Empty Casket Conspiracy (Terran Patrol Book 1)

by Lewis Dually

  “The disposition is scheduled for zero nine hundred tomorrow” Walters said, “but Admiral Albright wants to meet with you today to discuss other matters.”

  “What other matters?”

  “I’m not at liberty to say Sir.” she replied.

  We exited the elevator on the eighteenth floor and went through another security checkpoint, then down the west corridor to the Office of Brigadier General John T West, USMC.

  “Why are we going to the Marines? The Navy offices are in the East corridor.”

  “I’m not at liberty to say Sir.” She said again.

  Walters knocked once and then entered the office without waiting for a reply. The office was much like I would expect of an old school blood and guts Marine Corp General. In front of the window was a large oak desk with black leather inlays in front of a dark brown leather chair. In the middle of the room were two dark brown leather sofas facing each other with a large coffee table between them. In the corners were antique suits of armor. The walls were decorated with Marine Corp Standards. The floor was a dark hardwood of some kind and the ceiling was covered in what appeared to be stamped brass or copper plate. There was a fully stocked bar at one side and it appeared the general’s tastes leaned toward Tennessee Whiskey and Kentucky Bourbon. I only saw one bottle with clear contents and it had no label. Maybe it was moonshine. The whole office looked like it came straight out of a World War II movie set. The only thing that looked out of place was the eighty inch display monitor over the humidor case.

  A second lieutenant in fatigues approached with his hand out stretched.

  “Lieutenant Wagner, General West’s aide. Please have a seat Sir.” He said as he ushered me to one of the sofas. “General West and Admiral Albright will be with you momentarily. This is Commander Sprite.” Referring to the officer who was just rising from the far sofa.

  “Brad Sprite.” The commander said as he reached out a hand to shake mine. “Pleased to meet you.”

  “Allen Paul.” I said as we shook. The commander was in his dress uniform and it brandished the Seals Trident so I asked. “I have a good friend who is a retired Seal. Ray Bishop, perhaps you know him?”

  “Can’t say as I do” he replied. “Please have a seat.”

  We both sat down and pretended to check out the room’s furnishings for a minute or so until I asked, “Do you have any idea why we’re in the office of a Marine Corp General?”

  Sprite chuckled dryly as he said, “I was about to ask you the same question.”

  Two more minutes passed and then the door opened and four men walked in. Brigadier General West looked like his office, antique. Admiral Albright, whom I knew, was a large man going to pot around the waist, the third man was Sergeant Major of the Marine Corp, Ashland R. Pritchet. The fourth man was in civvies but I guested him to be Navy Intelligence.

  “Officer on deck!” the Lieutenant said as Commander Sprite and I stood to attention.

  Admiral Albright wasted no time, he walked straight to me and returned my salute.

  “Lieutenant Commander Paul, the inquiry into the events of 12, February 2065, involving the rescue of the mining vessel Wimberley by UES Dawn Rising and the death of Specialist Granger Shelton have concluded. The official disposition will commence tomorrow at zero nine hundred but rest assured your actions and the actions of your crew have been found to reflect the finest and best traditions of the Navy. Specialist Shelton will be awarded the Navy Cross for his dedication to duty and self-sacrifice that saved the crews of both ships and cost him his own life. Your own actions have shown that you possess the command ability and level headedness we so desperately need in the new frontier of deep space exploration. It is with great pleasure that I bestow upon you the rank of Commander. Congratulations Commander.”

  There was a brief round of congratulations from around the room before Admiral Albright continued.

  “You are hereby assigned to Project Shade and your security clearance has been raised to Delta Level Five, sign these.”

  The Lieutenant handed me several pages of commission acceptance letters and security protocol forms to sign.

  Admiral Albright continued “Project Shade is a Top Secret Mission and you will be in command on the Dawn Rising. You will be operating along the far side of the belt with Commander Sprite and his Seals. The Dawn Rising has been refitted for this mission and is in space dock on the United Earth One. The Shasta will also be under your authority. She is a frigate commanded by Lieutenant Commander Leland Fox and carries one company of Marine Recon on board. Paul you will be the ranking ships officer on this mission. The Marines will be commanded by Major Mackenna Yukawa. Now everyone have a seat and let’s get down to brass tacks.”

  We all took a seat around the table except for the man in civvies and Admiral Albright. Then Albright introduced him.

  “This is Dr. Shaw, formerly of the CIA and now with the Alien Contact Division of the PDA, Planetary Defense Agency. Dr. Shaw?”

  “Thank you Admiral.” Shaw said as he took a seat. “Over the past hundred years our planet has been visited by two separate Alien races. The Grey and the Black. The Grey don’t appear to be a threat. They are more or less observing us from a distance. The same thing we do with every nation on earth, keep an eye on your friends and neighbors lest they become your enemies and invaders. The Grey are not to be harassed and you will not attempt contact with them. Your mission is to capture the Black. The Black have been interfering with human development for a long time. They have abducted humans and are doing who knows what with them. As far as the Black are concerned they are the enemy. We want two things, first, living specimens, and second, one of their ships.”

  Admiral Albright interrupted, “One of their ships is the key here. Both the Grey and the Black have the ability to communicate through subspace and we need that technology. What good is it to travel a hundred light years in three weeks if it takes your communications a hundred years to get back? When we first started conducting warp jumps we realized we could send radio transmissions thru the open warp bubble but as soon as the bubble is closed the transmission is cut off. We know the Grey and the Black have a way to transmit through subspace without an open warp bubble and we need that technology. Until we have it, the carrier Constellation cannot depart for our first venture out of our solar system.”

  “I have a question.” I said. “Why the Belt? Do you think the Black are out there?”

  “Yes, we do.” Dr. Shaw replied. “Black activity on Earth immediately stopped when we made the first successful warp jump but, as the mining operations in the Belt ramped up so did the Black activity there. There are too many humans going missing without a trace. We estimate that seven in ten missing persons in the Belt sectors are due to Black abductions. If they were having accidents of some kind we would have found their bodies but there are none.”

  That synapse in my head fired another volley. Too many empty caskets I thought.

  “So how do we go about capturing them?” I asked.

  “A trap.” Sargent Major Pritchet chimed in. “We’ll set a trap.”

  “A trap? Really?” I blurted out. “I’ve read the reports about Black abductions. Most people never know they were abducted, they have absolutely no memory of it. The few who do report being paralyzed, awake, but totally immobile. How do we capture something with that kind of….I don’t know, mind control?”

  “I can answer that.” Dr. Shaw said. “All those reports you’re referring to have a lot in common with SWAF Syndrome. The symptoms are exactly the same and we think, we hope, anyone with SWAFS immunity will be immune to the Black powers as well.”

  Commander Sprite jumped in,” YOU HOPE?”

  “Well, it’s more than hope.” Shaw shot back. “Look, in Oregon in 1972 there were four men driving down a logging trail about two o’clock in the morning. Three of the men reported that one minute they were driving in their truck and suddenly they were lying on the ground in the woods with no memory of how they
got there. But the forth man had an unbelievable story about a UFO that came up behind them. Their truck lost all electrical power and they got out to investigate. The UFO hovered over them and the three men collapsed to the ground unconscious. The UFO landed and two Aliens came out. The fourth man, Rick Danby was his name, reached in the truck cab and pulled out his rifle. When he did the Aliens turn tail and ran. Danby told the story at first but no one believed him so he eventually said he made it up as a joke after his buddies got drunk and passed out. The fact is Danby was interviewed by two investigators from the Air Force and they believed his story, and the Air Force SAC radar at Pendleton did pick up a UFO that night. Danby died in 2021 but we tracked down his kids, three sons, and tested them for SWAFS immunity. Two of them are immune. We know that SWAFS immunity is hereditary and when two thirds of your offspring have it, and the world average is only one point six percent, it’s a pretty safe bet that Danby had it too. There are two other documented cases of this happening. We are confident that SWAFS immunity will protect you from the power of the Black. In fact we don’t think its mind control at all but some kind of weapon using a warp generator to incapacitate their intended target.”

  The room was silent for a few seconds as we all digested the information. Finally Sprite spoke up.

  “If you’re planning to use us as bait, I don’t think it will work. I’m sure the Black know all United Earth ships have warp engines and everyone onboard is immune. They won’t fall for that.”

  “We’ve thought of that.” Admiral Albright said. “You’re not the bait, you’re the trap. We’re going to use a mine skiff as bait. We’ve noticed that all the missing ships have three things in common. First, they’re all operating on the far side of the Belt from Earth, second, they don’t have warp engines as you pointed out and third, they are all carrying a valuable commodity in the Belt, sugar!

  It was my turn to interject. “So what then, the Black have a…. sweet tooth? I hate to bust your bubble but after three years running search and rescue in the Belt I can tell you that most of the ships carry sugar. Like you said it’s a valuable commodity out there. The captains carry sugar to trade, it’s better than gold, and I can think of a few other things they all have in common.”

  “Like what?” Shaw snapped.

  “Well let’s see, there are the ships’ crews for one… and food. Beef is fairly common. Most of the miners appreciate a good steak after a twelve hour shift and we’ve all heard the theory about the Black being responsible for the cattle mutilations throughout the world. Then there’s tobacco, I for one never leave Earth without a six month supply of snuff. The stuff’s expensive off planet so anytime I hit home I stock pile. Even guys who don’t use will take a couple cases of smokes to trade or sell. And don’t forget about the ships themselves. Fuel, Oxygen, Liquid Nitrogen and most of the transports are carrying extra GUTM and GUTM-A for the mining operations. And I’m not sure we should be thinking about ships anyway. When ships go missing we usually find them at some point and almost always find all the crew still inside. They are almost always dead, I’m sorry to say, but they are all in there. The exception to that rule is when a ship is torn apart and the crew are scattered to the far reaches of the system but those types of accidents are just that, accidents. I’ve never seen anything that suggests a ship was torn apart by aliens. I’m not trying to undermine your plans here. I’m just saying I think there are a lot more options to consider.”

  General West spoke up for the first time. “It appears to me we need to put more thought into this operation. These boys have been operating on the Belt for three years and I think we should listen to their ideas. Shaw, you know all the info we have on the Black but these boys know the playing field. I think you should take them out to Groom Lake and read them in to everything.”

  General West didn’t speak often but he made sense when he did and he was fast becoming one of my favorite people. Shaw, on the other hand, was giving me the evil eye and I could tell we weren’t destined to be best buds.

  Admiral Albright agreed, “Good idea. Some fresh eyes is just what we need. Let’s move this meeting to Groom Lake. No use wasting time here when all the files are in Nevada. West, do you have a jump shuttle these boys can use?”

  “Got one fueled and ready on pad three.” West said.

  “Excellent! Liftoff in say….thirty minutes. Any questions?”

  “I have two questions.” I said. “First, you said the Dawn Rising had been refitted for this mission. What kind of refit? Second, you said you know the Grey and the Black have subspace communication ability. How do you know that?”

  Albright looked at Dr. Shaw for a second and then back to me. “The Dawn Rising has been upgraded with new engines and reactors and we’ve added some new armor.” Then Albright looked back to Dr. Shaw again and asked. “How do we know they have subspace Coms?”

  Shaw hesitated to answer but finally said. “We have one of their ships at Groom Lake.”

  “If you have one of their ships why do we need to go get you another one?” I asked.

  “It’s a crash we recovered in 2053. After Journey four made the first successful warp jump the Black hightailed it off planet. We recorded radar trails of 11 ships leaving from various parts of the globe. One of those ships crashed in Peru. A second ship altered course to the crash site and recovered its crew. By the time we got there they were gone and they had pulled various systems out. The Coms and Nav systems were gone as well as their fuel cells from the reactor. The one thing they did not take was the ship’s log. By deciphering their logs we were able to learn their language and make a pretty close guess as to the location of their home system. We were also able to determine that they had subspace communication channels open at all times. They were sending and receiving streaming data and video from a system five hundred and sixty one light years from Earth.”

  “I got to see this ship,” I said, “let’s get to the shuttle.”

  CHAPTER 3 Doctor Shaw.

  As we were leaving General West’s office, Albright grabbed my shoulder. “Paul” he said “Join me in my office for a chat.”

  We walked down the corridors to the Admiral’s office where my aide, Ensign Sara Walters, was waiting with my duffle. She opened the door and followed us in.

  “Sir,” she said, “I have your new insignia and ID and I took the liberty of ordering you new uniforms. Is there anything else I can do for you Sir?”

  “You ordered me uniforms? Why, and how did you know my size?”

  She started to say something but Albright interrupted. “I told her to. That’s her job, to keep you squared away. You’re not just a rock jumper on a search and rescue vessel anymore. You’re the Commander of a Special Opps unit with two, possibly three ships under your command. You’re going to have a lot more on your plate now and believe me you’ll need all the help you can get. Walters has a Delta Level Five security clearance the same as you so anything you need she can get. Anything from coffee and tea to mission briefings and classified documents. Now if you would excuse me for a minute, nature calls”

  Albright left the room and I sat down and looked at Waters “I need a list of all persons lost in the Belt over the last year, both military and civilian, and the dates that their personal belongings were shipped home. I also want to know if those belongings were shipped in a storage container or an empty casket. Also include where they were shipped to and which carriers they were shipped on. Can you do that?”

  Walters absolutely beamed and answered with an exuberant “YES SIR.” Then she turned and trotted out the door like a kid headed for the candy store. I remembered a time in my life when I had that kind of youthful exuberance and it reminded me that I was getting old. “Time sure flies.” I said out load as I reached for my snuff can and then quickly fought the urge. A minute later Albright returned and took a seat across from me.

  “You know why I picked you for this mission?” He asked.

  “No Sir.”

  “I pi
cked you because you can see the forest and the trees and you can make those split second decisions that most people fret over until it’s too late to act. We have a real shortage of qualified personnel and when I started working on your inquiry I saw something in you. Something I liked. You didn’t do so well in the academy but in the field you excel. You keep your head under pressure, you have more common sense than most Admirals have on their entire staff, and most important, you have the ability to command. What I’m wondering is how are you dealing with the loss of Granger Shelton? You guys were close weren’t you?”

  “Yes Sir. I’ve replayed that day over and over in my head. I did everything right and I know there were no other options. If we, If I had done anything different the losses would have been twenty plus. Bottom line is, Granger did his job and I did mine. Our job is dangerous and that’s part of what draws us to it.”

  Albright looked me dead in the eye and asked, “If you were in the same situation again could you make the same call?”

  “Lose one to save twenty? That’s an easy call. Even if it’s lose one to save two I’d probably do it. But we’re looking at things after the fact. When you don’t know what the outcome will be, that’s the hard part. I just look at all my options and choose the one that best fits the mission priority, but the priorities aren’t always the same. The priority then was the rescue of nineteen men on that ship, and I traded one of mine for 19 of theirs. I didn’t know I was going to lose one, but I also knew I could have lost a lot more. Our job was to save that crew and we did. On this upcoming mission the priority is to acquire a subspace radio from an alien ship, and take a prisoner. How many lives is that worth?”