Slipstreaming Away: Salvation

Richard L. Cohen

Description

A fast-paced thriller in outer space. The search for a VIP who has disappeared reveals shocking secrets about other planets.
In this second installment of the Slipstreaming Away series salvation takes center stage. What does this mean for individuals, civilizations and planets? Slipstreaming Away: Salvation begins with the disappearance of the head honcho of the United Nations Space Exploration Force and leads in directions that no one could have possibly foreseen. Lives will be changed and futures altered for people on multiple planets.

Sujets

• Science Fiction
• Space travel
• Space exploration
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: iUniverse
• Date de parution: 20 juin 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781663253682
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

SLIPSTREAMING AWAY: SALVATION
 
 
 
 
RICHARD L. COHEN
 
 
 
 
 
 
SLIPSTREAMING AWAY: SALVATION
 
 
Copyright © 2023 Richard L. Cohen.
 
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.
 
 
 
 
iUniverse
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.iuniverse.com
844-349-9409
 
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: 978-1-6632-5369-9 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6632-5368-2 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023910480
 
 
 
iUniverse rev. date: 06/19/2023
Contents
Acknowledgements
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
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my wife, Marti Keller, my sister JoAnn Hopper, and close friends Rhonda Wilcox and Richard Gess for their many thoughtful constructive comments on the draft for this book. Their feedback has made this a much stronger work.
Chapter 1
Kidnapped – Sheri Alvarez had never been taken in her life. Sure she had been close on various assignments for the Interplanetary Bureau of Investigation but had always gotten herself out of what could have been disastrous situations. Now she was being held in a warehouse with her compatriots on a planet 30 light years from Earth. It was all a big misunderstanding but how were they going to convince their captors? While they all knew the fundamentals of working with aliens, she was the only one of the group that had deep experience working with the criminal element. After all, she had spent a decade traveling to planets near and far assisting on investigations that ranged from murder to robbery, white collar crime and even a few adultery cases brought by planetary leaders.
The latter called for extreme secrecy and tested her abilities to ferret out the wrongdoing and tastefully communicate it. It was hard, really hard, to find just the right words to explain to a powerful governor of a large province that her husband was cheating on her with a political rival. The difficulty existed in this case because she learned that the governor was exceptionally cruel to her husband, so cruel that she understood why he would look elsewhere for love – except she was hired by the governor and not the husband.
Sheri was an insomniac. It was bad at home in Chicago but especially grim while on assignment on planets that were not Earth. Must be the adrenalin of the assignment she figured. Nothing helped – meditation, no thank you – medication to knock one out – not working. So, while her exhausted fellow prisoners slept she was wide awake. She had plenty of time to reflect on how events unfolded that eventually landed her in this predicament. It all started on the beach in Mexico.
It was the day after her wedding and she was apprehensive. She had made a firm promise to her new husband that she would explain herself to him. Until the formal exchange of vows was completed on January 20, 2325, she had been prohibited by her employer from saying anything.
This had been a source of friction between the two of them for some time. Jason Wormly was very open about his work as a music historian at the University of Chicago. He understood that her work was classified; she wouldn’t tell him anything, not even the name of the planet she was assigned to for a case.
Some days she would come home so exhausted that all she could do was collapse into her favorite chair and watch mindless television. Other days she was expected home and she’d contact him saying she would be staying on the planet for a day, two or even three. He had no idea if she was ever in danger or if, one day, he’ll be contacted and told she was dead.
The beach in Cozumel was amazing. They had chosen this tropical Mexican retreat because the weather was warm, the water a sparkling turquoise, and the snorkeling some of the best in the world. By late afternoon they had the shaded patio all to themselves.
They talked about the amazing fish they had seen that day and how happy they were to be together, a first, and hopefully last, marriage for each of them at their mature age of 31. Sheri suddenly turned to him and said, “My last job was on a planet called Abraxas, 300 light years from Earth. You remember how distracted I was. I had way too much to do. I was originally sent there to assist them in investigating a death threat made to a hospital executive. You might think they could handle that in-house but on Abraxas crime was virtually unknown in hospitals. They were sacred places.
“After I got there he was poisoned as well. He survived and we caught both perpetrators, but that wasn’t the half of it. Abraxas was invaded by another planet. I was asked to supervise a team of Earth folks who were already working there. We wanted them to gain intelligence that would help us know how to handle this new situation.”
As if that wasn’t enough to occupy her time, she told him that she was also asked to coordinate scientists from Earth and Abraxas to collaborate on finding a cure for cancer on the planet, something that had occurred on Earth 75 years earlier.
“One of the first things that we had to understand was that even if the people looked like us that didn’t mean that their bodies worked like ours,” she said. “We just couldn’t give them our cancer solution; it had to be custom developed.”
“Wasn’t there anyone else who could have helped you with this?” he asked. “Sounds like you were way overburdened.”
Sheri explained that one of the rules of the Interplanetary Bureau of Investigation was that once an investigator was assigned to a job they would be the only person allowed to set foot on that planet in that role. They would handle whatever came up and if it got complicated they would just have to deal with it. The rule exists, she told him, out of respect for the self-determination abilities of the planet’s own investigative forces. The last thing that was desired was for these other planets to feel that Earth was being overbearing.
“Did you ever kill anyone?” he asked.
“No, absolutely not,” she said. “That’s another rule. We are not allowed to carry or use weapons. However, I’ve seen people being killed. Nasty stuff.”
“Are you in danger on these assignments?” he asked.
Sheri explained that her job did have some danger elements to it, but it would be about the same if she was an investigator here on Earth. “You just have to accept it if our marriage is going to work,” she said. “You know I’m not going to quit. I love my career. I could do it until I retire, which won’t be for another 30 years.”
The next morning was sparkling. The snorkeling had been tremendous. They were looking forward to another day out on the water. For breakfast they had traveled into the city’s downtown and found a lovely bistro. They both had spinach, mushroom and cheese omelets cooked to perfection, puffy enough that it seemed like they were eating air.
“I’m not going to answer it,” she said of the buzz in her pocket. “We’re on our honeymoon.”
Sheri could see that it was Anders Bean who was contacting her. As the newly installed President of the Bureau, he depended on her expertise to get himself up to speed. Certainly he knew she was unavailable. If he continued to call then she’d have no choice but to answer it. He called again and then a minute later another call. She answered.
The call was indeed an emergency as it concerned Jeremy Kuti, the Chairman of the United Nations Space Exploration Force, one of the most important people on the planet.
“Jeremy is missing,” Anders yelled. “It appears that he stole a slipstream ship. He may have been going to visit some planets where problems had been identified and try to handle them on his own. You’ve got to find him. I’ve been told he isn’t well but I don’t know the specifics except that it’s serious.”
“Where did he go?” Sheri asked.
“That’s the problem,” Anders said. “I don’t know – he decommissioned the tracker so he couldn’t be traced.”
“What about anyone else?” she asked. “You know I’m on my honeymoon.”
“All my other top agents are in the middle of assignments on other planets. It’s been a really busy time for us. Janelle is on Orion working on a financial fraud case. They are almost ready to make the arrest. Mark is on Brixton. They’re going to trial tomorrow and Mark is a witness. The woman you brought to us from her