Free Starship Conquistador (Conquest of Stars Book 1) by Sid Kar

the
card and it scanned and verified his identity. Then it showed his new
commission on the display.
        “OFFENSIVE ROCKET OFFICER – FIRST
RANK!” Tollvyk said, “Woo hoo, alright Commander Carvyk is not a bastard
anymore. Assigned under you at the new starship…”
        Raptor read his new commission out
loud, “COMMODORE – STARSHIP CONQUISTADOR!”
                 
               
               

Chapter 9: Beacon
     
    Capitan Jag Manus landed his spaceship next
to a canyon on the outskirts of the base that hosted Beacon’s military space
traffic control station. Beacon was a rocky planet with mountains and canyons
galore and it was the last populated planet of Nestorian Republic that had
representation in the Senate and there was vast, frontier space beyond. Its
population was no more than thirty million and concentrated around a few mining
towns. As a rocky planet it had no shortage of metal and mineral resources but
most had not been explored yet. The costs of transportation were high and it
was not easy to defend Beacon militarily.
        Jag Manus was dressed today in a green
suit, white shirt and black pants. He had decided against wearing his uniform
but carried his badge, ID and a laser pistol in his suit’s inner pocket. He had
not announced his arrival to the space traffic control and while that was a
minor violation of the rules the Vice-Chancellor could easily get him out of
any trouble that might cause him. He knew that the only really effective
gravitron scanner on this planet was aimed towards the frontier space. To avoid
radar he had flown low after entering the atmosphere. There weren’t many radar
installations here either. But the radar near the space traffic tower would be
powerful so he had parked behind a canyon and he walked the remaining distance.
        It took him two hours of walk to reach
the Nestorian military base that was enclosed with a steel fence ten feet high
with five feet of barb wire above. A black, octagonal tower rose out a few
hundred meters in the air some distance from the perimeter fence. Soldiers
stood inside at interval around the entire fence. Along with laser guns, they
had land-to-air laser artillery on the ground next to them.
        An airship was dispatched to intercept
Jag when he was sighted by the soldiers. It cleared the fence and flew towards
Jag and hovered down two feet from land.
        “Who are you?” two soldiers got out
with their laser guns drawn at him.
        “Capitan Jag Manus of Republican
Guard,” he said and handed them his ID card. They passed the ID card to a
soldier inside the airship who scanned and verified it.
        “Please come in, we will give you a
ride,” the soldier said and Jag walked inside the airship and it took off back
to the base.
        “You could have given us a heads up.
Where are you walking from?” the pilot asked.
        “Some problems developed with my
spaceship. It’s day time and the distance wasn’t far,” Jag said.
        The airship landed inside the base very
near to the tower and Jag walked inside the tower. The airship had sent his
credentials ahead and the soldiers did not stop him when he walked into the
archives office.
        “How can I help you?” the archives
officer asked him from behind the reception desk.
        “I want to access the computer records
of all the foreign departures in the frontier space for the spaceships in the
last year,” Jag said. He did not want to mention the particular ship VC Remus
had traveled in to maintain secrecy. He handed over his ID and the archives
officer scanned it for the authorization codes. Republican Guard was the only
force in Nestorian Republic with powers of both the army and the police and
thus able to access records of either. 
        “You are cleared Capitan Jag, follow
me,” archives officer was an older man, slightly stooped in the back and
shoulders and he led Jag to a metallic door