

  United States of America

  Table of Contents

  Last time…

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

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  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  36

  37

  38

  EPILOGUE

  Last time…

  Stranded in a distant part of the Milky Way Galaxy, Captain Liam Kidd, along with fellow humans Saturn Vera and Ju-Long Ma, fought to locate the Quantum Trigger, the device responsible for thrusting them across space. They were not alone. Three alien species were teetering on the edge, ready to reignite a war that had been waged for more than a thousand years.

  The Ansarans, blue-skinned with heavily modified genomes, dominated the star system. Their cousins were the Dinari, a distant genetic relative with scaled skin and large yellow eyes that saw far more than their masters gave them credit. Finally, there were the Kurazon, enormous in size and ferocity. Exiled from the common mother world for being too savage, the Kurazon sought revenge.

  Captain Kidd and the crew of The Garuda thwarted the Kurazon threat, for a time. But there is more trouble brewing on the desert planet that they’ve come to call home. The struggle for peace has never been more desperate. Now, in order to tilt the balance of power, one must make a…

  FATAL ACCORD

  1

  2142 A.D. – Somewhere Between Earth and Mars

  Saturn Vera toggled the exterior camera on her Hercules-Class freighter, zooming in on an advancing Terran military vessel. She cursed and tightened her brown leather gloves snugly around her hands, feeling the pull of the soft material against her knuckles. Saturn shivered violently and released a breath of frosty air from her lips. The last hit had made the environmental controls go wonky and she couldn’t risk easing off the accelerator to divert power to compensate. Her long brown hair was up in a ponytail, which graced her pale neck. Every time she looked in a mirror, she knew she’d been spending too much time in the dark of space. Saturn glanced over at her co-pilot in dismay.

  Liam Kidd sat focused on his console, his wild blond hair angled backward away from his face and his teeth clenched hard so the muscles along his jaw bulged out. Liam wore the dark colors common among those in their less-than-savory trade, with engineered clothes that clung to his body in all the right places. His blue eyes matched the frantically flashing lights on the console.

  Vesta Corporation had sent him along to help her on the mission, but Saturn had a feeling he was only there to keep an eye on her. Still, the view wasn’t bad. Liam hadn’t said much since they’d left Earth, but what he had said was rife with an air of cockiness that left Saturn with strange feelings in her stomach. She blamed it on the condensed space-food Vesta had sent along with them for the three-week trip. Every mouthful was agony.

  The cockpit of Saturn’s freighter was small, fitting only two cheaply-made seats. Most of the time they never had much to do in the small space anyway, with autopilot taking over the bulk of the workload. The technology was dated, but it got the job done. The Hercules-Class was a workhorse, without any of the bells and whistles of the Minerva ships, but Saturn loved it regardless.

  “Did you make the alterations to our engines Vesta specified?” Liam asked her, his voice growing irritated.

  Saturn squinted at her co-pilot and retorted, “Of course I did. Do you think I’m an amateur?”

  “And yet the Terran Military is still closing.”

  “It’s probably just an over-excited Lieutenant fresh out of the academy. Anyone worth anything knows not to mess with a Vesta ship.”

  “That so? Well why don’t we turn around and greet them? Word around the system is you have a golden tongue, maybe you can talk your way out of this mess.”

  “In case you haven’t noticed, there haven’t been any demands, only a firing squad. They don’t seem interested in talking.”

  “Well we’ll never outrun them in this thing and we’re not even close to Mars.”

  “Got any bright ideas?” Liam eyed her with a smile, his blue eyes beaming.

  “I’ve always got a bright idea.”

  A crash sent Liam and Saturn sprawling out of their seats. Saturn softened her fall with
her hands but hit her head on the way down to the floor. Her vision grew fuzzy and the pulsing in her head intensified until she could no longer keep her eyes open.

  •

  2146 A.D. – The Sand’s Edge Bar, Akaru Colony, Planet Surya

  Saturn shot upright, her eyes wide and a cold sweat permeating her tight white tank top. Her breathing was labored, stunted by the frequent specks of dust floating through the air and coating her windpipe. If there was one thing she hated about her new home it was the inescapable sand. The sleeping quarters was a small room above The Sand’s Edge Bar on the outskirts of Akaru Colony, too far from home for comfort.

  Planet Surya reminded Saturn of Namibia in Southern Africa, with its mountainous ranges and open desert, sand dunes stretching as far as she could see. She’d traveled to that land of extremes once before on a mission for Vesta Corporation. It was a protection detail for one of Vesta’s Vice Presidents. He had his own personal security while inspecting the mines, but Saturn was contracted as backup in case the local leaders tried to interfere with the deal that was being negotiated. They did.

  Remembering the old times always brought her somewhere between nostalgia and panic. She wiped speckles of sweat from her forehead, the curved screen of her bracer collecting most of the moisture. Sometimes she forgot she was wearing it. Her toned arms were becoming more and more tan with every passing day on the desert planet. It was her Argentinian heritage, she thought, olive skin. The strong sun had even begun to lighten her hair from a darker brown to a more medium tone. It was held back in a ponytail, the way she liked it. Low maintenance.

  She rose up from her thin sleeping mat and twisted her back, cracking it in several places. Their Dinari host had no concept of comfort, but the reptilian alien species was not known for their concern for hospitality. Saturn had seen a lot since she’d come through the wormhole with her two crewmates. At the time, she was surprised she made it through alive, but now her limited view of the universe seemed trite. When she’d arrived with her two human companions, they were immediately thrust into a conflict between three alien species, all spawned from the same genetic tree millennia ago.

  The Dinari were an oppressed race, held down by their cousins, the Ansarans. Though they came from the same home world known as Ansara, upon first glance, Saturn wouldn’t have been able to guess. Even the scales that lined their bodies were as different as a crocodile and a salmon.

  Every day she spent in the colony was a reminder of what happens when a war is lost. A part of her was glad she never saw firsthand what happened to the third intelligent species of the Ansara System. The Kurazon were a brutal race, easily twice the height of an average human male with enough muscle packed on to panic the heartiest of men. Their recent forays out of the darkness of whatever world they now hailed from had meant the demise of countless thousands.

  Saturn stood and stared out the open window at the packed sand of the streets below. The road was bustling with a morning market located less than a block away. Dinari clad in their rough brown garments flocked to the many stands to barter. Even in the morning light, Saturn could make out their golden orb-like eyes that still seemed so large in comparison to her own dark brown ones.

  She heard a groan and turned to see her half-naked companion. He had wavy blond hair down to his shoulders, and a deep scar running the length of the right side of his face, which split his eyebrow and colored the skin a deep pink even in the orange light that always seemed to tint the sky on Surya. Apart from the scar, Liam looked much the same as the day they’d met. He’d recently shaved his beard, which made him look much younger. The clean-shaven look sparked so much nostalgia in Saturn, she’d found herself dreaming of their first few missions together.

  The small room’s thick wooden door creaked open and a Dinari popped his beige head through. The alien’s thick and sandy scales had dark shadows hiding in the seams even as he came out of the half-light. His large golden eyes stuck a little too far out of his head, making him appear surprised most of the time. There was something familiar about his appearance, like the lizards she’d read about in textbooks during her youth. Nix had been their guide for some time, and the strange being had proven himself to be one of their few friends throughout their many adventures.

  Nix was taller than Saturn but hardly towered over her. The coarse brown fibers of his cloak seemed to soften his features, making him seem less intimidating. Though initially his snake-like appearance was disconcerting to Saturn, after working together for some time she knew he was mostly harmless. The Dinari waved a clawed hand for her to follow, his demeanor grave.

  Saturn nodded and approached the Dinari, the alien’s golden eyes darting between her and the sleeping form on the ground near her feet.

  “What is it?” Saturn asked.

  “It’s best discussed in private,” Nix whispered before turning and making off into the dark corridor which led to the bar on the first floor of the building.

  Saturn glanced at Liam, holding her eyes on his bare muscular frame a second longer than she’d intended. She huffed and followed Nix down the dim hallway. Saturn didn’t like private dealings where her crew was concerned. If she was going to plot behind someone’s back, she’d prefer it be against a mark, but if Nix had news it usually wouldn’t do to wait.

  Saturn caught glimpses of the Dinari’s rough skin with the stray bands of light seeping in through slits in the wall, large enough for a slight breeze but not so wide as to let in a glut of sand. Nix was an odd fellow, whose intentions appeared to align with hers, but he was just enough of a wild card to cast some shade of doubt in her mind. It wasn’t so much his intentions that bothered her, but his reliability. Months ago, he’d almost gotten their crew member Ju-Long killed as a result of his negligence. Ever since Liam and Saturn had confronted him, he’d been better about his drinking, but she still didn’t know what the problem was, something which bothered her deeply.

  The stairs ended on a floor of smooth stone with a curved bar that seemed to be cut from the same single piece of rock as the ground beneath her feet. Behind the stone bar were lines of strangely-shaped bottles filled with endless types of liquor, some in impossible shades that ranged from appetizing to repellant. The bright green hue of one of the bottles made her think of a science experiment gone awry. Nix shimmied up on top of the bar and grabbed a bottle of brown liquid from the back.

  “Can I get you one?” he asked.

  “It’s barely past dawn.”

  “The sun only really sets for a few of your Earth hours anyways. I don’t understand this human notion that one can’t drink at certain times of the day.”

  “It’s how we know someone has a problem.”

  Nix shrugged and poured them both a small glass despite her objections, sliding the wide, squat bottle away down the bar. The Dinari picked up one of the short glasses and placed it in Saturn’s hand. Nix gripped his own glass and took a deep sip, savoring the taste and rolling back his eyes as he swallowed. It was when he ate and drank that Saturn noticed just how alien he was.

  He looked back to Saturn and said, “Some conversations require a drink, regardless of the time of day.”

  “What kind of conversation is that?”

  Nix peered at the bottom of his glass and swilled the remaining liquid around.

  “The traitorous kind, of course.”

  2

  Saturn emptied the liquor into her mouth, taking a bit too much and swallowing forcefully to keep it down. A strangely cool burn coated her throat. The substance reminded her of a highly potent liquid-mint that she found oddly refreshing. She placed the glass back on the stone bar top, making a clacking sound as she slid it away from her. She regarded Nix with her head cocked to the left, trying to determine the Dinari’s intent.

  “Really Nix, mutiny?” she asked incredulously.

  “You misunderstand. This isn’t about us at all. It’s about what Zega is after. What Liam is after as well, for that matter.”

  “D
on’t lump Liam in with him. You know as well as I do what kind of prick Zega is.”

  “Liam’s been doing an awful lot of solo missions lately. Haven’t you wondered what he’s up to?”

  Saturn turned away and cradled her elbows defensively, saying under her breath, “I’m sure he has his reasons.”

  “You know Liam has a way of trying to do the right thing and getting people hurt along the way.”

  Saturn looked over her shoulder to see Nix pointing at the scar on his left shoulder where an Ansaran laser blast had cut out a chunk of the muscle tissue, leaving an oddly-shaped valley where a tan scale should have been.

  “I assume you’ve got some kind of proof if you’re trying to bring me into this?”

  “My friends in the spires have told me that Liam has been visiting a lot lately. He’s not just making deliveries for Zega, he’s stopping to talk to our elusive Caretaker as well.”

  “Toras?” Saturn asked, dropping her arms to her side. “What would Liam have to talk to him about?”

  Nix took another sip of the brown liquid and said, “Can you think of nothing? I suspect Liam and Zega have an angle that will somehow undermine the Caretaker. I don’t have all of the details yet, but I do know Zega. He wouldn’t be sending Liam there alone for nothing. Do you remember the deal we made with him?”

  Saturn placed a hand over her eyes and tried to remember. Finally, she replied, “We promised to back up Zega when the time came, no matter what.”

  “And what time do you think he means? He plans to overthrow this colony, installing himself as leader. I’m sure of it.”

  “Would that be such a bad thing? Zega’s no prince, but the Dinari would finally be in power. That’s got to be a good thing, right?”

  “It depends. The Ansaran High Council would bear down on this world with all of their might, and Zega would rule the same way as he makes his deals, full of secrets and ruthless intent. I fear we’ll have been complicit in the rise of a despot.”