Why Not Jack: The Opportunity Series, #1

By Tony Tirico

Captain Jonathan Smith is the test pilot for a top secret stealth recon spaceship. Jack's thrilled to be able to fly this prototype corvette using only thought. It's the first Human ship to use a brain computer interface and offers the first real chance of defeating the Dragons.

Jack's life is turned up side down when finds out the Project Manager has cancelled his ship's funding, since the only other volunteer to interface is Dr. Rita Russo, the creator of the BCI. What's worse is that Rita is permanently connected to the ship. She hoped to see the stars, but now will be moved to a research facility to stare at an industrial ceiling for rest of her life. That is, if moving her doesn't kill her. Jack is determined to save Rita and get the ship's funding reinstated.

Jack has fought Dragons hand to claw, but is unprepared for his battle against the bureaucracy. How far will Jack go to save Rita?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tony Tirico
• Release date: Jul 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386593232

Tony Tirico

I've wanted to write science fiction and fantasy ever since the second grade when I figured out someone had to write it. When I had gotten an electronic typewriter for high school graduation, I began to write my first science fiction novel. It was crap. I hadn't had enough life yet to write the kind of story I wanted. I decided at seventeen I'd pursue a less risky career path and write after I'd gained more life experience. After graduating from Oregon State University with a B.S. in Agricultural Engineering, I begin to write a fantasy novel on my Mac Plus while I applied for various engineering positions. An agricultural economic depression at the time gave me fifteen months to develop my writing skills. I completed fifteen chapters before I accepted a position as a civil engineer for a city. Working as a professional civil engineer for twenty years, I didn't have much time to pursue writing. I tried to finish my first novel on weekends, but four word processors later, it still wasn't what I wanted it to be although it showed great promise. When the housing bubble burst, I was laid off along with most of the engineers at the city. Burnt out from years of government bureaucracy and with no private engineering jobs available, I decided to retire my P.E. license and pursue writing. The day after being laid off, I fired up my Mac and the neglected right side of my brain then began writing a new hard science fiction novel, just to see whether I could finish it. After finishing an awesome story, I realized I needed to learn how to professionally revise it. I studied books on writing and developed my new skills while writing a contemporary fantasy trilogy. With the first manuscript complete, the second in first draft and the third in outline, I had an epiphany. I think like an engineer; therefore, I should focus on hard science-fiction. I truly enjoy writing and now have lived enough life to write well. I’m honing the skills, so I can craft as many novels as possible in my lifetime.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Something's wrong!

I slapped the biometric interface on my handgun safe, grabbed the 6 mm inside, then rolled out bed into a ready position. No crawlies. Why did I wake up? Well, I'm wide awake, might as well get up. After glancing at my shipsuit, I exited my quarters and headed to the bridge.

I activated Command. Nothing wrong with the ship, why do I still feel on edge?

The concealed armored hatch for the BCI Chamber silently opened.

I walked over to one of 24 armored med pods then looked at the sleeping beauty inside. Anything wrong, Rita?

Damn it, Jack. We're fucked!

How are we fucked this time?

The Project Asshole's gonna cut our funding!

He can't! I looked down and gazed through the laminated ballistic glass into her lovely brown eyes. What's gonna happen to you?

I don't know. Even through the voice synthesizer, she sounded hopeless.

Hoping to see a hint of emotion, I studied her serene face surrounded by a halo of floating fiery red hair. Can't really be this bad. Gotta give her some hope! Every budget cycle, you know how the Project Asshole goes on and on about his cost to benefit analyses.

She forced a laugh. He's definitely both an Evil Account and a Project Asshole, but it seems Major Price is actually thinking of canceling our project this year.

Not now! Not after everything Rita and I have been through. We need this revolutionary ship to end the thousand year long war against the Dragons. But this prototype has exceeded all its design criteria?

It appears Ricardo's developing a few more neuroses over our wondrous new spacecraft not having a crew.

Gotta calm down and think! I contemplated the remaining 23 titanium and polymer experimental BCI pods inside the stainless steel chamber. I became part of the command and control systems when I interfaced with the ship using the bleeding edge nanocircuitry running along my nerves. Allowing Rita to implant the extensive network of graphene fibers throughout my brain and along my spinal cord had been one of my better decisions. Humanity desperately needed this amazing BCI technology to survive. I thought Dr. Johnson persuaded the PA to go to the Research Committee to get funding approval for a second BCI trial.

Linda wrote a great presentation, but that worthless egocentric misogynist wimped out. With only two successful volunteers out of a thousand in the first trial, he was worried that the cost overrun for the second would tarnish his perfect reputation as a fiscally responsible bureaucrat. Sit down, you're making me nervous looming over me like that!

After glancing briefly at Rita's submerged naked body, I slumped down onto my composite armored pod beside her. After all this time, I hadn't forgotten what it felt like to hold her. I considered climbing into my pod and interfacing, so I could feel close to her. Although it would allow me to communicate with Rita at the speed of thought, I immediately decided against it, since I didn't want her to experience my increasing frustration.

Searching for a solution to a problem without one, I stared up at the diffuse full spectrum LED lighting embedded in the stainless steel ceiling. Dedicating the last four years of my life to this unique project, I'd given up everything else. The exhilaration of flying this experimental stealth corvette using only my mind had kept me going during all those long nights and weekends. I'd really miss our ship. Are ya completely sure the PA's gonna cut our funding?

My brain's permanently interfaced with the most powerful mobile computer ever constructed and I have a direct high speed fiber optic link to the second most powerful mobile computer at this station's core. Yeah, I'm sure.

Sorry I doubted ya. She wanted me to say something, but I didn't know what I could say to make her feel better. I'd lost four years that I'd never get back, but Rita was locked into the brain computer interface for the rest of her life. As her skeletal muscles had failed, she'd plunged deeper into the interface until she was finally unable to disconnect. I remembered the last time that I had helped her from her power chair into her BCI pod. After she'd permanently interfaced, she told me she was already trapped in her body and preferred seeing the stars with the ship's eyes than controlling her damned chair with her own.

Oh my God! What's going to happen to her when they shut down the project? They can't take her out of the ship! Would she end up trapped in a dark storage hanger for the rest of her life staring with enhanced multispectral vision at the slowly corroding walls? Her boring existence would be a living hell!

thought Rita.

I'll try to get myself under control. What the fuck? My implant's inert when I'm not in a pod.

I thought.

Her laughter filled my mind.

I shrugged my shoulders.

I shook my head.

I slapped the pod I was sitting on. I looked in at my floating beauty.

I glanced through the open hatch into the bridge.

I tried looking sympathetic.

My stomach rumbled as I thought about Rita's gourmet programming ability with the automated galley.

I will. You know I'm always here for my enchanted princess.

You've always been my prince charming.

Chapter 2

My footfalls echoed throughout the empty armored hanger as I approached the security airlock. I stopped and turned to admire my ship. The XSRC-1 was an experimental stealth reconnaissance corvette, the first stealth ship of any kind. She had successfully completed her space trials and was finished except for some minor tasks in the forward section. The first of her class, a hunter killer, she represented a new tactical methodology in our long war against the Dragons.

The XSRC-1 was a spooky little ship. Even in the bright LED hangar lighting, she was hard to see. The nanotech coating her hull absorbed most of the available electromagnetic radiation shadowing her complex lines and curves. I knew her exact shape from helping during her construction, but now it was blurred to my eyes. In space, she was practically invisible. During our flight testing, we had to open the external hatches for the cargo bay, hangar bays, airlocks and weapon's ports, so the station traffic controller's radar could get a return as we approached and departed our hangar. Our minimal radar signature still wasn't enough for the automated approach system, so I had manually parked the ship in the hangar. Kinda like landing a fighter, but its momentum was a real bitch since the ship massed thousands of times more.

The ship was conventional only in that she used the standard layout for a corvette with an aft cargo section and a detachable forward living section that acted as an FTL lifeboat if the main drive in the aft section ever failed. All the systems on our prototype ship were bleeding edge. We'd met or exceeded the lofty design goal of reducing all the systems to half their current volume or making them twice as effective. Sometimes, we'd managed both. Hell, she even had Service's most compact EDM cannon running the centerline of the forward fuselage.

Excited dark matter cannons had only been mounted on battleships because of their immense size until we managed to scale this one down. Humanity had spent generations reducing the size of the cumbersome Dragon tech. Dragons built stuff huge, so they could manipulate it with their large three clawed hands. We'd finally managed to human size their tech with this ship.

It was truly a shame. The PA was only going to use its technological breakthroughs in the next production class of corvettes and destroyers. She was a nearly perfect ship. More important than all that, she needed to carry Rita to the stars.

Desperately hoping Rita would come up with a plan, I turned and typed in the airlock code then stepped through the outer airlock after the hatch swung out. As it closed and sealed behind me, the plates covering the scanners slid back next to the inner lock. After placing my hand on the palm scanner and looking into the retinal scanner, the inner lock hatch opened inward. As the hatch closed, my stomach was rumbling from the added stress.

Where I should go eat? Should I go to the civilian sector, consume a few beverages while watching women out of uniform and allow my subconscious to work on our problem or hit the officer’s mess and consciously think while I ate? Best eat at the mess, so I can quickly get back to Rita, sober, and with a plan. Nothing ever bothered Rita, but this surely did.

I walked along the gray station corridor lit with red nighttime LEDs. A 15 cm wide red stripe painted at eye level designated it as a restricted area. It was a waste of paint, you'd only be allowed in here if you had a nearly impossible to get clearance. I reached out and touched a wall below the horizontal red stripe. Even this deep in the station, its steel walls were laminated with ballistic ceramic and polymer. The Dragons had taught us lessons we'd never forget.

I approached the guard in powered armor at the security checkpoint. Never qualified in power armor myself. If ya could run all day, they made ya a light trooper. Still, I always appreciated the heavies whenever they showed up and took care of business.