Alexis Carew: Books 1, 2, and 3 Read online

  The Alexis Carew Series

  Books 1, 2, and 3

  J A Sutherland

  Contents

  Into the Dark

  New London Monetary System

  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

  Epilogue

  A Note from the Author

  Mutineer

  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

  Epilogue

  A Note from the Author

  The Little Ships

  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

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Epilogue

  A Note from the Author

  Also by J A Sutherland

  Wronged

  Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Planetfall

  Foreword

  New London

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Zariah System

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Dalthus

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Dalthus

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  A Note From the Author

  Also by J A Sutherland

  INTO THE DARK

  Alexis Carew #1

  by J.A. Sutherland

  Copyright 2014, Sutherland. All rights reserved.

  Cover Art by Steven J. Catizone

  (https://www.facebook.com/StevenJamesCatizone)

  At fifteen, Alexis Carew has to face an age old problem - she's a girl, and only a boy can inherit the family's vast holdings. Her options are few. She must marry and watch a stranger run the lands, or become a penniless tenant and see the lands she so dearly loves sold off. Yet there may be another option, one that involves becoming a midshipman on a shorthanded spaceship with no other women.

  Created with Vellum

  For Eric

  Sorry, no car rental in this one.

  New London Monetary System

  New London Monetary System

  The basic monetary unit of New London is the pound, though most items in the Fringe Worlds cost considerably less than this; at least those produced on the planet or nearby. The pound is further divided into shillings and pence.

  12 pence = 1 shilling

  20 shillings = 1 pound

  21 shillings = 1 guinea (1 pound, 1 shilling)

  The pence is further divided into half-pence (1/2 pence) and farthings (1/4 pence).

  One

  “This one.”

  “And why’s that, Miss Alexis?”

  Alexis glanced over at her grandfather’s foreman and grinned. “Quizzing me, Brandon?”

  The man crossed his arms and gazed up at the massive varrenwood tree she’d indicated. Over a hundred meters tall and ten in diameter at its base, the tree towered over its neighbors. Its thick canopy blocked the morning sun from reaching the forest floor. Around them, the remainder of the lumber crew trailed up the slope from the camp below, readying themselves for the day’s work while Alexis and the foreman decided how best to harvest the trees on the plot of land.

  Brandon turned his gaze to her and grinned back. “It never hurts to state your reasons, Miss Alexis. Ensures you think them through, it does.”

  Alexis laughed and smiled up at him. At fifteen standard-years old and only a bit over a meter and a half tall, looking up was a thing she’d accepted as her lot in life. She pulled her brown hair back into a ponytail and bound it quickly, already dressed much like the foreman and workers in sturdy denim trousers and a loose linen shirt.

  “True enough, Brandon. All right, then. First, he’s the largest on this parcel, so the most valuable.” She ticked items off on her fingers. “Second, this is probably as big as he’s going to get, so leaving him won’t get us any more income.” She gestured around the clear area beneath the massive tree’s canopy. “Third, all this space will be open for new growth, so we’ll have a nice windfall when we come back next season and cull some of the smaller trees that will spring up. And last, he’s perfectly positioned.” She nodded down the lightly wooded hillside toward the camp. “If we lay him down this slope, it’ll be a straight drag back to camp and we can keep the maximum length for sale.”

  Brandon grunted and Alexis took it for the agreement she knew it was. This was the very tree he’d pick himself, she suspected, and her grandfather as well. The market for varrenwood paid exponentially better
as the wood’s length and breadth increased, and this particular specimen was truly impressive. If they could bring it to market undamaged.

  Brandon squinted down the slope toward the camp. “We’ll have to take one of those two as well.” He pointed to two other trees, each half the size of the one Alexis had chosen, but bracketing the slope where the tree would fall. “Just to be safe.”

  Alexis followed his gaze and shook her head. “No.” She stepped over to the trunk of the massive tree and pulled a can of paint from her belt. She glanced down the hillside again, gauging the angles and sprayed a vertical line on the tree’s trunk. “Luca will drop him right on this, and he’ll fall dead center between them.”

  “Risky. A bit to one side and we’ll lose one of those two and damage this one.”

  “Luca can do it,” she said. “In five years, those two will be worth ten times what they are now. Were we to take one now, we’d lose that growth.” She stepped back to his side. “If it were any crew but Luca’s cutting today, I’d take one of them to be safe …” She paused, considering. “No, if it were any other crew, I’d work a different parcel and come back here when Luca was on. This gives us the maximum return with the least impact.”

  “All right then, Miss Alexis.” He nodded and turned to walk away from the tree. “Put the boys to work…and it’ll be you explaining to your grandfather if it goes awry.”

  “Of course,” she agreed, grinning as she followed him. “Luca!”

  A group of three men carrying laser cutters trouped over to the pair.

  “Take him down, Luca,” Alexis ordered, indicating the massive tree.

  Luca activated his laser cutter and stepped forward, gesturing with it to the line of paint on the trunk.

  “Just there, miss?” he called.

  “And not a centimeter off!” she answered.

  Luca gave her a broad smile and turned to the tree, beginning the process of cutting away its base. The smell of burning wood filled the forest as Luca carefully cut a wedge deeper and deeper into the massive trunk.

  “And is it any particular ‘he’ we’re cutting down to size today, Miss Alexis?” Brandon asked, not taking his eyes from the cutting crew.

  Alexis felt her face warm, but kept her eyes on the crew as well. “Every arrogant, foppish, third-generation planter’s son I’ve had to take tea with these last months,” she muttered.

  “Bad as all that?”

  “Worse.”

  They watched as Luca nodded to the member of his crew stationed behind the tree. The man carved a second wedge in the trunk on his side, opposite the first. Luca watched the man for a moment then resumed cutting on the front. Alexis watched, calculating the angles as she knew Luca was and ensuring that the tree would fall properly.

  “Brandon,” Alexis continued, “some of these boys have never been to a lumber camp or a mine — nor even their home farms. One hadn’t even been on his own holding since he was eight years old.” She snorted in disgust. “His mother took him to live in town, and he’s not been back since. Just idles away his time and spends his father’s money. Never been off-planet, either, but he speaks of New London as though he were born there.”

  “Have to be patient, Miss Alexis. Your grandfather’ll do right by you.”

  There was a faint crack and the massive trunk of the varrenwood began to lean.

  “Coming down!” Alexis yelled.

  The cutting crew hurried away from the trunk. Luca paused, just out of range of the tree’s fall as the sound of creaking and snapping wood filled the clearing. He dashed back and swung the laser cutter again to make one last cut before dancing away. All eyes followed the tree as it slowly toppled, gaining momentum as it fell. Deafening cracks sounded as the last of the wood parted, and then the ground shook as a thousand tons of varrenwood slammed into the forest floor.

  Alexis smiled at the path of the fallen trunk, perfectly bisecting the gap between the two trees they’d needed to miss.

  Luca let out a whoop of triumph. “Just there, miss!” he called, his wide grin making him seem boyish.

  “Fine job, Luca!” Alexis grinned back. She felt her heart swell with pride as the rest of the lumber crew rushed forward to begin trimming the branches from the varrenwood. They’d have the immense tree carved up and ready for the hauler in no time. Then her smile faltered as she thought about what she and Brandon were discussing and how she stood to lose all of this.

  “He can’t do right by me, Brandon. The law won’t let him. I can work a holding. I can know all there is to mining.” She waved at the fallen tree. “I can run a lumber camp. But I can’t own any of it. I have to be married off so that, at least, I’ll get some benefit from all he’s built his whole life.” Her lips curved wryly and she patted Brandon’s arm. “I’m sorry. Not your fault.”

  No, the fault lay in the first settlers of Dalthus, her grandfather among them, who’d wanted to keep the power and lands for themselves, the ones who’d endured the greatest hardships of early colonization. They’d seen how the effects of successive waves of immigration had diluted the power of the first settlers on other colonies, so they’d set up strict laws of inheritance. Primogeniture was the law of the land here – and male primogeniture at that – so only the eldest, male heir could inherit the entirety of an estate. If there were no male heirs, then the estate passed to the husband of the eldest daughter. And if there were no male heir and no married daughters, then the estate transferred back to the colony itself, lands to be auctioned off to the other first settlers with proceeds going into the colony’s coffers.

  Strictly speaking, the law wasn’t enforceable. Dalthus was part of a star kingdom governed from the New London System. And while the New London Constitution did guarantee equal rights and protections for both men and women, the more distant members of the kingdom, often many months of travel away from one of the Core Systems, were often granted great leeway in their local laws and customs. Mostly due to the fact that a colony world’s jurists were limited, by necessity, to local inhabitants, and that the cost of appealing to a court in a Core System would require months of travel time and expense.

  “Marriage is not so horrible, Miss Alexis,” Brandon said, smiling. “Rather fond of it, myself.”

  Alexis had to stop herself from snapping at him. Brandon and his wife loved each other very much, she knew, and seemed quite happy. But neither had they been forced into it – nor had they been kept from work they loved for want of a spouse. She was saved from having to respond by one of the workers calling up the slope from the camp below.

  “Miss Alexis! Your grandfather’s just been on the caller! Says he needs you back at the house and he’s sending a hauler for you!”

  Alexis’ eyes widened and she paled. “Oh, no,” she whispered. “I left the house so early to get here, I forgot what day it was.”

  “Must be important if he’s sending a hauler,” Brandon commented. The colony had a limited number of the antigrav vehicles and gaining their use was expensive.

  “He’s going to kill me,” Alexis whispered, then louder, “I’m sorry, Brandon, you’ll have to finish up here.” She dashed away, heading for the cleared area of the camp where the hauler could land. “And keep an eye on the trimmers,” she called over her shoulder. “They’ve been leaving too much on the trunk. Those branches bring guineas too!”

  Alexis rushed down the slope toward the camp, dodging men, stumps, and felled logs along the way. Once closer, she slowed so as not to spook the team of six horses being led up to drag the newly felled varrenwood down to where it could be prepared for transport. Despite her speed, the hauler had already landed when she arrived; its long, boxy shape and shining metal looking quite modern next to the canvas tents and cooking fires of the camp. Consisting of a large, flat surface, under which was slung an enclosed antigrav unit with power and propulsion, and a small, stubby control cabin stuck onto one end, the vehicle, ugly as it may be, was one of the most valuable things on the planet, next to the fusi
on plant in Port Arthur. It, along with the two others of its kind, was the lifeblood of the colony, transporting cargo to and from the many holdings and the port.

  Alexis flung herself into the cramped control cabin, quickly buckling herself into a folding seat behind the operator and slamming the door shut. Almost before the latch closed, the operator had the hauler back in the air, climbing and banking to turn toward her grandfather’s holding.

  “’Morning, Miss Carew,” the operator said without looking away from his controls.

  “Good morning, Trevyn,” she replied, breathless. “Thank you for the ride. I’m sorry you had to come for me.”

  “Must be important to take me off me scheduled runs so sudden like.”

  Alexis winced. Use of the haulers was tightly scheduled, with every minute of air time valuable and accounted for. Her grandfather would be paying triple-time for this trip, one for the use of the hauler and two more as compensation to the settler whose use of it had been disrupted. “I suppose it is. Please do hurry, will you?”

  “Always do, Miss Carew.” He grinned and pushed the throttle forward, accelerating rapidly. “She does have a bit more pep runnin’ empty, and not having to worry about a load shifting on me. Fun to fly this way, time to time.”

  At least someone will get joy from this afternoon, Alexis thought. For I’ll surely not.

  Within minutes, the hauler had traveled the distance it had taken Alexis three hours to cross that morning on horseback, leaving well before dawn in order to reach the lumber camp in time for the day’s work. As the craft banked to land, she leaned eagerly forward to see out its windows. Despite feeling horrible about the cost and upsetting her grandfather, flying was still such a rarity that she relished the chance to see her home from the air.

  The modest, two-story farmhouse her grandfather had built shortly after her father was born sat proudly at the edge of a dozen other buildings near the road from the village. Long barns sheltering the animals and equipment, barracks for the unmarried workers, and small homes for those who had families all clustered near it. Some distance away, a small village had sprung up, providing shops and services to the workers so they wouldn’t have to travel the hours to Port Arthur. And surrounding it all were the rolling green fields, neatly partitioned by fencing and hedgerows, that made up the home farms that supplied food to the Carew family’s holdings around Port Arthur. Elsewhere on the planet, the family held huge tracts of land under cultivation for export back to the Core Worlds, but Alexis had always felt she could tell the difference between what was produced there and what came from the home farms.