GRID Traveler Alien Shores

By J Carrell Jones

Sean Blakemore, Commander of the GRID Battlecruiser Reginald L Johnson, wallowed in self-loathing. He drank too much, suffered from depression, and swam in self-pity. He figured life could not suck any worse when he received new orders. He had to hand the Johnson over to another commanding officer. God hated him he thought.

Then . . . Dr.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mythical Legends Publishing
• Release date: Aug 24, 2017
• ISBN: 9781943958306

J Carrell Jones

J Carrell Jones studies people. His major in college was Anthropology before switching over to Computer Science and Information Technology. He worked in Customer Support Services for many years, which gave him more opportunity in putting his understanding of people to good practical use. As a US Army veteran, he knows how to play hard and work tough. Nowadays, he gets his greatest joy in life by raising his brilliant young daughter, and writing. He lives in Southern California where the weather is mostly great with his wife, daughter, female cat, and one female Guinea pigs.

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J Carrell Jones

GRID Traveler

Alien Shores

Book Two

Mythical Legends Publishing

GRID Traveler: Alien Shores is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogs are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

A Mythical Legends Publishing, Second Edition

Copyright © 1993, 2012 by J Carrell Jones

First published by Mythical Legends Publishing, 2012

Second publishing, 2015

Third publishing, 2017

[e-mail]

http://mythicallegends.com

ISBN 978-1-943958-30-6

All rights reserved. With the exception of excerpts for review or educational purposes, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system. Please purchase only authorized electronic and hardcopy editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. Religiously, you’ll gather brownie points for the afterlife. Karma-wise, you’ll lead an uneventful happy life with lots of good friends and admirers.

Printed in the United States of America

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

Stay! Stay! You saucy sailor boy, Do not sail afar; I love you and will marry you, you silly Jack Tar. ‘Twas but to tease I answered so, I thought you could guess that when a maiden answers no she always means yes.

(From Saucy Sailor Boy. Circa. 18th century, Earth.)

Chapter 1

Sean Blakemore sat at a table in Starboard’s Bow – the enlisted officer’s mess hall. He sat by a view port eating Cookie’s latest creation of Skilly. It was a little bit of everything. Some meats, vegetables, different splashes of sauces – red, green, hot, sweet, herbs, spices, anything and everything in the galley. Sean marveled at the delicious combination of flavors and tastes. Cookie out did himself, he always did. Sean would never admit it in open public, of course. Mr. Grant, the Officer’s Watch main cook, would be highly offended. For the officers on board Johnson, they had to endure Grant’s slightly above mediocre abilities. GRID rules specifically prohibited enlisted officers from cooking meals for commissioned officers in a sanctioned Officer Mess facility. Sean toyed with the idea of making Cookie a Warrant Officer and transferring him to Officer’s Watch, but he was certain Johnson’s crew would riot. So he and some of the other officers satisfied their cravings for good cooking with the occasional visit to Starboard’s Bow – under the guise of getting a feel for how the Johnson was running.

It was on an occasion not too different than this moment Sean remembered talking to Dawn. He saw her, his first officer, looking out a view port. It was just before the ‘crazy-time.’ A term Sean accepted for his time spent on Necron – the planet of aliens, fantastic technology and Magick! He looked out and saw a star streak by. He used a large spoon to sip juice from his Skilly and chuckled to himself. All hands in the mess hall knew to ignore the Captain’s bursts, as they called it. Suddenly out of nowhere the Captain would laugh and those around him would get swept up in the infectious act and laugh too. Of course, only the Captain would know the reason for his bursts. Sean asked Dawn about gossip on the ship and Dawn told him she had a juicy one. Straight face she said that he was whipped three sides to Sunday. Meaning that Dr. Loggar had effectively gained control of his little head, which controlled his thinking head. Sean had a burst.

The last time Dawn caught him off guard was when she told him that she was a Most High follower and that close to a third of the ship’s complement were as well. The Johnson held three thousand personnel and one thousand followed Wicca! Sean took a mouthful of Skilly and swallowed. He continued to look out the view port and marveled at the turn of events that got him his long withheld captaincy, the discovery of the ‘sleeping’ Necronians, the living statues, and his . . .

His thoughts were interrupted by the intercom. "Captain to Top Deck, emergency message from GRID Command. Decryption is imminent.

Sean hurried through four more mouthfuls of Skilly and rushed to Top Deck. He thanked Cookie for another good meal. Cookie beamed brightly and hummed ‘The Saucy Sailor Boy’ and went about his business.

Sean entered Top Deck. He listened to the chatter of beeps, hushed talk, keyboard clicking, background hums and the like. He walked over to the Command chair and sat down. Dawn was in the XO chair. Sean asked Well, Dawn, anything good?

Dawn looked up from her CRT and said, message from GRID Command is 93% decoded. We have vid and text."

Who’s it from?

Dawn tapped on her CRT and after a second replied, Dr. Loggar.

Sean frowned. He had just spoken with Kathy a few hours before. She said that the research on Necron had taken an exponential leap. Adruqu was communicating with them on a regular basis via terminal and that she had provided years’ worth of data, particularly locations of seeded planets, charts, medical data, everything and anything. It was beyond fantastic. So, why had she sent him a special communiqué byway of GRID Command? Dawn?

Yes, sir?

Authenticate upon full decryption.

Already in progress, Captain.

How long will it take?

About 30 minutes, give or take a dozen seconds.

I’ll be in the conference room, continue with the conn.

Aye, Sir.

Sean got up and walked through the sliding conference room door. He walked over to the table and sat in the main chair. He swiveled around to watch the stars streak by. The conference room desk was made of pressed Oak wood. All of GRID Command used Oak wood for what they considered tables of importance. It was vanity, but no one stopped to question why Oak and not some other wood. It was something established over three centuries ago.

Then, Captain? It was Dawn’s voice.

Yes, Dawn?

Dr. Loggar on channel six, standard encryption.

Thanks. Sean said, and pushed a button marked ‘channel six.’

Loggar’s image pixilated to a full picture. Her brown hair was tied back into a ponytail. A small strand of hair was loose between both eyes. Her eyes brightened when she saw Sean.

Sean smiled and said, Hey Kathy, two calls in one day?

Loggar blew Sean a kiss and said, This one is more business than pleasure. You get my gift?

Sean nodded. Yeah, received it not too long ago. I haven’t had a chance to open it yet. I promise I’ll look at it very soon. It got me curious, though. He left it at that and let the silence hang in the air a moment.

Loggar slowly nodded, she frowned. You should have received it a few hours ago. Probably nothing wrong. She thought