Junkyard Heroes Read online

  Table of Contents

  Special Edition

  About Junkyard Heroes

  Praise for The Endurance series:

  Title Page

  The Endurance Timeline

  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

  Epilogue

  Did you enjoy this book? How to make a big difference!

  Special Bonus Story

  About Forever

  Forever Title Page

  Forever

  The next book in The Endurance series.

  About the Author

  Other books by Tracy Cooper-Posey

  Copyright Information

  Special Edition

  This edition of Junkyard Heroes includes the Endurance series origins story, Forever. The special edition will only be available for pre-orders and for a few days after the release of the book on February 23, 2017.

  Forever is included at the end of Junkyard Heroes.

  Enjoy!

  About Junkyard Heroes

  How does someone afraid of their own shadow become a hero and win love?

  Pint-sized Noa Doria and her “loser” friends help a stranger in trouble—none other than Haydn Forney. Haydn is the son of the most hated man on the Endurance, Fornell Acardi, leader of the psychotic Caver movement. Strife follows Haydn everywhere.

  Junkyard Heroes is the fifth book in the science fiction romance series readers are calling gripping, superb and fantastic. Written by award-winning SFR author Tracy Cooper-Posey, it is set aboard the closed-system marathon-class vessel Endurance, a generation ship a thousand years from its destination. If you like the smart, romantic SF of authors like Linnea Sinclair and Anna Hackett, you will love the Endurance series.

  Dive into this thought-provoking new romance series today!

  __

  This book is part of The Endurance SFR series:

  Book 0.5 5,001

  Book 1.0 Greyson’s Doom

  Book 2.0 Yesterday’s Legacy

  Book 3.0 Promissory Note

  Book 3.1 Quiver and Crave

  Book 4.0 Xenogenesis

  Book 5.0 Junkyard Heroes

  …and more to come!

  A Science Fiction Romance Novel.

  Praise for The Endurance series:

  I am so glad that this author finally got around to writing SF cause she's great at it.

  To all SF fans out there, I highly recommend this be on your reading list. To the author, PLEASE keep giving us these amazing stories.

  I cannot wait to read more in this series and learn more about the people that live on the Endurance as it travels through space.

  Wow, what a fantastic read!!!

  Another superb series.

  I highly recommend this new wonderful series.

  It is not just a journey through space, but through the beautiful landscape of human emotions with all its wonderful spectrums.

  The Endurance Timeline

  Ship Years 210 – 219

  The events of Greyson’s Doom

  Ship Year 313

  The events of Yesterday’s Legacy

  Ship year 381

  The events of Quiver and Crave

  Ship Year 402

  The events of Promissory Note

  Ship Years 499-501

  The events of Xenogenesis

  Ship Year 526

  The events of Junkyard Heroes

  Ship Year 735

  The events of 5,001

  Note: This is the chronological order of events aboard the Endurance. To fully enjoy the series and avoid spoilers, it is recommended you read the series in series order (see About Junkyard Heroes).

  Chapter One

  It was a relief to step back into the Midnight Garden patio and find everyone sitting at the same two tables as always. Noa braced herself for the teasing and headed for the tables.

  Daniel was the first to spot her, which just like him. He didn’t say much, not even when it was just the six of them. Yet he saw everything with his big, watery blue eyes. He nudged Ségolène, sitting next to him.

  Ségolène lifted her gaze from the jewelry in front of her to stare at Noa, her beautiful almond-shaped black eyes narrowed. “Uh-oh. Is it a good thing or a bad thing that you’re back here less than an hour after you left?” Even in the low light of the beer garden, her coffee-colored skin glowed with health and vitality, all except the ridged, pale scar flesh that covered most of the left side of her face and throat.

  Peter and Lizette shifted their chairs apart and pulled a third over from the nearest table. Noa slid onto the empty chair with relief. She didn’t even care that she was sitting next to Lizette, who—at six feet plus—always made her look even smaller than she was. “It’s fine,” Noa said.

  “He didn’t show?” Peter’s voice lifted. He slapped the table. “I’ll sprinkle him with acid dust. Ruin his pretty face for him.” He dug in his pocket. “I’ve got a few millimeters of nano-syrup left. I’ll program them to eat flesh and they can eat him from the inside out.” He pulled out half a dozen vials and cap-sticks and fingered them. “An overdose of iron. He’ll be scratching his nose for a week.”

  Noa gave him a small smile. “It’s okay, Peter. I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of going out with him, anyway.”

  Cai Lessie, the other quiet one of the group, lifted his head from the board in his hand. “You really are going to have to learn to work around that inferiority complex of yours, Noa. It’s holding you back.”

  “We’ve all got something holding us back,” Noa said, meeting his gaze.

  Peter’s gaze shifted away. He turned his attention back to whatever archival file he was reading. Everyone in the group knew he was in love with Ségolène, except for Ségolène. He had loved her for as long as Noa had known both of them, which was nearly ten years, yet he had said nothing.

  Noa wasn’t sure how he could concentrate on reading and still hear everything said at the table, yet he never missed anything. Even when his eyes had still been adjusting from the latest surgery to correct his ailing vision, he had continued to read and listen at the same time.

  “I’m sorry, Noa,” Lizette said. “Men are such bastards.”

  “Hey!” Peter said, pretending to be offended.

  “Present company excepted, of course,” Lizette said, her gaze on Noa.

  Noa smiled up at her. There were very few men interested in Lizette. Her height intimidated most of them, a fact the group had discussed more than once and that Lizette had shrugged off with a breezy, “I only need one man to figure out we’re the same height lying down. He’s the one who will make me happy.” Her flip attitude hadn’t fooled any of them.

  So Lizette’s sympathy now gave Noa a small warm glow. Lizette understood. All of them did.

  Ségolène pushed the suede cloth sitting in front of her over to Noa. “Here. A consolation gift.” Her voice was musical.

  Noa looked down at the medallion and chain sitting on the suede. It was made of the translucent plasteel crystals that Ségolène had taught herself to grow. These ones glowed a deep red, some of them large and some small. In between were rounded golden balls that seemed to shimmer in the light. There were tiny little gold seeds between all of them, weaving in and out to hold them together. The medallion was octagonal, with an elongated r
ed crystal hanging from the bottom of it. The chain was made up of more of the tiny little beads, woven together to form small flowers.

  “It’s beautiful,” Noa breathed, for it was. Like all the jewelry Ségolène made, it seemed to hold the essence of Ségolène in it.

  Noa didn’t try protesting that Ségolène couldn’t just give the medallion to her. They’d had the same argument in the past, more than once. The sad fact was, Ségolène couldn’t sell her jewelry. No one in the group understood why, although Ségolène was convinced it was her appearance that ran off potential customers.

  Noa suspected the scarring on Ségolène’s face and body might be only part of the explanation, for she had seen the way Ségolène dealt with the rest of the world. She closed up and became defensive and churlish. Her rudeness scared off people before they had a chance to recoil at her appearance.

  Noa wondered if that was why Cai had been silent about his devotion to her. Ségolène would not believe any declaration he made.

  Noa folded the suede over the medallion, intending to put it away. Then she unwrapped it again. It was simply too pretty to hide.

  “Drink, Noa?” Daniel asked, reaching for the controls in the middle of the table.

  “Absolutely.” Noa held out her wrist toward the transaction emitter.

  “My treat,” Daniel said, pushing her wrist out of the way.

  She sat back, letting him get a drink for her. It felt nice to be cared for like this. It was why she had come back here straight after receiving the curt “Won’t be there,” message. These five people were her best friends. They would get around to teasing her later. For now, they were soothing her ruffled feelings and making her feel wanted.

  The drink that emerged from the little dome in the middle of the table was topped with cream and shaved chocolate. Farther down the fluted glass there were layers of liquid from a pale cream to a deep, dark brown. Noa’s mouth watered as she looked at it. “Daniel, really, you didn’t have to buy…whatever that is.”

  Daniel sat back. “I didn’t,” he said, frowning. “I bought your usual. Green tea and honey.”

  “That doesn’t look anything like green tea and honey,” Peter said. “There are enough calories in it to last her until breakfast.”

  “It looks like chocolate,” Lizette said. “I bet it’s one of those earth-grown triple layer death by chocolate drinks everyone is talking about.” There was a tiny hint of pride in her voice.

  “I can’t afford one of those!” Daniel protested.

  Everyone looked at Lizette.

  “What did you do?” Noa asked the tall woman.

  Cai held out his board toward Daniel. “Your Forum sheet. Green tea and honey has been charged. That’s all.”

  Daniel glanced at the board. Relief sagged his shoulders.

  “Lizette?” Noa asked.

  “I might have played with the coding,” Lizette said, holding back a smile.

  Peter leaned closer and lowered his voice. “You hacked the Midnight Garden’s servery AI?”

  Lizette looked offended. “I hacked the AI years ago. I’ve been experimenting, that’s all.”

  Noa looked down at the decadent concoction. “It’s not right. We didn’t pay for this.”

  “You deserve it, though.” Lizette shrugged again. “You can’t unmake it, so you may as well drink it now and enjoy it. Everyone else will get exactly what they order from now on.” She glared at the rest of them. No one took the glare seriously. Lizette could break into any computer, anywhere, and get it to do strange things, yet most of her projects were harmless practical jokes. “I’m not interested in stealing credits,” she had told them, more than once. “I just like seeing what I can do with the coding.”

  She had been turned down by all the coding institutes at least three times. Each time, they had told her she didn’t have the aptitude for coding. Lizette had taught herself, instead. Everyone understood Lizette’s urge to program gravity surges in bathrooms, to cause public terminals to flash pornographic images at passersby, to make the trains run on time even if it meant tossing passengers back in the far corners from the acceleration, that everything she did to make computers laugh, cry and melt down was Lizette’s way of sticking her nose up at the coding institutes.

  So Noa lifted the glass and took a mouthful of the chocolate drink. She moaned as chocolate flavor exploded in her mouth, tinted with cream and the hint of other flavors, including vanilla and coffee, mint and hazelnut.

  “I still think the course is a waste of money,” Cai said.

  Noa realized he was picked up the threads of the conversation they must have been in the middle of when she had arrived.

  “What course?” she asked.

  “Etelvina Low coaches people,” Daniel said. “She helps you figure out how to set up as a freelancer.”

  “She coaches you for a lot of money,” Peter added.

  “You already freelance,” Noa said. “We all do. That’s how we get paid.”

  Daniel shook his head. “For a standard hourly rate, for set hours each day. She can help anyone find better paying niches.”

  Noa sipped her drink, staying silent. They had all spent far too many hours arguing over possible ways to improve their lot. No one had ever found the solution. This was Daniel’s latest attempt to get ahead.

  “Specializing is dangerous,” Cai said quietly. “There’s a chance the market will dry up. The Endurance will always need general mechanical engineers.”

  “How long has Etelvina been teaching courses?” Noa asked. “Is it a new thing?”

  “She started off helping a few friends. Now she charges for it. That’s her niche, I guess,” Daniel said. He shrugged. “I can’t afford what she’s asking, anyway.”

  “You get what you pay for,” Peter intoned.

  “Says the guy selling bootleg medicine and crackpot cures,” Lizette added with a smile.

  “Hey, my stuff works!” Peter protested.

  Which was true. Peter developed his own medications from scratch. They were bootleg only because he wasn’t an accredited member of the medical institute and never would be.

  “You are brilliant,” Ségolène assured him. “You’re still a black market supplier.”

  Peter scowled. “It’s my niche,” he said defensively.

  “You’re all mesmerized by the lure of fast riches,” Cai said.

  Everyone groaned, for this was Cai’s pet subject.

  He put the board on the table in front of him and laid his hand on it. “We’re mechanical engineers. It’s a well-paid government profession that provides a secure living. We all have beds to sleep on, food to eat. We’re healthy and content. Why isn’t that enough?”

  “Because, money!” Peter shot back.

  “For what?” Cai returned. “You have enough now. What would more give you?”

  “Respect,” Peter said instantly.

  “Which would get you what?” Cai pressed.

  “Women.” Peter leered.

  Lizette sighed. Noa hid her smile.

  “Seriously,” Peter said. “Not one of us has had a partner, let alone a single date, for more than a year. Noa came closest tonight, but she bombed, too.”

  “So you think money buys love?” Cai asked.

  “It buys a pretty good substitute,” Peter said hotly.

  “Sex is just warm bodies moving together,” Cai replied.

  Everyone groaned again.

  “I could buy you a sex arrangement right now,” Cai added. “I guarantee you would still wake in your bed tomorrow morning and feel exactly as you did this morning.”

  Peter opened his mouth to argue more. Instead, shouting pulled their attention around to the general dispensaries at the front of the garden, where the less social drinkers liked to linger.

  There were a dozen or more badly dressed people strung out in a single file in front of the dispensers. They were linked arm in arm, forming a human fence, trying to block off access to the dispensers.


  The serious drinkers were trying to shove their way through.

  “Drink is the opiate of the soul!” the filthy ones were shouting. “Drink makes you complacent, so you do not question the authorities who hold it out to you in compensation for a life without freedom!”

  “Cavers,” Ségolène muttered. “Isn’t this the fourth time this month?”

  “And here comes the Bridge guards,” Peter added, peering over the hedge. “Damn it.”

  From the other side of the fake bushes that surrounded the Midnight Garden, Noa could see a phalanx of the black-uniformed guards jogging toward the Garden.

  Peter stood up. “Let’s get out of here before it gets really messy.”

  “Because it isn’t already?” Cai asked, also getting up. He tucked his reading board inside his jacket.

  Noa took a few more big mouthfuls of the lovely chocolate concoction, then regretfully got to her feet. “Let’s cut through to the back and go up the back alley.”

  “It’ll take twice as long to get home,” Lizette complained.

  “If you want to wade through the guards and the Cavers to get home, go right ahead,” Noa told her.

  Lizette scowled at the Cavers. “Idiots,” she muttered.

  “Smelly idiots,” Cai added. “Maybe the power of their stench is what drives them on.”

  “Showers are state-owned devices of corruption,” Daniel said, trying to sound pious.

  “Everything corrupts, according to them,” Lizette said. The six of them wove through the tables, heading for the back of the garden area where more bushes and a waist-high fence enclosed the tables and chairs. “Food is state-printed, air is state-owned, housing is for the weak-minded.”

  They weren’t the only ones sliding away from the trouble at the front of the garden. Other patrons were streaming toward the back fence. The tables were emptying.

  Behind them, the Bridge security team started breaking up the Cavers’ defense line. Noa could hear the grunts and wheezes. The guards were not reticent about using their batons on Cavers.