Beneath the Double Suns

By M.L. Humphrey

On the fourth planet of a giant yellow sun, situated on the outer arm of a spiral galaxy far away, arose a culture of people that called themselves the Haurembeau. A repressive rule forced a small group of adventurers to flee into the vast unknown. Nearly a generation later, while surveying for new worlds to colonize they rediscovered the ancient adventurers. The new world called itself Lorne and would not submit to rule by the overbearing government of Haurembeau; there would be war instead. A diplomat aboard the survey ship secretly agreed with the people of Lorne and due to the efforts of ‘Lurandor the First', as he’s called now, along with those of his fellows back on Haurembeau, managed to strong arm both governments into a mutual but less than disastrous compromise. With much ceremony a treaty was forged and ratified by both Lorne and Haurembeau. As part of that treaty, a new government would be established on a newly discovered planet situated roughly equidistant between them. The building of Lurandor City would take another generation to complete but contention would still persist between the two adversaries. This is the story of two groups of people who are caught in continual conflict Beneath the Double Suns.

• Language: English
• Publisher: M.L. Humphrey
• Release date: Jan 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310338182

M.L. Humphrey

Hi there Sci Fi fans, my name is Maurice Humphrey.I am a Vermont native, husband, father, grandfather, well over 60, Navy veteran, retired IBM engineer, retired printer repairman, Graduated: Goddard Jr. College, VT Technical College, and Trinity College. Over the years I’ve written technical articles, taught technical classes, and presented at technical conventions.I’ve been reading science fiction for over 50 years now. First books were “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” by Jules Verne and “The Stars Are Ours” by Andre Norton. I’ve read and collected many great stories, and a considerable amount of junk ones as well. I’d say by now that I probably have a good idea of what I consider a good story.

Book preview

Beneath the Double Suns

M. L. Humphrey

Copyright © 2014

All Rights Reserved

Smashwords edition

Published by: Maurice Humphrey

ISBN: 1234567891011

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Cover art copyright of the author, © 2014 Maurice Humphrey. All images used are personal property of the author.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1:

Chapter 2:

Chapter 3:

Chapter 4:

Chapter 5:

Chapter 6:

Chapter 7:

Chapter 8:

Chapter 9:

Chapter 10:

Chapter 11:

Chapter 12:

Chapter 13:

Chapter 14:

Chapter 15:

Chapter 16:

Chapter 17:

Chapter 18:

Chapter 19:

Chapter 20:

Chapter 21:

Chapter 22:

Chapter 23:

Chapter 24:

Beneath the Double Suns

Chapter 1:

On the fourth planet of a giant yellow sun, situated on the outer arm of a spiral galaxy far away, arose a culture of people that called themselves the Haurembeau. As a people, they grew to cover all the land upon their world, from the highest plains to the lowest valleys. Like a swarm of locusts they spread across their planet and plundered its resources. Seeking more, they ventured to the nearer planets and in turn plundered them as well.

Those that had vision wanted to go forth and explore other star systems, but were hampered by their government. Secretly they continued in their quest and left the land of their birth to find a more hospitable world to call their own. Nearly a hundred years would pass before another ship would make contact with the ancient adventurers.

After fleeing from the oppressive government of Haurembeau, the ancient adventurers landed on a planet far from their ancestral home world; one that already had intelligent life on the brink of space travel. Against all odds, the two peoples were biologically very similar. The weary travelers could go no further and offered their technological science in exchange for a place to live. It was agreed upon, but the merger was anything but easy, and after several decades of assimilation there would be little trace left of the ancient travelers except for the lingering prophecy that one day they would meet again with Haurembeau.

Meanwhile, explorers from Haurembeau were rapidly colonizing all of the habitable planets they came across. Further they traveled, the more planets they colonized for near onto another hundred years until, in a star system barely shown on their star charts, the survey ship Rah-Tem found another planet suitable for colonization.

According to protocols, they established an orbit, mapped the land masses, and tested the atmosphere. This world was perfect for colonization but it was already inhabited; and they spoke the same language! After all this time they had found the ancient adventurers. The people of this world called it Lorne; which means Home.

Now you may think this was a time for jubilation, but not so! The ancient travelers had left the world of Haurembeau to escape its oppressive and meddling government. The people of Lorne had heard about all Haurembeau; there would be no surrendering to a repressive rule, there would be war instead!

A diplomat aboard the survey ship secretly agreed with the people of Lorne and due to the efforts of ‘Lurandor the First', as he’s called now, along with those of his fellows back on Haurembeau, managed to strong arm both governments into a mutual but less than disastrous compromise. Both worlds would have equal representation in a new government along with each of their colonies. Needless to say this did not sit well with either of the two opposing parties, but support was overwhelming from the colonies; the only alternative would be a long and costly war which neither side could afford.

With much ceremony a treaty was forged and ratified by both Lorne and Haurembeau. As part of that treaty, a new government would be established on a newly discovered planet situated roughly equidistant between them. The Dracoran system was a binary star system made up of a Reddish dwarf star called Dracoran Dor and a small bluish star called Dracoran Deau. The system contained several planets of varying sizes, some having rather extreme characteristics. The innermost three were no more than burnt cinders as their orbits were in close proximity to either or both suns.

The outermost five were much larger in size and extremely cold, nothing more than frigid balls of poisonous gases, their suns no more than bright specks in the blackness around them, their orbits being to far for the feeble light of their parent stars to shed any heat upon their hidden surfaces.

But between these two extremes there was one more planet. As though orbiting by itself in a golden zone it was perfectly suited for this purpose and appropriately named Dracoran Prime.

About half its surface was covered with water, the rest made up of several rocky and formidable landmasses; except for one large continental landmass situated near the equator. This small continent was named Planeous de Sove' Miteous which means 'Plain of Salvation' in ancient Lorne. Some young engineer started calling it simply Mont-Plain and the name stuck. Mont-Plain was ideally suited for the construction of the new city of Lurandor that would be the center of government of this newly formed federation.

The survey crew found no sentient life forms and although the seas teemed with aquatic life forms in abundance, nothing larger than a small rat and several species of insects inhabited the continent.

Dracor Prime's rotation was roughly equivalent to a standard day in length, but the orbits of Dracoran Dor and it's sister sun Dracoran Deau caused the land of Mont-Plain to be continually bathed in light; although of varying hues and brightness depending on which sun was overhead at the time.

The largest portion of the continent consisted of a large and verdant plain covering most of the central and south eastern area rising to large and barren mountains to the north and west. Out of the north flowed the Bansk River slowly meandering throughout a high flat plateau before falling through a series of rocky terraces to the eastern ocean. From the west, the River Varsk cascaded down from the rocky heights in a series of high falls before flowing into a large lake several hundred miles from the southern coast. The outflow from this lake wound its way down to the sandy beaches of the southern ocean. Many considered housing in this area to be coveted.

There was much controversy amongst the politicians and architects about what name this lake would have. Again this was aptly taken care of by the construction workers that used the lake for recreation in their off time. Sensing the emerging controversy, signs started popping up proclaiming it Lake Lurandor; This way to Lake Lurandor or Lake Lurandor ahead.

Harvor Remendor, the representative from Haurembeau, had been steadfast in naming it the Sea of Haurembeau; he even went so far as to have a sign constructed and placed where everyone could see it. The next day a new sign had replaced it proclaiming it to be Lake Lurandor. It was constructed of sheet steel welded to heavy beams placed in concrete pillars. No one ever found where the