Star Bridge: Space Rogue, #5

By Jay Toney

The fleet departs Space Station Hell to search for the star bridge. I take command of the fleet. Getting to the Hades system is Red's mission. Finding the star bridge and a new home for the people is mine. A new person joins my crew, a Keshian changeling named Nugget.
I have a growing attraction to the Carpacia's AI, and she is attracted to me. Persephone, is not just a computer-generated personality. Both of us will discover her true nature.
I've promised Nugget adventure. He is going to get more than his share of it aboard my ship. While the fleet is en route to the Antares star system, we will discover derelict spaceships. I haven't learned my lesson. The temptation to board and salvage a few of these vessels to grow the fleet is too great. While exploring the spaceships, their guardians return.
I rescue a princess from Gorian slavers. She needs my help to save her planet. In exchange, she offers me a reward that she cannot pay.
The fleet enters a star system with a world populated with cyborgs. They are attracted to the neurochip implanted in me. They think I am a malfunctioning cyborg and take me from my ship to repair me. My life will never be the same again.
I will have these and other adventures before finding the star bridge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jay Toney
• Release date: Oct 22, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393993209

Jay Toney

I got hooked on reading early in life, reading nearly everything I could get my hands on including the Encyclopedia Britannica. As well as being an avid reader I enjoyed bicycling, skateboarding, fishing, and building models and puzzles. As far back as I can remember, I loved anything to do with aircraft. I joined the USAF as an aircraft mechanic working on the F-4, T-38, F-117. and the F-16. A knee injury stopped me from working on aircraft. My knee couldn't support me on the odd angles and slick surfaces anylonger. While in the USAF I attended college. My second love was tormenting my English teacher. I found out she had a fear of death, then she was at my mercy. Anything she said not to do I did just to show her I could. Every essay or theme I wrote dealt with the topic of death, from a first person perspective of a person under going an autopsy, being buried alive, and rising from the grave. She was glad when I graduated. Some authors who inspired me are Robert Heinlein, Harry Harrison, Alan Dean Foster, Piers Anthony, and much more.

Book preview

Dedications

Edited by Ann Attwood, Editing and Proofreading Services

Introduction

The fleet departs Space Station Hell to search for the star bridge. I take command of the fleet. Getting to the Hades system is Red’s mission. Finding the star bridge and a new home for the people is mine. A new person joins my crew, a Keshian changeling named Nugget.

I have a growing attraction to the Carpacia’s AI, and she is attracted to me. Persephone, is not just a computer-generated personality. Both of us will discover her true nature.

I’ve promised Nugget adventure. He is going to get more than his share of it aboard my ship. While the fleet is en route to the Antares star system, we will discover derelict spaceships. I haven’t learned my lesson. The temptation to board and salvage a few of these vessels to grow the fleet is too great. While exploring the spaceships, their guardians return.

I rescue a princess from Gorian slavers. She needs my help to save her planet. In exchange, she offers me a reward that she cannot pay.

The fleet enters a star system with a world populated with cyborgs. They are attracted to the neurochip implanted in me. They think I am a malfunctioning cyborg and take me from my ship to repair me. My life will never be the same again.

I will have these and other adventures before finding the star bridge.

Hell

Our stay on Space Station Hell is fantastic. It is everything Amber, Jewel, and I could hope for, except for one thing, our safety. We are not safe from the Alliance, the Crimson Tide, or anyone else who wants to claim the bounty on my head. So far, my fleet has been lucky with the skirmishes we have fought, but our luck won’t hold out forever.

I had planned on leaving two weeks after our arrival, but the Falcon and the Griffon are in worse shape than I imagined. Their engines are long past due for overhaul. Pushing them without doing the overhaul is not worth the risk. If it wasn’t for our need for more warships, I would abandon them. While their drives are removed and being worked on, Nugget is taking advantage of the situation to have them upgraded, the computers replaced, and new hyperdrives installed, all at my expense. At least, when the modifications are done, I won’t have to worry about them keeping up with my ship and the Vengeance.

Red tries convincing Nugget to move aboard his ship. After all, he is the one who is obligated to take the Keshian with him. Before agreeing, Nugget tours the battleship. The number of crew required to operate the ship, makes hot bunking and the use of berths instead of cabins necessary. The ship has a few cabins for the command officers. All of which are too small for Nugget’s taste. The Vengeance is a warship designed for efficiency, not luxury. It is a poor design with a lot of wasted space that can be utilized to make living conditions at least tolerable.

Nugget has a team of mechanics tear out the Alliance-designed airducts to make room for larger cabins. They are being replaced with a high-pressure system that is a fraction of the size and will move more air more efficiently throughout the ship.

While the mechanics are working on the Vengeance, he tours my ship with me. One of the first things he notices is that there are no sleeping berths aboard my ship. They have all been replaced with cabins. My ship isn’t being used as a military ship, but it can still put up one hell of a fight. The changes in design are made to accommodate a smaller crew. Whoever designed this ship did it right, Nugget says.

That would be Mike. He is in the cabin across from mine.

Take me to him. I want to meet him, Nugget says to me."

I take him up to deck three, then forward to Mike and Rosie’s cabin. It isn’t directly across from mine, it is one cabin down. Jewel and Amber meet us in the corridor and enter our cabin. Nugget says, If this is Mike’s cabin, and your cabin is across from his, the cabin that Bright Eyes and Red went into is yours. He calls both Amber and her brother Red because of their hair color. Now I know where he got the name.

Instead of pressing the door chime for Mike’s cabin, Nugget goes into my cabin. Jewel and Amber are on the couch watching a holovid program. He looks around the cabin and says, How is it that you rate such a large cabin and two dames? I am assuming Bright Eyes and Red come with the cabin.

They do. My cabin is slightly larger because I am the captain and three of us share it. Amber and I are married and Jewel is... we are in a tri-relationship. Officially, Jewel isn’t married to me, but we share a lifetime bond from the Iniguar devices we used to bond together. It is a stronger bond than marriage without the legal stigma. Jewel considers herself my co-wife.

Nugget makes a few notes in his comp and mumbles, We’ll see about this. I’ll get with Mike later. Then, he says to me, Let’s get the rest of the inspection over with. I want to see the bridge next.

I take Nugget to the nearest elevator. We ride it up to deck one. Then we go forward to the bridge. The blast door is open and there is no one on the bridge when we enter it. Persephone appears, and says, What an adorable little man. Not her too! It is bad enough that Jewel has a crush on Nugget and is sleeping with him.

Nugget is shocked by Persephone’s sudden appearance and her beauty. He looks her up and down, whistles, and says, Now that is a dame.

I thought you had a thing for Jewel?

Jewel who?

My wife, the one with blonde hair and blue eyes that you like so much.

Oh, Bright Eyes? She is okay, I guess. Good enough to sleep with! Easy Nathaniel, don’t kill him. We are his guests. It’s not like I don’t do the same thing during sleepovers.

A small team of mechanics are working on my ship installing hologram emitters throughout the ship, so Persephone can make an appearance any place she chooses. Prior to having the emitters installed, her appearances were limited to the bridge, sickbay, engineering, the holographic simulation rooms, and my cabin. Nugget has another surprise for me—replicators. I offer to pay for them. He says, For the amount of money I am making on the technology Mike shared with me, the least I can do is provide your crew with a few creature comforts.

While we are waiting for the mechanics to finish working on the Vengeance, we have plenty of time on our hands. It is not just the airducts that he is changing, it is the entire environmental system and hydroponics. All that work to enlarge and add a few cabins—sixty all together. Where Nugget goes, so do his bodyguards, sixty Keshian starfighter pilots and their ships. That explains the need for the new cabins.

We spend our time microgravity flying with the Hell’s Furies. I’ve sharpened my skills, so have Jewel, Amber, and the Furies. Our friendly competitions have attracted a large and growing audience that watch us compete and teach our new friends acrobatics. In exchange for training them, we eat free, all we can eat at Hell’s Kitchen.

When the Hell’s Furies compete against the other racing teams, they have started incorporating the acrobatic maneuvers they learned from us in the races. Whether they win, lose, or more frequently, are disqualified, does not matter to the crowds of people who come to see them. They are here to see the Furies do spins, rolls, loops, stalls, and other acrobatics. Their acrobatic routines frequently distract and cause their opponents to crash. They are, by far, the most popular team on the space station.

Time passes fast for the three of us. The changes to the Vengeance are complete, and preparations for departure replace flying with the Hell’s Furies. I lose most of the working girls who transferred to my ship from the Lucy prior to its destruction. I later learn from Nugget that they have been offered a better contract from their guild. It’s hard to believe they could make such an offer. I let them keep half of the money they earned, included all ship’s amenities, including holographic simulations, free meals, rent, and medical care.

Red has lost a sizeable portion of his crew too, over three hundred people. All have been given the opportunity to settle on the space station or the planet without having to pay the stakeholder fees. When Nugget is asked about possible replacements, he says, Trimming the fat isn’t loss. It had to be done.

He invites me and Red to see his cabin. It is as large as my cabin, and it is furnished with smaller furniture to accommodate his size—he is one point five meters tall. Pillows are strategically placed in the common area for seating. Nugget does not look happy with his new cabin. After Red leaves, he says to me, Red could have done a lot better. His dizzy dame is going to drive me nuts. Well, I tried. I’m moving aboard your ship.

Our cabins are smaller, I remind him.

Your ship has other, better amenities to make up for it.

I say to him, When we leave, the sleepover is over. Jewel won’t be sleeping with you any longer?

Jewel who?

My wife, the blonde girl with blue eyes that you have been having sex with.

Oh, you mean Bright Eyes, there are other dames.

On departure day, there is a large crowd of people to see us off, the prostitution guild representatives are here to make sure that we are leaving, the customers that frequently visited the casino simulation and the girls who work there, all nine members of the Hell’s Furies flying team, the fans who watched us compete with them, and the Hell’s Kitchen staff. Doc says to me, Your popularity is going to get all of us killed. He’s jealous. Prior to this, it was only the occasional lady friend or their jealous husbands that showed up to make sure we left.

Sultan, get underway. Persephone begin hyperspace calculations for the Rhodana system. With luck we will make it to Antares in a few months.

****

LORD ADMIRAL, THE SPACE station is in range of our optical sensors.

Put it on screen.

The words, Welcome to Hell, in flaming red letters, is visible on the viewscreen.

Is this some kind of a joke? We are in the Hades system. It could be a parody of a long-lost religion, or it may be meant to scare off unwelcome visitors. Either way, when we take over, things are going to be different.

The comm officer wisely doesn’t answer. He says, We are receiving a comm request from the space station.

Let’s hear it.

A short, stocky, heavily muscled man appears on the viewscreen. He says, This is a private space station, no visitors are allowed!

We are looking for a fugitive. He goes by the name of Roberts. There is a reward for his capture. Any information leading to his capture will be rewarded.

I repeat, this is a private space station. We don't receive any uninvited visitors here, and we don't have anyone by the name of Roberts on our guest list.

He may have been accompanied by a mercenary, Adam Stone. He frequently goes by the alias Red.

Red, blue, green, purple, no one who is any of those colors is aboard this space station. Go away!

We have to be sure. The information we have obtained shows that it is likely he passed through this star system. He may have even stopped here. I am sending a shuttlecraft over with a team of investigators to review your records.

"I can’t stop you from coming aboard. We are defenseless. But, I give you this one last warning, Abandon all hope all ye who enter here.’"

End comms. That arrogant bastard, he is the first one I am going to put a collar around his neck! Death is too good for him. Lieutenant, send a detachment to the space station. Search their records. If there is any resistance, shoot to kill. And bring that arrogant bastard to me. I want him alive.

Yes, sir! The space station will soon be under our control and a part of the Alliance.

An assault shuttle leaves the cruiser. Its pilot maneuvers it near one of the space station’s shuttle bays, broken on the wheel. No one comes out to intercept them and no weapons target the shuttlecraft. The WSO (Weapons System Officer) has orders to fire the assault shuttle’s weapons at the space station if they do.

The pilot maneuvers the assault shuttle closer to the space station to dock, or force his way inside. He has a demolition team aboard with breeching specialists that are experienced in opening closed doors. No one from the space station opens a comm channel with him during his approach. The docking bay door opens without warning, allowing him access to the inside of the space station.

He lands the assault shuttle and shuts down its engines. The hangar door closes, the lights turn on, and the hangar pressurizes. The outside air pressure is slightly higher than the assault shuttle’s cabin pressure. The pilot makes an adjustment to the cabin pressure regulator. It only takes a few minutes for the pressure to equalize.

The rear hatch is opened, eighteen security specialists, two demolition specialists, and a techie, all wearing black power armor and armed with blasters, leave the shuttlecraft. They enter the docking ring’s main passage, and head to the operations center. No one gives them any resistance.

When they get to the operations center, the techie begins downloading and reviewing the records stored in the computer. There are no records of the Persephone, the Vengeance, or any ships of their class visiting the space station. Outside of regular traffic, the only spaceship to dock to the space station was a freighter, two months ago. It recently departed, after unloading its cargo, repairing a faulty engine, and servicing.

It was here at the right time for the Roberts clan to be here. The records could have been altered. The freighter may be the ship that they are looking for. The techie cross-examines the space station’s inventory against the sales of reaction mass, ammunition, repair parts, and food supplies.  The inventory report matches the other records without any irregularities or errors. There is always some deviation. No records are one hundred percent accurate. Someone on this space station altered the files.

There is no evidence to prove that the records were changed, but the information in the computer records show otherwise. The techie finishes her report, adds her suspicions to it. Then she marks her report urgent and sends it to her commanding officer.

Captain Harding, I have reviewed the technician's report, and I agree with her suspicions. Send a detachment to the space station to oversee operations, and begin implementing Alliance rules. We will return here, when time permits, to finish the job. But first, we have to investigate the Rhodana system.

Yes, Fleet Admiral, I shall send a detachment of soldiers and a pallet of control collars to the space station right away.

****

NAZZEL, TAKE A SQUAD and eliminate the remaining Alliance soldiers, Amos orders. Any Alliance presence here must be dealt with. It is among the orders that Chancellor Nugget left with me.

The Darians are due to arrive here anytime. It would be more profitable to capture and hold the prisoners, and sell them to the Darians.

You are right. Providing fresh meat to our friends will satisfy Nugget’s order. And the Darians won't mind if their food is bruised and tenderized, so long as their blood still flows. Capture them, if you can. Our friends will gladly pay for the additional cargo. Is our fleet in position?

They are cloaked and standing by for your orders.

Raise the space station's shields and ready its weapons. Have our fleet decloak and engage the Alliance. Do not allow any of their ships to escape. And have a salvage team ready to clean up the mess. We can't afford to leave any evidence of the Alliance being here.

It will be done. Nazzel speaks a few words into his comm unit. Then he leaves Amos to continue his work.  Battle station alarms sound throughout Space Station Hell. Section doors close and seal in preparation for the fight.

****

LORD ADMIRAL, OUR COMM officer has received a comm signal from the assault shuttle we sent to the space station. It terminated before the pilot could finish the message. I've been unable to contact any other members of the detachment we sent to the space station.

Have our EWO officer scan for comm interference.

Captain Harding sees an alien fleet of warships decloak on the viewscreen. He says, Oh my God, they're firing missiles at us! Raise our shields! Sound battle stations!

****

NAZZEL'S COMM UNIT chimes for his attention. Yes Amos.

Have the Alliance ships been taken care of?

They have been eliminated. Our salvage teams are cleaning up the remains as we speak. We have recovered several escape pods and a few lifeboats. The Darians are going to be very happy with the cargo we have for them. We have enough Alliance soldiers to fill their cargo holds.

Very good. Stand down and return to normal operations.

Persephone Sings the Blues

My fleet, now with four starships, enters the Rhodana system. Seven planets orbit a yellow dwarf star. There is no reason to stop here other than charging the ship’s jump capacitors and calculating the hyperspace coordinates for the next leg of the trip.

Jewel says. I'm picking up a low-band repeating signal from the second moon of the fifth planet. I believe it is what primitives call radio. It doesn’t make any sense. It is just a series of short and long pulses.

It may be in code. Persephone, please, if you can, decrypt it.

"Since you said please, I will. The message is dot-dot-dot dash-dash-dash dot-dot-dot and repeats."

I know that, Jewel says. What does it mean?

It is an antiquated form of communications, called Morse Code. The message is repeating S-O-S. It is a call for help.

It is probably an old signal, whoever set up the repeater is probably beyond help. I am not receiving any other comm signals, Jewel says.

Still... it is a distress signal. We have to check it out. Sultan set our course for the second moon of the fifth planet.

The course is plotted, ready to engage.

Engage, ahead one quarter. Jewel, inform the fleet of our course change.

Yes, Captain.

The image on our viewscreen changes to a view of the fifth planet, a gas giant. Persephone adds our projected course and a diagram of the star system to the viewscreen. From our distance, the planet is a pinpoint of light among several other stars. The only way I can tell it apart from the visible stars is because of the cross hairs Persephone has centered on it. It grows larger and brighter with every passing hour. When the moons become visible, Persephone changes the view to center the second moon in the targeting reticle. It is barely visible at maximum magnification.

The radiation from the gas giant’s magnetic field causes the energy shields to glow iridescent blue. Amber’s sensor scans do not detect any activity on the moon. Still, as a precaution I order, Sultan, decelerate for orbital entry. Enter orbit one hundred and twenty kilometers above the surface. It is better to error on the side of precaution and not need it. Who knows what we will find, maybe a pirate base?

I’m still not getting any response to my comm requests, Jewel says.

We will have to take a ship down to the surface to investigate. Jewel, have the second watch come to the bridge to relieve us. When they get here, I say, Jewel, Amber, Doc, and Mike, you are coming with me.

We leave the bridge and go to the ready room to change into flight suits and get helmets. There are only two helmets inside each Marauder, one for the pilot, and one for the copilot on the rare occasions when there is one. Then we go to the portside hanger where the Marauders are kept ready for flight.

We board my Marauder. I seal the hatch and go forward to the cockpit. Amber is already seated in the copilot seat, doing a quick run through the diagnostic checks. Jewell is seated behind her. I sit in the pilot seat, fasten my seat harness. My father is watching me, or I wouldn’t bother with it. We are just doing a quick trip to the moon and back, no combat. I start the engines and the repulsor-lift engine, taxi to the take-off line, and wait for clearance to takeoff.

I am given a green light. I push the throttles forward, in seconds we are in open space, flying past the Persephone. I turn to the moon, begin my descent, and fire the braking thrusters. There is no atmosphere to use for aerobraking.

Amber uses the Marauder’s sensors to lock onto the source of the repeating transmission. She feeds the coordinates into the navigation computer. I follow the instrument guidance system to the source.

Below us, on the surface is a moon base. From the looks of it, it is a research station. Our presence is detected and lights turn on illuminating a landing pad. I bring my Marauder in for a landing, lower the landing struts, and fire the attitude thrusters. The landing struts absorb the shock of the landing. I shut down the engines. The landing pad descends into an underground hangar. Above us, doors close. Then the interior lights turn on and the hangar pressurizes.

Across from us is a transport ship. It is easily four times the size of my Marauder. The forward section, presumably for the crew is small, much smaller than the passenger compartment of my ship. The rest of the ship is a structure for the fuel and oxygen tanks, and the engines—which are antiquated chemical engines. The ship is out of place with the rest of the technology. It is old tech, hardly capable of intersystem space flight. Yet, the ship looks new, like it hasn’t seen much use.

After the hanger finishes pressurizing, I open the rear hatch and walk down the boarding steps into the hangar. The others follow me. Across the hangar is an airlock door, the entrance to the research base. The door opens without the need to enter a security code or scan my biometrics—strange. We enter the small research base, search every room, from top to bottom. There is no one here. There are no dead bodies or signs of violence. It is as if the people have just left, but they couldn’t have. Their spaceship, as primitive as it is, is still here.

Amber removes a portable scanner from her belt