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  Rising Star

  The Adventures of Christopher Slone – Book IV

  By Donald Nicklas

  Copyright © 2017 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 . . .

  CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Chapter 1 – A Call for Help

  Chapter 2 – A Mystery

  Chapter 3 – The Resistance

  Chapter 4 – Dubna Station

  Chapter 5 – The Rising Star

  Chapter 6 – The Honeymooners

  Chapter 7 – Secrets

  Chapter 8 – Deck by Deck

  Chapter 9 – The Gambler

  Chapter 10 - Petrovia

  Chapter 11 – Preparations

  Chapter 12 – The Sinclair Mobile Fleet

  Chapter 13 – The Battle of Petrovia

  Chapter 14 – The Battle of Saint Petersburg

  Chapter 15 – Negotiations

  Epilogue

  Human Space with Corporate Borders

  Prologue

  It was 3122, and things had been quiet. Two years had passed since the serpent civil war ended. After the half year spent in serpent space, much was changing in serpent-human relations. The serpents were a reptilian race, which had 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 was 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, whistle-blowers 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...

  Chapter 1 – A Call for Help

  The NR Invicta was en route to New Wales, the home world of the Republic of New Wales that had been liberated, from Petrov Corp invaders, by the Romani. New Wales had applied for and been granted provisional entry as a member of the Republic of Nova Romae. That provisional standing was now at an end. New Wales was about to be admitted as a full member of Nova Romae. The Invicta was carrying some of the dignitaries going to the ceremony on New Wales. The Romani military was organized along the lines of the old Earth Roman republic. Each legion was made up of ten cohorts of 600 legionaries each. The cohorts were each carried aboard a dreadnought starship, which was accompanied by auxiliary ships consisting of two star destroyers and one star cruiser. Each cohort consisted of six centuries of one hundred legionaries commanded by a centurion. The centurion of the first century of each cohort was the regimental commander and the centurion of the first century of the first cohort was the secondary field commander, behind the Legatus, who commanded the entire legion. The 10th legion was also part of an experiment in integrating Romani allies into the standing military. Each cohort had four additional centuries consisting entirely of serpents and commanded by serpents.

  Serpents were what the Romani called a reptilian race they had befriended and allied with three hundred years in the past. Since then the serpents had lived among the Romani and served on their ships to activate cloaking devices only they could operate. These devices made the Romani ships invisible. In the past two years, serpents had volunteered to be part of the fighting Romani military and this came along with full recognition of the serpent world as a member of Nova Romae, and not just an ally. The serpents looked similar to the extinct Earth dinosaurs known as velociraptors, but their appearance was purely parallel evolution. They were not related to Earth reptiles in any way. They had clawed hands and feet, but not the killing claw of the velociraptors. They also had shorter snouts, their eyes were blue with human-like pupils, and they were more centered on the face. They had a very flexible tail that was covered in scales but was more rat-like in appearance than reptilian. The tail was tipped with a sharp, bone spike that could also be used as a weapon.

  As a show of military power and prestige, the full legion of 10 dreadnoughts and 30 auxiliary ships was now in the final slipstream before entering the New Wales system. Slipstream was what the humans called the focused streams of energy that connected one star system to another. They were one-way streams that could be sailed like winds if your ship had the proper sails. Since these streams consisted of high-energy particles, they had the ability to propel a ship much faster than light and it was possible to achieve speeds up to two light-years per hour for the dreadnoughts. The only problem was you could not return in the slipstream that you went out in, so there were star maps that plotted all of the streams and where they went. Humans were still exploring the farther reaches with probes to document more streams. The speed of the streams was determined by the power of the system star or stars that drove them outward.

  The full bridge crew of the NR Invicta was now at their stations. In the captain’s chair sat Captain Christopher Slone and beside him stood his wife, Captain Alaya Slone, chief military scout of the 10th legion. The captain’s chair was elevated near the center of the bridge. The bridge stations were forward and to the sides of the captain’s chair with the space behind reserved for bridge guards and visitors. At navigation sat Paul McMann, who also functioned as acting captain in the absence of Christopher Slone. Communications was manned by Tom Gardner who was married to the Chief Engineer Diana Tojo-Gardner. Now she was monitoring the bridge engineering station, since there was no need for her to be in the engine room. Operating the sensor arrays was Roger Umgabe, who had of late fallen in love with one of the female legionaries of the 8th cohort. These six individuals were a group that had come to Nova Romae after being betrayed by the Sinclair Corporation, for whom they worked. Alaya Slone was the fifth daughter of Horatio Sinclair, the CEO of Sinclair Corp. Her father had knowingly sent her to her death, since she was not actually his child, but rather the result of an affair between her mother and the leader of the Romani, Consul Strabo. However, Alaya and her group survived and they were warmly accepted by her real father and the Romani. Shortly after their arrival, they were thrust into the first major battle between the Romani and the corporations during the liberation of New Wales. Now they were an integral part of the Romani military and they were waiting to take revenge on Alaya’s treacherous stepfather. However, that was all in the past and the future. In the present, they were on a diplomatic mission with no concern for safety. Also on the bridge were several other persons and one non-person. Standing at the rear of the bridge, so as not to get in the way, stood Claudius Pulcher, the primary centurion of the 8th Cohort, which was the regiment carried by the Invicta. In the Corporation military system, he would have had the rank of Colonel. He was medium height, muscular and bore many battle scars. Also present was Ian MacDougal, the Senator from New Wales who represented his home world in the Nova Romae Senate. He was traveling aboard the Invicta, rather than the senatorial ship, because his niece was stationed aboard the ship. She stood next to him and her name was Tavia MacDougal, a very exceptional young woman about to turn 20. She came to the Romani as a 14 year old during the liberation of New Wales, which was her home. Of all the humans who had contact with the alien serpents, she was the only one who ever bothered to get to know them and befriend them. Through some unexpected circumstances, she saved the life of the World Mother, the leader of all serpents, named Sly by the humans. She was seen by the serpents as a member of their clan, though she was human. Next to her on the bridge stood a young serpent, she called Hatch. Tavia had also saved her life when the serpent was a hatchling, and now she was bonded to her for life and served in the scout service with Tavia and Alaya. The last visitor to the bridge was a young Centurion named William Marshal. During the serpent civil war, he had trained the serpents in the Romani system of fighting. They defended the hatchery belonging to Sly’s clan and now he was in charge of all serpent training activities. This was the first time his trainees would be off world and he wanted to come along with his old cohort to see how they handled themselves. He was also very interested in Tavia MacDougal, with whom he had worked side by side in dealing with the serpent training and language studies. Along with the other 30 or so bridge crew personnel, everyone awaited the end of the slipstream.

  “Captain, fifteen minutes to system entry,” Paul McMann reported.

  Slone looked out of the front of the bridge bubble and could see only a solid wall of white as they sailed faster than light and caught up with all the light in front of them. He then looked behind and saw the great frill sail that surrounded the front of the ship just behind the bridge bubble. It had an electric appearance as its polarized surfaces captured the energy particles of the slipstream and glowed with power. Surrounding the glowing sail, it was total darkness, as the light could not catch up to the speeding ship. Amidships, there was an even larger frill sail and an aft sail that looked like an inverted umbrella with the tip pointing at the ship to form a cone open to the rear. Slone gave the order they had all been awaiting, “Depolarize the sails.”

  As soon as Paul McMann pushed the button, the glow of the sails dulled and the ship dropped out of light speed. Not that there was any noticeable thump, but the white wall suddenly vanished and the elements of the system and the surrounding galaxy came into view like jewels on black velvet. Slone could hear the motors in the depths of the ship retracting the sails along with the sail masts. At the same time there was a rumbling and vibration throughout the vessel that signified the engines coming online.

  “Set course for New Wales. What is the transit time?”

  “Aye, captain,” Paul responded. “Travel time to New Wales i
s six hours ten minutes.”

  “Is the rest of the fleet through?”

  Roger Umgabe looked up from his console and reported, “Telemetry shows all ships accounted for.”

  “Message incoming from the Longinus,” Tom Gardner reported.

  “Put it through,” Slone responded.

  The NR Longinus carried the first cohort of the 10th legion and was the command vessel of the legion. Her Captain was Juan Lorenzo, who was also the second Consul of the Republic. Nova Romae space was governed by two Consuls, one political, who was Consul Strabo, Alaya’s father. The other Consul was military, and that was Consul Juan Lorenzo. When the fleet was deployed, he functioned as overall leader of space and ground forces, but he usually turned the ground fighting over to Legatus Victoria Edmonton, who was the field commander of the 10th Legion’s ground troops.

  “This is Captain Lorenzo, all ships formation IOTA Screen and best time to New Wales.”

  “Acknowledge receipt, Tom. Navigation, take us to our position in formation and notify our screen.”

  The formation called for placing the dreadnoughts in line with their destroyers forming above the formation and the cruisers below. The destroyers and cruisers formed the screening ships. Even though they were inside Nova Romae space, the Romani were constantly practicing their formations and this was already the fifth such formation to be called since the trip began about a month ago. Once the formation was formed up, the fleet began the six-hour transit. The slipstreams’ locations never changed in a system but the planet positions did; therefore, there was no way of knowing the exact time to reach a planet until entering the system and calculating where it was in its orbit around its star. Then there was also the “dodge” factor, which meant that the change in positions of other planets also affected the time it took to get to the destination. The fleet now settled down into the transit of the system.