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

by AZ Kelvin

  “Oh, you have been hanging around Boss too much,” groaned Gina in mock dismay.

  The third lockbox gave them a bit of a surprise when they tried to pick it up. It wouldn’t budge, not a centimeter, not a millimeter even.

  “There’s got to be a release somewhere,” Gina said. “Let’s look around. It would have to be hidden in the vault, I think.”

  They spent more time than they intended looking for the release catch for the third lockbox, but eventually CJ found part of the wall was designed to hide it in plain sight. He gripped the edge of the catch and pushed two buttons on the hidden side with his index and pinky fingers. The lid of the third lockbox popped up with a click.

  “There we are,” he announced, quite pleased at having figured out his first treasure hunting puzzle lock. “This has got to be the most valuable piece, if we had to go through all that just to get to it.”

  He lifted the lid of the box, reached in, and pulled out a child’s mobile of the star system. The planets of the mobile began to glow one after the other when they reacted to the photonic energy of their lights.

  “What the hell is this?” he asked out of irritation to no one in particular.

  “It’s pretty,” was all Gina could come up with.

  “There’s got to be something else,” CJ complained, as he placed the mobile on the floor and searched the now-empty lockbox. “Nothing. Zip. This is what we came back for?”

  CJ laughed slightly and shook his head in wonderment. He looked down at the mobile. A more serious look came over his face and he shifted to look at the mobile better.

  “That’s not the Arzia star system—there are too many planets.”

  “That looks familiar, somehow,” Gina said. She stood up and looked at the mobile on the floor before she scrutinized the vault wall. “Captain, look.”

  An area on one of the walls was covered with a star chart laid out on a black-and-gold marble plate with what was assumed to be the Arzian star system; but it also had too many planets.

  “It matches the mobile,” CJ said. “Shine your light on the mobile again.”

  Gina lit up the child’s toy and the planets began to glow once more, one after the other in a pattern that repeated.

  “The pattern…can you tell where it starts?”

  “One sec, Captain,” she said, as she watched the pattern repeat a couple of times. “Okay, there are twelve planets. I’m numbering them from the center out. Here’s the pattern: eight, three, eleven, one, four, two, seven, five, ten, nine, twelve, and six. Then it repeats the same order.”

  CJ looked the marble plate over for any clues; he pushed planets and ran his fingers along the edges; he shined his light on the planets and then the sun. Nothing happened. “Is there anything else?” he asked Gina.

  “Not that I can see, Captain.”

  CJ stepped back from the wall and crossed his arms in frustration. He stared at the black marble plate as if he could intimidate the secret to show itself. He turned his head to the right as he rubbed the left side of his neck and the answer literally stood right in front of him. The marble plate was anchored to a wall depicting the likenesses of many different people, all of them gazing happily up at the stars. One was a small girl with her right arm bent at the elbow across her stomach, her palm up and her fingers curled to her thumb, except for one. Her index finger stuck out slightly from the surface of the wall.

  “G, look,” he pointed at the little girl’s finger. “Hang the mobile there.”

  Gina hung the child’s toy on the little girl’s outstretched finger. The weight of the mobile pulled down on the finger, which rested on a pressure switch. A slight click sounded from inside the marble plate and the planets on it began to glow with a soft light.

  “Good thinking, Captain,” Gina said. “You make a pretty good tomb raider.”

  “Thank you, G, but we’re not done yet. What’s that pattern again?”

  “Eight.”

  CJ pushed the eighth planet; it settled in with a satisfying click. Gina read off the next number and CJ hit the corresponding planet on the diagram. They repeated the procedure until only the last one remained.

  “Grab your gear and be ready to haul ass out that door if this thing is booby trapped,” CJ told her.

  “Roger that.” She gathered up the rope and equipment duffle they’d brought down with them. “Set” she said when she got by the door.

  CJ pushed the sixth planet on the diagram and dove toward the door, ready to haul ass as well. The wall rumbled as a seam that ran along the outline of the gathered people split and began to widen. A long-dormant power source moved energy along ancient conduits, powering the door and lighting systems. The seam opened a little over a meter when the effort to overcome ages of inactivity drained the ancient power system completely. The door stopped in its tracks and the lights dimmed away until the vault was lit once again only by their lights and the soft glow of the planets on the mobile.

  “It’s enough to get inside,” CJ said. “I just hope it doesn’t close back up.”

  “Here, can we wedge this block in there?” She pointed at a fallen block that lay nearby.

  “Yes, good idea.” Together they moved the block into the seam of the door.

  The feeling of excitement was almost too much to stand as they slid sideways through the door and into a chamber unseen by anyone in centuries. They panned their lights around the small chamber. Glints of bright metal reflected back at them from across the chamber. Fifteen statuettes sat on ornately carved black marble pedestals that surrounded the official Seal of the Union of Allied Worlds. The statuettes each displayed one name of the fifteen different star systems. Each one forged from platinum inlaid with gold, silver, and jewels.

  “Holy shit.” CJ was stunned by what they had found.

  “Captain, do you know what these are?” Gina asked, her voice reverent. “These are the council tributes to the founding star systems of the Union.”

  A spooky feeling filled the room. They’d found themselves in danger…again.

  “Okay, we’re burning time here, sir.”

  “Right, here’s what we do,” said CJ. “Put the statues in the equipment bag and pack sand around them. We tie it and the Seal up with the rope in a bundle. We tie it to one of the chairs out there and leave enough rope to grab and drag it through the tough spots. We take everything in one trip.”

  “That’s a lot of weight, Captain.”

  “Even if we take stops along the way, it will still be quicker than making two trips,” he said.

  “Agreed.”

  “Let’s get all this stuff loaded and scram the hell out of here,” he added.

  The two tomb-raiding artifact traders carefully and quickly packed and loaded their loot onto one of the chairs. CJ tied the bundle to the chair and fashioned two pull harnesses out of the rope from the top of the chair back. The ropes provided a solid grip on the top of the chair while the legs provided a solid grip on the bottom. CJ and Gina slowly carried and dragged their makeshift booty litter across the council chamber, up the stairway, and out the tunnel before they loaded the whole kit and caboodle, chair and all, onto Moonshadow’s cargo lift.

  They climbed onto the lift and rode it into the belly of the shuttle. Next, they sat through a decontamination spray down that killed any bacteria or virus on them or their cargo. A green light flashed over the airlock control panel, indicating that it was clear to exit the cargo hold. They stowed their helmets and gloves back on the rack by the hatch. The effort of hauling the goods back to the ship had occupied their minds, but now that the task was done, the enormity of the find settled on CJ’s nerves as if they were being hunted by an unseen predator.

  “Immediate dust-off, G,” CJ said. “Let’s get back to the Moon.”

  “Roger that, Captain, we’re gone.” She settled into the pilot seat and powered up the flight systems.

  “Home base, how do you read?” CJ called into the comms.

  “Loud and cl
ear, new guy, go ahead,” Boss answered.

  “We are on route and I feel the need…the need for speed,” CJ used a vernacular from ancient Earth Boss would appreciate.

  “Understood, new guy. Home base is standing by.”

  “Captain, why wouldn’t they take the time to get the last of that stuff?” Gina asked.

  “It took us three hours, G,” he said. “Maybe they decided what was left behind wasn’t worth the trouble compared to what they had already.”

  “I can’t believe what we just got away with.”

  “Fortune favors the bold, my sharp-shooting friend,” CJ quipped. “Let’s hope it’s smiling on us today.”

  A few lip-biting minutes later and Gina set Moonshadow down safely in the shuttle bay of the Altered Moon. “Home base, this is super girl. The eagle has landed,” she said with her own sly use of Boss’ verbiage.

  CJ laughed out loud at Gina’s ability to not only catch on quickly to the game; but to always be able to pull out a trump card of some kind. Boss apparently appreciated it as well by the response to her hail.

  “Roger that, super girl, welcome home!” Boss tried to say between roars of laughter. “Home base is out of the park,” he said, letting them know that the Altered Moon had taken her leave of Arzia Octonus and had turned for, hopefully, less hostile horizons.

  *~*~*

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The excited storytelling and soaring elation over an acquisition of such rare and valuable antiquities, as well as the unimaginable wealth that came with it, screeched to a halt a few short moments after CJ and Gina set foot back on the bridge of the Altered Moon. Long-range sensor alerts sounded the alarm as six missile launches were detected.

  “Six long-range homing missiles bearing two sixty-two by one ninety-eight, Captain, fifty-two thousand kilometers out, closing at two hundred fifty thousand kilometers per hour,” reported GABI urgently.

  “STATIONS,” ordered CJ. “Shields up! Evasive, G, away from the missiles! Boss, plot their origin and focus on that area. How can they get a lock on us when we can’t see them?”

  “Estimated time to impact is twelve minutes,” said GABI.

  “Weapons and defenses are online and standing by, Captain,” stated Cat.

  “Thank you, Cat,” CJ answered. “Boss?”

  “Nothing, sir!” the S.O. read from the readout screen. “No ships detected.”

  “Missile impact in nine minutes,” said GABI.

  “How long before we can lock on to the missiles?” asked CJ.

  “Six minutes, Captain,” Cat answered.

  “Damn. GABI, plot a course to the closest jump point,” CJ called out. A thousand thoughts raced through his head. How can we not pick them up? Stealth hull plating, yeah, but why no engine signatures? Seconds passed as he struggled for a plan. Wait a minute…the Moon doesn’t leave a signature when she uses the dark matter propulsion. “They have dark matter thrusters,” he said out loud. “They have Nelson’s technology! Boss scan for pockets of concentrated dark matter.”

  “Aye, sir, scanning.”

  “Course out of Arzia star system is plotted, Captain,” GABI reported. “Jump destination is laid in and the String Field Drive is standing by.”

  “Dark matter readings dead ahead, Captain,” Boss called out. “Dozens of them.”

  “It’s a trap. They’re driving us to the wolf pack,” CJ realized out loud.

  “Missiles are twenty-five thousand kilometers and closing. Impact in eight minutes,” said GABI.

  “G, get us out of the system, full burn!” CJ called out.

  “Fullmoon, aye.” She turned to the course GABI had laid in moments ago and ignited all thirteen Inner System Engines.

  “Distance to the welcoming party, Boss?” CJ asked.

  Before Boss could reply, launch alerts sounded off as two, then eight, then twelve, and finally sixteen missile launch detections came from the waiting armada. Eight ships appeared on CJ’s tactical screen as they powered up their systems to engage pursuit. Five of the ships moved out ahead of the other three and opened fire on the Altered Moon. The searing deep red streaks slammed into the Moon’s aft shields with a force that shook the entire ship.

  “What the hell are they firing at us? Can you get a scan of their weapons?” asked CJ.

  “Pulsed plasma beam of some kind from the cruisers. I don’t recognize the energy signature,” said Boss. “They’ll weaken the shields so the missiles can finish us off.”

  “GABI, transfer fifty percent power from the forward shields to the aft!” ordered CJ. “Shut down all secondary systems and increase power to inertial stabilizers and engines.”

  “Aye, Captain.” She immediately did as he ordered.

  “Can we give them a Moonshine and go dark?” CJ grabbed at a straw.

  “No, sir, not enough time,” answered Boss.

  “We cannot outrun them, Captain,” GABI said.

  “Damn!” CJ swore. “Counter measures?” he asked Cat.

  “Not enough for all the missiles, sir.”

  The two groups of pursuing missiles merged into one mass of twenty-four; combined with the eight ships they made the tactical screen light up with incoming attack blips.

  “Missile impact in six minutes,” GABI said.

  “Cat, give me two EMP missiles in the rear tubes,” CJ suddenly ordered as a plan formed in his head. “Boss, get me a target lock on those missiles.”

  Cat answered him with a sly smile, “Aye, sir, two geese in the rear tubes!”

  “Nobody deals us aces and eights. Gina, on my mar—” CJ was cut short as six ship-shuddering plasma impacts hammered the aft shielding. Overload warnings blared as electricity arced over several panels on different stations around the bridge. Sparks jumped from failed circuits that were forced to carry ten times their normal charge. The blast was enough to change the Moon’s trajectory by just a degree, but at high-star drive speeds that was all it took.

  The enormous thrust of the engine that was the key in their escape threw the Altered Moon into a violent yaw-to-pitch spin. Gina was forced to shut down the main engines in order to bring the ship under control with the thrusters. The disorientation of the spin made it hard to judge which thrusters to fire. Pitching nose down needed aft dorsal thrusters in three-second bursts to compensate. Yawing to port needed port ventral and starboard dorsal thrusters in three-second bursts. CJ watched Gina fight hard to get the Altered Moon back under control.

  WUMP! WUMP! The Altered Moon pitched backward as pulsed plasma beams from the attacking ships slammed the aft shields to their breaking point.

  “Aft shields have failed, Captain,” GABI reported.

  “Sensors are dow—” Boss tried to say as another plasma blast seared a hole through the hull in front of the engine assembly. The blue glow of the Moon’s engines sputtered on and off as they were slowly deprived of the precious fuel. Hull breach alarms sounded throughout the ship.

  “Weapons?” CJ yelled out.

  “Missiles and cannons at your command,” Cat answered.

  WUMP! Another blast sent the Moon into a starboard spin. WUMPBALASHHZZZTBOOM! Another blast ripped into the tall dorsal fin of the ship. WAA! WAA! WAA! Critical systems and hull breach alarms screamed out their warnings as the ship rolled hard to starboard and shook like she was coming apart.

  “Hull breach in engineering, Captain, emergency bulkheads are in place,” GABI reported. “Critical structural damage to the dorsal fin. Shields are offline. Sensor and maneuvering systems are down. Last reading puts the missile impact at thirty seconds.”

  “GABI, jump the ship!” CJ yelled out.

  “Captain, we are still in…” GABI started to remind him that they were still inside the star system’s gravitational field and the g-forces would tear the ship apart.

  “Jump the ship!” he screamed.

  GABI engaged the String Field Drive to align the quantum particles of the Altered Moon and her crew with the quantum wave particles of th
e plotted destination. The crippled ship slipped from normal space mere seconds before the deadly rain of murderous intent tore through the space they had just occupied.

  The reappearance of the ship into normal space was a quiet contrast compared to the chaos of their exit. The Altered Moon just hung there in space as she listed forward and to port. The tall dorsal fin tore nearly in half by the barrage of plasma blasts. No running lights or navigational beacons, all secondary systems were down. The slow spin would go on forever without the maneuvering thrusters to correct the ship’s attitude and position. Snaps, pops, sizzles, and sparks mixed with what seemed to be every alarm and warning klaxon on the ship in a clamor that almost drowned out the coughs and moans of the battle-beaten crew.

  “Sound off people,” said CJ.

  “I’m shaken, but okay,” Cat’s voice came from behind the tactical station.

  “Same here, Captain,” answered Gina, as she waved away the smoke from her sparking flight console.

  “I’m still alive…I think,” said Boss.

  “GABI, damage report.”

  “Major damage to dorsal fin infrastructure, Captain. There is a hull breach in the engineering bay—the compartment is decompressed. Main engines and maneuvering are offline. Shields are offline. Defense fields are offline. Sensors and targeting are offline.”

  “It would probably be quicker if you told me what was working,” CJ half joked.

  “Yes,” she replied seriously, “particle cannons, communications, and life support are on auxiliary power.”

  “Oh, cannons, but no targeting or thrusters,” CJ mused. “Something would have to fly in front of us to even hit it.”

  “Hey we’re alive and it looks like we have gotten away,” Boss pointed out.

  “Gotten away?” Gina threw a scalding look at him. “Maybe for now. We never should have gone to that blasted planet! What the HELL were we thinking? Tomb raiding in the middle of the shit that we’re in. That was stupid.” She shook her arms and fists in anger.

  “Easy, Gina,” said Boss.