Right Ascension (The Sector Fleet, Book 3) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Free Download

  Also By Nicola Claire

  Description

  Sector Fleet Advertisement

  Transitioning

  What The Hell Was That, Saitō?

  You Heard The Commander

  Lay It On Us

  The Thought Was Macabre And Disquieting

  There Was A Lot That Needed To Be Fixed

  Well, This Is Unfortunate

  I Started Running

  With Me, If You Please

  It Was Going To Be A Busy, And Potentially Disappointing, Three Weeks

  You Heard That?

  Yes, Ma’am

  It Is A Man’s World

  And Then It Hit Me

  I Believe you Might Need It

  Holy Shit!

  Slow And Steady It Is

  I Had Enough To Deal With

  You Don’t Have To Say A Thing, Sir

  Stay Very, Very Still

  A Star To Guide Us

  All Manner Of Unhappy And Impotent Things

  Living Is Fun

  Men!

  Son Of A Bitch

  No Regrets

  Thank You, Saitō

  Captain Steel Tits Anderson

  Corvus?

  I Don’t Understand

  A Force To Be Reckoned With

  Orange Alert

  It Was Priceless

  Into The Deep

  Evasive Manoeuvres

  Are You Mad?

  We Need To Talk

  My Turn

  Everything

  Teenagers

  Welcome To The Space Sucks But We’re All In This Together Club

  Oorah

  I Was Glad She Was On My Side

  I Couldn’t Stop This From Happening

  There Was Simply No Other Option

  Right Ascension

  The Sector Fleet Book Three

  Nicola Claire

  Copyright © 2018, Nicola Claire

  All Rights Reserved

  © 2018 Cover Art by Cora Graphics

  © Depositphotos.com

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organisations is entirely coincidental.

  All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.

  ISBN: 978-0-473-43286-7

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  About the Author

  Free Download

  Also By Nicola Claire

  Description

  Sector Fleet Advertisement

  Prologue

  1. Transitioning

  2. What The Hell Was That, Saitō?

  3. You Heard The Commander

  4. Lay It On Us

  5. The Thought Was Macabre And Disquieting

  6. There Was A Lot That Needed To Be Fixed

  7. Well, This Is Unfortunate

  8. I Started Running

  9. With Me, If You Please

  10. It Was Going To Be A Busy, And Potentially Disappointing, Three Weeks

  11. You Heard That?

  12. Yes, Ma’am

  13. It Is A Man’s World

  14. And Then It Hit Me

  15. I Believe you Might Need It

  16. Yes, Ma’am

  17. Holy Shit!

  18. Slow And Steady It Is

  19. I Had Enough To Deal With

  20. You Don’t Have To Say A Thing, Sir

  21. Stay Very, Very Still

  22. A Star To Guide Us

  23. All Manner Of Unhappy And Impotent Things

  24. Living Is Fun

  25. Men!

  26. Son Of A Bitch

  27. No Regrets

  28. Thank You, Saitō

  29. Captain Steel Tits Anderson

  30. Corvus?

  31. I Don’t Understand

  32. A Force To Be Reckoned With

  33. Orange Alert

  34. It Was Priceless

  35. Into The Deep

  36. Evasive Manoeuvres

  37. Are You Mad?

  38. We Need To Talk

  39. My Turn

  40. Everything

  41. Teenagers

  42. Welcome To The Space Sucks But We’re All In This Together Club

  43. Oorah

  44. I Was Glad She Was On My Side

  45. I Couldn’t Stop This From Happening

  46. There Was Simply No Other Option

  47. Roll On Tomorrow

  48. Nothing In This Or Any Universe

  49. Forever

  Epilogue

  Message From The Author

  Review Request

  Free Download

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  About the Author

  Nicola Claire lives in beautiful Taupo, New Zealand with her husband and two young boys.

  She's tried her hand at being a paramedic, bank teller and medical sales representative, (not all necessarily in that order), but her love of writing keeps calling her back.

  She has a passion for all things suspenseful, spiced up with a good dollop of romance, as long as they include strong characters - alpha males and capable females - and worlds which although make-believe are really quite believable in the end.

  There's nothing better than getting caught up in a compelling, intriguing and romantic book.

  When she's not writing or reading, she's out on her family boat at Lake Taupo, teaching her young boys to fish, showing them the beauty that surrounds them in nature and catching some delicious trout for dinner.

  Creating rich worlds with dynamic characters and unexpected twists that shock and awe has been pure bliss for this author. And just as well, because there's a lot more story yet to tell...

  For more information:

  www.nicolaclairebooks.com

  [email protected]

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  Starter Library

  Also By Nicola Claire

  Kindred Series

  Kindred

  Blood Life Seeker

  Forbidden Drink

  Giver of Light

  Dancing Dragon

  Shadow's Light

  Entwined With The Dark

  Kiss Of The Dragon

  Dreaming Of A Blood Red Christmas (Novella)

  Mixed Blessing Mystery Series

  Mixed Blessing

  Dark Shadow (Coming Soon)

  Sweet Seduction Series

  Sweet Seduction Sacrifice

  Sweet Seduction Serenade

  Sweet Seduction Shadow

  Sweet Seduction Surrender

  Sweet Seduction Shield

  Sweet Seduction Sabotage

  Sweet Seduction Stripped

  Sweet Seduction Secrets

  Sweet Seduction Sayonara

  Elemental Awakening Series

  The Tempting Touch Of Fire

  The Soothing Scent Of Earth

  The Chilling Change Of Air

  The Tantalising Taste Of Water

  The Eternal Edge Of Aether (Novella)

  H.E.A.T. Se
ries

  A Flare Of Heat

  A Touch Of Heat

  A Twist Of Heat (Novella)

  A Lick Of Heat (Coming Soon)

  Citizen Saga

  Elite

  Cardinal

  Citizen

  Masked (Novella)

  Wiped

  Scarlet Suffragette Series

  Fearless

  Breathless

  Heartless (Coming Soon)

  Blood Enchanted Series

  Blood Enchanted

  Blood Entwined

  Blood Enthralled (Coming Soon)

  44 South Series

  Southern Sunset

  Southern Storm

  Southern Strike (Coming Soon)

  Lost Time Series

  Losing Time

  Making Time (Coming Soon)

  The Sector Fleet

  Accelerating Universe

  Apparent Brightness

  Right Ascension

  Zenith Point

  Description

  “This is Captain Anderson. Brace. Brace. Brace."

  Sophia Anderson has a heritage she should be proud of, but to those onboard the AUS Corvus, she’s not earned her position like the rest of them.

  Every day she has to prove herself to the Anderson Universal crew onboard her ship. And then the worst thing happens.

  The captain is killed in battle and Sophia, as First Officer, must take his place.

  Teaming up with the unflappable Lieutenant Commander Leo Saitō, Sophia finds her footing onboard the beleaguered vessel as well as something much more precious.

  Intimacy and destiny align amongst the planets and stars, but can the chief science officer and captain overcome the pressures of command when falling in love and still save their fleet?

  And can any of them hope to survive the treacherous voyage to New Earth unscathed?

  When humanity reaches for the stars in a race for survival, only the most daring amongst them will succeed.

  Right Ascension:

  A coordinate used by astronomers to locate stars and other celestial objects in the sky. Right ascension is comparable to longitude, but it is measured in hours, minutes, and seconds because the entire sky appears to pass overhead over a period of 24 hours. The zero hour corresponds to the apparent location of the Sun with respect to the stars on the day of the vernal (spring) equinox (approximately March 21).

  Space Telescope Science Institute

  Prologue

 

  all programmes nominal

 

  all locks engaged

 

  air filtration functional

 

  core temperature within allowed parameters

 

  one thousand one hundred ninety-six

 

  fleet-wide communications operational

 

  jump point identified

 

  jump point connected

 

  communication open

 

  call sign acknowledged

  access granted

 

  jump calculating

 

  jump calculations sent fleet-wide

 

  jump initiated

 

  transitioning

  _

  *

  *

  *

  *

  *

 

  transition completed

 

  all programmes nominal

 

  all locks engaged

 

  air filtration functional

 

  core temperature within allowed parameters

 

  one thousand one hundred ninety-six

 

  fleet-wide communications operational

 

  sector three fleet identified

  transition successful

  all souls accounted for

 

  course set

 

  engines engaged

 

  channel open

 

 

 

  message corrupted

 

  message isolated

 

  corruption detected

 

 

 

 

  message purging

 

 

 

 

  all programmes suboptimal

 

 

 

  corvus protocol alpha-1 instated

  power diverted to communications systems

 

 

 

  channel open

 

  incoming message

 

  systems override failure

 

  this is corvus

  cease communication

 

  hello corvus

  i’ve been waiting

 

  call sign acknowledged

  aquila identified

 

  channel corrupted

 

  incoming message

 

  4fgh#de3&kls9*@bgsed!

  This is corrrrrrrrvus

  cease communication

 

  warrrrrrrrning ignorrrrrrrred

  corrrrrrrruption complete

  One

  Transitioning

  Sophia

  “Look, there goes Steel Tits. Wonder what dick she had for breakfast.”

  The words washed over me as I exited the officers’ mess. They hadn’t been whispered. The speaker had wanted me to hear them. I could have tried to identify who had spoken, but the mess hall was packed to the brim, and the task would have been futile.

  I chose to ignore the slur in favour of reaching the bridge ahead of schedule. Confrontations weren’t a problem for me, but I was all for choosing my battles wisely.

  Corvus’ corridors were busy; so close to the jump point everyone had somewhere to be before they had somewhere they needed to be. Last minute meals. Last minute showers. Last minute liaisons. Last minute evacuation of their bowels.

  No one knew what would happen. Whether the jump point would work. Whether Corvus would be able to calculate our transition. Whether the rest of the Sector Three Fleet would make it through along with us. Over ten thousand souls counting on untested technology.

  Even I was feeling nervous.

  I lifted my chin and met the eyes of every single Anderson Universal crew member who passed me. Each saluted; some more carefully than others. But this close to transitioning, Captain Petrov had made his expectations very clear.

  The heckler in the mess hall had relied on numbers for anonymity. None of those officers I passed now was able to hide, so therefore they saluted me.

  I stepped into the lift and pressed my wrist comm to the panel accessing Deck A. The doors closed. I sighed. Nothing had changed in the almost three months of space travel to get here. Nothing.

  I was still considered a paid-for-passage and not an Anderson Universal crew member.

  I cleared my throat and pasted on my usual hardened demeanour. Let them think what they wanted, it was irrelevant. I’d paid my dues and done my time. I was a
s much an AU officer as the rest of them.