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    Mission Alpha
    Mission Alpha
    Mission Alpha
    Ebook184 pages2 hours

    Mission Alpha

    By Lee Willard

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    About this ebook

    Dorrick has now been on Kassidor ten Earth years, a decade and forty as he tells time now, and they are living comfortably in the Yakhan. Best of all, TongSu has remained with him. Then his old friend Bulf, with whom he'd done some light work in the past, invites him to a reunion dinner in Kex. He wonders how Bulf ever got the money to do that, but because Bulf promised that Jason and Vio would also be there, he thinks it would be nice to surprise TongSu with an all-expenses-paid trip to the de-facto capital of human space.

    He doesn't think that Bulf and Jason could have an ulterior motive for this trip until it is too late. As dinner is drawing to a close, Dorrick's old friends
    begin to try and tempt them into performing a mission with them. Dorrick insists his ten Earth years on Kassidor have left him completely out of training and TongSu can't imagine using violence against another human being. But as they are turning it down, a commotion breaks out among a Centorin Senator's party upstairs and they never get a chance to say no. Before they know what's happening, they run afoul of the Centorin military, then a force even more deadly than that, the paramilitary of the senator’s House.

    The twelfth episode of the Dorrick and TongSu series takes them to a world free of dangerous wildlife. All they intended to do was have dinner, reunite with some old friends and maybe reminisce about some of the harrowing adventures they'd had together both before and after they'd left Centorin.

    Instead this becomes their most action-packed adventure. From the time the senator is shot there is non stop action as they must battle their way out of the crime scene as well as in and out of a police station. Then the going gets rough as they are tracked from space and pursued by all the weaponry the most powerful world of 3828ad. can bring to bear. In this TongSu must face the fact that she always thought this stuff was done with special effects until now, and there is no 'new game' button when she is flying the real thing.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLee Willard
    Release dateNov 6, 2021
    ISBN9781005356521
    Mission Alpha
    Author

    Lee Willard

    I am a retired embedded systems engineer and sci-fi hobbyist from Hartford. Most of my stories concern Kassidor, 'The planet the hippies came from' which I have used to examine subjects like: What would it take to make the hippy lifestyle real? How would extended lifespans affect society? What could happen if we outlive our memories? How can murder be committed when violence is impossible?I have recently discovered that someone new to science fiction should start their exploration of Kassidor with the Second Expedition trilogy. To the mainstream fiction reader the alien names of people, places and things can be confusing. This series has a little more explanation of the differences between Kassidor and Earth. In all of the Kassidor stories you will notice the people do not act like ordinary humans but like flower children from the 60's. It is not until Zhlindu that the actual modifications made to human nature to make them act that way are spelled out. To aide that understanding I've made The Second Expedition free.I am not a fan of violence and dystopia. I believe that sci-fi does not just predict the future, but helps create the future because we sci-fi writers show our readers what the future will be and the readers go out and create it. I believe that the current fad of constant dystopia and mega-violence in sci-fi today is helping to create that world, and I mention that often in reviews and comments on the books I read. I also believe that the characters in those stories who are completely free of any affection are at least as unnatural as the modified humans of Kassidor.In my reviews, * = couldn't finish it. ** = Don't bother with it. *** = good story worth reading. **** = great and memorable story. ***** = Worth a Hugo.

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      Book preview

      Mission Alpha - Lee Willard

      2. A Stargate Invitation

      Dorrick rose and stretched and looked out over the upper branches of the city, just starting to swelter in the heat of late Noonsleep. Their bedroom was about twenty one stories up in an apartment tree, one of the tallest a block back from Fifth Canal, nearly a mile from where it leaves the dam. Their bedroom view was south, over the smaller dwellings growing on the downhill side of the canal. It was a gentle slope, the urban growth on Sixth Canal was just a line on the horizon. They were still in an urban neighborhood, few grew any crops at all, only the people here on the upper floors even grew enough vine for their own use. It was quiet as the heat built up and Kortrax approached Afternoonday.

      He’d been back in The Yakhan an Earth year now, ten years to a local. The first time thru he just ogled, this time he was getting used to it. This is the city Centorins call ‘Kassidor City’ the official name is Kassidor Yakhan, but it is called ‘Yakhan’ ‘Main Hub’ by most on this planet and often simply Ya, ‘nucleus’ by it’s hundred million residents. Some might even say Kassya to mean ‘All of the hub’ for the entire metropolitan area. It was comfortable and modern in a completely different mood from Centorin, mainly because of the Instinct, a genetic modification that paralyzed any part of the body that attempts to use aggressive force on another human being.

      For almost all Centorins who had ever visited Kassidor, this city was all they ever saw. In 3828 the tube system cannot take you out of the same urban complex. No end of the tube system ventured much more than a hundred miles from the gatehead.

      TongSu was still asleep beside him. Because of her he had seen more of Kassidor than anyone from any other planet. He spent nine years in the nets of her balloon, recording video most of the way. It took nine Earth years to go halfway around and back, with some stops and detours to be sure, but that journey made this world seem larger than all of the rest of human space.

      Her old-mahogany colored curls stirred, If you’re awake it must be Afternoonday, she yawned.

      He’d spent all those years with this native woman, as close to husband and wife as any in the mainstream of this society. I’d call it that, he answered. There actually was a time standard in the entire Elven Highlands, half the data terminals this side of the stargate keep it. Not that such an esoteric fact interfered in most of the population’s day-to-day life.

      Lets go down to Dunnie’s and sit at a table, she said. He’ll be getting shade pretty soon.

      We might not want to take that long, he told her. I got an interesting invitation in the evening messages.

      Yeah? What’re we having?

      I have an invitation to dinner in Kex, but that will be just about right for brunch for us.

      What? She sat up in bed.

      I got a message just before Noonsleep, an old friend of mine wants to get us together for dinner at a swank place not far from the Kensenduum.

      Anyone I know?

      Jason and the Professor will be there, Dorrick said. She knew them from their first adventure together, a two-year flight to the city of Borlunth on the far side of this planet.

      Professor Viosaign and mono-or-nothing Jason? she asked.

      She knew who he was talking about. They didn’t get along sexually, but she had spent more of their time in Borlunth playing video games with Jason than having sex with Dorrick. That Jason, Dorrick told her.

      Who’s the other guy?

      Bulf, you never met him, he’s never been to Kassidor as best I know. I never thought he’d make it to Kex, much less thru the stargate. Seems a pair of round-trip tickets is nothing to him now.

      Why me? she asked while getting up and moving toward the bath.

      I don’t want to leave you behind, unless you really don’t want to go.

      I can’t imagine the expense. My weight in aluminum and that’s not enough to pay for the trip? That was enough to buy a medium sized city on Kassidor.

      He had stopped earning steady Centorin wages after Bordzvek, about six Earth years ago, when their show went off the net. Aluminum is cheap on Centorin. Don’t worry about the cost, Bulf is paying for it.

      Why do you want me to go?

      I want you to get a chance to see some of Centorin and I want someone I can trust around me. Haven’t you noticed we’re a team? There was no such thing as total monogamy in any mainstream society anywhere they’d seen so far on the planet Kassidor, and in the Yakhan most social gatherings involved multiple bouts of casual and/or group sex. That didn’t mean that people didn’t form lasting friendships, usually between people of opposite sex. After ten Earth years together, he was beginning to hope his friendship with TongSu was more than just casual sex partner.

      Well, we have been thru some shit, TongSu said. That was certainly an understatement, especially by local standards.

      The tub was only a few steps from the bed. The bath and bed are in the same room in the style of the Yakhan and both are used for entertaining. Their genetic science has been perfecting beauty in flesh since the classical Greek sculptors did so in marble on Earth.

      He walked over to the shower with her. Come on tough girl, we’re not just employer-employee here, you’re a lot more to me than just my pilot and just because we won’t have your balloon, that doesn’t mean I don’t want you. She sighed, but turned and kissed him. He took her in his arms, still thrilled at her strength and life. She was already slippery with soap.

      What about the bully group? I won’t have all those ID numbers and such that you talk about. ‘Bully Group’ is the closest translation for the word ‘government’ in the local language. There had been none here for four thousand years.

      I’ll put you down as my wife.

      I am not, she said, shaking her long brown tangle under the water.

      They don’t know that, and besides that, you really are. He lathered her chest while she soaped her hair. This had been his job since they first showered together the first time they were in this city. She looks great and feels better, he’d volunteered for this job.

      What do you mean, we aren’t exclusive. It wasn’t but five weeks ago we had that four way with my old friend Shatyia.

      Yeah, that was fun wasn’t it, he reminisced about the candle ceremonies they carried on in their garden thirty miles southeast on Seventh Canal. They really know how to set an atmosphere don’t they?

      That’s not exclusive, she said.

      TongSu, this language has the word ‘keh’ and there is no word to translate that into Centish but ‘spouse’ and that’s what we have been for a decade and a half now. She was rinsing out her hair, he had continued washing her to her other curls.

      Just because we’ve been together.

      I’m really nothing to you? You were only in it for the money? He passed his hand back up her front now that he was done. She was done with her hair also and stepped out of the water onto the tile side of the room.

      Of course not, the sex has been great, but most of all, it’s the heroism that keeps me stuck on you. Without you I’d have only talked about making it all the way to Borlunth, much less Trenst. Trenst was like a fable to me all my life, because of you, now I’ve been there and seen it for myself. That was such a grand voyage we took.

      What keeps you here now?

      Well, I did buy this house, she said.

      He seemed to have forgotten that hadn’t he? Then what keeps me here?

      I thought I just told you? He finished washing himself, watched her dry off. It was really a treat, she was so well shaped for her strength. She looked voluptuous more than built. Most women here are light and willowy, she was dark and plush.

      If it’s adventure, you should be eager to have dinner in Kex with Bulf.

      You wouldn’t be ashamed of bringing a native from a primitive planet back to your energy-age world?

      No, TongSu, I could never be more proud. It is the opposite, I will want to show you off.

      Like strip shows and such? I’ll get naked if you want, but you know I don’t like sex for an audience or as a commercial deal.

      No, nothing like that. I imagine myself introducing you to important people and watching them get jealous.

      Won’t they wonder what you’re doing with a savage native of the ‘Wild World’?

      That had been the name of their net source when Hostra Tours was sponsoring them. You may know survival, but you aren’t a savage. I AM proud of you and I want you with me. The people of this planet are not violent but the same cannot be said about the wildlife.

      She sighed, then looked up and asked, So what do I have to wear? But he noticed her eyes were pretty full.

      *

      As the tube car door opened on the University of Kex public tube platform, the first thing that assaulted him was the noise. Being away for over ten years had let him forget the blare and flash of advertising, the thrum of motors, the rumble of air handling machinery, the staccato shouts of bellhops and procurers, and the clatter of hard soles on plasticrete. There were motors everywhere. He noticed the lack of living things, the hard edges, the severe lines. After spending an Earth year back in the Highlands, the Yakhan was a rainforest compared to this decor. The lights here were so bright, so much brighter than they had to be, almost like being outside in sunshine. TongSu emerged onto the university public platform behind him, looking around at everything but with her head drawn back.

      This isn’t as much like Bordzvek as you said it would be, TongSu said.

      No, the tube stations aren’t. Once we get outside you’ll see what I mean.

      He was noticing the dirt and litter. Scraps of a one-sheet scattered on the floor, an insta-bite wrapper in the corner, stains from spilled soft drinks. One of the lighting tubes was flickering and the plast in front of an advertising display case was cracked.

      Three beggars approached them as Dorrick lead the way. TongSu probably knew just enough Centish to know what they were saying. She jogged a couple steps to catch up with him. A nearby soldier roughly pushed the beggars back with the butt of his blaster.

      What was that about? she asked.

      They have no work so all they can do is beg for handouts, he told her.

      Can’t they work off the boards? she

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