Guardians (Caretaker Chronicles Book 2) Read Free Page A

hand bells
they’d brought along. Polara, her fear forgotten, stood to ring hers with
vigor. Its bright sound joined the others, echoing off the karst peaks as the
crowd began to cheer. A few people set off bright fireworks which threw sparks
of color into the air around them. Ethan smiled to see Polara, born here as a
true Minean, embracing the tradition.
    Ethan glanced up at the bright planet and his
smile disappeared. A dark smudge appeared and traveled directly across the face
of Lucidus. Others had seen it too. The crowd sunk into an uneasy stillness,
choking the clamor of the Lucidus bells. Uneasy murmurs arose at the sight of
the opaque spot streaking smoothly across the planet.
    Ethan felt a surge of fear, an old apprehension.
    “It’s just an orbital defense sphere,” someone
said, as the spot dropped off the crisp edge of the planet and the bells began
again.
    It could be one of the orbital defense spheres. Ethan
tried to let that make him feel better.
    ***
    Admiral
Phillip Reagan paced in his temporary office in Lumina. His windows were open
and the office smelled of mud and greenery: spring. It was his fourth Minean spring
since they had made him Admiral of the Minean fleet. He’d been promoted after
he arrived, when news had broken that he had disagreed with selling Ship 12-22
to the Others of Beta Alora, and now he got to oversee the ships and command
the fleet. Well, train the fleet. There hadn’t been much commanding necessary
in the ever-peaceful skies of Minea.
    But something troubling had been seen in those
skies this morning. He shouldn’t even be here today; the day of the Lucidus
festival was a UEG holiday. But something unusual had been spotted, and he wasn’t
going back to the barracks until he got some answers.
    Until then, he was listening to the guitar riffs
of an old Earth band. He was glad that he’d had the Caretaker’s drive, full of
old Earth music and movies, downloaded from the ship on which he’d arrived
before it was scrubbed and repurposed. Now, the thumping bass rhythm provided
just enough distraction to keep Reagan’s thoughts from running away with all
the possibilities of what that spot in front of Lucidus could have been.
    He had seen it, a shadow on the bright circle that
was the planet, at the height of the Lucidus festival this morning. It showed
up and moved across just as the bells rang in the city and the cally blossoms
were released from the tops of the buildings. He had seen it just for a second,
and had known it wasn’t the orbital defenses as others speculated. One thing
that made him fit for admiralcy here on Minea was his impeccable eye for
detail. The orbitals wouldn’t have been in the right place to transit Lucidus.
The spot wasn’t the right shape or size. And he’d never seen anything pass in
front of the planet at perigee.
    “You seem cool,” Sergeant Frank Nile surprised
him.
    Reagan turned down the music. “Just waiting for
the analysis team.”
    Nile crossed to the window. “Exciting first day
down here.”
    Reagan’s laugh was a little bitter. “Yeah.”
    “So what’s your itinerary, Admiral? How long will
you be with us here in Lumina?”
    Reagan breathed in the light spring air.
Everything depended on what the analysis team found. “Well, the original plan
was to do all the routine defense checks here in the next two weeks. Your
reviews of personnel, equipment, and procedure haven’t been done in far too
long. But with this new . . . development, I may be heading to
Flynn. I’ve got to make sure we’re ready for whatever happens.”
    Sergeant Nile gestured toward the map of the
Minean settlements on the wall. “Maybe we’ll get to try out some of our
strategies, huh?” His voice was light.
    Reagan stood slowly and walked to the map, laying
a hand on it. His voice was stern when he said, “Sergeant, I hope you
understand that the best military strategy is the one you never have to use.”
    Reagan ran his fingers across the eight