Conrad's Ride

Judson J. Hawkins

Description

Conrad's Ride is a Science Fiction, Western Romance set on a rim world far from everything. It is similar to the works of David Drake.
Life had been simple and good for Conrad; enforce the law, break a few heads, and enjoy the local red-light district. Now, within a few days, a rescued girl of questionable virtue was filling his bed and complicating his life; those off-world bastards, the Pipers, were arming the western cannibals and Connie was back to the bad old days of military campaigning, long nights on cold ground, long hours in the saddle, all mixed with episodes of hard fighting, heavy killing, and no quarter requested or given.

Sujets

• Science Fiction
• Romance
• Fiction
• Western

Informations

• Publié par: Archway Publishing
• Date de parution: 08 juin 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665740418
• Langue: English

Extrait

Conrad’s RIDE
 
 
 
 
JUDSON J. HAWKINS
 
 
 
 
 
 
Copyright © 2023 Judson J. Hawkins.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
 
Archway Publishing
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.archwaypublishing.com
844-669-3957
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6657-4042-5 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-4041-8 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023904685
 
 
 
Archway Publishing rev. date:  06/06/2023
CONTENTS
Author’s Note
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
About the Author
AUTHOR’S NOTE
 
T his novel was conceived as, and is intended to be an enjoyable read: mind candy, as my brother and I often called such stuff in our youth. The characters and dialogue within are solely products of the author’s imagination and do not portray actual persons or events. Any resemblance to the living or deceased is entirely coincidental.
DEDICATION
 
To Janice, because I said I would.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
 
I would like to thank several individuals for their help, consideration, patience and contributions to this book. First, for the shared combat experiences of my brother, John W. Hawkins, soldier, scholar, and the finest man I ever knew, and to his wife, Lynn, who has been endlessly patient and gracious in the review of this material.
I must also thank the men and women of the Eastlake Police Department who have throughout the research and execution of this fiction attended patiently to my questions and provided sage advice and suggestions. My thanks go especially to Lt. Thomas Doyle (Ret.), to Detectives Mark Christian and Kris Korun, and to far too many others to name individually.
More than most, however, I must thank my wife, Mary, for her full, thoughtful and considerate support, encouragement, and advice provided to me from the start to finish of this creation. Its value has been incalculable.
To all I owe a debt of gratitude. However, the deficiencies in this novel are mine and mine alone, and any fault or flaw found by the reader is not attributable to any individual other than the author.
CHAPTER ONE
 
I t had been a long day’s ride over miles of open grass land, interrupted by forested streambeds, to bring Conrad Aylward to a slope overlooking a town so backwater it didn’t have a name. The young man had been assigned to this rim, and largely neglected planet, for a bit less than a half decade. Although his current posting had not been entirely pleasurable, his years assigned to this world had not been without satisfaction for a man of Conrad’s independent, and when necessary assertive disposition.
He was by nature composed and confident, and through experience had learned the benefits of aggression. With this acquired propensity had also come a casual indifference concerning the use of violence. He would not normally brook any interference to his purpose, nor tolerate any slights to his personal sense of honor, and it was this combination of nature and nurture that had earned Conrad an assignment to this empty lump of sod, rock, and mineral, a planet listed as R-251 in the Federation’s Naval Catalogue, and called Darren’s World by the locals.
Conrad was, essentially, neither cruel, nor considerate, nor tolerant of short comings or failure and his occupation demanded such qualities. More important to his trade, however, once provoked, or his job required action, Conrad’s physique, attitude, and mass provided a considerable implement for violence. He had chestnut hair, pale, slate-grey eyes over even features, stood a bit over six feet tall, and weighed, give or take, approximately 250 lbs. Most of this considerable weight was muscle. On most days Conrad’s waist measured 32 inches and his chest 52. His legs were heavily muscled, but not abnormally long or stout; most of his mass fell between his navel and his chin, with not much of a neck in between, and proportionally large arms and hands. His build, however, wasn’t the final determinant of the man. His genetics, or his past, or perhaps his genetics and his past, had mated his physical strength with a dispassionate and, some would say, an indifferent approach to problem resolution. He was, indeed, frequently described, and with considerable justification, as institutionally indifferent to others. By the less forgiving he was considered a border-line sociopath
It was primarily this inherent indifference that had cost the young man a promising military career, and why he was now on Darren’s, and why he was presently looking down on this mostly empty town. Connie didn’t dwell on the past, but as he sat his weary horse, dusty, sweaty, and, generally speaking, unrepentant in the midday sun, he couldn’t help but recall the basic injustice of his past.
In his previous military life he had experienced several combat tours of duty. Surviving these, he had finally earned a cushy diplomatic posting on a central-core world. Accepting the perquisites of his assignment, Conrad had pursued, romanced, and bedded an attractive local girl who, through no fault of Conrad’s, he had thrown through a plate glass window. In the glaring clarity of hindsight, it appeared the young woman was more than attractive, bright and educated. She was also a uniform groupie, and attracted not so much to Conrad but to anything in military dress of whatever sex, including the indecent propositions of a young, and lesbian Federation Naval Ensign.
Withholding her easy ways from Conrad had proved unfortunate for his lover; although Conrad could be objective about sexual preferences in a broad sense, his tolerance did not extend to slights to his personal sense of honor, at least not when it came to sharing sex partners. Which explained his actions when he discovered the Ensign and his amoral bedmate, drunk and openly exploring sexual taboos in a dark and not secluded enough corner of the officer’s mess. The two should have kept their game of stink finger private, because Connie would not be openly ridiculed before his friends and colleagues. When he entered the officers mess and discovered their activities, and the mirth of his comrades, his reaction had been prompt, and predictable. He had hauled them both from their insufficiently dark corner into the light, and thrown the pair through a window. Sitting now on his horse, and reflecting upon that spontaneous decision, he thought in retrospect his act may have been unwise.
He maintained considerable pride in the ten-foot flight—it must have set a record somewhere—but the bruising landing, naval propriety, and a sexually bent and screeching female naval ensign all demanded formal action. In consequence, a Federation Naval Review Board was assembled. It seemed there were those on that board (and the offended ensign) who considered Connie’s acts unprovoked, unnecessary, vicious, and otherwise beyond the pale of an officer’s acceptable behavior—court martial had even been mentioned. Fortunately for Conrad, drunken and public sexual displays by youthful naval ensigns was also frowned upon, and to avoid embarrassment to the service a majority of the board adopted a more tolerant, or arguably a more practical perspective. Although this majority admitted Conrad’s conduct was a bit extreme, they also knew good combat officers didn’t grow on trees, and, furthermore, there were places in which a man of quick decision and violent disposition could be useful.
It was general knowledge that the Federation Enforcement Agency (responsible for policing new colonies) often needed and utilized purposeful violence on edge planets only nominally under Federation control. Conrad would obviously fill such needs to the letter, and Darren’s was just such a needful colony. Indeed, the Board had decided that the ability to inflict violence on rim planets like R-251 could prove invaluable. The Review Board, therefore, elevated need above propriety and promptly transferred Conrad to the Federation Enforcement Agency, and thus his subsequent posting to R-251.
On Darren’s he was one of ten Enforcement Agency officers, and, prophetically, it was a woman that now occupied Connie’s attention. The planet’s human colony was relatively new, still raw, mostly untamed, and far from the Federation’s cluster of civilized planets. At this stage of development it still hadn’t attracted large numbers of colonists. In fact, it had only in its recent past developed a small but promising industrial base. The planet’s nascent manufacturing efforts were, at this initial stage of development, concerned primarily with the necessary engines of progress, i.e. internal combustion diese