Imagine being a POW for twenty years and then being returned to your country. Yeah, you’ve been tortured, mistreated, and now very malnourished but you’re alive. What do you think you’d want to do with the rest of your days? Well, what happens to Captain Robert Faulkner, former Captain of the United Space Defense Confederation ship *Mantis* was absolutely what you’d expect.
Captain Faulkner has been captured under unusual circumstances in the war against the Yakutians. While he had been a courageous Captain and had won numerous engagements during the war, the last one was his undoing. His ship had been beset with a large group of Yakutian battleships and with his on ship heavily damaged, the Yakutian’s offered him surrender which was unusual for them. Captain Faulkner refused to surrender his ship and crew, instead, he volunteered to surrender only if they allow his ship and crew free passage back to the USDC territory. The Yakutian’s agreed to the surrender terms and so started Captain Faulkner’s long term imprisonment.
Now the war has been over for a while. Efforts have been made before to repatriate Captain Faulkner, but for one reason or another the Yakutians always pull some last minute trick that resulted in the Captain remaining a prisoner. They had even tried passing off other humans as Captain Faulkner, but this time Doctor Elsbeth Morton was aboard the *USDC Syracuse.* She was determined not to fall for any of the Yakutain’s tricks and would verify that whoever they turn over was in fact, the real Captain Faulkner.
Well, the Yakutians did present a prisoner to Doctor Morton. She was shocked by what she was seeing. This man was rail thin, had an almost none existent voice, and she was surprised he could actually stand. She began all sorts of test to include DNA analysis and everything else she could think of and came to the conclusion that this was Captain Robert Faulkner. And that’s who he said he was, but even in his emaciated state, with x-rays showing broken bones that mended on their own, he still had a command presence she didn’t understand.
Still, she was in-charge of the Captain while they returned to the Confederation capital. She meant to get this terribly unhealthy man back to some standard of heath. She didn’t know what the Yakutians had done to him specifically, but it was very evident that he was tortured on numerous occasions. To say he had PTSD was a definite understatement, but otherwise his mental health seemed to be the least of her worries. Even though Captain Faulkner knew that he needed the treatments that Doctor Morton was giving him, he found the strength to make his way to the ship’s mess. She found him there was a stack of cheeseburgers and fries on his tray and was about to attack it all. She sat down with him and told him very clearly that what he was about to do would make him very sick. Still, the Captain said he had dreamed about this for the last twenty years and now he was going to eat.
Doctor Morton accompanied Captain Faulkner to the head as he was sick after eating just a portion of his meal. She was then taking him back to his room when they find out that not everyone wants the Captain back alive. The ship is attacked while a crewman internally captures both the Doctor and the Captain. He has them in the docking bay awaiting another ship when he gets shot and the enemy ship is destroyed.
This is kind of a prelude to all the problems that will beset Captain Faulkner. Not everyone wants him back. But, there is one person that does and that is the President of the Confederation, Ezra Samuels. It seems that the Confederation and the Yakutian Empire are about to go to war again. The President needs some political push to get the population on his side and he has plans for Captain Robert Faulkner. Captain Faulkner will soon be stunned when he’s reunited with his old ship the *USDC Mantis*. What he’s about to do will stun everyone.
A pretty good science fiction military story although it’s kind of hard to imagine something like this happening. Still, it makes for a great story. I don’t know how Captain Faulkner will do in his new assignment. There as to be a lot of questions about his mental stability, but as it so happens, he’ll get the assistance of a former ship’s captain, the one that came to get him from the Yakutians! That’s a whole other story. I’m going to get book 3, “Man of War”, already available on Amazon now.