Subgenre: Space Opera, Military Science Fiction
Release date: February 21, 2019
About Digital Assassin:
New technology allowed humans to reach for the stars. Now technology has led to war.
Opposing AI systems battle in a monumental struggle for control of the galaxy. But one planet remains a refuge of independent thought. Lute is home to pirates, harboring ruthless companies of warships hunting for prey.
The pirates are offered the spoils of war, for a price. Captain Christopher Raleigh leads his crew in an effort to snag a lucrative transport on the opposing side. Along with the ship, he snares the Tetrarch’s daughter and several hundred indentured servants.
But not all are who they seem. As the bodies pile up, Raleigh has to figure out who is telling the truth and decide if the spoils of war are truly worth it.
Opposing AI systems battle in a monumental struggle for control of the galaxy. But one planet remains a refuge of independent thought. Lute is home to pirates, harboring ruthless companies of warships hunting for prey.
The pirates are offered the spoils of war, for a price. Captain Christopher Raleigh leads his crew in an effort to snag a lucrative transport on the opposing side. Along with the ship, he snares the Tetrarch’s daughter and several hundred indentured servants.
But not all are who they seem. As the bodies pile up, Raleigh has to figure out who is telling the truth and decide if the spoils of war are truly worth it.
Excerpt:
Phoom!
Light spiderwebbed across the holoscreen, making Rodrigo
Diego-Rodriguez jump in the pilot’s seat. When it dissipated a ship
remained, filling up the area in front of his command
console.
The vessel looked powerful and dark, with sleek gleaming metal
glinting in the starlight. And it looked big, he thought. Much
bigger than a typical spaceship.
He quickly relaxed and stretched happily, flexing muscular arms and
clasping hands behind his head. His grin flashed bright white
teeth. They matched the white t-shirt he wore above gray pants and
brown combat boots. His dark hair was cut short, military style.
He touched the implant below his ear and mentally slid through the
contact list. His eyes stopped on “Raleigh, Christopher.” Focusing,
he made the connection.
He said, “We got one, Captain.”
The reply came back instantly.
“I’ll be right there, Roddy.”
Roddy smiled at the three-dimensional image displayed before him.
The screen stretched three meters long, making it appear the front
part of the bridge was transparent and open to space. The
holoscreen looked as realistic as possible, but Roddy knew if he
walked into it he’d bump into the wall instead of drifting off into
space.
But Roddy was not thinking about that. He was thinking about the Wu
Drive incapacitation grid he and the other crewmembers had
assembled in this sector.
The Wu Drive, Roddy would be happy to tell anyone who listened, was
developed by Elixabeth Wu, a researcher working for LSU back on
Earth many years ago. Faster than light travel remained impossible,
per se. But teleportation proved easier to accomplish. Researchers
were able to port small items short distances in the lab, starting
at the molecular level. They worked their way up until finally they
could move large objects long distances.
Wu had the brilliant idea of attaching a teleportation device to a
space ship. It worked as an engine of sorts, porting the ship from
point to point instantly. The engines could port ships out of the
solar system in a matter of seconds. Computers were developed to
plot courses so that ships would not pop into the middle of a star
or other undesirable locations.
All of a sudden, deep space travel became attainable, and humans
spread out to explore the Milky Way.
Roddy would be happy to share this, but it was common knowledge. He
smiled, though, wondering what Elixabeth would think about the
results of her invention. No doubt she’d be happy to know that
people finally realized her name was spelled correctly, just the
way her parents intended, with an ‘x’ instead of a ‘z’ in the
middle . . .
The door to the bridge opened and Christopher Raleigh walked in.
Taller than Roddy by a couple inches at six foot three, or 190
centimeters, he too looked young and fit. He had dirty blond hair
and bright blue eyes allegedly able to steal the heart of any woman
from Lute to Telluride Prime.
Not that he cared. The captain was a famous bachelor, avoiding
entangled relationships in favor of his ship.
“What did we get, Roddy? Oh . . .”
Roddy grinned at him and said, “That’s right. ‘Oh.’ This, Captain,
is a Mammoth-class, A-level transport ship. We got ourselves a real
honey pot.”
Raleigh nodded at the column of figures floating in the air next to
the ship’s image.
He said, “What are the numbers, Lootie?”
LuteNet responded, her voice seeming to originate out of thin
air.
She said, “Scans indicate 1,102 humans onboard, Captain. I sense an
abundance of biocollars. I’m opening a line of communication with
StarCen to determine if indeed all the biocollars represent
indentured servants.”
Raleigh said, “A hold full of indents, huh? That would explain why
they need such a big ship. Humanitarian standards dictate size and
living space requirements based on passenger volume.”
“Yes it does,” Roddy rubbed his hands in delight. “What do you
figure? About ten thousand per indent?”
Raleigh chuckled and said, “Probably double that. With the war
going on, there’s not too many new servants coming online. These
will likely fetch a premium. But don’t start counting your credits
yet, Roddy. First, we’ve got to capture her.”
He made a mental command and shifted his neural com to the ship’s
public address channel.
“Okay, people! We’ve got an A-level Mammoth-class transport in our
net, with about 800 indents onboard plus a couple hundred other
folks. This should be a very lucrative haul if we can reel her in.
Kim and Pak, send out the drones!”
“Aye, Captain!”
One of them had hailed back to him on the neural network, but he
did not see which one. The two men often worked as a single unit.
Roddy and Raleigh watched as 200 attack drones sallied forth. They
launched out of Ultima Mule’s transport bay, filling the bridge’s
holoscreen as they screamed toward the giant ship.
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About Jaxon Reed:
Jaxon Reed is a science fiction and fantasy author. Amazon's digital imprint, Kindle Press, selected his book The
Empathic Detective for publication through Kindle Scout. Recently
the sequel, Ghostsuit, was also awarded a publishing contract
through Kindle Scout. He is the author of Thieves & Wizards, an
epic fantasy, and The Redwood Trilogy, a science fiction series.
Jaxon is an Aggie, living in Texas on a ranch with his wife and
boys, several cats, and one pound dog.
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