The Deep Dark Well (43 page)

Epilogue

“This is Pandi to
Watcher.  Pandi to Watcher.”

“This is Watcher,
Pandi.  Are you ready?”

Pandi checked the
control board on the vessel as she nodded her head.  Everything checked out
A-OK.  A beautiful ship, she thought, the sister of
Hellfire
.  Renamed
the
Starfire
from
Rescuer
, a name she had lived up to.  Now she
would be used for exploration.

“Ready to get going,”
she said.  She turned the ship in its bay as the doors opened in front of her. 
“Don’t worry Watcher.  I’ll find those other folks, and we’ll get them up to speed.”

“Just look out for that
first group,” he cautioned yet again.  “From what I could gather of them they
were true fanatics.  And don’t trust the other group too much either, until you
get to know them better.  We just want to put them on par with their
opponents.”

“I know, I know,” she
said with a grin.  They had gone over this many times.  Watcher didn’t really
want her to go, but she had felt restless after her convalescence.  There was a
whole Universe out there to look into, and she wasn’t about to let the
opportunity to go to waste.  “I can always pop back to the station if things
get too hot.”

“Not just when they get
too hot,” he cautioned.  “You come back and see me every day, or I’ll come and
get you.  And don’t think a dedicated wormhole gate back to here makes you
invulnerable.  If the ship gets smashed before you can get into the gate, you
get smashed with it.”

“Yes, lover,” she
said.  “I’ll be a good little girl, until I get back to you, that is.  But
seriously, you need some eyes out there, and the station needs to be put back
into shape, which is not something I am good at.”

“No,” he said with a
laugh.  “You're very good at causing trouble though.  And smashing things.”

“Lucky for you,” she
agreed as she nudged the ship out of the bay and set her course.  The Sapphire
System beckoned.  That was the last known position of the second group of
invaders, the ones that had behaved themselves and actually helped to mitigate
much of the damage done by the fanatics of the first group.  At least they weren’t
xenophobes. 

“Handle this mission
right and I just might be talked into giving you a starship.”

“I’ll take that as a
promise,” she said, as her ship started to accelerate away from the station. 
To her starboard passed one of the great graviton beam projectors, dwarfing her
small ship, though dwarfed by the station.  She was also to look out for
environmental degradation of the terraforming of the inhabited worlds, and the
great projectors might be called into action soon, making conditions more comfortable
for inhabitants, if not saving the lives of their descendants.  Watcher was
determined to do his penance for the actions the computer had forced his other
persona to accomplish.  And since he had the control of the power to do so, and
the will to be useful, why not, she thought.

“I’ll see you tonight,
lover,” she said as she checked her navigation status once last time.

“It’s a date,” he
said.  “Bet you never thought you’d be in this situation when you were out
prospecting the Kuiper Belt.”

That's an
understatement
,
she thought.  But it has always been her fondest wish.  She hoped the
realization of her dream would be worth the cost.  So far, it had.

THE END

About the Author

Doug Dandridge is an
ex-professional student with degrees from Florida State University and  The
University of Alabama, and coursework in Psychology, Biology, Geology, Physics,
Chemistry, Anthropology and Nursing.  Doug has interest in all of the
fantastic, including science fiction, fantasy and horror, as well as all eras
of military history.  Doug is a prolific writer, having completed 25 novel
length manuscripts.  He is still seeking a major publishing contract, but has
decided that self- publishing is the way to go at this time.  His work can be
found on Amazon and Smashwords, as well as his own website.  Doug lives with
his five cats in Tallahassee, Florida, and currently has no social life, as he
is too busy writing around his work schedule.

Follow my many
characters and settings at
http://dougdandridge.net

Contact me at
[email protected]

Follow my Blog, Doug
BrotherofCats Dandridge at
http://dougdandridge.com

Follow me at
@BrotherofCats

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Reviews, rating and comments
on Amazon about this novel are much appreciated.  If you liked the storyl
please leave a review that will help others to discover this novel.  If you
have comments about mistakes I might have made, posting them in a review will
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the net.  If you want to see these characters again (at least the ones that
survived) a review will let me know I should consider writing in this
particular Universe again.

I read all the reviews of
my books and love to hear what my readers have to say.  If you have a moment I
would be grateful for your time. 
Review
page.

Books
by Doug Dandridge

Science
Fiction

The
Deep Dark Well Trilogy

The
Deep Dark Well
:  An Adventure 40,000 years in the making.  Pandora Latham
was a Kuiper Belt Miner from Alabama.  She’s used to landing on her feet, even
when the next surface is through a wormhole, halfway across the Galaxy and
46,000 years in the Future.  Pandora must discover the secret behind the end of
civilization, and the enigma of the Immortal Watcher, the last survivor of the
Empire that once ruled the stars.  Her decisions will set the path for Galactic
recovery, or a continuation down the roads of Barbarism.

To
Well and Back
:  Pandora Latham is back, working Watcher’s plan to restore
Galactic Civilization.  But first she has to deal with the Xenophobes of the
Nation of Humanity, back in the Supersystem with their sights set on making the
Galaxy their own.  Pandora is angry at the hyper religious Nation, and you
don’t want to make a woman from Alabama angry.

The
Exodus Series

Exodus:
Empires at War: Book 1
:  The introduction to the Exodus Universe.  Two
thousand years prior mankind fled from the Predatory Ca’cadasans, traveling a
thousand years and ten thousand light years to a new home.  Now the greatest
power of their sector of space, things seem to be going well for the New Terran
Empire.  Until the enemy appears once again at the gates.  And the years have
not softened the aliens’ stance toward Humanity.

Exodus:
Empires at War: Book 2
:  The saga continues.  The Ca’cadasans attack at the
moment when the government of the Empire is at its most chaotic.  There are
other enemies as well, waiting for their chance to fall on the overwhelmed
humans.  And a young man with no ambition for power finds himself in the
position he most dreads.

Other
Scifi

Diamonds
in the Sand
:  When a perfectly healthy scientist falls dead of an apparent
heart attack, it is up to Sarasota Police Detective Lieutenant Gary Lariviere
to find out what really happened.  The scientist was working on Nanotechnology,
a secret desired by everyone from the Government to the Mob.  There are too
many suspects, including the woman that Gary comes to love.  The Army had made
Gary better than human, but had they prepared him for the terrors that had been
unleashed by the new technology?

The
Scorpion
:  The Scorpion had been the world’s deadliest living terrorist. 
Kestral McMann had been in on the kill.  Now The Scorpion is back as a mind
upload, using clones to penetrate the tight security of an isolationist United
States.  McMann is the only man who can stop him.  But can McMann survive the
threat of his own side, and the insane President who leads the Nation, in time
to stop The Scorpion from plunging the Great Satan back into the Stone Age.

The
Shadows of the Multiverse
:  Something has been periodically wiping
intelligence from our Universe through the ages.  It’s back, and it’s up to
three unlikely heroes, the Captain of a Battle Cruiser, a Physicist turned
Archeologist, and a Child, to save the intelligence of the Universe from
Monsters from another Dimension.  Can they learn to use the powers of their
unusual Quantum Minds to defeat creatures that have been playing the game for
billions of years?

Afterlife
: 
What if you didn’t believe in the afterlife of the World’s Religions?  And what
if science offered you the alternative, survival within the Virtual World of a
computer, where your mental abilities are magnified and you can do anything you
want?  And what if the World decided that your way was wrong, and declared war
on you, meaning to destroy your reality?  What would you do?  Afterlife, a tale
of survival at all costs.

Fantasy

The
Refuge Series

Refuge:
The Arrival: Book 1
:  A nuclear war in Central Europe opens the gates
between dimensions, sending millions of Earth Humans into a land of myth,
archetypes and fantasy.  The Evil Emperor of the Ellala Elves sees the humans
as energy to fuel his transformation to immortality.  But the humans have
brought their own weapons with them, as well as a race of Demigods who will
battle the fantastic armies of Refuge.  The war is on, and only one side will
ultimately survive.

Refuge:
The Arrival: Book 2
:  The Ellala have a plan to destroy the human military
and capture the civilians.  And the humans find that their weapons will soon
cease to function.  So it’s use it or lose it for the Earth Humans, and they
use it with a vengeance.  Tanks against Mages, Attack Helicopters against
Dragons, and Nuclear Weapons against Death Gods.  And the other peoples of the
planet come forth as allies to the humans that they see as the fulfillment an
Ancient Prophecy.  But will it be enough?

Refuge:
Doppelganger
: Set thousands of years after the arrival, Kurt von
Mannerheim, the Immortal Emperor of the Imperium of Free Nations, must give up
everything to save his Empress, the Elfin Princess Gwenara Elysius von
Mannerheim.  The world is at a crisis point as the Evil Tarakesh Empire, under
its Immortal Emperor Heinrich Stuppleheim, prepares to overrun the world with
its Nazi Ideology.  And Kurt must face a creature of legend that may prove too
much for even his physical and mental abilities.

Other
Fantasy

The
Hunger
:  Abused wife, drug addict, prostitute; Lucinda Taylor had been
victimized by men all her adult life.  Left for dead by her pimp, Lucinda was
turned by a passing vampire.  When he is destroyed she becomes a free agent,
slaking her hunger for blood on the bottom dwellers of society, the type of men
who once victimized her.  The crime boss of Tampa is her next target, and the
City by the Bay is about to become a bloodbath.  But can Lucinda avoid those
who are hunting for her; the Priest, the FBI man, and a pair of Vampires who
would like nothing better than to send one Avenging Vampire forever into the
dark?

Daemon
: 
A Steampunk Fantasy.  The world is dying, the victim of the magic used by
society for the last three hundred years.  Daemon Corporation thinks they have
the answer, stealing the life from other worlds, bringing from other dimensions
the intelligences that inhabit them for sacrifice on Earth.  But something has
come with them, a force that is killing the employees of Daemon Corp.  It is up
to Forensic Mage Detective Jude Parkinson to find a way to stop the
unstoppable, while keeping the head of Daemon Corp from silencing him to keep
the dark secrets of the company out of the public eye.

Aura
: 
Triplets are born on a world where the magical Aura decides the fate of its
owner.  Ariel is a girl with more than double the normal Aura, destined to
become a mighty Priest or Mage.  Aiden has a less than normal Aura, and is
destined to be a soldier or laborer.  While Arlen has no Aura at all, and is
seen as an abomination in the eyes of the Church of Baalra the Dragon God,
which has no power over those with Negative Auras.  Fate will rip the siblings
apart, then bring them back together as they battle to defeat the Dragon God
and leave the Evil Empire, before Ariel is taken as the Avatar of Baalra, his
mortal vessel on Earth.

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Excerpt from
To
Well and Back

Pandora
thought about her strategy for another moment while the closing velocity and
the distance dropped.  The particle beam projectors gave her the option of four
different loads, all corresponding to a separate wormhole portal to a different
accelerator loop on the station.  Charged particles were best for hitting
targets with full force, as they didn’t lose velocity in a charge strip, which
wasn’t required for them.  The problem being that any kind of electromagnetic
field could repel them, or at least spread them from a concentrated beam to a
diffuse shower.  Uncharged particles didn’t have that problem, and could hit
with a hard kinetic impact, but still lost some velocity in the stripping
process.  Negative matter was a special use weapon.  Negative matter simply
made a like amount of matter disappear on contact.  The matter and any effects
it carried, including kinetic energy, just ceased to exist.  Due to
conservation of mass more of the impacted matter would disappear, but not all
that much, as a little bit of mass was the equivalent of a lot of energy. 
Negative matter was really better when something needed to be breached without
a lot of collateral damage.  And of course antimatter had to carry a charge, or
it was nothing.  A negative proton was a neutron.  But antimatter was the
ultimate particle beam, causing kinetic destruction followed by the effects of
total conversion.