Part XIV – Ghost Story, Part 1

This is Part XIV of the serial space western The Ghosts of Blackmoon Rift. It is also available for download in RTF format here. Or click here for a complete listing of episodes.

Part XIV – Ghost Story, Part 1

“Somebody should tell a story,” said Miss Kitty. The little group was seated around a crackling campfire. They had made camp under a cliff a short distance outside of the ghost town. Although they offered shelter, the eyeless windows and empty doorways of the town had seemed singularly unappealing as dark fell.

“Ooh, yeah,” said Crash enthusiastically. “I ever tell you folks about the time I threaded the needle over Arcturus V?”

Miss Kitty rolled her eyes, but Egan Torr said “No.”

Part XV – Ghost Story, Part 2

This is Part XV of the serial space western The Ghosts of Blackmoon Rift. It is also available for download in RTF format here. Or click here for a complete listing of episodes.

Part XV – Ghost Story, Part 2

“A robot?” snapped Murphy at Crash, derailing Torr’s story. “You got some kind of problem with artificial life-forms?”

“What?” protested Crash. “Some of my best friends are artificial life-forms! I mean, look at me. Me and robots, we’re like cousins.”

“Why does he have to come back as a robot, then?”

“He’s got to be one of those android things. You kidnap a guy and you make a robot that looks just like him except it does what you want it to do, and you send it back to take his place. Two weeks later you hit a button and he blows up or starts listening to Barry Manilow or whatever.”

“An evil twin could do that too. The evil twin could take his place instead of the robot.”

“There is no evil twin!” shouted Egan Torr, with some exasperation. “He just comes back very unhappy! He’s not a robot. He’s just very morose. Jane notices that he barely smiles, and seems preoccupied all the time.”

“Does she test him for robot-ness?” asked Crash.

“No,” sighed Torr. “She goes to see one of her friends.”

“Jane had befriended, or been befriended, by a young scientist named Madeline Sykes. Madeline took the newlywed under her wing and became her unofficial sponsor in the colony, teaching her the lay of the land, the unwritten rules and the politicking. Madeline was a light-hearted young woman, but when Jane told her about Adrian she became quite serious.

“’Oh dear,’ she said. ‘That sounds like The Curse.’

Part XIII – Safe and Sound

This is Part XIII of the serial space western The Ghosts of Blackmoon Rift. It is also available for download in RTF format here. Or click here for a complete listing of episodes.

The Void Where Prohibited opened her mouth and screamed. Every nut and bolt on her slender frame danced in agony as at maximum thrust she sought to slow her descent through the thick blanket of atmosphere.

“Hang on tight!” shouted Crash, pulling back on the controls with all his might.

“What do you think we’ve been doing,” Miss Kitty shouted back over the din. Her knuckles were white as she gripped the arms of her seat.

“I wasn’t talking to you!” Crash returned. He reached across his console and punched a sequence of keys. The heads-up display, which had been displaying the series of jagged peaks which they were just managing to miss, rotated its perspective to reveal a map of the landscape. “Okay, baby, just over this ridgeline and then down we go, like a stone skipping across the lake.”

“The great thing about stones is, they don’t fly,” said Miss Kitty through clenched teeth.

Part XII – Confidence, Part 2

This is Part XII of the serial space western The Ghosts of Blackmoon Rift. It is also available for download in RTF format here. Or click here for a complete listing of episodes.

Part XII – Confidence, Part 2

The red-rimmed sky smoldered as the sun’s embers sank behind the hills. The shadows that stretched from the horizon limned the rest of the world with purple and blue. Murphy wished he were anywhere else.

“You know what sucks?” he asked.

the story so far

Looking for a specific installment or just trying to find the start of the story?  Look no further, folks!  With my new, patented table of contents(tm) all your dreams unread episodes are just a mouse-click away!

Part I – PHD

Part II – Son of a Gun

Part III – Junk

Part IV – Plan A

Part V – Tag

Part VI – Plan B

Part VII – Wallace

Part VIII – What Would Murphy Do?

Part IX – Their Own Devices

Part X – Spooked

Part XI – Confidence

Part XII – Confidence, Part 2

Part XI – Confidence

This is Part XI of the serial space western The Ghosts of Blackmoon Rift. It is also available for download in RTF format here. Or click here for a complete listing of episodes.

Part XI – Confidence

 

 

Previously: Young archaeologist Egan Torr is approaching the small world of Blackmoon with companions Miss Kitty and Crash aboard a fast scout ship. But his companions are shocked to learn that Torr was actually raised on board the mysterious relic known as the Entropy Device, which is slowly destroying the universe. Meanwhile, holographic self-help guru Murphy is in the middle of the desert with Blackmoon rancher Wallace, whose behavior has taken a menacing turn.

 

 

“I don’t even know what I’m doing out here,” sighed Egan Torr. The gawky archaeologist was drifting upside down in front of the viewport. The Void Where Prohibited was no longer under acceleration and they were in total free fall as they hurtled towards their destination.

“You know what your problem is, Professor?” asked Crash.

“No,” sighed Egan Torr. Just below him Miss Kitty was curled up asleep beneath her coat. From time to time she emitted a soft noise that might or might not have been a snore.

“You lack confidence.” Crash was in the cockpit with his head against the controls and his feet draped over the seat.

“I don’t think that’s quite true! I am very confident about a great many things.”

“Name one.”

“The gravitational constant of the universe!”

“Oookay,” said Crash, “Point taken. But the gravitational constant of the universe doesn’t help you get through your day.”

“Oh but it does!”

“I’m talking about moral support, man. I’m talking about when you’re throwing back a pint at the bar and the guy next to you pulls a knife. Where’s your gravitational constant then?”

“People do seem to do that sort of thing a lot out here. I’ve never seen anything like the frontier. I really don’t know how you cope.”

“Confidence, man!”

“In what?”

“In yourself. Do you know what I do when I look in the mirror first thing in the morning?”

“Uh, polish your metal arm?”

“No. I look at myself in the mirror, right in the eyes. Well, eye. And I say to myself, ‘Crash, you’re the best gosh darn pilot in the galaxy. Now get out there and make your mama proud.’”

“And does it work?”

Crash looked up at Torr and flashed his most winning metal smile. “So far!” he said.

. . .

“I’m not Wallace,” said the man who looked very much like Wallace.

Murphy had a very bad moment. For one fleeting instant he was painfully aware that he was alone and helpless in a darkened canyon on a godforsaken rock at the end of the universe with nothing between himself and a grinning madman. Then he pulled himself together.

“Well then,” said Murphy, “Apparently we haven’t met! I’m What Would Murphy Do, the acclaimed mentoring program based on best-selling author Dr. K.A. Anderson Murphy! And you must be – ?”

“A size 11,” said the man, and then he kicked Murphy’s projector, sending both the device and its projection tumbling across the canyon. The man guffawed loudly.

“Hey! Ouch! Nice one, boss.” Murphy brushed himself off and then realized he was upside down. “Say, would you mind flipping me over?”

The man ignored him. He was rifling through the bags.

“If you’re looking for the GORP it’s in the small black one. Guess not, huh?”

The man pulled out a long cylindrical device and held it up. He grinned. “Been looking for one of these!” he said.

“Oh yeah, you gotta have that. Uh, out here. Hey man, I can help you find anything you’re looking for. You might want to hurry. You know, in case this guy Wallace comes back.”

“Wallace will come back when I say he comes back.” The fierce grin was wiped instantly from the man’s face. He slammed down the bag he was holding and zipped it up. Then he began stuffing things back into bags and throwing them on the back of the hoversled.

Several of the drones swooped out of the dark and began buzzing quizzically around his head as he hopped onto the hoversled.

“Hey, c’mon man!” Murphy shouted. The hoversled’s engine roared to life. “Don’t leave me here,” he called desperately, “My battery life’s only good for so long! Hey!” This last was yelled as the man spurred the hoversled forward suddenly, almost running over Murphy’s projection device. But it stopped just short, and the man scooped Murphy up. Murphy found himself blinking up into that unsettling grin and wishing he could make himself a lot smaller than two feet tall.

“Don’t you fret,” said the man. “You’re too useful to leave lying around. Why, someone might come along and rewire your programming and make you tell them everything you’ve seen.” He opened the throttle and the hoversled leapt forward into the night. “That’s why I’m gonna do it first.”

. . .

“Lady and gentledude, buckle your seatbelts. We are preparing for our final descent.” Crash twisted around in his cockpit seat. “Actually, Professor, you can just tie that piece of cable around your – that’s right. You okay there, Miss Kitty?”

Miss Kitty yawned and shook herself. “Give me a sec. I’m trying to figure out this five-point harness.”

“Fantastic. Now old Crash is gonna have you on the ground in no time.”

“On it please, Crash, not in it.”

“Now see there, Miss Kitty? The Professor just made a funny. We’ll loosen this boy up yet.” Crash rubbed his hands together with glee. “Oh yeah. Time to thread the needle.”

“Uh, Crash, you seem to be enjoying yourself an awful lot,” said Miss Kitty. “Mind filling the rest of us in on what’s going on?”

“Well, the two of you are in for a real treat today. These tricky kinds of orbital insertions are my speciality.”

“I’ll bet that’s how you got your nickname,” said Kitty. Crash ignored her.

“See, your standard insertion, you kind of dip down into the atmosphere at a shallow angle and shave off some momentum before you bounce back out. By then you’re going relatively slowly and you can land at your pleasure.”

“That sounds real nice,” said Miss Kitty. “Why are we not doing that?”

“Asteroids, Kitty Randall. Oodles of ‘em. That gas giant our little world orbits has several lovely rings of space rocks running around it. Now Blackmoon has cleared a lane right through them, so as long as you’re dead along her orbit you’re safe. But an orbital bounce would be liable to throw us right into them.”

“How do we slow down without the, ah, ‘orbital bounce’?” asked Egan Torr.

“Well, that’s the fun part. We sneak up behind her and dive right in at a steep angle, but not so steep we go straight into the ground. You cut it just right, you can do laps inside the atmosphere to slow yourself down.”

“Won’t that be pretty bumpy?”

“You won’t be bored. But I’ve done it a dozen times before, no sweat. Still, better stay belted in until we’re three down and locked. Everybody ready? Here goes nothing.”

Egan Torr and Miss Kitty were pressed against their seats as the thrusters re-ignited. There was no other sensation of forward movement, but the stars wheeled overhead as the ship spun on her axis, and gradually the great disk of the gas giant began to swell in the viewport. The round shadow beneath the planet began to grow in size also, but it was still black, opaque.

Suddenly there was a clattering sound as if someone had let loose a fistful of gravel in front of them. “We’re passing over the outer ring,” announced Crash. “Hope you’re both insured.”

Torr was whispering to himself, “I’m a great archaeologist, I’m a great archaeologist.”

“You okay there, Professor?” asked Miss Kitty.

“Of course!” Torr laughed shakily. “I’m a great archaeologist!”

“Okay, we’re in the lane,” Crash called back. “It’s a tight squeeze, but all we gotta do is stay right on target and we should be HOLY HONKING FUSION JETS!” The entire craft jolted as Crash swerved back into the storm of debris. A rock the size of a baseball glanced off the hull with a clang.

“Uh, Crash, why are we out of the lane?” asked Miss Kitty.

“Lane’s full, sweetheart!” snapped Crash.

“She’s beautiful,” said Torr softly. Miss Kitty looked back at him. He was staring up, out of the viewport. She turned, and then she saw it – a long, white ship, surrounded by a gentle glow, with a sleek curved prow that tapered to a point so fine as to be invisible. It was moving away from Blackmoon, silent and graceful.

“What in space is that?” breathed Miss Kitty.

“It’s nothing,” said Crash shakily. “There’s no beacon, no signal. I’m not getting any readings on it. I’m not getting any readings.” There was another thunk as yet another asteroid glanced off them.

“Crash,” said Torr, “You’d better get back into the lane. There’s room for both of us, and we’re going to get pulverized if we stay here.”

“It’s a ghost ship,” said Crash. “I’m not going into the lane with a ghost ship.”

“Well if it’s ethereal we’ll pass right through it anyway.”

“Or maybe we’ll become ethereal ourselves!” snapped Crash. “I’m not going in.” He looked at his readouts. “We’ll just pull out of here and – “ the ship shuddered and lurched and the stars spun crazily again.

“Crash!” shouted Miss Kitty. “In the lane! Now!”

Crash was almost crying. “Please don’t make me,” he whimpered.

“Crash, so help me,” said Miss Kitty, “I’ll fly this thing myself if I have to!”

“You don’t have to,” said Egan Torr. “It’s gone.”

It was indeed. The white ship had vanished as suddenly as it had appeared. With a harsh jerk on the controls, Crash swerved back into the lane.

“You alright, Crash?” asked Miss Kitty. “You luck as white as a –“

“Don’t say it!” snapped Crash.

“Sheet. Professor, any thoughts?”

“I’ve never seen anything like it!” said Torr ecstatically. “It was beautiful! That must be her!”

“Her? Who her?”

“The ship I’m looking for. The Revenant.”

“Hold the phone,” shouted Crash angrily. “At what point did you start looking for a ghost ship? You said you were looking for an artifact.”

“Ah, well,” said Torr awkwardly. “It is an artifact, technically.”

Crash was on the verge of issuing a very strong rebuttal to this statement when his console began beeping. He swore. “We’ve got another ship in the lane,” he said. “It’s on a collision course heading right for us.”

“Another ghost ship?” asked Miss Kitty.

“Oh no,” said Crash. “This one’s very solid.”

 

To Be Continued…

 

(Part XII is here.)