The Timorans

By Scott Ashby

The inhabitants of Ciroth knew the end was coming, and to save their civilization, they built the great colony ships, departing their homeworld in six directions. One ship went to Terradia; its people became one of the founding worlds of the Fellowship. One ship went to the twin worlds of Timora and Tamora, sharing an orbit around their sun.
The gravitational perturbations became too much, and the twin planets began tearing each other apart. It was time to move on again. Cavaliers Skywyn and Laren work to save as many citizens as possible, before adjusting to a new shipboard life in their cobbled-together fleet with their son Skylar.
The remnants of the Timoran colony seek a new home with one of their sister-colonies, but face a lack of fuel, the deadly environment Ciroth has become, and a food crisis. Will the fleet reach Terradia before it’s too late?

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Electric Scroll
• Release date: Dec 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781946888129

Scott Ashby

Scott Ashby is a somewhat self-taught web designer who prefers to write fantasy and science fiction. He lives and works in Gilbert, Arizona in a tiny bedroom office that is only saved from being called a garret by virtue of being on the ground floor. Like most computer geeks, he doesn’t really notice the passing of hours, or days, so long as food arrives on a regular schedule. When not at the computer, Scott enjoys board games, hiking, and letterboxing.

Book preview

The Cavaliers: Book 7

Scott Ashby

Copyright 2021, The Electric Scroll

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. Published in the United States of America by The Electric Scroll. 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 without written permission from the publisher. For information contact The Electric Scroll, 745 N. Gilbert Rd. Ste 124 PMB 197, Gilbert, Arizona, 85234.

The characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and entirely in the imagination of the reader.

Starfield image by dawnydawny via pixabay.com.

Planet image by LoganArt via pixabay.com.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Part One: Leaving Ciroth

Part Two: The End of the World

Part Three: Mining Cinada

Part Four: Return to Ciroth

Part Five: Blight on the Grobin

About the Author

Books by Scott Ashby

Cavaliers' Timeline

Connect with me online

Part One

Leaving Ciroth

-50 TSY*

* Terradia Standard Year

~ 1 ~

CIROTH'S SUN WAS DYING. THE scientists had declared it, and the people believed them. The sunspots and flares were plainly visible with a pair of solbinox; and these days, who didn't own a pair? Indeed, the disk of the swelling sun was bulging into a visible sphere. Sun-watching was the worldwide pastime.

The great plan was agreed upon, and the resources of the entire planet were turned to saving as many lives as possible. They all knew not everyone could be saved. There wouldn't be enough room in the ships for a tenth of the population – nevertheless, they all worked together as one united people to save their civilization, their culture, and their children.

The colony ships were enormous. Ten miles in length, two in breadth, and one in height, they were filled to their limits. Storage space held tools, seeds, and enough rations to carry them through the first harvest. Technology, along with the means and knowledge to repair it, was also stored, for they did not desire to give up all their progress and become a society of farmers.

Not that there was anything wrong with farming – it was a necessary function – but they wanted to give their children opportunities in addition to farming.

Most of each ship was filled with cold-sleep pods. Some said the sleep pods were merely storage space for people.

Small spaces were set aside for the ship's crew, who, of necessity, would be awake during the voyage, to watch over both the ship and the sleepers.

Cold-sleep had only been used for short periods of time – the longest had been two years – for medical purposes. Nothing like this had been done before, but long-term cold-sleep was certainly safer than remaining on Ciroth and enduring certain death.

The crews, two of them, would trade off two-year shifts with each other. The passengers would remain in cold-sleep for the entire duration of the voyage.

While the six great ships were being built, the astronomers pored over data looking for likely destinations. They eventually chose six systems, one each in the cardinal directions of space travel: North, South, East, West, Up, and Down.

Historians and artists worked tirelessly to digitize their history, culture, and art so it could be taken with them. Religion had always been a personal thing, so it was left to individuals to bring their holy texts, ordained personnel, and memories of their religions with them.

The newly established colonization department worked to formulate rules of selection, to decide who would be travelling. They wanted family groups. As cold-sleep had never been used on children under five whose nervous systems weren't completely developed, no children of that age would be accepted. Cold-sleep had also never been used on pregnant women, and the effects of the cold-sleep drugs on the fetus were unknown. Therefore, no pregnant women would travel.

All occupational skillsets were welcome; the new colonies would have just as much need of medics and teachers as they would farmers, who, though lacking a high level of formal education were, nevertheless, highly knowledgeable in their field of expertise.

The family group rule caused many unmarried young adults to move back in with their parents – and just as many of them to move rather more quickly into the wedded state than they otherwise would have...though many of those new couples chose to remain celibate so as not to disqualify themselves with an unplanned pregnancy.

Computers were programmed with the names of heads of household, along with the ages, genders, and occupational skillsets of the household members. The computers were also given the theoretically ideal proportions of skillsets and age mixtures for a colony's success.

The entire planet held their breath for a full three weeks while the data was correlated. Then, finally, the heads of households were notified, and those who had been chosen were brought to the capitol city to await their departure.

As each ship was completed, the families were boarded and put into cold-sleep. The boarding process took days, but the moment the last passengers had been secured and were stable in their pods, the ships left orbit.

Tarrantine, Terradia, Timora, Touxala, Turkanile, and Tyvernium; the six destination planets waited for them. The nearest, Tyvernium, was a mere thirty light-years away. Those going to Touxala, the farthest, must span thirty hundred light-years before reaching their destination. Their crews would be in their third generation when they arrived – if they arrived.

Part Two

The End of the World

5298 TSY

~ 1 ~

JUST A LITTLE FARTHER, NOW, Laren called to her.

Skywyn watched her wingmate as he swung the tote in a wide arc, turned around, and continued hiking up Mount Pleasant. It was strange to see him out of uniform. She'd take the view, though. There wasn't much she enjoyed looking at more than Laren – whether in uniform or civvies.

Her hand brushed against her denim-clad leg, where her laser should be. It was strange to be out of uniform herself. However, cavaliers on leave didn't generally wear their uniform, which included not wearing their laser.

You said that ten minutes ago. And ten minutes before that. And every ten minutes for almost a timepart, she called back. She could hear his answering chuckle floating back to her on the refreshing breeze.

This view better be worth it, she yelled, pitching her voice so it would carry up the slope. This time there was no reply.

Skywyn stretched her steps longer, to carry her more swiftly up the trail. She'd never climbed Mount Pleasant before. It was a place generally favored by young lovers who had nicknamed it 'Mount Pleasure', and she'd never had occasion to climb it because she'd never had a serious suitor. The view was purported to be pretty good, though she couldn't see how. They were nearly to the top, and the only view she had was of white-trunked pillars holding up the green roof above. The piercing blue sky arched above the trees, peeping down through small holes in the deep green summer canopy.

Ten minutes later the trees came to an abrupt end and the pair of cavaliers scrambled the last bit of distance up completely bare rock to emerge on the large, flat meadow that topped the aptly-named mountain.

By the time she caught up with him, Laren was already pulling out a blanket and spreading it on his chosen spot on the ground. She pulled the carrisack – a soft bag whose drawstrings doubled as shoulder straps – from her back and swung it to the ground, gently setting it in the center of the blanket.

Go on, Laren said.

Go on, what?

Go on, the scenic viewpoint is over there. He gestured off to one side. You wanted to see the view. It's over there. Go look at it while I set up our lunch.

Skywyn chuckled. Laren was an able pilot, an excellent leader, and the best friend a girl could have, but he wasn't the romantic sort who would enjoy a view just for the look of it. She dug her datapad out of her carrisack and headed over toward the small platform at the edge of the meadow.

It turned out to be a fascinating view, with the capitol city of Cirograd laid out in the far distance, close enough to see the taller structures in silhouette, but far enough that sound and motion had both been lost in the distance.

She took a few images of it, mostly so she could share the view with Laren, who probably couldn't be talked into walking over to the platform just to look.

As she returned to the blanket, she sank to her knees, then flopped over into a sitting position. Laren handed her a thermall of cold lemonade, and she drank deeply and gratefully.

The grasses beneath the blanket were tough and springy, and provided a soft cushion beneath her. Laren had packed all their food in thermalls, which kept each food or liquid at the programmed temperature indefinitely – or at least until the batteries ran down. After a brief pause to return gratitude to their maker, they spent the next half-timepart in a congenial silence as they partook of the repast they'd brought.

The silence was only on their part – many sorts of birdsong rose from the trees below them, and insects buzzed from between the grasses of the meadow, as they flitted from one flower to the next, spreading pollen as they went.

Leave was always nice, and Skywyn was glad she could spend her time away from the ship out in nature, where even the ground was softer than the steel decks. The Dragonstar Aubria had reached port last night, about a week ahead of the expected quakes as Timora and her twin planet Tamora came to crossover and switched orbits. Each third of the crew was scheduled a turn for a two-day leave before mustering to help with the generally usual light damages the quakes would bring.

When their appetites had been appeased, Skywyn laid back on the blanket. One of the plants beneath the blanket wasn't just grass, but had a woody stem poking at her, positioned right in the middle of her back. She sat back up.

You wanna go have a look at the view?

Laren chuckled. I didn't bring you up here for the view.

I didn't think you had. So why did you drag me up here the minute we got into port?

Not quite the same minute. We stopped to change, and I made the food, and...

You mean you picked up the food you'd ordered. Skywyn swatted at him, and he ceased his protest. Then his face got serious.

He scrabbled in the bottom of one of his totes, withdrawing a small, black box.

Skywyn's breath caught on the sudden lump in her throat – presumably her heart – Laren wasn't going to...he couldn't...he wouldn't...would he?

He cleared his throat, and she realized he'd moved. He was suddenly kneeling in front of her, the box with the ring, glittering in the sunlight, held out before him. She really should have figured it out when he'd brought her on a hike up Mount Pleasant. How could he do this to her? Didn't he realize what it would mean?

Laren cleared his throat again. Well? he asked, and Skywyn realized she'd missed his proposal.

I...I'm sorry. I didn't hear you.

His face reddened, You what?

She felt the heat in her cheeks, and knew she was blushing too.

I...ah...I was too busy freaking out about what I thought you were about to say, and I...um...didn't hear what you actually said.

Laren flopped over onto his side, sinking deep into the cushy blanket and the grasses beneath.

Now she'd done it. He'd finally decided to propose, and she'd missed everything he'd said.

She heard his voice, but now it was muffled by the blanket, and she couldn't make out what the words were, though from the grumbling tone, she expected it was some of what Commander Nelson would call 'most colorful language'.

Skywyn reached out and grabbed Laren's shoulder and rolled him onto his back. I'm not going to ask you to repeat that last, but please do tell me what you said before that.

Laren, his eyes now closed against the brightness of the late afternoon sun, said, I don't recall it word for word, but basically, I asked you to marry me.

Skywyn took a deep breath and let it out a little shakily.

That's what I thought you were doing.

And?

Laren, you know I love you...

She took another shaky breath.

But?

She smiled. How did you know there was going to be a 'but'?

I know you that well. We were made to be together. I can't imagine my life without you in it.

I don't want to live my life without you, either.

So you'll marry me?

Skywyn shook her head. No.

Laren sat bolt upright. No?

Tears trickled from her eyes at the pain she saw on his face. She didn't want him to be in pain. She hated that she was giving him pain. But to accept his proposal would hurt more – for both of them.

No. Because I don't want to be without you.

The pain muted, a little, as confusion filtered in. I don't understand.

"Laren, sweet, I love you. I don't want to be without you. But the Service has this rule about no married women in combat positions. And no, we're not at war, but Wyvern pilot is considered a combat position. If I say yes, and we get married, then I will be given a ground-based assignment, sorting data, and you would stay on the Aubria, and we would never see each other."

He opened his mouth, and she corrected herself. "Okay, not never, but certainly not often enough. Only when you were in port and had leave. I love you, and the only way I can stay with you is to not marry you."

Laren's face fell. I forgot about that rule. And like you said, we're not at war, so there's no combat anywhere. It's a stupid rule. It ought to be revoked. Why did they make it, anyway?

Because they don't want children on military ships. And children are an almost inevitable byproduct of marriage. And it's easier to say 'no married women on board' than it is to decree that married women must be sterilized.

That would be a good reason. But they could have just said, 'no pregnant women', which would mean only short absences....

Skywyn laughed. And then where do we put our children? I'm not fostering them, and my mother is too old to raise them for me.

Laren groaned. You think of everything, don't you?

I have to. I'm the prospective mother here.

I don't suppose you'd consent to just be lovers? His look was hopeful.

Absolutely not! I know it's old-fashioned, but my family's always practiced celibacy without the ring, and my folks would kill me. Besides, we'd still have the problem of what to do with the children.

Laren sighed. You're right, as usual. So where does that leave us?

Right where we were before. Just two people who love each other and want to spend the rest of their lives together.

Laren rose to his knees and started shoving empty food containers into the tote he'd brought them in. Skywyn put her fair share into her carrisack.

I wish it could be different, she said. I wish with all my heart that I could say yes, and we could get married and live happily ever after.

Laren grabbed her in a fierce hug, holding her so tightly she almost couldn't breathe. She wrapped her arms around him, as well.

I'd do anything to be with you. I'd leave the service. I'd learn another trade. I'd move Timora single-handed, and change the very stars for you.

Skywyn could feel his tears mingling with hers on her cheek.

I know you would. But you'd be lost and miserable without your Wyvern, and so would I. We'd both change. We wouldn't be us anymore. You wouldn't be you. Not the you that I love. And you don't need to move Timora single-handed. It will be moving itself, next week, all on its own.

Laren chuckled and released her, hastily wiping his tears on his sleeve as he folded the blanket and shoved it back into the bag. Skywyn pretended she hadn't seen his tears.

~ 2 ~

THE SUN WAS JUST KISSING the distant horizon as they clambered back down the rocks and started down the trail. It was darker under the trees, but still light