He shivered as if he were on the other side of the glass. He hated the cold, hence why he was happy to do his job in a facility where the majority of the mining operations took place underground with the help of an extensive network of climate-control systems. Pulling up his collar, he picked up a data tablet from the top of the pile sitting on his desk and signed off the next day’s duty roster with his thumbprint.
“Don’t you get sick of these late nights?” Aaron Bloch asked, from the communications station. “What time did you start? Like five o’clock this morning?”
Erik’s younger assistant had his feet up on the console beside him, all the while throwing a small blue rubber ball in the air. Bloch had got lucky drawing the night shift for the next two weeks. It was a popular job. One that required little manual labor.
”What I get sick of is listening to you whine every time I come up here.” Erik glowered at him with the most deadly expression he could muster.
“You wouldn’t have it any other way.” A wide grin filled Bloch’s face.
Erik signed off on his final report and placed it on the outgoing pile. “Well, if you’re not getting worked hard enough up here, I can give you a change of scenery. Bishara’s been screaming for more staff down in Worksite Eight. I’ll send you down there if you like?” He walked over to Bloch and grabbed the rubber ball out of midair.
Bloch’s smile faded. “I’ll be good.”
Erik shook his head. “I’m going to get some shuteye. I’ll see you in the morning.” Just before he reached the exit, Bloch’s console alerted him to an incoming commlink.
Erik stopped in his tracks. “What is it?”
“It’s Worksite Fifteen.”
“I thought Bowers had packed up for the night.”
“Apparently not.”
Erik returned to Bloch’s side. “Chris, it’s Koeman. What’s going on down there?”
“Hey, Chief, we’ve got something you might want to take a look at,” Bowers said over the commlink.
Worksite Fifteen was west of the main complex and had been fast-tracked due to the discovery of a magnetic disturbance below the surface. Erik had hoped it was another meteor fragment similar to that found at Worksite Ten, which was rich in decium ore.
“What is it, Chris?”
“We were able to cut through the upper layer this afternoon and found the same issue the guys were having down in Twelve and Thirteen.”
“The bedrock?”
“Yeah. We’ve broken three drill heads and gone through a few tonnes of explosives.”
“Did you make a dent?”
“We did better than that. We found a weak point and punched our way through.”
“I feel a but coming on.”
“You’re not going to believe it.”
Erik’s fatigue was setting in. “Chris, it’s late, please get to the point.”
“Well, we found what seems to be a tunnel.”
“A tunnel?” Bloch sat up in his chair.
Erik’s eyes narrowed. “Are you sure it’s not a dried-up underground reservoir? There’s a frozen sea only thirty kilometers from your position.”
“That’s what I thought at first,” Bowers replied. “But we sent a down geoprobe, and well, there was no trace of moisture anywhere. It was sealed tight.”
Erik furrowed his brow. Even in the most confined spaces, there were traces of condensation buildup. “What do you make of it?”
There was a long pause on the other end of the commlink. “You’ll think I’m crazy.”
“We’re all nuts, Chris, we wouldn’t be out here otherwise. What’s your theory?”
“If I had to guess, I’d say this tunnel was not of nature.”
“Not of nature? As in, man-made?”
“That’s right.”
Bloch snickered. It was hard to blame the kid. To suggest something man-made had been discovered on Orion V was laughable. Since Yuri Gagarin ventured out into space all those centuries earlier, humanity was yet to come across any extraterrestrial life outside bacteria and some small animal life. It wasn’t to say that no one believed intelligent forms of alien life didn’t exist, it had just become par for the course that none did in their tiny corner of the galaxy.
“I think you’ve been off Earth for too long,” Erik said.
“We’re prepping an elevator down the shaft to take a look. We’ll have a definite answer in an hour.”
While Erik didn’t believe the tunnel was man-made, he couldn’t help but be a curious. If there’s no meteor down there, what’s creating the magnetic disturbance?
Sleep would have to wait.
“All right, I’ll head on over.”
“Right, Chief.”
After traversing the subterranean rail network beneath the surface of Orion V, Erik’s carriage came to a halt at the end of the line. Chris Bowers and his team were split in two. One group were repairing a large drill head, while the other were doing a final inspection on an elevator they’d installed down the shaft.
“We’re ready to go.” Bowers handed Erik a helmet, which he put on.
The pair stepped into the elevator. Bowers closed the safety rail and pressed at the controls. Within seconds darkness surrounded them as the elevator car lurched downward. Both men turned on the lights on their helmets. The top of the shaft rapidly became little more than a pinprick of light, but eventually the elevator slowed and within seconds came to a halt, touching down with a slight thud.
Bowers opened the safety rail. “After you, Chief.”
Erik walked out onto the rocky surface and kneeled, touching it with his hand. It was like all the rock on Orion V they’d been boring through, but there was a stark difference. It was smooth. Too smooth. And shiny. “It’s as if it’s coated in some kind of protective layer.”
“Like a waterproofing material.” Bowers rubbed his hand against the walls of the tunnel. “What’d I tell you?”
“That explains the lack of condensation.”
They continued down the tunnel until they found an opening at the end. Erik stepped through, stumbling and falling flat on his face.
“Chief!” Bowers came up behind him and pulled him to his feet. “Are you okay?”
Erik nodded and looked behind him, curious to see what the culprit to his clumsy tumble had been. “Steps?”
Clear as the light of day in the middle of the dark were steps fashioned into the rock.
Erik turned around. “What is this place?”
The lights of their helmets illuminated an expansive underground chamber. But it was what was sitting at its center that made Erik’s jaw truly drop. Stepping toward it, he couldn’t help but feel he was now indeed farther away from home than he’d ever been before.
I’m not in Kansas anymore.
Nine Months Later
Two
Outpost Watchtower
Commander David Ortega took a sip of his coffee as a transport pod whizzed past the viewport to his office. Beyond it lay the dark-green world of Delta-Hera IX, entrancing as ever. Sometimes he imagined the surface was covered with lush rainforests, much like the ones that once inhabited Earth in his school text books. Somehow it made him feel like home wasn’t that far away.
Unfortunately, he could only fool himself so much. Delta-Hera IX had an average temperature of two-hundred and sixty degrees below zero. It was a frozen marble amongst the stars. And Earth was a whopping twenty light-years away. One sometimes forgot that beyond the orbiting Outpost Watchtower there lay Frontier’s Reach—the outer rim of the United Earth Commonwealth and the great unexplored mass of nothingness that marked the boundary of humanity’s grasp.
“Ah, Commander…”
Ensign Erwin nudged his door open and peered inside.
“Yes, what is it Ensign?”
The junior officer pushed the door wide open, and the meek young man walked in. Erwin had been stationed at Watchtower for six months and it’d been his first assignment since graduating from the academy
. As Watchtower’s executive officer, David oversaw all the new assignments of officers and civilian staff at the facility. He remembered the day Erwin arrived from Earth fondly. Clutching his bag, the fresh-faced officer seemed out of his element. He didn’t appear to know what to expect by his surroundings or his fellow officers. David didn’t know how he’d got through three years of his cadetship with his strange idiosyncrasies and wondered how long he’d actually last out on the Reach. He’d taken Erwin under his wing and in the last half a year saw the socially awkward man blossom. Now, David couldn’t imagine what the outpost would be without him.
“We have data from one of the deep space probes we sent out last week,” Erwin said.
David took another sip of his coffee and placed it back on his desk. “Which one?”
“Probe one-four-nine.”
David thought back to the report he’d looked over a week earlier. “That was sent into sector three-two-seven, wasn’t it?”
“Three-two-eight, actually.”
Well, I was close.
“What has it come back with?” David asked.
“It might be best you see for yourself, sir.”
David finished the last of his coffee and followed Erwin out into the buzzing operations center of the outpost. The ensign took a seat at one of the central stations while David stood behind him, studying the information scrolling down the monitor.
David glossed over the numbers. It all seemed relatively standard. Low-density particles, low-level electromagnetic radiation, and with almost everywhere in the vacuum of space, dust. He was glad he had people like Erwin to do this job because he couldn’t think of anything more boring. “Am I missing something, Ensign?”
“Wait for it,” Erwin said excitedly.
David rolled his eyes but kept them locked on the monitor. Then it appeared.
Erwin looked up at him with a proud grin. “It’s a large buildup of unknown particles. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
David had to blink twice. Erwin hadn’t realized what he’d found. While he may have seen nothing like it, David had. “I hate to burst your bubble, Mister Erwin, but the science bureau back home won’t let you name it. This isn’t new.”
“Sir?” The ensign’s shoulders slumped, and his smile faded.
David took a seat next to him and rang up the data bank archives. He typed in four letters.
“Iota?” Erwin raised his eyebrows.
David nodded as the archive brought up a slather of information. “Iota particles. Studied nearly four years ago. Only one discovery.”
“Until today.” Erwin had a quick read of the text. “There doesn’t seem to be a great deal of data here, sir. Only that it was encountered in Nebula TPA-338.”
“The original readings were given to the eggheads back on Earth. By the looks of this file, they didn’t get very far with it.” David put a hand on Erwin’s shoulder. “Can you confirm the readings from the probe?”
Erwin fumbled with his console and nodded. “It’s confirmed. It’s definitely a large buildup of Iota particles.” He glanced at David. “If I might ask, sir, how did you know about these particles?”
“Because, Ensign, I was there when they were first discovered.” It felt like only yesterday. “I want pinpoint coordinates of where those particles are.” The coordinates flashed up on the monitor and David sighed. “Would I be right in saying it’s outside pod range?”
Erwin nodded. “There wouldn’t be enough fuel reserves for a return trip.”
David strolled over to the viewport and contemplated Delta-Hera IX and the darkness beyond. Right at that moment, there seemed to be so much between him and perhaps solving a dogged mystery from the past.
“Can I ask what’s so important about this?” Erwin asked.
“The missing piece of a puzzle.”
The ensign seemed confused.
“It’s a long story. When’s Captain Lang due to begin duty today?”
“At oh-nine hundred.”
The clock on the wall read only oh-seven-thirty. “Wake him.”
Erwin’s face went pale. “You want me to wake the captain, sir?”
“That’s what I said.”
The young ensign hurried over to the communications station, clearly not looking forward to one of the more difficult tasks he’d ever been assigned.
David returned to the science station. The readings of the Iota particles stared him in the face. Memories of the day at Nebula TPA-338 flooded back to him. So many lives lost. So many friends. And now, perhaps, an answer to the death of one person in particular.
Three
Odyssey Station
The barman put the beer down and Jason Cassidy watched its frothy head run down the side of the glass. He’d lost count of how many he’d had for the evening. Thirteen? Fourteen? Twenty? He didn’t even know what time it was.
“Put it on my tab,” he said to Vic, the slovenly publican of The Bended Elbow—one of the more seedy establishments in one of the most shabby areas of Odyssey Station.
Vic leaned over the bar. Jason could swear the man brushed his teeth with garlic and only bathed on alternate days. “Your tab is getting close to its limit, Cassidy.”
Must be at least twenty beers then. Jason was surprised his math had been so accurate, considering how crappy he was feeling. “You know I’ll pay you back, right?”
“Uh-huh. It took forever for you to pay the last one. This’ll be your last drink, and then I’m cutting you off.”
Vic ambled away to help another patron while Jason took a large gulp of the amber fluid. Turning on his bar stool, he surveyed the near toilet-like conditions of his local tavern. Most people only came to the establishment once before figuring out they never wanted to return. Jason didn’t have that luxury. The Bended Elbow was located only a short distance down the promenade from his apartment. It was the most convenient watering hole to stumble home from.
He brought the glass to his mouth and polished off the last of the bland lager. He looked over to Vic wondering if he should try his luck again. With his head spinning, he decided against it. Even he knew when to quit. At least sometimes.
Before he could get up, a leggy blonde walked in and sat beside him. Either she was very attractive, or his beer goggles were working in overdrive. Jason assumed the latter because no one with that much class would enter this hole. Regardless, he thought, there was no harm in trying.
“Hello there,” he said, laying on the charm. Or at least what he thought was charm. “What are you doing here this evening?”
The woman looked him up and down. Even in his most drunken state, Jason thought he still had the goods.
She smiled at him. “Doing what everyone else is, I guess. Just trying to get a drink.”
“Can I ask why?” Jason asked, bemused. “You’ve seen this place, haven’t you?”
She laughed. “Well, there’s only so many places open at this time of the morning where I can find some fun.”
Yep, I’ve still got it. He put a hand on the back of her bar stool.
Then a shadow appeared over them.
“Is this piece of scum bothering you?”
Great. A boyfriend.
“I’ll have you know, I’m not a piece of—” He turned and smiled weakly. The shadow belonged to a hulking figure of a man. His shoulders were wider than Jason was tall. “Well, I guess I’m a little scummy.”
Crunch.
With one punch to the side of the head, Jason fell to the floor. The whole right side of his face went numb with pain.
“Hey, you can’t do that in here! Get the hell out before I call the cops!”
Ah, the siren song of Vic’s tobacco-stained voice.
The Mister Universe figure of his attacker took the blonde by the arm and hightailed it out of the bar. “C’mon, this place is a dive, anyway.”
Vic kneeled by Jason’s side. “Are you okay?”
Like smelling salts, Vic’s breath pulled him from the floor. �
�I’ve felt better.”
“You want me to call the station medics?”
Jason felt the side of his face. It hurt, but he imagined it would’ve hurt a lot more if he wasn’t so drunk. “I’ll live.” He brushed off the grub that had manifested itself on The Bended Elbow’s floor and stumbled to the exit.
“Oh, Cassidy,” Vic called.
“Yeah?”
“I’ll expect that tab paid tomorrow.”
Jason chuckled and set off down the promenade, which was empty apart from a few vagrants and other drunks like himself. Passing the large viewports, he gazed down at Vesta III. It was rather barren but was only in the second stage of terraformation. While it appeared little more than a lifeless rock now, in another fifty years it would be the rival of Centauri or even Earth. I’ll be well and truly dead by then.
But it was the stars around the orange planet that caught Jason’s attention. He stopped and put a hand on the viewport as if trying to touch them. Not a day went by when he thought about his former life in the Commonwealth Defense Force. It seemed like a lifetime ago.
“Hey, you! Keep moving!”
A pair of Odyssey Station’s local constabulary stood behind him. Jason put his hands up in surrender and continued on, zigzagging all the way through the promenade until he reached his apartment.
He climbed the stairs and opened the door with his thumbprint. Entering his home, he decided against activating the main lighting. Mainly because he didn’t want to see the mess he’d left, but also because his eyes were in no state to take it.
Frontier's Reach: A Space Opera Adventure (Frontiers Book 1) Page 2
