Legacy Fleet: Avenger (Kindle Worlds) (The First Swarm War Book 2)

by Chris Pourteau

  Of the one hundred embryos originally taken, less than twenty remained in stasis. Many had graduated, as Martin was about to, and sought their destiny among the stars. To find their places in the hierarchy of human society, to become cogs in the great machine of expansion unfolding across the galaxy.

  Elaine sat her aging body carefully down on a weathered rock and glanced back at their school room, once a cargo compartment of the SS Galilee. She chuckled as she remembered the day she’d emerged to find that another of her favorites, Sebastian, had spray-painted “New” over the starship designation.

  New Galilee.

  Perfect. That’s exactly what we are. A new hope for humanity in a place where God’s work can unfold undisturbed. We live in a harsh forge, yes, but one that will shape my children into the hardest steel for the work they must do.

  Sebastian had gotten extra rations that day.

  Her wrist comms beeped.

  “Yes, Moses?”

  “Sister Cornwell, an ice storm is forming ten kilometers to the north. Estimates place the storm here within the half hour.”

  Elaine sighed, watching the children at their various forms of play. They’d had so little time outside lately. “Tell me when it’s ten minutes away, Moses?”

  “Acknowledged, Sister Cornwell.”

  Sometimes, with only the children and Moses to talk to, she missed the adult conversation and companionship of her old crew. But in the early days, before the crops had begun to grow, she and the newborns had needed sustenance. And the others, newly awakened and brought into the brotherhood, had gladly submitted themselves to that need. They all knew what she knew: nothing mattered more than growing healthy crops of children. They were humanity’s future.

  Elaine watched them laughing and jumping, and her smile returned. Even the cold in her bones seemed less when she focused on them. Work was important, of course it was. Learning was important. But play was important too.

  The future will need play, she thought.

  Afterword

  There’s a point in Avenger where Avery, after entering Engineering with Farrell and Barstow, has a moment of déjà vu. As she steps cautiously inside, looking for Malcolm Brent, something feels eerily similar to an incident that happened when she was still at the Academy. So, you might be wondering, what’s that all about? In December, Alt.Chronicles: Legacy Warrior, a second set of short stories set in Nick’s Legacy Fleet Kindle World, will be published. (You can find the first set, Alt.Chronicles: Legacy Fleet, here.) One of the stories in Warrior, “Tarantula,” tells the tale of Samantha Avery and Addison Halsey as fourth-year midshipmen on a training mission that doesn’t quite go as planned. You’ll find the reasons there for Avery’s feelings of foreboding in this novel.

  I want to take a moment and thank the folks who helped make Avenger a reality. First up is Nick Webb, of course, whose outstanding Legacy Fleet Trilogy provided the sandbox for me to play in. When Nick invited writers to share in his vision via Kindle Worlds, I immediately threw my hat in the ring. Nick, thanks for all the support and encouragement along the way and the awesome world you created.

  Second up: David Bruns, my partner in The First Swarm War series. David and I cooked up the idea of exploring this earlier conflict between Earth and the Swarm, and David took the first step with his excellent novel, Invincible. It’s really him you have to thank for our world-within-Nick’s-world, and it was great fun accepting the baton from David and running with it in Avenger. If by some chance you came to my novel first, I urge you to pick up Invincible and see how the story of Avery, Halsey, and the rest of our heroes really started. David’s novel is an excellent fusion of political thriller and pew-pew space opera, and I felt like I had a lot to live up to while writing my sequel. Thanks, David, for inspiring me to reach a little higher.

  My first reader is my wife, Alison. Her feedback is always honest but encouraging, and simply having her ask excitedly for the next chapter is as much a motivator as anything I can think of to actually sit down and write it. Thanks, babe, for being my #1 fan (without the need for hobbling blocks or a sledgehammer).

  Tom Edwards of Tom Edwards Design created the awesome cover for Avenger. He’s the artist responsible for most of the Legacy Fleet covers. He really manages to capture the broad, awe-inspiring feeling of space opera in his work, and I was lucky he was available to work on Avenger.

  Michelle Benoit, my proofreader, and I go way back—a couple of decades, in fact. I met her in the early ’90s when she was helming a Star Trek: The Next Generation fanzine called Federation Standard, and we’ve been good friends ever since. Her eagle eyes and willingness to say “Um, this is wrong” is why I value her services as my editor.

  I’d also like to thank my advanced review copy (ARC) readers, who took the time to read Avenger while it still had typos in the text. Without ARC readers, many independent authors (including me) would have very lonely launch days—involving more cricket chirps than mouse clicks—so I really appreciate the role they play in the publishing process. Thank y’all for reading an early version of Avenger, warts and all.

  Finally, thank you, dear reader, for the time you spent reading this novel. I’m still pleasantly surprised when people I don’t even know choose to spend their time reading my stuff. In the end, time is shorter for all of us than we’d like it to be, so your spending time reading my work feels like a great gift from you to me, every time. I hope you enjoyed Avenger and found it time well spent.

  A Word to My Reader

  If you enjoyed Avenger, I’d like to ask you for one small favor before you go. Please take a moment to review this novel at Amazon. As a reader of independent authors, you’re both our market and our marketing force. Reviews are a key factor in promoting a work’s visibility—to other readers, of course, but also to critics and booksellers, who use reviews to determine, for example, what books to feature in promotions.

  But reviews also help other readers just like you decide if they should spend their money—and their time—on a published work. Providing a review is like presenting a public service announcement to your fellow readers, something you also benefit from when they do the same for you. Please recognize that by leaving a review, you’re making a real contribution to the world—and the quality—of independent publishing.

  Thank you for that.

  About the Author

  Chris Pourteau has been a technical writer and editor for over twenty years. He published his first novel in 2013, and in November 2015, he edited and produced the collection Tails of the Apocalypse, which contains short stories from fourteen of the most talented independent authors writing today. Each story is set in a different apocalyptic scenario and features an animal as a main character.

  Among his other works of fiction, Chris has published a compilation of military sci-fi, Tales of B-Company: The Complete Collection, to the praise of readers and fellow writers alike. If you’d like to let Chris know what you think about Avenger, or if you just want to say howdy, feel free to email him at c.pourteau.author@gmail.com or sign up for his monthly newsletter at http://chrispourteau.thirdscribe.com/newsletter, and he’ll send you free stuff.

  Chris lives in College Station, Texas, with his wife, son, and two dogs.