Destination Alara

by S. Y. Thompson

  Destination Alara

  Copyright © 2014 by S.Y. Thompson

  Acknowledgments

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  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

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Coming Soon from SY Thompson

  More Titles from SY Thompson

  Other Silver Dragon Books

  About the Author

  Visit Us On Line

  Also by S.Y. Thompson:

  Under The Midnight Cloak

  Now You See Me

  Fractured Futures

  Destination Alara

  by

  S.Y. Thompson

  Silver Dragon Books

  by Regal Crest

  Texas

  Copyright © 2014 by S.Y. Thompson

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The characters, incidents and dialogue herein are fictional and any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  ISBN 978-1-61929-167-6 (eBook)

  eBook Conversion April 2014

  First Printing 2014

  9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Original cover design by Donna Pawlowski

  Final cover design by Acorn Graphics

  Published by:

  Regal Crest Enterprises, LLC

  229 Sheridan Loop

  Belton, TX 76513

  Find us on the World Wide Web at http://www.regalcrest.biz

  Published in the United States of America

  Acknowledgments

  Writing is a passion. It must be or we wouldn't spend hours in solitude working on such a lonely, albeit satisfying, craft. However, as much as an author invests solitary time creating characters and worlds, no one creates a novel alone. I'd like to acknowledge and thank the readers, my friends and family as well as the other fiction authors who inspire me. My heartfelt gratitude to Linda North, who is always available any time I need help brainstorming. No one is a better friend or beta. Heather Flournoy, who is the best editor ever, I learn so much from you each time we run through the process. Finally, thank you to my Regal Crest family. I'd like to showcase the fact that the cover for Destination Alara is one of the last ones created by Donna Pawlowski before her untimely death. We will miss you, Donna.

  Dedication

  In Loving Memory:

  Donna Pawlowski

  Epigraph

  The real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

  ~Plato~

  Chapter One

  SHE AWAKENED WITH thoughts of breakfast on her mind. Eggs over medium beside strips of crisp bacon, along with a mountain of hash browns. The hash browns would be crisp, too, and nestled alongside a slice of deliciously buttered toast. Best of all would be the large mug of hot, black coffee. Kona. She could almost smell the slightly bitter aroma and feel the punch of the caffeine that would kick-start her day. For long moments, she explored the indulgent fantasy and her smile grew. Then reality set in. Breakfast in space was a bad idea, a real breakfast anyway. Unless of course you enjoyed synthetic protein and bread so tough you had to cut it with a plasma torch. Personally, Vanessa Swann didn't.

  The mechanically modulated tones of the computer-generated alarm clock sounded seconds later and she slapped it off as the overhead com burst into life.

  "Captain Swann to the bridge. We're under attack."

  Her ship, Falcon, shuddered just as Commander Byra hailed, punctuating his statement by listing heavily to port. The sudden shift in angle threw Van out of the rack and she cracked her elbow on the unyielding deck plating.

  "Dammit."

  "Captain, are you all right?"

  "Worry about the ship, Commander."

  The small scout vessel heeled dangerously in the opposite direction and Van's teeth clenched down hard as she fought to maintain her balance. Kneeling on all fours, balancing should have been an easy task. By the time the stabilizers finally kicked in, she was already cramming her body into a uniform. What she lacked in stature, she made up for in determination.

  "I'm on my way."

  Falcon was a Coalition Sector Patrol ship, and its beat was the outer perimeter between the Triangulum and Andromeda Galaxies. The Earth Coalition allied with the Andromeda system inhabitants, but territories won during the Border Wars allowed them to patrol out so far. Captain Swann's crew walked a fine line so near to enemy territory that they required vigilance to stay on the proper side.

  Fast and light, the spacecraft possessed more firepower than was obvious at a glance. With shields of reinforced pulse-ionized particles, it was rare for an enemy shot to penetrate. A panel next to her exploded as she jogged down a corridor and Van ducked as she realized that someone had indeed made it through. Debris littered the corridor. At least the uniforms were form-fitting and didn't catch on any of the detritus.

  Ignoring her burning cheek and the smell of singed hair, she strode onto the bridge and surveyed the scene through the large frontal viewport. Three smaller unmarked vessels dipped and darted among the backdrop of stars.

  Pirates.

  Van took a quick glance around the chaotic scene with her fists planted on her hips. She felt the eyes of her crew upon her and sensed that they drew comfort from her commanding presence.

  "I assume you are shooting back."

  Byra vacated the captain's chair just as she dropped into it and Van quickly assessed the situation. "Yugi, attack pattern Omega." Her voice was calm.

  Be confident, she thought, remembering command school. Let the crew think you have everything under control. Yeah, right.

  The navigator sat directly forward of her and Van saw some of the tension leave the young officer's shoulders, proof that maybe there was something to command theory. The pilot threw Falcon to port and then into a barrel roll as she followed her orders. In the wash of emergency lighting Yugi's pale blue skin looked sickly gray and blended with the slate-colored Coalition uniforms.

  Falcon ended up just where Van wanted, directly beneath the vulnerable underbelly of one of the marauders.

  "Fire everything we've got."

  Lieutenant Commander Ozal, a Human-Thuban hybrid, manipulated her weapons panel like a conductor, hands flying as she fired pulse cannons and plasma bombs in a deadly concerto. Full-blooded Thubans sported four arms but Van wagered her Lieutenant was more talented with just the two.

  The pirate vessel sheared neatly down the middle, all weapons striking her keel from stem to stern. Secondary explosions fired as both halves fell away exposing all decks to the vacuum of space. They were no longer a threat.

  "Captain?"

  The panic in Yugi's voice drew Van's eyes to another craft on a direct collision course. Her fingers dug into the chair arms as Falcon lurched to a halt, shuddering against the sudden shift. As the pirate vessel loomed closer, she swore she could see the enemy commander's eyes as wide and shocked as her own.

  "What are you doing? Evade." Van felt sure she had screamed the last word.

  Yugi did
n't seem to hear the command, pinned in place by fear and inexperience. It would be the last time Van took a greenling on board as a navigator.

  Van had always heard that time was relative, but it was the first time she experienced the phenomenon for herself. She saw the small ship grow in the forward viewer as the distance quickly dwindled between them. At the same time, Van was aware of the small drop of nervous sweat that tracked from her hairline and down her left temple. She felt the breath burst from her lungs as she took control of the helm with scant seconds to spare.

  Not designed for short bursts of speed, a ram-jet fusion engine's sole purpose was to hurtle a crew from the Triangulum Galaxy to the Andromeda Galaxy in a few weeks, a distance of about seven hundred and fifty thousand light years. Van would have preferred to run a simulation. Unfortunately, there was no choice.

  Van pressed her thumb into the control so hard she split the nail. She felt the vessel gather in on itself, trembling with built up energy as the engines roared to life. Everything on the bridge shimmered like heat off of hot pavement in summer and then they jumped forward, hurtling through space. Van gave the engines a solid one-count and then she hit full stop. Falcon trembled hard and the groan of tortured metal shrieked in her ears. A few seconds later, the aft viewers kicked on and she saw what little remained of the enemy vessels drifting harmlessly in space.

  The ion fusion explosion from the engines had reduced the pirates and their ships to nothing more than twisted bits of metallic alloy and vaporized particles. Acrid air made it difficult to draw breath. Sparks showered and main lighting failed, replaced seconds later by an unhealthy glow from the emergency generators. Someone coughed. Another spoke.

  "My God."

  Van realized she was standing, staring dumbly at the total devastation. The rebels hadn't just been defeated. She'd annihilated them. Falcon was adrift, systems overloaded or destroyed by her impulsive decision.

  She'd demolished her own ship along with the pirate vessels. The Falcon was a Coalition vessel on its maiden flight on Van's first stint as a ship's captain. If she were very lucky, Headquarters would assign her to the reclamation units on the farthest outpost in space for the rest of her life. Van thought such a fate far less appealing than outright incarceration.

  Wow.

  "Captain, we have a proximity alert. A vessel is approaching."

  Van looked at her second with something akin to surprise. "You mean one of our systems is working?"

  Byra looked away and suppressed a grin as the forward view screen activated. A face Van never wanted to see in a situation like this stared back at her. Black eyes glittered dangerously. Thick, dark hair, cut short and rakishly parted fell across the woman's forehead to frame intelligent features. The high collar of the gray Coalition uniform, piped with deep purple, indicated the rank of a Vice Admiral.

  "Identify yourself," Vice Admiral Cade Meryan of the Coalition Flagship Gauntlet ordered.

  Van's career was over. Not known to be the forgiving kind, Vice Admiral Meryan held sway with the Council Government on Alara Prime as well as the ruling house of the High Queen. Van had no illusions on how much credibility she carried as a junior captain.

  "I'm...totally screwed."

  Unbelievably, there was a hint of laughter in the dark eyes before it disappeared. "At least we agree on something. I'll send a jump ship to collect you, Captain, while my crew assesses the derelicts for anything salvageable."

  "Collect me? I don't understand."

  The admiral frowned. It was amazing how the woman could project so much into such a simple expression and Van felt her ears burn. Too bad she was a full-blooded Human. Any other species would have been able to hide the telltale sign of embarrassment.

  "I'll have to debrief you, of course."

  "Of course." Van coughed to clear her throat. "May I bring a second?"

  A dark eyebrow went up. "Expecting me to execute you on the spot?"

  "Never can be too sure."

  Her humor fell short and the admiral's response was terse. "You may bring your exec. Be in the loading bay in fifteen minutes. Meryan out."

  Minutes later, Van stood in Falcon's main cargo bay with Commander Paul Byra. She sucked on her sore thumb where the nail had cracked down to the quick while he updated her on the ship's status.

  "We got lucky, Van. There were no major casualties, just some bumps and bruises. One of the engineers broke his wrist."

  Normally, a second in command wouldn't address his captain so informally but they had been friends for a long time and they were alone in the loading bay.

  "And the Falcon?"

  Byra sighed and she realized she'd guessed right about the vessel's condition. She might be a newly commissioned captain, but she knew what a healthy ship felt like. "She'll need to be towed to space dock," he told her unnecessarily.

  "Great. That's just what I need." Van rubbed a hand over her face, tired already and the day was just beginning. "What do you know about Meryan?"

  She could see she'd surprised him with the question, but Paul answered readily. "Just what everyone else does, I suppose. She's the youngest fleet commander in the Coalition."

  "I'm sure that doesn't have anything to do with being heir to the Ellerton Empire, right?"

  He looked like he wanted to slap Van against the side of the head. Even though he was probably within his rights, she knew he wouldn't try it. "You might want to lay off the sarcasm, Captain. I don't think Meryan has much in the way of a sense of humor and for what it's worth, I don't think she got her rank through nepotism."

  "No. Probably not," she finally conceded, surprised he even knew the word. "Isn't she supposed to be an Alaran hybrid?"

  Paul started slightly. "I hadn't heard that. She doesn't look like an Alaran to me. She's too dark. Alarans are blonde with blue skin and wrap-around ears, like Yugi."

  "She's a hybrid, half Human. I guess she took after her father's side of the family."

  "You seem to know an awful lot about Meryan, Van. Been doing your research?"

  "Not in the last fifteen minutes," she snorted. "Seriously, though. The Ellerton and Meryan families are required study at the Academy. Where were you during that course?"

  Her exec flinched and Van remembered he hadn't attended any formal schooling. Nice way to put her foot in her mouth. Paul's family had been simple farmers on Celestas, the third planet from the Andromeda sun, during the occupational wars with the Triangulum Galaxy. Orphaned by invading nomads, he'd joined the Coalition military the old-fashioned way. They drafted him.

  With the Gothoan invaders eventually defeated, Earth's tentative placement in the Coalition solidified. Paul had done well to move from the enlisted ranks to the officer corps without the required training.

  "Well then, fill me in. We're going to meet her in a few minutes and I'd like to know what we're up against."

  "She's not the enemy, Paul. At least I hope she isn't," Van added in a softer voice. "Still, it wouldn't hurt for you to be up to speed. I'm sure you know basic Earth history. During the third planetary war Earth's atmosphere was polluted and the population started dying off in droves."

  "Nuclear fallout and an artificially induced ice age. Go on."

  "Ellerton Aeronautics was the leader in space technologies. I'm not just talking about satellites. They had it all; major observatories, space-capable vessels, you name it. The only thing they didn't have was a launching system or engines that would make any serious space exploration possible."

  "Right." Paul nodded. "I'm with you so far."

  "In 2372 one of their satellites discovered a system of five planets that orbited a normal sun, much like the planets in the Milky Way Galaxy. A slight wobble, just a subtle shift, in the star Upsilon Andromeda allowed them to make a major breakthrough. All five planets neared the mass of the Sol System's Jupiter."

  Paul suddenly became excited. "That's right. People on Earth thought Andromeda would be a great substitute for a home planet."

  "Too
bad they discovered Andromeda was nothing but a gas giant. However, the second planet from the sun, Alara, was another story. It was practically a paradise. All individual Earth governments funded Ellerton Aeronautics after that, pouring what resources they had into the development of engines that made it possible for the Andromeda Galaxy to be colonized by us."

  "And they did it. Ram jet fusion engines that were hydrogen powered."

  Van nodded. "That's what I was told, not to mention the space-folding technology that came later. Admiral Meryan is a direct descendant of the Diplomatic Envoy dispatched to make contact with the Alarans after they discovered the galaxy was already inhabited."

  Rumor had it that David Ellerton single-handedly paved the way to peace and cooperation with the Alaran people and the Coalition, but Van wasn't much of a fan of rumor. It was more likely that he just got lucky when he met and married the future Queen of Alara. The Andromeda Galaxy was matriarchal so the Ellerton name faded into history, but the family flourished.

  "In any case, the new corner of space that we wanted to call home had been under siege from aliens in the Triangulum Galaxy. They were trying to conquer Alara and the other viable planets. We just happened to come along in time to pull their butts out of the fire."

  Paul considered the information. He was a thoughtful man who took time to consider all possibilities before responding. It was one of the reasons he filled the position of Van's first officer and was the only person she trusted.

  "Sounds like Earth got lucky. We found a place to live and helped our new friends repel an invading army."

  "Don't sugarcoat it, Paul. Earth would have been the invaders themselves if Alara hadn't already been at war."