Space Trippers Book 4: Will Work For Parts

By A. Lightbourne

Space Trippers is a fun Sci-Fi series.

Valesque Rhaugh is a Virrilian Engineer, banished from her home planet for allegedly selling weapons to the humans. She lives a quiet life, moving from place to place and constructing new gadgets. Lately she has been living undercover in hostile Earthian territory, constructing her latest project; a state-of-the-art scientific exploration vessel.

The corrupt Earthian organization, the I.P.A. has sought control of her inventions before, but she had always turned them down flat. One determined General has now set his sights on her unfinished ship. In one fateful day he has her unarmed vessel taken over and ordered out for war duty, against her people! Worse yet, they shanghaied her as part of the crew!

When she wakes up, three days after launch, kidnapped on her own vessel, her nightmare has only just begun. Soon she discovers a sinister secret as her long lost device, the Space Tripper activates and sends them all hurtling into the unknown.

When the crew finds themselves stranded in uncharted space all fingers point at her. Can she figure out what is happening in time? Or will they all be destroyed by her own hand?

Our short-tempered heroine is reluctantly befriended by a very flirty pilot, a shy young genius, an air headed android and a suspicious alien girl found drifting in space.

But can these people be trusted? With everyone's lives on the line can she figure out who to trust, who not to and how to get them all home?

Find out in the Space Trippers series, where espionage, love triangles and hidden identities abound. As well as a generous smattering of humor as tempers and personalities collide!

A fun, light series. Each book in the series follows the next in this episodic adventure. Each stop on the continuing journey delves a little deeper into the pasts, feelings and motives of each character as the entire story begins to unfold.

• Language: English
• Publisher: A. Lightbourne
• Release date: Sep 13, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301032242

A. Lightbourne

SciFi/Fantasy writer. My writing style is light and littered with humor.

Book preview

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Space Trippers

Book Four

Will Work For Food Parts

By: A. Lightbourne

Books By A. Lightbourne

~Space Trippers Book 1~

Trippin'

The adventure begins when Valesque's unfinished ship is commandeered by the enemy, with her on board! To make matters worse she is getting blamed when her long lost device is found on the ship and strands them in uncharted space. Can she figure out what is happening in time? Or will they all be destroyed by her own hand?

~Space Trippers Book 2~

Just Passing Through

After the disaster in the hydroponics lab the ship needs more food supplies. But the trade aliens seem a little too interested in Valesque for Tim and Sanic's comfort. With the addition of a new, sifting alien girl, they set out to rescue her.

~Space Trippers Book 3~

A Frosty Farewell

The ship needs water, so they are off to the nearest water trade planet. Valesque has found some disturbing secret files on one of the Upper Crewmen. Will they get the water they need? And if they do will they be going home with one less crewmate?

Copyright © 2010 A. Lightbourne.

All contents copyright © 2010 A. Lightbourne. All rights reserved. No part of this work or the related files may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the author. This work whole or in part may not be copied or distributed without prior written permission. No merchandising in any form of any character or text herein may be sold without the prior authorization of the author.

You may contact the author through ALightbourne.com website.

Any trademarks, service marks, product names or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if one of these terms is used.

Copyright © 2011 A. Lightbourne. All rights reserved worldwide.

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This Book is dedicated to

all my readers, I hope you enjoy the story as much as I do.

Special Acknowledgment to:

My sweet, supportive Hubby who is the best thing in life!

Chapter One

Warped Thinking

Valesque Rhaugh's warm brown eyes stared intently at a small, black box across the room. Concern etched itself deep into the middle of her forehead as she sat anxiously watching the worrisome temporary shield from the Flight Deck's control room. The jump was only going to take a few seconds, but hours worth of concerns flooded her mind, making the preparation for that brief fraction of a minute seem to stretch on for eternity.

Valesque even had the ship's communicator placed firmly in her ear, normally she hated the device, but right now it let her monitor everything the exacting military Captain was reporting to all areas of the ship.

They had not begun the jump yet, the ship was just getting up to the proper speed to match the first jump log Sanic had recovered. Actually, it was the first part of the log Valesque had let him discover by implanting it into the cloned Space Tripper device, but she wouldn't let him know that. There were a lot of things she wouldn't let people know lately, ever since their first jump here almost two weeks ago.

But at least this time she didn't have to go running through a lurching circus ride to check on her digital grandmother's power supply, she was right here with her. Well, mostly, her main program was still in the secret room but her remote-controlled fairybot body was present to give Valesque power checks on the cyber-world system.

The Engineer peered down as she thought of this latest development; the Nahnibot hovered beside her right shoulder, gripping the Engineer's pale blue sweater in her tiny fists as she anxiously watched the flimsily sealed doorway.

'A fairy', Valesque tisked to herself, still not reconciled to the idea, 'and not just that. . .a pink fairy', she groaned inwardly. This was the same thing that played over in her mind every time she caught sight of her grandmother's new 'body'. Why did it have to be a stupid, purple haired, tu-tu wearing, pink fairy?

Valesque sighed, there was no helping it, the Ever-Life project had surely worked a number on the old woman's digital brain cells. All she could hope was to someday get her hands on that vexing bot and give it a suitable makeover. . .possibly something with a straight-jacket she chuckled before catching herself and bringing her focus back on the task at hand.

Glancing down at her left hand, she quickly checked the readouts on her Vid-screen. There were many serious concerns her ship had for this first return jump, and at this particular moment she was regretting voluntarily assigning herself to this confining job. But the blown doorway and the uncertainty of the portable travel-shield that was covering it had been foremost in her mind during the post-Glidz, pre-jump meeting.

Valesque sighed, she wished now she had brought up all her other concerns with the jump during that meeting. But, it didn't really matter. She hated not being able to disappoint the Captain, and take better care of her ship, but she had no choice, they had to jump and they had to do it as soon as possible. It had already been over five days since she was informed the Meterion fleet had jumped ahead. There was no telling where they were now, she just hoped that between jumps they were a slow moving crowd, distracted and hindered by their search for the escaped Scientist.

But unfortunately. . .the same could be said for her.

Just getting her poor ship back to Saturna3 in one piece would have been hard enough, let alone stopping everywhere along the way to find the 'mysterious' contact Dr. Warner had told her about, and then having to somehow stop an alien convoy.

Valesque glanced down to check her Vid-screen once again. They were nearing their target speed and the first entry point, just a few more minutes and her ship would be sucked through the first jump sequence.

Engineer Valesque began to worry anew. The device she had designed as a weapon was about to take control of her prized project once again. Half a dozen serious possibilities flashed into her mind as the countdown began.

The main ship's shields finally being up was not going to make much difference since the space warp generator would take down all their outer shields and put up its own forward shield as soon as it initiated its pre-programmed jump path.

But that would not help the hull integrity if the battery operated mini-shield over the open doorway in the hanger failed.

It also didn't matter if the weapons system was online. At that speed all you could see ahead was inky blackness and flashes of bright light as you were sucked into the next portal.

The biggest concern, the one that played over and over in her mind was; what if the door did blow. . .what could she do about it? She could hardly walk right up there and activate another one. There were no records of anyone ever having gone this fast before and having such a thing happen. . .but she did not wish to be the first to document it. The normal decompression would suck you out, let alone the force of decompression coupled with the incredible speed they would be going. If she got sucked out, there would be no way of knowing where she would end up. Not that it would matter as she would be dead in space in a matter of minutes anyway.

While she was contemplating all of this, for the umpteenth time, the jump sequence had begun. The ship went dark, while the steady drone of the engines increased as the Tripper took over all systems, preparing to transport its prey.

The communications over her earpiece were jumbled and garbled. The Captain was contacting all departments asking for status reports. If she had asked for the one on the door shield, it had been lost in the gnarled sounds as the warp field played havoc with the communication reception.

So far, three seconds in and the shield seemed to be holding. It looked slightly unstable at times. . .but perhaps that was just her imagination after having stared at it so intently for so long.

Besides technical failure she had the concern that the jarring stopping and starting as the ship lurched through the warp portals might possibly work the box's suction hold loose from the door frame.

Only a few more seconds, that is all she asked, then she could go physically check it.

A sudden, sickening burst of speed followed by violent shuddering, a fraction of a second of flashing light, an abrupt jolt and then a queezy feeling, like a sudden dip in a carnival ride, as the ship seemed to spin off slightly to the left as the warp dropped them unceremoniously into the new area of space, and it was over.

The ship's emergency lights flickered on and then off as the main power system came back online and Lieutenant Baine took the flight controls, easing them smoothly out of the post-warp slide.

Valesque quickly scanned all the ship functions on her Vid-screen. Everything looked normal. They seemed to have survived the first return jump intact. Now to see if the temporary shield had done the same.

Chapter Two

Abrupt Stop

As soon as the ship had been steadied, Tim looked up at where Sanic stood at his overseer's controls, both nodded as they made eye contact and prepared to leave their stations.

They did not have much time. The Captain had given precise orders before the jump; they had one hour. One hour after the jump to collect data from any broadcast signals in order to update the translator files. It was a tall order, especially considering they had no idea what the languages would be in this section, and if they would even be remotely similar to the ones Merena knew.

It had taken Valesque at least a day to come up with translation files after arriving in the first sector of space, but there was no arguing with Fairbanks, they just had to gather Lola and Merena and do the best they could.

The temporary shield had held better than expected, even its suction to the door frame still seemed solid and sturdy. With that worry gone, Valesque quickly made her way back up to the Science Decks, checking all the while that nobody spotted her, as she was not heading back to her own lab, but to Dr. Warner's.

She had secretly collected the few altered translators and had Nahni erase the add-on file from the main computer's memory, as she did not have a way to separate all of the files originally and she did not need anyone seeing that this new area's languages were already installed.

Nahni had since helped program a way to separate the languages in the file Dr. Warner had supplied. She still had no idea what languages belonged to what regions, but Nahni could scan the area broadcasts and select out the local files to transfer to the main ship translator. It was a pain, but at least she had the sneaky little bot to help her now, she thought as she looked over at Nahnibot.

Back in Warner's lab she checked over his files again. Each jump on the cloned Tripper's path had some star charts accompanying them which would be useful when she tried locating her contact with her newest toy; the tracker she took from the fake Capecean.

For once, she was glad Gorbok had the areas explored on the test subject's way back along the return path. That way she at least had the main languages and some limited star maps to go by.

Valesque turned on the video signal receiver in the room and placed a translator on her temple as she pulled out her new tracking device and examined the charts. Watching the programs and commercials wouldn't help, as she could not read the foreign lettering, but she could listen to the broadcasts play behind her as she flicked on the tracker and downloaded the local charts to her Vid-screen.

Soon an annoyingly loud Ad, in an equally annoying voice, called out to her from the screen: Come one, come all, the widest selection of parts and services in the galaxy! Need a qubular accelerator? We've got it! Need a specialized repair? A custom constructed replacement? We can do it! Hundreds of specialized, qualified and expert craftsmen at your disposal! The largest selection in the galaxy, I guarantee! Visit us now. . .find us at the third planet on the left in the Loudio Triangle.

With that a chart flashed on the screen showing star positions with the 'triangle' highlighted and the planet in question flashing as a red dot.

Valesque turned to the fairybot that sat watching the video program with her legs straight out, her elbows propped on her knees, holding up her outstretched face. You got that? she asked quickly, before the last of the image flickered off the screen.

Yeah, yeah. All recorded, Nahni waved her hand blithely, her eyes and attention fixed on the show that had finally come back from commercial break. This soap opera is really funny, do you think that is supposed to be a kiss? she remarked, not averting her eyes as two globular, slimy nubs slid across each other slowly on the screen.

Valesque raised a skeptical eyebrow at the sight before reaching out and turning off the glowing box, much to the dismay of the enthralled fairy.

We don't have time for that, the Engineer reminded her. We have to locate this star formation so we can get parts and. . ., she was cut off in mid-thought by a slight 'ping' sound as a tiny red dot appeared on the foreign-made tracker.

Valesque's breath caught in her chest at the unexpected sight, as her eyes lit up in amazed delight. The device's technology was not very advanced; it was crude, simplistic and had minimal range. Yet it had somehow managed to locate its target, but only directionally, there were no geographical or astrological indicators included in the results, just a red blip on the screen.

It needed a boost.

. . .and try to expand this thing's search details, before the meeting, she continued her instructions sternly after the interruption, anxiously gathering up her Vid and tracker as she hurriedly headed for the door.

Noooooooooooooooooooo! Nahni wailed, struggling to turn the set back on. I was just getting into it. The show will be over soon, I can meet up with you later, she moaned like a five year old about to miss out on their favorite cartoon.

No, Valesque replied briskly, grabbing the little bot by the tip of one shiny, metal wing and dragging her out of the room. I am not letting you out of my sight, and especially not in the lab with the only information I have on how to get us home, she finished as she rushed them down the hall to the hydro-lift.

Valesque was in no mood to dawdle, the tracker was saying the Scientist was close, close enough for its shabby design to pick up, and the blip wasn't moving. But Valesque needed details, she could not ask the Captain to 'please swing by this area so I can pinpoint a marker'. She had to have a definite location, and then she had to find a good reason to stop there.

Which meant she needed to access the ship's scanners to boost the Meterion's tracker. The only problem with that was. . . the twins. They seemed to have nothing else to do but hang around in engineering 24/7.

Even now, when most people were still in their rooms after the Captain imposed jump lock-down, here they were, happily scuffling around, polishing and sweeping. The thought that they had been janitors on Saturna3 once again came to mind as she watched them, the place was immaculate.

Don't mind me, carry on with your cleaning, she called out when one of the obnoxious twosome had caught sight of her, his large round eyes looking only too eager to see another living thing. I just have to use this panel over here real quick, she excused, hoping they would take the hint and not start one of their annoying 'Brother this, Brother that' conversations.

It seemed to work, for they just kept cleaning while muttering to each other and peeking over her way hopefully. It is very lonely down here, isn't it, Brother? one red-jumper clad twin would say sadly.

Oh, yes, Brother, the other identically dressed twin returned with equal solemnity, It would be nice to have a change of pace. . .someone to talk to, wouldn't it, Brother?

Yes, Brother, the first one agreed, his large, black eyes stealing a glance at the busy Engineer, sometimes I think I stare at all these shiny lights too long, sometimes I start to see spots everywhere. Small, bright, darty spots flying off around the room, he sighed, rubbing his eyes as if he had just spotted one again.

"You see the darty, shiny