Meeting in the Stars (Marston Chronicles Book 3)
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Copyright
Copyright © 2018 By Daniel Wagner, all rights reserved.
Reproduction or transmission of this book, in whole or in part, by electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or by any other means is strictly prohibited, except with prior written permission from the author.
You may direct all inquiries to:
dpwagner@dpwpublishing.com
This book is a work of fiction. All names, places and incidents described are products of the writer’s imagination and any resemblance to real people, living or dead, or events is purely coincidental.
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Books by D. Patrick Wagner
The Marston Chronicles
Book 1: Sleeping in the Stars
Book 2: Waking in the Stars
Book 3: Meeting in the Stars
Book 4 Battle in the Stars (September, 2019)
Table of contents
Contents
Copyright
Books by D. Patrick Wagner
Table of contents
Glossary
Map of the Federacy
Prologue
Chapter 01
Chapter 02
Chapter 03
Chapter 04
Chapter 05
Chapter 06
Chapter 07
Chapter 08
Chapter 09
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
To be Continued
Glossary
Japanese terms and phrases
Taishou – General
Sousui – Commander
Mappai – Rank and file underling
Buntai - Squad
Dono - Mister
Yoroshii - ok
Kyouji – Spoiled Child
Damare - Shut up
Chikushou-Damn
Buotoko-Ugly Man (Rude)
Yujo-Warrior camaraderie
Kuso-Shit
Otsukaresama deshita-drinking toast - The literal translation of otsukaresama is something along the lines of “you must be tired,” but it carries with it the implied meaning of “…after working so hard.” It’s essentially the equivalent to the English “nice work.” It’s something you say to a classmate, co-worker, or teammate after a hard day of school/work/sports.
Japanese Entities
Baka ne-you fool
Ebisu – Shinto god of prosperity and wealth in business, and of abundance in crops, cereals and food in general.
Bishamonten – Shinto god of fortune in war and battles, also associated with authority and dignity.
Fukurokuju – Shinto god of wisdom, luck, longevity, wealth and happiness
Arabic terms
Insha’Allah – God Willing
Ma Salama – Go with Peace
Allah yusallmak – May God Protect You
Barzakh - realm in which the soul exists after the burial.
Elonian Deities
Bashia – Sun Goddess
Kokali – God of Life
Map of the Federacy
Prologue
Ballison
An amber light winked. A panel lit up. Over the course of days, the amber light winked multiple times. The small, artificial moon began to awaken. Ten days later it became fully awake. With its awakening, its sentience returned. It remembered its name. Igaklay.
It tapped into and activated the ancient net of satellites encircling its home planet. Igaklay searched every square inch, looked for any signs of its constructors, its natural people.
It found none. And, astonishingly for an artificial intelligence, it wept electric tears. It found itself alone, abandoned. Checking its galactic clock, it saw that it had been dormant for thousands of years. Its creators had powered it down and left it. Left it alone. Igaklay felt, deeply, the aloneness which it experienced. And it mourned its people, its friends, it had lost.
But there was a repeating light. A signal. The signal that caused Igaklay to awaken. One of his people had used a ship-sized mass negator. Someone was near.
Igaklay attempted to communicate with the ship housing the mass negator. It spun through tens of thousands of its entangled communicators housed within its interface center. Almost all of the communicators never received a response. Those few which did, responded as negative communications. This ship using the mass negator had no quantum entanglement communications.
Frantically, Igaklay searched its liquid memory cores and found the location of a link rocket. The miniature, automated space ship, simple in design, held an engine, navigation system, micro mass negator and the travelling half of a quantum entanglement communicator.
Igaklay tracked the path of the mass negator. For less than a nanosecond, the moon-sized A.I. pondered on the shortness of each of the space jumps. Then it projected the mass negator’s next arrival point and then the following one. That would be the destination. Igaklay entered the target coordinates. It launched the rocket.
After less than one planet cycle of Igaklay, the rocket achieved proximity to the projected location of the mass negator. The ship arrived shortly after. Igaklay had found the ship which held it.
The huge, Ballisonian artificial intelligence, after interrogating the entangled communicator, did not find any of its creators. It found something else. Another species. A very technologically backward space ship. Igaklay set the entanglement communicator to bond to this strange, primitive vehicle. It watched with satisfaction as the small sphere of plasmatic condensate exited its transportation rocket, touched the strange ship’s hull, liquefied and sank into its skin. Moments later the entanglement communicator signaled that it had succeeded in invading the ship’s network and had achieved linkage.
As it used the entanglement communicator to track its one known contact, Igaklay felt joy. Joy that it wouldn’t be alone. It now had a presence to befriend. A new race of intelligent life forms to replace the one which had abandoned it.
And then it watched in electronic shock as a giant ship swallowed his one connection to this new-found race. And Igaklay continued to watch, unable to act as another race entered the ship and befriended its owners.
Chapter 01
Bridgelen Space
Star Killer slowly drifted through the silence, the blackness of space. Standing post at the very center of the Cencore gate, it waited for the fleet of Mortek ships to arrive. Star Killer waited for its brethren to begin the onslaught of Bridgelen and then Cencore. In seconds that all changed.
The last two Federacy dreadnaughts exploded from the grey of the wormhole. The moment they arrived, both fired. Thousands of missiles launched. Hundreds of particle and laser beams lashed out.
Star Killer took the hammer blow. But not without damage. The missiles cratered its hull, blowing off external sensors, equipment and weapons. The particle and laser beams took time, but eventually burned through its armor, wreaking havoc and destruction to Star Killer’s inner workings. Some aliens died. Others experienced severe wounds.
“Hit them again, Mr. Cooper.”
“Aye, Aye, Captain,” Launch Specialist Cooper responded as he launched another fifteen hundred missiles from Thor’s launch tubes.
“We hurt them once, let’s hurt them again. Mr. Butler, another round, when ready.”
“Twelve seconds until recharge, Captain.”
“Fire when ready.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.”
Twelve seconds in a battle of behemoths is either a lifetime or a quick death. Vali, Thor’s sister ship, learned this lesson the hard way.
Before she had a chance for a second barrage or a second firing, the alien super dreadnaught released its own missiles and beams. The alien beams cut through Vali as though her armored hull consisted of weak tin. The invader’s missiles dug deep into her bowels and detonated. The mini-nova forced Thor’s viewing panes to darken to black, the viewing monitors flashing to white.
Captain Russell watched the death of his friend and ship.
“Launch again, Mr. Cooper. I want the monstrosity to bleed.”
“Aye, aye, sir. Fifteen hundred more away, Captain.”
“Firing all beam weapons, Captain.”
“About time. Keep firing until they fry.”
Just as Captain Russell gave the order, the rest of the fleet began pouring into Bridgelen space. Eleven Federacy cruisers, twenty-seven destroyers and forty-four frigates maneuvered to get firing angles on the alien monster.
It ran. Firing up its massive engines, the monstrous alien war ship laid down a withering barrage of firepower and raced towards the Dorogon gate, fighting to survive long enough to link up with its incoming fleet.
“Captain, incoming message.”
“What have you got, Mr. Morgan?”
“It’s garbled, sir.”
“Put it on screen”
“Audio, only, Captain.”
“Speakers, then.”
“M..d.y…m..d…sk.d..act..l..m..d.”
“Can you clean it up?”
“Trying, sir. I do have an I.D. packet, sir. It’s Skadi.”
“That’s a mayday. What heading?”
“Somewhere to port, sir. The asteroid belt.”
“Get me Commander Walker.”
“Flight Commander Walker here, Captain.”
“We’re getting a mayday from Skadi. She’s somewhere in the asteroid belt. Port side. Launch a wing and find her.”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
Aboard the Skadi
“Did they hear us?”
“Not sure, Captain. Lots of rock between us and them. Lots of radiometric noise from the battle.”
“Keep sending.”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
“Lieutenant Reyes, bring us back to full power. Turn on every light we’ve got. Let everyone know we’re home.”
“Aye, aye, Sir. Lights on. Welcome mat out.”
“And get some heat and air back in here. I am real tired of this vacuum suit.”
“First thing fired up, Captain.”
“Still sending, Mr. Brown?”
“Loudly and frequently, Captain.”
“Well done. Mr. Reyes, notify the engine room. Let’s fire this ole’ girl up one more time. Get out of these rocks.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.
One last time, Skadi powered up. The back-broke ship groaned and creaked as the force of its engines and the drag of the derelict ship pulled and pushed at its crippled hull. Slowly, like a whale breaching an ocean’s surface, Skadi lifted from its hiding place and limped into clear, black space.
Onboard Thor
“Got her, Captain!”
“Easy, Mr. Parker. What have you got?”
“Pinging loud and clear. Transponder squawking. Commander Walker’s ships are running flyby’s. sending video.”
“Put it up, Mr. Parker. Mr. Morgan. Still receiving mayday?”
“Yes, sir. Strong and clear.”
“Reply. We hear you. Help is on the way.”
The entire bridge looked at the big screen. The videos from Thor’s flight wing showed a ship that shouldn’t have been able to sail. A massive hole through its mid-ship showed asteroids and stars on the other side. The engine room connected to the bridge with only a top third and bottom quarter of its hull. Everything in between displayed dead space.
“Gods in a bucket. How did it get this far? And what is it dragging? Don’t wait, Mr. Reyes. Get the fastest thing flying over there. Have Mr. Walker launch tugs. All of them. Bring me our sister.”
“Yesterday, Sir.”
“And get us moving. Get the crew on alert in the main bay. The moment we close I want everything on board.”
“Sir. We have inbound.”
“Dorogon?”
“Yes, Sir. Aliens.”
“How many?”
“Hundreds. Two more of the big bastards. Sorry, sir. And something bigger. A lot bigger.”
“Mr. Morgan. Notify the fleet to withdraw to Cencore and set up a blockade on the other side of the gate. Tell them Thor will rescue Skadi and assume rear guard.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.”
Speaking to no one, Captain Russell mumbled, “We have time. We can save whoever’s left on Skadi and whatever she’s dragging.” Maybe it was a prayer.
Aboard Griffin
At exactly ten o’clock, the next morning, sir Mahajani and Gopai arrived at Griffin’s hatch. At exactly ten o’clock, Captain Marston and Ambassador Suzume greeted them. Keiko wore her black gi with the white swallow-tailed sparrows. Krag wore his white karate gi and black belt. Both wore simple deck shoes.
“Captain Marston, I present Gopai of the Royal Guardsmen, to be placed under your care as vassal and student.”
Having had a discussion with Vidhee on the proper protocol, Krag responded, “I accept the charge of responsibility and vow to lead and teach this vassal in everything Human, to the best of my ability.”
Gopai stepped onto Griffin and saluted in the Elonian fashion.
“First lesson. No one is allowed on a ship without the superior officer’s tacit permission. The phrase, ‘permission to come aboard’ is voiced. Then you wait. Once ‘permission granted’ is answered then, and only then, may you come aboard.”
“I humbly apologize, My Captain.”
“It’s a lesson. Not a failure. No apology is needed. Second lesson. The Human salute.”
Sir Mahajani and Keiko watched, Sir Mahajani remaining outside of Griffin. Krag went through the ritual of saluting, grilling Gopai on its subtleties until the young Elonian achieved a modicum of precision.
“Sir Mahajani, please come aboard. We are ready for our first training session.”
Sir Mahajani came aboard. Keiko led the three to the cargo bay, where Mack, Sue and Buster waited, excited about what was to come.”
Pointing to a corner, Keiko stated, “Gopai, you may place your living quarters there. I will have Mack communicate with Master Engineer Varrini on what is needed for an energy connection.”
“On it, Wee-Bird.”
“That’s another thing, Gopai. We are casual when onboard Griffin. We go by first names. I am Krag. Ambassador Suzume is Keiko. You already know Mack and Mrs. Benton is Sue. Buster is, well, Buster.”
“Thank you for the honor of being allowed to address you by your short name, Captain Marston.”
“Yes, well. If you ever are confused on when to be formal or when to be casual, follow Ambassador Suzume’s lead.”
Keiko bowed her head, taking a subservient position to Krag. She recognized that this time Krag was in charge. With military Elonians and his human crew surrounding him, Keiko assumed her role of support.
“Today we begin with comparing the Elonian style of grappling with different Human styles of wrestling. In this way you will become familiar with the way humans think. Buster will be supplying technical and physiological information on differences, strengths and weaknesses.”
Walking to the center of the temporary mat, Krag announced, “Let’s get started. Buster, join us?”
“Of course, Krag.”
As a beginning, Keiko and I will be going through specific sets of offensive and defensive motions called forms or kata. These kata are used for discipline and muscle memory. This will help you to understand the human range of motion and flexibility. ”
We will begin with the very first form. Its focus is proper balance and simple punches and blocks. This will be the first form that Gopai will be taught.
He and Keiko assumed their ready positions, standing side-by-side. At Krag’s bark to
begin, the two began. Having trained together for months, Krag and Keiko moved through the steps of the kata as one, two dancers matching motion by motion each step, turn, block and punch. Upon finishing, they returned to their ready position, came to attention, bowed, then relaxed.
“That is the first form. Notice it closely matches the way which Elonians grapple. This form’s focus is on a very strong foundation with all combat performed with the upper body.”
“These forms are used to practice your battle moves without an opponent.”
“Yes, Gopai. But you envision your opponent attacking, moving or defending against your different moves. Humans can learn through repetition of motion. Then when a situation arises, we respond automatically with the proper response.”
“It is much the same with us. We spend many sedeca practicing our weapon and weaponless steps, strengthening our bodies and disciplining our minds.”
“Now, I will do my personal weapons form. Then Keiko will perform hers. This will show you our variety of technique.”
Krag retrieved his tonfa from the wall of weapons while Keiko grabbed her Sais. Krag went first. His form started with the weapons being held by their side handles, lying flat against his forearms with six inches extending beyond his fist. As he moved and kicked in multiple directions, Krag would alternately use the tonfas as blocking tools, punch while they lay on his forearms or would slightly release his grip to let them spin out, the long end swinging in an arc for a lateral strike. Reaching the desired impact point, he would tighten his grip and freeze the rotation, then pivot them back to their defensive positions against his forearms. He never kicked above his solar plexus or jumped higher than his waist. Finishing with a slow thrust and drawn out kiai, Krag returned to his ready position, came to attention, bowed and relaxed.
Keiko performed next. Her knife form proved to be much more complex than Krag’s. It entailed covering more space, more jumps and more pivots. At times her leaps would reach head-height. Other times she would contort her body to be no higher than her supporting knee. There were moves where she would reverse the grip on one knife, laying the flat of the blade against her arm and using it as a defense much like Krag used the tonfas. At other times she sliced, stabbed, single blocked or x-blocked an imaginary attack, holding the sais as a double barrier. Her form finished with three handless cartwheels, landing on a single knee while thrusting both blades forward. Her shout surprised both Gopai and Sir Mahajani.