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A snippet from Mission 1 of the SPOOK & GOON Space Adventures:
Invasion of the Frorees: From the Ice to the Earth
CHAPTER ONE
Sol System, May 20, 2035
A massive Antediluvian-class cruiser pulled out of a warp jump near the edge of the Sol system, just past the Kuiper belt. As its commander and crew assessed the damage from the jump, the ship remained stationary. A few spots in the hull were damaged, having morphed and melded under the crushing pressure and speed of the jump. It was in desperate need of repair.
An aging ship that had seen better days, the cruiser fired up its engines and blasted out of the Kuiper belt. A mysterious sprawling and blinding white trail of light followed behind it. The cruiser and its white trail disappeared into the void of space and headed toward a tiny distant sun.
Plutonian Outpost #9
Lieutenant Rick Adamson settled into his chair with a steaming bowl of chili, amped for another shift of mindless space watching. He’d volunteered for this mission through the Intergalactic Intelligence Agency (IGIA) six months prior as a way to clear his head and figure out what the heck he was doing with his life. He thought a solo mission would be the perfect antidote for the mess he’d gotten himself into with some exceptionally ruthless and unpleasant cardsharps on Mars. He never realized how much time he’d have to himself to ponder his mistakes, all alone on a tin can at the edge of the solar system.
From his small, lonely outpost, he had a spectacular view of the outer planets of the solar system, at least in his imagination. He dreamt he could see the majestic rings of Saturn, the dark spot on Jupiter. He was too far out to really see much of anything, but imagining things helped keep him sane.
He was a long way from home, back on the farm fields of Iowa.
Outside of space watching, he kept to his duty. His ship was spotless; there wasn’t much else to do but sweep, clean, polish, and eat.
Earth, Grace Bay, Turks and Caicos Islands
The Hobie Wave sped along the water; hull flying, crossing Grace Bay at a furious pace. Leaning back barely above the waterline, SPOOK Agent Dom Wagner was trying everything he had to get as much speed as he could to impress the blonde hottie on the beach. He ignored the fact that the Wave was never designed to be a racing cat. He trimmed the sail ever so slightly and tried to find that edge, that one limit just this side of recklessly tipping the cat over.
The hot late afternoon sun beat down on his face. It felt good. He’d arrived at the resort an hour earlier for a well-earned month of sun, surf, sand, and shenanigans. As soon as he hit his club room, he’d turned off the comm stat implanted behind his right ear and changed into his Dragon Speedo shorts, rushing to get out on the water before the sports crew closed up for the day. He’d been waiting for this moment for six months. It had been a long and wild ride on the job, and he had nothing left of his tan. Being stuck in outer space, he had no way to keep the freshly-sunned look as none of the ships had tanning beds. He would need to speak to someone about that. But for now, he soaked up the sun. He needed the real thing on the real planet Earth, anyway.
Plutonian Outpost #9
The warning lights on Lieutenant Adamson’s comm panel flashed rapidly in succession. Something in the outer sector tripped them, but he was too busy downing his bowl of chili to notice or care.
“Stupid asteroids,” he muttered to himself as he switched on the comm viewer for a closer look. “Holy shit!” he said to himself. He dropped the bowl in his lap, hot chili oozing down his legs and making a mess of his flight suit.
Earth, Grace Bay, Turks and Caicos Islands
Dom crested the wave for a perfect landing onshore. He hopped off and released the main sheet, waiting for the blonde hottie from the watersports crew to help him pull the boat ashore. His was the last boat out for the day; so Dom dragged it almost all the way up by himself before she could get there. She helped pull the Hobie the last few feet above the high-tide line while Dom took a closer look at who he’d be flirting with for the next month.
Plutonian Outpost #9
Lieutenant Adamson went into alert mode. This was not a drill. His job was to always be on the lookout for something, anything that might cross into that sector of the galaxy.
He frantically switched to Cam 2, Cam 3, and Cam 4. Adamson flipped to a new screen on the secondary monitor. All showed various views of an approaching ship. It was large and boxy, with rectangles upon rectangles. He’d seen pictures of a similar ship in the archives back in training for this outpost. It looked like an Antediluvian craft, one of the first models ever cleared for spaceflight.
The heat signature from the ship wasn’t like anything he’d ever seen. There simply wasn’t one. Instead it was cold, almost freezing, barely warmer than the void of space. Lieutenant Adamson cringed. It was a frigid, dreadful looking ghost ship from beyond the stars.
He checked his comm stat module, scrolling to find any details on the ship. He had to figure out what it was and why it was here. There was a protocol for this type of incident written in his training manual, but he never bothered to pay any attention to it once he got shipped so far out there. Nothing ever happened out near Pluto, save a few stray asteroids or the occasional comet.
He consulted the manual, staring at the panic button and debating on whether to make the call to his superiors. Protocol stated that Lieutenant Adamson was required to report into the Martian Outpost within two minutes of this type of incident. “Shit, it’s been five!” he said loudly to himself. They’d need to know ASAP, iceberg right ahead.
Martian Outpost #4
Captain Steven Troy of Martian Outpost #4 roused from a nap at his desk. He’d dreamt that a ship was pulling into the solar system, shooting up the place from beyond. After hearing the sound of a distress call coming through, he thought maybe it wasn’t just a dream.
Plutonian Outpost #9
Lieutenant Adamson tapped the communicator. His alarm bells were already sounding.
Captain Troy jumped into view. “Lieutenant, what is going on? Report,” he said, sounding as if he’d been woken up from a nap. The unbuttoned flap of his uniform top confirmed that.
“Captain, Antediluvian-class vessel approaching. Non-Human, non-droid heat signature. Unknown communication channel.”
“Lieutenant, keep checking and scanning the hailing channels. Any visual sighting of aggression?”
“No, sir,” he replied. “It just appeared out of a warp jump, though it has a light trail behind it.”
Captain Troy became alarmed. “A light trail? That doesn’t sound good. That could possibly mean a Receiver situation. That ship won’t be alone for long. I’ll alert the IGIA and will report back with further instructions.”
Lieutenant Adamson silenced the klaxon and went back to scanning the charts and logs and plotting the ship’s possible trajectory. He set his comm stat to find any known hailing frequencies. He needed to make contact with the ship, though he was afraid of what he might discover.
His outpost wasn’t armed since there was no sense in making anyone angry with a giant blast cannon pointing at them upon arrival. His outpost was meant as a friendly gesture, a way of tracking the outer planets in the solar system. There were never any visitors out there anyway, until now.
He also pondered what Captain Troy had said about the light trail and a possible Receiver situation. He’d heard of Receivers, but didn’t know much about them. He tapped his comm stat to get more information. What he found alarmed him even more.
Receivers were dangerous business. The report noted that they provided the means to transport large numbers of ships via an unprecedented warp jump technology that could alter space and time and accelerate space travel like no other ship or device known to man. They were built from a very rare substance called magnetonium discovered within the Andromeda galaxy, 2.5 million light-years away. There were only a few left in existence and were becoming legend.
Alien Reconnaissance Vessel Degisen, Whereabouts Unknown
The Aliens tracked the cruiser as it pulled out of the warp jump. They had been carefully monitoring the ship’s progress throughout its entire journey. The Alien leader was very pleased that their recent assistance and upgrades had led to this moment.
It wasn’t the first time they had provided different species with the means to push beyond their worlds. The Aliens were also the ones who pulled Humans from the primordial ooze millions of years before. It wasn’t until Roswell in 1947 that they made their first official introduction and facilitated the first Human upgrade.
From then on, they watched as their first creation continued to expand across the solar system with their help. And even farther beyond that, they helped create thousands of species Humans didn’t even know about. This ship contained one of them. The leader of the Alien reconnaissance vessel Degisen connected to headquarters with his mind and communicated telepathically that these beings had entered the Sol System.
Copyright © 2018 Chad V. Holtkamp.
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