Heart And Soul – James Haddock

“We’ll be leaving in two days.” I sent her the warning order as well as the fleet deployment orders. “If they aren’t back by then, they will have to meet us in the Tobacia system.” She nodded. “I’ll send the courier to collect them now.” OceanofPDF.com he deployment of our squadron was simple: Scout would lead us into FTL. Jumping in first, keeping herself in stealth, she would scan the system using her superior scanning and detection equipment as an early warning system for the rest of the squadron as they entered a new system from FTL.

Initial communication would be conducted via laser comms, which are far less likely to be intercepted or overheard. SOP was that when emerging from FTL, it would be done at general quarters, ready to handle unknown threats. Gryphon and Conestoga would emerge virtually at the same time, two thousand meters apart. Upon emergence, they would both launch all drones as our fighter escort and overwatch. At the same time, Scout would send a SITREP to the fleet.

“FTL emergence in two minutes,” Gryphon announced. I watched from the Combat Information Center (CIC) and not on the bridge, so as not to interfere with Captain Nellis commanding the Gryphon. I would command the fleet from here. At the moment, I had no staff to man the CIC stations, but I had Mike, so I didn’t need anyone else. “Emergence in five, four, three, two, one, emergence,” Gryphon counted down.

“Launch all drones,” I gave the order. “All drones launched,” Mike reported. “Assuming overwatch. SITREP from Scout received, all clear.” “Have Scout move toward the debris field. Fleet to proceed toward debris field at one-quarter flank speed. Secure from general quarters.” “One-quarter flank, aye. Securing from general quarters, aye,” Mike replied. The Tobacia system was a twelve-planet system rich in space minerals in the form of asteroid fields and mineable moons. Two of the planets were in the habitable zone.

Oddly, there was no asteroid or moon mining going on. The only reason I could think of for this was that the war had destroyed the infrastructure needed to space mine. But that war ended ten years ago. “When we reach this side of the debris field, launch the harvester and begin harvesting operations. Gryphon and Conestoga will provide overwatch and security. Once harvesting has begun, Gryphon and Conestoga can begin running crew and ship drills.” “Understood,” Mike replied. “Inform Mr. Bennet that he may continue upgrading the drone fighters to the new design.”

“Done.” * * * “I’ve made an interesting discovery,” Mike said. “And what would that be?”

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner.

Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. OceanofPDF.com SYNOPSIS My name is Jimothy Van Done, or that’s what the orphanage birth certificate says. Jimothy. I hate that name. I bet some lazy clerk misspelled Timothy. Anyway, that’s just one of many things I hated about my life, but there was very little I could do about it.

The corporate orphanage owned us. They housed, fed, clothed, and educated us. If you were smart enough, they gave you specialized training. If you did well in those classes, you were sold to corporations to continue your training and were put to work maintaining corporate equipment. I will admit that I had it better than some others, but I studied hard and worked hard to succeed.

Then I found out the game was rigged. The corporation never had any intentions of letting any of us leave their employ. I was a tier-one asset, which was just another word for slave. I wasn’t sure how, but someday I would figure out a way to escape. My opportunity came unexpectedly when I went on an off-book job for one of my monitors.

He’d gotten deep in debt with the wrong people, and to pay his debt, I had to do a job. The job was to repair a malfunctioning autodoc. No big deal, I repaired equipment like this all the time. However, this was the first time a sentient nanite AI was involved. They were trying to steal the AI, and he was blocking access to the autodoc he was in.

Well, as they say, it’s all fun and games until an eye gets poked out. Or, in my case, a firefight breaks out, where I was shot three times. I woke up in a ventilation shaft, in bloody clothes, with a nanite AI who had taken up residence inside me. To add insult to injury, the corporation would do anything, or kill anyone they had to, to get the AI back.

Yeah, my life just keeps getting better and better. OceanofPDF.com T CHAPTER 1 he whole orphanage school was gathered in the gym for an assembly. The teachers and monitors seated us by class under the headmaster’s watchful eye.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: c2b8c7062477bfe5
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 3,675,449 bytes (3.505 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 249
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 380.47 minutes
• Total Words: 76,094
• Total Characters: 427,690
• Average Words per Page: 305.6
• Average Characters per Page: 1717.63

Most Frequent Words

said (434), ship (434), mike (362), nodded (303), one (284), ships (256), two (210), need (180), like (175), i’m (170), we’ll (157), get (154), new (154), good (149), going (149), work (146), now (145), make (144), cargo (143), system (140), take (139), well (134), captain (133), time (132), back (130), i’ll (130), admiral (130), space (120), took (118), also (116), see (112), went (108), want (106), station (106), asked (102), answered (101), first (100), don’t (100), ansible (98), people (96), yes (96), didn’t (95), systems (95), crew (92), ready (89), another (87), looking (85), room (84), equipment (82), around (82), start (82), put (81), i’d (81), way (80), looked (79), right (78), thought (78), know (78), anything (77), much (77), buy (75), three (74), next (74), replied (74), everything (74), let’s (74), ftl (74), look (73), made (72), still (72), it’s (71), began (71), head (70), long (70), you’re (70), parts (69), think (69), started (68), reported (68), got (68), coffee (67), replicator (67), course (64), slate (64), percent (64), that’s (63), came (63), repair (63), drones (63), combat (63), open (62), left (62), ship’s (62), chief (59), understood (58), large (58), heavy (58), sure (57), keep (57), find (55).

PDF Download