The Pain Beneath

The Pain Beneath is the second novel in the Crusader Chronicles trilogy. The first official eBook release reaches back to 2003, but the book would not be commercially available to the eBook market until 2011 when it was distributed through the Amazon Kindle Store and the Nook Bookstore.

Title and Publication
The Pain Beneath was started as a High School "Senior Project" that included forming an online website for publishing a newly established "eBook". The original title was expected to be "The Roles We Play" but when it was decided to publish Once and Again the title was shortly changed to "Again and Again. Just before final submission to the High School judges the novel's summary mentioned the pain that James Davis was going through, a pain hidden beneath his heroic mask. The title was officially changed to The Pain Beneath on December 31st, 2003.

Plot Summary
The prologue of the book returns to Benjamin Saranac on the planet Bantari. As though reliving a terrible nightmare, Benjamin is in the middle of teaching when the academy comes under the attack of Kujaen forces. After the planet is attacked by a Kujaen forces, Benjamin rushes to get more information. Thankfully, it isn't the full scale invasion that he almost expected, but instead is a small group of Kujaen fighters that appear to be chasing another damaged ship. The damaged ship transmits a stream of data to the Bantari tower and then flees orbit taking several of the Kujaen ships with them. With a damaged data tower Ben is forced to rush to an abandoned Kujaen facility to use their tower for retrasmission to Hyla. As he listens to it he recognizes it's Morse Code from Earth. He visits Dr. Ghast's library and pulled down human books until he finds the section he needs. He quickly deciphers the code and then realizes it says "Davis" and lists a set of Kujaen coordinates. He reports this data to a Hylan General and the General tells him that Tiffany Saranac's ship is en route to Bantari.

The story cuts to James Davis, still a prisoner of the Kujaen Empire and just starting his third year of captivity. The Kujaens have been ordered not to touch him so he remains well fed and clothes in his cell where he is then forced to watch as other Alliance prisoners are worked to death. Just as Davis is trying to execute an escape plan, the prison transport is attacked. James tries to escape the prison during the attack but is caught by the attackers and taken off the transport. He is introduced to the "Kujaen Bruiser", also known by his real name of Vellon Kalcash, a name that the Bruiser had given up years earlier.

Aboard the Invincible Emperor Kujah is watching the story of the prison attack and the media's response to the Kujaen warship suddenly showing up in orbit over their home world of Madronis. He meets with his son, Gion Kasur, and it is revealed that the two do not get along. Kujah blames Kasur for James' escape claiming it was Kasur that let Davis' location leak to the Alliance. Kasur denies it and then lists his location during the time the informaiton was flown out of the Kujaen borders. Kujah, realizing his son isn't to blame, turns his attention to the rumors of Sionis Sepher still being alive. Kasur has his fill of rumors and legend and departs. Kujah then discusses how the body of Keaira has been secured on the Invincible and how it must be kept hidden from both Sepher and Davis. The remaining guard is promoted to hunt Davis and when he says he will kill the human Kujah rejects the idea, pointing out that Earth is the key to their promised land. Keaira must remain locked up and Davis must be reclaimed alive.

James soon discovers that he was freed by a small Alliance team that was sent to free him, but now only Tiffany Saranac remains alive from that team. She has created a kind of team that the Kujaen Bruiser leads and has been helping to strike at Kujaen targets in exchange for Davis' freedom. Tiffany reveals that Kujah has obtained SMP technology, using what he stole with Davis' help years ago and the debris of the War Bandit that was destroyed when it had faced off with the Invincible. Tiffany says that Bruiser believes he's going to use it to go to the Kujaen Promised Land, a place that, from what little she knows, sounds a lot like Earth. James decides the only real option left is to take Kujah down once and for all.

Along the way James meets Sara and helps Bruiser hit a few military targets. When Kujah has finally had enough of their rebellious activity he turns the Invincible on one of Madronis' moons and destroys it as an example of his power. What Kujah didn't expect, is a sudden suprise attack from Alliance forces that had been secretly planned to extract Davis from the enemy clutches. Using the window and confusion, James and his group slip aboard the Invincible and begin a hunt for SMP technology. Not realizing they would make it this far James adjusts their plan to allow for them to escape but they're soon overpowered by Kujaen forces. They're taken prisoner and set to be executed, but salvation comes in an unexpected form when the lights begin to flicker and the ship loses power, causing the magnetic locks to lose their hold. James discovers that Keaira has been set loose and immediately announces his intent to stop her. The group agrees to go with him and they search the Invincible until they find her blood stained path leading to the top Command Deck. They follow it up to find Kujah dead, a sword shoved through his belly and pinned to his plush chair.

Realizing that they're sitting ducks for the waves of Kujaen forces arriving in the system the team flees to the planet of Caln where the team discusses their next move. Tiffany wants to take James home to the Alliance but the human can't stop with Keaira set loose. He sides with Bruiser and agrees she must be stopped. James offers to send Tiffany home and she declines telling him she left his side once and can't risk it again.

Together the team goes to Janiro and when Keaira begins killing people there they give chase. The monster sneaks aboard a Kujaen megaship designed for deep space travel and once it leaves the planet and enters its high speed trip there is no way to escape. The team starts a sweep of the ship and that is when they discover that not only is Keaira alive, but so is Sionis Sepher. Surprisingly, Sionis demands that Keaira leave the team alone and she complies.

The group continues to follow Keaira but loses her trail after stopping at Watera. The creature Yendis recommends his ancient heritage may have knowledge on Keaira so the team goes to his homeworld to investigate. After they gain some insightful knowledge they investigate an ancient Zetrani city but their investigation is cut short when two Kujaen cruisers show up in orbit. They flee but are shot down over planet Xebul. There they meet Cidonis Theon, who survived the War Bandit's destruction and has been prisoner to the Kujaens since. He listens to the plight of James' team and see a young Sionis Sepher in the human so he reveals his small personally built ship.

Back in space, the team decides to investigate another Zetrani facility but Sara states that the team will need a key. They are forced to go to a secret Kujaen military outpost to retrieve it. It seems impossible but thanks to their newest member, Kujaen Seda Reeves, the team is able to infiltrate and collect the key. They fly to the new Zetrani target and investigate the facility when Keaira and Sionis show up too. They incapacitate the team and then Sionis reveals that Sara is part Zetrani and her blood will activate the ancient Zetrani weapon. James tries to stop them but Keaira tries to make James kill Sara to spare her the pain of torture. James can't bring himself to do it and just as Keaira begins to hurt Sara, Sionis fires a bullet and Sara dies instantly. Keaira is enraged but Sionis tells her to take what she came for. They get the device and then again at Sionis' command, Keaira leaves the team alone.

The Kujaens put the pieces together and quickly give chase behind James and his team. They're all racing to the Zetrani Nebula where an ancient weapon is about to fall into Keaira's hands. She beats them to the punch and activates the weapon causing everyone to scatter. Most of James' team is taken captive by Kasur and James barely escapes with his life aboard Cid's ship. He wakes in a hospital where he learns that Cid led a grand escape from Kasur's custody aboard a fancy ship called the Atlas that he helped Kujah design. They had to return to the Nebula to find James but the weapon was long gone.

James reveals that the Zetrani were immune to Keaira's virus, which is why she wanted to purge them first. He sends vials of the blood to the Alliance with a hope that a cure can be found. Meanwhile, the dreadnaught attacks Madronis and Kasur uses the Invincible to fire several rounds at the ship. The dreadnaught is damaged and retreats back into deep space but the Invincible's cannon backfires on the last shot and most of the crew is killed in the blast. Taking one last effort, the team makes their way to the Zetrani database to find a way to stop the dreadnaught. They are not disappointed, learning that the black teara device that powers the dreadnaught can be destroyed by using the antimatter equivalent of white teara against it. They scramble to collect the only known white teara that is on file with the Zetrani records.

After getting what they need, the dreadnaught makes a final effort to destroy Madronis and without the Invincible there to beat it back it appears that Keaira will destroy the Kujaens after all. James Davis and his team use the Atlas and the white teara to overtake the dreadnaught. James goes aboard to distract Keaira while Cid uses the Atlas to fire the White teara. Armed with what he thinks could be a cure derived from Sara's blood, James targets Sionis and uses one vial on him before hitting Keaira with the next. She is significantly weakened as the cure fights with her body but she attempts to kill Sionis anyway. James cuts off her head and then pulls Sionis and together they move to escape.

The Atlas flies in front of the dreadnaught and fires the white teara. The negative charge of the black teara pulls the two halves together and when they connect they detonate in a massive explosion that rips the dreadnaught apart from the inside out. The blast is so powerful that there are barely any chunks big enough to pass through Madronis' atmosphere. The Atlas is going too fast to escape their fall and they try to slow down as much as they can before the vessel crashes into the ground.

A Kujaen farmer steps out of his home to see the blinding white light in the sky that appears like a second sun and then glances out across his pasture at the deep fissure that leads up to the massive hull of the Atlas.

Characters
See Also: List of Andromisa Characters