Book 1
Chapter 1
Welcome Home!
United Planets And Galactic Fleet
Copyright © 2026 by David Desperado
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.
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To my boys, Buster and Chance
We will be together again! I can't wait to see you!
To Marlys Hersey
Who was there when no one else was!
To My Mom
For this book would not be possible.
About The Author
David Desperado is the author of United Planets And Galactic Fleet. He lives in his home state of Colorado, surrounded by the beautiful mountains, ski areas, and white water rafting that the centennial state has to offer. Last year, David lost his two amazing dogs, Buster and Chance. To escape the grief, he sat at his computer and started writing. From that writing, United Planets and Galactic Fleet was born.
David loves the outdoors. He loves to hike, camp, water ski, snow ski, and play volleyball. His favorite ski area is Snowmass. He holds a private pilot license and the highest amateur (ham) radio license from the FCC. Some of his other favorite hobbies are designing IoT devices, using his 3D printer to engineer new inventions, and developing custom apps using his extensive computer programming skills.
Since he was a child, all David ever wanted to be was a scientist and a teacher. He grew up watching and loving Star Trek: The Next Generation. It gave him the love he has for science, space, and all things around him. It also taught him the moral values that created the person he is today. David created United Planets and Galactic Fleet to bring to life the universe he imagined while looking up at the stars. With this first book in the series, David is looking forward to sharing the UPGF universe with you!
Enjoy!
David Desperado
Learn more about the author at: https://david.zone
United Planets And Galactic Fleet
Official Website
Step into the expanding universe of the United Planets And Galactic Fleet by visiting our official digital hub. The website if your primary source for deep-diving into the complex lore that drives the series, featuring comprehensive character dossiers, detailed vessel specifications, and in-depth profiles of the diverse species and worlds you've encountered. As you look up and dream on how long it might take a UPGF Vessel to travel from Earth to New Vega at warp 10.5 you can use our official UPGF warp speed calculator to calculate warp speed, time, and distance? And dream about how faster-than-light (FTL) speed one day might be possible. Just like in the UPGF series.
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Artificial Intelligence Notice
Every aspect of the United Planets And Galactic Fleet, including the story, characters, locations, and vessels, was conceived and written entirely by David Desperado. One hundred percent of the creative narrative is the product of the author's imagination. Artificial Intelligence was used strictly as a tool for editing, grammar, and spelling corrections, ensuring the original storytelling remains purely human.
Images
All content within United Planets And Galactic Fleet was created and written by David Desperado. Not a single word of the text was written by artificial intelligence. The entire concept, story, and text are the sole creation of David Desperado.
Character Disclaimer
This is a work of fiction. Apart from the character David Swanson-Cargill, who is intended to resemble the author David Desperado, names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Image Notice
Images in the United Planets And Galactic Fleet Flipbook have been generated by Artificial Intelligence. The images are not a perfect rendering of the storyline. The images are to help your imagination to pull you into the United Planets And Galactic Fleet universe.
Author Note
I hope you enjoy the images that I have assembled to go with the United Planets And Galactic Fleet, book one. I am not an artist and have very little drawing skill. I used ChatGPT and Google Gemini's Nano Banana to create images at particular parts in the novel. The images are by no means perfect, nor do they perfectly depict the actual scenes. When reading a book, I like to stop and pause often, closing my eyes, and imagine the scene in my head. Still images can help. Especially to convey what the author is trying to bring to life. And that's why I decided to include A.I. generated imagery. Just a little help to bring to life the characters, locations, vessels, and scenes that I imagined as I was writing the story. I hope the images, although not perfect by any means, will help to enhance your imagination and bring you into the world of the United Planets and Galactic Fleet!
David Desperado
Copyright Notice
All images included in the United Planets And Galactic Fleet are the property of UPGF LLC and/or their associated copyright owner. All images are copyrighted and protected under the United States Federal Copyright Laws and International Laws. Copyright © 2026 UPGF LLC. All Rights Reserved. Strictly copyright protected. Reproduction, distribution, or commercial use is prohibited without written consent. Violations are subject to applicable international copyright treaties and laws.
Acknowledgments
I want to thank my two amazing, beautiful, and smartest dogs who are nothing but pure love, Buster and Chance! You were, are, and forever will be the light in my heart! You will forever be carried on and in my heart. I can't wait to see you both, to run in green grass, fall, and have both of your wet tongues licking my face as you pounce on me!
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Welcome Home! ...........................................XX
Chapter 2: The Attack! ...................................................XX
Chapter 3: War Declared! ..............................................XX
Chapter 4: Invasion! .......................................................XX
Chapter 5: Captain! ........................................................XX
Chapter 6: Zephyrus! .....................................................XX
Chapter 7: Destination, Andromeda! ............................XX
Chapter 8: Lost In Space! .............................................XX
Chapter 9: What The Hail! .............................................XX
Chapter 10: Quarantine! .................................................XX
Chapter 11: Hero! ............................................................XX
Chapter 12: Friendship! .................................................XX
Chapter 13: Let's Go Home! ...........................................XX
Chapter 1
Welcome Home!
The date was December 17, 2176. It had been a grueling day for Dr. David Swanson, Chief of Medicine for the United Planets and Galactic Fleet (UPGF). After teaching new medical procedures to the medical cadets, David wanted nothing more than to get home to his partner, Chris Cargill, and rest his aching feet.
David navigated the corridors of the UPGF Medical Academy in Fairbanks, Alaska. The building was made of granite, with walls the same color as the winter storm clouds outside, the floors, made of marble, with a polished gray color to them. With every echoing step, a single thought played on a loop in his mind: Let me get out of here with the least amount of people seeing me.
As he walked through the UPGF medical academy’s main exit, which were two large glass doors, he paused for a moment.
David glanced back, and up, his eyes drawn to the massive UPGF medical crest mounted above the glass entryway. A smile formed on his face, and the aching in his feet seemed to vanish. The ambient noise, the chatter of cadets, the hustle and bustle around him of medical students and doctors, and the whoosh of the large glass doors opening and closing fell silent in his mind.
Even after these past few years, David was struck by the sheer magnitude of the fact that he was the Chief Medical Officer of the UPGF.
The United Planets and Galactic Fleet, UPGF for short, was a union that spanned the Milky Way galaxy, binding Earth to star systems tens of thousands of light-years away. From local neighbors to species on the galactic rim, they were all part of the amazing, peaceful alliance.
Peace, Exploration, and Defense.
These weren’t just words on a wall; they were the privilege David carried every day. As did all officers of the UPGF. It was a heavy, sacred responsibility and honor that every officer in the Fleet accepted the moment they put on the uniform for the first time.
David’s job as Chief Medical Officer came with a multitude of different roles. One of his favorites was teaching new medical cadets prior to their first commission on one of the UPGF’s galactic vessels.
Medical cadets at the UPGF Medical Academy were educated and trained on all the species that make up the UPGF. In addition, medical cadets were trained in a variety of sub-courses, including veterinary medicine.
Large galactic vessels in the UPGF may have a primary surgeon, psychiatrist, counselors, and even a veterinarian assigned to the vessel. While on small UPGF vessels, the Chief Medical Officer may be required to be the ship’s surgeon, psychiatrist, veterinarian, and counselor to the crew.
Veterinarians on galactic vessels didn’t just mean caring for onboard animals, but also the animals on planets the UPGF vessel was assisting or exploring. It was David’s job to make sure the medical cadets were well-trained in all aspects of galactic medicine. To say it was his dream job would be a universal understatement!
The UPGF was made of species that were quite different to humans on Earth. There were some species that were far superior to humans in strength, speed, and agility. Others were semi-aquatic, dwelling primarily in water, while a few were strictly marine, residing solely in liquid environments similar to Earth’s oceans. Some had used genetic bio-engineering to increase their species’ abilities, including intelligence. There were even species in the UPGF that could fly on their home worlds.
One of the founding members of the UPGF hailed from the system Earthlings called Barnard Star. Since their native name was linguistically impossible for humans and most of the Fleet to articulate, they adopted a universal designation: the Bernaves.
Bern, short for Barnard Star, and ‘aves’ for brave or strong. The name came from Old High German elements: bern meaning bear, and hard meaning brave or strong. Bernard means brave as a bear or strong bear. The name Bernaves seemed fitting due to their physiological makeup. The Bernaves have two hearts, two organs that were a lot like the human liver to filter toxins, two kidneys, and their intestines, if damaged, would regrow and repair themselves in less than a few hours. All the Bernaves organs were able to self heal and regenerate after severe injury. It was absolutely extraordinary how the Bernaves’ bodies were able to quickly heal after trauma.
The Bernaves were a one-sex species that resembled humanoid males in most respects. The Bernaves’ palms and foreheads contained dense
clusters of specialized neuroreceptors. When they pressed palms or touched foreheads with another Bernave, they shared a temporary, mild telepathic link. They didn’t read each other’s thoughts, but instantly shared emotional states, their physical well-being, and complex concepts without words.
All Bernaves newborns were grown in artificial wombs. Part of David’s job as Chief Medical Officer of the UPGF was working, training, and teaching on all these different species, which to David, was the most incredible job there was in the UPGF.
This day, December 17, 2176, was a very long day for David. He had been standing most of the day in the UPGF Medical Academy’s main medical theater. The UPGF main medical theater had a medical bed in the center of the auditorium. The auditorium was near a perfect 360° circle. Thirty degrees of that circle was made up of computer consoles, medical equipment, and lab supplies. The remaining degrees of the auditorium were made up of raised, tiered seating. The raised seating had three levels of auditorium seats.
The theater had a second level, where cadets could
stand and overlook the center medical bed. There were large displays around the second level where cadets on both levels could view close-ups of the training procedure. Each seat and standing station had a holographic projector that displayed in 3D the precise surgical procedure being performed. Once the procedure started, a 360° shield engaged. This created a sterile bubble, isolating the patient and medical team from the rest of the auditorium.
On this particular day, David had performed multiple training procedures in the medical theater, including surgery on a Vitallon. A Vitallon was a species that closely resembled a medium-sized Earth dog. They were intelligent, friendly creatures known for forming intense bonds with their caregivers.
When a cadet received a commission on a UPGF vessel, they were required to be trained in all types of medicine. This went beyond just medical; it included extensive training in botany and zoology. Large UPGF vessels might have a primary botanist and zoologist assigned to the crew, but smaller vessels on specific
missions often did not.
In those cases, the Chief Medical Officer had to be ready for anything. They might face a situation where they had to perform surgery on an unknown animal, identify a poisonous plant, or provide counseling to a crew member. When a cadet graduated from the UPGF Medical Academy, they were well-trained and prepared for the vast unknowns of deep space.
As David stepped out of the Academy and looked up at the crest on the building, he saw the storm that had descended on Fairbanks. It was a cold, blustery day in Alaska.
The UPGF Headquarters complex, located west of Fairbanks, was a sprawling network of structures. It housed the departments of Politics, Sciences, Legal, Engineering, Medicine, and all the Academies. The buildings were connected by a network of sidewalks, and the entire area was enclosed in a massive translucent shield. This barrier protected the campus from the harsh arctic weather, maintaining a perfect internal temperature of 22.22° Celsius (72°F).
David continued down the sidewalk toward an area marked by six large archways. These were the Matter to Energy to Matter Conversion Transporters, known simply as MEM archways.
There was also a variant called a MEM pad. MEM pads were primarily used on shuttles and galactic vessels. As a person stepped through the archway, they were almost instantly converted from matter into an energy stream, directed through the MEM transporter gateway network, and rematerialized at another MEM archway or pad at their destination.
Many students used the MEM transporters to commute to the campus or travel to off-site training locations. As David approached the array, there were a few individuals ahead of him, including several medical cadets. They smiled and greeted him as they passed.
David replied with a warm hello and a nod of acknowledgment. But as he moved forward, his mind was already elsewhere. All he could think about was stepping through the front door of his house, kicking off his shoes, and being pounced on by his two amazing dogs, Buster and Chance.
He could almost feel their warm, wet tongues whacking across his face; A greeting that always made him laugh. No matter what mood David was in, those two dogs would welcome him home with unconditional love. It was the kind of greeting that washed away the physical toll of the day, making him forget his aching back and burning feet. After the pouncing of the pups, he pictured his partner Chris waiting for him, and the two of them stepping out onto their patio, putting their feet up, and feeling the ocean breeze.
There were two individuals ahead of David, waiting to walk through the MEM archway. One of them was Eric Hightower, one of the best medical cadets David had ever trained. Eric was currently in a relationship with a cadet from the Engineering Academy named Shane Nacbachagella. It was an inter-planetary relationship; Shane was a humanoid species from a system a little over 42 light-years away, in the constellation Pictor. David had met Shane at a UPGF gala and remembered Eric mentioning that they planned to marry once they both graduated.
It was a perfect example of UPGF philosophy. When an officer received a commission, even on a galactic vessel, they were almost always allowed to bring their family. If an officer was in a “long-term” relationship with another service member, the UPGF did its best to assign them to the same vessel or mission. The Fleet recognized that family made the UPGF stronger. While having families on active duty assignments had potential drawbacks, the benefits to morale and mental health far outweighed the risks.
Watching Eric step up to the MEM transport archway, David found himself wondering where the couple’s primary home was. While the Academy offered on-campus housing, it was optional. With the efficiency of the MEM network, many cadets chose to live elsewhere, commuting instantly from cities on Earth, or even from Luna, Earth’s moon, Venus, or Mars.
The technology behind the MEM transporters was staggering, even to a doctor.
There were several classes of MEM transporters. Shuttle craft and small vessels utilized single-pad
transporters, capable of moving two people at a time. Larger galactic vessels had dedicated MEM bays, usually designed to transport groups of twelve.
Then there were the cargo bays. These massive transporters could transport large equipment, repair droids, or even an entire shuttle. They could technically transport up to a hundred humanoid individuals at once, but this was normally only performed during emergency situations. Attempting to stream that many biological patterns simultaneously risked overloading the vessel’s quantum storage array, making it highly dangerous.
The MEM transporters at the UPGF headquarters were “Short Range” MEM transporters. These systems were capable of sending a pattern up to 500,000 kilometers near the speed of light.
Including the time required to process the pattern, and depending on the distance, a trip took roughly six seconds with a short-range MEM transporter. This range was sufficient to transport an individual anywhere on Earth, to any vessel in orbit, or even to the cities on Luna, even when the moon was at apogee,
its furthest point from Earth.
Of the fifty MEM transporters on the UPGF campus in Fairbanks, eight were designated as “Long-Range.” The Medical Academy maintained six of these units outside its facility, reserved primarily for medical emergencies within the Sol System.
While the short-range MEM transporters were limited to five hundred thousand kilometers, the long-range MEMs could project a stream up to five hundred million kilometers. This massive range allowed for direct transport from Earth to the facilities on Venus, and depending on orbital alignment, even to Mercury and its orbiting starbases.
However, distance mattered. Transporting an individual from Earth to Venus could take between ten to fifteen minutes, depending on where the planets were in their orbits. Because of the vast distances, the MEM transport system rarely sent a direct stream to Mars. Instead, traffic to the Red Planet was routed through the Sol System’s MEM transporter Gateway Network.
The mechanics of the transport were complex. When an individual stepped through, their pattern was broken down into a quantum stream. The data required for a single biological pattern was enormous. To handle this safely, every MEM transporter (whether a pad, bay, or archway) was equipped with its own Tri-Quantum Storage Array.
A single quantum storage device could hold three patterns at once. By linking three of these devices together, which was called the tri-quantum storage array, the MEM transport system created a fail-safe. When a pattern arrived or was created, two backups were instantly generated in the secondary storage devices.
For additional safety, all of Earth’s MEM transporters were tied into a central quantum storage array that was maintained by the UPGF. If a receiving MEM transporter’s tri-quantum storage array was full, or if more streams arrived than a unit could handle, the incoming patterns were redirected to one of Earth’s central quantum storage array’s. These massive
centralized quantum storage array’s could hold tens of thousands of patterns in suspension until they could be safely materialized.
The Sol System had a large constellation of MEM transport gateway satellites, called the MEM Transport Gateway Network. There were tens of thousands of these relay satellites spread throughout the system, extending out to 150 Astronomical Units (AU) from the sun.
Distance dictated travel time. If a person were transported from the furthest edge of the network, the
energy stream could take almost an entire Earth day, around eighteen to twenty hours, to arrive.
For example, if someone was working on Titan, a moon in Saturn’s system, they could use a local short-range MEM transporter to beam up to the MEM Transport Gateway Network. From there, the signal would bounce from relay to relay until it reached Earth. The total travel time would be about forty-five minutes to an hour.
However, as far as the individual was aware, the entire process took the blink of an eye. The traveler was unaware of any time passage during the transport phase, existing only as an energy stream moving through the vacuum of space at nearly the speed of light.
One moment you were on a moon of Saturn; the next, you were home. The technology in 2176 made life easy, and at times, even to David, Chief of Medicine for the UPGF, awe-inspiring!
David’s mind drifted back to a mission nearly twenty
years ago. He was still a Lieutenant Commander back then. One of his assignments was to visit Eris, a dwarf planet on the frozen outskirts of the Sol System. The mission was to perform physicals on the crew members of Eris Base.
When David had finished performing the crew physicals, Eris was near its apogee, its farthest point from Earth. David packed his graviton suitcase and guided it as it floated down the hall from the medical bay to the MEM transport pad.
As David entered the MEM transporter bay, the transport engineer grabbed his graviton suitcase and guided it onto the pad for him. David stepped up onto the pad. His graviton suitcase hovering beside him. The transport engineer engaged the MEM transporter to begin the dematerialization process. The last thing David recalled was the stale, electrostatic smell from the beam, a flash of white light, and then, literally in a blink of an eye, the electrostatic transport smell was replaced by the warm, salty air of the Caribbean. He had materialized in Belle Anse, in the Dominican Republic.
David had left Eris Station at 20:49 Zulu and arrived in Belle Anse at 16:01 Zulu the following day. It had taken nineteen hours and twelve minutes to travel from one of Sol system’s most distant outposts back to Earth.
His pattern had been routed through one hundred and thirty-two different MEM transport gateways, beamed across the solar system at nearly the speed of light. Yet to David, standing there in the tropical sun, no time had passed at all. Even now, the technology amazed him.
The sound of the archway powering-down brought David back to the present.
Ahead of him, Eric Hightower stepped up to the line. David glanced at the destination display: Luna:: Transtopia: MEM Transporter Bay. Transtopia was a major city on the moon, located a little over a thousand kilometers south of Tranquility City.
Once Eric dematerialized, the next person in line stepped up. It was a woman wearing the uniform of a Lieutenant, indicated by the two stripes around her left
arm and the two stripes running down the outer legs of her uniform pants. As she approached the arch, David checked the display again. Destination: Earth:: Africa: Cameroon. He didn’t see the exact location in Cameroon but the region was clear.
Click to view all uniform types
Three seconds after the Lieutenant disappeared,
the indicator light at the top of the arch shifted from red to green. It was finally his turn.
The MEM transport archway was about 2.5 meters tall, finished in a matte silver-gray that resembled polished concrete. Two large circular indicators sat at the apex. When the light was red, the unit was engaged. A safety force field prevented anyone from walking through prematurely; it carried a mild, low-amperage electrostatic charge, just enough to sting if anyone was foolish enough to touch it.
But now, the light was green. The field dropped. The archway was open for David to walk on through.
When the MEM transporter light turned green, a user could technically walk up to the console and manually enter a destination. However, rarely did anyone do that anymore.
David couldn’t remember the exact year, perhaps somewhere around 2097, when the Quantum-Neuron-Seed was invented.
The inventors had named it the “Seed” because,
physically, it closely resembled an Earth green bean. In the modern era, medical teams normally implanted the device within the first twelve hours of a newborn’s life. During his time as a physician, David had implanted thousands of them.
The procedure was simple. The Quantum-Neuron-Seed was harnessed onto the L5 vertebra of the spine in humans. Once secured, it “sprouted,” extending four lines upward and four lines downward. These bio-lines, resembling ultra-thin copper filaments. They were made of artificial neurons. They wove themselves into the
patient’s spinal cord, creating a seamless bridge between biology and technology.
For those born before 2196, the retrofit was simple. A physician would make a small incision above the L5 vertebra, insert the device, and close the wound. The whole process took less than fifteen minutes. The procedure was completely painless, and the connection was established within moments after closing the incision.
The Quantum-Neuron-Seed allowed an individual to be instantly connected to the vast UPGF networks telepathically. If David needed to perform surgery on an unknown species, he could simply think the command, and the Quantum-Neuron-Seed would access the medical library, downloading the exact surgical procedure directly into his mind.
It also revolutionized communication. To speak to someone, David only had to think “Connect,” followed by the person’s name. The Quantum-Neuron-Seed would route the signal through the facility or vessel’s network, establishing a link instantly. While the
technology allowed for telepathic data communication, humans were verbal creatures by nature, and most still preferred to speak out loud. The Quantum-Neuron-Seed would capture the voice communication of the individual, process it, and then route it to the UPGF communication network.
No one was required to have a Quantum-Neuron-Seed. But, David knew of no one that didn’t have one implanted. It made life so much easier.
David smiled, remembering the moment his own quantum-neuron-seed came online. Suddenly, he had possessed access to libraries of infinite information.
It had fueled his favorite hobby: piloting vintage, early-twenty-first-century jets. Through the quantum-neuron-seed, David had instantly downloaded the flight manuals and schematics for every jet ever invented. Conversely, it also gave him instant understanding of warp field mechanics, a subject that didn’t interest him in the slightest, but was unfortunately required to achieve the rank of Commander in the UPGF.
As David stepped up to the archway, he projected a single thought: Home!
Instantly, the Quantum-Neuron-Seed transmitted his desired coordinates to the MEM transport computer. David glanced at the console to verify the destination. The display confirmed it: Earth:: Makatea Island: West Park.
Makatea was a small, uplifted coral atoll in Earth’s Pacific Ocean, part of French Polynesia . David and Chris lived nearly two kilometers off the island’s western coast.
Their home was an “Oceanic Model.” It stretched two hundred and fifteen meters in length (over 705 feet), yet only five meters wide (about 16 feet).
The layout was designed for the view. The main floor featured a guest bedroom overlooking the island cliffs and a state-of-the-art kitchen facing the open ocean. Above the main floor was the loft. The loft was David and Chris’s main bedroom. Three walls of the loft, including the ceiling, were constructed of high-strength transparent smart-glass. It offered an unobstructed, panoramic view of the West Pacific, looking out toward
Bora Bora.
At night, when the sky was clear, David and Chris would lie in bed and watch the cosmos. They could often see the larger UPGF galactic vessels in orbit, tracking the sudden streaks of light as they jumped to warp.
On nights when the moon was overhead, the view was breathtaking. They would lie there, staring up at the amber lights of the lunar cities glowing against the dark cratered surface. But they loved the pacific rain storms just as much. During the South Pacific rainy season, from November through April, they would fall asleep
watching the lightning illuminate the ocean, safe and dry behind their transparent walls.
Both men shared a deep love for the outdoors. They spent their off-time hiking or running on Makatea Island, and they were avid skiers, both on water and snow. But their true passion was the ocean.
Any chance they got, they were scuba diving. And their home reflected that passion.
Beneath the waterline, the house featured a full-length underwater basement. The entire level was submerged, serving as a massive game room. Just like
the loft, the walls here were fully transparent. Although the house had a guest bedroom upstairs, visitors almost always elected to stay down in the oceanic basement, mesmerized by the sea life swimming past the glass.
When the rains came and the seas were too rough for diving, David and Chris retreated to their underwater sanctuary. It was their favorite spot to unwind, playing air hockey or pool while the ocean life drifted silently around them.
One of the primary reasons David and Chris chose to build their home near Makatea was its proximity
to the underwater medical facility known as Subaqua Makatea.
Located about fifty kilometers west of the island and resting about one-thousand three-hundred seventy meters beneath the surface, Subaqua Makatea was a small, submerged city dedicated to marine research and medicine.
Subaqua Makatea was directly connected to a much larger hub, Subaqua Bora-Bora. Chris loved visiting Subaqua Bora-Bora, as it hosted a massive, climate-controlled underwater snow ski resort.
David and Chris owned a private shuttle parked at their home. Like most UPGF small crafts, it was amphibious, capable of traveling through the vacuum of space or the crushing depths of the ocean. They used their shuttle often to visit these underwater cities.
David flew the shuttle to Subaqua Makatea a couple of times a month to consult on marine surgeries. Just a month ago, the facility had contacted him in the
middle of the night for an emergency procedure. They were acclimating a non-native whale species to Earth’s oceans, and one of the specimens had fallen ill. Despite being awoken in the middle of the night, David loved the work. It was a rare opportunity to perform surgery on such a massive creature, and his team had successfully saved the whale’s life.
David’s thoughts returned to the present as the
MEM transport console flashed: Earth::Makatea Island::West Park.
Above him, the Fairbanks blizzard howled, but the path forward through the MEM transporter archway was now clear displaying a green light overhead. David stepped through the MEM transporter archway.
The machine activated. The stale, electrostatic smell hit him, followed by the flash of white light.
In three seconds, he had traveled from the frozen tundra of Alaska to the lush tropics of the South Pacific.
As David stepped off the pad on Makatea Island, he looked up. It was the rainy season. A torrential downpour was hammering against the park’s weather shield, sliding off the invisible dome like a waterfall. Yet, inside the perimeter, the air was dry and maintained at a perfect 22.22° Celsius (72°F). Seeing the water cascading down the shield reminded him of lying in bed with Chris, watching the rain hit the glass ceiling of their loft.
"I’m almost home", David thought to himself.
Normally, David wouldn’t have transported to Makatea West park. Because David and Chris were both high-ranking officers, and specifically because David was the Chief Medical Officer of the UPGF and subject to emergency recall, they had a private MEM transporter installed at their residence.
The unit was housed in a small pavilion connected to the main house by a walkway. On the opposite side of the property, a larger pavilion featured an artificial grass run for the dogs and a playset for guests with children. Both pavilions and the walkways were
equipped with shield generators, ensuring that even in the worst storms, no one got wet or struck by lightning.
However, their MEM transporter archway was currently offline. Chris, being an engineer, was in the middle of upgrading the unit’s quantum storage array to handle additional patterns.
As David stepped out of the archway on Makatea island and started down the path toward the parked shuttle, a wave of relief washed over him.
He was officially on vacation. For the next six weeks, the Academy, the cadets, and the bureaucracy were someone else’s problem. He wasn’t scheduled to return to duty until the last week of January 2177.
He approached the shuttle, a sleek craft that was green and blue that he shared with Chris. It was a standard six-person model with a configurable interior. The cockpit featured two swivel seats, one for the pilot, one for a co-pilot, followed by a central storage bay. In the rear, a couch provided seating for two more passengers, or it could pull out into a bed for long-haul trips.
The shuttle was a workhorse, designed for both interplanetary and sub-oceanic travel. It was primarily used for hopping around Earth's trans-oceanic cities, and the inner planets of the Sol System. Powered by a Class Three warp engine, it had a maximum speed of Warp 5.9. However, for most trips, they cruised between Warp 1 through 5. In this vessel, they rarely broke the light-speed barrier, which sat at Warp Factor 5.1.
It was perfect for local travel, but for galactic travel, they had the Hyacinth.
David smiled just thinking about their
trans-galactic vessel and the vacation they had taken together. The Hyacinth was a luxury compared to the shuttle, boasting six bedrooms, a fully stocked galley, and a compact medical bay. It was fitted with much more powerful engines, capable of a maximum Warp Factor of 18.
They rarely pushed her that hard, though. The fastest they had ever gone was Warp 17, and only for a few hours. Usually, they cruised at a comfortable Warp 15. That was their standard pace when heading to New Vega, a resort starbase in the Vega System that both Chris and David enjoyed visiting when the opportunity presented its self. At that speed, the trip took a little over a week, perfect for bringing a group of friends along for a vacation.
Normally, the Hyacinth would be parked right at their home, resting under the ocean. A hydrodynamic shield usually kept the ocean water eight meters from the hull, consuming a nominal amount of power, comparable to a house night light. But the Hyacinth was on Makatea. Chris had taken the Hyacinth to the
Makatea Shipyard to overhaul the warp engines.
David reached the shuttle and climbed inside. With a simple thought directed to his Quantum-Neuron-Seed, he brought the engines online and engaged the autopilot for the short trip home.
The Pacific storm was raging. Below him, the ocean churned with massive swells, but David wasn’t worried. Chris had already activated the house’s “Wave-Buster” shields.
It was a brilliant piece of technology. The system projected a 360-degree force field sixty meters out from the house. By generating a precise interference pattern, it canceled out the kinetic energy of the incoming swells, creating a calm, seventy-five-meter circle of flat water around their home.
David set the shuttle down gently on the landing deck. As the engines whined down, he looked through the rain-streaked windshield to the front glass door of the house.
There, pressing their noses against the glass and
jumping with excitement, were Buster and Chance. They were ready to pounce.
Chris rose from one of the living room chairs to meet David at the door. He was wearing a pair of swim trunks.
As David reached the entrance, Chris pressed the control panel. The glass door slid open, and out came the pups.
Chance and Buster came rushing out, launching themselves into the air. The force of the greeting knocked David backward, landing him flat on the deck.
Immediately, he was under siege, wet tongues washing across his face in a chaotic rhythm.
This was pure bliss.
A huge smile broke across David’s face as he tried to defend himself. “Boys, boys, enough! Okay, enough!”
He couldn’t even get the words out clearly. Every time he opened his mouth to speak, Buster or Chance would sneak a tongue in, causing David to sputter and laugh even harder.
Chris stood in the doorway, laughing as he watched
the pile-up. After a few moments, he finally reached down, offering a hand to pull David back to his feet.
“Do you think I can get a kiss in now?” Chris asked, with playful grin on his face.
“Absolutely,” David replied.
Chris grabbed David by the waist of his uniform, pulling him in tight. He pressed his lips firmly against David’s. The contact sent a familiar spark of heat through him, washing away the stress of the day.
“How was your day?” Chris murmured, pulling back just an inch.
“I’m beat,” David sighed, leaning into the hold. “My feet and my lower back are aching. I was in the medical theater all day, standing, training the cadets on new surgical tools. My feet are killing me. I couldn’t wait to get home to see you and the boys.”
“Well, you’re here now,” Chris said softly. “Finally. Six weeks, you and I together. Just you, me, and the pups. I’ve been looking forward to this for months. I have dinner waiting on the patio…”
David reached down, grabbing Chris’s hips, and pulled him back in for another deep kiss.
“That sounds wonderful, babe. Thank you.”
“After dinner, we can lie in bed listening to the rain, and I’ll give your feet a massage,” Chris promised, his voice dropping an octave.”
David stood rooted to the spot, a huge grin plastered on his face, shaking his head in disbelief. He was still wondering how he had landed such a hot guy.
David watched as his partner walked off to the
kitchen.
Just before reaching the kitchen, Chris yelled back, “Take a seat at the table! I’ll bring out the rest of the food. Will you light the T.I.K.I. torches?”
“Yes, I’m on it!” David called back, forcing himself to focus.
David grabbed the T.I.K.I. torch lighter, igniting the wicks as he moved around the porch, lighting each individual torch. Once the perimeter was glowing with amber light, David quickly changed out of his formal UPGF Commander’s uniform and into a comfortable t-shirt and a pair of short green swim trunks.
By the time David returned to the patio, Chris had the table set. He had prepared David’s favorite dish: synthesized shrimp tacos.
Being 2176, humanity had long since moved past the consumption of actual animal flesh. Society had evolved, recognizing that taking a sentient creature’s life was barbaric. With modern food synthesizers, any type of meat could be perfectly replicated, raw, cooked, or seasoned, without the need for slaughter. In the UPGF, killing a sentient creature for food was defined as torture; it was strictly against the law, and frankly, unnecessary.
David and Chris sat at the patio table, watching the flames of the T.I.K.I. torches dance in the wind. The smell of the rain mixed with the salt of the South Pacific, and the roar of the distant waves provided the perfect soundtrack. With their dogs lying contentedly beside them and rum punches in hand, it was a perfect dinner, especially for David, after a long day on his feet.
After eating, they took the dogs over to the play pavilion to run around and do their business.
They strolled down the walkway, illuminated by the flickering torches, and onto the artificial grass. The play pavilion was fully lit, a safe haven from the storm outside the shields. Buster and Chance bolted immediately out onto the pavilion, stretching their legs and lifting them on everything that smelled interesting.
To one side of the pavilion sat an antique-style artificial fire hydrant, a relic from the early twenty-first century, installed specifically for the pups. On the other side sat a comfortable two-person swing set.
As the pups ran wild, Chris grabbed David’s hand. They stood together, looking out from the pavilion toward the dark silhouette of Makatea Island.
They watched Buster and Chance run loops, methodically marking their territory.
“Buster cracks me up,” Chris laughed, squeezing David’s hand. “That pup has to pee on everything. And if Chance pees on it, Buster has to go back and pee on it again. He has to make sure everyone know’s that it’s his territory!”
They sat there for a moment, watching the pups. Both dogs were Black Mouth Curs, amazing, active, and fiercely smart. To David and Chris, they couldn’t ask for better dogs. They were just full of love. The pups were David and Chris’s boys! And there were fiercely protective of them.
Chris and David walked over to the swing set, sitting down and swaying slowly while holding hands. As they swung back and forth, they looked at each other and smiled.
“What? What’s that big grin about?” Chris asked.
"I just can't believe how amazing you are! I'm the luckiest guy in the world!" David said to Chris.
Chris smiled..., "Right back at you!" Chris said to David with a wink!
After a few minutes of letting the dogs run and play in the pavilion, Chris stood up, pulling on Davids hand. “Come on, let’s go to bed. I’m beat!"
“That sounds amazing,” David said.
“Let’s take a quick shower first. I want to wash the day off.”
Chris grabbed David’s hand, and they headed for the outdoor shower in the play pavilion.
After a quick shower in their beautiful outdoor pavilion, they dried off and walked toward the house,
fingers interlaced.
Chris looked back to the pavilion and yelled, “Come on, boys! Come on, Buster, Chance! Let’s go to bed.”
Buster and Chance trotted alongside them, escorting David and Chris back to the house.
As they approached the deck, David grabbed the the T.I.K.I. torch lighter, which included a snuffer, a small bell on the reverse side. Hand in hand, they walked the perimeter of the deck, extinguishing the T.I.K.I. torches one by one. The house A.I. could have easily lit and extinguished the torches, but David enjoyed doing it
himself. He loved walking the deck in the evening, either by himself with the pups or with Chris for a nightly stroll. He enjoyed listening to the sounds of the Pacific Ocean in the background and watching the light from the house flicker on the deck as each torch was put out.
The smell of the ocean breeze gave David a sense of calmness before crawling into bed after a long day. Looking up, he’d see the stars twinkling, the arm of the Milky Way, the occasional shooting star, and possibly a UPGF vessel jumping to warp.
As David and Chris approached the glass door’s to their house, the door slid open, and the dogs bolted inside. The pups didn’t stop at the living room; they ran straight upstairs to the loft, jumped on the bed, and claimed the pillows. They were absolute pillow hogs.
Chris walked past the bed and out to the loft’s private balcony to take in the ocean breeze. Given their isolation, they almost always kept the sliding glass doors open, even in summer.
With their home’s LENR (Low-Energy Nuclear Reaction) fusion generator, energy was practically
unlimited. Their platform bed featured an advanced cooling system with overhead vents that pushed chilled air down all four sides of the mattress. But this evening, the storm breeze blowing in from the ocean was all that they needed to be comfortable.
After David joined David for a moment to take in the the smell of the pacific ocean, the sound of the waves crashing, David looks over at Chris. Chris gave David a smile and David and Chris headed back to their bed.
Buster and Chance were already entrenched on the pillows. Chance looked straight up at them, his eyes practically speaking. I’m not moving! This is my bed! My pillows! Good luck on moving me!
David knew it was futile battle to move Chance off the pillows. In the middle of the night, Chance would use his hind legs to push them ever so slightly until both Chris and David rolled to the side, leaving the pillows entirely for that pup to take all for himself.
David slid into the bed. It was pure heaven!
The feel of the freshly washed sheets against his
skin, the smell of clean fabric, and the sound of the ocean! It was intoxicating. Chris slid in next to him. David turned on his side, spooning his boyfriend, pressing his chest tight against Chris’s back and wrapping his arm around Chris’s waist.
Chris used his Quantum-Neuron-Seed to turn off the lights to the house.
While they were on the balcony, David had lit two T.I.K.I. torches outside their balcony. As they lay curled up together, the room was filled with a soft, amber glow. The light danced across the walls, keeping time with the storm outside.
Just before his eyes closed, David glanced at the clock.
2:22 AM
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Little did they know, that their lives were about to be changed forever.
Looking back, it’s amazing what a single moment can hold. One moment, you have the love of your life, your friend, your partner, the person you know you are going to marry, next to you. You feel that connection, that absolute certainty of a future together.
And then… in a flash, your entire life changes.
David and Chris fell into a deep sleep, the kind David hadn’t had in quite sometime. They were a tangle of limbs: David’s arm across Chris’s chest, his left leg thrown over Chris’s legs.
Above them, the dogs slept. Chance snored softly, while Buster’s head was pressed against David’s. The room was filled with the scent of the South Pacific breeze and the rhythmic sound of crashing waves. The T.I.K.I. torchlight's danced across the bed.
A blinding flash filled the room, brighter than the sun. It was so intense it penetrated below the ocean water, lighting partially up the underwater basement beneath their house.
Moments later, a massive sonic boom shook the house to its foundations.
Buster and Chance went from deep sleep to guard mode in a split second, jumping to attention and barking ferociously at the unknown. They had no idea what they were barking at, but they knew something was wrong.
Dogs can always sense when some truly is wrong!
Buster and Chance stood on the bed, straddling their owners, barking wildly into the dark.
Chris and David bolted upright at the exact same time, shouting in unison, “What the hell was that?!”
They scrambled out of bed and rushed onto the balcony. The dogs were right next to them. Buster planted himself firmly between David’s legs, his body rigid in guard mode. Chance pushed his nose through Chris’s legs, letting out a low, menacing growl. All four of them stood there, staring out into the night, trying to
make sense of what just happened.
David scanned the horizon. Then, his eyes locked on something above him.
David shouted, “Chris, look!”, pointing a finger towards the sky.
Chris followed his gaze. His jaw dropped. “What the hell is that?!”
In that single heartbeat, their lives were irrevocably changed. Neither of them could have imagined the changes that the next minute, hours, days, and months held for them.
It happened faster than someone could snap their fingers.
Earth was under attack!
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Contains uncensored scenes and mature themes.