Free The Secret Beneath the Ice (The Epic of Aravinda) by Andrew M. Crusoe Page A

Oonak’s mouth slowly so that it seemed to float in the air for a few moments. “Navika, can you confirm that what we are seeing is non-verdant flora?”
    “Affirmative. Foliage hue ranges from cyan near the poles to near indigo at the equatorial regions.”
    “Is there anything similar in Confederation records?”
    “Yes, but it is exceedingly rare. It seems we have stumbled across a rare gem.”
    “Indeed, it seems we have. Can you confirm Hatchling Status?”
    “Confirmed. No timespace signatures detected. However, I have detected hundreds of active cities, including observational and communications satellites in varying orbits around the planet, although nothing remarkable. No one on Avani will ever know we were here.”
    As magnified views of various cities below flashed into Oonak’s mind, his understanding of the planet grew, and as his understanding grew, the more excited he became. Here was a compassionate civilization. Everywhere he looked, they strived to create a balance between their own technology and the surrounding environment. The Enemy would never harm this place. Oonak would make sure of this.
    “Quite a stunning world, isn’t it?” A wave of conviction swept over Oonak in a way that he hadn’t felt in a long time. “We are going to meet them someday. Mark my words, Navika. We are going to meet the Avanians. They will join the Confederation. My intuition tells me nothing else.”
    “Oonak, I’ve just detected an intense epsilon pulse emanating from the surface of the planet. It’s possible that such an intense burst could disrupt the cloaking field.”
    “Move out of range so that—”
    And then everything around him exploded with light and noise.

PART 2
     
    THE ATTACK
     
     
    The wave of fire impacted onto Navika all at once and with such force that for a moment Oonak thought that his head might explode. The view around him became overlaid with a frantically blinking red grid as Navika searched for the source of the attack.
    As Navika did this, the planet appeared to spin in circles all around them, and an alarm rang throughout the ship. Oonak strained to recover a stable orbit when another volley of plasma hit them like a massive, unstoppable wave of rolling thunder. Amidst this wave, three sharp beams of light honed in on the ship.
    Oonak knew Navika would dynamically balance the shields to prevent any fragmentation, so he focused on stopping their tailspin while he searched for a target. Yet, he found none. Why hadn’t Navika detected any vessels yet?
    Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that shield cohesion was weakening near one of the pyramid’s tips. But before he could do anything, the three beams had cut into that part of the ship, causing a small fragment and hundreds of tiny particles to fly off and begin falling down to the ocean far below. Never before had Oonak heard such an urgent sound ring out around him. It was almost as if the ship itself was wailing in pain because it was no longer a cohesive whole, and the imbalance sent them into an uncontrollable descent.
    “The epsilon pulse from the surface of the planet has now ceased. However, we sustained significant damage before my diagnostic systems went offline.”
    The planet whipped around Oonak’s vision a few times per second now.
    “Can you stabilize our descent? The attack seems to have stopped.”
    “I’ve already tried. Impulse systems are unstable. We will enter the planet’s atmosphere in 20 seconds…”
    Oonak could see from the mental link that it was completely quiet outside now. Their attacker had vanished. But how was that possible? The weapons used against them should have left traces of their attacker’s location.
    “Navika, we cannot land here. This is a Hatchling World.”
    “We have no choice. Initiating emergency safety measures.”
    Oonak felt his harness tighten slightly. From the mental link, he observed that the impulse drive was responding intermittently, allowing Navika to slow