Chapter Six
"Are you sure the information can't be recovered from the probe?" Commander John Koenig asked Professor Victor Bergman as he leaned over the paper and graph covered table in the Professor's lab.
Victor scratched his balding head and shook his head emphatically no. "I'm sorry John. I as well as everyone in the tech lab have had a go at Voyager's drive. The information has been very thoroughly wiped."
"Wiped? Not accidently deleted but wiped?" John Koenig began pacing. Something about this whole thing just wasn't right.
"It certainly appears that way." Victor frowned.
"But I thought you said that Voyager was damaged by a meteorite storm and simply deleted the damaged information as a part of its regular maintenance."
"That's what we thought at first. But the computer technical section along with Kano has determined that the information was selectively deleted."
"Why would anyone do that and who would have the technology to get around Voyager's Queller Drive?" Koenig stood, his face displaying a scowl with his hands on his hips defensively.
"This is what Kano and the others have concluded. Why it was done I can't tell you. I can only tell you what they have told me. But to get around the Queller Drive…" Victor sighed and sat on one of the stools in the room.
"Is it safe to go to this planet?" Koenig asked as he stood before his old friend.
"As far as I know. I mean, what do we really know?" Victor concluded.
"But don't you find it odd that…" He was interrupted by the sound of his commlock going off. "Koenig." he answered after punching a button on the commlock.
"John, I think it's essential that we send a security detail with the Professor's Eagle." Tony Verdeschi stated.
John looked into his Security Chief's worried eyes. Tony had good instincts. When he had ultimately decided to move Main Mission down to the Command Center below ground because of the lunar tremors, he'd assigned the security chief a desk there. His contribution had been invaluable. He watched as Tony ran a hand through his dark hair, a sure sign that he was worried. "I was thinking the same thing. Let's send four security officers along, Koenig out."
The Professor's lab door beeped. The Professor touched a button on his desk and Alan Carter's grinning face appeared. Victor smiled back at the screen and touched another button and the door to his lab slid open. "Alan, what can I do for you?"
Alan strolled in the room and met both Victor's eyes and then the Commander's before leaning against a work bench littered with papers covered in formulas he decided he would never be able to make heads or tails from. He looked to the Commander and started, "Commander, I thought you might be here. Are you sure I shouldn't be the one to lead the reconnaissance?" John and Victor exchanged a quick glance that troubled Alan.
"Alan," John began, "I would rather you were here if anything were to go wrong." He didn't know why, but in the back of his mind he had a feeling something could go horribly wrong and he knew that if it did, there would be no one better suited to rescue the doomed ship and its occupants than Alan.
"So you're already assuming something 'will' go wrong?" Alan didn't like this. He thought of the pilots he was sending. They were good, very good in fact but if things went sour, he wanted to be the one flying.
"No Alan," the Professor began as he rubbed his hands together, "we're just being cautious."
"But the missing data is disturbing you two as well." Alan stated rather than questioned.
"Of course it's a concern but…" the Professor started.
"But in all actuality we have no real facts to keep us from checking this planet out." John said as he placed his hands flat against the work bench and looked down. There it was again, that something in the back of his mind trying to get his attention. "Alan every recon is a chance we take." He looked into Alan's eyes before continuing, "We need to find supplies and hopefully a planet. With any luck that's exactly what we will find. Are your pilots ready?" he finished, leaving no room for further discussion.
"They're ready. Are the other's ready?" Alan asked the men.
"We have someone from hydroponics, medical, geology and the astrophysics lab as well as Victor. They'll be meeting your pilots in the Eagle, are there any other questions?"
Alan knew the Commander well enough to know that he was finished discussing the situation. All he could do now was sit back and be ready to move, if the need arose. He turned and walked to the door touching the door switch. As the door opened the Commander called to him.
"Alan," John began, "this is just a reconnaissance mission like any other. We'll keep a close eye on everything." Maybe if he said it enough he could squelch that voice in the back of his own head.
"I know we will." Alan turned and left, the door sliding quietly closed behind him.
"Do you believe that?" Victor asked his old friend.
"It's the truth. Victor we've been on dozens of these things and this one will probably be like all the others. I better get to Command Center and check in." The Commander turned and left the Professor's lab.
"I hope this is an uneventful recon but I have a bad feeling it will be anything but." Victor said aloud to himself as he looked around his lab.
Nineteen hours later, Elisabeth and Frazer were going through their preflight procedures in Eagle Four. Even as she went through the preflight checks, Elisabeth couldn't stop her mind from wandering. She looked out the side viewscreen and instead of her reflection she saw what appeared as a movie from long ago. She saw herself climbing on a hillside over boulders constantly looking back. She was wearing a bright yellow rain slicker with a knit hat on her head and something was chasing her. Much to her surprise the thing chasing her was a short being that looked oddly enough like a potato with eyes. He was dressed in dark metallic looking armor, his tongue going oddly in and out of his mouth. Before Elisabeth had time to react to this new vision, it was gone. She placed her hands in her lap and looked down. 'What was that?' she thought. 'Was it her? How could it be her?'
"Elisabeth? Elisabeth? Are you all right?" Bill Frazer asked with concern etching his face.
"Huh? Yea, yes I'm fine. Sorry about that. Are you ready?" Elisabeth replied hoping to put this latest incident behind her.
"All ready to go. We're just waiting on the okay from Command Center." Frazer replied smiling. He'd been on a lot of these missions in his time on Moonbase Alpha and he hoped this trip would be all that they needed. Hopefully it would be a planet to call home and a planet with plenty of resources. He and Annette would love to start a family but until the Alphans found a planet to colonize it was nothing but a pipedream.
The door to the Eagle's command module slid open and the Professor appeared. "Hello Elisabeth, Bill. Are we ready?" He liked Elisabeth. She had been a wonderful addition to the base as far as he was concerned. In his interactions with her, he could honestly say that she had what his mother called, an old soul. She was pleasant and he had never heard a bad word said about her. Bill still had the look of a newlywed about him, all smiles and looking at the world through the eyes of love. He only hoped that Bill's rose colored glasses wouldn't be broken before this trip was over.
"We're ready Professor. Is everyone back there ready?" Elisabeth asked, still trying to get the image of herself and the strange being out of her mind.
"They're settling in. We're just waiting on Command Center for the go ahead." Victor answered.
"Us too Professor, us too." Frazer said, throwing his hands up in the air.
"Professor?" a man's voice could be heard calling from the cabin section.
"Good luck you two." Victor said before leaving the pair.
Elisabeth and Bill looked at each other and smiled, one more anxious to get underway than the other.
"Professor the long range scanners were picking up signs of a civilization, buildings and life forms but just as quickly as it was there, it disappeared." Dimi Constantine said his olive skin flush with excitement.
"What do you mean it was there and then it wasn't?" Victor asked anxiously. He was right, there 'was' something strange about this planet.
"Maybe I imagined it. I checked computer and according to it, I saw nothing. But I was sure I saw something." he stated with great determination.
"But computer saw nothing." Victor rubbed his chin, deep in thought. He pulled his commlock from his side and simply said, "John."
"Yes Victor?" John Koenig asked from his desk in Command Center.
"Dimi said he was picking up buildings and life signs but then it was gone and the computer has no record of it. What do you think?" Victor asked watching into the small screen. He could see the Commander's face get very serious.
"What kind of life signs?" Helena Russell leaned into the screen, her face also a mask of apprehension.
Next to Victor, Dimi shrugged his shoulders in response. "Dimi said it wasn't there long enough to see. Do we go on?"
"It could have been a fluke." John replied exchanging a quick look of worry with Helena. Helena returned to her desk. "We still need the same information as we did ten minutes ago, nothing's changed. Until we have a plausible reason to call off this mission, we continue." He looked across the Command Center and saw Maya looking as if she had a question. "Yes Maya?"
"In case the planet is inhabited, it might not be a bad idea to send them a message telling them of our intent. If there is no one there to hear it, then at least we tried." Maya said as she rolled her chair back from her desk. Maya wasn't sure if it was because she was a Psychon and not human or it was something everyone was feeling and doing a good job of hiding it, but she was worried. The lapses in the Voyager probe's data bank was too convenient and now disappearing readings…something wasn't right and while she didn't have human instinct, she had Psychon instinct. But the Commander was right, they needed the prospective of all that planet could offer, to be honest what any planet could possibly offer the Alphans. Still…
"Sahn could you send a message ahead of the Eagle, make it the standard message?" the Commander asked the petite data analyst.
"Of course Commander." Sahn answered. She brushed her short black hair back from her eyes. After pressing a few buttons that would record her announcement and repeat it as long as it need be, she began, "This is Moonbase Alpha. We are from planet Earth. Our Moon was torn from Earth orbit and is traveling through space out of our control. We are in desperate need of supplies and a place to inhabit. We hope to visit your planet but we will stay away if you wish it. We have a research ship on its way toward your planet. If you do not contact us, we will land. We will be awaiting your answer. This message will repeat." Sahn finished and punched a few more buttons before turning to the Commander. "Anything else Sir?"
The Commander smiled at Sahn. "No that was fine Sahn. Keep all channels open." He turned to Alan Carter. "Well Alan, let's get this started." He sat back in his chair.
"Right Commander. Eagle Four this is Command Center." Alan began into the panel in front of him. Frazer's face popped up on the viewscreen.
"Yes Sir?" Frazer asked.
After pressing a few more buttons, Alan looked up to the screen. "You have clearance Eagle Four. Good luck everyone." Frazer saluted Alan over the screen and smiled. Alan flipped a few more switches and the main viewscreen changed to a view of Launchpad
Two. On it, Eagle Four could be seen rising from the Moon's surface.
Everyone in Command Center sat silently as they watched Eagle Four take off, each lost in their own worry for the crew and hope for all the planet had the possibility to offer.
In the research compartment of Eagle Four Victor Bergman sat buckled in. He looked around at the group and decided that they felt something was off as well. Even the four security guards that sat across from him were tense. He and the guards were in the last three rows of seats. Looking forward he could see the others browsing through computer screens and readouts trying to prepare themselves for the mission. Directly ahead of him Dr. Ed Spencer turned around.
"Anything new on the planet Professor?" he asked looking out the window. They were quite a way from Alpha now, speeding towards the planet. He undid his seat belt and stood stretching as did the others who upon hearing the question were now turned around and looked to the Professor for an answer.
"Victor looked up and smiled at all of them. "Sorry, nothing new. We'll be at the planet in about," then referencing his computer screen finished, "thirty minutes. Whatever is there, we'll know soon. Why doesn't everyone try and relax before we have to get to work." He sat down and began to work on some calculations, something he found relaxing.
In the Command Module Elisabeth and Frazer were focused on the planet ahead. The closer they came to the planet, the redder it appeared to be. "You know it's kind of pretty." Bill told Elisabeth.
For Elisabeth's part it wasn't pretty at all but something far from pretty, something horrendous. If it had been up to her, she would have turned this Eagle around and headed back to the base to hide. She almost told Bill that but knew she didn't have the facts to back it up. Unconsciously she put her hand to her chest attempting to grab the necklace she always wore in an attempt to calm herself. It was against regulations but she had it on even now underneath her flight suit.
"Don't you think Elisabeth?" When she didn't answer he looked away from the planet and looked to his left. "Elisabeth? Elisabeth is something wrong?"
"What? Oh yes, the planet. I suppose you could say it's pretty." 'But that's anything but the way I feel about it.' Elisabeth thought. They were only twelve minutes away from landing now and the closer she came to the planet the worse she felt. The feeling of impending disaster and dread was almost overwhelming.
Suddenly the ship lurched forward and all of the panels went black as did every light in the cabin. The forward momentum they had been feeling stopped as if they had hit a brick wall. Before either pilot had time to comment on this, the entire inhabitants of the Eagle were unconscious.