Accelerating Universe: The Sector Fleet Book One Read online

  Accelerating Universe

  The Sector Fleet Book One

  Nicola Claire

  Copyright © 2018, Nicola Claire

  All Rights Reserved

  © 2017 Cover Art by Cora Graphics

  © Depositphotos.com/Ravven

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organisations is entirely coincidental.

  All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.

  ISBN: 978-0-473-42710-8

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  About the Author

  Free Download

  Also By Nicola Claire

  Description

  Sector Fleet Advertisement

  Prologue

  1. Did You Hear Me?

  2. Failure Was Not An Option

  3. Follow The Blue Arrows

  4. Next Stop Eris

  5. They Don’t Feel Anything

  6. I Have Been Told This Before

  7. Trust Me, I’m Kinda A Doctor

  8. Thank You, Mara

  9. Don’t Let The Bastards Get You Down

  10. I’m The Captain!

  11. Let Me Think

  12. What Now Captain?

  13. I Feel…Responsible For The Ships

  14. I Did Neither

  15. This Is Ridiculous

  16. No, That Is Not Right

  17. Ana, Don’t Fool Yourself

  18. Professional

  19. Not A Bad View

  20. And Then She Started Talking

  21. About That

  22. I Promise

  23. What The Hell?

  24. What Now?

  25. Then You Are Part Of Mine

  26. Not Just Some

  27. I Do Trust You, Ana

  28. Not Just A Pretty Face, Lieutenant

  29. Don’t Look So Alarmed

  30. I DIdn’t Get Much Sleep

  31. The Walls Stayed Red

  32. Fuck This

  33. Later, Then

  34. Yes, Sir

  35. I Do Not Know

  36. Believe What You Want

  37. Nice Try, Ana

  38. Acceptable

  39. I Just Smiled

  40. Ah, Shit

  41. We Had A Plan

  42. And Then It Hit Me

  43. Definitely The Pain Meds

  44. With Every Bit Of My Head And Heart

  45. Security Alert

  46. It’s Ana!

  47. I Tasted Desert Sand

  48. Purge Complete

  49. Yes

  50. OK, Then

  51. Tempting Me

  52. Are You Ready For This?

  Epilogue

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  About the Author

  Nicola Claire lives in beautiful Taupo, New Zealand with her husband and two young boys.

  She's tried her hand at being a paramedic, bank teller and medical sales representative, (not all necessarily in that order), but her love of writing keeps calling her back.

  She has a passion for all things suspenseful, spiced up with a good dollop of romance, as long as they include strong characters - alpha males and capable females - and worlds which although make-believe are really quite believable in the end.

  There's nothing better than getting caught up in a compelling, intriguing and romantic book.

  When she's not writing or reading, she's out on her family boat at Lake Taupo, teaching her young boys to fish, showing them the beauty that surrounds them in nature and catching some delicious trout for dinner.

  Creating rich worlds with dynamic characters and unexpected twists that shock and awe has been pure bliss for this author. And just as well, because there's a lot more story yet to tell...

  For more information:

  www.nicolaclairebooks.com

  [email protected]

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  Kindred Series

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  Kiss Of The Dragon

  Dreaming Of A Blood Red Christmas (Novella)

  * * *

  Mixed Blessing Mystery Series

  Mixed Blessing

  Dark Shadow (Coming Soon)

  * * *

  Sweet Seduction Series

  Sweet Seduction Sacrifice

  Sweet Seduction Serenade

  Sweet Seduction Shadow

  Sweet Seduction Surrender

  Sweet Seduction Shield

  Sweet Seduction Sabotage

  Sweet Seduction Stripped

  Sweet Seduction Secrets

  Sweet Seduction Sayonara

  * * *

  Elemental Awakening Series

  The Tempting Touch Of Fire

  The Soothing Scent Of Earth

  The Chilling Change Of Air

  The Tantalising Taste Of Water

  The Eternal Edge Of Aether (Novella)

  * * *

  H.E.A.T. Series

  A Flare Of Heat

  A Touch Of Heat

  A Twist Of Heat (Novella)

  A Lick Of Heat (Coming Soon)

  * * *

  Citizen Saga

  Elite

  Cardinal

  Citizen

  Masked (Novella)

  Wiped

  * * *

  Scarlet Suffragette Series

  Fearless

  Breathless

  Heartless (Coming Soon)

  * * *

  Blood Enchanted Series

  Blood Enchanted

  Blood Entwined

  Blood Enthralled (Coming Soon)

  * * *

  44 South Series

  Southern Sunset

  Southern Storm

  Southern Strike (Coming Soon)

  * * *

  Lost Time Series

  Losing Time

  Making Time (Coming Soon)

  ***

  The Sector Fleet

  Accelerating Universe

  Apparent Brightness

  Right Ascension (Coming Soon)

  Description

  "This is how we’d traverse the stars; limping and crippled, the last survivors of a dying solar system."

  Fleeing from a past that almost killed her and a present that promises she’ll only burn, pay-for-passage passenger Ana Kereama boards the Sector Two lead vessel Pavo with only survival in mind.

  What she finds is a reason to live, and it has nothing to do with New Earth.

  Teaming up with the sexy and commanding Captain John Jameson to protect those on board their ship, Ana fights not only for her vessel’s survival but the intelligent being emerging within its gel-coated walls.

  Love and
trust are born amongst the stars and plasma fire, but is it possible for a captain to be involved with a second lieutenant?

  And can any of them hope to survive the treacherous voyage unscathed?

  When humanity reaches for the stars in a race for survival, only the most daring amongst them will succeed.

  Accelerating Universe:

  A model for the universe in which a repulsive force counteracts the attractive force of gravity, driving all the matter in the universe apart at speeds that increase with time. Recent observations of distant supernova explosions suggest that we may live in an accelerating universe.

  Space Telescope Science Institute

  Prologue

  “T-minus three minutes to launch.”

 

  all programmes nominal

 

  all locks engaged

 

  air filtration functional

 

  core temperature within allowed parameters

 

  one thousand one hundred ninety-six

 

  fleet-wide communications activated

 

  ignition is go for launch

  “T-minus two minutes to launch.”

 

  outside temperature at upper acceptable limit

 

 

  power diverted to ceramic field enhancers

 

  temperature exceeds acceptable limits

 

 

  power diverted to coolant system

  “T-minus one minute to launch.”

 

  temperature exceeds acceptable limits

 

 

  power diverted to main boost thrust

 

  temperature exceeds acc…acc…acceptable limits

  “T-minus 30 seconds to launch.”

 

 

 

 

  pavo protocol alpha-1 instated

  power diverted to auxiliary boost thrust

  “Launch window closed.”

 

 

  power diverted to main boost thrust

 

 

  temperature exceeds acceptable limits

 

 

  power diverted to pavo

 

 

  ignition activated

  ignition achieved

  main engine start

 

  imminent solar flare

 

 

  power diverted to pavo

 

 

  launch achieved

  “Lift-off outside of launch window.”

 

  temperature exceeds acceptable limits

  power diverted to ceramic field enhancers

 

 

 

  pavo protocol alpha-beta-2 instated

  power diverted to ceramic field enhancers

  “Escape velocity achieved.”

 

  temperature within acceptable limits

 

  fleet-wide communications operational

 

  one thousand one hundred ninety-six

 

  core temperature within allowed parameters

 

  air filtration functional

 

  all locks engaged

 

 

  pavo protocol alpha-beta-2 operational

 

 

 

 

  One

  Did You Hear Me?

  Jameson

  As far as lift-offs went, that one sucked. Alarms rang out across the bridge. Red lights flashed intermittently. The overhead gel wall had dimmed, either a launch protocol I was not familiar with or an emergency measure designed to conserve power. The flight crew stared at the view pane and watched our world burn.

  “That was close,” Torrence, my 2IC whispered, as if saying it aloud would somehow doom us to greater failure.

  “Was that meant to happen?” Marshal asked from her position beside the communications array.

  I sucked in air as if the air filtration system was offline and for all I knew it had been.

  “Pavo,” I called, not answering the lieutenant. “Status.”

  “All systems operational, Captain,” the robotic voice of the AI announced. “All souls accounted for.”

  “What happened?” I demanded.

  “A solar flare.”

  “It wasn’t scheduled?” I knew the answer, of course. Our launch window would not have been arranged during a predicted solar flare. And as ours was the second to last launch window available, I had reference material that proved other fleets had made it out of Earth’s atmosphere without the light show.

  “Negative, Captain,” Pavo replied. “The solar flare was not expected.”

  “Damage report,” I snapped.

  “Minor injuries in Habitat Two. Medbay has been advised. Our ceramic field enhancer requires superficial repair. Engineering has been advised. The Corinthian sustained main boost thrust damage. I engaged their secondary boost thrust before any further malfunctions occurred. The captain of the Corinthian is hailing you. All other vessels of the Sector Two Fleet avoided notable damage.”

  “That’s all?” I asked, shaking my head.

  “The mayor wishes to speak with you.”

  Of course, he did.

  I ran a hand through my hair and tapped the comm button to answer the Corinthian’s hail.

  “This is Captain John Jameson of the Sector Two lead vessel Pavo, how may we be of assistance?”

  “What the hell was that?” Corinthian’s captain exclaimed over the speakers. “It came out of nowhere.”

  “It was an unscheduled flare,” I agreed. “Do you require assistance, Captain?”

  “No, we don’t require assistance, you robotic piece of shit.”

  “Actually, it’s the captain speaking not the AI.”

  Marshal snorted. Torrence tapped his booted foot.

  “One and the same,” came a barely discernible mutter.

  “Speech amplifier enabled,” Pavo oh so helpfully supplied.

  “Exactly!” the Corinthian’s captain shouted. “Now tell that overgrown tin can to get out of our boost thrust systems.”

  “So, you do require assistance?” I queried politely.

  “We can fly our own damn vessel!”

  “Pavo?”

  “Boost thrust damage has been superficially repaired. The Corinthian is operating at 83% efficiency. Advise an upper limit of 60% thrust until full repairs are completed. Estimated time for full repair: three hours.”

  And this is how we’d traverse the stars; limping and crippled, the last survivors of a dying solar system.

  “Remove yourself from their boost thrust, Pavo,” I ordered.

  “Acknowledged.”

  “Are you under your own power, Captain?” I asked.

  A grumble emerged from the speakers that even Pavo’s fine-tuning couldn’t quite decipher, but a barely audible “Yes,” sounded out at the end of the lengthy diatribe.

  “Very good. We’ll advise the fleet to reduce speed to 60%.”

  “Fine,” the captain snapped. “But keep that automaton away from
my ship. Corinthian out.”

  “Send out a fleet-wide hail, Marshal,” I directed.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I guess we won’t be seeing Neptune anytime soon,” Torrence said.

  I looked back at the view pane. The dark side of Earth, its satellite moon spinning lazily around it, stared back out of a velvety black backdrop. From here, the damage couldn’t be pinpointed. But we all knew it was there.

  Just as we all knew that it would never look as beautiful as it did right now. For several seconds, the flight crew stared at our home planet along with me.