Illegal Astronauts. Out Now.
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Illegal Astronauts (Book 1) is available now.
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1. Restitution
FUN FACT!
Space-A-Gades, or SaGs, are violent criminals!
Avoid interaction with these outlaws whenever possible and report any suspicious behavior to the nearest authority!
This PSA was paid for by the Syndicate Primary Board: Education done Quick!
The stars looked like tiny LEDs on a black canvas with no texture. Their light was tinted but visible through the polymer hangar doors of Captain Nemo’s ship: the “Knorr”. A nod to some long-forgotten seafaring ships that once navigated the charred rock humanity was born on.
Its core was a Spacer-Tek Nomad hull. A sturdy design flash welded together by the company in some far-out Void Forge Station. But, the Knorr was never purchased. The ship was stolen from its cradle on a daring raid. Now it lived its life in a capacity beyond what its Outcast craftsmen had intended.
The Knorr was in the service of Space-A-Gades. A vessel of opportunity for our kind and piloted by a man that knew his way around the mapped galaxy. Today it held the four of us. Renegades sitting at a makeshift cargo box-turned table in the mid-level hangar.
“Your turn,” said Buba, glancing at me from around his beer.
He was the type of man that you might have to account for when lifting off a gravity well. But, he wasn’t too fat to be a Space-A-Gade. That was exactly what he hoped you’d think.
There was metal in that mound of flesh. Silent electronics were lodged in the meat of his torso waiting for a mental trigger. Buba’s adrenal booster implant could get him moving like a boulder thrown from Hell and as mad as the demon that threw it. The pump only lasted for a short time, but chances were one of you would be dead by the end of it.
I glanced across the table at Dutchess to see if Buba was trying to trick me. A valid strategy in Egyptian Rat Screw. Her hint of a smile was all I needed to see and I watched as it began to crack through her pressed lips.
She was a true warrior, but no gambler when it came to cards. Something obscured by the chic, polychromatic bomber jacket she wore now. It could mimic the colors around her with the flick of a switch, rendering the material nearly transparent.
A neat trick when you found yourself stuck in a gunfight. It would break up your silhouette and catch you an extra few seconds before the enemy could react.
Though right now, it only reflected the red backing of the face-down cards in her hand. Hints of Nemo’s blue and white horizontally striped shirt peeked in at one edge. A garment he called a “telnyashka” with the certainty of a man that assumed we knew what he was talking about.
He was stroking his facial hair with curious intent. Something I knew beginning on the day I met him to not be a true judge of anything. It was more a subconscious habit than a tell I could use.
So, I turned back to Buba’s placid face.
“Pretty sure it’s your turn,” I said picking up my beer.
A Fiddletail brew in a green and white can.
“I told you he was paying attention,” said Dutchess, tilting her head and smirking at Buba.
The Captain released a brief snort of amusement.
“Got me,” said Buba, shrugging without an expression.
Then he drew a card from the top of his deck. He placed an Ace onto the two and four already face up on the table.
Buba smiled, gesturing to the pile, “Now you’ve got that.”
“I got it,” I replied, placing the first of the four required cards down. It was a seven.
Placing my next, I didn’t find any more luck than the first. But on the third try, I managed to produce another seven. I pulled back before lunging in again to slap the central pile and collect my cards. Dutchess and Buba lunged as well. Their hands aimed to claim this round’s winning set.
Nemo’s head shot up.
“You feel that?” he asked glancing around the hangar.
Continued in Illegal Astronauts.
If you’ve read this far, then I know you’re already locked in.
Illegal Astronauts continues with Cobalt and the crew of the Knorr as a routine job fractures into an event that fractures into a dangerous game of espionage, betrayal, and survival. As the covert forces of the Syndicated Corporations and the Outcast Clans begin to close in, the crew must decide who will rise and what freedom among the stars is truly worth.
This is a grounded, semi-hard science fiction adventure rooted in character, loyalty, and consequence. A story about freedom in a universe where every system, political, economic, and technological, extracts its price.
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