Moonlake's Fiction Space

We landed on a farming community some distance from the Frontier, that looked large enough to have a vehicle seller. Only Jessica had been here before and she couldn’t tell us much except that it was a quiet place. We decided that made it safe enough for us to split up in two teams: me, Estella and Guppy to get a buggy while Aurora went with Jessica to get supplies. Aurora gave Guppy a sly wink before we parted from each other. “If you ask Estella nicely you might even get some driving lessons on the way home.”

Guppy spinned to Estella, her eyes big and making weird sounds. 

“No might’s about it,” Estella told her firmly, “We own a buggy, everyone knows how to drive it, no exceptions, too useful a skill not to have.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “It’s also damned fun!”

Guppy skipped around, all bubbly. 

“I’m not sure if this crew and ship is the best or worst place for her to grow up,” Aurora commented to Jessica, “But I’m pretty sure she’s loving every second of it.”

“You said she came from the, uh, tunnel rats? If that’s the case, she’s much better off with all of you, no doubt about it. Most of them don’t make it to adulthood. And the ones that do… well, it’s not a bright future”

Aurora agreed and sighed, “Real bad lot, her previous crew, we have unfinished business with their leader, he’s not the kind of guy you turn your back on.”

“Oh, I don’t think I ever saw him. I’ve stitched up my share of the kids, but I did my best to never cross paths.”

“We’ll fill you in on him after our shopping trip,” Aurora promised her. “Hopefully he’s moved on to a more lucrative place, or that convoy of mercs that was riding towards our ship last time scared him off, still curious who hired them and why.”

“The way you reacted, I gather they were not your average sort of mercs. Any theories about them?”

“I figure they’re the kind someone with a lot of money to burn would hire to make an example out of someone, or at least they’re not the small time mercs that just intimidate people, they show up to spill blood.” Estella looked uneasy at the admission.

“But, then, who has that kind of money? And why would all of you… I mean all of us be worth it?”

“That’s the million dollar question isn’t it?” Aurora shrugged. “The usual sorts we make enemies off are run of the mill thugs, they don’t have deep enough pockets to hire that kind of muscle, let alone that convoy that rolled on us when we lifted off the other day.”

“My working theory is rivals of that guy we fixed the Atherium converter for, rival mining corp or whatnot, we’re keeping him in business, that makes us someone to take out so they can go back to cutting his profit margins.” Estella said, then looked over to Aurora “Your talent for fixing and making machines out of nothing is a game changer for a major guild, they might just want to capture you and force you to work for them, make them shiny new toys to outdo the competition?”

“It’s not like I go about bragging about my talent. Hue did most of the repair work on that converter anyway, so they’d have no idea I was involved.”

“And why do they want to cut his profit margins? This is the frontier. It’s wide open for people to come in and set up shop. I don’t see much competing out here.”

“Someone sabotaged his converter, apparently there’s a push to turn this planet into a mainstream supplier instead of the quiet backwater it is right now, or at least that’s what we were told.” Aurora explained. 

“Sam was the one who cut the deal with the owner,” Now I was the one Estella looked at. “Did he seem shifty to you? Like he was hiding something?”

“You know those businessmen. Always have something up their sleeves.”

“But why would there be money in stopping progress out here?” Jessica looked confused. 

“It’s a while ago but I get a gist of mostly resistance from the everyday people, not sure about big money. Maybe there’s something else here that we haven’t been told.”

“I don’t think any of the locals would have the kind of money you’re talking about though.”

“That’s what I’m saying. That converter thing was a done job to me. And then we had that adventure at the asteroid and well, makes everything seem so long ago.” I said. 

“Maybe someone wants what we know about the moon,” Aurora paused, “Did either of you tell anyone about our moon adventure?”

“So would anyone come after you for a job you did awhile ago? The more you all tell me about this, the more confused I get.” Jessica said. 

“Well, I bragged a little to the old boy.” I said after a pause. 

“As in Scorsby?” Jessica asked. 

“Yes, we know each other for a while now and that’s what we do together.”

“Hmm, you told him and then these mercs started showing up, I wonder if he’s behind it all then?” Estella glanced towards the horizon in thought.

“But why would he hire mercs instead of just asking us for details or to show him the place? It’s not like we’re trying to keep it a secret.” Aurora scratched her head in confusion.

“Actually, I thought everyone knows how to get to that junk asteroid, it’s so close. But now that I think about it, I think the old boy’s trying to suss out the route to it?”

“Or the way inside?” Estella nodded. “There’s a fortune to be made in salvage alone, let alone being able to take the place over and turn it on, whoever did that would own the entire star systems trade hub if they could control the moon.”

“Assuming that’s his goal,” Aurora nodded in agreement, “There’s also the possibility he knows what’s down there, and wants to make sure we don’t live long enough to tell anyone else what we’ve found, keeping the secret for later exploitation, or just because he thinks it’s too dangerous.”

“He might just want the asteroid for himself.” Then Estella clarified for my benefit. “I confess it wasn’t exactly easy to locate, if not for the ship flying us there on its own I doubt we’d of never found it.”

“Sounds like our friend Scorsby might not be as nice as we originally thought.” Aurora concluded. 

I thought about it for a while. “The old boy sure is not all up-and-up. That makes him fun in some ways.”

“Being blackmailed by him surely isn’t fun.” Jessica said grimly. 

“True, so when you told him about the asteroid were you two alone? Thinking if someone overheard they might be behind it rather than him.” Estella suggested a different story. 

“We were at his office. I went to him to get a reference to black market doctors. It was that day I met Jessica.”

To be fair his office could be bugged, but the more I hear about his shady dealings the less inclined I am to assume his innocence.” Aurora said. 

“Well, hopefully you’ll keep an open mind when you interrogate him over drinks later.” Jessia said. 

“Life’s no fun. One day you are drinking buddies, the next day you have to cloak and dagger stuff.” I lamented over life’s turns. 

Jessica puts her hand on my arm. “I’m sorry, Sam, I really am. I guess I didn’t realize I was putting you in that position. I’ve been thinking too much of my own situation.”

“It’s not you putting us in that position. Jessica, if Scorsby’s the one hiring Mercs to take us out, your involvement is secondary.” Aurora told her. 

“Still, I can see that it’s a difficult thing. It sounds like you have a lot of history with him.”

I sighed. “It’s not you. I’m too willing to believe, and go over my head all the time. It’s like I’m always drinking, when I’m not.”

“It’s ok, Sam. We all have our moments. I managed to get blackmailed.”

“It’s time to get to work.” I concluded and walked off in a different direction to Aurora and Jessica. I didn’t really know where I was going, I just wanted to leave the conversation. After a while, Estella caught up with me from behind and pointed out that the town was in the other direction. “Unless you know of a good dealer on the outskirts?” She asked me hopefully.

“Uh? Oh, I was… I thought we were meant to split up. Then seemed a good time to.”

“Oh, um yeah..” She smiled awkwardly. “Well the buggy dealer is that away so…” She gestured towards the town. I turned in the direction indicated and started walking. 

“You okay?” Estella asked me after a couple minutes of silence. “I know the whole situation with Scorsby is sketchy, but.. It might still all work out okay?”

“I’m not worried. Sam’ll kick his butt if he’s tryin ta mess with us. Hey Sam, what’s the biggest butt you’ve ever kicked?”

I turned around and showed Guppy a twisted smile. “Too many I’ve kicked, hard to tell which is the biggest.”

She got a big grin on her face. “See Estella, nothin ta worry about.”

“Is it just me, or does that building stick out?” Estella asked me and Guppy, “It looks like it was built by someone other than the original colonists.” I looked at it and couldn’t find anything familiar about it. I did note that it was very defensible and commented so. 

“I’m sure you could take it, Sam.” The kiddo had so much confidence in me that I might have been touched if I was that sort of person. 

“Now I’m curious,” Estella started walking towards it. “Might as well see what’s going on inside, worst they’ll do it tell me to leave when I walk in the lobby. It’s probably a law firm, it looks like the kind of intimidating structure legal vultures would build.” She muttered to herself. 

There was a transparent wall near the entrance but it sort of wavered, which I took to be some kind of shielding mechanism. The door slid open, however, as I followed on the heels of Estella. 

We went straight into a small lobby with a couple of uncomfortable chairs and a well-dressed man sitting behind a desk. There was no logo like you would expect in a corporate building. 

“And who said I’m the only one who wanders off?” I muttered under my breath. My eyes invariably were drawn to the few holes high on the walls that did not look particularly inviting. “May I help you?” the man asked in a cold voice. 

I pretended to cough, signalling for Estella to look up. I saw her glance up and nod slightly. 

“Yes, I’m new to town and learning my way around, is this the right place to inquire about hiring mercenary services?” Estella asked the man, playing it cool. 

His mouth almost disappeared into a thin, lipless line. He glowered at us for a while but finally said, “I’m sorry, but you have come to the wrong place.” He had an accent that’s hard to place. Not strong but noticeable. 

“I see, so what is this place again?”

He sneered in response. “If you don’t know, you have no business here.” He turns away from us as though that’s our cue to leave. 

“Yep, they’re second rate, just like we thought,” Estella gave me a nod as she started walking back towards the door,

I shrugged and followed her out of the building. “We’ll send Aurora back there later, I’m betting she can learn more, she’s better at social graces, I prefer the charm of a cockpit.” Estella said. 

We proceeded on to our actual task- the buggy buying, which went smoothly. We went for a large hover sled style of craft, which burned through most of our funds. 

“That taps us out for savings, time to look for more work once we get this Scorsby business settled.” Estella commented. 

I nodded “Time to go back.”

“Okay Guppy, I’ll drive us part way home, get a feel for our new ride, she handles okay, you’ll take us the other half.” Estella offered Guppy, who giggled. “I can’t wait, Estella.”

Estella fired up the sled and nodded to me. “Ready to head back? Or do you want to chill at a local bar for a bit while I pick up Aurora and Jess and haul their stuff back home?” She asked me. I decided to take her up on the offer and climbed back out. 

When Guppy came in the gunnery deck, she looked like she had scrawled the words “I’m serious” on her forehead. And she looked like that all the way when she was helping out and did not speak one word to me.

“Loosen up, kiddo, you need your concentration for the shots.” I told her. She nodded and furrowed her brow in concentration.

The actual shot was not worth that much seriousness from her, no. It hit the reactor and then the ship just blew apart.

“That’s one less problem for the universe to deal with.” Estella said.

“Now to find that torpedo.” Aurora reminded us.

“Nothing too useful here, unless one of you can slice these files?” Aurora asked us. “Without them erasing themselves in the process.”

“Not really my area. If no one else on board can we can always hunt down a specialist planetside.” Estella replied.

“Looks like the only option to me.” I said.

“It’s headed for a small asteroid field, we should be able to find it, and if need be blast the asteroids to rubble to make sure it doesn’t cause any trouble, and give Guppy some more gunnery practice.” Estella informed us of the missing torp.

“Sounds like a plan, set us on course?” Aurora said.

“Already done.”

“We should also sow quarantine buoys around that asteroid with the plants on it in the first place, keep other people from making similar mistakes.” Aurora suggested.

“We can drop a note to the planetary governor, let them make it all nice and official and not come out of our funds.” Estella suggested as she walked into the lounge.

“Good plan, also keeps us from being responsible if the buoys fail or whatnot.”

Jessica came wandering in. “Well, that was interesting”

“Oh?” Aurora looked at her while Estella poured a drink into an empty glass. I assume that was for Jessica.

“I wasn’t sure what I was looking at at first. Some kind of plant extract maybe. But the closer I looked, I think it’s a blood sample. But, you know, not a normal one. I don’t think I’ve seen turquoise blood before. Maybe it’s been processed? I don’t know. I’ll need better equipment to look deeper. But it’s not like anything I’ve seen before.”

“Turquoise? Fascinating.” Estella slid the drink across the bar to Jessica. “Whatever’s going on with that planet’s plant life, it’s a lot more dangerous than we first suspected.”

“It’s quite possibly what wiped out that underground place’s original owners.” Aurora said.

Jessica took a deep drink and sighed appreciatively.

I wasn’t trying to whitewash us but I thought it would be good to be clear on things. “This may be conspiracy theory but do you think this blood sample could be the cause for what happens to that crew? Or at least one of the causes? Maybe our bio mines speeded things up?”

Jessica looked into her glass in contemplation. “That’s a really good question. I don’t know for sure, but it’s entirely possible.”

“So they were already ill with something?” Aurora nodded thoughtfully.

“Any kind of fungal infection might of mutated horribly from the bio mines, or whatever mold was lurking in their trash compactors and under the bathroom tiles?” Estella suggested.

Jessica tapped her chin as she answered. “What Sam said is getting me thinking. What if there was already some kind of mutation going on over there and then the mine hit and blew it way out of all sanity? The samples are old enough that they were taken well before the mines hit.”

“So then the pirates might have been hunting us because they were crazy and not hired by someone?” Aurora went off on another train of thought.

“Looks like our hire for a hacker is really on. That encrypted file seems our only lead now.” I concluded.

“That would explain why they never answered anything over the comlink.” Estella nodded to what I said, “We need to make sure we’re there while they do the hacking too, so they don’t keep any of the data for themselves.”

“I thought some of them wanted to surrender but were killed off by those that didn’t. But it could equally be that some of them were still sane and then killed by those whose minds went to pieces.” I said.

It’s horrifying to think about” Jessica said with a pale face. She hurriedly took another sip to steady herself.

“It makes me wonder how they got infected with whatever it is in the first place.” Aurora said with a glance out of the window, fidgeting slightly as she did so.

“Well, it was in that case… What did you say that company did again Sam?” Jessica asked me.

“Data mining, you know, looking at data and getting to spot trends. Something like that.”

“Doesn’t sound like the kind of thing that would lead to them being infected by something.” Estella said doubtfully.

“Well, depends on the kind of data they’re looking for…” An alarm went off.

“We’re close, I’ll be on the bridge!” Estella told us excitedly and hurried back towards the bridge.

“Time to hone your gunnery girl.” Aurora winked at Guppy, who grabbed my hand and ran us all the way to the gunnery station. We were apparently in an asteroid although nothing near enough to present a danger. The torp was just ahead, not far from crashing into one of the asteroids. “Port side five hundred yards!” Estella yelled over the com.

“I’m on it! Sam, does this look right?” I eyeballed it and directed her to make some tiny adjustments.Guppy fired. The shot skimmed the edge of the torpedo, breaking it apart.

“Nice shot, now finish off the pieces.” Aurora encouraged her with a smile.

“Ok, Aurora.” Guppy took a few shots. “I’m messing it up!” She yelled as she hit one of the asteroids instead. At the same time some of the torp pieces crashed into the asteroid as well.

“Load up some plasma torps, let her practice on the debris field with those, that’ll clean up the infection and give her some practice with the heavy stuff.” Estella suggests, pulling around to torpedo range.

“You’re learning” Aurora spoke to Guppy gently. “This is how you learn, by practicing, and learning how to get it right.”

Guppy kept at it, ended up blowing up half the asteroid along with the other pieces. But she got the hang of it.

“Now that’s a spicy meatball!” Aurora said, at which Guppy burst up laughing. Aurora told her she was getting the hang of it, proud mother style.

“Guppy guts the torpedo!” Guppy shouted in typical child enthusiasm.

“You’ve certainly cleaned up this asteroid field.” Estella told her over the com with a chuckle. “Unless anyone objects I’ll set us on course for the planet so we can buy the buggy and follow our previous plans?”

“And maybe get my sick bay set up. And a nice lab if you can swing it…”

“We’ll make that a priority, I’ll rest easier knowing we have some treatments on hand for… Whatever this is?” Aurora said.

“Agreed.” From Estella.

“I must say, I’m really curious to find out.” Jessica said.

“We’ll set up your lab with some quarantine doors and an emergency jettison bolts.Things get out of hand, we can blast it loose and torpedo it from a safe distance, safer than risking our ship being over run.” Aurora was thinking ahead.

“Umm, just hopefully not with me in it…”

“Again.” Estella reminded us. “Overrun again, we already got overrun once by plants, but those ones were… Gentle by comparison to what happened over there.”

“We’ll put in an airlock at the quarantine seal, then you can evac if it jettisons with you inside and we just pick you back up.” Aurora said.

“Good thinking.”

“As exciting as things get here, it seemed like a reasonable worry” Jessica smiled.

“Things are usually much more tame, I assure you,” Aurora said with a grin. “Just lately… Well we’ve found the fringe of colonized space is a lot more exciting than the core worlds.”

“Oh, it’s definitely better than being blackmailed.”

“I’m still a bit shocked Scorsby would stoop to such a level, but if he thinks it’s some form of justice it makes sense.” Estella said.

“That reminds me, we still have to get Old Scorby drunk.” I reminded her.

“I just know it’ll feel a lot better once that’s cleared up.” Jessica said.

“Lets hope you can drink him under the table.” Aurora chimed in.

“I have every confidence in Sam’s ability to trade shots with the guy,” Estella said confidently. “Besides, she doesn’t have to out drink him, just get him drunk enough I can use my talent to tell the truth of the questions we ask him while you and Guppy and Jessica case his office.”

“Leave it to me.” I winked.

I moved forward down a buckled hallway listening intently for any sound. It was not far before the debris piled up was blocking most of the way. I could see the outline of a door ahead but it was buried under junk metal. I started clearing away all the debris so that we could open the door. 

“There’s… something beyond the door.” Estella warned me as I was clearing the debris, “If it’s a person they’re… messed up somehow, their thoughts are.. broken?” 

“Could be the spores infected them from the mines, drove them mad?” Aurora asked. 

“I’m not sure, just be on guard.”

Some of the odd pieces were damn heavy to life. I started panting from exhaustion. Guppy ran up and tried to help me, but was mostly getting in the way. 

The other gals just talked and talked. I finally broke in. “We have a more pressing issue at hand. I need some help clearing these debris away.”

“I think I might be stuck here…” Guppy piped up and when I looked down, she was wedged between two pieces of metal. I lifted up one of the metal parts so she could climb out. She squirmed free. “I’m not used to these suits. I used to be so good at climbing through stuff.”

“I’ll give you a hand Sam, Guppy, can you help Estella keep watch?” Aurora volunteered. Between the two of us, we made much quicker progress. 

And then the door was yanked open from the other side. Estella screamed behind me, “Kill it!”

What came through that door were monstrosities, once-humans with vines poking out of their skins, distorted flesh, bones sticking out, limbs connected together by another vine. I let loose an arrow on them upon reflex. It might have been a good shot except that it went through a hole where there should have been a shoulder. A vine lashed out at me. I danced out of the way. 

Aurora fired a shot behind me and bits of the ceiling came crashing down. “Sam, can you help me carry Estella back to the ship?” She asked me as more debris rained down on us. Estella, by this point, was clutching her head as she rolled on the floor in pain. I went over and slugged her over my shoulder. Jessica looked disoriented right next to Estella but I didn’t have time to console her. I figured it’s time to hightail it out of there. 

“I’ll bring up the rear. We should fall back to our ship, I don’t think there’s anything left alive here for us to question.” Aurora said. 

I heard that sound of vines dragging on the ground somewhere behind us that told me more of the human-vine monsters were coming through. I let loose a laser field blast on them. That punched some holes into one which got wobbly but still were able to stand. Aurora also let loose with her shotgun on the creature. It ran/clambered away while bleeding in red and green. But the other one tried to snag me. I went sideways and twisted out of its way. Aurora shot at it to clear the way for the rest of us. Green liquid spewed out and a wine fell to the floor. Everyone ran. 

Halfway, a vine with a clawed hand on the end swiped at Aurora. She tried to slide under it but it tripped her up so that she didn’t quite make it. My heart clearly jumped to my throat as I knew I couldn’t make it to her in time. But she saved herself by firing point blank at the creature. Good girl. Although the aim was a little off, letting the creature strike at her again. But she made it through. All clear back to the Xing. 

Estella thanked me. I asked if she was okay. She nodded, giving the pirate ship a haunted look. “I-I’ll be okay, but that… We need to blow that ship to scrap, no one deserves to exist like that, not dead, not alive, just.. Torn.”

We agreed to stop making those bio mines and torps in case they winded upon landing on the wrong places like a colonized planet. 

“I’ll head to the bridge and bring us around, some more cannon shots into the engines should blow the reactor, and that ship to pieces.” 

Aurora stopped Estella by holding up a hand. “On second thought, we should attach towing lines to it, set it on a high speed trajectory for the sun and let it burn, we blast it and bits of it could reach the nearby planet and infest the locals.”

“You saw how those things were tearing up our ship, they might fix it before it reaches the sun and then fly who knows where.” Estella pointed out.

“What have we unleashed?” I felt my brain getting too small for this discussion and decided to let Estella and Aurora figure things out.

“Fair enough, we can always let Guppy shoot the pieces that are left with the plasma cannons, get in some gunnery practice with Sam after to make sure nothing’s left.”

“I get to shoot stuff?” Guppy smiled. 

“We got it under control,” Estella reassured me, “Just need to make sure to shoot it real good.”

“You know it girl,” Aurora told Guppy with a grin. “Sam here will show you how to fire the main cannons real good.”

“Yay!”

“All right, let’s get to work.” I said. 

“Oh, hey, Aurora, I found this when I was trying to help Sam.” I turned back to see Guppy handing Aurora a dented case with a symbol stamped on it. A single star with an arrow encircling it. 

“What is that?” I looked at the case in Aurora’s hand.

Aurora looked at the symbol for a while before opening the case. “Nice work.” She said to Guppy. “No idea, yet.” To me. 

“Looks like someone’s lunch box maybe?” Estella joked. 

Inside the case were some test tubes with a greenish-blue liquid inside and some data chips. 

“Looks familiar somehow.” That symbol joted a memory, something from Earth. 

“It’s…” Aurora’s voice trailed off halfway. “It’s something for Jessica to figure out.” She finally said and held out the case to Jessica. Jessica took it but her brow crinkled as she looked at it.  “Doesn’t look familiar, but if you have a lab, I can analyze it.”

It hit me then. It was some data company, to do with marketing or something like that. I used to pass through its headquarters a lot on Earth when I was travelling to and from work. I told the others. 

“Hmm, I wonder if they’re the ones who hired the mercs?” Aurora said and fell into thinking mode. Then she looked up in alarm,  “I just realized something.”

“What?”

“Guppy’s torpedo missed, it was loaded with that same stuff, we need to figure out its trajectory and whether or not it will make planet fall or just head out into the black.”

“Best as I can recall it wasn’t so that torps gone, probably will freeze out in the black, unless some ship finds it.” She decided after a while. 

“So we have to head out to Great Black chasing the missing torpedo?” I was excited rather than alarmed.

We probably should, yeah,” She nodded, “If not and it winds up being hauled in by some salvage ship the mess it causes, that’s on us.” Aurora hit the intercom and filled Estella in. 

“Once we blast this ship to scrap, sure, we can give it a try, the torp should be shiny enough to see if we look through a telescope, or get close. Next time I come up with a brilliant idea, Guppy, remind me to think about all the ways it could go horribly wrong and bite me in the ass. Mom always used to say I was my own worst enemy, and my smarts got me into more trouble than it got me out of, guess she was right.”

“It’s ok Stella. I know you didn’t mean it to happen. Don’t be so hard on yourself. I mean, you and Aurora and Sam have all been very good to me when you could have just left me behind. You’ve all been good to me”

“Thanks Guppy, and you’re right, we just wanted to deal with the pirates, we didn’t really expect this to happen, not when the plants were more… Tame when they got loose on our ship. You should head down to the cannon deck, Sam’s probably waiting to give you those gunnery lessons.”