The Solaris Chronicles: Perseverance 2018© N.S. Maars
Genre: Hard Science Fiction | fantasy | action and adventure/exploration
Suited for mature readers of 17 years or older and Contains the following: Graphically realistic violence, epic space battles, horror themes, adult language, adult sexual romance and sensuality, adult humor and slapstick, and alcohol use.
Based in the universe of Solaris Four I created many years ago. Not tied into the original novel series yet contains the same characters. This collection of short stories is similar to a Star Trek series, wherein each chapter in this collection is actually it's own "episode" so to speak.* All contents of this short story collection is copyrighted. Do not use any of the material within these stories without gaining my permission before hand. You may contact me with questions or comments through this sites personal messaging.
Note: all names of people, places, organizations, races and companies are used for fictional purposes only and do not correspond with the actual thing. Names matching anyone or anything in reality are of pure coincidence and do not represent the actual person, place or thing with that name.
* to clarify, the way I will set this series up is such:
in a normal novel I'd be writing "chapters" however, in this book I will be calling chapters "episodes".
If an episode has more than one part I will refer to using "Episode:_ Chapter: _"
for example: Episode1: pilot, Chapter 1….. Episode1: pilot, Chapter 2…. and so on…
it should also be noted that this series is written in multiple perspectives in accordance with the focus of the "episode". The default is third person spectator. Any and all perspective switches will be stated at the start of the switch.
The Solaris Chronicles Perseverance
A Solaris Four Spin off
Created By: N.S. Maars
Episode 1: Awaken Part 1: pilot/intro
John jumps awake, shaking from not only the cold but also fear. Fear of what though? He throws open the Plexiglas canopy of the cryo chamber and fall to the floor. He gasps for air and suddenly throws up a long strand of clear gel. "fracking hell! Where am I!?"
A mono-toned female British accented voice answers, "you are currently in the Andromeda Galaxy aboard a Solarian Medical Cruiser. A doctor will arrive shortly, we were not expecting you to awaken so early." John responds with, "state my information."
"very well; John Harper, Captain of the resistance ship Perseverance, a tactical exploration cruiser. Vitals are unusually normal considering the manor of which you awoke."
"what year is it?" John asks, though he feared the answer. "2995."
"holy shit!" John curses in shock. The doctor, along with Zamos enter the cryo chamber bay and greet him.
"good evening John, please come with me. We've been waiting for you to wake up. you've been in cryo for 500 years. I think you and your wife need to have a talk."
Zamos helps John into a uniform and they head off to a small 2 bedroom living quarters. John takes a seat and Zamos walks over to an odd device built into the wall. She taps a few icons on the screen to the devices left. She taps another and john watches as a plate of fresh Sushi appears out of thin air. "whoa! That's just… what was that?" Zamos laughs as she hands the plate to John, "you mean what is that, that there is a personal consumers materialization system, PCM for short. I can order literally anything using the screen and it makes it." she goes over to it again and presses a few more icons and a bowl of japanese stir fry appears. She removes the bowl and the device makes a cup of coffee and a glass of creamer at the same time. After removing those the machine creates some sort of key fob sized device. Zamos picks it up and hands it to John, who asks, "what is this?"
Zamos smiles and says, "you're a quick learner. i'm sure you can figure it out." john turns it over in his hand a few time. A single button is positioned in a spot where it, when the device is most comfortable in the hand, sits on top. A small slit the size of a 21st century micro USB port is positioned at the front and it suddenly click in Johns head as to what he is holding. "this is a weapon." for some odd reason, as if on auto reaction, John reaches up and presses an area behind his right ear. Suddenly his field of view is filled with a soft purple glow which then takes the form of a panel with vitals in the left peripheral with a circle underneath it. Currently the circle was scanning. He also notices a long purple bar across the top of his field of view which had "no armor or shielding detected," displayed. In the bottom right he sees a battery meter labeled "hand laser." Zamos stands up and says, "i see your Heads up display implant still works," as she walks into the kitchen and takes a seat at a plain, steal table. She prepares the coffee and eats in silence. "the doctor says you need to talk. Is everything ok?"
"I was hoping I wouldn't have to tell you this but, Earth, Prylea Two, along with 85 percent of the milky way has been either destroyed or is controlled by The Regime. A resistance was created about 680 years ago. We fought hard for 20 years before we lost too many ships… and people. We have been rebuilding for the last 500 years and most of our highest ranking officers were put into cryo and assigned new positions for when they wake up."
"yeah, about that, what happened to Supreme Commander? And are you not still the Queen?" Zamos looks down at her plate and takes a deep breath. She closes her eyes and says, "please don't, I can't see you suffer, not now."
"darling, I need to know what has happened. Purely business you see."
"fine, there's nothing… there is nothing left. They forced Solaria into supernova, it destroyed everything." John stands, shocked, the plate of mostly eaten sushi falls to the floor and breaks. He stumbles to the door and says, "prepare my ship. I… I want to kill them all… I..."
The anger filling john was so strong he didn't even look mad, it was a frightening, unblinking stare of paralyzing rage. "John calm down, love, we will get another chance very soon, just keep your head for now." Zamos wraps her arms around John and, slowly, he calms down. "well at least you've got your hatred for the Regime back. Now lets just enjoy the next few days here. We are on the way to the Dyson Sphere Constructs. We will be transferred to our ship then. it's a nice ship too, just like the Ambient Wonder that was. it's smaller but still has all the charm."
Just thinking about being stuck on this Medical Cruiser made John sick. No one in history has ever enjoyed going to a hospital and this ship was no different.
Two days go by and john still felt like shit. He threw up the last of the slimy cryo gel and crawled back to the bed. Zamos enters the bedroom and says, "good morning. I made you french toast. With the cinnamon and sugar just as you like it. The syrup is from the PCM though." the smell of sweet cinnamon and maple drags John out of bed like a tractor beam. Zamos hands john a knife and fork as he sits at the table. He kills the meal really fast and Zamos says, "wow you were hungry."
"that's what happens when you are constantly throwing up from being in cryo." John says with a blank look. Someone knocks at the door and Zamos answers it, "oh yeah, Jane! Whats up?"
"we are entering the DSC in 30 minutes I suggest you get ready." Jane says. "whoa hold a moment. Is that Jane!?"
"sure is Captain! Welcome back to the living, sleeping beauty." Jane says in her joyful manor.
"very funny..." john replies. Jane heads off and the door slides shut. As Zamos heads into the back room she says, "we should get ready. I hope you're prepared to meet your new crew, and to see a few familiar faces." Zamos returns with a black uniform hemmed in gold and hands it to John, then goes into the bedroom. John heads into the bathroom to get changed into the uniform. He tightens the black tie and slips into the coat as he notices Zamos standing in the doorway. "how do you like the uniform?" she asks. John turns to see her in an ankle length coat over a knee length military style dress, all black with the same golden details. "it's the colors of the resistance, we fight at night now. How's the uniform fit? Comfy?"
"yeah, I like it, I really do. So, uh, do we still get robes and all?" John asks. Zamos replies, "Yes, and our new robes are fully black." she turns away for a moment and then throws johns robe over him head. "you still have a silly sense of humor I see."
"of course, my love, if I let that go it would be a terribly dull place." john slips the robe on as Zamos grabs hers and they head to the entrance hall to wait for docking. Security shows up as soon as Zamos and John enter the hall. Zamos smiles and says, "don't worry, John, they're just here for our protection. it's been a requirement ever since the fall of the Alliance for all former Royalty to have personal body guards.
Switch to 1st Person: John Harper
I hear some gears whir and hissing gas as the medical ship dock with a Ship to Dyson-Sphere transfer station. The guard to my left places his hand on a blue lit panel and the door opens. We all enter and Zamos says with a smile, "you may want to lie down, feet towards the door." then the computer says, "initializing gravitational reorientation, please brace yourselves." I barely had enough time to get ready before the gravity switched and I fell to my knees. Like an elevator the pod shoots straight up at high speed. Suddenly the door opens and we enter into what seemed to me like an outside in planet. It was very disorienting yet amazing at the same time. The far half of the Dyson-Sphere, which was barely visible due to the glare of two white giant stars in the center, seemed to be totally dark. Zamos telepathically hears my thoughts and answers, "there is a series of energy based screens that let us recreate night and day, all of the Dyson-Spheres we built here in Andromeda have this feature, and they're synced with each other."
the guards leave as General Zarroff climbs out of a glossy black limo. The vehicle has no wheels on it and was floating a foot above the ground. "good afternoon Captain, commander, please allow my driver to escort you both to the ship yard." we all get in the car and it lifts off, soaring higher and higher. A small black spec in the sky slowly began to get bigger. It was the orbital ship yard, though I'm not sure you'd call it 'orbital'.
