Eden's Mirror: (LUMINA Book 2) by I.G. Hulme (interesting novels to read txt) 📕

you are so much more advanced than us, just because your ships tell you how and where to fly. But you have forgotten how to look with your eyes. Our people have passed on the secrets of the stars for generations.”

“And yet you needed us to tow you into New Eden when that pile of junk broke down as you were running from the Lumina!” spat Angelique defiantly, staring up at the big man. Ryann tensed for an instant, expecting Grande to react as he raised one hand.

Angelique flinched as he brought it down upon her shoulder, but to Ryann’s relief he burst out in laughter.

“You are brave indeed!” he said with a wide grin, though Angelique didn’t return his smile. “You could almost be mistaken for one of my own people! You judge us, but you do not know everything about my kin,” he said at last. “We were not running from the aliens. We set off from our home-fields long after they had appeared and moved on. And many of the ships from the other families are still making the journey back. We will meet with them when they catch us up.”

“I hate to break it to you,” muttered Angelique. “But your friends won’t be coming back through the occupied systems. The Lumina will catch them and kill them; if they’re not dead already. And one other thing’s for certain. If you keep transmitting out from the Ibis, then it won’t be long before the Lumina pick you up and you go the same way too.”

Jean-Baptiste threw his head back and laughed loudly once again.

“You Inlanders are always so certain in your knowledge! You think that it is impossible to get through the occupied systems — and yet your friends have not long set off on the very same journey themselves!”

“That’s different,” retorted Ryann. “The Defiance is a Luminal ship — we don’t expect to make it back without being discovered. We just hope that they think we’re one of their own. Angelique’s right, your friends will never make it through, please tell your crew to stop transmitting from the Ibis — you’re risking everyone in New Eden.”

“You too Ryann Wade? So sure that it is impossible?” asked Jean-Baptiste. “And yet, here we are, proof that perhaps you don’t know all that there is to know.” His laughter slowly died away but his dark eyes still sparkled with mirth from out of the shadows of his heavy brow.

“What are you saying then?” asked Angelique. “That you really did make it through the occupied systems?”

The big man paused momentarily as though weighing up his words.

“We set off four months ago from our home-fields beyond what you call the Outer Edge,” he said at last, staring straight into Angelique’s eyes as though daring her to refute his words. “We came in with our harvest of ore to the border post on Asheen, only to find it destroyed.”

“But, Asheen fell almost two years ago,” breathed Ryann in disbelief.

“We don’t have need to mix with Inlanders,” muttered Grande. “We keep to our own kind, and seldom travel to the Inlander worlds, except when we have need, such as when we wish to sell our harvest — your people pay well for the ores that are hardest to find.”

“But, how did you make it back alive?” asked Ryann in wonder.

“Like I say, our people have our own ways, learned over centuries — we travel the paths that you Inlanders find too difficult, or are afraid to travel. There are ways to avoid both Inlanders and the aliens if we don’t want to be seen. The rest of our people will come. You will see.”

Ryann stared open-mouthed, his mind in a whirl.

“But, why didn’t you tell anyone about this?” he stuttered. “You can help us find a way back for the Defiance!”

Jean-Baptiste looked horrified for a moment.

“This knowledge is ours, it is our treasure,” he said at last. “We don’t share our treasure with Inlanders — they have no respect. You may mean well, but you are like children to us, greedy, with no thought for others. My ancestors fought against the big Inlander companies for decades and we lost. So be it. Instead of working together, we choose to go where the companies cannot. My people know the stars as our friends. And we pass the knowledge of our elders along our generations.”

“But, we can destroy the Lumina, then you can return back to your home systems!”

“Our homes are our ships,” murmured Grande wistfully. “I do not expect you to understand. I am sorry Ryann Wade.”

“You don’t think we can succeed do you?” asked Angelique softly, but Jean-Baptiste remained silent, staring out through the window at the shifting colours of the ice-field.

Ryann followed the big man’s gaze, his mind in a whirl. As he watched, the blue-green luminescence of the clouds slowly parted and the little transporter came out into the open pocket of space at the very heart of the Halion Belt. Ryann saw the refugee fleet spread out before them, the couple of hundred vessels they had so optimistically named New Eden. Apart from a few large tankers and freighters, the flotilla of ships anchored to the central station were a ragged group of shuttles, passenger ferries, and a host of utility vehicles. They were all the inner-system ships that were unable to flee Viridis space as the Luminal invasion had swept over them.

The vessels, after being disabled, had been lashed together, connected to the control station by umbilical walkways and a tangled web of power and air lines.

“They are all safe,” said Jean-Baptiste solemnly as they passed through the maze of silent ships, heading for the old space station that acted as the central hub.

“When the crew of New Eden tried to disable the Ibis, we fought back, and a few of them were killed. But after we took over control of the station we locked the refugees aboard their ships for their own safety. They can stay there until