by Randy Dyess
On The Run
Spider Wars: Book 2
Randy Dyess
Copyright © 2017 Randy Dyess
All rights reserved.
Aliens, Corrupt Government, Indifferent Corporations, Backwater Planets, Unlikely Heroes
In the distant future, humans have colonized hundreds of planets and thousands of moons and asteroids. We travel between planets in large numbers and have made advances in all aspects of human achievement. As with the present, the future with all its advancements is not exactly Utopia. Powerful politicians and the extremely rich enjoy benefits on the planets closest to Earth that trillions of people on the outer planets only dream about. Large corporations have replaced nations and control planets and billions of workers. Workers live and work on the same planet and for the same corporations as generations of their ancestors. Generations have lived with no hope of ever having any life other than one of “just getting by”.
At least they don't have to worry about other species competing with us. – Well, until now.
The spiders have attacked and wiped out whole planets taking everyone for food. Captain Moore and the Castle have attempted to escape and have been hit by the spider’s plasma weapons as they tried to enter FTL. The Sullivans have gone against the wishes of the Senate and Candus Corporation and rescued survivors from a destroyed planet. Humans are learning hard lessons about their governments and their place in the universe as the spiders continue to advance.
Does Captain Moore and the Castle survive their trip into FTL after being hit by a plasma ball?
What happens to the Sullivans and Sullivan Shipping as the spiders harvest all the planets in the outer rims?
Who is Agent Smith and what is he going to do with our heroes?
Find out the answers to these questions and others as we continue the human story in book 2 of the Spider Wars series: On The Run.
DEDICATION
To all my wonderful grandchildren. Your names are the main characters in these stories. You are the main characters in mine.
Spider War Series:
Battle At Pirate’s Bay: Book 0
First Contact: Book 1
On The Run: Book 2
Fighting Back: Book 3: (Coming Apr 2017)
Fleet Action: Book 4: (Coming May 2017)
Invasion: Book 5: (Coming Jun 2017)
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 1
Captain Landen Moore drifted in and out of consciousness. His mind was telling him something was wrong and he needed to wake up, but the rest of his body just wanted to rest. Slowly, his mind began to win the battle and he realized something was wrong. He thought he smelled smoke.
No, there’s no smoke on a ship, his body told him. Yes, there is, and you know smoke on your ship means you’re in trouble! his mind screamed back. As it was with the ancient wooden sailing vessels plying the seas of Earth, smoke meant fire and fire had been every captain’s nightmare since the first raft left the shore. Get up! his mind shouted again. Your ship is filling with smoke. Hello, something’s wrong, Landen! You need to wake up before it’s too late!
Finally, he was awake, and something, indeed, was not right. The last moments before he was knocked out flooded his head. He clearly could remember the bright, green plasma ball impact the stern of the Castle as it entered the FTL endpoint. My ship, he thought, we’ve been hit! He jerked his eyes open as one of the monitors in front of him sent out a bright spark.
Oh, was all he could think as he slammed his eyes shut again and tried to manage the searing pain shooting through his head. He had been injured; a sharp pain radiated down his left shoulder and arm, and a smaller pain was centered over his left eye. What the hell happened? he thought. With his eyes shut, he mentally took in his situation.
The gravity is off and my straps are broken, which is probably how my head and arm became injured. There’s smoke, so there’s a possible fire somewhere on the bridge. “Think this through,” he muttered. “You’ve been in worse situations before. Time to step up and get this under control—you have a ship to take care of.”
Slowly, Captain Moore opened his eyes. This time, there was no power flash causing a searing headache. He couldn’t see anything clearly, though; the room was hazy. He started to panic, but then a thought came to him. Idiot! he thought as he lifted his hand to wipe the water from his eyes. No gravity meant no tears, so the water would stay in place and build up a barrier.
Captain Moore could now see the rest of his ship’s bridge, and he didn’t like what he saw. The bridge looked like it had been in a battle. Which I guess it was, he thought. The four workstations in front of him held four unconscious crewmembers. Smoke drifted from each of them, as well as from a few pieces of equipment on the walls of the vessel. The lights were dimmed and flickering. Must be on emergency batteries, he thought as he strained to make out the entire bridge. The ship was tumbling, and he realized they must have come out of the FTL tunnel at an odd angle.
He scanned the room, taking in the damage when his brain caught up to his eyes and screamed, Commander Lewis! He jerked around, wincing at the pain in his shoulder, and saw what was wrong. All the other bridge crewmembers looked like they were asleep, but Commander Lewis’ head was at an odd angle—she didn’t look like she was just taking a nap in his chair. She was injured.
Without thinking about his own injuries, Captain Moore unbuckled his chair straps and grabbed hold of one of the workstations in front of him. Using just a little muscle, he pulled himself forward, aiming at Commander Lewis’ station, and let go. This little bit of inertia in the zero gravity caused Captain Moore to shoot forward, toward the Commander’s station. He grabbed hold of one of the monitors and was able to spin himself around to face his old friend.
“Susan! Susan, wake up!” he shouted as he grabbed her shoulder. The small amount of movement caused her head to spin around, and Captain Moore instantly knew her neck was broken. She was dead. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, mourning the loss of one of his oldest friends and a great officer. He jerked his eyes open, however, as he heard a groan coming out of Lt. Jones. You have a whole ship filled with people, many of which could be injured. There will be time for grief later. Right now, get moving and help the others, he screamed at himself.
“Is anyone else hurt?” he asked in his captain’s voice. He had learned years ago that, when he used this voice, people tended to respond faster. “I said: is anyone else hurt?” he called out a little louder.
It took a few seconds, but eventually, he heard a soft voice. “I think I broke my arm.”
Before he could start making his way to his helm officer’s station, Lt. Morris called out, “I can check her out.”
Captain Moore nodded at the Lieutenant and looked at the remaining bridge crew member. “Frank, how about you?”
“I’m fine, sir. Just a little banged up.”
“Captain, Sara’s arm is broken,” Lt. Morris called out before Capta
in Moore could say anything else.
“See if you can find our med-kit in this mess and give her a shot of emergency med-nites. That should fix her up,” he commanded.
“Aye, Captain,” Lt. Morris responded as he pushed himself toward the emergency cabinet. A few minutes later, he returned to Lt. Jones’ workstation with the med-kit. Lt. Jones screamed out as the other crewmember injected med-nites into her injured arm—the initial injection always hurt. It took a few seconds before they bonded with the nerve endings around the wound and shut off the pain. His crew often said that the bonding process was worse than the pain from their wounds.
"When you can, I want everybody to give me a quick status on your workstations," Captain Moore said. He bent over Commander Lewis' station to try to figure out what all was offline. He didn't notice Lt. Morris float over until he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder.
"I figured if I asked, you would have told me no," Lt. Morris said with a grin. They sure were right about the bonding pain, Captain Moore thought as the initial shock of the injection wore off. He knew he shouldn’t move his left arm for a few hours to give the med-nites a chance to work properly, but he didn't have the luxury right now. The Castle was in trouble, and he needed answers.
“You’re probably right, Bill,” Captain Moore responded after the pain cleared. “I hate these things.”
“Aye, Captain,” Lt. Morris responded before pushing off and making his way back to his own workstation.
Captain Moore headed to the bridge’s hatch. He had to know about the rest of his crew, and if the hatch wouldn’t open, they were in trouble. Pushing the control buttons and seeing no response from the door, he frowned. “Damn,” he said to no one in particular. Trying to balance and secure himself the best he could with his feet, Captain Moore turned the manual hatch wheel. It moved freely, and he could hear the door’s locking mechanisms open. At least something works around here, he thought as he turned around and faced his bridge crew.
"Okay, I want everyone to give me a quick status check," Captain Moore commanded.
"Main power is off and we’re on emergency battery power," Lt. Morris responded. "I can't give you a complete status check on limited battery power."
"Same here," Lt. Johnson said. "We’re going to have to get the power back up and running before we can do anything."
"Understood," Captain Moore said. "Bill, Frank; you two start working on getting us power. Sara, see if there’s anything you can do about this tumble.”
"Aye, Captain," they responded as they bent to work on their tasks.
Captain Moore pushed off from the bridge's hatch and made his way to Lt. Jones' workstation. "How's it looking?"
"Not good, Captain. I can't get anything up and operational to control the tumble. Whatever happened to us must have damaged the thrusters."
"Let's assume nothing is working properly,” Captain Moore replied. “Is there anything else you can try?"
"If I can get a small amount of power, I can try to manually open the thrusters enough to counteract the tumble. It might not be pretty and may take several tries before it works, but I think I can do it before we run out of thruster air.”
"Okay, get to work. Let me know if there's anything I can do.”
“Aye, Captain.”
Lt. Morris called out, "Captain, I've been able to direct emergency power through the environmental system. Our O2 levels are fine for now, but they’re dropping. Carbon dioxide levels are rising. I think the scrubbers are out."
"Understood. Let's see what we can do about the scrubbers," Captain Moore replied as he made his way to the environmental station. It took them twenty minutes of applying workaround after workaround in order to bring the carbon dioxide scrubbers back online.
“Nice work, gentlemen,” Captain Moore said after the oxygen levels had stabilized and the carbon dioxide levels started dropping. “Bill, the manual wheel on the hatch works. I want you to make your way around the ship and find out the status of the rest of the crew. I’ll stay here with Frank and Sara and try to get a few more systems up and running. If you see any department heads, tell them to be in the mess hall in one hour with their statuses.”
“Aye, Captain,” Lt. Morris said as he pushed off toward the door.
Captain Moore looked at Lt. Johnson. "Now that we have power, look at the comm system.”
A few minutes later, Lt. Johnson called out, "Captain, I have power running through the comm unit, but I'm not getting any response. I think the plasma balls or the FTL exit may have damaged the external arrays."
"See if you can get internal systems up. I need to address the crew as quickly as possible and find out what's happening in the rest of the ship."
"Aye, Captain."
“I've gotten power restored to the thruster terminal,” Lt. Jones called out a few minutes later. “With your permission, Captain, I'll try a series of quick manual thrusts to stabilize us.”
“Do it, Sara,” Captain Moore commanded. He watched Lt. Jones touch four bare wires to a power strip. While he couldn’t hear anything, he could feel the ship shudder as the thrusters fought to stop the tumble. It took Lt. Jones four more attempts to slow it enough to not be noticeable.
“Well, that’s one thing off the list. A million more to go,” Lt. Jones said with a small chuckle.
*****
Agent Smith walked into the 785th-floor office of his boss and paused. The room was large, but it wasn’t the size that caught his attention each time he came into the room—it was the view. While the rest of the people on Earth had to deal with the smog and noise of the city below, senators lived well, and like those in power over the centuries, they were above everything.
Over the past seven hundred years, the cities of Earth had grown and filled with people and massive skyscrapers the size of small towns. Billions filled in the open areas until all of what was once green space, desert, lakes, or oceans became one large city covering the entire planet.
Skyscrapers either floated above the ocean or started on the ocean floor and made their way above the water. No square meter of Earth was untouched or open. Terrans, as people from Earth were now called, went to virtual centers or left the planet, if they wanted to see a tree or a bird. If you were one of the lucky who lived on mankind’s home planet, you were supposed to work—not spend your time walking in the woods, looking at plants or animals.
Life as a senator must be good, Agent Smith thought as he looked over the cloud cover below and saw the sun shining—something he couldn’t do from his own office or home.
“Well?” Senator Williams asked.
“They hit Candus as we thought they would. They used the same method as the last attacks.”
“Did you have an agent in place?”
“Yes, we did. He was on the ground and witnessed the attack. We received his report a few minutes ago, and he estimates that over three hundred and fifty million of the four hundred million people on Candus were taken. All of the livestock on the planet was also taken.”
“I don’t care how many of those outer-rim riffraff or their livestock were taken!” Senator Williams barked back. “Did your agent learn anything we can use? Did the equipment we set up record anything?”
“The equipment failed, just like everything else we had on the planet. It recorded an energy spike just before shutting down, though. I’ve instructed our agent to send the equipment and its data to our labs. Hopefully, they can get a better understanding of what is being used to shut down our equipment right before the attacks.”
“Good. I want them to analyze that equipment and start working on something strong enough to survive the next attack. We need to figure out what they’re hitting us with, so we can protect the core worlds.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What about your agent?”
“We haven’t gone over his report fully, but I think he figured out something we can use. It seems the spiders are afraid of water—they even seem to be afraid of water spray. This
allowed my agent and a small group of survivors to live through the attack. We used this information and analyzed all of their attack patterns.”
“What did you figure out?”
“Looking at the survivor information and pattern of attacks, we found something interesting. All survivors were near water or in wet environments, and the spiders have yet to attack a wet world.”
“Interesting,” Senator Williams said as he walked to a projection of all the planets currently inhabited or claimed by humans. “They’ve only attacked in this sector,” he said, pointing to the area of space around Candus. The map’s AI automatically enlarged the Pegasus sector. “They hit the outlying mining moons and Petrus a month ago, and yesterday, they bypassed Altrus and Sundus and hit Candus. Does your new information tell us why?”
“Those two planets have wet atmospheres. The populations live near large bodies of water, and the atmosphere is very humid. They may have too much water for the spiders. Petrus and Candus are dry planets with very little water in the atmosphere and no large bodies of water. The major population lives away from the few bodies of water found on those planets. On both Petrus and Candus, they skipped the wetter pole regions and lake areas and only attacked the dry areas of the planets.”
“Can you pinpoint which planet would be next?”
“We think they’ll skip Meltus and hit in Chaovis in the Taurus sector next and then jump to Shaserus. Both are dry and next in the attack path.”
“Okay. I want agents on Chaovis as soon as possible. Capture a few dozen of the beasts and take them to our research facility on Hybee—we need to find out what makes them tick. Try to get one of their ships, as well.”
“What about the people on Chaovis? There’s almost a hundred million on that planet.”