A Night Without Stars Read Online Free PDF

Intruder one was abruptly knocked sideways as something exploded, sending out clouds of flame. Then it began to tilt, less than a kilometer from the ground, its blunt cone-nose sweeping around to point directly at the scrub desert below. Its rockets continued firing, accelerating it down.
    The spaceship struck hard, detonating in a massive seething mushroom of flame and smoke. Planes that were already retreating were caught in the blast wave. She saw wings crumpling; then the mangled fuselages began their long plummet.
    The tannoys fell silent.
    “Intruders two, four, eight, and nine are on the ground,” the chief air marshal said. “We’ve taken the rest out. Confirmed kills.”
    “Get the squadrons out of there,” Laura said urgently. “Low and fast. If they’re in the air, they’re sitting ducks to the beam weapons.”
    “Surely one last assault…”
    “Would just be suicide. You’ll achieve nothing and lose what remaining planes we have.”
    Slvasta turned to look at the big atomic bombs on their trolleys, then back to the wormhole, which showed the edge of the desert where the invaders now sat. For kilometers in every direction the ground was smothered in flaming debris. “You’ll have to use the nukes.”
    “We can’t,” Laura said wearily. “We only have three, and there are seven ships in the second invasion fleet heading for Tothland.
If
they fly close enough, and
if
I can open the terminus just right, three bombs might be able to take them all out while they’re in the air.”
    “But—” He gestured at the wormhole, which was still looking down on the edge of the desert where the invaders had landed. “You said they will be unstoppable if they land!”
    “I know.” She took a breath and told her u-shadow to open a link. “I need you,” she sent.
    “You have a Commonwealth force field,” Javier said. “Can you eliminate them?”
    “I have to take out their planet,” Laura told him, pleased at how calmly she’d spoken that preposterous statement. “I can’t fight four ships here as well.”
    “So it is down to the regiments to defend us yet again,” Slvasta said gravely. “I will tell Master General Doyle to order full mobilization.”
    “No,” Laura said.
    “But we have nothing else! Bienvenido will be destroyed. You told us these aliens are worse than even Fallers. How can we—”
    There was a commotion just outside the crypt doors. One of the marine sentries called: “Halt! You are not authorized to be here. I will shoot.”
    “It’s all right,” Laura said. “Let them come in.”
    Kysandra walked into the crypt—an entrance that brought complete silence with it. Biononics, the tiny machines permeating every cell in her body, barely had anything to do with maintaining her youthful looks. She was still in her twenties, her Celtic-pale skin rich with freckles, and thick Titian hair falling halfway down her back. She wore a long brown suede skirt and a white blouse; a loose suede waistcoat with many pockets held a variety of small metal and plastic gadgets. A long black cylinder was carried on a shoulder strap—featureless, but everyone in the room knew it had to be some kind of Commonwealth weapon.
    Marek and Fergus followed her in. They were dressed in identical gray coveralls made from some slick fabric, and they carried the same cylinder weapon as Kysandra. Even their height and build were identical, though Marek had darker skin and looked a good thirty years older than Fergus.
    Laura acknowledged the visitors with a wry grin. You had to use a full biononic field function scan to tell the men were ANAdroids, not actual people. And she’d never seen versions with morphic features quite so human; their creators had done an excellent job. But then, they were part of Nigel’s mission, and she knew no effort would’ve been spared.
    Yannrith and Andricea immediately drew their pistols and aimed them at the newcomers with a steady double-handed grip.
    “Don’t be