by Jay Toney
Freedom Flight
J. A. Toney
Copyright 2017
Published by J. A. Toney
Distributed by Amazon
Discover other titles by J. A. Toney:
Space Rogue
Alliance Gold
Copyright Information
The characters and events in this book are fictional. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without permission of the author is unlawful piracy and theft of the authors intellectual property. Thank you for support of the authors rights.
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Introduction
Captain Roberts and his friends continue to be hunted by their enemies. They explore a derelict Reptilian space fleet, or is it? Why have giant spiders attacked a colony? Who are the Vorg, and what makes them so different? What are deevils and niffids? Are they important? Can Nathaniel claim any justice from the Alliance? What makes Vamps so dangerous? Ages ago, they were exiled and quarantined in a system, under a dark sun, and now? They are not your ordinary vampire. Is Hades everything that was promised to Red and his refugees, or is it truly hellish? Find this out and a lot more as Captain Roberts flees the Human commonwealth and turns his attention to finding the star bridge.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Information
Ghost Fleet
It Had To Be Spiders
Trouble Always Finds Me
Natty's Return
The Vorg
Lizard Hunt
Deevils and Niffids
Haven
Alliance Justice
Spicer
Pit Stop
Pieces & Parts
Vengeance & Hope
Do Unto Others
War & Peace
Vamps
To Hell and Gone
More From The Author
Ghost Fleet
We came out of hyperspace in a lifeless system. The sun was dim, barely emitting visible light. It was rapidly cooling and well on its way to becoming a black dwarf. The remaining planets in the system were scorched, and left as baron rock still orbiting the sun. The few remaining planets made their way through the thin remains of what was left of the planetary nebula.
Our sensors picked up several metallic objects. We were on our way to investigate them, to see if they may be members of our fleet. Our communication hails, remained unanswered as we closed the distance between us. Traveling through this system felt eerie. I could almost feel the long dead souls watching as we trespassed in their graveyard.
"They are definitely, spacecraft of some type," Amber reported, attempting to get more information from her sensor data. "Their configuration doesn't match anything in our database."
Our viewscreen started giving us our first images of what was left of a long dead alien fleet.
"Persephone, bring us to a full stop." I didn't want to get any closer without making sure it was safe. I herd several stories about curious spacers who pressed their luck, exploring derelict spacecraft. Some of our greatest advances came from studying and reverse engineering artifacts from ships like these. Several explorers died from traps that were left aboard these craft. The scavengers inadvertently were killed or maimed setting off these traps while salvaging items from the derelict ships.
"Jewel, contact Red, Mike, and Shar'tu. Have them meet with Doc and I in the conference room."
"Yes Captain. You aren't seriously thinking about boarding one of those ship are you?"
"I haven't decided yet. Its almost to good of an opportunity to pass up. If we do, we won't be staying long. This area gives me the creeps."
Doc and I headed to the conference room, and waited for the others to join us. While we were waiting for Red to shuttle over, I broached the subject of exploring the derelict ships with Shar'tu, Mike, and Doc.
"Shar'tu, do you have any knowledge that may aid us in searching these ships?"
"In times past, my ancestors discovered and explored dead fleets such as these. Sometimes they were rewarded with new discoveries, often they were met with ill fortune, or death. Even though these ships have been derelict for what may be thousands of years, doesn't make them any less deadly. Often the species that last commanded the ships, left them trapped to prevent their enemies from capturing and using their ships, while they waited for rescue."
"Doc, you told me stories about ghost fleets, such as this, when I was a child. Do you have anything to add that may help?"
"Nathaniel, the only advice I can give is this: If you choose to board one of those ships, use extreme care. At the first sign of any trouble, run and don't look back."
Red arrived and I quickly surmised what we had discussed with out him. "Red, what are your thoughts from your experience of picking through derelict spaceships, and salvaging from them?"
"I've picked through many war relics. You have to be very careful. It is never known when you may stumble across a live piece of ordinance, or an intentionally set trap. The danger is very real, and that is with our own left over war relics. With these ships, I wouldn't even know what I was looking at. It will most likely be even more dangerous."
"Mike?"
"Nathaniel, its hard to pass up even a cursory look. The findings could be well worth the risk. I'm far from being a Xenoarchaeologist, but I think I could still identify the basic purpose of most things I may see."
"I think it's worth the risk to send a small exploration party. Shar'tu, Mike, Red, and I will take a Marauder over to one of the ships, and see if we can board it."
The four of us boarded Marauder #1. The entry hatch was now adorned with my name. When everyone was aboard, I sealed the hatch and sat in the pilots seat. Red joined me sitting in the copilots seat. I keyed in the ignition sequence and the Marauder came to life. All the instruments showed that the systems were operating in the green. I taxied to the launch tube, and took off without stopping at the ready line.
I advanced the throttles to full power, accelerating towards the dead fleet. As I neared. I slowed down. The area was congested with small pieces of debris. I found myself weaving in and out of patches of floating debris, mostly pieces of armor plating and the occasional weapon. Several ships were nearby, of all sizes. This was a large fleet of warships.
I picked out one of the larger ships. It was a battleship, easily twice the size of Red's ship. Bringing my ship in close, I skimmed its surface traversing its full length. I made several passes with my Marauder, looking for damage, and a way into the ship. The ship looked undamaged from the outside. On its starboard side, I found an open hatch leading into what looked like a shuttle bay. Using just my thrusters, I eased our way into the Alien ship and landed. Our landing gear secured the Marauder in place with
magnetic clamps.
I used the Marauders landing lights and search lights to illuminate the landing bay. It was empty. Whether it was emptied by the crew of this ship, or by scavengers, was unknown. I powered down the Marauder, leaving the search lights on to illuminate the landing bay.
All four of us put on spacesuits. After we were all sealed in our suits, I depressurized the Marauder and opened its rear hatch. Walking across the deck of the alien ship gave me the feeling of walking in a mausoleum. I felt alien eyes watching me with every step we took. It didn't matter whether it was my imagination or not, I felt creeped out.
We came to an airlock door. We would either have to force are way past this door or... . I pushed a button, not really expecting it to do anything. The airlock opened admitting us. Floor lighting came on, illuminating the empty chamber. We entered the airlock, and I pushed the bottom of three buttons next to the door. The door silently closed. On the opposite side of the airlock, I pushed the top button that was next to the opposite door. Nothing happened. Next I pushed the center button. Air filled the airlock chamber, pressurizing it.
Red sampled the air with an analyzer. He determined the air was breathable, and opened his helmets face shield. He took a few deep breaths, satisfied he signaled us to open our helmets.
"I have never run across anything like this. The ship shouldn't have any power after sitting here like this for what may be thousands of years."
"We will have to proceed with caution." I checked my comp, to insure it was mapping our progress, so we wouldn't get lost. I pushed the upper button again, and the Inner airlock door opened. When we stepped out of the airlock, lights in the deck immediately came on illuminating an empty corridor. Windows and doors lined the corridor.
We were able to shine our suit lights into various rooms, illuminating them, as we made our way down the passage. Mike stopped us by one room. "It looks like this may be an engineering station. There are definitely computer stations in this room." The entry hatch opened at the touch of a button and we entered.
It was here that we found our first bodies. The Aliens were seated at there work stations, as if nothing had happened to cause their deaths. They were roughly our same size, humanoid, but with some distinct differences. Their skin, if you could call it that was made up of tiny scales, that varied in color. Some were salmon, green, or tan with differing patterns on every body. The digits on their hands were also longer, nearly twice our size. They also had two parallel ridges on their forehead, curving back, tapering as they crossed to the back of their skulls.
I couldn't see any apparent cause of death, or any signs of decay. The Aliens looked as if they could be simply sleeping at their stations. Mike got busy working on the computers. It wasn't long before he had them up and running. What was on the computer's screen was not intelligible to us. It didn't matter. Mike made some adjustments to his comp, and began downloading the computers data. He would work on a translation solution later.
His comp was to small, and didn't have enough memory for all the data it was downloading. He set up a transmission link that would send the files to a protected memory module aboard the Persephone. We waited for what seemed like an eternity for the data to download. While waiting it felt like the ship was getting warmer. I couldn't see our breath any longer, when we exhaled.
Mike finished downloading the information from Alien computer. I saw a slight motion. It looked like one of the aliens moved an arm.
"Everyone, I think we should be going."
"What is it Nathaniel?" Doc asked.
"Have you noticed that it is getting warmer?"
"Yes, but..."
"I don't think the aliens are dead. I think they are in some form of hibernation, and are beginning to wake up as the temperature increases."
"I think you're right," Red agreed. "I think I saw one of them start to move."
"I don't want to be here when they awaken. I am guessing they won't appreciate us trespassing on their ship."
I contacted our ships, to have them start moving away from the fleet.
"Nathaniel, what about Mike, Doc, Shar'tu, and you. We can't leave all of you," Jewel insisted.
"We will catch up. Get our ships out of here, and prepare to jump."
The four of us raced back down the corridor. Lights were beginning to come on in the rooms lining the passageway. It seemed to take an eternity to reach the airlock. After we were all inside, we sealed our face shields, and depressurized the airlock. After the lock was depressurized, another eternity, I opened the outer door.
We raced to our waiting Marauder, and entered. I didn't wait for the ship to pressurize, I continued to the cockpit. I keyed in the ignition sequence, released the magnetic clamps, and lifted the ship on its thrusters. I spun the ship on its yaw axis and aimed for the opening in the shuttle bay. The doors, started closing. I rolled the ship on its longitudinal axis, until we were sideways, and advanced the throttles, to full power. I held my course, and closed my eyes as we narrowly squeezed our way passed the doors.
I recently chided Jewel, for trying to land with her eyes closed, in simulation. Now I was doing the same thing. Fortunately, no one saw me doing it. I banked the ship hard, flying towards our retreating ships. I had to swerve and dodge, pieces of debris, slowing us down. The rear view on my monitor showed lights coming on as the warship powered up.
I accelerated faster, tying in auxiliary power, and going to max burn. We needed to get out of here fast. I raced the Marauder, getting every bit of speed I could get out of it. We were closing on my ship, but not fast enough for me. I hoped we could gain enough distance, so that the alien warship wouldn't pursue us. Time and need were working against me.
When we flew passed the port nacelle, I cut the thrust and flipped the Marauder end over end and rolled the ship upright. The Persephone continued it acceleration and I to fire the reverse thrusters to slow our approach. In seconds I found myself over the runway. My main gear touched down, and I pushed the nose down and braked hard, to come to a stop.
All of us removed our pressure suites and made our way quickly to the bridge. On the view screen, we could see lights coming on throughout the ghost fleet. It wasn't a ghost fleet any longer, now that the ships were coming to life. Our closest jump point put us on course for system MAZ1163CA. This was a dead system according to our database. Not much was known about the system other than the fact that in the center of the solar system was a failed star. It did not have enough mass to start or maintain nuclear fusion, and only obtained enough mass to be classed as a brown dwarf. That made the system a dark system, and a good place to hide.
While the Alien starships were coming to life, we were accelerating at the Lucy's maximum rate. It would take us nearly an hour to reach the earliest safe jump point. Red left, taking a transport shuttle back to the Vengeance. Hissing, screeching, and growling noises assaulted us over our communications systems.
"I have insufficient data to translate the alien language," Persephone informed us. "I will need more data and time to come up with a translation matrix for this species."
"I don't think they are inviting us over for a cup of tea," Jewel offered.
"Persephone, you can access the data I stored in memory module 8607," Mike suggested. "It may give you the additional data you need for a translation. If you can come up with a set of proper logarithms, we can use it to translate the files."
"I am accessing the memory module, and beginning the translation process."
All we could do was wait and hope. The alien fleet was fully awake now. Their ships formed back up into formation, changed course, and started pursuing us. Their ships were fast. Not just fast, but a lot faster than we were. We couldn't outrun them for long.
"Jewel, tr
y sending them our standard forms of first contact greetings."
Jewel sent the greetings. Our main viewscreen showed the image of one of their officers. It could be a communications officer, a ships captain, or the fleet commander. I had no way of knowing. This one was a pearl green color fading to tan. He looked angry, and sounded mad as he screeched and hissed at us.
"I am still unable to translate," Persephone informed us.
"Persephone, synchronize our drives and stand by to jump."
When our count down reached zero, I gave the command to jump. This was a short jump of 3.8 light years. We would be in hyperspace for a little over 7 1/2 hours. A timer showed the remaining time counting down on our main viewscreen.
"Everyone stand down. Be back on the bridge in 7 hours for reentry to normal space."
Shar'tu took over the command chair, and called his watch officers to take our place. I left heading for the recreation center. I missed lunch, exploring the Alien ship and it was to close to dinner to eat a late lunch. I bypassed the bar and went to the gaming tables, accompanied by Amber and Jewel.
The tables were open. I started a game of Planets & Galaxies. The game is very addictive. Each Player starts with a small galaxy, consisting of 1000 solar systems. Each solar system had a random number of planets and moons. The Idea was to destroy the opponents planets, by knocking them out of orbit with a rogue planet. After destroying the planets, the sun was yours to destroy and use. Depending on the mass of the sun you were awarded with either a black dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole. These were launched at your opponents solar systems. Depending on the gravity they had, they could be used to disrupt planetary orbits or destroy whole solar systems. If your black hole merged with another, it became a super black hole able to destroy multiple star systems. The object of the game was simple. You needed to destroy your opponents. The last one remaining was the winner.
