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    Junker's Moon: Inspector Vanessa Robin
    Junker's Moon: Inspector Vanessa Robin
    Junker's Moon: Inspector Vanessa Robin
    Ebook117 pages1 hour

    Junker's Moon: Inspector Vanessa Robin

    By Peter Salisbury

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    About this ebook

    Vanessa Robin looked deeper into her shady past, studying news files of her exploits as a space pirate. Her ex-boss Ravenheart and a Doctor Sychs had conspired to destroy her memories by cutting out whole sections of her brain but as Vanessa became more aware of the person she had been before, she grew more determined to exact retribution on those who had done her harm.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPeter Salisbury
    Release dateMar 5, 2014
    ISBN9781310634161
    Junker's Moon: Inspector Vanessa Robin
    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: Inspector Vanessa Robin

      Copyright Peter Salisbury March 2014

      Junker's Moon: Inspector Vanessa Robin

      Smashwords Edition

      2014 March 4

      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.

      Table of Contents

      Chapter 1: Thick As Thieves

      Chapter 2: Relapse

      Chapter 3: Joe Brake

      Chapter 4: The Veterans

      Chapter 5: Reprieve

      Chapter 6: Gold

      Chapter 7: Rift

      Chapter 8: Cutting Edge

      Chapter 9: More Gold

      Chapter 10: Paid in Full

      Chapter 11: Missing In Action

      Chapter 12: The Prodigal Ship

      Chapter 13: When Crime Pays

      Chapter 14: New Roles

      Personnel

      Introduction to the Junker's Moon series

      More books and stories by Peter Salisbury

      Chapter 1: Thick As Thieves

      Melanie took a bottle of white wine over to where Vanessa and Lilly were sitting in the dining section of the captain's cabin. She picked up three glasses along the way.

      'What is it exactly you two are whispering about?'

      Vanessa had no intention of discussing with Melanie her growing desire to reverse some of the wrongs she had suffered before being pressed into service in the Federal Bureau of Interstellar Space. In the small hours of the night, Vanessa had delved further into the video records of her past than Dr Sychs would have approved of. There was a serious risk of relapsing into her previous life as a murdering pirate.

      'You don't have to be in on everything, Mel. Lilly and I have business to discuss.'

      'Alright, I know when my presence is not required.' Melanie had noticed recently that Vanessa used the shortened name she detested when she was angry with her. She poured herself a glass of wine and left the dining suite, her boots clanging on the metal floor down half the length of the ship back to her cabin.

      'Surprised you kept the youngster with you so long,' Lilly Mouse said.

      Vanessa hesitated before replying, reminding herself of how she would have died on Parasite if Melanie had not rescued her. The planet had been aptly named, being inhabited by insects which were voracious in their appetite for flesh. Melanie's expertise had been essential in procuring the Guardian, the ship in which they were sitting so comfortably in high orbit above Lethe. 'There's no question that Mel's had her uses.'

      Unconvinced, Lilly's expression darkened. 'Slip of a girl doesn't look up to much, can't imagine relying on her to watch my back in a tight spot.'

      'She plays her part,' Vanessa said, fully aware of the irony that Melanie had been central to the capture of Lilly Mouse's gang not many months previously. Maybe that was why Lilly seemed keen to be rid of her. 'She converted this ship from a defenceless cruiser into a heavily armed Bruiser class FBIS vessel.

      'Yeah, well, could be a hindrance with all her moralising, though. It's a bit of a dampener when it comes to action.'

      'After she's finished upgrading the controls, I might just leave her back at the base.'

      'It's what I'd do.'

      'Trouble is she knows more about this old hulk than anyone else is ever likely to.'

      'It doesn't look that old.'

      'Don't let the Febis paint job fool you. That's recent. The old rogue who owned the ship before had been running it around for nearly fifteen years. Why I need the control systems upgraded.'

      'OK, Vanessa,' Lilly said with a sly grin. 'where do you want to begin your campaign of setting things to rights?'

      Vanessa drank most of the wine in her glass with one long pull. She refilled hers and Lilly's before she spoke. 'I thought I'd start with the old pirate guys who stuck with me right to the end.'

      'According to the records.'

      'They're authentic, and I see no reason for old guys, especially old pirate guys, to rot in jail longer than they have to.'

      'How're you going to spring 'em?'

      'I'm not.'

      Lilly looked as if she'd heard the answer to a different question. 'But I thought you said...'

      'They will be released into my custody, but then their records will be erased and they will vanish.'

      'What were they charged with anyway?' Lilly said.

      'Accessory.'

      'They got life for that? Accessory to what?'

      'Murder, kidnapping, theft and one or two other things.'

      'Sounds risky. What about going after some gold first?'

      'According to the records, I got burned twice by the Auram Space Metals mining company.'

      'All the more reason to get even, in my book.'

      Vanessa was aware that Lilly was luring her down a path in fact more dangerous than arranging a jail break through hacking the FBIS penal system. It was certain that Lilly was hoping to line her own pockets but Vanessa was quite well aware that gold would come in extremely handy if she ever needed to buy herself out of any kind of situation with FBIS. If it was one thing greedy men like her ex-boss, Ravenheart, understood, it was gold.

      'We free the old guys, then we go for the gold.'

      'It's your ship,' Lilly said with a tinge of disappointment in her voice. She'd make sure that whatever happened, Vanessa or Melanie went in first, while she was in position to make a quick getaway. With any luck if Vanessa got taken down, Lilly would have a chance of taking the ship for herself.

      'Small operation first, then the big one. Auram Space Metals mining spend plenty on top of the range private security.'

      Lilly nodded gravely and poured another glass of wine. 'Hard nuts to crack.'

      While Lilly Mouse and Vanessa Robin discussed their next moves, Melanie had closed and locked the door to her cabin. She put the glass of wine down on a shelf before opening her tool box. With quick, precise movements, she cut a panel from the wall, taking care to use existing seams, so that it could be refitted without being easily identified. This same job she had done many times before over the years she had lived aboard, so that to her the whole ship was a warren of interconnected passageways behind the walls. Only Melanie knew how to navigate the labyrinthine corridors which gave her access to any part of the ship and its underlying cables and conduits. She had the greatest mistrust of Lilly Mouse, having been the one who had shot her with a depolariser rifle not too many months ago. Lilly's presence was having a negative effect on Vanessa. Everything had been so much better when it had just been the two of them. With a new access panel created, Melanie could leave her cabin at any time of day or night without being detected.

      While Vanessa and Lilly finished the bottle of wine between them, Melanie drank her solitary glass and thought about the improvements she could make to The Guardian. The ship's engines were top of the range, they had been tuned at Junker's Moon at Gripthorne's request and since then Melanie had kept them tuned to perfection. However, since Vanessa had given her free access to FBIS's database, Melanie had discovered classified manufacturer's files describing how the engines were calibrated to run well below their full potential. This had been done to ensure a lengthy operating window and good fuel economy. Melanie realised that if she could re-programme the engine controls, she would be able to by-pass the restrictions.

      It seemed obvious to Melanie that her next job was to give the engines a software upgrade, which would make the Guardian one of the fastest ships anywhere. The upgrade cancelled the factory settings, allowing the engines to be used beyond conventional limits. In normal operation the engines burned fuel at a fixed rate for economy. Melanie's proposed software upgrade was designed to provide proportional operation, where fuel was burned at an increased rate in proportion to the speed above normal running levels. The engines would then power

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