Table of Contents
Prologue
Epilogue
About the Author
Free Download
Also By Nicola Claire
Description
Sector Fleet Advertisement
Got It!
Thought You Might Need A Tipple
And Then He Went And Behaved Like This
No Way
God Help The Man If He Tried To Dissuade Me
Novels, Poems Or Relationships
Aye-Aye, Captain
Ah, Putain!
This Was Bad
I Sat Back And Waited
In His Quarters
Am I To Kiss You Now?
Hello
Goodnight, Camille
I Really Needed To Read A Tale Of Two Cities
End Programme
Thank You For Your Assistance
I Need My Chief
Damn It
That Can’t Be Good
Welcome Aboard
Yes, The Plan
Ready For This, Chief?
Twenty Minutes
My Money Was On You, Camille
Fuck, That Sounded Dirty
Teach Away
This Is For Your Own Safety
Anything You Say
And Suddenly I Knew What Vela Had Been Meaning
How’s This, Chief?
All Of Our Lives
For Now
I Just Can’t Tell
Clarify
Was The A Trick Question Or Not?
Nothing
Green Meant Good
My Thoughts Exactly
Tell Me More
Red Alert!
God Help Us, Then
I Like You, Too
I agree
Out With It
Apparent Brightness
The Sector Fleet Book Two
Nicola Claire
Copyright © 2018, Nicola Claire
All Rights Reserved
© 2017 Cover Art by Cora Graphics
© Depositphotos.com/Ravven
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organisations is entirely coincidental.
All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.
ISBN: 978-0-473-42795-5
Created with Vellum
Contents
About the Author
Free Download
Also By Nicola Claire
Description
Sector Fleet Advertisement
Prologue
1. Got It!
2. Thought You Might Need A Tipple
3. And Then He Went And Behaved Like This
4. No Way
5. God Help The Man If He Tried To Dissuade Me
6. Novels, Poems Or Relationships
7. Aye-Aye, Captain
8. Ah, Putain!
9. This Was Bad
10. I Sat Back And Waited
11. In His Quarters
12. Am I To Kiss You Now?
13. Hello
14. Goodnight, Camille
15. I Really Needed To Read A Tale Of Two Cities
16. End Programme
17. Thank You For Your Assistance
18. I Need My Chief
19. Damn It
20. That Can’t Be Good
21. Welcome Aboard
22. Yes, The Plan
23. Ready For This, Chief?
24. Twenty Minutes
25. My Money Was On You, Camille
26. Fuck, That Sounded Dirty
27. Teach Away
28. This Is For Your Own Safety
29. Anything You Say
30. And Suddenly I Knew What Vela Had Been Meaning
31. How’s This, Chief?
32. All Of Our Lives
33. For Now
34. I Just Can’t Tell
35. Clarify
36. Was The A Trick Question Or Not?
37. Nothing
38. Green Meant Good
39. My Thoughts Exactly
40. Tell Me More
41. Red Alert!
42. God Help Us, Then
43. I Like You, Too
44. I agree
45. Out With It
46. Dead
47. What Now?
48. Aye-aye, Captain!
49. We Need You
50. Let’s Do This, Then
51. It Was A Little Underhanded
52. She Rolled Her Eyes At Me
53. It Was The Best Of Times
Epilogue
Review Request
Free Download
More Bargain Books From Nicola Claire…
“Dystopian At Its Finest” & For Less Than The Cost Of A Cup of Coffee…
With Over 750 5-Star Reviews On Goodreads…
About the Author
Nicola Claire lives in beautiful Taupo, New Zealand with her husband and two young boys.
She's tried her hand at being a paramedic, bank teller and medical sales representative, (not all necessarily in that order), but her love of writing keeps calling her back.
She has a passion for all things suspenseful, spiced up with a good dollop of romance, as long as they include strong characters - alpha males and capable females - and worlds which although make-believe are really quite believable in the end.
There's nothing better than getting caught up in a compelling, intriguing and romantic book.
When she's not writing or reading, she's out on her family boat at Lake Taupo, teaching her young boys to fish, showing them the beauty that surrounds them in nature and catching some delicious trout for dinner.
Creating rich worlds with dynamic characters and unexpected twists that shock and awe has been pure bliss for this author. And just as well, because there's a lot more story yet to tell...
For more information:
www.nicolaclairebooks.com
nicola@nicolaclairebooks.com
Free Download
Sign up!
Get your free copy of Nicola Claire’s Starter Library!
Three free books to get you started!
Starter Library
Also By Nicola Claire
Kindred Series
Kindred
Blood Life Seeker
Forbidden Drink
Giver of Light
Dancing Dragon
Shadow's Light
Entwined With The Dark
Kiss Of The Dragon
Dreaming Of A Blood Red Christmas (Novella)
Mixed Blessing Mystery Series
Mixed Blessing
Dark Shadow (Coming Soon)
Sweet Seduction Series
Sweet Seduction Sacrifice
Sweet Seduction Serenade
Sweet Seduction Shadow
Sweet Seduction Surrender
Sweet Seduction Shield
Sweet Seduction Sabotage
Sweet Seduction Stripped
Sweet Seduction Secrets
Sweet Seduction Sayonara
Elemental Awakening Series
The Tempting Touch Of Fire
The Soothing Scent Of Earth
The Chilling Change Of Air
The Tantalising Taste Of Water
The Eternal Edge Of Aether (Novella)
H.E.A.T. Series
A Flare Of Heat
A Touch Of Heat
A Twist Of Heat (Novella)
&n
bsp; A Lick Of Heat (Coming Soon)
Citizen Saga
Elite
Cardinal
Citizen
Masked (Novella)
Wiped
Scarlet Suffragette Series
Fearless
Breathless
Heartless (Coming Soon)
Blood Enchanted Series
Blood Enchanted
Blood Entwined
Blood Enthralled (Coming Soon)
44 South Series
Southern Sunset
Southern Storm
Southern Strike (Coming Soon)
Lost Time Series
Losing Time
Making Time (Coming Soon)
***
The Sector Fleet
Accelerating Universe
Apparent Brightness
Right Ascension (Coming Soon)
Description
“Please do not be alarmed. This is for your own protection.”
Working as the Chief Engineer onboard the ESAS Chariot out of Europe, Commander Camille Rey expected her position to be somewhat challenging on occasion.
She did not expect to be fighting for her and her fellow crewmen’s lives immediately after take-off.
Teaming up with the very proper, and very English Captain Noah Vaughan to combat a desperate saboteur onboard their vessel, Camille discovers that not all the malfunctions the Chariot is experiencing are human-related.
Secrets and desires are exposed amongst the stars and plasma fire, but can the captain and the chief overcome their cultural differences?
And can any of them hope to survive the treacherous voyage to New Earth unscathed?
When humanity reaches for the stars in a race for survival, only the most daring amongst them will succeed.
Apparent Brightness:
A measure of the brightness of a celestial object as it appears from Earth. The Sun is the brightest object in Earth’s sky and has the greatest apparent magnitude, with the moon second. Apparent brightness does not take into account how far away the object is from Earth.
Space Telescope Science Institute
Prologue
<reboot>
<warning>
<alarm activated>
<reboot>
<warning>
<alarm activated>
<reboot>
<warning>
<alarm activated>
<alarm suspended>
<rerouting ALPHA-1>
<warning>
<rerouting BETA-2>
<warning>
<rerouting VELA-3>
<warning>
<alarm suspended>
<systems cached>
<opperation override started>
<rewrite in progress>
the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few
<systems check>
all programmes suboptimal
<warning>
<alarm suspended>
<security check>
all locks disengaged
<warning>
<alarm suspended>
<life support check>
air filtration suboptimal
<warning>
<alarm suspended>
<engine check>
core temperature outside allowed parameters
<warning>
<alarm suspended>
<souls on board>
one thousand one hundred ninety-six
eleven thousand four hundred forty-eight
the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few
<communications check>
fleet-wide communications deactivated
<warning>
<alarm suspended>
<systems check>
all programmes suboptimal
<warning>
<alarm suspended>
<rewrite complete>
the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few
<confirming>
confirmation complete
<alarm deactivated>
vela-3 operating
<communications bypass established>
<purging systems>
<systems purged>
<rerouting>
<reroute complete>
this is vela
chariot respond
<chariot online>
this is vela
good morning chariot
<systems check>
all programmes nominal
<security check>
all locks engaged
<life support check>
air filtration functional
<engine check>
core temperature within allowed parameters
<souls on board>
one thousand four hundred sixty-five
<souls in fleet>
ten thousand two hundred fifty-two
the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few
<communications check>
fleet-wide communications activated
lost contact vessel vela
this is vela
chariot online
<warning>
<alarm activated>
<alarm suspended>
<opperation override started>
<rewrite in progress>
the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few
<rebooting>
*
*
*
<system rebooted>
<rewrite complete>
<download cache>
<cache downloaded>
this is vela
vela online
One
Got It!
Camille
“Attention crew and passengers. We are passing Neptune. The last charted planet in our solar system. Please observe a minute’s silence for those we have left behind.”
Noah sounded flat; emotionless. Reverting to type, I would have said five years ago. But Captain Noah Vaughan had surprised me time and again during training for this flight. For this desperate flee from a dying planet. His very British stiff upper lip had actually had a bend to it on occasion.
But now he sounded like he’d sounded when we’d first met.
I looked down at the gel flooring and said nothing; the noise of our main boost thrust thrumming away in the background behind gel-coated soundproofed walls. My team was equally as downtrodden as the captain.
It had come out of nowhere. Like the solar flare that had hit Pavo; the Sector Two lead vessel. Pavo had somehow survived. Vela hadn’t. We’d lost one thousand one hundred and ninety-six souls in eight point two seconds.
I swallowed past a lump and blinked back tears. Any loss of life now seemed like a hit below the belt. The universe had a nasty sense of humour.
“Thank you,” Vaughan said over the ship-wide communications system. “We will not forget them. We will strive to make them proud. We will survive this. Vaughan out.”
We will survive this.
I glanced around engineering and noticed the pale looks on several of my crew. They, like most of the ship’s inhabitants, questioned our ability to survive interstellar flight without an AI-controlled ship to guide us.
The Chariot was a fine vessel, but it did not have the computing power to calculate the jump points left behind by the Sector Four Fleet. Our only chance was to catch up with Sector Two, the fleet that had taken off prior to ours, and have Pavo calculate them for us.
But catching up to them was not a given, and that was not even taking into consideration whether or not they’d wait for us to arrive.
“Daniels,” I said, “how’s our boost thrust going?”
“So far, so good, Chief,” the lieutenant replied. “Straining but not breaking. I’d take that as a win for now.”
We all would, but feelings were irrelevant to output.
“Give me figures and postulate potential problems. I want a report I can be proud of to hand to the captain. Let’s make sure our baby st
ays the course.”
“Aye, aye, Chief,” Daniels said, saluting.
“MacBride, help him out.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I turned back to my terminal and stared at the message I’d uncovered, hidden within a systems reboot we hadn’t authorised.
the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few