Imperial Voyage: Imperial War Saga, #0

By Celinda Labrousse

Interstellar games of hide and seek. Rampaging droids. Living metal. Just the kind of adventure Oscar was looking for. 

What started out as a babysitting run for colony ships headed to new planets has turned into so much more. Something is sabotaging the Imperial Space Navy. The whole mission has been compromised and Oscar is the only droid who can fix it. If only the meat bags would get out of his way long enough for him to save the day. 

 

A military sci-fi adventure that will have you guessing who's behind it all. 

 

Imperial Voyage is the prequel to Imperial Edge the first in the Imperial War Saga series. If you like fast-paced space adventures with engaging characters and classic science fiction tropes, you will love Oscar and the Ironsides.

 

Buy Imperial Voyage and join the space adventure today!

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Between the Presses
• Release date: Mar 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9798215330067

Celinda Labrousse

Celinda Labrousse is the author of 1 AM a collection of poetry from thoughts we think when we can’t sleep. She lives in the Northwest with her husband, daughter and cat Tootles.

Book preview

Imperial Voyage

An Imperial War Saga Prequel

Celinda Labrousse

Between the Presses

Copyright © 2021 by Celinda Labrousse

All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Imperial Voyage. Copyright 2021 by Celinda Labrousse. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By Payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of Labrousse Enterprises.

Digital Edition: 2021

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

To Dale. Without your class, I never would have created this.

Contents

1. The Longest Game of Tag in the Universe

2. Babysitting Colonists

3. A Wrench in the System

4. Cats in the Corridors

5. Captain's Orders

6. Mysteries with a side of Mayhem

7. Minutes to Meltdown

8. It's Just a Scratch

9. Inconceivable

10. Epilogue

A Word from the Author

Preview: Imperial Edge

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Chapter 1

The Longest Game of Tag in the Universe

Oscar rolled as fast as his little wheels would take him. The count grew fainter in the background with each mile he pressed forward. The tunnels within the Twenty Five Percent, or TVPI as George wanted to be called, were endless loops, and he had a lot of ground to cover. He pushed his ball base harder. This was not the time to be covering his tracks; it was time to lay as many fake paths to as many galaxies as possible. He only had so much time to make it to an outside door before George finished counting.

One hundred, ninety-nine thousand five hundred eighty-seven. One hundred, ninety-nine thousand five hundred eighty-six. One hundred, ninety-nine thousand five hundred eighty-five. George’s voice rang through the halls, magnified by his extended presence through the TVPI. It had to be the right door. A bad one would get him found too quickly. That would spoil all the fun.

I’m going to win this time, he beeped to himself. His internal processors mapped out all the outcomes as he rolled by hoverboards with bright yellow and pink bands piled to the ceiling.

Did you hear that? he beeped, knowing quite well that George heard everything in these corridors. The AI computer was the space as much as he monitored it. That was, until you went through a door. Then you were in that point of time and space, outside of George’s immediate range. Oscar opened a door and closed it, racing on.

I’m going to win. He did a wheely, doubled back, then jumped so it would look like he’d entered that door.

The hallways looked like a nineteenth-century London alley, strewn with everything ever created by the minds of the science fiction authors of the time. Bulky laser guns piled in stacks, all of it only enough parts to make one working model. And really, who would want a model of such old tech? It would be like sticking a twentieth-century processor into Oscar’s mainframe. The idea was ridiculous.

One hundred, ninety-nine thousand five hundred eighty-four.

I’m going to win our little game, I’m going to win it oh so good. Oscar sang as loud as he could. The grinding of his wheels against the rough cobblestones was kicking up a lot of noise. Between that and his singing, he knew George was tracking him. Let that bulbous head believe Oscar would make so much noise on purpose. He was almost at the turnaround point.

One hundred, ninety-nine thousand five hundred eighty-three.

I’m not going to miss my shot, Oscar belted out one more refrain, letting his voice carry down the hallway. The junk would absorb most of it, but the cobblestone alley reflected more sound than most humans realized. It had been the perfect decoy. Even if George spent only a few days looking in that direction, he’d be light-years off. That was bound to give Oscar a wheel up.

One hundred, ninety-nine thousand five hundred eighty-two. Inside his shell, he laughed. Outside all that could be heard was the low hum of his wheels on soft padded walls.

He had to move slower, but it was worth it. Oscar turned another corner. He needed to double back a century before switching over to a galactic hallway. Any of them would do. He wasn’t picky. Even the old Lander times were full of adventures to be had. His maker used to bring him along sometimes when she traveled back then. But it had been years since she paid him any attention at all. If it wasn’t for George, Oscar thought he might have gone crazy.

One hundred, ninety-nine thousand five hundred eighty-one.

Oscar knew George wouldn’t stop counting until he got to the end; and if anyone interrupted him, he’d start back at the beginning. It was only fair. If the count was cut short, Oscar wouldn’t have enough time to hide, then what would be the point?

Oscar’s cleaning brush swept up his trail. He hummed a tune he’d picked up the last time they’d gone to the Imperial age. He made sure that none of it beeped out of his shell. It hadn’t even been a century since his maker had run this part of the TVPI. She liked it here. The empire was one of her favorite vacation spots.

And really bad eggs, he beeped.

He’d learned early on to avoid the dustiest and disused areas. He’d also run a few reconnaissance runs through this area. That way George wouldn’t know when the last time he’d come this way.

One hundred, ninety-nine thousand five hundred eighty. He passed by an air grate and took it. It was one of his favorite passages. The air in the shafts would sweep the area behind him and carry away his scent. It was a double win. The inside was barely big enough for him to stand straight, but that didn’t deter him.

The last time they’d played Find the Droid, George had found him hiding behind the WWII tanks on the third level. He spent all his time not being able to decide which section of the colosseum to explore, and it had left him stranded in an American arms factory in 1942. The women were friendly enough, but the foreman had chased him with a broom, thinking he was a runaway shell. He’d rolled back to the door just to hear how far George was into his counting to get nabbed. He wanted to win this time. If he didn’t stay hidden for at least a year, it wasn’t any fun!

One hundred, ninety-nine thousand five hundred seventy-nine.

Oscar turned a sharp left, barreling past a line of mannequins that someone threw against the wall. He was getting desperate for a door to the Out. There had to be