Joah Maroon 1

Joah
Maroon 1
The New Ride
Rodzil LaBraun


© 2021 Rodzil LaBraun
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction.  All characters, names and locations are a product of the author’s imagination.  Any resemblance to real people is purely coincidental.  Any references to real people or locations are used fictitiously.
Find more novels by Rodzil LaBraun:
Author website: https://rodzillabraun.com/index.html
Amazon Author site: https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B013YWMRA6
Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14212575.Rodzil_LaBraun


The Joah Maroon series is based on the main character from the Island Girls Trilogy.  Though reading that three book series is not required to enjoy this story, it is advisable to fully understand references and the established characters.  Joah, Lin and Nancy have all come an extremely long way since their first appearance on the page.  I believe that following their strange and wild adventure through the Island Girls series will assist you in enjoying this tale to the fullest.
Island Girls book one available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08262Q9S1
Entire trilogy available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089ZFYN87


Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four


Chapter One
My stomach felt abnormally queasy after reentering our known universe.  I'd gone through the rip-jump process a hundred times, only getting an upset stomach on the first few.  I wasn't sure the reason for the relapse.  It could be my nerves or the fact that it was the first time that this ship had performed the highly technical transition over into the alternate fabric of space and back.
It was probably both, since this was my inaugural mission as captain of the Terran Capsule as well.
Lin reached for her injection tube and promptly pressed it against her shoulder.  A moment later Nancy did the same.  At least I wasn't the only one.  However, the two of them had intermittent trouble with the interstellar travel technique.  Since they were each serving their first duty in their new capacity, it might just be the jitters for them too.
Spaceport Andromedas contacted us moments later.  Our ship's computer exchanged data with the trading station without a need for us to get involved.  At least at that point.  Voice communication would possibly be required once we got closer.  I had personally only visited this station once before, and that was over a year ago.  I wasn’t even in the command room during that approach.
The small commercial spacecraft did not belong to me.  It was owned by Oxeonn.  The company had five such vessels in operation.  I had the pleasure of being trained on the fleet's flagship by the owner, Plith Sunderin.  That vessel was nearly three times the size of this one and carried a crew of twenty-two people.  It came as a bit of a shock when he offered me the position of captain on his newest ship.  I had only been with him for two years.
Not so surprising was his offer for me to take both Lin and Nancy with me.  The three of us had been inseparable ever since we escaped the clutches of the Thesphilians.  They had luckily found jobs aboard that merchant ship the same time as me.
The only additional crewmate on the Terran Capsule, which I personally named, was an android.  Plith had been insistent that the thing be included.  The company had never commissioned an artificial intelligence robotic entity before.  AIRE for short.  My ship was to be the guinea pig, but of course no one in the new galactic era understood that reference.  If testing went well, he planned to place one on every ship in his small commercial fleet.
I was absolutely certain that the AIRE unit had been assigned to us first due to our small crew and lack of experience.  Class E merchanters typically carried a crew of five minimum.  No other employees applied to join us, which seemed a bit strange.  That was until we learned of our assigned route.
Four separate star systems provided a circle of supply and demand that would yield Plith and his company huge profits.  They would also provide us with a great variety since only two of the four were controlled and inhabited by humans.  Just as frightening for modern day space travelers was the fact that half of our destinations were on planets instead of the habitation rings of space stations.
Planet deliveries didn't bother me in the least.  Nor did it worry my crew.  The three of us were all from Earth originally.  We had been sent into cryogenic preservation at different times but were released nearly two hundred years in the future only days apart.  By perverted, deadly game designing aliens.
Our story about surviving the death-defying entertainment show of the Thesphilians had spread across the human media network surprisingly fast.  For several months we were celebrities.  As our fame began to fade, we sought employment in a galaxy with which we were not all that familiar.  Public relation gigs got us by for a little while.  When free food and housing was no longer available, we eventually had to find real work.
There were five of us then.  Shira and Nevenah snagged some office jobs on the prime residential station at Tau Ceti.  With my security background and muscular build, I was able to find work easy enough.  However, when Plith Sunderin offered me an entry level position on the Chargreuse, the Oxeonn ship that he himself captained, I eagerly took it.  My only request was that he also hire Lin and Nancy.
Both girls studied hard and earned positions quickly as others retired or transferred to