Space Race

By Laurel Richards

The race is on! Maxton and his family are entered to compete in the big land rush on planet Caerus. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. The problem? Everything seems to go wrong. Their secondhand ship keeps breaking down, their cousin goes missing, and someone steals half their funds. They have to turn to a staffing agency to get somebody to take a look at their shipboard computers.

 

When Clara accepts a temp job aboard the Merit, she figures she'll only be on the ship for about an hour. That's all the time she needs to run a diagnostic on the computers, but then Max shocks her with an invitation to join his team. The man is handsome and single, and participating in the competition could change her whole life. But can they win?

 

Although this ragtag group may not look impressive from the outside, they have strength, determination, and smarts. They'll need all those qualities if they want to win this amazing space race.

 

Content: This book contains a sweet romance, a dilapidated space ship, and a great deal of running.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Laurel Richards
• Release date: Sep 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393687832

Book preview

Table of Contents

Copyright

Acknowledgments

Title

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

About the Author

Space Race

Copyright © September 2019 by Laurel Richards

Cover design by Laurel Richards

Images used under license from Shutterstock.com. Licensed images are being used for illustrative purposes only, and any person depicted on the cover is a model.

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All rights reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. This copy is intended for the original purchaser only. No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, resold, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages embodied in critical articles or in a review. If you would like to share this book, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Blurb

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The race is on! Maxton and his family are entered to compete in the big land rush on planet Caerus. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. The problem? Everything seems to go wrong. Their secondhand ship keeps breaking down, their cousin goes missing, and someone steals half their funds. They have to turn to a staffing agency to get somebody to take a look at their shipboard computers.

When Clara accepts a temp job aboard the Merit, she figures she’ll only be on the ship for about an hour. That’s all the time she needs to run a diagnostic on the computers, but then Max shocks her with an invitation to join his team. The man is handsome and single, and participating in the competition could change her whole life. But can they win?

Although this ragtag group may not look impressive from the outside, they have strength, determination, and smarts. They’ll need all those qualities if they want to win this amazing space race.

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Content: This book contains a sweet romance, a dilapidated space ship, and a great deal of running.

Acknowledgments

I’d like to thank all the friends and family who have encouraged me in my writing. Like many authors and the heroine of this book, I’ve held a lot of different day jobs over the years. My experiences have introduced me to real-life characters who have inspired me, and I’ve picked up some interesting skills. I’d also like to credit my grandparents and mother, who gave me the idea for the aloe plant in this story. For about fifty-plus years, offshoots of the same plant have been passed down through my family. I think it’s a strange and lovely inheritance. Last but not least, I would like to thank you, the reader, for letting me share my imagination with you.

Space Race

by

Laurel Richards

Chapter 1

The blare of an alarm cut through the crew cabin of the ship. Maxton immediately jumped off the treadmill he’d been running on and headed for the main compartment. Whatever the problem was, it did not impact the artificial gravity, because his feet stayed firmly on the floor.

We’ve got another air leak, his sister, Aeliana, announced. She spoke to him over the internal comm system from her position on the flight deck.

Where? Max was already grabbing a roll of polyamide tape and an ultrasonic probe.

Sensory nodes indicate the leak is on the starboard side of the galley, Aeliana replied. It’s between the air intake, the air diffuser, and the aft cabinet.

His ears popped as he went to the wall his sister indicated. Their cousin Violet—her hair dyed as purple as her namesake—joined him.

How bad is it? Violet demanded.

Bad enough, Aeliana answered. Pressure has dropped hundreds of kilopascals over the last hour. You need to plug that leak.

Violet groaned. Either we took a debris hit, or this old hull is so fatigued we’re about to become a flying sieve. Air is rushing out that hole at nearly the speed of sound.

Those were not words Max wanted to hear while surrounded by the vacuum of space. He turned on the ultrasonic probe, which resembled a blunt hand drill with a display screen. Escaping air caused a high-frequency shriek and tiny vibrations. Though the sound wasn’t detectable by ear, the probe would pick up on the noise. He aimed it at the wall and began sweeping the area.

He held his breath.

If we had more sensors embedded in the hull, we could more accurately triangulate the location of the leak, Violet griped. Of course, the newer ships have self-monitoring and self-repairing hulls. This ship is practically an antique.

Yes, the Merit had been around a long time and had more than a few issues, but it was the best secondhand ship they had been able to afford.

Max watched the readout on the screen as he searched for the breach. He didn’t exhale until he found it. Finally, he spotted an opening that was smaller than the tip of his little finger.

Got it. The hole is over here next to the storage cabinet. Even as he spoke, he slapped a piece of tape over the puncture.

There was a momentary delay before the alarm cut off, leaving them with the muted hum of the onboard equipment.

I’ll get the patch kit, his cousin said. Even that’s only a temporary fix, though. I need to go outside the ship to make proper repairs. There could be further damage to the impact shield and thermal insulation.

Max trusted her assessment. Violet was the closest thing to an engineer they had on board, though mechanic would have been a better description.

Aeliana, how is the radiation shield holding up? he asked, resisting the urge to cup his hands over his more valuable bits of anatomy.

Radiation deflectors are at a hundred percent, she assured him over the comm. We’re good.

Oxygen? He didn’t have a headache or dizziness, but he wanted to be sure.

There was a pause before Aeliana sighed in relief. Maybe she had been holding her breath too. Oxygen generators are already compensating, and backups are standing by. I think we’re okay.

Are you kidding me? We’re far from okay. Their other cousin, Berin, made this pronouncement as he wandered into the galley. As was the typical fashion for singles on their home planet, he wore his ash-blond hair brightly dyed—in his case, in a rainbow of streaks. Half the damn ship is being held together by tape and patches. Can’t we go one kilometer without something falling apart on this junker?

As if to answer him, another shrill alarm ripped through the cabin.

Korin, you’d better get to the cockpit, Aeliana called to her husband, their captain. I’ve got a computer malfunction. Navigation just went down, and our drive is off-line. We’re drifting blind.

Switch to secondary systems, Korin ordered.

They’re not responding, she informed him.

Max shared a worried look with his cousins.

Berin, you’re our computer expert, Violet pointed out. Go help our captain and copilot.

This was not what I meant when I said I was good with computers, Berin grumbled, but he hurried up to the flight deck.

Max went with him, though he wasn’t sure what he could do. He was pretty good with his hands, but his talents lay in farming and construction. His job wouldn’t really start until they reached the surface of Caerus. If they reached that faraway planet. The ship seemed intent on falling apart first.

When they reached the cockpit, Berin walked through the open hatch. Korin was already filling the pilot’s seat with his big frame, and Aeliana was right beside him in the copilot’s chair. There wasn’t much room in the tight space, so Max waited in the corridor outside. There were nine computer screens between the control panel and the windshield, as well as hundreds of backlit switches and buttons on every available surface. He had no idea what most of those controls did. His attention was on the one solid blue computer screen and the others with red emergency alerts on them.

Thrusters are down too, Korin said as he flipped some of the overhead switches.

Let me see. Berin pushed closer and started punching commands into the computer. No, no, no. Pressure is stable, but life support and environmental control systems are off-line. That shouldn’t even be possible. We’ve got two redundant processors as backup.

Is this some kind of software glitch? Aeliana asked. Can we reboot?

Secondary systems should still have kicked in, Berin snapped. This has to be a hardware failure. I told you we should have upgraded.

Their cousin dropped to his knees and torqued his upper body so he could examine the underside of the main control panel. Somehow, he singled out a few lines of electrical cables from the nest of wiring underneath. He began tracing them, nearly elbowing Aeliana as he worked his way over to the wall. The cables led to some kind of circuit panel next to the hatch.

Berin opened the panel door and jerked his hand back. Why is it wet in here? There’s condensation all over these connections. A short circuit must have triggered a power down.

Max asked the important question. Can you fix it?

His cousin frowned. I need electronic contact cleaner and water displacer. We have to get this dried out before we try to power back up and reboot.

Although he wasn’t an electrician, Max knew what the cleaner and displacer looked like. He went to fetch them.

Violet, you need to get up here too, Berin shouted. We’ve got to figure out where this water is coming from.

I’ll be there as soon as I finish this patch, Violet answered.

Are we about to almost die again? Trystan—Korin’s brother and their only other crew member—asked the question drily.

Not today, their captain insisted.

Max found what he needed and returned to the cockpit to hand the cleaner and displacer to Berin. His cousin began the meticulous process of drying out the wiring and connectors inside the circuit panel. A few minutes later, Violet joined them.

The moisture is from internal humidity, Violet said. It gets behind the panels and hoses and doesn’t evaporate as quickly. Our environmental controls must be out of whack.

Out of whack? Aeliana teased her. Is that a technical term?

Despite the tense situation, Violet smiled. You know what I mean. I’ll check the water extraction bed of our carbon dioxide removal system. Let me know when Berin gets us up and running again.

Working on it, Berin muttered.

We need to clean. That condensation will have contaminants in it. Violet gave Max a pointed look before she walked away. We don’t want the whole interior of our ship coated in your sweat.

I’m not the only one working out, Max reminded her.

They all needed to stay in top shape for when they reached Caerus.

Berin did something else inside the panel before stepping back. All right. Let’s try powering back on and rebooting the computers. If that doesn’t work, I’ll have to run a bypass.

Powering up, Korin said.

Max made a conscious effort not to clench his fists as he waited. Right now, the only air they had was what had already circulated through the pressurized sections of the ship before the malfunction. If they didn’t get life support systems back on and fully functioning, the number of holes in the hull would no longer matter. Despite their calm exteriors, he sensed the same apprehension in his family members.

Berin crowded Aeliana so he could reach the control panel. I’m initiating a restart of our computer systems. Rebooting now.

Max counted his heart beats as he waited. Nothing happened for over a hundred beats, but he was aware his pulse rate was up.

Restart is successful, his cousin finally assured them. Primary systems are back online. We’ve got life support and environmental controls, and oxygen levels are returning to normal.

I still don’t have command and navigation systems, Aeliana said.

Give it a minute, Berin told her. This was a complete system reboot. A lot of programs are all trying to restart at once. You should see—

The whine of an alarm interrupted him.

That’s the fire alarm. Korin leaned over the nearest screen when a second warning turned the noise into a duet. And that’s the depressurization alarm. I’m shutting down ventilation before the smoke spreads.

Is it an electrical fire? Max asked. Has it burned through the hull?

Korin shook his head and scowled at the readouts. "Sensors aren’t indicating a hull breach.