Engine: Engine of Creation, #3

By Frank Carey

There are only two things on Gabe's to-do list—amass an appropriate Katalan dowry and save the multiverse.

His Katalan partner thinks he got her pregnant. His granddaughter is wearing his favorite shirt. And now he has to save the world again. Some days you really should just stay in bed.

If you like tech-heavy sci-fi, relatable characters, and stories of family and redemption, you'll love the third book in Frank Carey's Engine of Creation series. 67 pages.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Frank Carey
• Release date: Apr 22, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386203360

Frank Carey

Frank Carey has been formally writing and publishing works of science fiction since late 2013. Over the years prior, he had dabbled in various forms of writing including haiku poetry, but that all changed when he and his wife, Jo, decided to try their hand at writing and self-publishing. Since then, he has written and published a collection of flash fiction and short stories, two anthologies, a pentalogy, and a trilogy. All his work, to date, has been in the science fiction genre. Most of his stories take place about two centuries in the future when Earth joins the League of Planetary Systems. Many of his protagonists are strong females. He is an inveterate pantser who believes the story will go where the story wants to go. Frank’s background includes degrees in physics and extensive work as a scientific programmer and technologist.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Gabe fired a blaster pulse at an attacking robot, stopping it while vaporizing its head. Who the hell leaves live battle robots to guard an ancient tomb! he exclaimed while firing at another automaton.

I'll fire off a letter of complaint when we're finished, Pris yelled back while using a Gatling-blaster weapon to mow down a dozen smaller quadrabots intent on overrunning their position while the Delphi orbited overhead. Siv! Where the hell is that location data?

Give me a second!

Gabe looked up and saw three condor-shaped bots attacking the Delphi, so he launched three hunter-seeker missiles from his armored back. In moments, the three condors were three clouds of debris. Delphi, you're clear! He called the ship before turning to help the EMEF and Earth-Sec teams fight off the seemingly-never-ending stream of battle bots emerging from their underground hives.

Up in the Delphi, Siv was frantically running scans as she searched for their elusive prize—an ancient artifact which was part of a key which would allow them to activate a device known as an Engine of Creation. All she had to go on was an energy signature they measured from the artifacts they had already found. Her problem was the signature was weak. It could easily be lost in the sea of signals coming from all the energy weapons being discharged on the ground below her.

Her long, gray fingers flew over the control board as she made minute adjustments to the sensor controls. Suddenly, a light flashed indicating the signal had been found. She slapped a control and locked the signal into the direction-finding system. Gabe! 234 degrees true, range 600 yards. She aimed an optical scanner at the coordinates supplied by the computer. Boss! Look for a small, ornate stone building. It's sitting on a stairway leading underground. I'm dropping flares and smoke. See you there.

Copy that, Siv. We'll meet you there. Gabe out! he replied over the comm. He turned to the forces around him and barked out the details.

You heard the man! Colonel Sana Irithyl yelled to her combined forces. I want suppressive fire to cover us. If it moves, kill it!

With Gabe in the lead, the League force made its way to the building.

When the force arrived, it found the Delphi hovering over the structure with its shields extended. Seeing the teams come into view, the Alue dropped the shields long enough for the force members to get underneath, whence she reestablished the protective fields. Gave walked over and tore the structure's door off its hinges. Setting it aside, he popped two drones and sent them down the dark stairwell beyond.

Gabe had images from the drones relayed to Pris, Siv, and Sana as he watched the feed in real-time. Looks like the typical long, dark hallway leading to a chamber of death, Pris noted as her cat-like ears and tail made nervous motions.

Gabe switched scan frequencies. My, my. Look at what we have waiting in the walls.

Great, those things look like a pair of nuclear powered Minotaurs, Sana noted.

Are those self-destruct charges where their hearts would be if they were organic?

Gabe zoomed the scan to get a closer look. Not nuclear; antimatter. Everyone get the hell out of here. I'm going to have to do this one alone.

No plarking way, Pris growled. If you think I'm going to...

He bent down and looked her in her Katalan eyes with his armor's blue glowing eye slits. You are going to do as ordered, Detective Sergeant Priscilla Kitra. Those things are booby-trapped, or did you miss the lack of power cables coming from the antimatter containers. One slip and this planet does a fair imitation of a sun going nova and there is no way anyone under my command is going out in a blaze of glory. He turned so everyone could hear him. EVAC, NOW!

Sana snapped a sharp salute, then walked over and hugged him. Gramps, you better damn well come home because there's no way I'm telling your daughter—my great grammy—that you were killed by a couple of old bots. Siv, evac and dust-off!"

Copy that, she replied. Gabe, what she said.

Gabe saluted the hovering ship as it dropped down to pick up the teams. He turned to Pris. Priscilla...

Save it. I can't deal with this shit anymore.

"You want to do this now? We're surrounded by hundreds of angry war bots with two antimatter bombs sitting beneath