The Kryonean Chronicles: Pandemic

By Bill Parker

Kryonean Chronicles: Pandemic is Book 2 of the Kryonean Chronicles Series.

The Black Pearl was more than just the most advanced quantum technology starship in Union Fleet. Captain Jack Falco has made it the Kryonean Empire’s worst nightmare. Captain Jack is Recon flesh and Recon bone. He is determined to the very core of him to save Layla’s people and end this terrible war. Princess Layla is equally determined to free her people from the Empire’s evil grip once and for all.
One by one the Black Pearl and Union Fleet were taking the worlds of the kryonean Outworld Zone from the Empire’s evil grip. Layla’s Outworld Zone rebellion was going only too well, or so they thought until they rescued a kryonean mystic named Kyanne.
In a horrible dream, Kyanne saw dragon-bats in the mind of the Imperial Admiral Jinashu. They came like a plague in the night. Only suffering and certain death followed in their wake. Imperial Admiral Jinashu had secretly set a plan in motion. His stealth scout ships had already been sent to Clandora to fill their holds with dragon-bats. Their mission was to unleash a plague of epic proportions onto the people of Astranar.
Only the crew of the Black Pearl stood between them and certain death. The hunt was on to stop the Empire’s evil plan, but how would the Black Pearl ever find seven stealth scout ships in deep space? Even worse, how would Union Fleet ever get the twenty million people of Astranar vaccinated in time? This would be a pandemic if Doctor Terry failed.
In the middle of all this, Kyanne has yet another vision. Time is of the essence as the forces of evil close in on the ancient Keeper of the Stones of the Law. Even so, Tarok must first decode Kyanne’s cryptic vision to find out where he was hidden. Imperial battlegroups surround them as the Recon Rangers accompany Kyanne to rescue the Keeper.
And then there was Charlotte. She would be the future of her people, but only if Jack could save her from the invading Imperial forces.

If you enjoy a good science fiction with the full flavor and robust action of a guns blazing western, then you will love Kryonean Chronicles.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bill Parker
• Release date: Jan 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005334987

Bill Parker

Native Western New York author, and world traveler, Bill Parker, spent most of his career engineering high-tech manufacturing systems for companies around the world. An accomplished deep space astrophotographer, he was a contributing editor for Modern Astronomy magazine when it was based in Attica, New York, working mainly on astrophotography articles and projects.Bill Parker has been a Black Belt in Isshin Ryu Karate and a martial artist for more than forty years. The times when all that stood between him and certain death was his martial arts gave Bill the indomitable spirit that pervades his thinking and writing to this day.Bill calls Earth his homeworld but he is an outworlder to the very core of him.Bill is the author of the highly acclaimed Five Moons Series of science fiction novels and, if you are up for a real walk on the mystical side of science fiction, then you just have to read his Tales of the Green Jinn.

Book preview

Prologue

The Black Pearl slipped silently through the last wormhole into Tyrolia near space. The planet Tyrolia-5 was the central trading hub of the entire Kryonean Outworld Zone. This was going to be the most difficult world to liberate of all of them. Its skies were full of freighters and trading ships.

Even so, Captain Jack Falco set his mind on the tasks at hand. His battle plan was displayed on a virtual screen at his workstation. The Empire was bound to get word of what was about to happen here despite his best efforts. All that did was to simplify his attack strategy. His three Talon fighters had done a yeoman’s job of the recon. All of their scans had been the subject of the entire battle planning staff for days. Not the smallest detail would be left to chance.

The heaviest downpour begins with a single drop of rain. Master Sergeant Mike Kowalski led a squad of Recon Rangers silently across a quantum portal into the Imperial Guard Post in synchronous orbit above Khron, Tyrolia’s main city. The Rangers, backed up by a squad of combat droids, quickly swept through the main control room, capturing all of its personnel. Two combat droids were left to guard the prisoners that were left zip-tied and sitting on the floor.

From there, the Recon Rangers headed quickly over to the guard post’s prison area. The Rangers used special Electromagnetic Pulse rounds to take out the two combat droids guarding the onboard prison. All of the women in the cells screamed at the sound of the pulse rifles and huddled into the backs of their cells, covering their faces and crying in fear.

Please be calm, Mike told them. Speakers in his helmet announced his words in Kryonean. We will not harm you. We have come to set you free.

[We have twenty-three women prisoners here,] Mike reported back over the quantum com network.

The scenes from Mike’s helmet-cam helped Cozmo get a quantum portal right into the first cell. Aria walked through the portal from the Black Pearl and beckoned the women.

Please follow me quickly, she told them.

The women all ran for the open portal to escape their cell. That was a first. It even surprised Aria how well that worked. Then Cozmo moved the quantum portal over to the next cell, and Aria beckoned those women with a little more caution so as not to get trampled in the rush. So it went until the prison cells were empty.

The whole time, Eylia on the bridge of the Black Pearl had been scanning the spaceworthy containers attached to the Guard Post for stasis tubes.

There are twenty stasis tubes in two containers, she reported to Captain Jack as she passed the coordinates over to Cozmo in Portal Bay.

[I am right on that,] Cozmo reported over the network. One-by-one, Cozmo poofed the stasis containers over to the Black Pearl. For now, they all went to C-Deck.

That cleared the way for the Special Forces hackers. Cozmo opened a portal for them right into the Guard Post Command Center. Combat droids pushed two hover-carts full of gear through the portal behind them.

Having done this now many times, they first powered down the Guard Post’s intelligent processor, pulled it from the rack, and began the job of patching into the fiber-optic network. Seconds ticked away, but they worked their way carefully forward, checking every connection twice before gluing the cables into place. When that job was complete, a Union Fleet standard rack was glued to the floor right next to the Kryonean rack. Then all of the fiber-optic cables were made up to it.

A virtual display popped up above the Union Fleet rack.

[We are in,] the lead hacker reported to Captain Jack. [It is reading out all of the connected devices now. Give us ten minutes.]

While they worked, the Farside Battle Group slipped silently into Tyrolia near space through a huge wormhole. Its Special Forces team went right to work scanning all of the ships in orbit. The team made use of some very small quantum portals to target all of the nearby Kryonean ships’ quantum com modules to destroy them. In the next ten minutes, all seventeen Kryonean ships lost all contact with the Empire.

At the same time, two Recon Ranger missions were put into play. The Rangers moved forward into the dirtside off-site storage facilities through two quantum portals.

Onboard the Black Pearl, Captain Jack awaited the outcomes of all of these missions in progress on the edge of his seat. This was the time for him to trust that the battle planners had done their jobs well, but it was nerve-wracking, nonetheless. He watched the window on his own workstation as each of the missions in progress went from yellow to green on the battle plan. His screen scrolled down to the next set of mission tasks.

No matter how many times that they had already done this, it was all that Layla could do to sit quietly in her workstation and just watch this all come off. She tried to calm her mind to concentrate on her own task. No matter how many times she went through this in her mind, each world that they had liberated in the outworlds had its own whole ‘personality.’ As much as they were the same, they were different. Layla was ever the consummate politician, but this had her pushed to her limits. She thanked Fate for Aria.

[The attack on the bases is Go. I repeat, Go,] Battle Command told Captain Jack.

[Roger the Go,] Jack replied.

Jessica, take us into attack position, Jack ordered.

Sarah, lock in your targets, he continued. Prepare to launch missiles.

The Black Pearl and the Farside Stealth Battleship both moved into position and unleashed a furious salvo of missiles on both bases. They preferred the use of these ancient outworld weapons as they cut right through the excellent Kryonean shields.

The first missiles struck before there was any response at all from the Imperial Kryonean dirtside bases. Their shields went up instantly. Both the Black Pearl and the Farside blasted them with ferocious barrages of pulse cannon fire, but it was mostly to keep the Kryoneans from shooting down the remaining inbound missiles.

Despite their late response, the Imperial Bases’ fates were already sealed. The salvos of nuclear missiles pounded them into oblivion slowly but surely.

The Black Pearl’s Talons joined with fifteen more fighters from the Farside Battlegroup to clear the Tyrolian skies of Imperial fighters. The air battle raged on late into the third watch.

By the morning of the second day, the major battle was over. Cozmo moved quickly to place 16 quantum com network gateways, one in each major city of Tyrolia. When they all had hacked their way into the existing planetary network, Layla was up.

People of Tyrolia, Layla began in Kryonean. I am Princess Layla Mo Kirabondi. I have returned to free my people from the Empire’s terrible grip. This day have I defeated the Empire on your world and rescued your Princesses that the evil Empire was trying to kidnap from you. This day we have separated the gold that was taken from you as taxes to the Empire from the Imperial Guard Post. I hereby return it to the people. Send your tugs to get it.

My First Warrior will soon turn the Imperial Guard Post from an evil device that the Empire used to control you into an instrument of defense to protect you. He will set his ships in your skies to protect you. His people will teach you how to defend yourselves from the evil Empire and give you the weapons to do just that. And better still, his healers will come to treat the people with modern medical science that was promised by the Empire long ago but never delivered.

I know how you feel, but resistance against the Empire is not futile. I am living proof of that. They sent Krinella herself to kill me, yet here I am. Should the Empire return, so shall I. My people left you as many of their aircraft as we could. Learn to fly them. Take what you can of their weapons. Stand up on your own two feet. I have set you free.

Aria spoke next, You all know me. I swear that I have seen this with my own eyes, and every word of it is true. The evil Empire killed my family, stole my heritage, and cast me into a fate worse than death. Princess Layla’s First Warrior rescued me and kept me safe. I May be from Freon, but we are all outworlders to the very core of us. We are sisters. I am with you. Stand up. Resist.

Layla continued, We will be here for you if you need us. Return to the old ways that worked. Return to the Book of Laws. Call us if you need us to help you form your own government free from the evil Empire. People of Tyrolia, you are free.

The last of the ops in progress had Mike and the Recon Rangers taking the Imperial Supervisors out of their fortified buildings by force and handing them over to the locals.

Jack was hungry and exhausted. He needed a break, and it was lunchtime. He looked at Layla, but she was totally tied up now with the Kryonean politicians on three planets all at once. She smiled at him and waved. He got up and headed for the mess.

With eyes half-open, Jack ordered a Reuben sandwich and a tall, cold Habston Zero. It was his own private celebration. Portia hurried his Habston Zero right over to him. Damn, that first sip of his cold beer tasted good even though it had no alcohol. Then Portia brought his Reuben. It didn’t take him long to finish that and head for his quarters and bed.

Jack opened his eyes as the ship’s bells rang 07:00. Layla was still asleep next to him. At what hour had she come to bed? He got up very quietly to go get his morning shower. Halfway through, Layla joined him. It would be a long slow shower.

Everything is going well, Layla told Jack as he dressed, but I feel doom closing in all around me.

This is what we knew would happen, Jack reminded her. Eventually, the Empress would know that the Outworld Zone had revolted. That time has come and gone. She knows it now.

You say that so calmly, she replied.

I am only calm on the surface, Jack told her.

Union Fleet is using us, Layla spoke her mind.

And we are using Union Fleet, Jack reminded her. They see this as the best way to win the war. We see this as the only way to free your people from the Empire. Everyone wins if we win. That is how I am playing this. We are twenty-eight days into the plan. Union Fleet has freed twenty-one Kryonean outworlds, and we have freed seven ourselves, but now the going will get tough.

But I have you, Layla told him.

And I have you, Jack replied.

We are one, she whispered to him.

We are one, he whispered back.

Chapter 1: Distant thunder.

Admiral Jinashu returned to his office wearily after a long day of planning. He sat down and had a drink of fine wine made only on Kraylos. As much as Kraylos was the Crown Planet of the Kryonean Empire, it never felt like home to Jinashu.

The hour was late, but Gyna Kierrien Toma came into his office unannounced and closed the door behind her. She was High Counsel to the Kryonean Senate, and so, this was a breach of proper protocol.

I have come to see you personally to hear with my own ears for myself what you would say directly, Gyna began. What you tell me will remain in the strictest confidence.

But Jinashu knew full well that his words would be whispered to others.

First, Gyna said to him, you got the Empire into this ridiculous war with the humans.

First, Jinashu replied carefully, let me tell you clearly that I have served the Empire faithfully for all of my yentons and will continue to do so until my dying breath. Then I will clearly point out that my own counsel was that a war with the humans was a war that we could not win, against superior technology and numbers.

Then why did you get us into that war? Gyna asked him pointedly.

Because I am a loyal servant of the Empress, he replied.

In other words, the Empress commanded you to go to war with the humans despite your advice to the contrary? Gyna asked in shocked disbelief.

I serve at the pleasure of the Empress herself, Jinashu dodged that question while being totally honest.

I see. That caused Gyna to change her strategy.

But now you have wisely pulled back ten whole battlegroups from that war that you cannot win? she asked, twisting his word back on him.

One more time, I must point out to you that I serve at the pleasure of the Empress herself, he stated the truth without saying it outright.

I see. Gyna now sat back with a knowing look on her face. And you are bringing these ships home, then?

No, Jinashu replied honestly. Someone had given her information.

You are sending them to quell the Outworld Zone rebellion, aren’t you? Gyna accused him.

Military operations in progress are an Imperial Secret, Jinashu replied. You know that. I cannot tell anyone that.

You are an honest man, Gyna replied, and wise enough to not say what we both know.

Admiral Jinashu just looked at her. Unnecessary words could only make this worse. She got up and left. That was a relief.

At this point, Admiral Jinashu was thoroughly fed up with the backstabbing politics of the royal court. He longed for the old days of being in space. He served at the pleasure of an Empress totally consumed with her own absolute power. He served a madwoman, and he knew it.

On the other hand, withdrawing all of these ships gave him a perfect excuse to put the war with the humans on hold while he dealt with this Outworld Zone rebellion. It wouldn’t be such a bad thing for this whole Outworld Zone affair to take a while, either.

~~~

Layla struggled to help all the various worlds that had been liberated to organize their own governments. She had all of the world leaders on a conference call in Jack’s office. There were many smaller windows on his huge wall-sized display.

What makes the Union work? Layla asked Jack. How is it that all of the planets are free, and yet they all act together?

Well, I am surely not a politician. Even worse, I am an outworlder. I am just like all of these fine kryoneans in the Outworld Zone, Jack told Layla and all of the other women honestly. Hm. I do have a recording that I have watched a number of times to remind me how this all came together. This 3-D video was from two-hundred years ago, but it says what happened to us better than any textbook that I ever read. My grandfather was actually there. He made me watch this video many times until I understood what it meant. The video played out from Jack’s private files. It showed the inside of the Pig & Whistle Pub on Panera-5 as it existed back then…

"I have this memory, Dallas Blake explained to Mariah. I sat here many years ago and passed a night that I will never forget. Old Jack Ward told the story of the Crystal Dragon that night. It seems like a hundred years ago now …"

"Good Lord, man! It wasn’t that long ago," Old Jack Ward protested from the door. The crowd cleared for him. Dallas quickly made a place for Old Jack at their table. Silence closed in as Old Jack Ward glared over his tankard of ale as the bunch of outworld veterans and families gathered ‘round. No one need say a word. They just knew. Old Jack held his peace until one of the veterans could stand it no longer.

"So, Jack, tell us of the Crystal Dragon."

"Yeah, the Crystal Dragon," the crowd all agreed.

"Hm, the Crystal Dragon, you say? Oh, I don’t know. To tell it proper and right, I would have to start at the real beginning."

"Okay, so start from the real beginning then," Emma answered for all. Old Jack looked around and smiled. He took a long sip of his ale and drew a full breath as he decided that he better clean his language up to suit the families here tonight. So, everyone settled in for a night to remember.

"As the legend goes, the highest hopes and dreams of mankind were that only the finest of our sons and daughters would venture out from Earth to populate the Galaxy with peace and love for all, he said and let hang, savoring the confused looks on their faces. But if you ask any of the other intelligent species, they will tell you fast and quick that where mankind goes, evil grows. We trail evil behind us in our jump wake like a foul stench. So, the ‘hopes and dreams’ part of the story is really just so much crap. We’re not some bunch of lame pilgrims here. For all we can tell, Earth is probably just a legend too. But I will tell you this: I heard from somewhere that we are a people cast into the outer darkness because of the evil in our hearts.