The Princess of Caldris Read Online Free PDF Page A

A
Hammerhead jump ship. The jumps Hammerheads were designed for were
large star carriers to planet jumps and back. I had never heard of
one with hyper jump capabilities. Apparently the Royal Security
Police had made some modifications. In system jumps were not that
unusual, but neither were they very common either. There is lot of
stuff to hit in an Oort cloud at the edge of a star system.
Hammerheads were manufactured in CCCE space.
    The irony of going to meet
the galactic derelict, an ancient CCCE frigate, on a contemporary
CCCE manufactured vessel struck me then. However, even their
fearsome Hammerheads are incomparable to the technologies of CCCE’s
first armada.
    The Great Arcturian war,
devastating the Arcturian Colonials, had left an economic and
technological chill in the Galaxy for centuries. When they say they
‘don’t make them like they used too,” rest assured they mean the
likes of a Sunrider.
    One of the greatest star ships ever built,
military class or civilian; and I was going to see one.
    Clairissa Maggio, Caldris
palace Library archaeological log. 3983, Moonsweek, Apogee,
Threeday.!:55 E.H The Arcturian O’Neal station is a testament to
their space engineering. Fifty kilometers long the station had
apparently been the largest settlement in system and directed high
energy farming from a solar panel array. The array, of some note in
archaeological architectural circles for some time, remains still
in various conditions in orbit. A matrix of panels encompassing a
full inner orbit of the star, its Herculean scale remains
impressive; one more testament to the greatness of the ancients and
that era. No modern array equals it size in any of the Republics
and Kingdoms, save Imperial CCCE of course.
    Yet the O’Neal station was
not the only find, and from here luck turns to legend. A Sunrider
war frigate is lodged in the side. It is a timely find as well. The
two artifact menagerie’s decaying orbit would reach a soft cloud
corona sometime in the near future, and with the hull breach caused
by the Sunrider impact, not even the hard shielded O’Neal could
shelter the plethora of artifacts inside. Apparently the Sunrider
had careened into the hull of the O’Neal. The Sunrider’s Stasis
Shields had flashed on and off, moving through the O’Neal first
like butter, the ragged ultra steel against ragged ultra steel.
Back and forth, again and again in a matter of half a minute. The
interlocked ultra steel then held her in like a stinger, while the
entire atmospherics on the interior of the O’Neal bled out
furiously to space.
    We’re not sure why the other environmental
habitat compartments in the O’Neal Station were breached. Further
examination will surely provide the answers. The breech safeguards
should have preserved them. We have found no intact environmental
compartments yet.
    Conceivably in a colony station of this size
and sophistication biome environment compartments could still
contain living forests, with fauna and ecosystems still thriving,
unseen by human eyes for centuries, the life support still
servicing away soft rains and light.
    Now that would be all the stars in a jewel
box, aye! Ha! My Archaeological Avarice is showing! Great Space
Ghost, what the technological systems on that Sunrider will be
worth to the reverse engineering departments of numerous corporate
interests...

 

    Neil Thacker
    III
    Flyboys and Archaeologist
girls .
    I remember vaguely, for
even Empaths tire, Tokushima helping me into the aircar and the
strange maternal sense she conveyed mixed with the warrior aspects
of her police training and how the two worldviews like a yin and a
yang were curled up comfortably in her being. The Royal Police
Headquarters on the tangerine sea exuded a strong sense of “home”
for her when we arrived, but to me it’s Brutalist style
architecture, a combination of form follows function and mechanical
exigencies, looked none the less like giant robots, vanguards
watching over the