by S. H. Jucha
SOJOURN
A Silver Ships Novel
S. H. JUCHA
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2019 by S. H. Jucha
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
Published by Hannon Books, Inc.
www.scottjucha.com
ISBN: 978-0-9600459-0-7 (e-book)
ISBN: 978-0-9600459-1-4 (softcover)
First Edition: March 2019
Cover Design: Damon Za
Formatting: Polgarus Studio
Acknowledgments
Sojourn is the thirteenth book in the Silver Ships series. I wish to extend a special thanks to my independent editor, Joni Wilson, whose efforts enable the finished product. To my proofreaders, Abiola Streete, Dr. Jan Hamilton, David Melvin, Ron Critchfield, Pat Bailey, Mykola Dolgalov, and Tiffany Crutchfield, I offer my sincere thanks for their support.
Despite the assistance I’ve received from others, all errors are mine.
Glossary
A glossary is located at the end of the book.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Author’s Note
-1- Water World
-2- Planetfall
-3- Sunk
-4- More Trouble
-5- Adrianna
-6- Orly and Smitty
-7- Distress Call
-8- Surfaced
-9- Toral
-10- Governors
-11- Transport
-12- The Mound
-13- Hector
-14- Confrontation
-15- Four and Four
-16- Revolt
-17- Reunions
-18- Rendezvous
-19- Celebration
-20- Gotlians
-21- Helping Hands
-22- First Aid
-23- Rootogs
-24- Aggressors
-25- The Search
-26- Punishment
-27- Overwhelmed
-28- Negotiations
-29- Ultimatums
-30- Exodus
-31- So Much Cargo
-32- Architects
-33- Domes
-34- Haraken
-35- A Warning
-36- Omnia
-37- Neffess and Nata
-38- Wombo’s Message
Glossary
My Books
The Author
Author’s Note
My first novels created the Silver Ships series, which detail the stories of humans and their allies a millennium in the future. Later, I added the Pyreans series, relating the history of another group of humans.
Each of three worlds — New Terra, Méridien, and Pyre — were established by colonists who launched aboard massive exploration ships from Earth within the same century. While these two series are set in the same universe, the timelines of the Silver Ships and the Pyreans are separated by about four hundred years.
I recommend to individuals who enjoy the Silver Ships series but have not yet read or listened to the Pyreans series that they should take the opportunity to partake of the Pyreans series after this novel. You’ll discover this series is similar to the Silver Ships books. They possess strong characters who challenge the status quo, despite the obstacles they face, and they create profound and lasting changes in their worlds.
The four-book, well-reviewed, Pyreans series includes Empaths, Messinants, Jatouche, and Veklocks, which follows the release of the Silver Ships’ Sojourn. However, the story of the Pyreans doesn’t end with Veklocks. The two series will merge and reveal a future that includes descendants of Pyrean characters, who readers and listeners enjoy, and our adventuresome present-day Omnians.
In the Silver Ships novel, Alliance, which follows Sojourn, ex-Earther Olawale Wombo and a small band of Omnians have supported the technological uplift of the inhabitants of Sol, the Earth’s star. There exists a strong desire among Earthers to know the fates of their colony ships, which launched to claim new worlds. The Omnians and Earthers set sail to explore the fate of one of these colony ships, the Honora Belle, the transport of the Pyreans.
I want to thank my readers and listeners for your ongoing interest in the novels I write. I hope to continue to entertain you with exciting and thought-provoking stories of the possibilities that, one day, our galaxy might hold for humankind.
S. H. Jucha
March 2019
-1-
Water World
“Permission granted,” Captain Asu Azasdau of the Sojourn replied to Ginny, the remote telemetry officer.
In turn, Ginny signaled the RT drone tech, Ian Moody, who actuated the probe’s preprogrammed pass of the planet it orbited.
The probe activated small engines to change its orbit. It closed on the planet, skipping through the planet’s gravity well and skimming through thick atmosphere on a tangent to the surface. At its closest point to the surface, the probe opened its doors and released a set of drones before streaking away from the planet’s pull.
The drones fell through the atmosphere, and the Sojourn’s bridge audience waited patiently for the devices to deploy. They’d collect a significant amount of telemetry that they would burst relay to the probe and then to the explorer ship.
The Haraken explorer ship, Sojourn, had investigated many planets since its nascent voyage to Celus-5, but the success of that mission had never been duplicated. Far and wide, most planets in optimum orbital positions lacked a single valuable resource — liquid water. The planet surfaces, they found, were covered in layers of frozen gases, which camouflaged bodies that couldn’t be colonized without extensive terraforming. Two potential colonies possessed the right climatic conditions, but biologically, they were inhospitable to humans.
There was one hard-earned lesson taken away from the Celus-5 mission. Subsequent explorations saw the explorer ship accompanied by a sting ship, Haraken’s first interstellar warship. Later, when Omnia Ships, Alex Racine’s company, shared its incredible technology with other human worlds, a Trident warship took over the protection detail.
Below decks, Teague Racine, the surface expedition leader or SEL officer, headed toward the RT workrooms to prepare for deployment. This would only happen when Captain Azasdau and Willem, a SADE and expeditionary co-leader, approved.
It pained Teague to walk through RT’s central doors. This area had once housed the Swei Swee, who had been invaluable in the exploration of Celus-5. Unfortunately, there had been no opportunity for the six-legged, whistling sentients in subsequent investigations.
When the Sojourn completed its fifth planetary exploration, the Swei Swee chose to remain on Haraken. It was a sad parting for Teague, who had grown up playing with the hive that built its homes in the cliffs at the edge of his parents’ land.
In contrast, the four Swei Swee — Whistles Keenly, Swift Claws, Bobs a Lot, and Sand Flipper — reveled in the enthusiastic celebrations the hive heaped on them. They were celebrated as returning heroes. The four of them were the first of their kind to journey to the stars in the company of humans as fully fledged crew members. Unattached females competed for their attentions. Soon the young heroes were mated, and the females were producing eggs that hatched into younglings.
There was one other extraordinary opportunity the adventurous young males brought to the hive. They were the first Swei Swee to prove that their kind could communicate directly with humans and SADEs via implants. It
opened the way for others to adopt the technology.
Older Swei Swee eschewed the offer, but the young were eager to inform Mutter, a SADE and hive singer, that they wished to receive the implants and the training. Once the tech was completely adopted, they would be capable of joining human societies via the free education offered to them.
There were two deep emotional threads that wove through Teague’s heart during the years of exploration. One was pain, the loss of the Swei Swee, which was receding; and other was joy, which was in ascendance, and was due to Ginny.
Ginny had been a young deaf orphan on Sol’s Idona Station when Harakens found her. Julien and Cordelia objected to the thought of Ginny being sent to a government child care center, known to possess an unsavory reputation. Instead, the SADEs adopted Ginny and several other orphans. It was the first time that sentient digital entities had adopted human children.
A medical operation restored Ginny’s hearing, and she was discovered to have perfect pitch. In time, she became a hive singer to the Swei Swee.
From the time Ginny set foot on Haraken, one person captured her attention — the fearless young boy who swam with the aliens. Her desire to know him never wavered over the years, but it took Teague a long time to recognize the true value of the young woman he eventually called his friend.
Teague was a child of the ocean, who was raised in close proximity to the Swei Swee. He preferred the company of the Swei Swee to humans, and the time spent with them was a relief from the presence of those who surrounded his father. Teague chafed when he stood in the deep, dark shadow cast by his father. Over time, he came to realize that the resentment he felt was purely due to his thinking, and it was Ginny who helped him reach that place.
One evening, walking along the cliffs in the light of Haraken’s moons, Ginny had slipped her hand into Teague’s. She’d done this often, especially when Teague’s infamous temper fought to be free of his control.
This particular evening, Teague was aware of how much he depended on Ginny’s presence and not just when he was angry or depressed but on all occasions. He’d turned to her, staring at her face in the dim glow from the whitecaps of the waves lit by the moons.
While Teague searched for the words to express what he felt, Ginny, as usual, took the matter of their hearts into her own hands. She was of average height, but Teague was taller than his formidable father. It required her to jump to wrap her arms around Teague’s neck. With her nose centimeters from Teague’s, she asked, “What did you want to say?”
Teague grinned at Ginny’s uncanny way of bypassing his awkward moments, and he kissed her soundly. Thereafter, they’d become inseparable partners.
Now Teague and Ginny worked with scientists and techs, who explored the various planets’ surfaces. A ping in Teague’s implant told him the explorer ship’s controller had received the first data upload from the drones.
Rosette, a SADE and close companion of Captain Azasdau, chose a typical stream of the drones to display on the bridge holo-vid.
“Imagine that,” Asu commented quietly, while staring at the holo-vid imagery. “We search for planets with a modicum of liquid water without success. When we do find water, it covers the entire planet.”
“The drones have covered only a portion of the planet, Captain,” Rosette replied. “Don’t lose heart. We may yet find a habitable continent.”
While Rosette was comforting her captain, Willem and she were simultaneously analyzing the tiny islands that dotted the waterscape.
“Ginny, please investigate these three islands,” Willem requested, highlighting them on the holo-vid.
“Ian, reroute drones four, eight, and ten to the closest targets,” Ginny relayed.
“Too similar for comfort?” Asu queried Willem.
“Precisely, Captain,” Willem replied.
“The atmosphere has an acceptable mix of gases for humans,” Ian reported. “However, the temperature and humidity at the surface level would make living slightly uncomfortable, as in it’s hot and sticky.”
“No place is perfect,” Ginny muttered.
“The drones are over the islands,” Ian reported.
“Add spectrographic readings to the visuals, Ian, and scan the waters immediately surrounding the land masses,” Ginny ordered.
“It’ll reduce their flight times,” Ian pointed out. “The additional activity will drain the power crystals faster.”
“A regrettable necessity,” Ginny replied. “There is the distinct possibility that there are biologicals that swim in these waters and enter these constructs from underneath.”
“They could be sentient, and they could be dangerous,” Asu added.
The bridge audience assumed their regular duties, while they maintained links with the controller, anxious to view the next series of uploads.
“The data’s in,” Ian announced unnecessarily, when the drone uploads reached the controller. Rosette had already chosen a drone’s telemetry to feed to the holo-vid.
Willem manipulated the display. Taken from multiple angles, the telemetry allowed a 3-D visual of the small island, and he was examining the subtle undulations in the land.
“Fascinating,” Willem said. “Is it the same for the other two?” he asked Rosette.
“Yes,” Rosette replied.
Asu raised an eyebrow at Rosette, requesting more details.
“There is a similar and distinct pattern repeated in each construct, Captain,” Rosette explained. “Although the atypical grasses and small shrubs attempt to disguise it, there are hexagonal formations interspersed with pentagonal ones.”
“The hexagonal shapes are twelve to fifteen meters across, and the pentagonal ones are slightly smaller,” Willem noted. “The fittings aren’t perfect, but the vegetation, primarily in the form of vines, has bridged the gaps.”
“Let’s review any fauna data,” Asu requested.
Immediately, Rosette accessed one of the drone’s spectrograph streams for the holo-vid.
“There’s slight movement among the vegetation, Captain,” Rosette said, “although the temperature variation with the surface is minimal. This suggests forms of insectoids.”
“How about in the nearby waters?” Asu asked.
Willem and Rosette annotated the display by encircling a variety of shapes in the water and on the periphery of the island. The same hexagonal and pentagonal shapes were evident, and those in the water evinced elevated temperatures above that of their surroundings.
“We might be observing either two species or two sexes of the same species,” Willem said.
“What’s the possibility that these one or two species are sentient?” Asu inquired.
“Minimal,” Willem offered. “Their greatest limitation is their lack of means to manipulate material. They’ve only flat fins.”
“Unless they could move matter with their minds,” Ginny suggested. Her comment might have been facetious, but she wore a serious expression. Based on the incredible discoveries made by Alex Racine throughout his lifetime, there was every possibility that Ginny’s suggestion was a distinct possibility.
“Thoughts, Willem?” Asu asked.
“The planet deserves investigating,” Willem replied. “We should target one of these structures, land, and explore the manner in which they’re constructed.”
“That would allow us to recover the drones and charge them,” Ginny added.
“And give us the opportunity to deploy the drones across more of the planet since our probe can’t penetrate the thick atmosphere,” Asu agreed. “There’s always the possibility of discovering a continent.”
Asu regarded Willem, who studied the holo-vid, while he streamed more telemetry data. Finally, a b
lue ring highlighted one of the islands.
Asu waited while Adrianna accessed the latest system telemetry. Although Willem and he were the expeditionary leaders, the Haraken president, Terese Lechaux, had made it clear that Captain Plummer had security authority for any surface explorations.
In turn, Willem signaled Teague that their landing of a single team was approved.
Many of the exploration members, who had investigated Celus-5, were still with the team. There had been promotions. The then junior members had become the seniors — scientists, techs, and security. Critically, there had been losses on the first planet. Edward Sardi, an Earther physicist, and Ullie Tallen, a Méridien scientist, had succumbed to the extended siege of their trapped traveler by the natives, the Dischnya.
By now, the procedures for a landing were well-organized, and the team completed their preparations a full day before the Sojourn made orbit over the water planet.
* * *
Late in the evening before deployment, Teague and Ginny had the RT prep area to themselves. As usual, Teague couldn’t sleep the night before the drop, and as was his habit, he repeatedly reviewed the team’s readiness.