Beyond Hyperspace Book 2 by P.J.Lawton (summer beach reads txt) 📕

From the Edge of Extinction

The Pan-Con spaceship Challenger sat quietly at full power-up on the almost deserted launch pad. He was curious because he knew there hadn’t been very many flights lately, mainly because there were few crews remaining to man the ships. The entire Sexton Space Port was equally deserted. He was shocked at the lack of activity at the once bustling hub. I guessed the Plague saw to that, he thought. As he neared the control building he realized it had only been three years. Three years to place the entire planet of Terra on the very edge of extinction.

It had started as a simple mistake. Really just a small mistake but the consequences were immeasurable. In less than thirty months over one third of the planet’s population, more than two-hundred-million were dead.

In 2230 Terra was divided into three massive confederations, the Pam-Continent Consortium, Trans World Union, and Eastern Star Alliance. Instead of pooling resources, petty jealousies kept them at constant odds with each other. The Terra confederations had been competing against each other for years and it was the result of their intense competition which directly contributed to the catastrophe.

The trouble all started when the Eastern Alliance deep space explorer Eastern Star made an accidental discovery. Exploring a region at the edge of the system they stumbled on to a small planet toward the inner circle of planets which had similar characteristics to Terra. The Captain quickly named it Terra II.

With barely time for a cursory inspection, the crew’s findings indicated that this might just be the place for colonization. A quick trip home for a refit and then an extended exploration was the plan. They had to hurry though, to beat the other confederations to the prize.

As they made departure preparations, one by one the returning surface exploration team went through an extensive decontamination process. That is, all except one. The last crewmember was running late for her shift and decided to skip a few steps and failed to complete the entire process. As she left the de-con chamber for the ship proper she didn’t know that a deadly virus was leaving with her.

Later when the ship docked at the Eastern Space Port Number One the service crew, upon opening the hatches, found the entire ships crew sick or dead. In a matter of minutes the airborne virus had found a new home.

The plague spread quickly and worked in three phases. First phase had the symptoms of a common cold. In the second phase the patient’s condition worsened to that of pneumonia. The third phase was coma and death. The mortality rate after contraction was one hundred percent. Unfortunately, nothing on Terra could stop it and the death toll was rising daily.

***

He heard someone call his name and quickly moved through the empty lobby to an open doorway.

“Come in James. I’m glad you’re made it” Sitting behind a massive oak desk bearing he emblem of Pan-Con Space Command was Admiral Joe Smith, his old friend and mentor.

“Hello Admiral, how are you? I was beginning to think no one was here.”

“James, there are just a few of us left now, the plague hit the space forces really hard. The Alliance Space Force has been virtually wiped out and most of the Trans World force is gone.”

“Really? I didn’t know it was as bad as all that. Of course I haven’t been getting much news lately up in the Northern Territories.” He owned a hunting lodge on the back along the border and had spent most of the last year there.

“Unfortunately it is that bad, and getting worse. That is where you come in. We have been able to put together short-handed crew for you. We want you to take the Challenger and go to T2. T2 was the slang for Terra II used by most spacers.”

“Me? T2? Why? I’m retired you know. I haven’t been in space for quite some time.

“James, Terra is in deep trouble. The Scientists have tried everything they know to stop this plague. It looks like we have just about run out of hope. We’ve decided to try one last time. We believe that T2 is where this plague originated we are hopeful that you can find something there to stop it. You’re a scientist as well as an experienced ships captain. I’m sorry James, but you are our last hope!

With no hesitation he said, “Of course Admiral, it would be a privilege to lead this expedition. I owe Jill and Janey that much at least.” The plague had taken his family the year before and the loss had hit him especially hard.

“One other thing James, the Trans-World folks managed to scrape together a crew and sent the TWS Brigand to T2 about three and a half months ago. There’s been no contact for weeks. I’m afraid they may be lost. There’s no telling what you will run into out there.

“I’ll just have to keep my eyes open, that’s all. When do I leave?”

“Your crew is on board now, should be able to depart within the hour.” Standing up and offering his hand the admiral gave James a sad smile. “Good-bye old friend. We know you’ll do your best. Unfortunately I won’t be here to welcome you home.”
“You mean…”
“Yes, I’m afraid so.”

***

The trip to Terra II was actually a short one. Once on board James got the scaled down crew together and briefed them of the situation. There was little conversation for everyone knew what was at stake.

When Challenger obtained standard orbit around the small planet they found the Brigand adrift in space. All attempts to contact her failed. James decided not to send a boarding crew to check her; there were just too many unknowns.

In order to send as many teams as possible to the surface he left only a skeleton crew on board Challenger. After all the surface crews were in place he took a small shuttle and docked with the TW ship. It was empty. His search found no evidence of what had happened to the crew. He decided to leave the ship as he found it. He boarded his shuttle and joined the search crews on the planets surface.

The going proved to be very slow for the two major cities were quite large. After five days they still had nothing to show for their efforts. Making matters worse were the bulky containment suits James required all to wear. Many of the searchers wanted to remove the suits but he overruled their requests. “Better uncomfortable than dead,” he said.

One the sixteenth day they got a break. James received an excited call on his communication link.

“Captain, this is team two. I think we may have found something. You had better get over here.”

“Captain here, what have you found and here are you located team two?

“We are in the lower level of the large building with the domed roof. We should be about one hundred yards north of the center of the city. It appears to be a library of some sort. Oh, and Captain, we also found the Brigand crew!”

A sense of dread settled over James but he tried not letting it show in his response. “Roger, I see your location. Stand by; I’ll be there in about five minutes.”

A few minutes later he stood looking down on the bodies of the dead space force crew. None were dressed in containment suits. The Captain was sitting against the wall, his dead eyes keeping protective watch over his people. His hand held a portable tape recorder. Picking it up James turned to the search crew.

“Let’s get ready to take this place apart. Might be something in here we can use. But first let’s see what message the Captain left for us.”
***

Quickly rewinding the tape he pushed the play button. A slightly accented voice filled the room and said:

“Personal Log of Captain Jerald. This recording is a last record of the voyage of the Trans-World spaceship Brigand. We were sent to the planet Terra II in an attempt to find a cure for the plague that is destroying Terra. Upon our arrival we discovered that in our haste to depart we had inadvertently left our anti-contamination suits behind. Since the planet was habitable and similar to Terra, the crew decided to continue with our mission without them. As my crew started to succumb to the illness we voted to leave them here, on the surface rather than in the coldness of space. Toward the end we did find something, however for us it was too late.”

There was silence for a few seconds then the tape continued. “Here we found what had been a medical research library. The writing of the documents was foreign but one of the crew was a scholar from Trio and could make out a few words. He says the writing looked to be in the ancient hieratic style. We were able to scan sufficient data into our computer to decipher information about ‘the great sickness’ that had engulfed this land. The citizens that had not yet gotten the sickness decided to join the stars in search of a new home and departed, but a few already infected remained behind.”

Captain Jerald’s voice was getting weaker and weaker. “The writings went on to say that a cure had been found, but it was too late for the people that remained. From what we could establish that was a very long time ago. I firmly believe that the cure is somewhere in these writings. If only I had had more time!”

As tape ended there all were silent for a few seconds. A cure? Was that really possible?

Putting the tape recorder in his carry bag, James said, “Okay folks, lets snap to it, I want all this sent to the ship immediately. Just make sure that all this is sent through complete decontamination.”

“Yes sir,” came several replies at once. Turning to leave the room he heard one last question. “Sir, what about the crew of Brigand?”

“Once we have cleared this room, we will seal it. This is where they chose to stay; we will leave them here in peace.”

***

James was awakened from a much-needed rest to the beep of a chirping com-link.

“Captain, first Officer here, looks like the computer is about finished working up the data. We thought you might want to join us for the initial trial run.”

“Thanks Commander, I’ll be right there.”

Rapidly strolling to the bridge he joined the First Officer and Communications Officer at the communications center. Calling all the crew around he said. “Well, here we are. In the next few minutes we will know if Terra has a chance for survival.”

Turning to the communications officer he continued, “Okay, just what do we expect to hear?”

“Well Captain, the computer was able decipher a lot of data, most of it a background history of the planet and people. I ran a query for information pertaining to the ‘sickness’ and possible cure and got good results. We have been able to reconstruct what was a scientist’s personal log. Shall I play it now?”

“Yes,