The Wars of Zegandaria by Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov (find a book to read .txt) 📕

- 'Seal the breach quickly,' he ordered. 'We have a nanoprobe on board for emergencies.'

The small nanoprobe was immediately switched on and began tending to the wound, carefully patching the hole in the suit.

The shuttle was being fired at hard by the plasma weapons, but once they turned on the shield, it became virtually untouchable by those ordinary weapons. They needed proton bombs, and there were none on the colony.

Pindor was still picking up a soul on a gravity bed and was in a waking coma from which he might never emerge. No one on board had the medical training to care for his wounds more professionally, and only the nanoprobe and strong antibiotics given to him from time to time by the captain kept him in a state of lethargy.

Kenji couldn't help but notice it. He was prisoner 421, whom he had personally transported to this hellhole.

Penrose noticed his reaction.

- 'Admiral, what has happened to you!,' he asked seriously.

- I don't know either, but the whole crew of the ship just disappeared,’ he muttered.

Penrose gave him a puzzled look. But rather tensely. He realised that they might as well not have returned safely to Zegandaria at all.

Kenji walked over to the cellmate's bed and looked at him. He definitely looked calm now. Some particular bliss was written all over his face. The nanoprobe had used a special diffusion process of a special coagulant and a special vacuum probe to suck dried blood and foam from the sufferer's face. This took a few minutes.

- 'Who knows what happened!,' said Kenji indignantly.

- 'We are soldiers, Rear Admiral. But a huge mutiny has broken out in the colony. 'It's not safe for us to go back there,' Penrose added rather guiltily.

- 'But we can go back aboard the Enzoria and use its resources, can't we,' Kenji asked.

Penrose hesitated. That was quite out of the charter. How could he refuse a superior officer, plus if there was a mutiny in the colony, and something so unusual had happened to the Enzoria, they wouldn't be welcomed with open arms on Zegandaria. Finally, he made up his mind.

- 'Set a running speed of four parsecs,' ordered Captain Penrose.

The spacewalk was definitely something strange. Gravity, even in the distant future, was full of many uncertainties. But one thing was certain, superluminal speed was possible. Type three tachyon engines were capable of warping space and forming so-called zero time tunnels. The speed of the tachyons in question was strictly greater than the maximum speed of light in a vacuum. Penrose never took excessive risks. There were rumors of captains fond of the experiments who had disappeared without a trace as a result of course miscalculations. Another utterly dilettante mistake was to stumble upon some magnetar that would simply tear their flesh to shreds.

Pindor winced. It was highly unusual for someone who had fallen into an awake coma to do so, but according to medical theories, the patient might as well have come out of that state suddenly.

- 'Where am I?,' he asked with all his strength.

- 'Safe,' Kenji answered him, 'this ship saved us both, you'll tell me all about it when you're better.'

^^^

David Penrose certainly knew his business, but what was his surprise when, on changing course, he spotted a flying object some 0, 1 astronomical units away.

- 'There's something there!,' he cried. 'Yeah, heroes, brace yourselves!'

- 'It says 'Emsato 199',' Kenji called.

- No doubt, it's a companion ship, but what's it doing all the way out here, so many light years from Zegandaria?

The ship's battered hull gave away the obvious presence of an aboarding party. There were no signs of life. The ship had its engines shut down. The emergency lights were not on either.

- 'Be on the lookout,' added Penrose. 'Get the plasma weapons ready, just in case.'

After a while the ship was close enough to them. However, there was no way they could retract it, as it was considerably larger than Kenji's capsule.

It would be proper to describe the fact that this ship had no real chance of fighting even against a heavily armed transport shuttle like the Emzirou. It was Zorin's idea; who as an experienced military man liked to pretend he was a ‘dead fox’. It was all well planned. The crew of the ship, was jettisoned into open space, again Zorin's idea. He didn't care about the methods at all, as long as everything went according to his views. He had prepared himself well enough.

Sasia had never operated anything other than a combat speeder and was mainly familiar with aerial vehicle avionics, but this was still a spaceship. Still, she had tried to keep up and keep the ship on autopilot until they overcame the planet's gravity. After that, they floated completely free in open space. They were not spotted by any patrol or other ships.

Nearly two weeks was enough to get them significantly far from the planet's orbit.

‘The Emzirou was on full combat alert. Penrose sent the crew for the weapons and settled himself in the shuttle's cockpit, giving the vice-captain a chance to rest a bit. As soon as they were close enough, Penrose ordered the engines and all main power to the Emzirou shut down. Only the emergency power was left running at minimum load.

- 'The captain of this ship is very clever,' Zorin said. 'This is going to be a game of nerves. His against ours. But Uncle Zorin has dealt with more serious opponents.'

Sasia, Endwight and Neola just kept quiet. Their hands were untied, but Zorin kept an eye on them, and they didn't want to risk his proverbial gunslinger's reflexes.

- 'Think of me as a prisoner,' he spoke suddenly. 'You will be believed because you are from Ubunder. And an Elohyn like me would make him a head shorter.'

Zorin quickly instructed them, explaining how to embellish the story to make it more believable. Neola, knew what he was talking about.

- 'Tie him up,' she ordered Sasia and Endwhite.

They quickly carried out the order. Zorin was bound from head to toe.

- 'Now turn on the emergency lights,' Zorin advised them.

His instructions were duly carried out.

Penrose, however, did not fall for the trap.

- There might be an army hiding in that shell. Send just one Oxygenist to unpressurize her hull. If they engage their defenses suddenly, we'll open deadly fire and still incinerate them instantly.

The oxygenist was put into a spacesuit and sent, tethered by a thick aelyron rope, to the hull of the companion ship. He lost a lot of time while cutting the ship's synth hatch. Certainly such a sight in open space looked exotic.

- 'The cabin is unpressurized,' he radioed.

- 'Acknowledged,' replied Penrose curtly.

- I see several people, they appear to be unarmed. Two women and two men. They appear to be one of ours.

- 'Don't be so sure,' stammered Penrose. 'It could just be a hoax. Take them out one by one. Just to be on the safe side.'

As soon as everything was executed to the last comma, our adventurers found themselves face to face with the captain.

- 'Who are you?,' he asked them calmly. His eyes regarded them questioningly.

- 'I am Neola, the military doctor. This is Endwhite - one of the soldiers, this is Sasia,' a military pilot, and this is Zorin - an Elohyn commander.

Penrose whistled in surprise.

- 'And where are you running off to with that prisoner?,' he sneered. 'He had hoped to easily expose their shallow lie.'

- 'Actually, we weren't running away?,' replied Sasia, in all seriousness.

- 'And what were you doing?,' said Penrose, genuinely amused.

- 'Well, we'd just agreed to leave the planet with this captive,' she replied bluntly.

- 'And why?,' Perose continued to persist.

- 'Because we found treachery in command and decided to do our warrior duty,' Sasia called passionately.

Penrose became completely serious.

- You're just deserters, my girl, don't push these cheap numbers on me. To an old wolf like me they'll be hard to pass. I know what's going on out there right now. But you're right about the betrayal. There really is. But we haven't uncovered it yet either. It seems to be really extensive though.

- 'What are you going to do with us?,' inquired Endwhite.

- 'We're not going to kill you, or dump you mercilessly into open space!,' said Penrose simply. 'You deserve respect, at least, for hijacking one of the main satellite ships, and also for acting as a team. We are also teetering on the edge of galactic law. Richwater, our Rear Admiral's adjutant, was also escorted by us.'

Kenji paled.

- 'Then you serve Elmbaum, don't you?,' he asked, slightly annoyed.

- I serve no one, Rear Admiral, our college is independent and exists outside the chain of command, but still has some ties to it.

- 'Is he still in the colony?,' inquired Kenji.

- 'Probably,' replied Penrose unperturbed. 'I didn't know he was your adjutant then. I found out later.'

- 'What are we going to do?,' asked Endwhite.

- As things stand, there is nothing for us to do but go to the Unknown Quadrant, which is beyond all legal jurisdiction. At least there we won't be treated as traitors and deserters. Nor will they have the courage to look for us there.

The Unknown Quadrant was officially off-limits to exploration and included star systems of unknown species. However, there were supposed to be many pulsar stars there, or what are called among astrophysicists ‘zombie stars.’

- 'Let's go,' called Penrose. 'Reverse course.'

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: A NEW REALITY

Elmbaum intended to head right for the Unknown Quadrant, where it was a little-known fact that there was also a planet with perfectly suitable conditions for life. Fear of cosmic radiation and the vast, unimaginable distance would have stopped any daredevils who might possibly have sought to hold him to account for his outrages. Gordon knew he had technically failed, but life was much kinder. He wasn't going to sacrifice himself for anything or anyone. He wasn't an idealist; he was a practitioner.

The unfamiliar quadrant appealed to him, since Colony 206, to begin with, was not a very sustainable space settlement. It had been established twenty years ago.

The riches he had captured he would use to create a closed-loop economy based on gambling and various forms of space farming. He knew that according to some rumors, former daredevils and prisoners had gone there. That was where he and his 'retinue' had to go, and they had no choice but to follow him. He had to do his job conscientiously.

The space platform had departed, it would carry the riches into free orbit, where they would be overloaded.

Chris Zonrethis was his partner, and officially Gene Paley.

The alliance between the three seemed unbreakable, as Elmbaum still needed them. He had to tread carefully.

They flew out exactly at the appointed time. Gordon took one last look at this planet, which in that moment of self-forgetfulness seemed to him like a big nothing. Easily replaceable and not all that valuable.

Later, however, he clearly realized that they had quite a way to go until they reached their final destination after all.

He also remembered the deception with General Zengal. 'That hologram was my idea. I easily fooled their pilot. I knew all of Elizandra's plans. Always acting so conspiratorial, and I win with