Speed of Darkness (eBook)
A Tale of Space, Time, and Aliens Who Love to Party!
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EPUB
2015
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1. Auflage
246 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-63192-950-2 (ISBN)
246 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-63192-950-2 (ISBN)
HUMANITY FACES A CHOICE as it reacts to the Djbrr, friendly and technologically advanced extraterrestrials who LOVE to party: should it embrace the fun-loving Djbrrs and their high-tech gifts, or fear them? At first, jubilation sweeps earth following the Djbrr's arrival. But celebration turns to distrust when catastrophe strikes earth's greatest technological achievement, Grissom Base on Jupiter's moon Io, and humans face a crisis of confidence. Kelso Frick, earth's top physicist, responds, creating Excelsior, the craft he believes will travel faster than light, an achievement the Djbrr-like Albert Einstein-think is impossible. Frick hand-picks the crew who will join him on Excelsior's quest to break the light barrier: Mission Commander Roy Geiger, a Navy veteran haunted by his role in the Grissom Base disaster, Pilot Nancy Mac, decorated war hero, top test pilot, and aerial combat ace, Science Historian Thomas Wilson, tasked with documenting Excelsior's historic journey, and Science Officer Mnggs, known to earthlings as Mingus, the Hero of First Contact, first Djbrr Nobel Laureate and first Djbrr celebrity, and to Las Vegas casinos as an optimistic-and compulsive-gambler. Excelsior's mission is soon imperiled by the suspicious death of a crewmember, rising anti-Djbrr sentiment, and an unknown scientist's warning of hidden danger lurking behind the light barrier. Despite these setbacks, Excelsior launches, hurtling ever faster through space, and in accordance with Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity, time aboard the craft slows relative to the passage of time on earth, where scientists begin questioning the mission's safety. On Excelsior, crewmates struggle with earth's shifting political winds and the dictates of their own consciences. As concerns grow about the consequences of breaking the light barrier, each of them must decide whether to fulfill their destiny by continuing the mission, or aborting it. Their decision will determine the fate of the cosmos.
A novel about space, time, and aliens who LOVE to party!"e;After First Contact, when earthlings learned the Djbrr tale of Creation, a tale of conflict between Darkness and Light, humans interpreted the story as a metaphor for Satan's revolt against heaven, or the battle between good and evil, or the struggle of light and darkness inside the soul. As is often the case, the universe would prove them wrong."e;Jubilation sweeps planet earth after First Contact with extraterrestrials, the friendly and technologically advanced Djbrr-aliens with an attitude who LOVE to party. Then catastrophe strikes earth's greatest technological achievement, Grissom Base on Jupiter's moon Io, and humanity faces a crisis of confidence. Earth's top physicist responds, creating Excelsior, the craft he believes will travel faster than light, an achievement the Djbrr-like Albert Einstein-think is impossible. But the suspicious death of an Excelsior crewmember and an unknown scientist's warning of hidden danger lurking behind the light barrier raise the question- Which is faster, the speed of light, or the speed of darkness?
A novel about space, time, and aliens who LOVE to party!"e;After First Contact, when earthlings learned the Djbrr tale of Creation, a tale of conflict between Darkness and Light, humans interpreted the story as a metaphor for Satan's revolt against heaven, or the battle between good and evil, or the struggle of light and darkness inside the soul. As is often the case, the universe would prove them wrong."e;Jubilation sweeps planet earth after First Contact with extraterrestrials, the friendly and technologically advanced Djbrr-aliens with an attitude who LOVE to party. Then catastrophe strikes earth's greatest technological achievement, Grissom Base on Jupiter's moon Io, and humanity faces a crisis of confidence. Earth's top physicist responds, creating Excelsior, the craft he believes will travel faster than light, an achievement the Djbrr-like Albert Einstein-think is impossible. But the suspicious death of an Excelsior crewmember and an unknown scientist's warning of hidden danger lurking behind the light barrier raise the question- Which is faster, the speed of light, or the speed of darkness?
CHAPTER 1
GEIGER
Roy Geiger accepted his appointment as First Officer of Grissom Base on Jupiter’s fifth moon, Io, the same way he accepted all his accomplishments—with a complete lack of ambition. Roy’s childhood neighbor, Jeffrey Graham, was always the ambitious one, the leader. Geiger was the sidekick, the second banana, the loyal best friend.
Had Roy grown up next door to anyone other than Jeff in their side-by-side mirror-image Florida homes, he never would have sought a scholarship to attend St. Petersburg’s Honor Naval High School, Admiral Farragut Academy, never received one of the school’s two appointments to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland (Graham got the other one), never achieved the rank of Lieutenant Commander, never been posted to Jupiter’s giant volcanic moon Io as second-in-command—to Commander Jeffrey Graham.
Now they sat together at the Grissom Base officer’s mess—Graham at the head of the table, Geiger at his right hand, eating breakfast and looking out at a vista neither of them could have imagined when they were children.
Gus Grissom Base rested within the shelter of Daedalus, an almost perfect bowl-shaped crater, twenty-six kilometers in diameter. With almost no atmosphere to obscure it, the 360-degree view around Daedalus’ rim was crystal clear and dramatically spectacular. Starting thirty feet below the crater’s surface, Daedalus had been built upward toward its rim, level upon level. After almost three decades of steady growth, in what was acknowledged as humanity’s greatest engineering achievement, the entire caldera of Daedalus was ringed with mining offices, science laboratories, military barracks and luxury hotels. Development had been somewhat haphazard and unzoned, more often than not determined by the transfer of large numbers of credits into the off-earth bank accounts of highly placed officials. But everyone wanted a view, and by unspoken agreement the outward surface of every level was faced with specially tempered glass, like ever-larger rings milled from diamonds. At sunrise, Grissom Base looked like a giant, glittering, crystal punchbowl.
“Long way from Florida, eh buddy?” Graham asked.
“I still miss those sunsets over the Gulf of Mexico, but sunrise on Io is not bad, not bad at all.”
“And first mess beats those cold grits and fried eggs they used to serve at Farragut.”
“Roger that, Commander, but I sure could go for a glass of real Florida orange juice to wash it down!”
Geiger spooned himself a second helping of “Pancakes a la Io,” the mess chef ’s breakfast specialty. Io’s low gravity made them extra light and fluffy.
“Well, Roy, duty calls,” Graham said, pushing back from the table. “I am outta here.”
“You’re gonna miss sunrise.”
“Have to. Engineering requested my presence over at the mine-head, ASAP. Something about stress fractures in some of the structural supports.”
“Sounds serious, Jeff. Want me to come along?”
“And keep you away from all that paperwork that’s been piling up on your desk? Not on your life! Besides, that’s why they pay me the big bucks!”
“Suit yourself, Skipper. But I really don’t have anything pressing this A.M., so I’m thinking I’ll pass the time drinking coffee, watching the sun rise and contemplating my duties as an officer and a gentleman.”
“Duties like hitting on Ensign Deyo?”
“Commander, I am shocked at your lack of faith in the dedication of your loyal first officer. I assure you the lovely ensign was the furthest thing from my mind. But now that you mention it…”
“Still no luck, eh?”
“As our new interstellar neighbors the Djbrr are so fond of saying, ‘Failure is merely a prelude to success.’”
“Even repeated failure?”
Geiger shrugged.
“Well don’t let that paperwork slide too long, Roy. I’ve got a feeling this stress fracture thing will require another mountain of it today.”
Graham got to his feet as Roy groaned.
“That all you got to say for yourself, sailor?”
“Yes sir. I mean, no sir. I mean…aye aye sir!” Geiger leapt to his feet, snapping to attention and saluting sharply.
“Carry on then, young man,” Graham said, returning Geiger’s salute and striding toward the mess hall door, “and try not to do anything today that will embarrass the United States Navy…or your commanding officer!”
Geiger lounged back in his swivel chair, taking a sip of steaming black coffee, contemplating the silence. The hour before dawn was one of the few quiet times on Grissom Base. Graham always made a point of waking Geiger with an intercom call ninety minutes ahead of reveille so they could work out, then enjoy breakfast together before the junior officers began filing in. Every morning Geiger grumbled his way out of bed, but he never rolled over and went back to sleep. Rising early also gave him, in theory, extra time to catch up on paperwork, (the scourge of every First Officer in the fleet), an opportunity Geiger routinely ignored. The Navy may have replaced sailing ships with starships, he thought, but it would never replace paperwork. To Geiger, that meant paperwork could always wait until tomorrow.
Through the mess hall door he could hear steps approaching down the passageway. That would be Ensign Deyo. Bright, ambitious, fresh out of Annapolis, and, as Geiger was almost constantly aware, quite attractive. Liz Deyo was always the first of the junior officers to arrive at every function. “Be a heckuva commanding officer some day,” Graham had once remarked. Geiger agreed. Working with Jeff all these years, Roy knew a good commanding officer when he saw one, though he had no such ambitions for himself. What he was, and what he wanted to be, was one hell of a great second in command, maybe the best in the fleet. While he may have let the paperwork slide a little too often for his C.O.’s liking, he never let Graham down on what they both considered his primary mission—backing up his C.O., as Graham had backed him since elementary school.
“Morning, Liz.”
“Good morning, Commander.”
“Are you here early for the sunrise, the chow, or my charming company? After all, it is Friday the Thirteenth. Could this be my lucky day?”
“Just trying to get a head start on my work, sir,” Deyo said, sliding a pocket computer from her tunic and setting it on the mess hall table next to her plate.
Geiger groaned. “All work and no play, Ensign?”
Deyo ignored him and began spooning salad and home-fried potatoes on her plate. No pancakes for someone who spends as many hours in the gym as Deyo, Geiger thought.
Just then the first rays of sunrise crept over the far rim of Daedalus, shining directly into the officer’s mess like diffused golden laser beams. On the other side of the crater, 180 degrees from where Geiger stood, the day’s mining operations had begun. The drill-head threw fine particles of sparkling red Ionian clay and Palomino sand high into Io’s thin atmosphere, turning sunrise into a spectacular, silent fireworks display. Jeff would be over at the mine by now, missing the wondrous sight they usually enjoyed together each morning.
Then Roy noticed something strange, something he would see when he was awake and asleep, in daydreams and in nightmares for the rest of his life. The slightest V, a notch in the crater rim at the drill head, allowing a premature and temporarily blinding blast of full sunlight to flicker out across the crater and into Geiger’s eyes. Roy blinked, clearing his vision, and watched as the notch grew, deeper, wider, with astonishing, shocking, horrifying speed.
“Deyo,” he said.
“Hunh?” Deyo answered, looking up from her computer.
“Key in the General Alarm, security code Geiger; Echo, Lima, Lima, India, Sierra.”
“What?”
“Key in the General Alarm. Now.”
“But…”
“Do it!”
Ensign Deyo looked back down at her computer and typed in Geiger’s General Alarm code, initiating an alarm that had never been used in the thirty-year history of Grissom Base. Immediately klaxons began blaring and warning lights flashing throughout Grissom’s seventeen vertical levels and twenty-six horizontal sections.
Geiger keyed the intercom on the wall next to him.
“This is Lt. Commander Geiger. I am declaring a base-wide emergency. All personnel, repeat, all personnel proceed to Level 1 immediately and seal that level as soon as practicable. Use ladder-ways only. Do not, repeat, do not use elevators. Proceed to Level 1 immediately and seal when practicable. This is not a drill.”
Geiger flipped the intercom’s “loop” toggle so his message would repeat continuously throughout Grissom Base, knowing many would ignore it in the belief it was a drill, or some kind of mistake.
Deyo rose from the table, confused, half wondering if Geiger had lost his mind. Then...
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 22.7.2015 |
|---|---|
| Sprache | englisch |
| Themenwelt | Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Science Fiction |
| ISBN-10 | 1-63192-950-X / 163192950X |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-63192-950-2 / 9781631929502 |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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