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    Junker's Moon: Treasure Ship
    Junker's Moon: Treasure Ship
    Junker's Moon: Treasure Ship
    Ebook125 pages2 hours

    Junker's Moon: Treasure Ship

    By Peter Salisbury

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    About this ebook

    At the Junker's Moon depot, Marshall's workers are bent on a pay rise, rebelling at increased prices and rumoured pirate attacks. In the midst of the turmoil, a vessel arrives piloted by a woman with a mysterious tale of a prospecting ship, the Rudderless Junk. She insists that the ship resides in the depot scrap heap, and demands to speak with David Brion, who has been dead for several years.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPeter Salisbury
    Release dateSep 8, 2015
    ISBN9781311157492
    Junker's Moon: Treasure Ship
    Author

    Peter Salisbury

    I am a life-long fan of science fiction, and so when I had an idea for my first story, I wasn't surprised that it was in that genre. The first book took me ten years to complete, but I've got a little quicker since. I am pleased to say that I now have over thirty books published in my name. What next? So far I haven't run short of ideas for new stories, so there are several projects in various stages of completion, and I hope to be publishing the next story before too long, so please subscribe to my alerts. My profile picture is a portrait of the author as a young man, painted by my daughter Charlotte Salisbury who has also contributed to several of my book covers. Professional background In the 1970s I studied Chemistry at university and then spent over thirty years in classrooms across England teaching almost anything but Chemistry, including Photography, Communications Skills, General Science, Computing, and Information and Communications Technology. In the 1990s I spent ten years writing abstracts of chemical patents. This was a most exacting process but very rewarding to be reading about the very latest inventions in the field, and the abstracts were distributed world-wide to research scientists by subscription. Articles of mine have been published in magazines and I have written assignments used for assessing Communications Skills for a major international Examination Board. After retiring early this century I began writing in earnest.

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      Book preview

      Junker's Moon - Peter Salisbury

      Junker's Moon: Treasure Ship

      Peter Salisbury

      Junker's Moon: Treasure Ship

      Copyright Peter Salisbury 2015

      Smashwords Edition 2015 September 08

      This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person or place is entirely coincidental. No part of this work may be distributed, printed, reprinted or copied by any means without the permission of the author.

      Introduction

      At the Junker's Moon depot, Marshall's workers are bent on a pay rise, rebelling at increased prices and rumoured pirate attacks. In the midst of the turmoil, a vessel arrives piloted by a woman with a mysterious tale of a prospecting ship, the Rudderless Junk. She insists that the ship resides in the depot scrap heap, and demands to speak with David Brion, who has been dead for several years.

      Table of Contents

      Chapter 1: State Of Equilibrium

      Chapter 2: Captain Madrigal Benz

      Chapter 3: The Firm Hand

      Chapter 4: The Journal

      Chapter 5: The Rudderless Junk

      Chapter 6: Dorielle's Secret

      Chapter 7: Pieces Of A Puzzle

      Chapter 8: The Quest Unfolds

      Chapter 9: A Yellow Dwarf

      Chapter 10: Dead Planet, Deadly Moon

      Chapter 11: Dreadnought

      Chapter 12: Rich Pickings

      Chapter 13: Flight From The Bureau

      Chapter 14: The Interrogation Room

      Chapter 15: A Harsh Sentence

      Chapter 16: Marshall Toughs It Out

      Personnel

      Introduction to the Junker's Moon series

      Previously on Junker's Moon

      More stories published by Peter Salisbury

      Chapter 1: State Of Equilibrium

      In the vacuum created by nothing out of the ordinary happening at the Junker's Moon Scrap, Salvage and Servicing Company, rumours bred like guppies amongst the ever-excitable group of mainly female technicians in the repair shops. The one-man crews of ships mining asteroids, prospectors of rare metals, and the captains of deep space cruisers fuelled the rumours with tall tales beyond the reach of the newsnets. Each night the bar was host to at least one visitor's fanciful account of thieves, smugglers, pirates or mysterious cosmic events.

      Marianne, the works administrator, called by her boss's office in a break between shifts. 'Marshall, there's trouble brewing,' she said as he waved her to a comfortable chair. She gave a nod of thanks and accepted the cup of coffee offered by Marshall Brion, owner of the Junker's Moon depot.

      'I thought things were getting a little too quiet,' he said. 'What is it this time, home grown trouble or inbound?'

      'The long range scanners have remained surprisingly clear of threats for the last few weeks. This time it's home grown.'

      'Specifically?'

      'All the workers heard about the farmers raising their prices to the depot weeks ago and it was passed over with little comment.'

      'So far there is little to comment about from their point of view.'

      'Quite so, but a certain faction is apparently determined to make something of it.'

      'Am I likely to be surprised by those involved?'

      Marianne shook her head. 'Not unexpectedly, it's led by the technicians third grade. For some reason they are always the most imaginative, the most adept at generating gossip…'

      Marshall completed the description with, 'And also the least well informed,' He gazed out from the vantage point provided by his office situated at the tallest point of the depot complex. Its floor to ceiling window gave a panoramic view across the landing field, where five ships were neatly lined up on the windward side. Six more ships were already inside the Junker's Moon hangers having their engines tuned, electronics recalibrated, or hulls resealed. Their captains waited with varying degrees of patience, dividing their time between a room in one of the two hotels on the base, the bar and the restaurant. As each ship took its turn to be attended to, the captain personally supervised the operation. He or she was always eager to see that the depot did not try to get away with any unnecessary repair or superfluous upgrade. It had never been Brion policy to use underhand methods to increase profits, but it didn't stop the clients from being suspicious.

      'I have no plans to pass on any of the farmers' increases to the workers.'

      'No, but they have got it into their heads that you will increase the prices for accommodation and the works canteen. And to reinforce their case, they're using the threat of pirate attacks to demand higher wages.'

      There had been several pirate attacks over the last couple of years, most notably the one in which Marshall came within a hair's breadth of being killed. All the attacks had been thwarted by one means or another, and at that moment Junker's Moon was better protected than ever before. All the time Marshall and Marianne discussed the impending unrest, the system was protected on the outside by two heavily armed ships in the form of Marshall's Medallion and Inspector Vanessa Robin's cruiser, The Javelin. The big ships had undoubted deterrent value but the most immediate protection was in the form of the tiny Discrete Defence Tug. The DDT was permanently positioned at the holding station at the exit from the hyperspace pipe which linked the colony to the trunk routes making up the spacelanes. Although it looked entirely innocuous, the DDT was fitted with a coms laser capable of transmitting a computer virus through any porthole or comport on the hull of a ship which entered the Cymbeline system. The virus gave Junker's Moon complete control over the ship, and on one or two occasions it had been used to disable vessels when the captain tried to skip out before paying his bill.

      'There is much less risk now than in the past. I take it that, as usual, what you've come to report is nothing but gossip and hearsay.'

      Marianne looked worried but she said nothing.

      Each time there had been a pirate attack, Marshall Brion and his Executive Team had risked all to save the base, their workers, and themselves. Marshall's team comprised Marianne, lead rigger, test pilot and hull expert Judith, and electronics and computing specialist Debbi. Despite the absence of Lucy, one of their previous team members, they had successfully defended the colony against the last attack mounted by friends and relatives of the recently deceased pirate, Captain Dirk Knight. Knight's followers had all been killed during a no-holds-barred fire-fight in a nearby star system. That, Marshall had hoped, would be the end of any interference from pirates, rumoured or otherwise.

      'Marianne, you're not looking convinced. Have you heard something which suggests that these stories have some substance after all?'

      'No-one knows who started it but they're saying that something is definitely afoot and at least one group of pirates is planning to attack the base. There are several versions, including that friends of the pirates who were killed in the last attack are bent on revenge. Another version has it that some other group of pirates is plotting to take over the base for themselves.'

      'I suppose these things always come in threes.'

      Marianne couldn't help but smile, despite her apprehension. 'The third rumour is that the pirates are intent on ransacking the depot for credits, ships and spares.'

      Marshall agreed with Marianne that the third scenario was the most likely, and that if the pirates timed their attack well, they could get away with quite a haul, which could also include large quantities of ores and raw gems brought in by prospectors waiting for repairs.

      'All right, there is no point in ignoring the suggestion of a threat, no matter where it may have come from. Our own rumour factory is the least reliable source but if anyone actually knows anything for sure, it will be Inspector Vanessa Robin of the Federal Bureau of Interstellar Security, or one of her contacts.'

      Marshall put through the call, and within a day Vanessa met with the surviving members of her former pirate crew, Bert, Ray and Cecil. They greeted her warmly at the entrance to the tavern they ran near her unofficial base. In keeping with a tradition the retired pirates had established for themselves and their former captain, a large glass jug was filled with beer brewed on the premises. The group then retired to a booth at the rear of the establishment.

      Once the pleasantries and an exchange of news had been dealt with, Vanessa asked the men if they had heard anything on the pirate grapevine about a mission to attack Junker's Moon.

      'In fact, ma'am,' Bert said as he replenished the glasses from the jug of foaming ale, 'it be the opposite, see. Amongst the pirate community, the word is that Junker's Moon is well worth staying away from.'

      'Aye,' said Cyril, who nodded vigorously while waiting for his glass to be filled. 'It be a place pirates don't come back from.'

      'Aye, that be exactly what I 'eard of late,

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