Colony Atlantis (Ascendant Chronicles Book 3) by Brandon Ellis

Author:Brandon Ellis [Ellis, Brandon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blue Heron Publishing
Published: 2018-02-07T22:00:00+00:00

25

Edge of M-Quadrant, Nearing Jupiter

Starship Atlantis

Shaughnessy took the control panel – the box that allows access in and out of the room, fully complete with a hologram interface – off the inside wall next to his door.

He looked to his right, staring at the bathroom mirror, seeing a clammy, short man with a receding hairline glaring back at him, his lips trembling, his shirt stained in sweat. He wasn’t proud of what he had done – accidentally killed thousands of people on a destroyer he never meant to blow up.

He was set up. He just hoped he wasn’t going to be the fall guy, the patsy.

Red, white, and yellow wires stuck out where his control panel had just been. He slid the chip out of its expansion slot and put a new one in its place, one he had enhanced. Normally, patsies were killed shortly after being setup. He didn’t want to be killed. No one would be able to change the code to get in. The only way in was to blast the door open.

He put the control panel back on and twisted the screws, tightening the panel in place.

He wiped his forehead. “Change code on my voice command only.”

“Affirmative,” replied the control panel.

“Code is 1-1-4-5-1. Please confirm.”

“New code is 1-1-4-5-1. Confirmed.”

He walked over to his bed. It was covered in food, enough food to last him weeks. He slipped his hand in an opened bag of barbecue chips and shoved some in his mouth.

He chewed.

His phone rang.

He swallowed.

Caller ID: Craig Martelle.

It rang again. He didn’t want to answer it, but by now the entire starship, as well as the entire fleet, knew that a destroyer was DAWD – Dead as a White Dwarf.

And Shaughnessy had agreed to change the fleet’s and the starship’s coordinates, performing the first acts of sabotage. In fact, several acts of sabotage. Two of his own knowledge, diverting the fleet. The other without his consent or knowledge, ending a destroyer and the lives of all who lived on that ship.

The phone rang a third time and his hand hovered over the answer icon.

President Craig Martelle always seemed like a good, non-violent individual. If he answered the phone, then more than likely, he could explain everything to Craig and he would understand. He would have his back when Slade caught wind.

It rang again.

Shaughnessy pressed on the icon.

He froze, feeling rooted to the spot.

“Hello? Is this Jon?”

“Yes...yes, Sir.” Jon sat on his bed, head in his hands.

“I’m going to keep this short. We have a saboteur or several saboteurs on our ship. You’re the most experienced and best-information technologist and hardware specialist on Starship Atlantis. Our course, along with the course of the entire Secret Space Program fleet has been re-routed. We need you to fix that for us and we need you to find out who destroyed an entire ship in the space fleet.”

Shaughnessy needed to play dumb. “Wait, a ship has gone down?” He closed his eyes, squeezing his eye-lids tightly, touching the ridge of his nose.

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