Worldship Files: Detonation

By Erik Schubach

When the Earth is threatened by a slowly expanding sun, mankind embarks upon a mission to send a mammoth Worldship to settle a new planet across the stars. The preternatural races step out of hiding to work with the humans to save what they can from their dying world. With the aid of the Fae, shape shifters, Vampires, and other creatures of supernatural lore, the Worldship, Leviathan, is complete one thousand years later.

With Knith being consumed by the magic she has been absorbing her entire life, it comes to light that the mysterious flares she is suffering threaten not just herself, but the entire fleet. The most intelligent minds on the Worldship, including a mysterious figure form Knith's last case before she lost her commission int the Brigade Enforcers, fight to find a solution before it is too late.

The aftermath will change everything for the mighty Worldship, Leviathan, and the people she is shepherding on her ten thousand year journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Erik Schubach
• Release date: Mar 5, 2024
• ISBN: 9798215067260

Erik Schubach

I got my start writing romance novels by accident. I have always been drawn to strong female characters in books, like Honor Harrington. And I also believe that there is a lack of LGBT characters in media. So one day I came up with a story idea that combines the two... two days later I completed the manuscript for Music of the Soul.My writing style may not be the most professional nor grammatically correct, but I never profess to be an English major, just a person that wants to share a story. I maintain that my primary language is sarcasm.Each of my books features strong likeable female characters that are flawed. I think that flaws and emotional or physical scars make us human and give us more character than simply conforming to some "social norm".I have also started a SciFi series, The Valkyrie Chronicles which features a Valkyrie, Kara, who was left behind on Earth five thousand years ago to help the Asgard race escape the onslaught of the Ragnarok horde. With the aid of a human, Kate, she holds the line in battle to herald the return of the Asgard!If you like magic, paranormal romance and witches, then my new series Fracture might tickle your fancy. In the first book Fracture: Divergence, Alex King must stop magic from destroying reality. The problem is that Alex must solve the case in parallel universes where in one Alex is male and female in the other.There is even a modern shapeshifter paranormal series, Drakon. Featuring a fiery Irish woman with a sharp wit and sharper temper who finds out she is a dragon of legend.

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Worldship Files: Detonation

By Erik Schubach

Copyright © 2024 by Erik Schubach

Published by Erik Schubach on Smashwords

Nine Mile Falls, WA 99026

Cover Image © 2024 Artcuboy / Adobe Stock license

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. 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 express written permission from the author / publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, blog, or broadcast.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

FIRST EDITION

Chapter 1 – Pursuit

With the hard-hitting, pulse-pumping beat of a song from the Archaeological Music Archives called Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins blaring, I ran along the exterior of the Prometheus, a Hercules Class heavy lift space transport, my mag boots clomping and my Mark-One Mithril Armor’s nano panel servos giving me a boost of speed as I looked up. I only hesitated a moment seeing my home, the Worldship Leviathan filling my view as far as I could see in space in all directions. She was spectacular as always.

Mother’s voice came through on my helmet’s coms channel. Thank you, Knith. I grinned at the AI intelligence, and personal friend, who ran all the systems on the World and kept all twelve million souls alive in our ten thousand-year trek to our new home at Eridani Prime. She added, But your target is almost to the escape pod.

My Sprite partner, Graz, chirped out over coms, the sound of her wings buzzing in the background, Yeah Knith, I’m chasing the steaming pile of Fairy dung through this floating hunk of junk, but the Titania damned Goblin keeps sealing blast doors between us before I can take him down. Seriously, how any of these Remnant vessels are even airtight anymore is a minor miracle in itself.

Most people would have thought her boast ridiculous. Who would believe that one of the Wee Folk, a tiny Sprite, could ‘take down’ a person a hundred times her size, but they’ve never seen her take out the eyes of races that are gargantuan to her, even the Greater Fae, with her deathly sharp sword which was no bigger than a long needle. And with her speed, they could swat at her until the Day Lights went out, and never get close.

I sighed as I tried to pour on more speed. Don’t get your panties in a twist, you minuscule flying menace. Give me a break, I’m out here in the cold vacuum of space to try to cut him off.

She muttered, We don’t wear panties like you dumb Bigs, and hey! Did you just call me little?

Ignoring her I sighed to myself, lamenting out loud that, It would be so much easier if the Stinger were here.

A growling, yowling voice came over coms, Rawlll… you’re the genius who said, ‘We won’t need it, it’s just a quick grab and tag,’ Knith, I’m almost there.

I nodded to myself as Myra’s face appeared in my heads up, seeing the cockpit of her Raptor Interceptor around her. She’d be here faster than Mother could have flown my Stinger experimental mag-bike to me. Thanks, Kitty Cat. Then I added, Escape pod bay in sight and… ugh… I winced as my muscles seized up momentarily, my feet breaking loose from the hull plating as the flare of unconstrained energy pulsed from me, the Mithril nanopanels of the armor doing its job, keeping most of the flare’s energy from getting out and destroying things around me.

I gasped as the armor cracked and failed over and over, but rebuilt itself, sealing the fissures as fast as they were made. I made an Uff, sound as I slammed into a communications relay dish, scrabbling madly with my numb arms to grasp it. I didn’t want to use the suit’s emergency thrusters to stay in contact with the ancient ship used during the thousand-year construction of the Leviathan, or everyone would know I flared. They’d be on my case about not taking any more jobs again, that it endangered me.

The alloy of the dish groaned in protest as it bent under the immense pressure my servo-enhanced strength exerted to stop my own mass in motion from flinging me off into space. Fuck me sideways and space me naked. I regained my senses, the residual energy washing off my tingling skin as I pulled myself to drift down so my mag boots could engage on the hull again.

Then I resumed running as multiple voices and faces interjected on coms and my heads up display, my daughter Caitlyn blurting with worry in her tone, What is it mother, was it another flare?

Mab’s tits, was she monitoring my mission again? I lied. No baby girl, I just tripped over a conduit, I’m fine.

She narrowed her eyes at me and asked our World, Mother?

If she says she tripped, then she tripped, Caity-Bear.

I sighed internally in relief and thought a thank you to Mother for having my back.

She answered in my head instead of on the open channel, Always, Knith.

Reaching the iris-style port for the escape pod atmospheric vent acceleration launcher, I called out, I’m here, talk to me, Daniel.

The big Grindle, my old partner in the Brigade Enforcers, said in his low baritone which seemed to rumble whenever he spoke, Almost have it, Shade. These archaic schematics for the Hercules Class are incomplete, how did they keep records back then?

The panel over the manual aperture controls seemed to be cold welded from lack of use and showed lots of exposure degradation and even the pockmark of a micro-meteoroid impact near the seam. Maybe that was what was jamming it. Fleek!

Ok, Shade, got it. The manual override code is foxtrot, epsilon, niner three niner.

Hang on… I pulled back and then swung my fist down on the seam, hard, and now cursing. Mother Fairy humper!

Graz was asking in concern, What is it, Knith?

Sighing I assured everyone listening. I’m fine. Note to self, punching a space vessel is like, well, punching a space vessel.

Graz was muttering, Insane, all Bigs are insane. And I thought Fairies were dumb.

Rolling my eyes I struck the seam again, my heads up displaying movement of three micrometers. I had knocked it loose. I tried sliding it aside, and with a gritty, dragging protest it moved. The controls beneath were sparking slightly. Damn, that micro-meteoroid really did a number on it, but the big manual lever looked to be fully intact. I tried it. No joy. So I typed in the code. The cracked and spider-webbed screen flashed red, with what looked like an ‘invalid entry’ being displayed through the damage. I tried again in case my Armor’s gloves mistyped the code.

This isn’t working. Ideas?

Graz started, Umm… Knith…

With a rumble, the outer iris started cycling open. Don’t tell me, he made it to the escape pod.

Yup.

I asked as I swung inside to stand on the frame of the secondary aperture which, in a few seconds, would snap instantly open for a moment, to allow the explosive decompression of the pod bay to launch the escape pod before recycling to prepare to launch the next, Seriously? Just where does he think he’d go?

I shook my head, though I knew he’d likely be heading to Little Mouse, the artificial moon orbiting the Leviathan. But if hiding on a Remnant vessel where the Enforcer’s Brigade didn’t have jurisdiction didn’t work, why would he think it would be any different on that giant, virtually mined-out asteroid?

It was sort of nice not having to be bound by the rules and regulations the Brigade had to abide by anymore, even though it still hurt like a physical thing to me even after five years. I sighed. Remind me why we keep taking these skip-trace jobs? Isn’t our FABLE Investigations private investigating service better than this?

Myra was asking, Umm… Knith? Where are you? I’m here with your Stinger in the bay, but you aren’t.

I squinted one eye as I looked at the controls in the wall down inside the opening, seeing if they had included a launch abort system, saying absently, I’m in the launch tube… just a second.

Five or six voices chimed out, just how many people were monitoring the mission? It was just a simple retrieval of a bail jumper here. You’re what?

Mab’s tits everyone, calm down, I did this for a living for forty years in the Brigade.

My blushing Fae bride countered, And you spent most of that time being reckless and gaining copious injuries, my Knith. Space me, Aurora was monitoring too?

Mother helped unhelpfully. She is right, Knith.

Just shush everyone and… warning strobes started flashing, telling me I was out of time. In a panic, I snapped out both my cold Iron batons from my Armor’s belt packs, flicking them open I slammed them through the glass of a window of a mechanism maintenance panel, and into the large gears that started to spin to open the inner iris. A screeching, moaning crunch, was translated through the atmosphere in my Armor as the batons were torn from my grasp and pulled into the gears before the aperture shuddered to a stop. I was screaming with the effort of holding onto the rim of the outer door with one arm as I was almost torn out into space by the escaping air from the launch bay from the partially opened iris.

A loud clang was translated through my Armor as the escape pod slammed against the iris, flexing it. Some debris from the collision peppered me, but it was nothing my Armor couldn’t take. I reached out with my other arm and was able to grab onto the rim and force my way downward through the lessening pressure as the launch bay equalized to the vacuum of space.

I swung my feet down, to push against the pod, moving it gradually so I could slip into the launch bay. I could see Mortimer Graves’ shocked and panicked, green face, mouth gaping open showing his two rows of needle-sharp teeth, through the windshield of the pod.

I’ve got you now, you slippery ass.

Myra was hissing out a chuffing laugh, sounding like the cat she resembled as she prompted, You know my Raptor could have easily intercepted and grappled the pod, genius. Now what are you going to do?

I drifted in the bay as another pod was cycled in, bumping Mort’s pod as the electrics in the doors above sparked. Umm… I looked around. Ok, he was stuck here now, but we were in a vacuum and I just broke the door… which is likely going to cost most of our recovery fee to repair. Soooo…

Mother was chuckling at me as I looked from the pod to the other pod that was now sealed to the airlock door below. Amber warning strobes were indicating systems failure and hard vacuum in the space. Ok. Man, I never had these problems back when I was an Enforcer. Mother sounded amused, Yes, you did Knith. Can AIs be amused? Of course, Mother could.

Shut up, woman. I grumped.

Then a spotlight swept around the bay from the partially open iris above, and Mother supplied in my heads up the arrival of two Ready Squadron Sentinel fighters, broadcasting on all frequencies. Civilian vessel, hull number RI-001, you are in restricted airspace and are illegally entering a Remnant ship. Heave to and prepare to be boarded and bound by law. Citizen gaining illegal entry to the Prometheus return to the outer hull and prepare to be collected.

Rolling my eyes and leaving them to Myra, I looked down and saw a golden flash of light on the other side of the airlock door, and Graz chirped out, I got ya, Knith. How did you survive before we became partners, ya dumb Big?

She was zipping back and forth in front of the access pad, slamming icons with her feet, then the searchlights were cut off when the outer door cycled shut and atmosphere started being pumped back into the bay. Oh, yeah, that would work. Ok, I was feeling a little dumb now, maybe Graz had a point.

Then I was muting my coms to stop my chuckling from being heard as I listened to Myra, Go space yourself, Kyle. We’re licensed investigators and you know it. Plus the Prometheus is out of your jurisdiction, you mental giant. It’s a Remnant vessel like you just said.

The Minotaur spluttered out, You can’t talk to me like that. I’m Ready One of Ready Squadron and…"

She was giving a hissing, tittering laugh as she interrupted. Only because all the top pilots resigned when I was fired for helping save the Leviathan, including your sorry ass… again. Then she muttered to him, Transmitting the bench warrant and our credentials now, even though you know damn well who we are and why we’re here.

Then she added as if savoring it, And since your supervisor is such a stickler for proper procedure, I’ll be lodging a formal complaint about your illegal proximity which breaks four flight protocols and endangers civilians, of which I am now. Let’s watch them sweep this under the rug again when they used that kind of petty thing to get me fired for political gain.

Our Kitty Cat was not amused with losing the only job she ever loved as the top pilot of Ready Squadron. I still feel guilty that she was collateral damage when the new President, Vaughn was targeting me to build his political clout against President Yang at the time… she had helped me in that ill-fated mission so they got a twofer, even though we are both heroes of the Leviathan and have been awarded the Leviathan Cross.

I chuckled as I moved up to the drifting pod and cycled the hatch open when the bay’s indicators showed blue when the captain of the Fighter said, a bit of frustration in his tone. Hold RI-001, I need to verify this. Then I was snickering when he was calling out, Control, this is Alpha One, I need to verify the arrest warrant tango Yankee eight one four niner, and ship registration of hull number romeo India zero zero one.

I know I’m going to one of the hells since I found it hilarious that the government and military didn’t have access to Mother anymore to do these things for them instantly. They had to manually check their much more cumbersome external databases. But hey, it was the new president's fault. He played a dangerous game of chicken with Mother and lost.

When the hatch door retracted, the Goblin launched himself at me. I sighed and grabbed his outstretched arm as his claws scratched ineffectively at my Armor. Oberon’s balls Morty, calm down. Is it really worth all this effort to avoid your court date? I mean it was just for a smart paint graffiti tagging charge, you’re turning a slap-on-the-wrist misdemeanor into a month in the mines in the Heart. And if you insist on assaulting me, a felony, it might be two years.

He kept struggling, and hissing out, Let me go! You don’t have jurisdiction here, you piece of Enforcer crap! I could shred you to bits and Worldship law would be on my side.

You know, now that I think of it, he did have a point about crimes he commits off-world or off of fleet vessels, which are considered part of the Worldship’s territory whereas Remnants are not. I sighed and said, Say goodnight, Mr. Graves.

What?

Mother deactivated the safeties in my Armor and I sent the mental command. With a familiar whumping sound, my gauntlets sent a pulse like my old MMGs from my Enforcer days, through his body, causing him to stiffen and convulse before going limp into unconsciousness.

The airlock door opened and a bright streak of golden light zipped up to me as I bound the man’s hands in a mag-band and pushed his body toward the airlock to float in Zero-G while I secured the drifting pod. Graz buzzed up to the Goblin and kicked his nose before flying up to me just as easily in Zero-G as when she was in the gravity generated by the counter-rotating ring stacks on the World.

Mab’s tits, Knith, you made a mess outta this ship. The captain is going to be piiiiiissed. Repairs are coming out of your cut, you stupid Big. I made a show of zipping her lips and she just harrumphed and crossed her arms over her chest, but as always, was dedicated to the bit and kept her mouth shut.

Then we both snorted when the Ready Squadron pilot said over coms, RI-001, this is Ready One, your identity and bench warrant are confirmed.

Myra chortled and