Through the Gate Read online

  Through the Gate: More Tales from the Salvage Title Universe

  Book Three of The Coalition

  Edited by

  Chris Kennedy & Kevin Steverson

  Through the Gate: More Tales from the Salvage Title Universe

  Edited by Chris Kennedy & Kevin Steverson

  Published by Theogony Books

  Virginia Beach, VA, USA

  www.chriskennedypublishing.com

  This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States’ copyright law.

  The stories in this collection are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and are used in a fictitious manner. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, and/or events is purely coincidental.

  Cover Design: Dawn Grimes

  Copyright © 2020 by Chris Kennedy & Kevin Steverson

  All rights reserved.

  The stories contained herein have never been previously published and are individually copyrighted as follows:

  A SOUL HIT by Jake Bible © 2020 by Jake Bible

  AKALLA RECKONING by Ian J. Malone © 2020 by Ian J. Malone

  RECRUIT, CREWMAN, CAPTAIN, SPY by Brisco Woods © 2020 by Brisco Woods

  CHEATING THE ODDS by Robert E. Hampson © 2020 by Robert E. Hampson

  GLIMMER IN SHADOW by David Alan Jones © 2020 by David Alan Jones

  A SMALL PROBLEM by Nick Steverson © 2020 by Nick Steverson

  TAHN KREE PROVOCATEUR by Quincy J. Allen © 2020 by Quincy J. Allen

  A SWORD OF DAMOCLES by Brad R. Torgersen © 2020 by Brad R. Torgersen

  TROJAN HORSE by Christopher G. Nuttall © 2020 by Christopher G. Nuttall

  A HAIRY SITUATION by Jon R. Osborne © 2020 by Jon R. Osborne

  TIPPING THE SCALES by Alex Rath © 2020 by Alex Rath

  SIDEKICKS by Christopher Woods & William Joseph Roberts © 2020 by Christopher Woods & William Joseph Roberts

  BEYOND CAUTION by Marisa Wolf © 2020 by Marisa Wolf

  A FAVOR by Kevin Steverson © 2020 by Kevin Steverson

  * * * * *

  Get the free Four Horsemen prelude story “Shattered Crucible”

  and discover other Theogony Books titles at:

  http://chriskennedypublishing.com/

  * * * * *

  This book is dedicated to the many readers who asked for more and the authors who contributed. This is the seventh book in Salvage Universe and at the time of this release, another is scheduled for the following month. Two more are on the publisher’s desk… well, in his computer. Anyway, you know what I mean. I am sure there are many more to come after those, both from me and others. The stories in this book were written by a double handful of very talented authors. I would encourage you to look at their works. You will not be disappointed.

  – Kevin Steverson

  * * * * *

  Foreword by Kevin Ikenberry

  Every once in a while, a book comes along that defies the odds. Some of those books end up spawning series, and, while a few are successful, most of them cannot live up to the standard created by that first novel. When Chris Kennedy Publishing picked up the Salvage Title Universe, I’ll be the first to admit that I glanced at it, welcomed Kevin Steverson to our group of authors, and then went right on with my business. That was, however, until I read the first novel. Well, devoured is a better word for it. I haven’t zipped through multiple books in a series in years until the Salvage Universe came along. Why?

  It’s simple. The Salvage series surprised me.

  There’s little doubt it’s written in the style of the “ripping yarn,” but there were several things which snagged my attention early on and never let go. The first hint I was in for something special was Kevin’s “voice.” As a retired Army NCO, Kevin writes with an authenticity in his characters which speaks to his experience. He’s seen and done things a sizable percentage of the population haven’t, and it shows. I recognized about halfway through “Salvage Title” that he and I would make great co-authors, and I think our first novel, “Redacted Affairs,” showcased his voice and his attention to detail.

  From his voice came Harmon Tomeral, and what a solid character he is. We immediately latch on to Harmon as the prospective hero of the story, and, as he assembles his cast of characters, we’re easily pulled into the unique universe Kevin has created. As the storyline expands and Harmon moves toward becoming a unifying force in the galaxy, the stakes keep growing, and Kevin firmly sets the hook. We meet more species, new and brilliantly conceived worlds, and a more challenging storyline throughout the subsequent novels. It’s a rare feat and my surprise at the breadth and depth of the Salvage Universe pulled me in and dragged a story of my own into existence in the first anthology, “Salvage Conquest.”

  I could not have been happier when I learned Kevin would continue the universe and even open it up to other authors to expand on its uniqueness. Why? The world needs more ripping yarns, especially now. We need characters (and their friends) who challenge the norm with bravery and humor. We need characters who stand for what’s right and aren’t afraid to fight for that. In short, we need the Salvage Universe. There are a million more stories to tell in Kevin Steverson’s opus, and I am looking forward to every single one of them. I can’t wait to read these new additions.

  I hope you feel the same way.

  Kevin Ikenberry

  Colorado Springs, CO

  Contents

  Forward by Kevin Ikenberry

  A Soul Hit by Jake Bible

  Akalla Reckoning by Ian J. Malone

  Recruit, Crewman, Captain, Spy by Brisco Woods

  Cheating the Odds by Robert E. Hampson

  Glimmer in Shadow by David Alan Jones

  A Small Problem by Nick Steverson

  Tahn Kree Provocateur by Quincy J. Allen

  A Sword of Damocles by Brad R. Torgersen

  Trojan Horse by Christopher G. Nuttall

  A Hairy Situation by Jon R. Osborne

  Tipping the Scales by Alex Rath

  Sidekicks by Christopher Woods & William Joseph Roberts

  Beyond Caution by Marisa Wolf

  A Favor by Kevin Steverson

  About Chris Kennedy

  About Kevin Steverson

  Excerpt from Book One of the Revelations Cycle

  Excerpt from Book One of The Fallen World

  Excerpt from Devil Calls the Tune

  Excerpt from Book One of the Salvage Title Trilogy

  * * * * *

  A Soul Hit by Jake Bible

  The kid shouldn’t have been in the cage. He was what? Seventeen? If that.

  Cullen stood over the teen’s limp form. The crowd surrounding the cage was going wild at the brutal uppercut Cullen had delivered to the kid’s pitifully exposed chin. Blood dripped from a gash in his right index finger knuckle and fell onto the already swollen and bloody brow of the fallen teen.

  The MC grabbed Cullen’s right hand and lifted it high. The crowd’s wild cheers turned into a wail of congratulatory bloodlust. The MC shouted some words, his voice echoing around the freighter’s sub-hangar, but Cullen didn’t hear a thing. All he heard was a voice in the back of his head telling him that he’d made a mistake; he’d let his dream get the better of him.

  Cullen’s hand fell to his side, and the MC patted him on the shoulder, shouting more words Cullen didn’t hear. It took a couple of seconds to tear his eyes away from the kid’s fallen body before he looked the MC in the eyes.

  “I said to get your ass o
ut of the cage and into the locker room!” the MC shouted over the chaos and cacophony of the violence-hungry crowd. “Now, bub! We gotta keep this show moving!”

  Cullen nodded, but didn’t budge. He slowly swiveled his head and stared out at the frenzied crowd. Bunch of losers and sickos, that’s what they were. The voice in the back of Cullen’s head agreed, but lumped Cullen in with them. Cullen couldn’t argue with the conviction. Things had gotten out of hand.

  Way out of hand…

  * * *

  “Bernice! This call is costing me a fortune!” Cullen snapped as he stared at his sister’s grainy image on the vid screen. “It’s like two weeks’ pay! Can I please talk to my niece?”

  Bernice smirked and sighed at the same time, a skill that had annoyed Cullen since they were children.

  “Twilla is asleep, Cull,” Bernice said, the smirk widening. “If you’d called at the time I told you to, you could’ve talked to her.”

  “Wake her ass up,” Cullen growled. “Two weeks’ pay, Bernice.”

  “Children have routines, Cull. You’d know that if you hadn’t left…” Bernice trailed off. The smirk fell away quickly. She winced, tried to smile, failed, then nodded as if that made it all better. “Sorry. It wasn’t your fault.”

  “Damn right, it wasn’t my fault.” Cullen rubbed his face. He was exhausted from working a double shift in the cargo bay; the last thing he wanted to do was think about his ex-wife and the two boys he hadn’t seen in half a decade. “She left me, Bernice. Walked out with that trader.”

  “I know, I know, Cull. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  Cullen ignored the apology.

  “I’m working my ass off night and day to pay the child support, ya know. Three systems away, and that bitch is still fingering me for credit. You’d think her trader would be able to provide for her. I guess that didn’t work out.”

  “He was around, Cull,” Bernice said. “You weren’t. Be honest with yourself.”

  “I was out providing!” Cullen shouted, then lifted both hands instantly and patted the air between himself and the vid screen. “Don’t hang up. Please.”

  “Don’t yell at me,” Bernice said, sounding defeated. She sighed. “Let me see if Twilla will wake up from her nap. GRASH!”

  “WHAT?” a voice called from off screen.

  “Come talk to Cullen while I wake Twilla up!” Bernice yelled.

  “WHATEVER!”

  Bernice disappeared, and a second later, a man with a week’s worth of stubble appeared.

  “Hey, bro-in-law,” Grash said after taking a swig from a canister of beer. He belched and squinted into the vid screen. “Man, you look like crap boiled twice. What’s up with that?”

  “Double shifts,” Cullen replied. “Good to see you, Grash.”

  “Bull,” Grash said and belched. “You can’t stand me.”

  “True,” Cullen said and smiled. He couldn’t stand his brother-in-law, but Grash’s nonchalant attitude about it somehow made their relationship work.

  “You know what?” Grash asked.

  “No, Grash, what?”

  “You should come work for me.”

  Cullen blinked, sure it was a joke. Grash only grinned.

  “You’re serious.”

  “As a fart in an airlock, bro,” Grash replied, letting another belch issue forth.

  Cullen was so glad he was going broke on the vid call so he could hear Grash expel gas.

  “You want me to come work for you?” Cullen asked. “Doing what?”

  “Hauling,” Grash said. “This system is young, bro. We could use another hauler.”

  “Another…? You mean I’d have to have my own ship?” Cullen asked.

  “Well, yeah. Duh.” Grash laughed. “I don’t need someone to ride with me.”

  “Where in the hell will I get a ship, Grash?” Cullen asked.

  Grash shrugged, belched a third time, then tossed the empty canister of beer over his shoulder.

  “People sell ships all the time, bro. Buy one of them.”

  “I mean how will I pay for it?” Cullen said, his patience for his brother-in-law at an end. “I’m already killing myself working doubles.”

  “Figure it out. If ya do, let me know. I’ll make a place for you here, bro.”

  “UNCY CULL-CULL!”

  A beautiful toddler bounced into view, thankfully blocking Grash’s half-drunk face.

  “Hey there, Twi-Twi!” Cullen said at the sight of his niece. “How’s the smartest, most beautiful girl in the entire galaxy?”

  “Think about it, bro!” Grash called as Bernice shoved him out of the way. “I’m serious.”

  Cullen thought about it.

  * * *

  “You about tore that chick’s head right off, pal.”

  Cullen ignored the man seated next to him in the locker room. The guy stank, and it was all Cullen could do to keep from throwing up at the smell. He sure as hell wasn’t gonna encourage conversation.

  “Three left jabs that kept her attention, then that right hook from out of nowhere, pal. Where’d you learn to fight?”

  Cullen sighed. The stanky SOB didn’t need encouragement; he was gonna keep the conversation going on his own.

  “You ex-military? You have that look. All tough as nails and brooding. Me? Never served. Bum knee.”

  The stanky SOB pointed at his left knee and shook his head, then pointed at his right knee and shook his head again, then pointed back at his left knee.

  “Unfit for service, they said. Unable to perform basic physical tasks, they said.”

  The stanky SOB lifted his fists to show Cullen his gnarled and scarred knuckles.

  “Joke’s on them, right, pal? Beating the crap out of idiots for credit is a little better than performing basic physical tasks, right, pal?”

  Cullen didn’t reply.

  “Hey! I’m talking to you! I said—”

  Cullen stood up and walked to the other side of the locker room.

  “Oh, you too good for me, pal? You too good, that it?”

  There were six other fighters in the small locker room. Half looked toward Cullen; the other half pretended like no one else existed. Cullen envied the latter half.

  The stanky SOB stood up, wobbled a bit, then walked over to Cullen. If the guy had asked, Cullen could have told him which knee was the bum knee.

  “You too good?” the stanky SOB asked, his voice half jest, half snarl. He looked Cullen up and down and grinned. It was a toothless grin. “You ain’t military. Law. That’s what you were. Shoulda smelled the swine grease on ya.”

  Cullen balled his fists, but kept them down at his sides.

  The stanky SOB gave Cullen’s fists a fast glance and took a step back.

  “You want a piece of me, law boy?”

  “No fighting in the locker room,” a voice said.

  Cullen glanced about the room, but couldn’t tell who said it. All eyes were averted.

  “Maybe we’ll get lucky, and they’ll put us together next,” the stanky SOB said. “I used to tear me some law ass all the time when I was younger.”

  Someone chuckled.

  “Not that way!” The stanky SOB twirled about on his good leg and held out his fists. “Come on! I’ll take you all!”

  “Hey!”

  All eyes moved to the door.

  One of the goons who worked for the guy who organized the fights stood there glaring at the broken and bloody fools who filled the locker room.

  “You two.”

  Meaty fingers pointed at Cullen and the stanky SOB.

  “You’re up. Now.”

  “‘Bout time,” the stanky SOB said and walked toward the door without giving Cullen even a glance.

  The goon raised an eyebrow at Cullen. “You comin’?”

  “Yeah,” Cullen said.

  He’d wanted to tape his knuckles again, but had been distracted by the stanky SOB’s chatter.

  “You comin’ now?” the goon asked, hi
s hand going to the taser on his belt. “Or am I tossin’ you out the airlock with today’s trash?”

  Cullen shoved past the goon and made his way to the sub-hangar.

  * * *

  “…doing great at school. They both made honor roll. Top ten in their classes. Mal has joined the grav ball league. It’s still junior, but his coach says if he works hard at practices, he could make it up to senior level soon. Don’s still drawing and dreaming. No grav ball league for him.”

  The woman was beautiful—or had been before the system’s wear and tear had violently drawn the corners of her mouth down and forced thick furrows into her brow.

  Cullen remembered when those corners had always pointed up, and the furrows had been faint lines he’d traced with his finger late at night after they’d made love. She’d always swatted at him, but he knew she liked the attention.

  That was then…

  The woman took a deep breath and glanced off screen before continuing.

  “I got your last message, Cullen, and I have to be honest. We still need the payments. Tosh’s business is good, but you know the ups and downs of trading. If the boys are going to be able to stay in school, we need the credit. I’m sorry. Working with Grash sounds like a solid plan. I know you’ve needed something solid ever since the force let you go, but now just isn’t the time, Cull. I really am sorry.”

  Cullen watched the vid message. A mix of rage and despair swirled about in his guts. He wanted to simultaneously punch the vid screen and reach out to try to smooth those furrows away. Hate and love all wrapped up with a disappointing bow.

  “Let us get through this school term, okay? Give Tosh a few months to work out some deals he has going, and then we can talk. Okay?”

  The corners of her mouth fought bravely to rise past level, but they failed. The smile never took hold.