Chasing the Signal

By J Fitzpatrick Mauldin

A cunning young girl comes face to face with an interstellar threat when her mother and grandfather are murdered aboard their ship while making contact with a mysterious entity. Alone, and with no way home, Bellamy makes a deal with an alien intelligence to chase the signal of her mother's soul to a facility light years away in the hope she might be resurrected and the two of them reunited.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J Fitzpatrick Mauldin
• Release date: Apr 24, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463864197

J Fitzpatrick Mauldin

A native to the Magic City, J. Fitzpatrick Mauldin has always lived with one foot in a world of steel and concrete, another in that of imagination and futurism. He is the product of a micro-biologist father and engineer grandfather, both obsessed with history, who have always challenged him to think harder. J. Fitzpatrick Mauldin has lived many lives from electronic music producer and DJ during the early 2000s to an entrepreneur in promotional products, and is now an administrator for one of the world’s largest real estate brands. He is married to a book addicted wife and has a mad genius daughter, the latter of which might one-day rule the world. Aside from the madness of the day to day, he dreams of returning to his second home in the Pacific Northwest, where he can continue to write his own brand of sci-fi and fantasy which teeters upon the edge of hard science and speculation.

Book preview

Written by J. Fitzpatrick Mauldin

Edited by Julie Hutchings

Copyright 2018, J Fitzpatrick Mauldin, Cosmic Entanglement Media

www.Jfitzpatrickmauldin.com

Contents

Present - Mission Year 12

One Year Before Mission

Present

Two Days After Attack – Mission Year 11

Present

Two Days After Attack – Mission Year 11

Present

About the Author

Present - Mission Year 12

Bellamy Baptista glared as the spherical glass tank filled with water like a giant fishbowl. Every instinct screamed that this was wrong, unnatural, that trusting herself to be submerged into the Foundry’s machine was more than foolish. But what choice did she have?

Their choices had been taken away when the Foundry’s outer defenses disabled their ship. Living nightmares had taken their place. Granddad had said to her in his final moments to be tough in the days ahead, that everything would be okay in the end.

Her mom had said not to listen to his lies.

All he ever does is lie, even when he’s acting kind.

After their ship, the Revelation, had been torn apart, the remainder of the human crew murdered or eaten alive, trust in the unknown was all Bellamy had. She was alone, sickened by her mother’s poisonous words. And it was for this deathbed slander, that the last thing she said to her mother before the Resurrection Bath came to life and her eyes closed were, I hate you.

The Bath flashed with brilliant white light and her mother’s soul was no longer aboard the Foundry, beginning a journey along a narrow path Bellamy could not follow. The Resurrection Bath faded to black and her mother’s limp body was swept away to be recycled.

A display on the side of the Bath began counting down from 9,456. It would be ten years before it could be used again, or so the great and powerful Foundry told her.

If she wanted to follow, she would have to use more conventional means.

Bellamy put her face to the frigid deck and wept. The Foundry did not understand her tears, but it tried to accommodate. It kept her safe from the offending race of Isoptera. It provided for her basic needs. It formulated plans for her to get what she desired.

The Foundry designed and crafted for her a starship.

Pressure tank at fifty percent capacity, a calm voice reported over the intercom. Bellamy swallowed and wiped her eyes. She was back in the present within the ship the Foundry had made for her. The computer’s voice sounded too much like her mother’s for comfort. If it were in her power to change this option, she would. She couldn’t let herself get too comfortable