Fractured Earth Saga 1: Apocalypse Orphan Read online

  Apocalypse Orphan

  Book One of The Fractured Earth Saga

  by Tim Allen

  Apocalypse Orphan

  Book One of The Fractured Earth Saga

  Copyright © 2016 by Tim Allen

  First Edition: January, 2016

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or using any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except for brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialog in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any individuals depicted in stock imagery are models, and such images are used for illustrative purposes or as design elements only.

  The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

  Cover photo credit: Fotolia

  Cover design: Tim Allen

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  Published simultaneously in Canada and the United States

  The Warrior of Legend has arrived...

  Trulane stared at Wolf with fear and awe. After a long silence, he said, “A legend has been told for many generations throughout the lands. Long ago, we had one moon in the sky, and the blue moon was not there. Then a blazing star came from the heavens and the world was made anew. According to the legend, a traveler will come from the sky in a flying chariot that talks but has no tongue. He will be a giant among men. He will be immortal, and no blade, poison, or claw will mark his skin. Men will follow the traveler as he leads our people to victory over all the kingdoms. When the world is under his dominion, he will lead a chosen few to the stars.”

  Wolf said to the young man, “That’s a fascinating myth, but I am not that man. Look…” He pulled out his Bowie knife and sliced it across his hand to show he could bleed. Gazing at his hand in stunned silence, he saw no blood, no cut, not even a scratch. He jabbed the knife into the palm of his hand, but it deflected harmlessly and left no mark.

  “I…I don’t believe it,” Wolf stammered. “What has happened to me?”

  Trulane’s face broke into a broad smile. “You are the Spirit Warrior of the legend!” he exclaimed. “You have come at last to lead our people to freedom and victory.”

  “No, I am just a man. Please say nothing about this to anyone,” Wolf pleaded. “I know you are excited, but trust me. This can’t get out until I have time to adjust. Promise me, Trulane, as my new friend.” Wolf had a strange, sinking feeling that gave him a chill, and his whole body shuddered.

  About the Author

  Tim Allen is a 28-year veteran fire captain for the Peoria (Illinois) Fire Department. His writing career began the day he responded to a structure fire. Tim and a fellow firefighter were nearly cooked in the inferno, and his supervisor told him to write a report on the incident. He was so upset by the experience that he left out details and wrote a brief summary that glossed over the terror of that moment. His supervisor felt that Tim's report wasn't detailed enough and ordered him to write a more descriptive fire report.

  In the rewrite, Tim gave a highly descriptive narrative of the event. He titled it Faraday Street and included vivid details about what he had seen and felt during those two minutes of hell. His boss stated that this report contained too much detail, and it earned Tim a reprimand with the most severe punishment possible: an insubordination charge and a day off without pay.

  Over the next few months, word of Tim's Farraday Street narrative got around, and the incident flared into controversy. Eventually, the report began circulating among his fellow firefighters, and when several co-workers wanted to read more of his stories, he began writing in earnest. Today, Tim devotes most of his free time to writing, while teaching courses on Hazardous Materials Response, Confined Space, Rope Rescue, and Structural Collapse to firefighters and local businesses.

  Tim is currently writing a murder mystery entitled Tethered, but his primary love is science fiction. He has nearly a dozen sci-fi novels in development that run the gamut from planetary colonization and aliens to time travel. He also writes horror stories based on well-documented crime reports and true stories.

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to thank all my friends for coming over and listening to me drone on about my books. They were kind enough to laugh when necessary and show amazement when asked. I would also like to thank my editor Richard De A’Morelli for his edits, critiques, suggestions, and straightforward criticism. He has taught me so much in the last few months, and I consider him a very good friend. My brother Jimmy, who keeps reading my books, also gets special thanks. I must also mention my son Tim and my daughters Alexandria and Victoria. Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Martha Patricia Allen, for giving me the love and support I needed to finish this book. I love you all.

  —Tim Allen

  Contents

  Title Page

  The Warrior of Legend has arrived...

  Part 1 Nomad Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Part 2 The New World Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Part 3 Super Human Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Part 4 The Silver Knight Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Part 5 Love’s Triangle Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Coming Soon: Syns of an Iron Wolf

  Through space and time my path has led,

  Across infinite miles I have sped,

  No planet has beckoned to become my home

  Forever wandering, I remain alone.

  I’ve never stopped to wipe my feet,

  I’ve never found that life so sweet,

  But through the eons I have seen

  What finally belonging can mean.

  No longer traveling to and fro

  To far out places no one knows,

  I’ve seen the faces changed by time

  And mystic wonders that warp my mind.

  Now I have returned to see you again,

  Meet me smiling as a friend.

  For I may threaten your world’s sky,

  Or I might quietly sail on by,

  To travel deeper into the black,

  But mark my words…I will be back.

  -Commander Orlando Iron Wolf

  Part 1

  Nomad

  Chapter 1

  January 31, 2025

  The early morning light was brilliant, illuminating the heavens in a way most humans have never seen. The sky, devoid of an atmosphere, yielded a vision that was so clear it seemed it could shatter like fragile glass. In this crystal-like moment, Commander Orland
o Iron Wolf was hovering 255 miles over the earth on the International Space Station. He had been assigned to the ISS by NASA to oversee a team of research scientists working on various assignments.

  Wolf peered out the thick window as he finished his shift. The final orbits of the day were about to be completed. This day had started just like all the others. The current crew consisted of two botanists, two physicists, one biologist, and Wolf floating through the heavens, observing the planet Earth and doing mundane chores and experiments to keep themselves busy. The scientists had left Earth months ago from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) capsule. The rocket belonged to a private company, and NASA leased it to deliver new workers and supplies to the station. NASA had found it was cheaper to let someone else do the dirty work of moving people from Earth to the station—no ships, no maintenance, no fuel. Most of the expenses had been reduced by half, allowing for other project funding and making many NASA scientists exceedingly happy.

  A few weeks earlier, the crew had been scanning an area in deep space near the red hypergiant VY Canis Majoris, which had already ejected half its mass and was surrounded by a reddish-orange nebula cloud. Against this bright background, a small shadow—a pinhole in the nebula’s light—had drawn the crew’s attention. The discovery had been placed on the back burner until yesterday when Wolf gazed through one of the ISS telescopes and noticed that the “pinhole” was larger and seemed to be growing. He fed the readings into the computers, and the instruments confirmed what appeared to be a large comet or asteroid moving at a high rate of speed towards the earth’s solar system. He peered through the optical telescope and adjusted the filters to block some of the light from the hypergiant’s glow. There it was. He looked away and then back over the same area. The anomaly was still there. It seemed remarkable to him that something so far away could be viewed with such a low-powered telescope, and he reasoned that it must be enormous. Tapping the communications module, he said, “Wolf to Command, do you read me?”

  A bored, male voice came over the radio. “Yes, Wolf, we read you.”

  “I want you to look at grid fifteen. Look closely at VY Canis Majoris. There’s a pinpoint of a shadow on its lower hemisphere in the nebula cloud. It’s the anomaly I reported two weeks ago. I’ve been monitoring it. It’s growing larger and has moved from the spot where I first detected it. I’ve fed all my current readings into the mainframe, but the computers up here have gone crazy, and warning lights are going off every few minutes. Can we have them turn the Hubble?”

  “Turn the Hubble?” A long pause, then: “That’s a little extreme, don’t you think, Wolf?”

  “I’m telling you, something is out there, and it’s getting bigger and brighter.”

  “Oooh, little green men coming to get you…you got a gun in space?” laughed Charlie Richards, NASA’s current mission director.

  “Charlie, I’m serious. Have someone turn the Hubble or get the WISE explorer, Kepler, or the New Horizons to scan the area. We need to move those expensive pieces of shit into that sector to see this thing because whatever it is, it’s coming fast.” Wolf said with a sense of foreboding, not realizing that moving the satellites was harder than just flipping a switch.

  “Okay, okay, I’ll get someone on it. The astrobiologist we assigned to look into it went on maternity leave three days after you reported it. We only have the one scientist right now, thanks to budget cuts. That’s probably why it fell through the cracks. In the meantime, upload your data to Cap Com.”

  “You better hurry. I’ve got a very bad feeling about this,” Wolf muttered, reaching inside the collar of his flight suit and pulling at a leather necklace. It was connected to a small medicine bag that had been passed down through his family for generations. Made from buffalo hide and decorated with a wolf’s head in white beads, it contained his “power items,” including bits of rock, bones, herbs, and claws. He uploaded the data and then gazed pensively at the blinking lights on the computer.

  Two hours later, Wolf was still sitting at the computer, reminiscing about how he had become a NASA astronaut. He had been top of his class at the reservation, which was not saying much. He went to college for free on American Indian scholarships and excelled in linguistics. Able to learn languages with ease, he astounded his linguistics professors, who passed him around from one to another like a coveted book. His downfall was engineering and mechanical design. He just couldn’t remember the technical jargon and mathematical formulas; but he managed to squeak by and finish college. During his final year in school, he helped design a lunar rover that won NASA’s “Great Moon Buggy Race” and put him on NASA’s recruitment radar. A few months after graduation, he was approached by an Air Force recruiter and persuaded to join.

  Standing six foot five and built like a Greek statue, Wolf was of Native American descent. His skin was a rich, copper color, and his eyes were light hazel. His black hair was long, well past regulation length. Deep dimples and straight white teeth added to his masculinity. Yet, he was unaware of how his good looks affected the opposite sex. Women threw themselves at him, but Wolf remained oblivious, which only added to his naïve charisma.

  Wolf piloted jets in every minor skirmish America had during his tour of duty. He was highly decorated, and he had received the Air Force Medal of Honor during his last tour. He was debating whether to continue his military career when a NASA recruiter approached him and asked if he’d ever considered becoming an astronaut. The recruiter’s name was Charlie Richards, and he was very persuasive. Wolf and Charlie became instant friends, so when Charlie offered him the job, Wolf couldn’t refuse. After several years of intensive training, he became one of NASA’s most respected astronauts. He was no rocket scientist—he could handle mechanical problems, but astrophysics and all the other learning just wouldn’t stick. Everyone liked Wolf, and his high moral values, loyalty, personality, good looks, and single-minded dedication to duty made him someone people went out of their way to help.

  Charlie came back on the radio, sounding alarmed. “Wolf. This is Cap Com. Do you read?”

  “Yes, I read you.” Wolf moved to a computer panel and used one of the many cameras to look in the direction of the mysterious object. “What do you have?”

  “You won’t believe this, but a large comet has come out of its heliocentric orbit. It’s an unknown rogue. History does not mention it anywhere.”

  Wolf searched his memory but came up blank and asked, “A helia-what orbit?”

  “Heliocentric…an orbit around the sun. How the hell did you get out there?” Charlie laughed. “Oh, never mind, I put you there. Almost everything in space is in a heliocentric orbit.”

  “So what’s the deal—anything we need to be worried about?”

  “We’re running simulations right now. Early predictions on the Torino scale suggest it’s a seven; we’re calculating its mass now. It’s on a hyperbolic trajectory with Earth. It might use us to slingshot back out into space. At least, that is what we’re hoping. This comet’s speed is incredible. We think it’s a longer-period comet that may have originated in the Oort cloud. This one is unique, though, because we’ve never seen anything that moves this fast before. Wolf, we want you to tow the WISE further out into space. Take the shuttle that’s docked to the ISS.”

  “That thing’s a piece of shit,” Wolf protested. “It’s been sitting up here for months. Hell, it's so beaten up it can’t even land back on Earth.”

  “Yes, but you are not landing back on Earth. We’ve prepped the ship so you can tow the satellite to its new coordinates. It will be a ten-day mission. The satellite can’t take itself where we want it, so it’s up to you,” Charlie said.

  “I don’t have a co-pilot. It’s against protocol for me to fly solo that long,” Wolf replied.

  “The solo mission has been approved, Wolf. It’s a priority one mission that we have to launch ASAP.”

  “All right, send me the coordinates and I’ll be gone in
the next few hours,” Wolf agreed reluctantly

  “The coordinates have already been fed into the computer, and you’ll leave in the next thirty minutes. This is urgent, Wolf. We’ll let you know as soon as we get the final data. Cap Com out.”

  Wolf looked out into space and tried to visualize the comet, wondering where it had been all these years. What incredible wonders had it seen as it drifted on its lonely journey through time and space? He flipped a switch and announced, “All personnel…this is a priority one alert. Report to the mess area immediately.” Wolf turned off the mic and headed off to the kitchen area to update his colleagues on what soon would take precedence in all of their lives.

  The ISS crew assembled in the kitchen, grabbing snacks. The researchers on board were all from different backgrounds. Ron White was the most educated and next in command.

  “I have news from NASA,” Wolf said. “We’ve found a comet. That is nothing unusual, but this one is coming fast. It’s a rogue from the Oat Cloud.”

  “Oort, Commander,” Ron White corrected with a faint smile. “It’s the Oort Cloud, not the oat cloud. How did you get up here?”

  “Whatever. Oat, Oort … anyway, it’s a seven on the Totino scale. It could hit the earth.”

  Ron laughed. “Torino scale, not Totino scale. Wow! My friend, did you pay any attention in school?”

  Wolf ignored him and continued. “NASA is moving the Hubble into position, and some other telescopes and satellites are studying it. Until we get more info, I want all your efforts focused on this comet. All research on your pet projects is to stop, and the new word of the day will be trajectory. Even though NASA is turning the Hubble and using the other satellites, I want any additional information you can gather. I’m taking the Endeavour out to reposition the WISE satellite. I’ll be gone for ten days. Ron will be in charge here.”