Lair

Lair


Henchman Book One


Carl Stubblefield


Copyright © 2020 by Carl Stubblefield
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.


Contents
Acknowledgments
Newsletter
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
Epilogue
Afterword
About Carl Stubblefield
About Mountaindale Press
Mountaindale Press Titles


Acknowledgments
Hey y’all!
I’d love to take the time to go ahead and thank a lot of people. My family, friends, peers, and those who supported me.
And now those who...didn’t. Those who doubted me. Those who tried their best to bring me down. Those who fueled my rage and spite-filled nights with writing. Those who can be immortalized as villains and who tried so desperately to keep me and other good people miserable for their own gain.
To you? I say thanks, and read carefully. You never know what may lay between the lines, subtext and foreshadowing and all that. See you soon.


Newsletter
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Chapter One


Free Falling
Gus dragged the mop across the already spotless floor on the bridge of the space station. He had drawn the short straw and got custodial duty, again. Staring at the floor, he didn’t notice the increase in activity of the crew.
Just do your time. Three more months on the station then you can get back to your friends. He had only taken this job because he thought his three best buds would be onboard with him. When they didn’t get picked, Gus had been alone. He felt isolated as the new guy, and, of course, all the worst jobs fell to him more than what seemed like his fair share.
A sudden impact made everyone stumble, shaking Gus out of his moping while mopping.
“Give me a status report!” Station Commander Graviton barked.
“Sir, it appears that we have lost stabilizers one through six and the remaining two are at half capacity,” First Lieutenant Aurora reported as her hands flew across multiple view-panels.
“How is this happening? I thought having him here would prevent those types of malfunctions!” Graviton growled, jabbing a finger in Gus’ direction.
Gus tried to press himself closer to the wall in a misguided attempt to become less noticeable. His super employer was known for his hot temper, and despite his famous father’s connections getting him this job, he had no illusions that he wouldn’t be crushed in a fit of rage. Just his luck to be on custodial duty when something went wrong.
“The stabilizers are showing no signs of mechanical failure, but there is something impeding their access to a sufficient gravimetric field to function as designed—”
“Is the disruption only below us or all around?”
“It appears to be a disc-like interruption slowly moving to eclipse the footprint of the station from Earth. Remaining stabilizers will be unable to function in forty seconds!”
Gus slowly slid toward the exit as Graviton madly pounded at various panels. Adjustments made, he slid his arms into two sleeves in a crystalline box that resembled the type lab techs used to work on dangerous chemicals or viruses. Once his hands were inside the sleeves up to the elbow, the inside of the box lit up and a blue hue emanated from his palms. His hands began gesticulating and waving and then were pressed flat as if he were trying to keep the lid on a box with some wild creature inside fighting to be set free.
The whole floor tilted suddenly and the mop bucket began to slide when it suddenly stopped with a slight vibration as the crystal box activated. Gus was hoping to get off the bridge, but as his mag-boots engaged he couldn’t lift his feet off the ground. He didn’t know if it was due to his boots being typical faulty, low-tier henchman issue or that the magnetized floor was set for supers and he was just too weak.
So flipping close to the door! Gus pulled frantically at his ID attached to his retractable keycard holder, trying to stretch it to the sensor panel. Of course, it had to be on the right side of the exit door, a mere six feet away. Directly behind him was the access door to the escape pods.
Why not? he thought, pulling the ID to this panel. The panel flashed on:
ID: Gus Vannett
Rank: G.O.O.N.
This pod is reserved for Tier 1 employees only, please access pods reserved for your particular tier.
Tier 1 comprised the highest ranked supers, who made up the bridge crew. Pods for regs were probably hopelessly far away on the extreme lower levels; if they even existed, that was. One more reality that reaffirmed the distinction between supers and regs, as they were called—regular humans with no powers.
“Get ready!” Graviton shouted.
Gus turned back to the chaos… and was hit by a wave of nausea as his inner ear was overwhelmed with the confusing maelstrom of forces, as it struggled to determine what was up and down. It felt as if riding a spinning teacup ride on a rollercoaster with a liberal amount of loop-de-loops. He held out valiantly for about two and a half seconds before throwing up.
The fluid projectile mass streamed away from him, combining with the levitating