Prelude to War

M. Timothy Murray

Description

The Orion Syndicate strikes at the heart of Thumar, on Thumar! The results are disastrous, launching the inner galaxy into a bloody, drawn-out war.

President Remor Andehar is engulfed in a perfect storm of events that threaten to tear Thumar’s once harmonious culture apart at the seams risking a phalanx of political and revered cultural customs. A charismatic senator, guided by a Syndicate agent, is challenging Thumar’s most beloved, centuries-long practice and demanding immediate change that would destroy Thumar to its core.

While Ambassador Derak Andehar heals from near-fatal wounds, Remor crisscrosses Thumar’s space colonies, continents, islands, and secret places to keep his beloved home unified. He must battle bad news, a rouge senator, and a galactic war to save his home planet’s morale.

Can the War Alliance, Remor and Derak defeat this powerful enemy which has no conscious, practices genocide and slavery, and seeks to rule with total fear?

Sujets

• Science Fiction
• War
• Sci-Fi
• Saga
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 20 octobre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669849193
• Langue: English

Extrait

Prelude to War
Thumar Saga 3
 
A Science Fiction Novel
 
 
 
 
 
M. Timothy Murray
 
Copyright © 2022 by M. Timothy Murray.
 
Library of Congress Control Number:
2022917964
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-6698-4921-6

Softcover
978-1-6698-4920-9

eBook
978-1-6698-4919-3
 
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 
Cover Art by Vivo Digital Arts.
 
 
 
Rev. date: 10/20/2022
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
843530
Table of Contents
Prologue
Disaster Strikes
Heaven’s Gate
Mt. Kumar
Manchov
Telaxia Prime
War Council
Admiral Toregan
The Orion Syndicate
Petarken
The Venteran Islands
Bull
The Forgotten War
Wesharu
The Colonies
The Orion Syndicate
Cyth Squadron
The Anean Coast
Shenmar
Nankurk
Commodore Thompson
Senator Kamar
Caberra
The Leshirga
Thorimin
The Battle of Thorimin
The Orion Syndicate
The Outer Colonies
Epilogue
Glossary
Characters
Prologue
The moon-sized ship loomed ahead as the square space ship slowly approached. Dex checked for sensors; none he could not get through. These morons learned nothing from the previous time he spent with them. He mentally located their leadership; they were sitting for another meeting. He, Dextrametrix, the Telaxian god they would worship again, he would painfully re-introduce them to his ways. That cursed mortal, Derak Jamar, was responsible for his recent trek through time. He would die! Before that happened, he would have to retrain these plebeians.
The Primary Council convened another meeting with the Star Council, made up of generals and admirals. They sat at their raised desks going over the latest senate proposals, then press forward with theirs. Councilman Number Three, Dr Elias Vander, was shooting for Number Two in the next elections, then Number One! After all, wasn’t he the brilliant geneticist who produced their life extending formula in the mid-twenty-first century?
Dex teleported into the middle of the large, dark, dimly lit council chamber. He stood a ‘tall’ Telaxian five feet eight inches, with a fit, slender build, smiled with pointy interlocking white teeth. Silence filled the entire chamber. “I am Dextrametrix. Your new overlord, Dex, will do.”
“The hell you are,” a large general stood up and moved toward Dex, reaching for his phase pistol. He fell to the deck, dead before he hit it.
Two nasty looking guards tried to remove him, only to join the general.
“Any other idiotic moves. I know what you think before you finish a thought. That button you are about to hit will not work, Number One.” Dex calmly said. “Nor that phase pistol.”
Number One fell face first on his desk, dead.
“Anyone else? I could kill you all at once… not a bad idea.”
Every member of both councils grabbed their heads in extreme pain. Then, as fast as it came, it was gone. Moans of defeat slowly drifted down to Dex’s ears.
Dex smiled with his uncapped shark Telaxian teeth to drive home the point. “Cooperation will get you far more comfortable lives. If my last demonstration is forgotten, the next one will be your last. Now that I have your attention, what year is it, and where is this beast of a ship located?”
A voice squeaked up from the Star Council. “2417, in the Reshgur system on the rim.”
He smiled again. “That’s more like it, now, has anyone heard of a mortal called Derak Jamar? Does he exist in this timeline?”
Murmurs echoed around the room for several minutes.
“Anyone?” Dex queried them.
“There’s a Derak Andehar on Thumar. Could that be him? He’s married to the president’s niece,” a general answered.
“Where did he come from before he landed there?” Dex asked.
“Earth, I think. He’s a high ranking naval officer,” the same general said.
“He’s the one who spared Thumar and its neighboring systems from a gamma-ray burst from one of our star explosions.” Another said, “haven’t had another since.”
“Why blow up stars? Never mind, let’s get back to this Jamar fellow, why is he so good?”
“We think he is a first generation.”
“What is that?” He picked up councilman Vander’s thoughts and looked directly at him. “What is a first generation, doctor?” Dex probed his mind.
Silence was followed by Elias Vander, grabbing his head in pain. He raised his hand to stop it. After he found his voice, he started. “In the middle of the twenty-first century on Earth, I led a super soldier genetic team. Russia, China, the USA, and the United Nations wanted to end all war with our results.”
“Did it work? Did you come up with one?”
“Yes, and when one geneticist found out about the endgame, he destroyed our work and disappeared. We believe Jamar is a direct descendant of the original experiment.”
“How different does this make him?” Dex seemed comfortable to remain standing.
“His four strands of DNA make him indestructible, and his Life expectancy is greatly increased.” Vander said.
“This makes him tough to kill, I have an answer for this Jamar.” Dex smiled again.
Another voice spoke. “I’ll take down the Thumarian government.”
Dex looked at him. “What is your name, and how many have you taken down?”
“Paul, Momzer, I’ve destroyed twelve to date and brought all their lovely credits back here.”
Dex looked at Paul, “What are you waiting for?” Then he turned to Dr Vander, “let’s get started. This meeting is over.”
Disaster Strikes
Lelayla was Derak and Shesain’s next stop for a regional festival that celebrated the founding of one of the continent’s most important trading cities. They were the best known couple on Thumar and beyond. Shesain, for being the niece of the Thumarian president. Derak, for saving Thumar and three sectors from a gamma-ray burst.
Walking the broad streets, Derak noticed an odd occurrence he had not seen before, a man in a wheelchair. He would have been a taller than the average Thumarian male, if he still had legs. Derak approached and sat next to him. He had a handsome face, and his upper body was fit. His eyes were downcast.
“To what do I owe this?” The stranger hesitantly asked.
“I’m curious how you lost your legs, and why you don’t have prosthetics?”
“I lost them in ‘that war.’ The government gives me a pension. I get along fair enough.”
“What is ‘that war’?” Derak asked.
“The Voeleron War,” he said in a low voice.
“I didn’t know Thumarian troops were sent there,” Derak said in genuine surprise.
“I was in the third battalion, assigned to a support mission in the Chambar Valley. We got caught in an unexpected flanking movement by Kek regulars. Only twelve out of fifty made it home. I’m one of the lucky ones. I still have my sanity.”
“I was there, Alliance Special Forces. I still fight the nightmares. What’s your name?” Derak asked.
“Verton Thushkar.”
“How does the government take care of you?”
“They shove us into out-of-the-way corners; it makes it easier to forget us.”
Derak thanked him for his service, and would make it a point to approach Remor about this abandonment of war veterans.
Shesian witnessed the entire conversation with a guilty look on her face. “That war is one of the uglier chapters in our recent history. A politician can lose his seat by just mentioning it. The public chose to ignore it.”
“I have a few ideas to help them. I will discuss it with Remor.” Shesain shot him a hard look. “He lost his brother to ‘that war.’ You’ll have a fight on your hands.”
“Something has to be done!”
Derak and Shesain attended the usual VIP gatherings, the Mayor, his city council, and the regional leaders. All was going well until the Mayor mentioned a late afternoon meet and greet session with the public in the central square. Derak’s intuition immediately told him not to attend, something was wrong. He kept this thought to himself, hiding his emotions from everyone except Shesain.
She approached him after being separated by the crowds. “What’s wrong, my chimera? You seem reticent to attend the next e vent.”
Growing doubt filled Derak’s thoughts. “My intuition kicked in when he mentioned it, the same intuition that moved me to go to Altair, to fix our time mistake. This ‘feeling’ has kept me alive many times when I should have died. We should bow out.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. “You know how important this is to our citi zens.”
“Positive. Something terrible is going to happen. I know it, I can’t put my finger on it,” Derak thought.
“Double the T-K, what can go wrong? Don’t we have the best trained ops teams in the galaxy? We’ll leave early, if we have to.” She pleaded with him.
Those eyes would melt him one last time. “I’ll contact Bull, I hope I’m w rong.”
“I love you, my chimera.” She smiled. “We’ll be fine, you’ll see.”
Derak frowned before he made the arrangements. “Bull, double the visual detail for this after noon.”
“Aye, sir, is there anything w rong?”