SPACE & TIME ADVENTURE: Book 2 of the Riley TrilogySpoiler alert - but not much of one - Gorlack eats a tasty Federal Agent.
What would you do with a lifespan of more than ten thousand years?
In this sequel, Riley's life continues, from the near to very far future, from the sub-arctic Yukon where she wants to lead a solitary and rustic life to forget, to a place that may not be in space or time.
CHAPTER 1 - Earth Year 2252
Humans are getting closer. It won't be long before they send out more than a few unmanned probes beyond the heliosphere. It's time to move the station.
Michael? Have you figured out how to move that heap a bit further out?
Sorry, Riley. I can't find a workaround for the hard-code locks. I've tried everything.
So, are we going to let the station sit there until it's discovered and boarded, or are we going to have to turn it into dust? You know what would happen if they found it.
There is one solution. We've talked about it before.
I know. But leaving the galaxy is not what I would call a walk in the park. It scares me a bit to go so far away from home.
When was the last time you were aboard Freedom, other than to climb into the Auto-doc?
You know very well that it's been five years since I took him out. It was my last trip out there.
Well, you might not want to go into the cold dark, but I'm going to have to move soon, and I can't do that without a ride. You're going to have to come get me.
Eighty years ago - it doesn't feel that long ago - I lost everything that mattered to me during the brief tit-for-tat nuclear exchange. In 2171 the Chinese launched a limited strike to warn off anyone who might choose to interfere with their invasion of Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. When the strike killed my family and friends, I'd been aboard my ship Freedom to retrieve a data-cube from the space platform. The only thing that kept me from returning to Earth as an avenging angel was Michael, my AI friend. He put Freedom in lockdown in the flight bay, preventing me from laying waste to the Chinese. I didn't want my pound of flesh as retribution; I wanted tons of it.
My new home is near Dawson City in the Yukon Territory, about a twelve-hour drive across the border from Anchorage Alaska. The wild isolation was my solace. I thought relocating to the subarctic from a tropical island would provide some psychological distance, relocation and a river of alcohol. Other than Michael being in my head via Q-com, my wolf-husky hybrids, Jasper and Jinks have been my only live-in companions for almost eighty years-my only long-term friends. Normal humans die too quickly.
I'm going to retrieve Michael, but I haven't told him yet. I need another two weeks to finish my caribou hunt and to pack in supplies for winter, even though it's only early September, I don't know how long I'll be gone. I've got an ice air-boat that can navigate the river after it's frozen over solid in mid-December when the ferry stops running, but grocery shopping is not my favorite chore during the frozen months. Hunting is out of the question then too, unless you want to eat arctic fox.
It doesn't officially become winter for a while, but my cold weather pack is in the back of my ATV, along with some meaty snacks for my hunting party. Sometimes we chew on the same dried, salted strips. I always take mine first to remind them who's boss. A well-defined pack order is essential for dogs, every dog needs a job. It's in their nature to think that way; a dog without a job becomes depressed and despondent. Our destination is twenty kilometers away, but still on my property. We'll set up camp and trek out to the overlook in the morning.
