Battlespace (The Stars Aflame Book 1)

by Richard Tongue

  There was a pounding on the door, and Rochford said, “Professor, can you give us the short version? I don’t mind listening to you all day, but we’re supposed to be at a press conference in a couple of minutes, and those journalists aren’t going to be in a patient mood after the speech the Admiral just gave.”

  “They launched an escape pod,” Belinsky said.

  “What?”

  “The Folk were centuries more advanced than we were, a race that had been spacefaring for thousands of years, not decades, like us. They knew how to fly between the stars with greater skill than we, and more importantly, they had crossed from one system to another without using wormholes. They did it the slow way. At tiny fractions of light-speed.”

  “A sleeper ship,” Scott said. “They launched a sleeper ship!”

  “One that was designed to circumnavigate the galaxy, before ultimately returning to its point of origin. The aliens are dependent on wormholes to travel the universe. I suppose they might have been theoretically able to follow them, but if the Folk had a sufficient head-start, they’d never have caught them.” Looking up at Scott, he said, “They’re scheduled to return to the outer limits of their wormhole network, perhaps a hundred light-years from Earth, in a little under four months.”

  “Four months?” Rochford asked. “Come on, Professor, that coincidence is a little much, don’t you think? We get attacked…”

  “No, I get it,” Scott said, eyes widening. “That’s why they attacked us. They might not have been able to follow them, but they’d have been able to plot their flight path, might even have been watching them for thousands of years. They return to the Folk’s old territory and find us there, they probably assumed that we were their old enemy, or some descendent of them. And we fell right into someone else’s war.”

  “That’s my guess, Admiral.” He paused, then said, “If I’m right, then we’re in even greater hazard than we were before.”

  “We beat them, Professor,” Rochford replied. “If they had more ships, we’d have seen them by now.”

  “Not if they’re holding them in reserve to meet the Folk,” Scott said with a sigh. “Don’t forget that our technology is far behind theirs. They might not have considered us such a threat. My guess is that they’re watching, waiting for the Folk to return, when they can launch their next attack.”

  “Precisely my fear,” Belinsky said. “I could be wrong, of course, quite easily. There’s every chance that I’m panicking over nothing. We don’t even know if the Folk completed their journey, or were destroyed or delayed somewhere en route. They might have returned ten thousand years ago, or still be a thousand years distant.” Tapping the tablet, he added, “All I know is what they wrote, and what their plan was. To return and reclaim their worlds from the enemy that had attempted to wipe out their race.”

  “I’ll be damned,” Rochford said.

  “We’re going to have to go out there,” Scott replied. “We’re going to have to find out for ourselves. We don’t dare just sit back and watch. I’d better speak to the President.”

  Looking wryly at his friend, Rochford said, “That would be the same man whose defense policy you just comprehensively demolished? Do you really think he’ll listen?”

  “He’ll listen,” Scott said. “I’ll find a way. Don’t ask me how, but when the Folk return to their old home, we’re going to be there to welcome them. With the flag of peace or the sword of war. A million years is a long time. Anything might have happened to them in the interim. One way or another, we’re going out again. We’ve got to. Or everything we just went though might have been for nothing.”

  Thank you for reading ‘Battlespace’. For information on future releases, please join the author's Science-Fiction Mailing List at http://eepurl.com/A9MdX for updates. If you enjoyed this book, please review it on the site where you purchased it.

  The saga will continue in ‘Wildspace’, coming soon…

  Other Books From This Author…

  Lincoln’s War

  Shall Not Perish

  USS Abraham Lincoln, Old Abe, once the flagship of the United States Space Fleet, a veteran of two interstellar wars, now coming to the end of her service, relegated to a mere fighter transport. Her crew a patchwork of veterans near retirement and rookies too green for the rest of the fleet, her commanding officer passed-over twice for her first star. A place where careers go to die.

  Until, early one morning, she finds herself on the front lines of her third interstellar war, the only ship standing between victory and defeat. Caught in a strange, hostile universe, Old Abe and her crew must fight the battle of their lives, or see freedom and liberty extinguished throughout the galaxy forever...

  Never in Vain

  The USS Abraham Lincoln, the last starship in the United States Space Force, her crew stranded in a distant time when their families, their friends and their country are nothing more than a forgotten memory. Cast into the middle of a desperate conflict, their commander, Captain Forrest, takes them into battle against an alliance of foes old and new, led by the sinister Interstellar Guild, a slave empire seeking to bring all of known space under its control. With only Old Abe and her crew to stop them, Captain Forrest must risk all in her attempt to save the peoples of the galaxy from the eternal tyranny of the Guild, before they can launch their final, unstoppable conquest...

  Only the Brave

  Since being hurled forward in time, the USS Abraham Lincoln and her crew have waged a desperate conflict against the forces of the tyrannous Guild, the last hope of the few remaining independent planets for a free galaxy, forging a ramshackle alliance to take the fight to the enemy. In a bid to crush the rebellion, the sinister Central Committee draws in all of its ships, the full offensive force of the Guild, forming the largest fleet ever assembled to end the war before it can truly began. Captain Forrest and her crew must fight the battle of their lives to save the free peoples of human space, or risk condemning all mankind to perpetual subjugation and slavery...

  Starcruiser Polaris (Omnibus)

  Blood of Patriots

  Twenty years ago, a group of freedom fighters launched a desperate uprising, a bid to free humanity from the clutches of the tyrannous Federation. They failed. And millions died as a result.

  After decades of oppression, the rebels are getting ready to move again, to succeed where their predecessors could not. Their last hopes lie with the Federation's greatest space commander, now a drunken derelict, and a ship that was lost in deep space at the end of the war.

  The Starcruiser Polaris. Once the flagship of the Federation Fleet. And if the rebellion can find her before the dreaded Political Directorate, the key to a new rebellion, one that might accomplish the near-impossible. But they are not the only ones to seek her, and the future of all humanity depends on the winner of a desperate race, to find the lost starship, and bring her back into the fight...

  Nothing Left to Lose

  Commander Edward Curtis, leading a rag-tag group of rebel commandos, has successfully recaptured his old ship, the Starcruiser Polaris, fighting his way through the Federation Fleet to escape to uncharted space. Hunted across the galaxy, he elects to launch one devastating strike, an attack that, if successful, will trigger the collapse of the corrupt leadership of the Terrestrial Federation, and finally free the Colonies from oppression and tyranny.

  On Earth, the forces of the Federation Parliament are preparing a counter-strike, forming a task force with orders to seek and destroy Polaris, whatever the cost or collateral damage. That force is commanded by the best tactician in the fleet, Commander Michael Curtis. Edward's son. Two of them will go into the battle. Only one of them can survive. And the winner will determine the fate of the galaxy for the next hundred years….

  Terrible Swift Sword

  The Rebel Fleet has won its first victories over the forces of the Federation, defeating the frontier forces and securing control of Sinaloa Station. Now Commander Curtis and the crew of the Starcruiser Polari
s must consolidate their gains, and launch a new strike into the heart of enemy territory before the Federation Fleet can gather its forces against them. The battle for the future of humanity beckons, over the ice-locked world of Hyperborea, with the fate of billions resting on the outcome…

  He Never Died

  Edward Curtis and the crew of the Starcruiser Polaris have been waging their desperate war with the Federation, a battle that takes them to the treacherous heart of the enemy, Sol System, and Earth itself. Forces gather over Titan to fight the last battle of the war, and treachery lurks on every side as the rebellion comes to its final conclusion. Can the rebels still win the battle for freedom, and what price must they pay for victory?