Rise of the Altered Moon: Altered Moon Series: Book One (The Altered Moon Series 1)

by AZ Kelvin

  “Good,” he said. “GABI set course for Keenaw.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  “If GABI can fly the ship, then I’ll stand this shift with you CJ—Captain. Gina, you should get some rest,” said Cat. “I’ve fixed you a bed in med bay; I figured that’s where you’d be anyway. Sorry, Captain, with a possible concussion you really shouldn’t sleep right now.”

  “No problem. I don’t think that I could sleep much anyway. I can get some of these panels replaced and clean things up. GABI can familiarize me with the ship as well.”

  Gina looked a little unsure, so Cat told her, “It’s all right. Go get some rest. We’re going to need our star pilot up to snuff when we get to Keenaw, you know?”

  Gina smiled and gave Cat a deep hug. Surprisingly, she turned to CJ and embraced him too. She turned then, waved to GABI, and walked off the bridge, on her way to med bay.

  “So, Captain,” said Cat, “not to seem ungrateful, but are you really who you say you are? No secret agent, alien spy, or anything like that? You were just an engineer’s third mate on a luxury superliner?”

  “Yes, actually, I AM an alien spy. Sent here to evaluate just how tasty you Humans are. I find the females particularly delightful,” he held a straight face and broke into a smile.

  “Great. A smart-ass captain. Fun!” She narrowed her eyes and nodded her head as she smiled.

  “Nope, Cat,” he said seriously. “I am just a starship mechanic who has found his way to uncharted territory without a star to steer by.” He thought about everything that happened to him and to the people around him.

  “I lost someone…on the Istraulis. Katy was her name. She was a great girl. She had to have her streamcast shows and her popped corn.” Her loss seemed so great all of a sudden, as though he had just realized that she was gone. The grief overwhelmed him as hot tears streamed down his face. Cat came over, placed her hands on his shoulders, and held him until his grief subsided.

  “Sorry, not very captainy of me.”

  “You have to be who you are, before you can be what you are,” she said sagely.

  “Oh, that’s good.” He smiled once again. “Can I use that? You have to be who you are before you can be what you are. I like it. How about you, Cat? How did you end up on the Altered Moon?”

  “I worked with Gina at the mining company on Drelen, before they went under,” she told him. “Things got bad after the company closed down: a lot of people and no work. No one could afford passage off planet. Drelen became a backwater world. Those who were there couldn’t afford to leave, and those who weren’t there had no desire to go there. I got word from Gina a few months later…said she knew of a job if I didn’t mind bending a law here or there. I couldn’t say yes fast enough. A couple of days later, Boss and Gina showed up in Lunar Mare and off we went.”

  “So, it was just you four at first?”

  “No, well sort of. I didn’t know about GABI until today and Tamara was already here, so five actually.” They both became quiet for a moment. The loss of Wilks was still so fresh. “JP was the next one to join up. Boss hired Trigger and his group to be the insertion team for the scores. That was five years ago. It worked out pretty well. We were never even close to being caught.”

  “GABI?” he asked, as he realized she had to know the whole story. “Can you tell us about yourself? How you, the Altered Moon, and Boss all came together?”

  “I would like nothing better than to embellish upon my attributes, Captain,” she answered. “However, I believe that is a story for Bernard Keltzer to relate.”

  “GABI, how long until we reach Keenaw?” Cat asked.

  “Five hours, fifty-nine minutes, fifty-nine seconds.”

  “Ah, five…fifty-nine…fifty-nine,” CJ teased GABI. “Can’t you just say ‘about six hours’?”

  “Yes, Captain, but that would be inaccurate.”

  “Oh…you…” CJ pointed at her and continued his teasing, “are going to be a bundle of fun to work with, GABI.”

  Cat raised one eyebrow and smiled slyly.

  “Thank you, Captain,” GABI replied in a dry tone. “I am pleased that you think so.”

  A hull breach alarm went off with a blaring warning. CJ and Cat scrambled to find out what was going on.

  “What do we do?” Cat yelled over the alarm.

  “I don’t know!” CJ yelled back.

  The alarm stopped just as fast as it came on and the bridge was back to normal and as quiet as it was before.

  “Ahem…ha, ha, ha…is the appropriate phrase, I believe,” said GABI in an I-got-you tone of voice. “A computer is an unemotional machine, whereas I, on the other hand, love a good joke.”

  “Okay, okay, like I said, a bundle of fun to work with,” said CJ, as he and Cat relaxed from the well-played practical joke.

  “What in blazes is going on?” Gina called over the comms.

  “I apologize, Gina, it was my actions that were at fault,” GABI said.

  “Sorry, Gina, just an accident,” CJ answered. “Everything’s fine.”

  “Well, don’t blow up the ship…Captain.” The comms channel closed.

  CJ raised his eyebrows in surprise, but Cat just waved it off. “That's our Gina.”

  “Are there any tech manuals on the Altered Moon available, GABI?”

  “Yes, Captain. There is a readout screen at the command station.”

  “Good, let’s see if we can get some of these repairs done.”

  “With your permission, Captain, I’ll head back to med bay and prep for the Capt—for Boss’ surgery.”

  “Yes, of course, go ahead, Cat,” he said. “I’ll let you know when we get there.”

  “GABI, can you run an analysis for me on the MSL Istraulis?” CJ asked. “I want to know everything possible about that ship. Project possible outcomes and prep reports for the following scenarios: contacting unofficial resources, contacting MT&T security, and contacting Marlacuer Imperial Guard. Debriefing will be after we arrive at Keenaw.”

  “Very good, Captain. I will begin at once.”

  “Thank you, GABI, for your help. I couldn’t have pulled it off without you.”

  “Nor I, without you, Captain. We make a formidable team.”

  “Yes we do, don’t we?” He smiled at her. “Please alert me when we arrive in the Krelle system.”

  “Aye, Captain,” she tilted her head to the side, nodded once, and then shimmered away.

  CJ sat down a little more seriously in the captain’s chair at the command station. He studied the console in front of him; there was a central view screen flanked by a ship’s status display on the left and a tactical readout panel on the right. Across the top of the central view screen were readout panels showing particle cannon and missile status. On the right end of the console was a six-way view panel that showed various areas of the ship. Next to that were the engine status and life support display panels. The left end of the console contained planetary readout screens, sensor scan displays, and a comms panel.

  CJ brought up the technical manuals of the Altered Moon. SlyCore hull plating, Rellia K-200 particle cannons, fore and aft missile launchers, thirteen Inner System Engines, dark matter collection ports, dark matter thruster system, a String Field Drive and quantum jump computer, the list of attributes seemed to never end. He was soon immersed in deep study of the unique abilities of this amazing prototype ship.

  *~*~*

  Chapter Eighteen

  Gina brought the Altered Moon smoothly in for a perfect landing in the cavernous hangar on Keenaw. She didn’t expect to be back here so soon, certainly not with only half the crew and Boss in med bay. She cut thrust to zero and powered down the flight systems.

  “We’re down, Captain.” Gina felt it was strange to call anyone ‘Captain’ but Boss. She locked out the flight control panels, unbuckled the seat harness, and stood up. She fidgeted; wanting to go to Boss’s side, but unsure about protocols where an unexpected new commanding officer was involved.

&
nbsp; CJ must have sensed her uncertainty. “Go, Gina. I’ll watch things here. We’ll worry about everything else later.”

  “Thank you…Captain.” She smiled an uneasy smile and left the bridge.

  “Cat?” CJ’s voice came through the comms. “We’re set up here and Gina is on her way down to med bay.”

  “Roger that, Captain,” Cat said. She unconsciously accepted the new command structure. “I’m already setting up. Diagnosis and prep will take about an hour. The surgery could run up to twelve.”

  “Copy. Good luck, Cat,” he said. “Please keep me advised.”

  “Thank you, sir, will do.” Cat moved from the comms panel back to the stasis bed. She powered up the surgery module and prepped Boss for the procedure. The nerve axons that ran along Boss’ spinal column suffered major damage from the K-13’s particle blast. The question was if the axons could be repaired or if there would be some permanent damage left behind.

  As Cat worked in the sterilized surgical room, Gina’s voice came through the comm from the med bay, where she’d apparently taken up residence. “Anything I can do for you, Cat?” she asked.

  “Just handle things out there, so I can focus on what I need to do in here,” Cat answered. “I’d say don’t worry, but…”

  “Roger that,” Gina said. “Wild horses couldn’t break into this med bay. Take care of him, Zhu…he’s the most precious thing in the universe to me.”

  “He’ll be up, spouting off about ancient Earth in no time, hon,” Cat promised her. She smiled and nodded at Gina through the view port before she turned back to the surgical module.

  The blast of charged hydrogen particles had seared a hole through Boss’ flesh around the spine, which allowed the charge to run along his central nervous system. A dozen or so nerve axons between the C4 to C8 vertebrae had spilled out through a hole in the myelin sheath. The sheath of the nerve bundle had burn marks that ran in both directions for several centimeters.

  Cat needed to repair the nerve damage and stabilize Boss’ condition before she treated the blast burns. First, she programmed the correct instruments and procedure options into the surgical module. Next, she made the incisions necessary to reach the damaged area of his spine and spread the flesh and what muscle tissue she could to access the spinal column.

  Guiding the instruments, she slowly and carefully repacked and lined up the nerve axons. After several hours, she was ready to rebuild the myelin sheath around the bundle of newly realigned nerve fibers. She used a biomedical casing to wrap around the nerves that would allow the myelin sheath to grow back before the casing broke down and was absorbed naturally by the body.

  She finished the myelin casing before moving on to the damaged cartilage between the vertebrae. Four of the spine’s cartilage pads had boiled and ruptured from the intensity of the K-13’s blast. She removed the destroyed tissue and debrided any rough bone material before placing medically grown cartilage pads in the spaces between the bones of the spine. She fused the vertebrae with spondiflex plates, then sutured muscle and tendon where it had been torn or separated.

  Several hours passed before Cat was able to close the flesh over the wound and seal it with a surgical cover that allowed airflow and drainage but kept out germs and contaminants. She placed Boss in a body frame that immobilized his torso while still allowing access to the injured area of his back. After rotating Boss in the surgical module to treat the blast burn on the front of his right shoulder, she removed the dead tissue from around the wound, treated the burned flesh, and applied a surgical cover for protection.

  Once done with the main procedure, she ran a diagnosis scan. The scan completed and Boss’ condition was upgraded from serious to stable. Cat took a moment to breathe a sigh of relief before she continued with the diagnosis. She cringed inwardly when she saw the nerve axon test results. Boss had twenty percent signal degradation in the nerves below the damaged area; he’d never regain the full use of his legs. It was bittersweet; she felt good because she knew he could have come out much worse, but she felt bad that she couldn’t have done more for him.

  Cat set the surgery module to recovery mode, which administered a pain reliever and discontinued the sedative. She transferred Boss’ med bed from the surgery module to a recovery bay that would monitor his vital signs through the recovery process. The recovery bay walls would retract when the patient had recovered adequately enough to be treated with standard care procedures.

  Setting the surgery module to auto cleanse, she placed her gown, gloves, and other surgical gear into the biohazard bin and pushed the incinerate icon. She waved her hand over the basin scanner at the forty degree Celsius mark. Warm water flowed out, as she rubbed a lotion on her hands that disinfected, as well as hydrated to ease the drying effect of the surgical field. The warm water felt good on her hands that she always joked were really ice cubes in disguise. She dried off her hands and pushed the lights-off icon as she left the module and went into med bay.

  Gina was already up and stood at the view port of the recovery chamber. “He should be out of it in fifteen or twenty minutes, G,” Cat told her. “He’s going to come through okay.”

  Cat’s voice came over the bridge comms panel. “Captain?”

  “Yes, Cat, how’s everything?”

  “The surgery is over and Boss is in recovery.” He should be coming around shortly.”

  “Very good, thank you, Cat,” he said. “I’m on my way.” He looked up into midair and asked, “GABI, would you like to join us in med bay?”

  “Thank you, Captain,” came the disembodied reply, “but, I have been here all along.”

  “Ah, I should have known you’d be keeping tabs on him,” he said. “I’ll be there presently.”

  CJ closed the comms channel and left the bridge. I hope the old boy’s all right, he thought as he turned to go through the med bay door. He has a good crew now that the shit’s been strained out of it. No matter what happens, I hope at least I’ve earned a spot here.

  Cat and GABI were standing by the recovery chamber with Gina when CJ walked in.

  “Captain,” Cat said, “the sedative is wearing off and Boss is coming around. I was able to repair most of the blast burn damage. The damage to the nerve fibers was extensive and some is permanent. He’s lost twenty percent of the function in both legs. The blast charge overloaded the central nervous system and basically shorted out some areas of his brain.”

  She changed the display to show a scan of Boss’ brain and continued with her report. “The damage of the affected areas has an odd pattern to it, almost like an implant, which actually stopped the charge from entering the brain itself, essentially saving his life. Whatever it was, it’s burned out now.”

  “GABI…?” Gina’s voice trailed off.

  “I cannot establish a connection, Gina Riley,” she answered. “I do not hear him.”

  “Wait,” Cat said as she pointed at the scan, “you were connected to Boss, by that thing, for how long?”

  “Seven solar years, ten months, seventeen days, six hours, forty-two minutes, eight seconds,” she answered.

  “Almost eight years?” Cat asked. Visibly stunned, she looked back and forth at CJ and the others. “Why wasn’t anyone told about this?”

  “It was determined by Nelson Moon,” GABI answered, “ship master of the Altered Moon and my creator, that the true nature of the Altered Moon should not be disclosed until the project reached completion. Boss Keltzer felt that it was necessary to include Gina Riley after the destruction of the Istraulis. I am both pleased and saddened by the recent turn of events. I would find future projections to be more favorable if Boss Keltzer were part of them.”

  “As do we all, GABI,” said Gina.

  “What’s…all…this…then…” Boss mumbled, as he regained consciousness and tried to look around.

  “Take it easy, Captain,” said Cat to Boss, but threw an ‘I’m sorry’ look at CJ, who waved it off. “Don’t try to move.”

  “Gina…” he
said, as she came up to the bedside. “You’re safe? How? What happened? Was it a dream…no, not if I’m lying here.”

  Cat explained the damage to his nervous system and the prognosis for his recovery. “You’re going to be my guest here in med bay for several weeks; then, it’s going to take a couple of months of physical therapy to get you back on your feet. You’re going to need external support of some kind or a suspensor chair for a while after that.”

  “Months?” he exclaimed. “With everything that’s going on?”

  “Relax, Boss,” Gina said, and softly placed a hand on his arm as he started to fidget against the body frame, “Everything’s fine. We’re back on Keenaw.”

  Boss lay back and listened as Gina told him of what had happened. CJ and GABI filled the gaps about what happened on the Altered Moon while Cat and Gina drifted around in the life pod. He became sullen as he remembered Gina and Cat being set adrift. A flash of anger crossed his face as the memory of being shot by Gar went through his head. He was quiet as they told him about Trigger and the others in the shuttle bay.

  “Tamara,” he said sadly, “too short a time for someone so special.”

  CJ and GABI told him of the unexpected shift in command and the changes they made to the neural center. They also told him of how they cut loose Lunar Mare and how they rescued Cat and Gina.

  “So you can’t hear me, either?” asked Boss. “The chip must have been burned out by the blast.” He looked somewhat subdued. “Well, all things must come to an end. At least this end comes with my life and the lives of those I care about.” He paused to smile and look around; he thought about all that had happened. “So…Captain Evermore…is it?”

  “Hey, Boss, this is your ship,” said CJ, as he raised his hands. “Whenever you’re ready to have it back, just say the word.”

  “I have lived long enough to know that fate has a way of working out its own problems, CJ,” Boss replied. “It seems that you and GABI are responsible for saving us all. I thank you both for saving the lives of my friends. And, it looks like I’m going to be out of action for a while. If there are no objections from the others, I would like you to stay on as acting captain…that is, if you want to.”