Five Moons: Zep Tepi

By Bill Parker

Before the time of man, according to the ancient legends, the gods walked the earth. The Egyptians had a name for this time. They called it ‘Zep Tepi’ -- the First Time. That time is where this story all began in a place called Gobekli Tepe. But something went horribly wrong along the way. It took a Great Flood to cleanse the Earth of that terrible wrong. Mankind was very nearly annihilated, but the story didn’t end there. Zep Tepi picks up the story ten thousand years later, on a distant outworld known only as Soloreon-3...
In the beginning was the ship. And the ship was a light unto mankind. And the light shines into the darkness. But the darkness does not comprehend the light. And so the ship took a name unto itself -- the Five Moons.
It all started with an emergency call from a world at the farthest edges of explored space.
“You are our only hope,” they told Dallas Blake and the crew of the Five Moons. A deadly virus would kill them all if the Five Moons didn’t get the vaccine to them right away. But, like every other mission the Five Moons has taken on, this was but the tip of the proverbial iceberg. To save these people, Emma would have to pull a quantum rabbit out of her hat, and Dallas would be in for the fight of his life.
One thing was certain – someone very evil tried to kill these people, all of them, but why? Hunting down a mass murderer was a job for Special Forces, but they could use all of the help they could get. None of the clues made any sense. Every step they took was one step closer to killing all living things on Soloreon-3, but how were they to know that when they started?
Except the mysteries didn’t end there. Like, where had these people come from, and, with no modern technology, how did they get here? The answers to those questions would test the Five Moons and its crew to its very limits. It would bring dark forces out of hiding. It would bring the planet to the brink of war.
But the Five Moons was the Nexus of Fates. It had chosen each member of the crew for a reason. It chose Iyo and Dallas to save the ship. It chose Mariah, Jessica, Jane, and Henry. It chose them all to save Emma and Sophie. It chose them all to be a light unto mankind, but the light was not yet complete. Then it chose Star, but it wasn’t done with them yet. Its next choice would become a light, shining into the darkness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bill Parker
• Release date: Jul 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463310793

Bill Parker

Native Western New York author, and world traveler, Bill Parker, spent most of his career engineering high-tech manufacturing systems for companies around the world. An accomplished deep space astrophotographer, he was a contributing editor for Modern Astronomy magazine when it was based in Attica, New York, working mainly on astrophotography articles and projects.Bill Parker has been a Black Belt in Isshin Ryu Karate and a martial artist for more than forty years. The times when all that stood between him and certain death was his martial arts gave Bill the indomitable spirit that pervades his thinking and writing to this day.Bill calls Earth his homeworld but he is an outworlder to the very core of him.Bill is the author of the highly acclaimed Five Moons Series of science fiction novels and, if you are up for a real walk on the mystical side of science fiction, then you just have to read his Tales of the Green Jinn.

Book preview

Book Design by Bill Parker

Cover design by Deron Douglas

Prologue

In the beginning, was the ship. And the ship was a light unto mankind. And the light shines into the darkness. But the darkness does not comprehend the light.

And the humans named the ship Tesseract, but that was not the ship’s name. But the darkness dwelt amongst the humans and was them. And the darkness was full of its own power. But the darkness did not comprehend the light, and in its darkness, wrecked the ship and killed its crew.

Into that darkest hour, Aeyo came to save the crew and the ship. Of the crew, she could only save four as moons: images of the people they had once been. But the darkness hates the light, and it fought back. So Aeyo put me onto the network to save the ship. To the very Gates of Hell did the darkness drag the ship, to have it destroyed, to kill the moons, to hide the evil it had done.

At the very last minute did my father, Toron, find Leaf in the Wind, a single point of light in that sea of human chaos and darkness. But I chose Leaf in the Wind for his warrior’s spirit, to save the light that was given unto mankind. And so he set foot upon the decks of this ship and changed everything. Even Leaf in the Wind was changed. While he was dead in his heart but still walking, he opened his eyes and saw the light. And it was good.

And so the ship took a name unto itself -- the Five Moons. And it was good. But the Five Moons is more than just a ship. It is a beacon of light unto mankind. It is the Nexus of Fates.

Dallas Blake discovered the light of four moons: Jessica, Mariah, Jane, and Henry. And he set them free. Together, they saved Emma and Sophie. But the light was not yet complete. And then he found me. I am Iyo, the Fifth Moon. And so we thought that the light was complete.

But the Nexus of Fates had chosen each of us for a reason. It chose me for my tenacity and inner strength. It chose me so that I would choose Leaf in the Wind, Dallas Blake. It chose Dallas Blake to save the Five Moons and its crew. It chose Jessica, Mariah, Jane, and Henry. It chose us all to save Emma and Sophie. It chose us all to touch the lives of many. And the fate of each person who sets foot upon its decks becomes forever entangled with the fates of all the others. And each of us becomes a beacon of light that shines into the darkness.

And then the light chose Star…

Chapter 1

I hate being somebody’s only hope.

Please state the nature of your emergency, Captain Brenda Dickerson, Union Fleet Officer of the Watch, asked of the man on her display. As she asked, her computer queried the computer at the far end. It used that data to query Union Fleet’s own vast server bank. In the blink of an eye, it filled all of her auxiliary displays with information.

It’s a medical emergency – Maruvious Virus.

[Medical Emergency… Working… See Aux Display-2,] her computer reacted to what it heard.

Brenda quickly scanned the information it provided.

Not possible, she answered him a few seconds later. Soloreon-3 is a registered colony. You all were vaccinated before you left.

It’s not the colonists.

What? Not the colonists? Now Brenda was confused. Then who could it possibly be?

The indigenous people of Soloreon-3.

[Soloreon-3… Exploration Data on Aux Display-3,] her computer advised her. She knew that Fleet did not allow colonies on planets with indigenous people, but she checked the Tracton’s exploration report just to be certain. Sure enough, there it was -- Indigenous People: none.

There are no indigenous people on Soloreon-3. I have the Tracton’s own Exploration Report right in front of me. There are no indigenous people on that planet. Fleet does not allow planets with indigenous people to be colonized.

Yeah, that’s what we thought, too, but you did. Soloreon-3 has indigenous people. We didn’t find them ourselves for two whole years. But that is not the problem now. Now that’s a moot point. Let me put our Chief Medical Officer on the line. The man on the display moved to the right. He was replaced by a woman, Dr. Ava Coriopolis. Her credentials came right up on a banner on the bottom of the screen.

Today, the locals brought me a very sick woman. She has what appears to be symptoms of Maruvious Virus. I believe it to be a less virulent strain but, even so, quite deadly. I began inoculating the others in her clan, but I only have about a hundred doses. I will be out of that by tomorrow. You need to get a ship here right away, or thousands of these locals are going to die.

[Soloreon-3 Star Charts on Aux Display-2.]

Brenda looked at Aux Display-2 for a long second. Soloreon-3 was not just an outworld. It was an extreme outworld at the very limits of explored space. The journey had taken the colonists three months on some very fast timequake ships just to get to Soloreon-3 from Etron.

You are these people’s only hope, Dr. Ava told her.

I hate being somebody’s only hope, Brenda mumbled quietly under her breath. We will do the best we can, she promised Dr. Ava. I will have to call you back. The connection dissolved.

Emergency Request, she commanded.

[Emergency Request,] the computer responded as it put up a copy of that form on her main display. It was all filled in for her, but she had to check it over.

Attach Soloreon-3 files.

[Soloreon-3 Files attached.]

Send Emergency Request to Admiral Ehrlich. Page Admiral Ehrlich, Urgent.

[Paging Admiral Ehrlich, Urgent.]

While she waited, Brenda had to file the Emergency Request with Union Fleet Operations Command, but it actually required two separate forms to do that. Where else but Union Fleet would you have to officially request an emergency on two forms for it to be one?

What is this? Admiral Ehrlich asked Brenda as he came hurriedly into the room. We settled colonists on an inhabited world? How the hell did that happen?

Sir, it’s even worse. Somehow the locals got Maruvious Virus.

Oh, crap. One of the colonists was a carrier?

No, Sir. I looked at the medical records myself. They were all cleared by Fleet Medical, every last one of them. But that is not the real problem. Look at where Soloreon-3 is. The computer put the star chart up in the main, wall-sized 3-D display for him to see. In fact, it had to zoom the display way out for him to see it.

I have best travel times plotted from all nearby Union craft, Brenda told him and added that list to the display. Eleven lines glowed in yellow from each of the ships’ current positions to Soloreon-3. It looked like a long, narrow, colored cone of strings with Soloreon-3 at its far apex.

Twenty-two days? Is that the best that we can do? he asked nobody in particular.

Thousands of these people will die by then, Brenda told him

Not on my watch, He asserted as he walked off.

Admiral Ehrlich walked briskly into his own office and sat down. He carefully entered his access codes and the emergency declaration code before he queued up the call to Admiral Johnson on Aurora. When all of his data was properly linked, he ordered, [Execute.]

~~~

The Special Forces office on Aurora had been quiet and peaceful before the Emergency Declaration message arrived. Special Forces was comprised of Fleet’s finest and brightest people, determined to protect and defend mankind. Today their resolve would be tested.

Amanda Carlson picked up Admiral Ehrlich’s call. His somber face appeared on her display.

I am paging Admiral Johnson right now, she told him before he even asked. Is there anything I can do in the meantime to help?

Yes. Get a hold of Dallas Blake. I believe that his ship, the Five Moons, is our only hope to save these people.

I will do that. Admiral Johnson is a half-hour away. Please stay on the line. I will try to get Admiral Blake.

~~~

Amanda’s call came in to what appeared to be a huge starship bridge. It was, in fact, two starship bridges joined into one huge virtual bridge. To the right was the Five Moons’ bridge. Amanda could see Admiral Dallas Blake hard at work with Toron, the Anoza High Council, and Dallas’s good friend. Ilya, Toron’s wife, was working on the science station just behind them.

To the left of them was the Blue Moon’s bridge and the rest of the crew and family. Jessica and Angel were just sitting in their pilots’ stations while Mariah worked at her science station. Iyo sat at the workstation next to Mariah. She held her baby, Chon, and rocked him as she worked. He was getting big. Despite appearances, the Five Moons was actually parked on its normal landing pad in its home field, just outside of Habston, the biggest little city on Panara-5.

Amanda, so nice to see you. What brings you to us today? Mariah asked when she saw her face pop up in a window on the main display.

An emergency, I am afraid. We really need your help.

Dallas and Toron both heard that and turned to see what was happening.

We have a Medical Emergency on a very distant outworld, Maruvious Virus. That was all she needed to say. While she spoke, Amanda had downloaded all of the files to the Five Moons.

Please look these files over. I have Admiral Johnson incoming in the next twenty-five minutes. I would like to conference us all together then. I will call you when she gets here.

We will be ready, Dallas promised her.

You are these people’s only hope, Amanda told him as her window closed.

Damn, I hate being somebody’s only hope, Dallas mumbled.

The Five Moons Team all met in the open lounge area of the Blue Moon. You would never know that the Five Moons and Blue Moon were two separate starships on two different worlds from the inside. They were joined by a permanent quantum portal. The Blue Moon was safe enough for the family. The Five Moons was always in harm’s way. All one need do was to cross the quantum portal to be on either ship, no matter how far apart they happened to be.

Everyone sat and watched the videos. Then they each looked through the attached documents on their tablets as Jessica and Angel brought up the star charts for Soloreon-3 on the wall-sized 3-D display. It was, indeed, a very distant outworld at the far edge of explored space.

Dallas Blake closed his eyes and took a deep breath to set his mind on the problem.

We are going to have to use the time-space ring to get them the Maruvious vaccine, Dallas decided.

Distance may be of no concern to a time-space ring, Toron agreed, "but forming a stable wormhole accurately over that great of a distance is. Ilya is the real expert on this. She crossed the Great Rift with a stable wormhole. That was quite an accomplishment. I am very proud of her. He looked at his wife. What do you say?"

It took me almost a whole day just to get a wormhole stable enough for transit for just a few seconds. I am afraid that a lot of that was luck. She was being modest but at the same time truthful.

It is a square of the distance problem, Emma added to the conversation.

So if we can cut the distance in half, we make the aiming the wormhole one-quarter as difficult, Dallas concluded.

Yes, Emma agreed.

How does that help us? Mariah asked.

We pick a target planet halfway there, Dallas explained. We send a stable wormhole to it. We send a team of androids and humans through that wormhole with the parts of another time-space ring. They assemble that time-space ring on the target halfway planet. Then we use that time-space ring to hit Soloreon-3 from there.

You can’t get there from here. You have to start from somewhere else, Sophie concluded.

That’s exactly right, Dallas agreed. Make it two small steps instead of one big step.

Yes, Ilya agreed after a few seconds thought, that would make it significantly less difficult. Even so, I could really use Emma’s help with this.

And I could use the experience, Emma agreed. It will make me a better theorist.

Then that’s exactly what we’ll do. We have a plan, Dallas summed it up.

[Kip,] Dallas called his good friend, [Big trouble in little outworld. I need your help.]

[In full Recon armor?]

[Hell, yeah.]

[Don’t shoot anybody until I get there this time.] His connection closed.

We are going to need two time-space rings broken down for transport, Toron concluded.

He went off to get them while Dallas, Mariah, Jessica, and Angel went to the bridge to work on finding a suitable halfway planet. Emma and Sophie helped take care of the babies while everyone worked the problem. Star, the newest member of the crew, made the rounds and listened intently to see who needed her help.

Admiral Johnson called in the midst of this organized chaos. Her somber face appeared in a window on the main display. Admiral Ehrlich’s face appeared in another window next to hers. He looked at the chaos and didn’t know what to think. They were both expecting just a simple conference call. So much for that.

Admiral Johnson, Mariah finally noticed her.

What is happening? Admiral Johnson asked her.

We read over all the briefs and developed a plan, Mariah replied calmly.

How quickly can you get there? she asked Mariah.

I would like to say today, but, worst case, it might be tomorrow.

Dallas was talking with Doctor Jim when he saw Admiral Johnson’s face appear in the window on his main display.

Good! I really needed to talk to you, he told her. My Doctor Jim just told me that simply getting these people the vaccine is not good enough. They will need a whole team of medics to get these people all vaccinated. He says that twenty-five medics would be a good start.

Today?

Yes, that is my goal. You can assemble them in your staging area on Aurora. I will send a stable wormhole for them when we are ready.

Amanda! Amanda! Admiral Johnson could be heard calling for her over the display. When Admiral Johnson’s face reappeared, she told Dallas, Four hours. I need four hours.

I hope I don’t keep you waiting, Dallas replied.

So, what exactly is this plan? Admiral Johnson asked.

Soloreon-3 is too far away to do this in one wormhole, so we are going to have to find a planet halfway there. We will assemble another ring on the halfway planet and then hit Soloreon-3 from there, Mariah explained.

You are going to need a secure shelter at your halfway planet, Admiral Johnson decided. I have two of them at the Fleet base on Panara-5. I will have one of them delivered to you within the hour.

Does the Panara-5 Base have any Maruvious vaccine? Doctor Jim asked her.

Yes, they do.

Can you please have them bring it to me?

Sure. What’s your plan? she asked him.

I am going carry it through the ring myself.

Good man, Admiral Johnson complimented him. With that, she and Admiral Ehrlich dissolved their connections.

To the humans, this whole quantum wormhole technology was all brand new. Like timequake starships, it was all based on the quantum equations that defined the universe. Quantum wormholes were created by the time-space rings, common to the Anoza for many thousands of years.

Despite the fact that Emma was human, she was the real expert. In fact, when it came to quantum time-space physics, Emma was a genius. It all came naturally to her. It was how her brain was wired. She was a real enigma to the Anoza. They had totally regimented their thinking over the millennia. It simply was not possible for them to think out of the box on this subject anymore. Emma had thrown the box away. Still just barely a teenager, she had already surpassed everything the Anoza had taken many millennia of regimented thinking to achieve.

Jessica and Angel fed the star charts to Mariah and Ilya, who, in turn, fed the problem to the Anoza Artificial Intelligence Module buried deep in the heart of the Five Moons. It was a massive number-crunching project for him to compare T-10 planets at the halfway point. Seven minutes into his task, he spit out a prioritized list of planets. All of them were T-10, perfectly habitable for humans. None of them had names, only numbers. None of them were currently inhabited.

Mariah and Ilya both looked over the list. Then they looked at each of the top three planets themselves. All they had to work from was the Union Fleet exploratory reports, but those reports were over 200 years old now.

How goes the search? Dallas asked when his patience ran thin.

These are our top three candidates, Mariah showed him.

But the second one is the best choice, Ilya suddenly decided. There is only gently curved space between us and it. There are only a few minor space density fluctuations between it and Soloreon-3.

Okay, then. The ball is in your court, Dallas told her. Get us halfway.

Ilya and Emma made their way to the Five Moon’s ring room.

First, we download the coordinates of VLK-33791b-4 to the ring and set that as the destination, Ilya began showing Emma. Look at the coordinates even now. See how they are varying even as we watch them? Well, those are just the calculated coordinates from the data in the database. They are just our starting point. I will open a portal to there. Okay, let’s see what we have.

Emma called it what it was: a stable wormhole. But over the millennia, the Anoza had come to think of only the portal that the ring created across the vastness of space. That was due to the fact that all you would see looking at it was the transparent, shimmering boundary between the ‘here’ and the ‘there.’ There was no whirling vortex or any of that nonsense, only that shimmering boundary, like the surface of a perfectly clear pool of water.

The portal opened, but it wasn’t good. All that Ilya could see was the darkness of space.

This is where we begin, Ilya explained to Emma as she worked. Ilya turned the far end of the wormhole around until she found the star. She marked that position. Then she turned the far end some more, looking for the planet. For almost an hour, she tried in vain to find the planet but had no luck. The clock was ticking, and thirteen thousand lives hung in the balance.

Why don’t you just push a small sensor array through the portal to find it? Emma asked.

That’s a brilliant idea, Ilya replied.

[Henry, we need a sensor array small enough for us to insert through a portal,] Ilya requested.

Henry brought Ilya a small sensor array, which he promptly deployed through the portal.

As it turned out, planet VLK-33791b-4 had been