Traitor Read online

  Traitor

  Consulate: Book 1

  Drew Avera

  Copyright © 2020 by Drew Avera

  www.drewavera.com

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover design by Andrew Dobell

  www.creativeedgestudios.co.uk

  ISBN: 9798640691870

  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

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Drew Avera

  Chapter One

  Commander Kevin Hoyt exhaled through his teeth as he forced the ship’s drive into FTL one last time. The engine's parameter page flashed red as the diagnostics kept cycling on and off as the onboard computer registered a myriad of faults. Kevin was pushing too hard and he knew that he was risking everyone on board in this last-ditch effort to escape the Consulate.

  It was risky, but he had no choice but to push forward.

  The scout ship, designated as CSC-32 Interceptor, shook with enough force to make his teeth rattle in their sockets. The whine of the drive’s fans whirring at thousands of revolutions per minute was dulled only by the creaking of the hull as it fought to maintain course and speed.

  The Interceptor bucked madly under his control. Even in the vacuum of space, and intensely high velocities, the concept of turbulence existed. The effects of coronal mass ejections created disturbances known as Alfven waves. The way they affected small metal objects varied based on their intensity, but at the moment it felt as if they were trying to shake the small, scout ship apart around him.

  The good news was that if the ship failed then his new life on the run was over.

  The bad news was that his family would pay the price as well.

  "Just a little more," he hissed as the automatic throttles forced themselves back to a safer speed. He braced himself against his seat, forgoing the restraints to leverage himself against the rising tension of the auto-throttles. He couldn’t blame the ship for fighting back. Under normal circumstances, the Interceptor was only trying to protect itself from catastrophic failure.

  Too bad the real catastrophe was behind him and closing in.

  The ship was dubbed the CPC Destroyer, a personnel carrier with a small crew, but enough firepower to protect the extraction team on board. All Kevin had to do was slip up and the Destroyer would dock with his scout ship and the boarding party would seize his family and take them into custody.

  “Not on my watch,” he muttered as he kept pressing the throttles forward.

  Sweat ran down his face, his cheeks flush from excursion as he willed the ship to go faster against his otherwise better judgment, and the flashing alarm from the computer. "Come on!"

  A new string of emergency tones sounded, shifting his attention away from wrestling the throttles and back to the engine’s parameter page. The distraction was enough for him to release tension and allow the auto-throttles to force themselves back, right on the wrong side of FTL.

  He groaned with defeat and glanced nervously as the readout depicted overheating conditions and degradation of the second and third stages.

  It was critical and continuing to fly this way would destroy the drive and cast them into the expanse without power.

  Death would soon follow.

  "God help us." He said as he relaxed his grip on the throttles and the ship decelerated rapidly. He grimaced as the waist strap, the only one he kept in place, tightened around his lap and threatened to cut into his body as inertia pulled him towards the forward main console. He held his breath and grit his teeth until the sensation slowly waned. Several seconds later the pressure settled to something less extreme.

  Kevin sighed and cycled through the menus on the console, trying to find out just how badly damaged the ship was. He knew he overdid it, forcing the drive into FTL without a proper cooling period. It was risky, to the point of carelessness, and the fact that he and his family were not dead yet was a blessing. The real question was how long that would last at this pace?

  He initiated a full diagnostic for the drive, needing to know exactly how bad it was to determine whether their escape was likely.

  He settled back into his seat nervously, noting the countdown on the screen as the ship ran the algorithm of the built-in-test. Five minutes was going to feel like forever at this rate, so Kevin distracted himself with the ship’s array screen and waited impatiently for his pursuers to appear at any second.

  His finger danced around the trigger of the rail gun expectantly, but the seconds merely ticked on with nothing more than the sound of his heart beating in his ears and a rumbling in his stomach.

  "Get out of your own head," Kevin muttered, trying to free himself of negative thoughts as they swarmed around him. They were inescapable ever since he discovered that he was wanted by the Consulate for treason.

  The justification for the charges was beyond him and the accusation appeared out of nowhere.

  Kevin had just returned from a scouting mission, excited to experience a two-day port of call at home to visit his family when he received the news. If not for the fact that he arrived early and standing in his living room when the alert was released, he might have been taken into custody.

  Instead, he did the only thing he knew to do. He gathered his family and ran. Somewhere in the process, and frantic thoughts, he made the unwise decision to steal the scout ship and further perpetuate his guilt.

  Kevin did not doubt that his actions only served to paint him in the darkest light, but it was too late. He hoped that time would allow him to gather enough evidence to plead his case. Though, it seemed more unlikely with each passing day.

  Especially as his pursuers continually closed in on him.

  His eyes fell on the tick marks he made on the console with a grease pencil. Each one represented a point where the Destroyer’s weapons system was locked onto the Interceptor. The voice coming from the Destroyer’s comms was of an old friend, but that did little to calm his spirit. The mandate was clear. Commander Hoyt was a traitor and he was to be dispatched accordingly.

  The word “dispatch” had a solemn ring to it each time he thought about it.

  He fought the urge to give up on the ever-worsening situation and turn himself over to the Consulate. Captain Dickson had pleaded him to do so with each transmission. It was tempting, but he couldn’t help but wonder what would happen to his family if he did that.

  What would they think of him?

  He had to fight to prove his innocence. Yet, the Consulate’s case against him only grew stronger. A
t what point would it be too late?

  That was the lingering question of a desperate man.

  The console chimed and his eyes moved to the diagnostic screen. Stages two and three were operating at thirty-five percent and were much too damaged to sustain FTL. At this rate, he doubted the drive's ability to lift off from a habitable planet, but if he had any hope of repairing the engine then he had to land somewhere.

  "I'm sorry, old pal," he said as he rubbed his hand on the console, as he would to comfort a friend. "I shouldn't have pushed you so hard."

  The situation had gone from bad to worse and Kevin hesitated to tell his family what he had done. The Interceptor was their lifeline. It was all they had after he ripped them from a life they loved and forced them to become fugitives.

  Kevin had no idea what charges would be filed against them for following him on the run and all he could do was pray for leniency on their part when the time came.

  His jaw tightened and his anger boiled as he thought about the life they had and the dismal future he placed on his family.

  I should've thought this through better, he thought as he unstrapped the lap belt and pulled himself out of the seat using the overhead rails. After fourteen hours strapped into the seat, his legs were weak. Kevin braced himself against the bulkhead and took several deep breaths before exiting the cabin and entering the common area of the scout ship.

  His wife and daughters were seated before him, each one fully restrained. He saw the tear streaks from his youngest daughter's eyes despite the stoic expression of bravery she forced upon herself as he walked into the space.

  "Is everything all right with the ship?" Sarah asked. The measured tone of his wife’s voice betrayed the worry that he knew she felt. He saw it in her eyes, the result of two decades of love that created a shorthand in communication that was undeniable.

  "I compromised the drive," he said shamefully. "We don't have much choice other than to land and repair it."

  There was hesitation as her lips trembled. She took a deep breath and then asked, "What system are we in?"

  He canted his head towards the cabin and peered at the nav screen. "On the outer edges of the Empire, in the Karnack system. I don't know if the Consulate will think to come this far, but nothing is preventing them from landing on Karnack to try and find us. We need to expedite the repairs and take off for another system."

  "How long will that take, dad?" Auden asked. He heard the fear in her voice despite the brave face she gave him or rather displayed at the benefit of her young sister. The last week had done much to force his children to grow up quickly and he felt guilty destroying the last years of their childhood by pulling them from the only life they had ever known.

  “Karnack should have a scrapyard for the material I need to fix the drive. The key is determining what needs to be repaired and how long it takes for us to find it."

  "I can help you fix it," Auden offered.

  "Me too," Tara said, breaking her silence.

  He flashed a smile in their direction. He was unable to fight back the pride he felt at the strength displayed by his children. At seventeen and fifteen years old, they had grown into mature young adults with bright futures ahead of them. Both would have been excellent prospects to enter the Consulate Navy as he did when he was a young man. Of course, unless he could be acquitted of the crime in which he was accused, those futures would never happen.

  "I’ll take all the help I can get as soon as we land, all right?"

  Everyone nodded.

  "I’m going to chart a course for Karnack, but we have to take it easy on the engine to keep it from overheating. It may take a couple of days for us to get there at our current speed. In the meantime, gather what tools we have available and brush up on the manuals for the ship. The more we know going into the repairs, the more efficient we will be."

  Sarah smiled, it wasn't happiness, but polite reservation. "We can do this," she said after a breath. She defaulted to keeping her worries out of earshot and projected encouragement to her family. It was her way of standing her ground and he loved her for it.

  He nodded and winked knowingly at her. Her glare said everything that her lips didn’t.

  Kevin reflected on it as he stepped away and kept his response to himself until he was out of earshot. "I certainly hope so."

  Chapter Two

  "Here's hoping that those technology electives I took last semester paid off," Auden said as she pulled the toolbox from the bulkhead stowage space. Her sister stood behind her, holding a flashlight as they searched for all the repair manuals and tools needed to repair the ship's drive. She knew this was mostly busy work to keep them from dwelling on what was happening, but she was happy to not be strapped into a seat for several hours at a time.

  As long as the Consulate didn’t arrive in this sector, they would have time to stretch their legs.

  "Something tells me this is going to be a crash course that far exceeds anything we would've learned in school," Tara replied. The skepticism in her voice matched the one Auden tried to quiet in her mind.

  She thought it was ironic, but this was not the time to give in to doubt.

  Auden turned and faced her younger sister, noting the other girl’s expression; a stoic façade painted over quiet dread. "I'm sure everything will work out, Tara," Auden said as she dragged the toolbox across the deck. The container weighed almost as much as she did, and she was surprised by how much the exertion winded her. She sucked in a few gasps before continuing. The metal screeched across the deck at a pitch she was certain would make dogs howl. "This is just a temporary setback. Before long we will be back in our old school, with our old friends, doing everything that we set out to do. Just be patient."

  "Easy for you to say," Tara replied. "You've always been the adventurous one. Sometimes, I wake up at night unable to breathe because I don't know what the next day is going to bring. This has been the worst week of my life."

  Auden frowned and took a step towards her sister. Lately, she could not seem to find the right thing to say. When the two were younger, she felt a lot closer to her sister than she did now. Somewhere along the way distance began to creep in and how much they related to one another shifted their dynamic. Still, she did not doubt that they loved one another, even if they didn't see eye to eye. It was just the language of their communication felt stilted and this situation only further complicated their bond.

  Auden placed a hand on Tara’s shoulder and leaned in close, "if you need anything, I'll be there for you."

  Tara glanced down at her sister's hand on her shoulder and her lips tightened as she fought back an emotional response. Auden saw that she was trying too hard, but what could she say to ease her sister’s torment?

  "I never questioned that,” Tara replied, “I just question whether we’re going to make it."

  "As do I," Auden replied. "But in the meantime, we have to do what we can to ensure we have the best chance at surviving. Did you find all the repair manuals?"

  Tara pointed towards a flimsy box on the deck. "I'm pretty sure this is all of them. I noticed that some of the pages were torn out, so hopefully, none of them were important."

  Auden shrugged. "There's only one way to find out. I'll read the schematics if you want to read the operations manual," she offered.

  Tara nodded, "just what I was looking forward to, a little light reading. I love words with more syllables than necessary just to fill in the white space on the page."

  Auden smiled at the joke, Tara always had a subdued sense of humor, even when she struggled emotionally. Her mix of sarcasm typically gave the person she was speaking to pause before they realized it was a joke. Sometimes her humor didn’t land right, but that only led to another level of hilarity that Auden appreciated, especially in moments as tense as this one. "All right then. Let's get to it."

  Auden and Tara returned to the common area of the ship with their load of repair manuals in tow. They collapsed onto their seats, each one holding a
tome of overly complicated technical jargon. The advanced classes they attended in school set them up to have some hope of understanding what the pages contained, but the practical application was another story.

  Their father was a pilot in the Consulate Navy since before they were born. They knew he understood how the ship operated and even experienced a situation where he was left to repair his ship to return home on some occasions. But the shadow looming over them painted the situation in an entirely different light. He was a scout ship pilot, not a fighter pilot who engaged with enemies regularly. When in the thick of it, his best tactics were evading, not engaging the enemy. Besides, many of his missions were never time-critical, nor did they involve the imminent death of his family if he failed.

  It was hard not to get past that.

  "Do you girls need any help?" Sarah asked as she took a seat next to them. "I was a technical editor when I met your father. Perhaps I was able to retain some of that knowledge and can help ascertain what most of those engineers are trying to say."

  Auden held the book in her lap and glanced up at her mother. "Perhaps, but so far I've only come across two words that I didn't immediately understand. I used context clues which led me to believe that the author of this manual was trying too hard to sound smart while failing miserably in their attempt to properly explain how the spacecraft functions. But that’s just my opinion."