by S. H. Jucha
LIBRE
A Silver Ships Novel
S. H. JUCHA
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by S. H. Jucha
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
Published by S. H. Jucha
www.scottjucha.com
ISBN: 978-0-9905940-3-1 (e-book)
ISBN: 978-0-9905940-4-8 (softcover)
First Edition: August 2015
Cover Design: Damon Za
Formatting: Polgarus Studio
For my mother, Marjorie; my sister, Jan; and my brothers, Greg, Brett, and Barry.
Acknowledgments
My deepest thanks go to Jan Hamilton, my sister, who contributed substantially to the funds that made the publishing of my first novel possible. And to my fans, whose purchases of The Silver Ships made possible this second book in the series.
A special thanks to my independent editor, John David Kudrick, whose guidance gave the finished product a needed polish, and to my proofreaders, Abiola, Jan, and Charles.
Despite the assistance I’ve received from others, all errors are mine.
Glossary
For your convenience, a Glossary is located at the end of the book.
-1-
“Admiral on the bridge,” announced Julien, the Rêveur’s SADE.
“At ease,” Alex said as the crew braced to attention. This will take some getting used to, Alex mentally groused as he strode onto the starship’s bridge, attired in his new, four-star uniform, to join his officers and Renée de Guirnon, his House Co-Leader and lover.
Three hours ago, the Rêveur had exited a faster-than-light (FTL) jump from Bellamonde to outside of Arno’s heliosphere. Their ship was headed in system toward the planet Libre, carrying the crew’s prize in the starboard bay, a captured silver ship. The cost of capturing the enemy fighter had been high … one pilot, Jase Willard, and two of the Rêveur’s four fighters.
Alex regarded his newly promoted officers, Senior Captain Bonnard, Captain Manet, Commander Tachenko, and Squadron Leader Reynard; all standing particularly straight and proud, while sneaking appraising glances at one another. Their new uniforms, adorned with gold rating stars, the House Alexander insignia, and the Rêveur’s patch, had gone over quite well. They have a right to be proud, Alex thought. They’ve accomplished something the Confederation hadn’t dared attempt in seven decades … the capture of a marauding silver ship.
Julien was already gathering information on the Arno system and Libre, the only habitable planet, and its satellites. Housed on the Rêveur’s bridge in a metal-alloy case that enclosed his circuitry and crystal memory, the self-aware digital entity was the technologically unifying force of a Méridien starship. FTL jumps were completed by his calculations; FTL communications were sent through his crystals. Every primary system on any Confederation starship could be remotely monitored and controlled by its SADE.
Originally, Alex had sought to return the Rêveur’s survivors to their home world, but the Confederation was in disarray. Hundreds of ships were seen fleeing Méridien to escape the encroaching swarm of silver ships. Renée’s brother, the present House de Guirnon Leader, attempted to usurp their vessel, but the Méridiens refused to heed his demand. Their response was to abandon their House and declare themselves to be Independents. Their allegiance, from the moment of their revival from seventy years in stasis, had been to their rescuer, Alex, a New Terran explorer-tug Captain.
It was Alex’s suggestion that Renée, a daughter of House de Guirnon, create her own House. Renée had embraced the idea, which is how Alex found himself Co-Leader of House Alexander, the Military Affairs Arm of the Confederation Council. Not that their House was official yet, and with the Confederation in chaos, Council approval of the House’s petition might never come.
Alex had hoped that their newly adopted disguise as Méridien militarists instead of New Terran civilians would lend them authority toward enlisting the services of the Independents and their keepers, House Bergfalk, to help them in the fight against the silver ships. The Independents, Méridien society’s outcasts, were quarantined on Libre to prevent them from infecting other Méridiens with their so-called rebellious thoughts and ways.
On the bridge, Alex nodded at Julien’s holo-vid display of Libre and its satellites. “According to Confederation records,” Alex said, “House Bergfalk maintains a single, small orbital station for transfer of the Independents to the planet’s surface. Supposedly, it constitutes Libre’s entire orbital assets.”
Instead of a single station, Alex, Renée, and the officers were looking at three orbitals. A small one, probably the planet’s original station, was a small speck floating above Libre compared to the two gigantic platforms, each supporting a massive, partially constructed, discus-shaped ship, more than two kilometers across. The immense constructions dwarfed even the long-haul freighters docked opposite the huge ships.
“It appears Confederation records aren’t up to date,” Alex said. “Julien, would you care to hazard a guess about those two enormous saucers?”
“Yes, Admiral, I would. While their design is not in my archives, it’s my supposition that these ships are FTL-capable cities, designed for long-term habitation.”
“So, no fighting ships,” said Senior Captain Andrea Bonnard, voicing the group’s disappointment.
“No fighting ships,” Alex agreed. He had hoped that House Bergfalk, who had pushed the Confederation Council for an aggressive response to the attacks of the silver ships, might have been working with the Independents to build fighting ships. Alex’s people, the New Terrans, hadn’t possessed warships prior to his discovery of the Méridiens. And now it appeared the Confederation still hadn’t built any.
“Well, I’m sure by now that we have House Bergfalk’s attention,” Alex said. “What I need is an entrance, some sort of demonstration.” Alex studied the holo-vid, lost in thought, and then he began assigning flight positions. “When we’re ready, Captain Manet, you’ll detach your ship and take up a position here.” Alex expanded the holo-vid view and placed an icon of the armed shuttle, Outward Bound, presently riding ex-carrier on the Rêveur, slightly ahead and to port of their position. “Captain Bonnard, I want the fighters to take up positions here and here.” He placed Dagger-1 just outward of the Outward Bound’s port side and Dagger-2 just outward of the Rêveur’s starboard side. They had lost the original Dagger-1 and Dagger-2 in the fight to take their first silver ship, necessitating call-sign changes for the remaining two fighters. “Is Lieutenant Dorian well enough to fly Dagger-2, Squadron Leader Reynard?”
“Negative, Admiral. Physically, the Lieutenant is fine, but his experience has severely shaken his confidence. He needs more time.” Sheila couldn’t blame Robert for his reticence to rejoin the fight. In their encounter with the silver ship, Robert’s Dagger had been cut in half by the enemy fighter. He had been strapped in a tumbling, dead cockpit with no power or comms, scared that rescue might never come. “I’ve assigned Lieutenant Hatsuto Tanaka as Dagger-2’s pilot.”
“Ah, Miko’s brother,” replied Alex, referring to Lieutenant Miko Tanaka, Captain Manet’s copilot. Alex queried Julien and received Hatsuto’s profile from the Méridiens’ visit to Barren Island, New Terra
’s fighter training site, and shared it with Renée and his officers, giving them time to review the file.
“Look familiar?” Alex asked them.
“Jase,” Andrea responded, referring to Lieutenant Jason Willard, the pilot they had lost. During the journey to Arno, Andrea and Sheila had queried Julien for an analysis of their fight with the silver ship. Alex’s attack plan was designed as a pincer movement, trapping the enemy ship between two flights of Daggers. But Andrea and Sheila, who had piloted Flight-2, had arrived late. By then, the silver ship had destroyed Jase’s craft and cut Robert’s fighter in half.
The comm buoys, deployed during the fight to facilitate data transfer, had provided the answer to Andrea’s and Sheila’s questions. Jase hadn’t followed his fighter’s pre-programmed flight path. Instead he had switched to manual and cut closer to the gas giant to engage the enemy fighter sooner. Operating in manual, his skills were no match against the speed and agility of the silver ship, and his hubris had cost him his life.
“Admiral, Tanaka’s a good pilot,” Sheila said. “Captain Bonnard and I have shared Julien’s analysis of Jase’s performance before and during the fight. Hurrying to meet the enemy wasn’t the only break in procedure Jase committed. We made sure Tanaka saw Jase’s mistakes and how his actions had endangered everyone. Tanaka got the message, Sir.”
“Very well, Squadron Leader, it’s your call.”
“Ah, it’s a fan-squirrel,” said the XO, Tatia Tachenko, staring at the holo-vid.
“What?” Edouard asked.
“A fan-squirrel, a native New Terran animal,” Tatia said, sending an image to Edouard from Julien’s archives via her implant, the tiny Méridien device surgically embedded in her cerebrum. “It’s a New Terran, long-haired, tree dweller. When surprised on the ground, it turns sideways and spreads its fur, making it appear several times its size. It’s quite a sight.”
The others nodded as they began to comprehend Alex’s concept of a dramatic entrance. A military House should look imposing.
“We won’t respond to House Bergfalk comms until we’re ready,” Alex stated. “We launch ‘Fan-Squirrel’ when we’re a few hours out from Libre. Our silence for three and a half days should keep the House Bergfalk Leader wondering.”
* * *
As the Rêveur closed on Libre, the Daggers and Outward Bound spread out into their assigned positions. Using a House Leader’s priority code, Julien opened a comm request to the Station Director, who had originated the House Bergfalk comms to the Rêveur. The response was immediate.
Director Karl Beckert preceded his implant comm with his bio-ID, a Méridien custom upon introduction.
“Julien, open a vid on me,” Alex said.
The Director’s mouth flew open at the sight of Alex’s 146-kilo New Terran stature, so unlike the Méridiens’ slender frames. His eyes glazed as he focused his thoughts through his implant comm to relay an urgent request to his Leader for further directions.
Renée, standing off-vid, hid a broad smirk behind her hand. She recalled her first impression of Alex when they’d met on the Rêveur’s bridge soon after Julien had revived the Méridiens from stasis. On first sight, she had called him an “Ancient,” a Méridien term honoring their original colonists, whom Alex resembled. He, though, had thought she’d called him “old.” Such may be the eccentricities of first contact, Renée thought.
When the Director focused his eyes on his vid screen again, he sent,
Renée had rehearsed Alex in the persona it was imperative he adopt for his new position.
The Director’s agitation and confusion were evident. His implant comm to his Leader was even longer this time.
Alex, playing his part, interrupted the man’s communications.
A quarter-hour later, Julien received a comm request originating from the planet. “It’s Leader Stroheim, Admiral.”
“The curtain rises,” Alex quipped as Andrea and Renée took positions beside him for the vid comm.
Leader Stroheim returned the courteous greeting despite his amazement at the sight of two oversized humans standing beside a Méridien that records indicated was the long-lost daughter of House de Guirnon.
* * *
During the Rêveur’s flight to Arno from Bellamonde, where the silver ship was captured, Alex had spent the days wondering how to convince the Independents, the persona non grata of conformist Méridien society, and House Bergfalk, who maintained the Libran colony, to support them in their fight against the alien ships. The giant saucer-like ships were strong indications of the Librans’ preference, which was to run, not fight. Alex wondered if his proof that a silver ship could be defeated would be enough to persuade them otherwise.
To date, the Méridien Confederation had lost six colonies to the insidious, alien menace. The swarm of silver ships, in the company of an enormous spherical craft, had invaded the far system of Hellébore first, and, after eliminating the human population, had harvested resources from the system’s only habitable planet, Cetus. When the silver ships had finished collecting whatever it was that they sought, they had boarded their giant mother ship and exited the system.
Now, the aliens threatened the Méridien’s home world, having overrun the nearby colony of Bellamonde seven years ago. Over 1.7 billion inhabitants and their cities had been burned to ashes by the alien’s powerful beam weapons. And the Confederation Houses, who hadn’t dared to defend themselves, were fleeing their home world for the farthest colonies.
For Alex, it hadn’t started out as his fight. Fate or fortune had intervened. The Rêveur had been the second Méridien starship to succumb to the devastating beams of a silver ship. Holed and nearly destroyed, the Rêveur became a derelict, speeding across empty space. In a rescue, hailed by some as foolhardy and by most as spectacular, Alex had saved the eighteen Méridien survivors and Julien.
The Rêveur’s eighteen Méridiens, which included Renée, owed their lives to their SADE and his perseverance. Ensconced in crystal stasis tubes, the Méridiens had slept for seventy years while their damaged ship drifted through space. Julien had remained the only active intelligence on board. He had waited patiently for rescue, minimizing the consumption of his limit
ed power supply. Finally, in a desperate bid to save his passengers, with his power dwindling, he reduced his processing speed to 1/500th and set contact alarms to revive him if they were found.
When the Rêveur had shot across the edge of the New Terran system, many light-years from the Confederation, Alex had risked his life to latch his explorer-tug onto his world’s first alien ship. The tug’s beams and Alex’s extravehicular activity (EVA) efforts to gain entrance to the advanced starship had triggered Julien’s revival. The Rêveur’s hull sensors had relayed Alex’s helmet-framed face to Julien, who triggered the airlock hatches and enticed Alex to the bridge with a trail of blinking lights, consuming some of the last energy in his power supply. Over the next half-year, Julien and Alex, working to repair and arm the Rêveur, had grown close, brothers of crystal and flesh.
Like the Méridiens, the New Terrans had left Earth aboard colony ships to settle new worlds. Each thought they were alone in their own corner of the galaxy. Now, though, they knew that wasn’t true, and it wasn’t only humans who were out here.
With Renée, the House de Guirnon representative aboard the Rêveur, Alex had negotiated an agreement with his government’s Assembly to trade Méridien technology for repairs. The New Terrans, hundreds of years behind Méridien technology due to a disastrous start on their new world, had been overjoyed to accept the exchange.
But Alex had discovered the Méridiens were defenseless against the alien ship that had attacked them. He had pleaded with Renée to sue for co-development of weapons with his people. Renée’s request sold itself when the New Terran President and Assembly had viewed the Rêveur’s records of the attack. Neither the peaceful Méridiens nor the New Terrans, who had yet to venture outside their own system, had developed weapons more powerful than that required for personal protection or crowd pacification. In the vids, the New Terrans saw how easily the Méridiens’ superior technology had been defeated and knew they, too, were totally unprepared to repel the alien ships. The Assembly approved a mutual weapons-development pact, and Alex, with help from Julien and others, had cobbled together the colonists’ records from university archives to resurrect Earth’s war machines.
