Birdie Down
by
Jim Graham
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Copyright Jim Graham 2012
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Published by GRAHAM, James Stephen
ISBN 978-988-15753-2-6
Cover image: Cathy Helms, Avalon Graphics
https://www.avalongraphics.org
Other Stories by Jim Graham
Scat
Army of Souls
What do readers have to say about Jim Graham’s novels?
“the story had me turning pages as fast as I could and I was sad when it ended”
“high adventure of the best kind”
“perfect for lovers of gritty sci-fi and fans of space opera will love it”
“if you like SF this is a fantastic read. Great Pace and a wonderful story line”
“back in the day, I could easily see this as having been one half of an old Ace double”
“Scat is a big, intelligent, interesting novel. If you enjoy hard gritty sf with plenty of well-handled dialogue, you will not go far wrong with this one”
“a very enjoyable, intelligently written novel that keeps you wanting more
“if you like SF jump on board it's a cool ride”
“a smooth and well-crafted bit of storytelling”
To my Dad, Kenneth.
Thank you for the compass.
Often on the wrong road, but never lost.
Introduction
Birdie Down is the first book in the Rebellion series, and takes place in the same universe as my first novel, Scat (and fits right in at around chapter 100).
Birdie Down is a single episode of the New Worlds’ rebellion, a rebellion that opens and then quickly closes in Scat before moving onto a much, much bigger story. Readers of my first novel may recognise the first few chapters in this book: they are amended extracts from Scat, included here to help set the scene for Birdie’s mission on Constitution.
Birdie Down is a free book. I hope you enjoy it.
Finally, thank you for downloading this story.
Jim Graham
Contents
Prologue
Part One: I’m Losing You
Part Two: Stand by Me
Part Three: You’ll Never Walk alone
Epilogue
More stories by Jim Graham
About the Author
Prologue
2210
Trevon Space
The rebel shuttle flew low and level across the wide open, snow-covered Gap Plain, decelerating to Mach one as it made its final approach to Go Down City, its heat shield still faintly glowing red.
Andrew ‘Birdie’ Goosen and his two colleagues ignored the spaceport’s directions to land; instead they passed overhead, leaving a sonic boom in their wake. That set off a few alarm bells, but no immediate action. There were no Outer Rim Force interceptors to worry about, just a few civilian starflyers, and possibly the Lynthax frigate, which they believed was still orbiting Prebos a light year away.
The shuttle decelerated as it approached a hazy, ten kilometre-long strip of yellow light that cut across the Plain a few miles ahead. The deceleration was brutal, pushing all three rebels against their seat belts, squeezing chests tightly. Then they were overhead, looking down at a dull, misted glow. Through the city’s flat, snow-dusted environmental shield, they could just make out the avenues that snaked north and south, deep inside the rift.
‘There’s the building, Scat,’ Goosen said, pointing through the rad-hardened glass floor.
The passenger sitting next to him looked down but could not see much of anything through the rubber sole-scuffed glass. He looked back up at the heads-up display to get his bearings, and then back down again. Now it was visible, a few hundred metres away, the roof of its 120th floor pressed hard up against the shield.
In the back, Tillier Bing fiddled with the light-tug remote. He punched in its activation code and then touched the screen with a stylus to indicate its target. There was a whirring sound from behind them as the light-tug drew its ignition power from the shuttle’s engines.
Scat looked down at his graf. It was 3.09 am local time.
‘The place should be clear of people by now, Birdie. Move overhead. Let’s get this done.’
Bing’s remote beeped as the light-tug locked onto the Lynthax Centre. The light-tug began to hum and crackle, eager to discharge a lethal bolt.
‘One minute, Scat. We’re nearly at full power.’ Bing explained. It was a long 60 seconds. ‘Deploying now!’
The light-tug threw out a silent, deep blue-black energy beam. It hit the environmental shield and opened like a flower before striking downwards towards the street. Lightning bolts flickered and gripped at the Lynthax Centre like a vine.
‘OK. I’m ramping up the amps. Almost ready ...’ Bing said. ‘You can pull away any time, Birdie. It’s locked. It’ll stay locked.’
‘OK. We’ll leave,’ Goosen replied, anxious to be away. He pulled the shuttle’s nose up from a forward sloping hover and increased its thrust.
Below them, the air sizzled as brighter blue lances of energy exploded through windows, reached down corridors, and expanded out into a thousand offices. Goosen had a sense of the blue light expanding up to meet them.
‘Got it! It’s done,’ Bing said a little too loudly now the light-tug had fallen silent. ‘The whole place will be an electronic dead zone. Let’s go home!’
‘Not so fast guys,’ Scat cautioned. ‘Birdie, take her up, but let’s do a flyover to check the lights have gone out.’
They had. The entire column was in darkness. The environment shield looked like a dusty monitor that had lost some of its pixilation.
Scat smiled. That would be a hugely costly outage.
‘OK. We’re done. Let’s get back to the V4. We’ve 12 hours tops, and there’re still a whole lot of planets to screw with.’