There were hints of other high mass elements, but to date, they’d not found any large enough to dedicate resources. The moon deposit had only provided enough for study and some experimentation. Only two significant sites were established in the asteroid belt to date, both located close to the planetoid Ceres and focused on more mundane resource gathering to quickly expand their infrastructure.
“No,” Paul said. “What did they find?”
“They found a cluster of asteroids deeper in sector fifteen that were very rich with draconium. Results are still being examined back on earth, but it looks like we might actually have something to work with. Terry said it might even make an Alcubierre drive possible without dragging a sun along with us.”
Paul gasped. He knew it was theoretically possible to warp space-time, but the energy requirements had always been far more massive than most people would suspect. Even with alterations to the shape of the warp field, it had still been far beyond their current abilities. “Warp drive?” Paul said softly, looking at Piper with wide eyes and momentarily losing his shyness.
Piper saluted and nodded. “Aye, aye, captain! Warp drive!”
“Terry is amazing. How does he come up with all of these things? I’ve seen the papers, and I can’t believe some of the math. We’d still be struggling to get into orbit without him and the rest of your family. Some would say it’s almost unnatural.”
Piper quieted, suddenly wary and shrugged. “Just lucky, I guess.”
But Paul knew there was more to it than that. He’d tried to ignore the rumors, but after working with Empyrean for a year, he couldn’t deny that they came by innovations far more easily than any other group he’d ever heard of. Even Eagleworks, DARPA, and Skunkworks, teams he’d admired while growing up, seemed to be in a slow lane compared to Empyrean. It was part of why he’d come to work with them, honored beyond belief, but he wasn’t blind or deaf to the unusual nature of the company.
Still, like his mother used to say, never look a gift horse in the mouth. It was a curiosity, at best, and Paul was living the life he always wanted to live. He wasn’t about to put that at risk just to daydream about strange rumors.
“Piper, I’ve got a priority message coming in for you,” Tad said, interrupting the discussion. “From Colonel Adamson.”
Piper looked back at her DPA with a raised eyebrow. “Put him through.”
“Piper! Good, you’re there,” Nathan said, his voice tense with emotion. “I need you to get to the control center as soon as you can. I’ve sent a car for you, and it should be there in a few minutes.”
“What’s going on?” Piper asked, standing up and striding out of the room. She gave a quick wave to Paul before disappearing down the corridor and heading for the front entrance of the Terraforming center.
“Are you alone?” Nathan asked. “I don’t want to panic anyone.”
Piper looked around, sensing the worry in her friend's voice. For a man that was used to having bullets fly past his head, for him to worry was making Piper very nervous. “Yes, I’m alone. Nathan, what’s wrong?”
“I’ll tell you more when you get here, but we’ve just detected several massive objects between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus.”
Piper gave Tad a cross look when the DPA gave a snort of laughter. He was so juvenile sometimes. “What do you mean massive objects? Comets?”
“No, not comets. We’re still getting telemetry on them, but they slowed down and stopped in formation.”
“Oh, sea biscuits!” Piper said, breaking into a run. Apparently, mankind’s ultimate question was about to be answered, and Piper knew that things had changed forever.
Chapter 18
Time: November 7, 2040
Location: Somewhere between Saturn and Uranus
Tur Galon Zeinbrekka almost awoke before he started puking all over himself, but he didn’t make it. Instead, he suffered through the uncomfortable sensation of almost choking to death, followed quickly by the sickly-warm sensation of his stomach contents soaking his torso. Flapping his hands weakly, he blinked and turned his head, emptying the rest of the expulsion into the side of his sleep tank while coughing and desperately pulling in air.
Hands reached out, trying to help him clear his air passage but only adding to the confusion before his brain finally caught up to what was happening. Calming himself, he breathed in slowly, making sure air was sucked in and not liquid before forcing a large coughing fit, helping to push the last of the greenish mystery-liquid out.
“Report,” he croaked, laying his head back with his eyes closed and waiting for the techs to respond. Long periods of hibernation weren’t ideal, and he fully expected to hear that some of the crewmen had sleep sickness. It was to be expected, and they would recover, but it was important to know what resources he had to work with.
Instead of answering, the silence lingered until Galon opened his eyes to slits, but instead of the usual two techs that helped him out of his stasis, the captain and first officer of the ship were standing there with them. The techs looked nervous, but it was the look on the officer's faces that made Galon pay attention. They looked worried.
“Report!” he said louder, trying to sit up and ignore the refuse covering him. He had the sudden terror that their engines may have died, leaving the ship stranded in space. Though they were with a convoy, and there was no risk they’d be left behind, having to repair a ship before they’d even arrived would be a stroke of bad luck.
The captain took a deep breath and bared his teeth. He wasn’t threatening Galon, but merely reacting to some sort of threat. “We’ve arrived safely in the system, sir, but there… appear to be complications.”
Galon narrowed his eyes once again. What could possibly complicate their endeavor? Unless. His own fear gave him strength, and he sat bolt upright, flinging some of his stomach contents onto the floor. “Did someone else get here first!? Someone else is mining the system!”
“Uh, no sir, not exactly. At least, we don’t think its anyone from outside of the system,” the captain said. He glanced at the first officer before resuming. “But there is activity in the system. We think the native inhabitants have achieved space travel, and are beginning to colonize. There is also activity in the asteroid belt where we’ve identified some of the areas we intended to mine.”
“What!” Galon shrieked.
A short time later, after Galon had managed to clean himself off in record time and thrown on a nondescript tunic, he was standing on the bridge with a heavy scowl on his face. He had hoped that the captain was mistaken, or maybe there were simply asteroids heavy in metal that had fooled their sensors, but the truth was there in front of him.
The primitives on the third planet had not only managed to reach orbit in the last one hundred and fifty years but had begun to settle the fourth planet. They were even making some sort of Dyson swarm to terraform their new colony. What was worse, is that their infernal machines had begun to infest the asteroid belt where the riches he had been hoping to harvest were mostly contained.
Throwing his mug of Kuul across the bridge, making two of the crewmembers duck where it shattered against the wall, Galon launched into a long stream of curses. They were foiled! Once a native species had reached orbit, their system was off-limits while they either developed or destroyed themselves. In fact, the Union usually forbid developing of several close systems to make sure the new species was allowed to expand in peace.
Now, he’d wasted ten years, and probably more as they identified another, poorer system to travel to, not to mention sending messages back in order to re-direct the following freighters. It would be a nightmare of logistics, and he’d make the companies that owned the freighters livid with rage and probably eliciting some sort of penalty.
He was looking around for something else to throw when he paused, his eyes narrowing. “Wait a minute,” Solan said, more to himself than anyone near him. “Just wait a minute. This doesn’t have to change anything. We can still go in and
mine what we want. The Union doesn’t even know we’re here, or anything about this species.”
“We’re not warships, sir,” the captain said, his voice hesitant.
Galon whirled on him, snarling his answer. “We don’t have to be warships. There’s no way their technology can stand up to even our asteroid lasers. They won’t know what we are, and the size of our freighters will probably terrify them without us having to do anything.” He paused, looking at the forward view screen with a feral grin. “Yes, this will work. I won’t let this be a block to our path, captain.”
The captain nervously looked at his feet but bowed. “Yes, sir. In light of this development, I had not dispatched the prospecting robots. Would you like me to do that now?”
Galon nodded, still hissing with anger but thankful he’d found a path forward. He had not a care in the world that he would be stealing this infant’s races future, concerned only for his family place back home. “Yes, captain. Send them out. We will not be stopped.”
Several hours later, large swarms of green probes were launched from domes on the backs of all three mining ships. They raced outward at frightening speed, heading in toward the asteroid belt to begin their arduous task of mapping the best mining sites. It would take weeks, but by the time they were done, they’d know the best places to extract the precious minerals and elements they were after.
Then the real work would begin, and not a tear would be shed for the humans. Or so they thought.
Authors Notes
First of all, let me say a big THANK YOU for reading this book and further through these notes. Without your support, I would not be making my dreams of being an author and sharing fun stories with you.
I have wanted to write a sci-fi novel for a long time. More importantly, I wanted to share my vision of a broad, far-reaching story that was as focused on the characters as it was the star-spanning empire that is created. I also happen to love imagining technologies and how they might be used.
I have to admit; there were several surprises for me in this book. Apart from the fairly typical tropes of powered armor and anti-gravity, I was surprised at where I went with inertial dampener technology. Though a trope, I began to see other results for the use of this technology besides simply letting a ship turn faster without killing the crew. Instead, I realized it would serve as a great shield for kinetic objects, a propulsion technology, and as well low-mass energy emissions which could potentially solve a lot of problems in space. It will only get better.
Another thought on technology. While I freely admit that some of the science is simple imagination, there are many elements derived from real theory. I enjoyed watching a great deal of Isaac Arthur’s YouTube channel which covers a fantastic amount of near and far future technologies. I highly recommend looking him up and partaking of his huge series of documentaries. He does have an odd lisp, but he is a great narrator despite this.
Where will this series go? It’s going to take humanity to the stars where they will establish a stellar empire, and beyond. The New Commonwealth, to be exact. Ultimately, they will be groomed to stop the Herald’s, but that is far in the future. Before that, they will have many, many struggles growing and learning within their own corner of the universe. This first book was simply to get them off of the planet and the first steps to settling the solar system. The next book will deal with how Empyrean handles the Aliens wanting to mine their system, and then beyond to the Union itself. However, I’m sure the Seven Serpent Society will have its fangs in the mix, as well. It will be fun!
For the Military Sci-Fi enthusiasts, I hope I did some of the combat justice in this book. There will be more in the future, and I hope I get most of the ground and space combat right. Boarding actions will be a thing!
Thank you for reading this book.
Please leave a review. Reviews are very important for writers, not only for honest feedback from readers, but they help tell other readers if my book is worth reading. You would do me a GREAT service by doing so.
For further information on my series and releases, please visit me on my author Facebook, visit my personal Facebook page, or send me an email at [email protected].
Books by Spencer Pierson
TechMage Fantasy / Sci-fi Books
A Glimmer of Destiny, Book 1 in the Glimmer Steel Saga
A Glimmer of Fear, Book 2 in the Glimmer Steel Saga
A Glimmer of War, Book 3 in the Glimmer Steel Saga
The Duke of Brun, A Glimmer Steel Tale (the story of Ashrak and Chari) part 1
The Glimmer Steel Saga, Boxed set, Books 1 – 4
The Scale of the Stars
Empyrean Rises
Stellar Conflict
Sneak Peek into Empyrean Sol: The New Commonwealth Book 2
Piper bit her lip as she sat, considering the huge holographic displays that were hovering in front of her. Ted was currently humming and floating around a rendition of the alien vessels, studying them closely. He was her DPA or Drone Personal Assistant, an AI linked into her mind so she could share her emotional experiences while he provided her with multi-thread thought processes, direct access to humanities entire knowledge base, and various other advantages that a normal human mind wasn’t capable of handling. At first glance, one would think this wasn’t a fair trade, but Ted would argue the opposite since it also allowed the AI to develop creativity and imagination.
Though this symbiotic relationship was unbelievably powerful. It wasn’t this that had sparked the massive technological leap experienced in the past twenty-two years. No, it was something else that they were still wrestling to understand. There had been some sort of entity that a few people on the planet had been able to establish some sort of contact with. It had resulted in a shocking boost of not only intellect, but experience that led to a plethora of inventions. Most of these had proven exceedingly beneficial to mankind, but all of those affected agreed that this was only the tip of the iceberg. No matter what they invented, it still felt as if they were infants just learning to walk.
Now, Piper just hoped that all of these vaunted gifts would help deal with the strange alien fleet that had appeared in their solar system nearly two weeks ago. After the initial scare, the ships hadn’t proceeded further toward Terra and conducted a classic sci-fi extraterrestrial invasion that they had all feared would happen. Instead, they retained their orbit close to Saturn and sent out a mind-numbing amount of probes which proceeded to map a large part of their system, only ignoring Terra, Mars, and the small section of the asteroid belt that Empyrean had begun to mine.
There was still plenty of time for the Aliens to turn into some marauding force, but the talk was beginning to turn from when would they invade, to what the heck do they really want.
It was a conundrum that had riveted the leadership of Empyrean but one they’d so far kept from the rest of the world. They had been indecisive about telling other governments about the current situation. Even though many countries wanted nothing more than to see Empyrean crash and burn, General Solmon and Admiral Roland had finally convinced them it was the right thing to do. They needed to know. Piper recalled that today was the day Alex was on his way to advise the United Nations about the current unknown crises and she didn’t envy her brother that task. However, being so much closer to the aliens than most of the rest of humanity had its own stress.
“Any changes?” Nathan asked, striding into the room and sitting down at the table with Piper. He guided a paper plate filled with a sandwich to flop onto the table and slide in front of her. It passed through a holographic asteroid that Piper had been viewing, currently hosting several green alien probes as they flitted about doing who knew what before moving onto the next rock in their path. Everyone they’d consulted within the company was pretty sure the green machines were doing some sort of survey, but they were doing so with a range of energy scans rather than actually taking samples of the rock, itself.
“No!” Piper said, giving the sandwich a sideways glance be
fore snatching one of the sides up and taking a bite. “They just keep floating around out there, scanning and buzzing around. Those big ships haven’t moved since setting up outside Saturn. They just sit there, looming and looking all death star-ish.” She said, waving the sandwich at the ships like some sort of sword.
“They are huge, but they remind me of a super star-destroyer more than the Death Star,” Nathan said, giving the ominous shapes a critical eye. “I’m still almost certain they are freighters and don’t contain millions of slathering alien troops.”
“Maybe it just takes them time to thaw them all,” Piper grunted, taking another bite of her sandwich and chewing it like it would solve the problem.
Nathan chuckled. “You know that’s not the case. The Entangled Gravity sensors show that those ships are mostly empty space, and they don’t have the gravity profile that would show if they had tons of attack troops or ships. Also, one of those smaller ships has begun to move in toward the asteroid belt. Clearly, it’s not on a course for Earth, Mars, or any of our other assets.
“What?” Piper said, sitting up suddenly and eyeing the small red dot that was just now slipping away from the alien fleet. “When did that happen? Never mind! What do we do? We can’t just let them start taking resources from us?”
Nathan shook his head while his lips formed a grim line. “No. I’m hopeful they aren’t here to start a war, but stealing our stuff isn’t going to work either. We need to set them straight. My biggest concern is if we start poking at them, who else will show up to stop us? We’re not ready to start a war with some interstellar power.”
“Well, they’re not giving us much choice. We’ve been trying to contact the aliens since they got here and there’s no response. We need to do something.”
“I know, and we will. Admiral Roland is sending us a flight of Hoplites.” Nathan responded, his eyes drifting toward the small ship moving inwards from Saturn. “Our first contact situation and it has to be some sort of barroom brawl. Just great. Why couldn’t it have been Vulcans.”
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