Ascendancy: A Near Future Sci-Fi Thriller Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Reader's list

  Prologue

  Chapter One - A New World

  Chapter Two - More Breakfast

  Chapter Three - New Envoy

  Chapter Four - Giving Back a Little

  Chapter Five - The Medal

  Chapter Six - One Step Forward, Two Steps Backward

  Chapter Seven - A View of the Future

  Chapter Eight - A Voyage with an Unexpected Twist

  Chapter Nine - Big Changes

  Chapter Ten - Into the Breach Once More

  Chapter Eleven - Back to the Island

  Chapter Twelve - Lunch, Breakfast and Throw in Dinner

  Chapter Thirteen - The Rescue

  Chapter Fourteen - A New Job

  Chapter Fifteen - Plans That Come Together

  Chapter Sixteen - A Wedding and a Big Reception Party

  Chapter Seventeen - Final Flight

  Epilogue

  Reader's list

  ASCENDANCY

  A Near Future Sci-fi Thriller Novel

  Book 3

  by Randal Sloan

  Copyright 2017 Randal Sloan All rights reserved.

  All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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  http://www.randalsloan.com/nearfuture/

  #

  Acknowledgements

  Special thanks to those who provided support for the development of this book, including Catherine Borden Sloan, Dean Borden, Christina McCoy Wilson and Sandra McCoy. Your comments and suggestions were greatly appreciated and helped make this a much better book.

  Extra special thanks to my beta readers Gerrit Jan van Brenk and Mem Creagh Webb, II. Your feedback was extremely beneficial.

  Cover design by Robin Ludwig Design Inc.

  www.gobookcoverdesign.com

  Prologue

  Sometime in the near future, the space race has been won by private enterprise. A company formed by two brothers, Theodore and Samuel Randolph, was by far the largest of these, and had become dominant, so dominant that their capitalization exceeds the economic worth of many countries.

  The company was named Space Tech, Inc. and they had been able to do as a private enterprise what none of the earth governments had managed. They had developed viable, financially stable space based technologies. First, they had developed a truly reusable launch system that, although still expensive, was magnitudes cheaper than any other system in use at the time. Then, they had built and brought online a space station dedicated to commercial ventures, producing high tech products that could only be manufactured in space. They had managed to do this at a time when the market for these materials had just become mature, and their products were in high demand.

  However, the whole key to eventual total domination by Space Tech had been due to their decision to capture a number of small asteroids and comets, pushing them into a stable orbit around the earth moon Lagrange points. Space Tech had then set up mining operations to bring in the raw materials necessary to their manufacturing process. It had taken considerable investment, but it was now paying huge dividends.

  Still, Space Tech had their share of problems. By far the worst of them was the Organization, a group of terrorists and pirates, who appeared to be in direct opposition to Space Tech. The Organization at one time was a loosely organized group that no one took seriously. Unfortunately, it appeared that the Organization had gained a sponsor that was giving them major funding and weapons, because the conflict between the Organization and Space Tech had moved to a much higher level.

  The situation with the Organization was becoming more and more serious, and it had begun to affect the brothers and their families personally. Unknown to everyone, this conflict was going to have a major effect on the entire world, so much so that the world would be vastly different depending on how it could be resolved. Whether that result was good or bad, was yet to be determined.

  CHAPTER ONE

  A New World

  “This is VR News Reporter Johan Stettner, reporting live. We’re looking at a scene of horrific devastation. I have never seen anything like this. Fires are still burning in some areas, but there’s nothing left where the Organization camp used to be but a huge crater. We don’t know for sure what happened, but based on eyewitness accounts, a large ball of fire was seen hurtling through the air seconds before a gigantic explosion occurred the likes of which hasn’t been seen since aboveground nuclear testing has been banned. There’s no way anyone in that camp could possibly still be alive. Many I’ve talked to are glad to see the camp gone but are terrified by what they’ve seen here. We don’t know if it’s natural or man-made, but since it happened just as the 24 hour ultimatum to the Organization from Space Tech expired, that would seem to say they had something to do with it. So far we have neither confirmation nor denial from them, so stay tuned.”

  #

  Julie Randolph was deeply distressed. She was staring at a Virtual Reality (VR) view port set up so she could look at the view of space around her. Sitting in a conference room on Space Tech Station, the large and still growing space station that Space Tech had orbiting the earth, the view she was watching alternated between one of the earth below and one of the stars as they moved along in their orbit. Her fiancé, Zeke Caldwell, was sitting beside her, trying to help her come to terms with what they had just done, but he was just as shaken as her.

  “Did we do the right thing?” Julie asked him. “I keep seeing the explosion, the fire and debris. So much death and destruction. I know the Organization was a terrible thing, but that camp had to have hundreds of people in it. Now they’re all just gone, wiped off the face of the earth, and we’re the reason for that.”

  Zeke grasped her hand. “What we just did was horrendous, and It’s important that we see it for what it is, but also that we remember why we did it. I really do feel that we had no choice. The attacks this morning just cemented that in my mind.”

  Zeke was referring to the events from earlier that morning. Julie had received an urgent VR message from her uncle telling her to check the VR newscast. Doing so immediately, she was horrified by what she saw. The Organization, the group of terrorists and pirates that Space Tech opposed, had staged several attacks across the globe, many of them against Space Tech facilities, leading to several hundred injuries and a considerable number of deaths. That was apparently their response to her plea to them the day before, asking them to end their conflict peacefully. After capturing their leaders, she had offered amnesty to those who had not participated directly in their attacks.

  But the Organization’s response was clear, leaving Julie and Zeke with almost no choice. Even without their leaders, the Organization had still chosen to deal in death and destruction. That helped the two of them see clearly what would happen if they tried conventional solutions against the Organization. It would have been a fight to the last man, without a doubt. Julie was certain that Space Tech would have prevailed eventually, with all the resources of Space Tech and the probable assistance of the US government, but it would have been bad. A lot of innocent people would have died, just like those people this morning; a lot of them Space Tech employees.

  So a few minutes ago, just after the deadline Julie had given the Organization, they had dropped a 100-kiloton equivalent kinetic mass weapon on the Organization’s main terrorist camp, Julie and Zeke together pushing the button that ordered the AI to launch the strike. The destruction was unbelievable, much worse than what Julie had thought it would be. The weapon had come in as a great ball of fir
e to strike the center of the Organization camp, producing a gigantic explosion that rivaled that of a thermonuclear bomb, throwing up a huge cloud of fire and debris, leaving a tremendous crater where the camp had stood.

  The terrorist training camp, all their equipment, their ammunition dump, and all the rest of their support systems were just gone. Anyone within the camp was dead. For the many violent terrorists that had been there, Julie couldn’t shed a tear. They deserved it. But she knew that a camp that size would have had many support people and not all of them had deserved what had happened to them. And although some had been there because they wanted to be, some had not been there by choice, having been forced there by family or tribal members.

  Julie shook her head sadly. “I know, and the thought of months watching them stage their attacks as we worked to take them all out was more than I could stand. All the innocent people who would've been caught in the crossfire. But I didn’t know it would be this bad.”

  Zeke pulled her close. “No, I don’t think we'll ever forget what we did and how bad it was. But that means we'll have to work that much harder to make sure we never have to do it again.”

  Julie nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes. “Yes, you’re right. And we’ve got to make sure no one has access to it, not even the US government. I’m really glad that we’re dealing with President Scott and not someone else.”

  Zeke nodded. The two of them were waiting for a call from the US President which they expected any moment. It was very important that they find a way to work everything out with him. It had only been a few minutes, but it seemed like forever.

  #

  Eleanor Hollingsworth, Ellie to her friends, stared in shock at the VR newscast. She was shaking so badly, she could barely control herself. The horrible scene depicted the Organization Camp, that is, the crater that used to be their camp. She could not believe her eyes. Yesterday I was there. If I hadn’t gotten out with my new friends’ help, I would be dead!

  How did I get myself in such a mess? she asked herself. Of course, she already knew the answer to that. I was extremely stupid. I was so angry at James for having that affair, even though I knew the problems in our marriage were as much my fault as his. I was easy prey to that recruiter from the Organization. So what, if a unsavory group wanted to use my computer skills in exchange for a lot of money? It wasn’t like that would make me a terrorist. Little did I know.

  Storming out after a fight with her husband, Ellie had called the number she had stumbled upon on the dark web. That had led to a clandestine meeting in a bar, and somehow a few hours later, she was on a flight out of the country.

  At first her job hadn’t seemed that different from what she had been doing, just a little grey hat hacking. Yeah, she knew they were watching her carefully and she didn’t dare show any sign of wavering from the cause. She figured she would do her time, and after putting away enough money, figure out a way to disappear from there.

  But that all had changed a few months ago. I guess I did my job too well. Ellie had been assigned to a much darker project and shipped overnight to the Organization Camp. It had been a small team, but they had all been really good at what they were doing. Terrified to find herself trapped with no way out, she had tried to just keep her head down. Until I found out what they were after. That was when I realized I had to get out, no matter what.

  Chinese nuclear launch codes! No way could I let myself help them do that. The very idea scares me to death.

  Desperate for a way out, Ellie had been surprised to find a special link on her computer that same day. That was when she had met her new friends. Ellie knew she still owed them payback and they had insisted she would have to pay for her crimes, but they had gotten her out. Just in time to avoid what would have been a terrible end in the horrible scene she was watching.

  Ellie didn’t know how they had been able to do it. The extremely detailed instructions had included a number of exact steps that she had been required to follow to facilitate her escape. All tied to kind of AI timer they had given her. Open this door at this time, cross this area in exactly this many seconds, hide here until you hear the phone ring, climb inside the fifth truck in this line of trucks at this time. But somehow, it had worked.

  Even the secure facility she was now located in was more than she had expected, but it didn’t matter that much to her. Oh yeah, I’ll do whatever these people ask. I owe them my life.

  Unfortunately, Ellie never stopped to think about one thing. She had left the rest of the team behind. None of them she could trust to bring with her. What if, moments before their terrible end, or even seconds before, they had successfully extracted those launch codes and sent them on to someone else?

  #

  Ted Randolph felt like he had just ridden a roller coaster. He had been called to a conference room on Space Tech Station along with other family and friends. No one had known what was going on. Then Julie came into the room.

  Turning on a VR newscast for all to see, but leaving it muted, Julie told them quietly, “I’m sorry to say the Organization ignored our 24 hour deadline and refused to surrender, instead staging the attacks you all heard about this morning. I have..." and she paused, amending her statement it at Zeke's prompt, "Zeke and I have taken action as we knew we would have to do. We have eliminated almost all the Organization's earthbound assets."

  "What have you done?" Ted demanded, staring at the VR broadcast, which continually showed the tremendous destruction of the Organization camp. "I knew your father was up to something but nothing like this." He stared at the very obvious devastation visible on the newscast.

  "Very simply, we dropped a 100-kiloton kinetic weapon on the Organization's main headquarters to completely destroy it and all their nearby assets. I've known for some time I was going to have to do this, despite doing everything I could do to prevent it. So know that I’m horrified at what we did, but I'm not sorry either. I’m praying that we never have to do it again, but understand this, I will do whatever it takes to make sure my friends and family, this company, and the world are safe from the likes of the Organization and anyone else in the world who believes like they do."

  "And that’s why we’re here, isn't it? You didn't dare leave anyone that they might think would be leverage down there where they could get to them," Ted replied, the anger spilling into his voice.

  "No, I didn’t, and you wouldn't have either," Julie told him, her glare just as big as his. "Who knows what could have happened? The US government might decide to use the latest version of the Patriot Act to arrest all of you to get to me. Mobs of people might attack you, blaming you for what I just did." Then she softened a little. "You’re all our guests here for just a short time while I negotiate this issue. It really shouldn't take very long. I’m going to make it very clear that I won't use this unless I absolutely have to, but I will if I have to do it."

  Ted looked at her with more understanding. "That's why you’ve been so adamant about getting our station defenses online and all of our backup food sources in operation." It had only been yesterday that the two of them had laughed about the plans to build the automated asteroid farms. Something out of a futuristic Sci-Fi book she told him at the time. Apparently very near future. But he now saw the reason for her rush to get them up and running. Plus the AI-controlled defensive system was even more powerful than he had anticipated them needing. Now he was glad to have it.

  Julie just nodded. "In a word, yes." She gave him a weak smile. When he didn't comment further, she went on, "Zeke and I are going next door to wait for the call from the President. I’ll come back to talk to you when we’re finished." She turned, walking out without saying anything else.

  Now he was left with his thoughts. He looked up as Carla came over to talk with him. "Are you ok?" she asked him, looking intently into his eyes. Ted just looked back at her for a moment, this woman who had come to mean so much to him.

  Seeing she had his full attention, Carla went on, "Even if you don't agree wit
h what they just did, they need our support now. All of us." She stared him down until he gave her a smile.

  Her declaration had caused Ted to re-think why he was so angry. He looked at Carla with understanding. "You're right. I think my anger is just misplaced. I'm more worried about what this means to the two of them. I'm not sure just how Julie and her future family will be treated by everyone because of this. Will they be ostracized, treated as villains instead of the heroes they are?"

  Carla gave him a sad smile. "I know it's a terrible thing to see, but we know what the Organization was willing to do. I happen to agree with Julie's choice. How many more people would have had to die as a result of this evil group before they were stopped? Hopefully everyone will see it that way too. The attacks this morning by their terrorists should help our cause."

  Ted nodded. "Why did my brother have to start all this and leave her to do the dirty work? I think that’s the other reason I'm so upset. The weight of the responsibility she’s under has to be tremendous."

  Carla agreed with him. "That's why I think we have to all support her. She needs to know that we are behind her and that we’ll do whatever we have to do to back that up."

  "Thank you for reminding me of what's really important. I'm going to send her a VR telling her just that." He pulled up his VR, Carla watching as he entered, "Sorry for sounding so angry. Just wanted you to know, we’re all behind you 100%." He stopped a minute, then added. "Love you!" When Carla smiled at the last, he hit send.

  Ted had another idea. "She's probably right that it’ll be ok for most of us to return to earth pretty soon. But with all the work Julie is doing out here in space, I'm betting she’s going to be living up here on the space station more or less permanently. We need to start thinking about what she’ll need up here to do that."