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Bond Beyond Measure

Karl Thorn


Bond Beyond Measure

  By Karl Thorn

  Copyright 2014 Karl Thorn

  Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes.

  * * *

  Five year old Patric Debeck jumped and fidgeted with nervous excitement as his mother pointed out their destination, a star, unmoving in the center of the star field. It was now visible to the naked eye.

  "That's Yeltson's star?" Patric asked. "Where dad is?"

  "Yes," the mother confirmed for the hundredth time. She smiled to herself. Her son was really excited. His dad was stationed at Yeltson.

  They stood at the passenger liner's observation window watching the other stars gently move toward them. "Why isn't it moving toward us like the others?" Patric asked, grabbing his mother's hand. He had dark hair that covered his ears.

  "It is," Deleana Debeck answered. "It doesn't look like it because we are heading directly for it." Her hair was the same color as her son's only it flowed over her shoulders and down her back.

  "Dad is there, right?" He asked again, looking up to his mom. He just wanted to hear the answer again.

  "Yes," she smiled gently. "He will be there when we arrive."

  Patric fidgeted again, barely holding his excitement. He was proud of his father, Monty Debeck. Monty commanded a PT boat out on the fringe of their star nation. Patric recalled some of his father's exciting adventures and how his ship had saved the FWO from pirates.

  Whenever Patric thought of his dad, he pictured him wearing the blue military uniform. Perhaps, it was because he liked the two shiny stars on the collar or the gold stripes on the sleeves. More likely, though, it was the fact that most of his memories were of pictures or videos of his dad wearing the uniform. Monty also always wore it when he arrived and when he left.

  Patric clearly remembered his dad's last departure. It was bitter sweet. Bitter that his dad was leaving for another long period, but sweet in the sense that he promised Patric they would soon move to the base where he was stationed. Once there, Patric would get to see his dad almost on a daily basis. Now it was happening! He couldn't wait!

  * * *

  "Captain," the first officer announced, "we are picking up a gravity spike that matches a Czarian cruiser."

  Another Czarian pirate? He hoped not. The passenger liner was naked without its protective escort. Two other Czarian ships had shown up earlier and drawn off the destroyer. All three of those ships were now out of detection range, most likely still in heated battle. "Put it on my screen." Captain Tesoro said, knowing his officers were too competent to be wrong.

  The passenger liner didn't have a large screen like the military ships did. The small display at his console came to life with the standard tactical schematic. Tesoro was ex-military and spent most of his career commanding FWO destroyers. He had a full head of short gray hair with a white beard. He ran his fingers through the beard as he quickly interpreted the symbols.

  The Czarian cruiser was coming in at full speed from a direction that would be beyond the escort's detection range. They would not know a third Czarian was in the area. Tesoro gritted his teeth. The pirates' tactics were now obvious. The other two ships had accomplished their goal. They were just a diversion. Now this third ship had clear sailing, straight to the passenger liner.

  This area of space still harbored Czarian warships. They had refused to surrender when the Czarian Empire fell. They had at least one base in this sector, but the FWO hadn't been able to locate it. They occasionally raided planets and captured ships. Ironically, the Czarians had become what they always claimed the FWO to be, pirates.

  "Put the ship on yellow alert." The captain ordered. This would inform all crew members, but not the passengers. He hoped their escort would return in time to take care of the pirate. No point in scaring the passengers if it's not necessary.

  Time passed as the captain watched the Czarian pirate slowly close the distance. If their escort did not return before the cruiser entered torpedo range, they would be in trouble. The passenger liner only carried mini-missiles for defense. Captain Tesoro found himself thinking the other two pirates must have destroyed the escort. Then again, they had not returned either. He dared to hope the escort was still alive and would soon return to offer some assistance. That option, though, was quickly fading away as the enemy closed the gap.

  * * *

  "Attention all passengers, this is the captain speaking." Patric heard over the intercom. "Attention all passenger, the ship is going to red alert status. All passengers are ordered to return to your cabins, immediately. This is just a precautionary move. A Czarian pirate ship has been spotted in the area. No need to panic. Our defenses are sufficient to handle a single pirate. Again, all passengers are ordered to your cabins, immediately. Captain Tesoro out."

  "Pirate ship! Does that mean we are being attacked?" Patric asked.

  Deleana calmly led him from the observation room. "It means we have a good captain." She said, trying to hide her concern. "He is not taking any chances and is following regulations." She picked up her pace, passing other passengers.

  Though Patric was only five, he did feel the tension in his mother's grip and noticed her quickened gate.

  Several minutes after they reached their cabin, Patric heard a thud, thud, thud. He could not tell the direction it was coming from. "What's that?" He quickly scanned the room as if he was searching for the answer. "Are we shooting mini-missiles?" He only thought this from the stories he remembered from his father.

  His mother didn't answer.

  * * *

  Captain Tesoro just disconnected from the intercom, announcing the red alert. He was now intently watching a second Czarian ship that just appeared on the edge of detection. It was coming in at high speed from the vector their escort had been drawn off to. Its signature did match one of those Czarian vessels. Tesoro grunted to himself. He now knew the escort had to be destroyed. At least the third Czarian ship didn't reappear.

  The lead Czarian pirate just launched two torpedoes at extreme range. Tesoro knew they could be just warning shots, but he didn't want to take the chance. Once they were in range, he ordered his crew to open fire on the torpedoes. The mini-missiles didn't have the range to reach the pirate ship, but he hoped the mini-missiles could intercept the torpedoes. Seconds later, one did, when the lead torpedo did disappear off the screen. The other torpedo zipped passed the bow. Too close to tell if it was just a warning shot. They even felt the wake of its gravity spike.

  "Captain, the Czarian is modulating its gravity spike." This was the only way of faster than light communications.

  "Let me hear it." Tesoro already had a good idea of what they would be saying.

  "Surrender," a heavily accented voice boomed over the speaker, "and no harm will come to you or your passengers. . . "

  Captain Tesoro motioned for the comm officer to cut off the rest of the message. Surrender wasn't an option. The passengers and crew were his responsibility and he couldn't allow a pirate to take them. Slavery was a likely possibility and one of the more pleasant ones. He would prevent that from happening at all costs.

  He scanned the local star charts on his small display. Most of the information on this area was acquired from Czarian records and only a few had been verified by preliminary surveys with Free World Organization vessels. One system did look promising, though it had no confirmation from an FWO ship. He compared the course and speed of his ship with that of the Czarian. It would be close, but at maximum speed he thought they would be able to make it. At least close enough for the lifepods to reach the planet. He punched in the coordinates and sent them to the
helm. "Helm change course as indicated."

  Without any FWO surveys available, he could be leading his passengers and crew straight to the hidden Czarian base. He doubted it though. He had passed through here several times. Every encounter he had with the Czarians would indicate their base of operation was far from here. It had to be further out, deeper in uncharted space.

  The helmsman read off the data and answered, "Aye sir."

  "Maximum speed, put the diamonds into the red." It didn't matter if the diamonds burned out now. This was the passenger liner's last voyage. They should, at least, last long enough to reach that planet. That was all that mattered now.

  * * *

  The thud, thud, thud sound started up again. This time continuously, and far more rapidly. Though Patric was only five, he knew many guns were firing now. In the midst of all this he heard some bangs and a boom. "We're being hit, mom!"

  "Attention all passengers, this is the captain speaking. We are under attack. Report to your assigned lifepod immediately. At the moment this is just a precaution. We are approaching a system with a habitable planet. We have programmed the pods with those coordinates, should evacuation be needed. Again, report to your lifepods immediately."

  As Captain Tesoro spoke, Deleana grabbed her son's arm and escorted him into the corridor. The hall was already filling with panicking people running every direction. The deck quaked with a solid boom coming from the stern of the ship. People tripped and others stumbled over them. Deleana fell over someone and forced Patric to the ground as well. They got to their feet and started running as fast as the crowd would allow. The pods weren't too far away now.

  Pod 64 was now in site. Crewmen were directing people and shouting over the commotion. The ship quaked with another hit and loud boom, this one worse than the last. Deleana lost her grip on her son's arm and fell to the deck. People trampled over her. Patric screamed for his mother as people pushed him further down the hall. A crewman grabbed Patric's arm and yanked him into a pod. "This isn't my pod!" He said frantically searching for his mother beyond the huge man that had pushed him through the hatchway.

  "It doesn't matter." The crewman said, slamming the hatch shut in Patric's face. The pod was now full. He pushed buttons on the panel that cleared the pod for ejection. He then moved to the next pod, took a quick glance at the indicator and saw it only had a few empty seats too. He grabbed the first people he saw. Getting as many pods away was top priority.

  Patric shook with fear, finding himself standing in front of a closed hatch with his mom on the other side! He started to beat on the door, but a stocky woman in a ship's engineering uniform, pushed him into the vacant seat by the hatch. She pulled a restraining bar over his body that would hold him in place. She then took the last vacant seat. No sooner did she pull the bar over her body did Patric feel the pod lurch. Tears ran down his cheek. "Wait for my mom!" He yelled.

  The cramped, dimly lit room was circular with the outer wall lined with seats, pointing inward and a circular row of seats at the center facing outward. An extremely narrow isle separated the two. Most of the seats were occupied by crying children, teenagers or their mothers. Only a few were filled with older couples. Patric noticed the woman with the crew's uniform, had a small flat panel mounted to her retaining bar. She was staring at it and pushing soft keys.

  "Pod sixty-five clear." She said. Even Patric knew she was talking to the passenger liner.

  "My mom!" Patric yelled, tears streaming down his cheeks.

  "Sorry kid." The lady said without looking up from her screen. "If she was outside the door, than she'll be in the next pod. We'll locate her once we're down on the planet."

  * * *

  Captain Tesoro watched the lifepods eject. His ship was badly damaged and getting worse by the minute. The Czarians could have easily destroyed the liner by now, but chose to target only the engines. They wanted to capture the ship intact along with her passengers, crew and cargo.

  The Czarian was now closing fast. Captain Tesoro had shut down the last working engine when they came into range of the planet. He hoped the Czarians would think all of the ship's engines were now disabled. This was key to his plan.

  Tesoro now knew he only had one option left. Mini-missiles alone wouldn't stop the large Czarian vessel. If he didn't find a way to destroy that ship, his passengers would be easy pickings. Ramming the cruiser was the only way to protect his people. Once the last pod was gone, he was free to do just that. This would prevent the Czarians from tracking the pods to the planet where they could take their booty. The other Czarian ship was still too far away and could only guess as to what had happened. All the pods would be on the ground by the time it reached scanning range. Even if they did track the pods to the planet they wouldn't want to take time to search an entire planet to round up a few thousand people. All the pods were programmed with the same landing and alternate landing sites, but undoubtedly they would be scatter across at least one continent. The remaining Czarian ship would not want to hang around that long, even if they had destroyed the escort.

  "Cease fire mini-missiles and order all ship's personal to the remaining pods." Only a few volunteers would stay aboard, just enough to keep the ship running. "Shutdown all non-essential power, play dead." He rubbed his bearded face.

  * * *

  Patric heard soft crying and sobs from the younger children. He realized he was one of them and tried to stop. The older children and women were intensely watching the lady with the engineering uniform. Patric turned his head in time to see her eyes suddenly widened. She was staring at her small display panel, oblivious to the others watching her. "What are they doing?" He heard her say under her breath.

  A few seconds later she exclaimed, "No!" The crewman glanced around the lifepod and regained her composure. She swallowed. "We will reach the planet in a few hours." Her voice was controlled, but tight. "No need to worry. Our lifepod is functioning as designed. We'll reach land fall with plenty of power to spare."

  Patric knew she wasn't telling them something. Whatever it was, it was bad.

  "My name is Engineering First Mate Patrice Talivar." She introduced herself. "You will find survival rations in compartments below your seats." Talivar said. "I suggest you have a bite to eat in the meantime." They might need the food once they reached landfall, but it was supposed to be a habitable planet. If they couldn't locate a local food source, saving the rations for later would only delay the inevitable. She felt it was more important for the children to do something now.

  Occupying the kids with snacks and drinks helped. The sobbing even stopped, though the young kids' eyes remained red. After a while some of them asked to use the porta pot while others fell asleep from the boredom.

  Patric forced himself to eat something, but refused to sleep. He worried for his mom's safety and wondered if he would ever see her again. How he missed his mother and wished they were back together! He wanted the pod to land now so he could find her. It couldn't come soon enough, but the more he thought about it the slower time seem to pass. It seemed to take much longer than just few hours. He forgot all this when the pod started buffeting.

  "Entering atmosphere," Patrice Tolivar explained to subdue the passenger's fears.

  The small craft started pitching side to side and bouncing up and down. Soon, Patric started hearing a rushing wind. The capsule started getting hot. The noise grew, the ride got rougher and hotter. After a few minutes of this, he heard an occasional boom outside the pod. He wondered if they had been found and were being shot at. He saw that others had heard the explosive sounds too. They didn't say anything about it and neither did he. The engineering mate was concentrating on landing the craft and made no indication that she could even hear the intermittent booms.

  Suddenly the pod lurched then all motion seemed to stop with the exception of a slight swinging motion. All outside noise ended too except for the booming. The floating sensation lasted only a few minutes then the pod gave a suddenly jol
t, forcing Patric into his seat. The lights went out and the pod tilted sideways. All motion stopped. Booms and rumbling could still be heard outside.

  "We're down." The engineering mate said, popping open the hatch. A loud boom of thunder rumbled through the open door. The bars that held the people in place raised automatically.

  Several people screamed, while Patric heard someone yell; "They are attacking us!"

  The children raced to the hatch, clogging it up and pushing those in front through.

  Patric was the first to the door. He tumbled out of the hatchway and into the dark rainy day. He landed face first in a puddle of water. Other children stepped on him as he struggled to get up. He finally rolled out of the way onto a blanket of foot tall purple vegetation that had long slender blades similar to grass. He jumped to his feet and ran as quickly as his legs would carry him. The wind and rain blew in his face. The sky flashed and rumbled. Patric had not experienced anything like it on his home world. He was too terrified with all that has happened to realize it was simply a thunderstorm.

  Patric did not hear Patrice Talivar calling him and the other kids back. Her voice was lost amongst the screams of the other children and clattering of the storm.

  Patric ran as fast as he could, ran as far as he could, through the meadow and wooded hills of purple and green vegetation. The direction didn't seem to matter. He called and called for his mother, but she never answered. He then remembered what the crew lady said; mom would be in another lifepod. He kept his eyes open for them as well though he didn't really know what they looked like. He continued to call to her, but she never answered. He saw nothing man made, only purple vegetation and wooded hills.