Light Quest

By David. B. Reynolds-Moreton

Borg Grisling considered himself just an ordinary research engineer at the Institute, but someone else thought of him as exceptional - hence the adventure which is about to unfold. The planet he would visit was like nothing known before, and therefore posed some unique problems. What he found, and what it led to was beyond his wildest imagination - and probably that of those who sent him. The only thing in his favour was his tenacity and knowledge - but would that be enough to handle that which he found himself in?

• Language: English
• Publisher: David. B. Reynolds-Moreton
• Release date: Sep 27, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301106721

David. B. Reynolds-Moreton

Retired Research & Development Engineer. Interests:- Physics, Electronics, Chemistry, Renewable Energy Systems. Also:- writing Sci-Fi and building an adult realtime 3D adventure computor game.

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Light Quest

By

David B. Reynolds-Moreton

SMASHWORDS EDITION

* * * * *

PUBLISHED BY:

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Light Quest

Copyright © 2012 by D.B.Reynolds-Moreton

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

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Table of contants

Chapter 1 The invitation

Chapter 2 Under way

Chapter 3 A Little Static

Chapter 4 An Intruder

Chapter 5 Located!

Chapter 6 New Friends

Other Books by the same Author

About the Author

SYNOPSIS

Borg Grisling considered himself just an ordinary research engineer at the Institute, but someone else thought of him as exceptional - hence the adventure which is about to unfold. The planet he would visit was like nothing known before, and therefore posed some unique problems. What he found, and what it led to was beyond his wildest imagination - and probably that of those who sent him. The only thing in his favour was his tenacity and knowledge - but would that be enough to handle that which he found himself in?

Light Quest

Chapter 1

The Invitation

Borg Grisling carefully brought the Lander in a smooth curving flight to hover over the designated landing site, and then gently lowered it down in a cloud of fine dust.

The whine of the power unit died down to a lower murmur, and then all was quiet, except for the odd creak as the outer hull cooled down to the ambient temperature of the local atmosphere.

Peering out of the view port, it looked much like what he had been told and the somewhat fuzzy pictures he had seen, but the lack of gravity was something of a shock - although he had been warned about it.

*********

It all began when he received a request to visit the Astrophysics Research Centre, and was ushered up to see the Director General, someone he never thought he would meet in a dozen lifetimes. He was asked to take a seat in front of a large dark wooden desk, and wait. Some moments later a door at the other end of the room opened, and in came a white haired, well tanned, giant of a man, who reached out to shake his hand, and then seated himself on the other side of the desk.

‘May I call you Borg?’ He asked, with a reassuring smile.

Borg just nodded, still feeling a little overwhelmed by the occasion.

‘You may well wonder why you have been invited up here. Let me explain, your physical and psychological profile fits exactly what we want; only two others came anyway near - so you have been chosen for a very important project, the details of which I will give you in a moment. Would you like some refreshment?’ the Director asked, smiling.

‘Thank you, sir.’ Borg replied, feeling a dryness in his throat.

A uniformed man brought in a tray of assorted drinks and placed it on the desk, did a slight bow of his head and left.

‘Please help yourself to whatever you fancy,’ the Director said, ‘and I’ll begin.’

Borg reached forward and took a glass of what looked like water, and was surprised by the unidentified but fruity flavour it had.

‘As you know, planets are spherical, but we have found one which isn’t. It may have been when it was created and something happened to it, or it may have started out flattened - we don’t know. But that’s not all; it is much smaller than most planets with an atmosphere, and from the centre of this strange world, a beam of intense light flashes out every now and again, and we don’t know why, or what causes it; it might be a natural phenomena or something constructed, although we have no record of intelligence in that area. Some while ago, a small survey ship was caught in the path of the beam, and it just vanished - no wreckage or debris was found, and it was too quick for a distress signal to be sent out.’

The Director stopped to take a drink from the tray, carefully watching Borg’s reaction to what he had said.

‘We have been able to gather some data about this world, but not much of it makes any sense. It is more like a disc than a sphere, with a bulge in the middle where the light is emitted. On the opposite side of the planet is another bulge, with what looks like a shiny disc in the centre of the world, but we have no idea what it is or does. We have sent robot drones down, but they cease to function when near or upon landing.

It would seem that anything electrical won’t work on the planet, except on the very edge of the disc, so we can’t get close enough to the light source to see what is going on. The planet is quite small, compared to others, but there is a high gravitational force towards the middle. It would seem there is life of some sort down there, but as we can only take pictures from a distance, we don’t known if any of it is intelligent, so we need someone on the ground to find out what that light is all about.

Needless to say, anyone doing this for us would be very handsomely paid - they would be able to live a life of luxury afterwards which most only dream of. We think you are the man for the job - what say you?’

Borg was flattered that they should ask him, but it looked like