by Richard Orr
JONIGAN’S MOON
by
RICHARD ORR
First Kindle Edition
Copyright © 2014 by Richard Orr
Light flashed in the depths of space, radiation and energy spread out from the infinitesimal point of the space-time distortion. A starship slipped through the spatial anomaly created by its translation into normal space. Coronal blue light flashed and cascaded around the vessel’s surface and dissipated into space along the radiator fins positioned at important points on the length of the starship. Emblazoned on her hull was a stylized starburst and the words H.M.S. Resolution.
Deep within the massive machine that was the Resolution lay the command deck. Its position within the ship enabled and ensured a greater degree of survival for the officers and crew in case of attack. Fortunately, the mission upon which she found herself was one of peace. A month ago, the great ship and her crew were placed on detached service, taken from the fleet, of which she was a part, and asked to fill a specific role. She was needed to take a group of scientists to a far distant system, a system that was deep within uncharted space, and had only recently felt the presence of a survey ship.
“Captain, all systems are nominal. We have completed the translation from hyperspace into System ZR 723.”
Commander Alistair Jonigan shook his head to clear out some of the cobwebs left over from the hyperspace translation. He was fortunate. For some people, the translation could be a violent, eruptive event. For others, especially naval personnel, training and experience reduced the effect and it was disorienting for a few moments.
As his senses came back into focus, Jonigan noted that the Captain was still looking a little off kilter.
“Lieutenant Anderson, please begin a scan of the system,” Commander Jonigan ordered. “I’m sure the Captain would like to know if there are going to be any nasty surprises.”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
“Astrogation, I need a plot of our course to the gas giant ZR 723-g. Let’s get this ship on its way.”
“Aye, aye, sir.” A chorus of voices came from around the command deck.
“I think I’m getting a little too old for this, XO,” the Captain said, a bit groggily. “Why don’t you check on our guests?” It was more of an order than a question.
“Aye, aye, sir.”
Commander Jonigan turned back to his acceleration couch and pulled his own display around in front of him. He tapped a few buttons on the touch sensitive display and initiated a call to the VIP quarters. After a few moments a face appeared on the screen.
“Hello,” said the face. It belonged to Sara Jones, assistant to the director of the Haven Expedition.
“Hello, Ms Jones, the Captain wanted me to check on you and your group. Did everyone handle the translation in good condition?” Jonigan asked.
“Everyone appears to have come through alright, Commander. Thank you.” Sara answered, slightly bemused. Jonigan suspected that the assistant director didn’t have much patience with naval protocol or the hands on methods it used for taking care of its guests.
“You’re welcome, Ma’am. We are scanning the system and I would expect that we will be having a mission briefing in the near future.”
“Okay, we’ll be waiting. Thanks again, Commander.”
“Umm, Ms. Jones, would you be interested in catching dinner with me this evening in the officer’s mess?” Jonigan quickly spat out. He knew it was bad form already and regretted the moment he spoke. The surprise and consternation on Ms Jones face was clearly evident. It took an eternity for her to respond, or so it seemed.
“I’m sorry, Commander. Uhh...I have a previous engagement. Perhaps another time?” She smiled thru the screen at him. He could see she was trying to placate him.
Jonigan swallowed and then said, “Okay sounds good.”
The face on the screen blinked out and the normal readouts returned to view. The has to be the most unprofessional moment of my naval career. He sighed and hung his head for a moment.
Jonigan sat back and submerged himself in the pulse of the ship. The ship itself had begun accelerating toward the inner system. It was impossible to make the hyperspace translation to a position closer to the system’s gravity well. This meant that the Resolution would need several hours to move closer to its final destination.
As the starship inched closer to the inner system, it released a small probe to scout ahead and report back to the expedition. The probe sped on ahead of the starship, its systems far more resilient and capable of handling much greater acceleration. This meant that it could arrive at the gas giant ZR-723-g and the small system of moons surrounding the planet many hours before the Resolution.
A careful sweep of the planet and its moons were necessitated by the current political climate prevailing in this part of the galaxy. The enemy could be near, even here on the far side of the frontier. The Imperium had been at war with the Pax for 22 years. In that time, they had been found in many unexpected and unexplained places.
Hours passed as the Resolution and its probe scanned local space. It would not go well for the Navy if it were to allow the Haven Expedition to become entangled this far from the front, and supposedly in peaceful space.
Recognizing the need for safety and the always present threat of violence while exploring the unknown, the Haven Corporation had specifically petitioned the government for use of a Naval vessel for the expedition. The government was, or course, happy to grant such a request, made by one of the Imperium’s largest defense contractors.
“Captain, our scan of the system has come back negative,” said Lieutenant Anderson. She had been working her board for several uninterrupted hours.
“Very well, Lieutenant. Please set the systems to provide a continuous scan of local space, brief your relief and please go get some rack time. I’m sure we’re going to need your expertise in the near future,” the Captain said.
“Commander,” he turned to Jonigan on his right, “please ask the members of the expedition to join us in the briefing room.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” Jonigan responded.
Gunnery Sergeant Thorsen proceeded the Captain and Commander Jonigan as they entered the briefing room. Rows of seating spread out from the front of the room, where a small rostrum sat in front of a large visual array, ready for use by the officer in charge. At the moment a simple diagram of the ZR-723 system filled the wall space. Most of the seats in the room were filled with the members of the Haven Expedition. The members of the expedition were specialists in the fields of xenoarchaeology and xenobiology. They hoped to hear good news from the Captain.
“Captain on deck!” shouted one of the noncoms standing at the edge of the room. The room immediately fell quiet and the military personnel in the room came to attention.
“At ease,” the Captain said as he touched a few buttons on the rostrum and changed the focus of the display behind him.
“Ladies and gentleman, this is ZR-723-g, the seventh planet in this system. As you can see the planet itself is a gas giant very similar to the planet Saturn. It has its own extensive system of rings and moons. The greatest difference between Saturn and ZR-723-g is its relative location within its system. This planet happens to be located within this system’s goldilocks zone. If you will look closely, as we zoom into the moons circling the planet, you will notice that the eighth moon is in fact covered with liquid water and vegetation. In fact, the vegetation appears to be quite extensive, covering almost ninety-five percent of the land surface area. What is of even greater interest is that amidst all this vegetation there is some sort of power signature.”
A murmur of surprise passed through the group gathered in the briefing room. This was definitely an unexpected development.
“To explain m
ore of the purpose of this expedition and to acquaint the naval personnel who will be involved in the mission to the surface with that purpose, I’ve asked Director James if he would take some time.” The Captain stepped back from the rostrum and motioned to the gentleman, dressed in a civilian suit, who had been standing to the far right of the room.
Director Eric James was, if anything were to be said about him, the consummate executive. He and his family held a position within the Haven Corporation that had been theirs for the last 200 years. He had been born and bred to be what he was. Jonigan thought he was just about the most arrogant man he had ever met. It was like watching a politician oiling up a crowd. It left him with a bad taste in his mouth and the feeling that someone had just stuck a finger in his ear.
“Thank you,” the Director said and raised his hand as if acknowledging the presence of a vast crowd. The fifty or so people who filled the briefing room barely looked up from there individual tablets and devices.
“Of course, many of you already know of several of the discoveries that have been made by our dear Dr. Helen Baxter.” The director gestured again and nodded toward an elegant elderly woman sitting to his left on the front row. She nodded back at the Director, as a small knowing smile touched her lips.
“The good Doctor is responsible for several discoveries involving Elder artifacts. It is, in fact, one of these discoveries that has brought us to the ZR-723 system. Simply put, several pieces of information recovered from these artifacts have pointed us in this direction. We are here because the Elders told us to come here. What we intend to do, with your help of course, is to land on the surface and find out what, if anything, the Elders have left down there.”
A few of the members of the Expedition had begun talking to each other and the noise level in the briefing room had begun to rise. Excitement for what lay ahead was clearly becoming evident in the faces of several people throughout the room.
Jonigan was still standing just inside the entrance to the briefing room. His interest in the Elders was common knowledge among the members of the crew aboard the Resolution. He had become interested in them while at the academy when he had learned in greater detail some of the information that was only privy to the Navy. It did something to him. Whenever he was near an artifact or learning about the ancients, he felt a kind of compulsion, a need to understand more about them. He had a weird feeling that it was the only way the Empire was going to be able to deal with the Pax.
The Captain again made his way up to the front of the room, trading places with Director James.
“Thank you, Director. In twelve hours the Resolution will reach orbit around the life bearing moon. At 0800 in the morning Commander Jonigan, with a detachment of naval and marine personnel, will escort the members of the Haven Expedition to the surface. Once on the surface the expedition will begin its investigation. Please be aware that we in the Navy are here to protect you. If at any time the Commander or I deem it necessary you will immediately vacate the surface and return to the ship.”
A murmur swept through the scientists, some clearly disgruntled by the perceived heavy handedness of the military.
“I know that this may not make some of you happy, but believe me, if we ask you to return to the ship, it will be in your best interest. This region of space is largely uncharted and unexplored. We have no idea if the Pax will make their presence known.”
Help us all if we are somehow caught flat footed on the moon’s surface, Jonigan thought to himself, if the Pax decide to show up this crowd wouldn’t last more than two seconds against Pax ground pounders.
“Alright, let’s see what tomorrow will bring. Dismissed.”
Slow, ponderous thoughts trickled into awareness. Something different encroached upon long dormant senses. One did not crawl up from millennial slumber without great pain and a little doubt. Was it all real? Bright, persistent sources of heat and light speared down from the great darkness. All too soon it became almost unbearable, and then it disappeared, gone like those who had created it. In its place it left something...something different. There were many and they were like a blight upon the world. Soon it became apparent that the many were unaware, they flung out their light with utter abandon. All except a few, one seemed to be a barely disciplined child, but one was like the focused beam of sunlight. It became imperative to protect oneself.
The rumble of hypersonic air passing the shuttlecraft’s windscreen dropped to a dull roar as the three small craft completed their entry into the moon’s atmosphere. Long contrails marked the path the shuttlecraft had made as they carved their way into the lower atmosphere.
Commander Jonigan made small, almost unnoticeable adjustments to the shuttlecraft’s controls as they dropped into the massive valley that harbored the strange signals the Resolution had detected from orbit.
“How’s that look up ahead, Doctor?” Jonigan said.
The good Doctor Helen Baxter sat at one of the auxiliary stations to the rear of the copilot seat. At the moment, her face was hidden by the cloud of white hair that orbited her head, completely unaffected by the returning gravity. She was in the process of taming the unruly mass and placing it all in a ponytail.
“Should’ve done that when I sat down, I guess,” she said almost to herself. She looked ahead out the shuttlecraft’s windscreen. “Oh, yes dear, that will be perfect. If you could just set us down by the river there, not too far from the pyramid looking thing there.”
“The pyramid looking thing? Is that what you scientists call them now?” Jonigan asked.
“Well, if you have a better idea of what to call it, let’s hear it. Smartass.”
“Yes, Ma’am!” Jonigan said, as he smiled to himself and began maneuvering to land.
Fortunately, the shuttlecraft were VTOL and required very little space to land. What looked to be the local tree analog reared up into a rather impressive forest canopy, not too far from the banks of the river. The coloration of the local vegetation was slightly strange to human eyes. Whatever the local plants used to process sunlight was much darker than the chlorophyll Earth plants used.
With typical military efficiency, camp was quickly set up and the expedition personnel settled into their various tents. Night was quickly approaching. With the help of the moon’s gas planet primary eclipsing the sun, the local night would be hours longer than what would be normal.
“Gunny, make sure that we have a good sentry line set up around the camp by the time darkness hits. I don’t want to be surprised by anything.” Commander Jonigan stood at the top of the ridge that separated the camp from the vegetation covered pyramid a few hundred meters down the slope. He didn’t like the strange feeling that seemed to pervade the entire area. It made him very uneasy, like something was going to jump out of a dark corner of the jungle surrounding the expedition.
“Aye, aye, sir,” Gunnery Sergeant Thorsen said, as he turned and double timed it back to the edge of the camp behind them, yelling for his men as he descended.
Jonigan stood for a few moments longer looking at the giant artifact below. He’d visited some of the old pyramids situated in Central America on Old Earth, back when he had been in the Academy. This was nothing like it. He couldn’t say why, but it seemed as if the entire structure was peering down at him, right into the depths of his soul. He shook himself, almost as if waking from a dream, turned and headed back down to the camp.
The setting of the sun was foreshortened by the eclipsing gas giant. Suddenly, it was dark, the stars appeared as if someone flipped a switch. It was time to get to bed and prepare for the coming morning. There would be plenty to do as the expedition began to explore when light returned.
It took only moments after laying down on his cot for Jonigan to lose consciousness.
“Commander! Commander!” Jonigan was much more awake the second time Thorsen called to him. Was it Thorsen? Jonigan shook his head to clear out the cobwebs.
“What is it Gunny?” He slurred in response and then rubbed his
eyes before looking at the display on his wristcom.
The light said it was shortly after four in the morning, ship time. Just two hours from what would be midnight local. Still the middle of the night.
“We’ve got a situation, sir.” Jonigan could hear shouts in the distance. “It looks like one of the archies was attacked a few moments ago.”
“Attacked?”
“I can’t really say much else, sir. There isn’t much left to go on, the victim is missing or at least we can’t tell from what’s left if he’s even still alive. It’s a mess, sir.” He hesitated for a few seconds before continuing. “I don’t think that whatever did this was human.”
“How’s the camp? Are we secure?” Sudden concern filled Jonigan’s voice.
“Yes, sir, we’ve not had a problem all night. All the sensors and sentries report that they haven’t seen a thing. I don’t know what this is, but the first we knew of anything was the screams coming from the tent. By the time we got there, whatever attacked, was already gone.”
“Alright, let’s get all our people up and at stations, I want to be ready if something is coming. Don’t say anything to the expedition personnel, I don’t want a panic on our hands.” Jonigan was pulling on his boots by this point. He stood, ready to leave his tent. “I better get to the scene.”
Commander Jonigan walked quickly through the gathering of tents, his boots grinding through the dirt and gravel. Anyone that might be awake would know that someone was in a hurry. The door of a tent in front of him flopped open to the side and Dr. Helen Baxter stepped out. Strangely, she was fully dressed, as if she had never been to sleep.
“You’re going to need some help with this,” she said as she smiled up at Jonigan.
“What are you talking about?”
“Sometimes, Commander, you need to look at things with different eyes.”
