Enryn

By Gerard Whittaker

Sequel to Isralla.
Following Earth's first space war the Dreadnought Iowa is launched declaring to the Galaxy Earth's coming of age. And her Marines are soon fighting for their lives out numbered and out gunned.
They need help from an unlikely sorce, but will they accept it when they find it?
Or will their pride doom the Iowa?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gerard Whittaker
• Release date: Dec 4, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452377766

Gerard Whittaker

Once I was a soldier, getting blown up a few times convinced me that a change of career might be a good idea.However, given some of the jobs I've done since, being shot in the chest could be preferable to being stabbed in the back. I'm happily married with my wife helping me proof read my books. I've studied military history, used most types of swords and medieval weapons. I spent a few years learning how to write and had my fair share of rejection slips. I'm still hoping to see my work in print. However, in the meantime, I want to share my worlds with the world at large. Perhaps someone might suggest ways to improve my writing. I've enjoyed writing "When Twilight Falls" intending to develop the story slowly with an ever increasing threat level. I've written about fourteen books so far, not all were completed. I was half way through a novel about an alien invasion with modern day US Airtforce taking on flying saucers. Then I saw a little film called Independence Day and sulked for a month. There are too many Sci-Fi books written for children in my opinion. So I'm trying to write for adults, if that includes a bit of sex then so be it. Heroes are just normal people in extraordinary circumstances. When they get the job done, they are still just your average Joe with all the weaknesses of you or I. For some reasons most of my worlds are not very nice, I suppose the good worlds don't need saving. So there is plenty of scope for temptation in many forms for the 'Heroes' to fall into. When you put yourself in their place, wouldn't you give in to temptation too? All the best to one and all. I wish you the best of luck in avoiding temptation. I've just uploaded a short novel called "The Streets of Bucharest". I'm still working on the full sized book and expect it to be online shortly. I'm sorry I screwed up not loading the full version. But I did give it for free to make up for my mistake. The Full version of The Streets of Bucharest is now online. It's only 40,000 words but I hope you will enjoy it. Just finished rewriting an old book of mine "The Bonds of Time". It was an experiment in erotic drama with a lot of BDSM thrown in. For anyone interested it also gives a short description of Aeden, a couple of years after the founding. It was not a very nice place when TIME was first being formed for self defense, and long before the Cosmic Guardians were even thought of to protect the Multiverse. Finished Isralla and now working on a sequel called Enryn, using a new slant, telling of a war from the Marines' point of view. I'm writing these with as little sex and as much action as the characters will let me. So if anything goes wrong, blame them! Date 13 December 2010 Thanks for the rating, for a writer who lives and works alone any kind of a pat on the back is very welcome. Sometimes I am intending to finish "Of Dusk and Dawn" in the New Year. But I admit to getting writer's block and being side tracked by Isralla and Enryn. I hope these books will keep you all amused till I can get back to D&D. A word of warning, I've finished a new book called "The Cloud Knights". A sort of cross between Biggles and Sharp, set in a crazy world you will not recognise. So if you like the idea of bi-planes versus airships, politics and treason, and a hero determined to rise from the ranks to become a Cloud Knight, fighting for freedom in a world where everything is for sale to those with the rank to claim it. Then you might like it! Currently working on a sequel called the Sky Knights, which will be big. And if that works I might round off the trilogy with the Star Knights. I also draw my own book covers using DAZ Studio which explains how I keep uploading new covers. Gerard Whittaker

Book preview

Enryn

By

GERARD WHITTAKER

ENRYN

By Gerard Whittaker

Smashwords edition.

Copyright by Gerard Whittaker, 2010

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Prologue

Hurry, for the Ship's sake hurry, her father snapped as the first of the snows began to fall on the farmstead.

Enryn ran outside to see the large white flakes of death falling from the sky for the first time, she was only ten but knew enough to panic, for when the snow fell the winter of the world would last a hundred and twenty years.

Her family rushed to pack the last of the harvest onto the carts, shutting down the only home Enryn had ever known for the last time, knowing they would never see it again. Soon the warm home would be crushed beneath the ice, just like everything else on the world. They pulled away into the snowfall, heading East towards the Sun as the Winter chased them back to the Ship.

Waiting for the final harvest had been a bad idea, but the Council had taken the risk with one small family to feed the entire ship through the long cold death.

It was all right for the Council, they could sleep through the winter, but the passengers would have to live and die huddled against the dark time, trusting to the hydroponics section to grow just enough to supplement what the farmsteads had been growing for the last hundred and eighty years.

In the world of Tharsius there was no day or night, just the slowly turning world that took three hundred years to turn once. The Sun melted the ice and grew crops while the hungry dark slowly crept up behind to kill everything not protected by the Ship.

The wagons rolled down the track, pulled by immense beasts that had served the family well for nearly two hundred years, but would be butchered back at the Ship. There was no room for compassion and no way to feed them, so they could either be turned loose to die in the cold or help feed the Passengers.

The family turned their ten wagons into the Sun, racing to escape the snow, and the clear night that would reveal the stars that no living man had seen.

An attack by savages from the rolling towns forced them to take a detour, and then a broken axle had delayed them even further; they finally ditched the wagon and tons of food. They reached the valley created by the immense colony ship crash landing to see it full of an early snow fall. All they could do was look on in horror, the ship was closed up, sealed off from the world for the next a hundred and twenty years. A further fall of snow covered the ship as they watched, turning to ice and burying it completely.

All they could do was turn their wagons into the Sun and chase the eternal dawn, knowing they had no chance to escape those who hunted them across the world of Tharsius.

The father looked sadly at his wife, their three sons and two daughters, wondering who would be the first to go. The bounty on their heads was enough to have every rolling town hunting them to extinction. And The Backbone of the World stood before them, the one place it was possible to circumnavigate the world of Tharsius and escape the hungry dark. But it was the last place they wanted to be for it was the lair of the beast who controlled the passage to the far side, and it did not like marooned aliens who were far brighter than the local peasants.

Except to eat.

Enryn, you will make it somehow, Jinryn insisted. I was born to kneel. And you to stand proudly. She was younger than her sister and didn't understand the reality of their plight; like many of the children of the Ship she was naturally subservient, and thought her free spirited sister was some kind of hero. Enryn knew better, she was terrified.

I can't see any of us making it my sister, Enryn sighed. We can't cross the Backbone when we reach it, and if we try to go through the tunnel we might as well invite the beast to eat us.

Then all we can do is hide before the entrance and wait for a miracle, Jinryn gasped sadly.

The dark has come and gone many times while we have waited for that my sister, Enryn sighed, and we are still waiting to be rescued. Enryn turned for one last look at the Ship and could see nothing, nothing at all. The white death covered the land as far as the eye could see. She turned back to follow the wagons into a world of danger.

Percival Base, Louisiana, Earth

Master Gunnery Sergeant Ace Macintyre presented his papers at the Gatehouse and let the Taxi drop him off at the Sergeant's mess. He'd no idea what he was doing at Percival Base, but he was only a Master Gunny, just about the highest ranking Non-com in the US Marines, so of course no one told him what he was doing. It was his job to tell other people, meaning Officers, what he was doing. When he knew himself.

He reached his quarters to see half a dozen letters waiting for him, the biggest was from his Ex-wife, who had been following his progress over half the world, telling him she had sold their house and not to bother trying to find out how much she had got because the money was already safely tucked away in an offshore bank.

The next letter revealed an embossed card inviting him to a wedding.

Big deal!

Then he noticed the names of the two couples: John Percival and Isralla Inra-Shrombasre. Eileen Percival and Ison Inra-Shrombasre, cordially invite you to their joint wedding.

So the Percival family who had started two wars were now marrying into an alien family from a planet called Yag-Urth, that no one had ever heard of. Ace looked through the window as a Destroyer came in to land. The torpedo shaped body had three energy cannons running the entire length of the hull, and three stubby wings, again as long as the hull, with yet more huge cannons on the wingtips. He discounted the array of secondary turrets that festooned the black hull, they were overkill.

The Destroyer settled into a cradle, and was lowered into her silo, disappearing from sight. Ace saw the silo doors slide shut, sealing her off from attack, and then looked around the base, seeing a hundred or more silos, some far larger than the Destroyer's.

He had seen starships before, and even been on the Moon once, testing the readiness of the three huge Battle stations kept parked there for planetary defence. But he finally realised where he was. Percival Base was the home of the Percival family, who were the biggest defence contractors on Earth, and virtually ran the NASB, the National Aeronautical and Space Bureau, that had taken over all military affairs in space. It had always seemed strange to him, that the people who made the ships and sold them to the Government were also the ones who fought them.

They were making money every way, for every ship they lost in combat they would sell the Government an even bigger one.

Nice deal.

Ace checked the time and changed into his dress uniform, asking the way to the wedding. I'm just going myself, the desk Sergeant offered, you can't miss the Cathedral, but it's a long way so I'll take you Gunny.

A Cathedral on a Base, Ace gasped.

But this is Percival Base, we do the impossible every day.

I was wondering why I was invited?

Everyone is invited, everyone, he laughed.

The traffic soon slowed into a veritable traffic jam as they drove across the base, past the Percival mansion, that warranted a private security screen and a ring of energy cannons, and on towards the far side of the Base.

The Cathedral consisted of several low domes of crystal and a dozen towering spires holding multi coloured shapes that looked like natural living gems. The bright sunlight hit the gems and was split into a thousand prismatic colours, that seemed to surround the Cathedral in half a hundred rainbows, which recombined into a dome of white light declaring independence from all Earthly authority. Either man made or natural.

Looks tacky to me, Ace dismissed it. Like something left over from Vegas. And those fake gems, I ask you?

When you consider that a month ago it didn't exist, and that as best we can tell the gems are real, I hope you'll look with fresh eyes.

Ace turned back to see the Cathedral as a work of alien art.

Mind you, the driver laughed, I'd like to see some fool try to steal a one ton diamond, it'd make one hell of an engagement ring.

Ace looked at the dome of pure white light that surrounded the Cathedral, and only then realised it was impossible to enter with ill will, for it was protected from all harm. He had a feeling that it would still be there long after mankind had left this plane of existence.

They pulled into a car park and walked into the work of art, to see the interior was of plain white marble with a clear dome for a ceiling. There were no pews in the vast white space, and everyone stood mingling in confusion. The family stood gathered on the alter welcoming them all, even the two brides.

Ace had expected the bonding of the children of two very powerful families to be different, but he had seen nothing yet.

Then a being appeared in the entrance, a woman of great power who walked towards the alter, leaving roses growing within the marble with each step. The flowers ran under the floor and up the white walls, growing and flowering as the guests watched them in disbelief.

The ceremony was brief, the two couples knelt humbly naked before The Lady, looking up at her as she judged their souls and love. A blond girl knelt before them carrying the rings on a silken cushion, and as John and Isralla exchanged rings they gave a bracelet to the astonished girl. The crowd were not sure what that meant.

Eileen and Ison were next, and bonded with eternal love.

Then The Lady looked across the crowd to see another couple with a daughter. She commanded them silently to kneel before her, a short blond girl was also dragged to kneel behind them. The Lady bound the couple together, with the blond who served them and their adopted daughter, forming a single family.

The Lady glanced across the room, looking deep into all their eyes. Some looked away in shame, before being compelled to look into Her eyes, finding repentance and forgiveness.

Ace caught her gaze for a split second that lasted an eternity, his soul was ripped bare, his crimes revealed and his sorrow judged. All that he had done, both good and ill, was understood and forgiven. Even by him. The gaze moved on leaving him trembling like a leaf.

One man stared at her defiantly, daring her to judge his sins.

She turned to the alter and a statue appeared, thirty foot tall and holding a jagged spear of justice. The man saw the spear aimed straight at his heart, and collapsed before The Lady.

She turned away seeing the family again, and her tranquil face turned thunderous. She pointed to a boy of about seven, snapping, You were not invited, get thee gone worm!

A dark form was pulled kicking and screaming from the boy's chest and he collapsed. The Lady grew to monstrous proportions, holding the wriggling creature with rage. You would dare invade this family that I have Blessed! Yes, I know you. Never again shall you return to Earth, or threaten them in any way, now be gone! She flung the creature from the Earth forever.

Then she turned to the boy laying crumpled on the flowered marble, seeing a girl of eleven holding him in tears. Your love and devotion do you credit Lorza, but fear not for Jack. Then she saw the damage the Aelder had left on the boy and held them both in rage. Child, my time is limited in this realm, I have not the power to save him.

Then use me Great Lady, use me to save Jack.

You would willingly sacrifice yourself to save your charge?

If that is the only way, then I accept. Take me lady that he may live.

The Lady smiled and let them go, but instead of being seven and eleven they now looked sixteen each. I took years from you to save Jack, and gave them back. Lorza, your love has saved you both. From this day forward your hearts shall beat as one for all time, I unite you both in My Name.

The Lady seemed to fade from reality, floating away across the cosmos, leaving behind a very humble crowd and a thirty foot high statue infused with Her Presence.

Ace stumbled from the Cathedral, seeing tiny winged forms flying through the multi coloured marble roses, and wanted to believe they were birds, he wanted to believe that very badly indeed.

Come on, or we'll miss the Titanic, his driver bustled him away from the Cathedral.

You what!

The Titanic, that's where the reception is.

Ace looked across from the Cathedral to see a full sized copy of the RMS Titanic floating in an artificial lake. A Perspex cover shielded the whole deck, only the twin masts and the four funnels were missing to dispel the illusion that it was the real ship.

Ace climbed the gangway and showed his invitation