Princess Rescue Inc

by Chris Hechtl

  When the last electromagnets came on they hoped and prayed fervently it would work. Max and Sydney cranked up the juice to the maximum. Finally the vortex moved into an orbit and then oscillated slower and slower before stabilizing between the electromagnets. The others came on, caging the beast.

  Perry sent the recovered MALP through just to be sure. They made contact with Terra so he sent a loaded MALP with their samples through. They left all the gear and their spare clothes behind. Charlie, Max the machinist, the biologist Nate, Sue the Doc, Mary the botanist and Ryans remained behind, watching from far back.

  <==={}------------>

  “We've got about five minutes before the copper wire melts folks, so best make your good byes while you can or you're here for the duration,” Max cautioned. The others nodded.

  Wanda frowned. “How come?”

  “'Cause the Earth's got that fancy smancy superconductor stuff that can take the load. We've got copper. Now git a move on filly!” Max ordered waving. She snorted and walked off toward the royal family.

  Wanda told them she would visit as she hugged Deidra. Her lead lined suit crinkled as she moved. She asked for permission to emigrate. Deidra told her of course. “All of you,” she tearfully told them. She had Perry and the other military men kneel. She knighted each in a brief ceremony. She informed them that any that returned would be granted a title and lands.

  Several of the spectators were amazed by that. Lisa, Waters, and Ginger all expressed interest. They were all up on their contracts. Waters was near retirement. Lisa was really interested; here she would be starting a media company. “If that's okay,” she said after looking at Deidra who smiled and nodded. Zara hugged her, dashing tears. They both cried briefly. The men rolled their eyes but subsided in the griping when the women who were watching gave them dirty looks. Sheepishly they shrugged to each other.

  Fred the geologist asked to come back, he'd like to explore more. “Cartography isn't my thing, maybe we could bring one back?” he asked looking to the royal couple. Ryans nodded.

  “And a dentist,” Doc said with a smile. Ryans gave her a look. “Just a suggestion?” she teased. He rubbed his jaw.

  He snorted. “You'll find a list of candidate positions on file. Run it by Britney and the government people for the follow up if you’re interested.”

  “Not too late to get cold feet?” Perry teased.

  “Don't start,” Ryans deadpanned.

  “You're just staying to get out of the endless debriefs and media circus, admit it,” Perry grinned. Ryans chuckled.

  “No, just the medical scans, quarantine, blood samples, exams, and such,” Ryans replied. Perry's face fell.

  “That's evil,” Perry growled and then winced. Waters had a sour look, as did most of the other returning people.

  Doc nodded. “I knew I had a good reason to stay,” she murmured smiling.

  “They do say doctors make the worst patients,” Ryans teased. She poked him.

  “Don't be a stranger,” Wanda tearfully said, hugging each of them. “I'll be back soon.” She grinned to Ryans. “Eugene behave,” she admonished him with a finger.

  “Eugene?” Perry drawled, clearly amused, turning on Ryans with a teasing grin.

  “Don't start,” Ryans mock growled rolling his eyes. Perry chuckled. Ryans hid a sigh. He was really going to miss the lieutenant, miss him and the others a lot. But one thing he'd learned coming here, life was about change. Here they had change a plenty now.

  “Once we're sure things are stable on both ends, I suppose we'll be back and forth,” Ryans said gruffly, hugging the Lieutenant and thumping his back.

  Perry chuckled. “You do that. I may too,” Perry said voice husky before he grinned. “But first I've got a lot of back pay to spend.”

  Ryans laughed with the others at that. Some of the military personnel in earshot cheered. “Get outta here then. Have fun,” he chuckled and made shooing motions. “Stay safe all of you,” he said. The Gunny, Master Sergeant and both Lieutenants turned about face as they prepared to leave and saluted. Ryans came to attention and returned the salute. They did a perfect turnabout and then climbed onto their LAV's. “Damn I'm going to miss them,” Ryans sighed watching the vehicles disappear into the vortex. “All right, shut it down,” he ordered. Max nodded and flipped the off switch. They could hear the thrums turn to whines as the equipment wound down. The vortex sparkled and then shifted back out to sea.

  “Happily ever after?” Deidra asked, arm around his hip. He kissed her hair.

  “Where did you get that from, Doc?” he asked as they walked away. Doc and the others were already ahead of them, making their ways to the waiting Stryker’s.

  “Yes,” she said looking up to him, eyes sparkling. He kissed her nose, making her smile.

  “I don't know about happy endings, but this isn't one of them,” he said and then waved. “This is just a new beginning.” Her lips curved into a smile as she pulled his head down for a lingering kiss.

  “My sentiments exactly,” she murmured.

  The End

  Author's afterward:

  This is one of those books where you go huh? Right? No, just kidding. It is a little weird though, I have to admit. I started writing it as a short story exercise a while back. Back in oh, 2007. I sat on it since I was working on other more important projects at the time. But another scene came along, and then another and I tied them together.

  It was supposed to be a short, just a one off to get out of my system, a writing exercise to stretch a bit. A learning exercise, whatever you want to call it. But one thing led to another and a short time later I had a rough draft. I had started to experiment with alternative viewpoints around that time and decided this book needed more than one primary view. But to do that I'd have to do a rewrite, something I'm not altogether fond of for obvious reasons. I tucked a few things in here and there... and then... I sat on it. LOL I threw it onto a back burner and forgot about it.

  Part of the reason was because I was a little embarrassed by the adult scenes in the book. There are a few, and I apologize if I got a little too graphic for your tastes. Sorry, that's just how the scene played out.

  I had already submitted my first 3 books to Baen and was knee deep working on others you see. One, a Terminator Salvation book I submitted to Titan Publishing but never heard back from them. Shrug, that's how things are in the business sometimes.

  I sat on this book for so long for another reason, I broke down and put my books out on B&N and started getting back feedback. I was vexed with myself over my horrible editing. I took another fresher look after talking things over with Mechmaster and started to see one mistake after another in this book. The dialog for instance was just one long run on sentence. That's annoying and a problem.

  Sooo... I sat on it, shoved it to a back burner again and worked on other things. I can write a book five times faster than I can edit it.

  But it didn't go away completely. In between other books I dusted out cover art ideas and the critters and worked on them. One thing led to another and last year I finished the cover art for this book.

  Recently (summer 2012) I finished book 4 of the Wandering Engineer and decided to take a quick stab at cleaning this manuscript up. One thing led to another and I was knee deep, and then neck deep in a rewrite with no end in sight. A quick one week projected deadline came and passed several times over. But finally I started to make progress and I'm glad to say here I am at the end of it.

  September 5, 2013 Side Note: It has been suggested that this book should be split into two parts, with the climax of the first book being the battle, and the return as the other climax. I'm not into that. First, because we see the prep for war, but rarely the aftermath. It's like murder, premeditation leads up to the murder, sometimes chorographed and carefully thought out, but rarely does a killer think of what to do afterward. (Thank you CSI)

  I wanted to show that, and that the political intrigue and issues didn't dry up overnight into a h
appily ever after. Indeed, this may not be the only adventure for Eugene Ryans and his crew. I may write a messy sequel sometimes. Who knows, anything is possible. :)

  For those of you wondering more or if you want to see the critters I sculpted check out my blog:

  http://cyberforge3d.blogspot.com/

  http://cyberforge3d.blogspot.com/2012/08/princess-rescue-inc.html

  Appendix:

  Here are just a few references I used in the writing of this book. All errors are of course mine.

  My blog:

  http://cyberforge3d.blogspot.com/

  http://cyberforge3d.blogspot.com/2012/08/princess-rescue-inc.html

  General things:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownie_(folklore)

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imp

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudalism

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serf

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extracorporeal_shock_wave_lithotripsy

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_debt

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_Cave

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_noise_control

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chancellor_of_the_Exchequer

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_Kingdom

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza

  Roman, Celtic, Viking, and Latin things:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Latin_mottos

  http://browse.dict.cc/english-latin/land.html

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equites

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohort_(military_unit)

  http://www.daz3d.com/shop/viking-pack-for-michael/

  Military things:

  http://www.military-info.com/freebies/murphy.htm

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1903_Springfield

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gettysburg

  Engineering things:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungsten

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_turbine

  http://www.discoverlivesteam.com/magazine/21/21.html

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroprakt_A-22

  Sneak Peek:

  The following is a RAW excerpt from Jethro 2, First to Fight.

  -WARNING SPOILERS!!!-

  "Sir we've got a situation, the freighter Lieandra just jumped in system screaming her head off about pirates," the communications rating said looking up.

  Captain Mayweather blinked from her Captain's chair. "The Lieandra?" she asked. She remembered the ship, she'd had contact with them once or twice on the Carib queen. They made a circuit run, Centennial, Antigua, the empty b459c red dwarf chain, Protodon, Kathy's World, then south to the B452c system, and then on to Agnosta, and then Pyrax. Sometimes they mixed it up by heading to Triang but not often. It was one of the better freighters out there plying the space lanes. She was a medium sized freighter with three or four thousand people on her. "What jump point?" she demanded sitting up straight.

  “Briev ma'am."

  "Did they say if they were followed?"

  "No ma'am. They were in Protodon when the pirates came. They immediately ran for the jump point. The pirates were on a short course for the point leading to Antigua and they just made it clear and to the jump point to Kathy's world ahead of them."

  "Lucky,” she said. She didn't sound like she believed it though. She looked at her XO.

  Shelby grimaced. It could be a trap, her mind had tripped over that after a moment. She was pretty sure the Captain was suspicious of that very thing. But something rang true.

  "I'll say. They jumped to B452c but went north to Briev with a pirate hard on their heels. They made their way out from the Briev jump thinking they'd be followed but the pirates apparently didn't follow. Only a frigate emerged and it went to the planet instead of trying to run them down. They had just enough fuel to double back and head here."

  "Crap," a tech said softly.

  Mayweather thought hard. A frigate had short legs. Lieandra had pretty good legs, she had heard they could do up to three jumps without a refuel. Apparently they'd picked up some legs somewhere to have made it all this way. Most likely Lieandra had run the frigate to exhaustion and she'd given up the chase to refuel at the planet. "Size of the main force?" she demanded.

  The tech looked down at his tablet. "CIC designated the first force as Alpha. At least four ships CIC designated frigates, a destroyer sized ship, a possible second tin can, one or two corvettes, a tanker, at least a half a dozen freighters, and a dozen other unidentified ships. Lieandra was too far away to see them clearly. That and they said there were some asteroids in the way."

  "Crap. How could they outrun pirates?" she asked dubiously. Did the pirates really send just one frigate to run them down? If so why? “Any self respecting pirate could overhaul a lumbering freighter.” Their recent experience as convoy escorts had made that point painfully clear.

  “Unless they weren't interested in catching them in the first place ma'am,” Commander Logan said quietly. Mayweather glanced her way and then nodded.

  The tech waited for the Captain to return her attention to him before continuing. "Ma'am there is more. Admiral Irons sent Lieandra out. Apparently he had repaired and upgraded her Ma'am. She had a full drive and major system rebuild."

  "He was aboard?" Mayweather asked, sitting up straight, Her hands clutched at the arm rests. Her eyes cut to Shelby. The XO was looking eager as well. Expectant faces turned to the tech who shook her head.

  Disappointment cut through the compartment as quickly as the eager thoughts had. "No ma'am, he had planned to leave Antigua on a rebuilt yacht some time ago. Dispatch 1701E he renamed it Phoenix. He... Ma'am apparently he and the crew of the Kiev 221 managed to salvage a ghost station. A full factory city. Antigua prime!"

  "Seriously?" Shelby asked, eyes wide. "Anvil was just a pre-processing node for one but..."

  The tech nodded, face serious as he continued to digest the report. One hand was still on his ear, a clear signal that he was still getting information. "Yes ma'am he did it. They did it I mean. He sent Kiev 221 and Lieandra out to let people know. Lieandra was supposed to let us know. Kiev 221 headed south to B450a and Centennial."

  Shelby's eyes were wide. "So, if the pirates jump to Antigua..."

  "They'll have a cake walk. The system is mostly undefended," the tech replied grimly.

  "Not if Irons has anything to do with it."

  "He was not in system. He left for Centennial ma'am."

  "Shit."

  "There are defenses on the planet but they aren't well maintained. They also only cover a quarter of the planet. If they stand out far enough..." Shelby said, pulling up a sketch report from the mainframe. They had little intel on Antigua, most of it provided by Mayweather herself.

  "They can rock bomb them. Yeah. And the station is completely undefended," the Captain replied grimly. She was now looking at the report the communication's rating had just sent her. The rating had highlighted that little tidbit of intel.

  "Yes ma'am, apparently so. It had been on the outer edge of the system, out beyond the heliopause apparently. Kiev 221 literally stumbled across it while transitioning out of hyper. Now it's in an Lagrange point in the inner system and lit up but defenseless. I'm getting something about that, something about that's why the admiral left the system, the people refused to defend the station."

  “Lotus eaters,” the tac officer said.

  Mayweather shot her a look and then nodded. "We'll have to do it," Mayweather said as faces turned to her XO.

  Shelby blinked. She knew the way it was going to go down but she also knew she had to play her role anyway. "Ma'am our orders..." she started to say cautiously.

  Captain Mayweather held up a restraining hand. "There isn't time. A month one way? Two months?” She shook her head. They all knew the information lag was a killer. “By the ti
me we get word..."

  "It'll be too late. but still..." Commander Logan said doggedly, feeling her own emotions twist. On one hand she wanted to kick pirate ass. But she they also had a duty to the people on Agnosta. Not to mention to Pyrax. Firefly was the biggest fully operational warship in the sector. It was the only ship over one hundred megatons that was fully functional. Even Fuentes had some rough edges.

  "I think we can do it,” Mayweather said tugging her jacket down firmly and straightening her shoulders. “Firefly, prepare for movement. Get me Hecate, She is stuck as rearguard. Tell Lieandra we want everything they've got and then to refuel and then head to Pyrax at their best speed to report. Refuel on our tab. Dispatches to follow."

  "Aye aye ma'am." He frowned, one hand on his ear. “Ma'am the admiral has dispatches and cargo aboard the ship for us.”

  Mayweather's sculpted eyebrow rose in polite inquiry. “Us personally or the navy in general?”

  “The military ma'am,” he said, face working. “They have a general inventory. Most of it is like what we received on Destiny.”

  She nodded. “Good. Send it along to Pyrax then. They can sort it out there. I'll take a copy of the dispatches though. Firefly can puzzle over them while we're in transit. Right Firefly?”

  “A pleasure,” the AI responded.

  “Aye aye ma'am,” the rating replied as she looked at him.

  "Get with the ground side. Let them know the plan and that I intend to move out in six to eight hours. I want this ship fully refueled and stuffed to the deck heads so get on that. We'll be a long way from home so remember that. Barrels of spare fuel, parts, missiles, stuff them in every nook and cranny you can find. Then call down to the planet. Get the Major to send up his best, I think we'll need them. Recon and Raiders. Noobs need not apply."