eBook
"Space: 1999 - What Lies Beneath"
By Michael Faries
Published April 2006
(Space1999.org imprint)
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Description:
The Future was supposed to be Fantastic... until the events of September 13th, 1999 sent Earth's moon adrift into interstellar space.
As unlikely as the cataclysmic nuclear reactions of Disposal Area number two could have rocketed the moon into the furthest reaches of space, seemingly impossible alien encounters and deadly phenomena have constantly challenged the survivors of Moonbase Alpha.
Now Ty Adair, Eagle flight technician and pilot-in-training, may be accidentally uncovering the causes behind the moon's tragic fate. And a fate that from within the lunar body, and within Alpha's own ranks, may lead to its ultimate destruction.
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Sample text:
The term "living quarters" gave Ty Adair a slight chill.
He stood outside the former occupant's door, hesitating to raise his commlock to de-activate the door seal.
In the many months since Commissioner Gerald Simmonds's departure from Moonbase Alpha, his assigned quarters lay vacant. There were no replacements checking in, no special guests to accord the room to.
The room assignment itself was located far, far away from other Alphan quarters. When Commander Koenig learned of Simmonds's cavalier actions, followed by his unwelcomed appearance on the moonbase, the commander made certain he was housed far away from Main Mission, even outside of Accomodations Unit, in the distant Alien Life Sciences building by Launch Pad Three. Unfortunately for Paul Morrow, among other operations staff, the Commissioner spent ample time in the command area when he wasn't sulking in his quarters, where he had been recovering from the mild concussion received during Breakaway. He remained alone during Alpha's first, post-Breakaway alien encounter with the resurrected astronaut, Lee Russell. But he made more frequent -- and vocal -- appearances after that.
Simmonds's self-imposed isolation was further fueled by self-pity. He had failed with the Meta probe launch. He had failed to prevent the explosive nuclear waste chain reactions that hurled the moon into deep space. And his over-inflated ego would not accept full responsibility. It had been easier to embrace denial as the basis of his pending salvation and redemption. In time, people will understand, he thought. It wasn't my fault. They will come to understand when their anger, their rage, their grief lessens. It was for the greater good!
That day of redemption never came for Commissioner Simmonds.
The bearded technocrat had the dubious honor of being Moonbase Alpha's last visitor before Breakaway occured. At the height of his glory, he stood in Main Mission, pompous and arrogant as ever, to watch over the dismantling of Nuclear Waste Disposal Area Two... and to witness the area's thermonuclear explosions first-hand.
His arrival on the moon was politically-charged. The Meta probe mission had been delayed, no thanks to ever-increasing problems on the moon. Astronauts had fallen mysteriously ill during training, savaged by an unknown malady which brought madness, then death. The launch schedule continued to lag. And his office installed John Robert Koenig as the moonbase's ninth leader, replacing veteran cosmonaut Commander Anton Gorski. It was a highly-charged political railroading that few could ignore.
As Simmonds once declared, "Nothing must stop us. Nothing."
Simmonds had felt the unrelenting pressure from colleagues and government leaders alike, all of whom wanted humanity's next quantum leap into the universe to proceed without delay. The signal from planet Meta had proved intelligent life may exist. And untold expenses and resources had been poured into the Meta probe mission to justify another crowning achievement amongst the stars. As with the Ultra probe mission, why travel to one of the planets within our own solar system when mankind could soar amongst the stars themselves?
Ironically, Simmonds saw his office's dream realized. The thermonuclear explosions of Nuclear Waste Disposal Area Two had hurled the Moon from Earth's orbit. The 311 men and women of Moonbase Alpha had been unwillingly drafted into a generational ship, cast adrift amongst the stars.
"Damn him," Adair thought aloud.
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