by Greg Chase
Salvation
Technopia Book 4
greg chase
Bayou Moon Press LLC
Contents
About This Book
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Book List
About the Author
Copyright © 2016 by Greg Chase
First Edition 2016
Cover Art by Jeff Brown
Editing by Red Adept
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locals, business establishments, or persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.
Bayou Moon Press, LLC
About This Book
Technopia: Salvation
Having killed their god, the Tobes of Jupiter are left with a void only Sam’s wife and daughters can fill. The technologically advanced beings don’t know what havoc these women intend to release across the solar system.
Jess dreams of retribution for the destruction of her homeworld, but she and her daughters face a bigger problem—the potential end of life on Earth. Turning pirate could be the only way to entice the space renegades to her cause. But while the outlaw adventurers are the only force capable of confronting the Moons of Jupiter, they aren’t very trustworthy.
Jess isn’t the only one who’s cagey with her plans. For too long, those who love Sara have kept a watchful eye on her. Freed at last, Sara must face what her father long resisted: the temptation to take ultimate power over another species.
Alone back on Earth, Emily inherits the chaos of a dying planet. As the reluctant president of Rendition, she feels the weight of the world on her tender, young shoulders.
If the three women can’t find a way to unite their secret agendas, humanity may not survive its Armageddon.
Greg’s Newsletter
1
Sara gazed out at the dust storm that raced up the valley like a gang of fire wraiths devouring all they touched. She didn’t even know the name of this moon of Jupiter, only that her father had chosen it as the location for his death. Her emotions competed with each other for dominance. Sorrow was the easiest. Her father had been the only living soul who understood her connection to the technologically based entities, the Tobes, whom he’d created. The Tobes of the Moons of Jupiter had abandoned him—turned their backs on their god—and that put rage front and center as her emotion of choice. He would have been the first to tell her, though, that his creation had released him at his own request. Too much of the two years her parents had spent out among the Moons of Jupiter was a mystery.
As Sara sat next to her mother on the plateau, she wondered if the dry moon had evaporated all of the woman’s tears. To lose a father who’d spent so much time away from his daughters was one thing, but the death of a life partner who’d shared adventures across the solar system was a pain Sara couldn’t imagine.
On the far side of the escarpment sat the black pirate ship that had served as their base camp while her father was dying. Each morning, her mother had made the pilgrimage out from her father’s makeshift hospital room to watch the firestorms, only agreeing to return to the safety of the ship when darkness fell. Sara didn’t know what leverage her mother held over Ramon, the pirate captain, but he’d made it clear he had no intention of leaving until he knew she was safe.
“There he is.” Her mother stretched out her arm toward the horizon. Flying in low over the cloud of umber dust punctuated by dry lightning was the spaceship Sara had only heard about in stories. She hadn’t expected the pirate vessel Rampike to be as grand as the family’s luxury space yacht Persephone, but nothing had prepared her for its decrepit condition. Dodging in and out of the maelstrom, it looked more like debris than a craft capable of space travel. Sophie, Persephone’s Tobe captain, never would have taken such risks.
Her mother struggled to her feet and slapped the ever-present dust off her tattered space leathers. The poor woman looked to have lost thirty pounds since Sara had last seen her on Earth. Two years seemed like a lifetime ago. “We’d best get aboard the moment he lands. Once the storm hits, we won’t be able to see six inches in front of our faces.”
Instead of knocking the dust off her clothes, Sara discreetly rubbed the dark orange deeper into her glossy black outfit. She’d never been embarrassed by the wealth that had been lavished on her before, and certainly not in front of her mother, who’d been so instrumental in seeing that the family’s fortune went toward helping people. But compared to Jess in her beat-up space leathers, Sara felt like the proverbial cowboy with a new hat—she remembered the term: tenderfoot.
The roar of engines, so close overhead she could feel the hot blast of their exhaust fumes, made Sara hit the ground as Rampike shot in front of the storm to touch down on the plateau. Her mother simply stood watching the landing as if it were a daily occurrence.
The moment the battered landing skids hit the hard-baked dirt, the hatch burst open. Larry, Persephone’s human captain, looked wildly out of place leaning out from the opening. “Better move it—that storm’s not waiting around.”
As Sara followed Jess and climbed the rickety ladder into the craft, she felt the first winds of the storm push her from behind like some drunken sleazeball groping her ass at a nightclub. Larry had the hatch secured just as the barrage of dust coated the small view port. “Had Sophie known this harmattan was coming, she’d have stayed behind.”
Sara’s mom shook the dust out of her hair. “And if she had, the Moons of Jupiter corporations would have spotted her. I know she wanted to say good-bye to Sam, but her coming here was foolish.”
“You can’t blame her,” Larry said. “She carried the emotions of all of Earth’s Tobes. And you know Lud and Dr. Shot weren’t going to let Sara come out here on her own.”
Sara couldn’t remember her mother ever being so harsh. “The pirates could have transported them. I’d have thought the Tobes had more sense. Giving in to emotion out here is a quick way to get people killed, or worse.”
It had to be the stress getting the better of her. Sara doubted her mother had gotten more than an hour’s continuous sleep since her father had died over a week ago.
Larry checked the monitor. “This storm’s going to keep us grounded for a few hours. We can spend that time arguing Sophie’s motivations if you like, or you can get some much-needed rest.”
He had always been a trusted companion on the family’s outings while traveling aboard Persephone. His soft voice had a calming effect on the emotionally ravaged woman. “Wake me when it lifts. I don’t want to spend a moment longer than necessary on this godforsaken rock.”
Sara struggled down the cramped passageway after Jess. Her impression of the ship was not improved by the dingy sleeping berth. Two small beds with restraining straps were secured to the bulkheads. Beyond that concession to the lurching nature of space flight, th
e accommodations were Spartan—no cabinets, no closet, nothing other than the two beds.
She poked her nose into the bathroom, which had no bath that Sara could identify. It must not have been cleaned in a decade. Sophie might have gotten a very different impression of Spike—Rampike’s Tobe captain—had she seen what lay below the surface. But then again, a Tobe wouldn’t need living quarters.
Sara had never considered herself and her sister spoiled. Their life on Earth wasn’t always about the family’s New York penthouse or the private parties at FAO Schwarz or any of the other privileges that went along with being daughters of the richest people on the planet. She rubbed the dust out of her eyes. She missed traveling aboard her friend Sophie. So maybe Sara was a little spoiled. What would her mother think? For the space adventuress—the female lead of so many legends across so many impoverished outposts and the wife of a god—a little physical discomfort wouldn’t even be worth mentioning in one of her stories.
Sara sat on the bed. Dust hung heavy in the air from the decrepit, thin mattress and burned her nose as she breathed in the painful aroma—the remnant of too many unwashed pirates.
The depressing surroundings brought back memories of combating hardships on Earth. She and her twin sister, Emily, had played the game many times. One of them would feel depressed about some boy, or they’d miss out on spending time with the village—their real home on Leviathan—or something else would go wrong in their perfect world, and the other would begin the story. They were lead characters, Ra and Emi, daughters of the greatest, sexiest, most fearless space adventuress of the solar system—a woman who’d brought toys and candy to destitute orphans on some remote, abandoned planetoid, rescued colonies, and was teacher to an entire new species of advanced beings. On and on the story game would go, each twin adding a new sentence to her mother’s list of accomplishments. And they, her daughters, were destined for even greater adventures.
Both knew their father was held in even higher regard, but thinking of themselves as daughters of a god took them too far away from what they might accomplish on their own. It wasn’t a legacy either wished to embrace.
Sara looked over at her mother resting on her bunk. She’d have liked to start a conversation to distract herself from her thoughts, but any question she thought up invariably circled back to her father, and the woman really needed some sleep. As Sara lay back on her bed, she saw the dust highlighted from the glow of the ceiling light. It floated around her like dangerous insects waiting for their opportunity to suck her blood as she slept.
She shook her head to force the funk out of her emotions. Her mother wasn’t just a story—many of the legends were based on actual events. And Sara wasn’t just playing at being the descendent of adventurers. Sam and Jess really were her parents. Her upbringing might have been one of privilege, but no one in the village had ever let her lose touch with reality. She thought of the childhood experiences that had laid the foundation for her philosophy as president of Rendition—the utopian village where everyone was equal, the people she’d met through her parents, and the discussions she’d had with her Tobe siblings, Joshua and Ellie.
The feelings of self-indulgence, self-pity and, worst of all, selfishness were getting the better of her. Emily, never one for violence, would have smacked her on the side of the head for being so childish. And rightly so.
In spite of the loss of her father, and her admiration of her mother, Sara needed to change her perspective. The woman was Jess, not Mom. And Sara had a world to save.
Jess laced her fingers together over her eyes as she lay back on the familiar bunk. A week of mourning her dead husband hadn’t done anyone any good. And taking out her frustration on those around her had only managed to leave her feeling hollow inside. It’d been good to have Sophie around. But all the memories encapsulated by that lovely space yacht and its loving captain made Jess feel weak and vulnerable. She longed to be back out on a pirate outpost. The pirates would be her people now. The original mission of freeing the Moons of Jupiter’s Tobes would no longer be possible without their god. And attacking the corporations that ran each moon—which had been responsible for so much destruction across the solar system—wouldn’t be possible without help. Then there was Sara. What was she to do about her daughter?
Jess squeezed her eyes shut under her palms. Poor Sara, born into a perfect, terraformed utopia, transplanted from her dying planet of Chariklo to the highest penthouse in New York, kidnapped by a group of religious zealots, then freed by Tobes, who’d in the process given her supernatural powers. Sara had inherited Rendition, the most powerful corporation on Earth.
And now what? Jess didn’t even know her own plan let alone how Sara might fit into it. That had been the real reason she’d lashed out at Sophie. The Tobe captain had brought Sara out to the moons and into a whole new danger—doing exactly what Jess had requested.
Fuck it. Sleep will have to wait.
Jess’s muscles ached as she sat up on her bunk to see Sara staring at her from across the small cabin. “You couldn’t sleep either?”
“I was just wondering what we’re going to do. I have questions.”
Memories of Jess’s sweet daughter overlay the view of the grown-up woman lying on her bunk. “You’re not the carefree girl who used to swim naked in the lake on Chariklo anymore. It’s hard for me to see you as you are now. So much has happened to both of us. I’ve requested a ship and pilot from the pirates. I’ll join them among the Trojan centaur planets outside of Jupiter’s gravitational pull. I’m going to build an armada and bring down the Moons’ corporations.”
Sara’s unblinking eyes bore into Jess. “All on your own?”
“Your father and I changed Earth for both Tobes and people. Then we set up the means for the Tobes out here to gain their freedom. When the time comes, I’m hoping I can count on the freed Tobes’ help in destroying their overlords. The pirates are the last piece.”
Sara sat up and hugged her arms across her stomach. “What do you want me to do?”
What she really wanted Sara to do was go home, but that wasn’t an option. “Your connection to the Tobes, being their god’s daughter, puts you in a unique position. They started building competing religions around what he did. Those factions will only strain their unity. I need them to all work together, not against each other.”
“And you think they’ll listen to me?”
That was the question that had plagued Jess. When the descendent of god arrives, how do the evangelicals react? “I have some names and places where you might find help, but there are just as many who will resist. Not every Tobe out here considered your father their god. Many saw him as the devil.”
“And once I’ve united the Tobes, and you’ve built your armed force, then what? You can’t just go to war.”
The old human predilection toward violence did have its appeal, but that had never been Jess’s plan. “As head of Rendition, you should know better. But even with our family’s wealth, I can’t manage a hostile buyout. I can, however, weaken the owners’ position enough to create a workers’ revolution.”
Whether those workers would be of the human or Tobe variety, however, was not yet clear.
“Where should I start, and how will I get around?”
Jess remembered all too well asking much the same questions when she and Sam had first ventured out into this hostile territory. “Use Rampike. Spike’s a tough character, but he’s got a soft spot for Sophie. Anytime he gets difficult, just remind him of your connection to Persephone. And in case he needs further convincing, Larry’s agreed to stay on as captain. I know it doesn’t look like much, but between this spaceship, a pirate Tobe, and a captain unafraid of adventure, you’ll have a strong base of operation.”
If it weren’t for Sara, Jess would have gladly taken Spike and Larry along with her to become a formidable pirate trio.
Jess didn’t remember falling asleep, but that was the way it’d been lately. Her waking nightmare would give way to
surreal images of those she loved facing some unknown Armageddon, only to turn to the dreaded reality again when she woke.
The view screen beside her bunk provided the only illumination in the room. Sara must have turned off the lights once she realized Jess had drifted off. Larry’s face on the screen looked more pained than apologetic. “Sorry to have wakened you, but you said you wanted to know the moment the storm lifted.”
“I’m not coming with you after all. Signal Ramon that I’m coming back. I’ve still got work to do, and I want you to look after Sara.” The space leathers grasped at her skin as she stood up. Sara lay curled up on her bunk so sweetly Jess couldn’t bring herself to wake her. Sometimes slipping away was easier than having a tearful good-bye. They each had work to do, and it was time to embrace the cold exterior they’d both need to survive among the greedy corporations, enslaved Tobes, and violence-prone pirates. The caring maternal emotions could too easily weaken Jess’s resolve to allow Sara the freedom to engage in her end of the plan. Sara would have help, but Jess couldn’t be seen as the one to swoop down from the skies and come to the rescue. By leaving so abruptly, that tie could be temporarily cut. I’ll see you on the other side of this dangerous adventure, my sweet girl.
As she left Rampike, Jess couldn’t bring herself to look across the plateau at the all-black pirate ship that had brought her and Sam to this desolate moon. Returning to Ramon Mondrain’s spaceship, which had been her unwelcome base camp while Sam lay dying, left her nauseous. Even once he’d passed, she’d preferred looking out at the barren wasteland rather than stay confined in the small space where the bio-monitors had pronounced Sam’s doom. But the head of the pirate outpost had been invaluable to their work and survival. He would transport her to the new life she’d dreamed about as a kid. Sam’s title for her, said in jest—Hot Jessica, Space Adventuress—wouldn’t be such a joke anymore.
