Planetary: Mercury, page 23
A bright green circle appeared in the courtyard, and the scientist slipped from Akio’s arms and fell with a dull thud. A white-haired woman stepped down from the floating portal to face Akio. His jaw slacked. It made no sense. He must be hallucinating, an episode brought on by all the experimental chemicals.
“Who are you?” Akio stammered, staggering back and nearly tripping over his test subject.
“When greed eats the hearts of men until they devour the lives of the innocent, we must set the universe right,” she said. Despite the pale hair, vibrant, smooth skin declared her youth.
“Who are you?” he repeated the only words he could string together. The stranger’s eyes were familiar, as though he’d stared into them before.
“I am your grandmother,” she said, surely joking, though she showed no mirth.
“That’s impossible.” He was a scientist. Portals weren’t real. And long dead women did not step out of them.
She continued as though she did not hear him. “One hundred years ago, I played in the bamboo forests of Kyoto while my father worked on a plan to heal the Fukushima meltdown.” She reached over her shoulder with one hand. “He brought honor to the Mori name by healing instead of destroying.”
“I am a healer.” All healers had setbacks. All healers had casualties.
“You are a destroyer.” She paused as though she was studying him. “You look like my father. I didn’t expect that,” she said, as though that explained everything.
Akio’s raised his eyebrows. He didn’t know who she was or even who her father was. “Where did you come from?” She shifted from side to side, and he flinched.
“The past,” she answered, sliding the tachi back into its sheath. “I am to stop you from conducting your experiments.”
Akio heard the unmistakable hiss of a metal blade being pulled from its sheath. “What do you intend to do with that?” He didn’t know her from anyone else. What reason would she have to use her sword?
“I’ve seen what comes, Akio,” she murmured. “Our name is written in neon lights on buildings as tall as the stars, and it all begins with you.” Her gaze dropped to the crumpled man behind him. “With him.”
“Are you related to one of my medical volunteers?” Akio’s heartbeat thundered in his ears, and he swallowed. That could be problematic. Had one of them gotten a message out? They were the only one who had proof of his lies. He took a step backwards.
“I’ve come to deliver a message. I’ve come to deliver justice.” She raised her tachi over her head, but the hardness in her expression wavered. “Forgive me, Akio,” she whispered.
Against the clear blue expanse, the blade glinted in the light. Akio fell to his knees, hands clasped in front of him, his eyes squeezed closed. How dare she end him? He would have saved so many. He begged for mercy from the woman and for merciful Kami to intervene. “You will be hunted for this.”
“It does not matter. My life has already been lived. I do this for Takama-ga-hara. I do this for honor. I do this to give life instead of death.” Even as she brought the sword down, Kiyoko wept for Akio.
About the Author
Bokerah Brumley is a speculative fiction writer making stuff up on a trampoline in West Texas. When she’s not playing with the quirky characters in her head, she’s addicted to Twitter pitch events, writing contests, and social media in general. She lives on ten permaculture acres with five home-educated children and one husband. In her imaginary spare time, she also serves as the blue-haired President of the Cisco Writers Club. Visit bokerah.com to learn more.
LAST CALL
Lou Antonelli
In his 40 years with the mining bureau, Astor had noticed the constant lessening of the deaccelerating constant when approaching Mercury.
He commented on that, and his helmsman, Marcus, looked at him slyly.
“Well, of course, we’ve whittled it down to almost nothing, haven’t we?”
They both laughed.
The Harlingen slowly glided between the solar arrays and inside to where the lessened bulk of the planet’s core sat surrounded by mining and transport ships.
Administrator Steelman came on the vid screen, with a cocked eye and a big smile.
“Gentlemen, it’s always a pleasure to see you, but I didn’t expect you so soon”, he said. “You were slated to dock tomorrow.”
“We were sitting bored at the Kasich Station when an unexpected launch window opened up,” said Astor.
“We decided to take it, on the spur of the moment,” said Marcus. “I’m sorry we forgot to notify you that we shoved off early. That was inconsiderate of us.”
“I will notify control to find you a berth as soon as possible,” said Steelman. “But it might take an hour or two.”
“No problem,” said Astor. “We’ll cruise around the core a few times.”
“I’ll be back to you as soon as possible,” said Steelman. The screen went blank.
Astor winked at Marcus. “I completely forgot to message ahead about our early departure, too.”
Marcus steered the Harlingen on a course to make a wide lazy orbit around the planetary core.
He looked at his colleague. “Hey, when was the first time you took this route?”
Astor ran his hand across his bald scalp. “Forty-two years ago. I was fresh out of the astronavigational school then. Mining had just hit its peak, and the fabrication stations were at full capacity.”
“Is it true a new fabrication station is being made at Proxima B?” asked Marcus.
“Yes, they’ve already started to mine apart a satellite in the Proxima system that has a large iron core,” said Astor. “Though it’s not nearly as rich as Mercury was.”
“If it wasn’t for all the iron we’ve taken from Mercury in the past hundred years, we would never have had a large enough space fleet to be in a position to start a new station in another star system,” he continued.
“Would you like me to bring up the exterior view as we do a turn around Mercury’s core?” asked Marcus.
“Excellent idea.”
One half of the screen showed the large fleet of mining and transport ships turned inward towards the diminishing core they were mining, while the other half showed the dark backsides of the continent-sized hexagonal solar panels.
“You know those panels were originally only 100 kilometers above the Mercurian surface,” said Astor.
“My God, look at all the intervening space right now,” said Marcus. “Was that when they called the space program ‘Mercury’, in the old days of the United States and the NASA?”
“No, that was over 100 years later,” said Astor. “Just a coincidence. They named the early space projects after Greek gods. They had names like Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.”
“I always assumed they named that early space program Mercury because they had decided they would travel to Mercury and start mining,” said Marcus.
Astor smiled. “No, it’s just a coincidence. They didn’t even know at the time how extensive Mercury’s iron resources were.”
The external view disappeared from the screen and Administrator Steelman appeared.
“You’re getting your docking commands now,” he said. “Port 87-A.”
“Thank you, sir,” said Astor.
“I’ll see you both downside,” said Steelman as the screen went dark.
“We didn’t even make one revolution,” said Marcus.
“I’ve been on this merry-go-round before,” said Astor. “Let’s head in.”
As they exited the port bay, the pair passed the display case with a Calcium 41 crystal left over from the Subanimal War.
Astor pointed to it. “There were still some veterans alive from the war when I was growing up,” he said.
He stopped for a second and looked at it. “If the Subanimals hadn’t attacked, we might never have snapped out of our routine of petty little national conflicts and internecine warfare.”
“That’s way before my time,” said Marcus.
“It was before mine, too, but there were still men and women alive when I was a kid who could talk about it. And after so many decades, you could still tell how terrified people had been,” said Astor. “First contact followed by genocide.”
“Attempted genocide,” said Astor. “They were wiping us all out, and we had no way to kill them. I mean, how do you kill stone?”
Marcus nodded towards the display. “Come up with a fatally radioactive isotope of calcium crystals.”
“It was a great impetus towards the development of the space fleet,” said a man behind them.
They both turned as he extended a hand.
“I’m Sergeant Conway,” he said. “Administrator Steelman asked me to meet you and bring you to him.”
They shook hands. “Captain Astor, we’ve met many times before. I presume this is Lieutenant Marcus.”
“Yes sir, it’s my pleasure,” said Marcus.
“Follow me, please, I know the administrator is eager to see you today,” said Conway.
Steelman clapped his hands as he walked from his office to greet his visitors.
“You are a day early, but it’s always great to see you, Allenson,” he said as he grabbed Astor’s hand.
Marcus raised an eyebrow. “You’re name is Allenison? I always assumed Al was short for Allen.”
“My father’s name was Allen. I am Allen’s son. Besides, you never asked.”
Steelman made an expansive gesture. “Let’s all go inside. We can all have a civilized drink.”
After they sat down, Steelman turned to Marcus. “Well, lieutenant, I understand this is your first visit to Mercury.”
“Yes, sir, I’m proud to be here.”
Steelman raised a glass. “Enjoy it while you can, then. It will also be your last.”
“What!” Astor blurted. “Then it’s true?”
“What’s true?” asked Marcus.
“The space admin has decided to wind down mining operations here,” said Conway. “The planetary core is almost played out.”
“I had no idea,” said Marcus as he sipped his drink.
Astor looked stunned.
“I’m sorry, Al, after all these years and all these trips back and forth,” said Steelman, “but the core is badly diminished, and riddled with tunnels.”
He looked at the Captain over the rim of his glass. “I know, it’s the end of the era. Once we wind up and leave, the core may come completely apart. Our mining machines might be the only thing holding the old gal together right now.”
Marcus cocked his head at the Captain. “You look thunderstruck.”
“Well, it is the end of an era,” said Astor. “This was the only route I worked all these years, and when I started there were still veterans of the Subanimal War around.”
“I thought it was an exaggeration,” said Marcus. “The planet Mercury was melted down to build the Terran space fleet.”
“Not in the least,” said Steelman as he rose. “Come over to this window.”
The others followed as he put down his drink and pointed.
“You see that mining ship over on the left, the one perpendicular to the core’s surface? With all the orange markings?”
Marcus nodded.
“That ship is the last of the original generation. It was originally sunk into the planet’s surface. It’s over 100 years old. Each day that it has been here, it has extracted 250 tons of iron ore,” he said.
“Al is old enough to remember what veterans of the war said. I have been in space admin long enough to recall old-timers who remembered the government’s reaction in the wake of the war,” he said. “Which was to build up a fleet and stick it out in space as fast as possible.”
“We had no real defenses in the solar system when the Subanimals attacked,” he continued. “We only survived by beating them with a trick, thanks to one smart scientist who came up with that radioactive Calcium isotope.”Steelman faced his guests. “Everyone knew we might not get lucky a second time.”
“I totally understand,” said Marcus. “But since we’re on the subject—why Mercury? Earth has plenty of iron, also.”
“Mercury’s core was almost a duplicate of Earths’, but the planet was much smaller and the core much more accessible,” said Steelman.
“I heard that theory long ago,” said Astor. “Mercury plus the mass of our Moon equals the mass of Earth. Years ago they thought the Moon was created by some planetary collision in the early history of our solar system when the planets were still molten.”
“Right, but what they later determined through excruciating orbital mechanics was that Mercury was still establishing an orbit and passed close enough to Earth to have its mantle stripped away, which began to roll around on its own and become the Moon, while the proto-Mercury went on to find a stable orbit—aided by its diminished mass,” said Steelman.
“That resulted in a planet with over half its bulk made up of an iron core,” said Conway. “Prime mining territory.”
“We haven’t had a Second Contact since the Sub-animals,” said Marcus. “Perhaps we disassembled a planet for nothing?”
“I prefer to think the sight of ships and stations from here to the Oort persuaded anyone else to think twice about attacking us,” said Astor as he sat back down with a sigh.
The rest followed.
“I’m afraid the news has depressed Al somewhat,” said Steelman. “Still, let’s drink a little and visit before retiring.”
He poured a fresh round of drinks and raised his glass.
“A toast. To an old soldier, Mercury, who will never die, but instead fade away!”
Astor sighed and drained his glass.
Marcus pinged Astor’s door late the following morning. Astor answered, fully dressed and wide awake.
“I missed you at mess this morning,” said Marcus. “I assumed you had slept in, but I see I was mistaken.”
“Come in,” said Astor.
The door closed and Marcus sat down.
“I sent off a message first thing this morning,” said Astor. “I had a thought late night. Did you get the message from the port, that the cargo has been unloaded.”
“Yes, I suppose we can start loading the return freight any time,” said Marcus. “Why do you mention this?”
“I’ve already asked Administrator Steelman to find a captain for the return leg,” said Astor. “I’m not going back with you.”
“Why? Where did this come from?”
Astor sat down on the edge of the bed. “I’m just about ready to retire, and there will be few, if any, cargo runs any more, as the operation here is slowly shut down. I want to stay and finish up my hitch here.”
He smiled. “Then I’ll go home.”
“Wow, I’ve heard about being sentimental,” said Marcus. “But about a planet?”
“It’s not being sentimental, it’s about being a witness to history,” said Astor. “I feel if I stay here, I’ll somehow have a connection to this operation’s history, the history that saw mankind truly expand into space. There are now thousands of ships and stations in the solar system, and now we have ships and colonies at distant stars. With the start of the new mining project at Proxima B, mankind can reach ever further into the galaxy.”
He stood up and made an energetic gesture. “I think I still have some life in me, and after all these years making the Mercury run, I want to stay and help close the operation out. Steelman had said he has a post here where I can coordinate outgoing ore shipments.”
Marcus jumped up and extended his hand. “Sounds like a great last assignment, and you look happy already.” He shook his hand. “I wish I had more opportunity to learn from you, but on the other hand, this is what you want.”
“I knew you’d understand,” said Astor. “I’ll help you load up the cargo bay, while the new captain gets ready.”
“Anyone I know?”
“No, I don’t think so. He’s Jim Denman. He’s good, but he’s only been working in Mercury orbit up to now,” said Astor. “He’s ready to take an interplanetary assignment.”
“I’m looking forward to meeting him.”
Marcus was sipping a beer on the patio of a seaside bar in Glendale when he realized people around him were starting to check their news feeds.
Mariam ran up to the table with the nachos.
“Have you heard?”
“Heard what?”
“Didn’t you make Mercury run once?”
“Yes, last year, I haven’t been back yet. What’s the fuss about?”
She dropped the plastic platter of nachos on the table. “It’s done, it’s gone!”
“What’s gone?”
“Mercury. They’re reporting that because over mining, what was left of the core imploded, collapsed. All miners and others on the surface are presumed dead. The only ships and people left were in orbit.”
Marcus knocked over his beer. “Dammit!”
She sat down next to him. “Didn’t you know someone there?”
“Yes, the captain on my first run as a lieutenant, Al Astor. Dammit!”
Marcus sighed. “When he learned they were going to wind things down, he decided he wanted to stay and see it through. He made almost 40 runs in 40 years.”
“He must have been a good man to leave such an impression on you,” said Mariam.
“He was, and he did.”
Mariam stood up and looked at the other people on the patio.
She cleared her throat. “Folks, my husband’s first captain in the space service just died in the Mercury Collapse. Let’s have a moment of silence for him and all the other victims.”
One man cried out, “What was his name?”
“Al. Al Astor. Captain Allenson Astor.”
Everyone raised their drinks. Another man raised his voice.
“To Captain Allenson Astor, and all the dead of Mercury, and to all our fallen heroes in space!”
Marcus covered his face with one hand and began to cry as everyone else pointed their drinks to the sky and cried out, “To space!”
About the Author
