Space Above and Beyond - #2 Dark Side of the Sun - Dina Anastasio Read online

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  Space: Above and Beyond™ © 1996 by Twentieth Century Fox Corporation. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information please address HarperCollins Children's Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022.

  The Dream

  I have been dreaming again. It is that same, inevitable dream. In it I am spinning through a spiral of stars. I am flying directly toward the sun. I am alone. Always alone.

  Then, every single time, it happens. A titanic eruption of dust and gas. The sun explodes into lavender, red, and blue bits of energy, then disappears.

  I fall, tumbling through space. Down, down, through the darkness, I plummet toward Earth.

  I see my home. My old house near San Diego. A lifetime ago this is where it happened. Where the Artificial Intelligence rebels came in the night.

  They took my parents' lives. And in my dream, as in my life, I want to know why.

  My parents were Marine officers, just as I am. They saw the AIs coming. AIs. Artificial Intelligence beings. Computers, created by humans. My parents saw them first. They saw them before my little sisters and I did.

  My mother woke me. "Come," she said. "Hurry."

  She led us down a dark hallway. My little sisters were in front of me. My mother was behind. When we were almost at the ladder, she touched my shoulder.

  "Shane," she said. "Remember. No matter what happens, take care of your little sisters."

  My mother was aware of her own destiny. I know that now.

  She hustled us up the ladder to the attic and told us to be very, very quiet.

  "I love you," she whispered. And then she moved away.

  I could tell by her tone that something was very, very wrong. I was afraid.

  I tried to stop her. I tried to grab her skirt.

  "Wait!" I cried. "Please don't leave me."

  She hesitated and put her finger to her lips. Then she touched my hair and smiled.

  I heard her go. She moved silently, like a gentle cat, down the ladder.

  My sisters and I huddled together and waited. Our mother did not return. After a while, I crawled to the air vent and looked down.

  I could see our parents through the vent. They were surrounded by what I first took to be humans. Until I saw their eyes. Those eyes! I will never forget those eyes! They were white, all white. Except for the crosshairs in place of pupils. And then I noticed something else. These creatures did not breathe. They beeped.

  I could feel my little sister beside me. I moved toward her and reached for her hand. I squeezed it, but Jenny didn't squeeze back. I know now that she was too frightened to do anything but stare.

  We listened to the beeps together, a repetitive digital pattern of beeps.

  I had heard of these creatures, but I had never seen one. They were computers. They were terrorists. They were AIs.

  As we watched, they shoved our parents to their knees. As we watched, our parents begged for their lives. But it was no use. The AIs aimed. And fired.

  At that point in my dream, the sun explodes.

  But in truth, in that house back on Earth, it was the gun that exploded.

  My parents were dead.

  And now, as always, I want to know why.

  Chapter 1

  Shane Vansen shot up in her bunk. She was shaking. Her T-shirt and hair were damp with cold sweat. She breathed deeply and tried to shake off the nightmare. The exploding sun, the attic, her parents, the gun. It was too familiar. Would it never stop? She breathed again, then again and again, until at last she was calmer.

  She glanced through the shadows and studied her fellow Marines. They were all asleep. The 58th Squadron. Cooper, Nathan, Damphousse, and the others. Good Marines. Good friends.

  Shane turned and let her legs dangle off the edge of her bunk. There was no point in trying to fall asleep again. She was too frightened to sleep.

  If she could only find a way to put this nightmare to rest.

  It was nice in the Saratoga, when everyone was asleep. For some reason, it calmed her. This naval aircraft carrier, ten stories high with a four-and-a-half-acre flight deck, was her home now. On the top deck their fighter planes waited. But down here, with her friends sleeping nearby, she felt safe.

  She slid over to the porthole and looked out at the vast expanse. Space. Layer upon layer of brilliant stars glittered in the lonely black sky.

  When she was a little girl, space had meant something different. The people of Earth had thought space was a place where there would be no wars, where they would form colonies and live in peace. They would leave the AIs behind. They would leave all enemies behind.

  It would be a new beginning.

  But they had been wrong. The people of Earth had moved into space, and they had found new enemies. Aliens from other galaxies had greeted them with weapons.

  A sudden blast of loud music shook the spaceship. Shane swung around, searching for the source. Across the aisle, Damphousse came awake. Photos of her family trembled on the hull above her.

  The music grew louder. Shane knew what it was. She had read about it in her history books. They had called it rock and roll.

  She glanced over at Nathan. His eyes were wide open.

  "Hey, man, turn it off!" he shouted.

  Nathan was Shane's best friend in the unit. For some reason they clicked.

  Shane wondered if it was because they were both unhappy. That seemed like a terrible reason for two people to come together. But maybe it was true.

  Shane closed her eyes and tried to shut the music out. She thought about Nathan's story. He and Kylen were going to be married. They had joined the space program together. And they had planned on staying together forever.

  But Kylen had been sent to the new colony, and Nathan had been forced to stay behind. Aliens had attacked the colonists as their spaceship tried to land. Most died. But some were listed as missing. Nathan never found out what had happened to Kylen.

  Shane opened her eyes again. Someone had managed to shut off the music. Wang was awake now. And so was Damphousse.

  Damphousse had solved the music problem. As the others watched, she handed Cooper Hawkes's antique CD player back to him and returned to her bunk.

  Cooper struggled with it, trying to turn it back on. Shane wondered if Cooper was going to be a constant problem. She had heard he was, but she didn't want to believe it.

  What had they said about him?

  "He's trouble."

  "Doesn't obey orders."

  "He's different. Takes too many chances. Won't listen to reason. Too loud. A real troublemaker."

  But Shane hadn't believed them. Prejudice, she had thought. Pure prejudice.

  Cooper Hawkes wasn't like the rest of them. He had never had parents. In fact, he had no family at all. He seemed human in every way, except for that navel on the back of his neck. That gave him away. He was an "In-Vitro," which meant that he had been farmed in a gestation tank. And that's where that terrible word Tank came from.

  Before Cooper had a chance to turn the music hack on, Commander McQueen entered the room.

  This was the perfect Marine. He was tall and thin. His hair was just the right length. His uniform lit perfectly.

  A Tank, too, like Cooper.

  "Listen up," McQueen announced smartly. "You're shipping out. Grab some chow, suit up, and report to the ISSCV loading bay in twenty micks."

  Shane watched McQ
ueen go and thought about what he had said. ISSCV was short for the Internal Solar System Cargo Vehicle. It was going to take them someplace.

  But where?

  Chapter 2

  Shane and the other members of the 58th Squadron readied themselves slowly that morning. They did not speak. They were curious about where they were heading, but they were also tired. Cooper's insistent wake-up call had left them feeling tense and sleepy. They dressed in flight gear and carried their exterior armor and helmets to the Internal Solar System Cargo Vehicle.

  McQueen was waiting for them. Behind him stood the heavy cargo spaceship. Once inside they would be housed in a long metal tube until they reached their destination.

  Shane rubbed her eyes and waited for McQueen to tell them what their destination would be.

  "At ease, Marines," he said, after they snapped to attention. "These are your orders. You're to travel two hundred fifteen MSKs beyond sector seven of the Kuiper Belt. Destination: the mining facility of Bunuel."

  "Ground assault?" Wang asked.

  "Sentry duty." McQueen's tone was hesitant. He knew they wouldn't be happy about that one.

  He was right. A collective groan passed through the Squadron.

  Sentry duty? That meant they would be guards. They would be marching back and forth while someone else did the exciting stuff.

  Why?

  Nathan asked the question that was in everyone's mind. Aliens from another galaxy were on the move again. The 58th should be stopping them.

  "Sir," he said, "the Ticks are winning in a campaign outside of Proxima. Why are we being wasted on wintry duty?"

  "The protection of raw material is vital to any war effort," McQueen explained. "Read your history. The facility on Bunuel mines natural helium three. Helium three is a vital component of military rocket fuel. Without it, every ship and jet in the fleet is grounded. Without it, we will be helpless against the Aliens. The Ticks will triumph, and we will all die. In two days, a heavily armed convoy will arrive at the mine. The miners will transfer ice ore to this convoy. It is a vital transfer. You are to guard against any enemy attempt to disrupt it. Does everybody understand that?"

  No one spoke. The 58th Squadron understood. "I know you think it's routine," McQueen continued. "But in this war, there's no such thing as a routine assignment. I've been called to the carrier Colin Powell to advise on ACM strategies. So Vansen, you're the Honcho leader. I'm putting you in charge. And West is second in command. All clear on that?"

  "Roger," came the collective reply.

  "Good. Then move out."

  When McQueen said her name, Shane trembled. She wasn't comfortable with the role of leader. She wasn't ready to be the chief Honcho. Was she?

  She waited as the others moved toward the ISSCV. Then she followed McQueen until she caught up with him.

  "Sir?" Shane said.

  McQueen turned and faced her.

  "Maybe West should be Honcho, sir."

  McQueen frowned and studied her carefully. "What's the problem?" he asked after a moment.

  "Well... I just... I feel..." Shane hesitated, then found the right words. "Do you ever feel like there's something out there waiting?"

  "Feel like maybe you're not coming back?" McQueen asked.

  Shane wasn't sure. No. It wasn't quite that. Or maybe it was.

  "Everyone gets that," McQueen said gently.

  "And how does 'everyone' deal with it, sir?"

  McQueen thought about Shane's question. "Well," he said at last. "I guess they go out and they come back. Or they don't."

  "Thanks for keeping it simple," Shane said sarcastically as she grabbed her gear and headed toward the ISSCV.

  McQueen stopped her. "Vansen!" he called.

  Shane turned and waited.

  "There's no such thing as predetermination, you know. And there's no such thing as luck. Only you make things happen. Keep your head together and don't make mistakes, and you'll come back. It's that simple."

  Shane thought about McQueen's words as the ISSCV moved into the Oort Cloud, the origin of comets. She was sitting in front of a computer monitor studying the dark expanse outside.

  On the screen she could see a haze of shadowy rocks floating toward them. She leaned closer. The ship was avoiding them easily. From now on it would be a smooth voyage. Nothing at all to worry about.

  She sat back and looked around. Behind her the other members of the 58th Squadron were passing the time. Wang was telling a story. Nathan was reading a manual. Damphousse was poised in front of her monitor.

  "Hey!" Damphousse said suddenly. "What's that?" '

  "What?" Shane asked.

  "That blip?"

  Shane turned back to her screen as Damphousse said, "Got a bogey tracking us. One hundred thousand MSKs and closing in."

  Shane saw it then.

  "Did you send out a distress?" she asked.

  "No response," Damphousse answered.

  Wang leaned close to the monitor. "It's a single body," he said. "Tick attack jets always fly in groups. So what is it?"

  "Could be a comet," Nathan suggested.

  Shane hit a communication button and began to speak. "Flight command," she said. "This is Vansen. Alter line of travel twenty-five degrees for EA."

  The pilot's voice came back clear and steady. "Copy that," he said. "Evasive action in three... two... one."

  As the ship changed its course, the members of the 58th Squadron gathered closer to Damphousse's monitor. They were watching the dot on the screen.

  "Whatever it is just altered its course too," Damphousse muttered.

  Shane tensed and straightened. "Stations!" she ordered.

  Shane moved closer to Damphousse's monitor as Nathan, Cooper, and Wang settled into their battle stations. In front of each of them was a joystick, a large track ball, and VR goggles.

  Cooper placed his goggles over his eyes and readied his track ball.

  "Cannon engagement switch engaged," he announced, as a cannon rose from the top of the stern.

  "Bogey seventy-five thousand MSKs closing in," Damphousse reported.

  Shane leaned over Damphousse's shoulder and stared at the screen. "All stations, fourteen by ten degrees off the port stern," she announced.

  Nathan, Cooper, and Wang worked their joysticks frantically, aiming the cannons.

  "Quick, Shane," said Damphousse. "Check channel four."

  Shane moved toward communications and listened. At first there was only static. Then, through the noise, she heard something familiar. She had heard those digital beeps before. Those were AI beeps.

  " AIs," she whispered into the radio. "That's not a Tick. That's an Artificial Intelligence signal!"

  "Negative!" Nathan cried. "AIs have never been seen in this area."

  "Bogey at three o'clock!" Cooper shouted.

  In the deep void of space, Cooper's weapon swung wide. A giant BOOM echoed through the stars.

  "Direct kill!" Damphousse reported. "Bogey terminated. All clear."

  Nathan, Cooper, and Wang removed their goggles and grinned at Shane.

  "It had to be a comet," Nathan laughed.

  "Looked to me like an Alien mother ship," Cooper said.

  But Shane wasn't convinced. She remembered the digital-pattern beeps. How could she forget the sounds made by AIs—the AIs who had killed her parents?

  Chapter 3

  As the ISSCV thundered through space, Shane prepared for landing. Below her floated hundreds of miles of hard black ice. This was the comet Bunuel. Was this desolate mass of rock really the place they had been sent to guard?

  Landing lights greeted the ship as it touched down near the industrial towers of the mining camp. Five levels of industrial towers rose up before them.

  Except for the landing lights, there was no light anywhere. Darkness. Only darkness.

  A sudden shudder of fear passed through Shane as she looked out at the gloomy blackness of Bunuel.

  It was eerie. She hoped this mission wouldn't
last long.

  She followed the others onto the comet carefully. Her feet touched the surface, then rose up, throwing her off balance.

  "Gravity," she said to Wang.

  "Or lack of it." Wang's voice trembled slightly. His thin body seemed small and tense in the shadows. She would have to watch out for him.

  Shane moved across the comet slowly. It would take some getting used to. Her body was clothed in armored battle gear and a helmet. Nevertheless she felt light.

  "I've waited months for this." Wang laughed and pulled out a football. "A surface gravity two thirds less than Earth's. Go long, Damphousse. Go real long."

  "You'll never see it, Wang!" Damphousse shouted as she moved away.

  But Wang was ready. As he tugged at a ribbon, the ball lit up.

  "A chemical inside the ball, Damphousse," he hollered. "Never underestimate a clever person like me.

  Wang dropped back and tossed the pass. The illuminated ball sailed out into the sky. It disappeared a thousand yards behind the horizon.

  Shane unimpressed, watched the ball sail through the night. Then she joined Nathan, helping him unload gear.

  "This place is creepy," he muttered. "Five billion years in total darkness. It's like the sun died or something."

  "It may be a stupid detail," Shane snapped. "But until the convoy gets here, we're running it like we were out in the thick of things."

  Nathan looked at her. Shane was definitely angry at something. But what?

  "This mine is an underground facility," she continued. "There are ten miners in the hole. It's our job to protect them."

  She turned to the others. "Collins, you pull watch on the ISSCV. Radio the miners and tell them we're here. Inform them that the password is 'bulldog.' Tell them that the answer to that word is 'chesty.' Is everyone clear on that? Bulldog."

  "Chesty," they answered.

  "Again," Shane said. "Bulldog."

  The reply was immediate. "Chesty," they said together.

  Shane smiled. "Once more. Just in case. Bulldog."

  "Chesty."