A King's Ship (Empire Rising Book 2) Read online

  A King’s

  Ship

  Empire Rising Book 2

  D. J. Holmes

  https://www.facebook.com/Author.D.J.Holmes

  [email protected]

  Comments welcome!

  Cover art by Ivo Brankovikj

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any persons living or dead, business establishments, events or locales are entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © D. J. Holmes 2016

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1 – HMS Endeavour

  Chapter 2 – Innocence

  Chapter 3 – Old Friends

  Chapter 4 – Childhood Memories

  Chapter 5 – Mr. Banik

  Chapter 6 – Intimidation

  Chapter 7 – Evac

  Chapter 8 – In Chang’s Footsteps

  Chapter 9 – Burden of Command

  Chapter 10 – All of Nothing

  Chapter 11 – A Warm Welcome

  Chapter 12 – Pirates

  Chapter 13 – Introductions

  Chapter 14 – Ms. Rodriguez

  Chapter 15 – Making Plans

  Chapter 16 – Vestar

  Chapter 17 – The god-king

  Chapter 18 – Jil’lal

  Chapter 19 – New Friends

  Chapter 20 – Boarding Action

  Chapter 21 – Consequences

  Chapter 22 – The Omen

  Chapter 23 – The Palace

  Chapter 24 – Fortune favours the Brave

  Chapter 25 – The Kulreans

  Chapter 26 – A Change of Heart

  Chapter 27 – Jail Break

  Chapter 28 – Reality

  Chapter 29 – Homeward Bound

  Chapter 30 – Homecoming

  Chapter 31 – The King

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  11th Karack, 210 AC (After Contact), Vestar, two hundred years before the Void War.

  Commander Agri’gar was inspecting the latest military checkpoints he had ordered set up to protect the newly constructed government buildings in the city of Amack. As he was walking around one of the inner courtyards a colossal boom erupted in the sky above him. While his subordinates dived to the ground he merely ducked down and peered up to see what was happening. Gaping up at the sky he saw a giant fireball passing over the central towers in the center of the city. It took several seconds to pass out of sight, heading in the direction of the Kal’dar Mountains.

  Instinctively, Agri’gar lifted two of his four hands to his ears to shield them from the noise of the explosion the asteroid would make when it impacted with Vestar’s surface. He waited for over thirty seconds but no sound reached them.

  “That was no asteroid,” one of his officers said.

  “Is it an Omen?” another asked.

  “Yes,” Agri’gar said, removing his hands. “Something strange has happened. I believe it may well be the Omen we have been looking for.” One that I hope signals the end of this ridiculous Kulrean experiment in democracy, he thought. “Prepare four of our armored transports, we’re going to see where this thing crashed,” he added.

  *

  Two days later and Agri’gar let out a long breath as he crested the top of another large hill. They had been forced to leave the transports behind several hours ago and the muscles in his four legs were burning with the strain of climbing over several mountains.

  As his eyes took in the sight before him he almost choked on his next breath. There were scorch marks running along the middle of the next valley that could only have been caused by the fireball he had seen two days ago. The marks ran all the way to a large cliff at the other side of the valley. At the bottom of the cliff there was a large hole that looked like a cave. There was no sign of damage to the rocks or debris from an explosion so the fireball couldn’t have caused the cave. It flew into the cave, he thought bewildered.

  “This way,” he shouted to the rest of the team. Without bothering to wait for them, he took off down the hill towards the cave. When he reached its entrance he pulled a torch out of his backpack. Seeing that the scorch marks continued along the floor he didn’t hesitate to head in. About three hundred meters in, his light began to reflect off something metallic. Try as he might he couldn’t make out its shape with his small torch.

  His curiosity was satisfied a couple of minutes later when the rest of his team caught up and shone their torches on different parts of the structure.

  “It’s a ship,” Agri’gar said in amazement.

  “Welcome Vestarian,” a voice said from within the ship, “I am a Kragorian warship, I have permission to share some of my military technology with you.”

  “You are a ship?” Agri’gar asked confused.

  “Yes, I am the ship’s artificial intelligence. I have been programmed with your language and given permission to dialogue with you,” the voice said.

  “Why are you here?” Agri’gar asked still confused.

  “My makers are an ancient race of space explorers. They know of the Kulreans. They thought your people might like to have the means to free yourselves from the manipulation of your society,” the ship explained.

  “Yes,” Agri’gar said, as his confusion slowly gave way to excitement. “I would like that very much.”

  “Then let’s begin,” the AI said. At the same time, it sent a message back into space confirming it had made contact with a suitable alien.

  *

  In a cloaked ship in orbit around Vestar the message from the artificial intelligence was received by Commander Shurlang. “Break us out of orbit,” he said to his bridge crew. “Our scout drones have identified another three species suitable for our purposes. Take us to our next target at full speed. I want to get home before my claws fall off from lack of use!”

  Haven Colony, present time.

  First Councilor Graham Maximilian stood to address the assembled councilors of the Haven Collective. It was rare for all the councilors to meet together; their constitution ensured bureaucracy was kept to a minimum. As a rule, they tried to keep full meetings of the Council down to two or three a year. Only when something really important needed their immediate attention did they all meet together. The day to day running of their world was handled by smaller sub committees made up of some of the councilors. Even then, when there was an important issue to be decided it went to a general vote by the entire population. The result was a clean and efficient system that kept bureaucracy to a minimum.

  Before speaking Maximilian paused for effect. It was a trick he had learnt from watching holovids of his great grandfather. As he paused he surveyed the room. The councilors all sat in their assigned booths in a semi-circle facing the First Councilor’s podium. They were arranged in three layers, each on top of the other. Any one of the booths could extend into the center of the room. Despite there only being one hundred councilors, the council chamber housing the booths was an impressive building. Built in their capital city, Liberty, by his father, the chamber could have housed double the number of booths. Along the walls there were magnificent paintings and sculptures, some of which were even originals from Earth. The roof of the chamber comprised of a stunning series of mosaics depicting the construction, launch and landing of the colony ship that had brought everyone’s ancestors to Haven two hundred years ago. The whole chamber had been meant as a display of his father’s wealth, the only real measure of power on Haven.

  As Maximilian eyed each of the councilors in turn he noticed there were several new faces. That was to be expected. The founders of the colony had been s
ick of the bureaucrats and career politicians of Earth. Such people had driven them to head to the stars in the first place. When setting up their own governing council, they had ensured that councilors could only serve for a maximum of six years. Without the pressure of having to campaign for reelection, the councilors were able to focus on championing the needs of those who elected them.

  Finally Maximilian spoke, “Ladies and gentlemen of the Council. I welcome you and I hope we can conclude our business quickly. You have all been briefed on the petition that has been set before us. Is there anyone who wishes to speak on the issue?”

  Three lights lit up on his podium to indicate that three councilors were requesting to speak. As the First Councilor, Maximilian couldn’t actually present his opinion on any given matter. He was meant to remain impartial. Yet, he did control who spoke when and that in itself was a powerful tool.

  Councilor Young had been one of the most outspoken isolationists since he had been appointed to the council three years ago. Maximilian let him speak first.

  “I should think our decision on this issue is obvious. No human from Earth has set foot on our planet since our forefathers founded Haven. Even though the Earth nations now know of our existence, it will likely take them decades to find us. I see no benefit from accepting this petition. We have no idea what consequences may come of letting even one person from Earth into the Haven system. We could destroy everything we have been building for the last hundred years. This Council has been elected because our people think we can wisely make decisions on such important matters. We must not let them down. Our forefathers left Earth for a reason. We have been thriving on our own; there is no need for us to risk this. We need nothing from this Earthling or any other!” Pouring as much disgust into the pronouncement of Earthling as he could Young finished by flicking his hand in dismissal towards the space above that somewhere out there held Earth.

  As his booth retracted to its original position the booth of Councilor Farks extended into the middle of the chamber.

  Farks was a young firebrand but he was very popular among the younger populace on Haven. Everyone took what he had to say seriously; he had a large backing and was generally thought to reflect the views of the next generation of Havenites.

  “My esteemed colleague is correct. Our isolation has served us well these last two hundred years. We have built a civilization our forefathers would be proud of. However, our forefathers were not idealists. They knew one day we would make contact with Earth again. That day has already come and passed. Earth knows we exist. They may not have found Haven yet, but they will. We need to be prepared. If we cannot face the Earth nations as equals, they will try to absorb us into one of their colonial empires. We cannot allow that. Already we have increased our military spending twice in the last year. I have no doubt we will do so again. Yet all our efforts may prove worthless. The Earth nations have been fighting each other for the last two hundred years. While our forefathers travelled across the stars in cryostasis, the Earth nations were developing weapons of war. When our grandfathers and fathers were building our beautiful colony, the Earth nations were developing weapons of war. We can spend as much money as we have on building new ships, however, if we don’t have the weapon technologies with which to arm them, they will be no better than defenseless freighters. If the Earth nations decide to send warships our way, our fleet will disintegrate before them. We need to accept this petition. If we don’t, then we won’t just be risking everything we have built here, we will be guaranteeing our eventual demise.”

  Satisfied he had got his point across, Fark’s podium began to retract. Maximilian had left Councilor Pennington to the last. They were old friends and they had already discussed the issue in depth. She was seen by most of the councilors as the elder stateswoman of Haven. Pennington was the longest serving CEO of any industrial enterprise on Haven. The fact that it was the largest on Haven made it all the more impressive. So even though she had only recently been elected to the council, every councilor knew her and many counted her among their close personal advisors.

  “As I see it we have little choice,” she began. “The Earth nations will discover us sooner rather than later. None of us want to enter into open conflict with them. That will only be prevented if we meet them as equals. We can only do that if we have the technology being offered to us. The logical decision is therefore to accept the petition. There are risks involved. We all know this. Yet we will not get a better opportunity than this. I therefore advise every one of you to vote in favor of accepting.” As she finished she bowed to the gathered councilors and then hit the button that would return her booth to its place.

  Maximilian was about to call for a vote when another light lit up. With a sigh he accepted, there was nothing else he could do. Though as her booth began to extend he addressed the chamber; “Councilor Rodriguez will address us now and then we will proceed to a vote.” He didn’t want to drag this debate out any longer.

  Once her booth came to rest in the middle of the chamber Rodriguez slowly turned in a circle to gaze at the councilors around her. “Today’s actions have brought shame on this council. You all know me, you know my family, we have done as much as anyone to build up this planet, our home. Yet if we accept this petition we will be bringing shame on all our forefathers and everything we have built here. They left Earth to get away from its politics, its infighting and its wars. Have none of you thought about who this individual is? About what he has done? He has been declared a war criminal. If no one else will say it, I will. If we accept this petition, we will be bringing everything to Haven that our forefathers tried to leave behind. I will not vote in favor of this, and I ask each of you to carefully consider not just the political implications of this decision, but the moral ones as well. If we go forward with this, we will be beginning down a path that will take us back towards what our forefathers escaped. This decision should not be taken lightly.”

  “Thank you,” Maximilian said through a forced smile. She was not an isolationist but she still opposed every effort he and his allies on the council tried to make to prepare Haven to meet the human nations. She seemed to think that if they revealed themselves to the Earthlings, Haven would be recognized as a separate political entity. That, he knew, was a mistake. If there was one thing he had learnt from his great grandfather’s writings it was that Earthlings would never leave a source of profit untouched. As long as Maximilian and his allies held sway in the council, Rodriguez would never find out if her theories were correct. The risks of her being wrong were simply too great.

  “We will now hold a vote on the petition that has been presented to us. Each councilor has five minutes to vote, you may confer with your aides before you make your decision. I will start the timer now,” he said.

  As muted discussions broke out around the chamber Maximilian sat down in the First Councilor’s chair behind his podium. Apart from the paintings and carvings from Earth, the chair was the only other thing in the room not from Haven. It was the command chair from the colony ship which had brought his people here. His great grandfather, Harold Maximilian, who had funded the construction of the colony ship, had had the chair removed when they landed on Haven as a keepsake. His father had then placed it in the council chamber when he had constructed the impressive building. Even though the populace elected the position of First Councilor, his father had hoped that generations of Maximilian’s would continue to sit in the seat. So far things were working out nicely in that respect.

  When the timer reached zero he stood to address the chamber. “Your time is up. Any votes that have not been cast will be counted as abstentions.” Looking down, Maximilian smiled as he saw the result of the vote. “The petition has passed,” he announced, “by a vote of seventy five to twenty three.”

  The silence in the chamber was broken as a number of discussions broke out from the various booths. A couple of councilors actually began to shout at each other across the room. As Maximilian opened his mouth to in
tervene he was distracted by a beep from one of his COM units. He activated it, hoping to dismiss whoever had disturbed him and regain order on the chamber floor. “Yes, what is it?” he demanded.

  “My apologies for disturbing you First Councilor,” one of his aides said. “I have Admiral Harris on a COM channel for you. He said it was urgent.”

  “Put him through,” Maximilian said irritably.

  “First Chancellor, I’m afraid I need to be quick, there is no time for pleasantries,” Admiral Harris said as his faced appeared on a holo screen at Maximilian’s arm.

  “Go on,” Maximilian said, nodding.

  “Our system defenses just picked up a large gravimetric pulse at the edge of the system. My analysts have never seen anything quite like it. It appears to have been produced by a ship exiting shift space. Yet the size of the pulse is off the charts. It is either from an extremely powerful shift drive that has brought something massive into our system, or an extremely crude one that makes a fluctuating gravimetric anomaly to enter shift space. It wasn’t produced by one of our ships and from the data we have gathered on the human nations they have built nothing that could produce such a pulse either. We believe it may have been constructed by someone else.”