by Jerry Aubin
“No apologies necessary, Adan. Those of us in the East appreciate how much our lives differ from those of you in the West and how disorienting that can be. You’ve always associated me with this Pattern and that’s fine, but ultimately it’s nothing but the design for a uniform I slip into for my job. Sometimes I have different jobs and they require different uniforms. An ease with inhabiting various Skins is as natural for us after a hundred years as breathing is for you. I can hardly imagine what Patterns I might choose from at some point off in the future after you or your descendants have resettled me and my people. Perhaps we’ll choose a glorious water planet and live as mermen. Regardless, we have you to thank for the opportunity to survive and we are grateful.”
“Your gratitude, sir, is echoed in how all of us up here feel about the contributions of your team. In fact, I really should cut this call off now as I need to prepare for the final verification of their work.”
“Thank you, Adan. I will look forward to shaking your hand soon.”
No sooner was the connection cut than Adan was sprinting to their new transport system. The ability to get anywhere within the massive ship within a few seconds had really made his life far more efficient. He stepped out of the tube-shaped portal and bolted into the hangar. Markev waited along with a group of engineers, and he turned to Adan with a severe expression on his face.
“Good afternoon, sir. I would like to express one last time my sincere displeasure that you are allowing yourself to be a test monkey for this abomination of a device.”
“Markev—I’ve been the first pilot for every single spacecraft, large and small, developed for this project. What evidence do you have from all the years you’ve known me that makes you think I’m going to change now?”
“I can appreciate that, sir, but this is the first time that being a pilot has required you to trust these freaks.”
Adan grabbed his bodyguard by the shoulder and navigated the man a few meters away from the group of Eastern engineers who had watched their discussion with wide-eyed amazement. He looked up into his brawny assistant’s eyes and pitched his voice low so only he could hear.
“I’ve asked you to trust me for many years now. Have I ever let you down or violated that trust?”
Markev paused but then shook his head.
“I’ve got to ask for that trust again here. I know you feel this has been the wrong direction for us. I know you feel I’m selling out our principles and beliefs for a handful of shiny trinkets. Please trust that I have a plan for doing what is best. For us. For humanity.”
Markev nodded slightly and moved to walk away, but Adan reached back out and held him in place.
“No—I need you to say it.”
“I trust you, Adan. I have no idea where this plan of yours might be leading, but I will trust you to get us there.”
The bodyguard turned and walked back to the group of engineers. Adan paused for a deep breath. He knew where he wanted to go, and the path to getting there was becoming more and more clear with every passing day. This next test would be a key milestone in that journey, and he walked over to admire what the engineers had gathered around.
The fighter was a miracle of engineering. Capable of operating in both the vacuum of space and the atmosphere of a planet, its versatility was critical for a mothership which had severely limited space in which to store support craft. It could operate at nearly incomprehensible speeds for hours at a time thanks to the revolutionary engine powered by degenerate gas. It’s only weakness came from an early design tradeoff to pack it with maximum firepower rather than include an FTL engine. All of this amazing technology was layered around a cockpit that could hold a pilot and a weapons system officer. It was this cockpit which Markev was so worked up about.
To support its versatility, the cockpit had been designed for two mission modes. Full life support systems allowed its crew to operate with or without spacesuits when flying manned missions. It was supporting unmanned missions where the real technological shift had occurred thanks to the engineers from the East. It would have been impossible to remotely pilot the craft effectively from afar due to the massive distances anticipated for space battles. Once the fighters traveled a few hundred thousand kilometers away from the ship, a second or more of communication latency would have left them vulnerable in a dogfight. The craft needed a crew on board, but a crew who could survive the life-crushing g-forces created by the acceleration and deceleration the machines were capable of.
For its first unmanned test flight, Adan had chosen to crew the fighter all by himself. He stripped out of his clothes and revealed the flight suit prototype he wore underneath. He pulled its hood over his head and adjusted it properly against his scalp. The metal contact points that were studded from the top of his skull to the base of his spine needed to be aligned just right to properly mate with the sensors built into his flight chair. Markev reached over at one point and assisted with those which were hardest for Adan to reach between his shoulder blades. Adan approached the chair and slid into it. With an audible click, his body locked into place and a red light next to Adan’s hand began to flash. Markev leaned over his face.
“Are you ready, sir?”
Adan gave a thumbs up, and Markev shouted orders at the various engineers who were managing and monitoring the connection between the chair and the fighter. A few seconds later, the light next to his hand flipped from red to green.
This was the moment.
Adan pressed the button and all sensation was lost for a split second before it returned in a rush. He was sitting in the fighter. Its controls were arrayed around him. Outside the cockpit, a group of engineers encircled the chair in which the shell of his body currently resided. Markev stood to the side and wore a worried expression. Adan opened up a private communication channel to his bodyguard.
“Stop looking all gloomy like someone killed your puppy. I’m up in the cockpit now and I’m fine.”
Markev looked up in his direction and Adan waved. There was no recognition in the man’s eyes.
“If you say so, sir. The fighter looks just as empty to me as it did a minute ago.”
Adan knew that statement to be true, but it provided an emotional jolt nonetheless. Sensors were feeding his consciousness visual input as if he was sitting in the cockpit, but he was not there. The only part of him that was actually on board the fighter was his mind. It had been transferred temporarily into the biological matrix housed in an armored core directly beneath the cockpit seats. It all made logical sense in the abstract, but it left him feeling short of breath if he focused on it too deeply.
It was time to fly.
“Markev—disconnect the transfer cable and button everything up. I’m ready to get out of here.”
Adan’s assistant issued orders and multiple engineers scurried around the fighter. Ninety seconds later, the giant stood in front of the craft and lifted both arms in a double-thumbs up signal. Adan moved to salute in return but caught himself with the realization yet again that he was not visible. He tapped the throttle and gently hovered the fighter ten meters off the deck. He pitched it forward and a few seconds later pierced the hangar’s atmospheric force field and entered the vacuum of space. He increased acceleration until he was five kilometers away. He stopped and flipped the craft to face back toward the asteroid.
Bathed in Earthlight, his ship was sublimely beautiful. It was nearing completion with a skyline that rivaled the majesty of any city. One last tower which stood apart from the rest had a very different outward appearance and still crawled with construction equipment. Given it was for the East and therefore wouldn’t actually be carrying people, it was no surprise that it matched none of the rest.
Adan’s goal was nearly complete.
Their mission was almost ready to launch.
Only a few loose ends remained.
Adan pointed the fighter away from the ship, punched the throttle to maximum, and sped off into the void.
The Ship Series wi
ll continue with publication of Book Four and Book Five planned for 2017.
Thank you for reading. If you haven’t already, I’d greatly appreciate if you could please write a quick review on Amazon for one or all of the books in the series. I’ve found it makes a huge difference for independent authors like me when prospective readers can learn more about a book from others.
If you want more from The Ship Series, please register on my website (theshipseries.com) or send an email to [email protected]. I will send you a preview of Book Four, offers for free bonus content, and updates on new releases. I also use my list to find readers who want early access to future books in exchange for providing feedback on initial drafts of the story. Never any spam - I promise.
Acknowledgments
Wow…what a year it has been since Landfall (Book One) and Revolution (Book Two) were published. I have been tremendously grateful for the way the books have been received and how they have been enjoyed by tens of thousands of readers. I had always assumed they might get seen by a few friends and maybe some random stragglers, so this response has been incredible.
There are a couple of key people to thank once again this time around who have been part of this journey across all three books. Owen Egerton remains an inspiration and someone with an eye for story that I find amazing. Stacey Swann provides fantastic editing and has helped this book be better both in its plot and its prose.
Claire Rushbrook is new to my team, but she had the thankless job of the final proofread. I am grateful for the many mistakes she caught before anyone reading this final draft ever saw them. Any that remain are most likely the fault of me making just those last few changes after her work was already done.
After I transitioned from being purely a writer and into the business side of independent authordom, a whole new crop of folks became involved who I would like to thank. First among these is Jonathan Paul Isaacs. Jon beat me to publication by a couple of years and I am wildly grateful for all of the advice and tips he has shared. It is nice to have a friend who has been a trailblazer and is willing to help you avoid some of the pitfalls that are out there. Jon has published three books in three different genres on Amazon - soon to be four. I’ve only read two of them so far, but he is a great writer so you can’t go wrong with any of them.
Mark Dawson is an author with whom I am not personally connected, but to whom I nonetheless owe a debt of gratitude. Mark has created a community on Facebook for independent authors that has provided me with a wealth of knowledge and guidance around the business of being an author.
Lou Cadle and Jasper T. Scott are two authors who I have never met, but who reached out to me over the last year after reading Landfall. Each provided great feedback on the book and then were gracious enough to promote it to their audiences. Lou’s Gray and Jasper’s Excelsior are two fantastic reads. Ron Schrader is a third author who has been a wealth of assistance and information and I happily point you toward his Humble Beginnings.
Along with connecting with other authors now that I’ve published, the other huge change in my world as a writer has been the opportunity to connect with readers. It has been fantastic to interact with folks on Facebook and via email and I have received a ton of great feedback.
First among the folks I would like to thank is Mike Etheridge. Mike will always carry the distinction of being the first reader outside of friends/family who requested an autographed copy of Landfall. He shared some great feedback on the first two books, and then as an early reader of Book Three contributed to the final version of the story thanks to his thoughtful comments.
Mike was joined in my group of early readers by a number of other people to whom I am super grateful. Each of these readers participated in my early reader program and took the time to provide their thoughts about the book in advance of publication. They contributed in ways big and small to shaping what wound up on the page and I am lucky to have them reading my books. Andy, Bruce B., Jessica Bach, David Baxter, David Berkley, Chad Budd, Christian Bullow, Mark Burnett, Clint Burson, Rich Carmack, Ted Casey, Rob Colton, David Curno, Jeff Cushner, Scott Davis, Terence Drushel, Genti Duro, Marion Ekola, Benedict Fenner, Reid Ferguson, Art Ferris, Malin Fjallstrom-Hosack, Gideon Forder, Ward Freeman, John Geluk, John Graham, Tisha Havens, Michael Hekimian, Karen Herndon, Austin Isaacs, Todd Karvenek, Kory Kersavage, Thomas Kordusky, Mark Kurtz, Simon Lam, Michael Lee, Linda Lovely, Victor Maggiore, Kathy McIntyre, Thom Michaels, Paul Mockford, Eric Mohr, Brian Muldowney, Kyle Oathout, Gary Parks, David Patton, Brian Platt, Simon Ratcliffe, Maria Rogstadius, Harry Saul, Drew Schneider, Gavin Smart, Rick Smith, Randy Thomas, Sonya Villeda, Sharon Vreeland, Joshua Webb, Warren Whitley, Thomas Yamamoto, and Gregory Yeager.
If you would like to see your name on the above list next time, be sure to register at theshipseries.com or drop me a line at [email protected] so I can put you on the list of folks to contact in 2017 as Book Four and Book Five approach publication.
Finally, I want to express tremendous gratitude for my family. My lovely wife Kerry has provided constant encouragement and been supportive about the number of Saturday and Sunday mornings I’ve spent building this world. My boys, Parker and Wesley, provide inspiration and great feedback. Finally, Queso the wonder boxer is always available for a quick walk whenever I want to stretch my legs and clear my head after some gnarly piece of writing. Otherwise, she provides a helpful soundtrack of snorts and snores while she sleeps in her bed next to my favorite writing chair. You can follow her adventures on Instagram - @missqueso.
About the Author
Jerry Aubin is a technology executive who runs a venture-backed startup. A lifelong science fiction fan, he decided to write his own series when he became disenchanted with the stories available to read to his kids. He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, two boys, and one awesome boxer named Queso.
Also by Jerry Aubin
Landfall: The Ship Series // Book One
Revolution: The Ship Series // Book Two