Magic Destiny, Book Two: Challenge

By Michael Townsend

It's the 25th century, and the human race has begun to establish colonies outside the solar system. The first colony planet, Destiny, is inhabited by a remarkably human-like race with extraordinary paranormal powers (Book 1). The North American Federation, sponsors of the colonization, must deal with a Chinese-sponsored attempt to extort a portion of the colony. Meanwhile, one of the Destiny natives saves the NAF from a thermonuclear attack. On Destiny, the colony must again defend itself against an attack by a hostile native faction. In space, Earth colony ships are challenged by an alien race bent on enslaving humans; the challenge is met by humans using paranormal skills they've learned from the Destiny natives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Townsend
• Release date: Jun 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9780989445542

Michael Townsend

Michael Townsend is a retired high-technology business consultant who has served clients such as Xerox, Rockwell International, TRW, National Semiconductor, Apple Computer, and others. He lives in Southern California with his wife, Mary, and their Plott Hound, Gina.

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Magic Destiny, Book Two: Challenge

Copyright © 2013 Michael J. Townsend. All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ISBN: 978-0-9894455-4-2

Smashwords Edition

Prologue

It was snowing heavily as Gilberto Garcia entered the Planetary Federation Advanced Weapons Launch Control Facility at the Federation's Patagonia Base. It was August, 2438. The building was a stark concrete structure with a slanting roof that covered several hundred square meters. Once he was through the two doors that held out the weather, and had stomped the snow from his boots, Garcia was confronted by an array of display consoles, lined up so that their operators could see outside the building through the large plate glass windows that took up one wall. The internal lighting was dim and the conversations were muted.

The view through the windows was of a tall, slender missile on a launch stand. Painted white, the floodlit missile was cylindrical except for a bulging nose assembly. It was partly obscured by the swirling snow.

Garcia was heavy-set and dark complexioned, with short black hair and a smoothly-shaven face. He wore the forest green uniform of a Planetary Federation General. As he entered the building he took off his uniform hat and tucked it under his arm, his eyes quickly scanning the array of consoles for signs of trouble. He didn't see any.

His subordinate, Colonel Alejandro Jao, arose from his supervisory console, snapped to attention, and saluted Garcia, who returned the salute. Jao was short and slender; he stood ramrod-straight.

What is your report, Colonel? asked Garcia.

All systems are ready, General, said Jao. He gestured to one of the consoles. The weather outlook is guardedly favorable.

What do you mean, 'guardedly?'

While we're obviously in the midst of snow, there's no strong wind to speak of, all the way up, nor is any wind immediately forecast by the weather computers. We should have no difficulty launching. Optical visibility is impaired but electronic visibility is clear. Our laser tracking stations at Caracas and Nairobi report clear skies. We're now counting down to a launch in, uh, eight and a half minutes.

Very well, Colonel. Return to your console and proceed with the launch.

Jao, a slight, partially bald man, acknowledged the order and turned to slide into the seat of his console. From his screen he monitored the status of the several subsystem consoles in front of him. The air in the building, though carefully conditioned, smelled of hot electronics and the close proximity of a dozen technical specialists.

The missile on the stand outside the Facility was a Planetary Federation Daedalus launch vehicle, containing in its bulbous nose a two-hundred-megaton orbital fusion bomb.

By the year 2438 the art of launching unmanned vehicles into low Earth orbit had become routine, even if the techniques were still basically the same as when the practice began in the twentieth century. It still took several people to control the launch systems, but the days were gone when daylight and clear skies were required.

As the snow gradually accumulated on the ground outside the Facility, Jao continued to monitor progress. Within a few minutes all of the necessary conditions had been satisfied. When the countdown clock got to zero, the vehicle was launched with a roar on a brilliant tail of fire.

Colonel Jao watched on his console screen as the vehicle was tracked upward. It would remain whole until it was close to orbital altitude, when the launch portion of the vehicle would separate and a small chemical-thruster engine would nudge the bomb into its final orbital position.

Launch has been successful, General, said Jao. The Facility's systems were able to track the vehicle into orbit by virtue of passive optical beacons embedded in the bomb; it was otherwise stealthed from ground surveillance. No other ground-based systems would be able to detect the bomb's presence, much less track its exact trajectory. The bomb would stay in orbit until and unless circumstances made its use by the Planetary Federation residualists necessary.

***

The Planetary Federation had been the basis for Earth's political system for more than two hundred years; during that period, every country on the planet was subordinate to the world government. At first this arrangement, adopted after the catastrophic nuclear war between India and China in 2210, seemed to work relatively well: regional wars were largely eliminated, and the tensions that developed between countries over border and other issues found an effective forum for resolution.

But few political systems last indefinitely, and after two hundred years the Planetary Federation had started to become ineffective. More border wars broke out. Increasingly, the power of the large countries and alliances usurped the role of the Federation, dominating neighbors and abrogating treaties originally brokered by the world government. The large countries and alliances began developing their own military forces. It wasn't long before the Planetary Federation was being challenged on all fronts. The breakup of the Federation was underway, as was its replacement by a handful of large regional states.

Chief among these were the North American Federation, the European Union, and the Chinese Hegemony, all of which had declared their independence from the Planetary Federation. The North American Federation encompassed the former United States, Canada, Mexico, and Japan, and a handful of smaller countries. The Chinese Hegemony included China and India—now reconciled, after more than 200 years, from their disastrous war—and most of Southeast Asia.

The Planetary Federation military forces and other assets located in the regional states were, for the most part, commandeered by the respective regional governments. This particularly included the Interstellar Expeditionary Force, which, thanks to an accident of history, was largely based in—and now absorbed by—the North American Federation. Earth's program of interstellar exploration and colonization would now be under the control of the NAF.

Earth's population—eleven billion—remained at a crisis level; the draconian population control measures originally promulgated by the Planetary Federation were now for the most part adopted by the regional states. Population pressure had driven the establishment of the colonization program, seen as something of a relief valve for the necessary population control measures. It was hoped that the availability of colonization would mitigate the backlash directed at those measures.

Of course, dissolution of the Planetary Federation was resisted by the countries of the Middle East, Africa, and South and Central America, which remained in the Federation. For the most part these were the poorest countries, which saw the dissolution of the Federation as limiting their access to the world's most robust economies. Increasingly the unaffiliated countries became more desperate to head off dissolution.

Wars broke out between the newly formed regional governments and the remains of the Planetary Federation. Residualists—mostly located in the population centers of Africa and South and Central America—were largely responsible for the military efforts aimed at restoring the Federation. One of the residualists' most important remaining resources was the Advanced Weapons Launch Control Facility at Patagonia. While known to the NAF and the Chinese Hegemony, the Facility had, thus far, not participated in conflicts between the Planetary Federation and the regional governments, and so had escaped military counter-attack.

The Facility's peaceful presence at the tip of South America was brought to an end when Colonel Jao, nodding to his subordinates, rose from his console and saluted General Garcia again.

The weapon is in a stable orbit with all of its systems operating, he reported. There are no signs that it has been detected by the North Americans, the Europeans or the Chinese, although their satellite systems probably recorded our launch flare.

Well done, Jao, said Garcia.

Chapter One

The colony ship Galaxy Colonizer was returning to Earth, having deposited its second load of five thousand colonists at the Earth colony New Albuquerque on the planet Destiny in the Tau Ceti system, twelve light-years from Earth. Aboard on this return trip were the ship's crew of about two hundred and fifteen returning passengers—people who had come to Destiny in the colony ship's first trip, but who had decided that they didn't care to live the lives of colonists and wanted to go home to Earth.

Also aboard was a Destiny native named Benetra, making her second trip to Earth. On her first trip she had been accompanied by four other Destinians, but she was making this trip by herself, mostly out of intellectual curiosity about Earth and its people. Benetra was a statuesque middle-aged woman with long blond hair and blue, wide-set eyes. She had a sharp nose and chin, which contributed to the force of her personality.

Galaxy Colonizer was roughly spherical, about three hundred meters in diameter, with fifty decks. Assembled in orbit, it had fusion engines for non-FTL flight. Faster-than-light transitions were accomplished by means of an entanglement engine, capable of warping space to allow the ship to transfer instantaneously between two far-flung points.

The colony ship had to travel for about a month away from Destiny and its sun, to arrive at a place where the mass of those two bodies wouldn't interfere with the operation of the ship's entanglement engine, which enabled instantaneous transitions between Tau Ceti and the solar system. A similar journey would be necessary within the solar system, between the transition point and Earth.

***

The acting captain of Galaxy Colonizer was Matt Logan, a tall blond man in his mid-thirties. Usually upbeat, as the ship departed Destiny he was somber and withdrawn. Partly this was because he had become acting captain on the death of the ship's original captain, Eliza Stirling, during a confrontation with an alien race called the Kondisher, which had intercepted the colony ship's second trip to Destiny. In a fight aboard Galaxy Colonizer Stirling had been killed, the Kondisher boarding party had also been killed, and Logan—then first officer—had sent two native Destinians to the Kondisher patrol vessel to subdue its occupants. The Destinians—Galrad and his sister, Narwyn—teleported aboard the Kondisher ship and killed all but one of those aboard. The remaining Kondisher, Hughor, was taken captive and made to disclose the means for disabling the field weapon with which the Kondisher had crippled Galaxy Colonizer.

That weapon, which had temporarily disabled the ship's fusion engines, was the subject of immediate interest to the Interstellar Expeditionary Force, which sent a fast military vessel to take over the Kondisher patrol vessel and analyze its weaponry.

Having escaped the Kondisher, Galaxy Colonizer proceeded on to Destiny to land its load of colonists and their equipment. The colony, New Albuquerque, was situated on a hundred and twenty-five thousand square kilometer tract of land (about the size of the State of New York on Earth) that had been negotiated from a native Destiny country called Farnham. The plan of the Interstellar Expeditionary Force, responsible for Earth's colonization program, was that eventually hundreds of thousands of colonists would inhabit New Albuquerque, some of them on farms and some in towns and cities yet to be built. Initial loads of colonists would populate farms—the intent was that the colony would become self-sufficient for food as soon as possible. The plan called eventually for a city to arise where the New Albuquerque Town Center was situated. In time, other towns and cities would be established.

When the colony ship departed Destiny on its return trip there had been general apprehension and, particularly, Matt Logan's worry: would the Kondisher intercept Galaxy Colonizer again, attempting to enforce their ultimatum that the Earth people discontinue colonization and that the native people of Destiny give up their magic practices of teleportation and telepathy? The Kondisher believed these curtailments were necessary before humans could begin what the Kondisher regarded as humans' preordained role of supporting the aging Kondisher population. Servitude or slavery, in other words. It was this objective that had caused the Kondisher to relocate some early humans from Earth to Destiny, 200,000 years ago.

***

Logan walked onto the bridge wearing his maroon IEF uniform, now with the insignia of colony ship captain. The bridge was about ten meters on a side, with several specialized consoles arrayed in a semicircle around the captain's seat. A large holographic display on the bulkhead was used when external views were necessary; the bridge itself was located deep within the ship, close to the entanglement engine.

Status, please, Logan said to Jerry Harding, the new astrogator. Harding was of medium height with dark blond hair. The former astrogator, John Delmond, had retired after the second outward-bound flight to marry a Destiny native and become a farmer in New Albuquerque.

Situation is nominal, Captain, said Harding, looking up from his console. We should reach the transition point in about ten minutes.

That must mean there's still no sign of Kondisher, Logan asked Fred Sloan, the chief operations officer, a tall, dark-haired veteran of the Earth-Mars run. Among other things, it was his job to monitor the ship's external sensors.

No, Captain, everything's quiet out there, said Sloan. We're ready for the transition.

Logan acknowledged the report with a nod.

All right, folks, said Logan. I'm going down to the entanglement engine to help with the transition. Jerry, you have the ship for the transition.

I have the ship, replied Harding.

***

The entanglement engine—not really an engine, in the conventional sense—was located at the center of mass of the colony ship. A room surrounding the engine was provided for maintenance purposes, and for use by the astropaths in interfacing with the engine.

It had been learned during Galaxy Colonizer's first trip to Destiny that the entanglement engine responded reliably only to telepathic input of destination coordinates. It was Benetra who had discovered the telepathic path for the input of destination information. Something about the design of the engine's central processor had created a situation in which the engine refused to accept coordinate data from its regular interface computer, normally fed by Harding's console on the bridge. There had been speculation that the engine, with its enormous central processor, had become conscious. There was no doubt that it had at least become telepathic.

From the standpoint of the on-going interstellar colonization program, the alternative to the useless interface computer—short of abandoning interstellar travel altogether—was the telepathic input. During Galaxy Colonizer's stay at Earth after its first return trip certain individuals, including Matt Logan and the ship's chief defense officer, Jenna McKinley, had been identified by Benetra as adepts, people capable—given proper training, and lots of practice—of telepathic communication. Lengthy discussions of the telepathic peculiarity of the entanglement engine had led the Interstellar Expeditionary Force's technical and operational people to decide that, until and unless a technical solution to the problem could be found, telepathic individuals would accompany each interstellar trip to ensure that the entanglement engine was successfully interfaced. These astropaths dealt telepathically with the engine when the ship was about to make an interstellar transition.

In this instance the astropath was Logan. He entered the engine room to find a small crew of engine maintenance engineers scanning their instruments.

How's it look? he asked.

Everything's normal, Captain, said the lead engineer. The diagnostics are solid.

Logan sat down on a bench and picked up a microphone; he punched in the number for Jerry Harding's console.

Logan here, Jerry. Looks like we're good to go.

All right, Captain. Are you ready for the coordinates? asked Harding, his voice sounding in the engine room.

Sure. Give me about sixty seconds, then go ahead.

Logan relaxed and cleared his mind. He felt the presence of the entanglement engine on the other side of a partition in the engine room. He let it loom larger and larger in his consciousness, until his entire being was focused on the engine; he imagined at first that he could see the engine's outline through the solid partition, and shortly the partition seemed to fall away and Logan no longer had to imagine that he could see the engine. After a minute, Harding began to slowly read off the coordinates. Imagining that he was expressing the string of coordinate numbers through a tunnel to the engine, Logan input Harding's coordinates as the astrogator fed them to him. He received no feedback from the engine; as far as anyone knew, the telepathic capabilities of the engine were strictly receive-only.

But Harding could tell at his console that the coordinates were being successfully input.

We're ready for the transition, Captain, he said through the intercom.

All right, Jerry, make the transition, said Logan.

There was a brief period of weightlessness as Fred Sloan turned off the ship's artificial gravity. Harding made a simple keyboard entry at his console; he nodded to Sloan. Then the gravity came back on, and Harding reported that the transition had been successfully made: the ship was now in the solar system, a mere billion kilometers from Earth.

Logan returned to the bridge.

***

Ladies and gentlemen, said Logan, back on the bridge, speaking on the intercom to the crew and passengers, I'm pleased to report that our transition back to the solar system went without a hitch. We're now in our home system. The crew on the bridge applauded.

Logan turned to Jerry Harding.

Make the attitude correction, Jerry, he said. Harding adjusted the orientation of the ship using its side thrusters. The ship needed to point at the position Earth would be at when Galaxy Colonizer got there. When the ship was pointed correctly, he reported that to Logan.

Initiate the fusion engines, Fred, Logan said to Sloan. Logan stayed on the bridge until the fusion engines were producing the planned acceleration, then turned the ship over to Fred Sloan and headed for his stateroom.

Although the two fusion engines were powerful, Galaxy Colonizer was a massive ship, three hundred meters in diameter, capable of carrying five thousand passengers for months. As a result the fusion engines produced a relatively small acceleration—0.05 g—and a corresponding long time to reach Earth. A much smaller starship—such as one of the IEF military ships—would make the trip from its transition point to Earth in a fraction of the colony ship's time.

***

Congratulations on the transition, Matt, said Jenna McKinley, when Logan walked into his stateroom. McKinley was a dark-eyed brunette in her late twenties, wearing a maroon IEF uniform. She and Logan had been friends for some time, and had become lovers shortly before Logan became acting captain. By mutual but reluctant agreement they had suspended that aspect of their relationship, for the duration of Logan's new role. But as chief defense officer she still had access to his stateroom.

I'm just glad the Kondisher didn't show up again, said Logan.

What have you heard from the military about the Kondisher vessel?

We got a message from them just before the transition. They've finished going over the Kondisher's vessel and think that they've gotten everything out of it that's possible for them to find. They now know how the engine-disabling weapon works. They also have some insight into building energy beam weapons, based on something else they found. I gather the physicists with them are ecstatic.

Are they going to be able to build a defense against that engine-disabling weapon?

They think so; apparently, it might be just a matter of proper active shielding.

What will become of the vessel?

They left the beacon turned on, in case another Kondisher ship arrives in the general vicinity. Which I imagine will have to happen sometime soon—surely they've missed their patrol vessel by now.

That Kondisher engineer Galrad and Narwyn captured didn't look too happy, there on Destiny.

Well, it's no wonder. He's probably pretty lonely. But he can go back home as soon as the Kondisher show up again. We have no stake in keeping him around.

Doesn't it strike you as strange, that the Kondisher sent only a single patrol vessel to deliver their ultimatum? I mean, wouldn't they be expected to send something more, well, imposing? Like a fleet?

That seems to be how their culture operates. The captain of their vessel, Shu, seemed to think that Eliza Stirling could commit the human race, both on Earth and on Destiny. He claimed to be able to speak for the Kondisher, all by himself.

Maybe he was some kind of rogue officer. Still, it seems odd we haven't heard from them again.

I'm sure we will.

At that point the ship's intercom came alive.

Captain, please come to the bridge, said the voice of Earl Comfrey, chief communications officer.

Your work is never done, is it, Matt? remarked McKinley.

Guess not. Logan left for the bridge.

When he got there the bridge officers were in animated conversations. Logan sat in the captain's seat and called Comfrey over.

What's up, Earl?

Captain, we've just had a news bulletin from Earth. It looks like the revolt has finally happened.

You mean against the Planetary Federation?

Yep. The North American Federation and the Chinese Hegemony have both proclaimed their independence. IEF headquarters says we're now part of the North American Federation.

Is Japan also part of the North American Federation?

Yes, just like we've been speculating. And India and Southeast Asia are both part of the Chinese Hegemony.

What about Europe?

They're expected to announce their independence real soon now. Apparently Australia and New Zealand will align with Europe. That leaves only Africa, the Middle East, and South America left in the Planetary Federation.

So what's been the reaction of what's left of the Planetary Federation?

They're threatening military action. So there's been a concerted effort by the North American Federation and the Chinese Hegemony to grab the Planetary Federation forces and assets in their territories. The report we have from IEF headquarters is that most of those forces are aligning themselves with the new regional governments.

Just like the IEF?

Yep. We've got a new boss. The North American Federation President, Robert Lowry. Apparently George Matsushita, our CEO, will report directly to him.

It doesn't seem likely that the remaining Planetary Federation will have that much military clout.

They certainly aren't going to invade anyone. But they can still stand off and throw missiles at the regionals. Or at least threaten to.

It's a little hard to take that seriously, Earl.

Apparently threats have been coming from a new Planetary Federation capital in Nairobi, with a satellite capital in Caracas.

Hmmm. I wonder what this does to IEF funding?

Hopefully, not very much; North America was the principal funder of the IEF in the first place, with other countries contributing in order to get their citizens into the colony.

Does that mean that New Albuquerque, as a sovereign entity on Destiny, is in fact part of the North American Federation?

That one I'll leave to the lawyers and diplomats.

***

In her stateroom Benetra sat reading an e-book. She had changed out of the robe she customarily wore on Destiny into Earth-style clothing: a light blue blouse and tan slacks.

She noticed the brief interlude of weightlessness, and with Logan's announcement that the transition had been successful, relaxed; her services as resident telepathic expert would not be needed, it seemed.

Benetra was a wizard, though she was reluctant to use that word when describing herself, especially after she had learned Standard English and had come to know, from reading, how Earth people felt about witches and wizards. Historically, she knew, they burned them at the stake. Now they dismissed them as frauds.

On her first visit to Earth, she had been accompanied by four other Destinians: Galrad and his sister Narwyn, their village elder M'Roan, and a young woman from Farnham named Bretha (it was Bretha who had fallen in love with, and eventually married, the former astrogator of Galaxy Colonizer, John Delmond).

Benetra had always been a student—initially, of the special skills that qualified her as a wizard, but more recently, as part of her involvement with Earth people, of their cultures. More than any other Destinian, she had come to know and respect the people of Earth.

That she had saved Galaxy Colonizer when it was lost in space during its first return to Earth had much to do with her interest in Earth cultures. It had been her realization that the entanglement engine was telepathic, and was rejecting coordinate information from the interface computer. This had happened when the colony ship was essentially lost in space; Benetra had saved everyone on board.

But this was the ship's second return to Earth, and the entanglement transition had gone smoothly, without the need for her participation and without any interruption by the Kondisher. She thought back to the training sessions she had organized that taught six Earth-born adepts—Logan and McKinley included—how to communicate