Rise of the Altered Moon: Altered Moon Series: Book One (The Altered Moon Series 1) (4 page)

*~*~*

Chapter Four

“A hundred fifty kilometers and closing, Captain” Gina announced.

“Very well, maintain course and speed,” answered Boss.

Trigger and Gar exchanged looks as if to say ‘What the hell is the captain doing?’ No doubt, they were thinking that saving the person in the life pod could jeopardize the entire operation, not to mention their own personal freedoms.

“Wilks, open the shuttle bay doors and be ready to pull in that life pod,” Boss called into the comms. “Gar, arm a security team, and meet Wilks in the shuttle bay.”

“Yes, sir, on the way,” said Wilks.

“Roger that, Cap’n,” said Gar.

“Cat?” called Boss, keying the medical comms button.

“Cat here, Captain?” replied ship’s Chief Medical Officer, Zhu Katzu.

“Grab your bag and head to the shuttle bay. You may have a patient soon,” said Boss.

“Copy. On the way, Captain,” replied Cat from the med bay.

The
Altered Moon
slipped under the life pod as it wobbled its way through space at almost two hundred kph venting atmosphere. Tamara Wilkinson powered open the shuttle bay doors that enclosed not only the planetary shuttle,
Lunar Mare
, but also the universal docking port, the loading bay, and the grappler arm. Garavel Gribbons and Halcyon Stacatto moved in to take up security positions at the cargo bay hatch.

“Bay doors are open, Captain, and we’re in position,” said Trigger into the comms.

“Roger that, Trigger, we got about ninety seconds,” Boss responded.

Wilks stretched out the grappler arm as the ship drew near to the life pod.

“We’ll be in position in ten seconds,” called G over the comms. “Five…Four…Three…Two…One…we’re here.”

Wilks moved the arm to tap the pod and reduce the spin rate. One tap, two taps, three taps, and she grabbed on with the fourth. She maneuvered the arm back into the loading bay and sealed the doors. The loading bay pressurized as Wilks closed up the outer shuttle bay doors. The inner loading bay doors opened and Gar and Hali moved in with guns up. Trigger and Cat moved in after them to secure the pod and open the hatch. The door of the egg-shaped pod dropped in slightly and slid to the side. Out of the pod dropped a man in an MT&T engineer’s uniform. He coughed and gasped as he tried to breathe. The man had several cuts and burns covering his body and his uniform was ripped and charred in several spots.

“Cat…” said Boss, and looked sideways at her.

She reached up and shot a sedative into the young man’s neck.

“No…Katy…strange…creatu…” he said, as he slipped into unconsciousness.

“He’s all yours, Cat,” said Boss.

“Gar, Hali, give me a hand and let’s get him to medical,” she said.

The pod’s interior electrical panels sparked and crackled as the damage overloaded the power circuits.

“Leave the pod’s hatch open and dump it back into space,” Boss said to Trigger. “That way when they search, all they’ll find is an open life pod. They’ll be too busy trying to figure out what the hell happened to the liner to worry about what condition an empty life pod is in.”

“Wilks…dump the pod and secure the loading bay,” Trigger said.

“You got it, Trigger.”

“So…you wanna let me in on what we’re gonna do with this guy, Boss?” asked Trigger as they walked down the corridor. “We can’t just wheel him into a med center and explain where we found him…
how
we found him…
and
what about that ship? I’ve never seen anything like that…ever! That was no Human ship.”

“I know. I know, Trigger. I know.” Boss held his hand up, pumping it slightly as he turned to look at him. “For now we keep him sedated—completely. He’s been through hell. He’s not gonna remember anything, not clearly anyway.”

Unconsciously Trigger kept his voice low. “Captain, we can’t risk getting caught—not any of us.”

“You’re right, Trigger, but I couldn’t just leave him, or anyone else, to die out there,” said Boss, clapping him on the shoulder. “We’ll stabilize his condition, drop him off in a patrol sector with a search and rescue beacon, and be long gone before anyone gets there. How’s that sound?”

“Still risky.” Trigger raised his eyebrows and shook his head.

“G?” called Boss into the comms.

“I’m here, Boss.”

“Find us a place to hide for a while.”

“Copy that, Captain,” she said. “We’re gone.”

“Crew meeting in the mess ten minutes after we park,” said Boss. “I’m going to grab a cup of coffee. I’ll be in the mess hall.”

“I’ll see to it,” Trigger said.

Coffee. Coffee by any other name, would still taste as strong. Coffee was another of ancient Earth customs that had stood the test of time. Coffee had evolved hand in hand along with the expansion of Humankind throughout the galaxy. The coffee bean was taken to every colony, planted on every world that would sustain it. The unique properties of each world added their own flavors and aromas to the earthly brew. Coffee now came in a variety of roasts, flavors, and colors and was available everywhere in the galaxy. There were ‘coffee bar’ space stations set up along trade and tour routes, so you’d never be out of that steaming hot cup of joe.

Nothing whetted Boss Keltzer’s appetite like the smell of brewing coffee. He just couldn’t bring himself to appreciate the compressed coffee disks; they didn’t allow the brew to mature the way it should. He always kept an old-fashioned hot water brewer and ground the beans fresh for each pot. About a ‘mug and a half’ ago; Boss had come down to the
Moon’s
mess hall and sat at the eye-shaped table to mull over the day’s events.

What a day,
he thought to himself and rubbed his temples. The loss of the score was nothing compared to everything else that had taken place that day. The rescue of that engineer; the complete destruction of a superliner class starship; the appearance of that strange, dare he say it even to himself, ‘alien’ ship. That ship used what could only be a quantum jump interface, but it jumped in right on top of the
Istraulis,
which meant she could jump into the gravity well of a solar system. Humankind never achieved the precision required to calculate inner system quantum jump points.

Development of the quantum string field jump technology into a stable travel system for starships revealed that the traveling starship needed to enter and exit the quantum field outside of any considerable gravitational field, such as a solar system. The map of the known universe changed as jump hubs were built outside major star systems to regulate and secure the new quantum string field method of space travel. The space stations that expanded around the jump hubs offered merchant goods and services, intersystem transit, as well as places to dock, store, or repair personal starcraft. The need to push into the newly discovered science further wasn’t there, so refinement of the science never occurred. Instead, the research flowed into ever-faster interstellar engines to reduce the travel time inside the star systems.

The five times Humans encountered alien species in the galaxy ended in disaster each time. For years, military special missions failed to gain a foothold or to return with any intelligence that ever went public. The vast distances in space were Humanity’s security blanket against the alien monsters from tales of early exploration. It would take hundreds or even thousands of years to reach those systems at star drive speeds. No alien forces ever jumped back into Human space, so either they didn’t have quantum jump technology, or they didn’t know where to look. A one-sided stalemate of sorts; Humans didn’t go there and they hoped whatever was out there would never come to them. Long-range defensive stations were set up to monitor signs of alien incursions, and Humans went on as the self-proclaimed, sole inhabitants of the galaxy.

Until today of all days!
Boss rumbled to himself.
Damned unknown bastard plops down smack in the middle of
my
heist
. He slowly shook his head as he stroked his beard.
Ahh…what to do?

The door chime interrupted his mulling.

“Enter,” he called out.

The dead bolts of the pressure lock slid in as the outer lever was moved and the hatch door swung inward. An excited murmuring filtered in as the crew stepped into the room one by one. Different half-heard fragments of conversation floated around, as people made their way through the food service area. “…never seen nuthin’ like that before.” “No ship can jump into a solar system, it’s impossible.” “No Human ship…” “…only Humans have jump tech.” “Shryke missiles were banned in…” The crew began to settle into seats around the table and quiet down.

G tilted her head and looked at Boss over her pilot biscuit and coffee. “Well, exciting day, huh?”

Before Boss could even respond, comments erupted around the room.

“Alien ship!”

“Jump tech!”

“Cut and run!”

“Can’t get caught!”

“Did you see that blast?”

“Duty to the Human race!”

“ALL RIGHT! ALL RIGHT!” bellowed Boss. “There are priorities here. What we have to do is to go through what happened and see where our priorities lie.”

“We should air that guy out and leave what happened for the Empire to figure out,” said Gar.

“No!” said Cat who tapped a pointed index finger on the table. “We are not murderers.
I
am not a murderer.”

“Me, either,” said G.

“Or me,” said Wilks and JP in unison.

“Don’t worry, we didn’t pull him out from a life pod just to throw him out of an airlock, so that is
out
,” Boss said with a sideways hand slide. “In regard to our guest, I think we keep him sedated and drop him off in a patrol sector with a search and rescue beacon.”

“We won’t be able to get out of the sector before they pick us up too, Cap,” said Wilks. “They’ll pick up our ISE signature and that’ll lead ‘em right to us.”

“Not if we do a full moon in reverse,” said Boss. “Think about it. The full moon uses a sensory overload and a DMITS burn to reposition the
Altered Moon
. Then it ignites all engines for a high-velocity escape. What if we Full Moon STO to hit top speed and then cut everything off and use the DMITS to alter our trajectory? The ISE signature would just stop and they wouldn’t know which way we went. We just drift out of the solar system and jump away.”

A moment of thoughtful looks went by.

“I’m not getting a bunch of grief from anybody, so…does that sound acceptable to everyone?” asked Boss.

“Okay, no objections, so let’s talk about what’s really on our minds,” he said. “What the hell happened out there and what do we do about it?”

“Did we get any video or sensor readings?” asked Hali.

“I wish we had, but video and sensors are powered down while we were in blackout,” said Trigger. “I did take readings of the debris field as we left the Glimmerocks, though. They showed two ISE signatures: one belonged to the
Istraulis
, the other is unknown. They also showed residue of a Shryke-style molecular decay warhead.”

“A Shryke?” asked Gar. “They break down everything around them at the molecular level. Plus, you can’t control them once they’re launched. They just keep going until they slam into whatever’s in their way and then detonate. Nobody uses Shrykes anymore. Not even the really bad guys.”

“And, let’s not forget that the ship, alien or not, seemed to quantum jump inside a solar system’s gravity field,” said G. “They disabled that ship in seconds. They latched on and took whatever it was they wanted, and then they blew
the
Istraulis
and everybody on it to bits. I don’t know if they jumped in, but they sure as hell jumped out—right before my eyes.”

“That engineer…he said something about strange creatures before he went under,” said Cat. “Maybe he knows something that could help.”

“Yeah, or maybe he’s involved somehow,” said Hali. “What’s the likelihood that out of a ship the size of a superliner only one person gets away alive? Maybe he’s a player who didn’t make the getaway and his criminal cohorts left him behind…and then he had to get out any way he could.”

“One thing is clear, if there is a threat of hostile attack, alien or not, with this kind of advantage, it needs to be reported to someone, somehow,” said G emphatically.

“And say what, G?” argued Gar. “That we were out for a pleasure cruise? Doing research? We don’t have any permits to be out here. We were in restricted commercial lanes in an unregistered personal star craft with prototype attributes that would be hard to legally explain. We have no evidence to speak of, except some post-event sensor readings. They are going to lock all of us up and dismantle the
Moon
to reverse engineer her systems. How’s it going to help anyone if we all disappear?”

“Mmmm…” Boss drew in a breath and then sighed it out again. “Okay, the kid—what do we know about him?”

“Uniform says MT&T Engineer’s Third Mate CJ Evermore,” answered Cat.

“Ha! He’s a bilge rat.” said Gar. “He probably cleans sensor leads and scrubs waste bins.”