Power Play

By Kenneth McDonald

In this prequel to the 2014 novel "Powerless", humanity is still in the early stages of its exploration of the galaxy. The groundbreaking technology of the Fordham Drive has allowed human ships to cover the gaps between stars in weeks instead of centuries, but the initial wave of expansion revealed that there are other intelligent species already out there. The crew of the Deep Space Exploration Vessel San Jacinto is about to meet one of those species, one that does not take kindly to intrusions upon its territory.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kenneth McDonald
• Release date: Jan 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463787717

Kenneth McDonald

I am a retired education consultant who worked for state government in the area of curriculum. I have also taught American and world history at a number of colleges and universities in California, Georgia, and South Carolina. I started writing fiction in graduate school and never stopped. In 2010 I self-published the novella "The Labyrinth," which has had over 100,000 downloads. Since then, I have published more than fifty fantasy and science fiction books on Smashwords. My doctorate is in European history, and I live with my wife in northern California.

Book preview

Power Play

A Prequel to The Refugees of the Crucible

Kenneth McDonald

[e-mail]

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2020 by Kenneth McDonald

Cover Credit: The cover image is adapted from The Orion Nebula, a Hubble Space Telescope image by NASA and the ESA. The image is in the public domain.

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Works by Kenneth McDonald

The Ogre at the Crossroads

The Graves Crew

The Graves Crew and the Restless Dead

The Graves Crew and the Damned Dam

The Graves Crew and the Firestar Amulet

The Graves Crew and the Road of Doom

The Graves Crew and the Magical Forest

The Graves Crew and the Mountain Fortress

The Adventures of the Graves Crew, Volume 1 (omnibus paperback edition)

The Adventures of the Graves Crew, Volume 2 (omnibus paperback edition)

Refugees of the Crucible

Powerless

Overpowered

Balance of Power

Power Play

Soul Weapons

Wizard’s Shield

Soul of the Sword

Wizard’s Stone

Tales of the Soul Weapons

The Dwarf on the Mountain

Legends of the Soul Weapons, Volume 1 (omnibus paperback edition)

Legends of the Soul Weapons, Volume 2 (omnibus paperback edition)

The Colors of Fate

Black Shadows Gather

Green Hearts Weep

Red Vengeance Rising

Faded Yellow Dreams

Blazing White Stars

Shiny Golden Schemes

Silent Gray Depths

The Colors of Fate, Volume 1 (omnibus paperback edition)

The Colors of Fate, Volume 2 (omnibus paperback edition)

The Mages of Sacreth

The Labyrinth

Of Spells and Demons

Grimm’s War

Grimm’s Loss

Grimm’s Love

Of Blood and Magic

Of Steel and Sorcery

The Godswar Trilogy

Paths of the Chosen

Choice of the Fallen

Fall of Creation

Daran’s Journey

Heart of a Hero

Soul of a Coward

Will of a Warrior

Courage of a Champion

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Chapter 1

The League of Allied Systems called the star D-7662, though later generations would name it Triconeran. Other spacefaring species had their own names for it, including Ukkron’s Claw, The Eye of Heaven, and the nearly unpronounceable—unless you had the mandibles of a Strakhelnd—Shhkshrkk. It was a fairly unremarkable system. The star was in the prime of its life, and reasonably stable. It had gathered an assortment of planets, but none were capable of supporting life. There were several inner planets orbiting close to the star, but they were all small, molten rocks baked bare by solar radiation. Beyond that extended a generous asteroid belt, formed by the collision of two protoplanets eons ago. Further out still was a single gas giant, accompanied in its slow progression around the star by an assortment of moons. And finally, furthest by far from their celestial mistress, drifted a handful of outlying rocks in highly eccentric orbits, some of which only came into the neighborhood of the system every few decades.

All things considered, D-7662 was a fairly average example of the galaxy’s 300 billion or so star systems.

There was a flash on the outer edge of the system, beyond the orbit of the gas giant, at a point where the star’s gravitational influence declined beyond a certain significant point. In the wake of that bright sparkle a ship appeared. It was not immediately clear where it had come from; one moment that portion of space had been empty, save for the usual assortment of tiny particles, cosmic rays, and electromagnetic radiation, and in the next the ship was just… there.

It was an ungainly thing, clearly made in and for the vastness of interstellar space. It looked like some awkward terrestrial insect, with large bulbs forward and aft connected by a long, narrow central stalk, and a fan of thin protruding legs that supported its particle-repelling magnetic shields. The forward bulb looked to be where the crew dwelled, based on the number of cargo doors, airlocks, and duraplas viewports that studded its exterior. Behind it clung four squat forms like buboes upon a plague victim. They looked like storage tanks at first glance, but a closer examination would reveal the outlets of ion engines, indicating that they were subsidiary ships, clinging to their more massive host. All four remained dark and silent even as lights became visible upon the mother ship, glowing through the thick armored plastic of its viewports.

There was an echoing glow from the aft portion of the ship, flickering like an aurora around the complex geometry of interlaced shells and struts that surrounded the rear pod. That part of the ship seemed dedicated more to machines than the needs of passengers, the smallest of its protruding assemblies large enough to make any organic cargo seem trivial by comparison. The aft section was several times the size of the forward pod, swelling to several times its diameter before tapering into the glowing outlets of an ion drive, pushing the massive vessel further into the system.

Light, sounds, and warmth spread through the interior of the Deep Space Exploration Vessel San Jacinto as the ship came fully to life. Just behind the arc of the main bridge was a small room that was crowded with machinery. The focus of all of the hardware was two rows of horizontal pods, each just over two meters in length, covered in an assortment of conduits, controls, indicator lights, and glowing displays that pulsed out regular updates on their status. As the lights flickered on and quickly grew steady one of the pods cracked open with a static hiss. Plumes of white fog erupted from its sides as the interior was breached, but the mists were quickly grabbed by suction coming from vents in the floor and walls nearby. The lid of the pod rose on unseen actuators and swung back, revealing an interior likewise shrouded in swirling vapor.

As the other pods cracked open, each following the same pattern, a hand rose up out of the first. It was followed by an arm, and then, as the cold mists were pumped away, the body of an adult male human.

Captain Geoffram Katyar looked to be somewhere between forty and fifty Standard Years, a bit gnarled, but in excellent physical shape. He wore his graying hair very short, just a thin fringe over his scalp. He wore the translucent wrappings of a cryosuit that he pulled off as he rose ponderously from the pod, dropping the crinkled material into it as he stepped clear. As the other members of his command crew began to emerge from their pods, he padded over to a row of lockers along one side of the room, but instead of opening one he touched an adjacent panel on the wall.

Status, he rasped, his voice thick with the aftereffects of augSleep.

The voice that issued from the panel had the neutral intonation of an AI. "The San Jacinto has exited fold, Captain, it said. Navigational sensors indicate that we are in position on the gravitational boundary of system D-7662, approximately 75,000 kiloms from the target point. All systems are nominal, and all crew pods are functioning within rated tolerances."

Under 100k, came a voice from behind him. Practically a bullseye.

Katyar turned and offered a grunt in response. His XO, Commander Miriam Atabwe, made Katyar’s rugged physique look stout by contrast. Her mocha skin glistened with the condensed moisture from the cryopod, drawing attention to the lean muscles under toned skin a decade younger than her superior’s. As usual, she seemed to be completely immune to the aftereffects of augSleep, drawing another slightly annoyed grunt from Katyar.

The captain turned to the panel again. Launch system probes, he said, before he opened his locker and began pulling out his shipsuit.

The AI responded after only a few seconds. Probes launched, it said.

A good start, Atabwe said, as she went to her own locker.

A long road ahead, Katyar said. I’ll check in upstairs. Make sure that the doc clears everyone for duty before they report in.

Aye captain, Atabwe said. She didn’t bother to ask the captain how he was feeling; she’d known him for a long time and knew that he wouldn’t acknowledge the physical effects of augSleep unless he literally couldn’t get up from the pod.

Fortunately, it didn’t look like there were any cases like that today. The others were all up and moving around, though not without the usual litany of complaints. As the captain went forward, sealing the clasps on his shipsuit as he went, Atabwe turned to her command crew. Kiel and Collins were already at their lockers, and LeGuy was doing pushups on the hard floor plates. Tellayne seemed to be in some distress. The slender blonde was upright, but she was hanging onto her pod for balance, looking a bit gray. With her hair disheveled and the damp cryosuit clinging to her she looked younger than her thirty-one years. Atabwe knew less about her than any of the other members of the crew; corporation officers only had a thin sleeve of personal data in the crew files.

LeGuy finished his repetitions and snapped upright. He looked over at the struggling woman. If you’re going to puke, do it over there, if you please, he said.

Tellayne waved a hand weakly. Atabwe sealed her shipsuit and said, Doc, over here.

Servino had been helping Park, who was sitting on the edge of her pod, clutching her belly. Atabwe knew that the slight ensign always had some difficulty with cryo sickness. But at the XO’s call, Servino rose and headed across the room, already reaching into their medical kit for another stim. The tall, sleek androgene looked like they had been carved by some classical sculptor, and moved with the easy grace of a trained dancer. They knelt beside the stricken Tellayne, but she waved them off with a bit more effort. I’m okay, she said. I’m okay, she repeated, standing with a deliberate effort not to reach out to the adjacent wall for support. The human body was not designed with augSleep in mind, she said.

Better than the alternative, LeGuy said as he crossed to his locker, stepping around the mess of snaking conduits and cables that crowded the bay.

Atabwe could hear Collins and Kiel talking behind her. You’d think Transverse would send out reps who were more accustomed to the rigors of space travel, Collins said.

Just remember that we wouldn’t be out here without them, Kiel said, snapping up his suit before adding an adhesive pouch of tools to his right hip. They built this bucket of bolts. He turned to Atabwe. XO, I’m going to head aft and start checking my systems. Send my team down when they wake up, okay?

You got it, chief, Atabwe said as the engineer left. Collins, perhaps realizing that she’d overhead his earlier comment, colored slightly and turned back to his locker.

Atabwe walked over to Park. You okay, ensign?

Yeah. Always hits me a bit more than you big fleshbags, you know.

Atabwe chuckled. Well, don’t rush it. That goes for all of you, she said, lifting her voice slightly. We’re going to be here for quite a while, so if you need a stim, or a few minutes to catch your breath, take it.

She went into the mini-galley that abutted the cryobay. She had torn open a quik-pak of coffee concentrate and was fiddling with the machine when LeGuy came in behind her. He had his eyes on the same machine, but he leaned against the nearby bulkhead, patiently awaiting his turn.

They seem to get younger every year, don’t they? Atabwe said.

You see the kids down in the dropship bay? he replied. That lot, they make me feel old.

"Yeah, but you were born old, LeGuy. That’s probably why they gave you the button."

He glanced down at the chain dangling from his neck, and the small device that hung there like a talisman. She’d meant it as a joke, but he self-consciously tucked it back inside his shipsuit. I’d better get on the manual checks on the arrays, he said.

Here, take this, she said, offering him the first cup of coffee. He started to refuse, but she added, The first one always tastes like sludge anyway.

As opposed to? he cracked, but he took the cup anyway.

Hey, when you’re done with your checks, can you see if Doc needs any help with the sleepers?

Sure thing, XO, he said. He took a sip from the cup, made an exaggerated face, and then was gone.

Atabwe filled up two more cups, doctored them with the materials in the niches below the coffee machine, and headed back into the bay. The others had already cleared out. She made her way up the short sloping corridor that led to the bridge.

As always, the first visit caused a slight flutter in her belly. This time it was more than usual; they were in a new star system, dozens of light-years from where they had embarked just a few months ago. The human race had possessed the ability to fold space for centuries now, but it still seemed like a miracle to her, the quasi-magical power that the Fordham Drive had granted her species to spread throughout the galaxy that had birthed them.

The bridge was kept dim, with a kaleidoscope of faint lights flickering from the various crew stations. They formed a half-circle facing the large duraplas panels that curved around the compartment. Beyond those was the vast emptiness of space. From here, star D-7662 was just a small glowing orb, bright enough to blot out the other stars but not enough to hurt her eyes when she looked at it.

Captain Katyar was at his station. He had two holographic displays up, and as Atabwe approached, she could see that one showed the diagram of the ship’s systems, while the other showed a schematic of the system, with the orbital paths of its various satellites highlighted with red lines.

Atabwe placed one of the cups of coffee on the armrest of his chair. Being captain of an DSEV earned certain perks, not the least of which was a cupholder. Thanks, he