Jones Refusing Excalibur

1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4835-7011-2
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 370 Seiten

Refusing Excalibur is an epic space opera that follows Victor Selan, a starship captain offered the chance to rebuild a shattered galaxy.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Jones, Zachary

Leseproben

Chapter 2

Victor woke to the frantic ringing of his tablet.

“I thought I told you to silence that,” Gina said, irritated and groggy.

“I did.” A chill ran down Victor’s spine. Only an emergency would override his tablet’s Silence setting. He picked it up and looked at the screen. “Oh, my God!”

Gina shot up. “What?”

Victor turned to his wife. “It’s a scramble order. All crews are to report to their ships.” He leapt from bed and pulled on his clothes. “The Lysandrans are attacking through the Arcadia jump point!”

Gina got out of bed and helped Victor dress. When he finished, she handed him the family variblade. “You be careful, Victor.”

He hooked the variblade to his belt. “I can’t guarantee that.” Victor hugged his naked wife. “Get Alex to the shelter. This could get rough.”

She nodded. “I will. I love you.”

“I love you too,” Victor said.

He went to his son’s room, stopping just long enough to kiss the sleeping boy on the forehead, before running down the stairs. Reaching the main hall, he heard the sound of a turbine engine spooling up. He opened the front door and ran from the mansion.

Resting on the lawn in front of the house was his father’s personal sky hopper. His father stood just outside the cockpit, waving Victor over.

“I’ll drop you off at the Osprey on my way to Fleet HQ,” his father shouted over the whine of the turbines.

“That would be much appreciated, Da—sir!” Victor said.

“No need for military formality just yet, Victor,” Emmet said. He glanced at the variblade on Victor’s belt. “That suits you.”

“Thanks.”

Emmet held open the cockpit door. “You fly. I’ll be busy doing admiral stuff.”

Victor made a small smile and nodded. “Yes, sir.” He climbed up and strapped himself in. His father followed him and shut the door.

“Take off. I’ll buckle up in flight,” Emmet Selan said.

Victor nodded and grabbed the controls. He dialed up the sky hopper’s AG field generator, canceling out part of the aircraft’s mass, and then fired up the turbines. The small ship took off like a sparrow.

As soon as they were cruising at a safe altitude, Victor dialed down the AG field and put the bird into a shallow dive, gaining forward airspeed. He flew around the house and over Lake Valor.

When Victor opened up the throttle, the sky hopper’s acceleration pulled him back into his seat until the little aircraft was cruising just under Mach 1.

Beside him, his father spoke into his tablet, asking for updates from the fleet defending the jump point. From what Victor gathered, the concentrated firepower of the Savannah Republic Navy was destroying almost every Lysandran warship coming through the Arcadia jump point. Only a few small ships had breached the blockade, and they were being pursued by the fleet’s radar pickets.

Lake Valor whipped under the sky hopper and was soon replaced by grass on the other side. In the distance, the dark patch of Galen Military Spaceport appeared.

The skies above the spaceport swarmed with aircraft and starships. An air traffic controller's worst nightmare, having everything from tiny two-man sky hoppers to two-kilometer-long battleships crowding the air around the massive paved expanse of the spaceport.

One battleship was lifted away under turbines, its two spinal-mounted accelerator cannons making it look like a colossal double-barreled shotgun. Another battleship still floated in the air, docked nose-first to one of the tall spires standing like trees amid the flat land.

Victor’s destination would be well away from the battleship docking towers. He vectored the sky hopper for the area of unbroken tarmac where midsize warships landed directly on the ground.

Air traffic control gave him a strict flight path to avoid all the cruisers taking off, leading him on a serpentine course to his own cruiser, the RSS Osprey.

His ship was perched on her landing struts, just high enough off the ground to keep the lower pair of her four main thrusters off the ground.

Victor came in low, slowed the sky hopper to a hover, and landed just a couple hundred meters from the cruiser.

“This is my stop, Dad,” Victor said, as he climbed down from the cockpit.

“Victor,” said his father, barely audible over the whine of the sky hopper’s idling engines.

“Yes, Dad?” Victor shouted.

“Good luck up there.”

Victor nodded and turned to run toward his ship. The sky hopper’s engines revved up as it took off behind him.

Two armsmen standing at the Osprey’s boarding ramp saluted him, and the leader, a chief petty officer, asked for his ID.

He returned their salutes and showed his ID.

“Welcome aboard, Captain,” the female CPO said, wearing ballistic armor and carrying an assault rifle.

“Thanks, Chief. How many are we waiting for?” asked Victor.

“You’re one of the last, sir. Commander Dace already has the reactors warmed up,” she answered.

Victor nodded. “Good. We’re taking off as soon as the last of the crew boards.”

“Yes, sir.”

Victor ran up the r the crew scurrying around stopped to salute him.

“Don’t stop to salute. Just get my bird in the air!” Victor shouted. He ran upstairs and climbed ladders until he reached his storage locker. He opened it and pulled out his pressure suit. He donned the bulky suit and jogged the rest of the way to the bridge, carrying his helmet in the crook of his left arm.

“Welcome aboard, Captain. I was worried that I’d have to leave without you,” Commander Dace said, a tall woman with the black hair and black eyes of most Savannans.

Victor dropped into his seat next to Dace, resting his helmet on his lap. “Well, thank you for waiting, Commander. The chief guarding the ramp said you’ve got the reactors warmed up. I assume we’re ready for takeoff?”

“Yes, Captain. We should have the rest of the crew aboard in about five minutes,” Dace said.

“Good.” Victor looked to the control console at the head of the bridge. “Lieutenant Colletta, request takeoff clearance as soon as the boarding ramp closes.”

“Yes, Captain,” the Osprey’s pilot said.

The tarmac grew increasingly empty as other starships lifted off and then streaked the sky above the spaceport with white contrails.

A few minutes later, Lieutenant Colletta reported they were clear to orbit.

“Take her up,” Victor said.

“Yes, Captain.” Lieutenant Colletta worked the controls. “Powering up the AG field, spinning up turbines.”

The ten-thousand-ton starship floated off the ground. Lieutenant Colletta then pitched the ship upward and climbed for space.

“Captain, we’ve established a connection with the fleet datalink,” the communications officer said.

“Thank you, Lieutenant.” Victor brought up the tactical display screen attached to his right armrest.

A frightening battle occurred a light hour away as the Republic Navy’s blockade saturated the Arcadia jump point with weapons fire tearing apart a constant stream of Lysandran warships.

“This is Admiral Selan to the Osprey,” Victor's father spoke over the datalink, now very much in admiral mode. “You’re to protect Savannah from any enemy ships that manage to run the blockade. You’ll be leading a five-ship squadron with the cruisers Sabretooth, Vulture, Hammerhead, and Stallion under your command.”

Victor nodded. The four other vessels were all Thresher-class cruisers, just like the Osprey. He also knew each vessel’s captain—Lyse of the Sabretooth, Markab of the Vulture, Jaron of the Hammerhead, and Hasan of the Stallion—were all experienced commerce raiders and veterans of the defense of Arcadia. “Roger that, Admiral Selan. Moving to intercept as soon as we’re outside the atmosphere.”

“Good hunting, Osprey.” Admiral Selan broke the...