Rise of the Altered Moon: Altered Moon Series: Book One (The Altered Moon Series 1) (10 page)

“Well, I hope that I am on your ‘like’ list,” said Gina.

“Yes, you are. As are Chief Medical Officer Zhu Katzu, Mr. Evermore, and of course, the captain.”

“That’s a short list, GABI,” said Gina

“Bernard Keltzer has proven to be a stalwart and capable captain for the
Altered Moon
and an appreciated companion for myself. You and Zhu Katzu have shown unquestioning loyalty to Captain Keltzer.”

“Why the new guy…why CJ?” asked Gina.

“Mr. Evermore’s body language and speech patterns show an open and honest personality,” said GABI. “Demeaning comments and offensive behavior from Dylan Treesh and Garavel Gribbons have created tension with Mr. Evermore. The animosity would invariably cause him to side against them in any conflict.”

“And the other members of the crew?” asked Boss.

“Percentages vary from sixty-two percent to ninety-eight percent chance that the other members of the crew will stand against any decision that risks their exposure to authorities. There is a high probability that the inclusion of Mr. Evermore to the crew of the
Altered Moon
would instigate rebellious actions.”

“Well that gives us a ‘probable’ majority in quantity and a definite advantage in character,” Boss proudly joked. “GABI, I’m rescinding my no-surveillance order. I want you to monitor all comms to, from, and inside the ship. Alert me of any concerns.”

“Yes, Captain, at once.”

“For now, only the three of us know of operation ‘snafu.’ Let’s keep it that way. I’ll meet with CJ and get to know a little bit more about him. If there is nothing else, GABI, I would like to speak some body language with Ms. Riley.”

“Not at this time, Captain,” she said. “Enjoy your…discussion.”

“I enjoyed meeting you, GABI,” said Gina. “I’ll visit again soon,
if I’m allowed
.”

“I look forward to it, Gina Riley.” The image of the businesswoman nodded at them and then shimmered away.

“Being prepared for trouble doesn’t ease any of the worry, Boss,” Gina said, as she moved onto his lap and wrapped her arms around him.

“We’ll get through it, G.” Boss took her in his arms and eased them into a prone position. “You’ll see.”

They met in a deep, tender embrace and kissed each other with growing intensity. Love and desire pushed out any thoughts of the recent troubles. Clothing dropped as the heat of their bodies rose. Kissing and caressing, thrusting and stretching, their lovemaking released the incredible buildup of tension. They collapsed into each other’s embrace. Boss’ body tingled from the blood that surged through his skin. The comfortable ease of being together carried them into a deep and well-needed sleep.

*~*~*

Chapter Thirteen

Hali and CJ repaired the energy conduits on the
Altered Moon’
s particle cannons and installed new junction modules on the starboard wing throughout most of the next day. Hali watched as CJ noticed the DMITS intake ports next to the main fuselage on either side of the ship for the first time.

“CJ, focus, we’re almost done here.” Hali said before he started to poke around to see where they led. She pointed at the last junction module. “Install this module up in there.” She pointed then to an open access hatch.

“Okay, sorry. What are those ports used for?”

“Don’t rightly know,” she deftly avoided any real answer. “I’m just the cook. You’ll have to ask the captain.”

“Oh, okay,” He shrugged his shoulders, climbed the ladder, and crawled up into the maintenance cavity to work on the junction module.

Trigger and Gar walked over to where Hali was working on the repairs. Trigger was in the middle of checking over the ship and inspecting the repairs. Gar seemed to go out of his way to walk over to the maintenance cavity as Trigger walked up and blocked her view of him. She peeked around him and saw Gar had walked away in the other direction.

“How’s it going?” Trigger asked Hali.

“Good, Trigger, got her about wrapped up.” She held his eyes for a moment. “What’s—?”

“Mr. Evermore?” Trigger quickly called out over his shoulder while he held onto her gaze.

“Yes, I’m here.”

“Hali can finish up here,” Trigger told him. “I need you to help Wilks with the aft hull plating.”

“Okay, I’m on my way.” CJ moved back along the cramped cavity and edged himself over the rim of the opening. He planted a foot on the access ladder and put his weight on it. The ladder slipped off to the side and CJ crashed hard to the ground. He landed flat on his back, lost his breath, and cracked the back of his head on the fallen ladder. Trigger and Gar both laughed and watched as he struggled to get up.

“CJ, are you all right?” Hali asked, as she moved to his side and helped him to his feet.

“Yeah I’m okay.”

“You should always check your six, bilge rat,” said Gar. “You never know when something bad could happen.”

“Seriously, Gar, you are such an ass sometimes,” said Hali.

He looked over and gave her a snotty head wiggle and a sneer.

“Go help Wilks, piss-ant,” Trigger said to CJ. “If you can make it there without falling.”

CJ stood up as best he could and turned to look at the two other men with a glint of anger in his eye. He was about to say something when he saw Gar’s hand wander toward the Rellia K-13 pistol at his waist. The two men returned CJ’s stare and Hali backed away with a ‘Please don’t do this’ look on her face. CJ swallowed his pride, backed off, and went to find Wilks.

“What are you guys trying to do?” Hali asked after CJ was gone. “Are you baiting him? Do you want him to come after you, so you can shoot him? Is that the plan, shoot him in self-defense or maybe an accident around the ship, is that it? Maybe fall out of the maintenance cavity and break his neck…
Gar
?”

“He is a danger to us, Hali,” said Gar. “We should have left him at Canalar.”

“We should have never rescued him in the first place,” Trigger said.

“You can’t just kill him…that would be murder.” She looked around nervously and felt very uncomfortable with the conversation. “That’s a line that I won’t cross.”

“I don’t know where Boss is headed with this, Hali, but I’ll lay odds that he’s going to help this piss-ant,” Trigger said, as he pointed his finger in the direction CJ went. “That’s going to bring some serious shit down on us. It’ll blow our cover. We’ll lose the
Moon
if anyone finds out what she can really do.”

“The
Moon
is Boss’ ship, Trigger.” She glared at him.

“Maybe it’s time for Boss to retire,” he said suggestively. He looked at the other two to see if they got his meaning.

“No!” said Hali. “No!” she had to say again. “He’s been good to us. Don’t you dare think about ‘retiring’ him!”

“No, not ‘retire’ retire,” he said back. “Retire as in buy him out or maybe…ya know…take the ship, knock him out, load him into the shuttle, and be gone by the time he wakes up.”

“Why give up the shuttle?” Gar asked. “Just put him in a life pod and launch him off where someone will find him or where they won’t. Whichever, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve had enough of risking ourselves and our setup on something that doesn’t even have a payoff.”

“I can’t believe we are even talking about this,” Hali said. “Boss has been our friend. The
Moon
is
his
ship. That would be mutiny, worse, it would be betrayal.”

“Yeah, he has been our friend, Hali, you’re right,” said Trigger. “But, now, he’s risking our lives as well as our money. He expects us to just follow along as he goes up against the biggest security force in the galaxy? Which already seems to be more than willing to take us out?”

“If we hadn’t gone after that life pod, we’d be somewhere planning our next score,” said Gar. “I say we grab everybody, tie ‘em up, and give ‘em a choice: side with us or be marooned. Who do you think would side with us?”

“Wilks for sure” said Trigger. “Maybe JP, especially if we make him star pilot. He couldn’t resist that. Gina will certainly side with Boss and Cat as well. They can have that shit stick, Evermore. So, it’s four for us and four for them with JP still in question.”

“Trigger, don’t hurt anybody,” pleaded Hali. “Just knock them out, put them under…slip them a hypo or something like that.”

“That may work, Trig,” said Gar. “We could put Boss, Gina, and Cat under and launch them off in life pods easy enough, but what if JP doesn’t want join up with us?”

“Then he goes into a life pod at gunpoint,” said Trigger.

“And if anyone else gives us trouble?” asked Gar.

“We’ll deal with that when the time comes,” Trigger said. He stroked his chin as if thinking things out. “I can get the command codes switched easy enough to take over the
Altered Moon
, but we need the articles of organization in order to take control of West Becreth. I’m sure Boss has got that tucked away and rigged with some kind of defense mechanism. Hmmm…if we take Gina hostage, then Boss would turn over the ship, the business, everything without a fight.”

“No, Trigger!” Hali warned him. “Just dope ‘em, no gunplay. You’ll have the
Moon
; you can run all the scans you want to find traps. We could even start up our own scores, our own cover, leave West Becreth behind.”

“West Becreth Trading Company is a well-established legitimate cover,” Gar pointed out. “If we’re going to drop it we should, at least, pull what assets we can out first.
But
, if they ID’d us back at Canalar, that cover is blown by now and MT&T security will be monitoring the accounts.”

“Yes, I agree,” said Trigger. “If we get ourselves tagged as outlaws, then Imperial forces will be alerted and we’ll be on the run, hunted until we’re either captured or dead. I can’t let that happen.”

“What about all this alien stuff and the
Istraulis
?” asked Hali.

“That’s none of our concern,” Trigger answered. “Maybe that will keep Johnny Law busy and off our backs.”

“So, what do you want us to do?” asked Gar. “Should we approach JP?”

“No, we keep cool until we’re off this rock.” Trigger laid out the mutinous plan. “I go on duty at eighteen hundred hours to monitor flight operations. When Boss leaves the bridge, I’ll hit Gina with the hypo and lock out command functions with new codes. Hali, you be in position to take Cat. Can you handle that?”

“Yeah,” she inhaled and sighed. “Yeah, I think so.”

“No think, Hali,” said Gar. “You’ve got to be sure.”

“Yes,” she said sullenly, but then thought all of a sudden about Cat trash talking her cooking one day. “Yeah, I can do that.”

“Gar, take out piss-ant,” Trigger said. “We stash those three in the life pods. Leave JP to me. When that’s done we meet outside of Boss’ quarters. We go in and give him the chance to leave it all and walk away. We’ll already have Gina, so he’ll really have no choice.”

“What about Wilks?” asked Hali.

“Don’t worry about her. Where I go, she’ll follow,” said Trigger. “She’ll get all mushy about it, but she’ll come along when it’s all done. All right, let’s hope Boss makes the right decision. If he doesn’t, be ready at eighteen hundred hours on the first night off planet. Check?”

“Check,” said Hali.

“Roger that,” said Gar.

*~*~*

Chapter Fourteen

The damaged framing members had been repaired. Power conduits had been rerun. Junction modules were replaced. Sensor leads scrubbed. Inner hull units had been sealed and outer hull plating sections had been reinstalled and locked into place. The
Altered Moon
stood ready for her post repair power up.

“All external doors and hatches sealed?” called out Boss.

“Affirmative, Captain,” answered Trigger. “All lights show green.”

“Bring up main power.”

“Main power, aye,” answered Gina. She hit several switches and buttons that brought up system panels all around the bridge.

“Pressurize the ship,” Boss said.

“Pressurize the ship, aye,” Trigger answered and hit two buttons on the oxygen control panel.

A slight hissing could be heard as the
Altered Moon
filled with air to test the integrity of the main seals. A light started to flash then went solid on the O-2 panel.

“Ship is pressurized and all seals are holding,” Trigger reported.

“Very well,” Boss answered, and then told Gina, “Bring up flight systems to point zero one percent and test fire ISE thrusters.”

“Roger that, point zero one percent. Test firing ISE thrusters.”

The
Altered Moon
shook and shuddered as the dozens of hydrogen fuel maneuvering thrusters located around the ship cycled through two-second bursts. A heavier shake started as the inertial stabilizers strained against the preflight burn of the main engines. The cycle ran its course and all systems returned to standby status.

“All systems show good to go, Captain,” reported Trigger.

“Very well,” answered Boss. “Secure from preflight check.”

“Roger that,” acknowledged Gina. “All systems standing down.”

“Trigger, I want an all-hands meeting in the squad bay, CJ too,” said Boss.

“You got it, Boss. I’ll gather everybody up.”

Trigger left the bridge to gather the crew. Gina closed down the control panels and locked off the flight systems. She stood up and joined Boss by the hatchway.

“Ready?” he asked.

“As I’ll ever be.” The two of them left the bridge and went through the crew compartment where they met up with Cat and JP.

“Hello, Captain…G.” JP nodded his head at them.

“Hello, JP, Cat. Everything ready with you two?”

“String Field Drive and plotting computer are checked and ready,” said JP.

“Med bay is good to go, Captain,” said Cat.

They went through the hatchway into the squad bay and found everyone else was already there. The room was busy with last-minute gear storage and idle conversation. The crew settled on benches or cabinets, anywhere they found a decent place to cop a squat. Nothing about the squad bay was particularly ‘comfortable.’

“We all know what we are up against,” said Boss. “The deck may be stacked against us, but we aren’t holdin’ aces and eights yet. What we don’t know is if the West Becreth cover has been blown or why MT&T is trying to cover up of the destruction of the
Istraulis
. I’ve thought long on this one and I think we need the answers to those two questions before we can make the best decision.”

“I followed S.O.P. back at Canalar, Captain,” said JP. “So there is a transaction record under West Becreth Trading Company for the fuel and supplies. MT&T will know that we were there and they won’t like us messing up their troops.”

“I agree with you on checking the cover, Boss,” said Trigger, “but sticking our nose into what happened to the
Istraulis
is trouble that’s too big for us to handle.”

“We’d be caught between an unknown and possibly alien force, MT&T security, and maybe even Imperial military,” Gar put in.

“Maybe we should just lay low for a while,” said Wilks. “Let things blow over.”

“This ain’t gonna just ‘blow over,’ nitwit,” scoffed Gar.

“Hey!” Wilks scowled at Gar. “I’m not a nitwit, you…asshole.” Wilks wasn’t very good at cussing, but she usually hit the mark pretty close.

“I think Wilks is right,” Hali said seriously, and then smiled. “Gar is an asshole.”

Gar sneered at her and replied in single-finger sign language.

“All right, eighty-six that crap and get serious,” Trigger said sternly. “Gar is right in that we are up against some heavy hitters. Let’s face it, we’ve gone up against some local security forces before, but nothing like this.”

“Captain?” asked Cat, “What about the passengers and crew of the
Istraulis
? One hundred and twenty thousand people. Don’t they deserve some kind of justice or at least not to be forgotten?”

“Yes, Cat,” answered Boss. “I think they do. That’s why I am going to find a dead man.” He paused as the others gave him questioning looks, and then he continued. “I think that Nelson Moon is still alive and may have some answers, but we will have to go through the Tengshi radiation field and into Arzian space.”

Gina, Trigger, and JP started to complain at once until Boss held up his hands to quiet everyone.

Hold it, hold it. I know about the radiation buildup in the engine ports
and
the commercial no-fly zone between the Empire and the Arzian Alliance
and
the inability to quantum jump from the area…I know. I’m aware of it all. That’s why I chose Keenaw in case of emergencies. We’re going to make two stops through the radiation field to purge the particles from the engines, and then we use the DMITS to cross the no-fly zone.”

“Boss, that’ll take ten days to cross the zone at star drive speeds” said Gina.

“Yes” he answered, “but that area isn’t monitored, and it’s the only way through without being picked up by Imperial patrols. All of you need to decide for yourselves if you want to continue. Any who don’t will be let off here in the Krelle system. If things go well, we’ll come back this way. You can wait to hear back from us, or you can catch a transport, go your own way.”

“No way I’m getting on an MT&T transport,” said Gar with a snort. “Not after what we saw.”

“Are we disbanding?” asked Wilks, a concerned look on her face.

“No, we are
not
disbanding” said Boss. “If the cover is secure, then we keep things the way they are, but if things go bad, then they could go really bad. So anyone who doesn’t feel up to it should sit this one out. Trigger?”

“I’m never one for the sidelines, Boss.”

“Gina?” asked Boss.

“I’m in,” she answered.

“JP?”

“I’m with you, Captain.”

“Gar?”

“Well, I’m not gonna stay behind and miss all the action. I’m in.”

“Cat?”

“I’m in, Captain.”

“Hali?”

“You guys would all starve if I didn’t come along. I’m in.”

“Wilks?”

“When do we leave, Cap?”

“Mr. Evermore, you’ve been made privy over the last few days to our little secret side business here,” said Boss. “I hope that saving your life has at least bought your silence. What do you have to say in this matter?”

“Yes. Yes, absolutely you have my silence,” CJ said. “You all saved me twice, as a matter of fact. Once in the life pod and then again back on Canalar. I don’t really know if I have any safe place left to go. If I’m being offered a place among you, I would gratefully accept it. If not, then I’d like to go along at least to see this friend of yours and maybe find some answers as to what happened.”

“You’ve shown a cool head in a pinch,” said Boss, “and Wilks has been grateful for the extra help with the engines. I expected you would come along as you’re more involved in this than we are. Keep pulling your weight and we’ll see about a permanent position on the
Moon
. For now, I am assigning you temporary duties as engineer’s first mate, report to Wilks for—”

“Captain?” exclaimed Trigger in surprise.

“What? This shithead gets a share of…” stammered Gar.

“Silence!” bellowed Boss. “Those are my orders! If there’s anyone who doesn’t like them, then Krelle is your port of call! You make up your minds before we leave, because once we do, my word is the final word.”

An awkward silence passed as Boss scanned the group with a commanding look.

“Mr. Evermore,” he continued in a cool and calm voice, “you will report to Ms. Wilkinson immediately after this meeting for your responsibilities and duty schedule.”

“Yes, sir,” CJ replied carefully. “Thank you, Captain.”

“We leave in thirty minutes. Anyone not wishing to go…had best make their wishes known before then…that is all. Take your stations or your leave.”

Now we’ll see where the chips fall.
Boss watched as the crew of the
Altered Moon
quietly left the squad bay to take up their stations.

*~*~*