The Reign_Mara_a Passion Uncontested

by Lance Berry

  Cover artwork/rear cover sketch by Todd Schmid

  This novel is copyright 2007 by Lance Berry. The title “The Reign” is the author’s sole property. Mara Christenson, the ship Horizon and all subsequent characters and incidents within are the property of the author. This novel is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead or to any incidents is purely coincidental.

  eISBN: 978-1-25747-651-0

  DEDICATION

  No writer exists in a void, no matter how much time they spend in seclusion attempting to put words to paper. My experience is no different, and so I would like to thank the following people:

  My good friend Ariel Hessing, whose name mysteriously went missing from the dedication in the first book. Although I listed about a gajillion other friends and people to whom I showed respect, Ariel was nice enough to never call me on my faux pas. Now that’s friendship.

  To the cover artist for my first book, Bip Diggs, whose work continues to excite fans of this series, and to the cover artist for this book, Todd Schmid. Todd is a friend of a great many years, and this continuance of the story owes much to his beautiful artwork. Both of you gentlemen have helped make “The Reign” that much more impressive by lending your time and considerable talents to the project. Thanks to you both.

  To my friends who donated their images to my websites, www.reignnovels.com and www.thereignstory.com: Darny, Tim, Stacy, Curtis, the real Missy King and so many others. You have helped make the dream as real as it can possibly be. Thank you.

  To the others who have lent words of encouragement and excitement—Jeanine, Lieu and so many more—both for the praise heaped upon the first book and the exuberance of wanting to see this one completed. You have no idea how much your kindness helped me reach the finish line on this one.

  And of course to Hillary Smith, whose tireless work at making sure my book is properly formatted keeps me sane… well, as sane as any writer can be, anyway. A sincere and deeply resonant thanks.

  The Reign:

  Mara – A Passion Uncontested

  By Lance Berry

  The Present

  (2194)

  Mara Christenson stormed into her quarters, an angry scowl etched onto her features. The door glided shut behind her and she spun around to face it. “Lock,” she said furiously, and the sound of the door’s tempered lock clacking into place briefly filled the silence. It was a wholly unsatisfying sound. Angry as she was, Mara longed to be on Earth at the moment, where old-fashioned swinging doors were still in use in some private houses, so she could have the satisfaction of hearing a resounding SLAM! reverberate through her room.

  She plopped down on the side of her bed, shaking her head in bewilderment. Why had she snapped at Ben Williams like that? There was really no reason for it—the chief medical officer had only suggested that she reach out to her estranged father while their ship, the Horizon, was in orbit of the Armstrong colony on Earth’s moon. She shoved herself back on the bed, leaned against the wall and let her feet dangle over the edge as she pondered the reason for her sudden outburst.

  Perhaps it was because she had never been one to dredge up the past, particularly when it was related to bad times. Mara and her father were no longer close, and hadn’t spoken more than once or twice in the entire four years since she had turned down captaincy of the Horizon in favor of allowing Travis Rand to assume the title. Her father had made some very unfavorable observations about how her military career would stall out permanently if she didn’t claim the captaincy as her own…no, that wasn’t it. The bad blood between she and her father had been absorbed into the family unit long before she had made her decision.

  Mara considered the possibility that perhaps she was upset because a part of her knew that Ben was right, and that it might be time to let go of old grudges. No one has forever to stay angry—certainly, their just-completed mission to New Erkonig had proven that. Between the loss of the Calvorian ship that had accompanied the Horizon there and the death of Doctor Taggert, the shortness of mortal life had been amply demonstrated. But was Mara so consumed, perhaps even comforted, by the familiarity of the lingering grudge between she and her father, that she was unwilling to let it go for fear that nothing else could replace the void which might suddenly appear in her life?

  She shook her head and stood. She began to pace back and forth in the cramped room, and became conscious for about the billionth time that these quarters were so much smaller than the one she used to share with her husband, David, the Horizon’s previous captain. But when he died and she chose not to take over, there was really no need to keep the double-sized room they had shared, so she swapped with Travis. She almost instantly regretted the decision, but she never said anything about it…she needed to do whatever was necessary to move on from the past.

  God, I miss you so much, David.

  Mara took off her black uniform jacket and tossed it on the bed. She pulled off her boots and dropped them to the deck plates uncaring. She finished undressing, then headed to her private bathroom for a shower. As the water caressed her back, she leaned the front of her body against the far wall, going as limp as she could while standing. The water against her back felt so good, she never wanted it to end. She hadn’t been looking forward to the stopover at Armstrong Lunar Base.

  Although he wasn’t expecting her, Mara knew that she’d never hear the end of it if she didn’t drop planetside and visit her father, even though she hadn’t seen him—or anyone else in her immediate family—since David’s funeral, and that last meeting wasn’t very pleasant at all. A part of her did wish that there was some way to reconcile with him over the past, but things were too far gone. She pushed herself back from the wall and turned fully into the spray now, letting the tears which began to run down her cheeks mingle with the stream running over her.

  She and her family had been close once…

  Prologue: The Past

  (2167)

  Mara Elliot moved away from the shuttle’s window and leaned to the other side of her chair as her thin fingers held tightly onto her mother’s hand. “Are you sure we’re safe?” she asked her mother for about the tenth time during the flight from Earth to the moon’s Alpha base. Gloria Elliot smiled warmly and gently ran her fingers through her twelve year-old daughter’s hair yet again. “Yes, sweetie…I promise.”

  Mara nodded, but glanced anxiously out at the passing stars once more, even as she leaned her head against her mother’s arm. “But Tommy Jordan in school said that the Calvorians always hit shuttles on the Luna run, and—“

  “Shsh-shh-shhh…” Gloria said softly, and stroked her daughter’s cheek. “Tommy Jordan doesn’t know anything, honey. The only attack on a shuttle on its way to Luna was four years ago. Since then, UEF has stepped up patrols around our star-system, Earth and the moon. Watch Stations on Pluto and Titan are on high alert at all times, and Heavy Cruisers and DFCs always orbit the moon. See—?” Gloria pointed out the window as she said this last. Mara turned around and her eyes went wide in awe as a squadron of seven DogFighter Craft soared past in the distance, and a portion of the moon finally came into view.

  “We’re going to be just fine,” Gloria whispered in her daughter’s ear. Mara nodded and turned back, a smile on her face…but it quickly vanished, replaced with a worried frown as Gloria pressed her hand to her own swollen belly, her face scrunched up in discomfort.

  “Mom? Are you okay?”

  Before Gloria could answer, the shuttle pilot’s voice rang out over the passenger cabin’s ODC: “Attention ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain. We are now on final approach to the moon’s Alpha base. Please make certain that you are securely strapped in,
as some mild turbulence may accompany our entry into the base’s own gravity field. We will be touching down in approximately three minutes.”

  “I think that’s what it is,” Gloria finally told Mara, as she forced a wan smile onto her face. “It’s just the pressure of descent, and the baby’s kicking a bit. I’ll be fine, honey.”

  Mara nodded uncertainly. She couldn’t feel any change of pressure herself, and she had never seen her mother’s face scrunch up when her little sister-to-be kicked before. The stewardess walked by, making certain that everyone’s seatbelt were securely fastened. The tall, slender blonde whose name tag read “Natalie” stopped next to Gloria’s chair and smiled at her and Mara. “Ma’am, do you need help re-fastening your daughter’s belt?”

  Gloria nodded, and a modest grunt slipped through her lips.

  Natalie didn’t seem to notice, and leaned past her to gently set Mara back in her seat as she re-secured the child’s belt around her waist. “So, are you looking forward to your first moon visit any more than you were an hour ago?” she asked Mara.

  “A little more,” Mara replied with a modicum of enthusiasm.

  Natalie smiled again and began to stand upright, but Gloria grasped her arm, drawing her attention to her. She motioned for the younger woman to come close, which she did, and Gloria whispered something in her ear. Natalie did her best to keep a calm, professional look on her face, and she glanced down at Gloria’s legs, then back up to her. “Can you hold on? We’ll be entering the base’s dome in just a minute.”

  “I think so,” Gloria said doubtfully.

  “Just breathe. I’ll check the manifest and see if there’s a physician on board,” Natalie said. She started to walk away, but turned back and gave Gloria another concerned look. “Do you need another pillow? I’ll get you another pillow,” she said and rushed toward the front of the lengthy cabin.

  Gloria closed her eyes and sat back in her chair as much as her pregnant girth would allow. She pursed her lips and began to let out her breath in short, rapid puffs. Mara watched her and was beginning to worry. “Mom…are you alright?”

  Gloria nodded slightly, but didn’t open her eyes to look at her daughter as she replied, “Don’t worry, baby. This is just something I learned in Lamaze class. I just have a little ache, and I need to take care of it.” She reached over blindly, her hand finding Mara’s and holding on to it tightly. “Not on a shuttle, Lord. Please, not on a shuttle,” the woman muttered softly, then continued her breathing technique.

  Mara winced at how tightly her mother was holding onto her fingers, but said nothing. She glanced anxiously out the window again, wondering what her mother could be talking about. She had said they were safe, there were still DFCs patrolling outside, and the shuttle was very close to the moon’s surface now. Mara turned back, her own face scrunched up now in pain as her mother kept on with her little puffs. Natalie returned with another stewardess, this one a black woman whose tag read “Stephanie”. Natalie saw the pain in Mara’s face and immediately reached over to gently pull the child’s hand out of her mother’s as she said, “Ma’am? Ma’am?”

  Gloria’s eyes snapped open and Natalie shook her head slightly. “This is our senior flight attendant, Stephanie.”

  “Hello,” Stephanie said as she forced a pleasant smile onto her face, showing off her dimples. She then continued in a lower tone, so no one else around could hear, “Natalie told me what’s going on, and we checked the manifold. Unfortunately there’s no physician on this flight, but we did inform the Captain, and there is one standing by now with your husband in the central terminal. You’ll be the first one we let disembark.

  Do you think you can hold on for another minute?”

  Gloria abruptly cried out, and both her hands shot to the arms of her chair, the fingers curling into claws as they gripped the edges so tightly that Mara thought for a moment the chair’s arms might break off. “I don’t know,” Gloria shouted.

  Stephanie brusquely moved past Natalie and gripped Gloria’s arms tightly. She pushed her back into the chair as gently as she could, but still used a bit of force to do it. Natalie half- climbed past Stephanie, reaching to undo Mara’s belt. “C’mon kiddo, we need to move you—“

  “No!” Mara cried fiercely, pressing back against the bulkhead, away from her. “I want to be with my mom! What’s going on?”

  Natalie gripped Mara’s arm firmly now, pulling all the child’s attention to her. “Sweetheart, your mom is about to give birth right here, right now! We need to move you, so that we can give her room to lie down.”

  “What?” Mara said in amazement. As Natalie wrapped her arms around the young girl and lifted her awkwardly out of the seat and half-stumbled with her past Stephanie, the ODC activated once more. “This is Captain Kelly. We have a slight situation developing on board, it’s nothing to be concerned about. However, when we land in a few seconds, we’re going to need all passengers to remain in their seats as we have to allow an ill passenger to disembark early. This is very important, so we ask for your complete assistance. Thank you.” The ODC shut off, and the cabin was suddenly filled with a white light shining in from outside as the shuttle finally entered the base’s interior. Natalie set Mara down in the middle of the aisle. The young girl craned her neck around Natalie’s arm, trying to see her mom as the stewardess ushered her toward the front of the cabin. Other passengers began to block her view though, as several of them rubbernecked to find out what was going on behind them.

  “Mom! Mommmm—!” Mara cried desperately, wanting her to hear, to know, that she was still nearby. She was helpless to do anything but hope that her mother would be alright…

  “Christ on wheels, I could fly that damned thing in and land it faster,” Lieutenant-Commander Mark Elliot swore as he watched from behind the safety partition in Alpha base’s landing facility. The shuttle from Earth was finally pulling in for landing, but it seemed to Mark to be taking just this side of a century to do so.

  “Commander Elliot, the best thing you can do right now is try to remain calm,” Doctor Sterling said as he stood beside him. Mark turned and held the doctor and his four-person emergency team in a judgmental gaze. “All I know is, you and your people better do their job. I want my wife and child taken off that transport safely.”

  “Everything will be fine,” Sterling said evenly. He hated being assigned to military bases; it seemed that every person with a rank above private thought they were God’s gift to humanity. And heaven forfend that you would give them a diagnosis or advice they didn’t want to hear…!

  The shuttle finally settled into place, and the entry doors for the partition opened. Mark, Sterling and the team rushed toward the shuttle while the base’s security squad kept the civilians—others who had been awaiting the arrival of their loved ones from Earth—away from the partition, back near the reception bay so that Sterling and his people would have space to work.

  Sterling got some small satisfaction from pushing Mark to the side so that he and his team could head up the shuttle’s egress ramp first. A young, attractive black woman stood near the top of the ramp, anxiously waving the doctor onward.

  “She’s in the back, seventh row, seat 7-C,” the woman said and turned to lead him to the rear of the cabin. As he always did when following a woman, Sterling took a second to observe her posterior. It was large, smoothly round and utterly enticing…he had noticed a wedding ring on her finger, but that had never stopped him before. He made a mental note to be certain to read her name tag before he left, so that he could chat her up later on.

  There was another woman, a slender and attractive blonde waiting with the pregnant woman, Gloria. The blonde was holding Gloria’s hand as she exercised Lamaze breathing, so Sterling took the patient’s other hand. “Mrs. Elliot? Hello, I’m Doctor Nicholas Sterling. I’ll be delivering your baby for you today. Your husband’s waiting outside for us, everything will be fine.”

  “Where’s my daughter?”

  Sterling lo
oked to the blonde expectantly, but a tap on his shoulder brought his attention back to the black woman with the enticing posterior. “Her twelve year-old, Mara. She’s up front in the cockpit with the Captain and co-pilot.”

  “Thank you, Stephanie,” he said after glancing at her tag.

  “Take her to her father outside. We’ll be out in just a second.”