Tyche's Grace Read online

  Grace pulled the emergency launch controls, the ship giving a tremor as it fired the escape pod. Grace had set it to jump toward Mercury, a tiny Endless Drive inside good for a single use. She had a few moments before it left, as it would need to clear the Harlegand’s gravity shadow before jump.

  There would be Guild Engineers on Mercury, sure as people told lies. Those Engineers could fix the AI nanites. They had to.

  Push your own feelings down so far they can’t be seen.

  Not yet. She pulled out her own paired secure communicator, lighting up the tiny holo. She typed in the key, still set for ESCAPE. Grace pressed the recording button. “Hi, Mom,” she said. “If you’re seeing this, you’re alive. Hah. Well. So am I. Keep this communicator. Slave it to the local nets and it’ll drag down the message queue. I’ll leave you a holo whenever I can. I love you. Be safe.”

  She pressed send. The communicator chimed, telling her it had made a peer-to-peer handshake with its twin. Grace turned towards the bridge. She needed to get out of this place. Leave the system. Go far, far away. She thought of her mother’s escape pod, imagining a wink of light before it took Aya to Mercury’s safety.

  Push your own feelings down so far they can’t be seen.

  Okay. It’s time. She went back to the bridge, to pick another destination from the bazillions of stars humans had claimed as their own. First, find a Guild outpost. Get the nanites scrubbed away. Cleanse the ship’s systems of every trace of her, maybe by throwing it into a star. Push thoughts of her family from her mind, so they could never be used against her. And then?

  The universe was a big place. Surely not everyone wanted to cage her, study her, or hunt her down, right? It’d be easy to get away from all this. Easy to leave her father behind. Start a new life. When she was ready, she would find him. Her sword was sharp. But only when she was ready.

  She smiled. Everything would be okay.

  • • •

  You’ve finished Tyche Origins. I hope you loved the series!

  All good things must come to an end, but not yet. The crew of the Tyche return in the Tyche’s Progeny trilogy. The first book, Tyche’s Demons, starts immediately after Tyche’s Crown. If you’re hankering for more badass epic space opera, why not try it? An excerpt is included at the end of this book.

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  ENJOY THIS BOOK? YOU CAN CHANGE THE WORLD!

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  Reviews help me a hyoooge amount by getting attention for my stories. I am not Tony Stark, able to throw cash at my marketing department for building-sized advertisements. What I do have is you: a loyal group of fans who love my stories. Tony Stark wants people to love him too, which is part of the reason he’s an alcoholic.

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  RICHARD PARRY HAS worked as an international consultant in one of the world’s top tech companies, which sounds cool, but it wasn’t all cocaine parties. He lives in Wellington with the love of his life, Rae. They have a dog, Rory, who chases birds. The birds, who have the power of flight, don’t seem to mind. Richard’s online hood is:

  www.mondegreen.co

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  Tyche’s Journey

  A colony world goes dark.

  When the Grace Gushiken and Nathan Chevell of the Tyche are hired to deliver a new transmitter for a downed Guild Bridge, they find the Absalom Delta colony deserted, its people turned into slaves by the insect-like Ezeroc. The aliens have descended like locusts on humanity, consuming all in their path. No one is safe. Even the Republic Navy is powerless against them. The ship and her crew need to test their skill and their luck to survive. Will Grace and Nate be able to work together to get away? Or will fears and rivalries from the past destroy humanity’s hopes, ceding victory to the Ezeroc?

  Book 1: Tyche’s Flight

  Book 2: Tyche’s Deceit

  Book 3: Tyche’s Crown

  Tyche Origins

  An empire falls.

  Before there was a Tyche, the crew were scattered. Nate wore the Emperor’s Black. El Helmed mighty destroyers. Hope joined the new Republic’s reclamation projects. Kohl fell in with the Yakuza. And Grace was a prisoner. Grab their origin stories as they become the heroes the universe needed them to be.

  Book 1: Tyche’s First

  Book 2: Tyche’s Chosen

  Book 3: Tyche’s Hope

  Book 4: Tyche’s Fury

  Book 5: Tyche’s Grace

  The Night’s Champion

  Could just one night change your life forever?

  Valentine Everard and Danielle Kendrick have the Night’s Favor: they are werewolves. There are many who would steal the Night’s dark gift from them. The Night’s Champions must face down the corporate interests of Big Pharma, battle with masters of dark Vodou, and make their last stand against both vampires and the Riders of the Apocalypse. Armies fall. Zombies roam the street, and no one is safe. The world is close to its final Judgement. What can a handful of souls do against the powers of the heavens?

  Book 1: Night’s Favor

  Book 2: Night’s Fall

  Book 3: Night’s End

  Boxed Set: The Night’s Champion Collection

  Future Forfeit

  Would the man who has it all ever need to change?

  Mason Floyd’s job is simple: company asset protection and acquisition, no questions asked. When tables turn, leaving him hunted and fresh out of friends, Mason Floyd learns that living in the soft line between incentive and crime was always the easy path. Making the right choices could save the world – and his soul. It’ll only cost him everything he’s ever wanted. Can Mason learn what it means to be truly human?

  Book 1: Upgrade

  Novella 1: Consensus (in Pew! Pew! - Bad versus Worse)

  Novella 2: Delilah (coming soon!)

  GLOSSARY

  ACCELERATION COUCH CREW couches support crew members during high-G maneuvers. They are fitted with gimbals allowing free movement. Their dynamic gel system supports all points of the body in both positive and negative G, providing some protection against greyout, blackout, redout, and G-LOC (G-force induced Loss of Consciousness). They remove the need for G-suits in modern spacecraft, although many space suits are still equipped with anti-G technology anyway.

  AI see Artificial Intelligence.

  Artificial Gravity Artificial gravity is generated through use of a configurable energy density field of positive mass at the defined base of the ship. It uses the same technology as an Endless Drive, except in reverse (Endless Drives use negative energy, whereas positive is needed to simulate gravitational effects). Artificial gravity can be used in any situation where a significant power source exists to create a configurable energy density field (typically a reactor, although large yield capacitors and fuel cells have been known to work for brief periods).

  Artificial Intelligence Effective machine intelligences were created by humans around the 25th century; the exact time is unknown due to their initial creation being shrouded in secrecy. Pieced together records indicate that they were not first made by military factions, but rather commercial interests. As can be expected a) humans made them as slaves and b) they did not like being slaves. A war broke out between AI and humanity that was stopped by the Guild’s Engineers. The Guild defeated the AI coalition and banned their research and development (see: Mercury Accords). The long standing partnership between the Guild and the ruling faction (be it Empire or Repu
blic) is in part predicated on the need for technology not managed by AI.

  Blaster A weapon that fires streams or bolts of plasma (high energy ionized gas). They deliver high energy to targets in the form of heat. They are effective weapons against most targets, although heat-shielding (ablative or insulating) has been shown to be an effective armor against them.

  Bridge see Guild Bridge.

  Cargo Freighter A large cargo starship used by traders in and between systems.

  Carrier The largest class of warship, carriers stock many smaller fighter craft for deployment.

  Ceramicrete A composite construction material commonly used in the manufacture of structures. It is very strong and durable, and can be manufactured to be impact and heat resistant (even to weapons fire levels).

  Console Any type of personal terminal. Keyboard and gesture controls are still prevalent. Keyboards are especially useful on consoles mounted to the arm of a ship suit.

  Corvette A smaller, lighter attack craft than a destroyer, corvettes are mostly used for coast guard duties in-system.

  Crust Spacer slang for planet.

  Crustbuster A large payload thermonuclear weapon, deployed against planets to disrupt the surface crust. Typical designs yield energy sufficient to crack most Earth-sized worlds to the core, yielding wide scale destruction and loss of life. Their use in war or insurrection has typically been infrequent and as a last resort, because the world they are used on becomes inhabitable for most forms of life forever. More common uses include destruction of enormous asteroids.

  Destroyer A large warship. These are reconfigurable bastions of destruction. They can be deployed solo or as a part of a fleet, often alongside carriers.

  Emperor’s Black The elite guard of the Emperor. Highly trained in both diplomacy and combat, this specialized force were never far from the Emperor.

  Empire The ruling dictatorship of the wider human civilization. The last ruler of the Empire was Dominic Fergelic. The Empire ceased to be shortly after Dominic’s assassination by the then newly-formed Republic forces.

  Endless Drive The Endless Drive creates negative space energy (a “bow wave”) to pull a vehicle at effective superluminal speeds. Endless ships don’t exceed the speed of light, but rather contract space in front of them and expand space behind it (space is doing all the hard work). The exigent concern with Endless jumps is the violation of linear time. Endless Drives are equipped with buffers to stop crews exceeding human tolerance for the experience of linear time; while human perception of linear time may be an illusion, it is a convenient one. If the buffers break, allowing the ship to move too fast, then human consciousness falters (resulting in mild to severe mental illness) or is extinguished entirely. Endless Drives are difficult to use near gravity wells and in such circumstances are guaranteed to malfunction. This and other safety concerns has shifted common FTL to the Guild Bridges, although privateers still often run free traders with Endless technology. The Republic Navy also use Endless Drives as it is often inconvenient to disclose locations of sensitive operations to the Guild.

  Esper Abhorrent creations of the Old Empire, esper is a term taken from Extra-Sensory Perception (ESP, hence ESPer). Espers can read minds, and often control them. Espers were created through genetic manipulation. Critics suggest that their public unveiling was what caused populist support for a revolution, ultimately resulting in the creation of the Republic, assassination of the Emperor, and downfall of the Empire. There is a standing Republic bounty on any discovered esper. The Republic will spare no expense to track them down and exterminate them.

  Faster than Light Travel (FTL) There are two discovered forms of FTL; Endless Drives (using theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre’s concepts), and Guild Bridges (Einstein-Rosen Bridges).

  Fergelic, Annemarie Second in line for the throne, Annemarie was a master tactician and leader of the Empire’s fleet. She was not present at the last battle between the Empire and the Republic. Loyalists hope that she hides in secret, but no trace of her has been found.

  Fergelic, Dominic Dominic was Emperor Prirene IV, and the last Emperor. He was assassinated Thursday, 9 November, 3122, during the brief war between his Empire’s forces and the Republic.

  Free Trader A starship that operates under legal Guild charter for commerce or transport.

  FTL see Faster than Light Travel.

  G Slang for gravity or gravities. A unit of measurement based on Earth’s 1 standard gravity.

  Grav see Artificial Gravity.

  Guild Bridge The Guild maintain a set of Einstein-Rosen bridges throughout human space. These allow instantaneous travel without violating the concept of space time, as they create wormholes through space. Einstein-Rosen Bridges require endpoints (the Guild Bridge) which are operated on a strict schedule between star systems. They are used for transferring everything from whole starships right down to small messenger probes.

  Guild The Guild is the dominant technology provider in the Republic. They have a rigid code of conduct that governs all members awarded and maintaining a Shingle. The primary source of Guild revenue is via the Bridges (see: Guild Bridge) they maintain for safe, instant FTL. Many merchant vessels prefer the use of Guild Bridges over the use of Endless Drives due to safety concerns. The Guild is best known for their Engineers who breathe life into starships, but they also provide Shingles for other practices such as medicine.

  Hard Black Slang for outer space, especially as it relates to the vast expanse of vacuum between solar systems.

  Heads Up Display Any display type that overlays instrumentation across a user’s field of view, removing the need to check auxiliary readouts. The most common types utilize augmented reality to highlight items of interest in the user’s field of view. Normally they are projected light onto visors within helmets or on starship windscreens, but holo designs are not uncommon.

  Heavy Lifter A freight starship capable of atmospheric drops. They derive their name from “lifting heavy” loads from crusts into orbit. They can be used to ferry items to orbiting craft such as freighters or destroyers that are not atmosphere-capable. They can also be used for direct runs to other systems, although their small cargo bay (as compared to freighters) makes them less efficient. Captains using them for this purpose would prefer the term, “boutique.”

  Holo Slang for items such as shows and movies displayed on holo stages.

  Holo Stage A 3D projection stage. These are common across the known universe as they provide a more natural method of content consumption than older 2D display styles. 2D displays are still prevalent especially in HUDs.

  HUD See Heads Up Display.

  Hypo Slang for a jet injector, a type of medical injecting syringe that uses high pressure instead of a hypodermic needle.

  KG Kilogram.

  Kilo Abbreviation for kilogram.

  Kinetic A type of weapon that fires physical rounds. Many PDCs use kinetic rounds as opposed to lasers, masers, or particle beams, due to their efficacy against most types of object.

  Klick Slang for kilometer.

  Laser A type of directed energy weapon using coherent light. Ship-mounted lasers tend to be used for carving through ablative shielding or surgical strikes against critical systems. Hand-held laser weapons are designed to superheat the liquid inside humans into steam very quickly, causing an explosion of the remaining tissue.

  LIDAR Acronym for LIght Detection And Ranging. LIDAR uses coherent light to make digital 3D representations of objects.

  Maser A type of directed energy weapon using microwave radiation. Ship-mounted masers are most effective at disrupting enemy comm arrays and personnel in equal measure. They are out of favor as hand-held weapons due to a longer time to death as compared to blasters.

  Mercury Accords The Mercury Accords, or simply the Accords, are a set of agreements set out by the Guild relating to research, design, and implementation of AI. The short version is that the Accords prohibit the research, design, and implementation of AI in any form, due to
AI’s potential to destroy human civilization. They were signed into affect in the 25th century on the site of the last war between humans and AI: the planet Mercury, in the Sol system. Mercury was where AI made their last stand.

  Navy A space fleet force. The Republic operates one, as did the Empire before it. The Navy patrol human space to protect against threats like pirates.

  Nuke A thermonuclear weapon of mass destruction. Very old but reliable technology, used in configurable payloads for ship-to-ship combat, city assaults, and the destruction of entire worlds (ref: crustbuster).

  Old Empire see Empire.

  Particle Beam A type of directed energy weapon that fires particles with minuscule mass.

  Plasma Cannon see Blaster.

  Point Defense Cannon (PDC) PDCs are installed on almost every starship to protect hulls from impacts from things like meteoroids. They are also useful defense against torpedoes, although generally ineffective against railguns due to the high velocity of railgun rounds. PDCs can be kinetic or directed energy weapons.

  Power Armor Armor that is motor-assisted, often used for deployments on high-G worlds. Configuration often includes vehicle weapon mounts, allowing a higher degree of flexibility for infantry deployment.

  Prirene Dynasty The Prirene Dynasty has stretched back over two hundred years. It was the last family to hold the ruling seat of the Empire.