Beyond Earth, The Collected Tales, Volume 2: Void-Borne: Beyond Earth, the collected tales, #2

By Dr S. Fern

As the alliances that have settled the New Earth system continue to lay claim to its resources the malign, alien presence haunting the Anderson system and The Field sends its tendrils out into the void, seeking to ensnare New Earth itself.

 

Meanwhile, in the New Earth system itself, not only has the aggression of foreign powers escalated, but so have the predations of corsairs, forcing vessels to travel in convoys, for which United Industries is able to provide escorts… for a price.

 

Few corsairs have gained more renown than Captain Henry Krämer. The cost of such a fearless life becomes clear, however, as circumstances rapidly spiral out of control, ensnaring those closest to him and threatening those he holds most dear.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dr S. Fern
• Release date: May 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393115311

Book preview

Dr S. Fern

Copyright ©  Dr S. Fern

The author asserts his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

All Rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the copyright holder, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Cover image by Allan Cole on Unsplash

Author image by Peter Slack

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all those who continue to support my writing – much love to you all.

Contents

Convoy

'We're approaching Astral Queen now, Cap,' Josh, Void Dancer's second mate, said as he stubbed his cigarette out on the edge of his console.

'It's about time,' Captain Henry Krämer replied.

'We've made pretty good time, Cap, all things considered.'

'Yeah, I know; if Phoebe says don't push the drive beyond sixty percent we don't push it beyond sixty percent. This whole trip has just pissed me the fuck off.'

'The happy times have ended, Cap, that's all. It was bound to happen sooner or later.'

'You're right, mate, and it was probably a bad idea to attack such a strongly escorted convoy—'

'Probably? Cap, we near as damn it got our arse shot off, if it wasn't for Phoebe and Izzy the drive's containment field would probably have collapsed and—'

'Yeah, I know – don't remind me – just raise Astral Queen and get us docked.'

'On it,' Josh replied as he pulled a hand-rolled cigarette from his shirt pocket.

The port known as Astral Queen had begun life as a bulk carrier that had been landed in an asteroid's crater. Now, after extensive excavation into the asteroid and considerable construction across its surface (predominantly by attaching other captured ships to the growing structure), Astral Queen was one of the largest outposts in the asteroid belt. The only larger settlements were the city-ships that were scattered throughout the belt. They too had done as Astral Queen had and found suitable asteroids to set down on permanently.

'Void Dancer, this is Astral Queen, we've got space for you on the Nain Rouge, at bay seven. Welcome back.'

'Thank you Astral Queen. We'll also need a repair crew as well,' Josh replied.

'Received, Void Dancer, will—'

A different voice interrupted, 'Void Dancer, do you require any medical attention?'

'Fran, is that you?' Henry asked, thumbing the comm-link over-ride on his chair's console.

'Yes, Henry, it's me. Are you all alright?'

'Jack and Camila are dead, Fran; we got hit bad.'

'I'm so sorry, what happened?'

'The convoy was escorted by a few armed freighters – nothing too formidable, so we hit it, but some of the carriers turned out to be Q-ships.'

'I'm sorry, Captain, really I am. Come and find me when you've docked.'

'Yeah, alright.'

Slowly, Void Dancer limped towards the Nain Rouge, one of many of Astral Queen's sprawling extensions. It had been a mining dreadnought in its previous life, but now comprised one of the larger sub-units of the port.

'I'm going to find Fran,' Henry announced as they docked. 'I'll be at the bar in a few hours. Let everyone know?'

'Sure thing, Cap. Which bar?'

'I don't fuckin' know – there aren't that many on the 'Rouge,' he snapped as he left the bridge.

Henry disembarked and made his way to Astral Queen's bridge, where he found Francesca having a blazing row with a tall, heavily built man.

'Captain, I don't know and I don't much care where you've come from, or what you've been doing, the simple fact is I only have a limited number of repair crews available, so you'll have to wait—'

'I need to be void-borne in the next twelve hours, Commander,' the captain barked, pushing his face right up to Francesca's.

'Your testosterone-fuelled bravado doesn't impress me, Captain. I will add your ship to the schedule. Now, I suggest you leave,' she replied.

'I don't think so, not until my ship gets seen to, now I suggest you—'

'I suggest you fuck off before I beat seven shades of shit out of you, mate,' Henry said as he stepped into Francesca's office.

'Oh, fuck off, you ginger...' the man trailed off when he noticed Henry's hand resting on his holstered pistol. 'You won't pull that, not in front of the port's commander – you wouldn't dare.'

Henry drew the laser pistol from its holster and aimed it lazily at the big man. 'You alright, Fran?'

'Yes, thanks; he was just leaving.'

'Oh, right,' Henry replied before stepping aside.

'Who the hell are you?' the big man asked as he left Francesca's office.

'Henry Krämer, captain of the Void Dancer.'

'Oh, I've heard of you.'

'And who the hell are you?'

'Martin Misch, captain of the Stargazer.'

'Well I've never heard of you, now go on, fuck off.'

'Henry, I'm sorry to hear about Jack and Camila,' Francesca said as she closed the office door and Henry re-holstered his pistol.

'Yeah, me too.'

'Are you alright?'

'Yeah...' Henry's shoulders slumped. 'No, I'm not.'

Francesca hugged him. 'What are you going to do?'

'Have a drink,' he replied, holding her tight, fighting back the tears. 'We're getting together in a bit – you're welcome to join us.'

'I'll see if I can make it, but seriously; raiding is getting more and more dangerous, ever since they started escorting the convoys.'

'I know. I've got a couple of ideas I've been working on.'

'That's good,' she replied, breaking their embrace. 'I don't like the idea of you going out on your own again, not after what happened this time.'

'Yeah, you might be right. Is there any chance—'

'You were at the top of the list as soon as I learned that you needed a repair crew,' she replied, smiling.

'Thanks – you're a star. Do you know if the Christine's docked here at the moment?'

'Yes, she arrived a couple of days ago. She's berthed at the Astral Conveyor.'

Henry's countenance lightened and a smile threatened to cross his face.

'Say 'hi' to Isabelle for me.'

'Say it yourself – come out with us this evening.'

'I said I'll see if I can make it, and I will. See you later, Henry.'

By the time Henry returned to Void Dancer most of the crew had disembarked, either on business of their own, or to procure supplies for the ship. Before he headed out to find a bar, Henry made his way down to the engine room, where he found a repair crew hard at work alongside Phoebe, Izzy and Ali. Francesca had been as good as her word.

'How's it going?' he asked from the engine room door.

'Cap! Come in!' Phoebe, a tall stocky woman, shouted from across the room.

Henry picked his way carefully through the chaos of the engine room; the entire ion drive and its containment field generator lay disassembled around him.

'How bad is it?' he asked once he reached his chief engineer.

'It's not good, Cap: the field generator's almost completely fried – it's a miracle it didn't fail completely before we docked – and as for the drive, it'll need a number of new parts, but I'm sure I can get my hands on what I need,' she replied with a wry grin.

'I believe you – you've got a way with...'

'I've got a way, let's just leave it at that, shall we?' she replied, winking.

'Probably for the best! You coming out in a bit?'

She turned to one of the Astral Queen's repair crewmen. 'Are you alright here?'

'Yes, we'll be fine; we can continue working on the field generator, but we won't be able to make much progress with the drive until we get the spare parts.'

'That'll be fine – I'll have them by tomorrow.' She turned back to Henry. 'I tell you what, I'll knock off now, get my hands on the spares we need and meet you a bit later on?'

'That's my girl! See you later.'

***

It was, as it turned out, Henry who joined his crew for a drink, rather than the other way round. Sylvia, Josh, Marco and the rest of the crew had congregated in The Processing Plant – a large, multi-floor bar that had been converted from one of the dreadnought's ore processing plants.

'There you are, Cap! What took you so long?' Sylvia, Void Dancer's first mate, asked as Henry, laden tray of shots in hand, manoeuvred through the crowd to where the crew had commandeered several tables.

'I had a couple of things to see to...' Henry replied, setting the tray down.

'Never mind!' Sylvia added as Isabelle Ludnikov, captain of the Christine, appeared from the crowd a couple of seconds later.

'Good evening to you too, Sylvia!' Isabelle said with a laugh as she joined the group. 'Wasn't your hair blue the last time I saw you, Phoebe?' she asked.

'Er, yeah, I think so,' Phoebe replied running a hand through her shock of neon green spiked hair. 'Do you like it?'

'Certainly, but I'm not sure it goes with the dress!'

'Of course it does!' she replied, straightening out imagined creases in the floral cocktail dress she was wearing.

'All right, you too, that's enough of that!' Henry said, handing both women a shot glass of starblood. 'Josh, mate, hand these down. And you, Phoebs,' he added. As the shots were handed down the table those nearest the captain heard him mutter, 'I fuckin' hate memorials.' Isabelle squeezed his arm.

'Right, let's get this done. To Jack and Camila!' he announced before knocking back the potent spirit.

'Jack and Camila,' the crew echoed before shooting their drinks as well.

'Josh, mate, get a couple of rounds in, would you?' Henry asked.

'Sure thing, Cap.' Turning to the ship's tactical officer, he asked, 'Give us a hand, Rashid?'

'How's Fran?' Phoebe asked as the two men left.

'She's fine, Phoebs. She's worried about the increasing strength of the convoy escorts though.'

'She's not the only one. We were lucky last time, Cap – Josh is a first rate pilot, but still...'

'Yeah, I know. I've been thinking about that actually. We've had an idea,' Henry replied, turning to Isabelle.

'It's too risky for a single ship to try and hit a convoy on its own, but several ships...'

'Yeah, There's half a dozen ships currently docked that are due to put to space in the next couple of days. We're going to have a chat with their captains tomorrow and see if they want in.'

'It'd mean sharing whatever we plunder, probably equally.' Marco interrupted.

'They're hiring U.I. warships to escort the most valuable convoys now, Marco, and we can't afford to get into another scrap like the last one, at least not alone,' Phoebe responded.

'I wasn't disagreeing with anything in particular; I just don't like sharing.'

'Even when it's necessary?' Isabelle asked.

'Especially then,' Marco replied.

'I ain't losing anyone else, mate,' Henry stated with a finality that brought all conversation to an end until Josh and Rashid returned with more drinks.

The rest of the night passed in an alcoholic blur which Henry was hard pressed to piece back together the following morning. He could recall sharing stories about Jack and Camila, playing a few crude drinking games, but everything after that was a complete blank.

As he sat down to breakfast (or rather lunch if the truth be told) with Isabelle, Phoebe, Sylvia, Josh and Marco, he couldn't for the life of him recall how he got the black eye, the split lip, or the fractured ribs.

'So Fran did turn up after all?' he asked.

'Yes, Cap, I swear, just after Josh had proved that he could juggle three full wine bottles!' Sylvia assured him

'I told you you couldn't!' Rashid interjected.

'I fucking did, just not for long,' Josh replied.

'Well I don't remember,' Henry said slowly as he nursed another cup of stewed tea. 'Now will someone please tell me what the fuck happened to me – stop avoiding the subject.'

'Well...' Sylvia began.

'Sylv, don't piss about – I'm not in the mood.'

'Well, we'd just finished a bottle of starblood—'

'A bottle of starblood?'

'Well, you had most of it.'

'That explains a bit,' he replied, wincing as he cut up what had been sold to him as bacon.

'Anyway,' Sylvia continued, 'we'd finished the starblood and Fran had just left when you and Isabelle went to the bar for another round. I didn't see what happened next.'

'We'd been waiting at the end of the bar for a few minutes,' Isabelle continued, 'when a couple of guys asked if you were with me. You said that you were and they offered their condolences, and asked what you'd done to end up with a wrinkly bitch like me—'

'They fuckin' what?' Henry fumed as Isabelle raised her left arm, which was covered in post-burn scars. He immediately regretted his outburst as his head began pounding again.

'They did, at which point you told them that they were both, how did you put it, blind as well as fuckin' stupid, and  that they'd be lucky to get anyone half as good looking as me...' Henry  blushed. 'You then glassed the first guy and threw the other straight off the balcony into the crowd below.'

'So how—'

'The rest of the crew were in the queue behind. They laid into us, starting a bar-wide brawl.'

'And you lot?' Henry asked.

'By the time we reached you, Isabelle was holding her own against one of the bouncers, and you were beating a guy twice your size to a paste with the leg of a bar stool.

'I see...' Henry didn't really know what to say.

'It was the most romantic thing anyone's ever done for me!' Isabelle said.

'You're a fucking legend, mate,' Josh added.

Marco, who was sporting several cuts