NOTE: If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

This is a work of fi ction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fi ctitiously.

TRIBULATIONS

Copyright © 2011 by Ken Shufeldt

All rights reserved.

A Tor BookPublished by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC175 Fifth AvenueNew York, NY 10010

www .tor -forge .com

Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

ISBN 978- 0- 7653- 6558- 3

First Edition: January 2012

Printed in the United States of America

0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

1

When Billy West woke up, he opened his eyes to a wondrous sight: Open space fi lled his entire fi eld of view, and his mind was struggling to understand where he was. As his mind cleared from the night’s sleep, he remem-bered they were on board their spaceship, Genesis.

Once he was fully awake, he smiled to himself as he remembered their wedding night. He turned his head to look at his new bride, Linda Lou, whose head was resting on his shoulder as she slept. As he was enjoying watching her sleep, she began to stir. She opened her beautiful dark brown eyes to an amazing sight. The walls of their room were still transparent and allowed her to see the gran-deur of space.

She lifted her head off Billy’s arm.He said, “Hi you.”She smiled and said, “Hi yourself, husband.”As she replayed their fi rst night together in her mind,

she felt his mind touch hers.“I love you so much. Last night was everything I dreamed

it would be,” Billy said.“It was neat. Wasn’t it? Space is so beautiful. I thought

it was awe- inspiring when we used to lie on the grass and look up at the stars, but this is amazing. Are you ready to get up and go and eat some breakfast?”

8 Ken Shufeldt

She felt his answer in her mind and told him, That’s a much better idea. We can eat later.

A couple of hours later they showered and went down to the main galley for breakfast.

Richard Patterson spotted them as they entered and wished them a good morning. He asked, “How do you like married life so far? Wait, you don’t need to tell me. You’re both glowing. I just hope you’re always as happy as you are today. Why don’t you take that open table over there, and I’ll be right back with your breakfast?”

As they waited for their meals, Richard’s wife, Shir-ley, brought them a pot of coffee and their silverware. “Congratulations again, and you both look so happy. It almost makes me believe that we may have a chance for a decent life yet.”

“We’re very happy,” Linda said. “And we both think that we’ll all have a good life. It may not be anything like we could have imagined, but it’ll be a good life none-theless.”

“How can you be so sure? Things defi nitely don’t look good right now.”

“I know they don’t, but I believe there are truly won-drous adventures ahead of us.”

“Here’s your breakfast,” Richard said as he sat their meals down.

“That was quick,” Billy said. “I meant to tell you the other day, you guys are doing a great job running the gal-ley.”

“Thanks. I’m afraid we don’t know much, other than how to run a café, but we always try to do our part.”

“You’re defi nitely doing your part.”

tribulations 9

“We’d better let these two newlyweds eat their break-fast,” Richard said. “I just saw some soldiers come in. We’d better get busy, because those kids can eat like horses.”

Billy and Linda Lou ate their breakfast in what looked like complete silence. In reality, they were conversing in their own special way. When they fi nished eating Billy asked, I’m going to the lab to work on fi nding us a des-tination. Would you like to come with me?

No thanks, I need to get down to the hospital and get back to work. There are over a hundred people waiting to see a doctor.

I didn’t realize that we had that many people who were injured.

They’re not all injured. Most of them just have your normal everyday health problems.

When Billy reached his lab, he reviewed the ship’s logs for any issues. When he was fi nished, he leaned back in his chair as he contemplated what their initial destina-tion should be.

Since it was technically the closest one, several of the other scientists in the fl eet wanted to try to reach the Canis Major dwarf galaxy. He’d strongly disagreed with them, however, because it was in the pro cess of being pulled apart by the gravitational forces of the Milky Way.

It had taken him several hours, but he fi nally decided on the Sagittarius dwarf elliptical galaxy. The problem was that although it was relatively close as stellar ob-jects go, it was still over four light years away.

As he pondered the im mense distances they would need to travel, he realized that they needed to fi nd a way to exceed the speed of light.

As he tried to think through the problem, it brought back memories of a conversation that he and Klaus Heidelberg

10 Ken Shufeldt

had had on the subject. He had told Klaus that he thought faster- than- light travel was feasible, even though Albert Einstein’s theories didn’t support his thinking.

Klaus had been a close friend of Einstein’s, and he had assured Billy that Einstein had believed it was possible. Thinking of Klaus made him remember how much he missed having him around.

After he had spent a few minutes remembering Klaus, he said a quick prayer for him and resumed his work.

He called up the schematics of the ship on his computer screen so he could study them. While they were building Genesis, he had Nicholas Stavros add a set of massive magnetic projectors in the bow of the ship. At the time, he didn’t know exactly how he was going to utilize them, but he had felt that he would at some point.

He spent the day deep in thought, and when he fi nally looked up from his computer, it was after 6:00 pm. He had worked through lunch, and he realized he was starv-ing. He saved his work and went to fi nd Linda, so they could eat dinner together.

He found her in the hospital, where she had just com-pleted an evaluation of John Tyler. John had passed out during their wedding reception the previous night, and he had to be rushed into surgery. Linda’s boss and men-tor at the Mayo Clinic, William Robbins, had performed the microsurgery necessary to repair several congenital defects in his heart.

Linda greeted Billy as he entered John’s room. “I’m glad you’re here. I just fi nished examining John, and he’s making a good recovery from his surgery. I think he’ll be able to resume some light duties in eight weeks or so.”

She turned back to John and said, “You don’t know how lucky you are. Without the advances in microsurgery that we’ve made in the last two years, you probably

tribulations 11

wouldn’t have survived, and if you had, you would have been laid up for several months, instead of several weeks.”

“Actually, I understand more than you could ever know. The doctors at Walter Reed had told me that the surgery wasn’t even possible. In fact, it was the reason I got out of the military.”

“The last few days have been pretty exciting for you,” Billy said. “You’ve got a new baby boy, and you’re going to get your health back. How are Millie and Adam doing?”

“I only got to spend a few hours with them before I had my problem, but this is the happiest we’ve been in many years. We can’t thank both of you enough for all that you’ve done for us.”

“No thanks needed,” Linda said. “Besides, if it hadn’t been for you, our entire team might not have made it.”

“It’s great that you’re going to get your strength back, because I’m going to need your help,” Billy said.

“No problem, you can count on me. If you don’t mind, I do have a couple of questions. Do you think we’ll be able to fi nd a new home, and how long will it take us to reach it?”

“I’ve selected our fi rst place to search, but at our pres-ent speed, we won’t be able to reach any destination for many years.”

“That doesn’t sound very promising. I would hate to think of Adam growing up without ever being able to run and play in the sunshine.”

“It’s too early to think like that. I’m working on some things that may allow us to cut some time off of our travel, but it’s too early to talk about them yet.”

* * *

12 Ken Shufeldt

Most of the living quarters had kitchens, but they hadn’t worked out the logistics for everyone to pick up the food they needed, so everyone was either eating in one of the ship’s galleys or they were picking up their meals and taking them back to their quarters to eat.

Billy and Linda Lou liked eating with everyone, but they had decided that they wanted some time alone. As they sat eating, they had joined their minds instead of talking out loud. Billy had turned on the virtual reality system so the scene was quite a contrast of perceptions. They were sitting at a small table in front of the fi replace in their bedroom, but they were surrounded by open space.

The stars didn’t twinkle in the vacuum of space, and the crystal- clear view was incredible. They could see the faint glow of the ships that stretched out for miles be-hind them, and the occasional piece of space junk that went speeding by.

They were already moving faster than any human had ever gone. The fl eet had been under constant accelera-tion since they had left the rally point, and it wouldn’t be too much longer before it reached its maximum speed.

At maximum power, the Genesis was capable of al-most 60 percent of the speed of light, but the rest of the fl eet was only capable of about half that.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to the view,” Linda said.

“It is awe- inspiring,” Billy replied. “But I imagine we’re going to see a lot of things that we never thought we would. Even though I’m responsible for much of the tech-nology, I’ve got to admit that I’m somewhat astonished by what we’ve achieved.”

“I know what you mean. I’m still struggling with our lives in general, but as bad as some of it has been, I’m still extremely grateful for what God has given us.”

tribulations 13

They had almost fi nished eating when Larry Sheldon called Billy on the intercom. “Our sensors have just picked up a ship, and it’s about three hundred thousand miles behind us.”

“Can you identify it?”“I believe it’s the president’s ship, Freedom.”“The President of the United States! Are you sure?”“I am, and that’s not all! There’re several other ships

traveling with it. They’re closing with us, but our sen-sors show that they’re running dangerously close to an overload on their power systems.”

“Signal the fl eet to reduce our speed by 30 percent. That should be enough for them to catch up to us. At that speed, how long do you think it will take them to catch us?”

“Let’s see, it shouldn’t take more than twenty- four hours.”

When the president’s ships were within a few hours of the fl eet, Billy hailed them: “This is the Genesis, call-ing the Freedom. Freedom, please respond. Freedom, if you’re receiving this, please respond.”

He was about to hail them again, when they answered: “Genesis, this is President McAlister, on board the United States Vessel Freedom. Who am I taking to?”

“This is Billy West, and I’m glad you made it. How many other ships do you have with you, and what took you so long?”

“I’m glad we’re fi nally getting to talk,” President McAli-ster said. “I’ve heard so much about you from Larry Shel-don and Klaus Heidelberg. How are they doing?”

“Larry Sheldon is fi ne, but Klaus Heidelberg died just before we left.”

14 Ken Shufeldt

“I’m so sorry. He was one of my most se nior advisors and a truly brilliant man. I’ll miss him.”

“We all will. He was quite a man.”“He was, wasn’t he? I’m sure that he would be proud

of what you and Larry Sheldon have accomplished.”“It could have never happened without his help.”“I’m sure he would have appreciated the credit, but

the last time we talked, he told me you’re the only rea-son any of us made it.

“You asked me earlier how many ships we have in our group. We have forty ships, not counting the Freedom. We would have been here sooner, but we had to leave Earth in the wrong direction to avoid the incoming as-teroid swarm.

“I’m glad you slowed down, we were running at over a hundred- percent load on the generators, and I was afraid we would burn them out. Luckily for us, you did such a great job designing the ships that they were up to the challenge. Did you pick us up on sensors, or did you slow down for another reason?”

“We picked you up on our sensors, so I gave the order to slow down.”

“I’m sure glad you spotted us. As soon as we catch up, we’ll assume the lead positions, and I’ll take over. I ap-preciate you getting the fl eet that far. It’s a job well done.”

Almost anyone else would have taken offense to some-one taking over after they had brought the group that far, but it never occurred to Billy.

It took the Freedom and its sister ships the rest of the day to pass Billy’s fl eet. Once they had, they took up po-sitions in front of the Genesis.

Once they were all in formation, the president radioed the fl eet:

“Attention, attention, this is the President of the United

tribulations 15

States, John McAlister. I’m happy to report the Freedom, which is my fl agship, and the rest of the United States fl eet, has arrived. I’ve assumed command and assumed responsibility for the continued planning and execution of our evacuation.

“My advisors have told me it’s going to take a long time to reach another planet. However, you may rest assured that I’ll do everything possible to ensure we all reach safety.

“I need to get an assessment of everyone’s current sta-tus, so there will be a mandatory video conference at one tomorrow afternoon. All ship commanders should be pre-pared to present their current supply inventory so I can begin to assess our available resources. Again, thank you all for your cooperation in these trying times.”

As the months passed, President McAlister contin-ued to consolidate his control over the fl eet. He brought structure to the fl eet, but his heavy- handed ways were be-ginning to grate on the nerves of several in Billy’s group.

Meanwhile, Billy had been working almost day and night as he tried to develop his plans for a faster- than- light drive. Finally, he decided he had a solution and called his team together to discuss his plan.

He had Nicholas Stavros and his teams meet him in his lab for a briefi ng. He also invited John Tyler and Larry Sheldon, so he could keep them up to speed.

“Thank you for taking the time to meet with me,” Billy said. “As many of you know, I’ve been working on a plan to allow us to exceed the speed of light.”

“I didn’t think that was possible,” Nicholas Stavros re-plied. Nicholas was a brilliant young engineer, and he and his teams had been largely responsible for the construction

16 Ken Shufeldt

of the American portion of the fl eet. If you had been ob-serving him, you might have thought that he was a teen-ager with ADD.

“That’s what most of the scientifi c community believes, however, I’ve developed an approach that should allow us to break that barrier. I had talked with Klaus Heidel-berg about it before he died, and he also believed it to be possible.

“It was his encouragement, and his suggestion that I read all of Stephen Hawking’s research that kept me work-ing toward a solution. Before he died, Klaus arranged for me to gain access to Hawking’s unpublished papers, which has proven to be invaluable.”

Klaus had mentioned it in passing, and Larry Sheldon had actually been the one who had gotten the papers for Billy, but he didn’t say anything about it.

“What do you need us to do?” Nicholas asked excit-edly.

“I’ve already uploaded the engineering changes that I need done.”

“How do we get at them?”“They’re all stored on the central server, but I would

like to walk you through them, before you get started.”Billy hit a button on the wireless remote he was carry-

ing, and a holographic image of the bow of the ship ap-peared before the group.

“These things will never cease to amaze me,” John said.

“It’s pretty amazing, but it’ll let me show you exactly what I need done.”

Billy used the remote control to highlight the new power leads to the magnetic projectors, and the projec-tors’ main plates.