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    Asteroid Jumpers
    Asteroid Jumpers
    Asteroid Jumpers
    Ebook365 pages4 hours

    Asteroid Jumpers

    By Sean Monaghan

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Captain Arlon Stoddard'a ageing ship the Luminou closes in on one of the Crespin system's asteroids. Hunting for fugitives in a protected dome.
    But what Arlon and his crew find will stretch their resources to the very breaking point. Fugitives become the least of their problems.
    Arlon needs to figure this out. Fast. The lives of his crew hang in the balance.
    Filled with rip-roaring adventure and complex intrigue, the Captain Arlon Stoddard novels cover it all.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTriple V Publishing
    Release dateFeb 26, 2017
    ISBN9781370666706
    Asteroid Jumpers
    Author

    Sean Monaghan

    Award-winning author, Sean Monaghan has published more than one hundred stories in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and in New Zealand, where he makes his home. A regular contributor to Asimov’s, his story “Crimson Birds of Small Miracles”, set in the art world of Shilinka Switalla, won both the Sir Julius Vogel Award, and the Asimov’s Readers Poll Award, for best short story. He is a past winner of the Jim Baen Memorial Award, and the Amazing Stories Award. Sean writes from a nook in a corner of his 110 year old home, usually listening to eighties music. Award-winning author, Sean Monaghan has published more than one hundred stories in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and in New Zealand, where he makes his home. A regular contributor to Asimov’s, his story “Crimson Birds of Small Miracles”, set in the art world of Shilinka Switalla, won both the Sir Julius Vogel Award, and the Asimov’s Readers Poll Award, for best short story. He is a past winner of the Jim Baen Memorial Award, and the Amazing Stories Award. Sean writes from a nook in a corner of his 110 year old home, usually listening to eighties music.

    Read more from Sean Monaghan

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      Book preview

      Asteroid Jumpers - Sean Monaghan

      Asteroid Jumpers

      Copyright 2017 by Sean Monaghan

      All rights reserved

      Cover Art: © Innovari| Dreamstime.com

      Published by Triple V Publishing

      Author web page

      www.seanmonaghan.com

      This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved.

      This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

      This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

      Smashwords Edition.

      Contents

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Chapter Eleven

      Chapter Twelve

      Chapter Thirteen

      Chapter Fourteen

      Chapter Fifteen

      Chapter Sixteen

      Chapter Seventeen

      Chapter Eighteen

      Chapter Nineteen

      Chapter Twenty

      Chapter Twenty One

      Chapter Twenty Two

      Chapter Twenty Three

      Chapter Twenty Four

      Chapter Twenty Five

      Chapter Twenty Six

      Chapter Twenty Seven

      Chapter Twenty Eight

      Chapter Twenty Nine

      Chapter Thirty

      Chapter Thirty One

      Chapter Thirty Two

      Chapter Thirty Three

      Chapter Thirty Four

      Chapter Thirty Five

      About the author

      Acknowledgement

      Other Books by Sean Monaghan

      Links

      CHAPTER ONE

      Arlon Stoddard sweated in the tiny observation cell in the Luminou’s nose. The sounds of the two hundred and eighty meter long ship creaked and pinged at him. As if all those odd noises had focused on this point.

      He didn’t get up here much.

      Outside, the bright yellow-white light of Crespin tried to shine through the observation cell’s thick glass canopy. Something was up with the ship’s cooling system. Too much heat getting in.

      Arlon reached around and tapped at the little grilled fan. It spun, but at very low revs. Yet another thing to add to the maintenance lists.

      The Luminou’s history stretched back close to a century. Plenty of trips to drydock to have hull plates recalibrated and replaced. Full guttings of every electronic and physical system. Even the replacement of bulkheads and critical structure members.

      And still bugs and gremlins like a malfunctioning fan. There were a few cleaning and emergency robots. Little things, from insect-size to football-size. Maybe he could convince the Authority to invest in some more maintenance robots.

      From the outside, Luminou reminded Arlon of one of the early submarines from a few centuries back. A long, almost cylindrical body, rounded at the bow and wider at the stern. Two thirds of the way back a sloping tower almost fifteen meters tall stood watching.

      On the ground the tower would have been a five story building. Against Luminou’s enormous length it looked almost like an afterthought.

      In zero-gravity the number of floors didn’t matter.

      Arlon sensed someone behind. He didn’t turn.

      The ship had five crew. Only himself and Eva Strong were fully human. Though Kame would argue that she’d started out fully human. Just because almost a third of her body weight was robotic didn’t make her any less human.

      Back home, Arlon’s new current girlfriend Beth, was writing her masters treatise on rights for human versus non-human. Another year and Beth would be done with her arguments and be ready to defend the treatise.

      Arlon wondered if she would still be his girlfriend then. Sometimes she got annoyed about how much time he spent shipbound.

      Arlon felt a tap a on his shoulder. He turned to see Eva. Hey, he said.

      Hey, Eva said.

      He’d known it was her. She always wore a kind of floral scent, and it drifted ahead as a kind of herald. Little wafts of her seemed to linger around the ship.

      Eva was thirty-two, a year his senior. She’d grown up and studied back on Earth, but had left before she’d turned eighteen. Hadn’t been back.

      She was a fine navigator. Double-checked her readings. Monitored during flights. He always felt reassured with her on board.

      Hi, Arlon said.

      Did you see it? Eva asked. She pulled through into the narrow space with him. Lithe and limber, she easily fitted. Like him, she wore dark blue ship overalls and off-white slippers. Unlike him, she made the outfit look good.

      There. Arlon pointed. Three o’clock.

      Eva nestled up to the glass. She peered out.

      Where? I don’t... oh, wait. There it is.

      Perry was a decent-sized rock. One hundred and two klicks on the long axis. Sixty-eight on the short. Nickel, iron, manganese. Lots of silicon, but everyone had plenty of silicon already.

      No gravity to speak of. Enough to hold some dust and rocks to the surface. Arlon knew that any impact would throw ejecta miles high.

      This is where they went? Eva said. Why?

      Arlon smiled to himself. Eva never read up on any of their jobs. If she’d bothered she would have known that telemetry had put their quarry right in this part of the asteroid cluster.

      Crespin’s system involved two hot Jupiters, then two airless rocks halfway between Earth-sized and Mars-sized. Crespin System’s Inc had built a big dome-cluster base on the outermost of the pair. Almost two AU from the star, but Crespin burned hot.

      Funny, Arlon thought, that the old ‘astronomical unit’–AU, the distance from old sol to the Earth–still applied out here. Useful, he guessed.

      Sixteen thousand people under the domes. So far. They’d named the planet Hotterthan. Someone’s idea of a joke. Arlon kind of suspected that the name would stick. It wasn’t that hot really. Once they got an atmosphere established, it would be balmy in the temperate zones and warm at the poles. Still, ‘Hotterthan’ was better than its designation as C78-4.

      Another four AU out from the occupied planet lay four major groupings of asteroids. Far, far beyond that still, another two gas giants orbited in long half-a-milennium-plus duration orbits. A couple of dwarf planets in the mix there too. And outside that a Kuiper belt and Oort cloud, both filled with objects. The most popular being water-rich comets.

      People on Hotterthan piloted thousands of robotic vehicles to send those comets on impact trajectories toward the planet. Great plans to turn the water and other volatiles into a breathable atmosphere.

      Which meant that the asteroids were relatively untouched. And that made them a nice little hiding place for a couple of fugitives.

      Arlon didn’t know the situation, but he did have a longitude and latitude. Apparently the pair had some kind of dome or protective structure. Arlon and his crew knew exactly where to home in on.

      Eva might not have known the reasons, but when it came to the crunch, she was good in a fight. And that counted for a whole lot in Arlon’s book.

      As good a place to hide as any, Arlon said.

      I guess. Eva gave him a smile. A string of teeth as white as the blazing star. You just point me in their direction. I’ll make sure they’re no trouble.

      I know you will.

      Eva blinked. She looked down at the little off-key fan. She gave it a tap with a long fingernail. Might be time to drydock our baby again, huh Captain?

      Might be. Arlon smiled.

      I was kidding. Marto can have this fixed in no time.

      Marto wouldn’t fit up here.

      A Crested Daison, Marto stood over two meters when he slouched. He had arms the size of a regular human adult’s legs, and legs that were too-often compared to tree trunks. He had brown fur that was like pig bristles. Fortunately the alien smelled more like lavender or lilac than a barnyard animal.

      The lighter-colored fur on his head was closer to human hair. Except that tiny muscles through his scalp could pull the skin forward and raise the hair into a tall, blonde crest.

      His snout was broad and flat, with nostrils where a human cheekbones would protrude. His wide, ready grin, sometimes appeared menacing, but Marto had a big heart. Literally and figuratively. He liked to wrap Eva up in his arms and envelope her almost completely.

      One day, Arlon knew, Marto would pay for that. Eva would dig him in the ribs.

      Arlon had been on the receiving end of that. She wasn’t gentle.

      Marto was one of the few of his species who deigned to travel with humans.

      Mostly the Daisons stayed in their home three systems.

      Aside from the Crested Daisons, and humans, there was only one other species of alien present at Hotterthan. The Rinkles.

      The Rinkles were humanoid. Skinny, squat-headed and talkative–unlike the Daisons. There were hundreds of them among the population. Working on the whole atmospheric construction to make Hotterthan livable without a dome.

      Well, Eva said. Who’s going to fix the fan then?

      Let’s just deal with it when we get home.

      By ‘home’ you mean dome city?

      Arlon sighed. Being in charge of a ship sometimes meant having to stay positive when the rest of the crew could gripe and moan pretty much as often as they liked.

      The other two, Loren Vanderpret and Kame Matsuoda navigated and piloted them efficiently from location to location.

      Tiny Loren would easily fit into the observation cell if it was part of her role to repair fans. Arlon was happy enough that she kept the skip drive operating. She would probably fit in the observation cell right now, even with Arlon and Eva crowding the space.

      Loren Vanderpret had a gene splice from childhood. An alien virus that had affected her at the chromosome level. She would never be any larger. She looked as if she’d stopped growing aged nine or so. Apparently she was over ninety years old already. She’d exchanged size for longevity. Arlon wasn’t sure if he envied her or not.

      Arlon appreciated Loren’s skills with keeping the fragile drive balanced and operating. Once they’d caught this pair–assuming they could–the drive would skip them back to Hotterthan in minutes.

      Not bad for something like eight hundred million kilometers.

      Loren kept the skip drive tuned to perfection. She kept the water tanks filled, and the pumps operating. Arlon understood the barest edges of how the drive worked. Heavy water, ions, interactions with the quantum state of dark matter. Far too many things to keep track of in all that.

      Kame Matsuoda, unlike Loren with her dexterous precision, thought herself clumsy. Arlon hadn’t seen any real evidence of that. A couple of zero-gee breakfast spills, and a nasty cut on her hand when she’d misjudged using a screwdriver.

      When she strapped herself into the pilot’s seat, though, there was nothing clumsy about that. Somehow she could pilot the enormous Luminou’s hull with millimeter precision.

      She’d had a robotic-cybernetic rebuild of her left leg, hip, intestines, kidneys and half her stomach. An explosion aboard one of her first assigned ships had just about killed her. It had killed some of the others aboard. Sometimes she would joke that she had approximately the same amount of human body mass as Loren.

      Kame’s hair was as jet-black as Loren’s was white-yellow-blonde. The three of them liked to poke a little fun at Arlon’s thinning, receding, graying hair.

      Marto never said anything.

      If we pull this off, Arlon told Eva, I figure we can take a month in the dome city. There are some new micro-breweries to try.

      Eva raised her eyebrows. I guess you’ll bring along Beth?

      And you can bring along Ken.

      Eva rolled her eyes. Two weeks ago, I told you. Ken–whose name was actually Peter–received a dismissal from me.

      Peter?

      I told you then. Ken was something like four boyfriends ago. No. Five.

      And he’s history then?

      You know me. Chew ‘em up, spit ‘em out.

      But Eva looked sad. Arlon knew things hadn’t gone well for her for years. She’d actually married once, even come close to having a child.

      But the guy had been killed in an EVA accident. Eva herself saw the irony. No one else ever measured up.

      So, Arlon said. I know a guy who might, you know, be interested in a date or two.

      It was almost a standard patter between them.

      Yeah. You said that when I told you about ditching Peter.

      Right.

      Microbreweries? Eva said. That would be strong beer, right?

      My treat, he said with a nod.

      That’s more like it. And a month, you say?

      Month, six weeks. Something like that. These guys come with a nice return bonus. We’d just need to pick them up quick.

      What’d they do?

      Brief doesn’t say. I figure it’s a couple of tech smugglers.

      Arlon and his crew had been running regular patrols for the company for a couple of months. Occasional rescues of miners out in the barren wastes of Hotterthan. Sometimes pulling a busted, drifting ship back into a safe orbit.

      Very occasionally tracking down some crooks out to profit. With so few people in the system, it always surprised Arlon that a black market existed. That there was anything to be criminal about.

      The company paid well. Mechanicals took care of people’s needs. There was plenty of work to do.

      It might take another twenty or thirty years to build an atmosphere, but that was within most people’s lifetimes. Arlon didn’t see any point in breaking laws. What was there to gain?

      Perhaps, he sometimes mused, it was just wired into some people.

      If it doesn’t say, Eva said, doesn’t that make you suspicious?

      Suspicious?

      That there’s something else going on? Something the Authority isn’t telling you?

      Huh, Arlon said. He figured most people were basically honest. Except for a few wayward souls. If there was something to tell, surely they’d just tell us. If it was important.

      Eva shook her head. Poor naive Captain Stoddard.

      What? He knew she was being good-natured, but it still rankled a bit. He was supposed to be in charge.

      Arlon. It’s very sweet the way you–

      A comms chime interrupted. Followed right away by Loren’s voice. Captain? Bridge. You should get up here.

      What is it?

      We’ve got a ship tracking us. Running parallel. Much too close.

      Arlon looked through the observation cell’s windows. He didn’t see anything except a few stars, the tiny glint of the asteroid Perry, and the bright glow of Crespin.

      Captain?

      On my way. Arlon slipped out feet first. With a quick spin and a grab at a loop, he headed off along the main service companionway.

      #

      In a tired, run-down office at the edge of the suburb of Glimmer, Cale Jarn sat staring at a bowl display. He didn’t like what he saw.

      The faded white walls of the office hadn’t been refurbished since the dome had been established thirty years ago. And then, they’d been slapped up quickly in rushed, exuded construction. The place smelled old and damp. He could even hear creaks as it shifted slightly on its foundations.

      It suited Cale. The building was on the register, but not scheduled for demolition, or reuse, anytime soon. It meant he had the place to himself.

      The desk was faux-oak, and his chair an ancient pitted aluminum thing that must have once been on someone’s deck. The bowl display sat on the desk, a meter-wide quarter sphere. The one decent, modern piece of equipment in the place.

      The tiny kitchen bench behind him had an ancient Wega coffee machine. Still worked just fine.

      On the bowl display, he saw details of a ship. The Luminou. On approach to Perry.

      If they reached the little asteroid, they would undo a lot of good work.

      He couldn’t let that happen.

      Reaching into the bowl, he snapped his fingers to make a call.

      Right away the connection went through.

      Edge Wilton’s rugged face appeared on the display. He looked tired. He’d been Cale’s go-to man for years. Still, Wilton needed to take better care of himself.

      Yes boss? Wilton said.

      Got a job for you. Cale smiled to himself. A minor setback, quickly righted.

      #

      Eva beat Arlon to the bridge. She was always quicker getting around the ship than him.

      On the way through the long central companionway, Arlon noticed a gauge pushing into the red. Just a water coolant back up system, but it was another thing on the list.

      Luminou used a lot of modern sensing systems, but sometimes it was just easier to have a genuine mechanical gauge to keep watch on things.

      Up in the bridge Loren sat at the nav-console chair next to Kame at the pilot’s console. The bridge occupied two levels of the ship’s conning tower. The levels above housed the detection and communication systems.

      Gimballed, cushioned seats managed acceleration and maneuvering. The room was a vague sphere six meters across, with displays and gauges around the sides.

      What is it? Eva said. She let herself drift across to one of the external viewports. There were six. Each an oval the size of a dinner tray. All of them around a hundred and eighty degree arc facing the bow. Behind the bridge lay another observation cell with another hundred and eighty degree view.

      Don’t know yet, Loren said. I’m still trying to pick up the designation.

      We pinged it, Kame said. It’s running anonymous.

      Which means it’s up to no good.

      Figures, Eva said. You think it’s our guys?

      Arlon could see her shivering. Almost doing a little dance. Anticipating the fight.

      Them, Loren said, Or some confederates.

      Eva turned. You mean their gang?

      Sure. Loren had a sandwich or something. She lifted it from a niche in the seat and took a bit. It looked like tuna with mayo. It made Arlon hungry.

      She sailed at him. The ship’s throwing back a big readout.

      Arlon heard a growl from below. Marto hauled himself through the hatchway that led from the main part of the ship. His unusual eyes blinked diagonally at Arlon. Marto kicked across next to Eva. He peered through the window.

      Eww, Eva said. You stink. Did you wash at all? Ever?

      It was a usual joke between the pair. She would tell him he stank, he would grab her in a hug. Fight over.

      But this time he didn’t grab her. He said, It’s big. His resonant, multitimbral voice thick in the bridge space.

      What’s big? Eva said. She looked through the viewport again. Oh.

      We said it was big. Didn’t we? Loren said.

      I’m sure we said that, Kame said.

      You didn’t, Eva said. You really didn’t. Sheesh.

      Real big, Marto said.

      Arlon pulled up beside Kame and looked at her consoles. How big?

      Four times our length, Loren said. At least. She waved at her console, pulling up data from the Luminou’s external sensors. Might be as much as ten times our mass.

      That’s got to be some propulsion system she’s packing, Eva said. Where’s she from? Not local, that’s for sure.

      Can’t extract designation, Kame said.

      Still trying, Loren said.

      Arlon pulled right up to the ports next to Marto. He did smell a bit. Armed? Arlon said.

      Tubes there, Marto said.

      Twisting, Arlon tried to spot the intruder. When he saw it he gave a start.

      Huge.

      Black and orange markings. Some external running lights as if it wanted to be seen. All he could see was the bow, but even just that almost filled the viewport top to bottom.

      Pulling back, Arlon could see more of the vessel through Eva’s viewport.

      It’s matching our velocity? Arlon said.

      Has been since we picked it up, Loren said. Came out of a skip about a thousand klicks astern. Threw on its ultramagnetics and caught us up.

      And made a deceleration burn? To match.

      Exactly.

      Arlon licked his lips. He realized he was scratching at his right forearm. Where his old navy tattoo resided. Not itchy, just a nervous habit.

      Proximity?

      Five hundred and eighty meters.

      Far too close for a ship over a kilometer long.

      And what’s our ETA at Perry?

      One hour thirty.

      Can we give that a hurry up? he said. I don’t like being shadowed.

      We have the fuel for a standard burn and decelerate. We’d have to flip around.

      Why don’t we do that?

      We could make a little skip, Kame said. Which I offer as an alternate suggestion.

      To where? Loren said.

      The asteroid.

      Perry? Arlon said. How far off are we? Skips through effective supra-light speeds were useful for traversing light minutes and light years. Planet to planet, star to star.

      Even then there was always distance to cover. From Hotterthan they’d skipped out to Perry with a pretty good accuracy. It would still take close to a day to cover the remainder of the gap.

      With their conventional ultramagnetic drive, they’d gotten up to speed. Now were cruising in, not far off their deceleration burn.

      An hour and a half out. Probably less than twenty thousand klicks.

      Suggesting a skip to cover a distance like that was tantamount to suicide. Arlon didn’t feel like dying today.

      Let’s just ask what they want, he said. You know, maybe they’re out for a bounty too.

      We’re employees, Eva said. There’s no bounty.

      You know what I mean.

      Really, no. This is a police matter. There’s an arrest warrant. We have a contract to bring them in. If there actually was a bounty on them, then–

      Something else, Marto said.

      He’s right, Eva said.

      I don’t like it, Loren said.

      Skip, Marto said.

      I’m not captaining by committee, Arlon said. He pushed away from the cold viewport. With a kick he drifted to the pilot’s chair. It rocked a fraction as he grabbed hold.

      With deft tugs, he brought himself around to look over Kame’s shoulder.

      She had an array of six displays, each a half meter square. Two rows of three. The bottom row showed external camera views, with overlays of distances and other data. The top row showed data feeds of the ship’s health.

      That’s not magnified, is it? he said, staring at the image of their companion. The black and orange ship occupied two and a half of the displays.

      No, Kame said.

      Do we have a type on here? Freighter? Exploration vessel? Passenger ship way off course?

      Look at it, captain, Loren said. I’d go with battleship.

      Who’s out here to fight?

      Us, Marto said. He kept staring through the viewport.

      He’s right, Eva said. We’re armed. We’re a threat.

      What would we threaten? What’s to defend out here?

      Perry. Eva pushed away and joined him hanging onto Kame’s station. What if there’s a reason our quarry came out here?

      Arlon found himself scratching at his tattoo again. Coincidences didn’t happen out here. If two ships met, there had to be a reason behind it.

      Did you try talking to them? he said.

      No response, Loren said. I could try again.

      Please do.

      We need to talk to home, Eva said. Despatch will give us some details.

      Time factor, Marto said.

      At forty light minutes out they were effectively on their own.

      Arlon reached by Kame. He thumbed a corner of one of the upper screens. It folded out a smaller section so he could query. A couple of waved commands brought up details on their targets.

      Robert Pdeng and Samara Gorde. A pair of juice thieves. They’d hooked into

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