Jesse, by no means, believed that all of the UPG Council were crooked. He had hopes that one day the bad apples would be weeded out of office and the age of darkness would be lifted. Everyone was counting on the success of the Horizon finding a new home where people could live without fear. Although the UPG had a price on Jesse’s head, he knew that it was more for show. If the UPG had truly wanted him rotting in a cell, they would have tried a lot harder. He knew that they would eventually attempt to hire him for another job. If he did accept another job in the future, he would be more vigilant. He had a gut feeling that they might try to set him up. After watching the news for a few minutes, he decided to watch a movie instead. Jesse sank further into his bed and placed his hands behind his head, interlocking his fingers.
“B.I., turn off the lights,” he ordered the computer. The lights faded off, and a few minutes later, he faded away as well, still feeling the effects of his drugs. He slept peacefully for three hours.
BANG! Jesse woke up immediately, and jumped to the floor. He was naked and didn’t bother to get dressed. He checked the radar on his digital screen but didn’t see anything wrong. “Fuck!” he exclaimed. Jesse ran to the lift and pulled on the lever taking him to the top level. As he was ascending, something else had rammed into his ship. BOOM! The force had knocked him down. He finally made it to the top level and sprinted to his flight room. BOOM! Another object rammed into the outside of his hull knocking him on his backside. “Damn it!” he yelled out in frustration. He jumped into his flight chair and peered out his window. Large black objects slowly passed in front of his ship. It took him a second to figure it out, “Fuck…black space rock!” Black space rock against the darkness of space was virtually undetectable, even by sight.
Jesse quickly maneuvered his ship, pulling hard on his flight instrument while dodging and weaving around the massive chunks of rock. Luckily, for himself, he was a first rate pilot. Black space rock was incredibly difficult to see since they were camouflaged. As he was about to clear the last mass of black space rock, its jagged edge collided into the side of his ship. The force was so strong that it jolted him into the corner of his flight chair’s metal arm, digging into his ribs.
“Son of a bitch!” He could barely get the words out. After gathering his composure, Jesse checked his computer for damage to the ship’s hull, holding his side.
“Minimal damage…thank God,” he mumbled. He could easily have it repaired. The young space pirate made sure there were no other surprises waiting to happen and then reconfigured his radar to now detect black space rock. He was kicking himself for not thinking of it beforehand. Running into black space rock is one of those extremely rare occasions.
“Everything’s clear,” he said. After getting dressed, Jesse jogged down the hallway to his cargo bay and stopped at the hatch. Everything had been scattered around the room from the collisions. The crates had overturned, and the obelisk was leaning against a metal utility shelf that had almost been crushed in half. Jesse was a little concerned since he had never delivered damage goods to anyone. His reputation demanded perfection. The crates looked undamaged and were easy to re-stack, but the obelisk was on an angle.
“How am I going to get that back up?” he asked himself.
Jesse got under it, attempted to push it up, but without luck. He had an idea. He quickly climbed to the top of the utility shelf and removed the bent shelves until he reached where the obelisk was resting. He then placed some crates behind the shelf and on the other side of the obelisk to stabilize them both. He got on top of his crates, pushed his body against the shelf, and began to push forward. Slowly, the metal object moved upward. After a few minutes, the shelf slid down the side of the obelisk, pushing it up, and then it finally repositioned itself. Everything was finally were it should be. He checked the obelisk for damage. There was none. Thankfully there weren’t any scratches. “Thank God.” He had enough things to worry about.
He spoke too soon. Jesse looked down at the base of the obelisk. The buttons had been damaged. The three buttons that at one point were blinking green were now red. “Damn,” he said. The troubled space pirate slowly paced back and forth with his arms tightly folded attempting to construct a plan. For a moment, he was tempted to press one of the buttons to see what would happen. One of them must be a reset button, or maybe he could open the obelisk and then close it back up again, he thought to himself. Then maybe the buttons would go back to normal. It was a long shot, but he was willing to take the risk. He slapped then rubbed his hands together, mentally preparing himself before pressing a button. He gently kneeled before the obelisk as if it were a bomb. He paused for a moment, re-thinking if he should tempt fate.
“I don’t have a choice,” he said, as he cracked his fingers, then quickly pressed the center button first…it turned green. He then pressed the right button…it too change back to green. Without even pressing the left button, it turned back to its original color. Unfortunately, before the pirate could celebrate, steam began to release from the crack in the center. He rose to his feet and backed up slowly, pulling out one of his side arms.
“Fuck me,” Jesse said, as he watched the center of the obelisk part and slowly continued to open. The metal doors folded in the front then retracted to the back of the structure. After several minutes, the steam eventually subsided, and to his astonishment, revealed…a woman. He was speechless.
The woman, who was somehow frozen, was gorgeous. Jesse shook his head in confusion and continued to stare at the beauty. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief, but she was still there. Although her eyes were open, she didn’t appear to be conscious. She looked as if she were in her early twenties. Her eyes were light sea blue, almost hypnotizing. Her hair was dark black and pulled back into a ponytail. The woman’s skin was slightly tanned, giving it a golden tint. Jesse guessed, by her features, that she was possibly Portuguese.
Her body was slender and sexy, and her lips were full and lightly colored. She was wearing a laced, short-sleeve, red shirt and tight blue jeans. The buttons continued to stay green, so he assumed the problem was corrected. Is she still alive? He wondered, if she might be a prisoner or someone’s sick idea of a trophy. Jesse pulled out a chair from behind his workbench, unfolded it, and sat down. He was taken aback by her beauty. She had such a strong, exotic appearance. Time had seemed to stop, and the world around him had faded away with the beating of his heart. He was in trouble and he knew it.
Chapter 2
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
Theodore Roosevelt
Three years of searching for a home had left the crew and civilians of the starship Horizon increasingly discouraged and downhearted. Their hopes had slowly dwindled a year ago after discovering that Epsilon Eridani was an uninhabitable planet. Now, hovering above their seventh uninhabitable planet, Admiral Scanlon gave authorization for the science team to depart on a mission to the planet surface. Leading the mission was Captain Moore, Admiral Scanlon’s second in command of the Horizon. Upon reaching the blue planet, which was three times the mass of the planet Jupiter, the Horizon’s scanner detected a metallic object on the surface. Professor Howard, the head scientist aboard the Horizon, believed that the metallic object might be a natural resource worth checking out. The science team immediately requested to investigate the find. Their scans had also detected helium and hydrogen with traces of methane, which made the planet atmosphere appear blue, similar to the planet Neptune.
“Captain Moore, you are cleared for takeoff,” stated the admiral.
“Aye, sir,” replied Captain Moore.
“Good luck, and come back in one piece. I don’t want to have to go through the trouble of replacing you. Good help is hard to find. Although, I know Commander Jain would make a fine replacement,” the admiral sarcastically stated. The commander, who was standing beside his admiral in a parade rest stance, grinned.
“Aye, sir,” the captain responded with a light laugh. “Let’s get this tub underw
ay, pilot.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” the pilot replied, as he flipped some switches above his head. The ship powered up and began to hover in the hanger bay.
Captain Moore was a hulk of a man, six feet three inches and muscular. He was well liked by the ladies aboard the Horizon. Captain Moore was in charge of security of the ship, and there had been a few occasions where women had purposely gotten into trouble just so they could be next to him. His only other competition was Commander Jain, who was also a suave individual. One advantage Nilay Jain had over his superior officer, and friend, was that he was highly intelligent. Captain Moore was not a fool for sure, but if the two ever engaged in a battle of wits, Eric Moore just may possibly look like a fool. The long, dark gray science vessel exited hanger bay thirteen as it opened, and the vessel shot like a dart into the planet’s atmosphere. The sharp, elongated front of the starship cut through the deep methane effortlessly. However, the closer the vessel reached to the surface, the more the turbulence jostled the ship, rattling the crew inside like little fragile toys.
“Scan the surface for a level area to set us down,” ordered the captain, while he held onto the armrest of his seat.
“Aye, aye, sir,” the pilot replied. After typing away at his navigational keyboard, the pilot found a location within seconds. “There’s an area ten miles from our current position, sir,” the pilot informed his captain.
“Proceed.”
“Aye, sir,” said the pilot, continuing to type with a sharp concentration.
“Professor, what is the gravity going to be like on the planet’s surface?” asked the captain.
“It’s just a little heavier than the planet Earth’s gravity, Commander,” replied the professor.
“Good.”
The inside of the science vessel was dark with only three large emergency lights illuminating the interior. With the men strapped in their seats, which were glowing red, the pilot positioned them over his selected area and slowly landed the spacecraft. Methane, dirt, and small chunks of rubble were forced in every direction as the ship rested on the planet.
“Put on your environmental suits, men,” ordered the captain. Seven men suited up aboard the science vessel. Along with the pilot and captain were two security personnel, two scientists, and a high-ranking doctor.
“Will you be all right, Professor Howard?” the captain asked the lead scientist aboard the Horizon.
The professor fidgeted with his environmental suit. “Yes, if I can get this damn thing on right,” admitted the professor, scoffing to himself.
One of the security personnel walked over to the scientist and helped him in out of pity. “Here, this attaches on the side, like this,” instructed the security officer, while smiling and shaking his head.
“Thank you, you’ll have to excuse me. This is my first time putting one of these damn things on,” said Professor Howard. Professor Howard was a round, short man who had short white hair and a neatly trimmed salt-and-pepper-colored beard. He was known to everyone aboard the Horizon as a kind gentleman who had devoted his entire life to the pursuit of science and discovering the mysteries of the unknown. He wasn’t your conventional scientist who believed in the evolution of man theory but that there were powers at work other than God’s. The professor’s main reason for transferring onto the Horizon was to discover if extraterrestrial life existed. He believed that it was ignorant to think that humans were the only life in space, and he vowed to himself that he would prove it, not only to himself but to the entire solar system.
The professor was a widower who had lost his beloved wife to a hover car accident three years back. He didn’t see any reason to continue grieving back on Earth. He had hurt for so long and couldn’t take living on a planet without his beloved Julia. His eyes began to water. The professor’s thoughts were interrupted when the captain and his security officers charged up their weapons.
“Do you think those will be necessary, Mr. Moore?” asked Dr. Petrouski.
“It’s Captain Moore, Doctor. I know you doctor types, you can’t stand anyone not using your title. Well, I expect you to address me the same way. Besides, what happens if something jumps on your back and starts gnawing away at your skull? Would you prefer I sit back and enjoy…excuse me, I mean watch?” the grinning captain asked as he held out his hand.
“Indeed,” replied the doctor smugly, giving his well-known fake, forced smile. The captain and the doctor never got along, even before working together aboard the Horizon. They had briefly worked together at the UPG Headquarters. The captain was in charge of the Unified Police Force of one of the UPG’s highly secretive departments at the headquarters. He witnessed the doctor’s ill manner toward the staff and patients he was in care of. The captain was also aware of the fact that it was Dr. Petrouski who was commissioned to develop a fast-acting, painless lethal injection that was used on thousands of innocent people.
The captain voiced his objections toward the mindless executions of innocent people who lived on the space stations. He wasn’t punished, but he was reassigned to the starship Horizon instead. His father, who sat on the UPG Unified Police Force Council, had too much power to let anything happen to his only son. Eric Moore’s father thought the deep space trip would wake him up to what he called tough reality. Captain Moore opened the hatch of the science ship by pressing a button on the side of the access panel. The hatch slowly lifted up as a gust of wind pushed the men back. The wind current was so strong that it was difficult to get out of the ship. The pilot safely and happily stayed aboard the science vessel. The other six men pushed their way through the thick methane as Professor Howard scanned the planet for the source of metal. With an oval, silver device no larger than the professor’s hand, he located the metal fragments within seconds.
“The source is coming from half a mile in that direction, Captain!” yelled the professor through the communication system in his environmental suit. The wind was so strong that it was difficult for the men to hear each other, even through their suits’ internal communication system.
“Proceed with caution, men!” the captain yelled. The captain’s security team took the lead while the rest of the men slowly followed, pushing through the intense wind. After forty minutes of intense physical strain, the team of men finally reached their destination.
“The source of metal should be right in front of us,” the professor yelled.
“I don’t see anything, Professor,” yelled the captain.
All six men stood next to each other as they moved in closer. A faint noise grew louder as they pushed onward. “What’s that noise?” The noise grew louder and louder with every few steps.
“It sounds as if something is grinding rusty metal,” the doctor yelled.
“What the hell is it?” asked one of the security officers.
“I’m still not sure. I don’t see anything,” yelled the professor. After a few more steps, the six men stopped dead in their tracks and looked up in awe. Their mouths slowly dropped open as they looked at something they were not expecting to see.
“What the hell is it, Professor?” asked the captain, already knowing the answer.
“My lord. Extraterrestrials do exist,” the professor said to himself.
“What did you say, I couldn’t hear you?”
“I said that extraterrestrials do exist. This magnificent statue proves it.”
Before the team, a twenty-foot tall metal statue of a humanoid stood before them. The statue slightly resembled a man but had different facial and body features. The eyes were narrower and spread farther apart, and with a kind of crevasse in the center was where the nose should be. The lips of the alien were wider with a stubby chin directly underneath. The creature had no hair, but instead, had an elongated head with four long bumps stretching out of the back of its outer cranium. The statue of the alien had a smile on its face and held in its right hand a replica of the very planet the Horizon team was standing on. Its left hand was reaching out and opened, as if it were
welcoming someone, or something, to their planet. It wore a one-piece, black outfit, which hooked over the shoulders and came down in the front of the body covering the chest and the sex of the alien.
“Are you seeing what I am seeing, Professor?” yelled the captain.
“It appears so, Captain,” the professor yelled back. The professor continued to read his scanning device as the other men remained speechless. Even the doctor was amazed and only pointed at the statue as if to make a comment, yet could not. “According to my scanner, this statue has about fifty years of rust on it, Captain.”
“Fifty years?” asked the captain.
“Yes, and I’m not reading any life forms on the planet, only this metal statue. Wait a second.”
“What is it, Professor?”
“My scanner is picking up a layer of energy matter burned on the side of the statue.”
Voyages of the White Skull Book 1 Page 4
