Depot-14: Legacy of Vengeance

By J.J. Mainor

Upon learning his father was murdered, Colton returns home to the family estate to confront not only the killer, but a lifetime of family secrets and lies.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.J. Mainor
• Release date: Mar 3, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370786480

J.J. Mainor

I can talk about my characters and stories far more easily than I can talk about myself. The best way to learn about me is through those stories. Writing primarily science fiction, I enjoy worlds and universes that aren't so black and white. Every story has something to say, and every message is not as straight-forward as it seems. We tend to boil ourselves down and define ourselves according to neat labels, whether by race, gender, political identity, or whatever; and the truth is, we're more complicated than that. I try to write worlds and characters that reflect that complexity and diversity of belief.

Book preview

Depot-14: Legacy of Vengeance

Copyright 2017 by J.J. Mainor

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 enjoyment only, then please return to your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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 1

Colton took the call in the middle of the night.

Your father’s been killed. You need to get here right away.

Finn Calloway wouldn’t say more. The man had been an employee and friend of the Wells family since Colton was a child. For him to deny the son further details without a true face-to-face meant the old man died horribly.

The anger over what might have happened prevented a return to sleep. There was only one release for such raw emotion on the tiny supply depot, so Colton made his way to the gym several decks beneath his cabin.

He was in the rack with the bar set on the lowest pins at ankle level and the gravity set higher within the space than he was accustomed to lifting with when Jakarta entered, still fatigued and rubbing her eyes.

You’re up early, she yawned, even for you.

He grunted through the last reps and dropped the bar onto the pins. The rack quaked under the weight. The gravity was high enough where most men would have been stuck in place, but Colton ignored it and pried his feet free from the platform rather than reduce it. Without a word, he moved to the neighboring bench and took a seat, reaching for his water resting on the floor beside it.

Does this have anythin’ to do with that call you got? Jakarta asked.

Colton wouldn’t even look at her. The pair had been good friends for two Durango years, and Jakarta had never seen her buddy shut down like Colton had. Something told her to tread carefully, but deep down, she knew he needed an outlet for his pain. He needed to open up, even if it meant she let herself be used as a verbal punching bag.

What happened?

My father’s dead, he muttered through gritted teeth.

I’m so sorry.

Finn won’t tell me what happened until he sees me in person, but I know it’s bad. I just know.

For what it’s worth, maybe you shouldn’t jump to conclusions.

How can I not? If he died of a heart attack, he would have just said so. If the old man fell in the river and drowned, he would have just told me.

I’m just sayin’ it doesn’t do any good to worry about it. Maybe it is bad, but it might not be as bad as you’re thinkin’. You could end up worryin’ yourself sick over nothin’.

Colton’s fist tightened around the water bottle. In a fit, he hurled it across the room, bouncing it off the curved wall.

It is every bit as bad as I’m thinkin’ and more, he told her when he calmed down again. It’s not just his death. It’s just…We haven’t spoken in almost ten years.

So you two had a fallin’ out, Jakarta guessed.

"Not exactly. I had my reasons. It’s complicated. I kept tellin’ myself I wanted to go back and get some things off my chest…to clear the air and try to get a new start, but somethin’ just kept holdin’ me back.

Now it’s too late. The old man died thinkin’ I hated him, thinkin’ I blamed him for somethin’ out of his control. I can’t stop thinkin’ how it’s over now. I missed my chance to make peace with him.

Jakarta had no idea what to say to him. She herself was partially estranged from some of her own siblings, but the reasons were not imagined. She had tried to maintain relationships when they all moved on, but the roadblocks always came from the other side. If one of them passed away, she thought she would have peace that she did everything she could for her own peace of mind.

Why didn’t you take the scout and go? she asked him.

It was the first thing I thought of, he admitted, but I didn’t want to leave you without it. The commuter shuttle will be here in a couple hours, and the ranch keeps several surface cruisers in case I need to go anywhere down there.

Ranch? Jakarta asked him rather curious. It occurred to her that for all she had spoken of her family and her past, she knew very little of where Colton came from. The man once told her his mother died when he was still a teenager, and that he had a much younger brother. Other than that, he simply didn’t talk about it. Jakarta understood in light of what he said about the estrangement, still, it was rather strange he had not opened up to her until that moment.

Yeah, he said. "My father ran a ranch…cattle. When I served durin’ the war, the beef we ate bore the family label. I think he branched out into dairy production since I left because the milk downstairs also bears the family label.

My grandfather started it. Back when the Durango government tried to get people to settle outside the main cities, back when they wanted to promote planetary agriculture and reduce their dependence on imports, he received a land grant for fifty thousand acres.

Fifty thousand! Jakarta burst out, unable to contain her shock.

Yeah, he continued with a meek smile. Back in those days they were just givin’ away the land. Anyone willin’ to work in that part of the world got fifty thousand acres as long as they made a go of it. And my grandfather made a go of it! He started the ranch and passed it to my father when he died.

Colton looked across the gym to where his empty water bottle lay, wishing he hadn’t thrown it. The memories were painful to dredge up, and he needed that excuse to stop the conversation. It wasn’t that he wanted to forget that whole past, quite the contrary. Colton never knew his grandfather; the man died only months before he was born. There was never a connection with the man like most of his friends had with their grandparents growing up. To Colton, he was just another name in the family tree.

Colton never thought about it until he brought it up with Jakarta, but in thinking on what the man had accomplished coming from nothing, he was actually proud of his recent ancestor. In a way, he was proud of his father as well for taking that ranch and growing it into the business and brand it was.

Colton remembered when his father built the processing plant on the property, taking control of the middle step and selling directly to market. He remembered when his father expanded the bunkhouses and built proper homes for the employees who arrived to work in the plant. The man built almost an entire town on that land – more than his own father did when it was his.

It was a tough place to be for the young Colton Wells, to admire a man he spent nearly ten years avoiding, to hold him up on a pedestal when he couldn’t bring himself to go home and settle the silly disagreements between them.

The growing silence from her friend signaled a bit of unease from Jakarta. Though he said nothing more, she knew he was hurting. She knew there was more on his mind he needed to shed, but she wasn’t sure if she should push so soon after he already shared so much.

I can have a bag packed before the shuttle gets here, she suggested.

I appreciate that, he said, "but we have the transport from Canton arrivin’ today. And that freighter is supposed to be stoppin’ tomorrow on its way through to Marsden. Someone needs to stay behind and run the depot.

"Besides that, I think this is something I need to do alone. My whole problem with this is because I was never strong enough to deal with my issues. Only way I’m gonna work through his death is without