Burning Bright: A Paranormal Space Opera Adventure (Star Justice Book 5)

by Michael-Scott Earle

  We watched in silence as the miners drove a lift platform to the edge of the hatch. The device extended upward on scissor hinges, and Fredrick zoomed the camera so that he could get a better image of the door.

  “I don’t see any way to open it,” one of the men called.

  “Look at the sides!”

  “I am!”

  “Maybe on the far side. It looks like the ramp comes out of the bottom and might be wider than the door,” Fredrick said as his camera zoomed on the slot below the circular hatch.

  The lift-car rolled over to the right side slowly, and the men started to search the metal there. None of them said anything for a few seconds, but then one of them let out a yelp as a red glow appeared where he was placing his hands.

  “What did you do?” Fredrick asked.

  “I just touched this metal panel here! It looks like all the other ones.” The man pointed to the glow as he spoke. His words were a rush of excited babbling.

  “It’s still not open. Can you figure it out?”

  “Looks like a keypad, but there are no numbers,” the man said, and he started pushing his finger into the space.

  The camera stayed on the scene for another few minutes, and then Fredrick turned it around so he could look into the lens. “I’ll turn this off for now. It might take us a bit to open it. This discovery is amazing! I’ve never seen a ship like this. It could have been something that one of the other ark civilizations made, but how did it get under all this rock? Why is it down here alone? I just hope we can open it soon, my curiosity is eating at me.”

  The screen clicked off and then back on almost immediately.

  “It took us two weeks, but we got it open!” Fredrick shouted, and then he turned the camera from his face to view the back hatch of the ship. The ramp was extended, and the door was opened, but the group of miners was still positioned at the bottom.

  “Sir, we should go in first. It might be dangerous,” someone said to Fredrick.

  “I’m sure it will be fine. There couldn’t be anything alive in there,” the young man said. “Besides, I want to document this discovery for our company’s logs.”

  “Uh-oh,” Zea moaned. “This is going to turn out like one of those horror vids.” She covered her face with her hands, but I saw her peeking through her fingers.

  Fredrick and the miners moved up the ramp together and entered the hold of the ship. As soon as they entered, the lights on the hold turned on, and the men gasped with surprise. The men with the heavy guns swung the weapons around, and their inconsistent movements made it apparent that they were not used to handling the weapons. Their angles of fire passed over each other too much, and none of them seemed to be paying attention to the position of their team. If there was something alive in the ship, the miners were just as likely to shoot each other in an effort to defend themselves as they were whatever might be on the ship.

  “It’s empty,” someone said, and the camera panned across the hold to confirm. There were no bodies, containers, or anything in the hold. Even though the space looked much smaller than Persephone’s, it still seemed large when empty.

  “There’s a door here,” someone called out, and the camera swung to the left.

  “If it’s designed like Persephone, that should be the path to the armory and mechanic bays,” Zea said. She removed her hands from her face, but held her arms wrapped around her chest so she was hugging herself.

  “Here’s another!” a voice called out, and the camera spun to the wall opposite of the exit ramp.

  “And that should go to the bridge elevator and crew rooms,” Kasta said.

  “Let’s go left first,” Fredrick suggested, and the group moved in that direction.

  One of the biggest men with a heavy rifle moved through the door first, and I shook my head at the tactics. It was the wrong weapon to use in the corridors, but they might have not had smaller sized weapons. I just hoped the men didn’t accidentally shoot each other.

  “Ha. I was right. Armory.” Zea leaned back in her chair and let out a breath as the men entered the room.

  “It’s on the other side of the hallway. It’s laid out a bit different from our ship,” Paula said, but before Zea could reply, the men’s flashlights settled on the weapon rack in the armory.

  “Wow!” they gasped. The guns on the racks looked like they were either laser or plasma weapons. Their lines were sleek, their surfaces polished, and each weapon didn’t seem to have a receiving spot for a magazine.

  “What are these?” Fredrick asked as he touched a gun that looked like a pistol. It was about the same size as my large caliber handguns, and the trim of the weapon glowed for a second when the young man wrapped his hand around the grip.

  “They look like plasma weapons, sir,” one of the men said.

  “Incredible,” Fredrick replied. “How did they get the design so small?”

  “I’m not sure,” another man answered. “But we can learn much from their design.”

  “Yes,” Fredrick agreed. “Sydney and Romano, take all these weapons and store them in our ship so we can take them back to the surface.”

  “Yes, sir,” the men replied, and the camera showed the two men pulling the weapons off the shelf.

  “Rest of you, let’s keep exploring,” Fredrick turned the camera back to the hallway, and I assumed the rest of his group followed him out.

  They found more rooms, but all were empty of equipment or weapons. They finally made it to the launch bays for the shuttle and drones, but the bays were empty of smaller craft or repair equipment.

  “It is strange,” Zea commented. “Weapons in the armory, but no other supplies? How did anyone fly the ship?”

  “I wonder if there will be food in the galley stores,” Paula said as the group of men found the elevator. Like Persephone, the ship had three levels, and the men pressed the button for the second one.

  “They said it didn’t have an engine,” Kasta said. “Perhaps someone built it in that cavern, put some weapons in it, and then just forgot about it.”

  “This looks like a galley, sir,” one of the men said when they walked into the room. The area was about half the size of Persephone’s, and every surfaced looked as if it had never been used.

  “No food in the stores, sir,” another man stated, and the camera’s view moved to the kitchen area; where one of the miners held open the door to the storage room.

  “We’ll search the other rooms on this level, and then move up one,” Fredrick said, and the group moved onto the next rooms. These were crew quarters, and they were all empty of any sort of personal items, clothes, or toiletries. There were sheets on each of the beds though, and it looked as if the ship was in almost the same state Persephone was when we took her from Elaka Nota.

  The layouts of the rooms were a bit different. Even though this ship was smaller than Persephone, the living quarters were larger. It seemed as if this ship held less crew than ours, but Persephone was already set up to work without many bodies.

  “There are only three levels, so the bridge should be up at this top one,” Fredrick said as he moved into the elevator again. They pressed the button, and the camera panned to the other miners with him. Their faces were tense, and I guessed that none of them were as excited as their boss.

  The elevator opened up, and the men moved out into the corridor. The exit seemed similar to Persephone’s. They were immediately met with the wall of what I guessed was the captain’s quarters. They moved left to go down the hallway, and the ceiling lights turned on to welcome them.

  “The lighting there seems much brighter than Persephone’s,” Zea observed.

  “I agree. It looks bright and harsh. Persephone’s lights are warmer and relaxing,” Eve said.

  “Could be the default settings,” Paula mused. “The manual has ways to change them so we could make them brighter if we want.”

  “Ahh,” Zea replied with a nod. “Wait, you’ve read the manual? I thought just Kasta had?”

&
nbsp; “I am Kasta,” Paula said with a smirk.

  “Oh, shit. Sorry.” Zea grimaced, but then the hacker saw the three of us smirk so she rolled her eyes. “Are you fucking with me again?”

  “Yep. Sorry,” Paula laughed.

  “So did you read it, or not?”

  “I did,” the engineer admitted.

  “How in the fuck did you read it so fa--”

  “There are two doors instead of one,” Kasta interrupted, and we refocused on the video. Sure enough, there were two doors, and the men walked into the first one.

  “Looks like dual captain's quarters,” Paula said. “Much smaller than Adam’s room.”

  “The bed is the same size,” Kasta commented. “Could easily fit three people on it. Maybe even five.”

  “You are terrible,” Paula groaned.

  “How do you know how big Adam’s bed is?” Zea turned around in her seat and narrowed her blue eyes.

  “We’ve both been in his room,” Kasta said coyly.

  “Wait, that’s not as bad as she is making it sound,” Paula said as she glared at her sister. “Stop, please.”

  “Okay.” Kasta shrugged and then pointed at the screen. “They are moving to the other room.”

  “Perhaps the first mate’s quarters are next to the captain’s?” Eve asked.

  “Are you calling yourself the first mate? Does that mean Adam picked Zea as his--”

  “Fucking shit, Kasta. Can you give it a rest?” Paula hissed at her sister. “We get it. Everyone wants Adam. You’re jealous. Let’s move on.”

  “You are jealous, too,” the android said with a frown. No one was watching the video anymore, we all turned to look at each sister when they spoke.

  “I’m not whining about it, and I’m not trying to make everyone uncomfortable.” Paula shook her head and crossed her arms.

  “Okay. It isn’t funny. I’m sorry,” Kasta looked at me and made a pouty face. “Forgive me?”

  “It’s fine. Let’s just watch the video,” I said.

  “Zea?” Kasta said as she turned to the hacker.

  “Yeah. I get it. No hard feelings,” Zea replied, and she turned back to the video. The men were looking through the drawers in the room, but they were all empty.

  “Eve?” Kasta asked.

  “I am not offended. I would enjoy sharing Adam with you and your sister,” the vampire said with an innocent smile.

  “Oh, by the stars,” Zea groaned as she pushed her hands into her face.

  “Focus on the video, or you can leave,” I stated firmly, and Kasta turned to the screen without saying anything further.

  The men were discussing how strange it was that the ship seemed abandoned, and they moved to exit the rooms. As they walked back down the hallway toward the elevator, I realized I was holding my breath.

  “This is the bridge,” Fredrick proclaimed with excitement.

  The area looked just like Persephone’s, only the map table looked smaller, and there were only three gunner’s stations on each side, for a total of six.

  “Pause the video,” I said, and Zea stopped the screen.

  “Can you back it up a bit so we can see the map?” I asked.

  “Yeah, hmmmm. There?” Zea said as the screen showed the floating image of the planet.

  “The words on the bottom are too small to read. Can you zoom in on them?” I asked.

  “I’ll try, as I said, this thing is all sorts of corrupt. The quality isn’t great either.” The hacker moved her hands over the controls of her terminal, and the screen shifted more so it zoomed on the long string of numbers at the bottom of the holographic map.

  “Kasta, can you read those?” I asked.

  “Hmmm. A few of those might be either threes, fives, or eights, but I’ve got the string committed to memory. I can try a few of the combinations in Persephone’s navigation system and see what I come up with.”

  “Good,” I said. “After the video. Zea, resume please.”

  “Aye, Captain,” the hacker said, and the screen snapped back to full view before it started up again.

  The men continued their careful walk toward the front of the bridge. The three pilot’s chairs were empty, and Fredrick turned his camera so he pointed the lens at the five officer chairs on the raised dais.

  The five of us gasped along with Fredrick and his crew.

  There was a mummified corpse in armor sitting on the captain’s chair, and its head was in a more than familiar shape

  “It’s a fucking tiger-man,” Zea said the words that were on everyone else's’ mind.

  “Incredible!” Fredrick exclaimed, and the other men began to share their observations about it’s dry stripped skin, fur, and the shape of its teeth. They also searched the rest of the bridge, but there was nothing beside the single ancient body sitting in the captain’s chair.

  “How old do you think it is, Doc?” Fredrick asked one of the men.

  “I don’t know, sir. Hundreds of years at least. The ship is sealed, so no air or bugs got in. This is natural mummification.”

  “Can you take a DNA sample?” Fredrick asked, and I felt a chill run down my spine.

  “We’ll have to take it back to base camp,” the man replied.

  “Alright. We’ll do it. First the ship, then the weapons, and now this creature. My parents will be delighted by my expedition!” Fredrick’s voice was giddy.

  “The armor is very strange, sir,” one of the men said as he moved his hand to touch the metal.

  “How so?”

  “I was in the Marines back on Magdor-3887 - c, and I’ve traveled to a few other systems. Never seen anything like it,” the man explained.

  “So the armor is another treasure. I like it. Doc, pack it all up, and be careful of the armor.”

  “Yes, sir,” Doc said.

  “The armor looks like the suits the crew of Dance to the Dirge wore,” Zea said as she turned to me.

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “I’d need to see the back, but it looks like power armor.”

  “Power armor?” Kasta and Paula asked in unison.

  “Has a power source that helps run body heating, cooling, and can add strength augmentation. It’s expensive stuff,” I explained.

  “Don’t our suits do that?” Zea asked. “The buttons control the temperature, and it has lights.”

  “It’s more the strength factor,” I said. “They make you stronger and faster.”

  “I couldn’t imagine a tiger-man like you with armor making him stronger and faster.” Zea shuddered a bit and crossed her arms.

  We watched the group of men lay out one of the bed sheets on the floor of the bridge on top of an expandable stretcher. It took four of the big miners to peel and lift the mummified corpse off the chair and lay it on the stretcher. Then they wrapped it in the sheet, and the camera watched them take it toward the elevator.

  “What now, sir?” one of the men asked Fredrick.

  “I want to take what we have back up to the basecamp. Then I want to come down here tomorrow and try to see if we can explore the ceiling of this place. This ship got here somehow, there has to be a way to get it out.”

  “Agreed,” the other man said. “I’ll let everyone know we are going back up.”

  “Good. I’ll turn the camera back on when we get back to camp. I want to document Doc pulling a DNA sample. The creature looks like some sort of half man and half tiger mutation. What a crazy day this has--”

  The camera shut off with a pop, and then there was some static on the screen.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked Zea.

  “Uhh. I think it’s just a bit of--” the screen came back on, and it showed the men carrying the sheet covered stretcher inside of what looked like a medical tent.

  “Set it down here,” the man Fredrick called Doc had his helmet off now and a wild bunch of gray hair poofed from his skull.

  The men followed his orders and lowered the sheet wrapped corpse onto the operating table. The gray-haired man moved to un
wrap the mummy, and then he began to gather tools from the medical table.

  “You can see the fur and stripes,” Fredrick commented as he moved the camera closer to the body.

  “It is in excellent condition,” Doc said with obvious pleasure.

  “My parents will be very pleased with these discoveries,” Fredrick said, and the other man nodded.

  “I’ll take a sample from a tooth. If I can’t get enough, then I’ll need to dig into the brain,” Doc said as he moved a tray stacked with sharp looking tools closer to the mummified tiger-man.

  Suddenly, there was a thunderingly loud sound that seemed to break the audio feed on the video. Doc actually covered his ears and looked away from the tiger-man’s corpse with annoyance.

  “What was that?” the older man asked.

  “I’ll check,” said Fredrick. “Sounded like a shuttle engine, but--”

  “Sir! A ship just landed, and there are--”

  There was another distinct sound of loud tearing, and I guessed it was the sound of thrusters firing to aid with a shuttle landing.

  Fredrick took the camera out of the tent and turned it so we could see a dozen large shuttles landing. It was a bit hard to judge their actual size, but I guessed from the array of thrusters on the bottom of the craft, they were each close to fifty meters long.

  These were shuttles from a very large starship.

  They landed beyond the tent, and I heard shouts from Fredrick’s camp.

  Then there was gunfire and screaming.

  “Shit!” Fredrick said as he ran back into the tent.

  “What’s go--”

  “We are under attack!” Fredrick yelled.

  “How? No one should know we are here except for--”

  “Doesn’t matter. We need to hide!” Fredrick yelled, but then there was a loud gunshot, and Doc’s head exploded into a shower of fine red mist.

  “Shit!”

  The camera turned around to the entrance of the tent. I felt my heart leap into my chest.

  The blonde scientist who experimented on me stood there.

  I couldn’t talk. Maybe the words were caught in my throat, or my tongue didn’t want to work. How was this possible? Zea told me that this file was over a hundred years old, but I knew every square millimeter of this man’s face. I recognized his smirk, the way he wore his long hair tied back in a pony tail, and the way he stood. He even held his datapad clipboard in the exact same grip. The scientist was flanked by heavily armored men. I recognized the black and gray design of the armor since it matched the gear they gave me to wear.