First Chapter of Fractured Orbits

I'm still plugging away on Fractured Orbits, the first book in my new space opera trilogy (I'm actually working on all three books at once to make sure all my plot elements are tied up at the end). A while back I shared my first chapter (here), but I've rearrange things a bit since then. Below is the new and improved Chapter 1, let me know what you think.

Chapter 1

The girl with the liquorice coloured curls sat at a desk in the second row. She chewed on the end of her pencil, with her side teeth as her adult front teeth hadn’t grown in yet. Her 3D printed clothes marked her as a refugee from New Haven—someone who had fled when the bombs fell.

She shifted her datapad on her desk as the teacher brought up a hologram depicting a figure eight dotted with cyan points of light. The shimmering image extended until it filled the area above the students, forcing them all to tilt their chins up to see it.

“The loop is the reason our ancestors on the generation ships choose this system almost two-hundred and fifty years ago,” the teacher said pointing at the hologram. “Each cyan dot represents a wormhole, all together it’s a network connecting a series of solar systems.”

Molly pulled the pencil from her mouth and used it to scratch behind an ear. She frowned as she studied the loop of wormholes stretched through the air above her head.

“But there’s a catch.” The teacher pointed at the line joining the dots. “The network is one way. If you don’t get off at the system you want, you need to go all the way around.”

Molly put up her hand.

“Yes Molly,” said the teacher as he stopped in front of her desk.

Her brows pulled together before she spoke. “But what about the wormholes that don’t fall on the figure eight?”

“Good observation.” He strode back to the front of the class. “There are a few gates, that we know of, off the main loop. For example, Indigo Station and Rokan are both at the end of off-loop links.”

Molly nodded and resumed chewing her pencil.

“Is that the one?” Greer looked away from the video feed and at Major Zane.

Rock 13-A5’s head of security was build like a rock. Including a mono-brow and meaty hands. The woman was far from being refined—unlike his new boss General Swa.

“Molly Oswiu has displayed unexpected skills,” Zane said.

The woman sat way too close to him, but her office was tiny leaving no other option. Greer shuttered. He could even smell the coffee on her breath.

“You need to be more specific than that.” Greer studied the classroom. The colourful artwork plastered across the wall didn’t hide the fact that the room had been repurposed from an adult space. Children were never supposed to be on the Protectorate’s secret base—yet here they were.

“We’ve detected vibrations through the ground that originate from the girl’s quarters.” Zane said. “She’s also had a few disagreements with classmates that have resulted in objects being moved.”

Greer cocked his head. “What kind of objects?”

“Stationary, shoes, food. Nothing big. And no one has gotten hurt.”

“Have you sequenced her genetics?” Greer asked as he returned his attention to the feed.

Zane frowned. “Her mother has not authorized us to. We can’t just do that to a civilian, let alone to a child.”

Greer pursed his lips as he focused the video feed on the little girl. According to the files she had just turned seven—younger than he was hoping for. That could be a problem.

“The girl’s mother, tell me about her.”

“She was a professor of mathematics at New Haven university. After the bombing she was recruited to our cryptography department.”

“And the father?”

“He’s a soldier, currently deployed on Candy Cane Lane.”

“Hmm.” Candy Cane Lane was the last active battlefield in the Protectorate’s war against the Nadar Alliance. He zoomed the video tighter onto Molly.

The latest intelligence reports suggested the Nadar Alliance had figured out how to take people with abilities like Molly’s, that is, telekinetic tendencies, and turn them into super soldiers. Molly was the first person within the Protectorate who they’d found with even a hint of this kind of potential. Why did she have to be so young?

“Have you seen enough?” Zane’s gaze bored into him.

Greer looked away. After months of hunting, Molly Oswiu was the best human candidate he’d found to be the Protectorate’s first super soldier, he needed to overlook the fact she was a child. Push away his misgivings and focus on the task he’d been assigned—if he accomplished it the reward would be great.

“Anyone know how the gates work?” the teacher asked.

The little girl in the classroom raised her hand once again.

“Yes Molly?”

“A rock world holds each gates in it’s place. My mom says these worlds are extra heavy, she also says no one really knows how the system works or who built them.”

Greer turned off the video feed and turned to Zane. “I need to take her with me.”

The edges of Zane’s mouth pulled down. “Absolutely not, the Protectorate doesn’t kidnap children.”

“General Swa has ordered me to reproduce the work the Nadar Alliance is doing on supersoldiers.” Greer shifted in his seat under Zane’s gaze.

“Molly is too young to consent to that, and I’m certain her mother won’t on her daughter’s behalf.”

“It’s for the good of us all,” Greer said. “According to the intel reports, the Nadar Alliance already has dozens of super soldiers. If they attacked here, there wouldn’t be a thing you and your team could do to stop it. We need to defend ourselves.”

“The Rock is safe.” She leaned back and shifted the indigo fabric of her uniform. “Now get the hell out, and if I catch you going anywhere near that child, I’ll throw your ass in a cell.”

Greer stood and left the office without a word. Zane wasn’t going to help him get what he needed—the woman was more of a goon than strategic thinker. If he didn’t produce a super soldier for the Protectorate, General Swa would fire him—he couldn’t let that happen.

He strode through the hallways heading towards the tram station. The utilitarian grey corridors were mostly empty, giving him the space he needed to think. With the introduction of the GenEn protocols shortly after humans arrived in the area, no one was openly tweaking human genetics—yet Molly clearly had abilities beyond what a normal human could do, and the Nadar alliance had found dozens of others like her.

He arrived at the tram station and paused. Swa was going to expect him to have a plan. He took inventory of what he knew.

Millions of humans passed through the gate systems each year—yet no one understood how the wormholes worked. On the surface, the radiation inside the gates appeared harmless to humans, yet mutations had been observed in both plants and insects after passing through. If only their ancestors had through to bring higher animals with them when they left Earth, then he’d have better lab animals.

As the tram rolled into the station, his thoughts went to subject 33. He licked his lips, that specimen would be in his possession soon. Then there was the writing found carved into walls in caves on the anchor worlds. Most likely, the gate makers had written those words, there had to be something there he could use—if only he could read them. Everything had to be related, he was sure of it.

But without Molly Oswiu, his project would never progress. How would he get her? Zane was right on one point, kidnapping a child was distasteful—he needed that little girl to show her true colours. Then for her safety and that of everyone on the Rock, she would be handed over to him, becoming subject 34.