The Doctor

By James Foster

The crew of the Phoenix are deep in space flying a diplomatic mission to return two alien’s to their home world. As they pass through the bleak expanses of blackness the crew begin to succumb to the boredom of having nothing to do in the immense emptiness of space.

...But all of that is about to change. The ship’s doctor is awoken early one morning to the news that one of the crew has been brutally murdered. Millions of miles from any civilisation the doctor teams up with the ship’s head of security, and the two men try to solve the murder.

They haven’t got far before there is another brutal murder on the ship, and then another. Slowly the ship’s trapped crew begin to unravel with the knowledge they are stuck on the ship with a murderer.

It doesn’t matter how hard the two men work they cannot find any real clues as to who the murderer is. He leaves no clues and always seems to be one step ahead of them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Foster
• Release date: Oct 16, 2015
• ISBN: 9781507853191

James Foster

Hi, I am James Foster. I live in the Southwest of England with my wife and two children. In my day job I grind numbers for a huge international corporation (hmmm lets call them Mine Corp). But by night (and sometimes early morning) I live in the future in the Sci-Fi universe of the Church Of The Sacred Seven. I am a novice writer, but I love writing these stories so much. I’ve become obsessed by this little world. I have vague notions of what might become of the universe in the end (when I’ve written all I can). I have one more story idea that isn’t on the website yet and a good few of the stories are in their infancy so it will be while before I need to decide that. I write these stories for two reasons. One they are bouncing around in my head and I enjoy typing them out. Two there is just a vaguest chance that someone else might enjoy reading them too. I love the idea that someone else might read one of my stories and just for a moment be caught up in my little universe too.

Book preview

The Doctor

By J D Foster

Text copyright © 2013 J D Foster

Cover Photo copyright © Ben Yates

See more of Ben’s work at:

Photo Cubism: The Artistic Work of Devon Artist Ben Yates

www.photocubism.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the author via the comments field on the author’s WebPage : http://jdfoster777.wix.com/churchofsacredseven

To My wife, who supports and loves me no matter what I do

The Doctor

Chapter One

Not including the two alien dignitaries, or myself, there were 25 others on board the Phoenix for its maiden voyage. The Phoenix was a Duke Class Frigate, and the progenitor of the Condell-Class Frigate Lynch, (just in case you’re the sort of person who cares about that type of thing). It’s funny I remember particulars such as that, but other details of the journey escape me. I suppose the fact that it was the ship's first voyage made certain details it stick in my mind. My primary responsibility aboard the vessel on this first voyage was to monitor the two aliens whilst they were in hibernation, and ensure that they arrived back at their home planet in the best possible physical health. Secondary to this I was to act as the ship’s physician. The rest of the small crew was made up mostly of engineers, a few soldiers and two Science Council representatives. Then, of course, there was that insufferable army Lieutenant. Would you believe it, I can’t even remember his name now? Despite everything that happened on that flight, despite the things we saw together and the way our lives became so fatefully intertwined, despite all this, it’s no use, I simply cannot remember his name. I’ve tried for the whole of last week to remember. Since there is little else to occupy me here I can afford such rash use of my time. I thought that his name would be an integral part of my story. Then I gave up trying to remember his name, I thought that perhaps as I wrote everything down it would magically come back to me, but it hasn't. Alas I don’t see the point of badgering my mind anymore, not at my age and not in my poor state of health. So I have decided to call him Carter after my childhood pet dog - as a sort of tribute to that faithful old hound shall we say?

The two aliens I mentioned were diplomats from the planet Backi, they had spent their summer on our planet (which was of course our winter and thus the conditions were closer to those on their planet). Our two planets had at that time only just made contact with each other and the Science Council was desperate to befriend the alien race; not only as potential allies against the Phalerons but also as potential trade partners since their home planet was rich in Beryllium. It’s hard to believe now I know, but in those early days the Backi were purely interested in that trade opportunity with us. The funny thing was, after a successful winter spent on our planet, with the Science Council wooing them; they seemed more interested in our religion than in actually finalising any trade agreements. For some reason the seven animal gods of The Church Of The Scared Seven fascinated them and they seemed determined to learn as much as they could about the religion. I happen to know (As Jenkins told me on good authority), that their personal cargo was packed full of icons and necklaces and other trappings to do with the church.

The two Backi were of course in their hibernation cycle and were scheduled to remain so until we reached their home planet. That was a full six months with our ship flying at full tilt through some of the emptiest space I have ever encountered. At the end of the six months we would pop out at the Backi’s small solar system and deposit them at their doorstep just as they began to wake up. What could be simpler than that? We were essentially baby sitters.

What could be simpler than a full six months of sitting on our backsides with nothing else to do? The first week was of course taken up with the excitement of a new voyage and getting to know a new Captain and crew. Then in the following two weeks everyone set about their duties and got the Phoenix running smoothly, fixing everything that broke the first time it was used. Then by the third week when nothing else broke I am quite sure people broke a few things on purpose just to have something to fix. Then everything got cleaned and polished and then when there was nothing left to break or mend or clean people began looking around themselves in vain to try to find something else to do. By this time we were light-years from home, passing through the wide empty expanses of space - and the reality of another few months of nothing to do began to hit home to everyone.

It was no different for me. Three times a day I would check on the Backi’s statistics, which were the same every time I checked. The rest of my day was spent writing up brief reports on the Backi condition (which were the same every day) and dealing with the odd minor injury that turned up. In the second month of our voyage I ordered all of the crew to report for a physical, which kept me quite busy for three days. All of the crew were young and fit, much as you’d expect with no ailments or deficiencies, and all wondering why they had to undertake a physical examination so soon after the one they had been through to clear then for the mission in the first place. I reported to the Captain that everyone was in rude health and then found that I had nothing to do. I suppose I should be grateful, I mused to myself. How many jobs pay you handsomely and request so little back from you? So it was that I determined to catch up on my reading and settled down to read the latest medical journals, which was when I discovered a peculiarity of the Phoenix. It was the fastest, cleanest newest ship in our fleet; the technology was so new that most of us were experiencing it for the first time. Certainly I was, and I was completely unprepared for the drone.

I’ve flown some great cumulative distance in my life and performed medical procedures on everything from an escape pod to a prison hulk, taking in a couple of battleships in my time too. So I was used to cramped uncomfortable conditions. I was used to bumping my head or my shin on some bulkhead or cooling pipe. I was used to some extent with the boredom that goes with long journeys and the lousy food too, but I was not used to that hum.