Shepherd's Crook: Omegaverse: Volume 2 Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  About the Cover

  Dedication

  Prolog

  Design Document

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Meta 4

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Meta 5

  Epilog

  Press Release

  Acknowledgements

  Shepherd’s Crook

  by G.R. Cooper

  Copyright © 2015 G.R. Cooper

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages embodied in critical articles or in a review.

  Trademarked names appear throughout this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, names are used in an editorial fashion, with no intention of infringement of the respective owner’s trademark.

  The information in this book is distributed on an “as is” basis, without warranty. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor the publisher shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  About the Cover

  The photograph on the cover is from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft mission, showing Saturn, its rings and the moon Titan.

  The photo was taken on May 6, 2012 when Cassini was about half a million miles away from Titan.

  Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

  Usage of this photo for the cover in no way implies any endorsement of the product by NASA or any NASA employee.

  Usage of this photo, however, definitely implies full endorsement of NASA and NASA employees by the author.

  Support space research and exploration!

  For my Mom.

  Because she’ll kill me if I don’t!

  Prolog

  Charlottesville VA, USA

  Duncan Sheriden walked down the brick pedestrian mall through the late summer evening, weaving his way through the crowds out enjoying the crisp September front that had just come through over the Blue Ridge mountains. Autumn would soon arrive, and this anomalous weather in the usually oppressive late summer heat would become the norm as the season turned the area into one of the most beautiful in the world. The lush green would, almost overnight, be replaced by an ardent splash of color as the leaves changed.

  He arrived at a little brewpub, tucked into the corner of an alleyway, and looked through the window. His friends Matt, Vince and Clancey sat talking at the bar, while behind it Shannon poured drinks for them and the crowd of customers.

  Duncan thought back over the past few weeks - to the series of events that had begun in this very bar. Over many nights of drinking, his friends had convinced him to purchase a virtual reality helmet and join them in the Omegaverse; an open world, science-fiction, massively multiplayer online game. Reluctantly, he finally had.

  From the first, he had realized why they were so enthusiastic about it. He had not only been drawn in by the amazing realism of the experience, the camaraderie of sharing it with his friends had also captivated him. A loner by nature, he felt more at ease within the game world. Perhaps, he mused, the natural barrier of the computer interface placed enough distance between himself and everyone else that he could feel comfortable.

  Then there had been his incredible, unbelievable, luck. From the start he had been showered with a wealth of fortune in the game. The first night, he had received a rare object - a ship-powered rail-gun mounted with a formidable scope - that he’d been able to auction off, within the game, for a literal fortune. That fortune he’d turned over into a top-of-the-line clipper ship, which he named Shepherd Moon, that allowed him to travel freely, to explore, and, most importantly, to mine and trade.

  In addition to the rail-gun, he’d found an artifact - unique, as far as he knew - that allowed him to establish himself as the sole player to trade with a hostile alien race. A trade route that brought, so far, a constant and large increase in his wealth.

  But all of that paled compared to his singular luck in finding, and claiming, an entire space station. He was still exploring the possibilities that provided; still trying to grasp the implications it brought.

  All he knew about it, so far, was that it had provided him with a business partner. An Indian man named Phani. A good man, seemingly; conscientious, ambitious and smart. Duncan had no doubts about their partnership - it felt ‘right’, from the very beginning, when Duncan had saved Phani from attack by a privateer. As a result, Phani had entered into a deal with Duncan where the American purchased, through monthly payments, a very expensive terraforming kit.

  The privateer, named Eric, captained his ship, the HMS Westy, with a force of iron will. He’d hunted Phani - driven by desperation to piracy - down, despite the man’s pleas. Duncan had no choice, he felt, but to save Phani; and to do that he’d had to reveal the secret of the space station, Shepherd’s Crook. A secret that he’d kept from the very friends who’d talked him into playing the game in the first place. The very friends he saw sitting, laughing, through the bar window.

  Duncan turned, began walking back up the pedestrian mall, to return home. Alone.

  Omegaverse Creative Design Document: Section V, part 1 (FTL - Introduction);

  V.1. Faster than light travel

  There are three distinct faster than light ship travel types in the game. The first, instantaneous, is limited to missions generated in mission control modules; they simply ‘arrive’ at the destination (whether on ground or in orbit) as soon as all players are ready.

  The second two types, however, greatly affect gameplay, and each has subtle, but important, differences.

  V.1.a. Interstellar Faster than light travel

  Travel between star systems is restricted in that any ship leaving from or passing through a system must pass through the system’s jump point, if it has one. These jump points are placed (see Section IX, part 7 “The Interstellar Grid”) in a part of the star system deemed likely to see heavy traffic, as that system joins the Grid. Travel to a system off of the grid is an entirely different matter (see Section XII, “Exploration”)

  Passing through the initial jump point on a journey begins an exponential increase in acceleration that, upon leaving the system’s gravity well (see Section XXIV, part 1 “Gravity Wells”) sees the speed above C begin to increase logarithmically (see Appendix E “FTL matrix”); thus the transit between systems is at a much higher velocity than intra-stellar FTL travel. Initial velocities, however, are much lower than an intra-stellar jump. Only after leaving the star system gravity well does
the speed of an interstellar meet, then surpass, the speed of an intra-stellar jump.

  Each system subsequently passed through acts as a slingshot effect. Dropping into, then back out of, each star’s gravity well serves to increase the exit velocity, up to the maximum (see Appendix E “FTL Matrix”).

  These velocities cause another exponential increase; in the amount of tachyon emissions, detectable by specific sensors. (see Sections IX, part 3 “Tachyon emissions” and XVI, part 1 “Sensors; Passive; Tachyon”).

  Note: Leaving from and passing through a given system at FTL speed requires passing through the jump point - arriving into the system, however, can be directed to any point within the star’s gravity well. If no destination is defined, however, the default will be that system’s jump point.

  V.1.b. Intra-stellar Faster than light travel

  Within a star system, faster than light travel is a constant (see Appendix E “FTL Matrix”). All ships travel at the same velocity. Over most distances within an intra-stellar jump, the time of flight is only a few seconds. Jumps of about an AU or less are instantaneous.

  The main difference between Intra and Inter Stellar travel is that travel within a single star system does not require passage through the system jump point (if it exists - see Section IX, part 7 “The Interstellar Grid”).

  Tachyon emissions are also vastly reduced, and are undetectable during intra-stellar FTL jumps (see Section ...

  Chapter 1

  Duncan Sheriden pushed his faceplate into the loose, black scree as he crawled his way up the hill toward the defensive position at the top. He paused behind a boulder, a large rock really, that he hoped would hide him, or at least cover him from the laser fire being poured downslope by the group of Arn at the crest.

  “Are we having fun yet?” he asked, bringing up the tactical map that showed his position relative to the rest of his group. He was further along than any of the rest, he mused grimly. Were the rest using him as cannon-fodder; bait to draw the fire away from themselves?

  If so, it wasn’t working. Most of the enemy fire seemed to be aimed at Pope, his friend Matt, further down the slope; also prone, but in a more exposed position.

  “Hang on a sec,” Duncan radioed, then opened his backpack. He took out a small, baseball size object - a laser-refractor smoke grenade called a Snell grenade - and pulled the pin. Judging as best he could, he lobbed it toward Matt to provide his friend some cover. The grenade bounced close, then hit Matt in the head.

  “Thanks,” laughed Matt, grabbing the grenade and tossing it a few feet upslope, between himself and the Arn. The grenade began belching smoke, hued green by the night vision filter Duncan was using. As the smoke enveloped Matt, Duncan saw that lasers fired into the cloud were being diffused and refracted by something - nobody understood the specific lost-tech responsible - that impregnated the smoke particles.

  Matt was able to raise to his elbows and begin returning fire with his plasma rifle, through the cloud; as long as the smoke lasted he’d be relatively safe, his plasma bolts ripped through the refractive cloud without dispersing it. The Arn fire slackened as Matt’s accurate shots tore up the ground, the crest of the hill, in front of them.

  Vince and Clancey each took the resulting opportunity to advance toward Duncan’s position, but the Arn quickly shifted to targeting them, forcing them to ground, perilously close to each other. Heavy laser fire tore into their position as they sought any cover they could find.

  “Wait up,” said Shannon, over the radio, busy in the shuttle in orbit above their position. “I’ve got to recharge some shields.” Matt slowed his plasma fire, which also drew upon the conduit of power from the shuttle, to let Shannon focus more power on his friend’s shields, raising them more quickly.

  Duncan peeked around the rock and noticed, for the first time, that all of the fire from the peak had been split between Vince, Clancey and Matt, which piqued his curiosity; none was directed at him. Then he realized why.

  He rolled away, to the left, and slowly rose to a crouched position, testing his theory.

  “What the hell are you doing?” asked Clancey incredulously.

  Without answering, Duncan rose fully, still untargeted, and continued making his way up and to the left, through the loose basalt, toward the right flank of the Arn position. As he began to approach the crest, its top silhouetted crisply in a halo of the Milky Way, undiffused and brilliant on this atmosphere-less planet, he could see the outline and movement of the four defenders, still spraying laser fire downhill toward his friends. He crept, as silently as he could, the last few meters, looking around to ensure that the four little green men at the top were the only ones around.

  Duncan again opened his backpack and took out a grenade. This one, however, wasn’t engineered to spread laser diffracting smoke; it would explode spewing good old, low tech, white phosphorous, Duncan thought grimly. He pulled the pin and underhanded the ball as close as he could to the center of the group, then ducked below the rim of the hill crest. The four Arn simultaneously looked to the ground, startled by the thump, and were just as simultaneously enveloped in the flaming mass that exploded from their midst.

  Duncan walked onto the top of the hill and put a blast from his plasma rifle into each of the inert aliens, just to make sure, then called to his friends.

  “All clear, get your lazy assess to the top of the hill.”

  “What the hell just happened?” asked Matt, standing with his three friends, surveying the scene of melted and smoking Arn.

  “I noticed the little green men weren’t shooting at me, just at you guys,” answered Duncan, smiling, “so I realized that the Arn were using infra-red instead of night vision to track us.”

  “The werewolf cowl!” yelped Clancey.

  “Yep,” confirmed Duncan, “it provides IR cover. I hoped that meant I could move up the hill without being spotted by my heat signature.”

  “That’s cold,” laughed Vince. The rest groaned at his pun.

  “Did anyone get a ‘mission completed’ message?” asked Matt.

  They shook their heads, Shannon added “Nope,” over the radio.

  “Shannon, is there anything on your magical sensors?” asked Clancey.

  “Checking.”

  They began to look through the Arn corpses while they waited, finding nothing. The Arn looked like goblins had mated with spindly, ‘Area 51’ stereotypical aliens. They had large, oblong heads with large eyes, but heavily ridged eyebrows. Their gray suits seemed only a shade or two darker than their skin. Their blood was red; a common trait among the oxygen breathing creatures of the universe, it seemed.

  “Ok,” continued Shannon, “there’s nothing in the area, but that hill is still putting out a faint IR signature. It’s hot, and not just where you guys are. The whole thing.”

  Clancey dropped to his knees, began looking around, then pushed aside a few handfuls of basalt.

  “There’s a door,” he said, “it looks like it’s handprint activated.” He put his hand to the depression. “But not human.”

  Vince bent over, grabbed one of the short, meter long Arn corpses and dragged it to the door. He dropped the body, then lifted an arm and pressed the hand into the shallow divot.

  A door began to open. It was round and opened upward on one hinge. Light blazed out. Duncan switched his helmet from night vision to normal light view. He looked into the hole. It was a small, maybe two meter deep, pit, well lit, with a ladder running up one side. At the bottom was another door. An airlock. They needed to get into it, close the top door, and cycle the air before opening the bottom door.

  His friends were looking in as well.

  “Looks like it’s all button controlled down there,” said Vince, “so we won’t need to take the hand of an LGM,” he pronounced it ell gee emm, “with us.”

  “Not much room in there,” added Clancey, getting into the hole. He stood, the top of his head nearly poking back out above the surface, “Might be room for one more.”
Matt joined him. Duncan lifted the top door and pushed it over until it closed, with a hiss.

  “Ok,” said Matt over the radio after a moment, “we pressed a pretty red button and the bottom door is opening.”

  “Heads up, guys,” said Shannon, “My connection to Clancey and Matt is down to thirty-five percent. There must be a lot of interference in that rock. I’ll only be able to regen your shields at one third the rate, and you’ll have a similarly slow recharge rate with your energy weapons.”

  “Understood,” said Matt. “We’re through the airlock, and it’s closed again. Duncan and Vince, you should be able to join us.”

  Vince once again pressed the dead Arn’s hand into the door, which began opening, releasing gasses as the dark hilltop was once again flooded in light. Vince tossed the Arn’s arm, which wrapped over the corpse’s faceplate like it was shielding itself, then jumped into the hole. Duncan followed, pulling the door closed over his head.

  There was barely enough room for the two of them; they stood face to face as Vince pressed the red button. A long hiss was followed by a click at their feet. Duncan and Vince pressed their feet as far against the wall as they could, and the door below pushed up from the floor.

  Clancey was below, looking up, having opened the door. He smiled, “Thought I’d save you two from the gymnastics Matt and I had to go through to get the door open with both of us in there.”

  “Gymnastics, hell,” said Matt. “You practically got to third base. I feel so used and ashamed.”

  Vince jumped into the hole.

  “Buck up, sugartits,” laughed Shannon. She added, “I’ll be next to useless as far as my sensors are concerned while you guys are down there. I can’t see shit. All I have is the display for the conduit which, as I said, isn’t running at peak efficiency. Don’t expect me to be able to save your asses down there!”