Star Freedom

by D. R. Rosier

  Star Freedom

  A Lori Adams Novel 04

  Author: D. R. Rosier

  Copyright 2018. This 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. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Afterword:

  Other erotic fantasies by D. R. Rosier:

  Non-erotic Fantasy titles:

  Book Description

  Chapter One

  The stars were beautiful, and so much brighter than one would expect floating out in space.

  Things were far from perfect in the empire, but Kaprorix and Xulia were on the mend, and the true traitor was dead. Though, I’d be happier if I’d seen the body. Worse, we’d lost fifteen destroyers, our only prototype of the advanced scout-destroyer design was scrap metal, and our hopes of enhancing our fleet with the hundred ships that Tek had was dashed as well. They were all destroyed. Not good news considering the empire faced a coming war with two independent worlds.

  At least we were alive, the emergency evacuation through a body sized wormhole actually worked, and as I said, the view was breathtaking as we waited to be picked up. All my lovers were a little annoyed at me, for keeping that option a secret. I was sure they’d get over it.

  Vik grunted, “How long?”

  Well, they’d eventually get over it. I hoped.

  “About five minutes,” Jillintara reported.

  Vik said, “Can’t the orbs take us back, they’re missiles right, with shields?”

  I replied, “Technically they could, and they would in a pinch, but the multi-function orbs don’t have the same quality of secondary and tertiary backups, and most importantly the inertial compensators are designed to preserve metal and circuits in a sphere inches in diameter, not a field the size of a human body. We’d be confined to under ten gravities of acceleration to be safe, in case the adjusted field failed, which would make the trip back to Isyth much longer than waiting the fifteen minutes for a ship.”

  I couldn’t blame him for his impatience, three hundred Stolavii vessels, almost half their fleet, were on the way to Earth and would get there in less than two days. No doubt to kidnap new slave crews for over six hundred ships. We needed to get back to the palace, refresh ourselves, and get with Admiral Janson to warn them at the least, or possibly coordinate with them against the Stolavii.

  Unfortunately, that latter option wasn’t a given, not under empire law. Technically, the Stolavii hadn’t attacked us yet, or declared a war, and Earth wasn’t a part of the empire. There would be no profit in it, and protecting Earth was not the responsibility of the empire. Still, it would make sense to fight them in Sol, instead of defending one of the Empire’s home systems, wouldn’t it? We were almost positive they were going to attack us after all, but the plan had been to force them to make the first move.

  We didn’t want the empire’s citizens to think Vik was bloodthirsty or looking for conflicts like his brother had been. Defending was one thing, going out and interfering was quite another. I wasn’t sure how to perceive that either. On one hand it seemed a cold thing, to leave Earth on their own. On the other hand, racing in with a moral imperative was just as dangerous in the long run, where was the line for that sort of thing? We couldn’t be the police of the galaxy, could we?

  It would be hypocritical. Either the worlds that don’t join the empire are truly free, or they aren’t and we control them. Attacking the empire was a different story of course, in that case they’d be infringing on our freedom.

  The Suaterans hadn’t made a move yet, their five scout ships were cloaked and still hadn’t returned to Suatera, or at least they hadn’t uncloaked yet. I didn’t imagine it would be much longer before we would have to respond to them as well. Worse, they’d probably been in the system, and had seen our little civil feud. If so, they’d gotten an eyeful of our new technology in use, and that it had been destroyed.

  Denik had done far too much damage in one short year. We’d managed to keep the empire from imploding, but now we had the outside threats to deal with that we wouldn’t have otherwise.

  On the good side, my updated fabricator designs and the empire’s socio-economic setup had the empire on the verge of an explosion of growth and prosperity. All we had to do was survive long enough to see it.

  One of the destroyers came to a slow stop near where we were floating, and we entered the ship. The airlock cycled, and we stepped out into the corridor. All hope wasn’t lost, the current destroyers were tough little ships, and the shielded missile with unlimited range was a boon in battle. They were efficient, and deadly.

  The Stolavii fleet outnumbered us three to two, but their tech wasn’t as advanced. The Suaterans had less ships than we did, but we had no idea about their level of technology, the empire hadn’t ever fought them before outside of Denik’s surprise attack. Together, the two races outnumbered our ship count by about two to one.

  It wasn’t as bad as all that either, at least the two enemies weren’t coordinating with each other.

  “Majesty, I’m captain Merrin. I’ll have you in orbit around Isyth in just over eleven minutes. Orders?”

  Vik said, “Carry on Merrin, and thanks for the lift. If it’s that fast, we’ll head down to the shuttle bay and prepare for launch.”

  The Isyth captain saluted and left us to our devices to return to his bridge.

  Vik started to walk, the rest of us followed.

  “When we get back to the planet, change quickly. I want you all there with me when I contact the Earth admiral.”

  “Are we going to help?” I asked.

  I hoped so, I was human after all, and did have concern for Earth and its people, even if it never did me any favors. I may have been a well paid lab engineered assassin, but I’d also been a slave, put on a leash with an addicting drug. By my own government. When I’d escaped that life by becoming a slave to the Stolavii instead, and eventually escaped them as well, I discovered my handlers had thrown me to the wolves. Last time I went to Earth, I’d been on the most wanted list, which had caused a few problems.

  Really, it was the innocent people on the street that would be abducted that concerned me. There was no way their fleet of fifty ships would be able to stand up to three hundred Stolavii destroyer class ships. Three to one, they might manage mutual destruction, six to one they wouldn’t have a prayer.

  Vik grunted, “We’ll see, it will depend on the call. We believe they’re going to attack us, but they could back down and go to business as usual. Which means we need to justify it, or prove im
minent danger. That isn’t easy, and I won’t manipulate data or emotions to justify it.”

  Right, not only morally justify it, but for the bottom line. Ironically, the second would be far easier to justify. It’s always cheaper not to fight an enemy on your own ground.

  “I think it’s pretty self-evident, even if you carry the best-case scenario what ifs down the line.”

  Vik said, “Elucidate.”

  I smirked, “So, let’s say they back off and go back to business as usual. Then they start to pirate our shipping, gather slaves, and otherwise victimize and harass empire ships. Things are different now, we have that probe network in every star system. We’ll see it happen, and when it does we’ll send two or three ships to stop them. They’ll lose ships, and eventually they’ll be forced to retaliate. They won’t even see it from our point of view, they’ll be angry we dared interfere with them.”

  Telidur said, “Not necessarily, some would argue they’ll change when they see the status quo is broken.”

  I sighed, “They see other races as less than them, they are the exploiters and suppressors in empire space. Denik was like that, but he was the Isyth exception. All, or at least the majority of Stolavii are like Denik. Someone like you or me might back off, and figure out a way to co-exist peacefully and make credits, but I’m not sure if it isn’t beyond them.”

  Vik asked curiously, “If you were in charge what would you do?”

  I shook my head and thought about it.

  “Denik was insane. His means were horrible. He forced changes to law, and went after everyone including his own empire to suppress them out of fear, or perhaps enjoyment of his power. But his ends, what he wanted to accomplish in the first place, and why he acted, wasn’t wrong. The Stolavii are a race of evil slavers and exploiters, they are parasites on the empire and the other independent races, they should be knocked out of space and kept on their planet until they learn the lesson.”

  “That doesn’t sound profitable.”

  I smirked at Telidur, we’d spoken of that a lot of times. It did bother me a little, that the empire had that bar in place, and he was tweaking me a bit. But… the bar of morality was far more dangerous in truth, because it could be raised or lowered depending on who was in power. A lot like holy wars back on Earth, basing actions on emotions could be the right thing to do, or monstrous.

  I argued, “Perhaps not empirically, there’s no ledger entry for it, but I’d argue stability is good for business. No more piracy means no more write offs and profit losses.”

  He laughed.

  Vik said, “That’s a little extreme, isn’t it?”

  “Maybe. In the past. But I think it’s inevitable now, even if they don’t attack us now. They’ll tire of their pirate and slave operations being busted within minutes of them taking action, they’ll attack, and then we won’t have a choice. It think it’s all moot anyway, they’re already going to attack, and we’re going to have to destroy their fleet to preserve the empire. To… not limit them to their planet at that point would be insanity. Will we allow them to build another fleet, and attack us again, so we can continue the cycle of violence? Far better, far cheaper, and far more humane to end it. To force them to stay on their planet until they can overcome their instincts to treat other intelligent races as chattel.”

  I laughed.

  Vik raised an eyebrow.

  I shrugged, “But then I’m human, and thankfully not in charge. We’re a violent species, and I wouldn’t hesitate to kill anyone that threatened any of you, and I’d sleep damn well at the end of the day. It makes a lot of sense to me, to end the conflict, yet preserve their race until they can overcome their darker instincts.”

  Nothing was perfect, but to me it sounded like a moderate decision. It was in the middle, between ignoring them and only reacting to each different aggression, and of course the other side of the scale was genocide, extermination. Quarantining them from space sounded… reasonable in comparison to those two insane extremes.

  Vik sighed, “It sounds reasonable, but I fear it would hurt us worse than it helps us. That it would turn us toward a worse path. I worry that with each increasing situation, the line would move farther and farther towards tyranny, even if this first step sounds quite reasonable, and possibly just. Punishing their active transgression is one thing, but punishing them for what they may do in the future is another.”

  “May do?” I asked, “Doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result, is a form of insanity. You’re judging them from your point of view, you need to put yourself in their shoes. Isythian, Kaprorix, Vehiri, Xulia, Raitov, Suatera, Earth, and Gionus, are all filled with natural resources and future slaves as far as they’re concerned. Lesser beings. They’ll never change that viewpoint until we take actions that force them to reconsider it, and put them in a position where they can’t.”

  Vik turned to Jillintara, “What about you?”

  Jillintara said, “We’re cleared for launch.”

  She took us out of the ship with a thoughtful look on her face, and turned the shuttle toward Isyth.

  Jillintara sighed, “I fear you are both right. We are justified in taking Lori’s suggested course of action, self-defense is clear cut. They will never stop trying to abrogate our will and force theirs upon us. On the other hand, in confining them on their planet we may be justified, and even not anything like them, but in the end, it will be a step down a path better avoided. The universe isn’t fair, and doesn’t care about our sensibilities. We must find a balance between not being a victim, and imposing our morality on anyone that may disagree with us.”

  Telidur snorted, “So in short, damned if we do, damned if we don’t?”

  Nothing new there. Often in life choices were about picking the lesser evil, there were no good and perfect solutions. If it was just a few dissatisfied and renegade Stolavii that were pirates it would be a different matter. Reacting to eliminate aggression on a case by case basis would make perfect sense. But, when it was a whole race with a superiority complex that saw us as animals, I couldn’t help but think a total solution was needed.

  The shuttle vibrated slightly as we rocketed through the atmosphere and approached the palace. We got out as soon as we touched down, and the shuttle immediately shot back into the sky. I assumed Jillintara was remote flying it back to Captain Merrin’s ship, he’d need it back.

  Chapter Two

  I smirked, “So spill, what happened last night?”

  Jillintara blushed, we were alone and walking toward the meeting room. I’d taken a sonic shower, and pulled on my dress, brushed out my hair and even put on a touch of makeup in under five minutes. I preferred water showers, but I knew that would have added at least thirty minutes. It was the first time we were alone since last night, and I was dying to know.

  “We might be going to war, and you want to know about my love life?”

  I smiled wider, “A girl has her priorities.”

  Jillintara snorted a laugh, “Fine. It was wonderful, and entirely worth the wait. Happy?”

  I wanted details, but we were almost to the conference room and really didn’t have time for it.

  “For now, and yes, I’m happy, for a number of reasons.”

  Jillintara shot me a knowing look as we stepped into the conference room. Vik and Telidur were already there, but men had it easier when it came to getting ready.

  Vik said, “First, our conversation, I’ve made a decision. Obviously, the status quo has already changed with your design of the new scout-destroyer. With the new fleet less than three weeks away, we can respond to any pirate or slaver situation in the empire within fifteen seconds, anywhere in the empire using the new wormhole drives in conjunction with our sensor probes. That will be the tack we’ll take, which is far better and more effective than what we had in the past.

  “You may be right, and one day we may need to confine them to their planet, but we’ll be moving by degrees to make sure they have every opportu
nity to change and adjust to the new reality. Going straight to that is too radical an approach for me to swallow, and will cause discord in the empire.

  “Now, we need to focus on a war, which is a different situation altogether. Assuming we win, and then demonstrate our superiority next month while at the same time allowing their ships to operate in actions not against the empire, they may not choose to go to war again. If they do build another fleet for a second action of war, we’ll revisit the decision.”

  He took a deep breath, “Right now, let’s focus on the immediate future. I don’t want to see thousands of humans kidnapped off of Earth to support a fleet that we believe will attack us afterwards. Unfortunately, they’ve refused to state their intentions or talk to us, so we have no definitive proof. So, I’ll be looking for justification to intercede, not just to prevent the harm to Earth, but to put an end to a war with the Stolavii before it even impacts our planets and resources.

  “Unfortunately, I’m not seeing how right now, so give some thought to that while we talk with Admiral Janson, or whoever is in charge of their fleet right now. Does anyone have any comments before we connect?”

  I said, “I know there’s no immediate profit involved, but as it is the Earth is indebted to us currently. In fifty, a hundred, or two hundred years they’ll have reverse engineered the ships, and know the math and science behind the three major sciences of the empire. The Earth will also be at peace, and will have eliminated sickness, poverty, and starvation if they manage the A.I.s and health nanites correctly. If it wasn’t for those courses I took, I’d have never figured out how things worked, and it will take them time. But… at that point they’ll be pre-disposed to be allies, or even request membership to the empire.

  “On the other hand, if we allow that fleet we gave them to be destroyed, and let them be put under the thumb of the Stolavii for slaves, we will have spent that debt they have toward the empire, and beyond that added another enemy.”

  Vik frowned, “It isn’t our job to defend Earth.”

  I nodded, “No, but battle with the Stolavii is almost assured. Letting them destroy the Earth’s fleet, take slaves, and then fighting them here and stopping them would piss them off, and I couldn’t blame them. We have to fight them anyway, we might as well team up with Earth’s fleet and do it before any damage is done.”