Space Cadets
by Laurence Moroney
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GENRE: YA Sci-Fi
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BLURB:
After
conflicts in Korea, Pakistan and the Middle East turned nuclear, the world
stood on the eve of destruction. Realizing that we only have this one precious
planet containing all of humanity, the United Nations pulled us back from the
brink, and started a new, multinational effort to conquer space. Many years
later, the peak of achievement for any young person is to be admitted to the
Space Academy. Previously available only to a precious few, it has recently
opened enrollment to anybody who can meet their strenuous entry criteria. Space
Cadets is the story of the first African-American girl, Aisha Parks, to enter
into the academy, where she learns that the more some things change, the more
they stay the same, and despite the honorable intentions of the academy, there
are some dark secrets being kept – secrets that could be the end of us all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt:
Training
It never failed to give her a thrill when she saw the
moonscape rush by underneath her ship, and the blue curve of Earth rise above
it. Aisha smiled at its beauty.
Down there, girls her age were wondering about homecoming
dances, and what dress they’d wear, or which boy would ask them out. She was
much happier here, piloting her ship, zipping at breakneck speeds across the
Moon, and getting ready to break into deep space.
“I think I see them,” said David, her navigator and co-pilot,
sitting in one of the wing pods to her right. “Two-seven-zero karem
one-nine-eight.”
“Confirmed,” came the clipped voice of Soo-Kyung, her
gunner. Aisha glanced to the pod on her left and her eyes met Soo-Kyung’s. The
Korean girl smiled and nodded.
Aisha always wanted a visual confirmation. Comm lines could
be hacked and voices faked. Soo-Kyung knew this instinctively. That’s what made
them a great team.
“Okay,” said Aisha. “Weapons hot. Let’s check them out.”
She punched in the coordinates, and the ship turned towards
their target.
“Visual range in five seconds,” said David.
“I see them,” Aisha replied. Her heads up display started to
light up with targets. Squares projected on her canopy, wrapping tiny dots that
could easily be mistaken for stars to the naked eye.
“That’s a lot of ships,” she said, awe sneaking into her
voice.
“That’s a bloody awful lot of ships,” said David.
Soo-Kyung was business as always. “Orders?”
“Can you confirm ship type?”
“They are mostly type-three fighters. About eighty of them.”
“What else?”
“A single mothership. That’s the target.”
“No other fighters?”
“A couple of type-ones, but hard to tell with all the
movement.”
The fighters were moving around the mothership, following
what looked like random patterns, making it hard to get a radar lock.
“Are they moving to intercept?”
“No, sir.”
“David, probe the edge of their defense shield.”
His gentle voice sounded in her earpiece. “Yes, Sir.”
David took the ship forward slowly, while Soo-Kyung watched
the behavior of the enemy fighters. They knew from experience that these ships
could turn from defense to offense in the blink of an eye. If they didn’t
react, they could find themselves surrounded and destroyed in seconds.
“We are at the edge of previous attack ranges,” said
Soo-Kyung. “Recommend that we hold at this position.”
“Do it.”
The ship halted, and they floated in space, watching the
enemy.
“Any update on ship types, David?”
“The best I got is maybe two or three type-ones, the rest
are definitely type-three.”
She wished she had read the spec books more closely, but was
glad David was there. “Turning radius of type-threes?”
“Two hundred degrees,” he answered, almost in reflex.
“Distance of fighters from the mothership?”
“Average about three hundred clicks.”
Soo-Kyung raised an eyebrow. “Are you thinking what I’m
thinking?”
“Yes,” said Aisha. “Full frontal assault, all shields on
front.”
“If we leave our back exposed--”
“Hopefully they won’t get a chance. Maximum throttle,
straight at the mothership, direct all energy to front shields.”
“Including lasers?”
“Including lasers. We’re on bullets and torpedoes. Can you
do it?”
She heard the smile in Soo-Kyung’s voice. “Done.”
“Good. And fire at will.”
“Roger.”
“David. Punch course in.”
“Course, aye.”
“Manual control to me.”
“Roger.”
“Here goes nothing!”
Aisha punched the program, and she felt the craft lurch as
they accelerated forward. She continued its burn, getting faster and faster as
they approached the enemy ships.
“Ships turning to intercept.”
“Acknowledged.”
She saw the enemy ships swarming to intercept. Suddenly
their random patterns stopped, and they turned, almost as one, bearing down on
her. They opened fire, but the forward shields held.
“Intercept in five seconds,” said Soo-Kyung. Aisha marveled
at her ability to stay calm, and it seemed the more stressful the situation,
the calmer she was.
And just like that they flew through the squadrons of enemy
fighters, on a course straight for the mothership.
“They’re turning to intercept.”
Time seemed to slow down in her mind. The mothership
approached weapons range at a painful crawl. The enemy fighters, now behind
her, were slowly turning to follow them, with a clear shot at Aisha’s tail.
She’d turned off their lasers, directing their energy to the shields, so they’d
need to be close for ballistic weapons to be effective.
It was going to be tight. Once the enemy fighters had turned
around, the back of Aisha’s fighter was exposed. The lead ones had almost
turned, and were ready to open fire.
But then Soo-Kyung had her target locked and opened up with
everything she had on the mothership. Direct hits, but the ship stayed intact.
A hit on their right wing made the ship lurch.
“Now would be a good time, Soo-Kyung.”
Aisha looked to her left, seeing her friends’ face deep in
concentration. Another torpedo launched, hitting a module to the rear of the
mothership's bridge. A small explosion was followed by several large ones, but
before the ship was destroyed, Aisha’s ship was hit again. This time right in
the engines.
Aisha felt her ship lurch. Red lights all over her console.
The reactor had taken a direct hit. It was about to go critical. Her heart was
beating hard. She reached for the eject buttons, hesitating long enough to see the
mothership go up in a ball of flame.
The moment’s hesitation was enough.She felt the ship lurch
as the reactor gave out. Her mind slowed as the white flash enveloped them. She
had enough time to realize, with resignation, that she was dead. Both co-pilots
too.
The simulator door opened, and Captain Simms’ craggy face
looked in at her.
“You’re dead. All of you. Again,” he said. Disapproval in
his voice. “I thought you guys were better than that.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Laurence
Moroney is the author of more books than he’s prepared to admit. After several
best selling programming books, his first Young Adult novel “The Fourth World”
became a #1 book on Amazon Kindle, spawned two sequels “The Million Year
Journey” and “The Legend of the Locust”, and is currently being shopped around
studios for a potential movie. “Space Cadets” is his latest, a cutting edge
science fiction novel, based on real science that starts a new series charting
out humanity’s course to the stars. He’s presently working on the sequel “The
Quiet World”, which he hopes to finish in 2015. For his day job, Laurence works
as a Developer Advocate for Google, where he is constantly counting his
blessings for being part of the best workplace in the world…
Find him here:
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GIVEAWAY
Laurence will be awarding a signed copy
of Space Cadets to a randomly drawn winner (US ONLY) via rafflecopter during
the tour.
