Wrath of the Carnelians (Europa)

by Jason Gehlert

  “Rest, my friend. We have to make an emergency landing on the moon. The ship’s hull has been inflicted with damage due to Adrian and his new friend.”

  A sharp banging on the door startled the crew.

  Drake turned to face Adrian through the window. “Toss me the headset,” he ordered Sammy to give him the ear piece.

  “What for?” Sammy tossed it over.

  Drake caught it with one hand and hooked himself up to the communication device. “I’d like to have chat with Adrian.”

  “Good luck,” Sammy replied. He turned and studied the computer’s screen.

  “Adrian,” Drake instructed the rogue billionaire. “We are not letting you inside this cockpit.”

  “Ah, Nolan Drake.” Adrian adjusted his ear piece. “What are you planning on doing in there Nolan Drake?” Adrian pressed his face to the glass, smudging his skin all over the surface.

  “We are landing on the moon, over ten-thousand miles away from your precious home.”

  “No! You can’t do that.” Adrian stormed away from the door, pacing about with furious intentions. . “Only I have the DNA to control the ship.”

  “Well, I guess the U.S. Government made some improvements since your last booking on board the Amity.” Drake grinned. “We have a backup plan. Face it, you lost.”

  “Adrian Blakely never loses. I make sure you will pay for you insolence.” Adrian rushed the door and beat on it with his bare fists. “Little pigs, little pigs, let me in.” Adrian’s face swelled with hate and anger.

  Drake stepped back from the door after witnessing the rage that had consumed Adrian.

  Drake witnessed the powerful blows that Adrian had administered on the steel door. Each of his devastating punches, bent the door in inch by inch. “I don’t think this door will hold him back,” Drake said, looking over his shoulder at Sammy. “Do we have weapons?”

  “I don’t think so,” Sammy replied looking around for anything to defend with.

  “Here,” Logan’s words were weak, but audible. Logan reached behind him and withdrew the Commander’s pistol. “I kept it just in case for a rainy day.” Logan tossed it across the floor sending it scattering forward to Sammy.

  Drake noticed the bolts starting to give at the four corners of the door. “Take cover!” Drake lurched to the side as one by one the metal bolts escaped from the frame, and whistled through the cockpit like lightning bolts. The steel door had collapsed to the floor, with Adrian walking across the door’s surface.

  “Miss me?” Adrian stepped inside the cockpit , with Riley right behind him.

  The bolts had penetrated the spacecraft’s windshield, sending spiraling spider web cracks across the entire computer screen.

  “Don’t move another inch,” Sammy ordered Adrian to stay put, waving the pistol from side to side. He noticed Adrian was sporting Tommy’s scarf. “Where’s my friend?” He demanded an answer from Adrian.

  “I don’t think your in position to quarrel with me,” Adrian reached behind him and retrieved Tommy’s severed hand. “Tommy, well he fought hard, but in the end, all he did was cry for mercy.”

  “What the hell is that?” Sammy felt nauseous staring at the clawed hand with the small sliver of bone sticking out of the end of it.

  “I have to hand it you,” Adrian waved Tommy’s hand back and forth, you almost beat me. But, the thing about backup plans, is that they are never quite as imaginative as the original.”

  “We are running out of time,” Drake instructed. “The windshield’s starting to give, and what that happens, no one is going anywhere.”

  “Ever play King of the Hill?” Adrian asked.

  “Yeah, why?” Drake was confused to where Adrian was going with his argument.

  “I built this ship, I know where everything is.”

  “Your point would be what?” Sammy interjected.

  “I know about the three pods, and the glider room. And, the submersible...” Adrian caught himself and stopped short of completing the sentence.

  “Glider room? Submersible what?” Drake pointedly asked.

  “Never mind,” Adrian curtly changed topics. “Once we land on New Earth, which by the way I’ll change the name to something more flashy, each of you will be part of my return feast. My guests if you will. My men will be very hungry.”

  “Not if we can help it.” Sammy prepared to fire the pistol.

  “Riley, would you please disarm the mutant over there,” Adrian ordered his new ally.

  “Gladly,” Riley answered, cracking his neck from side to side.

  Sammy fired shot after shot at Riley’s approaching body. Nothing seemed to deter the persistent stowaway. Sammy saw the blood trickle away and the wounds heal on impact.

  “Oh, he’s special like me,” Adrian responded with a cock of his head. “Like I said you can’t defeat me.”

  “Name one reason,” Drake said standing his ground.

  “I always have every angle covered,” Adrian hissed at Drake. He turned to Riley. “Take care of our backup plan.”

  Drake turned around and attempted to corral Riley, but was met with a hard right-hook by Adrian.

  “Stay down, if you want to live to see New Earth. Albeit, however brief your stay will be. But, who knows, I might make you one of my top officers.” Adrian curled his lip as several Carnelian’s thrashed beneath the surface of his skin.

  Riley again felt the stampede of bullets ripping his skin. “That tickles. Stop it please. I’m going to piss in my pants,” he snorted.

  “Riley, time is of the essence,” Adrian urged him to act on his orders.

  “Sorry Sir,” Riley raise up his arms and using his newfound abilities mentally ripped the gun away from Sammy’s grasp.

  “Now, finish him,” Adrian scowled, keeping a close eye on Drake.

  Riley attempted a powerful thrust with his hands stretched outward, but nothing happened. Repeating the process, Riley’s efforts fell short, not fully grasping his newfound abilities.

  Sammy his chance and bolted for Riley, bracing for the inevitable impact.

  “Ah, he’s still so young in his abilities,” Adrian sighed. “Like this Riley,” Adrian instructed, demonstrating the same motion as Riley. The powerful shock wave collided with Sammy, throttling the young officer in his tracks. The next wave from Adrian sent Sammy into the craft’s windshield.

  Sammy squirmed, attempting to break free. Drops of blood receded down his chest, as shards of the windshield embedded deep into his back. Sammy was the only thing holding the cockpit intact.

  “Now, I will administer my backup plan,” Adrian walked over to the Captain’s chair, and slid open the DNA identifier. “Watch and learn,” Adrian took out Tommy’s disfigured hand, pressing the palm and fingerprints against the scanner. Within a few short seconds, the entire craft jolted to the right. “I have now full control of the spacecraft,” Adrian snickered. “We are now headed home.” Adrian watched the course change on the fractured computer screen. The spacecraft’s course curved over Sammy’s body, making it hard to follow the route.

  “We don’t have enough integrity to safely reach New Earth you shithead.” Drake rose from the floor, jockeying for balance. “You’ve completely fucked everything up.”

  “I warned you to stay down,” Adrian snarled. He watched hundreds of his Carnelian’s crawling in, scampering across the fallen door. “Stay where you are Nolan Drake, otherwise my boys here will have an early feast.”

  Drake watched the small, blue aliens thread the room like a needle, covering the walls, and floor with their large numbers. “How did they get on the ship? We did a thermal scan before we left Earth.”

  “They breed rather quickly.” Adrian laughed. “Persistent little shits aren’t they? They make their father so proud.”

  Drake scanned the room for Logan. There was no sign of him. The bench was empty.

  “What are you looking for Nolan Drake?” Adrian took control of the ship and guided it away from the moon’s o
rbit.

  “Nothing,” Drake muttered. Where was Logan? He scanned the room. There was the small closet door over on the far side, directly behind Adrian and Riley.

  Sammy began to lose his fight, and leaned forward. Only a matter of time before the windshield would completely fracture causing the cockpit to implode.

  Riley turned around and walked over to Adrian. “It looks like we made it Commander Blakely. Just as long as he stays put,” Riley motioned over to Sammy. “He’ll burn up on entry anyway.”

  Riley’s words hadn’t fully escaped his lips, when he heard a loud screaming from behind.

  “You picked a bad day to fuck with me,” Logan screamed, unloading on Riley with a fire extinguisher he had found in the closet. His adrenaline was through the roof, and the detoxification wasn’t helping matters any.

  Riley turned to find the brunt end of the extinguisher slam against the side of his face.

  Drake saw his chance and jumped for Adrian in the chair, catching him off-guard during the raucous commotion.

  “I’ll be damned if I’m going to be an alien side dish,” Logan angrily shot back while he continually beat down on Riley. Riley spun around and caught Logan by the wrist, twisting it in a complete circle, cleanly breaking it free from the weapon.

  Logan, forced to drop his gun, bemoaned, clutching his wrist.

  “We’re not so tough without our weapon are we?” Riley agitated the situation. His face bloodied and bruised, he cornered Logan up against the wall.

  Adrian seethed. “You just made the mistake of your life Nolan Drake.” He felt Drake’s knees pressing deep into his abdomen.

  “I hereby relinquish your Command of Athena, under the orders of the late Commander Henry Wilkes,” Drake delivered a crushing blow to Adrian using his head that freed Adrian’s hand from the DNA scanner. Drake quickly snagged the black seat belt and wrapped around Adrian’s neck.

  The entire ship spiraled out of control, jerking from left to right.

  Riley picked up the rolling extinguisher and raised high above his head. “Time to extinguish you.” Another quirky shift from the ship and Riley’s fingers slipped from the bottom of the extinguisher sending it careening across the room in Sammy’s direction.

  Logan saw his chance and let off a series of hard jabs, routinely connecting with Riley’s mid-section. Using the burst of adrenaline he had left, Logan grabbed Riley by the throat and shuffled him over to the computer mainframe. “I have a clichéd ending for you,” Logan whispered in Riley’s ear. “You are about to be short-circuited.” Logan finished off his attacker, burying Riley’s face in the mainframe, igniting a series of electrical sparks throughout Riley’s sizzling body.

  Drake could feel the Carnelian’s swarming over the Captain’s chair. “I will go down a hero,” Drake held Adrian firmly in his tight grasp, choking the Commander to death. “by preventing you from reaching New Earth.”

  Within moments, the Carnelians completely engulfed the Captain’s chair and headed for Logan, and then turned for Riley’s fried body.

  The extinguisher finished off the rest of the cracked windshield. After a very hectic three minutes of fighting and torment, the glass shattered, taking Sammy with it, expelling him into the cold recesses of space. Sammy’s skin immediately dried up and cracked into thousands of pieces, leaving what was left of his dead corpse floating away from New Earth‘s approaching atmosphere.

  The entire cockpit imploded with cold air, sucking Athena closer to her inevitable crash on New Earth.

  Course Of Action:

  New Earth

  Two weeks earlier [Old Earth Time]

  Their ride inside Europa’s surviving spacecraft, the Abagail, became a long, continual journey through the folds of space and time. Abagail’s smooth transition through its magnificent hyper-drive tunnel, brought the surviving threesome to New Earth’s doorstep. The craft’s regression from hyper-drive had only resulted in the ship succumbing to the planet’s Herculean-like gravitational pull.

  Commander Thaddeus Kaspar, Gillian Shea and Lieutenant Matthew Shaw, were in a pre-determined methodical pattern, each released from their cryogenic stasis pods. The consistent heating mechanism warmed up their bodies, gently thawing out the Commander, then Shaw, and finally Gillian. The trio’s bodies had successfully managed to sustain life over the 5.8 trillion plus mile-trip through countless galaxies and constellations. Our heroic threesome especially Shaw, were wobbly in the knees and mentally groggy, regaining each of their senses in short time. The victorious last stand versus Adrian and the evil alien species, the Carnelians virtually wiped out everyone except the Commander and his shrinking crew. The lingering spacecraft, the Abagail, provided the escape route and embarked on a journey into the far reaches of space.

  The automatic pilot stayed the course for the banged up craft with precision. Commander Kaspar, still a bit disorientated from the stasis freeze, decided to manually take over the controls and guide the ship down to the surface. Meanwhile, Gillian and Shaw took a decidedly lengthy gander out of the craft’s expansive windshield. New Earth seemed to float effortlessly by the much-maligned space craft. The Abagail performed one of her virtual scans of the new planetary body, {at the Commander’s request} and delivered the statistics that Gillian had known all along, that this particular Earth-like planet had comfortably thrived inside a rather lucrative habitable zone, offering warm oceans and breathable oxygen levels. The planet’s robust sun radiated enough light to possibly sustain life on the planet’s many regions. A solid comparison to Earth’s characteristics. If planets had siblings, then this New Earth could be considered Earth’s long lost brother.

  The series of numbers came back very favorable and offered a dynamic twist to the planet’s story. The western side of the planet was entrenched in total darkness, while her eastern hemisphere sustained total sunlight. Gillian studied the raw data that was prominently displayed on the left side of the craft’s windshield, resembling a computer screen.

  “It seems that our new home has some sort of schizophrenic personality going on,” Gillian noted to the commander. She continued to shake off the mental cobwebs gathered during the lengthy trip from Europa. As the last words escaped from her mouth, several flakes of crusted, dehydrated skin sprinkled free from the corners of her dried mouth.

  She continued, “According to this new raw data, this planet’s comparable to Earth’s atmosphere and genetic makeup.”

  “Ah, the classic separated at birth,” Shaw chimed in from the bench.

  “Yeah, you could say that,” Gillian seemed to appreciate Shaw’s philosophical spin on the situation.

  “I’d say that’s definitely a good thing,” Kaspar acknowledged Gillian’s expert analysis. “Like Dorothy would say, ‘there’s no place like home’.”

  “And all I’ll need are my ruby red’s,” Gillian chortled back a girlish laugh.

  “Hey Shaw, are you awake yet man?” Kaspar asked the still groggy Lieutenant.

  “Sorta, kinda. I’m still shaking off the rust.” Shaw rocked his head back and forth mimicking his statement. He worked over his knotted thighs and calf muscles. “Man, I’ll feel this bitch in the morning.”

  “In a late-breaking story,” Gillian interrupted Shaw’s dramatic preaching, “our new home seems to have an unusual anomaly going on.”

  “Which is what Captain Einstein?” Kaspar’s unique brand of sarcasm was returning back to form.

  “Well, Commander,” Gillian replied, “one half of the planet’s submerged in total darkness, and the other half’s enjoying uninterrupted sunshine.”

  “I say we pack our wet suits and head over to the sunny side,” Shaw cut in.

  “That’s the plan Lieutenant.” Kaspar shook his head in agreement.

  “I’d definitely like to see Miss Shea in a two-piece,” Shaw chortled at his own observation.

  “Hold off the cavalry there Captain Swagger,” Gillian responded with a full fledged open hand, palm facing the Lieutenant.
>
  “Oh, calm down Miss Shea,” Shaw’s considerable lack of chivalry sparked concern with Gillian. “I’m sure the Commander would like to see you in considerably less than that.”

  “Hey now,” Kaspar immediately headed off Shaw’s pass with a clean interception of his own. “My personal life is not a reality show.”

  “Have you looked at the television line-up lately?” Shaw asked. “We had the series finale with Europa and the miscreant Adrian Blakely wreaking havoc. Now, we have the spin-off, New Earth. Which correct me if I’m wrong, was a television show like fifty or so years ago?” Shaw looked around the room at his confused friends. “So, I’d say we have a writer’s strike right now, and your personal life is the best show on the air. I vote for the Commander and Gillian show.”

  “And why do we have him with us?” Gillian finally broke the dizzying rambling of the Lieutenant.

  “He saved our lives?” Kaspar reminded Gillian of Shaw’s heroic ascension to the top.

  “I’d say,” Shaw murmured under his breath.

  “What was that wiseass?” Gillian countered Shaw’s mildly coherent response.

  “I said let Miss Shea speak and tell us about this unique situation of ours.”

  “Wise choice,” she said turning back to the Commander.

  “Let’s head for the eastern side,” Kaspar addressed his two-person crew while he attempted to regain control the craft’s ragged course. “However,” he said noticing the craft was shifting its course, “it seems that Junior here has other ideas.” His fingers worked over the touch screen but he had no immediate luck.

  “Can we pull up a virtual map of the planet’s topography?” Shaw wanted to know. He took a sharpened interest in the percolating situation. “I’d like to see this paradise of Eden.”

  “Yeah, I think Adrian installed such hardware,” Kaspar answered Shaw’s inquiry. “It was part of his master plan.”

  “Ugh,” Gillian coughed up the bitter response. “I hate that name.” She clutched her chest as a wave of sharp pains rolled through her stomach lining.