Ringship Discretion Read online

  To my parents, George and Sandra, for raising me well and not stifling my creativity. For always supporting my crazy schemes and ideas....

  Ringship Discretion

  Written By Sean Alexander League

  Copyright 2012

  Characters:

  Captain Atticus Gunther Elliot – He was born on Mars, but moved around a lot as a kid. His father was an engineer for an independent mining company and they moved from asteroid to asteroid. Atticus often spent his free time playing with telescopes or studying rocks. During the FFBB war, he fought against Earth, trying to win freedom and independence for the solar system. However, the big three corporations, who were the main financial backers of the war, became their new masters. He always despised this and felt like he had been used, along with millions of other fighters. After the war, he ended up living on Earth, but was always trying to find a way back into space and a way to get the freedom he sought.

  Amelia Fortrue – Born on Earth, she was too young to participate in the FFBB war, but she saw the devastation it brought. Her father was a starship design engineer. He often took his eldest daughter to work with him and showed her how the new ships worked. He also taught her to fly at a young age. When she was older, she went to flight school and doubled as an engineering student. She met her husband, Burtron Fench, during her second year there. The economy on Earth had never really recovered from the war, so she had a hard time finding work until she met Atticus Elliot at a starship trade show. They instantly felt like they could read each other's minds and he knew she was the perfect pilot for him.

  Ben Gittings – He was born on Ceres asteroid colony and moved around a lot as a kid. His father was an officer in the Asteroid Belt Security forces, back when it was just a policing organization to keep things civil. He met Atticus during the FFBB war and they fought together throughout the war. Atticus came to trust Ben with his life and Ben felt the same about Atticus.

  Ukpana Chernie – Atticus Elliot's first girlfriend. She encouraged him to take wild risks and start his own company, but when he caught her cheating on him and scheming to take his new asteroid tour company away from him, with the help of new investors, he left her. She went on to sue him, out of spite, for the next 5 years.

  Travis 'Doc' Forsythe – He grew up in a small town in western Kansas. His mother and father were veterinarians and owned a clinic together. Unlike most of his friends, Doc liked the peaceful life of the country, but he always had a yearning to explore. After learning so much from his parents, he went on to get his medical degree. However, he found that city life and working in a hospital didn't suit him, although his future wife, Helen, had been a patient of his. He met Atticus and Ben when he was on a trip to visit Asteroid colony hospitals. He thought that he might enjoy working in the "countryside of space", and once he had met Atticus, heard the stories of their life and found out they needed a doctor, he immediately signed up.

  Helen Forsythe – She grew up in Eastern Ontario. Her father ran an import export business shipping consumer electronics to the Moon and beyond. The FFBB war devastated their business and they lost everything. She spent her teenage years barely scraping by, and when she grew up, she took any job she could find. One day she was in a transport accident in Chicago and was rushed to the hospital, where she became a patient of Doc. She instantly fell for him.

  Adelaide Jones (AJ) – Helen's younger sister's son. Also born in Eastern Ontario. His father was a wonderful hard working man who did everything to support his family. His mother was always depressed and felt that her life was worthless. She found happiness in virtual reality games and became addicted. AJ watched as his father tried desperately to help her and make her happy. But in the end, when his father finally retired, he joined her in her virtual world. After that, AJ went to live with his aunt and uncle. This was only a month before the fateful mission that this book describes.

  Lt. Angela Sparrow – She grew up on a large minor planet in the Oort cloud. Her parents had migrated there during the FFBB war. They were fiercely independent and thought living in the cold and darkness of deep space was a small price to pay for the freedom from Earth and the big corporations. When she was a young woman, her parents were killed from sudden depressurization during a vehicle crash. She joined the Oorter military trying to get away from everything that reminded her of that tragedy. She was stationed on Oberon, an outer moon of Uranus. Oberon was bright and warm compared to her home. It also had a thin atmosphere, which she had never seen before. Near the end of her career, she was stationed on the carrier Yorktown.

  Drang – A friend of Atticus from Earth. He often finds Atticus low end jobs hauling contraband.

  Stevens – He works for Earth Security Forces, but makes money on the side selling information. He's known Atticus since the FFBB war.

  Places:

  Oort Cloud – A region of space beyond Pluto, consisting of millions of asteroids, comets and small planetary bodies. A favorite, but harsh place, of those seeking ultimate freedom.

  Io – The inner most large moon of Jupiter. Due to tidal forces between Io, Jupiter and the other moons, Io is extremely volcanically active. Due to Jupiter's intense magnetic field and the matter that Io spews into space with this extreme volcanic activity, a 500 million amp current runs between the planet and the moon. There is a huge ion flux in Io's orbit as well.

  Io Station – In low orbit above Io. Not only does this serve as a mining center for the resources of Io, but it is the main trading post between the inner and outer solar system. Many shady deals occur here and it is known to be way point for smuggling. The Inner Solar System Security forces have tried to shut it down several times, but the ships they send out often don't come back. It has since become a problem they have put off until later. To maintain the outpost, the station has an extremely strong magnetic field of it own. This is an attempt to keep the radiation out and the equipment safe.

  Asteroid Belt – A very sparse collection of asteroids and minor planets located between Mars and Jupiter. This is also the boundary of the Inner Solar System Security forces 'volume of influence'. They want to expand beyond it, but don't have the resources. They patrol this area of space trying to stop any ship smuggling goods through the blockade. This is a rich area of metal production and these resources are channeled back into the inner solar system, or at least they are supposed to be.

  Trojan Asteroids – A collection of asteroids that lead and follow Earth and Jupiter in their orbits.

  Terms:

  Blue Ballers – AKA Blue Balls or BB. A derogatory term used to describe those from Earth.

  Big Sis – Solar System Security forces. They are funded and ruled by the three big corporations who won control of the Solar System from Earth during the FFBB war.

  FFBB war – 'Freedom From Blue Ballers' war. This war was caused by Earth trying to maintain control and taxation over everyone no matter where they were. With the invention of the gravity plate drive, a large percentage of the population and business moved off world. Earth felt threatened by this and tried to stop the migration by force. The backlash was massive devastation to Earth and loss of all power except over their own planet. They even lost jurisdiction over their Moon.

  TC Implant – Telecommunications Implant. Many people have them installed directly into their brains and they run off of neural energy. Allows you to think directly to another person who also has an implant. The tech works great, but one has to be very careful about someone tapping into your brain for information.

  CHAPTER 1: The Discretion

  A ring in the sky.

  Like God's eye.

  But, it's just me,

  trying to be free.

  Capt. Atticus Elliot positioned himself under the art
ificial gravity control (AGC) display interface and tried to open the access panel. Ever since he purchased the Discretion, an old GS ring ship, the AGC plating had been randomly switching on and off, and the changes in gravity had been making him queasy.

  The access panel was stubborn and wasn’t coming off easily, so he reached for the flathead screwdriver to try to pry it lose. He reached all around, even lifting his legs, rolling side to side and feeling under himself. He started to get up and suddenly two gravities slammed him back down. Now, he was pissed. He began feeling around again and found a wrench…”hell, good enough...damn ship!” He whacked the panel’s stuck left lock with the tri-wrench and it made a loud bang and a dent. The gravity returned to Earth normal, which caused him pause for a second. He pulled back the tri-wrench to hit it once more and in doing so, struck the bottom of the AGC interface. The artificial gravity switched back on and the access panel fell off with the corner just missing his face.

  With the panel open, he peered inside. He didn’t really know what he was looking for…just something wrong. He reached up and used the control interface to pull himself farther into the compartment through the access hole. As he did, the artificial gravity switched off again, returning the ship to Earth gravity. Everything in the compartment was covered in dust. Internal starship components weren’t meant to be covered in dust, he thought. He blew away some of the dust with a large puff. This just stirred everything up and he started to cough. "Bad idea." He grabbed a cloth from his pocket and began to carefully dust the components so he could see if anything looked fried.

  Nothing! He couldn’t see anything that looked unusual. Not sure that he knew what unusual would look like, except something obvious, a broken cable, something burnt, something loose; the normal signs of anything mechanical that is broken. As he laid half in the access hole, he heard the hatch open, and before he could ask “Hello?”, he smelled her. His heart started to pound and his throat got tight. Excitedly, he yelled “Just a second!” and pushed himself out of the access hole. When Amelia said “Hi.” from so close, it startled him and he sat up with a start, his head hitting a home run on the bottom of the AGC interface. The artificial gravity switched on again and they both fell to the floor, unprepared for the sudden doubling of their weight. As they both lay there looking at each other, wincing, a thought occurred to him. “Maybe it’s the control display? Every time I touch that damn thing…”. Half of him wanted terribly to get up and pull the panel apart, in the joy that he might have finally found the problem, but the other half just wanted to lie there and look into her blue eyes.

  Amelia started to get up under the strain, and he said “Hold on!” and gave the AGC display a good whack. Without the additional artificial gravity, she flew to her feet almost effortlessly. “Damn! He said. "Why didn’t I try the whack test first!? No matter how advanced or complicated things get, a good whack still works.” She looked at him smiling, trying not to laugh.

  Then she noticed the blood running down his forehead from underneath his scruffy blonde hair. She ran to the galley and got some disposable towels, wetted them and came back. She was helping him get up and he went to reach for the AGC display as support, aborted the moved and fell back to the floor. “Sorry! Didn’t want to touch the display again and have us hit the floor for a second time.” He crawled from underneath the display panel and she helped him up and over to the couch. He was in heaven, smelling her and touching her as she tended to his cut. Being in her arms was the ultimate paradise and for the first time in his life, he could see something that would make him forget all his crazy schemes and dreams of exploration. For everything that he had ever been searching for was right here.

  His hand reached a little too low and she said “Attie, don’t. I’ve gone back to my husband and I can’t.” He pulled his hand away and tried to hold back his emotions as he thought about the last year with her. She sensed it and laid him down, with the piece of disposable towel pressed against his forehead. “Do you have a regenerator in here?”.

  “No.”

  “Well, it's just a small cut, it’ll be OK.” and she bent over and kissed it. He looked into her blue eyes and he could see the dilation of her pupils. Her left hand slowly lifted his shirt and her fingers ran up his chest. She always had a thing for his chest. At first, he let her without trying anything back, but he knew she would let him rub her chest. It was fair and logical. A chest for a chest. And she was a logical woman. Taking the risk, he lifted her shirt. She didn’t respond. His right hand slipped under her bra feeling her erect nipple. She inhaled and withdrew her hand from his chest. She then looked up. “The hatch is open and the windows are clear, people could see!”, but before he could get up to change the conditions, she was already heading out the hatch. She turned around to look at him again as she tucked her shirt back in, and waved her now shaking hand.

  He said “I love you!” and she ran off down the ramp. He stumbled for the main window to watch her go, but as he leaned on the AGC panel to get a better look, the artificial gravity came back on. He laid on the floor for quite a while, drained emotionally and in physical pain. He couldn’t take this anymore. He had to get away.

  When he heard a clang against the hull, he realized that the hatch was still open and the artificial gravity was still on. That wasn’t supposed to happen. The artificial gravity plating was only meant to be used when the ship was sealed, for the ship itself acted as a Ronari Cage, just like a metal box acts as Faraday cage, except this was for gravity. He regained control of his emotions and stumbled over to the hatch and looked at the four door switches that were supposed to tell the system the hatch was open. With quad redundancy, he doubted that this was the problem. It had to all be in the control display panel. Then someone from the outside yelled. “Do you have your AG on?! All my shit is rolling toward your ship!” Atticus slammed the hatch while yelling "Sorry!". He worked his way back to the display panel, whacked it again, and the artificial gravity turned off...again.

  With his head throbbing, he leaned back against the closed hatch door and let his mind wander with thoughts of Amelia. After a few minutes, he tried to make himself think of something else and stumbled to his cabin. He collapsed on his bunk and grabbed one of his favorite rocks off the low shelf, an olivine filled piece from the asteroid Vespa. He rotated it and watched the green sparkles of light dance on the wall. His favorite hobby, and theoretically his business too, was as an interplanetary rock hunter, but it was more of a front now than a business. He made some money at it, but it barely covered his expenses and certainly wasn't enough to cover the price of his lawyer. It had been years since his ex girlfriend, Ukpana Chernie, had sued him and obtained an illegal order to take his ship, a top of the line GS-23 Strato-Frigate. With it "in dispute", the court wouldn't let him have access to it, but he was told he would get it back once the suit was over, assuming he won. It had already been 5 years, and continued strategic delays would surely make it another 5. It was clear, by her constant delaying of the trial, she wasn't interested in the ship or anything else he owned. Her only interest was in hurting him for as long as possible.

  Atticus had been running astrogeology tours, actually more expeditions than tours, out to the asteroid belt or anywhere else that his clients wanted to go. Blueballs, as those who lived on Earth were not so kindly referred to, would pay good money to go explore the exciting frontier that was the asteroid belt; however, they tended not to want to travel past the belt, as the Solar System Independence Security forces, also known as Big Sis, didn't have a lot of influence beyond.

  Since the court drama began, Atticus had owned two ships, both of which were second hand crap. The last ship had almost gotten him killed. He and his crew hadn't really been adrift in space, but part of the hull had buckled and his ship literally went in circles. The ship had standard thrusters, but there wasn't enough fuel to get them anywhere in a "livable" amount of time. He tried to call for help from Big Sis on their emergency channel, but they never came to
his aid. Too busy to rescue people, their primary job was to make sure that the three large corporate conglomerates had secure trade routes, to enforce a blockade of the outer solar system, and to control of the inner Solar system.

  It was a large nickel hauler that happened to pass within 300,000km that picked up their distress call and sent a small shuttle to pick them up. Atticus had to leave the ship and its load of rock behind, but the silver lining, if there was one, was that at least the "real" cargo was small enough to fit into a back pack. He knew that by time he could have gotten back, the ship would have been salvaged, especially since he had sent out the distress call.

  The "real" cargo consisted of brain readers which his crew was smuggling for an unknown client. Brain readers were for government use, only under a court order, and considered illegal otherwise. However, the reality was that corporate agents of the Big Sis used them all the time to read minds and stop the smuggling of restricted goods out of the Inner Solar system.

  When he had managed to deliver the brain readers to the client, the money had been enough to buy another, albeit slightly better, piece of crap, now named the Discretion.

  Brain readers were hand held devices used to read an individual's thoughts. The device sorted the thoughts into general categories and displayed the results. If you were looking for something specific, like someone's birthday, you could conduct a search for that specific thought through the display. This worked well, but if you didn't know what you were looking for, the only way to dig through the huge amount of information was to use your own thoughts, later, to sort and retrieve the wanted data. The scanners were a great device for controlling the less fortunate portion of the population. However, people with money could purchase black market implants to either block these readers or feed them false readings. If one had a little more money, one could get the latest implants, which acted as filters, so the readers would only read the thoughts you wanted to be read. These implants were much harder to detect.