Dark Side of the Moon: A Gritty Space Opera Adventure (Frontier's Reach Book 3)

by Robert C. James

  A jail.

  Each were thrown inside, and the bars closed shut behind them. Higgs grabbed at them, but they wouldn’t budge. Nicolas sighed despondently.

  “Well, that could’ve gone better.”

  Chapter 3

  Cargo Ship Argo

  Everything had gone wrong. Jason should have returned from the dark side of the moon, and it’d been four hours since anyone from the surface had reported in.

  “You should never have let him take that pod.”

  Kevin swiveled his chair to find Althaus standing at the hatchway. “And you think we could have stopped him?”

  Althaus walked onto the bridge. “I would have, if I’d had some warning.”

  “And what would you have done? Beat him to a pulp again?”

  “It gets results.”

  “He’s not a little kid.” Kevin pointed to the bruises on Althaus’s face, from the previous altercation with Jason. “He can fight back now. And you’re no spring chicken anymore.”

  “Someone has to beat some sense into him. You were always too soft. And with his father gone—”

  Kevin raised his hand. “Unless you’ve got an idea how to reach the team on the surface, you’re wasting my time.”

  “We would’ve had another pod if the kid didn’t take—”

  “You’re not helping.”

  “Playing the captain now, are we?” Althaus bristled. “If something happens to Tyler, this ship’s mine. Don’t forget that, Rycroft.” He stormed off the bridge, and Kevin rolled his eyes.

  Jackass.

  Kevin ambled to the operations station and looked at the communications monitor. There was still nothing from the surface. And on the scanners, there continued to be no sign of activity from the moon. As much as it pained him, if anyone was a priority, it had to be the team on the planet. Jason knew what he was doing when he’d taken the Julieanne.

  He stepped from the bridge and headed toward the engine room where Alyssa and Professor Petit were standing over the central console. Kevin smiled. It wasn’t every day that his daughter had the opportunity to work with a genius.

  “Connect the hose,” Petit instructed her.

  Alyssa connected a plasma hose from the maintenance junction to a small plasma storage container.

  She waved a handheld scanner over it. “We’ve got a seal.”

  “Okay. Let’s begin the purge. We want only the particles from the exhaust, so bypass the connections to the engine.”

  Kevin furrowed his brow. “What’s going on here?”

  Aly ran her hands over the console. “Professor Petit has discovered Iota particles inside the Argo’s exhausts. They’re holding their form in the plasma residue.” She checked the readings. “Okay, I’m ready.”

  Petit gave her a nod. “Go.”

  The hose filled, and the golden glow of plasma seeped into the storage container. “That’s enough. Stop the purge.”

  Kevin peered at the contents of the container. “The Iota particles are in there?”

  Petit nodded, checking over his handheld scanner. “And they’re still holding their form. Apparently, plasma stabilizes the particles.”

  It was the first ray of hope Kevin had felt since arriving at Psi-Aion. “Is there any way we can use this to get back home?”

  “One step at a time, Mister Rycroft. This technology differs somewhat from the process we employ to travel at FTL. But it’s a start at understanding it.”

  Kevin turned to his daughter. “How are the repairs going?”

  “It won’t take long to purge the rest of the Iota particles from the exhausts and any other nook and cranny they found their way into.”

  “FTL is the last thing on my mind at the moment.”

  Alyssa looked at him curiously.

  “How much of a beating do you think this ship could take?” he asked.

  “It’s taken a fair bashing through that vortex already.”

  “Could she handle going through a planetary atmosphere?”

  Alyssa’s eyes widened. “Still no word from Tyler or the others?”

  Kevin sighed. “No. Nothing from Jason either.”

  “He hasn’t come back from the other side of the moon?”

  “No, and because he took the Julieanne, there’s only one way down to the surface.”

  Petit put the plasma storage container aside. “It’d be extremely risky dropping an E-Class cargo ship of this age through a planetary atmosphere.”

  Kevin was well aware of that. But they had little choice. “We’ve done it before.”

  “When was the last time?”

  Kevin bit his bottom lip. “It’s…ah. It’s been awhile.” The three stood in silence. “We could use your help to prepare.”

  “Well, I’ve always been up for a challenge.

  *

  October 26, 2213

  Psi-Aion

  With no clock, Nicolas found it difficult to tell what time it was on Psi-Aion. It had, however, come to the point where the crew of the Argo would wonder about their disappearance.

  The sun had been down for some time. Even without knowing the precise orbit of Psi-Aion, it would inevitably rise. Will we know our true fate by then? He peered through the bars of the wooden cage at the guards outside his cell and their village beyond.

  He’d gone barely a second without thinking about his crew. Some of the men and women he’d served with on the Vanguard had been there since he’d taken command. They’d seen a lot of action during the war. To have perished on what was supposed to be a routine mission burned him to his core.

  Glancing over at Susan talking to Corporal Higgs, he wondered how he would’ve handled it if she’d died with them.

  “Come and see this!”

  The voice of Tyler Cassidy echoed through the cave. Nicolas, Susan, and the Marines walked down the deep cavern. They’d already scoped out the cave’s confines, hoping to find a way out. But it was sealed in every direction. What could he have found?

  When they reached him, the cargo captain was standing by a cave wall. “What is it?” Nicolas asked.

  Tyler pointed. The light of the full moon above Psi-Aion helped bathe the cave with faint illumination. Nicolas stepped closer and noted at the markings scrawled on the wall.

  “Cave paintings,” Susan said. “It’d make sense that a people at their point of development would create such primitive drawings.”

  “I thought ancient humans used cave paintings to communicate with one another.” Tyler brushed a hand over the rock face. “These people have a spoken language.”

  “Not necessarily. We communicate audibly with one another, but we still connect through numerous other avenues, such as the written word and art. This is probably how they record their stories.”

  Nicolas studied the figures in the drawings closely while Tyler and Susan continued their back and forth. The first in the sequence was a crude render of a black bird. It had dark, menacing eyes. Farther along were a group of black figures. They dragged others, painted in yellow, along with ropes.

  “The Seekers?”

  “Nicolas?” Susan walked up beside him.

  “These drawings represent the Seekers.” He pointed to the cave wall. “The bird is their ship. These figures are the soldiers we met on Orion V. These figures here…” He gestured to the yellow drawings. “The natives of this world.”

  “Why would the Seekers be enslaving their own kind?” Then realization dawned on her. “They’re abducting them.”

  “It’s obvious the natives aren’t capable of interstellar flight.”

  Tyler pieced it all together. “So, they aren’t Seekers after all. The real Seekers are coming down here, taking them, and using them to what?”

  “To be their arms and legs?” Nicolas pondered.

  “But why?”

  “I’m not sure. But we know the Seekers have a control over Christian Nash. It would stand to reason they can manipulate these people as well.”

  “And we flew
in on a spaceship from the sky.” Susan beat Nicolas to the punch. “They think we’re Geri Vokar. They think we’re Seekers.”

  “But we look nothing like the them,” Higgs chimed in.

  “No,” Nicolas said. “But we’re dealing with a primitive race of people who’ve seen us drop from the sky in a space vehicle. We can’t blame them for being confused.”

  “If that’s the case, we’re in a lot of trouble.”

  Nicolas agreed with the Marine. They would need to convince the natives otherwise. But with the obvious language barrier, he wasn’t sure where to start.

  Chapter 4

  Kione stared at the cryogenic chamber before him. The cold and sterile gray box wasn’t what he had in mind when he’d been told he was leaving the Tokyo Institute of Advanced Sciences to travel off-world.

  “Penny for your thoughts?”

  He turned. There in her usual white lab coat was Doctor Tai. Her kind eyes viewed him with concern.

  “Did you sign off on this, Doctor?”

  Tai appeared to consider the question before putting on a brave face. “You know as well as I, I don’t get the final say in matters such as this.” She put a hand on Kione’s shoulder. “You still want to go, don’t you?”

  “Of course.” It’s not as if the Minister of Defense gave me a choice, anyway. “This sphere… If there’s any possibility it might help me find my people, it’s worth a shot.” He turned back toward the cryogenic chamber. “I just didn’t—”

  “Want to go inside this,” Tai said. “I understand. I don’t much like it either. But the powers that be have deemed this to be the safest and most secure way of transporting you.”

  Tai had his back, so he trusted he would be safe for the journey. She would, after all, be coming along aboard the Vanguard.

  “Is he ready?”

  Kione craned his neck toward the door, but there was no one there. He spun around toward Tai. She’d disappeared, too. What the…?

  The room went dark, and a cold breeze blew around him. He was no longer inside the Institute, but outside in a forest.

  A bolt of energy shot past his head and into the tree behind him. A figure walked toward him through the darkness. They raised their weapon to fire again, but Kione threw himself behind the nearest tree trunk.

  Another energy bolt seared at him, hitting the tree. His heart raced, and sweat beaded down his forehead. Where am I?

  The footsteps of his attacker neared, sploshing through the soft forest floor. Kione took a chance. He jumped from cover and sprinted away, zigzagging from tree to tree. Behind him, the figure gained, spraying weapon fire in his path.

  Kione reached the top of a cliff and stopped short from slipping over the edge. His pursuer, dressed all in black, aimed his gun at him.

  Kione closed his eyes and prepared to travel to whatever afterlife his people called home.

  Knock. Knock.

  Kione opened his eyes. Now where am I?

  He stared down at the bed where a CDF uniform sat neatly upon it. A knock sounded at the door again.

  “Umm, come in,” he said.

  The door opened, and an older man entered with chief petty officer rank pins on his uniform. “You’re all packed?”

  “Uh, I guess I am.” Kione picked up the bag beside his bed and peered inside it. Most prominent was a small display case of war medals. On the top was a name plate: JASON B. CASSIDY.

  I’m Jason?

  “Your transport has arrived.” The chief walked toward him and frowned. “Have you decided where you’ll go?”

  Kione zipped up the bag. “Believe me when I say I have no idea.”

  “Well, if you need any help, I have a brother-in-law who has a business out on Vesta III. They courier cargo from the orbiting Odyssey Station to the terraforming worksites on the planet. He’s always after competent pilots. It wouldn’t be much, but it’d be a start.”

  “Kione!”

  He spun back around. No longer was he in some nondescript room, he was now back in his cell. Through the pale-yellow barrier, Jason Cassidy stood staring at him.

  “Were you in my head?” he asked.

  Kione rubbed his temples. That’s what that was. “I apologize. I didn’t know what happened. I was in a room.”

  “You were in my quarters the day I left the service. It was as if you were there with me.”

  “It seemed like a daydream. It started back on Earth before leaving for Orion V. Then I was in a forest somewhere, being chased by Seeker soldiers.”

  “Who was that?” Jason wondered.

  There was no one else in the brig with them. “The guard?”

  Jason raised an eyebrow.

  “I was in the guard’s head.”

  “The one outside the door? I thought you said you couldn’t probe their minds?”

  “Perhaps my abilities have increased.”

  “Okay.” Jason seemed confused. “But you were being chased by the soldier. Why would they chase one of their own?”

  Kione put his hands up. “I can’t explain it, but I was definitely the one being pursued.”

  Jason sat on the floor and pondered. He looked as hopeless as Kione felt. But there was a glimmer of optimism in his eyes. “If you can get inside other people’s heads, is there a way you could, I dunno, control them?”

  Kione would’ve laughed if it weren’t for their dire situation. “These powers I’m experiencing, they’re new to me. I don’t understand them any more than you.”

  “We have to get out of here. If there’s a way you can reach back into the mind of the guard outside that door—”

  “I don’t know—”

  “If there’s even a chance,” Jason pleaded.

  “And where would we go? This is a big ship. We—”

  “One problem at a time.”

  Jason Cassidy seemed little more than a cowboy who’d eventually get himself killed. Though Kione couldn’t fault him for wanting an opportunity to escape.

  “Can you do it?” Jason asked him again.

  “I suppose there’s only one way to find out.” Without thinking about it, Kione closed his eyes.

  Several moments passed, and his eyelids shot open.

  “Try again,” his comrade persisted.

  Kione sighed and closed his eyes again. Darkness greeted him, and nothingness surrounded him. An outline formed. It was the door of the brig. He pushed through it as if he were using his hands. Outside the door, the Seeker guard stood, like an unmoving statue. Kione concentrated hard. His mind drove toward him.

  His eyes flickered open. The green of the forest from earlier encircled him. But no longer was he in the Seeker’s body. He was face to face with the primitive-looking being. He gave the impression of an early human Kione had read about as a child, with little in the way of clothing.

  Kione gazed deep into his eyes.

  “I need your help.”

  The forest disappeared, and Kione found himself back in his cell. Jason eyeballed him expectantly.

  “Did it work?”

  Kione shrugged. The brig door swooshed open, and the Seeker entered. He walked toward Jason’s cell. With a wave of the terminal beside the door, the barrier dropped. Jason took his chance and jumped the soldier, throwing him to the deck and striking him on the back of the head.

  “That was amazing, Kione!” Jason undressed the unconscious alien of his armor and placed it on himself. “How do I look?”

  “Just like one of them.”

  “I hope that’s enough.” Jason dragged the naked Seeker into his cell. He waved at the door terminal with his hand and trapped him inside.

  “It’s time to get the hell out of here.” Jason dropped the barrier on Kione’s cell. “Come on.”

  “I’m not going.”

  “Are you kidding me? Let’s go!”

  “If I come with you, they won’t let me escape this ship,” Kione said. “If they find I’m gone, they’ll hunt me down. You, on the other hand, are dispensable. You ma
y have a chance.”

  “I can’t just leave you here.”

  “You have to.”

  Jason’s mind seemed to play out all the different scenarios. He sighed and stepped back, raising the barrier. “I promise I’ll return for you.”

  Kione nodded. He’d shared enough of the human’s mind to know he was telling the truth. “Go!”

  Jason put his helmet on and dashed out of the brig. Kione could only hope he had what it took to get away without being killed in the process.

  Chapter 5

  Seeker Weapon Ship

  A lump formed in Jason’s throat. In the service, there was an unofficial rule that no one was ever to be left behind. And here he was abandoning Kione to the mercy of the Seekers. He could only imagine what they’d do to him to ensure their weapon became operational.

  Unfortunately, Kione was right. The Seekers wouldn’t let him go, and if Jason brought him back with him, he’d be risking the lives of everyone else aboard the Argo.

  He scanned the corridor through the visor of his helmet. Data scrolled down in front of his eyes, in the same text he’d seen on the weapon ship’s bulkheads. Linguists would have a field day with it when they got home. If we get home.

  Around a corner, two soldiers marched his way. This’ll be the test. Jason strolled toward them as casually as possible. He held his weapon firmly. He wasn’t keen to use it, because if he did, his cover would surely be blown. While he thought about all the different outcomes in his head, the Seekers strolled past him without taking a second glance.

  He breathed a sigh of relief and approached the elevator shaft at the end of the corridor. He entered it and studied the small terminal. How am I meant to control this? Jason remembered back to when he’d first traveled on it. The soldier had waved at it with his hand, much like Jason had when controlling the cells in the brig.

  He assumed there must be some kind of sensor in the gloves of the suit. He waved at the terminal, and dozens of different symbols flashed by. He searched for the one that looked like a backward S, with a horizontal stroke through it and a dot above. The same one he’d seen plastered on the bulkheads of the hangar deck.