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ANTARES DAWN

A Novel By

Michael McCollum


Sci Fi - Arizona, Inc.

Third Millennium Publishing

A Cooperative of Online Writers and Resources




CHAPTER 1

The landing boat fell in a nose-high/belly-down attitude toward the blue-white orb of the
planet below. Outside the hull, the first whisper breaths of the hypersonic wind tugged at the
boat’s wings and control surfaces, causing them to be bathed in a nearly invisible envelope
of plasma glow. Inside the hull, the keening of the wind was more sensed than heard, and
the first gentle tugs of deceleration were but a foretaste of the pressure soon to come.
Captain-Lieutenant Richard Drake, commanding officer of the Altan Space Navy CruiserDiscovery , the
landing boat’s sole passenger, lay strapped into an acceleration couch and gazed out the viewport next to
him. Drake was of medium height, with a slender build, black hair, and the faded tan of an outdoorsman
who has spent the last eight months in space. He was thirty-five, but looked younger. His hair, which he
wore in the close cropped style of a military spacer, showed a touch of gray around the edges. His eyes
were green, and widely spaced above a broad nose and high cheekbones. A whitish scar ran diagonally
across one of his eyebrows - the result of a collision during a secondary school athletic contest.

Drake’s expression was pensive as he gazed at the plasma flow building up on the leading edge of the
landing boat’s wing. In his pocket was a message flimsy that ordered him to report to the Admiralty
Building in the Altan capital of Homeport immediately. The message was stampedMostSecret and signed
by First Admiral Dardan himself.

“What have we done to deserve this high honor?” Commander Bela Marston, Drake’s
second-in-command, had asked when Drake showed him the order aboardDiscovery .

“You don’t suppose he’s found out about those extra field coils we requisitioned the last time we were
undergoing maintenance at Felicity Base, do you?” Drake asked, only half in jest.

Marston shook his head. “No reason to worry there, Skipper. Those old coils should have been junked
ten years ago.”

“That won’t save us if Dardan thinks he’s going to have to go back to Parliament for a supplemental
appropriation this year.”

“Good point,” Marston said. “Shall I have your yeoman lay out your armor-plated underwear?”
Drake had nodded, laughing. “Not a bad idea. I might need them.”