by Blaze Ward
Ajax.
Lazarus had no words. Apparently his gasp was enough for Kuei.
“Intercept course laid in,” she spoke with a smile in her voice. “All hands, we’re almost there if you want to see. Channel Five.”
Addison and Eha joined them a few minutes later. As did everyone else, rolling, slithering, or walking back onto the bridge and surrounding him. Both Aileen and Khyaa’sha had broad smiles for him.
“That thing’s huge!” Addison gasped as the scale came evident. “You said it had a crew of only one hundred.”
“I sailed on the shakedown cruise with one hundred,” Lazarus corrected him. “Ajax would normally carry around five hundred permanent crew, plus a security detachment of troops for ground missions, plus their landers. Or scientists and all their equipment. Another four hundred or so.”
“How do we board, then?” Aileen asked. “How do we get all our cargo over there?”
“We’ve got two pinckes,” he smiled at her. “You’ll be training to fly one of them.”
“Pinckes?”
“Long, narrow, cargo shuttles,” Lazarus said. “Stripped down boxes, rather than the nice ship I had. Something like Wybert’s truck, scaled up to land from orbit. I took the koch, but those two were both intact when I left. I expect we’ll sail the two big ships close together and put them at rest, then run back and forth in the pincke, unloading things from this side into the aft cargo lift like an airlock, loading the shuttle, and then docking it to unload back into gravity.”
“How hard are they to fly?” Aileen asked.
“Once I program a few things, you’ll mostly just be supervising,” Lazarus said. “They were intended to be brutally simple.”
“And the ship is armed?”
Definitely Wybert speaking, even though Lazarus didn’t look.
“She’s a light starcruiser,” Lazarus told the room again. “Built around the Kirov Lance, which is why the body is so long. Most of the beams are actually located out on the pylons.”
“How close do you want me to get, Lazarus?” Kuei spoke up into the silence that had overtaken them all.
“About a mile,” he replied. “Look for a dark spot right at the front base of the pylon pointed straight down. That’s the landing bay.”
“That ship is almost a mile long, Lazarus,” Addison suddenly found his voice.
“Forty-nine hundred feet, yes,” he replied, eyes still glued to the hull, looking for damage that had not been repaired yet.
There wouldn’t be any. Not visible, anyway. Five months and change had elapsed since he parked her here. Biosystems would have started on the outer hull immediately and worked their way inwards, taking her back to the external image of the vessel first sliding out of her graving dock, an elegant, sleek, lethality pointed at Westphalia’s heart.
Lazarus ignored the curses around him until awed silence fell as they approached.
He knew that Ajax was larger than any of the Security Barcs the Innruld forces normally fielded. Only their command pyramids were larger, for size. The Kirov Lance could have dismembered Zhoonarrim Station, so he wasn’t that worried about Innruld.
It had taken an entire GunWall to beat him the first time. That and surprise.
He looked forward to returning the favor soon.
But first, he had to have a crew.
Alien. Civilian. Lost at sea. But his friends.
Men and women who had stood with him when they might have just walked away. Didn’t matter that they were none of them human. Their love and beauty shown through.
Had not Jesus told the disciples that His Father knew of many other places?
John Fourteen brought him comfort.
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
Had he not taken the name of Lazarus of Bethany when he was reborn? It had been arrogance itself to adjure unto himself such glory, but he could play some small part in helping these others as they sought the way for themselves. In showing them a better place wherein they might join him in one of those many mansions.
But Jesus had also prepared a place for Lazarus in Innruld Space. Of that he had no doubts, mysterious though The Lord worked. A ship that took him in when he was as Job. Friends that brought him solace and comfort, protecting him from the storms.
He could do no less for them now.
A poke on his arm brought Lazarus back from memories of Sunday Schools of his youth.
Aileen. Yithadreph. Alien.
Friend.
Possessor of a smile at this moment that suggested butter might not melt in her mouth.
“Hmm?”
“So you told me, us, that you took the name Lazarus when you escaped death and magically landed here instead of flying through a star,” Aileen said. “If we’re going back, does that mean you reclaim your other name?”
Lazarus jolted with surprise. He had walked through the valley of the shadow of death and been reclaimed, so he had put that other name behind him, seemingly forever. And yet, he was about to stride the decks of Ajax again.
About to return to the Rio Alliance and claim his place there, along with his experimental warship, his friends, and whatever spy had set him up for death.
“I suppose so, Aileen,” he said with wonder in his voice. “I had thought him dead, but God has other plans for me, it seems.”
“So who did you used to be?” she asked, fixing him with that look where all the whiskers came forward like lobster claws ready to poke at him.
“Once upon a time, my mother named me Francisco Luiz Oliveira,” he said.
Lazarus bowed formally to the woman, unwilling yet to become Francisco, or even Pancho, as many had called him over the years.
Aileen bowed back, just as formally.
“Charmed, sir,” she giggled.
Lazarus laughed, feeling belts of tension suddenly loosen. He looked around and found himself at the center of a cluster, everyone touching him and smiling.
“I prefer Lazarus,” Addison said.
“So do I,” he said simply. “It fits for what is coming.”
“And that is?” Aileen asked.
“The beginning.”
Read More
Be sure to read all the books in the Lazarus Alliance series!
Escape
Return
Rebellion
Revolution
Liberation
Retribution
Alliance
Available at your favorite retailers!
About the Author
Blaze Ward writes science fiction in the Alexandria Station universe (Jessica Keller, The Science Officer, The Story Road, etc.) as well as several other science fiction universes, such as Star Dragon, the Dominion, and more. He also writes odd bits of high fantasy with swords and orcs. In addition, he is the Editor and Publisher of Boundary Shock Quarterly Magazine. You can find out more at his website www.blazeward.com, as well as Facebook, Goodreads, and other places.
Blaze's works are available as ebooks, paper, and audio, and can be found at a variety of online vendors. His newsletter comes out regularly, and you can also follow his blog on his website. He really enjoys interacting with fans, and looks forward to any and all questions—even ones about his books!
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Also by Blaze Ward
The Jessica Keller Chronicles
Auberon
Queen of the Pirates
Last of the Immortals
Goddess of War
Flight of the Blackbird
The Red Admiral
St. Legier
Winterhome
Petron
* * *
CS-405
Queen Anne’s Revenge
Packmule
Persephone
* * *
Additional Alexandria Station Stories
The Story Road
Siren
Two Bottles of Wine With A War God
* * *
The Science Officer Series Season One
The Science Officer
The Mind Field
The Gilded Cage
The Pleasure Dome
The Doomsday Vault
The Last Flagship
The Hammerfield Gambit
The Hammerfield Payoff
The Bryce Connection
* * *
The Science Officer Series Season Two
Alien Seas
* * *
Shadow of the Dominion
Longshot Hypothesis
Hard Bargain
Outermost
Dominion-427
Phoenix
Princess Rualoh
* * *
The Handsome Rob Gigs
Can’t Shoot Straight Gang
Can’t Shoot Straight Gang Returns
Hunting Handsome Rob
Handsome Rob, Assassin
* * *
Earth Force Sky Patrol
Birth of the Star Dragon
Flight of the Star Dragon
Call of the Star Dragon
Shadow of the Star Dragon
Trial of the Star Dragon
* * *
Hunter Bureau
Mirrors
Latency
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Escape
The Lazarus Alliance: Book One
Blaze Ward
Copyright © 2020 Blaze Ward
All rights reserved
Published by Knotted Road Press
www.KnottedRoadPress.com
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ISBN: 978-1-64470-129-4
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Cover art:
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Cover and interior design copyright © 2020 Knotted Road Press
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This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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