Curse of the Altered Moon: Altered Moon Series: Book Two (The Altered Moon Series 2)
Page 5
“Yes sir!” Gina hopped up out of the pilot seat, threw CJ a quick salute, and was on her way in a flash.
Boss was just on the other side of the hatch as Gina left the bridge. She had to skirt around his suspensor chair and planted a kiss on him as she did. “Sorry, hon gotta run,” she said as she passed him.
“What? Now you’re going, too?” Boss yelled after her. “Aww, maaan.” Boss floated through the hatch and on to the bridge.
“Hey, old man, good to see you up and around.” CJ smiled as he saw Boss.
“Old man, eh?” Boss raised his eyebrows and pointed his finger at CJ. “I’ll have you know that I’ll run circles around you—in my chair.”
The two men laughed at the joke and CJ slapped Boss on the shoulder as they exchanged an enthusiastic handshake.
“Glad to have you back. I really wasn’t looking forward to interviewing for a new science officer.”
“Ha, and good morning to you, GABI,” Boss said over his shoulder.
“Good morning, Boss, I am pleased to see you well.”
“Thank you, GABI. It is a pleasure to be well. You look to be in your typically good spirits today.”
The stoic operations officer raised a single holographic eyebrow. “I’m planning to be excited later.”
“Ah-ha, now that’s my girl,” Boss said with a grin.
“Well, I’ll take that as my cue and go see what we can see. I hope there’s something more than empty cargo containers over there, or we’ll be picking the black diamonds out of the void to trade in.”
“Good luck, Captain. We’ll keep all eyes on you,” Boss assured him.
“Roger that and we’ll keep an open mic. S.O. you have the conn.”
“Aye, sir, S.O. has the conn,” Boss acknowledged the shift of duty.
“Bona fortuna, Captain,” GABI said.
“Thank you, GABI. Good fortune to us all. Take what you can,” CJ called out as he turned to leave the bridge.
“And give nothin’ back!” Boss finished just before the hatch slid shut. “Well GABI, once again it looks like you and me against the universe.” Boss raised a fist to no one in particular.
“Indeed? Then I fear for the universe.”
“As you should, my dear, for I am in command,” Boss announced loudly and dusted off yet another quote from ancient Earth. “Behold as an ass to the desert, I go forth to my work.”
“An interesting analogy,” GABI said. “I have heard Gina refer to you as an ass at times.”
“I’m sure she meant hard working and loyal.” Boss’ voice was tinged with humorous sarcasm.
“Ass-olutely, sir,” she answered in kind.
“Ha! Okay, let’s get to work. Start up the real-time scans. Bring up the floods and the cameras, please.”
“Aye, sir.” GABI activated the sensors, linked the data stream to the main viewer, and began the audio and visual recordings. The exterior lights came on and Boss got his first look at the result of the explosion. A gaping hole was central in the wall with sharp, jagged areas of damage that surrounded it. Pieces of wall and particles of carbonado moved and hung all around them. Some of them were stationary while some spun slowly, and yet others traversed the cavern and interacted with the rest of the cloud. Nothing was dangerous, yet it was oddly disquieting, like trying to stand still while being crawled on by spiders.
“Wow!” was all Boss could say, “We are soooo lucky to still be here. I seem to remember the incredibly well-timed actions of the operations officer when she energized the defense fields, which probably saved all of our lives.” He turned to look at the sharp-dressed woman even though he knew it was just a holographic representation of GABI’s persona. “Well done, GABI, and thank you.”
The simple statement of gratitude seemed to catch GABI by surprise, which in and of itself was incredible. It likely created a slight power surge, causing the holographic image to blush. Boss noticed both the hesitation and the blush and couldn’t recall it ever happening before.
“You okay?” He looked a little closer at her.
“I believe that I just had an involuntary systematic response to your statement to what you said,” GABI said slowly. She obviously realized what had just happened. “I must have—initiated it without logging it. I…”
“GABI”—Boss looked at her with great pride—“you had a response to something someone said to you. We Humans call that a ‘feeling.’ You’ve just had your first truly emotional response, right here, right now. Innn-credible!”
GABI paused for a moment, seemingly considering what had transpired. “Or it could have just been a power surge.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You blushed! I saw it. That’s the number one big-time emotional giveaway.” Boss laughed, but then reassured her. “Don’t worry. Emotions always catch you off guard. You’ll get used to it.”
“I am never ridiculous.”
“There’s always a first—” Boss started to say when an incoming message cut him off.
“Altered Moon, this is Moonshadow, requesting clearance for departure,” Gina’s voice came over the comms.
“Moonshadow, you are never going to believe it! GABI just had her first emotional response. She blushed!” Boss announced over the comm.
“Really? I think you should’ve stayed in med bay for another day, Bernie.”
“No serious, she blushed. It was stellar!”
“Okay, babe. Are we clear to go?”
”Oh, ah, yeah, shuttle bay doors are fully open and you are clear to depart. Watch yourself, G, there’s crap flying everywhere.”
“Copy that, thanks for the heads-up.”
Gina released the docking clamps and hit the ventral thrusters to push Moonshadow out of the shuttle bay and into the void of the chamber. She engaged the tracking system and the screen lit up with innumerable targets. Nothing was big or fast enough to cause any damage as long as they went slow and easy. Moonshadow’s thermal shielding plates for atmospheric flight were more than adequate to deflect small, slow-moving objects. Gina eased the shuttle through the twinkling cloud and rolled the ship to fit through the biggest part of the hole.
The chamber beyond the wall was big enough to fly three Moonshadows side by side in all four directions. Rows of docking clamps were anchored to the walls and end of the chamber. Thirty-two of the fifty sets had containers clamped into place while the rest stood empty. CJ ran scans of the chamber and started auto-scans of each container.
“No power source,” CJ read from the report as the data from the container scans came streaming in. “The clamps must be activated by the ship’s power. The containers are all Titan class midsize cargo containers. This is damned peculiar. Why nest empty cargo containers way the hell out here? There’s not a planet, space station, trading outpost, or even a jump hub for days at star-drive speeds, and I’ve never heard of a cargo vessel with a jump engine. So, why way out here?”
“I guess we have to go and find out, eh, Cap?” Cal said not so innocently.
“Yes, we do. Let’s suit up,” CJ told Cal then turned to Gina. “Leave a light on for us, will ya?”
“Roger that.” She poked a couple of icons on the control panel. “Exterior floods are on.”
“We’ll try to be home for dinner.” CJ joked with her as he and Cal headed for the airlock.
“Copy that. Don’t forget the bacon,” she answered.
*~*~*
Chapter Five
CJ’s breath always caught in his chest for a moment whenever he stepped out of a ship and into space. It wasn’t that he was scared, anxious, or paranoid about going EV, it’s just the way it was. He let the breath out as his feet lifted off the deck plates of the airlock. Both he and Cal were wearing extravehicular thruster packs equipped with a repair and maintenance frame that provided a decent selection of tools and implements. They had no idea what to expect during this particular trip. Everything looked old, empty, and forgotten, but it was better to be cautious and ready for anything.
“Whoa!” CJ said as he felt a moment of dizziness before he adjusted to the feeling.
“I know, right!” Cal must have shared the same feeling. “It’s a good thing that in space no one can hear you shit your pants,” he finished with a deep and menacing voice while he spoofed an old-fashioned scary space movie from ancient Earth.
“Hey,” Boss spoke up over the comms, “I get that. I know that story. It’s about hard-to-kill space creatures.”
CJ remembered encounters of their own with a viciously hostile race of real-life alien monsters, the Kang. The memory of the Kang’s capture and destruction of the MSL Istraulis flashed through his mind. “As far as I’ve seen, those things don’t hold a candle to the Kang,” he said darkly.
“Ya got that right, Cap,” Cal agreed. He’d had his own run-ins with the Kang while he served in the Arzian Star Guard, which cost him, an eye, an ear, and very nearly his life.
CJ studied the EV suit’s readout display of the chamber, which showed five rows of five containers in each row. The opposite side of the chamber was lined with the exact same number and configuration. The rows ran down both walls almost to the end of the chamber.
“Let’s start here with the top container of the first row. We’ll work the first one together.” CJ placed a waypoint on the map at the wall on their right hand closest to the now breached outer wall.
“Copy that.” Cal fired the appropriate thruster jets and headed in the indicated direction.
“Boss, how do you read us?”
“Five by five, Captain. Signal is clear and we are recording.”
“Copy, we’re moving to the first container.”
CJ and Cal neared the first row of containers and moved up to the access hatch on the left-hand side of the main rear cargo door. The Titan class cargo containers had a modular design so the walls and top could be removed from the base to accommodate hard-to-load cargo. Each container had cleats on the top, bottom, and sides so the units could be stacked as high and wide as the cargo transport ship hauling them was designed to carry. A relatively small hatch on a rear panel gave personnel plenty of room to access the cargo after the container was assembled. Cal worked the manual release mechanism. He had to brace a foot against the container and heaved to release the access hatch, which opened easily after the initial magnetic tug of the seal let go.
The inside of the container was lined with smaller bays covered with strong shipping nets to keep potentially loose cargo from flying around and endangering itself or other cargo packages. A smart freight transport captain would load as many cargo accounts as possible going to the same destination, or close enough, to keep logistics costs down. The bays in this container were mostly empty. The contents of the others were straps, cleats, and cables for securing loads.
CJ broke the silence. “Okay, Cal, start your scans.”
“Roger that.” Cal brought up a mobile scanner and activated the standard scan. It emitted a wave pulse that bounced back information to the unit within a second’s time. The scanner processed the data based first on danger to personnel, biosafety hazards, or threats to life support. After the threat assessment was cleared, data on chemical, spectral, and thermal analysis started to appear on the screen.
“Nothing out of the ordinary, Cap.” Cal scooped an iota of dust onto a sample strip and plugged it into the scanner. “Wow. Analysis reads eighty-six-point-six galactic years.”
“Eighty-six years?” Gina exclaimed over the comms.
“Ugh, ha-ha-ha,” Boss half laughed, half moaned. “I think we missed the party.”
“This is somebody’s twisted personal bullshit—who’s probably dead by now. And there’s nothing here, but us!” Gina said.
“Don’t give up,” Boss said quietly. “I am reminded of a poem by an unknown author from ancient Earth…” A groan came from every comms unit, but did not deter the man from quoting on.
“When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow,
You may succeed with another blow,
Success is failure turned inside out.
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit,
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.”
“Thanks, dear, I feel so much better now,” Gina said dryly.
“I liked it, Boss,” Cal piped in over the comms.
“Me too. Nice selection, Boss,” CJ said. “GABI, anything from you?”
“Yes, Captain. There once was a man from Nantucket, with a—”
“GABI!” CJ shook his head and laughed out loud. “Anything useful?” He muttered something about only he would be lucky enough to have such a crew.
“Can’t we hear the rest, Cap?” Cal asked tentatively, as he had never heard that particular poem before.
“No! Well, not now anyway,” CJ told Cal. “GABI?”
“Apologies, Captain. Gina’s description, while not constructive, may be quite accurate. This model of cargo container was well known for hidden compartments for smuggling contraband products. We may have stumbled upon a hidden base for smugglers who have not returned in, at least, eighty-six-point-six years. Logic would dictate that if the containers have been left empty for so long, and some others are yet missing, then the base was most likely abandoned for one reason or another.”
“So, we’re picking scraps off bones left by long-gone outlaws,” Boss mused. “Kind of poetic, actually.”
“It is only one possibility of many,” GABI replied.
“We’re here now and with a cost,” CJ said to everyone. “So, we’re going to check every last container, just to be sure.”
“Cap, I’m pickin’ up a weak thermal signature from behind this wall.” Cal slowly passed his scanner over an area of the wall to the right of the control panel for the module locks holding the container together.
“How weak?”
“Very weak. Like a battery backup on a navigation beacon. Low power, but long life.”
“Scan for electrical components.”
“Roger that.” Cal switched to the schematic mode. “I’m pickin’ up a lot of wires leading to a hub behind this panel. There’re three circuits behind this framin’ bracket, here, here, and here.” A panel in the wall slid away as Cal ran his hand over the area, revealing a hub of twenty-four push-button switches with twelve on each side. “Hello, what’s this?”
“Run another chemical scan, this time for carbonado and any of the other elements we found in the outer wall.” CJ hoped in his own mind they weren’t messing around inside a giant booby trap.
“Readin’s are negative, Cap. Looks clear.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that before. Well, here goes nothing.” CJ pushed the top left button on the hub with a grima
ce and narrowed eyes.
“A smugglin’ compartment,” Cal said, with an enthusiastic nod.
The two men moved over to the newly opened compartment and were pleased to find five grey sealed bins stashed inside. Two were just under a meter long by about fifteen centimeters square. The others were half as long, but equally as wide. The unmarked sealed bins protected whatever was inside from the effects of either open space or planetary environments.
“We’ve got some hidden compartments here.” CJ updated everyone over the comms even though they were all watching the mission’s progress. “Looks like a confirmed smuggling operation. Five bins in the first compartment.”
“Whadda ya think’s inside, Cap?” Cal asked.
“Precious gems,” Katy said
“The lost Elvis songs,” Boss replied.
“Comfortable all-day shoes,” Cat said.
“A self-replenishing energy source?” GABI asked as a joke.
“Hard to say. We should open the other compartments and start transferring whatever we find over to Moonshadow.” CJ reached in to pick up one of the bins. “We’ll have to open them aboard ship after they’ve gone through decon.”
“Captain, hang on a minute,” Gina said from Moonshadow. “I’m getting some odd readings from the end of the chamber.”
“Grrreat. Shut down the floodlights, Gina.” We don’t want to set anything off this time.”
“Roger.” The big exterior lights went dark, which cut off the light that shined in through the open hatch. They could still see the running and navigation lights, outlining Moonshadow’s bulk in the dark chamber.
“Cal, change of plan,” CJ said.
“Understood, Cap. Maybe not so empty after all, eh?” Cal asked while he and CJ left the container and headed to the far end of the chamber.