Harbinger

by Stephen Christiansen

  Harbinger

  First edition

  Copyright © 2016 Stephen Christiansen

  All rights reserved.

  None of the characters or events portrays any actual person, either living or dead. Any relation between any character and any person is purely coincidental. All characters are created from the imagination of the author.

  This book is not yet rated. It does contain the following: Language, adult situations, drug use, violence, suspense. Parental guidance is recommended and this book is not intended for young children.

  This book is dedicated to Jeff Moser

  Jeff is a co-worker and co-sci-fi geek. After sharing many of my stories with him, he had suggested that I write a science fiction book. I’ve bounced several ideas around with him and it was with his help that this story has been created.

  “...The stars look very different today…”

  “Space Oddity” released 1969 by David Bowie 1947- 2016

  Chapter: 01

  Eric woke with a start. He had problems breathing. Sweat was pouring off of his forehead and was soaking his body. His skivvies were already sticking to him. His stomach turned and it felt as if he would vomit. His heart started to beat fast, his head swam, and he started to panic. He had to get up, get out, he had to move now. He sat up in fear and terror and struck his head upon the glass canister that had encased him.

  The last voices that he could remember came back to him. Visions of men and women in white outfits, blue gloves and white masks standing over him in a sterilized room flooded his memories.

  “You’ll be disoriented when you wake up. It’s all part of the process of a long cryo sleep.”

  Although the memories were vague and groggy, as if he was trying to think through mud, he now remembered, well at least fragments, of what had happened. He had signed on to be part of the terraforming mission to Phoebe. As the hired field security officer, his mission was to make sure that the scientists were safe from any harm. This was supposed to be a cushion job, easy money. Nothing was supposed to go wrong. They were going to land on Phoebe and he was going to watch as the scientists slowly transformed the planet into something more habitable for human life. Their initial surveillance had shown that there weren’t any other major life forms here, or at least there weren’t any intelligent life forms, so competition from any indigenous species wouldn’t be a concern and they hadn’t picked up any major predators. On top of that their course was set to avoid any complications from any space traveling, hostile xenomorphs. His job would be easy and boring and that was what he was looking forward to. It was a time to relax and kick back. His only conflict was going to be when he was going to wake up or how much time he was going to pretend that he was actually doing something.

  His last mission was FUBAR before it had even started. He was hired by a big wig CEO of some mega-corp., a company whose name he never took the time to remember, to ensure safe travel from one city to another. Many CEOs hired on ex-military or hired muscle to be bodyguards simply to make themselves look more important than they really were. Sometimes, a real security threat would arrive, but these were far and few between. This was going to be a simple babysitting job, all he had to do was look tough and keep everyone at bay. Since it was only a matter of private security he had been hired on instead of some Marine or the local law enforcement. His minor military training was all that would be needed. There wasn’t supposed to be any real threats. This was supposed to be an easy job. That was until all hell broke loose.

  They had barely made it out of the corporate office building when the Los Angeles riots started. Small, explosive projectiles had gone off. Large crowds had come down the streets with hatred and anger in their eyes. Para-military and anarchists had mixed in with the crowd and came at them with assault rifles, small explosives, incendiary devices, rocks, planks of wood and anything else that they could find and use. Chaos erupted everywhere.

  Buildings were damaged. Windows were smashed. Cars were tipped over. Tear gas was launched. Sprays of bullets could be heard. Fires were started. People were running for their lives and screams of pain, fear and anguish had mixed with cries of protests which all echoed across the streets.

  It took some time before the riot police had been sent in and then several more hours before the National Guard arrived. Once it was realized that these riots were on such a large scale that it resembled an all out civil war, the military was sent in. There was a lot of property damage and many people had died that day and well into the night, including the person that he was trying to protect.

  Eric had experience in some weapons training and some hand to hand combat, but he wasn’t fully trained in riots or all out civil war and when he had to turn his weapon on his own countrymen, even to save his life, his stomach had turned and he froze at the worst possible moment. The day had been the worst thirty six hours of his life.

  Even though he had barely made it out alive, between the fires and the violence, he almost wished that he hadn’t. His performance was poorly reflected on his record and it was difficult to get another security job after that. His turn toward alcoholism didn’t help either, but even after he had gotten clean, work wasn’t easy to come by. No one wanted an individual that couldn’t do the job right in the first place. But it was more than that. Society had found the corporation, that he had been hired by, and the CEO, that he was trying to protect, to be at fault in the first place and this meant that Eric was actually protecting the wrong side. He had been branded to be an ignorant fool at best and a traitor at worst. He was lucky enough not to be charged with murder and was given a court decision that it was out of self defense, but there were those that didn’t agree with the court’s decision. Eric’s life was had become a downward spiral with no hope of ever climbing out of.

  That was when this job had opened up. It was a chance to prove himself, at least if not to the rest of the working community then at least to himself. He needed this, more than anything.

  It was also a chance to start over and leave everything behind him. Everywhere he had looked only reminded him of that time, a time that he would have problems getting out of his mind let alone the nightmares that came frequently. Out here, in the wilds of the outer systems and the fringe planets, he was hoping to be able to find his much needed peace.

  Besides, no one wanted to live on Earth any more. It had turned into a place of dust and desolation in some spots and flooding in others. With the recent climate change there were horrible hurricanes, mighty tornadoes, dust storms and even electromagnetic anomalies that were now the norm. There were fewer and fewer habitable places to live that didn’t have some kind of natural disaster associated with it. This had made the larger cities overcrowded.

  Pollution could be found everywhere. The air was hard to breath with the smog, and at times it was so thick that it was difficult to see though. There were some places on Earth that it was so bad that it was no longer fit to accommodate people and there were some cities in China that had been evacuated and left to rot on their own. These places were nothing more than ghost cities of broken glass and rusting metal.

  The polar ice caps had all melted and the rivers had swelled beyond anyone’s imagination. Places like New Orleans and Venice were no longer habitable. Many smaller towns were completely submerged and wiped off the face of the Earth. The coast lines of every continent had changed. Many coastal cities were either destroyed, partly destroyed and reshaped, or relocated and moved further back inland.

  Corporate, military, religious and political corruption was running rampant. It seemed that anyone and everyone could be bought or sold. Every would-be law could be passed or shot down by the whim of those that had the most money or most influence.

  Religious military group
s had sprung up all over the world. These fanatics all believed that the end of the Earth was upon humanity and each claimed that their messiah was going to save the world, but only through the act of killing everyone else.

  Regular military groups were for hire and could be found on one side of a battle one day and the other side the next. It was difficult to know which country was at war with which other country. Travel was unsafe.

  This trip to Phoebe would be a new start in many aspects. There would be peace.

  That was, if he could get the cryo chamber open. The chamber was supposed to open once they got near their destination and allow him to slowly adjust to being awake. Now, it was stuck and if he didn’t open it soon he could die. The temperature was cold to begin with but the coolant seemed to be malfunctioning and it was getting colder by the minute. There was already frost covering the glass, blocking his view to the outside of the capsule and now there was ice starting to build up. The oxygen levels were already low, but now they were running out. He could hear the air escaping the chamber and leaking into the room beyond.

  Eric pushed hard on the glass. The computer should have felt his vitals start to increase and should have opened the encasement automatically. Even if this failed, there were sensors to open the glass if it was pushed from the inside. Nothing. Nothing happened.

  Panic started to overwhelm Eric. His heart was pumping faster and he was using up his much needed and quickly diminishing oxygen. His hands pounded against the glass in hopes of breaking it but it was to no avail. He should have known better. The glass was supposed to withstand quite an impact before shattering and he would never have the strength to break it himself, at least not without any form of leverage or heavy object. Here, he had neither.

  ‘Have...to...be...smarter…not...stronger.’

  It was a saying that his military drill instructor had drilled into him. Another echoed in his head.

  “There are two types of Marines a smart one and a dead one.”

  Eric had never been a Marine, but his instructor was one. If he had moved further into his training then maybe he would have graduated as a full Marine and maybe he wouldn’t have taken on this job and maybe he wouldn’t have been in this situation.

  Eric’s thoughts were slow and chaotic. It was hard to think straight without proper oxygen. The cold that had permeated his body and had chilled him to the bone, the cold that was making him shiver uncontrollably, only made matters worse. It was when his body stopped shivering for a moment did he realize how dire his situation had become. His core body temperature had dropped. He had to find a way out and fast.

  Eric’s mind recalled the layout of his cryo chamber. There was an emergency hand dial on the inside, to his right. He could have cursed himself for not thinking about it sooner, but the sudden wake from cryo sleep, the bitter cold and the lack of oxygen had dulled his thinking. His right hand found what he was looking for. It was a circular panel with a crossbar for a handle. It was barely noticeable since it was countersunk into the chamber so as to not interfere with the comfort of the occupant. Every chamber had one; all he had to do was operate it.

  Eric’s fingers found the circular panel, caught the crossbar and twisted it clockwise. It wouldn’t budge. He was starting to become dizzy from the lack of air. He was starting to lose feelings in his fingers and toes. His hands and feet were becoming numb. Consciousness was starting to fade. He gave another twist. Nothing. He had to get it open before...then he understood. He turned the dial counterclockwise.

  The glass chamber clicked open and rose a few inches. Air rushed in with a hiss. It was easier to breathe but it was still very cold. Eric gave another twist of the handle but it wouldn’t budge. The mechanics were frozen. He gave a push against the cold glass and was able to nudge it up far enough to roll out.

  Eric’s body lay on the cold, hard, metallic floor. He let his lungs take in as much oxygen as he could without hyperventilating. He knew that breathing too fast was just as dangerous as not breathing at all.

  As soon as he caught his breath, he looked around. Everything was fuzzy and at first he thought that his eyes were still becoming adjusted to seeing after being asleep for all this time. Then he realized that he was wrong. Smoke and steam had filled the room. He could see vents that had been broken open and it looked as if a small electrical fire had broken out on one of the computer terminals that had circled the walls of the room.

  Eric realized that he was still in the cryo room where all the cryo chambers were kept, well almost all of the cryo chambers. There were a few personal chambers of the ship’s main crew. He assumed that these were either in personnel quarters or they all shared a common cryo room that would be monitored by their own doctor. But where the ship’s crew was, wasn’t a concern with him right now. Right now, he was here in this cryo room with the rest of the passengers, passengers that were likely in the same predicament that he was in.

  Eric remembered that he had been put to cryo sleep here, with the scientists. They were supposed to be wakened together once they reached their destination. Now, he was the only one that had been wakened and he had to consider himself fortunate that he had.

  The cryo chambers were supposed to be opened by ship’s doctor after he was wakened first by the ship’s computer. The doctor would then monitor the situation before waking the ship's crew. It was only after the ship and its crew was taken care of would the passengers be woken. Eric knew that he qualified as a passenger, and he knew that he was the one on the lowest rung of the ladder. He was supposed to be one of the last ones to be woken up, not the first. Something was wrong, something was very wrong.

  The room was full of lights and sounds. The emergency lights were flashing: red, red, red. Their illumination lit up the smoke to give an eerie glow all around him and was adding to his dizziness. There were sparks from electrical circuits that had been broken and were trying to jump current from one junction to another.

  Then there were the sounds. At first Eric thought that someone was trying to talk to him. Then his brain registered the voice. It was that calm, feminine voice that always gave him the creeps. The voice had been programmed into the computer and was designed to make announcements in such a way as to keep the crew relaxed and able to make reasonable and rational decisions without becoming panicked. It always had the opposite effect on him. The voice came across as cold, almost robotic and unemotional; detached from the situation at hand. He never trusted anyone who could announce a dangerous situation in such a calm fashion.

  “Warning...Life support systems offline.”

  “Warning...Breach in warp core. Detonation imminent”

  “Warning...Secondary engines offline.”

  “Warning...Main computer offline.Navigations offline. Communications offline. Cascade failure imminent.”

  “Warning...Multiple hull breach. Implosion imminent”

  “Warning...Incoming projectile. Impact imminent.”

  “Warming...Fatal current trajectory. Destruction imminent.”

  “Damn,” Eric said aloud.

  From the warnings he knew that he was in bad shape and there was nothing he could do about it. He wasn’t an engineer, a pilot, or an astro-navigator and there was no time to hunt down the rest of the ship’s crew, especially if the cryo chambers were malfunctioning. His only hope was to wake the other scientists and hope that they could do something. His eyes turned to the closest container.

  The first cryo chamber to him had the name Richard Atkins on the foot of the container. If his memory served him correctly, then this was their medical doctor for their Terraforming group. With his help he might be able to wake the others in time to save the ship from further damage or even complete and utter destruction.

  Chapter: 02

  Another explosion shook the area as everyone ducked for cover. Debris from the sidewalk and parts of the building that it struck flew in all directions. Tall buildings with their shattered glass were already filling with smoke and it was difficul
t to tell where the projectile had come from and who had fired it. Another would come and another after that like they had for the past several hours.

  The road was already pockmarked and littered with holes and debris. Cars had been hit by the missiles or had been overturned by the crowds. Glass and metal were scattered across the streets. Paper and furniture had been shaken loose from some of the office buildings and were falling toward the ground to continually add to the pile that was already growing. There were small fires that had been started further down the street. The area was looking more and more like a war zone.

  There were bodies, unmoving, either dead or dying. Blood had spilled out here and there and it no longer mattered whose side they were on anymore. These were no longer a target to be shot at but a reminder of how ugly in character and fragile in body people often were.

  Another scream of fear and pain broke out and Doctor Richard Atkins ran towards it as if someone’s life depended upon his arrival, and that life probably did. He held his medical bag, containing what little supplies he could gather, close to his body as he kept his head ducked. In this position it was difficult to run, especially through the debris that was threatening to trip him up and send him sprawling into the street.