Space Lanes - A Collection of Star Runner Stories: Star Runner, #11

By Mark McDonough

Here for the first time are all six stories set in the Star Runner Universe.
The Flight of the Myserink – Tran's a smuggler and a thief, but the chance to transport a dozen mysterious containers may just change his life forever.
The Phantom of Krashnoa Station – When the space ship that Danal's travelling on is boarded, seized and made a part of a bizarre space station, she has to wonder if she can ever escape.
Fractured Gem – An unexpected meteor storm forces Holas and Zheen to land on a strange planet. Now their life in space may have just been lost.
Smuggler's Run – When Sfolan is marooned on the planet Dramazan, he has no idea if he can even survive, let alone ever get back into space again.
The Black Hole Mythdemeanour – After Alexander, Pete and Nick are lost through the black hole, Alana Perry is left as the only one who thinks that they just might not be dead.
Bubble Burst – Star Runner's Gheyzhimum crew are captured by a strange Bubble of space that has left them powerless. Is there any hope for escape?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mark McDonough
• Release date: Sep 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310636141

Mark McDonough

Mark McDonough has lived his whole life in Queensland, Australia. After growing up in Ipswich, he lived for a short time in Brisbane while attending University. Work then took him to Far North Queensland for a number of years before he moved to his current home of Toowoomba. For as long as Mark can remember, there have been characters clamouring to have their stories told – everything from the depths of time when dinosaurs ruled the Earth through to the vast reaches of space where only the bravest spaceships dare to fly and everywhere in between. Most were written in secret until, one day, those characters demanded that their tales be spread far and wide. Thus, was born Stargon Books. When he's not sitting with laptop or notebook in hand, he can be found at work, with his family or out on the football field where he not only plays but also referees and Coordinates an entire competition. Ultimately, Mark dreams of the day when he can write full time but until then, as he says, "I'm a wordsmith, it's who I am; if I didn't write, I wouldn't be me".

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SPACE LANES

A Box Set of Stories Set in the Star Runner Universe

By Mark McDonough

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2014 Mark McDonough

Current Edition 2019

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold 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 it to http://www.smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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SPACE LANES

A Box Set of Stories Set in the Star Runner Universe

Table of Contents

1. Fractured Gem

2. Flight of the Myserink

3. Smuggler’s Run

4. The Phantom of Krashnoa Station

5. Bubble Burst

6. The Black Hole Mythdemeanour

Find Out More About the Author

FRACTURED GEM

A Star Runner Story

I.

I can’t hold it! We need to get out of here!

Holas Lornicaan barely managed to spare his daughter a glance.

He knew the risks.

He knew what they were up against.

Screaming about it wasn’t going to help.

Do what you can, he replied loudly so that she could hear him over the groans of the space ship.

Sweeping his purple fingers across the controls of the helm, Holas fought his ship. His sensors were all but blind. Half of his engines were down. He was fairly certain that the communications antenna was completely gone. Not that there was anyone in range to hear them.

An explosion rocked the ship and Holas was thrown forward. Winded, gasping for air, he forced himself upright. Sparks flew from a ruptured pipe overhead creating blinding flashes around the room.

Squinting his grey eyes, he peered at the view screen. Nearly a third of the pixels were shorted out, but through the scratchy image, he made out the ion storm that had trapped them.

I’m losing cohesion in the magnetic locks, Zheen warned.

Then use the manual overrides, Holas snapped. You know what to do.

---

Across the tiny aisle from her father, Zheen irritably pushed her long blue-black hair out of her face. If she’d had time, she’d have retied the thong that usually held it back. But she didn’t have that time.

Around them, Lornicaan’s Gem was dying.

Spinning her chair, Zheen staggered towards the back of the control room. There, she activated a secondary panel and began tapping away madly. A shriek, a shudder and a groan from the battered ship sent her flying backwards. Her head collided painfully with the deck.

You alright? Holas asked anxiously.

Zheen looked up at him through blurred eyes. Rolling, she pushed herself to her hands and knees and nearly retched.

I’m fine, she panted.

Giving up on her legs, Zheen crawled back to the far wall. Gasping in pain, she slowly pulled her way up it. Forcing her eyes to focus, she tapped the last commands into the computer.

Manual locks engaged, she announced through gritted teeth.

Sagging, she let herself slump to the deck. She’d done her part. The massive cargo containers that Lornicaan’s Gem was hauling were staying put. No floating off into space for them.

---

Holas couldn’t spare the time to check on his daughter. Not then, at least. From the crack that echoed through the room when she’d hit her head, he suspected that she’d seriously injured herself. Gritting his teeth, he hung on.

Another explosion rocked the ship and the Gem lurched suddenly to the right. Only Holas’ snug position in the U-shaped console kept him seated. Fighting the inertial dampeners, he forced his hands across his board.

Another of the engines had gone. Their shielding was in tatters. It was now only a matter of time to discover what was going to finish them off first – the radiation from the ion storm against the ship itself falling apart.

Holas resisted the urge to run a hand over his bald, purple head as well as the more insistent one of fiddling with the gold ring on his left hand.

It was a habit that he’d adopted years ago, not long after Zheen’s mother had died. At the time, he’d found that touching the large gaudy ring that she’d given him on their betrothal day helped him to think in much the same way that talking to her had once done.

And right now, he desperately needed time to think. If only the Gem would keep them alive long enough for him to do so.

Getting caught in the ion storm was his fault. He was the captain. He was the pilot. He should have taken more care when pulling them out of speeds faster than light. Trying for a shortcut, just to get their cargo delivered ahead of schedule in the hope of being paid a bonus, was stupid.

It was just plain dumb luck that they hadn’t ploughed straight into a planet or star.

Now, his daughter, his precious Zheen, was hurt. Probably unconscious after that last upheaval. It was up to him to get them out of the storm.

With the sensors all but inoperable, Holas had no idea how large the ion storm was, where its boundaries were or even how close to its edge they were. All that he could rely on was his best guess.

His fingers flirted with the faster than light controls but he shook his big bald head. Engaging them in the middle of this mess, in the condition that they were in, would be pure suicide.

Instead, he slammed his hand down on the ion drive engines. The last of their engines shot them forward. Holas felt his body whipped backwards as the gravity plating stuttered. Lornicaan’s Gem was already listing to starboard so he drove her that way.

Holas knew his ship. He knew her speeds, her idiosyncrasies.

Come on, old girl, you can do it, he muttered.

Whether she heard him or not, the Gem finally succeeded in circling back to face the way that they’d come. Then, engines maintained at maximum, Holas pushed her forward.

The view screen momentarily cleared and he breathed a sigh of relief. There, in front of them, was open space. Urging his ship on, he maintained their heading.

A great shuddering boom echoed the length of Lornicaan’s Gem. Instinctively, needlessly, Holas ducked. Whatever it was hadn’t caused any damage within the control room. Lights flashed and alarms shrilled, but they were all centred on Zheen’s board. Nothing that he could do anything about right then.

Watching the view screen, Holas could see the instant they broke free of the ion storm. Lornicaan’s Gem was still listing, her condition hadn’t improved, but at least they were safe. For now.

Holas knew enough about ion storms to know that they didn’t always stay put. He needed to put as much distance between them and it as possible. As quickly as possible.

More alarms sounded on Zheen’s board and Holas gave it a fierce glower. Whatever it was was going to have to wait.

Father? a groggy Zheen asked from the floor.

Are you alright? he asked urgently. Stay where you are until I can get a look at you. You’ve probably got a concussion.

Father, Zheen repeated, ignoring his orders to shakily pull herself up beside him. Are we still in the ion storm?

No, we’re out, he replied, relief etching his voice.

Then what’s making that banging sound?

Holas momentarily froze as he listened. A constant stream of thuds sounded from all over the ship. Impacts. Something was hitting the Gem.

Peering at the sensors, he was just in time to see a large asteroid headed for them. Jerking the controls, he banked the Gem out of its path. Looking up, Holas’ eyes widened. The view screen, what there was of it, was covered in rocks.

He’d brought them out of the ion storm into an asteroid field.

From the pot to the fire, he thought.

Realising what was happening, Zheen lurched to her control station and fell into the chair. Squinting sideways at the monitors, she found that she was able to focus on what it was telling her.

A star system, starboard, bearing one zero two mark eight. It’s got habitable planets, Zheen managed to say before flopping forward over her board.

Holas didn’t wait to thank his daughter. Holding course just long enough to dodge a particularly large asteroid, he sped the stricken cargo ship onto the new course.

A planet. It sounded perfect. A place to set down and get some repairs. Maybe they’d even find someone to buy their cargo.

Finally clearing the asteroid field, Holas sighed and looked across at his daughter.

Zheen! he cried.

II.

Limping, Lornicaan’s Gem crossed into the system. Neither Holas, nor Zheen, now sporting a bandage wrapped around her head after her father’s ministrations, knew what system it was. It could be any of a dozen. If the sensors and computers had been working, they would have known in an instant.

Engines one, four and five are beyond repair, Zheen reported over the communicator from the ship’s engine compartment. As long as you don’t push them, the others’ll get us to the planet.

What about sensors? Holas asked from the command centre.

Zheen frowned, wiping the back of her arm across her forehead, leaving a dirty brown mark against her purple skin.

No hope until I can get onto the hull and examine the extent of the damage, she said. Be thankful for the little we still have working.

How are the shields? Holas asked hopefully.

There’s enough to get us safely through the atmosphere of a planet, if that’s what you’re asking, Zheen told him.

Holas sighed. That’s something. You might as well come back up here. Leave the rest until we’re grounded.

---

Holas scowled at his nearly useless monitor. There was a planet here that supported life. There had to be. He dared not think about the alternative. Adjusting the gain little by little, he searched.

There, just what he was looking for. The faint blip of a planetary body. He checked its distance from its star. Within the expected range from the sun in order to support life.

By boosting the output on one engine and slightly lessening the others, Holas turned the Gem towards the planet.

It was a long, slow journey across the solar system. What should have taken barely an hour was lengthened nearly seven times that amount. It did give him time to take note of a number of other planets as they passed within range. Two outer rocky ones and three gas giants.

Holas wondered just how big the system was. Eight confirmed planets already just along this heading. Many systems that he’d been to only boasted that number in total. The largest system that he’d ever seen had fifteen planets, and that had been many decades ago, when he was first learning to trade with his own father.

Traffic, too, was becoming a problem. The depths of space was not somewhere where you expected to have to almost continually monitor for passing space ships.

Zheen, he noticed, was glued to her own screen. He smiled at her rapt expression. Knowing her like he did, he was sure that she was soaking in every ship design that passed within range. He had high hopes for her as a trader and even one day – far in the future – as captain of the Gem herself, but he suspected that her first love would always be engineering.

A burst of static squealed from the speakers causing him to wince and cover his ears with his hands. Holas smashed a hand on the audio output. Immediately, the sound cut out, only to be replaced by a standard ship’s hail.

"Trade ship on approach to Kiantite Five, adjust your heading to a bearing of six four one degrees. This is a restricted zone. If you continue along your present course, you will be boarded and impounded. I repeat, Trade ship on approach to Kiantite Five, adjust your heading to a bearing of six four one degrees. This is a restricted zone"

"Trade ship Lornicaan’s Gem acknowledges course bearing six four one degrees and apologises for the violation," Holas replied, working his controls to adjust the Gem’s heading.

He had no idea whether his response had even got through. There was no telling how badly damaged the communications array was. It was surprising enough that they’d received the hail in the first place.

Working his limited sensors, Holas tried to ascertain where their new heading was sending them. They were still on approach to the planet, although this angle would mean that they would orbit the planet two or three times before they landed.

There’s a lot of ships between us and the planet, Zheen warned.

Kiantite Five, said Holas. I know. We’re just going to have to do the best we can. At least we know where we are.

Have you ever been here before, Father?

Holas shook his head, even as his hands worked the controls to ensure that the Gem would avoid a tourist liner even larger than they were.

No, I’ve never been here. Can’t say that I’ve ever heard of it either, he replied. "But I suspect that we’re going to get a chance to know it very well."

"Trade ship on bearing six four one degrees approaching Kiantite Five, this is Orbital Control. Please state your intentions."

"This is the trade ship Lornicaan’s Gem, Holas replied. We’ve suffered major damage to most systems including propulsion and shielding. We need to land on the planet to effect repairs."

"Tradeship Lornicaan’s Gem. We appreciate your problems, but you’re going to have to maintain your orbit for the next two hours. We have major traffic congestion at the moment."

Holas frowned at the speaker. Whoever the harassed sounding Kiantite was, he obviously did not appreciate the problems that they were having.

Orbital Control, said Holas firmly, "I repeat, we have major systems damage. Maintaining orbit for that length is not an option. One way or another, we are landing on the planet below. I’d rather do it under controlled conditions, then when my systems give out and we crash."

"Stand by, Lornicaan’s Gem."

Holas shared a look with Zheen. They both knew that Holas had overstated the full extent of their damage. On the other hand, Space Port Authorities did like to throw their weight around, often simply because they could.

In a much shorter time than either of them had expected, the Orbital Control Officer was back on the channel.

"Lornicaan’s Gem. We’ve cleared a path for you. Adjust your heading to three eight zero degrees. I am sending you the co-ordinates for a designated space ship repair yard. Grazell’s Repair Yard is one of the best on Kiantite Five.

Orbital Control, you have our most profound thanks. If there’s anything we can ever do for you, just let me know, Holas replied, a satisfied smile on his face.

"Just don’t make me redirect thirty-one vessels like that ever again, the nameless Kiantite grouched. That’ll be thanks enough."

III.

Zheen trailed after her father, depressed. Every section, every system that they’d examined, had suffered damage of one kind or another. Her job was to document everything in her data pad. She was beginning to wonder if its memory was going to be big enough.

As she scrolled back through the list, Zheen shook her head, making her long hair fan out behind her. She had no idea how the Gem had survived the ion storm, the asteroid field and the landing. This kind of damage should have resulted in a catastrophic systems failure.

Basically, the ship should have exploded.

That just leaves the cargo pods, Holas smiled grimly at her. Come on, let’s get it over and done with.

Together, they traversed the ship and entered the first of the pods. These were huge containers, each capable of holding vast amounts of cargo. A fleet of ground-based vehicles would be required to fill each one.

Fortunately, the pods were still in fairly good condition. One had been holed, but the cargo that it was carrying was all stasis locked and thus not affected at all.

That’s a stroke of luck, said Holas as they surveyed their cargo.

Father, we may not have lost the cargo, but we’ve got no way to deliver it, Zheen frowned.

Holas shrugged one shoulder. No matter. We’ll lose a small fee, but I’m sure that we can make that back selling the cargo here.

Zheen frowned. She really hated it when her father tried to put on a brave face for her. She wasn’t a baby any more. She knew what was what.

A reverberating banging sound caught their attention, stopping their conversation. They knew instantly where it was coming from – the main airlock.

Holas may have been a big man with a stomach so large that Zheen could no longer reach all the way around him, but he had a surprising turn of speed. Almost before she’d reacted, he was bustling up the corridor.

Zheen only managed to catch him just in time to see the outer hatch slide open. Peering past her father’s bulk, she caught her first look at a Kiantite.

The