Covfefe Syndrome

By J.J. Mainor

What is a man without his memories? That is a question Colonial Ship Captain Eznik D'brosian faces when a rare disease attacks his brain. As he witnesses his family, friends, and career fade away, he struggles to hold onto something...anything of the man he is.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.J. Mainor
• Release date: Aug 30, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370328253

J.J. Mainor

I can talk about my characters and stories far more easily than I can talk about myself. The best way to learn about me is through those stories. Writing primarily science fiction, I enjoy worlds and universes that aren't so black and white. Every story has something to say, and every message is not as straight-forward as it seems. We tend to boil ourselves down and define ourselves according to neat labels, whether by race, gender, political identity, or whatever; and the truth is, we're more complicated than that. I try to write worlds and characters that reflect that complexity and diversity of belief.

Book preview

Covfefe Syndrome

Copyright 2017 by J.J. Mainor

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are 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.

Table of Contents

Mission Day 3

Mission Day 5

Mission Day 7

Mission Day 8

Mission Day 13

Mission Day 14

Mission Day 16

Mission Day 19

Mission Day 25

Mission Day 27

Mission Day 31

Mission Day 47

Mission Day 58

Mission Day 82

Mission Day 83

Mission Day 84

Mission Day 87

Mission Day 89

Mission Day 225

Mission Day 3

I build a fire on every world I visit as a reminder of humanity’s greatest achievements. Most in this age consider our current technology to be the height of our civilization, but it’s easy to forget those inventions and discoveries would not be possible without the earliest discoveries of our most primitive ancestors. It was our mastery of fire which permitted the cooking of food to render it safer for consumption – food which fueled the growth of our brains and the increase in intelligence that opened the way for us to even consider the advanced concepts behind the dimensional-drive.

There isn’t much to use as fuel around here. The only plant life around are these mounds of vines covering the gravelly soil beneath. They spread as far as the eye can see, climbing atop one another, competing for the light of the orange-yellow sun overhead. They pile so high in spots, the tendrils at the bottom of the mounds dry and wither. It is those dead vines that make for fire, but they are not thick enough to sustain it for more than a few minutes. Already the ash left behind rises in the light breeze and falls all around me like a curious snow on this warm world.

It is day three here on the world we named Kl’mek, after Ensign Dan Kl’mek from Environmental, and our focus has been on the survey of the ground water. Preliminary soil samples came back yesterday showing high acidity levels in the soil, but nothing the colonists can’t correct before the crops go in. If there is any upside, it is that this world is young. The soil layer goes down no more than ten meters in any of the core samples the teams have taken so far. Only ten meters to the bedrock, and that means groundwater is never far away; but it also means the lowlands are only one or two rainstorms away from flooding.

The other thing worrying Governor K’nane is the heat. Kl’mek rotates once every 11.27 standard hours – ninety-six seconds longer than our preliminary estimates returned. While many thought the colonists would be grateful for the extra ninety-six seconds in their day, that news did little to alleviate the Governor’s concern. Kl’mek orbits closer to the star than he would have liked and those short nights do little to cool the air after a hot day.

Didn’t you put that in your log yesterday, Captain?

Captain Eznik B’drosian looked up from his 3-HI to find his executive officer, Commander Songan Dyam’ looking over his shoulder. Normally one’s 3-HI, or 3-dimensional Holographic Interface, could only be seen by the user, the interface itself cued to the visual cortex for security reasons, however the Captain and his XO, and anyone standing watch at a particular moment were cued to see anyone’s 3-HI, including each other’s, unless either officer secured their interface for security reasons. The only time either rendered the display private was when they received information or orders specifically labelled classified.

Dyam’ read the opening lines of his Captain’s log with amusement, and his observation sent B’drosian quickly scanning through his old logs, finding a surprise when he found the same paragraph recorded in his log titled Mission Day Two. He had forgotten all about that, but as the Captain, he couldn’t stand to have the XO catch him in such a silly mistake.

When you have a thought this profound, he laughed, "it bears repeating.

The Commander gave him a sly smile to let him know his secret was safe. He had a report to give, and the Captain may or may not have been anxious to hear it.

The environmental teams have updated some of their findings. Atmosphere is 18.5% oxygen, not the 19% they previously recorded.

That shouldn’t make a difference, the Captain noted.

True, but the core samples in grid seven go down a hundred meters before hitting rock.

Why do you make it sound like a bad thing? If the groundwater isn’t so near the surface, that reduces chances of flooding.

Except the colonists can’t use the water. There are high concentrations of lead down there. Lieutenant Commander L’vy assures us it can be filtered out, but Governor K’nane worries it can’t be done on an industrial scale.

"It’s a big planet, Commander. By the end of the month, the survey teams should move on to the western part of this continent. Maybe we’ll find a more suitable spot out there.

B’drosian commanded the colony ship known as the Serpentine on a long-term mission with dual objectives. The primary involved seeking out a suitable world for the settlement of the sixteen hundred colonists they had in stasis. Humans had been pushing the frontier of interstellar settlement ever since they first ventured out to the stars thousands of years before. The last few hundred years saw a population explosion like never before, requiring more land, more air, more food, and more water, among other things, to sustain the numbers.

Hundreds of ships like the Serpentine spread out seeking appropriate worlds for such colonies, and though habitable worlds were initially small in numbers, they had to make sure the worlds were suitable for expansion. Successful colonies attracted less adventurous pioneers – those who waited until the most dangerous part of resettlement passed – so they needed the room to grow. Then there were the birth rates and the extremely low mortality rates driving the other half of the growth. The issue with the water on this part of the planet wasn’t troubling for the short-term if a better source could be had elsewhere, but it would become problematic once cities and towns sprung up across all corners of this new world.

That was their main objective. The secondary objective involved a more general exploration of the particular region of space they were assigned to. Distant telescopes and the occasional deep space survey missions only collected so much data about the stars and the planets that might have orbited those stars. In seeking out a new home for the sixteen hundred civilians under their care, B’drosian and his crew had to take detailed studies, not just of those worlds which seemed suitable for human habitation, but of every world in the system.

A planetary survey could only tell so much about the suitability of a particular world. Just because the atmosphere was breathable, the soil suitable for crops, the water pure for drinking, the rotation suitable for a balanced day/night cycle, and so on and so forth, that didn’t mean there weren’t factors outside of the little world that could prove harmful to a colony. A gas giant with a highly elliptical orbit might pass close enough to influence the smaller body’s orbit. Radiation coming from a hot world might envelope the rocky planet at its closest pass, killing everyone on the surface, or at least making them sick beyond the capabilities of their med-nites.

In addition to that one, habitable world, B’drosian needed to survey the rest as if considering them for colonial sites. Mining opportunities allowed the colonists to fill many of their needs without destroying the environment of their new home. Important gases like helium and hydrogen came easily from the atmospheres of the gas giants.

All around, it was a good thing the colonists remained in stasis throughout the surveys because it sometimes took several standard years before the assigned governor and the colonial ship’s military commanders agreed on the suitability of a particular world. B’drosian and his teams were only on day three, so they weren’t in any rush to draw solid conclusions.

The Captain willed away his 3-HI and rose from his dusty perch to inspect the teams. The fire had burned itself out and he poured the last of his water across the coals to make sure they didn’t spring to life and spread fire to the surrounding vegetation. There were teams spread out across twenty kilometers, all doing their things, so B’drosian was doing nothing as captain other than putting on a show to make it look like he was more important than he seemed. He might have stayed aboard Serpentine and kept out of everyone’s way, but captain’s prerogative let him get away for a little ground-time. After all, the 3-HI let him command his ship from just about anywhere. The Serpentine needed him on the bridge as much as the scientists needed him in their way.

His was a military ship with a military crew, but he was an over-glorified babysitter. As a colonial ship, he saw little combat. The civilian scientists reported to him in as much as they shared their results – they were outside his chain of command. Governor K’nane had control of the sleepers and their cargo. Even his own people competently did their jobs without his direct oversight. For all that, he wouldn’t give up the life for anything…not when it allowed him certain…privileges.

About a kilometer from his little fire, he found a geological team collecting soil and water samples from the edge of a creek. B’drosian noticed the redness in the water and put his nose up at the thought of drinking it or bathing with it before seeking out one of the younger members of the team.

What is it, Captain? he asked coldly. The young man, Avedis B’drosian, was almost a head taller than the Captain, but he bore the same square jaw and angled brow as the older, military man.

I just came to see how my son is doing.

I told you when we started out, I didn’t want you treating me like your son.

But you are, B’drosian pointed out.

And it appears to everyone I work with that you grant me special favor when you recognize it. Was it not enough for you to arrange my assignment on your ship?

Don’t start on that again!

"I didn’t start on that, father. You did when you took me off the Etherion."

"I told you when I did that, how you wouldn’t be happy aboard the Etherion. It’s a local ship, and your talents would have been wasted trying to convince the farmers on Rah’l they were over fertilizing their land. Out here you get to see worlds no one has seen before. Out here you get to put your name on important discoveries everyone back home will pour over for years."

I’m not fighting this fight again! Avedis told him. Bottom line, it’s my life. The decision was mine to make, not yours.

I’m sorry, the old man said, trying to kill the fight. He pointed to the canisters resting at his feet. What have you got there?

Dirt. That’s what I’ve got.

I meant, what’s in the dirt? Have you found anything interesting?

I won’t know that until we test the samples.

Avedis drew in a deep breath, and Eznik tried to remember his son didn’t think him to be a bad man, just a misguided one. The younger B’drosian always hated his father for getting involved in his life, ever since he was a young boy transferring between Eznik’s ship and that of his mother whenever the two crossed paths. In a way, that’s just how the old man was. As a ship’s captain, he was used to having everything under his control, but a child was not like a military officer. A child was chaotic, almost uncontrollable at times. Children naturally rebelled against their parents for some measure of freedom, and Eznik knew only his military training when it came to quelling any such rebellion.

I know you mean well, the son said to the father, but I’m not ten years old anymore. You have to let me go. Trust me to make my own decisions. If I make a mistake, it’s mine to make, not yours. You did your part, so let me do mine.

Eznik sighed. A part of him was always disappointed his son didn’t follow him into the service. He always believed the boy went into geology just to spite him, and he knew after spending his youth flying around on ships, the dull life of a scientist would leave him restless. The Captain never saw the young man’s desire for a normal life, he only saw his own need for adventure when he had set out on his own. His son looked so much like him, it was easy to transpose his own feelings, his own desires, and his own longings onto him. It was not so easy to accept that Avedis bore little resemblance to his father on the inside.

His comm buzzed in his brain giving him a smooth exit from the awkward mess he got himself into. With a thought, B’drosian brought up his 3-HI to find out who wanted him and for what purpose. A face appeared within the display area of the holographic interface, a face belonging to a woman just a few years younger than him. She was Lieutenant Commander San’ra, the Navigator and current watch commander aboard his ship.

B’drosian found a dread that came over unwelcome news. The crew on watch had no reason to call him directly unless there was trouble. He waited to hear what that problem was and how bad the fallout would be.

Sir, we spotted a Kr’koran fighter out by the first moon.

Are they headed your way? He tried to remember which of the various species out here the Kr’koran were. His mind was lost in a fog with all the data inundating him in the past three days, and he shook off his poor recollection to fatigue.

The Kr’koran were considered a hostile race. Little was known about them since they refused contact as long as they’ve been known. Like the humans, they didn’t seek out a fight, and they probably would have been happy if the two species never encountered each other. Many times they would turn around and leave if they spotted a human ship nearby, but they were wild and territorial. They had a habit of making the occasional strike to remind the humans they were not to be trifled with.

And they were good. Their armaments were different from the humans, but they were just as effective. They could put up a fight and a good many ships had been left for dead after some of their scuffles. What made them dangerous still was they could not be reasoned with. With many other races, B’drosian might open a channel and talk their way out of a fight, but not with the Kr’korans. They weren’t interested in all-out war, but they certainly weren’t interested in any deals or treaties the humans wished to offer in the name of peace. The species might have best been summed up as leave them alone and they’ll leave you alone, yet that wasn’t always possible as it was in that moment.

They’re holding position for the moment. Watching us.

That was as much a sign of attack as if they came in with guns ablaze. According to the Service’s informational database, anything but immediate withdrawal meant the Kr’korans would fight. It was inevitable, and B’drosian had to prepare for it.

Disengage the cargo, he instructed, and try to lure them away. I’m coming up to take charge.

San’ra gave him an agreeable nod, and he wished away his 3-HI. Avedis had been watching the worry wrinkle itself across his father’s brow. He heard this half of the brief conversation and the worry his father initially felt infected his own being.

Are we in trouble? he asked the old man.

Not if I can help it. You get your team and find cover somewhere until this blows over.

He took off running to cover the kilometer of ground between him and the shuttles, one last question chasing after him in the humid breeze.

Until what blows over? Avedis shouted.

B’drosian didn’t hear him. He was off at full speed and reached the first shuttle, throwing himself inside and into one of the forward seats. His 3-HI flashed to light and the Captain called up the shuttle controls. Within seconds, the ship was off the ground leaving the scattered scientists behind and in the care of his XO. All he cared about was that Kr’koran fighter. If it decided to strike at their camp on the planet,