The Dead End Survival Project

By Anna Patterson

He was given a list of challenges to perform to prove his ability to command. Each of these challenges was so dangerous, they were considered lethal. When he saw the list, he felt doomed for sure, and his faithful crew realized they're chances were zero for coming back from this space journey.
Lance Cabot is passed over for promotion because a senior officer's wife accuses him of an affair with her. General Thomas Gentry has loved Lance like a son, but in anger sends him on what is thought to be a fatal space mission.

Chapter 1 -- Challenge One Find the Visionary and recapture her

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anna Patterson
• Release date: Nov 2, 2011
• ISBN: 9781466167292

Anna Patterson

About the Author: Anna Patterson grew up in the Ozark Hills with a dream of becoming an archeologist. She was able as a young adult to put the desire to good use exploring the mountains and river line of the Ozarks for early artifacts from the past. Many times in her treks deep into the wilderness forests, she was able to seek out and see first hand abandoned cemeteries of pioneers and Indians there and Ghost towns which had been abandoned during an earlier time. But it was her desire to know more about the early civilizations which resulted in her entering into her studies in history, art, and especially ancient civilizations in college. Her life as a writer brought her to many years of work in Journalism from college papers to work as a reporter and at one point Society Editor. She is now pursuing her desire to write fiction novels and feels that this allows her to put to use her life’s study of antiquities. She and her husband live in a house over 100 years old with their two Yorkies and two cats.

Book preview

Prologue: an account of the War to Bring Peace

Sometime in the Future: While the Space Commander Dishia was searching room to room for the lost visionary, the woman in question was totally unaware of this dangerous quest. Belinda was sleeping, but she had a headache. She was a slight woman, slightly over five feet six and delicate in ways. Nonetheless, she had hidden strength.

Her face was pale, and her eyes were a deep blue. Her hair was a shade of blonde and long and braided now so that it fell down past her shoulder blades in the back. She dreamed of freedom, not realizing that freedom from everything and everyone she knew could only come from a chance meeting with a wonderfully attractive Space ship Captain!

To her, he was just a pilot of an old spaceship, but he had hidden depths, as a sorcerer from birth. Now at their first meeting, he looked at her and was not surprised at what he saw. She was a child-like woman, unaware of the glare of her own natural beauty. I want to run away, she told him. He thought the first words out of her mouth were just fantastic!

She was lost and she knew it. This was not the right setting to meet the man possibly of her dreams, but she had no choice. She had no choice what so ever!

She had never been so frightened in her entire life. Now she was in a strange place, a castle really, and she didn't know where it was other than kidnapped people were housed there until the person who actually paid for them to be kidnapped came to get them. She just knew that when she met him there in this strange hallway in this strange way, people were shouting. They were shouting everywhere.

He had fought all the way down the hallways to get to this point. His sword was wet with blood. She didn't even flinch at the sight of it. He grabbed her startled body and yanked her to his chest. They went up then, into the bowls of the ship and to safety. Behind her she could hear the fight and the killing like the sound of a battleground, something she was familiar with, but this was in the long winding halls of a castle. She did not have time to think, and she was finally out of it. She just hoped the others would get out of this hell on earth also. But that was how it turned out, not how it happened.

* * * * *

_________

Chapter One: Life turned upside down

A captive in a lost colony: How could her young life deteriorate to this point? Belinda Harris was a woman who had already lived a very dangerous life for the last few years. She was a girl in her twenties but some said she had already lived several lifetimes by then, because she escaped certain death many times. Good Morning, she said to those in the suite of rooms with her. Everyone, including herself, knew it was not a good morning, and it never would be again until they all escaped this prison.

Only Cecilia said something back, making Belinda long for her former life at her parents' home. They had lived on an island about 1.5 segments past the galaxy of the capital city. Their island was known to be a lovely place to raise a family and even to retire in. They owned a small bungalow with five bedrooms with baths, and a formal dining room and access to the beach. They believed in having the latest design, so their home was a matrix 5 and could easily double in size. At that time, they felt their life was complete and totally happy.

Her parents, who had this daughter late in life, were grateful to be able to have a life of wealth and refinement. They had for many years traveled, but now just wanted to stay on their lovely island home turf and enjoy it. Belinda, her mother would say, Life is only boring when you yourself despair of the opportunities it affords you.

Their daughter was protected by this sheltered life for many years, but this changed when the island was overrun by marauders when she was just a child. Thanks to friends who orchestrated this, the family escaped with what they had on their backs and their little girl whom the father, Detam, held in a small blanket to his own chest. They then took up residence with Aunt Meadington,. Belinda's mother, Loantin, told the girl she was just glad they had made it safely to their new home. There they once again lived a wealthy and powerful life, living in Petra, the capital city. They only had the one child and because of this perhaps, they wanted to keep her close to them.

For the past ten years, the city of Petra had fallen into a decline. People had moved on to more enterprising places and the city was no longer seen as a desirable place to live. More than once, her father, Detam, remarked to his family, "I am so tired of this place. It doesn't seem like home to me. They with her aunt talked of leaving and finding a cozier spot, but they were not sure where to go. The goods needed to survive had not been arriving as they had in the past, and the sellers had abandoned the theater markets of sell goods.

At times, there was a shortage of just about everything. Nonetheless, most of the people of Petra still hung onto the belief it would gain back its fame and attention, and thrive once more. Meanwhile, as she grew up there, Belinda worried about her lack of good clothes, especially as she got older, when her aunt planned to introduce them to the society there. In spite of these shortages, she loved this time in her life, the parties, and the elaborate dinners and dances.

But there had been problems to. She found herself in a dangerous place, once when she was staying overnight with two girlfriends. One of the girls was the daughter of an important leader. The night the girls stayed at the leader's home, an assassination attempt was made. Belinda sensed something was wrong and went through the dark halls to investigate. When she spotted the armed men downstairs she quickly summoned the leader and he was able to save everyone in the home. It was a close call and they all were grateful. When asked what made Belinda go to investigate, she really couldn't say. Even then her magic was something she had learned from birth not to comment on.

* * *

Her parents were shocked at what had happened, but even then it seemed their daughter had a charmed existence. After all, they all had been rescued from their island before this. Both times, Belinda's family was seen as heroes. When they had arrived in the capital city they were greeted like heroes and her parents took on a place of wealth and power. Even then they seemed to live a charmed life since so many of their friends had perished in the attack there on the island and even in the brush fires which burned down their luxurious homes and the things which marked their extravagant lives there. For a while, this family seemed to live a charmed life, of parties, dances and the glamour of being an aristocrat in this fair city.

That was then. Now stranded and trapped, the girl is cautiously planning an escape. Meanwhile, she can not help but think back at her past with utter and desolate longing. She tries through the powers of her own mind, to send out a distress call to people equally gifted with mind transfer skills. She begs for help, and thinks of her childlike begging which lead her parents to capitulate and let her venture into the world for the first time.

After a while of living the social scene in Petra, Belinda tired of this, and asked her parents if she could join a group which was traveling to other galaxies to help the downtrodden there. It was during this short time she spent in her country's service, that she began to gain a reputation for having a way with words. And with the way she put these words together, she could persuade people to follow her lead.

Now, after all those years, their daughter, once again faced danger and she knew it when she opened her eyes to her plight. Long before she met the space ship commander, she found herself the victim of a kidnapping!

She awoke to what she could only describe as an extremely hideous circumstance. She and ten members of her group were locked in a large complex of rooms in what seemed a very old building. Some other people, strangers to them, had only recently been moved to this confinement, and they all hated it. These found it worse, this tight place, with all of them jammed into a few rooms.

When they heard the swordsman who was the keeper of this prison, was going out to battle almost every day, and could be killed, they feared the worse; they did not trust his wife to do anything less than murder them!

So hour after hour, they waited and dreaded the least sound, the rattle of the huge door which they knew was barred with a wooden piece which kept it from being opened in any way from the inside. Even if all of them together tried to shove the door open, it would be impossible. So they waited for what they felt was certain death. We are all going to die here, the woman Mrs. Hensley screamed over and over and over.

Belinda lay down on the bed and her mind was tired now, and although it seemed to try to figure this situation out, actually it could only swirl in tired circles, but she knew she had to do it anyway. She was also so afraid for the few people of her party who were kidnapped with her, would they survive or would their bodies join those in the pond. She had heard from her first meeting as a group, about the bodies in the pond.

She thought she was a long way off from the dreams of her lifetime. Now she felt she would never find her own lover and husband. It was just too late!

* * *

Nonetheless, this world had had frequent invaders and because there were battles occurring just outside this city, the city itself was thrown into confusion and a lack of leadership.

This included the people who were holding these hostages for several groups of people. The actual leader of the town had called in the soldiers and now was calling a meeting of the townspeople and then planned to help them evacuate.

Because of the general confusion, the hostages were allowed to leave the castle and wonder about this heavily guarded small town. Once freed partly from her confinement, Belinda and Cecilia were allowed to go in the stores and shops of the village, but were confined to this small plaza of markets. So they sat that day and enjoyed talking while they drank a cup of tea together and tried actually to plan an escape, but could not figure this out.

The two women sat at tea, their legs were folded onto cushions and actually they were sitting at a table of black with leaves of red painted all down the sides. They talked of the plans for the days ahead. Behind them was a simple wallpaper and bamboo covered wall and greenery in baskets. For that brief time, it seemed so normal in every way.

The two women had a long talk that day and during their outing tried to befriend the villagers. They hoped in this way to escape. But the villagers were preparing to evacuate, and basically ignored the hostages and their plight. All of the Villagers had been warned of an advancing army of another territory. They were being lead by a General known to be a killer, called only Teetee. He was bringing a small and elite army to fight off other invaders, but he was planning to kill everyone in the village.

As the day grew later, the temporary freedom of the hostages ended and they were escorted back to the castle and locked in. So they were back, and they were being kept in what they called "a cavern of a house. The house was dark and dangerous.

A man they called the town's sheriff, had plans to kill the hostages when told to do so by the swordsman. Now the situation was lethal and they were desperate to leave.

Most of the villagers shunned the party of people who came as hostages of violent men. But they did feel sorry for these, and thought how they might help them, but had at the time of the days before the invasion done nothing about this.

* * *

How could her life have changed so horribly in just a very short while and yet it had? She had been preparing to give her speech before the Council of Leaders, and she was kidnapped. Now in this jail like room her speech played back in her head. Now she knew if she got out of here alive, she would be more modest about her own accomplishments because she knew she could not do this alone.

She wasn't sure of the details, but she found herself in a very foreign place for her, and she stiffened her own resolve for this. She realized their situation was very serious and it would take all of the captives to escape.

She looked around at the place which was obviously a castle of some kind and wondered if she would live much longer. There were at least two dozen people in the room and she was glad she was not tied.

Then she found herself standing in front of a woman who seemed in charge and looked quickly around. She saw that her friends and staff had been brought along, at least four of them. There were others who seemed to be cowering in corners; she had no idea who they were, although she had time to look at many fearful faces and even those who were crying. Then she looked at her immediate adversary.

Who are you? she asked her captor.

"I am Ninthephis, the wife of a Swordsman. Belinda looked at the absolute cruelty in the woman's face. Ninthephis was a thin woman, and wore an outfit much like a uniform; only it had a long skirt falling to the floor and a blouse of the same material with tight long sleeves.

You're face, I don't recognize it.

The woman in front of her said, No, you wouldn't. She looked so strange then and deeply angry.

Quickly Belinda tried to figure out where this place might be. Right now she wasn't sure, but seeing the clothing of the soldiers around them and also assessing their weapons, she knew this was a time period rather