Red Sun Bleeding (21 page)

Authors: Stephen Hunt

Skrat swished his tail thoughtfully. ‘So, this rather begs the question, what do we tell our Mister Durk of what we’ve uncovered?’

‘Absolutely nothing. The fewer people that know about this, the better,’ insisted Lana. ‘The triple alliance, the skein, there isn’t a superpower in the galaxy that wouldn’t chase us to the ends of the universe to get their hands on Calder. Imagine! A key for every Heezy artefact they’ve collected and haven’t got a hope in hell in understanding for the next few millennia. What a mind-skeg. The best Calder could hope for is having his DNA scanned before being locked in a very deep, very secure pit for the rest of his life.’ She didn’t have to say that the more likely option was a trip to a cellular-level incinerator via a very hard, cold dissection table.

‘From what I understand, he’s the last of his family line,’ said Skrat. ‘Hesperus’s ice age was savage… it claimed millions of lives among the original settler group after their civilization collapsed. Mister Durk may well be the only surviving descendant of the original science team that worked on Pluto. He’s quite possibly unique.’

‘We’re all unique, Skrat.’

‘That’s as maybe, but nobody’s willing to kill for
my
blasted DNA. There’s something else,’ said Skrat. ‘I think that Zeno might suspect something of Calder’s true nature. He was plugged into the Heezy control board in the cavern, seeing whatever Sebba was seeing. The professor was about to tell you about something she had noticed, something “impossible”, but Zeno interrupted her before she could finish speaking. What if the good professor had detected the presence of a living Heezy genetic control set interacting with the cavern’s machines?’

‘Zeno’s said nothing to me about Calder?’

‘Maybe he’s considering selling Calder to the highest bidder? The dear boy is utterly priceless, you know. What I discovered hidden in his DNA was enough to give even an honourable chap of my calibre pause to think. I could purchase back my lost position in the nest. Good heavens, I could buy enough voting shares to anoint myself President of the whole blasted skirl home world!’

‘Zeno wouldn’t do that,’ protested Lana. ‘There has to be an alternative explanation for what he discovered down on the planet while plugged in.’

‘Your people place too much faith in your AIs,’ said Skrat. ‘It’s not a mistake you will find many skirls making. We prefer our machines dull, obedient and resolutely without sarcasm and a talent for answering back.’

‘When I came out of a cold sleep capsule as a vegetable, it was Zeno who nursed me back to health. I was nothing more than a penniless amnesiac refugee,’ said Lana. ‘One among thousands. He’s been with me from the start. Zeno’s never betrayed me yet and I can’t believe he ever would.’

‘The android’s survived for over a thousand years – who knows what strange alien perspectives his mind’s developed across the centuries. To him, we’re little more than mayflies flickering out in the dark. A brief dance and… gone. Keep both your eyes and mind open for unpleasant possibilities, captain,’ advised Skrat. ‘That’s all I suggest.’

Unpleasant possibilities?
After this Dollar-sign debacle, she’d need to find something a little more profitable than those to haul across the galaxy. And the irony was, in their latest crewman they had their very own dreams-beyond-avarice-fortune walking around on two legs. Lana snorted and her eyes drifted down to the star charts on her screen. Somewhere in the Edge was a job that paid well and wouldn’t leave the
Gravity Rose
with hull damage.
Somewhere out there
.

Skrat made for the door of her quarters. ‘Maybe you should consider selling Mister Durk, captain. We could all depart the next port as trillionaires.’

‘What, and live it large like a damn episode of
Lives of the Planet Kings
? I have something that most trillionaires will never have,’ said Lana.

Skrat flicked his tail curiously. ‘And that would be?’

Lana reached out and tapped the hull of her ship. ‘Enough.’

FIN

>>>

To receive an automatic notification by e-mail when others books by this author are available for download, use the free sign-up form at
http://www.StephenHunt.net/alerts.php

>>>

Other books for the Kindle by Stephen Hunt…

Six Against the Stars

DESCRIPTION

As the self-proclaimed biggest coward in the galaxy, Horatio has it easy on what passes for 40th century America. A much-favoured sycophant in the court of the King of Earth, Horatio lives in a genetically engineered paradise where there's a vat-grown slave waiting around every marble column with a bunch of grapes to drop into his oh-so perfectly designed mouth.

Unfortunately for Horatio, the artificial intelligence that rules the great mass of humanity spread across the stars has other plans for this feckless seducer. So, if you ever wonder how the galaxy's biggest coward finds himself actually trying to save it, you're not alone... but then, unfortunately, neither is our hero!

His misadventures are abetted by a psychotic Martian warrior, a robot who thinks it's related to Sherlock Holmes, a beautiful genetically enhanced assassin, a scientist with a computer for a brain, and a millennia-old clone who was alive when the last U.S. President was executed by a firing squad.

It's six against the galaxy. Six against the stars. They'll save the universe... but they might damage it first.

GRAB IT FROM

For Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005D3W6U6

For Amazon UK

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005D3W6U6

For Amazon Canada

http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B005D3W6U6

For Amazon Germany

http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005D3W6U6

For Amazon France

http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B005D3W6U6

For Amazon Spain

http://www.amazon.es/dp/B005D3W6U6

For Amazon Italy

http://www.amazon.it/dp/B005D3W6U6

>>>

Sliding Void (Book 1 of the Sliding Void science fiction series)

DESCRIPTION

Captain Lana Fiveworlds has a hell of a lot of problems.

She's sliding void in an ageing seven-hundred-year-old space ship, scrabbling around the edges of civilised space trying to find a cargo lucrative enough to pay her bills without proving so risky that it'll kill her. She's got an alien religious freak for a navigator, an untrustworthy android for a first mate, a disgraced lizard for a trade negotiator and a deserter from the fleet acting as her chief engineer.

And that was well before an ex-crewman turns up wanting Lana to rescue a barbarian prince from a long-failed colony world.

Unfortunately for Lana, the problems she doesn't know about are even more dangerous. In fact, they just might be enough to destroy Lana's rickety but much-loved vessel, the Gravity Rose, and jettison her and her crew into the void without a spacesuit.

But there's one thing you can never tell an independent space trader. That's the odds...

GRAB IT FROM

For Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005V2H54G

For Amazon UK

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005V2H54G

For Amazon Canada

http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B005V2H54G

For Amazon Germany

http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005V2H54G

For Amazon France

http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B005V2H54G

For Amazon Spain

http://www.amazon.es/dp/B005V2H54G

For Amazon Italy

http://www.amazon.it/dp/B005V2H54G

>>>

Transference Station (Book 2 of the Sliding Void science fiction series)

DESCRIPTION

Are things finally looking up for Captain Lana Fiveworlds? She's managed to reach what passes for civilisation in the wild border systems of the Edge - Transference Station - the largest trading hub in the free worlds. With her ramshackle starship, the Gravity Rose, safely docked, she's now desperately searching for a cargo to stave off bankruptcy.

Lana's crew needs paying - including the amorous barbarian prince she rescued from a failed colony world. But her crew have other priorities: the ship's android, Zeno, is distracted by terrible secrets from his past, while her alien navigator, Polter, runs into trouble indulging his religious fervour.

If that wasn't enough, there's a deal available... but only from the dodgiest broker in a thousand planets. With rival starship captains looking to sabotage Lana for good, and a dangerous mission to a mysterious planet which is far more than the lies she's been spun, things can only get worse from here on in.

Lana Fiveworlds and her crew of misfits are still sliding void, just, but for how much longer?

Sometimes, the brown stuff piles up so high you need antigravity thrusters to fly over it.

GRAB IT FROM

For Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006H6Y6EW

For Amazon UK

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006H6Y6EW

For Amazon Canada
http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B006H6Y6EW

For Amazon Germany

http://www.amazon.de/dp/B006H6Y6EW

For Amazon France

http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B006H6Y6EW