The Black Pearl

The Kryonean Chronicles

By: Bill Parker

Narrated by: Kevin Scollin

I am Captain Jack Falco. I am Recon flesh and Recon bone. In the fog of war, my Talon fighter was blown deep into Kryonean space. All that Jessica and I wanted to do was to work our way home as best we could. Jessica is my artificial copilot, but you would never know that looking at her. Slowly, we worked our way through uncharted enemy space, stopping only for fuel and to chart the area around us. By our own estimates, it would take us a year to get home.

Then, by chance, in the middle of a lonely night, a faint message played out on Jessica’s screen. It was only by the hand of Fate that we found Layla, a Kryonean princess. Her people were my sworn enemy, but not Layla. She changed everything. As it turned out, it was not the Kryonean people that we both hated, it was the Kryonean Empire. The Kryonean Empire had swept across the outworlds to crush her people long ago under their oppressive thumb. They killed and abused who they pleased and taxed the outworlds to pay for it.

When I joined Union Fleet, I swore an oath to protect and defend the people, but now, my new understanding was that "the people" included the Kryoneans, too. The way I saw it, I could help save her people from the Empire and, maybe, end this horrible war at the same time. All we had to do was to reignite her outworld revolution.

I give Union Fleet a lot of credit. They actually agreed with me. Starting a Kryonean revolution should be a far better strategy to end this horrible war than the needless loss of men and ships in endless battles far from home. So, it was that they sent the Black Pearl and made me her captain. Black Pearl was like no other ship. She was Union Fleet’s first pocket battleship. With the Black Pearl, we actually stood a chance.

One more time, though, the road to hell was paved with good intentions. By the hand of Fate, we discovered the empress’s plan to annihilate all of the outworld noble Kryonean families. Most of the noble princesses had already been rounded up. The empress and her henchmen were determined to commit this genocide while the rest of her people’s eyes were on the war.

In the beginning, it was only Layla and I that stood against the empress and the might of the Kryonean Empire, but we gathered a storm around us. But the empress had a hurricane waiting for us - the likes of which were immense, and she was determined to wipe us all out to the last.

©2020 William P. Parker (P)2020 William P. Parker