To The Stars

TO THE STARS

  The Harry Irons Trilogy, Part One

  by

  Thomas C. Stone

  ISBN: 978-1-877557-00-2

  2nd Edition

  Copyright © 2010 by Thomas C. Stone

  Other Titles by Thomas C. Stone:

  Stolen Worlds

  Minerva’s Soul

  Gender Wars

  Song of the Elowai

  Smolif

  Rolling Thunder

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  TO THE STARS

  The Harry Irons Trilogy, Part One

  by

  Thomas C. Stone

  Chapter 1

  600 miles above planet surface, Executive Officer Collenz eyeballed the entire eastern seaboard through a viewing port. A wooded mountain range ran north and south. Further west, a high desert plain stretched to the horizon, but it was the wooded coast that drew her attention.

  Readouts indicated all systems functioned normally. As the spacecraft floated eastward, its antennae adjusted for optimal performance. Collenz returned to her console

  Telemetry revealed vast coniferous forests, lush green valleys, and an occasional river snaking its path to the sea. The general impression was blue and green and red and brown, and all the other Earth colors that made Collenz hope they'd hit a strike, a hospitable planet. The company would pay huge bonuses for finding a stable planet capable of being colonized.

  Collenz unconsciously bit a nail as she searched for a flash of sunlight off metal that might reveal the shuttle's landing site. The ground team was ten minutes late for their check-in call.

  The shuttle required an area large enough to accommodate its size, like a meadow, or maybe just a small area between the trees. Ah yes, she drew in her breath, there it was.

  Simultaneously, she pressed a key at her console and a preset navigational program began to cycle. As a result, the spacecraft parked itself in stationary orbit above the landing site.

  *

  Hundreds of miles below, the pined forest spread itself over the land and up the jagged slopes of mountains. The massive trees were similar to those on Earth: old, primitive conifers that grew to be as thick as houses and taller than acceleration ramps. It was the first thing Fagen noted about the planet -- the towering trees.

  Glad to be outside, Fagen took a deep breath and surveyed his surroundings. The shuttle sat in a small meadow, nestled between giant pines. A sunny day, hot in the open with a light breeze blowing from the coast.

  Fagen stood in the shade beneath the airfoil, craning his neck to see the towering treetops where clouds passed.

  An electronic pop issued from his earpiece, quickly followed by Mission Specialist Carter's voice. "Uh, commander?"

  Fagen spoke into his headset mike. "Yes, Carter?"

  "Can you see Povich?"

  "Negative, Carter. She's not with you?"

  "Well, she was."

  "Where is she?" Fagen asked in rising excitement.

  The radio cracked with Carter's voice. "That's what I'm trying to tell you. She walked into the forest and I lost sight of her. Two minutes passed, I swear to God, that's all, before I called to her again. There's no answer."

  Fagen looked across the clearing. Carter faced Fagen across the space.

  "Povich! If you hear me, give us a wave!" No answer. Fagen waved at Carter. "All right, hold it right there, we'll look for her together."

  Glancing from side to side, Fagen crossed the sunlit field. Carter pointed in the direction of a thousand of year old evergreen. "That's the last place I saw her." Fagen started away, motioning for Carter to follow.

  "She couldn't have gotten far," Carter said.

  Fagen didn't answer. He hated incompetence. No matter how pleasant the planet seemed to be, it was unexplored and light-years from Earth. They had to be careful, protocol had to be followed.

  With no warning, a sensation passed through his core like a wave. He looked at Carter. "Did you feel something?"

  "Like what?"

  "I don't know, something like..." Fagen checked the readings on his portable console "...like an electric charge in the air."

  "Hey," a third voice said, startling the two men.

  Carter and Fagen looked up and observed Povich sixty yards away. She waved them over.

  Fagen started in. "You know the rules, Povich. What do you think you're doing? Why didn't you answer our calls?"

  She held up her hands to stop his tirade. "All right, all right, hold on a minute. I snagged my antenna and it broke at the base, see?" She turned around to let Fagen inspect her small equipment pack. "I couldn't call."

  "Why didn't you just come back?"

  "Look at this." She stood aside and pointed at a circle of carefully aligned rocks on the forest floor. Ashes were contained within the circle. The ground all around was stamped down. "It's a campsite. Somebody, or something, built a fire here. I'd say this is pretty strong proof of intelligent life."

  Fagen looked hard at Povich. "I don't see it proves anything."

  "You must be joking."

  "I don't joke, Povich. Wandering from the specified area is a serious breach of protocol."

  "What are we here for?" Povich interrupted. "I'm doing the job I was hired to do!"

  "Then conduct yourself as you were briefed."

  "Right," she replied curtly. "May I continue to investigate the area?"

  "You may."

  Povich abruptly turned away and, now with Carter's help, continued searching the surrounding ground. In moments, Carter spotted something.

  "What does that look like to you?" he asked, pointing to the ground.

  Fagen studied the spot and said nothing.

  "Looks like a footprint to me," declared Povich.

  Reluctantly, Fagen replied, "Maybe."

  The same sensation passed through Fagen again, but this time accompanied by a whining sound as if air under high pressure was being expelled through a nozzle.

  "What is that?" Carter asked.

  Fagen, still listening, shrugged and walked away looking for the source of the sound. Fagen followed the arc of the trunk and took a look. A flash of metal in the distant shadows revealed something moving slowly and steadily toward their position. At random intervals, the high-pitched sound came out of it.

  It moved like a machine, robotlike, but with smooth precision. Fagen slowly stepped back until he stood against the tree. He motioned to Povich and Carter.

  Povich spread her hands. "What?"

  "Something's coming," Fagen said, "Get back to the shuttle!"

  Neither moved. Instead, they exchanged quizzed looks.

  Fagen stepped and saw another flash behind the first. Fagen flashed with the thought that the landing party wasn't armed.

  "Come on," he ordered, "Back to the shuttle! Now!"

  Povich spread her hands. "This is ridiculous, why don't you tell us what's going on?"

  "No time. Just come on."

  "What about..." started Carter.

  "Go now!" Fagen pushed Carter and the mission spe
cialist finally broke into a run toward the shuttle.

  Povich grabbed Fagen by the arm. "What did you see? What is it?"

  "I don't know, aliens."

  "And you’re running away? I'm going to take some pictures."

  "Come on! Back to the shuttle! Now!"

  "You can't tell me what to do -- my father has more invested in this trip than any other shareholder, including you. So, I'll do what I want." The whining of pressured air came again, much closer.

  "Don't be a fool." Fagen was backing away.

  "Me? You're pretty foolish yourself, running away from opportunity like this." The young woman wedged herself between two over-sized, exposed roots and checked her video camera.

  "Go on," she waved Fagen away. "I'll lay the groundwork."

  "Don't be stupid," said Fagen as he looked in the direction of the growing noise. "I don't have time for this."

  Povich hunkered down in her little niche.

  "Stubborn," murmured Fagen as he turned away.

  *

  Fagen disappeared from view. Povich settled into her hiding spot and listened. The high-pitched sound stopped. In the confines of the forest she heard Fagen's footsteps fade just as she heard Carter's insistent voice, although she couldn't make out what he said.

  Minutes passed. The forest was quiet. A chill passed as she finally considered the possibility that something might harm her. She was alone. She shifted her feet and looked around. Nothing but enormous trees.

  A shadow passed. Povich looked up but saw nothing except a solid ceiling of branches and pine needles. Something glided through the air overhead, a small creature, birdlike in its grace.

  In relief, Povich smiled. Fagen had been frightened by a bird. She switched on her video recorder and sighted at the creature as it skitted between the branches. It wasn't a bird, but something rather like a flying rat.

  She followed it with her camera, recording its movements and automatically relaying the data back to the shuttle recorders. The rat flew from right to left, perched momentarily on a branch, then jumped off and flew directly over Povich's head, stopping on the tree trunk behind Povich and gripping the bark with marvelously delicate little fingers.

  The animal wasn't afraid and peered back. It was only two feet away, but it showed no hostility, appearing to be as curious as Povich. Its wings were long, loose folds of skin attached to short lower legs and long upper arms. Povich got a good picture just before the thing jumped onto her shoulder.

  It surprised her but she maintained her composure as the animal clung to the heavy fabric. It sniffed her neck and tickled her with its nuzzling nose. She allowed it to climb down to a large, unzipped pocket. It crawled inside, poked its head back out, and looked directly at the amazed woman. Then it looked past her, over her shoulder.

  Povich felt a presence behind, then a soft whoosh. The air moved and Povich turned her head to see what was behind her. The ratlike creature jumped from her pocket to the ground and squatted some feet away, watching.

  Povich's fleeting impression was of something large, something metallic, floating. Before she could assimilate the image, the air hissed and from the corner of her vision, Povich caught sight of something coming at her from the side. An unearthly, triumphant scream issued forth, reverberating through the forest.

  The blow hit the side of the neck, slicing through skin, muscles and tendons, as well as the cervical column just above the third vertebrae. Her severed head dropped to the cushioned floor of pine needles.

  *

  Carter was waiting outside the shuttle when Fagen trotted up.

  "Come on," urged Fagen as he gripped a rung on the ladder leading to the open hatch.

  "Wait a minute. What are we running from?"

  Fagen shook his head. "I wish I knew. It was metallic, maybe robotic, big, and it moved... fast. There were appendages and things, tools, or weapons, hanging from it. There were two, moving pretty far apart."

  "Why didn't we make contact?"

  "You didn't see them, I did. Believe me, these things looked like a hunting party."

  Carter looked toward the trees. "What about Povich? What are we going to do?"

  "Stay here and watch. I'm going to the weapons locker."

  Without another word, Fagen climbed through the hatch into the shuttle. Once inside, he made his way to the weapons locker and opened it up. To his disbelief, it was empty.

  The commander glanced out the nearest port and something slid out of his field of vision. He stepped across the width of the shuttle and peered through the opposite port. Below, Carter watched the forest for Povich. Fagen crossed back to the first port and looked to the trees. The thing, whatever it was, stood motionless on spindly legs at the edge of the meadow. It had circled the meadow and was unexpectedly coming from the opposite direction. Fagen had his first, good look.

  It was tall, seven feet or so. Its smooth, semi-circular, metallic torso was held aloft by a trio of knuckled legs, one fore and two aft, like a thumb opposed by two fingers. When it moved, it stepped gingerly, but quickly, as a spider might. A silvery hump sat atop the body looking like a head with a darkened plate in front where eyes should have been. Two metallic arms hung from either shoulder and ended in a three-fingered hand. Accoutrements hung from an apparatus of straps slung around its body.

  As Fagen watched, it began to walk toward the shuttle. Moving deceptively fast, it was across the meadow before Fagen reacted.

  "Carter? Get up here right now!" Fagen once again crossed to the opposite port. Carter still watched the forest, unaware of what was creeping up from behind. Fagen pounded against the hull and shouted a warning, "Get out of there!" but Carter didn't hear.

  Fagen rifled through the other lockers, but someone had removed the weapons. He shot a glance out the window again. The creature was less than three meters behind Carter. It removed an item from its harness and loaded it into what appeared to be a hollow tube. Fagen started back to the open hatch.

  There was a pop! followed by the sickening sound of pierced flesh. A thin, silver wire stretched taut as the creature began to reel in its length. When the end came into sight, Fagen saw that the projectile had first passed through, and then somehow wrapped itself around Carter's limp and broken neck. With a sudden, cold aloofness, Fagen hit the Access Closed switch and the hatch swung shut.

  *

  After lift-off, the shuttle made the transit quickly. Collenz waited for him at the top of the passageway that led to the bridge. "What kind of trouble?" she asked.

  "What?"

  "You didn't specify what kind of trouble you were having." She looked past him. "Where are the others?"

  "They didn't make it." He stepped past her and guided himself to the navigator's position.

  "What do you mean they didn't make it?"

  "Just that. We ran into something we couldn't handle. Povich and Carter made some poor choices and died for it."

  "Povich and Carter? Dead? What happened?"

  "There was some kind of alien machine. I've never seen anything like it. We landed okay and set up the equipment -- I've got plenty of data to download -- then Povich wandered off. We found her, but we also found these other things. Povich wouldn't follow orders. I don't know what happened to her. But one of those things got Carter. There was nothing I could do."

  Fagen lapsed into silence. He began to punch navigational coordinates into the computer.

  Collenz stared at the commander and shook her head. "That won't wash with the people at corporate. We have a directive that explicitly states no crew member, dead or alive, is to be left behind on an exploratory mission. Why didn't you consult me?"

  Fagen pounded the console with his fist. "There wasn't time!"

  "So, because you felt you couldn't help them, you decided to save your skin instead. Have I got this right so far?"

  Fagen was silent.

  "You realize, of course, that your actions have forfeited our bonuses. You sure took a lot on yourself."

&nb
sp; "What do you mean?"

  "Well, I'll have to make a detailed report. Corporate is not going to be happy with how you handled things."

  Fagen twisted in his chair and faced Collenz, "You think I'm glad those two are lost? What happened to the guns I stashed in the shuttle?"

  "There's no need to raise your voice. You know as well as I that we aren't cleared to carry firearms on a landing party. I moved the rifles. Don't bother looking for them. I jettisoned them while you were gone. No, I don't think you're happy about Carter and Povich, but the fact remains you went outside the operational parameters by stranding two members of this expedition. It's my duty to make a full report..."

  "Exonerating yourself and placing the blame on me? You weren't even there."

  "It's not necessary that I was there. We've got the data from the recorders, I'm sure it'll speak for itself. I'm going to the shuttle bay and pull the disks. We'll talk more later."

  Collenz paused at the hatch. "Pull yourself together, Fagen. You're a mess." She turned away and pulled herself, hand over hand, down the passage.

  He ran a hand over his scalp and stared at the readouts on the navigational panel. Collenz was right about one thing: he would receive the blame. The corporation was quite specific about its mission guidelines. There were ways to get around the rules, but this time his XO was aligned against him. They'd never gotten along and now she saw her chance to get him out of the way. Corporate-climbing, back-stabbing bitch. She'd have his shares and his ship if he let her.

  He punched a button and one of the monitors revealed a real-time view of the shuttle bay. Collenz kneeled at an open access cover on the shuttle. As Fagen watched, she pulled three memory disks from the shuttle recording system and re-attached the cover.

  On the console to Fagen's right were the shuttle bay controls. Indicators glowed green showing adequate air pressure, sealed doors, and safe access. Almost of its own accord, Fagen's right hand crept to the airlock controls. With his forefinger he absently tapped the access switch.

  *

  Completing her task, Collenz stood and stashed the disks in her coverall pocket. She pushed against the shuttle's hull to launch herself toward the hatch. Ten meters away, she heard the heavy click of durasteel bars sliding from the facing into the door, locking the hatch in place.