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    Vigilance: From The Earth Series, #3
    Vigilance: From The Earth Series, #3
    Vigilance: From The Earth Series, #3
    Ebook75 pages50 minutes

    Vigilance: From The Earth Series, #3

    By D.W. Patterson

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Vigilance: A Novella

    The history of freedom repeats itself. And the costs are always the same.

     

    The settlers of the new Republic of Mars were in a struggle for their freedom against powerful forces that would stop at nothing.

     

    For the Martians the costs were life, property and domestic security. But the true cost was vigilance, eternal if need be.

    Vigilance is set in the future (2070s) and is a story in the From The Earth Series which itself is set in the much larger Future Chron Universe.

     

    The Future Chron Universe consists of 9 novels, 1 short novel, 15 novellas, and 8 short stories.


    Hard Science Fiction - Old School.
    Human-Generated.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherD.W. Patterson
    Release dateMay 16, 2023
    ISBN9781386625391
    Vigilance: From The Earth Series, #3

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      Book preview

      Vigilance - D.W. Patterson

      To Sarah

      1

      John Abel Jackson never failed to marvel at the surface of Mars outside his family's dwelling in the Candor City district. The reddish color seen from afar was not as blended close up. Rock outcroppings, wind-carved edges, colored gray, blue-gray, yellow-tinged, unlike anything he had seen in pictures or on Earth. Earth deserts, he thought, are boring compared to a Martian plain with copious scattered rocks and distant reddish mountains.

      John was just over nine and one-half Martian years old, he would have been a youth of eighteen back on Earth. He was in his first year at the Mars Space Academy in nearby Bradbury City. He was tall at six foot four inches but thin, like many children who were born on Mars. But his strength was equal to any Earthling his age. He had dark brown eyes that could stare piercingly if confronted. He was a typical Jackson male.

      He and his dad had come outside on a maintenance expedition. The new EV (Excursion Vehicle) was extremely comfortable and the ANI (Artificial Narrow Intelligence) that drove it seemed to be a big improvement over the last model. This ANI, popularly called an Annie when for personal use, unlike those in the past learned continually from its surroundings, never making the same mistake twice.

      The new spacesuits were comfortable too. They had been developed on Mars for flexibility and durability. The wearer still had to limit his time in the Martian outdoors so as not to become overexposed to the ever-present radiation and it was best to schedule outdoor activity in the middle of the day to avoid the worst of the extreme day-night temperature change.

      John and his dad had about thirty minutes left to get their work done and get back before the warmth of the day turned into the intense cold of a Martian night. Because of the thin Martian atmosphere, the transition from warm Sun to cold night was fast. His dad was working on the programming of a monitoring station while John inspected it for any mechanical problems. The robot that John called Rothmeyer was busy unloading batteries from the EV.

      Suddenly John found himself on his back with his chest hurting. He sat up slowly and looked around. The EV was several meters away from him, and there was a cloud of smoke rising above it.  Rothmeyer was off to one side in pieces, he couldn’t see his dad. John arose and looked down at his suit, it was darkened across the chest area and his ribs ached but the suit hadn’t breached. He began walking, then running towards the EV.

      He arrived at the EV and began yelling for his father before he realized he hadn’t switched on his mic. He switched it on and ran to the other side of the machine. There some meters away was his dad, face down. John ran and kneeled beside his father. Before he turned him over John noticed his dad's back rise and fall. He was breathing. John turned his dad over and was shocked by the condition of his suit. The outer layers around the stomach were vaporized. All he saw was a thin inner layer that the nano-machinery embedded in the suit had quickly replicated. The environmental system was working to replace lost air and maintain body temperature but it couldn’t keep up with the demands placed upon it much longer. John had to get his father to Candor City as soon as possible.

      John yelled through the comm-link, Dad, Dad, can you hear me? His father didn’t respond. John immediately lifted the unconscious body, bent and draped it across his shoulder and began running towards the nearest rock outcropping.

      He placed his father against the rock, facing the setting sun. It was the best he could do for now. He plugged his Annie into his dad's suit and checked his vital signs and saw they were stable though far from normal. He needed to contact Candor as soon as possible, but how?

      John thought.

      He turned toward the EV and tried to raise the onboard Annie. No answer. The onboard electronics had probably been fried in the explosion.

      He thought.

      The only

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