Mapped Space 1: The Antaran Codex (42 page)

I hadn’t mentioned the Mataron
weapon in my report. “You took my memories as well, while we held hands?”

“You have no secrets from me,
Sirius.” She put the fume-stick to her lips, then slowly exhaled gray smoke. “We
could study that blade. Its technology is–”

“Yeah I know, seven hundred
thousand years ahead of ours,” I said cutting her off. “Which means even if you
could reverse engineer it – which I doubt – you couldn’t make another.”

“True,” she said wistfully.

“I’m keeping it. Considering the
Black Sauria have sworn to kill me, I may need it.”

“A lot of people have sworn to
kill you, Sirius. I’m sure the Matarons will find out just how difficult that
is to achieve.”

“My chances will be a whole lot
better if I had ammo that could punch through their skin shields.”

“We’re working on it. If we come
up with something, you’ll be the first to know.” She took another draw on her
fume-stick. “What about the neutron rifle? I really should make you hand it
over. It’ll get you life in prison and your ship confiscated, if you’re caught
with it.”

“I know, but Izin really likes
it. It would break his heart if I took it away from him.” I put the souvenir
bag on the table in front of her. “You can have this instead. One used Mataron plasma
rifle. The owner doesn’t need it any more on account of his being . . . dead
and all.” We could never copy such an advanced weapon, but understanding what damage
it did might help develop a defense against it.

“I love it when you bring me
gifts, Sirius.” She pulled the bag towards her, opened it just enough to see
inside, then with an approving look, placed it below the table out of sight –
deal made. She smiled, slowly shaking her head in disbelief. “A tamph with a
neutron rifle! Now that really would scare some people, but he did well. Very
well . . . Maybe it’s time we brought a few tamphs into the Service. I could create
a special department for them, dedicated to reverse engineering whatever the
Matarons are using against us.”

“Good luck with that,” I said,
knowing the opposition she’d face on Earth.

“Bringing the tamphs in will scare
a lot of people, but we need them and they’re ready to play a part. Izin proved
that.” She gave me a knowing look. “And anyone who really opposes it . . .” she
shrugged helplessly.

“Will be subverted by you or
others like you?”

“For the greater good, Sirius.
I’ll call it . . . Team Izin.”

“He’d like that, not that he’ll ever
know.”

“Only the males though,” Lena
added. “No females. Even I don’t trust them.”

“I trust Izin, but he’s the only
one. You’ll find the males are honorable. If they give you their word and you
keep the females away from them, you could work with them. Earth is their home
too, don’t forget that.”

She nodded slowly. “So how much
do you want? This was a contract and you have a crew to pay. Shall we say 5
million credits?”

My eyes bulged. “I could buy a
new ship for that!”

“You’ve earned it.”

“It’s too much. I couldn’t
explain it to my crew. Izin’s already suspicious.”

“They don’t need to know. Think
of it as your personal retirement fund.”

I gave her a bemused look,
realizing that even though she was a prober, she really didn’t understand me at
all. “The repairs will cost thirty five thousand. Add shares for Jase and Izin,
and Marie’s cut . . . ” I did a few quick sums. “Make it a hundred thousand.
Small profit for everyone. Not too conspicuous. I’ll tell them Jie Kang Li
always pays his debts and I would have got a lot more if I’d delivered the Codex.”

“It’s believable.”

“I also want you to put the
survivalist community on Deadwood back into the navy’s astrographics catalogue.”

“That’s a little sentimental, Sirius,
even for you.”

“It’s the deal I made. They help
us save mankind’s right to the stars, we save their planet from the Consortium.
It’s a small price to pay.”

“OK, the navy will make sure they
have prior claim.”

“And I want a thousand SN6 sniper
rifles, a hundred thousand rounds of smart ammo – various types – and fifty
orbital cannons.”

She gave me a wide-eyed look.
“Are you serious?”

“This mission would have failed
without Klasson. We owe him. You owe him. Or you could give me the five million
and I’ll buy them on the black market, but I’d rather not have the navy catch
me smuggling weapons. I want it legal. Consider it a fitting punishment for the
Consortium consorting with the enemy.”

“Unknowingly consorting,” she
corrected.

“Come to think of it, I really
don’t like the Consortium. I want an orbital gunship as well. Klasson wrecked
the piece of junk he was flying saving my ass. It’s the least I can do.”

Lena grinned. “Any particular
model?”

“No, just something with a big
gun, a comfortable acceleration couch and a case of genuine Earth-distilled
Kentucky bourbon, for the pilot.” When she gave me a puzzled look, I shrugged.
“What can I say? I like Klasson.”

 
He probably couldn’t stop the Consortium from
terraforming Deadwood, but a little leverage might let him save his corner of
it.” I leaned towards her. “I gave him my word. You’re not going to make me
break my word are you?”

She sighed. “OK, I have no love
of the Consortium either. You can pick up your weapons from Armin’s in thirty
days and the navy will look the other way, although, you might have to wait a
few years for the bourbon.”

“It’s always a pleasure doing
business with you, Lena.”

She gazed at me, seemingly
perplexed, or maybe she was doing her spooky prober thing on me again.
Eventually, she said, “If you really don’t care about money, Sirius, why did
you leave the service?”

“I like the freedom, and my
brother’s out there somewhere.”

“Forget about him, Sirius. You
know what he’s become.”

“People can change. Sometimes,
all they need is the right encouragement.”

“What about Marie? She almost
cost you your life on the
Soberano
.
You shouldn’t have dropped your weapon to save her, you know that. You should
have killed the Mataron with the Q-blade, while his gun was pointed at her head.
That was the smart option.”

And Marie would certainly be
dead. Fortunately, I’m not that smart. “That’s another reason why I left the
Service. I don’t make decisions like that.”

“Marie Dulon is your blind spot, Sirius.
While she’s around, you will make mistakes.”

“Yeah, but what mistakes!”

“She’ll get you killed one day.”

“Maybe, but not today.” I offered
Lena my hand. “I guess it’s time you switched me off.” The mission was over and
my threading was still active.

Lena looked at my hand thoughtfully,
then slowly shook her head. “You may not realize it, Sirius, but you’re the best
agent we have out here. I told you on the
Nassau
,
we consider you a freelance asset. Judging by what’s happened, we were right.
You keep doing whatever it is you do and when we need you again, we’ll be in
touch. And if you find something that needs doing, you take care of it.”

“I don’t even know how to contact
you.” Since my threading’s emergency purge on Icetop, I’d lost the keys to the
kingdom: all the authentications and recognition codes were gone.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “All it
takes is a handshake to bring you back up to speed.”

“Goodbye, Lena,” I said standing,
certain she was never going to let me go, but now that it was on my terms, it
might be a good deal for both of us.

Perhaps I’d always been a
freelance asset without ever realizing it. For now, I had another week with Marie
before the
Lining
was repaired. A
week with no cares, no Mataron’s, no responsibilities, just one headstrong,
tantalizing woman to keep the nights long and the days stimulating.

It would be a week to remember.

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The Mothership

by

Stephen Renneberg

“A compelling, visionary must read for
literary sci-fi fans”
–
Kirkus
Reviews

A
massive alien ship crashes into one of the most remote places on Earth –
cutting all contact with the region.
Within hours, Major Robert Beckman and his specially equipped Contact Team are
hurriedly dispatched from Area 51 to investigate. Is it a forced landing, or
the beginning of an invasion - a technological treasure trove, or an
extraterrestrial Pandora’s box that spells disaster for life on Earth?

Infiltrating
the vast tropical wilderness of northern Australia, Beckman’s team encounter
strange machines, alien structures and a handful of human survivors struggling
to evade capture.

When
Beckman’s team penetrates to the heart of the Mothership, they discover an
answer they never expected and a universe far larger than they had ever
imagined.

Paperback
Length 465 pages

ISBN:
978-0-9874347-3-9

The Siren Project

by

Stephen Renneberg

When a
top secret ‘black’ project turns rogue, a shadowy organization entraps
disgraced former Secret Service Agent John Mitchell into tracking down the
missing scientist behind the project.

What he
uncovers is an insidious conspiracy reaching to the highest levels of the
military and the government. The discovery makes him the most hunted man on
earth, pursued by a ruthless enemy armed with a sinister new technology.
 
Aided by a woman with extraordinary abilities,
and an enigmatic defector from deep within the conspiracy itself, Mitchell
challenges the greatest technological undertaking since the creation of the
atomic bomb. To his horror, he finds that rather than destroy entire cities,
the monolithic Siren Project threatens to destroy the free will of Mankind
itself . . . without anyone ever knowing!

Paperback
Length 492 pages

ISBN:
978-0-9874347-2-2

The Kremlin Phoenix

by

Stephen Renneberg

“Renneberg delivers a
typically exciting thriller, with plenty of sharp turns, heavy weapons and
touches of science fiction”
 
-
Kirkus Reviews

In the 21st century, Craig
Balard, a young New York lawyer, is unwittingly swept up in a conspiracy of
global proportions that threatens to trigger the fall of the West and the rise
of a new totalitarian world order.

Hunted by agents of the
international conspiracy, Craig encounters a mysterious woman who knows his
every step – before he makes it – and who intervenes to keep him alive for her
own purposes.

He discovers she is a
hologram, transmitted back in time from the late 23rd century, where a small
group of survivors of a cataclysmic war are trying to use him to change their
past in order to save mankind’s future.

Under her guidance, Craig
becomes the fulcrum of time, where his every move triggers changes in the
timeline that will either save humanity, or guarantee its extinction.

Paperback Length 334 pages

ISBN:
978-0-9874347-7-7