Assault on Cambriol: The Manhattan Trials Read online

  Assault on Cambroil

  Cover Art and Design © 2014 by Bryan Rogers

  Copyright © 2014 by Black Canyon Press

  Copyright © 2014 by Jerry Borrowman

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any format or in any medium without the express permission of the publisher, Black Canyon Press, [email protected] This is a work of fiction. The characters, names, incidents, places, and dialogue are either products of the author’s imagination, and are not to be construed as real, or are used fictitiously.

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Edition: April 2014

  Acknowledgements

  I owe a debt of gratitude to many people who have helped with this story, including Tina Foster and the many readers who shared their opinions. I particularly appreciate best-selling author Jeff Savage for taking time from his own writing to act as story editor. I’m also pleased to introduce Bryan Rogers, the terrific graphic artist who designed the outstanding original artwork for the cover. You can view Bryan’s work at behance.net/bryanrogers and reach him at [email protected]. Special thanks goes to Mark Sorenson, my copyeditor who makes this publication possible by getting it in final form for e-books and printing. As you can see, it takes a lot of great people to publish a book, and I am grateful for all of them. I hope you enjoy the story of the Assault on Cambriol.

  Prologue: The Legend of the Lexus

  “Prepare to fire a dazzle blast!”

  “Weapons ready, Sir!”

  Captain Pietr Jesik frowned as he studied the forward instruments display, then instructed the Helmsman to bring the ship to a new heading of 310 degrees west, 10 degrees elevation. “Blasted kids,” he muttered under his breath, “it looks like one of those new Lexus space utility vehicles. What were their parents thinking, anyway?”

  Lexus was the name given to a luxury brand of space runabouts that comfortably seated four people while zipping from one planetary system to another. No one really knew where the name came from, although it was generally thought that it dated back into antiquity when vehicles operated solely on a planet’s surface. However, at this time a Lexus represented a particularly annoying problem since it carried four small missiles that could easily be fired at an asteroid or small moon from a distance of one to five thousand kilometers. The intent of the missiles was self-defense or to blast small meteors out of a flight path, but were often used for more mischievous purposes when in the hands of teenagers.

  “They’ve started their approach to Cambriol, Sir and it looks like they’re heading for the Zestrian Low Pools.”

  “Thank you Mr. Brighton,” said Jesik with a scowl to his First Officer. “Close range, Mr. Wight!”

  This was just what the young Ensign, currently acting as Helmsman, had been waiting for. After four boring weeks with nothing to do but intercept and register lumbering cargo ships, he finally had a chance to see what the old Lentissimo could do. Jamming the forward thrusters to maximum, he felt a satisfying lurch as the Aegis Class Boundary Patrol Cutter accelerated to his command. He turned around with a satisfied smile, only to see the Communications Officer, John Williams, picking himself up off the floor, looking anything but happy. Wight jerked his head forward and gulped. Fortunately, the drama was heating up enough that no one took time to chew him out. But of course that would come later.

  “Estimated time to firing range?” inquired Jesik.

  “Sixty-eight seconds, Sir.”

  “Fire the moment we come into range!”

  Everyone held their breath. At precisely sixty-six seconds, the little cruiser launched two missiles at the surface of Cambriol. At sixty-eight-point-five seconds, the Fire Control Officer fired the dazzle blast.

  “Damn!” shouted Jesik as he watched the exhaust trails of the missiles form a perfect trajectory towards the planet’s surface. Thirty seconds later, two large explosions were clearly seen on the planet, followed by the blinding detonation of the Dazzle Blast some ten kilometers from the Lexus runabout.

  “Nice shot,” said the First Officer, smiling.

  “Yes, nice shot indeed,” growled the Captain, then added, “Close to the runabout, Mr. Wight. And take it a little easier this time!”

  The Ensign cringed as he edged the ship in the direction of the disabled spacecraft now lying off their port side. Although the bridge officers had other duties to attend to, they couldn’t resist watching the main viewer to see how the space cruisers’ missiles had succeeded in stirring up a sulfuric plume from the moon’s surface. There was an audible gasp when two magnificent reddish-orange explosions appeared, sparkling like a rain shower during a bright Cerelean star rise.

  “Wow! They must have hit the black water pools perfectly to get that mix of water and powder,” said the Navigator.

  The unique coloring of the sulfur surface was perfect for stirring up dust towers that could be seen from the planet’s surface. The system star, Kalenden, which shared the same name as its most prominent planet, was relatively young and provided brilliant illumination for the clouds.

  “Spectacular,” agreed the First Officer. “I bet those plumes can be seen from all three continents on Kalenden!”

  “We’ll know soon enough.” Jesik sighed, then ordered the communications officer to tune into Sector Control short space.

  “My bet is that we’ll be hearing from them in three minutes or less.”

  It was actually less. Approximately ten seconds, for anyone keeping track. They knew they were really in for it when they saw the bloated face of Colonel Kensington shoving a young Corporal off the video monitor.

  “Jesik!” the image shouted, “What in blazes is going on out there? Is the whole moon disintegrating and on its way to knocking us out of orbit?”

  “Colonel?” Jesik answered in a puzzled voice, “it was only two small missiles from a Lexus mini-Cruiser. I know the plumes are rather spectacular, but certainly no threat.”

  “No threat!” Kensington shot back, “Then how do you explain this?”

  The screen brightened with a video image that showed most of the southern sky of Kalenden filling with an expanding cloud of bright orange vapor that dimmed the sun and appeared to be rapidly swallowing the second moon that was sometimes visible in that hemisphere.

  Jesik hit the mute button and turned to his Chief Engineer, Timothy O’Casey. “What is it, Chief? How can two plumes create such havoc on Kalenden?”

  Chief Engineer Casey looked perplexed as he studied his instruments. Kensington was still shouting into the monitor, but no one paid attention. Finally, O’Casey looked up relieved and said, “It’s just a dust storm Sir, passing between the planet and the moon. Because Kalenden is at apogee, the light reflecting off Cambriol has magnified the effect of the sulfur so that it looks like the whole sky is on fire. It should calm down in about twenty or thirty minutes.”

  First Officer Brighton tried to suppress the smile that would almost certainly provoke Kensington into a heart attack. Still, it was hard not to show some amusement at the havoc their little space marauders had caused. Hard for everyone but the Captain.

  “Colonel Kensington, my Chief has an explanation for you. There’s no danger, so I recommend you cancel all alerts.”

  After listening to the Engineer’s report, Kensington told the assembled crew that there would be hell to pay and that it was disgraceful that a four-seater could get past a Sector Defense cutter and cause such a ruckus, particularly when the Quadrant Council was meeting on Kalenden.

  When Jesik had heard enough, he gave a passable excuse and moved down to the docking bay where he expected to find three or f
our dazed cadets being dragged out of their runabout.

  Entering the bay, Jesik rubbed his temples. After six years on a battleship, what did I do to wind up transferring to a cutter to police truants who like to take potshots at a deserted sulfur moon,. Of course the question was completely rhetorical, since Jesik knew perfectly well what he’d done to deserve such a backwater command. He looked at the pile of young space cadets at his feet with contempt.

  Eventually one of the young men in the gaudy uniform of the Kalenden Arms Academy groaned and rubbed his eyes. He looked up at the stern face of Pietr Jesik, groaned again, then sat up with a start and said, “Sir, how did we do? You knocked us out before we got to see the impact.”

  Jesik tried, but couldn’t suppress a smile. After all, he’d been a cadet once. However, he’d grown up in a second-class family, where kids had to worry about the damage they caused. Academy students came from the refined cream of Kalendan society, the top tier of the first-class, so they could go around blowing up asteroids and moons, secure in the knowledge that their parents would pay the damage and secretly smile at their sons’ pranks.

  The problem with firing on Cambriol, one of two moons orbiting the system’s primary inhabited planet, is that the black water pools that made the columns sparkle so brilliantly also held a mineral-rich water rumored to have aphrodisiac qualities. That made it a favorite getaway for the beautiful people looking for a secluded weekend of love-making. The two competing interests of shooters and bathers kept the Boundary Patrol busy. “A very meaningful way to spend ones’ professional career,” muttered Jesik. He reflected on the fact that in spite of all the threats and dangers, the mineral rich pools still attracted people from the entire sector, even though Cambriol had been declared off limits to all human life years earlier because of the weak atmosphere, violently unpredictable weather patterns, and acrid rain that could cause allergic reactions.

  Still, the bathers came, only to be fired on by thrill seeking teenagers on leave from the local space academies that populated this corner of the Kalenden Star Cluster. While this gave rise to some wonderfully tragic stories of lovers covered in slime and ash, while yet locked in a passionate embrace, every so often a bather would be killed. That’s when the legends and lawsuits started, with everyone blaming the Boundary Patrol for not doing a better job of protecting people from their own stupidity.

  “Sir, how’d we do!” Jesik’s mind jerked back to the present and he found a slender young man with sandy hair and pale blue eyes standing at attention before him.

  “What’s your name, Cadet?”

  “Cadet Travis Eaves of the Kalenden Arms Academy, Sir!”

  “Well, Cadet Eaves, you scored a direct hit on the Zestrian Pools and now have two plumes over 8,000 kilometers in height, shimmering for the whole of the planet to see in the Kalenden star rise.

  “8,000 kilometers—that’s awesome!” A broad grin filling Eaves’ well-sculpted face.

  “Yes, I’m sure you’ll be welcomed home as conquering heroes. By the way, although it probably never crossed your mind, our sensors indicate that there were no bathers at the pool, so you didn’t maim or kill anyone.” Jesik hoped for some kind of response, but neither Eaves nor his now-awake companions appeared very interested.

  Youth, thought Jesik . What do you expect from healthy young guys who are turbo-charged by hormones? All they’re thinking about is the effect this will have on the local female population when they get home. Quadrant Councils and over-aged lovers are the last thing on their minds.

  “Speaking of home Sir, when do we get to leave?” asked the second occupant of the Lexus, a cadet who identified himself as Sean Magill.

  “If you get to leave, not when,” the Captain corrected him.

  “What do you mean, if, Sir?” asked Eaves, with no trace of fear in his voice. He’d obviously been in trouble before.

  “What I mean,” said Jesik with the slightest hint of triumph, “is that while your timing was perfect to capture the best star rise in the past ten years, it also came while a dust trail was passing between Cambriol and Kalenden, which made it look like the moon itself had blown up down on the planet surface. It seems you boys have caused a major panic on the planet, just as the Quadrant Council was in session. If the images of mayhem in the streets are any indication, you’re likely to make the news throughout the entire system! I’m not sure even your parents, who I assume are very wealthy, can afford to make restitution for an entire hemisphere’s worth of damage.”

  Jesik was quite pleased with his effect on the boys. All of a sudden there were two very embarrassed young men in front of him, rather than the cocky swashbucklers of a few moments ago. To further sober them up, he added, “The truth is, your timing couldn’t have been worse. The academy may expel you for political reasons.” That made them so delightfully miserable that Jesik thought they were finally getting it.

  “Take these young men to temporary quarters and see that they get something to eat,” said Jesik to a nearby security officer. Then he walked over to the nearest communication port and said, “Lieutenant Williams, please request a flight plan to bring us to Sector Control Platform Five on Kalenden.”

  “Request being transmitted now, Sir,” came the hollow reply through the overhead speaker system.

  “Very good. Inform Helmsman Wight when orders are received and please ask Commander Brighton to come to my quarters.”

  “Right away, Sir,”

  Turning to the boys one last time, he said, with a softer tone in his voice, “It really was great shooting. I hope they don’t file criminal charges though, since that would keep the two of you from ever being eligible for military service. What a waste that would be.”

  As he was about to turn and make a dramatic exit, the ship’s stabilizers temporarily failed, throwing everyone in the corridor against the walls. Then, as the ship returned to horizontal, Jesik realized the gravity sphere must have malfunctioned because they all began to drift in the air. It was always comical to see the negative effect on the dignified bearings of highly-disciplined military people when thrown unexpectedly into zero gravity. There was absolutely no way to be graceful.

  Jesik shouted into his personal communicator, “Mr. Brighton, what’s going on up there?”

  “Trouble maintaining our orbit around the moon, Sir. Something seems to be pulling us away from the star!”

  “Trouble maintaining orbit?” Jesik caught his breath. “I’ll be right there.” He then fought his way towards the nearest transport tube, using his feet to kick away from the wall. Flying through space has the appearance of swimming underwater, except without any resistance. One kick sets a person in motion until something stops him. Accordingly, Jesik stretched out his arms and grabbed the handrail in front of the tube, leaving himself floating prone, about five feet above the deck. But, just as he reached the tube, the gravity generator reasserted itself, causing him and all other objects and people in the room to crash to the deck. Jesik shook his head, rubbed his nose and pushed himself up to a standing position. He also concealed the pain he felt, for all public spaces were under constant surveillance and captains should show no pain.

  Brushing off his trousers, he entered the tube which whisked him directly to the bridge. As he came on deck, he was startled to see the video monitor filled with dark, sinister-looking, rock fragments moving past the ship toward deep space.

  “What are we doing in an asteroid belt?” he demanded. Fortunately he had the presence of mind to clamp his jaw shut tight when everyone turned to look at him.

  The Chief Engineer responded, “It appears that all the space debris in the area is being drawn towards an unwelcome intruder from the Sendite Quadrant – a superlative-density ferrous metal fragment.”

  The Sendite quadrant was uninhabited since, by some unusual twist of fate, there were virtually no stars, planets, or even space debris there. When the first settlers arrived on Kalenden several hundred years earlier, they had been unnerved by the si
ght of one entire section of the night sky that was perfectly black. Yet, that’s how it appeared from the planet.

  “Why didn’t we receive a warning about something as dangerous as this?”

  “With no interplanetary traffic in that area, there’s been no live patrols for at least several years,” replied First Officer Brighton. “And, apparently the automatic sensors failed, perhaps from lack of maintenance, Sir.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Brighton.” Jesik paused to ponder what he’d just heard. Even if all the sensors had failed, there’s simply no way something as powerful as a remnant could get this far into the system undetected.

  “How powerful is the fragment, Chief?”

  “It’s not a black hole, Sir. It’s only the size of golf ball, but it’s powerful enough to attract everything that can move in its direction, including us. Initial calculations indicate that its gravitational field may actually be powerful enough to warp the normal orbit of Cambriol. The attraction between the fragment and the Kalenden star is so overwhelming that it’s likely to eventually distort the normal orbits of everything in the system.”

  “It seems to me that disruptions to orbits is the least of our worries,” said Brighton. “There’s no telling what kind of reaction will occur when the fragment collides with our star. If we live through the explosion, it will be interesting to see if the star absorbs the fragment, or the other way around.”

  Jesik sighed. What a day. First, we’re suckered by two kids with an expensive space utility vehicle and now we’re about to mate with a fragment.

  “How long do we have, Mr. Wight?”

  “With standard engines at maximum, about forty-five minutes before our resistance becomes futile, Sir.”

  “And what if we engage the vortex drive?” asked the Captain of his Chief Engineer. “Can we escape the asteroid field and gain some distance from this thing?”

  “We’ve run the numbers, Sir and it looks like the magnetic-gravitational pull of the fragment is so strong at this point that we couldn’t successfully create a vortex field, other than one in which the debris belt lies directly in our path. In other words, no hope of escape.”