Beyond the Divide Book 1

Available from Amazon.com

Against the backdrop of Known-space, 17,000 years after the epic collapse of the Second Interstellar Empire, there are growing signs of trouble.

Trisha Cadwalder, a covert operative of the Solarian League, goes where her orders take her. Her job is to keep the League safe. Her cover is captain of the free-trader Hell’s Fury. Her current assignment is to get a load of medication to a distant world, its native race in danger of becoming extinct due to a plague they need help combating. Not a big deal. Along the way, she encounters pirates. Also not a big deal. Then she runs into a hostile battle fleet. That is a big deal.

Fortunately, she had hired Captain Conrad Gordon and his huge freighter, Adrift. It turns out Adrift is more than just a freighter and Conrad is more than just her captain.

Leaving the unanswered question of who is Conrad Gordon?

Tipping Point — Chapter 1 Running the Iggly Gauntlet

Her attention never fully left the sobering three-dimensional holo displayed at the front of Hell’s Fury’s bridge. She couldn’t allow it to wander completely with three-hundred enemy ships poised to kill her ship and crew. Nevertheless, she was experiencing a certain degree of distraction. Her employee was arguing with her instead of following the orders he had been given. Irritating as that was, her options were few. She could hardly fire him, not way out here. There was no one else. Nor could she fire on him. She needed the cargo his large ship was carrying. That was the reason she hired him in the first place. Captain Trisha Caldwalder absurdly found herself in a desperate discussion with the captain of the starship trailing her by eight-hundred-thousand kilometers in what was about to become a battle situation. It was her job to protect his ship at all costs, even if that cost was both her ship and her crew, as seemed likely. That was just the way it had to be.

“Fall back, Conrad. Get Adrift out of this,” she again stressed, while at the same time wondering why she was arguing with someone in her employ. Especially in this situation, with Fury about to come into targeting range of a hostile battle-fleet. He was supposed to just follow orders. That was the way it worked. He seemed to be having trouble understanding that concept. She had a lot of respect for the man, but the last thing she needed from him at the moment was insubordination. Early on he told her she could always trust him. There was no “except when it comes to following direct orders” disclaimer in there.

The bald fact was, he was not cooperating and there was nothing she could do about it, other than be persuasive. At least she still had a few minutes. Although he should have already known all of this, she took the time to explain it to him. “Iggly technology is more than a century behind ours. They believe my ship is a freighter. You’ve seen the weapons I’m packing, as you termed it. They won’t be expecting to face the military-grade firepower of a light cruiser. I stand less at risk than you’re suggesting.”

She paused, looking for another argument. “Remember too that you’re still in the shadow of Fury’s EM nimbus. There is a very good chance your ship hasn’t even been noticed yet. I’m buying you the chance to save your crew, your ship, and get the bulk of my delivery to Kendi. It’s important, Conrad. You know it’s important. I know you’re worried about me.” That could have gone without saying. Even if he wasn’t worried about her ship and her crew, he would be worried about Captain Trisha Cummins. They had been lovers for weeks now. There was nothing casual about their relationship either. “Don’t be,” she added. “There’s a good chance I can break through the wall of their trap.

The other’s voice and image came clearly and privately through her neural implants. “Yes, all of your arguments are doubtless true, Trisha. However, I don’t for a moment believe that you think you can survive running that gauntlet. This isn’t like the pirates we encountered. This time you’re seriously outnumbered. Once you’re in their cone, they’ll close in their formation to englobe you. The chance you’re referring to exists, but it is a small one. If they are tenacious about stopping you, and we both know they will be, that fleet can and will tear you apart. Its size massively exceeds the number of Igglies we allowed for in our worst projections.”

“Agreed,” she conceded while observing the Iggly formation completing its repositioning into a huge cone-like structure, with her ship pointed straight into the mouth. Damn, I really hate working with partners, even this one whom I’m coming to adore. Left to her own devices, she stood a good chance of blasting her way through the wall of that cone. She knew she wouldn’t escape unscathed. Her survival wouldn’t be a sure thing, but her greater speed and superior armament just might get her through the holocaust and out of range before the Igglies could reposition. It had certainly taken them long enough to establish their current formation.

Adrift, the huge freighter she was escorting, lacking Fury’s high-tech advantages, would be destroyed. There was no way around that glaring fact. She could not allow that. Conrad’s ship was carrying ninety-percent of the medicine she was responsible for delivering. That made ensuring the survival of his ship and it getting the serum to Kendi the mission. From that perspective, her ship’s survival became merely a nice-to-have. True, she had all seven of the medical technicians trained at the lab that developed the serum on board Fury. The technique of administering it to a Kendian, if she understood it correctly, was unusual. On the other hand, Conrad’s medical officer had spent enough time with those technicians on the journey that she hopefully at least understood what was involved. The man was damn clever; she wondered if he had planned that. Certainly a possibility. One that wouldn’t surprise her in the least at this point.

“You’re right of course,” she said, resuming the unwanted conversation, “our worst-case scenarios didn’t predict a fleet of this magnitude. And, yes, we will need a certain degree of luck. Considering the number of ships they have out there, I suspect what we’re looking at is an invasion fleet, rather than the picket we anticipated. We know they want to annex Kendi. With Kendi already weakened, the timing makes sense. They must have stripped a lot of planets bare to pull so much tonnage together. That doesn’t alter the job, Conrad.”

She hardened her voice, “Conrad, you have to get your portion of the cargo to Pragma Iridi even if Fury doesn’t make it. Millions of Kendians die if you don’t. This is what I hired you for. It’s worth the risk of my ship and my crew. Your ship is impressive, we both know that, but it is still just a freighter. An armed freighter, but a freighter nonetheless. My ship is faster than you know. I held back some information on Fury’s capabilities. If I’m not protecting you, I may be able to blast through the wall of their formation and still have a ship left. Adrift just does not carry sufficient armament to significantly alter the odds in a head-to-head confrontation with that fleet. I know I’m repeating myself, but I doubt they’ve even registered that you’re back there. We estimate their sensors are not able to see that far even without Fury shielding you. Even if they have information about a second ship, they certainly can’t know where to find you.”

When he responded after a brief pause, his response was an enigmatic, “No, you’re right. They can’t, can they?” His voice hesitated for another couple of seconds. “Perhaps it’s time we did something about that, Captain. I’m sure you know what is meant by a tipping point. I believe we may be at one.”

“What are you talking about?” her voice came across as exasperated, which she was.

“I believe I mentioned once before that we all have our secrets. Let’s just say I held back information on Adrift’s capabilities too. I will not allow you to sacrifice yourself needlessly, Trisha. What if I take a turn protecting you for a while?” In what was clearly a command, seemingly forgetting that he worked for her, he ordered, “Go to full military power now, Captain.” With a wink, he added, “I’ll catch up.”

It was the wink along with the “I’ll catch up” comment that decided her. He clearly wasn’t going to accept her offer to flee this mess. Yes, we all have our secrets, she agreed. It was a line he had used before when they first met, when they were discussing her ship. Somehow, she didn’t think he was referring to her or Fury with his statement this time. And, she considered briefly, how the hell did he know about “full military power?”

A standard, albeit unadvertised feature of Solarian League warships was power plants capable of operating for brief intervals in an overloaded state, referred to as “military power,” making League ships both faster and deadlier than would otherwise be the case. The maintenance costs were incredible, and overuse could leave you with a ship that might have some residual value left as salvage. Still, it was a comforting asset to have in reserve. He wasn’t supposed to know Hell’s Fury was a Solarian League warship. Somehow, he did. Interesting that.

Like his Adrift, Fury was a free-trader or at least advertised to be. Yet, she was sure he did not let that comment slip accidentally. Meaning he damn well knew Fury’s true nature and more to the point what he had been told was her maximum speed was not only fictional but was in fact far less than what Fury was truly capable of. Her maximum velocity at military power was half again the speed she advertised. It seemed incredibly unlikely he could have deduced her true maximum yet there he was jauntily proclaiming whatever it might be, he could outpace her. No ship in known-space the size of Adrift sported the size plant or the drives that would require. Her inspection team had observed nothing, other than the absurd number of fusion reactors, to suggest that Adrift boasted resources of that nature.

Yet he had absolutely nothing to gain by encouraging her to enter the Iggly trap sooner than would inevitably be the case. He knew she couldn’t flee. He already turned down the escape she offered him. And damn it, she truly trusted the man. She had in the bar the night they first met. The time they spent together and the intimacy they shared since had only served to deepen her trust. She didn’t believe he would risk the millions of lives on Kendi who were depending on the serums his ship was carrying. Which meant, what? We all have our secrets. Very well, let’s see what you’re hiding, Conrad, my dear.

Her ship leaped ahead as she relayed the “order” to her bridge crew, adding, “Gordon is disobeying orders to fall back. I don’t know what he has in mind, but he somehow knows that we are a League warship and still believes Adrift is faster than we are. Sound general quarters. Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to war. Defensive posture only. Hold fire unless and until the Igglies fire on us. Respond with deadly force.”

Tactical announced, “Eleven minutes, thirty-seven seconds until we are in engagement range. Approximately as much as one hundred seconds longer before the Igglies can shoot back at us.” The Igglies beams didn’t have the range that Fury’s did. There was silence on the bridge following that announcement as her officers went about their business. She had an efficient crew. She was proud of that.

It was no more than four minutes later when her tactical officer, Lieutenant Hosta, announced, “Captain, I’ve switched the main display to Captain Gordon’s freighter. You need to see this.”

“What? Why?” she asked, observing the change to the forward display. It didn’t look like Conrad’s ship on the display.

“Well, watching a few hundred Iggly warships waiting to kill us is, relatively speaking, boring,” he responded, somewhat laconically. “This, on the other hand, goes beyond fascinating. It almost makes you want to feel sorry for the Igglies. I don’t, but just saying. How is Adrift doing what it’s doing?”

The screen in front of her showed Adrift, the lumbering freighter belonging to the rather enigmatic and currently infuriating man she was futilely trying to talk into altering course. Designed to carry bulk cargo, it was a huge ship; easily ninety times the size of Fury. Still more than five-hundred-thousand kilometers behind her, Adrift was coming up fast, too fast. Already she was closing the gap. With Fury now approaching maximum thrust, the gap separating the two ships should be increasing noticeably. Yet, beyond any doubt, it was dramatically shrinking.

Trisha automatically scanned her readouts. Her engines were behaving appropriately. She began idly running her inspection tour of Adrift through her mind. Conrad had said he could maintain a steady velocity of about ninety-three percent of Fury’s advertised maximum. An extraordinary claim for a freighter of that size. Yet, he had indeed done so, steadily, for the last four weeks. Adrift had been maxing out far above the top speed one would reasonably attribute to a freighter of her class. When she first met him he bragged that his ship was remarkably fast. She smiled grimly. Of course, he could “maintain” that velocity. It appeared it may well be less than half of what Adrift was capable of.

Conrad hadn’t lied about that, nor as she suddenly realized, probably anything else. He just hadn’t disclosed everything. He had never stated what his ship’s top speed was. All of his claims had been couched in terms that reassured, while in no way actually establishing upper limits. Her thoughts went momentarily back to the spaceport bar in which they first met. She was not only the captain of Hell’s Fury, she was a trained black-ops operative carrying the rank of major. An assassin when necessary.

She was frequently mistaken for an athlete, but to the observant, to those who knew what to look for, what she really was showed in the way she moved. At the time, she had dismissed his lack of concern at her approach, assuming that he either did not recognize the danger she potentially represented or naively felt secure in the protective cocoon afforded by his unarguably competent companions. Terms that reassured without indicating limits, she thought again, realizing for the first time that he, not she, had been the single most dangerous individual in Kitty’s Rest that night. That was a shock she couldn’t afford to dwell on right now. She would, however, need to think about it further, assuming she survived the imminent battle.

Tipping Point is available from Amazon.com