The Man Who Broke the Moon

by Michael James Ploof

  “He’s here,” said Charlie.

  “Sir, you’re going to want to see this.”

  Jason said nothing but leaned in as the chrome egg suddenly cracked open at the center. A robotic hand with three padded fingers lowered from the high ceiling and secured the top, before slowly lifting it up.

  The egg opened.

  Mist poured out.

  Jason swiped it away, trying to make out the form floating in an ocean of white fog. A hiss of depressurization sounded pulling the mist away, and Jason’s eyes teared as he laid eyes on Ember.

  He stood there, frozen, praying to the gods who never answered that this was real, that she was alive.

  “Ember?”

  Jason moved to the side of the egg, reached in, and touched her. She was warm. Ember floated in a thick liquid solution. She wore what looked to be a white wet suit. From the cap on her head a dozen wires protruded.

  “Ember? Wake up, Ember!”

  “Sir, do not remove her from the cocoon,” said Pal. “She will die if the proper procedure is not followed.”

  “Then follow it, goddamn it. Wake her up!”

  “I would be happy to, sir, but know that it is indeed a process. And if we unplug her, the H-Drive will not work, and we will not be able to return to our solar system.”

  “What do you mean?” said Charlie. “Where are we?”

  “I am sorry that my calculations have taken so long,” came Jane’s voice once again. “We are currently 1,200 light years from Earth, orbiting the planet Kepler 62f, in the Kepler 62 system. Constellation Lyra, sir.”

  “She did it,” said Jason as he stared at Ember with a strange sensation of pride. “Killian, report.”

  “We’re orbiting the alien world. No ships have been launched, and there are no readings from the planet to suggest an advanced civilization.”

  “How long until the EMP hits their sun?”

  “Two minutes,” said Killian.

  “Can you stop it?”

  A pause, and then, “No.”

  “Then get us the hell out of here.”

  “We can’t get out of range soon enough,” said Killian.

  “So this was the admiral’s plan all along,” said Jason aloud. “He means to strand us here forever.” Jason looked at Ember, touched her face lovingly, and looked at Kaito. “Close it and boot her up, or whatever the hell it is you do.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “What’s your plan?” Charlie asked.

  “We’ve got to stop that thing, or else we’re screwed. Kaito—”

  “H-Drive jump to intercept the EMP? Already on it, sir.”

  Jason nodded and marched out of the engine room with Charlie in tow.

  “Jason...” she said behind him.

  “It can wait,” he said, turning down the hall to the bridge. He emerged onto the deck and with a quick glance noted that the admiral was restrained. He frowned at the absence of Erik Andal.

  When the admiral saw Jason and his healed wounds, his face went stark white. “No,” he said. “It can’t be.”

  “You mind explaining to me what the hell just happened?” Jason asked the admiral, who sat on the floor against the wall in handcuffs.

  “It seems that number 7 was successful,” he said, his smirk quickly replacing his shocked expression.

  “Number 7? You mean Ember.”

  The admiral laughed, and then looked at Jason with a pout. “Oh, did you think it was really her?”

  Jason marched over to Killian, grabbed the laser gun, and stalked toward the admiral, aiming it at his head. “Speak.”

  “Where to begin...” said the admiral.

  “Engineering to bridge. We’re ready,” said Kaito.

  “Commence,” said Jason.

  “H-Drive jump in one minute,” said Jane.

  “I don’t think you want to do that,” said the admiral.

  “Why not?”

  “Because, it will kill your precious Em.”

  “You called her number 7. Why?”

  “That can wait. The fact of the matter is that if you use her to jump again so soon, she will die.”

  “And if I don’t, the EMP will disable the ship, and we are all dead,” said Jason.

  The admiral grinned. “Exactly.”

  “You’re a monster,” said Charlie, rushing to the admiral.

  Jason held her back. “Kaito!”

  “Sir?”

  “Will another jump kill ...Ember?”

  “I don’t know, sir, they only told me enough for me to ensure that she makes one jump. There was no instruction for a jump back.”

  He thought this was a one-way ticket. So did the admiral. But something happened. I was healed when we jumped. But how?

  “You can save yourself and your beloved crew,” said the admiral. “All you have to do is kill Ember again.”

  YOU KILLED HER!

  Jason saw the bloodstained writing on the wall. He blinked, rubbing his eyes with his free hand. “What did you just say?”

  The admiral only grinned. “Tick tock.”

  “Thirty seconds until H-Drive jump,” said Jane.

  “Forty seconds until EMP impact with Kepler 62,” said Killian.

  She’ll survive. Somehow, I was healed. She will be too.

  “You’ve made your choice,” said the admiral. “I’m impressed. You’re a stronger man than I thought. But, I’ve found that since we jumped, I have gained renewed strength as well.”

  He suddenly snapped his cuffs and lunged at Jason, batting away the laser gun and driving him to the ground. The two men exchanged blows, rolling across the bridge as Jane counted down.

  “Ten...

  “Nine...

  “Eight...

  “Seven...

  “Six...”

  Jason grabbed the admiral by the throat, but it was like grabbing ahold of the neck of a stone statue. The admiral kicked him off, and Jason flew back at breakneck speed, smashing into the captain’s chair and snapping the back rest in half.

  “Five...

  “Four...

  “Three...

  “Two...

  “One ...Commencing H-Drive jump,” said Jane.

  Jason watched as time slowed, and the bridge elongated, then there was a flash of light.

  The jump didn’t knock him out this time, and when his vision returned to normal, he saw they had traveled far from the Kepler 62 system.

  Jason shook his head to clear it and found Killian grappling with the admiral. He drew his weapon and waited for a clear shot. When the admiral rolled on top, Jason shot him in the shoulder. The admiral fell forward over Killian, who had him by the neck. But to Jason’s amazement, the glowing wound in the admiral’s shoulder healed in an instant.

  Charlie crashed into the two men, and together with Killian she subdued the admiral. Jason stormed over and aimed at the man’s head. “You’ve lost.”

  “Oh, but I have not,” said the admiral. He allowed himself to be pulled to his feet by Charlie and Killian, and he stared at Jason with smug satisfaction.

  “Kaito, report!” said Jason.

  “She ...I think she’s alive.”

  “You think?”

  “No, yeah, she is.”

  “The girl in the pod,” said Pal 2000, “the one you call Ember, will live. It seems that whatever condition is plaguing you all has affected her as well. She has healed from the damage of another jump.”

  “What the hell’s going on here, Mark?”

  “Ember is dead,” said the man.

  Jason was taken aback. “Pal said that—”

  “That child is not Ember.”

  Jason pressed the gun against his head. “You better start making sense.”

  Chapter 27

  The Confession

  Jason held the gun against the admiral’s head and stared into his smiling eyes. “Start talking.”

  “When Thomas died, Rachel and I were heartbroken. Much like your wife, mine went a bit mad. She swore
vengeance on you, and when she told me her plan ...well, let me say I have never loved her more.”

  Jason waited, eager yet dreading what he had to say.

  “You see, she had been heading up a program that was merging the alien tech with living, human subjects. It was discovered that the aliens traveled through the galaxy with but a thought ...can you imagine that?”

  Jason didn’t speak. He couldn’t speak.

  Killian and Charlie held the admiral’s arms a bit tighter.

  “But we needed a human who would awaken to the alien gift. Someone who could survive the process. Your daughter was one.”

  Jason felt his throat constrict. Suddenly every word was like a booming in his ears.

  “Rachel injected Ember with the serum during a routine military vaccination, and to our delight, she successfully survived the transformation. She didn’t die of cancer, Jason. That was just our way of getting you and Melissa out of the picture.”

  “How did she end up here?” said Jason. He meant to be forceful but found his voice cracking.

  The admiral smiled, and then frowned, and then grinned ironically. He laughed. “Oh, my poor, poor dear man. Do you think that is your Em in that pod? No, she is a clone, one of many.”

  Jason ground his teeth. He cocked back the weapon and slammed it into the admiral’s nose. Blood seeped out, but too quickly it stopped.

  “Your Ember was moved to the moon, where the experiments were being performed, only a few weeks before ...well, you know.”

  “You son of a bitch,” said Jason breathlessly.

  The admiral blinked heavily, happily. He grinned. “She was alive when you destroyed Luna 1.”

  YOU KILLED HER!

  Jason staggered back. He dropped the gun, looking at his hands, hands that his mind’s eye now saw caked in blood.

  “When you destroyed Luna 1, you killed your own daughter. And that knowledge, my friend, is the price you have paid for Thomas’s death!”

  Jason rushed toward the admiral and rode him to the ground, raining down blows that snapped the man’s head back repeatedly. In his mind’s eye he saw the moment he killed Thomas, the moment he destroyed the moon. Through it all, the admiral laughed. Jason pounded on the man’s head for a full minute before staggering to his feet. To his horror, the admiral’s destroyed face began to crack and snap back into place.

  Jason grabbed the gun off the floor and shot the admiral in the gut. He screamed and fired blindly at the man, eight shots in total. Five had hit him. One in the stomach, another in the chest, two in the head, and one through his left arm. The admiral turned pale and began to breathe shallow breaths.

  Jason fell to his knees before the body, and Charlie was there, turning his head away and hugging him. “I’m so sorry, Jason.”

  “Sir?” said Killian.

  Jason looked, and to his shock and amazement, the admiral’s head began to move as he regained consciousness.

  “Bring that fucker to the airlock.”

  Killian scooped up the body and with Charlie’s unneeded help, Jason followed. Pal 2000 and Mae silently walked behind them like a solemn procession. They moved through the halls quietly, none of them thinking too hard on what they were about to do. Killian opened the airlock and unceremoniously tossed the admiral inside.

  Jason came to stand beside the screen that held the bay’s controls, and he held his hand over the red, blinking OPEN button.

  Everyone reeled back when the admiral stood, his wounds healed and his eyes bloodshot and full of fury. “You will never be rid of me, for I am judgement, I am—”

  Jason slapped the button, and the hatch behind the admiral opened. He was sucked out into the cold of space and soon became but a speck.

  “Pal...” said Jason.

  “Sir?”

  “Override Jane, nuke him.”

  “Sir?”

  “Do it!” said Killian.

  “Yes, sir.”

  Jason turned back, having lost sight of the admiral, but moments later the grand explosion of the nuke suddenly erupted like a thousand sunrises. The ship trembled and rode out the shockwave. Everyone grabbed a hold of something, and soon the moment passed.

  Without a word, Jason stormed off toward the engine room. He found Kaito at the controls looking awestruck.

  “How is she?”

  “She’s alive, sir. When we jumped the second time, she began to have a seizure. I thought we’d lose her, but...”

  “Somehow, she healed,” said Jason.

  Kaito nodded. “Captain. What’s going on?” He looked at the bullet holes in Jason’s uniform, where smooth, fresh skin could be seen.

  “Open the pod.”

  Kaito complied without a word, and the mechanical arm came down from the ceiling, slowly pulling the top of the sphere away. The girl was awake, and she blinked when she saw Jason.

  “Daddy?”

  “I’m here, Em,” said Jason. “The bad man’s gone.” He turned to Kaito. “Get her the hell out of there.”

  Kaito typed in commands on the control module, before moving around the side, and with Jason’s help, unstrapped the wired cap and pulled her out of the thick ooze she had been lying in.

  “Where am I?” said the girl as she clung to Jason.

  “You’re safe, Ember.”

  “Why do you call me that? My name is Seven.”

  Tears welled in Jason’s eyes, and he turned to Pal. The robot bowed his head in shame. “It is true, Captain. This is not your daughter. This is a clone.”

  “But you remember me,” said Jason, looking into Seven’s green eyes.

  “I dream about you. You’re Ember’s father.”

  Jason hugged the child, and Charlie gently urged the crew out of the engine room.

  Chapter 28

  Iria’Nan

  With Charlie’s help, Jason got Seven cleaned up and tucked her into his bed. She didn’t eat, saying she wasn’t hungry, but fell asleep the moment her head touched the pillow. Jason stood and watched the girl sleep, his eyes itchy and bloodshot from holding back tears, but now he let them fall.

  “Are you all right?” said Charlie.

  “No,” he whispered.

  “The admiral was lying, Jason. You must see that. He was just trying to get under your skin. Ember wasn’t on the moon.”

  “Yes, she was,” said Jason.

  “Jason...”

  “Melissa once told me that Ember came to visit her in her sleep. I should have listened. When Melissa died, she wrote something on the wall, an accusation. She said that I had killed Ember. So, you see, the admiral was telling the truth.”

  “Jason, you can’t blame yourself for this.”

  He smiled weakly at Charlie. “When has that ever stopped me?”

  A half hour later the crew gathered together to put Erik Andal to rest. He hadn’t mysteriously healed like Jason and the admiral, though Jason knew not why. That mystery would have to wait, however. As they stood in the hangar bay, two to each side of the metal casket, Mae stood at the head and sang a heartfelt hymn.

  Jason hardly heard the words. He stared at Erik’s face through the glass plate, remembering all they had been through over their long careers. Erik had been Jason’s second for more than a decade. He had been a good XO, and an even better friend. Jason didn’t cry, for he had no tears left. He felt not sorrow, but rather an emptiness in the hollow of his heart. Somehow, he had been healed, and even now he felt the strength coursing through his body, whatever miracle had healed him, it hadn’t restored his soul.

  Mae’s song ended, and when everyone had said their goodbyes, Jason pressed the ejection button. Together they watched as the capsule shot out of the ship into the dark of space.

  When they returned to the bridge, Pal was standing facing the holo-screen. He turned as they drew near, and a smile lit his digital face. “I’ve discovered a beacon coming from the planet.”

  “I thought there was nothing down there,” said Jason.

  “My re
adings show that there was once a civilization below the planet's oceans.”

  “There are no oceans,” said Jason, studying the 3-D hologram of the planet Pal brought up over the mapping console. They all stood around it, and Pal pointed at a spot near the western coast of the largest continent.

  “There used to be, but it seems their water abruptly disappeared nearly ten thousand years ago. This location was once a large metropolitan city.”

  “A city underwater?” said Jason. “Are there any ruins on land?”

  “No, Captain. It seems that the aliens were purely aquatic.”

  “Were?”

  “There are no signs of life on the planet.”

  The crew exchanged apprehensive glances.

  “If no one is alive, why’s there a beacon?” said Killian. “I don’t like it, it could be a trap.”

  “We need answers, Killian,” said Jason. “Something happened to us all when we crossed through the Termination Shock. You must be able to feel it too.”

  Killian smiled ironically. “Yeah, I feel it. I feel like I’m friggin’ immortal. The way you and the admiral healed ...I don’t understand it. But I don’t trust that dead aliens will have any answers for us. Pal said that whatever happened to them, happened ten thousand years ago, yet the E.T. found at the site was said to have died during the crash.”

  “I don’t like it either,” said Mae.

  “Duly noted,” said Jason. “Pal and I’ll check it out ourselves. Charlie, set a course and bring us into orbit above that beacon. Killian, target that beacon. Anything happens to Pal and me, well, you know what to do.”

  “Should I prepare Seven for—” Kaito began, but Jason flashed him a glare that shut him up in a heartbeat.

  “She’s not an engine, she’s a goddamned human being,” said Jason.

  “Captain, she’s our only way home,” said Kaito.

  Jason realized he was right. They were 1,200 light years from Earth. Without Seven, they would be marooned here for the rest of their lives.

  “We’ll deal with that when the time comes,” said Jason. “Killian, you have the bridge.”

  “Yes, Captain. And be careful, sir.”

  Jason nodded, glanced at Charlie, and turned for the door.

  “Fire up the Pegasus, Pal.”