Galactic Pirates

By Daniel West

Prepare to explore the universe, 1650 years in the future. As Skip Thurmond, a NASA shuttle pilot, is transported into that future and is shanghaied by pirates. Leading him on a high adventure, swashbuckling romp across the known universe… and beyond. An epic tale sure to appeal to Space Jockeys and Pirate buffs

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 3, 2016
• ISBN: 9781365091445

Book preview

Galactic Pirates

Galactic Pirates

Science Fiction

Daniel   West

Galactic Pirates - Is a work of fiction.

Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Places and events have been created for effect

© Copyright 2015: Daniel West and Gestalt Epiphany, Ltd

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States.

Daniel West Author

Copyright Number: 1-3283939061

Library of Congress Control Number

ISBN 13 - 978-1-365-09144-5

9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

First Edition

(Unedited Version)

Other Books by the Author

Dancing in Hell

A Guide to Surviving Your Spouse’s Mid-Life Crisis

Czech Mate

Psychological Thriller

Acapulco Gold

Psychological Thriller

Deadly MILFs

Psychological Thriller

The Charleston Shuffle

Crime Thriller

The Spider and the Fly

Crime Thriller

DreamScape

Psychological Thriller

Extreme Hunting

Season 1

The Burning Bush

An Epic Fantasy/Anti-War/Satire

Swan Song

Satire

Galactic Pirates

Action Adventure

The Ambien Defense

Crime Thriller

Acknowledgments

I thank my son and coauthor, Daniel West Jr. for standing by me all these years and helping produce this book

I owe all of my success to you.

- Daniel Sr.

To all of the people who left the comfort of their home to explore the vast unknown… and to all of the women who drove them to do it.

Galactic Pirates

Dedication _

Galactic Pirates_

Karma Café_

Homecoming_

Sympathy for the Devil_

The Last Temptation of Eve _

Elysian Dawn_

About the Author _

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Daniel West Jr.

Up the Wolves – The Mountain Goats

Daniel

To the one person who stood by my side and had faith in me, no matter how dark the times became for us.

Thank you, I will always be in your debt.

Galactic Pirates

Action Adventure

Daniel West

Galactic Pirates

Skip Thurmond woke inside his stasis pod. A continuous beeping sound and a persistent flashing red light told him that something was wrong with the ship’s navigational system.

Skip crawled out of the pod and rushed forward to deal with the problem.

After arriving on the navigational bridge, skip checked the control system. He quickly found that the ship did not have a communication link with NASA. He tried every possible remedy to restore the link, then decided that the communications antenna must have been knocked off as they passed through the asteroid belt on their way back from the Mars colony.

Observing Earth through the cockpit window, he determined that the ship was less than Twelve hours out. He flipped the switches to wake the rest of the crew and worked his way aft to assist them as they came out of stasis.

Inside the pod chamber, Skip found the stasis pods contained five heavily deteriorated skeletons. None of his other crewmembers had survived stasis.

As he studied their remains, he wondered why they were so badly decomposed. Six months in a space environment should not have caused a human body to decompose so dramatically.

Skip made his way forward and tried to hail NASA on the communications board, NASA this is Endeavor 7, please respond.

Skip waited five minutes for a return message, then tried again, NASA, this is Endeavor 7, please respond.

When that message failed to elicit a response, Skip decided that whatever had destroyed the communication system must have also destroyed the life support system in the crew pods.

He sat back to wait, he would manually dock when he arrived at the space station. Hopefully someone there could give him some answers.

Nine hours later, Skip was able to make visual contact with the space station, He whistled in awe as he thought, Damn, they’ve made a lot of construction progress on that thing in the last three years.

The station was at least thirty times larger than it had been the last time he had seen it. From this distance it resembled a smaller moon orbiting the earth at close range.

Skip decided that since he couldn’t raise anyone with the communications system, he would just go ahead and dock on one of the upper docking ports. The lower ports on a space station are the busier ports that are usually reserved for the cargo transport shuttles.

Successfully docking at one of the upper ports, Skip opened the outer hatch and walked down the connecting corridor to the service entrance.

Two armed guards were waiting at the airlock when he arrived, The Administrator wants to see you.

Skip nodded, Good, take me to him.

One of the guards motioned, Right this way. And headed off without even looking back to see if he was being followed. Skip followed the leading guard, while the second guard trailed the group at a safe distance.

Upon arrival at the Director’s office, the lead guard stuck his head inside the door, He’s here.

The Director stood, Send him in.

The guard motioned toward Skip, He’s ready to see you.

Skip entered the room and addressed the man who was standing behind a large desk, Sir, I’m Skip Thurmond, Commander of the space shuttle, Endeavor 7. Are you the NASA supervisor on this space station?

The man look unimpressed, What is a NASA? And why did you ignore all of our warnings and proceed to attach that hunk of junk to my facility?

"NASA is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and you wouldn’t be allowed to be up here without their permission.

As to any warnings, I have been on the radio constantly since I emerged from the asteroid belt, trying to reach anyone, all I get is a bunch of static. I think my antenna must have been damaged by a strike from some stray meteorite in the belt.

What the hell is a radio? And what were you doing out in the asteroid belt? There’s nothing of any value out there.

My crew and I were returning from a supply run to the Mars terraforming colony.

What Mars terraforming colony?

The man who was sitting in a leather chair in front of the director’s desk put his drink down and turned to look at Skip, "I believe that I can be of some assistance in this matter.

I believe that the young man may be referring to those crumbling ruins on mars. The ones that date back to the 21st century.

The Director was unconvinced, Why the hell would anyone want to go near that decaying mess. There’s nothing to be gained out there. It’s a waste of fuel going there.

The man who was seated, smiled knowingly, I believe that you said your name is Skip. Could you please tell me what year this is?

2037 or close. We were in stasis for the ride back. For some reason the stasis pods failed on the other five crewmembers and they died.

The seated man snorted, The pods didn’t fail. They probably worked just fine until the crew members eventually died of old age. This is the year 3683.

Impossible! Skip scratched his chin, If they died of old age, why am I still here?

The man shrugged, Amnio-synthesis is my guess.

Skip looked doubtful, Amniocentesis? Isn’t that a medical test they run on pregnant women?

The man laughed, "Not amniocentesis. Amnio-synthesis. Like photo-synthesis.

"During the early days of space flight scientists experimented with finding different ways to preserve human life during long space flights.

Amnio-synthesis collects energy from the ships propulsion system and releases that energy into the amniotic sac inside a stasis pod. The system attempts to renew the cellular structure of the individual. Hopefully reversing the cellular decay that is caused by the cellular aging process.

It was the Director’s turn to be skeptical, Cellular age?

"Yes. When a person is conceived inside the womb. The DNA sequence does more than determine who they are, it determines when they are.

"A person will age at the exact same rate, even if they are in stasis. In theory, if a person were transported through time, they would quickly die due to their cellular age conflicting with the dimensional age that they are existing in.

Amnio-synthesis was one of the attempts that was used to try to alter that problem.

Skip was intrigued by the theory, So, since I’m here, why didn’t the rest of my crew survive too.

Amnio-synthesis was an expensive technology, and it used a lot of the ship’s energy. It is most likely that the technology was used exclusively on your pod. Because, as the commander of that ship, your survival was deemed to be of the utmost importance for the success of the mission.

The Director nodded in understanding, "So… if he isn’t a corporate spy, a saboteur, or a pirate. What do I do with him?

He is sixteen hundred years out of date and totally useless to perform any job on this station.

Skip shrugged, If someone could help me fly the shuttle down to the planet surface. I’m sure some museum or college would pay a fortune for it. I could use that money to live on, and maybe find a job teaching history in a college.

Both men roared with laughter.

Between fits of laughter, the Director choked out, "There are no museums down there.

"After three nuclear wars, and one ion storm, no one down there gives a rat’s ass about history.

"Life on Earth is about brutal survival. I doubt you would find anything that looked familiar to you if you arrived there, or even like the place very much.

"I might see fit to give you fifty thousand credits for the scrap metal on that hunk of junk.

That should be enough to pay for a ride to one of the far flung Agra colonies. They’re always in need of farmhands.

The second man interjected, "Kid, I’m taking a sudden liking to you. You have moxie. I also have a soft spot for history, so I will make you a once in a lifetime offer.

I’m Captain Sanders, of the cargo ship, Björnhöld. If you think you can fly that bucket of rusty bolts inside one of my lower cargo holds. I will give you a half million credits for it, and a one year contract to be a navigational officer on my ship. At a pay rate of, say… fifty thousand credits per month. Does that sound fair to you?

The Director looked at Captain Sanders as if he had gone insane, Kid, if I were you, I would jump on that offer fast. You’ll never see the likes of it again.

Skip looked through the outer glass of the floating office at the planet earth below them, I haven’t been home in a very long time, so I guess another year won’t kill me. What are we hauling?

Captain Sanders looked cautiously toward the Director, Medical supplies, to the colony on Beta-Antares.

Isn’t Antares several hundred light years away?

Both men laughed again.

Captain Sanders smiled, Kid, space travel has come a long way in the last sixteen hundred years. You have a lot to learn.

Skip sat at the navigational control center of the Endeavor 7, he released the locking mechanism that held them to the dock, before looking over at Captain Sanders, You might want to strap in for this one. Slamming this shuttle down onto that deck in your hold may get a bit rough.

Once you are inside the hold, lower your landing gear and touch down softly. I am hiring you as a navigator. I want to see what you are capable of. You can call this a test of your skills.

Skip nodded, You’re the boss.

Skip carefully flew the shuttle through the cargo bay door and touched down softly in the center of the hold. He opened the outer door and dropped the stairwell, There you go. That was gentle enough to keep babies from waking.

Captain Sanders snorted, I would expect nothing less from any of my officers.

Yeah, but you didn’t strap in, so I’m guessing you had faith in my ability to keep you safe.

Negative. I have faith in the ability of my crew to protect me and rescue me from any situation I may find myself in.

He laughed at Skip, Don’t start getting a big head. He pointed toward the wall, We’ll take the turbo lift up to the navigational bridge.

The two men stepped inside the turbo lift and Captain Sanders pressed one of the buttons on the panel. There was a soft, high speed, whine as the turbo lift shot up the tube to the desired destination.

When the lift stopped, the door opened. Both men exited onto the navigational bridge.

Captain Sanders started pointing to the panels that were lining the wall, That section displays the current output and activity on the tetrahedral engine configuration. He pointed toward a different display monitor, That is showing our current galactic location."

He pointed to something that resembled an aquarium with dark green water and a large chunk of coral inside, That is our Cetacean navigator inside its pod of primordial ooze.

Skip interrupted, Cetacean?

Yes. As in ocean living mammals. Whale brains are best, but they are hard to come by. Porpoises and bottle nosed dolphins are good, but it is a quite expensive proposition to grow the brain to a usable size. Orcas and Narwhales are acceptable, but are of much inferior quality.

You take brains from living mammals?

"Obviously. Don’t get all smug and superior with me. In your age you almost hunted those whales to extinction.

That would have been a tragic loss, because interstellar travel is impossible without those cetaceans.

Captain Sanders sighed, We only harvest the brains of beached or terminally ill cetaceans. The Galactic Society of Cetaceans would rebel and shut down all interstellar travel, on a permanent basis, if we harvested any cetacean brains without their express permission.

Skip nodded, So how does this travel system work?

Captain Sanders pointed toward the screen, "Inside that vat of primordial ooze, the cetacean brain can float in the endless abyss of space, just like it floats in the ocean’s abyss.

The cetacean uses that abyss in order to fold space and transport objects from one part of the galaxy to a far flung place, seamlessly and instantly.

Fold space?

Captain Sanders laughed, then removed the gold chain he wore around his neck. He unfastened the chain and stretched it out to almost a full meter in length.

He focused on Skip, Kid, imagine that you wanted to travel from one end of this chain to the other, but you could only move at a rate of one centimeter per year. It would take you one hundred years to traverse the distance. Right?

Skip nodded, Close enough, yeah.

Captain Sanders folded the chain and touched the two ends together, "If you could fold the chain, you could cross at the fold and travel to the other end instantly.

"That is what a cetacean can do with deep space. It’s almost miraculous in a way.

They are the most valuable creatures in the universe and you almost drove them to extinction by making perfume out of them. That was a bit shortsighted of you. Wasn’t it?

Skip grimaced, I’m not proud of a lot of the things we did. I can see why you don’t put up museums to remember us by.

The lack of museums is pragmatic. We are fighting so hard just to survive, we don’t have time for anything else.

Captain Sanders was curious, How did you think we traveled across the galaxy?

Traveling faster than light, or utilizing wormholes.

Captain Sanders laughed, "Anyone who would try either of those is far braver, or stupider, than I am. Wormholes are extremely unstable and can take a ship anywhere or nowhere at all. A ship may even be destroyed by a meteorite storm while trapped inside the wormhole.

"As to travelling faster than the speed of light. It might sound great on some really old movie, but the reality is far different. The main drawback is the simple fact that only objects that have no mass can travel at the speed of light.

"Add to that the physics of motion in space. A sped of eighty percent of light speed is attainable. After that, every ten percent increase in speed would require as much energy as is contained in the entire universe.

"So adding the quantum effect to reach light speed, it would require about two and a half times the entire energy contained in the known universe to reach light speed, one time, with one object. It’s not incredibly practical for everyday use. Is it?

"Did I mention the fact that it takes exactly as much energy to slow down an object in space as it does to speed it up? So good luck finding two and a half more universes to slow that object down.

"Then there is the time factor involved. Even at ten times the speed of light, it would take thirty five years to travel to a star that is only three hundred and fifty light years away. Good luck trying to reach a system that is thousands of light years away.’

Captain Sanders snorted derisively, "Human vision is another problem. Vision, and the ship’s instruments use light in order to detect objects in their path.

"The faster a ship goes, the less time delay there is in the bounce back time of the ship’s lasers to the receiving instruments, and less time for human vision to detect objects in the ship’s path.

"At half, light speed, the reaction time is cut in half. At three quarters, light speed, the reaction time is only one quarter of normal. At full, light speed, there would be no reaction time at all.

One large meteorite strike would take down the forward shields, and any further meteorite strikes would destroy the ship instantly. Less cool than in the movies, isn’t it?

Yeah. It sounds suicidal.

"It is. We usually travel at no more than one quarter, light speed, to half, light speed in open space.

The cetaceans are the only things that make interstellar travel possible.

Captain Sanders pointed at the vat of primordial ooze, That is the most valuable item on this ship.

Captain Sanders pressed a communication panel, Quartermaster, does the cargo in our hold match up with the shipping manifest?

Yes sir.

Is all of crew accounted for?

Yes sir.

I am closing and locking all outer doors. Bid farewell to this space station, we are about to be underway.

Captain Sanders opened a communication line to the space station, "Director, the manifest matches the load and my ship is powering up to be underway. Keep the interceptors on alert for the next thirty minutes in case we need them to help us repel pirates inside this solar system.

Beyond thirty minutes we are on our own.

Will do. We will honor the terms outlined in our contract to the letter, Captain.

I know. You have an excellent service rating, Director. It is always a pleasure doing business with you.

Have a safe and profitable voyage, Captain. Space station out. The director ended the communication.

Captain Sanders spoke to the cetacean, Ewweek, take us to a jumping point outside of this solar system. I will specify our target star cluster when we arrive at the jump location.

A liquid and squealy voice answered, Engaging engines and moving out at one quarter speed. Target destination will be reached in approximately eighteen hours.

Skip asked Captain Sanders, Why so far to make a jump?

"Interstellar law requires it. No jump may be made within eight light hours of any solar system or in any area that may hold nearby space debris. When space is folded, any objects in the vicinity may flow across at that fold.

Relocating a planet or some other celestial object, could have rather catastrophic effects.

I could see where it might.

Caption Sanders motioned toward the turbo lift, I’m going to show you the ships galley and the officer’s quarters. Our work here is done until the ship reaches its jump point.

Does the cetacean require social interaction?

"It is linked to its familial pod by subspace echolocation. It has all the social interaction that any creature could wish for.

They assist humans, but they don’t like us very much. There is still a lot of interspecies mistrust between us.

Entering the galley, Captain Sanders started introducing Skip to the rest of the crew, "The woman sitting at the far table, the one who has the green tinge to her skin and the blue green hair is, Olive. She is the ship’s engineer. She keeps this bucket of bolts running.

"Pay no real attention to the skin coloration. She is one hundred percent human. The coloration is just an environmental adaptation. Her family has lived for almost fourteen hundred years on a planet that is orbiting a red giant star.

Personally… I vote her to be ‘Most likely to end up sharing your bed.’

Captain Sanders turned toward Olive, "This is the kid. He is my new XO. Hopefully he