Outward Bound Episode 2: Revolution

By Dustin Dewint

In the second episode we find a Wolfy who has pretty much resigned to his fate of being indentured to Jupiter Corp. However, Murphy's Law hits him with a Jupiter-sized club, sending him in a tailspin towards the rocks of reality. If you catch my drift then you probably don't need to read this one. If my drift managed to elude you then read the episode, some people just can't take a hint. SMH.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dustin Dewint
• Release date: Jul 6, 2020

Dustin Dewint

I have always been a science fiction and fantasy fan, reading sci-fi became like an addictive drug for me. Writers like Asimov, Brin, Pohl, Anderson, Simmons and many more were an inspiration to someday write a book of my own, even if it took me a long time to actually start. Eden is my first, I hope that people will have as much fun reading it as I had writing it.

Book preview

Outward Bound

Episode 2: Revolution

By Dustin Dewint

Copyright 2020 Dustin Dewint

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 1

Razene's fourth attempt finally got the Orion into position beside the old spacestation. The huge, rotating cylinder was much larger than her ship. The amount of space clutter floating around made careful, precise maneuvering a bitch of a task. The powerful but unwieldy ship wasn’t easy to park. A harvester at HQ was like the proverbial bull in a china shop, disaster was only a miscalculation away. There was always something blocking her path. An old station or a new one under construction, an asteroid, ships small and large and of course, the swarms of workers.

Jupiter loomed large, obscuring almost half of the starfield. Its red spot eerily resembled the iris of a giant eye. It gave one the uneasy feeling as if it were on the brink of focusing on you. She felt a twitch that had nothing to do with Jupiter's so-called 'eye.' Her beaming smile was reflected by the silvery surface of the instrument board. There was a new life stirring inside her, announcing its presence with increasingly powerful kicks.

Satisfied with the ship’s current position, she settled back into the command chair and let the autopilot do the docking. In a flurry of well-aimed thruster blasts, the Orion’s spin sped up until it matched that of the station. Then a measured approach maneuver slowly inched the two massive structures closer until the docking procedure ended with the racket of mooring tractors and anchors.

Another kick caused her hand to slip down to her belly. Though she and Wolfy were happy about the little newcomer, things would slide out of their hands pretty soon. Two years, she thought, that was all they would get. Two years and then the child would belong to Jupiter Corp.

She was the one who had wanted it the most and Wolfy had been the bitter skeptic. They had squabbled about the long distance relationship they would have with their offspring. The same deal they and their parents had to accept. She had won the argument with the old bromide that things were the way they were. Wolfy simply went silent after that, but she could feel his helpless anger.

The child would be placed into one of the many institutions aimed at the advancement of the belter people, as management would put it. In fact, they were large orphanages. Then the video calls. Their frequency and length would dwindle down through the years until it, in time, became just an occasional one between virtual strangers. Not this child, she promised, not theirs. They would both do their level best to be as close to him as possible. She was sure it was a boy and one as strong-willed and passionate as his father.

She smiled tenderly at the thought of her lover. Wolfy was away, out on a mission with the Centaurus to fetch a stranded freighter. He had, of course, jumped at the opportunity, a freighter from earth was his pipe-dream. She shook her head sadly, they would never allow a belter to pilot an earth-bound ship. One could try to get it through his head that nothing would ever change but it would be a waste of time. Wolfy just went off like a rocket at everything.

Lately he had a strange fad; an obsession for near-earth asteroids. Well, most of the attention was for one strange asteroid. She had acted as if she hadn't noticed his more than normal interest in it. What was its name again? She frowned. Parivrakas? Parivrajas? She knew it was a pari-something. She decided she would ask Aisha. Her hand swept across the control-panel lighting up a plethora of menus. She gestured