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

by AZ Kelvin

  “Gina, come to—” CJ started to say as a Kang warship jumped into space dead ahead of them and opened fire. There was no time to react. “Evasive!” CJ yelled out.

  Gina brought every star pilot skill she could muster to full on, as she dodged the cannon fire of the Kang vessel. CJ barked out the orders and Gina flew like hell. They worked in unison to identify and evade the major threats of the Kang attack patterns.

  Gina had weaved the Altered Moon through most of the weapons barrage and they were at the edge of the Kang’s weapons range when two of the blasts found their mark in the aft shielding generator. The power of the Kang cannon fire was incredible. The image of captured Keect’na being used as living amplifiers in the Kang weapon chambers flashed through CJ’s mind. The power of the blast blew clean through the shields and destroyed the shield generator.

  “That’s a hull breach,” Boss yelled, as he stumbled onto the bridge, still in the suspensor frame.

  CJ looked over at Boss for the briefest of seconds with a single question in his eye.

  “She’s okay,” Boss said. “She went to engineering.”

  The next shot tore through the engine housing, destroyed three of the secondary ISEs, and disabled the primary. The Altered Moon shook and shuddered as alarms of various natures went off simultaneously. A violent shockwave moved through the ship, which disrupted power and overloaded circuits.

  “GABI?” CJ hollered out.

  “Online, Captain.”

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

  “I am unable to do so, Captain,” she replied. “The jump engine has been damaged.”

  “Captain!” Katy called over the comms. “Hull breach in engineering. The emergency bulkheads are in place, but the bay is depressurized.”

  “Katy, come up to the bridge,” CJ called into the comms, then said to Boss, “What do we have left?”

  “Nine secondary engines, forward missile tubes and cannons,” Boss reported to him. “Shields are down and critical power systems are at forty two percent.”

  “Shit. Bring us about. Ready all weapons.”

  The image on the main view screen shifted as the Altered Moon came about to face her enemy one on one, when the sensors picked up three more ships jumping into the system.

  “What…they need more ships to finish us off?” CJ said, as the last hope of escaping alive was dashed to pieces.

  “Captain, they’re Blood Stars,” Boss read excitedly off the sensor readout. “Two Blood Star ships and one unidentified, but I’ll lay odds by its design that she’s a Keect’na ship.”

  Katy stepped onto the bridge just in time to watch with the others as the three newcomers engaged the Kang warship. The two Blood Star ships launched six deadboy missiles that screamed toward the Kang ship with jets of bright red behind them. The eerie green translucent ship that came with them launched two missiles wrapped in an envelope of purple just as the six Blood Star missiles tore into the side of the Kang warship.

  The molecular decay warheads inside the ‘Deadboy’ missiles dissolved the molecular bond of whatever matter existed within their blast radius. The missiles that exploded on the Kang ship were already doing their dirty work on the ship’s hull plating. The molecular decay was well underway when the two dark matter missiles detonated inside the deadboy missiles’ blast radius. The dark matter missiles’ energy fused with that of the decaying hull molecules, resulting in two massive explosions that blew off the entire side of the Kang warship.

  The Kang vessel continued to explode here and there as the three ships turned to an intercept course with the Altered Moon. A hail came over the comms as the ships drew nearer.

  “Grreeetinngss, SeeShay,” hailed a beautiful singsong voice over the comms.

  “It’s Crissi!” Gina exclaimed.

  “Crissieal!” CJ answered her hail. “What a pleasant surprise. Your timing could not have been better.”

  “Auvv caurrsse,” she replied matter of factly. “Crissi alaays onn tinne.”

  The crew on the bridge of the Altered Moon broke out in a well needed bought of laughter at their friend’s manner.

  “I see you’ve brought friends,” CJ said. “Care to make introductions?”

  “Oh, we’ve met before, Captain Evermore,” said the commander of one of the Blood Star ships. “My ship still bears the scar of our previous encounter.”

  The view screen split into two as the image of a stern-faced woman in a black uniform decorated with several medals and pins and looped with a silver braid at the left shoulder appeared on the screen. The woman’s skin was only a shade or two brighter than the black uniform she wore. Glossy black hair was pulled back tightly with the braided length of it hanging over her right shoulder down to her bosom.

  “I seem to remember more than a few missiles heading in my direction as well, Captain…?” CJ replied and waited for a name.

  “Kendra Varrin, Commander of the Scythe,” she introduced herself.

  “Well, Commander Varrin, I owe you a drink for coming to our assistance today,” CJ responded politely.

  “I think you owe me more than that, Captain. But that’s a matter for another time. We should leave this area immediately.”

  Murphy’s Law was a constant in the universe and it was in full effect today. No sooner had the commander made her statement about leaving, when two Kang warships slipped into normal space. Four more jumped in behind the first two, then four more after that. Finally a Kang armada of fifteen ships emerged through the quantum field to face the four ships that dared to attack their brethren. Obliteration was imminent.

  “Stay behind us, Captain,” Commander Varrin told CJ, “and cover our flank as best you can. We’ll defend you as long as we can.”

  “Commander…Kendra…good hunting,” CJ said respectfully.

  “And to you as well…Crucible,” Kendra replied with a light laugh as her image faded away.

  “Damn…does everybody know?” CJ wondered out loud as he looked around. The whole crew seemed remarkably busy at the moment. “Crissi,” he turned back to the view screen, “I speak for the crew when I say that we are honored to have met you and thank you for coming for us. I wish there was more time to get to know you.”

  “Lonngg tinne yet, SeeShay,” she said simply. “Gud luck, frienndss.” Crissi hummed and glowed which was a soft smile in the manner of the Keect’na as her image on the view screen was replaced with an image of the intimidatingly large number of Kang warships that loomed before them.

  The small fleet of four ships spread out slightly to make the Kang at least work for their victory. The shimmer of the other ships’ shields glaringly reminded CJ of their own lack of primary shielding. They weren’t going to last long in this fight. He was suddenly aware of Katy at his side. He squeezed her hand and held her eyes for a moment. He swallowed hard and turned back to the view screen to watch as the Kang armada advanced to weapons’ range.

  Just as the Kang warships opened fire on the Altered Moon and her allies, an eruption of cannon fire and missiles engulfed two of their rearguard ships. The two ships were crippled instantly and one suffered a critical hit to its reactor core. The ship broke up as a fireball blasted through its hull from the inside of the ship. Six of the smaller ships were destroyed within minutes as the full strength of a fleet of Marlacuer Imperial Star Guard battle cruisers came to bear on the Kang armada’s rear flank.

  The Kang turned their attention from the Altered Moon’s group of ships to focus on the greater danger of the Marlacuer battle fleet. The attempt was fruitless, as the Imperial battle cruisers easily crushed the Kang armada; they destroyed or disabled every Kang vessel. The battle lasted no more than a quarter of an hour. The space around the battle was packed with Imperial vessels of all kinds within a short time; all of them went about their Imperial business of gathering up every scrap of Kang warriors, ships, and equipment that could be found.

  Crissiael and the Blood Stars remained in defensive positions around the
Altered Moon until a small group of frigates broke off with one cruiser to approach the four ships. The frigates took up positions surrounding them and a single cruiser sat off their forward port quarter.

  “Unidentified vessels, this is the ISG Cruiser Navare. You are ordered to stand down and submit to an Imperial boarding squad or we will destroy you,” the command came over the comms of all four ships. The firepower of the Star Guard ships, which had just been clearly demonstrated, left no doubt about the authority of the order to stand down.

  “ISG Navare, this is CJ Evermore, Captain of the Altered Moon,” CJ hailed the Imperial cruiser. There was no response to their hail; in fact, there was no further communication of any kind from the Navare, nor from any of the Imperial guardsmen who boarded and took up positions on the bridges of every ship. The minutes passed to hours as the Imperial guard kept the ships locked out and the crews confined to quarters and the command officers to the bridges.

  After several hours, the long-range scanner indicated a huge vessel on an approach vector. The single mass separated as it got closer into the biggest flotilla of Marlacuer royal vessels that any of them had ever seen. A massive ship of splendid colors and ornate hull plating was surrounded with fleets of battle cruiser groups, all bristled with weapons arrays and missile batteries. A thousand utility ships and courier shuttles flew in and around the unbelievably huge flotilla. This was why they were being detained. Marlacuer Emperor Zartharian the Omnipotent had arrived.

  The ranking officer of each boarding squad received orders to bring the commanding officer of each vessel to the command ship of the Black Sash, which was the personal guard of the Emperor and the Royal Family. The boarding squad on the Altered Moon took CJ and left the ship without so much as ‘you’ll be contacted.’ Katy managed to kiss CJ for a second before the squad members pulled her away. He struggled to look back at the crew as the Imperial guards hauled him off the bridge.

  “Katy I love you,” he yelled back before the bridge hatch slammed shut and he was gone.

  Gina and Cat both came over to comfort Katy as she slumped over a console.

  “No! Not again.” Katy stood up like a shot, ran to a comms panel, and just about put her cybernetic fist through the S2S icon. “You Imperial son of a bitch! You let him go!” she screamed into the comms. “He’s a good man! You let him go! You son of a bi—,” Katy slowly lost consciousness as the sedative that Cat slipped her took effect.

  “Cal, give me a hand getting her to her quarters, will you?” Cat asked as she supported Katy’s weight.

  “Yes, of course.” Cal moved in to pick Katy up and follow Cat.

  “You don’t think they’ll…” Cat didn’t want to finish the question.

  “Kill us? No…” said Boss. “Imprison us…?” he finished with a shrug.

  Boss and Gina came together in a deeply exhausted hug. “What do you think’s going to happen to the captain?” Gina asked.

  “I don’t know, G,” Boss told her. “I truly don’t know.”

  Katy had calmed down by the next day and managed to repair some of the battle damage just to keep busy. Two more days passed before they got any sign that things had progressed. The two Blood Star ships powered up their systems and prepared to get underway. Commander Varrin’s ship, the Scythe, pulled ahead slowly on an odd course that took the ship out directly in front of the Altered Moon’s position. The dorsal running light pulsed on and off at different intervals.

  “Boss, I believe we are receiving a visual message from the Scythe,” GABI reported.

  “Explain.”

  “A coded sequence of light pulses with a message that repeats, ‘Be patient,’” GABI answered.

  “Maybe things aren’t working out so bad,” Boss said hopefully.

  “Well, they could at least let us know!” Gina steamed.

  The Blood Star ships engaged their main drives and sped off to where they could safely engage their updated String Field Drive jump engines and return to Arzian space.

  Another day had passed by before the ring of frigates finally broke their blockade and moved off. A large ship loomed in front of them with a framework that began to expand as it approached the Altered Moon.

  “Altered Moon, prepare for space dock,” the large ship hailed them. “Power down all non-critical systems and stand by for external power supply.”

  Boss tried to reply but there was no response. The mobile space dock just moved in and did its work.

  They were informed after three days of repair that the engineering bay was secured and ready for operations. Just in time too. If Katy had to sit around and twiddle her thumbs any longer, she was going to fly over to the Emperor’s ship in an EV suit and demand to know what the hell was going on.

  Where the hell is CJ? Be patient, my ass! At least now she could get in to engineering and look over the repairs that had been done. If I can’t tinker with my man, then may as well tinker with the ship, she thought with only the tiniest happiness. A flash of guilt ran through her as she still didn’t know what had happened to CJ. The others were concerned too, but to them he was a friend as well as the captain. To Katy, he was so much more. The inspection of the repairs left Katy in awe of the speed and quality of the Imperial engineers. The major and minor repairs were done, the engine compartment was clean and shiny, and the ship was flight ready.

  Katy was finished with her critique of the Imperial repair quality and headed up to the bridge. She met Boss and Gina in the squad bay as they were just coming to find her. The smile on Boss’ face and the excitement in Gina’s eye told Katy all she needed to know. She trembled as she made her way to the airlock. CJ opened the hatch of the Imperial courier and Katy, unable to contain herself, flung open the hatch of the Altered Moon and met him halfway through the docking collar.

  The Imperial guards shut and sealed the hatch of their ship, which told the two lovebirds that they should board their own ship, posthaste. CJ and Katy climbed through the airlock hatch and back aboard the Altered Moon. The entire crew had gathered by then and welcomed their captain home with overwhelming enthusiasm, great relief, and many, many questions.

  *~*~*

  Epilog

  The Altered Moon had passed the preflight engine tests. Hull inspections showed integrity was at one hundred percent. The ship was cleared for flight operations by: Captain CJ Evermore, Science Officer Boss Keltzer, Star Pilot Gina Riley, and most importantly by the ship’s Chief Engineer Katy Latimer. Together with Operations Officer GABI, Chief Medical Officer Zhu Katzu, and Tactical Officer Warren Caltrop, the Altered Moon stood ready for whatever the galaxy had in store for them.

  The crew manned their stations on the morning that the Imperial Marlacuer Emperor Zartharian the Omnipotent was scheduled to return to Marlacuer. There was no grand farewell, no thanks for all they’d done for the good of the Empire, not even a last good-bye message. Crissi had called the night before to talk to the crew. She passed on congratulations from Nelson and the staff of Cantankerous Base and the message that CJ and the crew was always welcome there.

  Crissi was to accompany Zartharian the Omnipotent to become the interim Keect’na ambassador to the Marlacuer Empire. Nelson had come out of hiding and was on his way with the Arzian ambassador to meet with the Imperial Council as well. Humans were no longer alone in the galaxy, and there would be both acceptance and resistance to that fact. MT&T personnel had been replaced from the top down and many of them sat in Imperial prisons, never again to taste the sweetness of freedom.

  Imperial Travel & Transport was born as the Empire confiscated all Merilee assets and took over control of the company. The Marlacuer royal family had another monopoly to add to the Imperial pile of money and power. New frontiers were established to be manned by the Imperial Star Guard against the possibility of further hostile incursion by the Kang.

  The release of CJ and the rest of the crew was contingent upon the complete disclosure of any and all dark matter technology and advanced system-to-system quantum j
ump calculations. The stealthy abilities of the Altered Moon were known to the Black Sash now, but because of the actions of CJ and the crew, the Emperor declared that the ship was to remain under the command of Crucible Johannson Evermore. As long as the Empire received full credit in the media for uncovering MT&T’s plot with the Kang, then any reports on the unique capabilities of the Altered Moon would be temporarily misplaced by the Black Sash Tribunal.

  There was a tense moment when GABI was to be dismantled due to the danger that an uncontrolled artificial intelligence could represent to Humankind, but an unlikely ally came to her rescue. GABI’s stalwart loyalty to her captain, crew, and ship touched the Emperor’s daughter, Princess Caliaan, so deeply that she would not allow her father or anyone else to harm GABI. What loving father can say no to his daughter, princess or not? CJ, the crew, and the Altered Moon were cleared of any wrongdoing and were freed to go where they may.

  Nelson Moon and the Arzian ambassador met with Imperial Council and opened a dialog that began military step-downs along the no-fly zone. A de-escalation of armed forces with the Arzian Alliance was an historical event and word of it spread through the galaxy just a little slower than that of an alien species being discovered and the betrayal of the Human race by MT&T. A time of great discovery and excitement was ahead for Humans, but as always, there were those who feared change and wanted to keep power by intimidation and oppression. Things wouldn’t change that easily.

  CJ and the bridge crew watched the Imperial flotilla move away, which left them with the slight feeling of being used and then thrown aside. But thrown aside or not, they had their ship and all crewmembers were aboard. The space around them was once again dark and quiet, just the way the crew of a ship like the Altered Moon wanted it.

  “Where to, Captain?” Star Pilot Gina Riley asked.

  CJ looked at the view screen and smiled. “Second star to the right and straight on ‘til dawn.”