The World at the Edge of Space (Perseus Gate Book 2) Read online

  OUTSYSTEM

  STELLAR DATE: 07.22.8938 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: Hermes Station

  REGION: Naga System, Orion Freedom Alliance Space

  “OK, I suppose you’re safe,” Nance said as she pulled the hood off her hazsuit. “Iris was right. Those relatively-competent mad scientists bound the microbes to your skin so that the little nasties won’t get free. Even if they did, they seem to have adapted to the polymers in such a fashion that the microbes would probably die if they were removed from their new environment.”

  “See,” Jessica said, letting her skin glow a little more. “I told you I was perfectly safe. Glad I don’t have to remove it either, I’ve grown rather attached to my glowing friends. Did I tell you I can stop a pulse blast with my hand?”

  Nance sighed. “Yes, Jessica, just a few times now…like eight, or nine.”

  Sabrina added.

  Jessica slid off the medbay’s examination table and pulled her shipsuit back on. “Yeah, well, it’s really cool. It bears repeating.”

  Sabrina replied.

  “Touché,” Jessica said with a laugh. “However, I’m Retyna Girl. You’ll never take that from me.”

 

  “Was she always so much into oneupmanship?” Jessica asked.

  Nance chuckled. “More or less, yeah.”

  Jessica pulled on her shoes and jacket before approaching Nance.

  “What are you doing?” Nance asked as she backed up.

  “I want to give you a hug to thank you. You did some amazing work back there. Hacking the door to get Sabrina free, getting that nuke altered just in time. Keeping our skins on with power till we got free. Besides, you’re still wearing your hazsuit.”

  “Your thanks is enough, you’re not hugging me. Over my dead bo—”

  Nance stopped talking as Jessica leapt forward and wrapped her in a tight embrace.

  “Had to touch me eventually,” Jessica said with a laugh as she stepped back.

  “No, I didn’t,” Nance said. “Now I have to sanitize this suit.”

  “Seriously?” Jessica asked with a grin.

  Nance’s sour face held for a moment, and then she sighed and gave a small smile. “No, not seriously. But I have a reputation to uphold! Next time I tell you to stay in your EV suit, you stay in it!”

  “Yes, Mom.”

  “What’s with the ‘mom’ stuff lately?”

  * * * * *

  “So, have we selected a destination yet?” Jessica asked as she walked onto the bridge and took a seat at her console.

  “There’s a place called Kidron that looks pretty good,” Cargo said. “It’s better than the other options we were considering. A lot of mining rigs far out around the edges of the system. We can get in, do a bit of trading, get some more volatiles and get out fast.”

  “Just about ready to deploy the scoop, too,” Cheeky said. “No indication that the locals have spotted us, either.”

  Sabrina said in a sing-song voice.

  “Think they’ll pick up the scoop?” Jessica asked.

  “If they have probes nearby looking straight at us, maybe,” Cheeky said. “But really, we’re kissing the star here, they’re not going to see anything but star.”

  “Oh,” Jessica said. “Once we’re past the star…no one come into the rear observation lounge for a bit, kay?”

  “Oh yeah?” Cheeky asked with an arched eyebrow.

  “Yeah,” Jessica replied. “I need some me time…well, me and Trevor time.”

  “In the sunlight.”

  “Oh, will that room be in full, ridiculously amazing sunlight?” Jessica asked.

  Cargo sighed and shook his head. “What am I ever going to do with you two?”

  * * * * *

  “Deploying the scoop,” Mandy announced.

  “This is bullshit,” Jenn said as she adjusted the ship’s shieling to allow the ramscoop to draw in hydrogen and helium as they flowed off the star. “I can’t believe we got kicked off Hermes of all places…and all because of that little shit Misha.”

  “Well,” Mandy chuckled. “He got his. Boarded a ship full of nut jobs that slammed themselves into a planet.”

  “I’ve never seen anything like that,” Jenn replied. “What would possess them to do that? And how did they avoid those RMs?”

  “I bet RHY is asking the same thing. Either way, no one is coming back to Naga anytime soon. This system’s done.”

  “That’s for sure,” Jenn said.

  Mandy studied scan, watching for potential flares and CMEs as they boosted past the star on a slingshot for the Jushes jump point.

  “Whoa, what is that?” she asked.

  “What is what?” Jenn said.

  “There’s another ship ahead, a few light seconds, just passing beyond scooping range,” Mandy said. “I’m pulling up its pro—holy shit,” she whispered the last.

  “What?”

  Mandy put the scan result on the small holodisplay between their seats.

  “It’s them,” she said.

  “The fuck! It is them.”

  “But they hit the planet,” Mandy said. “Everyone in the system saw them hit Marsalla and smash it like a rotten egg.”

  “Well, then what are they doing on an outsystem vector?” Jenn asked.

  “A vector too…Kidron!” Mandy locked eyes with Jenn.

  “Mandy…we’re not exactly welcome at a lot of places in Kidron.”

  “You willing to let Misha go—or a ship that can do what that one did? At the least we can sell the intel.”

  Jenn flipped her long braid over her shoulder and ran her fingers down its length for a minute. “OK, but just to sell the intel. I bet Derick would pay top dollar to know about a ship like that.”

  Mandy grinned and nodded. “Top dollar.”

  THE END

  Jessica and the crew of Sabrina have a long road ahead, and threats loom that they could only imagine. Their mission in the Naga system has not yielded them all the supplies they’ll need, and maintaining the fiction of a trader will take some work.

  Of course, no one would have anticipate that their subterfuge would involve a gala event: The Dance on the Moons of Serenity.

  Pick up The Dance on the Moons of Serenity for just $2.99 on Amazon.

  THANK YOU

  If you’ve enjoyed reading The World at the Edge of Space, a review on Amazon.com and/or goodreads.com would be greatly appreciated.

  To get the latest news and access to free novellas and short stories, sign up on the Aeon 14 mailing list: www.aeon14.com/signup.

  M. D. Cooper

  BOOKS BY M. D. COOPER

  Aeon 14

  The Intrepid Saga

  Book 1: Outsystem

  Book 2: A Path in the Darkness

  Book 3: Building Victoria

  The Intrepid Saga Omnibus – Also contains Destiny Lost, book 1 of the Orion War series

  Destiny Rising – Special Author’s Extended Edition comprised of both Outsystem and A Path in the Darkness with over 100 pages of new content.

  The Orion War

  Book 1: Destiny Lost

  Tales of the Orion War: Set the Galaxy on Fire

  Book 2: New Canaan

  Book 3: Orion Rising

  Tales of the Orion War: Ignite the Stars Within (Fall 2017)

  Tales of the Orion War: Burn the Galaxy to Ash (Fall 2017)

  Book 4: The Scipio Alliance (coming fall 2017)

  Book 5: Starfire (coming in 2018)

  Book 6: Return to Sol (coming in 2018)

  Visit www.aeon14.com/orionwar to learn what’s next in the Orion War.

  Perilous Alliance (Expanded Orion War - with Chris J. Pike)

  Book 1: Close Proximity

  Book 2: Strike Vector (August 2017)

  Book 3: Collis
ion Course (October 2017)

  Rika’s Marauders (Age of the Orion War)

  Prequel: Rika Mechanized

  Book 1: Rika Outcast (August 2017)

  Perseus Gate (Age of the Orion War)

  Episode 1: The Gate at the Grey Wolf Star

  Episode 2: The World at the Edge of Space

  Episode 3: The Dance on the Moons of Serenity (August 2017)

  Episode 4: The Last Bastion of Star City (October 2017)

  The Warlord (Before the Age of the Orion War)

  Book 1: A Woman Without a Country (Sept 2017)

  The Sentience Wars: Origins (With James S. Aaron)

  Book 1: Lyssa’s Dream

  Book 2: Lyssa’s Run (October 2017)

  Book 3: Lyssa’s Flame (January 2018)

  Tanis Richards: Origins

  Prequel: Storming the Norse Wind (in At The Helm 3)

  Book 1: Shore Leave (coming fall 2017)

  The Sol Dissolution

  The 242 - Venusian Uprising (In The Expanding Universe 2 anthology)

  The Delta Team Chronicles (Expanded Orion War)

  A "Simple" Kidnapping (Pew! Pew! Volume 1)

  The Disney World (Pew! Pew! Volume 2 – Sept 2017)

  Touching the Stars

  Book 1: The Girl Who Touched the Stars

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Michael Cooper likes to think of himself as a jack of all trades (and hopes to become master of a few). When not writing, he can be found writing software, working in his shop at his latest carpentry project, or likely reading a book.

  He shares his home with a precocious young girl, his wonderful wife (who also writes), two cats, a never-ending list of things he would like to build, and ideas…

  Find out what’s coming next at http://www.aeon14.com