Kindle Edition
Amazon
Category:
Science Fiction
ISBN-10: 1503068811
Type: Fiction
Pages: 328
Copyright: December 3, 2014
ISBN-13: 9781503068810
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
Book 6 in the War for Terra series (follows the Adventures of Connor Jakes) picks up with the new Alliance formed front the ashes of the old Confederacy being threatened by forces both internal and external and the crew of the battleship Resolute caught between darness and light.
he war is over and peace is descending across the galaxy. For Lee Pearce and his crew, it is a time to settle down and enjoy the spoils of victory.
An explosion that rocks the fledgling Alliance and a devastating loss, however, rockets the Battleship into a mission to discover who killed one of their own. As the mystery deepens, Lee begins to wonder if the alliance they fought for so heroically is the same Alliance whose loyalty he now holds. Old friends and new enemies emerge as the crew of the race the clock in order to rescue an ally, learn the secrets of a strange alien device and learn the secret of who killed a member of the family.
It's a quest to discover the truth as the War for Terra begins again. An exciting new chapter in the lives of the crew of the Battleship Resolute and the beginning of a new series. The War for Terra begins again
Excerpt
Prologue
Alliance Carrier Baal
During the War
“Why haven’t they called?”
Admiral Ronald Chang turned away from the projection screen to look around his bridge. The crew had been working efficiently despite the tedium and he was beginning to despair. The signal they had been waiting for from Earth to inform them the advance recon force was ready had still not come. Resolute was deep in Ch’Tauk territory, searching for Banu Rao and the errant battleship Victory. The Baal had nothing to do but wait and plan for the action to come.
“Captain,” a voice called from the pit below. “I have a strange reading on the number twelve scanner.”
Captain Lira, who had entered the bridge from the lower command well, stepped to the sensor officer. Chang looked down to the pit, feigning disinterest despite the interruption from boredom it presented. Lira, a tall Vadne who had taken over the command of the ship after Chang accepted his new rank, was a competent officer and a good man. He stood over the console and examined the data scrolling over the screens.
“Report,” Chang ordered his captain. “Are we having relay issues again?”
The Baal had been built in the latter days of the Confederacy and was top-of-the-line before the fall of Terra. Lack of maintenance and disastrous radiation leaks had taken their toll on the massive ship, though, and the sensor network was wearing out. As he surveyed the consoles below, Chang hoped the ship could last for at least one more battle. A scarred and blackened edge on the front of the command bridge reminded him of the damage inflicted on the vessel while under the command of Admiral Hathaway some three years before.
“I don’t think so. I’ve never seen readings like this,” Lira responded. “Have you recalibrated the interstitial phase coupler?”
“Aye,” the sensor officer replied. “It seems fine, but…”
“Pipe this up to my chair and join me,” Chang ordered. “Take number twelve off-line and re-task fourteen. If it gives us the same reading, then we have something.”
The crewman nodded and tapped the keys on the console. Lira straightened and walked up the nearest command ramp. Confederate construction placed the command chair above the logistics well below. Chang had once thought the design beautiful and commanding. That was before having to engage in battle with the ship. Afterward, he saw it as indicative of the arrogance and condescension of the Terran designers. He waved a hand and brought up the sensor data from the console below.
A blossom of blue-orange light shimmered against the backdrop of space, like a thin sheet of gauze being stretched across space, lit from some unseen candle. When he had been younger, Ronald had believed M-space the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. As he grew older and more cynical, beauty was an illusion he no longer believed in. The image on his projection, however, was a match back to his imagination. Flashes of brilliant green and yellow floated across the surface of the anomaly, adding a frightening brilliance to the image.
“That is the damnedest thing I have ever seen,” Chang said as Lira approached. “If this is a sensor malfunctioning, then I should sell it to the galaxy as entertainment.”
“It does have a pleasing aspect, Admiral. Have you looked at the electromagnetic spike? I can’t tell if what we are seeing is real or not.”
“Captain?”
The voice of the sensor officer drifted up from below. Chang and Lira both went to the edge to see the man. He was pointing to his console again and the projection on the screen. Another view had opened of the gauzy film in space. Both men looked to each other in bewilderment.
“We’ve got it up here, Lieutenant. Thank you,” Lira called down.
“No, sir,” the man replied. This is real-time feed from fourteen. Whatever it is, it’s real enough and not a glitch.”
“Put it on the big screen,” Chang ordered.
The image spread wide across the holographic projection screen. Chang could make out the stars behind the film, but they shimmered as if through an atmosphere. He strained to find an edge to the thing. It was roughly circular, with projections sticking out and changing size. The whole thing reminded him of something, but he couldn’t quite make it out.
“Sir,” the lieutenant cried. “We’ve got M-space intrusion!”
“Intrusion?” Lira asked. “Incoming or outgoing?”
“Neither … I think. It’s not an M-space vortex. It’s … I don’t know, but the object is acting like an M-space portal.”
“When you say intrusion, what do you mean?” Chang asked.
“Something is pushing into our universe,” the man replied. “It’s like a … a hernia … into our space. I guess that’s the only way I know to describe it.”
“Is something breaking through?”
The image on the screen shimmered sharply and Chang could make out the edges more closely. It resembled an M-space vortex, but the colors were wrong. The energy was flaring brighter now and he could make out a warping of the stars as if they were being pushed aside . He saw a bright blue dot in the center, which erupted into a brilliant star for a moment and then closed.
“What was that?” Lira asked.
“Something came through,” Lellda replied, tapping keys on her communications console. “It’s sending a signal, but I can’t make it out. I think the frequency is randomizing. It might be radiation spillage from the translation.”
The porcine communications officer was staring intently into her screen, and Chang stepped over. He could hear the screeching signal through the sound dampeners. The sound bled out and quieted suddenly. Lellda looked up to see the admiral’s questioning gaze.
“I don’t know,” she said with an apology. “Whatever it was, I have it on my comm grid. We could send someone out to retrieve it.”
“Not while whatever that thing is still shimmers,” Lira replied, still looking at the big screen. “I don’t think it’s safe to—”
“It’s gone!” the lieutenant shouted. “The whole thing, sirs. It’s gone. One second it was there and the next it was gone.”
The stars were no longer shimmering on the screen. The brilliant flashes of energy and light had vanished. For a long moment, Ronald Chang felt a loss. In the few moments he had seen the effect, it had seemed to have lasted forever, and now it was gone. The sight of the naked stars filled him with a sadness he had not thought real.
“Run a full scan with all relays,” Lira ordered. “I want to know if that thing is coming back.”
“Ensign, do you still have a lock on whatever came through?” Chang asked the Tonal officer.
“Aye,” Lellda replied. “It’s not really moving out there.”
“Captain,” Chang said, turning back to the Vadne commander. “When you are satisfied with the sensor sweeps, send a shuttle out to retrieve that thing. I want it analyzed and studied. If it caused that distortion, I want to know where the portal led to … or from.”
“Aye,” Lira said, scanning the readouts on the command chair. “It may take a little time.”
“We’ve got time, Captain,” Chang replied. “I’ll be in my office when you get it here.”
“You will be studying the data?” Lira asked, with a twitch of his whiskers.
“No,” Chang replied, standing perfectly still. “I think I’ll be busy with something else.”
Standing in front of Chang was one of the small creatures called Engineers. A finger of fear ran along Chang’s spine when he looked into the pale eyes. The creatures had seemed comical when he had first met them, and had been strange companions as they fought the war, but he had never seen what he saw this time. Fear.
“Admiral Chang,” the Engineer said in the admiral’s head. “We need to talk.”
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