Rise of the Altered Moon: Altered Moon Series: Book One (The Altered Moon Series 1) (12 page)

They crossed the bay and climbed up the entry ramp. Trigger got a stunned Tamara Wilkinson strapped into a flight seat as JP prepped the ship for emergency launch. Gar was already secure as Trigger found a seat and strapped himself in. The outer bay doors opened as JP cycled up the
Lunar Mare’
s engines.

Damn sneaky bastard!
Trigger was pissed that Boss managed to beat him.
Too bad about G and Cat, but, at least we got the shuttle.

*~*~*

Chapter Sixteen

THUMP, thump, thump, thump, THUMP, thump, THUMP, THUMP, thump.
Ohh…ahh…oww…damn…again?
CJ struggled to regain consciousness.
Seem to wake up with my ass beat a lot lately…ow…great I’m bleeding.
He rolled over and sat up, his entire body groggy and painful. His ribs hurt and a head wound was bleeding; the blood ran down his face and dripped off his chin.
Where am I…ah, crew cabin…where is everybody else?

“Hello…oww,” he called out, which made his head hurt even more.
What the hell happened?
He grabbed a nearby towel and pressed it onto the wound on his head to stop the bleeding. He had the strange feeling of being left alone and of having missed something important. He struggled to his feet and headed for the bridge. The squad bay looked like an ion storm had hit it. The bridge hatch was standing open, but still no one was around. He stepped through the hatch and onto the bridge. He saw Boss where he lay face down on the deck just inside the hatch.

“Captain! Captain Keltzer!” CJ pushed on the artery on Boss’ neck hoping to feel a pulse. He found one, but it was way too shallow.

“Damn, gotta get you to the med bay.”
We’re at a dead stop
, he thought, taking a quick look at the flight controls.
All flight systems have been shut down.
The captain first, then the ship
he decided, as he retrieved the hover gurney.

He struggled to get Boss onto the gurney and strapped him down, then took him to the med bay and into a diagnostic chamber. A medical readout panel came on which displayed Boss’ vital statistics. A warning message flashed across the panel. “Patient is in serious condition! How would you like to proceed?” Two choices were offered below the message: “Prepare for procedure” and “Place in medical suspension.” CJ knew that he was in over his head, so he thumbed the “Place in medical suspension” option. The wall at the head of the bed slid open and the whole thing—Boss and the chamber—receded into the wall, which then slid closed. The stasis chamber automatically put Boss into a comatose state until medical personnel could be brought in.

CJ went back to check all the crew compartments.
Nobody
, he thought.
Where the hell did they all go and why did they leave the captain behind?
Unable to do anything more for Boss, he checked engineering and found no one there, so he went back to the bridge.

The missing life pod only added to the mystery. He didn’t know what else to do, so CJ started an impromptu investigation of the nav console. He knew how to figure their position and how to plot a course. He just didn’t know if he could pilot the ship alone. “I wonder if there’s an owner’s manual?” he said out loud with a sarcastic snort.

He rummaged around on the bridge and tried to find some clue as to what action to take. He was standing at the comms console when he noticed the ship’s log panel. “Hey, this should show what happened,” he said. He hit the playback controls and ended up going way back into last week. He fumbled a couple of times to find the right spot, then CJ watched as Trigger sedated Gina and then as Gina and Cat were loaded into the life pod. Then he watched as JP took the helm and the life pod was ejected.

“What? They just blew them into space?” he said out loud in shock to the monitor screen. “Aww, man…I’ve got to go after them.”

He continued to watch while Boss arrived at the bridge and was ambushed by Trigger and the others. Then something strange happened. Boss said “Gabby” and a woman appeared right next to him. Gar flipped out and tried to shoot the woman, but shot Boss instead.

“Aw, damn, that sucks…the captain was an okay guy,” CJ commented as he watched. “He didn’t deserve that.”

Boss called out “snafu, Gabby, snafu.” Then all hell broke loose. The ship began to self-destruct as Trigger and the others ran for the shuttle after failed attempts to stop the destruct sequence.

A sudden thought popped up. “The shuttle…” he said out loud to himself. He moved over to the shuttle bay control panel. The control panel was locked out and the decompression warning lights were on, which meant that the outer bay doors were open. He activated the view screen and was shocked by what he saw.

The grappler arm was loose from its anchor bracket and jacked-knifed around with part of it stuck out past the outer doors of the shuttle bay and the other end jammed through the bow of
Lunar Mare’
s
fuselage.
What the hell
? he thought. He hoped there wasn’t anybody inside. The shuttle bay, as well as the shuttle and its interior, stood exposed to open space.

“Wow,” he said aloud in awe and felt pretty lucky just to be there. “I’ve got to find a way to get back to Gina and Cat…and who the hell is Gabby?”

“Online, Captain,” came out of nowhere as the form of a sharply dressed businesswoman shimmered into view right next to him.

“Whoa!” CJ shouted and almost jumped out of his skin. “What the hell?” he said as he took a couple of steps backward. “Who are you?”

“I am GABI,” she replied. “Where is Captain Keltzer?”

“Ahh…med bay, injured. Are you…one of the crew?” he asked.

“Something is different,” she mused. “I don’t hear him. The connection has been cut. What is his condition?”

“He’s in a medical-induced coma,” CJ told her. “What connection’s been cut?”

“Where is Doctor Katsu?”

“Stranded and in need of help,” CJ said impatiently. “Who are you and can you run the ship?”

“You are Crucible Johannson Evermore,” GABI said as she looked at him. “You should not have command authorization. How did you summon me?”

He groaned in frustration. “This has got to be a dream. First of all, it’s CJ. You can forget all the ‘Crucible Johannson’ crap.” He slid his hand sideways through the air. “Honestly, I don’t know what Mom was thinking on that score. And second of all, how could I summon you when I don’t even know who
you
are?”

“I am GABI: Generated Artificial Biologic Interface,” she explained. “I can only be accessed by someone with command authority. With any due respect, that should
not
be you. There is a gap in my chronological memory. May I have access to the ship’s computer log?”

“Aren’t you the computer?” CJ asked.

“No,” she said. “I am a separate entity. I can access the ship’s mainframe only with the permission of the captain of the
Altered Moon
. Somehow you have been given command authorization. With your permission I can access the ship’s visual records.”

“All right, ahh…go ahead.”

There was a slight pause, and then the view screen came on, showing the same thing CJ had watched earlier. They watched as Trigger and the others moved through the ship to get to the shuttle in time to escape.

They could see them cross the squad bay while they dodged loose gear that bounced around the bay and into the crew cabin. CJ lay unconscious next to the hatch to the shuttle bay. Trigger joked about him being the last person on board and said, “I guess that makes you captain, piss-ant.” He kicked CJ in the head and stepped through the hatch into the shuttle bay. They crossed the bay and climbed up the entry ramp.

The outer doors of the shuttle bay began to open as
Lunar Mare
’s engines give a preflight purge. A loose cable on the grappler arm caught part of the door framing. The arm was ripped from its anchor plate and spun wildly around the shuttle bay. The grappler arm shot out into space, reached the end of the cable, and then rebounded back in again at incredible speed. The claw-like end of the grappler arm bore down on the shuttle like an arrow from a bow and crashed through the cockpit of the shuttle. There wasn’t even enough room for anyone to be left alive.

“Poor Wilks,” CJ said out loud.
Stuff the rest
, he thought to himself.

“Agreed, Captain. Tamara Wilkinson was a true innocent in this matter,” GABI said wistfully.

“GABI, I never got any of this artificial intelligence BS anyway, but
you
scare the hell of me.” CJ rubbed his temples. “Wait a minute, you’re calling
me
…Captain?”

“Yes. Dylan Treesh took command control during the mutiny; he then transferred it to you…in his own unique way…before abandoning ship. That is how you attained command authorization,
Captain
Evermore.”

“
Captain
…Evermore,” he whispered.
This really has to be a dream.
He reached over and pinched himself in the arm.
Oww…nope not a dream.

“Gina and Cat,” he said, as he suddenly thought of them. He moved over to the nav console. “So it’s GABI, right? Well GABI, we have their coordinates. We can go get them, yes?”

“Getting to them is not the problem, Captain,” GABI stated. “We need to get them safely aboard before the radiation builds to fatal levels in both the life pod and the
Altered Moon
. You will have to decompress the crew cabin to enter the shuttle bay and cut loose the wreckage of the shuttle to clear the bay doors. The
Altered Moon
will have to be maneuvered into position while the life pod is secured in the shuttle bay. Do you have star pilot training, Captain?”

“Ahh…no…civilian flight training only.” He felt very much
not
like a starship captain.

“I could pilot the ship, if I was able to integrate with the main computer,” explained GABI, “while you secure the life pod in the shuttle bay.”

“Well, is there a problem with doing that?” he asked.

“The only way that I can integrate with the mainframe is if you remove the firewall that Nelson Moon installed to keep my artificial intelligence from gaining control of the ship,” she answered.

“What would you do if I disabled the firewall?” asked CJ suspiciously.

“Do you mean will I open the airlock, blow you into space, and continue on my happy, synthetic way?”

She paused dramatically.

“No, CJ Evermore,” she continued in what he thought was a humorous tone of voice. “I promise that I will try
not
to become a demigod. Besides, you are now, as a matter of recorded fact, the captain of the
Altered Moon
. I answer to your command.”

“What about Boss? I can’t just take over his ship or I’ll be just as bad as Trigger and the others.”

“Boss Keltzer’s best chance of survival depends on the rescue of the
Altered Moon’s
Chief Medical Officer, Zhu Katzu,” GABI pointed out. “Only if you and I work together, can we save her and Gina Riley in time to get Boss the appropriate medical attention.”

“And if Boss doesn’t make it?”

“Boss Keltzer has been a companion for many years. He would be greatly missed,” GABI said, and the humorous tone was no longer there. “The
Altered Moon
soared far under his command.”

CJ raised an eyebrow. “Sure you haven’t gotten loose already, GABI?” he asked. “So it’s sit here and die from radiation poisoning or die at the hands of a crazy computer.”

“Crazy is a biological quality, Captain, and our continued existence is highly probable,” GABI stated.

“I think that you and I both qualify for the crazy quality, GABI.” CJ stopped and thought for a moment on just how much of a screwed-up situation this had turned out to be. His head throbbed from where Gar and then Trigger had taken out their aggressions on him. “All right, how do I disable the firewall?”

GABI directed CJ to a hidden access panel in the captain’s quarters. He removed the panel and tapped an icon that opened an inner panel covering GABI’s neural cortex. A deep iridescent-blue light pulsed through what looked like a thousand optic fibers wrapped around an orange-and-black metallic apple.

“Below the neural cortex there are a series of micro graphite control cards,” GABI explained. “Remove the card rimmed with yellow-and-black stripes.”

“Yellow and black,” said CJ pointedly. “Doesn’t that usually mean ‘Caution, danger, don’t go there’?”

“Caution is always prudent when dealing with the potential risk of electric shock.”

“You have a very wry sense of humor, GA! AHH! Shit!” CJ snatched his hand back as he touched the wrong power lead.

“I was not joking,” GABI innocently raised her eyebrows.

“Apparently.” CJ unplugged the correct power lead this time and pulled the micro graphite control card out of the neural cortex.

“Remove the three processor chips marked twenty-two, forty-eight, and seventy-seven and discard them. Connect leads one and thirty-three on all three chip ports, and replace the card back in the neural cortex.”

CJ used a strip of micro graphite to jump the leads and sealed them with cyber bonding agent on each end. The chemical reaction fused the two ends of the graphite strip, which bonded them at the molecular level. He repeated the procedure for the other two chip ports. I hope I’m doing the right thing, he thought, as he slipped the control card back into its slot. He closed the neural center’s inner panel and replaced the outer access panel.