A Planet for Emily

A Planet for Emily

By M S Lawson

ISBN 978-0-9954192-1-6 (e-book)

Copyright© 2017 by Mark Steven Lawson writing as M. S. Lawson

Published by Clearvadersname Pty Ltd

All rights reserved. The book contains material protected under international and national copyright laws and treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without express permission from the publisher.

Other books by this author

Disgraced in all of Koala Bay (ebook, 2016)

The Zen of Being Grumpy (Connor Court, 2013)

A Guide to Climate Change Lunacy (Connor Court, 2010)

Cover image: shutterstock

Dedicated to Charles, in memory of the discussions on terra forming we have had over the years, and in the hope that he finally finished his doctorate.

The Zards professed peace but attacked and defeated Earth's navy at the star system known as Crossroads, and claimed the human planet as their own. Those humans not enslaved were forced into a secondary site known as Earth Station, or into mining stations along the galactic arm originally built to house just a few miners.

CHAPTER ONE

A blast of chilled air startled Suzanne out of the doze she had fallen into during her long wait, huddled in one corner of the bar on Lucifer III. A tall, broad-shouldered man in an old naval engineering officer's great coat stripped of any insignias, opened the bar hatch – they were hatches not doors, as Suzanne had discovered – letting in the frigid air. He stood before the bar, hands deep in the pockets of his coat, evidently in a foul mood.

"It's freezing outside Matt," he snapped to the bar tender. "Can't they keep the dome heated?"

"Saving energy, Rods," said Matt, and Suzanne knew that the bad-tempered stranger was the person she had travelled three weeks to see. "We need another generating unit on our grid, we need everything."

Rods grunted, said "beer" and slumped into a stool at the opposite end of the tiny bar from Suzanne, not even looking at her although, except for Matt and an older man nursing a drink along the back wall, she was the only other person in the establishment. Both Matt and the man at the back watched with interest as Suzanne levered herself off her stool and approached the trader.

"Excuse me Rods, is it?" she said as Matt, a beefy, balding man who had previously declared himself to be a friend of Rods, slammed a glass in front of the trader and squirted some beer into with a bar gun.

"Uh," said Rods without turning around.

"My sister was on the Dawn Treader."

Rods finally looked around. Suzanne saw steady, grey eyes set in an unshaven face of regular features marred by a long scar that ran from beside the right eye down his cheek. For his part, Rods saw a girl with green eyes, slim build, fine features and short brown hair, but in his recent, bitter experience, good looking girls in bars meant trouble, and he was in no mood for trouble.

"Sorry for your loss," he said, and turned back to his beer.

"You were in charge of the search for the Dawn?"

"'In charge of' sounds official," said the trader without looking around. "I coordinated the search with two others and the heads of settlements. No luck, and it's been six months. As I said, sorry for your loss. Now, pardon me, but I've some serious brooding to do."