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  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  SHIPMENT TO DAPHNIS

  First edition. December 6, 2019.

  Copyright © 2019 M J Dees.

  Written by M J Dees.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Shipment to Daphnis (Mastery of the Stars, #2)

  Still not ready to leave Sevan? | Read on for an extract of, ROCKET TO TRINCULO, the next book in the series...

  Find out what happens next | Get your copy now

  ALSO BY M J DEES | Living with Saci

  Living with the Headless Mule

  The Astonishing Anniversaries of James and David: Part One

  When The Well Runs Dry

  Fred & Leah

  COPYRIGHT | First published in 2019 by M J Dees | E-book first published in 2019 by M J Dees | Copyright M J Dees 2019

  CHAPTER 1: SUDDEN DESTRUCTION

  The Concession was a mining colony on a smallish planet on the edge of a system which itself was on the edges of the influence of the Republic which had brought peace to this part of the galaxy for as long as anyone could remember.

  Shuttles buzzed across the sky taking workers from their homes in the container stacks, to work in other container stacks. The concession had been one of the earliest and everything was now old and disintegrating.

  The concession would have shut down, in fact the Corporation had scheduled the entire planet for destruction but the president of the Republic stepped in and appointed a former worker whose ideas he had insisted would change everything for the better.

  Sevan sat at his desk in his chambers in the council building in the centre of the concession. It had all seemed so simple when President Man had appointed him the Chief Council Member and told him to appoint a new council. He had started by dividing the number of workers by the number of council positions which had given him the number of workers each council worker would need to represent. He then started to try to divide the concession into districts with that number of workers and each district would elect their representative.

  On paper, it had seemed simple, but since he had announced his plan groups had inundated him with requests from all over the concession to move from one district to another. The problem seemed to stem from individuals wanting to stand for election having support in a neighbouring district. Sevan wanted to remain unbiased and had refused all requests for boundary changes but the frequency of requests was getting his antennae in a twist.

  Despite his idealistic plan of a whole new council being born out of the choice of the workers, he had noticed that many of the candidates for the election had been members of the old council which had been appointed by the Corporation which ran the concession as a dictatorship before the Republic stepped in.

  There had also been controversy about whether only workers living in official container stacks should get a vote or whether the poorer workers who lived in unofficial self-built stacks called communities should also get a vote. Feelings were running high in the concession and a number of fights had broken out following disagreements about the election.

  Sevan had the help of Ay-ttho and Tori whom President Man had entrusted with the roles of heads of internal and external security. The president had left some Republic guards to ensure that the Corporation security forces did their job and only their job but the situation was tense.

  At least the occasional terrorist attacks from the resistance, which had blighted the concession when Barnes was in charge of the Corporation had seemed to have ended, but the atmosphere was charged and Sevan worried about the chances of the elections passing without incident.

  Ay-ttho and Tori had taken a detachment of Republic guards to a district called Hygiea where Corporation security forces had reported that tensions were running high. Sevan had scheduled the election for the next day and it was becoming difficult to keep a lid on tensions.

  An image in front of Sevan crackled into life and the amorphous gas that was President Man appeared. Sevan stood up.

  “Be seated, Sevan.” the president said. “I understand that you’ve been having a spot of bother in some of your districts but Ay-ttho has everything under control?”

  “She’s in Hygiea now, sir, with Tori and a detachment of guards.”

  “I will borrow her for a while. There is another concession on Daphnis which is going through a similar process to yours. I have promised them a shipment of arms, guards and machinery and Ay-ttho is the only individual I trust to get it there.”

  “But sir, with all due respect, we need her here. The election is tomorrow.”

  “I appreciate that Sevan, but you still have Tori and a detachment of Republic guards, more than enough to handle the locals. I need Ay-ttho to handle the Mastery of the Stars, it’s the fastest freighter in the system.”

  Sevan sighed. He knew it was no use arguing with the president of the Republic.

  “Yes sir.”

  “Good. I knew I had made the right decision when I appointed you, Sevan. Everything is waiting on the Tomorrow station. Make sure Ay-ttho gets up there by the next rotation.”

  “Yes sir.”

  The image flickered and then died. Seven pounded a fist on the desk.

  *

  Ay-ttho and Tori led the guards through the narrow streets of Hygiea. Ramshackle containers stretched up on either side, obscuring all but a few solar rays.

  She felt they were being watched from the shadows. There had been reports of disturbances but so far they had encountered nothing but silence and suspicious residents. Hygiea was one of the communities, the poorest sections of society had built, workers the concession had penalised for not meeting their targets or, more often than not, because their managers just didn’t like them.

  The predominant skin colour in Hygiea was dark blue while managers were lighter shades of green. To outsiders like Ay-ttho and Tori they all looked turquoise but to a concession worker, the differences, though subtle to others were obvious.

  Ay-ttho and Tori had both known similar discrimination on their own planet, where the skin colour was purple, but both had benefited from the prejudice by being on the red side of purple where many others on the blue side of purple did not have the same opportunities.

  She had a bad feeling about the day’s expedition. They were getting further and further into the community and yet there were still no signs of disturbance.

  “What do you think?” she asked Tori.

  “Very odd, he replied. He was not comfortable being this far away from their personnel carriers. “Do you think we should turn back?”

  “Not yet, let’s go a little further.”

  Ay-ttho waved the detachment forward. They were now deep into the heart of the community, surrounded by homemade containers. She realised that the streets were quiet, not just because they had been called to quell a disturbance they were yet to find, but because a community of this size should have more hustle and bustle on the street by virtue of the number of people who lived there.

  “You’re right.” she said to Tori. “It’s too quiet and there’s no sign of any disturbance. Let’s get back.”

  It was as she signalled for the detachment to turn around that it happened. She didn’t even hear the explosion. The next thing she knew, she was on the floor in an alleyway, trying to move her limbs. Everything seemed to be working, so she
sat up and looked for her weapon but couldn’t see it. She looked for Tori and the rest of the detachment. Containers were falling around them and many of them were on fire. Ay-ttho seemed to be separated from the others; it was very difficult to see because smoke and dust was combining to create a thick fog.

  “Tori.” she shouted, but the noise of collapsing structures drowned out her voice. She would have to get out of there before a container fell on her head so retreated into the alley and saw her weapon at the foot of a wall. She retrieved it just as a container fell, blocking the entrance to the alleyway. Now, her only way out would be to head further into the alley and hope that it was not a dead end.

  She tried her communications system to call for help but it didn’t appear to be functioning.

  She proceeded with care, everything behind her was in flames, ahead of her the alley narrowed even more until it ended with a wall blocking her path. The fire was spreading up the alley towards her. If there had been any residents in these containers, none seemed to making any attempt to escape.

  The wall was too high to jump. She looked around for anything to climb on but the alley was empty. Slinging her weapon over her shoulder, Ay-ttho began to scale the container nearest the wall, as she climbed the fire raced towards her. Small explosions within the containers ignited the surrounding containers which precipitated more small explosions.

  By the time she reached the top of the wall, the container she was climbing had caught fire. Ay-ttho looked over the other side, it was a long way to jump and she couldn’t see anything on which she could climb down. As she was deciding what to do, something inside the container exploded, blowing the side off which pushed Ay-ttho from the wall.

  She landed heavily but hadn’t broken anything. She thought with hindsight that she would have been better off just blowing a hole through the wall. Smoking debris was lying all around her. She picked herself up and realised she was on the edge of the community, which the workers had constructed alongside the wall, which the corporation may have built to keep them out, or in.

  Edging around the wall she could see that the whole community was on fire. Outside were the regulation concession built containers which were meant to be fire resistant. Inside the community, the residents had built the containers with whatever materials they had laid their hands on and the plumes of smoke rising above the flames were black and acrid.

  Ay-ttho tried her communicator again, but it still did not function. She assumed the blast must have damaged it. She hoped that Tori and the rest of the detachment had got out.

  By the time she reached the personnel carriers, Corporation services were on the scene and were attempting to extinguish the flames but it looked like fire had destroyed the whole community. Crowds were gathering, and these were the first workers Ay-ttho had seen since the suspicious residents they passed when they had first entered the area.

  She reached the location where they had entered the community just in time to see Tori and the guards emerge. Dust and soot covered them and were coughing.

  “Ay-ttho!” Tori shouted out when he saw her. “We thought we’d lost you.”

  “My communicator malfunctioned,” she said. “Is everyone okay?”

  “As unbelievable as it might sound, yes. We got everyone out. The first explosion seemed to come from within one of the containers.”

  “But where was everyone?”

  “We think this is one of the areas Sevan has designated for slum clearance. We think the residents had already been moved.”

  “But then why did we get the reports of a disturbance? The place was deserted.”

  “I know. It makes little sense. It was as if it was an ambush.”

  “But then who would do that?”

  “Come on, Ay-ttho, you know there is a long list of potential suspects. Former councillors, former community residents, members of the corporation still loyal to Barnes.”

  Ay-ttho had to admit Tori was right. As soon as they had accepted the president’s special appointment, they had also accepted a list of enemies.

  The crowd that had gathered was getting boisterous. Some were shouting at the Republic Guards, others were shouting at the Corporation services, still others were shouting at the shouters. Ay-ttho could sense the tensions rising.

  “Is your communicator working?” Ay-ttho asked Tori.

  “Yes?”

  “Tell Sevan what has happened and what is happening now. I don't think the guards will disperse this crowd easily. If we are not careful, we may have a riot on our hands.”

  No sooner had Ay-tyho finished speaking than the first rock was thrown. She felt the rush of air it created as it missed her.

  CHAPTER 2: RUSHING TOWARD HYGIEA

  Sevan’s private shuttle was waiting for him on the roof of the council building and as he travelled up in his private elevator it reminded him of Thertee, his old supervisor when Sevan had been an ordinary worker. Sevan hadn’t appreciated Thertee. In fact, he’d suspected that Thertee had been losing his marbles. Thertee had fallen to his death from the observation deck at the top of the council building and as Sevan walked across the rooftop platform to his awaiting shuttle, he wished Thertee was with him to offer some advice.

  So far, Sevan’s tenure as Chief Council Member hadn’t gone as he had expected. The population had embraced the prospect of elections with less enthusiasm and more argument. His attempts at trying to educate the masses about how Barnes had created them in a laboratory as practical slaves, that Barnes had intended to liquidate them all and destroy the planet and that the Giant Cup in the sky was a giant sphere, resulted in a variety of reactions. Some were angry at being told what to believe, some didn’t believe him, some didn’t care and some thought his stories were hilarious and the result of a deranged mind. That the president would leave someone in charge of the concession, who had lost their marbles only strengthened support for Barnes.

  Sevan seated himself in the shuttle. He thought his life had been a series of shuttles, each one more comfortable than the last. But while the seats on his shuttles were getting more comfortable, his life was not. The magnitude of his worries seemed to become greater and greater with every crisis. When he was an ordinary worker in his uncomfortable shuttle on the way to work, his greatest worry was the fear of being penalised for not meeting his targets but here he was, sitting in his luxurious private shuttle on his way to deal with a riot that had just broken out on the edge of a district that had been destroyed. His marbles ached at the magnitude of difference and where, as a worker, he had envied those who sat on the council, as the Chief Council Member he now envied the simple lives of those who only had to worry about not making their targets.

  It reminded him of another problem of his. One of his first decrees when he came to office was to ban some of the worst punitive measures supervisors used to employ when their workers did not meet their targets. As a result, productivity had nose-dived, and the Corporation was breathing all over his antennae to do something about it. Barnes had wanted to liquidise the planet because of lack of productivity and President Man had forced the Corporation to keep the concession open while Sevan implemented his reforms. Sevan had taken the productivity to new lows which had made him a new set of enemies.

  The shuttle lifted off from the roof of the council building and passed over the container stacks. He could see his face on the many propaganda screens trying to convince the workers that Barnes had genetically engineered them but a population with no concept of childhood also seemed to have no problem with not knowing where they had come from, they seemed happy to just exist.

  “The concession gives us work and accommodation and food. Some people don’t know when they are well off,” was the common response when Sevan suggested change.

  At least his aunt believed him; during his visits she would repeatedly tell him how she told him so.

  Sevan was still a long way from Hygiea but he could already see the plumes of smoke billowing from the burning community. Many of
these homemade containers contained homemade hydrogen heaters or cookers prone to exploding with little encouragement. The smoke was thick and black and as they drew closer, it began to block out the sun.

  He sent a message to President Man explaining what had happened. Sevan said he assumed that it meant Ay-ttho wouldn’t be leading the mission to Daphnis after all given what had happened in Hygiea. He would need her to help maintain security at the elections the next day.

  The shuttle was descending through the smoke at Hygiea when the president’s reply arrived.

  Ay-ttho should leave for Station Tomorrow. She will lead the mission to Daphnis as planned. Tori will lead Concession Security.

  Sevan could not believe what he was reading. How could the president take Ay-ttho away from him at the time he needed her most?

  The shuttle door opened. Ay-ttho and Tori were waiting for Sevan. He could see and hear a large crowd threatening to turn itself into an angry mob.

  “Is everything okay?” Ay-ttho asked, seeing Sevan’s mood.

  “You are to leave for Tomorrow. President Man has requested that you use Mastery of the Stars to deliver a consignment to Daphnis.”

  “What in the cavernous sink plug? Daphnis?”

  “It’s a mining concession like this one. They are having similar problems, which the president feels are more pressing than ours. I’ll take you on my shuttle.”

  “You are not serious are you?” asked Tori.

  “It’s not my decision,” said Sevan. “He wants you to take charge of the security for the election.”

  “What?” Tori was amazed. “Did you tell him about this?”

  Tori gesticulated to the piles of smouldering embers which used to be the community of Hygiea and then at the angry mob.

  “I did.”

  “What are we going to do?” Tori sat down.

  “There’s nothing we can do, he’s the president,” said Sevan.

  “He’s a great big fart,” said Ay-ttho.