The Gemini Affair (Jack of Harts Short Story 1)

By Medron Pryde

Jack grew up in a world at peace. His only interests were partying and girls. Two decades of War changed the galaxy and left Jack with no home to return to. Seven decades after War’s End, Captain Jack Hart was a man at peace once again. His ship represented the freedom to live wherever he wanted. He could fly anywhere from Earth to the furthest frontiers of human expansion on a whim and a prayer. And his cargo holds could carry whatever luxuries people wanted wherever he was going.

All of that was endangered when he ran into a mysterious freighter while on a routine trip to the Pleiades Cluster. What secrets did it hold? What mysteries did it hide? Why was it skulking around the heart of the Pleiades Cluster? Why did it open fire the moment it saw his ship? And what would the answers to those questions do to the foundations of the world Captain Jack Hart had built his life on?

Historical note: The Cowboys of this story were named in honor of the real life Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 112, the Cowboys. Because of these aviators, and everyone else who has served, I am free to write this story. I will never forget.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Medron Pryde
• Release date: Aug 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370910922

Medron Pryde

Hello, my name is Medron Pryde, and I am the creator of Jack of Harts.Jack of Harts is a place I hope you like. It’s a place where we did things right, where we built a world we would be happy for our children to grow up in. It’s not perfect. There is conflict. But by and large, we made the hard decisions, and we did what needed doing. We made a good world. I know today that stories tend to go much more dark than that, dystopian futures where we have destroyed our world or enslaved our populations. Places where even the Good Guys are more dirty and hairy than they are clean-shaven and happy. Jack of Harts is not like that. It’s not a world where somebody takes a step forward to fix something and gets knocked two steps back. I don’t like those worlds. I don’t want to spend a lot of time imagining them.Jack of Harts is based in many ways on what I grew up wanting. I was raised in a Christian home, told to do onto others as you’d have them do onto you. I watched Bonanza, where the Cartwrights helped anybody who came along needing it. On Superman, I watched the Big Blue Boy Scout (even if he was in black and white) fighting the Bad Guys each week for Truth, Justice, and the American Way. On Quantum Leap, a man lost in time always found a way to make the world he dropped into each week a little bit better. On Star Trek, a bunch of people I liked traveled through the stars to go places that no man had been to before...because it was there. In Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, and Star Wars, the plucky outnumbered heroes came back swinging with a smile, a joke, and a hearty laugh, and they never gave up hope that they could find or build a better world to live in. These are the stories I grew up with. These are what I enjoy, and these live on in my optimism.In Jack of Harts, I try to capture that. The characters of Jack, Charles, and Aneerin, just to name a few, are all people who lived in a world before The War came. When that happened, they aren’t the people who crossed the border to hide from the draft, the people who gave up hope and found a bottle or a needle to hide behind. These are the people who stood up, walked into a recruiting office, and volunteered to defend their ways of life. They may cover it up by saying they’re just in it for the money, or because that person over there just needed taking care of. But don’t let that fool you. They are the best of us, a reflection of the true Big Damn Heroes who grab a rifle, a pistol, and a bulletproof vest (or maybe a fireproof suit) to protect our freedoms and our lives everyday.Jack of Harts is a place where I like to think these people would like what they see. It’s a place I enjoy going to when I write, with people I’d like to share a beer with. I’ll keep it that way. I hope it’s a place you’ll enjoy reading, and I hope you come back each day or maybe each week to read some more.So have a good one, and I hope to see you again.Medron Pryde

Book preview

I’m picking up active targeting radar, Jasmine announced as the Hellcats flew inside one lightsecond of them. Looks like a Technicron Actitrax Mark XII or XIII.

Wasn’t the Mark X they last one they used? Jack asked.

In the official upgrades, Jasmine said with an annoyed look.

Which makes these homegrown upgrades, Betty noted. They could have anything.

Fantastic, Jack muttered. I love not knowing what to expect.

And that was when the Hellcats began firing missiles from their wingtip launchers. Displays flashed crimson all around Jack as hundreds of the small, guided projectiles began flying towards Jack’s squadron on plumes of blue fusion flame.

Then you’re going to love what happens next, Jasmine returned with a smirk.

Mmmm? Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.

We’re getting radar emissions from Raytheon targeting packages, Betty announced.

Jack blinked in confusion. I thought Raytheon and Technicron didn’t play well together. Something about…missing data packets or something?

That’s right, Jasmine said with a nasty smile. These guys aren’t fighting with a full deck.

And we’ve got a plan, Betty added.

Jack chuckled at the wicked amusement in their eyes. He might have asked for an explanation in most cases, but now probably wasn’t the right time for that. Missiles moved faster than words after all. So he just relaxed and said, Then make it so.

By

Medron Pryde

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Books

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Forge of War

Angel Flight

Angel Strike

Angel War

Wolfenheim Rising

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Short Stories

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The Gemini Affair

THE GEMINI AFFAIR

A Jack of Harts Short Story By

MEDRON PRYDE

Copyright © 2017 by Medron Pryde

Smashwords Edition

Cover background designed by Stephen Huda under contract

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Published in the United States of America

First Printing, April 2017

www.jackofharts.com

Dedication

I would like to dedicate this story to everyone who has served in the Armed Forces. It is thanks to all of you that we are here now, to enjoy this form of entertainment in the safety of our homes. I would especially like to thank every Marine aviator of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 112, called the Wolfpack in World War II and the Cowboys in recent decades. The Cowboys in this story are named in your honor.

I would also like to thank everybody who has helped me write this story, from those who brainstormed with me, proofread it for me, edited it, created art to bring it to life, or simply declined to roll your eyes when I nattered on about this story I was writing. Whether family or friend, whether I have met you in person or only over the Internet, your help and support is greatly appreciated.

The Gemini Affair

Table of Contents

The Gemini Affair

Author Afterword

The Gemini Affair

They were three lightyears short of Gateway when the overstressed grav sensors finally gave out. The alarms woke Jack from a dead sleep and he rolled out of his bed with windmilling arms. He snapped his eyes open to consult a wall panel and the display told him the grim truth in an instant.

Well, that’s just shiny, Jack muttered in disgust. Betty, please tell me you updated the Pleiades Cluster map when we were on Bosphorus? he asked and hoped she wouldn’t say, I told you so. They really should have stopped for repairs there. But people paid a premium for fast deliveries, and he wanted that bonus.

Of course, Betty answered with a voice dripping in sarcasm that said, I told you so just fine as she appeared next to him.

Jack turned and looked right through her. She was her normal blonde haired, blue eyed, Scandinavian beauty today, and her favorite yellow sundress would have had a young Jack drooling back on the lakes of Northern Minnesota. But he could see the hard edges where her digital body didn’t quite mesh with the analog world around her, and the bulkhead was just barely visible through the slightly harder light created by their ship’s holographic