The Black Planet Read online

  The Black Planet

  J W Murison

  Copyright © 2015 J W Murison

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN:

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  DEDICATION

  I would like to dedicate this book solely to my lovely wife Myra

  OTHER BOOKS BY J W MURISON

  ACV’s 1 Operation Black Gold

  ACV’s 2 Operation Island Green

  Gareth Ogilvie The Highland War Chieftain

  Gareth Ogilvie The Great sea King

  Teardrops in the Night Sky

  CarnMo’r

  Death Rises

  1st Battalion The Gordon Highlanders (Space Division)

  Embers

  The J.W Murison Short Stories Collection

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  As always I would like to thank the dedication of Jeannie Michaud for her amazing covers. I would also like to mention my big sister Grace and my mother Lillian Murison for editing this novel for me .

  The Black Planet

  The large chunk of rock and ice had reached the zenith of its outward journey and swung back towards the sun. An iridescent trail that lit up the dark void of space followed it. The two sleek ships turned in towards Halley’s Comet. They stopped at a safe distance to view the passing wonder.

  ‘Christ it’s big,’ muttered Buzz Anderson, more to himself than anyone else.

  Steven Gordon the ship’s captain grinned to himself, ‘OK Babe show time.’ The command was silently given to the self-aware ship that had chosen Steven as her captain just over a year before.

  ‘Yes my heart,’ Babe or Babes as the crew had inadvertently renamed her over a period of time confirmed the order. The walls surrounding them began to shimmer, then they became translucent. There were gasps of surprise and wonder from the crew as they seemed to find themselves sitting outside the ship.

  ‘Man it’s like floating in space,’ all were experiencing what Buzz had voiced.

  There were a few nervous titters from operators who couldn’t see the consuls in front of them. A wicked grin slowly spread across Stevens face and he sent another silent command to Babe. Suddenly the comet seemed to pick up speed and come racing towards them. Gasps of surprise and wonder turned to howls of terror as men and women dived for cover.

  Only Steven seemed unaffected, this time he spoke aloud, ‘I think that’s to close Babes, maybe only fifty percent magnification.’

  The comet raced away. Buzz picked himself off the floor with a scowl and punched the grinning Steven on the shoulder, ‘you nasty little shit.’

  Steven couldn’t help himself he burst out laughing, ‘I'm sorry everybody I should have warned you I was doing that.’

  ‘There are times Steven when the spoken word would be appreciated more,’ Buzz growled. As he looked round at the crew as they picked themselves up of the invisible floor and search for their invisible consoles he suddenly saw the funny side of it and burst out laughing. His laughter was infectious and soon the whole bridge was consumed with laughter, even if some of it sounded a little nervous.

  Steven noticed the only man who wasn’t laughing was the formidable Colonel Howe, he was scowling fiercely at Steven. Steven grinned, ‘sorry colonel I promise I won’t do that again.’ The stern look slipped a little and the colonel nodded his acknowledgement of the statement. Stevens mind turned back to the work at hand. ‘OK everyone let’s get back to work. Let’s do a deep scan of the comet and send the results back to Moonbase.’

  Steven decided to have a wonder about while the scientists were busy. He knew the ship could do the job in a fraction of a second but he wanted them to feel productive and discover things for themselves. It was good to finally get out into deep space. For the last year he had become more and more frustrated as he had become snowed under by bureaucracy from Earth. Their home on the moon was now a hive of activity and fully manned. Humanity now also had a forward base on Mars. If he wasn’t doing paperwork or stuck on Earth in one meeting or another, they were towing huge rocks for building materials from the asteroid belt or hunting for precious metals for the ship building programs.

  Now however the correct people were in their places and the massive building programme he had begun was now beginning to look after itself. This first mission had been requested by the children of Earth through a website they had built. Of course the scientific community had other priorities but in the end it was Steven’s choice. He firmly believed that the children were the future and wanted to grasp their interest right from the beginning. The scientific community had eventually fell into line. Besides Steven thought that they should learn to walk before they tried to run. They already had a number of lifetime’s worth of data to wade through from Earths nearest planets.

  Buzz had been alone on the bridge for ten minutes before he got bored with the silence of the working scientists. He concentrated hard, ‘where the hell are you Stevie?’

  Steven heard him clearly through the link, ‘just having a wonder about Buzz why?’

  ‘I'm bored.’

  Steven found himself grinning, ‘come and find me then.’ He projected an image of where he was into Buzz’s mind. It didn’t take Buzz long to catch up.

  ‘Hey shrimp, why aren’t you in there with the rest of the brainyakes?’

  Steven laughed, ‘I lost interest in Hailey’s Comet when I was about six, besides Babes gave me a run down on it weeks ago, it holds no surprises. It’s this dark planet I want to see.’

  Komoru Kaizu’s voice reached into Steven’s mind, ‘Steven can we dock?’

  Steven answered the same way, ‘yeah of course, want to get something to eat?’

  ‘Would love to.’

  Buzz noticed the look in Stevens’s eye, ‘you’re doing that thing again aren’t you?’

  Steven smiled, ‘Komoru is going to dock, want to grab something to eat?’

  ‘Yeah, why the hell not.’

  They all met up in the canteen and Cookie served them up something to eat. With food on the go it wasn’t long before the rest of the military contingent found out and joined them at the table; the canteen was filled with laughter and voices rose as familiar arguments became passionate. Occasionally a lone scientist would appear to grab a sandwich or something quick to eat and invariably cast a suspicious eye towards the group. These were the men who had grabbed the highlight a year before when they had rescued Stevens’s father from the military prison. When the news of the daring rescue had finally reached the media it was these men who had been held high as heroes. The strained looks did not escape Steven but there was very little he could actually do about the situation. Despite all his efforts the two groups had refused to gel as a single unit. He was sure however that once they had shared a few more adventures together then they would begin to form a commonality of purpose.

  Steven wasn’t the only one to notice the strained relationships between the two groups. Buzz watched the scientists come and go and also reflected on the situation. The scientists seemed to turn their noses up at the military contingent and sensing their distain the military just ignored them. Only he, Steven, Komoru and the engineers were welcomed into the military circle. The scientific circle had proven to be a tougher nut to crack. Komoru had distanced herself from the scientific community back on Earth many years before. On her own ship with her own crew she was deeply respected but had formed no friendships. Steven also seemed to struggle to form a relationship with his scientists. Yet the two of them were accepted into the military circle without question. The military men were enamoured by her shy beauty, none more so than the giant Lewis. He had taken it upon himself to act as her unofficial bodyguard and few would dare argue with her with the giant scowling at them over her shoulder.

  As for the rela
tionship between Komoru and Steven; it had never really got off the ground. Both were by now hopelessly in love with each other; however with neither, ever having had a partner before and the huge workload fostered on to them; the relationship had just never materialised. The ships themselves discussed the relationships that developed between their human hosts with great interest and even greater confusion. Yet despite this the ships found themselves deeply contented.

  Chapter 2

  The darkness below was all consuming. The nose of both ships were transparent so they could see everything yet Steven found himself looking up on occasion to see if the stars were still there.

  ‘Two thousand feet, one fifty, one thousand feet, five hundred,’ Hailey’s voice was the only one to be heard on both ships as they descended towards the darkness. ‘Five hundred feet.’

  ‘OK stop here Steven commanded.’

  ‘Engines stopped sir, we are in hover.’ Hirosho, his pilot confirmed, yet still they could see nothing.

  ‘Anyone?’ Steven inquired.

  ‘I can see something sir,’ colonel Howe told him.

  ‘Where?’

  ‘Black on black sir, Hirosho turn the ship twenty degrees to starboard please.’

  ‘Yes sir, turn executed.’

  Steven shook his head, ‘I still can’t see anything colonel.’

  ‘Don’t look straight down sir look to the side slightly.’

  It was then Steven saw the black upon black that the colonel was talking about, ‘I see it. Lights please.’ Matt McGuire the chief engineer pressed something on his console and light spewed into the darkness.

  Steven scratched his head, ‘are our lights reaching the surface Matt?’

  ‘According to my readings they are sir. It would seem whatever is down there is just absorbing the light.’

  ‘Yes along with everything else we have, it’s hardly any wonder we haven’t seen this planet from Earth. OK let’s try flares colonel Howe and make sure you spread them over as wide an area as possible.’

  ‘You mean both sides of the darkness sir?’

  ‘That’s exactly what I mean colonel.’

  The flares arced out from both ships as Komoru got in on the act. Some of the flares seemed to stop after a few hundred feet while others seemed to keep falling. It was with a jolt that Steven realised what he was looking at. ‘Is it me or is that a ruddy great chasm we are hanging over.’

  Everyone suddenly seemed to see it at once and many shouted out with excitement. Stevens face was full of wonder at the sight and Buzz felt a strange sense of gratitude as his friend had finally found something that captivated him.

  ‘OK Hailey let’s not park here, how about we try and find an area a good hundred miles or so from here, a nice big flat area.’

  ‘Sir I am having great difficulty with these readings. Going straight down is one thing running parallel to the ground is something else entirely, we could run straight into a mountain.’

  ‘I hear you. Babes do we have something equivalent to Earth sonar.’

  ‘Yes my heart.’

  ‘Make it happen please.’

  A sound wave boomed out, Hailey was beginning to get frustrated, ‘the wave just disappeared sir.’

  ‘OK Hailey; Babes can we measure the point at which the sound wave is absorbed?’

  ‘Yes my heart.’

  ‘Then send out waves at a thousand cycles a second and map the points at which the sound is absorbed please. Put it up on screen so we can see the terrain ahead.’

  ‘Yes my heart.’

  ‘Pilot, navigator, get us to a point a hundred miles from here on a flat piece of ground.’

  ‘Yes sir.’ They both confirmed at once. Hailey was blushing brightly, nor was she happy at Steven’s intervention. She had enough sense to realise she would never have thought of the solution as quickly as he had. With a map now in front of them they skimmed over the ground as Ico rode above them. As they finally came into land Steven ordered more flares deployed. They fell onto the black soil and spluttered away merrily; a few sank into the deep soft soil and were almost buried. By the time their oxygen supply had burned out the pilot had landed.

  ‘Babes switch on all your lights on the port side for Ico to land,’ Steven asked.

  The lights showed a flat even black surface and Ico came down to nestle by Babes side. The two ships docked. There was a feeling of excitement and it was shared across the whole ship; an unknown planet in their own solar system and they were going to be the first humans to set foot on it.

  Twenty minutes later Steven was the first to step off the ramp, behind him half the crew were waiting. They began to cheer and clap as he stepped off. He burst out laughing at their enthusiasm. ‘Come on everybody.’ They dashed off the ramp but they were in for a shock; unlike the moon this small planet had quite a dense gravity.

  ‘It’s like wading through dubs in yer wellies.’ Cookie decided.

  ‘Wot u sayin Cookie?’ Lewis asked.

  Cookie looked up at the giant, ‘sorry Lewis, like walking through mud in your wellington boots.’

  ‘Oh yeah, I got you man.’

  Colonel Howe was playing with the fine dust. He was amazed by the light absorbing qualities of it and his mind was full of the military applications it could be used for. Tapper came next swinging his small metal hammer. ‘Any one see any rocks?’ He was universally ignored as it was obvious there was nothing in the vicinity of the craft but the fine black dust.

  Within a few hours all the crew from both ships had been on the surface and every one of them had taken their own private sample. With the fun over they got down to business of mapping and exploration. Traditional mapping techniques were of no use so they built sonic satellites and set them off to map the planet. Every day new features were added to the map. Expeditions went out to explore and measure the depth of the black dust. Samples of the dust were taken and samples of the local bedrock as well. Small explosive charges and sensors were also used to map out the bedrock.

  Reports were sent to Earth and they were bombarded with requests. As the weeks passed they explored farther and farther away from their original landing site.

  Chapter 3

  One-day colonel Howe requested to see him alone and he didn’t look happy. He handed Steven an electronic pad, ‘when were you going to tell us about this sir? I talked to Babes and she said you were aware of them.’

  Steven picked up the pad and flicked through the report and the pictures. ‘I wasn’t going to colonel; I wanted you to discover them for yourselves.’

  ‘There are hundreds of ships out there sir, maybe thousands, do you have an explanation?’

  ‘It’s fairly simple; you know how the neutrons from our sun kill those from across the great barrier?’

  ‘Yes sir.’

  ‘Well this is pretty much as far as most of them got. It is a midway point between our sun and the great barrier. This planet has some protective properties however not enough, neutrons still get through; they still kill. As you know or you should know by now, no ship that has crossed the barrier is allowed back. A thousand years ago one such ship did exactly that. Half the crew were killed in their short excursion into our solar system and when the crew returned they came down with some kind of plague. Eventually all died of course but not before the plague had spread to dozens of different planets and killed millions. They found no cure and it infected all species, nothing was immune including the insects which actually carried it. In the end the disease ran its course and disappeared however a new law was brought out. Anyone who crosses the barrier stays across. What you are looking at is a graveyard.’

  He handed the pad back, ‘this planet is stationary, it doesn't orbit our sun it is too far away to be affected by the suns gravity. It just sits here, a midway point. To be honest it’s the only show in town. When Babes and Ico first arrived here with their original crews they detected some form of activity. Half the crew were already dead or dying. The captains frightened of scaven
gers decided to push on. By the time all of the crew had perished they were just close enough to pick up stray signals from Earth. The rest of the story you know.’

  ‘To be truthful sir I'm still not happy about the situation, I should have been informed before we arrived at the planet.’

  ‘This is a one off colonel and it will never happen again. This crew has been together a year now and we still haven’t gelled as a team. I needed you and the crew to find these craft on your own. I want conferences, I want planning, I want healthy debates, the whole nine yards. We need to come together as a crew and as a team. We need to learn each other’s strength and weaknesses. The scientists will discover very quickly that they need you and your men to explore these craft. If this doesn’t happen colonel them I'm damn sure I'm not taking this ship through the great barrier; not with a crew I can’t rely on to work together.’

  ‘I thought you were stuck with us sir.’

  ‘For the past six months I have been working on a nano removal program with Babes. You will not relay that information to anyone else.’

  Howe nodded his understanding, ‘Have you completed the technology sir?’

  ‘Yes I have. Now I sent out a probe just after we got here and detected no signs of life anywhere within the bone yard. So take this as a low risk training exercise.’

  ‘I hear with what you are saying sir but maybe some of those ships have technology that can beat your probe.’

  ‘There is a very good probability of that colonel, so when you are sent out there to investigate you had better be on your toes. Will that be all?’

  ‘Yes sir.’

  Colonel Howe left and Buzz appeared a few minutes later, ‘what was the colonel after, he doesn’t look very happy?’ Steven told him but Buzz just shrugged.