Sonny Whitelaw - Ark Ship

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Double Dragon Publishing

www.double-dragon-ebooks.com

Double Dragon Publishing 2005

NOTICE: This work is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the original purchaser. Making copies of this work or

distributing it to any unauthorized person by any means, including without limit email, floppy disk, file transfer, paper

print out, or any other method constitutes a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe

fines or imprisonment.

The Ark Ship—Book Two of the Sanctuary Series

States by Double Dragon eBooks, a division of Double Dragon Publishing Inc., Markham, Ontario

Canada.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic,

or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage or retrieval

system, without the permission in writing from Double Dragon Publishing.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's

imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or

dead, is entirely coincidental.

A Double Dragon eBook

Published by

Double Dragon Publishing, Inc.

PO Box 54016

1-5762 Highway 7 East

Markham, Ontario L3P 7Y4 Canada

www.double-dragon-ebooks.com

www.double-dragon-publishing.com

ISBN: 1-55404-209-7

A DDP First Edition March 14, 2005

Book Layout and

Cover Art by Deron Douglas

Ark Ship

Book Two of the Sanctuary Series

Special Edition eBook

Sonny Whitelaw

From The Publisher

Ark Ship was originally released by Double Dragon Publishing in 2004. It was well received and became

something of a best seller. At the same time Sonny Whitelaw was working on a small project with MGM

Studios called “Stargate SG1™: City of the Gods". As it often happens, working on one project

makes a writer wish they had done things a little differently in another project. These wishes led to a

conversation with Sonny that resulted in the eBook you are presently reading.

While the story has on a large scale remained the same, Sonny has changed a few things which include

names and a few pivotal plot sequences. This new title has been re-edited and re-worked, I know you'll

enjoy it.

Deron Douglas

Publisher, Double Dragon Publishing, Inc.

Acknowledgments

Sabine C. Bauer for a never-ending supply of caterpillars, and Deron Douglas the most understanding

publisher in the business.

Dedication

Cody and Amber

"Then the different flood came, as humanity reached its first billion and passed it—the flood that seemed

to need no stemming. That flood, as it surged ever higher, extinguished old freedoms. What replaced

them was not new freedom, but license, an arrogant assumption that no title to a place was valid unless

written in a newly invented language by one of the most recent arrivals on the planet. For this new flood

there was no new Ark. It is already too late for a hoard of splendid creatures—and for how many lesser

ones we never knew?—to find sanctuary."

-David Bower, Founder Friends of the Earth

Part 1: Katyl

Chapter 1

December 05, 2499

Avalon Davo sat alone in the ark ship's darkened atrium, her mind catching the cobwebs of space. She

sensed the oily darkness of the Others lurking amidst the minds of the VIPs, but there was no danger to

the ship so she ignored them—for now. Asegeir's captain was not expecting her aboard until they

entered Dim5 in three hours, and she wanted to say goodbye to Earth from this unique perspective. After

all these years, being back in space was as breathtaking as her first time, almost three hundred years

before. And as always, leaving Earth was painful.

As the C20 bonded to the Viking class ark ship, Avalon had expected to be pulled aboard eighteen

months earlier, when Asegeir tested its Dim5 engines. Ryl, her daughter, was not surprised when it didn't

happen. Neither engine tests, said the Meta, nor fifth dimension jumping completed Asegeir's life-force.

Only life, including sentient life, could do that.

Avalon had felt that life-force grow as a million humans emigrated from Earth to their new home, adding

to the billions of creatures, great and small, that made Asegeir a living machine.

Then the official launch day arrived. Dignitaries and politicians sipped flat champagne in microgravity, and

made tedious speeches thanking the alien Kwilloys and Dwins. Again. And they muttered disappointment

at the C20s’ absence. Again. Custom, convention, protocol, it was all necessary, Avalon knew, but not

for her. Though it wished otherwise, the NASA Gaia Corporation—NGC—had no jurisdiction over

C20s, so she stayed in character and ignored all invitations. Her bonding to the great spheroid ark ship

was an experience of the mind and soul, too intimate to be shared.

Now, a month after launching, Asegeir was about to leave its Spacedock cradle and depart on her

maiden voyage.

Avalon looked out through the transparent hull of the ark ship. She had been granted such a fortunate life.

Time to help in Earth's restoration, time to explore the galaxy, time to love and raise children. Time to

grieve. And now, time for an achingly familiar cycle to begin again.

From Asegeir's orbit around Mars, Earth appeared little more than a blue-white pinprick of light, barely

distinguishable from countless other lights in the vast inky blackness of space. Although she had been

gone less than an hour, Earth tugged at her, begging her to come home. Just a year, she promised, just a

goodwill tour before the ten-year voyage to find Gaia. We're not going to abandon you, but we need to

find the Great Ones and through them, offer the lesser cousins a place on our journey. And more

importantly, ask if they might one day consider returning to you and to forgive us our sins.

My sins, for was I not amongst those that almost destroyed you?

* * * *

In his office on the deck below, Captain Christopher Falcon stood grinding his teeth in frustration. Senior

Commander Stuart Phelan, Asegeir's Chief of Security, had just ordered the VIPs off the bridge.

Through the thin bulkhead separating Falcon's office from the bridge, he could hear a stream of invectives

from a voice he recognised as belonging to Senator Matheson.

"That's it,” Falcon declared, striding to the connecting door. “I will not tolerate the crew being bullied by

Earth-side politicians!"

A section of the transparent hull opaqued, and the image of Admiral Calvin Woodstock appeared on

screen. “Do not go in there, Captain, that's an order.” Woodstock's bushy grey eyebrows lowered over

equally grey eyes. “You try to talk with them and you set yourself up."

Falcon swung to face him. “I was set up eight years ago. This is just a delayed reaction. Sir.” He glanced

past the screen through the laminated diaglass hull to the boxlike, administrative hub of Spacedock.

Although the space station was over a hundred kilometres away, it was silhouetted by the rising Mars,

and Falcon could easily see the light shining from the Admiral's offices.

Woodstock's weatherworn face settled into its familiar, authoritative glower. “You don't have time to

deal with delayed reactions now. A delayed departure is unacceptable. I've entered an emergency

override to the umbilicals and am resetting countdown from minus forty-eight minutes to minus three

minutes."

Falcon glanced at his desk monitors to verify Asegeir's status. They were fully sealed and ready to go.

Immediate departure was an elegant, albeit temporary countermeasure to the furore. “AI,” he said to the

computer. “Command override for emergency detachment. Reconfigure our trajectory for three minutes.

And warn Jacobsen that Asegeir will make a forty-five minute parabolic loop past Mars."

"I'll call Jacob personally and explain.” Woodstock's voice betrayed a hint of amusement.

Falcon's lips curled in acknowledgement. Jacob Jacobson would wet himself if he saw Asegeir leave

Spacedock prematurely then head off in the wrong direction. The gravitational side effect of the Viking

Project had already been wildly successful, but the terraforming engineer was depending on Asegeir's

close flyby of Mars, combined with simultaneous detonation of subterranean charges, to release a huge

underground reservoir of water.

It would take Spacedock three minutes to retract the umbilicus to a safe distance, then Asegeir's

manoeuvring engines would back them away. Thirty minutes later the ark ship would cut in its primary

engines, then curve out and back past Mars. It was a straightforward procedure that did not require his

presence on the bridge. Still, his place was there, if only to support the crew.

His crew, now, Falcon reminded himself. He unconsciously touched the blue designator and gold status

bar on his uniform jacket.

The noise from the bridge turned ugly; scuffles had broken out. The situation was way beyond

unacceptable and Falcon wondered why things had gotten out of hand so fast. Too fast, he thought

suspiciously. Then he heard the Security Chief yell, “Any unauthorized person still on the bridge in sixty

seconds will be shot! A stun shot means you'll miss the short-range shuttle to Earth. And you all know,”

Phelan added in a pleasant voice, “how uncomfortable long-range shuttles Dim5 shuttles are, especially

when you're recovering from a stun gun hit. The Captain is not going to allow badgering and hysteria to

endanger Asegeir during critical manoeuvres."

Two minutes later it was all over. Falcon opened his office door and surveyed the darkened bridge. On

his left the one hundred and fifty metre long, forty metre high laminated diaglass hull was currently

opaqued to black. Commonly referred to as the LD, the hull was normally transparent. To his right,

coloured glow-worm lights lining the concave bulkhead winked in and out of view as shadowy figures

moved about.

"Opening single LD panel, no filtration,” announced Captain Peta Vol, Asegeir's Chief Commander.

A window-sized section of the LD became transparent. Marslight filtered through, illuminating the

deck-level cockpit and long catwalk railings around the inner bulkhead. Falcon strode to the cockpit

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DoubleDragonPublishingwww.double-dragon-ebooks.comCopyright©2005bySonnyWhitelawDoubleDragonPublishing2005NOTICE:Thisworkiscopyrighted.Itislicensedonlyforusebytheoriginalpurchaser.Makingcopiesofthisworkordistributingittoanyunauthorizedpersonbyanymeans,includingwithoutlimitemail,floppydisk,filetransfe...

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