Junker's Moon: Bad Seed

By Peter Salisbury

Inspector Vanessa Robin and Melanie must accept a gift from Head Office, no matter how unwelcome it is. Days later Vanessa receives a visitor who, as an old foe, is even more unwelcome. On Junker's Moon Lucy and Theodore lose their crops, while a mysterious plant disease threatens the livelihood of the farmers, and consequently the viability of the whole colony.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Peter Salisbury
• Release date: Apr 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310433818

Peter Salisbury

I am a life-long fan of science fiction, and so when I had an idea for my first story, I wasn't surprised that it was in that genre. The first book took me ten years to complete, but I've got a little quicker since. I am pleased to say that I now have over thirty books published in my name. What next? So far I haven't run short of ideas for new stories, so there are several projects in various stages of completion, and I hope to be publishing the next story before too long, so please subscribe to my alerts. My profile picture is a portrait of the author as a young man, painted by my daughter Charlotte Salisbury who has also contributed to several of my book covers. Professional background In the 1970s I studied Chemistry at university and then spent over thirty years in classrooms across England teaching almost anything but Chemistry, including Photography, Communications Skills, General Science, Computing, and Information and Communications Technology. In the 1990s I spent ten years writing abstracts of chemical patents. This was a most exacting process but very rewarding to be reading about the very latest inventions in the field, and the abstracts were distributed world-wide to research scientists by subscription. Articles of mine have been published in magazines and I have written assignments used for assessing Communications Skills for a major international Examination Board. After retiring early this century I began writing in earnest.

Book preview

Junker's Moon: Bad Seed

Copyright Peter Salisbury March 2015

Junker's Moon: Bad Seed

Peter Salisbury

Smashwords Edition 2015 March 30

This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person or place is entirely coincidental. No part of this work may be distributed, printed, reprinted or copied by any means without the permission of the author.

Introduction

Vanessa and Melanie receive an unwelcome gift from Head Office and have to decide what to do with it. On Junker's Moon Lucy and Theodore lose their crops in a blight which also threatens the livelihood of the farmers, and consequently the viability of the whole colony.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Bad Memories

Chapter 2: Gripthorne's Tug

Chapter 3: Head Office

Chapter 4: Shrivelled

Chapter 5: An Inconvenient Gift

Chapter 6: Static

Chapter 7: A False Location

Chapter 8: Experts

Chapter 9: Envy

Chapter 10: Escalation

Chapter 11: The Ravenheart Question

Chapter 12: A Blow To The Head

Chapter 13: Standoff

Chapter 14: The Cost Of Change

Chapter 15: Jamboree

Personnel

Previously on Junker's Moon

Introduction to Junker's Moon

More books by Peter Salisbury

Chapter 1: Bad Memories

'I guess we've pretty much cleared everything up now,' Melanie said, choosing her words carefully.

The journey back to their base on Lethe from the far-flung Junker's Moon depot had been nowhere near as eventful as the previous mission. In that operation six pirates' lives were ended at the hands of Inspector Vanessa Robin, freelance operative in the Federal Bureau of Interstellar Space. The fire fight in which the pirates were killed had been somewhat one-sided but it didn't come close to the mission immediately preceding it where Vanessa had been attacked by her husband, the notorious space brigand Dirk Knight. Within days after the fight, he had died in prison under circumstances the authorities had been at pains to conceal.

Melanie, Vanessa's able companion, was anxious to find a topic of conversation which didn't require the mention of either pirates or the buccaneer, Knight. She'd dropped the ship out of the hyperspace pipe and engaged the autopilot as usual to travel at the relatively sedate speed afforded by normal space while they ate breakfast. The two friends were an odd pair, the young ex-cult member and the older, ex-pirate, now Inspector in the Federal Bureau of Interstellar Space. They sat together at a small, circular table in front of the viewscreen in the forward lounge of Vanessa's imposingly large, bruiser class ship, the Guardian. When they flew with crew on board, the canteen adjoining the galley was generally used but there being just the two of them, it was pleasanter to carry a platter of sausage, egg, mushrooms, beans and toast with a flask of coffee to where the slowly moving field of stars could be appreciated.

Vanessa rubbed her hands together and smiled. 'I thought it went quite well with Marshall Brion.'

'The poor chap doesn't appear to be as terrified of you as he used to be. And Cecil did manage to escape without getting himself killed.' Melanie took a gulp of coffee realising that she had made a mistake the moment she had uttered the name of the veteran pirate.

'Thanks, I was trying to forget about the Cecil incident,' Vanessa said, shaking her head. 'He needn't think he can creep back into my good books, either.'

The answer surprised Melanie who had absorbed enough pirate lore up to that point to know that any pirate who acted without his captain's orders was unlikely to remain alive long enough to tell his tale. 'I think he's pretty much aware that if he'd pulled a stunt like that back in your Vanessa Longtail days, he'd be six feet under by now.'

'Something else I was trying to forget.'

'Sorry. I'll keep quiet.'

The sound of cutlery being sedately applied to breakfast items, accompanied by the crunch of toast, were the only sounds which might have been heard above the hum of the engines over the next few minutes.

The captain blotted her lips with a napkin before speaking. 'We could still get up to some mischief on the way home.'

Melanie rolled her eyes. 'Like what, Vanessa?'

'Umm, go back and raid that dandified pirate Drake Willams again or scare Gregor Grossman into handing over more gold.'

'I've had quite enough adventure for a while, thank you. And on the previous occasions that we accosted Willams and Groseman we had your veteran pirates for back up.'

Vanessa smiled and nodded. 'Bert and Ray do put on a rather good show of being menacing when required.'

'That worked on Willams himself but it didn't stop Dimity getting herself killed by his guards.'

'No more than she deserved after jeopardising the whole operation by trying to make off with Willams's heirlooms.'

Melanie was down to her last sausage and a few beans. She gave a heavy sigh. 'A high price to pay. And I'm very glad it wasn't my hand on the firing button when those pirates were killed in the Stygian system.'

'They were given fair warning.'

'Well, I'm for going straight back to base and thinking about what repairs we need. This ship has got some tiles missing off the outer shell and it's going to be in serious need of refuelling after all the high speed chases.'

'There's the Pocket Rocket which got its front canon all shot up.'

'Another nice little job for me,' Melanie said as she stabbed with her fork at a morsel of sausage.

'Oh, come off it, Mel, the technical stuff is your favourite part of being a rogue agent.'

Melanie smiled at last. 'And being a rogue agent beats being under Gripthorne's control any day.'

Vanessa sat back having refilled her coffee cup. 'And one of the most important things about being rogue agents is to make sure no-one catches up with us. I don't trust Ravenheart not to try his hand at interfering again at some point.'

'I thought your ex-boss would have given up by now.'

'I was starting to think that way until he showed up at Peach Wood prison when I went to see Dirk.'

'There was something fishy about all that.'

Vanessa sniffed. 'Not if you knew Ravenheart.'

'Well, I reckon that must have been quite a setback for him. Our fuel costs us nothing, but he must have had to put up quite an outlay for that trip. Coming away without even clapping eyes on you must have sent him slinking back to his lair with his tail between his legs.'

The last comment raised a smile from Vanessa. 'We can always hope.'

Melanie cleared away the breakfast dishes. When she returned, Vanessa was still sitting gazing at the starfield.

'I don't want to pry, and I know there's a lot you want to forget, but...'

'But what?'

Melanie sat down at the table. 'There's no tactful way to say this, but I think it was very odd how Captain Knight died after Commander Ravenheart arrived.'

'He died within a day of Ravenheart leaving.'

'How do you know that?'

'Because of when Ravenheart's ship logged back to his base.'

'You were able to access that?'

Vanessa chuckled. 'Until he erased all records of having left the base and travelled to Peach Wood.'

'That makes it even more suspicious.'

'Dirk attacked me with a knife he had made from a piece of metal he had found. It almost certainly has a bearing on how he died.'

'No! How come?'

'I didn't want to talk about it before, but I'll tell you now that some little time has passed. He flew into a rage when I said I hadn't gone there to set him free. He was quite good at that.'

'What? Attacking or getting into a rage?'

Vanessa stared at Melanie. 'Both, in fact, neither being at all attractive traits, but then who am I to talk?'

'That 'you' no longer exists.'

'Unless it comes back.'

'Dr Sychs would not have left you if you weren't safe to be around.'

'Thank you for your vote of confidence. Don't forget that Dr Sychs was interested in distancing herself as far as possible from Ravenheart.'

'Even so, I don't believe... I mean you don't scare me,' Melanie said. 'Well, most of the time you don't.'

'Being able to instil fear is an important skill, Melanie. You would do well to learn it.'

'I imagine you need good cause. I mean to do it the first time.'

'It helps.' Vanessa crossed her legs, folded her arms and leaned back in her chair. She gave Melanie a long cool look before speaking again. 'To return to your question. I believe Dirk died from the stab wound I gave him.'

'You said he attacked you.'

'So he did, but during my Febis training Ravenheart had me tutored in half a dozen forms of unarmed combat. When Dirk pulled the knife on me I knew that I had to take it from him to survive.' Vanessa smirked. 'I remember thinking that Ravenheart would have been proud of they way I did it. The cell was so small, though, I was trapped at every turn and Dirk had me pinned down while he pounded at me with his fists. When