CHAPTER TWO
Col. Sam Harkens looked out at the stars from the observation window of the space shuttle Morse, and then swiftly turned his attention back to what he was reading in his book, he was satisfied more with exploring inner space rather than outer.
As the shuttle flew past the orbiting space station Bird 5, and towards the general area of the brightly lit sun, Harken's fellow astronauts, Lester and Donner, couldn't contain their excitement. Many of the crew were new to deep space exploration, and the tantalising challenge offered to them on this particular mission felt like something out of a James Bond movie.
"It's a mission made for headlines" said the lanky Lester as he looked out of his window at the beaming star, "How cool is the sun?".
He rubbed his hands in anticipation of the investigation ahead, "In all my days basking under that thing on the cosy and toasty California beachfront, I ain't never seen or felt it in such a tepid state as it's been since...that one time it shrank in the 90s".
"Yeah, that was one peculiar time, we did all sorts of observations on it that year to see if it would do that again, and it seemed to be once in a lifetime. We sure missed our shot at making a real break-through there" said Donner, who was writing up notes on a small pad comprised of mathematical equations and crude illustrations of the solar curiosity just ahead of them.
"I heard a lot of stories though, like how it wasn't really any fault of the star, but the work of evil aliens from another dimension with some kind of weather-altering device, the usual cranky conspiracy malarkey"
"Hey, don't be knocking stories in front of Harkens, his head is always into them, even when we're up here making real human interest stories come to life" Lester replied, and elbowed Harkens to get his attention "Ain't that right pal?"
Harkens smiled, and kept skimming through the pages of his book. Lester's curiosity soon overwhelmed him and he took a peek at the pages. He began to burst into fits of laughter.
"Hey, Donner, check it out, Harkens has his nose in a kids fable".
"Hey, it's relevant to the subject at hand, my kid gave it to me when he heard I was going up to check on the thing" Harkens said, defending his interest in the basic tale, "Besides, it's from the pen of the current talk of the town, P.H Wolfhammer"
"That snake-oil "psychic?" I thought you were of rational thought Harkens, you're the last person I'd expect to buy into that "we're all connected" beeswax" Donner replied. Harkens laughed. "Hey, anything that gets a kid to think a little outside the box doesn't deserve to be kept in one in society circles" he said.
"Go on then, tell us what it's about then" Lester said, "It'll take another few hours to get close to the thing, I'd love to hear how this book synchs up with our situation"
"It's called "Who Sings The Sun To Sleep?" revealed Harkens, "It's about a tradition going back thousands of years, back when the tribal worship of sun gods were at their peak. Back then, before they became mere fable, such gods actually existed and would, in periods where they would test those that worshipped them, they would turn off the sun's heat, and charge one of the tribe's people with a disc engraved with the shape of the sun, and tell them to seek out the first newborn child of the summer cycle, then, when they had found him or her, to place the dial on their chests. It would be then that the gods could tell that the months ahead would be bright, optimistic, and radiant in energy, and thus give the sun purpose and strength, and thus they let it shine brighter than it had ever been before, thus beginning the endless summers of old. They say that, one day, just to prove they exist again, the gods will bestow upon us another endless summer, and that the task will fall to a modern day warrior who must seek out the first new child of the cycle, and bestow upon them the solar disc to bring about the sacred days"
Lester shook his head, refusing to take any of this on board. "Just another load of fairy tale child encouragement with no basis in reality" he said, "It's just about summer now, you seriously think something like that is going to happen?"
"Hey, never rule out premonition is all I'm saying, we've seen some pretty weird things in our lifetime...that would include aliens from other dimensions Donner" Harkens continued, punching holes in Donner's earlier dismissal of alien involvement in the last mishap with the sun.
"Bah, it was some mind-altering effect in the water that made us think there was any of that going on" Donner said, dismissively, "I tell you our government want to control the way we drink, the way we eat, the way we sleep, the only thing that's going to save us is out there in the stars, that's the only reason I even tolerate this job, that one day, aliens are going to come knocking at a door such as ours and we'll be..."
He was suddenly startled as such a knock was heard. "What was that?" Lester said. Harkens put down his book and walked over to the window. His face turned white. "Donner...I think your wish just came true" he said, as he spotted no less than three vessels orbiting the shuttle. Metallic grey shafts with giant mole-like diggers attached to their fronts, and with guns at the top and sides charged and ready to fire at leisure. The hatches of the ships opened and from them emerged odd looking hooded figures in purple outfits, they soon began to encircle the ship in their vast numbers.
Donner put down his notepad and remained perfectly still, not knowing how to react as the knock occurred again. Lester casually crept up to the door as another knock came from the door.
"Knock knock" came a raspy voice from the other end. Lester looked back at his friends, Donner nodded his head, silently urging Lester to reply. Lester did so, "Who's there?" he said
"Rock" said the voice. Suddenly, the shuttle began swaying from side to side, first gently, then violently, knocking the astronauts around inside. Harkens struggled to stare out of the window, eventually succeeding, and got a first hand view of events.
"Those things are throwing the ship around with their bare hands" he said, "remarkable"
"Rock who?" Lester yelled, somehow attempting to complete the joke, anything to take his mind off the real danger and he and his friends were in.
"Steady" the voice concluded, and, upon hearing the command, the mysterious beings ceased to shake the ship.
"You think this is some kind of joke? You're sick" Lester angrily yelled.
"Oh yeah? Well let's see just how sick it makes you" the voice replied, and let out another cry of "rock", which set off the figures outside, and they again took to throwing the shuttle from left to right, throwing the crew inside across all corners. Eventually, one of them was knocked into the controls by the fierce vibrations, and inadvertently switched off the gravity in the process.
Electing to observe the helpless trio from the windows were strange abominations in space suits, one looked like a half-human rhinoceros, the other a half human warthog. Collectively they were known to each other and by those who put up with them as Rocksteady and Bebop. Both were taking great delight in the present ills of the three.
"Hey look we got a couple of real floaters" Bebop observed, Rocksteady, the source of the command to "rock" the ship, laughed along with him. "Yeah" he said, "I don't think they fully understand the gravity of their situation"
"We'd better contact the boss" Bebop said, and produced a communicator from his pocket, Rocksteady hastily grabbed the device and activated it. It wasn't long before he could hear and see his master, a figure known by two names, but the one he preferred to be addressed by was "Shredder"
"Well? Can we expect to continue with our project in peace?" said Shredder. Rocksteady nodded, "These three will make perfect hostages for ya Shredder, those NASA nerds nearby won't lift a finger to stop us knowing they'll be risking these three"
"Good, Krang and I are just about to board the Sun-Sealer in another hour, dock at the station and await further instructions, and for all our sakes, don't get too curious and touch anything there" said Shredder, his features vanishing from the communicator screen as he ended transmission.
"Steady there fellas" Rocksteady commanded to the Foot Soldiers giving the helpless shuttle a shake-up, "We'll be hauling this baby the rest of the way"
The Foot Soldiers obeyed and retreated back to their modules, whilst Rocksteady and Bebop returned to their own. Once inside, they activated the controls on the ships. From the modules shot out several cables with suction cups attached to them, they quickly latched onto the hull of the shuttle, the modules turned around and their engines came to life, they began to rocket towards the vicinity of the sun, with the shuttle in tow.
Making his way over to the observation window, Harkens looked on in amazement as the modules approached their destination. It wasn't the fact the sun was barely making him crack a sweat, it wasn't the notion that one of the most powerful sources of heat known to man was presently tepid, that was what they were there to investigate after all, no, it was something far more outlandish, and yet so real. Encircling the sun was a large orbiting technological space ring.
Harkens looked back at his children's book, and, in the back of his mind, hoped beyond hope that wherever the sun gods were today, they would take action before the fall of every tomorrow.