To Well And Back (The Deep Dark Well)
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Authors: Doug Dandridge
To Well And Back
Book 2 of The Deep Dark
Well Trilogy
By
Doug Dandridge
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The Exodus Series
The Deep Dark Well
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Deeper and Darker
(coming Summer 2013)
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Got to watch those
space altering fields
,
she thought, watching the enemy vectors closely. Coming in front of a Nation
ship would destroy her vessel. Come directly astern? She wasn’t sure what
would happen, but she didn’t want to chance anything. So she set her approach
and retreat vectors with care, then waited. Until the wait was over.
The ship’s clock
started a countdown at ten seconds, Pandora just an observer to things that
were going to happen faster than even her reaction time could account for. At
three seconds one of the enemy ships started to turn its vector a little,
followed by another two a second later.
They’ve seen me
, she thought.
Too
late
, she thought with a wolfish grin, as
Avenger
opened up with all
weapons
.
The lasers from the
front ring hit first, two beams on two targets. Both ships had electromag
fields up, not strong enough, as they were not expecting an attack. The ships
were still moving at several times the speed of light subjective, so the beams
were fired well ahead and shot quickly along the hulls, the projectors swinging
them along to increase the milliseconds of contact, ripping through metal and
opening rooms to space. Particle beams hit a moment later, a quick burst of
each on the two ships that were targeted. Uncharged particles hit the hulls,
causing ripping damage. Followed by the antimatter beam which hit with
explosive force.
Avenger
dropped a quartet of
missiles at the same time she fired her beam weapons. The missiles took off at
thirty thousand gravities accel, moving onto their separate targets, vessels
further back in the formation that they could intersect at the times the
hyperspatial ships got there. It was a difficult mathematical problem, and
like most such it didn’t provide perfect answers. One came in too far to the
front of one vessel and disappeared from current space-time. One missed to the
stern of a ship and exploded, but the blast could not catch the ship. One
entered the actual field containing a ship exploded overhead, sending a flood
of heat and radiation into that vessel. The last missile hit its target dead
center. The quarkium warhead blasted with hundreds of gigatons of power, and
the ship was blown first to pieces, then to particles as its own antimatter
breached containment. The space destroying drive died in that instant.
“Eat shit, you
xenophobe motherfuckers,” yelled Pandi over the grav wave com, following with
her best rebel yell.
And then she was past
the enemy ships, her stern lasers and particle beams taking them under fire for
the fraction of a millisecond that they were viable targets. She didn’t bother
with any missiles, they just would have been decelerating to slow down from the
imparted momentum of her ship, and would have been out of range by the time they
had developed any vector toward the enemy warships. Pandora smirked as she
looked into her viewer, watching the expanding mass of one enemy ship, and the
dead in space hulks of two others. One of the two looked lifeless, while the
other was a hive of activity as spacesuits and repair bots started to swarm
over the surface.
Not bad for a quick
strike in what really isn’t a warship
, she thought, ordering
Avenger
to begin
braking and vector changes to bring her onto the second group, a maneuver which
could take several hours. By that time the enemy ships would be in normal
space, and she had no doubt they would find a message waiting for them that
told of her existence. The next group would be waiting.
Dedication
This book
is dedicated to Larry Niven, whose writing gave this reader the desire to write
about big ideas of his own. Thank you for Ringworld, Known Space and other
creations.
Contact me at
[email protected]
Follow my Blog at
http://dougdandridge.com
Go to my Website at
http://dougdandridge.net
Follow me at
@BrotherofCats
Copyright © 2013 by
Doug Dandridge
All rights reserved.
This book is Copyrighted 2013 to Doug
Dandridge, all rights reserved. If you enjoy this work then please tell a
friend and have them buy a copy online. I think the price is reasonable.
Please do not pirate this work. I am a hard working part time writer, and am
not making a fortune on my work. Please respect my efforts.
Chapter One
Divine right of kings means the divine right of
anyone who can get uppermost. Herbert Spencer
“Would Milady like some
more wine?” asked the steward, holding a bottle of the same vintage she had been
sampling. It was a very good vintage, something that high tech societies were
not able to improve upon.
“I would love another
glass,” said Pandora Latham, acting the part of a great lady, the only role
that could get her into the castle of the king. Unless she wanted to join the
serving staff, with all the hazards that entailed.
She looked around the
great hall from her place half way down the high table. The hall was filled
with people, many of them lesser nobles, who drank and ate with a lack of manners
that was appalling even to the former Kuiper Belt miner playing noblewoman.
There were dogs all through the hall, begging for scraps, attacking anything
that struck the floor, growling and fighting among themselves. The manners of
the people in the great hall were not much better.
Just how in the hell
does Watcher think he’s going to civilize these people
, she thought, stabbing
her fork into a slice of beef and bringing it to her mouth, biting off a
workable chunk.
They’re fucking barbarians if I’ve ever seen them. Worse
than Tennessee fans.
She shook her head at that last thought, remembering
that some people had said the same about her beloved Tide.
Two men started arguing
at one of the low tables, and soon were trying to attack each other with their
fists over the wooden top. Others laughed and pointed, and it was apparent
that this was part of the regular evening’s entertainment. One of the men
pulled a dagger from his belt and slammed it down on the table, skewering the
hand of the other man, and raising more laughter. The man so assaulted
screamed bloody murder, trying to pull the dagger from his hand and the wood
underneath. He finally succeeded with a cry and held the dagger in his good
hand, glaring at the man who had injured him and tensing his muscles to jump
across the table. Armored men-at-arms, the soldiers of the King, chose that
moment to intervene, separating the men before more blood was spilled.
A serving woman put
another tray of bread on the table, and Pandi found herself staring at the
rough hands of the still young woman, and the two fingers missing joints on the
near hand. She pulled in a breath of shock as she saw that, wondering what had
happened to the poor girl to injure her so.
Watcher told me this was a
rough place, and that people had a hard life. But I never realized it was like
this.
[Just keep it cool,]
said Watcher over the link. [Remember, this is a different culture, not to be
judged from the vantage point of our own.]
[Don’t give me that
every culture is universally good crap,] she sent mentally over the com, up to
the satellite and through the wormhole link to the
Donut
. [Even in my
day I knew that was bullshit.]
[I’m not saying it is
good,] said the genetically engineered Immortal Superman. [It would drive me
crazy to be trapped among such people. Just remember that you are not there to
change their world. Not yet. Soon, but not yet.]
Pandi nodded and let
her awareness of the link fade, getting back into the moment, where she needed
to be. She had, after all, talked Watcher into letting her explore these
Supersystem worlds. He had thought there was no need. Not with his ability to
monitor them without their knowing. But she had insisted on a boots on the
ground approach, and here she was.
“And how was Milady’s
journey?” asked the handsome, once you got past the bad teeth, nobleman across
the table from her. Like all the people he had a rough look about him, and was
probably much younger than he looked.
“It was long and
tedious,” she said, wondering how he would react if she told him she had flown
here at faster than light speed from a structure he couldn’t imagine. She
batted her eyes and smiled at him, knowing what kind of effect that had to be
having on him. She was an exotic among these dark people, with her long red
hair, blue eyes and freckled skin.
And that’s all you’re going to get from
me, Boyo
, she thought, reading the look in his eyes. She had been with
many men in her life, but she was a one man woman at any time. And Watcher was
currently that man.
“Perhaps you would like
to take a walk in the gardens?” said the man, and Pandi knew exactly what he
was looking for, which was not just conversation. Rape was actually common in
this kind of society, and Pandora Latham wondered if the man knew how lucky he
was that she wasn’t going to give him a chance.
“Maybe later,” she
said, forcing herself to return the smile. She put a hand on the hilt of the
sword she had belted to her waist, glad to feel it was in place.
They
thought it strange that a woman was armed, but seemed to believe my tale of
being the only child of a distant nobleman, trained to fight and needing to
protect myself on the road. I wouldn’t want to be separated from it among
these cutthroats.
There were still some looks at the type of blade she
carried, as katanas were not common in these parts, if they had ever been seen
at all. Her explanation of its origin had met with nods from ignorant people
who did not want to be thought such.
“Wench,” yelled a voice
from the head of the high table. “How dare you.”
Pandi looked up,
feeling a shiver of nervousness at the tone of that voice, and saw a serving
wench standing there with a horrified expression on her face. A noble she had
been introduced to before, she thought he was a Duke, had a tight grip on one
of her hands, while he ran a cloth over his face, which dripped with liquid.
“I am sorry, Milord,”
said the woman in a voice pitched high in fear. “It was an accident. I did
not mean to do it.”
“You know the
punishment for such clumsiness, Sarah,” said the King in the tone of one
talking to a child, pulling a dagger from the sheath by his side and gesturing
for the Duke to bring her over.
He’s not going to kill
her
?
thought Pandi, her eyes widening.
Not just for spilling some wine?
The Duke dragged the
woman to the Monarch, then pushed the hand down on the table. A hand that was
already missing a joint on the little finger. And then she knew.
Dear God no. They
can’t be serious
.
She tensed, her muscles tightening as she prepared to move.
[Calm down, Pandora,]
said Watcher over the link.
[Reading my mind again?]
[No,] said Watcher, his
tone serious. [Your vital signs. And I don’t like what I’m seeing.]
[Me either,] said
Pandi, watching the King put his dagger blade on top of the serving woman’s
ring finger, at the first joint.
And damned if I’m going to let this
happen.
“Hey, you,” said Pandi,
standing up and pushing her chair back, hand on her sword hilt. A lot of faces
turned her way, some smiling, some frowning. None of them knowing what she was
about. “You. The King. You fat fuck.” Pandi started walking toward the King,
ignoring the people who were staring at her, their mouths dropping open in
shock that someone would talk so to the ruler.
[Oh shit,] said Watcher
over the link. [At least get your robots into the game.]
Forgot all about them
, thought Pandi,
reaching out and linking with her two guards and three servants, all of which
were not what they seemed.
[Don’t start a blood
bath,] warned Watcher, his voice resigned.
Nothing he can do about
it
,
thought Pandi, stopping five meters from the King and his Duke.
This is my
call, and it’s going down the way I want it to.
“What is the meaning of
this?” asked the King, his hard eyes meeting hers.
“The meaning of this is
that I’m not about to let you mutilate that poor girl,” said Pandi, her own
voice taking an edge, her blue eyes hard as they glared into the piggish orbs
of the King.
“Are you insane,
woman,” said the Duke, while the King glanced at some of his men, who started
to move toward Pandi, hands on sword hilts.
“I’m mad as hell is
what I am. You are not going to hurt that woman.”
“This woman is mine, to
do with as I please,” said the King, looking at the serving girl, then back at
Pandora with an angry glare. “As I will do to you when I am through with her.”
Three things then
happened at once. The King pushed down on his blade, cutting into the finger
of the serving woman. The woman screamed in pain, and tried to jerk her hand
away from the grip of the Duke. And a trio of men came at Pandi, intending to
grab her and hold her for the King’s pleasure. The first two events went as
expected. The woman’s joint was severed from her finger while the Duke kept
her hand in place. The last went anything but as planned.
Pandi had allowed
Watcher to augment her after the trouble she had on her first adventure away
from the
Donut
. One side effect was that she was among the long lived
now, a woman who would remain young and beautiful for centuries to come. She
had four hundred years or more to live, as long as her life wasn’t terminated
in a manner that could not be readily fixed, like beheading, or being burned to
death. But because of that augmentation she would not be an easy target.
“No,” she yelled at the
top of her lungs, her voice reverberating from the walls and ceiling, while
people put their hands over ears. The world slowed down to Pandi’s perception,
everyone moving in slow motion while she continued to react in what seemed to
her to be real time. She pulled her blade from the sheath, at the same time
jumping into the air to plant a front snap kick into the chest of the nearest
assailant. The kick pushed him back onto the floor, landing on his buttocks,
hands reaching to his chest as he grimaced in pain. And he was the lucky one
of the trio.
The blade of the silver
katana in Pandi’s hand swung out, to contact the neck of the second man with
perfect precision. Blade cut through flesh and bone as if they were cobwebs,
and the man’s head spun through the air, while blood spurted in great gouts
from his neck. She continued around with the blade, twisting it into a
downward motion that caught the third man on his left shoulder, cutting down
and in, separating the left side of his thorax from the right. She twisted the
blade again and pulled out, and the left side fell away from the dead man to
plop on the floor, while the rest of him fell over the table.
“Kill her,” yelled the
King in a panicked voice, stumbling backwards, his men scrambling to get around
him.
The Duke drew his sword
and started forward, bringing the blade back for a killing stroke.
Here comes your
surprise for the day
,
thought Pandi, bringing her own weapon up on a path that would strike the
Duke’s long sword blade to blade. There was a slight clang, a few sparks, all
from the Duke’s blade, then Pandi’s sword sliced through the steel of the other
weapon. Half the blade fell to the floor, and the duke found himself staring
at the foot of steel that was still attached to the hilt.
Welcome to real
technology, asshole
,
was Pandi’s thought as she brought her blade back in and sliced through the
Duke’s arm, then into his thoracic cavity. The man’s nascent scream turned
into a gurgle, and he fell dying to the floor.
Pandi ducked a sword
blade, then jumped over another, turning a back flip in the air. Her blade
licked out twice and both swordsmen were falling dead to the floor. She landed
lightly on her feet, blocked another blade on the flat of hers, then sliced
through chain mail, flesh and bone to leave another man-at-arms dead.
[Get the hell out of
there,] yelled Watcher over the link, his tone alternating between anger and
fear. [What the hell are you trying to do?]
[I’m trying to kill me
a son of a bitch,] said Pandi, glancing around. She saw that her robots were
sweeping the rest of the hall with sonic stunners. The other celebrants would
wake with headaches, but no other harm. As she watched a warrior brought a
battle-axe down on the head of a robot that looked like a body servant. The ax
rebounded into the air, and the robot’s head took superficial damage to the
outer covering. The man stared in horror as the mechanism swept its arm around
and hit him with a stunner.
Pandi looked back to
locate the King, the one she was most interested in. She saw him disappear
through a doorway, and a half dozen men-at-arms form a wall before that
egress.
I could have the robots stun a way through
, she thought, then
dismissed it in an instant. The King could go anywhere in the time it took to
get the robots up here, so she couldn’t grant him that time.
“Get out of my way,”
she yelled at the men at arms, running full speed at them, her sword held back
for a strike.
“Kill the witch,”
yelled the leader of the men, bracing his shield and raising his sword
overhead.