Dark Space: Origin Read Online Free Page A

Ethan Ortane, was the imposter overlord. How could he have been flying with her and somehow also ruling the Imperium at the same time? She decided that didn’t make any sense, so he must have come into the position recently. But how and why had he come to impersonate Overlord Dominic?Had Ethan been working with Brondi to take over the Valiant and destabilize the Imperium, and if so, did that make Ethan her enemy or her friend? She still remembered growing up in Brondi’s care with all of the other orphans he’d rescued. The crime lord was the only one who’d ever really cared about her—the only one who’d ever shown an interest in her life. . . .
    Alara had to remind herself that those feelings of gratitude came from memories of a life that didn’t exist. Everyone said that Brondi was their enemy and he had implanted her with a slave chip to turn her into a playgirl for one of his pleasure palaces, but if Ethan was on his side . . .
    Alara shook her head. She couldn’t remember! She didn’t know what was real anymore. The only memory she could easily recall that apparently was real was of a man with green eyes and a rugged, sorrow-lined face. Ethan. She often dreamed about him and woke up with his face still trapped in her mind’s eye.
    Alara had wondered if her dreams of him were real, or just another phantom from a life that had never existed, but then, the night before their rescue mission, Commander Caldin had suggested she go say goodbye to her father, Dr. Kurlin Vastra—a man who she couldn’t remember at all—and that was when she’d seen him , Ethan Ortane, the man from her dreams brought to life. The same man who said he loved her in those dreams was now sitting in prison, scheduled for a mind probe. Even if the probe didn’t kill him, his crimes would be more than enough to sentence him to death. The only man she could remember having loved was about to be put to death. As if all of that weren’t already enough, the last thing Ethan had said to her before she’d left the Defiant had been: My heart still belongs to my wife.
    He was married . Somehow she’d remembered him and how she felt about him, but she hadn’t remembered that he was in love with and married to someone else. How could she have been so stupid in her previous life? A painful lump rose in her throat, and she shook her head.
    “Hoi,” Delayn said, interrupting the silence on the bridge. “We have something to celebrate.” The old engineer waited for everyone’s attention, and then he went on, “The Rescue has been rescued!”
    “Ha ha,” Gina laughed drily. “You’ve spent too much time with bots, Delayn. You’re starting to sound like one.”
    “At least I have friends,” Delayn replied.
    Gina just snorted and shook her head.
    The Rescue has been rescued. . . . Alara thought, and she wondered if that really mattered to her anymore.
    What did she have to go back to?
    *  *  *

    Commander Caldin returned to her quarters even more furious than when she had left. Ethan had given her precious few answers, despite the beating he’d taken. If he really was an ex-con, exiled to Dark Space before the war, then he was probably used to taking that kind of punishment.
    She would have tried her luck with his son or even the old doctor, but as much as she hated to admit it, the boy was right—it would be better to wait for the mind probe before she beat them all senseless.
    Caldin walked up to her bed and gazed down on it longingly. She was tired, but too agitated and restless to sleep. She needed to unwind, to defuse her stress. Her thoughts turned to Corpsman Terl. She’d left him on the brig to keep an eye on the prisoners for a while. Now she regretted that decision, wishing she’d instead asked him to come spend the night with her.
    As she gazed down on the bed, the comm piece in her ear began trilling and a computerized voice said, “Incoming call from the brig.”
    Caldin touched her ear to receive the call.