The Chambers of Lenore

By Herb. Jones

Judge White’s little girl runs away from home. Six months later, someone sees her aboard the Chambers of Lenore. The ship follows the asteroid fleet in supports of the miners, but it also has ties to the black-market, artifacts smuggling, and human trafficking.

Judge White knows that, and he realizes how well protected the organization is. Still, he will do anything to save his daughter. He put together a task force to raid the Lenore, but what about his little girl? Who will protect her?

Marshal Matthew Gramlin, Gram to his friends, he will protect her. He’s a Trek Marshal, and Trek Marshals have a motto, one Death Star-one Trek Marshal. He boards the Lenore prepared to protect her from harm no matter what.

Learn what happens next, in The Chambers of Lenore.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Herb. Jones
• Release date: Jan 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9781792326561

Herb. Jones

My parents and I lived out in the country with our closes neighbor about a mile away. There were no little kids to play with, so my best friend became the TV. I loved those afternoon adventure shows like Buffalo Bill Jr and Anny Okely.Sky King was another favorite. He was a crime-fighting rancher with an airplane. He also had a nice named Penny, my first girlfriend. Out in the front yard, all by myself, I played cowboy, with a toy gun, a stick for a horse, and Penny ridding by my side.The old adventure movies from the late '50s and early '60s were something else: Mysterious Island, Journey to the Center of the Earth, the Time Machine. I saw most of them as new movies. They didn't have the same explosion and frantic fights as today, but they felt real, believable as if you were alongside the heroes and leading ladies.I want to write like that; I always wanted to write like that, and around the age of 65, I realized I had better get busy doing it before I ran out of time.I have written one novel and one short story, and I hope I have time to write more. I want to go on another adventure, and I hope some others will enjoy coming along. Here's an overdramatic line I wrote. It's probably not true, but this is my biography. "There are writers, authors, and wordsmiths, but I consider myself a humble tinker of dreams." How did you like that? Let me know in the remarks section.

Book preview

THE CHAMBERS OF LENORE

By Herb. Jones

PUBLISHED BY

SMASHWORDS

EDITED BY COMPUTER

Copyright 2020 Herb. Jones Smash word Edition, licensed for you only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not buy it or purchased it for your use only, please return it to your favorite e-book retailer and buy a copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

---0000O0000---

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE STORY

FINAL COMMENTS

MY WEBSITE

OTHER STORIES

THE STORY

-----OOO0OOO-----

A momentary lapse in concentration could be fatal, not only for the individual but for anyone nearby. No doubt, asteroid mining was dangerous, but it paid well, especially for Catch ship pilots. A framework of spinning wheels without a power source, the pilot steered and maintained momentum by changing the angles of the gyroscopes. Every child dreamed of flying one.

A modified railgun shot the craft into an asteroid cluster. The pilot used sensors to find a rock with a marketable inner core. Once found, he moved in, matched the spin and pitch of the target, then locked on with metal pincers. It took considerable skill the wrestle the asteroid into a controlled flight path.

The season usually lasted for fifteen months, then the fleet disbanded, with the cargo going to select processing plants and the workers going home. The Chambers of Lenore followed the fleet as it journeyed through the belt, providing support for the weary minors. At the journey's end, the Chambers of Lenore made its way to the Brox Rook star system, dropped anchor a little outside the system’s legal jurisdiction, and opened its hatches for the annual end-of-season sale. Everything had to go: excess supplies; damaged, outdated equipment; rare and unusual articles from the edge of the universe.

But there was another type of product for sail, a darker, evil inventory. Black marketing, illegal drugs, stolen artifacts, human trafficking: the Lenore corporate owners grew rich from that inventory. They could buy politicians, bribe judges, pay off the police, or anything else needed to keep the cash flowing. For the Chambers of Lenore, probable cause and hot pursuit did not exist. It was above the law.

That changed when Judge White's little girl was seen aboard the ship. She was a runaway, and no one knew why or how she ended up on the Lenore, but she was still Judge White’s little girl, and he would do anything for her.

He called in a lot of favors, spent much of his wealth, and organized a secret task force of law enforcement officers. They weighed just outside scanner range. The only problem was: how to keep the girl safe while the law took control of the ship?

----OOO0OOO----

Marshal Matthew Gramblin flew his Skimmer into the docking bay of the Lenore. No one noticed. He touched down, and the