The Arbiter Logs: Mutiny Springs Eternal

By Phil Giunta

A century ago, the Faraday disappeared. The great ship dropped into the mysterious region known as L-space, never to be seen again. There are only legends left, legends of mutiny, murder, and the discovery of forbidden secrets. Today, the young midshipmen of the patrol ship Arbiter have found Faraday, a ghost ship orbiting a remote planet. And, somehow, someone... or something... has survived.

Mutiny Springs Eternal is the first adventure of the crew of the CNV Arbiter, adapted from the Mark Time and Parsec Award-winning audio drama series, The Arbiter Chronicles. Library Journal calls the Arbiters "a cast of compelling characters," and Analog calls the Chronicles "a fun romp... like a cross between the funniest episodes of the original Star Trek and Monty Python."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Firebringer Press
• Release date: May 23, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301767984

Phil Giunta

Phil Giunta enjoys crafting powerful fiction that changes lives and inspires readers. His novels include the paranormal mysteries Testing the Prisoner, By Your Side, and Like Mother, Like Daughters. His short stories appear in such anthologies as Love on the Edge, Scary Stuff, A Plague of Shadows, Beach Nights, Beach Pulp, the Middle of Eternity series, and many more. He is a member of the Horror Writers Association, the National Federation of Press Women, and the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group. Phil is currently working on his next paranormal mystery novel while plotting his triumphant escape from the pressures of corporate America where he has been imprisoned for over twenty-five years. Visit Phil’s website at www.philgiunta.com.  Find him on Facebook: @writerphilgiunta and Twitter: @philgiunta71

Book preview

A century ago, the Faraday just disappeared. The great ship dropped into the mysterious region known as L-space, never to be seen again. There are only legends left, legends of mutiny, of murder, and of the discovery of forbidden secrets. Today, the young midshipmen of the patrol ship Arbiter have found Faraday, a ghost ship orbiting a remote planet. And, somehow, someone... or something... has survived.

Mutiny Springs Eternal is the first adventure of the crew of the CNV Arbiter, adapted from the Mark Time and Parsec Award-winning audio drama series, The Arbiter Chronicles. Library Journal calls the Arbiters a cast of compelling characters, and Analog calls the Chronicles "a fun romp... like a cross between the funniest episodes of the original Star Trek and Monty Python."

The Arbiter Logs: Mutiny Springs Eternal

By Steven H. Wilson

Editing & Proofreading by Sandra Zier-Teitler and Paul Balzé

Cover design by Ethan H. Wilson with starship artwork by Ponch Fenwick

Published by Firebringer Press at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Steven H. Wilson

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 this author.

Table of Contents

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The boy ran as best he could. That the ship was under heavy acceleration as he plunged down its corridors showed in his labored breathing, the heavy falls of his feet on the deck. Shouts. Frantically, he looked behind him, his enormous, azure eyes wide, his nostrils flaring. He was almost at the end of his endurance, and they were gaining on him. He would fall soon, and they would catch him. His eyes darted left and right as he looked for an escape. Just up the corridor there was a door. He bolted for it, palmed the lock hard and winced in pain.

Would it open? Yes! He flung his small form through, then cried out as he ran headlong into something. Then that something stuck its fearsome, maned head into view and into his face. One of the lion people! A mutineer! It snarled at him, baring fangs which dripped with saliva. Its slitted eyes caught the light from the corridor and gleamed. The boy tried to scuttle away, but the lion creature gripped him by his ragged shirt and lifted him into the air.

His legs kicked and he cried out, Please! Just let me go! I want to go home!

The lion man shook his head. No human on this ship is going home. We made a blind jump.

The boy moaned and tears came to his eyes. Why? Why would you do that? We’re lost–lost forever!

Perhaps, agreed the lion man. But at least we’re free. He pulled the boy close to him. That is, we Leonids are free. You humans are decidedly not.

Wh-what will you do to us? the boy stammered.

That remains to be seen. If you cooperate, you may be allowed to live. Some of you. First, some examples must be made.

The boy sobbed. Y-you’re going to kill me, aren’t you?

Not you, said the Leonid. Not yet. But that one– He nodded at the deck, and a man’s body came into view.

Dead? No, the man was moving, crawling forward; but his hands and clothes were covered in blood. His hair was sticky with it.

The boy gulped. Captain Trat!

The former Captain, said the Leonid. He whispered in the boy’s ear. Watch closely what happens next.

That said, he casually tossed the boy to a corner of the compartment, where he landed on his butt and banged his head on the bulkhead. He could only stare in dull pain as the Leonid lifted the Captain’s body and, taking a few steps forward, carried him to a second door within the compartment. No, not a door, for the legend above it clearly read Airlock #3. The door whirred softly open at the commanding touch of a felinoid paw.

No! the boy shouted.

The Leonid ignored him. It lifted the Captain by his shoulders and threw him with all the force it could muster into the lock. The Captain hit the outer hatch and slid down, looking in pitiful defeat at the creature which was about to end his life.

The boy dragged himself to his feet as the inner hatch closed. He threw himself at the Leonid, but reached him too late to prevent the mutineer from stabbing the red control pad on the wall, triggering the outer hatch. There was a sickening rush of escaping air. For a moment, Captain Trat’s body was swept upward by the current. His horror-stricken face appeared in the viewport as he tried in vain to cling to the frame of the inner door. Then he was gone.

The Leonid nodded. There now. You see what happens to humans who don’t know their place. You have a choice to make, child. Do you swear your allegiance to the Lost Leonid Empire? Or do you follow your fellow human?

I’m not even supposed to be here, the boy said, his voice breaking. I’m just a stowaway. I just wanted… an adventure.

And you found one. Now… does it end here? The Leonid reached into his tunic and produced a short sword.

Please… sobbed the boy.

I will spare you if you swear allegiance. You will serve your true masters to the end of your days, and forget any nonsense about humans being free.

Y-you’re a killer! How can I–?

With a sweep of his clawed arm, the Leonid snatched the boy’s shirt and tore it from him. His bare, white flesh gleamed with sweat, and the mutineer pressed its blade against the smooth perfection of his throat.

Death for you, then, it hissed. It snatched the boy’s honey-gold hair and dragged him to his feet. It jabbed the blade against his throat and the boy yelped.

Choose! said the Leonid. Do you wish to die with your throat slit, or with my blade through your heart? Both are quick… relatively…

The boy shut his eyes and tears leaked from them.

Please, he moaned. Please. I’ll do whatever you say.

***

Kayan’na Atal gestured, clapped her hands lightly, and the image of the desperate boy winked out of existence. She dabbed her eyes with the corner of the sheet which covered her, cursing herself for weeping like a silly schoolgirl over this bit of melodrama. She should be immune to its pathos by now. After all, she’d watched it how many hundred times as a teenager?

It was silly, really. No one really knew what had happened to the ill-fated vessel Faraday. It had left the Rigel system, its origin point Kaya’s own home planet Quintil, over a century ago. Back then, interstellar travel was a deadly game of chance. Astrogators were aware of the conjugate points through which a ship could enter L-Space, and thus take a short-cut to a faraway destination. It was by stumbling into a conjugate point that the first ships had found Quintil, a thousand light years from humanity’s abandoned home world of Terra. Those ancient travelers, however, could never know when a conjugate would drift or close up. Many wound up at unexpected destinations. Many others never found their way out of L-Space.

Now, sophisticated L-mapping and a system of beacons assured safe passage; but over a hundred years ago, Faraday had leapt into a known conjugate and never been heard from again. And while she did carry a mixed-race crew, the extra-terrestrials were not lion men. They bore no relation to any earth mammal. They simply had certain characteristics which reminded humans of giant cats, and so had been dubbed Leonids. Theirs was still one of the Confederated Worlds, and they were a peaceful, advanced race. They didn’t hijack ships, murder their crews, or savage boys with swords.

Swords! How ridiculous! Still, swords heightened the drama, as the entirely fictional boy stowaway who was the hero of the picture battled for his life against an endless array of pirate-garbed lion men. And would audiences rather have realism, or sexy singer Brand Greer, bare-chested and helpless, at the mercy of vile villains and surviving only by his wits and courage?

Kaya knew what she had preferred as a young teen. Thinking about it now, she realized little Brand would probably be at a disadvantage in a battle of wits, but she still thought he was gorgeous. The nostalgic moment was a nice way to begin her day, but now she wondered why her father had sent it to her implant this particular morning. It was marked with an abrupt please review. That was an order from Captain Jan Atal of the CNV Arbiter to Midshipman Atal, not a loving, teasing message from Daddy to Kaya.

Well, there was always a method to Jan Atal’s madness, even if Kaya was convinced there was always madness in everything he did. She would know soon enough what he was up to. It was time to get dressed and report to the Captain’s promenade for the first meeting of her duty shift.

She opened the hatch and stepped through without knocking, as she always did. Most likely, someone would eventually notice the informality between Midshipman and Captain, between father and daughter, and frown