The Ripple in Space-Time: Free City Book 1 (The Free City Series) by S F Chapman Page A
Authors: S F Chapman
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a
glowering red to a more pleasing pinkish-orange as it climbed higher to
dominate the hazy sky of Titan.
At around nine and a half times
further from the Sun than the Earth, Saturn was a far brighter and more
imposing presence on the huge moon than the distant and unremarkable yellow
star over 1.4 billion kilometers away at the center of the Solar System.
Somewhere out there in the
vastness were the imbeciles that he had engaged to carry out his schemes.
Pirates, Dimitri scornfully noted,
were not known for following instructions and his two bands of marauders were
no exception.
After weeks of trying, the Kuiper
Belt Shipjacks had finally managed to commandeer an unarmed and unmanned space
tanker that he intended to use as a base for his secret operations. To avoid
detection, it was now creeping slowly towards the Asteroid Belt. Gristle ’ s Raiders had acquired the materials and skilled laborers that he would
need from the Moon but not without using far too much force and explosives for
what should have been a stealthy undertaking.
Now the Free City Inquisitor's
Office was snooping about for the cause of the blast.
“ Idiots! ”
The great ringed planet took up
most of the eastern sky now. A jagged bluish electrical storm swirled
sinisterly around the southern pole.
A knock at the door interrupted
his fretting. His eleven-year-old parlormaid peered leerily into the suite.
The girl was one of his many
household scrubs; in a year or two, he ’ d profit nicely by selling her
off to the Sex Slavers.
“ Excuse me Master, ” she bowed nervously, “ I have your breakfast, if it pleases you now. ”
“ Yes, ” he growled tersely, “ bring it in. ”
The little wretch set the tray of
food on his dining table and hurried off.
Dimitri watched the girl leave,
she was obviously afraid of him, he had a well-deserved reputation that he had
cultivated over many years for brawling fits of rage. But he had always treated
his servants and slaves with cool detachment, especially the half dozen or so
girls that made up the domestic staff.
He sat and consumed the meal.
His long dead mother, after all,
had been forced into sex slavery. She’d been one of the many wives of Jonathan
Kufuzu until she displeased the third Warlord of EurAfrica and was sold off as
carnal fodder to Dimitri ’ s despicable father, Lord Pavel
Verhovnyi. At forty-two years old, she unintentionally produced Pavel ’ s only child before killing herself on the lethal surface of Titan.
Unwelcome from birth, Dimitri was
sent away as a baby to be raised by the subjugated drudges in the barely habitable
selenium mines kilometers below the frozen surface of the massive moon of
Saturn. As he grew up amongst the despondent and miscreant miners in the cold
and dark labyrinths, Dimitri vowed vengeance against his father who had
pompously declared himself the first Imperial Warlord of the Outer Reaches.
After years of plotting and
planning, he ’ d snuck into the newly constructed Titan Palace as a
teenager and stabbed his father to death.
Two days later, after murdering
most of the old man’s advisors, Dimitri enthroned himself as the Supreme
Warlord and took over the now vast fiefdom.
His father ’ s frozen and mutilated corpse still dangled from a tall picket in front
of the palace as a grisly reminder of Dimitri ’ s ruthlessness.
But he had other scores to settle.
Even though he was a reluctant
member of the Warlord Syndicate and continued to pay the onerous dues to the
trade organization, he felt no sympathy towards the six other squabbling
autocrats that made up the group. The Asteroid Belt and Jupiter Colonies
Fiefdom was merely a weak and unorganized collection of a few widely spread
outposts led by an oblivious figurehead Warlord on Vesta. The Fiefdoms of Mars
and the Moon were both pleasant paradises compared to the difficult and
isolated hell of the Outer Reaches.
Dimitri had nothing in common with
the three pampered sovereigns of Earth;
glowering red to a more pleasing pinkish-orange as it climbed higher to
dominate the hazy sky of Titan.
At around nine and a half times
further from the Sun than the Earth, Saturn was a far brighter and more
imposing presence on the huge moon than the distant and unremarkable yellow
star over 1.4 billion kilometers away at the center of the Solar System.
Somewhere out there in the
vastness were the imbeciles that he had engaged to carry out his schemes.
Pirates, Dimitri scornfully noted,
were not known for following instructions and his two bands of marauders were
no exception.
After weeks of trying, the Kuiper
Belt Shipjacks had finally managed to commandeer an unarmed and unmanned space
tanker that he intended to use as a base for his secret operations. To avoid
detection, it was now creeping slowly towards the Asteroid Belt. Gristle ’ s Raiders had acquired the materials and skilled laborers that he would
need from the Moon but not without using far too much force and explosives for
what should have been a stealthy undertaking.
Now the Free City Inquisitor's
Office was snooping about for the cause of the blast.
“ Idiots! ”
The great ringed planet took up
most of the eastern sky now. A jagged bluish electrical storm swirled
sinisterly around the southern pole.
A knock at the door interrupted
his fretting. His eleven-year-old parlormaid peered leerily into the suite.
The girl was one of his many
household scrubs; in a year or two, he ’ d profit nicely by selling her
off to the Sex Slavers.
“ Excuse me Master, ” she bowed nervously, “ I have your breakfast, if it pleases you now. ”
“ Yes, ” he growled tersely, “ bring it in. ”
The little wretch set the tray of
food on his dining table and hurried off.
Dimitri watched the girl leave,
she was obviously afraid of him, he had a well-deserved reputation that he had
cultivated over many years for brawling fits of rage. But he had always treated
his servants and slaves with cool detachment, especially the half dozen or so
girls that made up the domestic staff.
He sat and consumed the meal.
His long dead mother, after all,
had been forced into sex slavery. She’d been one of the many wives of Jonathan
Kufuzu until she displeased the third Warlord of EurAfrica and was sold off as
carnal fodder to Dimitri ’ s despicable father, Lord Pavel
Verhovnyi. At forty-two years old, she unintentionally produced Pavel ’ s only child before killing herself on the lethal surface of Titan.
Unwelcome from birth, Dimitri was
sent away as a baby to be raised by the subjugated drudges in the barely habitable
selenium mines kilometers below the frozen surface of the massive moon of
Saturn. As he grew up amongst the despondent and miscreant miners in the cold
and dark labyrinths, Dimitri vowed vengeance against his father who had
pompously declared himself the first Imperial Warlord of the Outer Reaches.
After years of plotting and
planning, he ’ d snuck into the newly constructed Titan Palace as a
teenager and stabbed his father to death.
Two days later, after murdering
most of the old man’s advisors, Dimitri enthroned himself as the Supreme
Warlord and took over the now vast fiefdom.
His father ’ s frozen and mutilated corpse still dangled from a tall picket in front
of the palace as a grisly reminder of Dimitri ’ s ruthlessness.
But he had other scores to settle.
Even though he was a reluctant
member of the Warlord Syndicate and continued to pay the onerous dues to the
trade organization, he felt no sympathy towards the six other squabbling
autocrats that made up the group. The Asteroid Belt and Jupiter Colonies
Fiefdom was merely a weak and unorganized collection of a few widely spread
outposts led by an oblivious figurehead Warlord on Vesta. The Fiefdoms of Mars
and the Moon were both pleasant paradises compared to the difficult and
isolated hell of the Outer Reaches.
Dimitri had nothing in common with
the three pampered sovereigns of Earth;
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