Halt.
No, wait.
Why do I even bother?
There are no laws here. None that you're willing to follow, and none that I care to enforce anymore.
All I ask is that you won't be an asshole, okay?
Respect each other. Look out for the people around you, and if anyone is unwittingly headed in a direction that will inevitably end in dismemberment, maiming, or death, let them know, maybe?
There aren't many of us left in this universe, so it helps to know we have each other's backs.
Be kind to one another.
If you're wondering how we got here—it's a long story.
The ones who share our histories reminisce about the days on Earth before the Invaders destroyed it all. There are so few who remember the planet as it was. Twenty-four years after the Invaders descended, Captain Janika Lorn surfaced from the underground bunker city — the unfortunate hodgepodge of junk and scrap metal built to hide and house the remaining population who struggled to survive. She emerged with other military operators from the United Regions of Earth (URE) to protect those who rummaged through the scraps to find salvage for our dying society.
Protecting the people on the Topside was dangerous work, but Captain Lorn preferred it to the reproductive requirements her government foisted on her when she returned below the surface.
Despite her best friend, Captain Dean Freyer, being her partner under the suffocating scrutiny of the Human Hope Project (HHP), Janika Lorn did everything in her limited power to evade the pressure of her responsibilities to procreate. Instead, her hopes were set on becoming a member of an elite special weapons testing program to buy her time.
After a major head injury during what should have been a routine protection detail, Dean worried Janika hadn't healed and, as her contracted partner, went over her head to request she be overlooked for the program. Infuriated by his actions, their friendship crumbled despite the continuous Topside threats and the ever-present HHP timer ticking against them.
When they were both invited to participate in a top-secret project to relocate the citizens of the URE to a new, habitable exoplanet four hundred lightyears away within a caravan of ten Alien Relocation Carriers (ARCs), they had to, most literally, come together, to get the HHP's expectations out of the way. Despite three attempts, even a strange, experimental treatment they were forced to undergo, Janika was set free and Dean was reassigned to a new partner.
Only then did Janika realize the love they had was what helped them both through their most daunting challenges. They began a secret affair around Dean's new assignment.
As they prepared to launch to relocate the last remaining humans, Janika found herself pregnant with another man's child after a night of hopelessness and recklessness. An illegal pregnancy was unheard of in the URE, so with the help of the curmudgeon medic, Knuckles, she kept her pregnancy hidden through their launch off the planet and into the stars despite the immense danger of their almost-botched evacuation.
Aboard ARC10, Janika was utterly alone. Lieutenant General Hayomo, her military's commanding officer, was supposed to be her partner on their vessel but was nowhere to be found.
Problems arose daily. The host aliens, the Xani, terrorized Janika daily, stalking her through the halls and tapping over her head like they existed in an ever-present nightmare. Along with the unwieldy drug problem that sprung up just as they were departing Earth, an overfull prison stuffed with drugged out citizens and the lurking Xani stabbing unsuspecting civilians, Janika lost control over the ship.
Her sister, Moyra, who was presumed dead, was finally able to disclose recently de-classified information about her actions leading up to her departure from Earth, but her answers create more questions. Isolated, frustrated, scared, and hormonal, Janika reached her breaking point. After a disastrous night at a planet fueling station, she pulled her weapon on another alien and instigated a bar brawl that exposed her pregnancy. The only protection she had was the hostile Xani host on ARC10 who had haunted her since they left Earth. She was thrown into an alien prison to atone for her crimes. After her reprimand, a new bond formed between her and the Xani, who she named John. The mission took a slightly positive turn until she began hearing whispers of mutiny.
A group of disgruntled passengers attempted to overthrow Janika and her team. Led by Dean's father, they pointed their makeshift weapons at Janika before being interrupted by a pirate ship boarding ARC10. The pirates easily captured all the people and forced them to disembark ARC10. Janika woke to find herself in a strange room, separated from her people, where monstrous creatures cut her open and stole the baby from inside her. She regained consciousness later to realize she was returned to the people of Earth, but without her baby. She was trapped in a vessel and about to be divided off into the galaxy as meat. Desperate to save the people and be reunited with her child, she planned an escape, which coincided with a botched rescue mission from another group of Earthen in space from the HMS Valediction. She met Captain Shin-Hyun Moon and agreed to board his ship and serve under him if he would help her get her people to safety.
Once ARC10 was back on course, Janika honored her agreement and returned with Captain Moon. She met his crew of abducted Earthen misfits, where they trained her to compete in an intergalactic game under the promise of finding her child if she agreed to win for them. When they lost, Janika was forced to leave with the victor as his prize. Being hell-bent on finding her child, she escaped his clutches and cursed Captain Moon for abandoning her, but he was right behind her the whole time, trusting her to find a way to escape. Aboard the HMS Valediction again, there were few rules--something she wasn't used to. Slowly, she began enjoying the laid-back life despite the infuriating scrutiny of her new captain. She found solace in the company of his first mate, Nuna Kinawah, a beautiful, tactical woman who oozed wisdom. But as her feelings for Nuna grew, she couldn't let go of her love for Dean. She had promised to wait for him.Moon, though a pain in the ass, kept his promise. Janika discovered that her child was in the care of a larger-than-life dictator, Juno, who controlled a floating fortress called the Olympi.
With the secret to creating gold from minerals found around the galaxy, Juno had created a monopoly on the mineral that Moon had stolen for the HMS Valediction to replicate. Janika didn't care about the petty battles between the two Earthen ships. All she knew was that Juno had her baby and she would do anything to get him back. She learned about Moon's history with Juno as the victim of her love and attention—how all of the monstrous transplants on his body were enhancements from alien species to become the perfect partner for her, but it was never enough. His hate for her was only as deep and as immense as his love. It wasn't until she boarded the Olympi and discovered that Dean and Hayomo had been on the ship did she realize that deceit was running deep within the URE and the mission to the new planet. Heartbroken, she formulated a plan with Moon and Nuna to take back her baby, stop the ARCs from making an enormous mistake, and commandeer the Olympi.
With the help of Janika's tactical special operations team, the VIPERs aboard ARC10, and the soldiers aboard ARC4, they broke in and battled for control of the Olympi. Just as Juno realized she was defeated, she escaped with Janika's child in her arms. At the same time their escape pod launched, a blast hit ARC10, destroying it. A piece of stray metal smashed against the pod holding Juno and the infant. Moon, unable to die due to his transplants, went into space to retrieve them. He returned with Janika's child.
After the people were liberated from Juno's oppressive rule, the refugees who evacuated ARCs 10 and 4, found a home aboard the Olympi. They turned to Janika for leadership, but she relinquished her position and returned with Moon and Nuna to the HMS Valediction. Her only goal from that point on was to provide a good life for her son.
Five years later, almost exactly when the ARCs should have been approaching their final destination, Janika received an SOS from Dean. In all the time away, she had never been able to turn off her feelings for him. She jumped into the pilot seat of her ship and, just as she was about to fly off to entangle herself in the ARC's drama again, Moon's grudging friendship forced him to attend the journey.
Now that you remember the history, are you ready to join them again?
YOU ARE READING
Starhold Vesta
Science Fiction[Book 3 of the ARC10 Trilogy] It has been five Earth years since the ten Alien Relocation Carriers (ARCs) abandoned their destroyed home planet. According to the plan, they should be approaching their final destination-the exoplanet NOHA. But Janika...
