Gyaros Book One: The Mice Eat Iron (YA 17+ Sci Fi Adventure)

by Rohan Healy

  The black man furrowed his brow and took a moment to think it over.

  “Heh, why not, who knows, you might come in handy after all. But there’s one condition,” he leaned down and spoke quietly only inches from Miles face, “if shit gets dirty down there you stay the hell outta my way. I don’t believe for one second that you’ve killed a man, so you’d better leave all the rough stuff to me”

  Miles gulped again, his ruse didn’t fool this hardened criminal one bit.

  “W-well then, it’s settled. My name is Miles Stanton and I am very much looking forward to working closely with you when we reach Gyaros, Mister…umm,” Miles said, his voice shaking. He reached out his open hand as far as it would stretch around the chunky rubber bars holding him in place.

  “The name’s Maxen, Maxen Ward.” Maxen put out his right to shake Miles’, the two men locked eyes, smiled and shook hands, but Miles expression quickly changed as he grasped what felt like cold, metallic fingers. He yelped and recoiled in horror wrenching his hand back as Maxen laughed cruelly.

  “Thought that’d give you a fright,” he chuckled, “yeah I lost this arm working the loading bay in the Central Yellow District back when I was a valuable and productive member of Elissan society. Bringing up that ore from the Red Districts is dangerous work. Y’see I was giving directions to my buddy Jiles who was loading a container onto the carriage of one of them big ‘ol industrial MagLev rail trains. He let go a little too fast and the container slipped, and ten tonnes of Chimerium ore started falling from the sky. I jumped outta the way but not fast enough, my arm was crushed, and when I think about it now I guess I was lucky I just lost my arm that day, dunno what little Jenny would have done if she’d lost me back then.” Maxen’s one good eye became misty for a moment, but he quickly regained his composure. “The Freight Department paid for this shiny new arm, they spared no expense, it was cutting edge tech back then, a’course that was ten years ago now.”

  “That’s really incredible,” Miles said, admiring the silver robotic hand as it clanked and whirred. Maxen’s hand had been obscured by the large rubber constraints and so it was a real shock when Miles saw it for the first time.

  “We don’t see very many robotic replacement limbs in the Green Districts. With the safety measures in place and the type of work we do injuries of that nature are extremely rare. It really is an incredible piece of engineering, man I’d love to get my hands on the schematic, just to see what it looks like.”

  “Yeah well don’t you be getting any weird ideas, this arm’s done me just fine for the past 10 years and I don’t want you poking around in it and messing things up.”

  The conversation was suddenly cut short as the shuttle began to rumble.

  “Here we go, I hope you brought some clean underwear cause from what I heard this is one hell of a ride.”

  “Wh-what’s going to happen now?” shouted Miles over the sound of the ever intensifying rumble of the shuttle engines.

  “Well first we’re gonna be shot out of Carthage’s atmosphere, then when we reach the vacuum the stasis is gonna come online, that’s the thing that allows us to travel at seventeen kilometres per second without our guts flying out our butts. Then the turbo thrusters’ll kick in and the next nine hours will feel just like sitting at home, that is until we enter the atmosphere of Gyaros,” Maxen appeared to enjoy frightening the poor, pale Miles who was sweating bullets by this stage.

  “And finally, providing the retrorockets kick in on time, we should be in for a pretty smooth landing. You do know these shuttles are sixty years old, I’ve heard one in every five shuttles don’t even make it off of Carthage.”

  Miles just sat there with clenched fists feeling nauseas and terrified. The vibrations became more and more intense as engine after engine could be heard coming online. Then all of a sudden the passengers felt the unmistakeable feeling of movement. Miles’ body shifted to the right slightly as the shuttle began barrelling down the runway, heading toward the ramp that would send them into a vertical ascent.

  “Shiiiiiiiiiiit!” Miles screamed as they picked up speed, his voice rising an octave as the vessel turned sideways and began its perilous climb out of Carthage’s atmosphere. The old red shuttle shook violently as it made the big push out into space, it felt as though it could come apart at any moment. Miles gripped his seat, digging his fingers into the rubber cushion and clenched his teeth. ‘Please stay in one piece, please stay in one piece, please stay in one piece…’ he repeated to himself, bargaining with every God he could think of to spare his pitiful life as the shuttle climbed out of Carthage’s atmosphere. And then, without warning, silence. All the movement stopped and Miles no longer felt like he was sitting on his side, he was weightless, he looked around to see the sick looking man fast asleep, his legs and arms floating around comically. He would have assumed him dead if not for the loud snoring. ‘How do you sleep through that?’ Miles thought to himself, but then he remembered dreamscape and it all made sense, his ill appearance certainly fitted with that of a dreamscape abuser.

  “*ding*. Stasis module engaged,” said a pre-programmed female voice as gravity returned to the shuttle. The stasis module created a field of Chimerium energy inside the shuttle and provided artificial gravity by releasing microscopic Chimerium molecules into the atmosphere that could be manipulated by the controlling AI to shift the density of the air within the field, creating a Carthage like gravitational effect. This also protected the passengers from the extreme speeds required to reach Gyaros in such a short period of time. The drug addict’s legs dropped to the floor of the craft with a loud thud, and all felt normal again as the artificial gravity kicked in.

  “*ding*. Blast shields opening,” said the same robotic voice, and the passengers watched as the thick, red steel doors on the side of the craft lifted to reveal clear windows made from a composite of aluminium silicate glass and fused silica glass. Miles’ jaw dropped as he looked out of the three panes thick, shuttle windows opposite him at the dark vastness of space. Billions of stars shone and sparkled against the murky black vacuum, more vivid and startling than any night looking up at them from the surface of Carthage. Then Miles shifted his gaze to his right and watched as the giant blue and green orb that represented his home planet slowly became smaller as the tiny Talos shuttle made its way across the solar system. Feeling utterly discombobulated he shook his head as if hoping to wake up in bed, next to his wife, and start a regular day at work. ‘This just can’t be happening!’ Unfortunately he remained there, in the space faring skiff with three other ragged outlaws. This was happening alright! He stared longingly toward Carthage, it’s wispy, cloudy atmosphere and its vast green forests and jungles, a sight that was rare for Carthaginians as manned space missions were greatly reduced at the end of The War of Unification in order to focus on the rebuilding effort. Images of Carthage were sent back by the automated satellites orbiting the planet, but the only living people - other than those few working on the manned orbital stations - who had seen it were now living on Gyaros. Except of course for Ryker, the young man who claims to have travelled back to Carthage from the prison colony world. Miles didn’t believe him initially, and who would, however things had changed, now Miles had to believe that there was a way back. A way back to Elissa, a way back to Hellen, to Chet and to a normal life. ‘Hellen, how could you take that bastard Tyler into our house, my house! I can’t let it end like this, I just can’t’.

  “*ding*. Thrusters engaging. We will now begin our approach to Gyaros. When we reach maximum velocity we will be travelling at seventeen kilometres per second. The journey will last approximately nine hours. Please be comfortable and enjoy our educational in-flight presentation.”

  A small screen slid down from the ceiling and positioned itself in front of Miles’ face. He looked around and noticed that screens had come down for every one of the ten seats, even the uninhabited ones. The screen flickered on and a young woman appeared, she had short dark hair, a pretty face and w
ore a red Talos Corp uniform, the kind that existed only in museums and text books. She smiled zealously and began to speak as the old screen flickered and pixelated.

  “Congratulations space traveller. You have been selected to take part in the colonisation program of the third moon of Medea; Gyaros. Through your hard work and commitment you will pave the way for generations of Medeans who will live and thrive on the new moon colonies. Your good work will reduce the population strain on Medea’s natural and manmade environments and will bring hope to billions of people who wish to enjoy the simple necessities of fresh water, food and shelter.”

  ‘My God,’ thought Miles to himself, ‘this vid must be a hundred years old! I learned about the colonisation of Gyaros by Talos Corp during Political History in college!’ The woman on the screen continued to speak.

  “I present to you your new home and the capital of Gyaros, New Fortune.” The screen moved away from the woman and now depicted a large metropolitan city, with high rise buildings, lavish apartments, and tree-lined streets with people and motorised personal conveyances moving along the roads in an orderly fashion. The beautiful city was home to parks and playgrounds in which children played and the elderly sat in the shade on the wooden benches.

  “Can you believe this bullshit?” Maxen muttered cynically, leaning over. The woman continued.

  “Over the past forty years Talos and its scientists and engineers have been hard at work transforming Gyaros from a world of silicate rock and water ice, with a surface soil rich in iron oxide and void of all vegetative life, into a paradise fit for human habitation.” The screen transitioned cleverly from red deserts to lush green fields with people working the land and growing vegetables and fruits. Then a three dimensional cross section of a large tower-like structure appeared. It seemed to be made up of a thick, circular, steel inner support structure about twenty metres in diameter. A long stair case wound around the vertical column to its peak. At the top of the 487 meter high tower was a large, bulbous circular structure which made the station look, to Miles at least, like an extremely tall shitake mushroom.

  “Thanks to advances in terraforming technologies due to the discovery and exploitation of the element Chimerium, our scientists and engineers have developed weather creation stations. Known as the Wilhelm stations, after their inventor Artur Wilhelm, these structures create and maintain the weather and atmosphere on Gyaros through the execution of the three phases. Firstly they extract the water ice from beneath the surface of Gyaros, process it and shoot it out into the troposphere, secondly they emit heat and wind to manipulate the weather conditions, and finally every station connects to the next to form a grid, creating a Chimerium stasis field which encases and protects the artificial, Medea like atmosphere and gravity.”

  ‘Wow.’ Miles thought, his knowledge of energy systems and engineering gave him an especially keen appreciation of the structure on display. ‘That’s some impressive tech, especially for its time! It sure would be fun to have a tinker with one of those, we don’t have anything like that on Carthage.’ The attractive presenter continued.

  “The largest of the Wilhelm stations is called The Pillar of Delphi and is located at the centre of New Fortune. The Pillar of Delphi also houses Talos’ Gyaros Headquarters.” The incredibly large and impressive Pillar of Delphi filled the screen as the camera swept up and down the super structure, and panned from left to right.

  “The Pillar of Delphi is the crown jewel of Gyaros and stands at just over one kilometre high. As well as performing the functions of a regular Wilhelm station and serving as the corporate and administrative HQ for Talos on Gyaros, it also contains three hundred habitable stories for residents of New Fortune.”

  The Pillar looked much like a jumbo version of a Wilhelm station, however roads and other smaller tower like buildings surrounded and attached themselves to the main structure.

  “Being tidally locked to Carthage, Gyaros has a day cycle equal to that of 32 standard day cycles on Carthage. In order to make life on Gyaros easier and more comfortable the Chimerium field around the moon also produces a simulated day and night cycle similar to that of Carthage. By using reflection, refraction and diffraction the microscopic Chimerium particles in the atmosphere are automatically adjusted to bend the natural sunlight wherever it may be in relation to Gyaros, and create day and night conditions on demand. Thanks to this incredible breakthrough you can expect a day and night cycle similar to that which you are used to, no matter where you are on Gyaros.”

  Miles watched as sunny day turned to starry night in a matter of seconds as a pulse emanated from a Wilhelm station across the Chimerium field.

  “And that concludes our virtual tour of your new home, if you have any questions please direct them to your designated community leader when you arrive. If you look toward the bow of the vessel you will see your destination. Please take a moment to enjoy the view,” Miles looked up from the screen and turned his head to the left witnessing the jaw dropping sight of the barren red moon in all its foreboding glory, the very sight of which struck fear into Miles’ heart and he gulped down hard. Miles turned his attention back to the screen.

  “We at Talos Corporation wish you a pleasant and fulfilling life on Gyaros. Good luck space traveller, you are now a citizen of Gyaros: The Home of Hope,” the lady tilted her head, smiled and closed her eyes. The screen flickered and turned black, and the mechanical arms pulled the viewers back into the ceiling above.

  Miles turned to Maxen and began to speak.

  “I don’t suppose Gyaros looks much like that anymore huh.”

  “Nope I don’t suppose it does. You’ve seen the reports, read the articles, you must know it’s a wasteland over there.”

  “So uh, what’s the plan when we arrive?” Miles asked timidly.

  “Well our first stop has to be The Dustbowl,” Maxen replied.

  “What’s The Dustbowl?”

  “I’ve heard it’s the closest town to the drop zone. See these shuttles are pre-programmed to land at the designated drop zone. There used to be a processing station where new arrivals would be welcomed and assimilated, designated a community and all that jazz. These days ain’t nothing but sand and ruins gonna greet our sorry asses, so we gotta make our way to The Dustbowl. It’s a town the first convicts built out of the wrecked remains of the Talos shuttles. From what I heard it’s a tough ol’ place, baptism of fire if you get my meaning.”

  Miles nodded and turned a little pale.

  “You’d better stick close to uncle Maxen if you wanna get through The Dustbowl alive. After that we catch a ride and make our way to New Fortune, try and pick up some work and find us someplace to live. Shit, that’s the plan anyway.”

  “I though you said no one makes it to New Fortune!”

  “Haha, yeah well I ain’t no one, they don’t come tougher than me, so you stick close and we’ll see if we can’t make it all the way.” Maxen smiled and slapped Miles on the thigh with his weighty metal hand.

  Miles sat back into his chair and looked straight ahead at the sparkling blanket of stars, an unfathomable number of shimmering lights each of them representing a massive and powerful sphere of luminous plasma. His eyes felt heavy, the physical exertion and mental stress of the preceding few hours, and indeed the preceding few days was taking its toll. Every muscle and joint in his body ached, he was hungry and still damp from running through the Yellow Districts, his wet feet squelching in his soaked socks. Miles felt his eye lids dropping as though they were being pulled down by the force of a couple of invisible anvils and within a minute he was fast asleep.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Chapter 9

  Miles woke suddenly to the feeling of being jolted back and forth, his head hitting the soft rubber head rest with enough force to cause him quite a bit of pain.

  “*ding*, Now entering Gyaros’ atmosphere. Blast shields closing. Stasis field disengaging.”

  “This is it buddy!” Maxen shouted over the incredibly lou
d sound of atmospheric re-entry. Miles caught a last glimpse of Gyaros out of the windows as the blast shields began to close over them. It looked terrifying, like a mountainous orange rock not fit for man nor beast.

  “Wooooohoooooo!” Maxen screamed, apparently enjoying the experience. The same could not be said for Miles who sat as still as he possibly could, white as a sheet, his stomach twisting and turning, audible at times even over the noise of the old shuttle which creaked and groaned under the extreme challenge of high speeds and higher temperatures. Suddenly there was a massive jolt, much heavier than any that preceded it and the yellow lights turned bright red as a loud warning siren could be heard.

  “*ding*, Shield integrity 75%. Engine output 40%. Retro rockets 82%. Probability of passenger survival 56%.”

  “Oh God…oh God Maxen we’re going to die, we are going to fucking die Maxen!” Miles screamed hysterically.

  “What you talking about man, 56% don’t sound too bad to me, better odds that what I had on most of my elimination contracts. Besides you got your lucky charm. Me! Haha!” Maxen said, throwing his head back and letting out a boisterous laugh.

  The other two passengers yelled and screamed, the dreamer - as was the colloquial terms for a dreamscape addict - was now wide awake and flailing about in fear. Miles couldn’t make out what the other two were screaming as they were much farther down the shuttle, but he had a pretty good idea based on their terrified expressions. And then the juddering stopped and there was silence. They had made it through the outer layer of the atmosphere and now found themselves gliding inside Gyaros’ calm, artificial skies.

  “*ding*, Current altitude: 15,000 meters. Retro rockets engaged.”

  The vessel began to vibrate as the retro rockets powered up and attempted to slow the craft as it plummeted to the moon’s surface. Miles closed his eyes and thought about Hellen and Chet. Happy memories flooded into his mind. His first night with Hellen, their wedding, the birth of his son, their family trips to Hesperides’ Zoo, the laughs shared with Clark, dinner with Candice and her husband Robert. And then surprisingly Ryker popped into his mind, Miles wasn’t angry anymore. Ryker had been his only friend during his short time in the Yellow Districts. He showed Miles around, looked out for him and genuinely cared about him. It was a pity how things ended, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes. The vibrations intensified as Miles closed his eyes tight to maintain the image of his wife and young son.