Amber Moon - Draft 1



© Vanessa Ravencroft 2015

Inspired by an image of Jason Archer‎  posted in Space Opera 12/13/2015

His quote: “

I was bored today, so I created this image in Modo and Terragen, with a little bit of Photoshop and After Effects thrown in... Always had a fascination with the idea of distant, isolated outposts in space and the work of maintaining the supply lines to keep them running.”

-1-

As far as he could see and in all directions there was nothing but rock and dust and everything was red. That was caused by the old red sun in the blood red sky, and the red soil of this moon.

That this world once had water and even a biosphere was evident in the still present but steadily thinning atmosphere, dried out river beds and bone dry ocean basins. Once in a while he found fossilized remains of organic shapes, that hinted at the once present life.

This was Amber Moon, and there was absolutley nothing special about it. It was just one of the trillions of lifeless rock core planets and moons that where out there.

Seenax corrected himself, yes there was something special about Amber Moon. It was the most distant outpost of them all.

He turned to his human companion who just struggled to climb the elevated ridge and join Seenax stepped to the side to give his friend room. “I fail to understand the energy and efforts you invested to come up here. This is a streinous climb.”

The human placed his hands on what they called legs and bend forward. “I am not a six legged nightmare with more muscles than a Saturnian and more endurance than a Quadi-Ped, so natuarally climbing the tallest montain on this cursed rock is a tad straining. Just let me catch my breath.”

“You could have simply taken a ride on my back as I suggested several times. I might be a six legged nightmare, but you might just be more stubborn than a Bandrupo and about as smart as a Giga Bacter .”

The man straightened out and gazed across the landscape. “I think you got me there. I climbed three hours up that frikkin' mountain for that?”

“No one asked you to climb Mount Lorgan, you could have continued with our standard patrol.”

“So you can tease me all week long what view I have missed?” The human turned his head under the transparent helmet. “Mount Lorgan, you did not put that in the log?”

A third voice, belonging to a thin humanoid female that floated effordless using her Arti-Grav said. “Seenax most certainly did. Our Morthim associate spend the last four weeks naming every surface feature of this world.”

The Morthim was indeed among the most fierce and fear inducing life forms. It stood on six powerfull kegs, had an additional arm pair with strong clawed hands. Someone once described the being as an amalgam between sabertooth tiger, rhino and a Lionfish full of poisonous spines. The Morthim was also about as big as a Terran Rhino. Seenax did not need any protective gear even out here, but he did wear a face mask so he could speak and commnicate with the base.”It is what esecially humans like to do, they name everything. I thought you be pleased.”

The still floating female was a Delicate. She looked thin and fragile even in her environmental protection suit. She was in many ways the complete oposite to the Morthim. Delicates were sometimes described to be impossibly beautiful females, that had been created by a master artist using insubstantial veils of the finest chifon,  butterflies and  flowers. She descended and toched the ground. “

The two beings were silent for a moment, then the man added. “Nice for you to join me though.”

“It is still a mystery to me, what humans find

Twenty klicks south

“LRS -12 calling Amber Moon.” Lorgan touched the touch sensor again and repeated his call.”LRS-12 calling Amber Moon. Guys, it was a long trip. I got mail, supplies and even a passenger.”

“Amber Moon, here. Sorry for the tardy response, but we had to use the GalNet terminal at the post office. Our main unit in C and C is on the blink .”

Lorgan never heard of a GalNet terminal failing, but then it was a technical device and no matter how well it was designed and built. It could fail. He did recognize the voice to be that of the outpost's commanding officer. Just as the exlanation had come through the visual flickered on. The unshaven face of Captain Mark Spencer appeared.”Ah its you Lorgan, you are Lorgan right?”

“While I can understand that you have problems recognizing differences between Diechsen individuals, what other Diechsen do you know keeps supplying your Stahl forgotten place ? Of course I am Lorgan.”

“Our landing pad is as empty as the day it was built, but I  appreciate the adherence to protocol. Now get down here, we are short on pretty much everything.”

Lorgan, the large reptilian hissed at the image and tapped the computronic controls linking them with the landing controls of Amber Moon.

The shuttle's only passenger had spend the last stretch of his trip on the flight deck and slowly shook his head. “What a disgrace.”

The Diechsen turned his head on its flexible neck. “This is Amber Moon, Commander, about as far from Pluribus as you can be. Besides it not run by the fleet.”

“That was obvious.”

The Leyland 4000, designated as Long Range Shuttle 12 reached the destination of this trip a few moments later, as it touched down on the landing platform of Amber Moon base.

A large robotic arm took the entire shuttle and passed it through the opening doors of the landing hangar.

An additional energy barrier membrane became visible for a short moment, as it flickered with bluish light while the shuttle was placed on a resting platform.

A dozen robots appeared from alcoves and elevator shafts and begun their unerring and fascinating mechanical dance attaching umbillicals, vacuuming any possible dust or decontamination the shuttle might have dragged from other worlds.

The Diechsen shuttle pilot gestured towards the activity. “You see it isn't all bad. Union mandated hygene procedures are observed.”

The humanoid in the black Union Fleet uniform and commander rank his collar, gave the large lizard a glance from the side. “I haven't started my inspection and evaluation yet, but I will take note of your observation.”

–

The unshaven Captain and his CO, First Lieutenant Htn-Yok stood behind the door that connected to the hangar and sighed. “This is going to be fun.”

“It certainly will be. I am a Keeptra and share many likes and traids with  Lorgan.”

Spencer rolled his eyes and looked up to the green scaled lizard being. “You hate live food, mud baths and detest Quacam, that is about all Lorgan is interested in. You also know exactly what I meant.” Spencer gestured towards the black uniformed man descending the boarding ramp. “Fleet, they sent us a fleet officer.”

The tall green Lizard being who was much more compareable to a cold blooded lizard than the warm blooded sauron related Diechsen, blinked by sliding his lower semi transparent eye lids over his all blache eyes.”Keeptra do eat raw food, but I agree do not enjoy Quacam and with similar enthusiasm do I look forward to this.”

“Keeptra are also supposed to like Hantah and perform the Praise of Santra at least once a day. You eat Fred's Fish Pie, never performed a single Praise im your life.” Spencer sighed even deeper. “Look at that guy, polished boots, regulation hair cut. I bet he has every regulation memorized.”

“It is conceiveable that I made an error in judgement, by joining the Union Army where I met you.” The being waved and the optical sensors of the base AI accepted his authority,opening the doors moments later. Thus preventing a reply from his friend and superior officer, because the arriving officer stepped through.

Spencer saluted and so did his XO. “Welcome to Amber Moon, Commander. I hope you had a pleasant journey.”

The immaculate groomed and dressed fleet officer returned the salute and smirked. “As good as one could expect travelling civilian.