Lost In The Nebula

By Daniel D. Mickle

If a starship crashes in the forest and there is no one around to hear, does it make a sound? This story begins following the young human who survives the crash, as he becomes an emergency surgeon, a house builder, and finally, a reluctant killer. He had come on this voyage to find his father, but does his father still live? He finds guidance in an older man who appears with his wife of many years, but from whence did they come and what is their story? There is something quite odd about them. What is in the case he carries? Will they bring Abras and the remaining Drolla fleet to the brink of a new galactic war, which could even endanger those living on Earth?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Daniel D. Mickle
• Release date: Jun 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310804342

Daniel D. Mickle

Daniel D. Mickle has written technical articles in the sciences plus science fiction stories for over half a century, beginning in high school with his school newspaper, where he wrote stories for the enjoyment of the other students. His varied interests range from quantum physics theory, communications, electronics design, work with lasers and microwave radio (lifetime federal license), computers, astronomy, chemistry, and the internet to building robots, riding his Harley, martial arts (multiple black belts), marksmanship (expert), writing, oil painting, and photography (to mention a few) give him a perspective on life which may be seen in the varied aspects of his stories. A stickler for detail, he makes certain the science involved in his fiction is either the latest views in the scientific community, or are his own interpretations and projections of logical science discoveries coming in the future.

Book preview

LOST IN THE NEBULA

[PRELUDE TO WAR]

DANIEL D. MICKLE

Copyright © 2015 Daniel D. Mickle

Smashwords Edition

ISBN: 9781310804342

This book is available in print at most online retailers.

All rights reserved.

This e-book is single-copy licensed for your enjoyment alone. Please be kind to the poor author and do not distribute free copies of this book. Additional copies may be purchased at Smashwords.

The author asserts his moral rights under the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act, stating that no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photographic, electronic or mechanical methods without prior written permission of the author, except for brief quotations in critical reviews & other non-commercial uses permitted under copyright law.

This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and events are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This will acknowledge and extend a thank you to all who helped bring this book to its fruition. Specifically, my son, Clint, and my friends in the Braden family. I would also like to thank my line editor, Melissa Ringsted, for her help with grammar, punctuation, & typos.

Finally, I wish to thank you, the readers, for purchasing the book and for your interest in following the activities in the Abrasax universe.

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 — Starship Down

Chapter 2 — Unexpected Cargo

Chapter 3 — House

Chapter 4 — What’s In A Name?

Chapter 5 — Traaad

Chapter 6 — On Earth About This Time

Chapter 7 — Take Flight

Chapter 8 — The Cimeron

Chapter 9 — Say Goodbye

Chapter 10 — Ship Trouble

Chapter 11 — Kill The Queen

Chapter 12 — Trouble On Zed-37208

Chapter 13 — Shuttle

Chapter 14 — Gunshot

Chapter 15 — Base Attack

Chapter 16 — Memories

About The Author

CHAPTER 1 – Starship Down

If a starship crashes in the forest and there is no one around to hear, does it make a sound?

In this case, it did. It made a terrible racket that scared every animal nearby into frenzied running, or a quick dash into a nearby burrow in the ground to sit shaking in fear until it was over.

Even after the thunderous noise subsided, the local wildlife were afraid to venture near this strange new metallic addition to their peaceful woodland.

Time passed.

One person awoke after the crash. He was disoriented and lying in total darkness, but he was living. The rest of the ship around him was deathly quiet.

What had likely saved him was that he was asleep in his bunk against a strong bulkhead wall, as the ship skidded across the planet’s surface, slammed into trees, and ultimately broke apart when it smashed into the base of a rocky cliff and stopped, never to move again.

Except for the protesting creak of metal on metal when the wind caught some of the loose panels, there was no movement.

Some five to six hours after the crash, there would be a new sound—the tooth-gritting shriek of twisting metal as someone tried to pry their way out of the wreckage, pausing regularly to rest.

* * *

Over an hour after the ship went down, Jayden Edwins awoke in pain and fumbled for his emergency light in the darkness. He finally located it and flipped it on, looking around his small cabin. He could see the cubicle was no longer cubic. The walls were no longer square with each other, but squashed oddly sideways. His bunk was against the aft side of a retaining bulkhead, so when the ship slammed to a stop, he had been pressed violently against that wall. The crash itself was only a vague recollection in the middle of his dreams, but he was sure it had happened. For one thing, there was no longer any vibration from the engines. Everything was still and dark, but for his small torch and the sounds he was making.

Jayden checked the source of his aches and pains. He thought, I don’t seem to have any broken bones, but there is plenty of bruising. That’s a relief. Oh sure, bruises can cause clotting that may move to your lungs or brain and kill you, but I think these are small enough to be safe. I’ll just have to chance it. I doubt there will be a hospital ship along any time soon.

He tried to leave his closet-like stateroom and found the door jammed. There were no portholes or other ways to exit. He had to pry the door open, somehow, but he had no tools. He had counted on the ship and crew to have any tools he would need for all possible emergencies.

His dad had been on an earlier ship, the Cimeron, which had disappeared out here somewhere during a mapping and exploration mission. This ship was supposed to be searching for the other ship to save his dad. Because his father had been on the missing ship, Jayden had been given a spare bunk and allowed to accompany the rescue mission. Rescue ships like this were not supposed to crash. Before he went to sleep, the last thing he had been told was that they were headed into a large nebula many light-years across to set up a crisscrossing search pattern. Now they had crashed—somewhere.

The door—what they called a hatch—seemed to be wedged into the frame at the top. It should open outward, so he finally tried lying on his back on the floor and kicking at the lower corner with all his might. He interspersed this occasionally with cries for help from anyone who could hear him, but no one responded. He laughed at his situation. Yes, Jayden, just lie here like an idiot, kicking and screaming. But with that, he gave an extra energetic kick and this time the door bent outward. It was only a small amount, but renewed his vigor to try harder.

I could always lie here pretending the door was that guy who used to bully me back in school, and I am kicking him, breaking his kneecaps. We are in front of all the other kids in the class, and he has started crying and begging me not to hurt him anymore. He tells everyone he was stupid for picking on me. Slowly, with each repeated kick, the metal door bent further, a little at a time. It was hard work, but fortunately, lying on the floor, it was easy to rest when he had to.

He considered, Besides the other bruises, my leg muscles are going to be sore tomorrow. It’s not quite like hiking around the neighborhood back home. Now in his twenties, Jayden was not the weak bookworm that he had once been. Every summer he had gone on camping trips with his father. His father didn’t get all summer off work, so they camped close enough to his father’s work that his dad could head off for work, and return to their campsite in the evenings. On days off, they would sometimes walk for miles in the woods. While his dad was working, Jayden would drag in firewood for camp—branches and even small trees that had come down during storms—and use an axe to chop them up for the fire. He would carry in rocks to make walkways, so their camp did not turn into a mud pit during the rainy times. He would also dig a trench along the uphill side of their camp, and keep it open so runoff water would go around camp rather than through it. All those things had slowly but surely added muscles to his frame, so that now he would not have to back down or run away if that idiot had still been around to bully him.

Grabbing hold of his only bag, and after a couple false tries followed by more kicking, he was finally able to squeeze out through the bent door and pull his bag after him. The hallway—what the ship’s crew would call a passage—was squashed in at the top, so he could not stand fully erect. Instead, he had to crouch, bending over to get through this section. No wonder I couldn’t force it open until I got the door itself to bend.

Trying to go forward didn’t get him anywhere. That part of the ship showed more damage than toward the rear. He could not get the airtight hatch in the forward bulkhead to budge at all. Looking aft, the hallway seemed less twisted. He tried that direction. The next door on that route opened without much trouble, but he immediately stumbled across a body. Checking for a heartbeat, he realized that not only was there no pulse, but the body was already beginning to cool off. This crewmember was definitely dead. As he stepped over the bloodied man in work coveralls, he hoped he did not find any more like him.

Unfortunately, he did.

Every person he encountered had suffered a similar fate. Everyone’s dead, he mused. This is extremely bad. What if I am the only one out of forty-two people, who is still alive on the whole ship? Jayden finally stepped into the engine room. He immediately spotted three more bodies and saw the hull was crushed in on one side. One man had been squashed between the hull and the starboard engine, one had flown through the air and been impaled on a large pipe, and the third didn’t seem to have any injuries until he saw blood under him and turned him over. Gruesome! How did I live through all that? The engine on the right side, the starboard side, of the ship was definitely badly mangled. The one on the left, the port side, however, still appeared to be whole and undamaged. Can’t get this crushed and twisted ship into space in the shape it’s in, even if that engine is working. I wonder if I could take parts of it and build some sort of little ship big enough for me? Probably not. I wouldn’t know what I was doing on most of it.

In a corner of the engine room he spotted a large, freestanding toolbox, latched to the deck.

The toolbox could be exactly what he needed to get through some of those frozen doors. Opening it, he found that besides machinist’s tools, some of the drawers held other types of tools, ostensibly unrelated to spaceship repair. Some were carpentry tools. Claw hammer, wood saw, bow saw for trimming trees, and a few other miscellaneous items. The claw hammer, maybe?

His eyes caught sight of a gas welding outfit nearby, secured in place. The gas tanks still seemed unruptured. I know you can cut through metal with those, but I’ve never worked with one. I may have to learn, though. After all, I may be the only person left alive in here, and the entry airlock is on the right side of the ship and forward. That is where the most damage occurred. I may not be able to get out of here unless I can cut through the hull somewhere.

It was impossible to miss the large engineering station along the forward part of the engine room. If I could get the lights back on—maybe it is just a blown breaker. Running his handheld light over the panel, he spotted what appeared to be a power switch marked ‘diagnostic test panel’.

On a whim, he switched it on. Amazingly, the panel’s many lights and buttons lit up. There were two colorful view screens, where individual tests began scrolling up. The view screen on the right showed all red. It read, Starboard Engine - Total Engine Failure followed by Not field reparable. Return to space dock facility for repairs.

Yeah. Like that is going to happen, he thought.

The view screen on the left, however, showed all green test results. It said, Main power offline and Port Engine - All Tests Passed. A new message lit up below the readout that the main power was offline. The panel was asking, Shall I restore main power?

Yes, Jayden replied. How do I tell the stupid thing yes? Ah, I see it. There were onscreen buttons marked with yes, delay, and no. He touched the button marked yes.

Both screens now read, Initiating power tests. The right-hand display returned to red immediately, saying Starboard Power Bus Failure. Rerouting power to port side bus. The left-hand screen, however, indicated many functions in the green and only a couple that went red. The function labeled Internal Lighting was green. So was the function marked Packet Radio.

I could use the packet radio to call for help if I knew where I was—which I don’t. Jayden restored power to everything that was green. When he pressed the onscreen button for lights, the overhead illumination came on in the engine room. Peering out the door, he saw the passageway was lit up as well.

Great. At least I can see my way around now. He was able to shut off his flashlight to save its battery. Suddenly, he spotted a hydraulic jack sitting nearby. While that might open the stuck doors, it would only do so if he had a way to anchor it, so it had something to push against. Ah, a pry bar. That might help me. I could pry between the doors and their frames. Yeah, I’ll try that. Arming himself with both the claw hammer and the long pry bar, he headed forward again, toward the closed hatch that had stopped him earlier.

When he got to the hatch that would not budge before, he found it standing open. What the heck? Hello. Hello, is anyone here? he called. There was no answer even when he yelled it. Oh, of course. When I restored power to all of the green circuits, now that I think about it, there was one labeled Bulkhead Hatches. This one must not have been stuck at all, and opened automatically as soon as it had the power to do so.

Proceeding forward in the ship, he discovered there was a narrowing of the passage to the degree that he had to get down and crawl through to reach the bridge command center. Along the way there were a couple more bodies. Upon reaching the bridge, he saw that many of the chairs and consoles were ripped loose from the bolts and rivets that held them to the deck. Everyone there seemed dead as well, until he heard a low, choking cough.

Scrambling around, Jayden finally found a man lying on his back, holding one hand over his stomach and the other over his mouth. Water, the man seemed to be saying.

Right. Got it. You relax and I will find you some water, he assured the injured man. He could see blood had trickled from the man’s mouth down both sides of his face. Jayden jumped up and looked around for any sort of water bottle or a container with which to fetch some.

I’m the ship’s doctor. Don’t give him water. It could make his condition worsen, explained a female voice not far away. If internal bleeding has slowed due to clotting, fresh water might soak into the clots and make it start up again. Instead, you can place wet cloths on his forehead and we could start a saline IV drip. I need to examine him before we do anything else, but I can’t crawl over there. I have similar injuries, myself.

I was starting to think I was the only one still living on the ship, Jayden called toward the woman.

You may be the only one soon enough. I doubt Paul there has very long to live, and as for me, I doubt I will make it through the night … unless you operate on me and stitch up my insides.

No way. I’m no doctor. I’ve not even had first aid training. I can’t do it. I know absolutely nothing about how to sew people together.

Paul and I have internal injuries that will soon kill us if you don’t try. I am positive I’m bleeding internally. Have you ever sewed anything? Clothing?

Oooohhhhhh … cried the man who had asked for water. His whole body tensed up as though he were in deep pain. His body then began to shake, and he suddenly went limp.

It appears it no longer matters whether he got water or not. Check his pulse. I believe our Paul Hartswell just died, the woman observed. He is … he was our astrogator.

Checking the man’s neck for a pulse, Jayden found none. You’re right. I can’t find a pulse. Should I try artificial respiration?

No. It won’t do any good with his internal injuries. It’s not your fault; he went too quickly for us to do anything. He is gone. I will be too, I fear, but at least mine is progressing a bit more slowly. I may have a chance. She changed the subject. Over there, you will see a large medical supplies box. Look in it. There should be a bottle with a blue label. It contains a liquid. Bring me that and a hypodermic syringe. There are several of those in sealed wrappers. Do you understand what you are looking for?

Yes, I’ve had shots before, so that much I do know, he answered her, heading immediately toward the box she had pointed to. He soon had what she needed, handing them over to her.

This is a muscle relaxant and anti-spasmodic. I believe it may keep my insides from ripping themselves apart quicker than they already are. I want you to watch how I do this, as you may need to do it later to administer pain medication after you are finished operating and I am recuperating. She seemed certain that Jayden was going to operate on her and keep her alive.

Jayden tried to impress upon her his inability to do it, "No. I cannot operate on you. I have no idea what to do, or how to do it."

I will die for certain if you don’t. If you try it and fail, I can be no worse off than that. However, if you operate successfully, I have a chance of living. I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. You must steel yourself to the task and at least try. Okay? Will you try? The lady doctor made a good case for Jayden attempting to fix what was wrong inside of her. She bit her lower lip slightly and admitted, I don’t want to die …

I’ve never seen inside a person, even in pictures. If I did cut you open, how would I know what was right and what was wrong? he asked.

We are about to have a crash course—if you will excuse the pun—in internal surgical procedures. Drag our most recently deceased friend over here beside me. As she spoke, she would regularly pause in apparent pain, but that would subside soon and she would continue.

Jayden dragged the man’s body close beside her. Bring a scalpel and a surgical knife from the box, as well as a roll of surgical gauze, a box of cotton … Oh, hell, lift the whole box off the wall and bring it over. It is big, but I think you look strong enough to carry it. There are several things you will need before we’re done. She paused in pain. There is a clip at the top. Unclip it and you can lift it up. That should allow it to come loose from the mounting bracket that holds it.

Once he had accomplished this, she told him, I double-checked our friend. He is deceased, as you thought, and not just unconscious. We can cut him open without hurting him further. I will show you inside his body what you may expect to find when you cut me open.

Just the thought of that gives me a funny feeling in my stomach. It makes me really queasy and nervous, Jayden admitted.

You will have to get over it. We cannot hurt Paul any further. I’m sure he would not mind, since it is for a good cause. She placed a finger on the side of the scalpel blade. Only cut about this deep to get through my outer skin. I do not have nearly as thick of a fat layer as he does. She slowly pulled up her blouse, pausing every time it brought more pain. Taking a marker from the cabinet beside her, marked the spots, and drew a line between, with a detour around the belly button. You will cut me from here to here. Follow the lines exactly as I marked them and do not cut too deep. Remember, it all has to be sealed back together after you work on my organs, so please try to keep it straight. At least we do not have to rely on any questionable sewing skills. I forgot there was this … Let’s call it instantly sealing surgical glue. It’s like a super skin-glue. There is plenty, but don’t get carried away and glue things together that shouldn’t be. Do not let it drip.

She made Jayden cut an incision in the body beside her. Go slowly, now. Okay, see that membrane? That is the peritoneum and covers this entire cavity. Go ahead and cut through it. See how it is pulling apart? You will use some of these forceps to hold that or anything else in place as you proceed, but do not bother for Paul. Keep them clean for the coming operation. The same forceps will temporarily clamp blood vessels to staunch bleeding. Use these small ones. Notice that they lock in place. Okay, in our friend, see all that accumulated blood? Turn him to the side away from me and drain it. For me, however, you will use these sterile cloths to gently soak up the excess. You need to identify what organs are ruptured and get them glued back together so the bleeding stops. She continued her explanation as she watched Jayden probe around in the man’s body, and told him what each organ was and how to treat it if he found it ripped, crushed, or bleeding. Every few minutes, she would ask if everything was clear so far. Jayden realized that this was also an excuse for her to pause and let the escalating pain subside.

I really don’t know if I can do this, he muttered dejectedly.

"You have to do it. That’s all there is to it. You have to. There is no one else, and I don’t want to die. I can’t operate on myself. We could try local anesthetic and hope I stayed awake to help guide you, but frankly, I am pretty sure I will pass out at some point. This is a major operation, but we have no choice. It will be a massive shock to my system on top of what I am already going through, so you may as well knock me out. If I die during the operation, then I will pass away without feeling any pain." She went on to show him adrenalin and other things