Star Child by Paul Alan

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Book 3
    S TAR C HILD
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    R INGS OF P OLARIS
    S A G A
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    PAUL ALAN
     
     
     
    “Give a kid a book, and you change the world. In a way, even the universe.”
    – Neil deGrasse Tyson
     
     
     
     
     
    © 2015 by Paul Alan Gober. All rights reserved.
     
    No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
     
     
     
    Published by Rebog Production 10/31/2015
     
    ISBN: (sc)
    ISBN: (hc)
    ISBN: (e)
     
     
    Library of Congress Control Number:
     
     
     
    Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
     
    Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.
     
    This book is printed on acid-free paper.
     
    Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. 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.
     
    Star Child, book 3 in the Rings of Polaris SAGA, is strictly a work of fiction and any characters within this book resembling any real persons is purely coincidental.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    D edicated to A lexander
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Note: This should only be read after Rebel Lexis (book 1), and Giants of Mars (book 2) for full understanding of the sequence of events in the Rings of Polaris SAGA.
     
    P ART 1 B LACK S TAR D ESCENDING
     
     
     
    T HE D ESCENT
     
     
    The vertical airshaft descended for miles, nothing spanned the huge divide but a howling wind. Jason stood at the very edge of the abyss, and wondered if the boosters had enough juice to catapult him over the expanse. They were designed for lower gravity environments such as the outer moons of Saturn but not Earth. “It’s not the fall that’ll kill you but the sudden stop,” he thought before turning around. He needed to create plenty enough space between himself and the approach; traversing the concrete gap would require the Ersatz Suit’s top speed.
    Jason’s heads-up display gauged the void’s distance to 49 feet when he leaned forward and pushed off on his back foot. His body mechanics flawlessly moved within the military grade exoskeleton. Grunting heavily to a sprinting speed of twenty-five miles per hour, he quickly closed in on the edge. Fog began developing on the inside glass, hampering his visibility but he was too close to abort the jump. He activated the suit’s four lift boosters, launching magnanimously over the airshaft, and down the horizontal service tunnel straddling the other side.
    “BONG!” echoed throughout the service tunnel. Jason’s skull rang like a bell when his helmet struck the concrete wall. The airshaft’s strong updraft had significantly enhanced the suit’s flight characteristics, sending him much farther than planned. He was a bit shaken on impact but otherwise unaffected from the blow. Albeit, he wished he had previously calculated the upwind prior to hurdling himself across the dead fall.
    Ahead was the access door he had been searching for. Surprisingly, the entrance looked very simple, and nothing complex about the door said difficult; no rail guns guarding the entry, or any other type of security measures were visible. “Mitchell Thacker’s INTEL was good, the service door was forgotten in the bureaucracy of things,” he thought.
    While wearing the Ersatz Power Suit, Jason’s super strength was evident when the door buckled under his strain. “HISS,” pissed the ventilated air when the compression seal broke free. “CLANK” slapped the air after pulling the heavy metallic door from its hinges, and