The Astro-Dragon

By Django Mathijsen

Wilvo, like his father, is a space junk salvager. When his dad recovers a defective satellite, launched in 2241, the Pan-American Information Service pressures him to abort. His father continues. Suddenly he sends a distress signal. What’s entangling his spaceship? Can Wilvo, helped by Yaritza from PAIS, save his father? This story was awarded the NCSF-prize 2009: the prize for the best Dutch science fiction story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: enpublikant
• Release date: May 22, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476385259

Django Mathijsen

Django Mathijsen is een prijswinnend schrijver, wetenschapsjournalist, jazzorganist, componist, ingenieur en Robot Wars adviseur. Hij heeft voor zijn verhalen onder meer gewonnen de Brugse Boekhandel Fantasy Award, tweemaal de NCSF-prijs, driemaal de Unleash Award, driemaal op rij een nominatie bij de Piet Paaltjens wedstrijd en vier eervolle vermeldingen bij de Amerikaanse Writers of the Future. Zijn fictie en non-fictie is verschenen in talloze tijdschriften, verhalenbundels en websites (zoals de Kijk, Panorama, ANWB AutoKampioen, Zo zit dat, Luister, Jazzism, Pure Fantasy, Wonderwaan, SF Terra, De Nachtvlinders, Parelz, Fantastisch Strijdtoneel, De Twintig Beste 2009, De Twintig Beste 2010, enzovoort). Hij is de zoon van beroepsmusici en zat al als tiener als jazzorganist op het podium. Maar hij was ook bezeten van techniek en wetenschap. Dus ging hij naar de TU Eindhoven waar hij afstudeerde als werktuigkundig ingenieur. Vervolgens werkte hij behalve als wetenschapsjournalist onder andere als robotdeskundige achter de schermen bij de prijswinnende teeveeprogramma’s Robot Wars (de robotvechtsport die het BBC2 kijkcijferrecord van 6,9 miljoen kijkers haalde) en TechnoGames (de Olympische Spelen voor robots). Hij startte en leidde de Nederlandse en Duitse Robot Wars, adviseerde honderden robotbouwers en keurde, bouwde en repareerde talloze machines. De laatste jaren legt hij zich vooral toe op het schrijven van romans, verhalen en muziek, vaak in samenwerking met Anaïd Haen. Hun nieuwste boek, Hersenhack (10+), is verkrijgbaar bij Uitgeverij EigenZinnig": 351 nagelbijtend spannende pagina's.

Book preview

The Astro-Dragon

By Django Mathijsen

Cover by: Anaïd Haen

Published by en-Publikant at Smashwords

Copyright 2009 Django Mathijsen

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of these authors.

The Astro-Dragon

Chapter 1: The feeling of a satellite fisherman

I never imagined I could be capable of harming my father, let alone murdering him. And I never imagined he could be capable of murdering me. Yaritza thinks it wasn’t my dad. But it’s different for her. She’s the one who (to use an antiquated phrase) pulled the trigger.

It started with a remark I’d heard many times before.

Your old man failed to file a flight plan again, Lemdon’s voice sounded behind me.

My eyes had fallen shut. For a moment the sounds around me had faded into nothingness: the droning of the beltway under the floor, the whirring of the computer screens behind me, the hissing of the air hoses and the nervous buzzing of the servomotors of the robot arms above us. I’d nearly fallen asleep on my feet. Even the bangs of the air chisels reverberating through the walls and the shrill whine of the angle grinders hadn’t been able to prevent that. The adrenaline that had been coursing through my body for three days had drained away.

I opened my eyes. They were burning. The reflection of my unshaven mug in the window hovered in the pitch-black sky above the horizon, a curved razor-line of reflected, white light. Between the line and the black was a blue atmosphere that seemed no higher than my five-day-old stubble. On the left and right the white line ended in shades of yellow and red. It looked like pictures I’d seen of rainbows. I’d never seen a rainbow for real. I’d never been down on Earth long enough.

I pressed my nose against the window. Immediately below me, the beltway entered the Atlantic Tower. The beacon lights on the beltway edges made the six-yard wide black ribbon stand out from the background. The beltway was moving so fast that the beacons flowed together to form two continuous stripes. Although it went all around the Earth, the beltway seemed to terminate at a point in the distance. It looked like we were sticking a long black tongue out at the Earth. Less than an hour ago, I’d touched down on that black tongue.

I could see fragments of coastline standing out against the deep black of the Atlantic Ocean below us. The coastline was accentuated by concentrated dots of light at the city centers: Belém and São Luís lying straight ahead to the west and Fortaleza in the southwest. Southwards, Natal, João Pessoa and Recife were shrouded in clouds. Down there, the beach parties would now be starting, with tanned bikini girls dancing around campfires to wild sambas and sensuous bossa novas.

I’ll have your ship ready again within sixteen hours, Lemdon said as he came up to stand next to me.

I burst out laughing. I’m going to sleep for thirty-six hours. Then I’m taking a week off down there to comb the beaches of Fortaleza and Natal and to go fishing off Aracati.

I hope they’ll bite as well down there for you as they did up here. You brought back a whopper. Lemdon pointed up. "Eight tons, a three hundred yard dish, tens of kilos of silver, gold, platinum and palladium and a few hundred kilos of silicon and fullerena. We can use the electronics and fiber optics in radios and amplifiers. My estimation is that this satellite is going to notch up