Beyond the Frontier
Book two in the United Star Systems series
J. Malcolm Patrick
© 2017
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
For my family and all their patience while I lock myself away in solitude. For Joshua, who keeps daddy company even when daddy is grumpy.
Books in this series
Border Worlds
Beyond the Frontier
Unite the Frontier (November 15th, 2017)
Contents
Chapter 1 - Constellation
Chapter 2 – We’re Going In
Chapter 3 – Dark Dreams
Chapter 4 – Horsing Around
Chapter 5 – You Were Never Alone
Chapter 6 – The Box
Chapter 7 – Outer Rim
Chapter 8 – A Good Crew
Chapter 9 – Shame
Chapter 10 – Unspoken Rules
Chapter 11 – My Favorite Table
Chapter 12 – Heart of a Lion
Chapter 13 – Twenty Fifth Century Mr. Rogers
Chapter 14 – Resist
Chapter 15 – Stick To Flying
Chapter 16 – Not Just Jarheads
Chapter 17 – No Love Lost
Chapter 18 – No Quarter
Chapter 19 – That Looks Painful
Chapter 20 – The Man
Chapter 21 – Special Crew
Chapter 22 – Saddle Up
Chapter 23 – Good Odds For Any Marine
Chapter 24 – Light ‘Em Up
Chapter 25 – All You Have Left
Chapter 26 – No Giant Too Large
Chapter 27 – I’m Taking You Home
Chapter 28 – Hold A Little Longer
Chapter 29 – Incoming
Chapter 30 – For Yuri
Chapter 31 – They’re Ours Now
Chapter 32 – All You Have Left
Chapter 33 – And Onward To Great Glory
Chapter 1 - Constellation
“There are so many small colonies declaring independence and forming new alliances—grand in name mostly” – Commander Avery Alvarez
Interstellar Space
2.3 light-years from Terran Union Territory
United Star Systems Covert Operations Ship: Endeavor
September, 2475
One week had passed since the United Fleet deep-space survey vessel Constellation vanished. The missing ship had been investigating an unusual concentration of exotic matter detected near the Terran Union—a small enclave which shared a spatial border with the United Star Systems.
A preliminary report dispatched by the survey ship, raised hopes it had discovered another powerful source of exotic matter—a source pivotal for advanced starship construction and design.
That was the final transmission received from Constellation.
Commander Avery “Vee” Alvarez sat at his workstation in his sparsely decorated ready room. He’d only just returned to United Fleet Headquarters from another covert assignment, when Fleet Admiral John Shepherd, the Supreme Commander (SC) of the United Star Systems Fleet (USSF), dumped this new mission on him. The urgency of the mission forced Avery to depart without delay. There was no time to visit his former captain, Aaron Rayne.
Avery tossed his handheld on the desk. His eyelids weighed a ton. He wished Aaron was here. It just didn’t feel the same without his friend. Aaron had sustained a serious injury on their last mission, and he still lay comatose in a hospital bed back at USSF headquarters orbiting Earth.
In many ways, Avery’s ready-room reflected how he felt—empty. The bulkheads were barren, and the space cramped. There hadn’t been time to grab any of his belongings. Avery had taken command of the Endeavor-class ship—the first of her class commissioned a month earlier—and constant assignments kept him busy.
And being busy gave him less time to think about the battle of Atlas Prime. When the United Fleet engaged the Baridian Empire Navy at Atlas Prime, he was certain there’d be no turning back, that war would ruin both of them. That was until Aaron Rayne blasted his way aboard the Imperial flagship to save the one man who could prevent the war—Quintus Scipio, Lord Commander of the Baridian Imperial Navy.
And at great cost to himself, Aaron had succeeded.
Not long after the battle, the Supreme Commander promoted Avery and gave him a commission. Command was something that never interested him. Although, it was a privilege to command a new starship, he’d prefer to be aboard Phoenix as its XO, with Aaron as captain. Somehow, guiding the strong-willed force of nature that was Aaron Rayne seemed to be his calling. Although there had been no change in his condition, there was still hope for his former captain. Doctor Tanner toiled to develop a treatment to repair the neurological damage caused by the energy weapon.
Avery worried the doctor wasn’t getting enough sleep, he stalked the corridors of the space station looking like a zombie.
The only positive out of everything was his new ship. Endeavor was a smaller version of Phoenix, the prototype starship they’d used to infiltrate the Border Worlds.
In wartime, the Fleet would classify Endeavor a frigate, but during peacetime, the USSF officially referred to all its ships as starships. The Fleet preferred the image of an interstellar, peacekeeping, and humanitarian armada—with teeth. Like Phoenix, Endeavor was a product of Shepherd’s top-secret project to build a new generation of starships.
There were only a handful in service, and the advanced technologies involved required the harnessing and refinement of exotic matter. A stable resource found so far in only one star system within the United Systems.
The dark-matter reactor powered the ship’s advanced defensive and offensive systems, and infused ordinary projectile slugs with exotic energy, creating gravitic charges for the ship’s kinetic barrier. Higher warp-factors were also made possible by the new reactor technology, in addition to a strengthened armor plating matrix.
The new havoc missiles had miniature versions of advanced warp drives powered by dark matter, which propelled them just shy of light speed. It was the main reason they were so expensive to create.