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    Junker's Moon: Trouble Doubled
    Junker's Moon: Trouble Doubled
    Junker's Moon: Trouble Doubled
    Ebook142 pages3 hours

    Junker's Moon: Trouble Doubled

    By Peter Salisbury

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    Book 3: Junker's Moon Scrap, Salvage and Servicing Company is in a state of turmoil and uncertainty, following the grievous wounding of its proprietor, Marshall. He hovers close to death having been stabbed by Vanessa Longtail, the notoriously vengeful wife of space pirate Dirk Knight. Finding she had not succeeded in murdering Marshall, as had been her intention, she returns to finish the job.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPeter Salisbury
    Release dateOct 13, 2013
    ISBN9781301365920
    Junker's Moon: Trouble Doubled
    Author

    Peter Salisbury

    I am a life-long fan of science fiction, and so when I had an idea for my first story, I wasn't surprised that it was in that genre. The first book took me ten years to complete, but I've got a little quicker since. I am pleased to say that I now have over thirty books published in my name. What next? So far I haven't run short of ideas for new stories, so there are several projects in various stages of completion, and I hope to be publishing the next story before too long, so please subscribe to my alerts. My profile picture is a portrait of the author as a young man, painted by my daughter Charlotte Salisbury who has also contributed to several of my book covers. Professional background In the 1970s I studied Chemistry at university and then spent over thirty years in classrooms across England teaching almost anything but Chemistry, including Photography, Communications Skills, General Science, Computing, and Information and Communications Technology. In the 1990s I spent ten years writing abstracts of chemical patents. This was a most exacting process but very rewarding to be reading about the very latest inventions in the field, and the abstracts were distributed world-wide to research scientists by subscription. Articles of mine have been published in magazines and I have written assignments used for assessing Communications Skills for a major international Examination Board. After retiring early this century I began writing in earnest.

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      Book preview

      Junker's Moon - Peter Salisbury

      Junker's Moon: Trouble Doubled

      Copyright Peter Salisbury October 2013

      Junker's Moon: Trouble Doubled

      Copyright Peter Salisbury October 2013

      Smashwords Edition

      2013 October 12

      This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person or place is entirely coincidental. No part of this work may be distributed, printed, reprinted or copied by any means without the permission of the author.

      Book 3: Junker's Moon Scrap, Salvage and Servicing Company is in a state of turmoil and uncertainty, following the grievous wounding of its proprietor, Marshall. He hovers close to death having been stabbed by Vanessa Longtail, the notoriously vengeful wife of space pirate Dirk Knight. Finding she had not succeeded in murdering Marshall, as had been her intention, she returns to finish the job.

      Junker's Moon: Trouble Doubled

      Table of Contents

      Chapter 1: A Fast Exit

      Chapter 2: Knife Edge

      Chapter 3: Recovery Room

      Chapter 4: Rivals

      Chapter 5: Limbo

      Chapter 6: An Awakening

      Chapter 7: Distress Signal

      Chapter 8: Metallurgy

      Chapter 9: Brigand

      Chapter 10: Raid

      Chapter 11: A Desperate Woman

      Chapter 12: A Desperate Plan

      Chapter 13: Sudden Death

      Chapter 14: Auction

      Chapter 15: A Slight Problem

      Chapter 16: Sold At Last

      Chapter 17: A Slow Road

      Chapter 18: More Pain, Less Gain

      Chapter 19: The Eavesdropper

      Chapter 20: Cornswaithe's Tag

      Chapter 21: Into The Pipe

      Chapter 22: Sneak Attack

      Chapter 23: Last Stand

      Chapter 24: Confessions

      Chapter 25: Stand-Off

      Chapter 26: A Long Way From Home

      Chapter 27: Farewells

      Introduction

      Personnel

      More books and stories by Peter Salisbury

      Chapter 1: A Fast Exit

      For the pirates to get away as quickly possible made very good sense. Marshall had offered that he would not inform FBIS of their ransacking of Junker's Moon, in return for not harming anyone. Unfortunately Captain Vanessa Longtail had not kept her side of the bargain, by brutally stabbing him. She had no idea if, in the confusion she left in her wake, anyone had called FBIS or the media. Every member of her crew was a wanted man, and she was the most desirable catch of all. Dead or alive, she was worth as much as all the others put together.

      With these things foremost in her mind, Vanessa had ordered that the ship must blast away at full speed, leaving Marshall to die in the company of his weeping acolytes. She entertained a small smile of satisfaction as her ship entered the hyperspace pipe, outward bound from Cymbeline. Marshall Brion was almost certainly already dead, his last drop of blood having congealed on the floor of his own office. The blow she had struck with her sword was one she used in special circumstances, where she wanted her victim's life to bleed away while he contemplated the revenge she had wrought upon him.

      Although she fought them down, other concerns clouded her mind, spoiled her rejoicing in her vengeance. The certainty of Marshall's death at her own hand was a small compensation for the material losses she had suffered. The gold from the bullion robbery was lost to FBIS, the despicable commercial security operation which soaked up money like a sponge, much of it in the form of pirate contraband. Her second prize was to have been her husband's ship, precious to her as his feet had stood upon its decks but of greater value than most ships by far for its weaponry. The Black Medallion's scarcely legal beam weapons would have been worth a small fortune but that buffoon Marshall had sold the ship and the beamers with it.

      In a fit of pique, Longtail drew her sword and whirled its blade so that the tip of it described lissajous figures in the air.

      Two of her crew standing nearby saw the flash of steel and comprehending the expression on their captain's face, they slipped silently away, one behind a wide stanchion, the other through a hatch and away from sight.

      Vanessa stopped and stared at the blade. Spots of Marshall's blood still marked the sword's gleaming surface. Cleaning it calmed the captain's thoughts somewhat. Rarely did anyone but she enjoy the sight of the intricately etched patterns on the blade. If anyone else was close enough to see them, it was likely they were not far from death.

      Not only had she lost her husband, the gold and her husband's prize ship but she now had to negotiate a ship full of unruly, wilful pirates down busy space lanes to traverse half the galaxy in safety. She hoped the largely fruitless journey had not been ill-conceived. After several rounds of ale, it had felt very secure but on their return journey she would have to be constantly vigilant. The planet Brigand, on which lay her base of refuge, was a great distance from Cymbeline and at every way station along the route, bounty hunters would have clutched in their dirty hands details of herself and every one of her crew. The merchantman ship in which they sped along the hyperspace lanes was their only disguise.

      Her displeasure at having to shoot one of her own men for being late was not good for crew morale. They were terrified of her now but how long would a horde of strong-arm bruisers remain loyal if they feared their captain had lost her sense of proportion. Not only was her authority in question but also her judgement; apart from some small amounts of precious metals stolen from Junker's Moon, there was barely enough to finance the journey home. The captain cursed under her breath for fear of further troubling her men; the bitterest blow was not being able to recover Dirk's ship, especially when that goal had felt so certain.

      Before Vanessa had struck Marshall down, he had succeeded in only one thing, and it had been an unpremeditated and desperate act. Vanessa had no idea at all that Marshall had lied about selling The Black Medallion, and that he had stripped out the valuable beam weapons. Such was their power that Dirk had used them once to hold an entire planet to ransom. Marshall had consigned them into Cymbeline's sun with no thought of selling them, simply because he believed them to be unethical. If he had entertained any doubts about getting rid of them, they were dispelled at once when human remains had been uncovered aboard the pirate ship. The body belonged to someone murdered by Knight before his ship had been disabled by Marshall.

      None of this was known to Vanessa, who also was unaware that Marshall had kept The Black Medallion, renaming it simply as the Medallion, in an attempt to rid it of its evil associations. The SVLA database held all the facts but one thing pirates had no interest in was an official register of ships. Vanessa had no way to tell that Marshall had also lied about using the proceeds from The Black Medallion to purchase the missionary ship, White Cloud. It would have enraged her beyond measure to learn of the desperate battle to save Marshall's life which was taking place on board the travelling hospital at that moment.

      Chapter 2: Knife Edge

      Immediately after Vanessa had stabbed Marshall, she had run from his office, her sword dripping with his blood.

      When Judith saw Anu trying to stabilise Marshall, she immediately sprang into action. 'Can Mr Robertson do anything?' she said, grabbing for the com.

      'Marshall needs to be in the White Cloud, stat,' Anu said putting away her cylinder of stasis gas, while Lucy applied pressure to the wound.

      Less than three minutes after Judith called them, Big Dan and Greg ran in through the door from the workshops. They carried a folding stretcher which they laid out flat. Anu was kneeling at Marshall's side, unheeding of the spreading scarlet pool. Marshall stared from unseeing eyes and his skin was deathly white.

      'Lift him onto the stretcher carefully.'

      Greg stared for a second at Marshall, wondering if it was worth the effort. 'The pirates do this?'

      'Their captain.'

      'But she's done for him, surely.'

      'Not yet,' Anu rasped in exasperation. 'Lucy, he's a dead weight. Help us lift him.'

      As soon as Marshall was on the stretcher, Anu and Lucy stepped back to allow space for Greg and Big Dan to pick it up.

      'To the White Cloud and don't drop him. Quickly, now, every second counts.'

      The two men carried their boss on the stretcher, rushing him from his office by the shortest route. The hospital ship was half a mile away. If they followed the tangle of corridors which were reasonably clear, they would never negotiate him around the various right angle bends. The only way to get him there quickly was straight through the smaller workshops and service bays. As they reached the first workshop, several of the women craned forward to see but leapt back when Greg shouted, 'Clear the way.'

      While trying to see the best route ahead between the pieces of machinery and panting from the effort of running, the two men hurried on. Beside a partly disassembled engine Big Dan tripped on something on the workshop floor. It was a pile of spanners scattered by the pirates in their haste to plunder the workshops and depart before their captain left them behind.

      Judith and Lucy who were running alongside grabbed the stretcher and managed to prevent it falling and hurling Marshall to the ground. Dr Anu was no longer bothering to hold the pad over Marshall's wound, as he was no longer bleeding. To anyone who had the time to look, he was even more bleached white than before, but his eyes were no less glazed.

      Lucy glanced down at him and sobbed. 'His skin is so cold.'

      'It's caused by the stasis gas,' Dr Anu said. 'It has sent his body into a temporary state of hibernation. But it only lasts a few

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