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  The Sakkara

  The Adventures of Christopher Slone – Book V

  By Donald Nicklas

  Copyright © 2018 Donald A. Nicklas

  All Rights Reserved

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without written permission from the author.

  Cover Photograph taken by Donald Schwab, Germany.

  Other titles in the Adventures of Christopher Slone series:

  Book I - Voyage of the Hayden

  It is the 32nd century and Earth is no longer the center of humanity. After the last war on Earth, all governments have fallen and known space is ruled by the huge mining corporations that had previously served the needs of Earth. The corporations have waged periodic war on each other but there have been no corporate wars for over a century. One of the most powerful of these corporations is Sinclair Corp., headed by Horatio Sinclair. On one of the corporation’s far-flung mining bases a distress signal is received from a yacht registered to Sinclair Corp and carrying Horatio Sinclair’s youngest daughter, Alaya, on her honeymoon cruise to the galactic rim. It falls to Captain Christopher Slone, newly appointed to the helm of the star cruiser SS Hayden, to investigate the distress signal and attempt a rescue if possible. The Hayden and her crew look forward to anything that will break the monotony of guarding a mining colony from sporadic pirate attacks, but nothing could prepare them for what lay ahead. . . .

  Book II - Nova Romae

  It is the 32nd century and the Dragon’s Claw sailed through the energy paths between star systems called slipstreams. These highways of energy were the only way to go faster than light. With the proper sails to catch the energy, and the right ship, one could travel as fast as two light-years per hour. The Dragon’s Claw was a state of the art mining scout ship from one of the most powerful corporations in human space, the Sinclair Corporation. After the last world war on Earth, only the space based mining corporations survived and for the past 800 years, they were the only political power the humans knew. Only the ship and her crew were no longer part of the Sinclair Corporation. They were thought to have died along with the entire crew of the star cruiser SS Hayden on a mission to the Andromeda galaxy. Among the seven survivors traveling aboard the Dragon’s Claw, there was the captain of the ill-fated Hayden, Captain Christopher Slone. Also aboard was the youngest daughter of Horatio Sinclair, the owner of the corporation, Alaya Sinclair. Since she was the result of an affair between his wife and another man, she was considered expendable. He thought he had sent her and her scouting crew to certain death to cement an agreement. Alaya Sinclair was shattered when she realized he thought of her only as a chip in a big business deal. Alaya’s biological father was a man named Strabo, the leader of the Nova Romae pirates, in the Matsua Rim arm of the galaxy. The Pirates called themselves the Romani. The Dragon’s Claw was moving ever closer to the pirate territory; Alaya was moving closer to the father she had never met …

  Book III – Serpents and Vipers

  It is the 32nd century and the treaty between the Romani and a reptilian race they call the serpents has been in force for 300 years. It had started with an act of kindness by the humans towards dying serpents in a derelict ship. This compassionate action so impressed the serpents that they sent a diplomatic ship to the Romani home world, Nova Romae. Unbeknownst to the Romani, serpents had been watching humans evolve since first visiting Earth when humans were at the dawn of their civilizations. They attempted to make contact then, but humans were afraid of their own reptilian species and did not trust the serpents. This distrust was heightened by the fact that serpent speech had a hypnotic affect on humans. After the final world war in the 22nd century, Earth was abandoned and only in the last millennium had people returned to make it an open-air museum for tourists. All power now rested with the seven major and ten minor corporations Earth had founded before her demise. The Romani lived outside of corporate space and were the descendents of the intellectual and dissident castoffs of the corporations five centuries ago. They dreamed of someday exacting revenge on the corporations for the injustice done to their ancestors. Romani space lay between corporate space and serpent space. One of the largest corporations is the Sinclair Corp and a small group of citizens of that corporation has been thrust into the world of the Romani. This group, led by Christopher Slone and his wife Alaya, found a home among the Romani after being treacherously abandoned by Alaya’s father, the CEO of Sinclair Corp. Alaya’s mother told her that she was not the true daughter of Horatio Sinclair. Her mother had had an affair and Alaya’s biological father was the leader of the Romani, the Consul Strabo. The former Sinclair citizens were now fully Romani and commanded one of the great dreadnought starships that made up part of a Romani legion. The Slones lived comfortably in a lakeside villa on Nova Romae and they were enjoying their new role as parents to their daughter, Olivia. They also befriended a serpent assigned to their scout ship named Sly. The gift the serpents gave the humans was a cloaking device that rendered their ships invisible, but only serpents could operate it. Therefore, every Romani military vessel carried a serpent crewmember. Life on Nova Romae was good. As the Slones and their friends were enjoying valuable family time, a strange ship was about to enter the Nova Romae system and bring with it a summons, which would change the human serpent relationship forever . . .

  Book IV – Rising Star

  It is 3122, and things have been quiet. Two years have passed since the serpent civil war ended. After the half year spent in serpent space, much was changing in serpent-human relations. The serpents are a reptilian race, which has been allied with the Romani for three hundred years. However, only in the past two years did the two species actually make a real attempt to understand each other. This was the result of a civil war, which almost ended the alliance. The serpents were now fully integrated into the civilian and military aspects of Nova Romae, the home world of the Romani. Most of human space is governed by seven large and nine small corporations on whom all human government fell when Earth destroyed itself in the last world war. It took centuries to repopulate Earth and that only to make it a museum planet for tourists. When the corporations took over governance of human space, they ran their territories with the same autocratic zeal as they ran their companies. As a result, the CEOs became warlords and they would not accept any dissent. Eight hundred years in the past, they began exiling their dissenters, whistleblowers and intellectuals, towards the edge of the galaxy, in decommissioned ships. Many died along the way and the survivors called it the Great Spinward Exodus. Those outcasts who survived found a gem of a planet outside corporate space. Being intellectuals, they founded a republic modeled after the ancient Roman republic. They call themselves the Romani and they named their new world Nova Romae. The republic grew into 386 member systems with one goal: to exact revenge on those who cast them out. Activity along the border with corporate space would soon give them the chance...

  CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Chapter 1 – Testing and Analysis

  Chapter 2 – A Needle in a Hay Stack

  Chapter 3 - The Sakkara

  Chapter 4 – The Navigator

  Chapter 5 - Heimat

  Chapter 6 – The Saltic

  Chapter 7 - Exploration

  Chapter 8 – A Can of Worms

  Chapter 9 – The Return of the Saltic

  Chapter 10 – Surprise!

  Chapter 11 – Turnabout is Fair Play

  Chapter 12 – Out of the Wormhole

  Epilogue

  Human
Space with Corporate Borders

  Prologue

  The Romani freighter Castalia was passing through the N9723 system, in the Highline Corporation’s space. The system consisted of a very high temperature, non-Main Sequence Class W, Wolf-Rayet star surrounded by an asteroid belt and nothing else. If there were ever any planets present, they were destroyed when the star lost its outer layers and expanded into the colorful nebula that now filled the space in all directions from the system. Captain Arabella Shegai stood on the deck of her freighter with her crew of five at their stations around her. She was of old Earth Korean extraction with a slightly olive complexion. She was in her late thirties and wore her black hair long with light streaks added for effect. She was of average height and slender build. Her ship was Romani but it was transmitting a Lagarde transponder code to hide its origins. The Romani were the descendents of intellectuals whom the Corporations had banished eight hundred years ago, to prevent any dissent to their claim to power. When Earth destroyed itself in the 22nd century with the last world war, all surviving humans lived in space and worked for one of the great mining corporations. There were seven large and ten small corporations and all human governance fell to the CEOs, who began to rule as warlords. They did not allow any dissent or questioning of their wishes and banished large numbers of intellectuals along with their families. These left corporate space in decommissioned ships, many of which were lost. The survivors moved into the Matsua Rim on the Spinward side of the galaxy and found a new world they named Nova Romae. They also found an alien race that was the first ever contacted by man. This was a reptilian race of equal or greater intelligence than the humans. The humans called these aliens serpents. Because of a simple act of kindness on the part of the Romani, the serpents allied themselves with them and later became part of the Republic the humans founded. The gift the serpents gave to the humans was the ability to make their space ships invisible, but only the serpents could work the technology. Now the serpents were also part of the Romani military. Romani is what the residents of Nova Romae call themselves and all members of the republic. Being intellectuals, the Romani formed their Republic and their military along the lines of the old Earth Roman republic. The Romani were an entirely militaristic society with whole families living and working together on the Romani ships of war.

  The Castalia moved across the system to the outbound slipstream. Slipstreams were what the humans called the concentrated streams of energy that were focused by the gravitation of star systems and powered by the stars in each system. With the proper set of sails, these streams could be sailed and ships could reach up to two light years per hour in the streams. The downside was that they were all one way, so there had to be alternate streams to travel back. The Castalia was returning after delivering a very rare cargo of real wood to the home world of the Highline Corporation. The corporations were at war, but given the long times required for movement through space, wars were slow and very sporadic affairs and were never allowed to interfere with commerce. Wars also rarely ended with much result other than some mining colonies being exchanged. There were always skirmishes happening. The present war was different though and had pulled the Romani out of their space and into corporate space. To keep an eye on the corporations and make some money as well, the Romani maintained a fleet of freighters that traded in rare materials not available in corporate space. Things like real wood, for instance. The Romani had genetic material from almost all of the lost life forms from Earth and resurrected them for trade and preservation. As a result, Nova Romae was a paradise. The wood was sold for two tons of gold, which was now in the hold. However, the gold was secondary. Every Romani freighter was also a spy ship and had hidden electronics that were constantly searching for and picking up transmissions. The Romani had acquired all known codes and could usually get a new code within a few months. Nothing happened in corporate space that the Romani did not know about. Every member of the crew of every Romani freighter was a member of the Romani intelligence service. Nothing in human space is what it seems.

  The Castalia was half way through its 11-hour transit of the system when a light went on at the sensor station. Jaden Martin was the Castalia’s sensor tech and he noticed the light immediately. He turned to the captain, “Captain, I am picking up a telemetry signal.”

  Captain Shegai sat up a little straighter in her chair, “I thought we were alone in this system. Where did that ship come from?”

  “There is still no ship in the system and the signal is much degraded.”

  A degraded signal usually meant it was from far away. Since there is nothing in space to stop communication signals, they can theoretically go on for eternity. It was not unusual to pick up old degraded signals. The techs usually liked to try to discover where they originated.

  “Ok so we have something to do while we transit the system. What does the telemetry tell us?”

  Martin started to fine-tune the signal, but it was so degraded it took close to an hour for him to lock in on it and determine its direction and possible source system. Finally, he had enough information, but Captain Shegai could see a troubled expression on his face.

  “Ok Jaden, don’t keep us in suspense, what did you find out?”

  “Captain, I don’t quite understand what I found out,” Martin said. “The signal is originating from a location 734 light years away in Shin Nippon Corporation space, just over the border from Highline Corporation. The odd thing is, it appears to be coming from outside a slipstream between systems.”

  Arabella Shegai gave a shudder at that revelation. That means the ship fell out of the slipstream between transits from one system to the other. In addition, the distance meant the signal originated, at least, 734 years ago. No one knew what lay outside of the slipstreams, for no ship ever intentionally dropped out of the slipstream between systems. “Jaden, do we have an identification of the ship that is sending the telemetry?”

  Jaden Martin looked intently at the readouts. “The name is fragmentary but it seems to be the S.a.k.k.a... but the rest is lost.”

  “Any ships with names like that in the registries?”

  “Yes, but it is impossible. There is a Sakkara, which was used during the great Spinward exodus. It was lost shortly after departing its mining colony with a large group of refugees from the intellectual purge.”

  “Sakkara?” Arabella thought about it for a second. “Check for any files on that ship other than the registry name.”

  After a short time, Jaden Martin looked over to his captain, “Captain, there is a red flag on the file and it is not available on our computers, not even the military spy network computers. But there is an attachment to the file that is open to us.”

  “Ok, what does it say, or shall I guess?”

  Jaden knew how to take the dry sense of humor his captain had and took no offense, “The file is text only and for the captain of the ship discovering information about the Sakkara.”

  Now this was indeed odd. Even if this was a signal sent by a ship of the exodus, that was eight centuries ago and the ship was long ago derelict. Arabella found this all to be very strange. “Send it to my personal computer, I’ll be in my quarters reading it.”

  Arabella got up from her captain’s chair and left the bridge to enter her quarters. The computer built into her desk had a red light on, indicating a message. She sat at her desk and pressed the button. A hologram appeared above her desk containing the symbol of Nova Romae, a golden eagle with head facing to the right. There was a wreath in its talons encircling a globe of old Earth. Below the eagle were the letters S.P.Q.N.R. for the Senate and People of Nova Romae. She pressed the continue button and the following screen appeared with the warning, “For Ship Captain’s eyes only. This was followed by a single page of text.

  “Any information about the Sakkara and its whereabouts is to be considered a state secret and not to be divulged. You are to immediately alter course and return to Nova Romae. All information about the Sakkara is to be brought directly
to the current Consuls. Do not send a message capsule with any information. When entering Nova Romae space, send a message to the Senate consisting only of the letters SKKR. Message ends.

  Arabella was mildly shocked by this revelation. She had no idea what it meant, even though she was high up in the intelligence service. Yet never had she heard about a ship named the Sakkara. Arabella returned to the bridge and said to her navigator, “How long from here to Nova Romae?”

  The crew of five looked at their captain. The navigator did some route plotting and stated, “If we take the fastest route it will take approximately one and a half years. But we will need to stop to refuel and resupply at least once.”

  “Very well, plot the course and take us home.”

  Since the captain did not offer any further information, the crew went back to their tasks and decided they would not complain about getting home three years earlier than they were expected. The captain and crew settled in for a very long voyage.

  **************************************

  It is 3126 and Christopher and Alaya Slone have been enjoying some quality family time at their lake house. The Slones and their bridge crew were waiting for their new command to be ready. Christopher Slone would be the first captain of the first battleship of the Nova Romae navy. They had some houseguests. General Golov and Admiral Abramov were visiting Nova Romae as part of the discussions of how to reorganize the old Petrov Corporation. Alaya had offered to house them while they were on Nova Romae, until their embassy was built in the capital. General Golov had found that two of her children and their families had survived the Sinclair invasion, but two had not and their families were still missing. Alisa Golov had grandchildren she never met until the war ended and was happy to have little ones under foot. She gave up her commission and she was now Ambassador Golov of the Petrov Corporation. Her assistant was a former resistance officer named Larisa Teplov. Since the corporate governance was still in place, they decided to keep it for now, with ex-Captain Abramov now the new CEO. In time, they would change their name, but for now, they would keep the shell and change the core of the old corporation. Besides the guests, there were visitors who were there for a formal dinner. Both of the leaders of the Republic of Nova Romae, first Consul Strabo, Alaya Slone’s father, and second Consul Juan Lorenzo. They came with their full complement of twelve Lictors each, carrying the fasces that marked the Consular rank. Also at the dinner were the Marshals, Tavia and Bill, who were so instrumental in liberating Petrov space from the Sinclair invaders.