Mace said, “He could have been a great leader. An inspirer for us all.”
Johnny shook his head. “He chose his own path. Wasn’t cut out to be a hero.”
“Still though,” Mace replied. “You can’t help but wonder.”
As they continued up the ramp, Johnny pulled him to a stop.“Wait… listen… you hear that?”
Mace tilted his head. “Sounds like peace, freedom, and tranquility. I have to say I like it.”
Johnny chuckled. “Sounds like wedding bells to me. You’ve got a new war coming, one that involves giving up the peace, freedom and tranquility.”
Mace smiled as he looked over at a grinning Jane and Jenny. “It seems to have worked out for you two. If you’ve survived it for so long, I’m more than willing to give it a try.”
Johnny shook his head. “All I can say is that… it’s more than worth it. Every day I’m thankful for having her by my side. My advice… surrender now and submit. You won’t be sorry.”
The screams of kids and the barking of two dogs greeted the group as they entered the ship. Zax and Fina raced to greet Jane and Johnny. They were excited about their first real trip to a free Earth. Derwood and Molly, the first dogs to leave orbit, were ready to come home.
In the days that followed, Jasper Collins returned to Gellos to begin preparations for leading up his new kingdom. Jeff Moskowitz, Gnaga Klept, and Rogelar 4147 returned to Earth with the mission of bringing Earth’s technology and manufacturing up to what was available. Liam Hobbs, Humphrey Mallot, and Hans Mueller stayed where they were to assist with the rebuilding of their homelands. Bontu Montak and the other Mawga returned to Rhombia with Fatso Geerok’s remains. He would be given a hero’s burial, with a large stone monument and historical museum, chronicling his life. His name would live forever in Mawga history.
Under Jasper’s rule, Gellos would become the capital world of this sector of the galaxy. Hundreds of new worlds were open to colonization and exploit. One military force, controlled by the Targarians and the king, would rule all that was known. The Kohamians submitted to the rule of the kingdom, as did the remaining Karthians and the Hoorka. The prior Dedrus war with the Rigori was brought to an end.
Mace sat on a blanket in the tall grass of a field near Organ Cave. “Did you enjoy the chicken, Miz Hardy?”
Jenny smiled. “Was kind of dry. You need to put more sauce on and not overcook it so much.”
Mace leaned in for a kiss, receiving the fat end of a drumstick instead.
Pulling it out of his mouth, he said, “Is that the kind of respect I deserve after fighting beside you all these months to save the world?”
Jenny replied, “You’ll get respect when you learn to not butcher the chicken. I’m the boss now and you’ll do as I say or spend time in the stockade.”
Mace smiled. “Johnny warned me about this marriage thing. Said I would be giving up my peace, freedom, and tranquility.”
Mace leaned in for his kiss. “He couldn’t be more wrong.”
Jenny rolled away with a smirk. “Keep dreaming, chicken killer.”
His continued advances were soon accepted.
~~~~~
What’s Next!
*
This Human is asking for your help!
If you enjoyed this book, please leave a review on the site where it was purchased. And by all means, please tell your friends! Any help with spreading the word is highly appreciated!
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The following preview is of the first book in the ARMS series and is provided for your reading pleasure. It is unrelated to HADRON and set in the future a hundred generations after man has fled from a failing Earth. There are two colony planets that have become hated enemies. A universal form of English is spoken by both. Being able to communicate has not worked to resolve their issues. Years of warring has lead to a short truce and a few years of peace — a peace that is dependent on both sides being equally armed. I hope you enjoy!
Stephen
(Flip the page!)
ARMS
(Vol. 1)
War For Eden
Chapter 1.1
*
“I take precautions, because you can’t earn a living if you’re dead,” he said as he stood blocking the open airlock.
Bax huffed. “You have the credits or not?”
Bryce Porter, the buyer of the weapons, wore a clean pressed tunic. The docking hatch and the surrounding cabin of his ship, the Blazer, a small cargo shuttle, were bright and clean. He stood in a defiant pose, his feet positioned shoulder-width apart, his arms crossed, his chin held high in the air.
“Where are the goods?”
Baxter Rumford’s fists dug into her hips as she took an aggressive stance. Her blaster pistol and short deck-sword hung on the belt-clips to her sides, the sword also strapped to her thigh. Her left eye twitched.
Bryce maintained his blocking position.
The tall, thin redhead, sporting the face and body of a model, far from a typical ship’s captain, spat on the deck. “Show… me… the… credits.”
Bryce returned an angry glare as he raised his voice. “What the… you just spit? This is my ship! My home!”
Bax scoffed. “Don’t care. Now show me the credits so we can get this disaster of a deal over with. I have better things to do than argue with some obsessively hygienic moron.”
Bryce took a step back and opened a cabinet. A cleaning cloth was retrieved. He knelt and began the process of wiping up the affront to his property. “You’re an abomination to all things civil, Miss Rumford. Bring the merchandise over and I’ll transfer your precious credits to your account. But until that freight is in my hold you aren’t seeing anything. I don’t trust bimbos.”
“Bimbo?” Bax again spat. She glared at the kneeling Bryce Porter, her face flushed red with anger. With her right hand, she reached down to grasp the handle of the blade strapped to her thigh. “You’re lucky I don’t pull this pig sticker and gut you right here and now.”
Bryce shook his head as he wiped. “Again with the barbaric behavior. The recorders on this ship say you aren’t going to gut anyone.”
Bax looked over her shoulder as she yelled down the docking tube. “Slug! Drag those containers over here!”
Bryce huffed as he continued to polish his floor, obsessed with its cleanliness.
As Bax stared down, the corner of the cloth was pinned to the floor with the glossy, red heel of her high-legged boot. “Look Porter— I don’t like you. This will be our last deal. You ever wanna buy from me again— you need to show respect.”
Jerking the cloth from her hold, Bryce Porter stood and walked to the cabinet with a scowl. The cloth was neatly folded and dropped into a dirty-clothes bin. “Fine by me. There are plenty of other suppliers out here selling your numbers.”
Tawnish Freely, a former Biomarine and Baxter Rumford’s new hire, dragged three containers of weapons across the docking tube, returning for a fourth marked “Plasma Charges”.
A proximity alarm sounded on the trader’s ship. “Alert. Alert. Vessel approaching.”
Bryce glanced back at his console display before turning again to face Bax. “What is this? You brought others? Get me those charges!”
“What the… that’s a New Earth ship, not mine!” Bax grabbed his forearm, reaching for the account store on his wrist. “Give me my credits!”
Bryce jerked away. “You brought Earthers? Give me my merchandise!”
The struggle momentarily stopped as a voice came over the general comm. “This is the New Earth Destroyer Hemlock. Power down your drives and prepare to be boarded.”
Tawn dropped the container of charges in the buyer’s hold. “Two more boxes of residuals. What do I do?”
Bax again reached for the account br
acelet on Bryce’s wrist. “Give me my payment!”
Bryce covered it with his other hand. “I want those boxes!”
Bax spun, grabbing her assistant by the shoulder. She shoved her toward the docking tube before breaking into a run. As they entered her ship, she slapped the airlock button to close the hatch. A sharp cut to the right and a further sprint had the nervous dealer at the pilot’s console.
The docking tube retracted. The Fargo began to speed away. Bryce Porter turned his ship in the opposite direction. The New Earth destroyer continued to close.
An angry Bryce came over a comm. “You will pay for this Rumford. No trader on the station will do business with you once this gets out.”
As the Blazer accelerated, four pulses from a plasma cannon saw to the end of the Geldon trader, Bryce Porter. His ship— half disintegrated. The remainder shattered into a thousand pieces. Tawn took the seat beside her boss.
Bax slowly shook her head. “Can’t outrun those.”
“What do we do?”
Baxter Rumford brought her ship to a stop. “We do whatever they want.”
Seconds later, the Hemlock pulled alongside. A docking tube extended with a boarding party of New Earth Marines moving onto the Fargo. The sale of illegal arms was over.
***
Seven weeks later
Bax spat on the deck.
Tawn Freely frowned. “You know, some wouldn’t consider that a very ladylike act.”
Bax huffed. “They teach you that in warfare charm school?”
Tawn smirked and shook her head. “Nope. Just saying. You get drunk and talk about meeting a good man and then you act like an orangutan— scratching your ass and smelling your finger. Not very attractive.”
Bax flipped her head from side to side. Her relatively short, bright red hair whirled out to the sides as if from a televised shampoo commercial. “If my butt itches, I scratch it, OK? Why should a slug care?”
Tawn sighed. “I care because I have to see it. Look, you’ve got the body and the face to make a play on just about any guy on the station. Why do you keep picking those seedy losers at the bar? You know, a guy with credits isn’t everything.”
Bax huffed. “Says the crewman who can’t even breed. And she can’t pay her bills, so she spends her time off-world, helping her captain sell illegal arms to scum eking out a living in the outer colonies. Taking love advice from a slug is about the last thing I’ll be doing.”
Tawn sighed. “Can’t argue with any of that. Only job I could get after the war. And I’m thankful— at least I will be if I ever get paid. And you should be glad to have me. Who else has fired and can handle half the weapons you’re pushing out here?”
Bax tilted her head and scoffed at her first mate. “Wasn’t me who called an end to the war with the New Earthers. What a dumb name— New Earth. What moron came up with that?”
“Like ours is much better?” Tawn said as she snorted a laugh. “Domicile. Why not just call it House?”
Bax checked the nav display for approaching ships. “You have that manifest ready?”
Tawn nodded as she looked over the info on her console. “Fifteen repeating plasma rifles. You do know those are highly illegal, right? We get caught and it’s execution time. Not like the standard plasma unit, which is illegal enough.”
“And the twenty-six zappers?” Bax asked.
Tawn shook her head. “I wish you wouldn’t call ‘em that. It’s not good for business. Anyone who knows weapons calls them by their name, Fox-40s, not the sound they make when fired.”
Bax scowled. “Fox-40. Another dumb name. Who came up with that? Some zookeeper?”
Tawn took a deep breath. “No. The F designation is for firearm. The 40 is the unit number. It’s the standard issue sidearm for—”
Bax raised her hand. “Yada, yada, for the Domicile Defense Force and you Biomarines. I know the story. You’ve told me at least twenty times now.”
“Yet you still call them zappers.” Tawn sniped.
“They are what they are.”
The short, tank-like first mate turned to face her console display. “Here we go. We have an inbound ship on the sensor array. Ten minutes and we’ll be docked.”
Bax smiled. “Good. Now— read off the rest of that manifest to me…”
***
Tawn edged the Fargo in close, pressing the console button that allowed the auto-docking computer to take charge. “We’ll connect with the Gulward in thirty seconds.”
“I’ve got a good feeling about this one.” Bax leaned back in her seat with a smile.
Tawn scowled at the rickety ship on her display. “Why is every other vessel we dock with such a turd?”
“If you haven’t guessed it already, we’re mostly dealing with maggots in this business. Bryce Porter, even though an idiot, was an anomaly.”
Tawn stood and walked toward the cargo hold hatch. “Cletus Dodger. That name sound legit to you? I’ll bet he hasn’t had a bath in a month.”
Bax followed and reached for the airlock door button. “Don’t care what his name is or what he looks or smells like so long as he has the credits. You know this buy lets me pay you for last month, right?”
Tawn smiled as she moved behind a transparent blast wall. “I know it. And I hope this goes as smoothly as our last two. And just so you know, if it’s anything like that Geldon deal, you best be getting your ass back here without arguing over credits. This slug wants to keep breathing. We lucked out with all that contraband having been moved to the Blazer. They probably only let us go because there was no evidence of arms dealing.”
Bax pressed the airlock button. “Yeah, well, you can’t win them all. Just follow my lead and we’ll be in and out of here.”
“Got it.”
Bax stood five meters across a docking through-way from her buyer. “You Cletus?”
The heavyweight man in his tattered trenchcoat replied, “You don’t look like a Baxter.”
“You got a problem with it, track down my derelict parents and take it up with them.”
Cletus looked down the tube at a ready and armed Tawn. “You can tell your slug to relax. I’m unarmed. But Farker has a nasty bite if he feels I’m being threatened.”
A mechanical pet trotted into view behind its owner.
Bax laughed. “Farker? What is that, a robotic dog? And who named him that?”
Cletus shrugged as he clomped forward. “Real ones kept dying on me. When Farker dies, I just plug him in for a bit and he’s good as new. Ain’t that right, boy? And I call him Farker because his bark sounds more like a fark than a bark. Even if I knew how to fix his programming for that I wouldn’t. I like his— fark.”
The unusual pet offered a very mechanical wag of its short tail.
Bax frowned as she checked the time on her bracelet. “Pathetic. OK then. Let’s get this deal done. You have the fifty-six hundred forty-two credits?”
Cletus nodded. “After I see the goods I’ll be happy to make the transfer.”
Bax held up her hand, stopping Cletus at the end of the docking tube. “Show me— before you step on this ship. I need to see proof.”
Cletus held up a wrist bracelet displaying a universal account and the credits waiting to be transferred. “Happy?”
Bax nodded. “Right through here, Mr. Dodger. Your purchases await.” She flipped a latch and opened a container.
Cletus picked up a plasma rifle. “Charges?”
Bax pointed at another case. “Four hundred, as ordered. And we won’t be bringing them close to any of these rifles while we’re docked. I don’t like it when things get messy. And a loaded plasma rifle has messy written all over it.”
Cletus replied, “I must insist that you open the container so I can inspect its contents.”
Bax huffed. “Fine. Put the rifle back and I’ll be happy to open her up.”
Cletus looked Bax up and down as he placed the weapon back in its case. “I would never have taken you for an arms dealer, Miss
Rumford. That goon behind the blast wall— she’s more what I’d expect.”
Tawn scowled. “Can I frag him now?”
Bax shook her head. “Not ‘til after the credit transfer’s complete.”
Cletus stared at Tawn as Bax opened the case full of plasma charges. “I like her spunk. Would you be willing to trade her for Farker?”
Bax smirked. “Does he moan and complain all the time?”
“Never.” Cletus smiled as Tawn returned an angry glare.
Bax looked at Farker who was now sniffing around Tawn’s feet. “Yeah… no. I think I’ll keep her. Sometimes you get attached and they’re hard to part with, you know?”
The robotic dog went flying against the docking tube wall as Tawn kicked it with a heavy boot. Following several simulated yelps, the companion of Cletus Dodger scampered back to its own ship.
Cletus gave his own angry glare. “What was that for? You always abuse innocent animals? He’s only following his friendship programming.”
Tawn spat on the deck. “Contraption tried to hump my leg. Nobody humps my leg without my consent!”
“I’ll bet.” Cletus replied. “And that spitting… not very ladylike… even for a slug.”
Bax chuckled before looking at the time on her bracelet. “OK. Let’s get this finished before a new war gets started. Satisfied with the charges? We have other business to get to.”
Cletus nodded. “They appear to be in order.”
Bax cracked open another container as Tawn scowled at a robotic dog that was now poking its head back into the far end of the docking tube. “Here’s your zappers.”
Cletus looked up. “Zappers? I’ll have to advise you to not call them that. These are weapons… powerful and deadly weapons. Many a colonist would grimace at their only means of defense against a wild bogler being called a zapper. It’s called the Fox-40 and is revered by its owners. Each of these will fetch a premium price.”
“Premium, you say?” Bax grinned.
Cletus sighed. “Our terms are not open for negotiation, if that’s what you are implying.”
Bax smacked the heavy buyer on the back of his stained overcoat, pulling her hand back in regret as something gooey clung to her palm. “Hmm. Not a problem. The 40s are all here.”
HADRON Emergent Page 28
