.jpg) |
| Short Fiction by Don Allen in his pin name (pictured) |
Deep space exploration had riddles that nobody could answer. Commander King is the sole survivor of the failed Tango-Nine mission to Terra-X.
by Bartholomew Gottlieb (Don Allen)
Galaxy 3 “…Roger this is Galaxy 3 requesting clearance to land on Terra X…”
Control: “…Copy Galaxy 3; you are cleared for immediate landing on Terra X - over….”
Galaxy 3: “…Roger that. We are 5-by-5 in the hole preparing to deploy 4R shield around landing site, over.”
Control: “Roger that, have a safe mission. Control out.”
The year 2877 on New Earth. Members of the United Nations of Deep Space Planetary Exploration (UNDSPE) have found a planet compatible to earth.
Over 400 million people have been resettled.
In 2666 we lost all contact with Tango-Nine. Ten days ago, our forwarding communications command (FCC) picked up a faint...but consistent signal 40 light-years away from New Earth. It was Commander Stony King’s distress signal from Tango-Nine. The UNDSPE in now aware of the conditions on Terra-X and have taken precautions to land there safely and rescue the crew of Tango-Nine.
When we arrived our recover crews found only Commander King, frozen in a Time Vortex Shield, alive and healthy. Now, our ship – the Hillary is headed back to New Earth with Commander Stony aboard, still frozen in stasis.
All we know about the crew of Tango-Nine was found in Commander Stony’s journal.
The commander’s last entry was on Christmas Day, December 25, 2666. The following journal entry was recorded before Commander King put his body back into a Time Vortex Shield to save his life.
Earth Year 2666 – Log 0600 - December 24:
As I look up at the sky I see a red haze with a deep orange-yellow mist that saturates the cold red rocks on this planet. This is Commander Stony King log entry 28.93, year 2666. I am the commander of the crew of Tango-Nine in search of habitable planets by the command of the United Nations of Deep Space Planetary Exploration (UNDSPE).
The wind blows with a howl on this planet reminiscent of an old western scene with deadly rattlesnakes under every rock and tumbleweeds rolling across the plain – only here, it’s not rattlesnakes or tumbleweeds rolling across the plain, it’s dirt spores with enough neurotoxin
that with the slightest skin contact, the sticky venom can kill a whole city or a crew of explorers seeking a new habitat for terraforming into a friendly earth-like planet.
In review, in 2566 after the comet collided with the earth’s moon, the United Nations of Deep Space Planetary Exploration (UNDSPE) launched several crews into deep space in search of non-hostile environments. The plan was the UNDSPE would launch Noah One into deep space with its passengers frozen in stasis with the use of a Time Vortex Shield (TVS) that would protect them from aging, disease and any cataclysmic encounter, except for a sun-burst – a direct crash into a Supernova. This was one of the many risks we had to take making sure mankind would survive. Death could happen any moment in deep space travel.
Earth Year 2666 – Log 0830 - December 24:
I remembered what happen on earth after the comet McCain hit the moon.
The sun now rises in the west. This unusual shift in the gravitational matrix on earth happened 100 years ago when a comet collided with the earth’s moon. The magnetic poles are not on the north and south poles anymore. The North Pole has shifted to India and the South Pole to the Caribbean. Temperatures in these sub-topical places dropped drastically below freezing and cataclysmic level disasters caused thousands of deaths that could not be avoided. The environmental shift in the ecology has caused violent earthquakes and massive title waves that engulf whole coastal cities. Volcanoes erupt across the world killing millions. A mass migration with the assistance of the military from several countries evacuated refugees from the India and the Caribbean to more friendly climates. Both India and the Caribbean are both frozen wastelands, abandoned and uninhabitable. Many years before the meteor incident, several nations rallied to build a maximum-security prison in space that orbited the moon and held the earth’s most violent criminals. When the meteor hit the moon, 20,000 escape pods were automatically released on a trajectory back to earth – back to the United Wing of the America’s, formally the United States. Chaos ensued with the deregulation of technology the criminal element ruled areas of the world with fear and death. Leaders of the United Wing of the America’s set up mega-cities across the world and defended them against numerous attacks from warlords set on commandeering the Noah project.
Earth Year 2666 – Log 1133 - December 24:
Scientists estimate the earth has less than five-years and the United Nations of Deep Space Planetary Exploration have worked feverishly to build ten mega-ships code named Noah. These ships are commissioned to terraforming of human friendly planets for a mass evacuation of earth.
Noah One, now headed toward my location, Terra X-98, with the locator beacon on - is the geo-location targeting system for the massive ships to lock in on and travel to this God forsaken planet.
Earth Year 2666 – Log 1400 - December 24:
It was our mission, the mission of the crew of Tango-Nine to find a suitable place before the earth implodes. China was the first to launch Noah Two, which headed 477 light years away from our known galaxy. They last anyone has heard from them was when the United States space shuttle Obama picked up a distress call that could have been broadcasted 20 light-years prior. The earth lay in mourning for the crew and its 800,000 passengers ever since. Many of the large Noah arks did not make it to their final destinations. Attacks from aliens, to the likes we never knew launched massive attacks on our ships. We were outnumbered and outgunned
Earth Year 2666 – Log 1800- December 24:
Unfortunately, what happened here on Terra X-98 was a tragedy to my ship Tango-Nine and its crew of ten; I never predicted my chances to return to earth could have been so faint; I never predicted a death so far away from earth for me and my crew.
Earth Year 2666 – Log 2100- December 24:
The earth is gone. I sit here feeling doomed, alone, without any communications. My crew is dead, killed by this deadly planet and I have no way to give mission control a warning about my deadly situation. If another ship, perhaps a rescue ship lands and its TVS’s are turned off, it’s a possibility everyone landing here will die within minutes. I know it’s too late, I know they have already launched Noah One to my beacon. If I turn it off, the occupants of Noah one will float into space, more than likely crashing into a sun. Damn, death can be a cruel dealer at the poker table.
Earth Year 2666 – Log 2200- December 24:
I don’t know how much longer I can take being on this planet alone and knowing that if Noah One lands on auto-pilot and the Time Vortex Shield is turned off, it’s a possibility, no, it’s fact everyone on board could be killed instantly by the blowing spores.
My options have become limited. I have enough power to put myself back into the Time Vortex Shield, set the warning beacon and remain in stasis until someone can rescue me, or I can just give up. I cannot hold my poker face for much longer.
Earth Year 2666 – Log 0001 December 25:
Merry Christmas and goodbye…
Computer voice: “…End of journal entries star date 2666 December 25.”
