Exodus: Machine War 1 Supernova. Read online

  Exodus: Machine War:

  Book 1:

  Supernova

  by

  Doug Dandridge

  Dedication

  This novel is dedicated to the brave men and women of Search and Rescue organizations around the world. These people give selflessly of their time and effort, putting their lives on the line that others might live. Whether in an urban setting, the oceans, or the rugged wilderness of the mountains; whether members of the military or civilian volunteers; they perform their tasks in all weather, night and day, while there is still the hope of survival of those for whom they search. Included in this group is a number of dedicated animals who bring their inborn skills to the effort. Hats off to these courageous people.

  .

  Contact me at [email protected]

  Follow my Blog at http://dougdandridge.com

  Follow me at @BrotherofCats

  Copyright © 2015 Doug Dandridge

  All rights reserved.

  Please respect the hard work of this author. If you found this book for free on a pirate site, please visit Amazon and buy a copy of your own. I feel that I charge a reasonable price for this work.

  For more information on the Exodus Universe, visit http://dougdandridge.net for maps, sketches and other details of this work.

  Acknowledgements: I would like to thank all of my fans, especially those who sent emails or commented on blogs about how much they have enjoyed this series. Your kind words gave me the impetus to continue through the not so kind words left in some reviews. Exodus will continue into the future, and I have no plans for ending the series in the foreseeable future.

  Cast of Characters

  New Terran Empire

  Captain Mandy Albright: Commander, light cruiser HIMS William Clark.

  Commander Nord Sekumbe: XO, light cruiser HIMS William Clark.

  Ensign Jan da Conti: William Clark’s sensor officer.

  Lt. Tioshi Nagakami: William Clark’s com officer.

  Lt. J’rrantar: the Phlistaran commander of the ship’s Marine contingent

  Ensign Nguyen Dat: Pilot, HIMS Clark.

  Warrant Officer Melissa Sung: Sting Ship pilot.

  Lt. Commander Sophia Romanov: Clark’s surgeon.

  Petty Officer First Hi’tarris: Gryphon crewman.

  Captain Walther Huang: Commander, light cruiser HIMS Merriwether Lewis.

  Commander Stephanie Harrison: Exec, Lewis.

  Lt. Commander Christi M’tumbo: Sensor officer, Lewis.

  Lt. Commander Chadrick Balasubramanian: assistant engineering officer, Lewis.

  Rear Admiral Nguyen van Hung: Flag officer in charge of mission.

  Captain Susan Lee: Nguyen’s Chief of Staff.

  Captain Joshua Jackson: Admiral Nguyen’s flag captain

  Commander Bergland: Nguyen’s intelligence officer.

  Lieutenant Junior Grade Helen Moyahan: Officer, battle cruiser HIMS Boudeuse.

  Lt. Col Mary Isaiah: Marine commander, HIMS Boudeuse.

  Captain Gertrude Hasslehoff: Commander, battle cruiser HIMS Challenger.

  Commander Cenk Ungra: Chief engineer, Challenger

  Commander Jaques La Clerc, the XO of the Challenger.

  Colonel Thomas Margolis: Marine mission commander.

  Captain Stacy Jangerson: Marine Company Commander.

  Major General Travis Wittmore: Imperial Army system commander.

  Commodore Natasha Khrushchev: Exploration Commander flag officer.

  Dr. Avery Phillipson: Astrophysicists, Imperial University, Jewel.

  Captain Trevor Whitlow: Commander, liner Lusitania.

  Captain Timofeyavich: Commander, battle cruiser Francis Drake.

  Captain Stone Mason: Commander, HC New Potsdam.

  Klassek

  Astronaut Nazzir Lamsat: Nation of Tsarzor.

  Astronaut Hzzart Nastra: Nation of Tsarzor.

  First Councilman Rizzit Contena: Leader, Tsarzor.

  General Mazzat Contena: Rizzit’s brother and leader of Tsarzor’s military.

  Engineer Lazzit Contena: Rizzit’s brother.

  Artist Mizzit Contena: Rizzit’s brother.

  Financier Kazzat Contena: Rizzit’s brother.

  Zzarr: Premier, Nation of Honish.

  Books by Doug Dandridge

  Doug Dandridge’s Author Page at Amazon

  Science Fiction

  The Exodus Series

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 1

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 2

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 3: The Rising Storm.

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 4: the Long Fall.

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 5: Ranger

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 6: The Day of Battle

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 7: Counter Strike:

  Exodus: Tales of the Empire: Exploration Command:

  The Deep Dark Well Series

  The Deep Dark Well

  To Well and Back

  Deeper and Darker

  Others

  The Shadows of the Multiverse

  Diamonds in the Sand

  The Scorpion

  Afterlife

  We Are Death, Come for You

  Five By Five 3: Target Zone:

  Fantasy

  The Refuge Series

  Refuge: The Arrival: Book 1

  Refuge: The Arrival: Book 2

  Refuge: Book 3: The Legions

  Refuge: Book 4: Kurt’s Quest:

  Doppelganger: A Novel of Refuge

  Others

  The Hunger

  Daemon

  Aura

  “Marathon”

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  Prologue

  For am I not my brother’s keeper, no matter what form he may take? For did not God care more for the minds of his creations than the body? Made in God’s image means we are touched by the mind of the Almighty, that our brains are a reflection of his glory.

  Archbishop Monica Phillipe, Reformed Catholic Church, the Year 545.

  JUNE 7TH, 1000. D-393.

  One instant the space between the stars was empty, or as empty as it could be. A couple of thousand gas molecules per cubic meter, as good a vacuum as most technological societies could produce. The next, a hole opened into the higher dimensions and eight hundred thousand tons of hyper capable vessel slid back into normal space. Three light seconds to the side a second ship appeared, identical to the first. Sensors began their passive sweep of the surrounding space, listening for any hint of anything out of the ordinary, across all of the many frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum. Another set of sensors looked at the graviton emissions of every object for hundreds of light years, while the powerful computers aboard the ships parsed the data, correlating both types of radiation, comparing them, and giving the ships a detailed view of the space around them.

  “It’s still there, ma’am,” said Ensign Jan da Conti, the sensor officer.

  Captain Mandy Albright, the senior of the two ship captains, and therefore the commander of the pair, nodded her head as she listened to the radio signals that were coming over the sensors. Fifty light years further back they had first detected the emissions, had triangulated their location, and had moved closer, which fit into their mandate of discovering intelligent species that might inhabit the space outside of the many empires in the Perseus arm.

  “These are a lot stronger,” said da Conti, looking back at his Captain. “And clearer.”

  The sounds coming over the com definitely had the sound of voices, and after a short time they could pick out the repetition of certain phrases. There was no way they
could determine what was being said, of course. They would need some further references in order to parse out any kind of intelligent speech.

  Albright looked around the bridge of the hyper VI light cruiser, much like those of other comparable ships in the Fleet. With some differences. The William Clark was based on a warship design, and, in fact, was heavily armed with beam weapons and counter missile launchers. What she was missing was the internal magazine space of most light cruisers. She carried enough to make her dangerous, but not enough to fight a protracted battle. Instead, she used that space to carry the extra mass of more sensitive sensors, as well as the science labs that might come in handy on an Exploration Command vessel.

  “Is Lewis reporting anything different?” she asked Tioshi Nagakami, the com officer.

  “No, ma’am,” said the officer after she had checked the com stream for a moment. “Same signals. We are triangulating, now.”

  The central holo tank zoomed in on a section of the surrounding space, a G class star blinking, showing the most likely point of origin of the signals, based on strength and direction.

  “Since we’re already on the proper vector,” said the Captain to the Helmsman, “let’s go another thirty light years and see what we can see.”

  Both ships jumped back into hyper VI and went into a least time accel/decel profile to come out into normal space at point two c, thirty light years from the target system. The ships once again came out of hyper and listened, but this time the signals were both stronger and more numerous, and many of them were on a higher band.

  “We’re picking up video bands as well as audio this time, ma’am,” said da Conti.

  The main viewer was showing what still looked like static, though there were glimpses of lines and patterns on it, as the computer crunched the signal and tried to make sense out of it.

  “What’s that?” said Albright, pointing at the screen as some images cleared for a moment. Images that looked like some kind of life form, but one that no one had ever seen before. “Is that them?”

  The viewer cleared, showing a pair of sentients, then went under a burst of further static, before clearing once again as the ship’s computer grabbed onto the digital translation of the signal.

  Two of the aliens appeared again, different from anything in the databanks. They had long, slender torsos, from which sprung six tentacles, three from each side. The heads were somewhat humanoid, with a high brow and what looked like hair starting halfway up the forehead. Both had long flowing manes, one blond, the other reddish brown. Four eyes, one large and one small on each side of the bulbous nose, looked out of the vid, while a wide mouth full of sharp teeth sat below the proboscis. One of the aliens was smaller than the other.

  Male and female? thought the Captain, staring at the two dimensional image. They were sitting behind some kind of counter and reading from what looked like paper. A newscast?

  “I wish we could see the rest of them,” said Nagakami, her own eyes narrowing as she studied the forms.

  The view switched as soon as the words left her mouth, showing a group of the aliens in what looked like camouflaged uniforms, weapons that appeared to be rifles in their tentacles. They were advancing on some buildings, and now they could see what the creatures used for locomotion, long, three jointed legs that carried them swiftly over the ground. The view switched yet again, to what looked like very primitive aircraft, such as those used at the beginning of the jet age. Objects fell from them and hit a structure. The building blew out, then collapsed on itself.

  The next shot was back at the studio, with the two, casters?, looking out at the audience through the camera, reading from their sheets. The viewed switched again, and everyone on the bridge cringed back in shock at what was revealed, as an angry looking mushroom cloud rose into the air.

  “So they make war,” said da Conti, staring at the screen. “And they have nukes.”

  “Which means they might not be around anymore,” said Nagakami, shaking her head.

  The Captain nodded. About half the intelligent species known that developed atomic weapons didn’t survive to get off their planet.

  “Let’s see if they're still here,” said Albright. “Navigator, I want us to come out one light year from that planet.”

  Again it was a least time voyage, maximum safe acceleration to the halfway point, then the same kind of deceleration to entry to normal space. And the signals were still there, stronger than before, clearer, and from the broadcasts things had definitely changed. The aliens were still extant, and still fighting wars according to the cast. And now they had some of the translation program in place they could understand a bit of the speech.

  “This appears to be an entertainment video,” said Nagakami as they watched what look like a female of the species sitting in a room and taking care of some babies, one after the other, while some males talked. There was a track of some kind of sound in the background, laughter? “I wonder if that many children is the norm, if this is an extreme case, or if they just made this up for their viewers.”

  “At least they still exist,” said Albright in a quiet voice, a smile on her face. While intelligent life seemed to be plentiful in the Galaxy, it was still a joy to find new forms to communicate with, to set up exchanges of knowledge and culture.

  “We’ve a big problem, ma’am,” said da Conti in a strained voice. The viewer switched to a three D image of the space in front of them, the yellow star centered. And to the right was a blindingly bright point of blue light.

  “Is that what I think it is?” said Albright, standing up from her chair. “How long?”

  “From preliminary spectral analysis,” said the Sensor Officer, zooming in on the blue giant star, “a year. Maybe more, maybe less.”

  “And there’s no way we’re going to be able to transport and entire planet full of people away in that time,” said Nagakami, her own eyes locked on the star that was on the verge of going supernova, less than six light months from the home of the sentients they had come to see.

  Chapter One

  Of course we don’t like to make war. If we had a guarantee that all other sentient species in the Galaxy would rid themselves of their weapons, we would do the same. Until then, we will continue to study war. And continue to be the best at it.

  Emperor Constance the Great.

  JUNE 14TH, 1000. D-386.

  First Councilman Rizzit Contena looked up at the attractive female who stood in front of his desk, her primary eyes glaring down at him, while her secondary orbs were in constant movement, scanning the room. And she had not bred yet, thought the powerful male, who had already bred on a dozen females, and from them had over a hundred children. But this one might not see the advantages of becoming another of my females, he thought. She will probably save herself for one male.

  That was the way with most females, since they could only become pregnant once in their lives, and most preferred a permanent partnership to a liaison that might bring a litter, and detract from their attractive potential for a new mate.

  “Surely you can see the danger, First Councilman?” asked the female, Scientist Sharrann Lestacor, a rising star in the scientific community of the Nation of Tsarzor. “When that star blows, we all die.”

  “Half of our population believes that star is one of our gods,” replied Contena with a politician’s smile, his teeth hidden by curled lips. “The other half are afraid to offend the first. And the Honish will raise hell if they hear we are discussing their Demon Lord in such a manner.”

  “I am a scientist,” said the woman, four of her tentacles crossed over her chest, the top pair waving in the air. “I don’t believe in that superstitious nonsense. Those beliefs are going to end us as a species. Hrrottha is going to explode, in the near future, and when it does the surface of our world will be scoured clean by the particle radiation that will arrive less than a year after, if the thermal wave doesn’t take us out first.”

  The first councilman gave her a disapproving l
ook. Hrrottha was both the name of the star, according to the Honish, and the name of their god. And the Honish took great offense when the name was used for one while also not meaning the other. One reason his people preferred to call the star Gromor.

  “And what do you want to do about it?” asked the First Councilman, looking at the picture on his wall that showed one of the twelve structures of the gods that occupied equidistant points on the globe. No one knew how they had been built, or by whom. They only knew that the things were indestructible, as far as they could tell. Diamond drills, lasers, nothing scratched the surface. And any energy that was used to try and probe them just disappeared. More God stuff? thought the leader of the nation, who was only religious in public, and wasn’t sure what he believed in private.

  “Build underground shelters, deep,” she said, leaning over the desk, supporting her body on her four lower tentacles. “Get as many of our people into protected enclaves as possible.”

  “Not send them into space, like Scientist Kiristo suggested?”

  “That male could not find his solid waste orifice with all of his tentacles,” growled Lestacor, standing up straight again, all of her tentacles waving in the air in exasperation. “We don’t have the means to get anyone out of the system, and anyone we have in space is going to be fried just as surely as if they stay on the planet. And digging shelters on one of the moons or rocky planets is just a waste of effort, since we can do the same thing here on Klassek.”

  “Look,” said Contena, glancing at the watch attached to one of his tentacles. “I have a meeting to attend to. Why don’t you get with some engineers and work out what we need to build these shelters. Now, I’m not promising you anything, but get me some figures, and I’ll see what I can do.”

  The female did not look like she was very happy with that answer, but she gave a head motion of acceptance and turned away. Contena watched her wide hips, the sign of a good birthing female, and wondered again what she would be like during sex. Forget about that, he thought. Just be glad that you’ve gotten rid of her for some weeks.