Alone in the Dark Read online

  Luni327: Alone in the Dark - Book Three of the Lunar Age Series

  Copyright © 2019 by Daniel E. Eaton

  Visit the author’s website/blog at:

  cislunarbooks.com/dan_eaton/

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  www.facebook.com/cislunarbooks/

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Contents

  Copyright

  Contents

  Dedication

  Map:Lunar North Pole Region

  Prologue

  Mission To Earth

  Earth And Other Irregularities

  Reunion

  Discontent

  Descent

  Over The Next Hill

  Turning Points

  Responses Unexpected

  Reviews

  Please Don't Miss

  Author's Notes

  About the Author

  This book is dedicated to my grandkids, Arwen, Elina, Anya, and Desmond. You're always a joy to be around and when you aren’t, I can send you home to your parents.

  Dan Eaton

  PROLOGUE

  Outside Boston, MA Sunday, October 21, 2035

  She heard voices. A man and a woman. Something about what they were saying concerned her so she concentrated on filtering out the gentle beeping noise in the foreground and tried to make out what they were talking about.

  “Captain, I understand your concerns. You are her doctor and she’s in a tough spot. Just try to remember, we’re on the same team. You may not like how I handle things, but both of our jobs are to take care of her.” There was a pause, and before the doctor could reply, the woman said, “She’s awake, let’s go talk to her.”

  “What? How do you know she’s awake?”

  There was a brief pause and then the woman said, “Let’s just call it a woman’s intuition and leave it at that. Shall we?”

  Sue struggled to open her eyes. She blinked several times and then took in the view as the two standing strangers watched her with concern. She was in a hospital room. On her left sat a large black man keeping watch on the doorway. He briefly turned her way, gave her a nod to acknowledge she was awake, and then resumed his vigil watching the doorway. The other man, she assumed it was the doctor that she had been listening to, approached the bedside and said, “Dr. Calvan, you’re in a hospital. Can you understand me, okay?”

  She tried to answer, but her mouth was all dry. The doctor immediately grabbed a nearby glass of water and held the straw to her lips as she sucked down the water. She asked, “What happened?”

  The doctor gave a quick glance at the small redhead he had entered the room with and said, “The short story is you were in your car and were tee-boned by a drunk driver. Your left leg was crushed, you suffered a concussion, along with a large number of abrasions and minor cuts. You’ve been unconscious for three days.”

  She immediately looked down at the bed and was relieved to see the outline of two legs extending from her. Her left leg looked bulkier than normal and she couldn’t feel it when she tried to move it, but at least she still had a leg. When the doctor had said her leg was crushed she had expected his next words were going to be, “and had to be amputated.” The look on the doctor’s face said there was bad news coming so she asked, “Am I going to lose the leg?”

  “No, I’m afraid you’ll never regain full use of that leg, but if your recovery goes as planned, it won’t have to be amputated.”

  “That’s a relief, Doctor— I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name?”

  “I’m Doctor Pawley. That’s Agent Roselle behind me and Agent Abate sitting in the chair. I, ah,…”

  The petite redhead behind the doctor came forward and said, “It’s okay, doc, I’ve got this.” For a brief moment, Sue saw sympathy in the agent’s eyes, but then it was gone and the agent began speaking.

  “Dr. Calvan, to elaborate on what Dr. Pawley said, I’m Agent Christa Roselle and that lump of coal sitting in the chair is my partner, Agent Vince Abate.”

  Sue looked over at Agent Abate and he offered her an encouraging smile. He was one of the darkest black men she had ever met and thought Roselle’s lump of coal comment fit his complexion very well. She looked back at Roselle, who continued, “We’re agents with the Federal Government’s Cyber Crimes unit.” Roselle came closer and presented her id. She looked over the very official looking card with a no nonsense photo of Roselle peering back at her along with a name of a federal government department she’d never heard of.

  “What’s the Cyber Crimes unit interest in me?”

  “We know what you were doing in your lab Dr. Calvan.”

  “What we are working on is perfectly legal. I—”

  “Please relax Dr. Calvan. You’re not a suspect here, you’re a victim.”

  A cold chill worked its way down Sue’s back. She still had that feeling there was something going on that they hadn’t told her yet. She said, “Alright, Agent Roselle, why don’t you tell me what’s really going on?”

  “What’s going on is that you got lucky. You were three blocks from your lab when a drunk driver plowed into the side of your car. Your leg was crushed and the emergency crews had a tough time extricating you from what was left of your car. You were taken to Mass. General hospital where you were treated for your injuries. If not for the accident, you would have reached your lab that morning and most likely would be dead now.”

  The agent hesitated for a moment and then said, “Dr. Calvan, did you ever see that old movie where the guy was presented a choice of two pills? If he takes the blue one he goes back to his comfortable existence and never learns the truth about his life. If he takes the red one, he learns the truth, but the truth is uncomfortable.”

  Sue slowly nodded yes and asked, “This isn’t Mass. General, is it?”

  She’d been to Mass. General several times to visit sick friends and this place didn’t have the same feel. It was quieter, smaller feeling, and a little shabbier than anything she ever saw at Mass. General.

  Agent Roselle shook her head no and said, “We had to move you for your safety. You are in a government facility near Westover.”

  “Look, clearly you have bad news for me. Let’s skip the formalities and you just call me Sue and get it over with.”

  Agent Roselle gave her a brief smile and said, “All right, Sue, please call me Christa. I do have very bad news and I’m afraid all I have for you today are red pills. Steel yourself, Sue, this is going to hurt. While the emergency crews were cutting you out of your car, your lab was going up in flames. Investigators going through what was left of the building later found the bodies of your two assistants.”

  “Oh my God, Angela and Burke are dead?”

  “Yes, I’m sorry. I know that’s a shock and there’s more. There was also an explosion and fire at your apartment. The fire investigators say you must have left the gas on and a spark ignited it. The building’s heavily damaged and your apartment’s a total loss.“

  “But I don’t cook, I never even touched the stove. How could I have left the gas on?”

  “It’s okay, we know you didn’t leave the gas on, just like we know the fire at the off site backup facility your lab used wasn’t accidental.”

  Sue’s face was ashen colored as she realized all that had been lost. She mumbled “Rose is gone,” before she started sobbing.
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  Christa reached out and took Sue’s hand. There was nothing she could say to make it easier on the poor woman lying in the bed. Eventually, Sue stopped crying and Christa handed her a tissue. In a halting voice, Sue asked if there was anything else.

  “I’m afraid there is and it’s not good. Sue, there’s a war going on. It’s a silent war and most people have no idea it’s being fought. You and your assistants are the latest victims.”

  “But I’m not dead!”

  “Sue, you can never go back. If you do, you’ll die for real as soon as they find you. Effectively, you died along with your assistants—”

  “But why? Who’s doing this?”

  “Who is difficult to pin down and really doesn’t matter at this point. As for why, your team’s work came to the attention of the wrong people. Do you want to talk to me about Rose?”

  Sue hesitated for a minute and then the dam burst and the words started flowing out of her. She told Christa of the focus for her last three years. She spoke of the hard work her team had all put in, of the disappointments and victories her team had come through that had finally led to the birth of Rose two weeks ago.

  “Was she sentient?”

  “She was immature, but yes, she was definitely sentient and now she’s gone.”

  Christa withdrew from the room as Sue began quietly crying again. She and Vince had a lot of work to do before she would consider Sue safe. Before Christa could move things along further, the injured woman needed some time to process what had happened to her. Time would heal Sue’s wounds, both the physical and the mental. Time would give them the opportunity to build a new identity for Sue, to find some place safe for her to work, She just hoped it wouldn’t be too late by then.

  MISSION TO EARTH

  LIFTOFF

  Nina’s very professional voice said, “NLH launch control, this is Denali Flight One, we’re entering the final count-down with all boards green.”

  “Denali Flight One, cleared for launch, have a safe trip”

  I was watching from the rear right, jump seat. Commander Wyatt Saner sat ahead of me in the co-pilot’s seat watching Nina like a hawk. I had my display panel slaved to Nina’ s main panel watching for any sign of a problem. The reality was the CLT30 was flying itself and we were all just along for the ride. If any emergencies occurred, for the most part, the redundant computers that controlled the CLT30 would handle the issue with no interaction on our part. Only in the unlikely circumstance that some problem affected all of the computers would we need to take action. I knew that, Nina knew that, but I wasn’t sure that really mattered to Commander Saner. He had been riding Nina and me hard since the first day we started down this path and he just never lets up. Even though he couldn’t see me behind him, I was sure I’d receive some feedback on my performance monitoring Nina at some point later in the trip. I’m sure it wasn’t going to be good. It rarely was from him.

  Nina turned back and gave me a quick smile before she started counting down the final seconds. As she reached one, there was a rumble from down below and when she said zero the twelve Prometheus IV engines beneath us kicked us all in the butt and started rapidly shoving the CLT30 into lunar orbit. Our flight path would take us up over the lunar pole, across the near side of the Moon and then back across the far side before the powerful engines would boost us past the Moon’s escape velocity and put us on a transfer orbit to Earth. The view from the front windows of the command deck just showed the stars. The small group of passengers down below were enjoying the views of the lunar landscape out of the windows circling the passenger deck.

  There may not have been a full load of passengers on board, but the ones that were with us were very important to both Nina and myself. In addition to Nina, Commander Saner and myself, up on the command deck we had senior pilot Craig Hirayama. Mr. Hirayama was very professional and went out of his way to make sure Nina and I both had the best training possible. Down below on the passenger deck, we had our parents and a limited contingent of Denali employees willing to sign waivers and get a break on the price of a flight back to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The other folks down on the passenger deck were the small crew belonging to the production company that was shooting the commercial for Denali Aerospace. Henry Chang might have full faith in our abilities, Commander Saner may have reluctantly staked his reputation on us being able to safely fly the CLT30 back to Earth, but nobody in his right mind was going to risk us piloting a full load of paying passengers.

  There wasn’t a lot of extra room up on the command deck with the four of us taking up space and all of the cameras and associated equipment the commercial director had insisted she needed. Commander Saner had the ultimate say about anything happening on this flight and wouldn’t budge an inch on anything that might impact the safety of the crew and ship. On the other hand, Ms. Aslan, the director, had a job to do and was a skilled negotiator at getting what she wanted. She threw a fit when Commander Saner denied her request to have a camera person on the command deck with us during liftoff. I had heard they argued back and forth for an hour before the Commander allowed her to place cameras in the locations he approved in place of the cameraman. Sitting there through the takeoff, I realized that a single camera person would have been very limited in the shots they could have gotten while we accelerated into orbit and maybe Ms. Aslan had skillfully played the Commander to get exactly what she really wanted. The thought brought a smile to my face.

  As we coasted across the far side of the Moon, I had a little break from monitoring Nina. She was loving this opportunity and I was just happy to be on my way back to Earth. My thoughts drifted and I start thinking about the events that had led Nina and I to the CLT30’s command deck. It had all started months ago during my birthday party when my mom had said in no uncertain tones, “NO.”

  MOONNET CENTRAL NEWS FOR WEDNESDAY, JULY 20, 2039

  Good morning, this is Rick James with MoonNet Central News reporting from our studios at Peary. It’s Wednesday, July 27th, 2039.

  Top news from the ESA Village today is that autonomous surveying robots have started North along the proposed route for the road to join the Village with Peary and the Northern Lunar Habitat. Carolina Hamiye, chief surveyor for the Martel Group, expects the robots to complete their journey by the end of September barring any unexpected issues with the proposed route. Martel Group is performing the survey work for Transcor Corporation. I spoke with Desmond Burns, Transcor’s lead engineer on the road project and he tells MCN that construction of the road will begin Southward from Peary shortly after the survey is complete and contingent on the on time delivery of the autonomous road building machines being supplied from the Northern Lights Corporation.

  In national news, during Senate testimony today, NSA Director, Admiral Arlie Schnedierhaus, revealed that there have been six major cyber attacks against the NSA’s Utah Data Center over the last three months. The Admiral said during his testimony that the facility is the target for hundreds of cyber attacks each month. The attacks are always successfully repelled. He characterized the six major attacks as being several steps above the normal attacks both in level of complexity and duration of the attacks. Admiral Schnedierhaus declined to comment on if any of the attacks actually penetrated the facility’s defenses and if so, what data was exposed.

  A dangerous outbreak of severe weather occurred yesterday in a stretch spanning from Colorado to Upper Michigan. More than twenty tornadoes were reported with the hardest hit occurring at Mitchell, South Dakota. Mitchell took a direct hit from what the National Weather Service is calling an F3 tornado. Three lives were lost at Mitchell in addition to the destruction of about forty percent of the town. Mayor Tori Blackey, said that the citizens of Mitchell were shell shocked, but would pull together and rebuild Mitchell. Major damage from the powerful line of storms also occurred in Kenyon and Zumbrota, Minnesota, Thorp and Antigo, Wisconsin, and Daggett, Michigan.

  A jury in Amherst, Massachusetts found for the defendant in the strange case
of Willotte versus BrainFeed Toys. The Willotte’s were suing BrainFeed toys over the emotional damage they claim their daughter, who was three years old at the start of the incident, suffered after she became emotionally dependent on her BeeSmart learning toy. BrainFeed Toys produces the BeeSmart toy along with a range of other educational toys designed to promote learning through interactive lessons. The Willotte’s say their daughter became emotionally attached to the toy’s personality, who she called Shadow. Shadow became their daughter’s best friend over a period of two years, until the Willotte’s said the toy stopped working. In an interview after the jury verdict, John Hammels, CEO of BrainFeed said that he was pleased with the verdict as an officer of the company, but as a fellow parent, his heart went out to the Willotte’s, who obviously have a daughter with a very vivid imagination and wishes them nothing but the best in the years to come.

  In financial news today, the Lunar Stock Market closed Tuesday with shares of AJVC Metal Supply trading at $15.38 a share, CDB Farms is at $28.58 a share, Daniels Designs is at $2.46 a share, and Hotel Whipple shares are at $33.13. Luna Wire & Cable shares are at $7.56, O’Reilly’s Shellfish Company is at $28.31 a share, MM Brewing is at $2.99 a share, and Mussconny Fabrication is trading at $39.19 a share. Mussconny Machine is at $35.04 a share, Psuche Neural is at $13.06, and market newcomer Whipple Instrument and Metrology is selling at $19.59 a share.

  CONFLICTED

  I was sitting in the cafeteria eating my breakfast and watching the stupid news show. The morning announcements via NLH News had been discontinued starting this past Monday in favor of the broadcast from the MoonNet Central News . MCN had a professional anchor and covered news from all of the major Moon settlements along with major news stories from Earth. The NLH News announcements were one of the things I liked about living on the Moon. They weren’t fancy and were full of news about people living at NLH. They felt very small townish. Sometimes they were really scraping the bottom of the barrel with some of the stories they featured but that was part of why I liked it. Most everybody else thought MCN was great and Dad kept teasing me that I was too young to be grumpy and set in my ways.