ParaDiv Ops: Earthbound Spirits, page 1
ParaDiv Ops: Earthbound Spirits
Jaxon Reed
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Other books by Jaxon Reed
1
Mia Chen walked barefoot along a trail through the trees. The sun beat down through a canopy of branches, dappled light guiding her way.
It was not a real sun, of course. It showed a quantum transmission of Sol’s rays, delivering true sunlight to the forest many light years away.
One could truly get lost in here, she thought.
The giant forest helped replenish the atmosphere aboard Eos, otherwise known by its official naval designation, Interstellar Colonization Vessel 009.
For a big ship, a huge forest replenished the air. Mia had no idea how deep the soil ran here. Nor how far the artificial blue sky reached up above. But the forest, she did know, stretched for at least 80 of the 91 kilometers available on this deck.
She had walked from the hullcar stop at least 7 klicks as the crow flies, and probably half again that far with all the twists, turns and switchbacks from the ever-winding path she followed.
She stopped when the trail split in a Y and went down on one knee, searching the base of the first tree on the trail leading right. She touched everywhere around the rim of the trunk, finding nothing. She remained unconcerned.
Mia moved over to the first tree on the trail going left. Carefully she ran her hands along this big oak’s bark near the ground. A piece came off, revealing a red mark underneath.
Satisfied, she replaced the chunk of wood.
“Left it is,” she said out loud, heading off in the new direction.
She continued onward, reveling in her grand adventure. Surely her destination could not be much farther.
Now the trail quickly deteriorated. Not many people walked this way, including the ship’s arborists, agronomists and other scientists. And certainly not those using the forest for recreational purposes.
This is more like it, she thought. I’m off the beaten trail!
She hurried now, moving quickly. Underbrush grew thick and untrimmed branches increasingly barred the way, bending to her touch then snapping back into position like gates to keep intruders out.
Mia pressed on, remembering her directions. The sound of rushing water in the distance grew louder.
At 16, she stood fully-grown, brown hair down to her shoulders. A broad mix of Indonesian, Indian and Chinese, she maintained a rebellious streak. This would be the longest she had been away from her parents’ living quarters, but she fully intended to return before either ended their shifts.
At last, she came to a large clearing. Here the path emptied out into the center of the giant forest, opening to the select few who bothered trying to find it.
She stopped for a moment, taking in the sights.
Three rivers met their end here, the runoff falling into a deep hole designed for recycling. The precious water would make its way back to the top of the ship and into streams on higher levels. The water would wander through parks and fountains, then the forest, and back here once more to this very spot. And the cycle would be repeated.
The water rushed down into the sinkhole, sending waves of mist up in the air. A light sheen covered the grass, as well as the leaves and trunks of nearby trees.
Birds flitted through the mist, some circling above. Forest creatures, carefully introduced to maintain a thriving biodome while Eos journeyed among the stars, sipped from the running water and gamboled in the sunlight.
Mia smiled.
She activated the camera above her right eyebrow, transmitting everything she saw and heard to her private storage cloud on the ship’s server.
“Hello, this is Mia Chen, and I am at the center, the very heart of the Terran Alliance Starship Eos! This is where all the streams in the entire biodome coalesce and return on their great cycle of life. Look at this! Nobody bothers to come out here, but I’m here! I made it!”
She walked closer to the giant sinkhole. The roar of rushing water filled her ears as mist surrounded her, instantly drenching her body.
A different sort of mist rose out of the sinkhole on the other side, glowing green. Roughly human shaped, with a head and arms stretching out, it floated to the edge. Looking down at the roaring water, Mia did not see it.
She remained fixated on the sinkhole. She watched it, letting the sound and the moisture overtake her senses.
The green mist floated around the sinkhole, swirling now, as if trying to coalesce into something more tangible.
“It’s beautiful!” Mia murmured. “I wish I could see a rainbow! I heard when the sun hits the vapors just right, it . . .”
Something intruded on her senses, behind her.
She turned, still recording and jumped.
A face in the green swirling mist, hateful and snarling, rushed at her. A dark mouth gaped open as if to bite her head off.
Mia screamed, and took a step back . . .
Water rushed down into the pit with her, swallowing her whole.
-+-
* * *
The Star Deck covered most of Eos’s top 100 kilometers. It stretched along 89 of those kilometers. The remaining 11 comprised the stern of the ship, which contained mechanical apparatuses such as water pumps, as well as the enormous interstellar engines propelling Eos through space.
Stars shined through the clear ceiling of the aptly named Star Deck. Crewmembers and their families often spent hours up here, gazing in awe at the wonders of the galaxy. It served as a nice open park area, with lots of room to stretch out.
One spot near the front remained reserved for transit back to Earth. Specifically the location marked A1-01-05, near the prow of the massive starship, remained off-limits to all except for those assisting in teleportation.
Outside of A1-01-05, a large waiting area stretched out with comfortable seats. Visitors from another time and place would recognize the area as an appropriate setting for airports or other transit stations.
Into this space a kindergarten teacher marched, her small army of students trailing behind. Each child had his or her hand on the right shoulder of the one before.
They all gazed up at the ceiling in awe and wonder, the stars slowly sliding by.
“Everyone have a seat!”
Dutifully, the children climbed up into the waiting chairs, facing the large platform.
“Boys and girls, who can tell me what this is?” the teacher said, pointing.
One of the little girls raised her hand.
“This is the Quantum Matter Transfer Station, Ms. Ona.”
“That’s right! And where does the Quantum Matter Transfer Station transfer matter to and from, Maria?”
“Earth!”
“That is partly correct. Actually it goes to Titan Naval Station. Can anybody tell me where TNS is? Tommy?”
“It orbits Titan, one of Saturn’s moons.”
“That’s right! We can move people and things back and forth from Eos to Titan Naval Station. A platform there looks just like this. But you’re right, Maria. From Titan it’s an easy jump to Earth.”
She smiled as the children squirmed in their seats. Already, their attention wavered.
“Why can’t we just teleport people to the planet we’re going to? Anybody?”
This seemed to be a perplexing question to those children listening and not looking up at the stars or out at the rest of the deck, or over into the sealed-off area.
Why indeed? Ms. Ona waited patiently.
Finally, a little boy raised his hand and the teacher pointed at him.
“Because we haven’t gotten there yet?”
“That’s right, Deng! We haven’t gotten there yet. We can only teleport from one station to the other, so we have to bring another station to the new planet first. I am so proud of you, boys and girls. You are learning so much!”
At that moment two specialists walked in wearing off-white overalls with blue designation patches on their shoulders.
“Looks like we got an audience, Gris,” the younger one said.
The older man grunted. Barrel-chested and square-jawed, he had the look of a brawler, or a man who moved heavy things for a living. His rather high rank, as evidenced by C6 badges on both shoulders, indicated he had made the Navy his career.
The younger man, shorter by six centimeters an d weighing considerably less, wore B6 badges, a respectable rank. But Gentry Grisback outranked most other specialists on the ship. He would be in charge of the transfer today, as usual.
They waved politely at the schoolchildren as they passed, and two dozen young eyes followed them on their way to the control booth.
The teacher said, “Do we know who is coming in today, gentlemen?”
Gris ignored her, as if he had not heard her. But Specialist Everett Cantu was too polite to do that, especially in front of the children.
“No, ma’am, we don’t know. Orders. But I’m sure it has to do with the recent incident down on the forest level.”
He danced around the unpleasantness of the accident, since children were present.
“You mean the girl who died?”
He and the teacher glanced at the young boy who blurted out the truth.
Well, so much for sugarcoating it, Cantu thought.
Out loud he said, “Yes. They’re sending someone in to investigate the matter.”
“What’s to investigate?” the teacher said, forgetting her class for a moment. “She just fell, that’s all. I heard she was the exploring type and she wandered too far from her settlement.”
He shrugged politely.
“Cantu! Get in here, it’s about to start!”
He gave another friendly wave to the class and jogged over to join Gris in the control booth before the older man started swearing at him, kids or no kids present.
The little girl closest to the teacher tugged on her blouse.
“Miss Ona? How does the Matter Quantum Transfer Thingie work?”
“Well, paired molecules act the same no matter how far apart they are separated. So the transfer platform simply swaps position with its partner back on Earth, taking along whoever or whatever is on top of it. You see?”
The little girl shook her head.
“What’s a molly cool?”
“Oh look, it’s about to start! We’ll talk more later.”
Power shifted, unseen and unheard, from the ship’s giant core.
A force field blocked all access to the platform as a klaxon wailed.
Air blurred behind the barrier, turning almost sheer white.
Abruptly, everything cleared. The klaxon stopped and a young man stood on the platform surrounded by travel crates.
Immediately, he picked up one of the boxes and headed out to the waiting area, the children watching him with keen interest.
“Who are you?” a little girl asked.
He stopped, staring at her, then the other children and finally the teacher. He looked surprised to see them there.
“I’m Marvin Pace.”
A voice called out from the control booth.
“Get out there and help him move that stuff! The next one’s coming through in less than a minute!”
The man turned and rushed back to the platform and grabbed another container.
Cantu came hustling out of the control booth and grabbed two. They made three more quick trips and decluttered the platform just in time.
“Stay out here,” Cantu said, panting.
The other fellow nodded, hands on his knees and catching his breath.
Cantu noted the man’s rank: B6, same as his.
Power surged again. The klaxon sounded and the force field went up around the platform.
Everything blurred white . . . then dissipated just as fast. An older gentleman stood on the platform, wearing officer blue.
Cantu gaped in surprise.
First, this man looked to be nearing retirement. Certainly he appeared to be over 60 years old, with stark white hair and ample crow’s feet.
Second . . . the man was an officer. That blew Cantu’s mind. He had been expecting another C-ranked specialist.
The older man’s eyes found them and he walked down from the platform, heading their way.
Cantu glanced at his rank badge.
The insignia on his shoulder read Q5. Another surprise. Shocking, really. Who knew the Q rank went that high?
“Did we get all our stuff, B Pace?”
The young man nodded, nervous and happy at the same time.
The older man noticed the children, all openly staring at him. Miss Ona stared too, although she tried to be more discreet.
He smiled and turned toward them.
“Why hello! Are we all on a field trip today?”
Some of the children nodded back, wide-eyed.
He offered his hand to the teacher.
“Cline Jones, Q5.”
“Paris Ona.”
“It’s good to meet you. Maybe I can drop by your class sometime and we can talk about Earth. How many of you have been to Earth?”
Three children raised their hands, shyly.
“How many to Titan?”
The same children kept their hands up.
“Wow, so a lot of you have never been. Born here on the ship, I see. Well, I will be happy to drop by sometime for a talk, Miss Ona, if you want me to. Time moves faster on Earth, you know? Lots of changes have happened there.”
“I’m sure we would all like that. Come along, class! We should go back to school, now. Everyone form a line. Hand on the shoulder in front of you.”
In short order the school children marched out, everyone gazing up at the slowly moving stars as they left.
Watching them go, Jones turned to Cantu and said, “So, are you our reception committee?”
“Uh, Grisback is the C-rank. He should be along shortly . . .”
The door to the control booth opened and Grisback stepped out, cursing. He watched the train of kindergartners as they filed away.
“I thought those munchkins would never leave.”
Grisback turned to the newcomers and all the crates. His face dropped at the sight of a blue uniform.
“They sent an officer to investigate?”
Jones smiled at his reaction.
He said, “We heard there were some abnormalities surrounding a recent death onboard the Eos. This is B Pace, my assistant. I’m Cline Jones, Q5. We’re from ParaDiv.”
-+-
* * *
Cantu rounded up some bots to carry all the equipment and the whole contingent headed toward a hullcar. These conveyances traveled along the sides of the entire ship and between decks. In a vessel as large as Eos, it could take weeks to walk from one end to the other on foot.
Gris led, grumpily. He did not bother trying to help with the crates while Cantu arranged things with some bots.
He said, “Follow me, sir,” and marched to the hullcar station without looking back.
Jones smiled. He shrugged and followed, the bots trailing with their luggage.
The two B6’s brought up the rear of the procession and both decided to take this opportunity to talk quietly.
“What’s his deal?” Pace grumbled in a low voice.
Cantu said, “Gris was just expecting another specialist, that’s all. He likes to boss people around. Hard to do that with an officer. Typically the Navy sends in a C4. One time we had an accident in engineering and they sent a C5. So Gris being a C6, he usually outranks whoever is sent. He can kind of set the terms on his own turf, you know? Now you guys show up and your boss is an officer, and a really high-ranking one at that. It’s like you spilled his beer or something.”
Pace’s chest swelled.
He said, “We’re experienced. I’m looking to make C-class myself, soon.”
Cantu squinted at him.
“How old are you?”
“Nineteen.”
“Dang! I’m 23 . . . What do you guys do that gets you promoted so fast?”
“Well, we’re Paranormal Division. We investigate the spooky stuff, you know?”
“I can’t believe there’s even an outfit for that.”
Pace shrugged.
