© 2019 Michael Guinn
All characters, events, and places in this novel are works of fiction, and any resemblance to past or present places, people, or events is purely coincidental.
Edge World
By Michael Guinn
PROLOGUE 2830 AD
The cold, unending dark of interstellar space effected the crew of Terran Federation Exploration Ship Columbine, sank into their bones, and always seemed to be looking over one’s shoulder, particularly now as the Columbine approached the edge of the spiral arm of this galaxy. The Federation ship may have been registered through the home planet, but it searched as an independent contractor, with a minimum salary and the possibility of a handsome bonus if they found an inhabitable planet. Inhabitable by humans, that is. The Columbine was an old ship, still serviceable, but a tired old ship. The air cleaners tried hard but still there was the odor of oil, cleaner, and old dirty socks. The ten-man crew (even though half of the crew were women) could no longer smell the odor of old age, but they were as tired as the ship. One of the search screens no longer worked properly and another was blurry, but the Captain and Navigator had become use to such minor problems.
“I don’t know, Jamie, this is going to be the last system we check out,” the Captain said, “We are getting too far from home with this old ship. The systems are too far apart and we are just plain running out of fuel and supplies. I know we haven’t made much bonus money this trip, but I don’t see any sense in wasting more time on this frugal search.”
“This certainly has been the worst exploration search I have been on in my last twenty years, but Marie in Engineering doesn’t believe this ship will hold out for another search, and I tend to agree with her,” said the Navigator. “We have found only two halfway decent planets, and you would have to be an eskimo to want to live on either one.”
“What in hell is an eskimo, Jamie, I have never heard of one?”
“Yah, I haven’t ever seen one, but I have read stories about them in the library. They used to live in the cold parts of old Terra, that is, when Terra had any cold parts.”
“Well, whatever they are, they must love ice and snow. I doubt we will get enough bonuses to repair the ship and besides most of the crew don’t want to go on another trip anyway. We will check out this last system and then head for home. I think we are getting close, Jamie, the screens are starting to pick up some of the outer planets.”
“I will call up Elson, Jamie. He and Shelly will have to make the first estimate of any planet in the Cinderella zone we find, provided we find one.”
“That’s fine, Charlie, I will start the search computer so they will have a base to work from.”
The crew followed their well-worn steps as they approached the plane of the planetary system, checking with every instrument for planets. Two gas giants were discovered in the outer reaches but no other planets appeared until they reach the Cinderella zone, where, if there were any inhabitable planets, that is where they would be found.
“Looks like another bust,” said Dr. Elson as he reviewed and correlated data from the computer. The screens showed little but empty space and blurs. “No wait, we do have a planet in the fourth quadrant, but it is 40 degrees out of the plane, though that doesn’t mean much. I can see at least a medium size moon and maybe one or two small moons and we are getting some traces of oxygen showing up in the data.”
“We are starting to get some video of the planet,” said the Navigator. “Either the color mix is off or that is a very watery planet. Either is likely with this old equipment.”
The four crewmen stood silent as the planet vista filled their screens. The deep blue of water appeared to cover the whole planet.
“I think this place is only going to be inhabited by sea creatures,” sighed the Captain.
“All other indicators show a habitable planet, although a tad cooler than terra. At least cooler than terra is now,” stated Dr. Elson. “It certainly looks like a water world to me. I suppose the Federation might use this as a fuel and resupply depot just because of its location. I believe Aquarius is just such a planet.”
“That looks like it might be land rotating around the planet, exclaimed the Captain, the most optimistic of the quartet.
All four stared at the blurred picture developing on the two forward screens. They stood without speaking as a small continent rotated into sight.
“Well boys and girls, it looks like we finally hit the jackpot. If the science crew okays this place, we have a real bonus planet,” exclaimed the Captain. There is not a lot of land but enough. Definitely enough. Elson, get the rest of your crew up here and start running tests.”
But no call was needed. Andrea, Dr. Elson’s assistant, had started spreading the word and already crew were crowding into the control room, as small as it was. It took the Captain several minutes to clear the cabin of all but those required by Dr. Elson, not that he begrudged them the sight of the planet, but rather so that the scientific crew could do their work faster. The whole crew were delirious for joy: if the test showed the planet was habitable, there were all in for large bonuses. That wouldn’t be the case if there were natives of any kind, but that was very unlikely: in the centuries since mankind left Earth for the stars, none of the planets had produced anything higher than a low-level primate and even those were scarce.
While science crew worked, the Captain and Navigator tried to stay out of their way; even though they could not help they were anxious to see what they had found. The Captain was required to remain in the control room, and he didn’t have the heart to chase the Navigator out.
“How much do you think we will get as a bonus from this, Captain? I have never been part of a crew that actual found much to get a bonus for.”
“Hard tell, Charlie.” He had found one or two bonus planets, but nothing like this.
“Don’t start spending it yet. We will be lucky if they settle up with us in a couple of years. We will get an advance to tide us over if they declare it habitable, but there are all kinds of red tape to go through before it is all settled, but this is certainly the best-looking planet I’ve found in all my years of exploration, even if the land area is sort of small.”
“At least we can still name the planet; what you think would be a good name, Captain?”
“I am about out of names. When I tried to name that last cold planet Arctus, it took twenty-seven tries with different names before they would accept one. What about you?”
“You said we are out on the edge of the galaxy, before. Let’s call it Edge World?”
And so it was!
Edge World was indeed a water world with only one large continent and a few very small islands to break the ocean waves. Five thousand kilometers wide and seven thousand kilometers from north to south, the continent straddled the equator with a high mountain range down the west coast that broke the prevailing western winds, and an extensive rolling plain. Edge World was a prime planet for settlement. It would have been a magnet for those men and women that seek freedom and space, and the extreme distance from the center of civilization limiting to only the most adventuresome. Initial settlement occurred on the two major rivers flowing north and south from the equatorial swamps: the Columbia flowing to the Southern Ocean; and the Washington River flowing to the Northern Ocean.
After some five hundred years of immigration the population had settled into four major groups: the urban population including villages, towns, and the two large cities, Atlanta City and Southport; the miners working the Highland Mountains for the small and scattered deposits of high grade minerals; the Caravans, an insulated group that plied the rolling plains of Edge World, delivering supplies to the scattered villages and collecting the mining results; and the small scattered villages in the equato
rial jungle who provided labor to the trading combines along the Columbia and Washington Rivers. There were also a very small number of nomads scattered across the plains and who kept to themselves. These diverse peoples and their problems all fell under the aspects of the Outlands Security and Investigation Department (OSI) for the Edge World.
FORWARD
Whenever an author writes a novel set in the future he always has the opportunity to invent words or technology to insure the reader is kept aware that the novel time is different from the present. Providing the human race is still in existence, language will have changed enormously, particularly if we have been scattered through-out the stars.
CHAPTER 1
Dr. Pierson was pacing the floor of his luxurious hotel suite, something he seldom did except under extreme pressure. A tall, well-built man, with rugged features etched by different suns, John was fanatical in all things; his weight, his appearance, and in particular his self-control. But now, every few minutes, he would catch himself and stop his pacing to look out a window or check the time, but then he would be back to pacing. When there was a soft tap on the door he didn’t bother looking at the door screen but immediately threw it open.
“Where in the hell have you been,” he nearly screamed at the person standing in the doorway until he noticed a second person standing in the hallway. Both were women, young and fairly tall, wearing moccasins on their feet. They were dressed in a haphazard- way, combining both commercial cloth and nicely tanned leathers. They seemed to have picked the brightest items of wear they could find, and yet their clothing seemed to co-ordinate in a strange and exotic pattern. This was emphasized by an overall lush and fertile odor from the women.
With an effort he quieted his tone to ask, “I am sorry but you are late and we don’t have much extra time on this project. Who is this with you?”
“No need to know. She is as trust worthy as I am. We got the information you paid us for, but it wasn’t done easily.”
“So now I suppose you want more money,” he said with a knowingly smile on his lips. “Is that it?”
“Of course not. You made a deal with us so now here it is. I am sorry we were late but there were problems.”
Dr. Pierson felt on the defensive but he had to admit that they had done what he was paying them to do.
“I am sorry,” he said, “but this is so important. Where is it?”
One of the visitors handed over to Dr. Pierson a large, clear stoppered flask and a small vial, both containing an oily and somewhat greenish liquid.
“I thought that you might want to try it before you give us our final payment.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Dr. Pierson replied. “If this works it will be a long time before we see results. I thought I explained all this to you last time.”
He dug into a pouch and handed her a packet of credits.
“This is your final payment so I don’t want to see you around here again. I have a shuttle to catch and don’t have any time to fool around with you anymore.”
With an insolent grin on her face, she carefully counted each bill while Pierson stood and fumed, but then without another word both women left, but only as far as the next corridor in the hotel.
“He will try it, he won’t be able to refrain, will he?” one of the women said.
“I don’t know,” the other said, “but it doesn’t matter now. It is all finished.”
*****
Captain Amanda Santos gave a small sigh when, after entering her office on Firstday, she saw the number of incident reports left on her screen by the weekend supervisor. Lt. Owens should have handled more of these cases; that is what I pay him extra for. She grumbled a little to herself, but in reality, Lt. Owens had only been in his present position for six weeks. I can’t let my bad mood affect my judgment. There had been a big argument with her twin daughters that morning at breakfast. It is just damn hard raising twin girls by yourself, she thought for the hundredth time. Amanda was a tall, slender woman in her late thirties, fair of skin and hair with a dusting of freckles across her nose to her everlasting displeasure. Often taking her looks foremost, many the man who had discovered to late the brain that rested under her long, curly blond hair.
There was plenty to keep her active at work. Amanda had been appointed to head the Outland Security and Investigation Department over the heads of several older, and entrenched, males in the department, just two months previous. Many of these men, and quite a few others were no longer with the department as Amanda set about cleaning out the corruption and nepotism that had existed for quite a few years. She was well-backed by the World Counsel, but she wondered if even that backing would have occurred if the Chair hadn’t been also a woman. In any case Amanda was cleaning house although that was stretching thin the officers still in the department, with the new graduating class of officers several weeks away. At least the public media had backed off and were waiting to see how the new Department Head worked. No doubt ready to pounce at her first big mistake.
*****
Captain Santos had started in public enforcement almost fifteen years ago in order to support herself and newborn twin daughters, initially she had started as an Atlanta City Militia Officer where she learned the streets of the city. Five years ago, Amanda was offered the position of Lt. with the OSI. She was to be the Department liaison with the City Militia. As such she was somewhat isolated from much of the Department’s activities. In part it was her complaints of the extensive problems that permeated the Department that finally moved the Council to action. And now all the problems were her’s.
Amanda scanned the pending reports, determined to assign as many of these incident reports as possible to Lt. Baker, her assistant. The first case that caught her eye was a missing person’s report. That was just too much! Lt. Owens should have flashed that over to the City Militia. That was what they were for; handling City problems. Why in the world did Lt. Owens consider this as a high priority item?
Maybe I made a mistake with Lt. Owens in the night supervisor slot. He has taken all of the required administration courses but he works better in the field than in the office. But I really don’t have anyone else I would feel comfortable putting in as night supervisor. Maybe Investigator Lanos, but I don’t think he has the required courses for an admin job. Besides the officers I fired cleaning house, a lot of the other old-timers refused to work under a woman, and the next recruitment class, when it gets hear, will still only leave me with eight hundred officers for the whole continent outside the cities.
Still muttering to herself, Captain Santos tackled the current incident reports in an effort to reduce the workload to just those with the highest priority before the dayshift arrived. She lightly reviewed the missing person report prior to routing it to the City Militia.
“Let Captain Carlos and his men chase around the city,” she thought to herself, we don’t have the time with a whole continent to police. Granted, there have never been outright wars on Edge World, not the least because the one continent was all there was to it. Some inter-group fights and even a few conflicts between jungle tribes and the caravans, and even between tribes, but nothing calling for more than a small policing force.
Even as Captain Santos was rerouting the incident report, one item caught her eye. Apparently, the missing person, a Dr. Pierson, was the head of a team of scientists that had gotten a permit to do some research on the flora found in the equatorial jungles. There was always the possibility that someone objected to the project and thought to stop it by removing Dr. Pierson. There were a few cases that involved both the City Militia and the OSI, and this could be one of them.
About that time the morning shift started trickling in with all the noise and confusion that occurred during shift change. Those officers who were more or less assigned to help the City and not out on sick leave were present, plus a half dozen field officers who had serious problems in their district. It was only once a month that Captain Santos met with representatives from all t
welve districts. Captain Santos paid no more attention to the missing person incident until midmorning when Sgt. Manns, the morning shift’s desk officer, informed her that a Dr. Janice Blake was demanding to see ‘Someone in Charge’ about her missing Dr. Pierson.
Captain Santos had already sent a copy of Blake’s complaint to the City Militia and briefly considered having Sgt. Manns to send her over to the Militia offices. But there was something about this whole thing that seemed a little off. Amanda had followed her ‘hunches’ many times in the past and they almost always proved her right: so often that some people considered her psychic. Not that she was of course, but it gave her an advantage in dealing with others.
“Go ahead and bring Dr. Blake into my office so we can get this out of our way.”
A tall dark-haired woman entered Captain Santos’s office. She was professionally dressed and carried a superiority like a cloak wrapped around her. Her chin was firm and determined and she had the coldest gray eyes that Amanda had ever seen.
Lady, there is something about you that I just don’t like right off. I know that I must remain unbiased in the job, Amanda thought, but I still don’t like her.
“Good morning Dr. Blake, “Amanda said, raising from her chair. “Please have a seat.”
After Dr. Blake had been seated, Amanda continued, “I have read the file on Dr. Pierson and at this point I recommend you take your complaint to the City Militia. They handle all crimes in the City as well as missing person cases. We really can’t help you here.”
“I did go to the Militia’s office but they sent me here, saying outlanders were probably involved and that your office handled everything connected to the outlands. Captain Santos, I feel I am getting the run-around and that no one is interested in helping me find Dr. Pierson.”
Edge World Page 1