The Trade of Kings

by Mike Kraus

  The lack of communication from the Earth is Commander Palmer’s doing, and though Jackie respects his decision, she’s still not happy about it. His analysis of bits of the transmissions that came through to the ISS-2 are indisputable, though. Someone—or something—disrupted and took control of the ISS-2’s systems, sabotaging their natural station-keeping functions and forcing the station to begin a descent.

  With the only explanation for the source of the problem being a transmission from earth, Commander Palmer has ordered that they sit tight, repair the module and get off the station—all while maintaining radio silence over long-range frequencies. All receiving equipment has been physically disconnected and only short-range, low power transmissions on specific frequencies are allowed so that Jackie can communicate with the EVA team.

  No matter how badly they want to contact someone on the burning, smoldering blue rock below them, neither Jackie nor Ted want the same fate that doomed the ISS-2 to befall the ISS.

  “Jackie? You daydreaming again?” Ted’s voice is loud in her ear, and Jackie snaps out of her reverie and looks out the window.

  “Nope, all good here.”

  “Ha. You were. Get it together, though; we’re coming in.”

  “Copy. Is it fixed?”

  Ted’s voice is full of optimism, though it’s tempered with experience from the previous six spacewalks. “It’s looking good from out here. We won’t know until we try to push a bit of fuel through the lines.”

  “I’ll meet you at the airlock.” Jackie pushes herself off the wall and moves through the station’s tubes and sections to the main airlock. The outer door is already open, and she can see two suited figures making their way inside. Twenty minutes later, after the hatch has sealed, the airlock has pressurized and Ted and Commander Palmer have discarded the bulk of their suits, Jackie looks at Ted with a hopeful expression.

  “You ready to try it again?”

  “Ready as ever. You two stay at the control station. I’ll head downstairs again.” The three move to the same positions that they’ve occupied several times before, each taking a role in monitoring and controlling the complicated flow of fuel from the reserve tanks in the ISS to the escape module still sitting outside. Each time before, the procedure has failed, and they’ve had to dump the fuel in the line out into space to keep from damaging the web of pipes. Every bit of precious fuel they waste is another bit that could make the difference between getting home and starving to death in a dilapidated space station.

  “Ready?” Commander Palmer shouts through the corridors of the ISS, and Ted calls back.

  “Green!”

  “Starting in five! Four! Three! Two! One! Mark!”

  Jackie watches the gauges on a section of the control panel carefully. The needles are moving, indicating the expected pressure buildup as the fuel begins flowing through the valves and tubes, making its way through the maze toward the escape module. Ted doesn’t take his eye off of his own gauges as he talks softly to her, keeping quiet so that he can hear any shouts from Commander Palmer.

  “Good to go?”

  “Still green here. You?”

  “Green. We’re past the block we just cleared. Still looking green.”

  “Status!” Commander Palmer shouts again and Ted bellows back.

  “Green!”

  “Almost there! Increasing flow!” The call comes back, and the pair can hear the excitement in Commander Palmer’s voice. Jackie continues to watch the dials without blinking, silently urging them to stay in the green and not to deviate too much in either direction. She is tired. Exhausted, even. The feeling of safety associated with being in space while untold destruction spreads across the globe has grown weary. She wants to see solid ground again.

  So she continues to watch the gauges, hoping and praying that this time it will work.

  That this time they can finally go home.

  Chapter 17

  The Waters’ Homestead

  Outside Ellisville, VA

  “Get them out right now, Jason!”

  Despite the intense commotion in the next room over, Mark was doing his level best to follow his mother’s instructions and keep an eye out the window for any intruders. By the time the flashbangs went off, though, Mark was on the move, making his way toward the kitchen and, from there, into the living room beyond. The flashbangs went off just before he crossed the threshold from the dining room into the kitchen, though, and thus he was the only person inside the house to be spared from the worst of the blinding light. In the several second timespan between when he heard Tina’s frantic shout and when the men stormed into the house, he was the only one in the group who saw everything that transpired.

  Jason’s grip on Jacob and Josie was precarious, and between his injury and the intensity of the flashbangs, he only managed to grasp at them before the sound and light blinded him and he fell back, groping at the wall for purchase. He stumbled backwards down the stairs into the basement, narrowly avoiding falling by turning himself around at the last second, and came to rest on his rear end at the very bottom of the staircase.

  Meanwhile, as Jason was trying to keep from breaking every bone in his body, Tina was still trying to open the basement door all the way. Jason’s motion combined with his flailing grasp knocked her off-balance, though, and she tripped forward down the stairs, but she managed to stop herself just a few steps down.

  Even as the ringing in Mark’s ears—which was still far less than the rest of the group suffered—was still echoing strongly, he could hear the faint shouts of the men outside the porch as they started a brief countdown to fully breach the door and enter the home. Time seemed to slow for Mark as he ran forward, charging toward his brother and sister only to find himself being pulled to the side just as he was about to reach them. A strong, bony hand and arm grabbed him by the sleeve of his jacket and tugged him hard into the basement stairwell before pulling the basement door shut.

  “Let me go!” Mark squirmed in Tina’s grasp, trying to get back to his brother and sister and mother, but Tina’s grip on him only tightened as she pulled him down the stairs, wrapping her other hand around his mouth to quiet him down.

  “You hear that? They’re in the house! They’re not shooting, though, which means they’re going to take prisoners.” Tina whirled Mark around and he gulped nervously as he saw her wild-eyed expression. The ferocious, tenacious, unchained and unrestrained Tina Carson was on full display. The thin coating of sanity she had kept up ever since being rescued was gone and in its place was a woman who was smart, determined and would not let anything stand in her way. “If they’re being taken prisoner, then we have to escape so that we can mount a rescue.”

  “But Jac—”

  “Mark, if you want to save them, you have to trust me.” She turned to Jason, who was standing up and staring at her. “If they wanted them dead, they’d have killed them by now. I’m telling you, our best—no, our only—chance is to not let them find us. We have to move, now!” Tina’s hissed words didn’t make sense to Mark, but he was too numb to think much of them. The ferocity and intenseness displayed by Tina moved him to follow her instructions, and he and Jason fell in line behind her as she ran past the hydroponics and toward the double doors leading down into the tunnel.

  Upstairs, the clomping bootsteps began to spread out across the house as the men spread out, searching for anyone else. Tina pulled open one of the thick doors down into the tunnel with a grunt, then grabbed a flashlight sitting nearby on the floor. “Quick,” she said, pointing at a handful of guns and cases of ammunition sitting nearby on a table, “grab as much as you can! We’re going to need whatever we can take!” Jason and Mark filled their arms and just a few seconds later they dropped down the stairs into the tunnel and Tina pulled the door shut behind them. With handles on both the inside and outside of the double doors, Tina grabbed a nearby piece of lumber and jammed it through the handles, effectively locking the doors and ensuring no one could follow them. She then turn
ed and jogged down the tunnel with Jason and Mark in hot pursuit.

  With nothing but a few random weapons, the clothes on their backs, a flashlight and a couple crates of miscellaneous ammunition to their names, Mark had no idea how they could possibly mount a rescue operation for Sarah and his family. His mother, brother and sister had been seized and having who-knew-what done to them. Despite all of the years of subtle training and preparation and the recent lessons learned since the event, Mark was lost without a clue of what to do. How could a wizened woman, an injured man and a young boy hope to do anything against a group like the one that had repeatedly attacked them and won?

  Mark closed his eyes, shook his head and continued walking forward. Somehow, they would find a way.

  Somehow.

  Author’s Notes

  March 10, 2018

  And there we are. Episode 10 is finished, and there are only two more books left in the series (unless something drastic changes, which I don’t think it will).

  After an intense battle that was initially won, Dianne has finally come face to face with one of her greatest fears. In spite of all she’s done to protect her family and friends and ensure that they and her home are kept safe, everything is falling apart. Her children have been taken, she’s been wounded, and the only people left uncaptured are Mark, Jason and Tina. The people who’ve taken Dianne and the others are not nice people.

  They’re the personification of the type of evil you’d expect to see in a situation like the one presented in this story. People who are waiting in the shadows, keeping their worst natures hidden from society until the time arrives when they can act like their true selves without fear of retribution.

  To make matters worse, Rick and his companions have formed a tenuous alliance akin to grabbing a tiger by the tail. So long as they don’t actually find a way to access Damocles, they’ll be fine. Once that pivotal moment arrives—and arrive it shall—then the tail slips away, the leverage is gone and the tiger turns and bares its claws.

  This is going to be an exciting conclusion to this series, and I can’t wait to get the last two books written. There’s going to be more action, more character development, more intrigue, more surprises and more fun than ever before.

  I’m working hard on getting this finished up, as well as finishing up No Sanctuary, working on my two co-authored series (Darkness Rising and The Long Fall) and getting some prep work done for new series that I’ll be writing once No Sanctuary and Surviving the Fall are finished. In the year that I’ve been back in the writing and publishing game I’ve gone from re-publishing my first series to writing two new series, writing a couple of short stories in two new genres, starting a publishing company and working with two (and soon to be many more) co-authors on even more awesome books. It’s only going to get more awesome from here on out.

  If you enjoyed this episode of Surviving the Fall or if you didn’t like something—I’d love to hear about it. You can drop me an email or send me a message or leave a comment on Facebook. You can also sign up for my newsletter where I announce new book releases and other cool stuff a few times a month.

  Answering emails and messages from my readers is the highlight of my day and every single time I get an email from someone saying how much they enjoyed reading a story it makes that day so much brighter and better.

  Thank you so very much for reading my books. Seriously, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I put an enormous amount of effort into the writing and all of the related processes and there’s nothing better than knowing that so many people are enjoying my stories.

  All the best,

  Mike

  Other Post-Apocalyptic Books from Mike Kraus

  Final Dawn: The Complete Original Series Box Set

  Clocking in at nearly 300,000 words with over 250,000 copies sold, this is the complete collection of the original bestselling post-apocalyptic Final Dawn series. If you enjoy gripping, thrilling post-apocalyptic action with compelling and well-written characters you’ll love Final Dawn.

  Final Dawn: Arkhangelsk: The Complete Trilogy Box Set

  The Arkhangelsk Trilogy is the first follow-up series set in the bestselling Final Dawn universe and delivers more thrills, fun and just a few scares. The crew of the Russian Typhoon submarine Arkhangelsk travel to a foreign shore in search of survivors, but what the find threatens their fragile rebuilding efforts in the post-apocalyptic world.

  No Sanctuary

  A nationwide terrorist attack has left the country in shambles and the country's transportation capabilities are crippled beyond repair. Frank Richards barely escapes with his life when he watches his truck explode in front of his eyes. As chaos descends across the country, Frank's home-grown survival and preparedness training and the help of a mysterious stranger he meets are the only things he can rely on to see him safely across the thousand miles separating him and his loved ones.

  Surviving the Fall

  Surviving the Fall is an episodic post-apocalyptic series that follows Rick and Dianne Waters as they struggle to survive after a devastating and mysterious worldwide attack. Trapped on the opposite side of the country from his family, Rick must fight to get home while his wife and children struggle to survive as danger lurks around every corner.

  Prip’Yat: The Beast of Chernobyl

  Two teens and two Spetsnaz officers travel to the town of Prip’Yat set just outside the remains of the Chernobyl power plant. The teens are there for a night of exploration. The special forces are there to pursue a creature that shouldn’t exist. This short thriller set around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster will keep your heart racing right through to the very end.

  Other Fantasy Books from Mike Kraus

  The Makeshift Wizard: Death Magic

  The Makeshift Wizard series is a new action-packed urban fantasy series from bestselling post-apocalyptic author Mike Kraus writing as MJ Kraus.

  My job was supposed to be easy. Investigate a bleed farm, find the a-hole vamps who've been kidnapping Normals and bring down some street justice. Now I've got a relic in my hands that was created with the blood and death magic of an elder Vampire and a whole lot more questions than answers.

  THE TRADE OF

  KINGS

  Surviving the Fall Series

  Book 10

  By

  Mike Kraus

  © 2018 Mike Kraus

  www.MikeKrausBooks.com

  hello@mikeKrausBooks.com

  www.facebook.com/MikeKrausBooks

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, without the permission in writing from the author.