Damnation (Technopia Book 3) Read online

  Damnation

  Technopia, Book 3

  greg chase

  Bayou Moon Press, LLC

  Contents

  Copyright

  About This Book

  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

  Book List

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2016 by Greg Chase

  First Edition 2016

  Cover Art by Jeff Brown

  Editing by Red Adept

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

  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, locals, business establishments, or persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.

  Bayou Moon Press, LLC

  About This Book

  Technopia: Damnation

  Samuel Adamson—God of the Tobes—has neglected his progeny for too long. With no one to shepherd them, his technological offspring are easy prey for the tyrannical Moons of Jupiter corporations. The highly evolved beings must act as slave drivers and prostitutes under the leashes of their corporate masters—and propel the human work force toward its annihilation.

  But the despotism of the Moons is only part of Sam’s problem. If he can’t find a way to unite the Tobes, Earth will face almost certain destruction.

  Sam doesn’t give up easily, and things are about to change.

  Technopia Book 4: Salvation

  Greg’s Newsletter

  1

  Jess struggled into the space leathers that had been delivered from Leviathan. Originally sold by a company on one of Saturn’s moons, the grungy safety suit would never be mistaken for upscale. The outfit gripped her skin as she tried to pull it over her legs. In desperation, she lay flat on the luxurious bed in the penthouse and yanked hard until the belt loops reached just below her hips.

  She took a moment for her body to adjust to the uncomfortable outerwear. After a lifetime in low gravity, the four years on Earth hadn’t been kind to her womanly curves. She pulled on the formfitting top from across the bed. Forcing the fabric to expand as she wiggled her upper body into it wasn’t much more comfortable than penetrating the pants had been. Everything had to fit tight, though, to protect her during the space flight out to Jupiter’s moons. The fabric of the pants crackled in protest as she leaned over to pull on the heavy boots that reached halfway up her calves.

  With the worst of the change of clothes finished, she got up to look at her body in the mirror. It wasn’t the most horrid outfit she’d ever worn, but almost. Her breasts hurt, her legs could barely move, and she doubted even a single bite of food would fit in her compressed stomach. She worked the latches closed to seal the outfit, making it one unified protective covering. Turning to inspect the overall effect, she concluded her butt looked good. Sam would like that. He’d find lots of her curves to compliment. Even after twenty-one years together, raising two daughters, he still made her feel young and beautiful with his comments and desires.

  She ran her hands along the inseam of the pants. The damn waste tubes never fit correctly. With all their family’s wealth, she could have the most perfectly fitted space outfit custom made and delivered by later that afternoon. But then they’d stand out. The richest, most powerful couple on the planet wasn’t going to travel incognito if she went down that path. Her doubts about the outfit had to remain under wraps too. In spite of all Sam’s logic and planning, if she wandered out of the bedroom with anything other than enthusiasm for the damn outfit, he’d give in to her wishes. She had a roomful of elegant dresses and sexy lingerie to attest to his determination to please her.

  Jess nodded confidently as she changed the way she saw herself in the mirror. No longer was she the cofounder of the philanthropic foundation that helped individuals make more of themselves, wife to god of the technologically based entities—the Tobes—and mother to the kidnapped girl who’d destroyed her captors’ fortification with a release of pent-up anger. Staring Jess in the mirror was the space adventuress, the personification of all her early fantasies about exploring the solar system. She pulled the dusty, floor-length overcoat across her shoulders. No, this was the perfect outfit for her new life.

  An uncharacteristic burst of expletives made her rush to Sam’s dressing room. Sprawled out on the floor, her husband looked like a turtle that couldn’t right itself. “I can’t do it. These damn space boots don’t fit. I’m going to have Lev’s technological hide next time I see her.”

  “You know it’s not her fault.” Jess leaned down to loosen the last of the buckles that ran down Sam’s shoe. “Once this stuff’s on, we won’t have to worry about it again until we get to the moons.” Gently, she forced his foot into the boot. Containing most of the functionality that made it possible for the human body to endure months in space, the heavy footwear had to fit perfectly. But a perfect fit on Earth, with all of its gravity, was very different than in space. What hurt at the moment would feel loose in a couple of days.

  With his hand on her shoulder, Sam got to his feet. “I know. I’m just not the young man I was when I first left Earth. I don’t remember suffering these aches in my twenties, but somehow in my late forties, they’ve managed to make space outfits far less comfortable.”

  “I’m sure that’s it.” She tried not to laugh.

  He surveyed her in her space-adventuress outfit. “Damn, that thing fits every bit as well as the one you wore when we first left Chariklo.”

  The synthetic leather was slowly giving in to Jess’s curves. “Well, I’m glad you think so.”

  “The return of Hot Jessica, Space Adventuress.”

  She hip checked him, accentuating her formfitted butt. “Keep it up. I’ll start calling you God of the Tobes.” Jess frowned. “Sorry, I guess I’d better not even joke about that where we’re headed.”

  He wrapped his arms around her. “If I didn’t think it’d be so bloody difficult to get these clothes off and on again, I’d show you how much I’m not kidding.”

  Her body slid up his as she hugged him tight around the neck. She whispered in his ear, “You did that well enough last night.”

  Joshua and Ellie, the brother and sister Tobes who’d been more members of the family than representatives of their kind, greeted Jess and Sam in the penthouse living room. The familiar three-dimensional hologram of Jupiter with its sixty-plus moons filled the center of the floor. Next to each terraformed rock was a tag explaining the name and function of the corporation that owned it. Jess thought labeling them all slaveholders would have been simpler. Random moons around the giant planet shone bright as the sun. Those would be the real problems.

  “Is this the most up-to-date rendering of the Moons of Jupiter?” Sam asked.

  “Yep, but it’s not what I wanted to sho
w you.” Joshua brought his hands together as if he were an all-powerful deity able to compress space. Jupiter and all its moons diminished in size until a band of asteroids and dust appeared in the holographic image. “This is the asteroid belt where the pirates have their outposts. We can’t communicate beyond this barrier. Spike’s agreed to take you this far, but he won’t name the terraformed outpost where he’ll drop you off.”

  Jess searched among the minute motes of dust, each representing a potentially inhabitable rock. “I don’t see any solar arrays.”

  The solar transfer array would be their only means of communicating back to Earth. If there were terraformed asteroids, there would have to be energy to maintain life. And that could only come from the solar-transfer-array satellites that spread the sun’s energy to every outpost and colony in the solar system—except for Jupiter’s moons.

  “The pirates use whatever they can find,” Joshua said. “Methane from the centaur mining planets, modified spaceships capable of stealing solar power from the array, and energy they’ve siphoned from the Moons of Jupiter’s moon-suns are their primary means of sustaining life. They’re no happier about the Jovian shadow than we are. That’s why they’ve agreed to help.”

  Jess looked out the wall-sized view screen of the penthouse atop their Manhattan skyscraper. But it wasn’t the city she focused on or even the small dot of light that represented their destination. The constant nuclear explosions that had turned Earth’s moon into a minor sun continued to intensify. “How long do we have?”

  Ellie put her hand to Jess’s back as she too looked at the threat to all life on Earth. “If we can’t find a way to control the interactions of radioactive material, maybe a couple of years. Most of what you’re seeing is the garbage Earth shot to the moon. That stuff we understand. It’s the experiments the Moons of Jupiter dumped on the far side that are the real problem. We’ve been getting updates from the Martian Consortium on what’s happening from their perspective and even some information on Jupiter from their spies—”

  “You don’t need to say it,” Sam cut in. “We don’t know much. That’s the whole point. Only the Tobes who live out on Jupiter’s moons might have the data we need. And they’re not likely to talk to us so long as they’re slaves to the corporations.”

  “It’ll take a god and his wife to make them listen,” Joshua said.

  Jess’s eyes teared up on seeing Emily and Sara enter the family’s residence. Even at eighteen years old, the twins made her heart ache as she thought of leaving them. They weren’t little girls, but were they really ready to run the most powerful company on Earth, Rendition? The girls had helped the Tobes evolve, and hopefully, they were wise enough to listen to their technological siblings. But as Sam had said many times, he and Jess couldn’t be responsible for the whole solar system. She’d have to trust that the twins’ myriad of experiences had prepared them for this new challenge.

  Jess held her girls tight, not wanting to let go. These were her last anchors to the life she’d known. They were also the best example of those she hoped to save. Their differences created their strength: Emily was loving and full of humanity, Sara intelligent and strong. “Take care of each other.”

  “You just worry about Dad,” Sara said. “You know he’s useless without you.”

  “Pull your hood down farther—I can still see too much of your face.” Jess worried dying Sam’s hair couldn’t fully disguise him from prying eyes. The Tobes would do their best to distract anyone around them, and everyone wore the lens, so it wouldn’t be that difficult. Who bothered with what their eyes could see when all of Earth’s information was so readily available?

  They had to get out of New York undetected, but just leaving the Rendition building had been a challenge. How in the hell were they supposed to travel halfway around the solar system without being identified? Jess held tight to Sam’s hand. His powerful grip calmed her nerves.

  Most people on the moving walkway kept their heads slightly lowered—a clear indication they were focusing on the information being displayed on their lenses, the invisible technological coating that covered each person. In their space leathers, Jess and Sam garnered little attention—just another couple headed off Earth for one reason or another. She’d never explored the big city so unprotected before. People crowded around her, but she didn’t feel threatened. Businesspeople, tourists, and families hurried to their destinations. Who cared that the two richest people on the planet were sneaking away? Jess started breathing a little easier. The only people who’d be on the lookout would be spies for the Moons of Jupiter corporations. Undoubtedly, they were lurking about somewhere, but as far as Jess knew, she and Sam hadn’t proved much of a concern. Earth had been challenging enough for the two of them without taking on the Moons.

  Sam pointed to the connecting tunnel from the underwater walkway, which covered most of Manhattan’s streets, to the harbor. A hurricane—such storms had become just another weekly weather event—would be raging outside, slamming water from the ocean against the launch pads. But the docks for cargo ships, be they oceangoing or of the space variety, would be less conspicuous than the JFK spaceport, and closer too. The wharf smelled of grease, sweat, and too much rotting material. Workmen in overcoats heavier than Jess’s space outfit maneuvered antigravity dollies—piled two stories high with cargo—along the warehouse floor. One pier over, a luxurious underwater ocean liner awaited its posh guests. A day or two earlier, Sam would have directed Jess to that ship—a surprise round-the-world vacation, just the two of them. But she couldn’t allow her thoughts to go down that path.

  The ancient waterlogged boards squished under her boots as she reached a dark section of the pier. A tall figure crept out of the shadows. “Glad to see you made it.”

  Jess looked up in shock at the familiar voice. She did her best not to shout. “Larry?”

  “Sophie knew you couldn’t take Rendition’s most luxurious space yacht, but as Persephone’s human captain, I do have certain freedoms. We couldn’t let you just step directly onto a pirate ship.”

  “It’s good to see you, but are you sure this is safe?” Sam asked.

  “As Persephone’s Tobe captain, Sophie has certain connections. It wasn’t hard to borrow a shuttle off some disreputable characters. The least we can do is make sure you make it into space safely. Hell, the Moons don’t even know who I am.”

  Jess knew it was a mistake, but seeing the human captain who’d piloted them to so many adventures made her lose control of her emotions. She hugged the stick figure of a man tight, hoping no one was looking.

  “We’d best get out of here,” Larry said. “I bribed the dockworkers for use of the launch pad, but they could only give me half an hour. I’ve loaded up some contraband liquor just in case anyone bothered to check on my activities. We can use it as a gift to Rampike’s pirate captain.”

  The shuttle appeared to have crashed into the wharf’s landing bay. If it hadn’t been for the intact protective dome that kept the hurricane from invading the warehouse, Jess would have sworn the dilapidated craft had fallen through the roof. She longed for Rendition’s opulent transportation. As she crawled into the tight control cabin, the pang in her stomach reminded her she’d never witnessed a flight into space. Gravitational dampeners and view screens displaying lovely calm weather in the sealed-off crew cabin had, in the past, calmed her fear of the horrific trip. Those courtesies wouldn’t be possible in this smuggler’s craft.

  She barely had the safety harness secured before Larry laid hard into the shuttle’s controls. With a blast of energy, the ship angled toward the opening in the protective dome. The funnel cloud waiting for them outside took hold of the small craft and shot it far inland. This wasn’t flying—it was hanging on for dear life. Nothing Larry did had any effect on their trajectory. The hurricane handed them off to a passing tornado. Debris that looked all too similar to parts of their shuttle swirled around in the dust cloud that surrounded them. She was getting dizzy from the
various maelstroms that treated their shuttle like a ball in some demented sporting event.

  Larry was no help. For every action Jess was certain would save them from destruction, their pilot did exactly the opposite—aiming the ship toward the ground, blasting the engines to move deeper into the storm, making no attempt to avoid the other items sucked into their vortex of horror. He seemed intent on defying Mother Nature herself. Who knew Persephone’s human captain had such a death wish? The Moons of Jupiter were the last of their worries—they’d die before even leaving Earth’s atmosphere.

  To Jess’s shock, the storm let go of its hold on the shuttle. She hadn’t remembered closing her eyes. But as she opened them to the vastness of space and all the ships that circled the planet, her respiration and heartbeat returned to something approaching normal.

  “Not the worst trip out into space,” Larry said. “But in nomination for a slot in the top ten.”

  Sam’s fingers had left white marks where he’d gripped Jess’s hand. He let out one shaky breath. “Thanks for the ride, but I think I’ll stick to Sophie’s shuttle next time. This one seems a little underpowered.”

  2

  Larry gingerly swung the shuttle around until the cabin door lined up with a projecting air lock from Rampike. Bent metal and laser-gun muzzles littered the surface of the pirate ship. From afar, an adversary might guess the wounded craft to be easy pickings, but once in range, the hostile ship would discover her true capabilities.

  Sam traversed the small passage between ships to land in a dark, cramped room. Jess followed, almost knocking him down. At first, he thought they were the only two in the room.

  A small red light flicked on, revealing the weathered face of a man at home in his surroundings. “Your dealings are with Spike, but I like knowing who’s on board my ship.”