My Grandfather's Spaceship

By M.L. Humphrey

Just inside the orbit of Pluto a small escape pod speeds toward Earth, its only occupant a young girl. Her grandfather has programmed the pod to issue a distress call in hopes the message would reach one of their friends living on Earth. He hoped Admiral Jasom Kingston would come and save her, but the lone pod had not traveled far before colliding with a chunk of space debris. The pod had reached its fastest velocity as soon as they were far enough from the mother ship. But after the unexpected collision it could barely correct the pods course, failing soon after. Not only were the pods propulsion units damaged, but the chance encounter sprang the seal on one of the access hatches. It had taken the pods lone occupant nearly an hour to find and plug the leak, leaving her usable air supply nearly depleted. All she could depend on now was the distress beacon and hope someone would find her soon.
Within the pods small cabin the muted sound of her beating heart was the only sound breaking the suffocating silence. A small light showed the distress beacon once more being broadcast toward Earth. She knew it would take several hours before reaching its destination, but would anyone hear it in time?
Outside the pods small view port she sees nothing but distant pinpoints of light; one is her destination. She wipes the tears from her eyes, there is nothing else she can do but crawl into one of the stasis units and go to sleep. Within the stasis unit, her body will lie suspended until someone can rescue her. With luck, someone will come before time runs out.
The young girl’s name is Alicia LeOnard, the only child of Elo and Pandor LeOnard’s son Milo. By Earth standards Alicia may be 21 years old, but she had grown up on the planet of Evenset, and like her grandparents before her, received more scientific education than a normal Earth graduate of the same age.
Upon graduation from the university, her grandparents asked if she would like to accompany them on a trip to, a new agricultural colony settled less than thirty years ago by a large group of farmers. This new colony was named Landovar, and Pandor was tasked with upgrading the colony's communications equipment, and to offer advice on future improvements to their present system.
On their return from Landovar, Pandor would file his report, then he and Elo would retire to the ranch her father so dearly loved. Alicia would then spend another month with them before deciding if she should continue at the university or go to work for her father.
Overall, the trip had been uneventful. Within two weeks Pandor had completed his mission, leaving them another week to spend exploring. With Earth being only a few light-years away, Pandor talked the captain of their ship, the Lisdon-Si, into stopping to visit their old friend Admiral Kingston, and perhaps pick up a bushel of apples to take home with them. Pandor just loved apples.
However, as their ship entered the outer fringes of Earth’s solar system, an unknown ship had attacked. While the Lisdon-Si lay helpless, the invading ship attached a powerful tractor beam and hauled the ship away.
Being the only passengers aboard, Pandor convinced Alicia that one of them must get help. As the youngest, she was the logical choice. He gave her the coordinates of Admiral Kingston’s farm located in Montana.
Pandor programmed the navigation and distress beacon before releasing the pod, hoping the invaders would be to busy to interfere with it. Her mission was to find the admiral so he could rescue her grandparents and the crew of the Lisdon-Si. Her quest was dire, as the ship had been attacked by a suspected Qweryl ship!

• Language: English
• Publisher: M.L. Humphrey
• Release date: Sep 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005268954

M.L. Humphrey

Hi there Sci Fi fans, my name is Maurice Humphrey.I am a Vermont native, husband, father, grandfather, well over 60, Navy veteran, retired IBM engineer, retired printer repairman, Graduated: Goddard Jr. College, VT Technical College, and Trinity College. Over the years I’ve written technical articles, taught technical classes, and presented at technical conventions.I’ve been reading science fiction for over 50 years now. First books were “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” by Jules Verne and “The Stars Are Ours” by Andre Norton. I’ve read and collected many great stories, and a considerable amount of junk ones as well. I’d say by now that I probably have a good idea of what I consider a good story.

Book preview

My Grandfather’s Spaceship

M. L. Humphrey

© 2021 M. L. Humphrey

ISBN: 9781005268954

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter -1

Chapter -2

Chapter -3

Chapter -4

Chapter -5

Chapter -6

Chapter -7

Chapter -8

Chapter -9

Chapter -10

Chapter -11

Chapter -12

Chapter -13

Chapter -14

Chapter -15

Chapter -16

Chapter -17

Chapter -18

Chapter -19

Chapter -20

Chapter -21

Chapter -22

Chapter -23

Chapter -24

Chapter -25

Chapter -26

Chapter -27

Chapter -28

Chapter -29

Chapter -30

Chapter -31

Chapter -32

Chapter -33

Chapter -34

Chapter -35

Chapter -36

Chapter -37

Chapter -38

Chapter -39

Chapter -40

Chapter -41

Chapter -42

Chapter -43

Chapter -44

Chapter -45

Chapter -46

Chapter -47

Chapter -48

Chapter -49

Epilogue

With special thanks to

John K. Scott, Col. USAF (Ret.)

____________________________________________

Prologue:

Just inside the orbit of Pluto a small escape pod speeds toward Earth, its only occupant a young girl. Her grandfather has programmed the pod to issue a distress call in hopes the message would reach one of their friends living on Earth. He hoped that the man named Admiral Jasom Kingston would come and save her.

But the lone pod had not traveled far before colliding with a chunk of space debris. The pod had reached its fastest velocity as soon as they were far enough from the mother ship. But after the unexpected collision it could barely correct the pods course, failing soon after.

Not only were the pods propulsion units damaged, but the chance encounter sprang the seal on one of the access hatches. It had taken the pods lone occupant nearly an hour to find and plug the leak, leaving her usable air supply nearly depleted. All she could depend on now was the distress beacon and hope someone would find her soon.

Within the pods small cabin the muted sound of her beating heart was the only sound breaking the suffocating silence. A small light showed the distress beacon once more being broadcast toward Earth. She knew it would take several hours before reaching its destination, but would anyone hear it in time?

Outside the pods small viewport she sees nothing but distant pinpoints of light, one of which is her destination. She wipes the tears from her eyes, there is nothing else she can do but crawl into one of the stasis units and go to sleep. Within the stasis unit, her body will lie suspended until someone can rescue her. With luck, someone will come before time runs out.

The young girl’s name is Alicia LeOnard, the only child of Elo and Pandor LeOnard’s son Milo. By Earth standards Alicia may be 21 years old, but she had grown up on the planet of Evenset, and like her grandparents before her, received more scientific education than a normal Earth graduate of the same age.

Upon graduation from the university, her grandparents asked if she would like to accompany them on a trip to, a new agricultural colony settled less than thirty years ago by a large group of farmers. This new colony was named Landovar, and Pandor was tasked with upgrading the colony's communications equipment, and to offer advice on future improvements to their present system.

On their return from Landovar, Pandor would file his report, then he and Elo would retire to the ranch her father so dearly loved. Alicia would then spend another month with them before deciding if she should continue at the university or go to work for her father.

Overall, the trip had been uneventful. Within two weeks Pandor had completed his mission, leaving them another week to spend exploring. With Earth being only a few light-years away, Pandor talked the captain of their ship, the Lisdon-Si, into stopping to visit their old friend Admiral Kingston, and perhaps pick up a bushel of apples to take home with them. Pandor just loved apples.

However, as their ship entered the outer fringes of Earth’s solar system, an unknown ship had attacked. While the Lisdon-Si lay helpless, the invading ship attached a powerful tractor beam and hauled the ship away.

Being the only passengers aboard, Pandor convinced Alicia that one of them must get help. As the youngest, she was the logical choice. He gave her the coordinates of Admiral Kingston’s farm located in Montana.

Pandor programmed the navigation and distress beacon before releasing the pod, hoping the invaders would be to busy to interfere with it. Her mission was to find the admiral so he could rescue her grandparents and the crew of the Lisdon-Si. Her quest was dire, as the ship had been attacked by a suspected Qweryl ship!

Chapter: 1

Alicia had never met Admiral Kingston, but her grandfather had told her stories of how he helped eradicate the outlawed Renland Navy. She knew what he looked like, both he and his wife, Arial. He was almost like a mythical hero personally credited with destroying all four of the Renland Navy’s battle cruisers. The stories about his wife were almost as astounding.

In actuality, he only destroyed the Renland Commander. The next two were the work of his crew while he was back on Earth attending college. After finishing college he had taken over command of the Cornish Talisman and captured the Commander-Luiz, the last remaining Renland battle cruiser, without firing a shot.

Over the next several years he worked with both the Order of the Crystal Crowns, a secretive group of people dedicated to the betterment of Evenset, and the Evenset Navy, to clear the corruption out of the Evenset council of 9. And that was when their son Jonathon Kingston was born.

After spending many years working in close cooperation with Admiral Qwen of the Evenset Navy, Admiral Kingston, and his family, moved back to the same farm he had lived on as a boy in an area called Montana.

After Jonathon left for college, they presented Admiral Kingston with a very special present. For his many years of service, a special flyer had been built for him. A special AI was programmed by none other than Cornell himself, the AI of the Cornish Talisman, as both navigator and pilot.

Admiral Kingston named his new ship the ‘King’s Quest 2’, and for some secret reason he named the ships AI, Waldo. Although there was only room for a small group of passengers, this little ship was capable of traveling great distances in relative comfort.

The King’s Quest 2 had been outfitted with all of the newest technology that both Pandor LeOnard and Arial’s cousin Jared Halden had come up with over the years including the latest version of Jared’s galactic radio transmission device. This device was capable of making voice and data transmissions from anywhere in real time; even to telephones on Earth where it had been developed.

To keep this new flyer out of sight, the admiral had a secret underground hanger built beneath the farms' barn. After retiring to the farm the Kingston’s used the King’s Quest 2 only occasionally to visit with family and friends on Evenset.

Although the ship was stored beneath the barn, it was not forgotten. Admiral Kingston often chatted with Waldo, telling him some of the things he had done in the past and what he expected of Waldo in the future. The admiral instructed Waldo to keep watch over the farm if for some reason they had to be away. If something should ever happen to either of them, Waldo was to wait for his next owner.

When he appears, the admiral sternly told him, you are to render whatever assistance that person may require.

Needless to say Waldo took his mission seriously and with the advent of the internet and remotely controlled appliances he quickly learned that it wasn’t very difficult to remotely accomplish many of the things that fit within the boundaries of his trust.

When not attending to his assigned duties regarding the farm, Waldo began to study the world around him. He took to watching hundreds of television and radio broadcasts learning what he could of Earth’s culture. Even for an AI as sophisticated as Waldo much of what he took in didn’t make much sense. Many of the TV channels depicted things that couldn’t possibly exist, or were wild distortions of reality. Waldo was faced with learning the differences between what was purported as fact and what was made up for entertainment purposes; and it was a difficult task.

Nearly all of the news programs wildly contradicted each other and many of the facts they espoused were badly distorted or simply just not true. Waldo was reminded of an old fairy tale from an online library; something called Through the Looking Glass. One side of the mirror was supposed to be the real world while on the other side everything felt just as true but was wildly distorted. Sometimes he wondered just which side of the mirror he was on.

One day, after many years of working from his hiding place under the barn, the admiral called to Waldo, he and Arial would be traveling back to their homeland and would be gone for several months. They had been invited back aboard his old ship the Cornish Talisman for the journey, and someone would be by in a few days to pick them up. The admiral again instructed Waldo to watch over the farm and to be ready in case he was needed.

You may call me if there is a great need, he told Waldo, but, at all costs stay anonymous and out of trouble. Unlike Cornell, who had been programmed by the Predecessors that built the Cornish Talisman, Waldo was capable of extrapolating the underlining meanings from his tone of voice and underlying emotions. The admiral’s orders were quite clear; disobeying a direct order would carry a heavy price.

A few days later Waldo detected a familiar presence as the Cornish Talisman quietly slipped into Earth orbit in stealth mode. Shortly after he watched as the admiral and his wife boarded the Tarlieni, one of the Cornish Talisman’s small flyers. A few hours later they were gone.

With the admiral and his wife gone Waldo felt that he was in charge. That is, until they returned. It may have appeared that Waldo had gone wild over the next few weeks but there was a subtle method to his apparent madness. To perform his assigned duties Waldo created a virtual persona to earn money and hire out whatever work the farm needed. Silently he took over all of the duties of maintaining the farm until the admiral or one of his family members returned. Technology enabled him to make calls and handle bank transactions, all from his secret location. Beyond what he had been instructed to do, Waldo also kept track of the admiral’s family.

The admiral and his wife only had one child. Their son Jonathon had been born on Evenset, but because of the volatile politics of the Council of 9, and for his safety, they had raised him on the very same small farm in the same small town of Nashua, Montana that the admiral had lived in for so many of his younger years. It had taken some convincing to get Arial to agree to live there, but after settling in they were quite happy with their choice.

Like his father before him Jonathon grew up in the sleepy little town of Nashua quietly attending school with the rest of the children in town. He was also aware of his parent’s background and their choice to live in Montana in relative obscurity. Jonathon promised to keep the family secret telling no one, not even his closest friends. Later on that grew to include his wife and children.

After finishing High School Jonathon studied business at Arizona State University picking a line of work quite apart from his parents. While at college he met a girl named Becky Sims, and they were married before the end of their senior year. She was from Arizona and studying to become a teacher. Her goal was to stay in Arizona and teach in the same school she had attended as a child.

After graduation the young couple settled down in a nice house part way between her hometown just outside Phoenix where she would be teaching and only a few miles from where Jonathon worked. It was here where they raised their two sons Harold and Jeremy. On special occasions they would drive the long trip up to Montana to visit with his parents and sometimes leave the boys there during the summer school break.

But as time went by the boys grew older. Harold, being a few years the older, had gone on to tech school and started his own business not far from his parent’s home in Arizona. Jeremy however, was more of a dreamer and like his grandfather pursued an education in the engineering sciences. Unlike his brother he picked a college near Boston; a long way from home.

It was during those first winter months in college that Jeremy literally ran into Gordon Marks. Jeremy had slipped on an icy patch and nearly put the both of them into the snow bank. Gordon was a little angry at first until he realized that Jeremy had never seen snow before. After that encounter they were fast friends doing everything together; even things they shouldn’t have.

Gordon was the only child of a widowed mother. Gordon‘s father, Ralph Marks, had died in a trucking accident while Gordon was in high school. Gordon had grown up in Washingtonville, Pennsylvania on the farm his father inherited from his parents. Both of his parents were from single child families and the only legacy they had left between them was the farm.

Jeremy and Gordon had this grand design of driving across the country after graduation looking for adventure and seeing whatever they could find before deciding to settle down somewhere and growing old next door to each other.

Chapter: 2

It was only a few weeks after the admiral left that Waldo first received the distress call from the Alicia’s escape pod. He understood the situation was grave and there wasn’t much time to act. But what should he do? The Admiral and his wife had both left on the Cornish Talisman for one last journey to see friends and family back on Evenset. They were a very long way from Earth. Even if he called them now as fast as the Cornish Talisman was capable of traveling there was no way they could return in time to save the young girl; the damaged pod would not survive until their return.

There is no other way, I will have to go and get it, Waldo thought until he realized that although he may be able to get to the pod in time he had no way of saving the girl. Waldo needed a set of hands to do the work. The admiral’s son Jonathon and his wife lived nearly fifteen hundred miles away near Phoenix, Arizona. Their eldest son Harold lived not far from there.

But Harold and his mother were unaware of Jonathon’s heritage or the real place of his birth. What about their son, Jeremy? Waldo did some quick calculations and decided that the best choice was to find Jeremy, and hope that he was as good as his grandfather.

Waldo placed a call to the college to tell Jeremy that he would be coming by to pick him up. Jeremy’s roommate Wesley told him that graduation was over with, Jeremy and Gordon had already left. Waldo was too late! He also told Waldo about Jeremy and Gordon’s plan on a cross-country trip together.

When they left yesterday, Wesley told him they were