The Invasion Begins Read online

  The Invasion Begins

  A Galaxy Unknown® series – Book 12

  Copyright ©2017 by Thomas J. DePrima

  18.f.26

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. The scanning, uploading, downloading, and/or distribution of this book via the Internet or any other means without the permission of the copyright holder is illegal, and punishable by law.

  No part of this novel may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the copyright holder, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

  ISBN-13: 978-1-61931-034-1

  ISBN-10: 1-61931-034-6

  Cover Image from : Shutterstock.com

  Photo Manipulation by : Thomas DePrima

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person with whom you share it. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it to the owner and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  An appendix containing political and technical data highly pertinent to this series is included at the back of this book.

  To contact the author, or see information about his other novels, visit:

  www.deprima.com

  This series of novels includes:

  A Galaxy Unknown®…

  A Galaxy Unknown®

  Valor at Vauzlee

  The Clones of Mawcett

  Trader Vyx

  Milor!

  Castle Vroman

  Against All Odds

  Return to Dakistee

  Retreat And Adapt

  Azula Carver

  Changing of the Guard

  The Invasion Begins

  AGU:® Border Patrol…

  Citizen X

  Clidepp Requital

  Clidepp Déjà Vu

  AGU:® SC Intelligence…

  The Star Brotherhood

  Other series and novels by the author:

  Colton James novels…

  A World Without Secrets

  Vengeance Is Personal

  When The Spirit…

  When The Spirit Moves You

  When The Spirit Calls

  * * *

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Appendix

  Map

  * * *

  Chapter One

  ~ March 28th, 2292 ~

  Chief Petty Officer Franklin Dorithy’s eyes darted nervously back and forth, scanning the faces of the four individuals standing in front of him. A look of complete bewilderment shrouded the countenance of the engineering noncom, and he was unable to prevent his body from trembling slightly. After several visual sweeps, his gaze came to rest on the visage of the Space Command senior officer. “Wha— wha— what do you mean, I’ve just soared over the rainbow?” His voice quivered as the words spilled from his lips. Just seconds earlier he had been indifferently examining a large booth in a severely damaged section of a Denubbewa warship at the reclamation yard that orbited Lorense-Four in the G.A.’s Region Two. Now, a senior officer in Space Command— one with an unassailable reputation— was telling him he was standing in a ship thousands of light-years away in Region Three. “What rainbow are you talking about, Commander?”

  “It was a metaphor, Chief,” Commander Christa Carver replied to the engineering noncom. A hint of a smile appeared on her face as she said, “It’s a quotation from a children’s book written on Earth several centuries ago. What do you know about the booth you were examining?”

  “Know? Uh, all I know for sure is that I was tasked with preparing a brief report after I evaluated its general physical condition. I’ve been doing this for weeks now, and I guess I’ve been pegged as the most experienced noncom performing the booth evaluations. Every time one of these units, or any part of a unit, has been found in the wreckage being brought to Lorense-Four, I’m the one sent out to prepare the report. Then the booth and all attached apparatus are immediately taken to the Lorense-Three Shipyard. I have no idea what happens to them after they leave here.”

  “Do you know the booth’s purpose?”

  “Its purpose? The booth? Uh— well— some of the other chiefs at the yard have speculated about it, but no one really knows for sure what it is or why they seem to be so important to Admiral Plimley. Some of the chiefs think it’s how the cyborgs aboard a ship communicate with cyborgs on other ships since every Denubbewa warship seems to have at least one of these booths, and the motherships appear to have about a dozen. We can’t be entirely sure about that last part, ma’am, because your taskforce has clobbered them so hard it’s often difficult to know where one ship ends in the rubble and the next begins.”

  “Chief, there’s no way to keep you from learning the truth now, so I’m not going to try. However, you must understand that this information is an order of magnitude above top secret. If you reveal any part of what I tell you now, you will probably spend the rest of your life in an isolation jail cell on Saquer Major. Here’s why I said…”

  “Uh, excuse me for interrupting, Commander, but I think I’d rather not know. I don’t wish to know something so secret that it could result in my spending the rest of my life in a penal colony if I happened to talk in my sleep.”

  “It’s too late, Chief. I can’t prevent you from learning or deducing the truth about what just happened. That booth is a Personnel Cosmic Jump Gate.”

  “Excuse me, ma’am? A cosmic what?”

  “I’m sure you’re familiar with the term ‘wormhole.’ This booth generates an artificial wormhole and sends whoever or whatever is in the booth to an identical booth in a remote location. Apparently, the booth you were examining in that damaged ship had the address of this booth as its last transportation destination.”

  As Christa spoke to CPO Dorithy, her Executive Officer and a Marine corporal—the only other Terrans in the small group—had moved to flank the chief petty officer slightly. They were positioned far enough in front of Christa that she could see them in her peripheral vision, so she saw their jaws drop and their facial expressions change to reflect their apparent shock. But Christa continued to stare directly at the chief.

  CPO Dorithy grinned slightly and said in an even more nervous voice, “This is a joke, right, Commander? I mean, wormholes are just theoretical nonsense. Uh, aren’t they?”

  “No joke, Chief. When you arrived you commented on the condition of this room. I believe you said it looked like a disaster scene before but now looks brand new. There’s a very good reason for that: It’s because this isn’t the same room you were in at Lorense-Four, and this sh
ip is fairly new and undamaged. At Lorense-Four, the booth you were examining was located in a severely damaged ship that was open to space. You needed an EVA suit to be there. As you see, that isn’t required in here.”

  Dorithy’s nervous grin had slowly melted from his face as Christa spoke, and now he began to hyperventilate. “I don’t understand. This isn’t supposed to be possible. Uh, maybe the booth has done something to me, or maybe I’ve hit my head and I’m unconscious.”

  “You’re not unconscious, Chief, but the booth has definitely done something to you. It has sent you thousands of light-years from where you were minutes ago.”

  “What you say is just not possible, Commander,” Dorithy said insistently.

  “Why do you suppose they’ve had you writing a condition evaluation report every time one of these booths has been found? And why do they immediately send the booth and its attached support equipment to the shipyard? Chief, you’ve stumbled onto the most secret of secrets in Space Command. You can never discuss this with anyone. Not even if anyone asks what happened to you. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Dorithy said, his face now reflecting the dread he felt about possibly living out the remainder of his life in a penal facility.

  “That goes for everyone else here as well,” Christa said to the three members of her original group. “XO, Corporal, and Lucky, you must never mention this incident to anyone. If you do, you could be subject to the same penalties I’ve just recounted to Chief Dorithy. Understand?”

  “Aye, Captain,” XO Mollago said.

  “Aye, Captain,” the Marine corporal echoed.

  “Of course, Captain,” Lucky, the SCI cyborg, muttered.

  “I knew the Denubbewa had this capability,” Christa said, “but I didn’t know what the equipment looked like. If I had, I would never have allowed anyone to enter this room.”

  “But— but— how could this happen?” the engineering CPO asked. “Nothing like this has ever happened to me before, and I followed the same procedure I’ve been following for weeks. I didn’t do anything in the booth to initiate a wormhole process.”

  “You said you turned on the light to examine the booth?”

  “Yes.”

  “If it wasn’t merely a light switch, that could have triggered the equipment. We had also activated the internal light just before you appeared. We used the switch on the outside of the booth or we might now be standing in a damaged Denubbewa warship at Lorense-Four— without EVA suits.”

  Dorithy just stood there with a strange expression on his face. His mouth was partly open and his lips moved slightly as he again reviewed the events of the last few minutes in his mind. Finally, he said aloud, “What do I do now, Commander? How do I get back to Lorense-Four?”

  “You don’t. At least not right away. To begin with, we don’t know how to operate this equipment. Second, we don’t even know if it’s working properly. It might malfunction. It would be too dangerous to use it until it’s been tested.”

  “But it just brought me here. We know it works.” His face filled with fear as he said, “Commander, I’ll be charged with being AWOL if I don’t return. I’ve had a spotless record until now.”

  “We know it works when sending someone from Lorense-Four to this location. But it may not work in the opposite direction. You could be sent to some other location, one that might be a crushed booth in the wreck of a Denubbewa warship, or you might simply be lost forever. I can’t allow anyone to use this equipment until Cosmic Jump Gate travel has been approved by Quesann and this booth has been tested and verified safe to use. I’m afraid you’re stuck out here at the extreme end of Region Three with the rest of us until we can sort this out. I’ll send a report to Quesann regarding this incident as soon as we return to the Koshi, but you’ll probably be reported missing until they get my report. That will take almost a month, given the great distance, but your record will be amended as soon as they hear from me. I promise that you won’t be penalized for being AWOL. Until you can begin the trip back to Quesann, you’ll be assigned work either on this ship or aboard the Koshi.”

  Turning to Mollago, Christa said, “XO, I need you to immediately organize a search for other CJ Gate booths. If the chief is right, we might have a dozen— or even more— on this ship. Should any be found, I want two Marines posted inside the room. No one other than assigned guards is to be allowed into the room or any of the other Gate rooms unless I specifically order it. And the guards must confirm the identity and access privileges of the person seeking entry before allowing anyone in. We must be sure that every possible booth location aboard this ship has been searched.”

  “Aye, Captain. I’ll get on it right away.”

  “That may not be necessary, ma’am,” CPO Dorithy said. “We only speculated that there might be more than one Gate per ship. We believed only Denubbewa motherships might have multiple booths.”

  “This is a Denubbewa mothership, Chief. Correction, a former Denubbewa mothership. We were able to commandeer seven motherships without damaging them, and they have now been designated as our first bases in Region Three.”

  “This is a mothership?” Dorithy said loudly. “Oh my God! Oh my God! Commander, there may be cyborgs hiding aboard this ship.”

  “Relax, Chief. It’s been thoroughly searched and declared free of cyborgs, but we haven’t been searching for booths. Corporal Firth,” Christa said to the Marine from her original group, “I want you to remain inside this room until relieved. We’re heading back to the Koshi. No one is to be allowed to enter this room unless I’ve ordered it and you reconfirm it with me. Understand?”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  “XO, Chief, Lucky, we’re heading back to the ship now.”

  As the group turned to leave the room, Dorithy got a good look at Lucky for the first time.

  “Oh my God, it’s a Denubbewa!” he exclaimed loudly as he stopped dead in his tracks. Being an engineer, he had immediately realized that Lucky was encased in prosthetic skin once he took a good look.

  “He’s a cyborg, but he’s working for Space Command.”

  “Working for us, Commander? A cyborg— working for us? Incredible! Uh, are there any more here, ma’am?”

  “There are quite a few at Lorense-Three, but that’s top secret as well.”

  “I guess it’s still a secret because I haven’t heard about it, although I heard there were strange things going on at the shipyard.”

  “What kind of strange things, Chief?”

  “Uh, just that one of our largest enclosed docks was off limits to practically everyone, but that there were yard shuttles coming from and going to it continually.”

  “What’s unusual about that?”

  “All yard personnel have a Top Secret clearance. We’ve never had our access restricted with any of the enclosed docks unless there was something going on that was way above our pay grade.”

  “Keep that to yourself also, Chief. Although the crew of the Koshi knows much more than the yard crews at either Lorense-Three or Lorense-Four, all of this has to be kept quiet until it’s time to reveal it to the public.”

  “Aye, Captain. I’ll never mention it again— unless ordered to do so by a senior officer.”

  “Not even then, Chief,” Christa said. “Not until the information has been released publicly. Until then, if a senior officer demands the information, you refer him or her to Admiral Carver. Okay, men, let’s get to the Koshi.”

  ~ ~ ~

  “Captain, a Priority-One message has just arrived,” Gavin heard via his implanted Cranial Transducer after touching his Space Command ring to acknowledge the page. He continued walking towards his quarters as he said, “Send it to my queue, Chief.”

  “Already there, sir.”

  “Acknowledged. Gavin out.”

  As Gavin entered his quarters aboard the battleship Ares, he walked directly to his office and activated the computer terminal there. Since it was a Priority-One message, he had to submit to a reti
nal scan before he could open it. The message had been sent by Commander Christa Carver, and Gavin was immediately concerned because a Priority-One message from a ship’s senior officer usually meant severe problems or threats to the safety of a ship or crew. He tapped the contact point to play the message, and Christa’s image appeared on the vid monitor.

  “Captain, it’s urgent that we meet to discuss something of vital importance to the G.A. and Space Command,” the image of Commander Christa Carver said. “It’s not something I feel comfortable mentioning in a communication— not even a Priority-One message. I will say that were it within my power to do so, I would immediately dispatch a CPS-16 with three full platoons of Marines— representing a total force of not less than one hundred twenty— to each of the seven new bases in Region Three. That would still leave the Ares with a full company of Marines for shipboard duties, given the extremely large force presently aboard your battleship. Please respond as quickly as possible.

  “Christa Marie Carver, Commander, Captain of the GSC Scout-Destroyer Koshi. End of message.”

  Gavin replayed the message again, twice, and then thought about the possible dangers that might be facing the G.A. He had known Admiral Carver and her two sisters, both of whom were clones, for decades. All three women were among the best and brightest of all the officers who had ever worn a Space Command or Space Marine uniform. None were prone to hysteria, so if Christa reported the situation to be of such importance that it couldn’t be mentioned in a Priority-One message, it had to be something so critical that he couldn’t even consider ignoring her advice regarding the deployment of additional Marine support to the seven bases.

  Gavin touched his Space Command ring to establish a carrier signal, then said, “Commander Eliza Carver.” A couple of seconds later he heard “Carver here, sir,” via his implanted CT. It was the second watch so Eliza was on the bridge, performing her duties as Watch Commander. She would be the only one who could hear his instructions.