The Chance Encounter: The Linda Eccles Series - Book One

by Robert Woodard

  “Well that was sure nice of them.”

  “I thought so. By releasing me from my contract, I won’t have to explain to anyone who may be interested in my services why I broke my contract with UMU.”

  “The Privateer will be a lesser ship without you commanding her.”

  “Oh, nonsense,” Linda responded, scrunching up her face at Bill’s remark. “The ship will function just fine without me. There is a good crew aboard her that will operate smoothly regardless of who sits on the bridge.”

  Melinda’s return cut off Bill’s response. She leaned over to set a coaster and his foamy beer in front of him. He found her short-sleeved, pullover white shirt, with its deep-cut neckline, provided a wonderful insight into her other assets. Shifting his eyes to look at Linda, he noticed her giving him a crooked smile. She shook her head slightly at him—another mother-like silent scolding.

  “What can I get…” Melinda stopped short, clearly stunned. “Hey, I know you. You’re that Captain lady?”

  “Yeah, I’m that Captain lady. Ain’t it the most?”

  Bill smiled at the way Linda mimicked Melinda’s slang.

  “Wow. You are like a hero or something. You’re like the most bad-assed woman I know. You sure took it to those aliens.”

  “Yes, well, why don’t we leave it at that?”

  “Sure, I understand,” Melinda said. She looked around as if she was about to disclose a deep, dark secret. Leaning forward and lowering her voice, she added, “You want to keep a low profile.” Standing up straight, as if to act natural, she asked, “What can I get you?”

  “I’ll have whatever he’s having, and start a tab,” Linda said, flashing her ePersonal. “Bring us a couple of menus, too, will you, please.”

  “Sure,” Melinda said as she pulled a small electronic scanner from the large pocket of a black apron that went around her waist. After passing it over the top of Linda’s ePersonal, she looked at the scanner’s readout. Seeming happy, she left.

  “What will you do now?” Bill asked. He had to speak up as the noise level began to rise in the bar.

  Leaning forward to be heard better, Linda said, “Nothing for a while. I’ve earned some rest and relaxation. I think I’ll just take it easy for a few months. Once I feel ready, I’ll look around for another ship to command. I might see about tackling a freighter this time. Having a regular routine would be nice for a change. I’ll always know what port I’ll be in at any given time. I might even try for one with Earth being its home port. It would be nice to get home more often. My folks are getting up there in age.”

  “You’re starting to make me jealous,” Bill said while looking down at his beer.

  Linda smiled. “No need to wait for me. Enjoy your drink while it’s still cold.”

  Deciding to wait anyway, Bill said, “Regardless of your feelings about the Privateer and her crew, you will be sorely missed. I suspect that once word gets out that you won’t be returning as her captain, those on the fence for renewing their contract will probably move on to other assignments.”

  “The company more than likely will keep my termination under wraps until they have completed negotiations with those of the crew that have expiring contracts.”

  Bill suspected that she was right. The company would be overly protective of its crew. Letting it slip out that the Privateer was getting a new captain could hamper the negotiation process. Smiling to himself, Bill had an evil thought that someone should let that little bit of news slip.

  “What are you grinning at, Bill?” Linda asked.

  “Oh, nothing really.”

  “I can see right through that little boy grin of yours,” Linda said as she leaned back in the stool and gave him a leery smile. “You’re thinking about telling the crew about my departure.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “I’m sure,” Linda said. She gave him that motherly, scolding, look again.

  Melinda saved the day by arriving to plop Linda’s drink on a coaster, along with handing over two menus. She then said, “I told the boss you were here, and he said that whatever you want is on the house.”

  “That was sure nice of him, and you,” Linda said with a sincere smile.

  “Don’t mention it,” Malinda replied. “You’re the best thing to come in here in a while.”

  When Malinda left, Linda raised her mug. She said, “To a friendship that never ends.”

  Picking up his drink, Bill lightly touched her mug and responded, “To friendships.”

  They both took a drink, and they both grimaced at the overly strong, bitter beer. Looking at the dark liquid, Bill said, “And I thought your coffee was bad.”

  “This stuff would send my coffee screaming into the night,” Linda responded while frowning deeply.

  Setting his mug down, Bill asked, “Do you have an XO in mind for your next command?”

  “I might. I would recommend that any candidates that might be interested will want to let their contract laps with their current company,” Linda said. She cocked her head sideways and gave him a crooked smile that spelled pure evil mischief.

  Smiling himself, Bill looked around and noticed how others were pointing their way while talking among themselves. When a couple of young ladies got up and headed toward their table, Bill knew Linda would get no peace in this place.

  ◆◆◆

  Freshly showered and sitting on the couch in her favorite flowered pajamas, Linda enjoyed a glass of red wine while reading an eStory she had downloaded months ago. The fictional story of love and intrigue proved to be a good read. Although a little sappy for her taste, she had finally gotten into the plot. She had it projecting from her ePersonal onto the center screen. The screen to the right carried the last of some show she had no interest in watching. Having turned the volume down, she had it on so she could catch the news at eleven.

  A tone chimed, signaling yet another message coming into her in-box. Although the unopened count only showed sixty-one, it seemed like the millionth time a message was delivered today. For several days now, invitations came pouring in from all over the place with offers of command. Somehow, the word had gotten out that she was not returning to the Privateer. She suspected Bill had played a major part in it. If there was one thing she knew best about Bill, it was that the man had contacts all over the place from his military days. It seemed that old shipmates never lost touch with each other.

  Ignoring the messages, she glanced down at the center left screen that listed ships coming and going from the station. She recognized a lot of the ships by name, and a few of the captains—some that had even served under her at one time or another. When the Privateer’s name displayed showing its status, she saw it was listed as suspended. Linda found this confusing, as it had been listed as under repair the last time she had looked.

  Noticing it was close to eleven, she turned up the volume on the screen that would soon show the news. Ignoring the obvious error in the Privateer’s status listing, Linda went back to reading the story. The main character finally got her shot at her long-lost love interest. The storyline brought on the reminder of Sharon, and how she would never see her love interest again. Shaking the thought off, she returned to reading. The story had reached the crux of the plot, and the tension built.

  “Our top story tonight is the announcement that the Maritime Review Board has slapped severe sanctions on Universal Mercantile Unlimited. Also, in tonight’s news…”

  The leading story broke through Linda’s reading and pulled her attention to the other screen. She waited as the station went through their routine introduction of the newscasters, and those providing Earth's weather and sports announcers, along with Rapatine's shipping information. She turned up the volume.

  “Now for our top story,” a nice-looking, well-groomed man of perhaps thirty-five announced. “A representative of the Maritime Review Board has reported that all shipping activity in correlation with Universal Mercantile Unlimited has been suspended
until further notice. UMU has been under intense scrutiny by both the Shipping Guild and the MRB for the past several weeks due to the orders that sent the ship, Privateer, into an uncharted region of space. As a reminder, UMU ordered the Privateer to retrieve a lost probe which resulted in the death of the ship’s Executive Officer, Commander Sharon Bresee. While Captain Linda Eccles was cleared of any wrongdoing, the officers of UMU have remained under investigation.

  “Attempts to reach representatives at UMU for comment went unanswered today. A representative of the Shipping Guild stated that companies like UMU have run under the radar of their compliance for way too long. It was only a matter of time until something like what happened to the Privateer finally surfaced. In a related story…”

  Linda tuned out the rest of the report. The mystery of why the Privateer was now listed as suspended became clear. Much as she had hoped, the execs at UMU were not able to sweep this mess under the rug. They had thumbed their nose at the Guild for years, and when they finally made a huge mistake, the Guild seemed more than happy to pounce on the situation. When the dust settled, she expected that UMU would end up having to hand over its shipping responsibilities to the Guild. As much as Linda hated the Guild, she had to admit that at least they played by the rules. Getting up, Linda decided she was going to sleep well tonight. Giving the in-box a glance, she decided she would start weeding through the messages tomorrow.

  “Shut down the monitors,” Linda said aloud. Her ePersonal that sat on the table came to life for a brief second. The nine screens went dark. Heading toward the bedroom, Linda knew that tomorrow would bring a new day for her, and she was ready to move on with whatever life had intended for her next.

  Epilogue

  “Masterlords, I called this special meeting of the Council to address a new problem that occurred during the dark cycle,” Masterlord Quiver announced. He then pointed to a monitor that his aide had set up at his request. “From this monitor, we will be able to observe what has transpired within the Remp system.”

  Quiver nodded to the Overlord who signaled to someone outside of the chamber. After a few beats, the monitor came to life. The screen remained dark with only a smattering of tiny dots that represented far off-stars. After a slight delay, the grey outline of a ship began to form.

  “Is it the same ship?” Rentum asked.

  “No, it is not the same ship,” Quiver answered while he waited for the next surprise to hit the council members.

  Three flashes appeared on the monitor, followed by the outline of three more ships. These ships were slightly larger than the ship that arrived before them. Although Quiver had already seen all this, he still found it fascinating to watch.

  “They are coming back to seek revenge!” Triff yelled out. “I warned you this would happen!”

  Keeping his voice calm, Quiver said, “I ask that you observe the entire sequence of events before making any further comment.”

  When two more flashes appeared, Quiver let the Masterlords absorb the sight of these much larger ships. They presented a mass that would rival even the Kracks’ takedown ships, but that was not the last of it. Quiver could hardly wait to see their expressions when the last ship made its presence known. He had one eye sweeping the left side of the table while his other eye focused on the right side. He was not disappointed.

  The tongues of all the Masterlords shot out at once, and Quiver knew it was the effect of the arrival of the last ship. He swung an eye over to see for himself. The ship that arrived was so large that its outline overshadowed the other ships completely.

  “It is massive,” Wiskum said.

  “Masterlords,” Quiver said, “these creatures are displaying a power that clearly threatens our very existence. We may have chased the prey ship away, but these ships represent a far greater danger. Not only have these creatures returned, but they have returned with a number that makes their intent quite easy to read. We will not be chasing these ships away. However, what they do next is what I find most disturbing.”

  Quiver nodded to the Overlord again, who in turn nodded to someone else, and the speed on the images in the screen increased greatly. The images sped up so the distance between the ships and the buoy closed rapidly.

  While the distance closed, Quiver said, “These ships entered Remp at the same location where the first object and the prey ship entered, but they came on a line that kept it between the planets, and they arrived much deeper into the system. It is clear to me that they have mapped this system, probably from what the prey ship brought back to them, that has allowed them to make a more efficient entry into Remp.”

  Quiver once again nodded to the Overlord, and the screen returned to normal playback. He now focused both eyes on the screen to take in the features of the ships even though he had seen them before.

  “Look at the number of weapons that thing carries!” Triff said when the small lead ship turned left to veer away from the buoy.

  Quiver nodded to himself. He had been similarly amazed when seeing this earlier. When the ship had veered, it presented a sideways profile. From the front to the back, the ship carried the same bubbled weapon as the prey ship, but this ship had eight of them, all equally spaced from front to back. Having witnessed the power potential of just one of those weapons, Quiver could not even imagine what eight of them could accomplish if they were all firing at once. Considering the double-barrel capacity of each bubble, that gave them the capability of firing sixteen energy balls at a time. He shook his head slightly at the thought of how that single ship could probably wipe out the entire Kracks’ fleet in short order.

  “Overlord, switch to tracking,” Quiver ordered. He then swung one eye toward the Masterlords. When his other eye saw the tracking display appear on the monitor, he said, “As you can see here, that little ship is taking up a position where I believe it intends to cut off any ships that may come from the same direction the Tail Whip used while pursuing the prey ship. This provides a further indication that whoever is overseeing this fleet knows what occurred between us and the prey ship.”

  Two other ships swung to their left and took up a similar guarding position on the left flank of the other ships. Quiver nodded to the Overlord again and a tracking line soon appeared on the screen.

  “This line represents how our ships would enter and come at this fleet if we used the same entry point as our five ships had used against the prey ship. These two ships have swung left to cut that entry point off.

  Nodding again, Quiver waited until the monitor switched back to the live imager. The larger ships could now be seen in detail. Unlike the squarish, munched together look of the prey ship, these ships looked sleek and dangerously efficient to him. They we mostly flat looking, but wide as a prairie. He figured the expansive width made the ships look flatter than they really were. Bubbled weapons protruded out the top and bottom of the ships all along the side, for as much as he could see from a head-on view. A second tier, also flat, and carrying less width, elevated from the main body of the ship and carried those same holes in it that had caught his attention on the prey ship. Quiver was sure that was their control chamber. The ship was too far from the buoy’s live capture to see inside it. Quiver would have loved to get a peek at those who controlled such powerful looking ships.

  “Look, a little ship is coming toward the buoy,” Rentum said.

  The comment brought Quiver out of his study of the ships. A small ship, dwarfed by the larger ones around it, came from around one of the ships and headed straight at the buoy—just as it had done all the other times when he had studied this data capture during the night and early-morning hours.

  “They are about to capture our buoy,” Quiver said.

  “What?” Triff said, spinning at eye toward Quiver, as did the others.

  “That small ship is going to take our buoy. After that, we’ll lose contact.”

  ◆◆◆

  Captain Roger Murphy sat in one of the two command chairs on the bridge of the ESS Conviction. Th
e mission went off without a hitch. The gunship Epitome had dropped into the alien system first, and right on time. Its objective was to clear out any trouble for the other ships arriving afterwards. In ten-minute segments, the three destroyers arrived, then two cruisers, and finally his battle cruiser—the pride of the fleet.

  Finding the system vacant, Roger had ordered the second phase of the mission to commence. As a group, they moved further into the system to track onto the alien object—their target. Upon reaching a predetermined distance from the target, the fleet stopped, while the Epitome and the two destroyers veered to port to take up a flanking position.

  The Conviction trailed the fleet with the intended purpose of intercepting any alien ships, or even a fleet, for that matter, if they popped in from the second known entry point the aliens had used. Having seen the enemy ships in action from the Privateer’s recordings, he knew they would be no match against the Conviction—a ship designed to make a stand in the center of a battle and out-duel any opponent.

  Staring out the front view ports of the massive ship, Roger felt thankful that the entire mission had remained peaceful. Retrieving the alien probe had been the most dangerous part of the mission, as no one knew if the object had a self-defense mechanism that would cause it to explode. Fortunately, it did not. The shuttle had shot a magnetic disc onto the object and towed it back by the cable attached between disc and shuttle. By the time the shuttle made it back to the shuttle bay hatches, it was assumed to be safe to take aboard.

  Now that the object was in their possession, Roger expected that the scientists back on Earth woul go nuts studying the heck out of it. While such scientific expertise was far beyond him, he supposed those with smarter minds would figure out a way to get at whatever secrets the object hid within itself.

  As the Conviction jumped into warp, Roger felt a sense of relief in knowing that he had accomplished his mission, and now it was just a matter of dropping into Rapatine to transfer his booty onto an earth-bound ship. A nagging suspicion told him that his Conviction would be going back into that system someday.