by M. D. Cooper
TANIS RICHARDS:
SHORE LEAVE
ORIGINS OF DESTINY – BOOK 1
BY M. D. COOPER
Just in Time (JIT) & Beta Readers
David Wilson
Marti Panikkar
Scott Reid
Alastar Wilson
Timothy Van Oosterwyk Bryun
Gene Bryan
Copyright © 2018 M. D. Cooper
Aeon 14 is Copyright © 2018 M. D. Cooper
Version 1.0.0
Cover Art by Andrew Dobell
Editing by Jen McDonnell
Aeon 14 & M. D. Cooper are registered trademarks of Michael Cooper
All rights reserved
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD
WHAT IS AEON 14
CREW OF THE KIRBY JONES
MAPS
THE NORSE WIND
VESTA
A NEW FRIEND
NEON
DINNER AND A SHOW
LAKESIDE
CONNECTION
PERSEVERATION
ASSIGNMENT
REVIEW
INTERRUPTION
AMBUSHING THE AMBUSHERS
TANIS UPGRADED…MORE
PLAN
STORMING THE KIRBY JONES
CONNIE
HIGGS
LIKE A PLAGUE-RIDDEN BEE
DANCE WITH FATE
LEADS AND MORE LEADS
BACK ON THE WIND
FLYING BREACH
HELL OF A BREACH
SITUATION NORMAL, ALL…
URDON
THE BOOKS OF AEON 14
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
FOREWORD
If you’re an existing Aeon 14 reader, you know I have a lot of main characters. They’re a diverse and fun group, and they have a variety of interesting traits and behaviors that make them exciting to read about.
Whether they be a man or a woman, whether their skin is white, black, brown, or even purple, they are whole people, with loves, passions, anger, faults, and flaws. They love to have fun, and probably a stiff drink or a tousle in the sheets.
But most importantly, they’re strong and in control of their surroundings. They’re not indecisive or wishy-washy, because I don’t believe that people who rise to the top, who control their own destinies, are either of those things.
No one exemplifies that more than Tanis Richards. She is a character born from my own heart, a sort of “Wonder Woman” type of character. She is pure of heart, honest, and caring, but fierce; she will not hesitate to wreak havoc upon any who wrong her or those she loves.
Every author has a ‘first love’ character. The first time they truly created another human being in their minds, and that person came to life—not just for them, but for thousands of readers.
If you fall in love with Tanis, the amazing, tough-as-nails, quirky, fun-loving woman that she is, you won’t be alone. Her many fans (myself included) will be glad to count you amongst our number.
Of course, if you’re a long-time Tanis Richards fan, then you’ll be excited to learn her origin story, and I don’t need to convince you any further to dive in and get to know her.
While Tanis has always been the type of woman who knows what she wants, and isn’t afraid to do what needs to be done, she wasn’t always the indomitable force she becomes in her later years.
At one point, Tanis Richards was just a commander in the Terran Space Force, the captain of a small ship crewed by eleven souls, named the TSS Kirby Jones.
At the end of a long tour, she and her crew put in at Vesta, an asteroid in Sol’s inner asteroid belt, for some much deserved shore leave….
Michael Cooper
Danvers, 2018
WHAT IS AEON 14
Aeon 14 is a portrayal of the future I hope our race will occupy. It’s not a perfect place—because we are not perfect—but it is a future where humanity (and our creation, the AIs) has managed to learn well enough how to survive, expanding out into the far reaches of the Sol System, and even to other stars.
At the time this story takes place, it is just over two thousand years from now. Lives are measured in centuries, and trillions of humans fill the Sol System.
Mega-structures have been built, such as the Mars 1 ring and High Terra, which encircle entire worlds. Humans have terraformed many planets, and even changed the orbits of some.
The Sol System (what you know as the ‘solar system’) is divided into a few major political bodies, all under the umbrella of the Sol Space Federation. InnerSol (everything up to and including the asteroid belt) is under the umbrella of The Terran Hegemony—with the notable exception of the Marsian Protectorate.
OuterSol (Which includes Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) falls generally under the Jovian Combine. Beyond Neptune’s orbit is the Scattered Worlds Alliance, a loose conglomeration of the hundreds of small planetoids which fill the outer reaches of the Sol System (NASA currently estimates that there are over two hundred dwarf planets out there, and very likely at least one large major planet, which is named Nibiru in Aeon 14).
Most of this story takes place on Vesta, an asteroid (which may be upgraded to a dwarf planet in our time) that orbits Sol within the inner asteroid belt.
Yet, in this far future, even with all this advancement, people are still people. As the authors of Aeon 14 often joke, ‘Humans are gonna human’.
And so, despite the technology that fills their lives—the close pairings with AIs, and the ability to speak into one another’s minds—the stories of Aeon 14 are, at their heart, always about people.
Just people in some amazing situations.
CREW OF THE KIRBY JONES
Note: This book takes place during the years of the TSF’s military division unification process. This explains why you see some odd ranks, such as Connie being a Technical Sergeant and an E7, while not a Chief Petty Officer. You’ll see some other odd ranks mixed together, and the absence of a rank of Captain.
Flight Crew
Ship’s Captain - Commander Tanis Richards (O3)
Helm Officer - Lieutenant Jeannie (O1)
Weapons and Scan – Lieutenant James Smythe (O2)
Chief Engineer – Technical Sergeant Connie (E7)
Engineer – Spaceman Seamus (E-3)
Engineer – Spaceman Liam (E-3)
Breach Crew
Team Leader – Corporal Marian (E4)
Team Member – Private Second Class Yves (E2)
Team Member – Private First Class Susan (E-3)
Team Member – Private First Class Lukas (E-3)
MAPS
Form more detailed maps, visit www.aeon14.com/maps.
THE NORSE WIND
STELLAR DATE: 01.14.4084 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: TSS Kirby Jones approaching Vesta
REGION: Terran Hegemony, InnerSol
Tanis knew that if she didn’t kill Captain Unger, her life was forfeit.
Her gaze swept across the Norse Wind’s engine room, looking for anything she could use against the man in the fight that was to come.
There was nothing close to hand. This would be a zero-g scuffle. Her only hope was to disarm him with her first strike.
Without a moment’s further thought, Tanis released the maglocks on her boots and pushed off the console toward Unger.
The captain’s eyes widened with surprise as she flew toward him, then they narrowed,
and he slammed his hand down on the manual ignition switch.
Which did nothing.
Tanis had to give Captain Unger credit. She didn’t think he’d activate his ship’s engines without the control rods just to blow his ship and kill her, but apparently he believed in his cause—whatever it was—enough to die for it.
His enraged expression gave way to a single cry of dismay before Tanis slammed into him.
She delivered a punch to his solar plexus, and Unger curled up, flying back into the reactor’s rad shield. Without gravity, Tanis’s momentum kept her moving forward as well—albeit more slowly—and she crashed into the freighter’s captain, delivering a blow to the side of his head and a knee to his groin.
The strike sent her cartwheeling backward, high over the engineering bay’s consoles.
“Shit!” Tanis swore as she activated her armor’s attitude jets and flew down toward the console.
Unger was pulling himself forward across the deck, and she flung her lightwand at the man to forestall him while reaching out for the switch with her other hand.
Everything around her fell away, all her focus on the manual ignition switch.
She wasn’t going to reach it in time; throwing the lightwand had altered her trajectory just enough that her fingertips would pass the switch with a centimeter of clearance.
Hell no! She swore to herself. I’m not dying in some shitty freighter over what was supposed to be a routine inspection!
Tanis swung her arm up, the movement sending her spinning again. Just as Lovell began to call into her mind, warning her of disaster, the tip of her right boot caught the switch and pushed it back up.
There was no time to recover from the move, and she slammed into the deck half a meter from Unger. Looking up, she saw that the captain had one hand wrapped around a support pole, and his other fist clutched her lightwand.
He caught that? She couldn’t help but be impressed by Unger’s dexterity in catching the electron blade.
Tanis called out to her patrol ship, reaching the Kirby Jones’s pilot.
Tanis returned her attention to Unger as he lunged soundlessly at her with her lightwand in hand. She reached for her slug-thrower—only to realize that it had come free from its holster sometime in the preceding scuffle. With a backward scamper, she got her side against a console and braced herself, waiting for the freighter captain to swing the lightwand at her.
She pushed forward off the console, twisting to the side, and slammed her left hand into his wrist, deflecting the attack. The maneuver spun her around, but it did the same to Unger.
She grabbed the edge of the console and activated her maglock boots, swinging them down to the deck. Finally reattached to a solid surface, she turned back to Unger and saw that he had done the same thing.
“C’mon, Terran soldier girl. Let’s finish this.” Unger’s voice dripped with menace, and Tanis saw that he held a ballistic handgun as well as her lightwand.
Where’d he get that? she wondered.
No matter, it would take more than a few shots from the weapon to penetrate her armor. The lightwand was what she needed to worry about.
Unger fired a trio of rounds at her: two striking center mass and one hitting her right arm—barely missing the broken section of her armor and her wounded arm—already fractured, courtesy of the fight to get this far into the ship.
Tanis lunged forward again, closing in to leverage her augmented strength against the man. He slashed at her, coming in high, and she raised an arm to block the blow while kicking at his right knee. Unger jerked his leg away in the nick of time and fell back only to renew his attack, firing point-blank at her head while bringing the lightwand in low.
Her helmet deflected the shots, and she sidestepped the strike with the lightwand, managing to grab Unger’s gun-arm under her left arm. He grunted and swung the lightwand around, aiming for her head. Tanis caught his wrist with her right hand, gasping as she felt her humerus bend and fracture further. She closed her eyes against the pain, and twisted to the right, getting her hand on Unger’s gun.
The man cursed and bore down on her with the lightwand.
“Gonna die here, soldier girl. And I’ll still get my cargo where it needs to go.”
“Fahhhk!” Tanis screamed as the bone in her arm snapped, and the lightwand came down, driving into her shoulder far enough to stick out her back.
* * * * *
A ragged gasp tore out of Tanis’s throat as she sat up, sweat pouring off her body, the bed’s thin sheets plastered to her. She blinked, casting about for her adversary, when she realized that she was in her quarters aboard the Kirby Jones.
Lovell, the ship’s AI, spoke into her mind.
“Yeah,” Tanis whispered softly, then louder, “I’m OK, just…”
“Something like that,” Tanis replied as she reached up and touched her shoulder. The wound was still sore, though the medtable had stitched her back together with its usual care.
Her arm still ached as well, her bones complaining about the quick re-enforcement job the autodoc had done. Once she got back to base, she’d put in a request for a proper repair on her right arm.
Considering that she’d broken it three times in the past two years, the space force docs might recommend growing a new one—something Tanis hated having to do.
New limbs itched for weeks.
“No, my mednano can knock me back out…if I want to sleep again, that is.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Tanis shot her cabin’s monitoring optics a glare. “I’ll mange.”
She laid back on her bunk, the final moments of that fight with Captain Unger playing over and over in her mind. She’d killed him right after he sank the lightwand into her, wrested the pistol from his hand and put a half-dozen holes in the odious man.
He’d bled out in his ship’s engine room, and she’d watched him die over the course of several minutes.
At the time she’d felt nothing but the fiery elation of victory and survival. But now…now she wondered if she could have saved him, gotten the man into stasis sooner and had the autodoc repair him.
Captain Unger hadn’t been Tanis’s first kill during her time in the TSF, but it was the first time killing an enemy had felt a bit like murder.
VESTA
STELLAR DATE: 01.16.4084 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: TSS Kirby Jones
REGION: Vesta, Terran Hegemony, InnerSol
Commander Tanis Richards breathed a sigh of relief as the docking grapple locked onto the Kirby Jones. Nothing, and she meant nothing, was going to stop her from finally getting some shore leave. Even if it was just on Vesta.
“Very good, Lovell. Power down the reactor and pull a full charge off the station for the SC Batteries,” Tanis replied as she rose from her command seat on the bridge. She gave a languid stretch as her boots settled firmly on the deck plate, glad to feel a comfortable 0.5gs pulling her ‘down’ for the first time in months.
“Looking forward to your shore leave, Commander?” Lieutenant James Smythe asked from where he sat at the comm and scan console.
Tanis nodded, a tired smile making
its way onto her lips. “If I can get my briefing with Colonel Higgs over with before 22:15 station time, I should be able to catch a ride on a troop transport headed for Mars 1.”
“Ah, a sojourn with the infamous Peter,” Lieutenant Jeannie said as she unbuckled her harness and stretched her legs before rising. “Gotta say, feels nice to have some consistent gravity under me.”
James shook his head. “It’s not gravity, Jeannie. It’s centrifugal force.”
“Stars, James,” Jeannie said with a disgusted shake of her head. “I know that. I fly a damn starship for a living. And it’s not centrifugal force that feels like gravity, it’s centripetal force pushing back against the soles of your non-regulation boots that creates the sensation.”
James opened his mouth, a retort ready on his lips, but Tanis shot him a quelling look, and his mouth snapped shut, and he turned back to his console to log out and lock it down.
“We had a good run out there, people,” Tanis said. “A long tour, and we’re all worn a bit thin. Let’s not let that get to us. Be proud of the work we’ve done, and enjoy our leave while the Kirby Jones gets a much-deserved refit.”
“You deserve it too,” Tanis smiled at the forward holo display, the spot on the bridge they looked at when addressing Lovell. “If you hadn’t disabled that freighter’s engines, we may all have found out what breathing vacuum feels like.”
Lovell replied.
James rose from his console and gave Jeannie an apologetic look before addressing Tanis. “You’re right, Commander Richards. Sorry I got a bit snippy as we were coming in—and just now. Got all worked up, thinking some new orders would come in to send us back out.”