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  HORIZON 616

  A NOVELLA BY

  T.S.Smith

  Horizon 616

  A Novella By T.S.Smith

  Mission Viejo, CA 92691

  www.tssmith.org

  © 2017 T.S.Smith

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For questions contact:

  [email protected]

  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.

  Cover and Title Page by: T.S.Smith

  First Edition

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  INTERVIEW: PART I

  1

  INTERVIEW: PART II

  2

  INTERVIEW: PART III

  3

  ***

  4

  INTERVIEW: PART IV

  5

  ***

  6

  INTERVIEW: PART V

  7

  ***

  8

  INTERVIEW: PART VI

  9

  ***

  10

  INTERVIEW: PART VII

  11

  ***

  12

  ***

  13

  ***

  14

  INTERVIEW: PART VIII

  15

  ***

  16

  INTERVIEW: PART IX

  17

  INTERVIEW: PART X

  EPILOGUE: HOLLAND’S DREAM

  AFTERWORD

  SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  FOR FURTHER READING

  INTERVIEW: PART I

  /declassified

  /operation/action/event_horizon

  /interrogations

  end

  MARK 11:36

  Interviewer: You say that the Poseidon had recovered the Athena II before going critical?

  2nd Officer Roberts: We never recovered the Athena, we only made contact with the ship. It then went critical, yes.

  Interviewer: But in your statement immediately following the incident you say, and I quote, “Once boarded, they found the Athena II’s crew dismembered throughout the ship.” You go on to describe a scene of th–

  2nd Officer S. Roberts: I am saying we only made contact with the crew before the ship crossed the event. We made full contact with their crew and then it went critical.

  Interviewer: I have the reports right here, it doesn’t sa–

  2nd Officer S. Roberts: Contact only, no recovery. It was a very long time ago, something I’m trying to forget. Why are you asking me these questions?

  Interviewer: Can you tell me about the actions of 1st Officer Roy Holland?

  2nd Officer S. Roberts: What is it you’re looking for?

  1

  The Poseidon, a first class scout ship of the Armada of the Earth Confederacy, silently pressed through deep space. Earth was eight years behind and so were the families and friends of the Poseidon’s crew. They were alone, isolated in the penetrating cold of space and were surrounded by a darkness that no one on Earth would ever get to experience, nor care to. It was this bleak darkness that crawled through their skin and cut into the belly where it lingered until their worries had fallen off into the deep caverns of personal thought, exposed to a place where no one cared to look. Mother Nature had extended her grasp far into the unknown and even here, where the sun did not rise and the dimmed halogen lights glowed and flickered and swamped the interior of the ship to maintain a quasi day-like luminosity, her grasp still picked and prodded at the team onboard the Poseidon as it guided them to their unknown fate.

  In a way it was comforting to some of them, much like the high-desert landscape where the heat waves lift and sway back side-to-side, clouding the view of red table-topped mountains behind. The sight eased one’s thoughts but behind its mask, it was deadly and vicious, unforgiving, merciless and violent. And in ruthless space, much like the desert, one mistake, one simple and easy mistake would be their lesson in mortality. There hadn’t been much more to their journey than this, no room for complications, no room for a small failure. And the pressure they felt after eight long years together sifted itself down into their conversations where it stayed dormant, calm, cold, and waiting for the time to betray its own impassivity.

  There were advantages to be had with success, if they were able to survive. The team would receive more than gratification from the Earth Confederacy, whose people cherished scientific exploration above all else. They would return heroes and have riches beyond their wildest dreams. In the past centuries, exploration of deep space had become a priority.

  Venture capitalists provided financial support to private companies which supplied ships complete with the bravest explorers on board to search deep space in the wild and dangerous terrain of the cosmos. Technology exploded and for the first time in the history of Earth, the nations came together with the objective of scientific pursuit. However, they did this out of need rather than want. If the planet was left to become inhospitable to life and humanity continued on without a cohesive strategy, the inhabitants of the world would be left to die. They needed an escape and equity firms had the financial power to provide them that escape, for a great price of course. Proliferation of scientific ventures meant riches and fame for any crew that returned safely home and equipped humanity with more information for an eventual attempt to flee their dying planet.

  An unusual and threatening mission was given to the greatest scientists that the Confederacy could muster up and they were given a ship named the Athena II, the goddess of wisdom and war. Their assigned task was to explore the boundaries of the nearest black hole V616 Monocerotis, V616 for short, where they were to perform an analysis on the gravitational dance between the matter sucking density of the hole and its surroundings. The scientists were to pilot their ship to the event horizon, perform their analysis, and return to the riches that the Confederacy would provide. The only problem, they never returned. Communication had gone dark between the Athena II and the Confederacy, the streams had run dry, and the people of Earth were left to wonder what happened. Thus, the idea of the Poseidon was born, a crew that would chart the same course as the Athena II, make contact with the two hundred and seven scientists on the ship, and if possible, bring them back home. It was to be the greatest mission man had ever attempted, a search and rescue through the dark hell of space.

  Once the crew of the Poseidon returned from their journey along with the scientists from the Athena II, they would never need to work another day in their lives, they would be heroes and worshiped by the Confederacy. Sixteen years would pass for the crew on the ship but for the Confederacy, eighty-nine years.

  Roy Holland, the captain and 1st Officer of the Poseidon, looked out the port-side window at the stars. It has to be it, he thought to himself. Holland had his own worries. The Athena II had been silent for years and had made no contact with Earth or the crew of the Poseidon. Holland’s team, which was comprised of seven scientists including himself and two military members, had searched and used every single instrument known to man to attempt to receive a signal from the Athena II. After eight years, the only instruments that worked for the crew had been their own eyes. There, port-side of the Poseidon, sat the long-missing and defunct vessel. He hoped that the crew would still be alive when they boarded but his intuition told him that they weren’t. And if the crew members of the Athena II were dead, what had killed them? How had they made it this far out, next to the hole, and gone silent. Autopilot? He didn’t think so. And to make matters worse, it appeared in order to
engage the Athena II, the team would have to maneuver the Poseidon extremely close to the event horizon of the black hole and risk their own ship going critical. It was this dance that he was afraid of and it was this dance that he had always been afraid of. But it was why the Confederacy and chosen him to be the captain. Even if he was afraid, he would still make it happen. Even if he had to break the damned protocol, he would still make it work. He would find out what happened to the crew of the Athena II, he would get them off if possible with his own crew, and he would get everyone back to the Confederacy. Any mistake would cost them their lives, any deviation of their procedure would result in their deaths. To find those scientists and get them back was their responsibility and Roy Holland would make sure they finished the job.

  There, in the deep recesses of space, outside of the event horizon of V616 floated the quiet hull of their target. It was a large ship, more than two hundred and fifty meters to the longest side, and to their surprise it was not so old that the scars of deep space travel had forever imprinted their mark on the vessel’s skeleton. Holland wasn’t the only one who smelled death, the entire nine member crew of the Poseidon sensed fear as they sank their eyes deep into the long-sought fallen goddess. They would bring the Athena II back to the Earth Confederacy, if they could.

  “Now there’s a girl,” Jax said at first sight of the glistening starship in the distance. Jax stood next to Holland and the rest of the Poseidon’s crew. He had hoped that the quiet calm of deep space would be soothing to him, a place where his soul could rest, but it wasn’t. He watched the Athena II grow in size as the glistening capsule stood caught against the starlight, held peacefully in its grasp. It was a magnificent thing, to see the ship so close, after so long, to feel it, and to know that they would soon return home. Eight long years of anticipation were built upon him like stones, crushing the air from his thoughts and deflating his dreams like balloons. But he wasn’t worried, no, he could just see a raw job when it was floating in front of him. He and Boyer were military and being commanded by these scientists, especially a guy like Roy Holland, rubbed him the wrong way. Boyer was partial to Holland though, so Jax had tried to keep his feelings to himself the past eight years.

  “Might be pretty close to the boundary, I don’t like it,” said Sarah Roberts Ph.D, second in command of the Poseidon.

  “Let’s try some radio communication,” Holland said.

  “Frequency Charly-Bravo-Charly, set,” Roberts replied tuning the digital radio frequency.

  “Contact first,” Holland said. He pressed down a button on the ComSat Station, the CCD. “Athena II, come in. Athena II, copy.” The team went quiet and watched as the silent vessel glistened in space, a voyager whose journey had fallen off the tracks much too soon.

  He tried again, “Athena II, this is 1st Officer Roy Holland of your sister ship Poseidon, do you copy? Over.”

  Nothing.

  “Christ,” Jax said. “Signal’s dead, the thing’s empty.”

  Holland shifted the frequency with his gloved right hand, the knob gave him little resistance.

  “She’s not empty, just sleeping. Let’s go again,” Holland said. He moved his thumb to the communication switch of the control board, a toy he had tinkered around with many times. “Athena II, this is 1st Officer Roy Holland of the Poseidon, do you copy? Over.”

  Again nothing.

  “Should we switch frequency, maybe they’re running on an emergency channel?” Yola asked.

  “Could be, but I don’t think so. They’re on that ship, maybe the power’s dead,” Dettman replied.

  “Worth a shot,” she said back.

  Michaels, the technical expert, spoke, “If the power’s dead, it’s not looking good for us out here. You only have so many emergency hours on a research class cruiser like that. Days are likely, maybe weeks if you’re lucky.”

  “The thing doesn’t run on batteries, if the power’s dead, they’re dead,” Yola said.

  Dettman spoke next, “Then what do we do? No response, no contact, just like training says.”

  “I say we board it,” Holland said.

  Their eyes went to his face. “What?” he asked.

  “No,” Roberts said.

  “Are you bat-shit crazy? We’re not going to board a ship in the middle of deep space without contact. No announcement, no response, no contact, remember?” Boyer asked.

  “I’m going to try the channel again,” Holland said. The crew watched in anticipation as he again brought his thumb to the switch. “Crew of the Athena II, this is 1st Officer Roy Holland of your sister ship Poseidon, copy?”

  Silence.

  Holland turned back to the others, “If we don’t do anything, the time it took to get all the way out here is wasted. We need to do something. We’re going to board the ship.”

  “The manual is an easy read, you should give it a look, Holland,” Jax insulted.

  “Shit, look at the proximity, too close to the event, we need to wait for contact. It’s fucking red shifting, it will go critical, we’ll go critical if we try something like that,” Dettman, the navigation specialist, said.

  “We’ll be boarding, I’ll give them the announcement. Roberts, all available channels,” the team’s eyes lit, still glued on Holland. Roberts twisted the knob labeled three on the CCD and the communication frequencies widened. They waited until the ALL AVAILABLE CHANNELS diode turned green and then Holland proceeded to give a boarding announcement. He turned to the crew, “We have one hour, then we’ll make our approach, better get the suits ready. We’ll need to be ready.”

  “Snakeskins,” Boyer said.

  “Call them whatever you want to call them, just be ready.” He looked at the crew, “One hour.” The crew didn’t move, unsure of what to do. Their captain had just directed them to disobey their protocol, their precise training. No communication, no contact, no boarding.

  “I’ll go myself if everyone here is unprepared to do their duty,” he said. Holland turned from the CCD and left the station before anyone responded.

  Jax turned back and looked at the Athena, he was quiet.

  “Man,” Yola said. “The guy’s got guts, I’ll give him that. Stupid guts, but guts.”

  INTERVIEW: PART II

  /declassified

  /operation/action/event_horizon

  /interrogations

  end

  Interviewer: We have documented in our investigation that 1st Officer Holland gave the orders to board the ship. As I’m sure you are well aware of Ms. Roberts, that is–

  2nd Officer Roberts: Dr. Roberts.

  Interviewer: Ah yes, Dr. Roberts. I am sure you are fully aware that giving orders to board the ship without contact went directly against protocol. Specifically, the protocol that was set up for the investigation of the Athena II and its reacquisition by the Earth Confederacy. No response, no contact. And due to the decisions of the crew of the Poseidon, and in our estimation those made by Commander Holland, led directly to the Confederacy’s tragedy.

  2nd Officer S. Roberts: Confederacy’s tragedy? That crew was my family. There were no orders given to board that ship, do you hear me? None, whatsoever. We made contact with the Athena II and then lost it in the event before the Poseidon went critical.

  Interviewer: You came back alone, didn’t you?

  2nd Officer S. Roberts: You’re right, I came back alone. I think about it every damn day of my life. You don’t think I would give everything I’ve had since then to go back and get those guys off that ship with me? To save them?

  Interviewer: Save them, an interesting choice of words. What about save him?

  2nd Officer S. Roberts: Fuck you.

  2

  Stepping away from the CCD, Susan Roberts walked to where she knew he would be, in the galley making one last drink for himself before departure, smoking a damn cigarette in the confines of a close-quartered ship, he was an asshole like that. And she was right. He sat there smoking and drinking, killing himself in his own isola
tion. Holland appeared lonely to her, a man who had lost everything, the death of his best friend, the death of his wife, and maybe this time his crew. She felt horrible about it but it was his remoteness that attracted her to him. He was a game that she could never quite catch up to, someone she could never quite get a hold of emotionally. And to an attractive woman that had attained most every man she had ever set after, a little challenge changed her perspective. It was also his fire, their fire together, two clashing personalities that sparked when smashed into one another. Roberts watched him as she settled into her approach.

  She wanted him to know that she was still there for him even if the rest of the crew wasn’t. Had the others treated him unfairly? Jax was a self-absorbed jerk, sure, what was new? Leaders had to make decisions and sometimes unpopular ones. Had they been in his position, the commander of a ship that had spent the last eight years travelling only to be forced to turn around without even touching the ship they had given up an eighth of their lives to reach, they might have felt differently. It was going to be dangerous for them but being who he was, he was completely committed to his duty and his crew, she trusted that he could get them through this. Roy Holland was a professional. But every man has his vice and Roy Holland’s was self-pity. He sat alone at the bar, high up on a stool spun round and facing a wall where a painting of a smiling woman in a blue dress holding a small-pop of beer, a science bullshit name for can. She took the stool next to him.

  “You look like a man committed,” Susan said. He looked up to the painting, then down at the drink in his hand, and then grunted to himself. He was still young but she saw how the creases had begun to web out from his eyes. “Do you want to talk about anything?” she asked.