Starship Wuthering Heights – Opening Chapters

1

THE INVISIBLE APOCALYPTIC KILLER

Highcliffe, Dorset, England, Earth, Sunday, July 4th, 4230

OF THE EIGHT chairs in the conical command module resting atop of the descending, roaring, humongous 124-yard-high MER-2 liquid-hydrogen fuelled rocket, only one was occupied.

A twenty-eight-year-old Tony Koster looked down at an extremely primitive low-battery powered controls display. The MER-2, in full, the Moon-to-Earth-and-Return-2, was fortunately flying itself and was right now preparing to land.  All Tony had to contribute to the flight was to verify certain optional choices the rocket controls were feeding him. Although he was a reasonably intelligent starship Science Officer with mandatory experience of piloting starships and shuttlecrafts, he had no experience of flying primitive chemical rockets.

“So everything is ready for landing,” said Tony to himself as attempting to internalise his thoughts would overwhelm him. “Just as well, because I don’t really have any choice. This is a one-off journey in a museum rocket that represents humanity’s last hope of having any chance of even beginning to defeat the omnipotent, dastardly humanotics.”

An expected message appeared on the main display accompanied by a softly beeping alarm:

Option A. landing area established on Highcliffe Beach, Highcliffe, Dorset, England, approximately thirty yards from seawater on a thick sand terrain and fifteen yards from a sea wall. Flick down the GO switch to attempt a landing, or flick the ABORT button to abort.

Tony flicked down the GO switch, despite a bold red lettered flashing “landing terrain suboptimal” warning message.

Twenty seconds later …

Landing burn engaged …

Tony heard a low rumble beneath him build in volume to a distant roar. As the roar grew and consumed the command module, which started to shake, Tony felt himself being squeezed down in his chair by the increasing force of gravity.

And then …

The shaking and roaring was punctuated by a soft thud.

Landing successfully completed.

All engines off.

Liquid-hydrogen must be topped up to full to enable takeoff for the return journey to the Moon.

“I cannot believe I’ve flown an antiquated rocket successfully from the Moon to the Earth. Shame I can’t even notify Cindy in our Luna hiding place. The humanotics would surely pick up any significant electromagnetic communication. As far as I know, Cindy and I are the only surviving humans in the entire universe. And if that’s true, one sniff of us by the humanotics and humanity will be extinct.”

Still sitting in his seat, Tony looked out through the command module windows. All he could see was a perfect-looking summer’s blue sky.

There’s no way I’m going close to any of the windows in here and looking downwards, thought Tony. I’m sure I’ll suffer from vertigo. I’m about 120 yards up from the ground. Although Cindy and I assured ourselves that the rocket should stand in a stable position on a sandy beach, I can’t help thinking the rocket might topple to the ground at any moment. Well, the quicker I get on with my mission, the better.

Tony unstrapped himself from his piloting chair and stood up.

Whoa, this gravity feels pretty heavy even though the virtual gravity on our lunar installations are the exact equivalent. The acceleration and deceleration used on the eight-hour journey packed in a bit of equivalent gravity, but some gravity-free travel was unavoidable. Well, I’m not hanging around in this command module to fully acclimatise. By the time I’m on the rocket’s elevator with the seawater-to-liquid-hydrogen converter, I will have fully recovered. Up and at ‘em, Tony boy!

Tony unlocked and lifted a hermetically sealing hatch on the control module’s floor and started to climb down an aluminium steel-runged ladder into the cylindrical low-ceiling cargo module.  Before fully descending the ladder, he pulled down and locked the hatch.

Geez, thank goodness the design of this rocket insisted on a hermetically sealed command module and cargo module, or this mission would have been doomed to failure.

When Tony stepped off the ladder, he checked the cargo module to make sure the flight had not damaged any of its contents.

After his swift but thorough inspection …

Excellent. The UV lights are operating perfectly. There’s not a drop of spilled cleaning agent. And thank goodness, the seawater-to-liquid-hydrogen converter and its hosing are in tiptop condition.

Tony eyed the cargo module’s exit door with fearful respect for what it opened out to, and for what it would let in.

Oh well, time to suit up, get the exit door open, employ the elevator rails, load up the elevator trolley with the seawater-to-liquid-hydrogen converter and its hosing, and get cracking.

Minutes is, Tony had closed the cargo module’s exit door and was slowly descending on the outside hull elevator. He gripped the safety rails of the elevator and faced the hull of the rocket. This way he minimised his chances of suffering vertigo.

The elevator came to a halt the moment its flooring touched the golden sand of the beach. Now, at last, Tony could turn around and take in the hot summery seaside scene …

The golden sands. The deep blue sea. The white foam-topped rolling waves forever nudging the shoreline. The almost cloudless pale-blue summer’s sky. The close-by evergreen coniferous Scots pine trees with their coppery-brown trunks and branches. The not-too-distant tanned stony cliffs. The slowly fluttering, colourful Red Admiral butterfly. The goldfinch duo sweeping towards the Scots pine trees.

Sunday, bloody Sunday! Magnificent beauty—for all but a human being! The humanotics saw to that. Masters of biological warfare. There is not a square inch of air up to ten yards above the ground anywhere on the surface of the planet that does not contain the deadly humavirus. The virus that does not need a human body to survive. Almost any living plant will allow it to thrive. The plants are never harmed. The animals are never harmed—except for those that are human. And what makes this invisible apocalyptic killer so deadly is not only the instant infection on taking a single breath or even exposing the tiniest area of skin, but the 32-day incubation period. Are they in heaven? No, they’re in hell! That’s where those damned dastardly humanotics dwell!

Tony turned his attention to setting up the seawater-to-liquid-hydrogen converter process. He already had the converter’s output hose attached to the rocket’s fuel storage systems. Now he unwound a hose that he knew would easily reach the seawater.

Ten minutes later, after observing that the liquid-hydrogen was slowly feeding into the MER-2 rocket, he set off to find what he was looking for.

So I’ve got a journey of around four and a half miles to reach 57 Pinewood Road in Hordle. I’ve at least fourteen hours oxygen. I’m very confident I can find what I’m looking for and be safely back here in less than fourteen hours. After all, it’s just a two-bedroomed bungalow with an attic room—so a thick distinctive black hardback research logbook should be relatively easy to find.

Tony trudged his way off the golden sands of Highcliffe Beach and got onto the local roads where he started trekking towards New Milton, the nearest town and on a direct route to his ultimate destination, Hordle.

Keeping his eyes peeled and his ears alert for any signs of danger, Tony proceeded with caution. Although he thought it was unlikely any wild animals would confront him, he knew there was a zoo in the nearby coastal town of Bournemouth, and it might just be possible that some incarcerated wild animals had escaped. He had a laser gun to defend himself with, but he hoped never to use it—the humanotics, no matter how distant they may be, have a nasty habit of detecting laser gun omissions.

At least he wouldn’t meet with the sight of any dead bodies as the humavirus encouraged a process that completely disintegrated the human body.

If only he could have used a hover car. He did attempt to requisition and fly a few. But to no avail, as ownership security meant only their owners could invoke their hover car’s engines.

Walking long distance under the influence of Earth gravity in an ultra-hermetically spacesuit was not as easy as he thought it would be, but fortunately his surveilling eyes saw a contraption that might come to his aid …

Aha, a bicycle!

Despite his slightly cumbersome spacesuit, Tony bounded up to a bicycle that was lying on its side on the pavement up ahead.

He carefully picked it up and examined it.

Hmm, the chain looks a little rusty, but apart from that …

Tony carefully mounted the bicycle and started to cycle at a spacesuit-wearing safe comfortable pace towards New Milton.

Hover cars might be fast, comfortable and uncrashable, but they do little to exercise their users. Thank goodness for primitive mechanical bicycles. I’ll be in Hordle in less than half an hour easily—unless I get myself attacked by a gorilla, a lion, or something like that.

It took Tony only five minutes of cycling to cross the invisible county borderlines dividing Dorset from Hampshire, where New Milton and Hordle resided. Then, cycling in as safe a manner as possible, he managed to reach New Milton and exit out of it without any problems—but while on the Ashley Road heading towards Hordle, he came across a disturbing sight …

Uh-oh, I should never have mentioned getting myself attacked by a wild zoo animal!

In the middle-of-the-road up ahead, Tony cautiously eyed a Siberian tiger lazily gorging itself on a New Forest Highland cow. He immediately turned into a nearby house driveway before carefully dismounting his bicycle. Peeping around the house’s front garden hedge, he took a furtive peek at the distant tiger …

Hmm, I doubt the tiger spied me. Fortunately, it seems more interested in its meal. However, I can’t wait here for it to finish the meal, as my oxygen won’t last forever. I’ve gotta make my way forward somehow. If I can find a way to get around it, knowing it’s busy with its meal, then I should be able to reach Pinewood Road without bumping into it again. Ah, I know …

Tony found his way to the back of the house, pushing his bicycle by his side. Right at the far end of the house’s back garden, he found a gate that led to a narrow footpath running along the back of the adjacent Ashley Road houses.

“Hmm, I’ll just follow this footpath for as long as I can, and then make my way back onto the Ashley Road at a safe distance from the feeding tiger.”

Tony continued to push his bicycle as quietly as he could, keeping his eyes and ears in his spacesuit helmet highly attentive. He also had his laser gun set to stun in his right gloved hand.

He managed to get to what he thought was a safe distance from the tiger just as the footpath ended. Through a wooden back garden door set in a back garden fence, he cautiously pushed his bicycle. And he continued pushing his bicycle until he exited the house’s driveway …

He looked back down the Ashley Road and could see the tiger with its back to him, happily munching away. It was less than fifty yards distant.

“Thank goodness the road is starting to bend. If I keep as quiet as possible, there’s no reason the tiger should turn its head and spot me.”

Keeping as close to the roadside houses as possible, Tony carried on pushing his bicycle, constantly looking over his shoulder until the tiger was no longer in his line of sight. Relievingly, he mounted his bicycle and began cautiously cycling along the Ashley Road, resuming his journey to Hordle.

It didn’t take long for the road signs to change from Ashley Road to Ashley Lane. He would soon be in Hordle—and not a wild animal in sight.

Tony took a sharp right down a narrow residential road called Hare Lane. After 100 yards, he veered off left down a wider residential road called Lavender Road populated on both sides with roadside bungalows. Finally, after just twenty yards or so farther, there on his left was the road he had set out to visit from the Moon just over eight and a half hours ago is …

Pinewood Road! I can’t believe I’m cycling into such a humbling looking road that just happens to be the most famous road in the history of humanity. The road that contains the address 57 Pinewood Road. The ultimate destination of my mission. Just a humble two-bedroomed bungalow with an attic room—yet the birthplace of the founder of the Equalisers.”

 

2

TONY HITS THE JACKPOT

TONY KOSTER CAUTIOUSLY cycled along Pinewood Road in his hermetically sealed spacesuit keeping an eye out for any signs of danger.

Suddenly, he spied something initially alarming to his right, slinking off through some garden bushes It was feline, orange and black-striped.

Phew, just a domestic tabby cat! I thought for a minute the Siberian tiger had caught up with me.

Tony took a sharp fork right, still on Pinewood Road, and was soon bearing down on 57 Pinewood Road.

Goodness, I’m shaking with anticipation. This is so exciting.

He paid particular attention to the bungalows on his right-hand side …

Let’s see now … 65 … 63 …

Tony dismounted his bicycle and started to push it along the pavement.

Erm … 61 … 59 …

Tony pushed the bicycle past a small fir tree in the front garden of 59 Pinewood Road … and there it was—the fabled 57 Pinewood Road.

Goodness me, talk about humble. It’s not even a detached bungalow. It’s semi-detached, adjoined with 55 Pinewood Road. If it wasn’t for the English Heritage Blue Plaque that stands out like a sore thumb in this surreal peaceful yet deadly summer’s residential scene, I’d be certain I had fallen victim to the greatest prank in the history of humanity—a history that Cindy and I are probably the only humans with any hope of extending.

The bungalow was fronted by a small front garden waist-high brick wall. A five-foot high wooden fence bordered its garden off from 59 Pinewood Road’s garden. A high six-foot high privet hedge divided its frontage from its neighbouring semi-detached bungalow 59 Pinewood Road.

He pushed the bicycle into the driveway and leaned it up against the wooden side fence.

Meow!

The orange and black-striped tabby cat came bounding into the driveway and stared up obediently at Tony.

“Are you biological or some sort of robotic pet?” asked Tony, having activated his spacesuit helmet’s external communications for physical listening and speaking.

The cat cocked its head and gave Tony a crooked look.

“I guess you’re probably biological and hoping I might be able to feed you.”

Meow!

“Well, Tiger, if I can get into this house, I’ll see if there’s any cat food in the kitchen. You don’t mind me calling you, Tiger, do you?”

Meow!

Tony turned from the tabby cat to the English Heritage Blue Plaque attached to the bungalow’s brick frontage beside its front door entrance. He read the blue-painted iron circular plaque with its thin white bordered circumference and its white-painted lettering:

 

ENGLISH HERITAGE

AMY FOX-WALKER

3952 ~ 4126

Inventor of the Hexagonal Tesseract

and founder of the Equalisers

lived here

 

“Wow, Tiger!” exclaimed Tony, looking back at the tabby cat. “Amy Fox-Walker. She started it all, my furry orange friend. Her fortuitous and serendipitous creation of the Hexagonal Tesseract led to a quantum leap in technological power that enabled the foundation of the Equalisers. She went on to develop the original lunar Hexagonal Tesseract Honeycomb (the lunar HTH) on the Moon. And that’s why I’ve come here to search for her research logbook. You see, Tiger, the logbook contains the whereabouts of the original lunar HTH.”

Tony tried to open the bungalow’s front door …

It was locked.

He made his way around the side of the bungalow with Tiger following in his wake and tried to open its kitchen door …

This too was locked.

“Tiger, I could easily kick this door open, but just one tear in my spacesuit would mean instant death. And I’m sure you wouldn’t like that, because I’m the one who just might find you some scrumptious cat food.”

Meow!

“Yes, I thought you might say that.”

Tony made his way around to the back of the bungalow and tried to slide open the living room’s sliding patio doors …

Although they were closed, it didn’t take much effort for Tony to force them open.

He stepped onto the living room’s hard wearing beige cotton carpet.

The cat slinked through the open patio doors to join him.

Tony closed the patio doors.

“We don’t want any of your friends making their way in here, now do we, Tiger? Especially not the beast I named you after!”

Meow!

Tony looked around the living room …

“My, this is strange, Tiger. Not only is this living room sparsely furnished, but also everything looks so cheap. There’s just a dilapidated wall monitor, a gaudy wall mirror, a settee and a single small wooden bookshelf screwed to the wall.”

He stared disbelievingly at the settee, with its dirty and unmatched cushions and the rips in its well-worn upholstery.

Then he turned his attention to the small wall bookshelf. It was empty except for a single book lying pathetically on its side. He picked the book up and read its title to Tiger.

“Ten Minute Microwave Meals for the Busy Student, by Evelyn Xiang. How strange? And would you believe it, this book is completely made of paper? Not a sign of technology on its cover or within its pages. This is really hard to fathom, Tiger. Especially when you consider that this house is in the care of the ancestors of the founding Equaliser Amy Fox-Walker, the inventors of the most advanced technology in the universe.”

Meow!

“I guess you’re just interested in getting fed. Fair enough, I’m not gonna find Amy Fox-Walker’s Tesseract research logbook in here, so let’s go find the kitchen and see if I can find any cat food before I set about searching the rest of this bungalow. With that logbook, Tiger, Cindy and I might have a chance to defeat the damned dastardly humanotics—or at least escape them.”

Before Tony managed to leave the living room through its open door, the dilapidated wall monitor sprang into life.

“Just a minute, sir!” exclaimed an urgent voice.

Tony immediately swivelled around to face the monitor …

A very attractive woman with long red hair and light-brown skin was staring inquisitively at Tony with her slightly mesmerising sea-green eyes.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“Who are you?” replied Tony instinctively with a question of his own. “Where are you?”

“I asked first,” insisted the woman. “And who is this Cindy you mentioned?”

“Erm, my name’s Tony Koster. I’m a twenty-eight-year-old starship Science Officer. Nothing special. Grade 2. And Cindy Lee is a thirty-year-old starship Chief Security Officer.”

“And where did you come from?”

“The Moon.”

“The Moon? You need to leave right now! There is no way the humanotics would not have detected your flight. They would have detected the necessary technological devices used on whatever craft you flew in.”

“Relax. I didn’t use any technology detectable by the humanotics in the craft I came in.”

“But that’s impossible.”

“No, it isn’t. I used a chemical rocket fuelled by liquid-hydrogen.”

“What?”

“I swiped it from a lunar museum. It was the last of the MER-2 rockets. Never used, though well over 2,000 years old. I retrofitted it to reduce the electronics. I’m confident the battery-powered systems I used could never be picked up by any long-range humanotic technology scanning system.”

The woman’s eyebrows arched in surprise.

“So you and Cindy Lee flew it from the Moon. I take it she’s back on the rocket?”

“No. She’s actually waiting in our hiding place back on the Moon. The rocket more or less flew itself to the Earth.”

“But now you’re stuck here?”

“Nope. The MER-2 rocket is capable of returning to the Moon. You see M-E-R is an acronym for Moon to Earth and Return. The rocket is refuelling now. I set up a seawater-to-liquid-hydrogen converter. I landed on Highcliffe Beach.”

The eyes of the woman on the monitor bulged and her face seemed to suddenly fill up with hope.

“So that’s why you want my ancestor’s logbook. I’m with you now. You’re hoping to find the original lunar HTH, because that might help you to set up an archetypal Equaliser intervention that will defeat the humanotics before they gained their omnipotent position. Well, Tony Koster, on that score, you have hit the jackpot. Because I am right now in a hermetically sealed bunker beneath this bungalow—and my name is Susan Fox-Walker. And since you seem to be into ages, I’m twenty-eight years old, same as you.”

“Of course,” interrupted Tony. “I should have recognised you. You’re a Tesseract scientist and a direct descendant of Amy Fox-Walker.”

“I am. But not only that, there are three other Equalisers in hermetically sealed bunkers beneath their own bungalows on this road in close proximity. They are viewing this communication. Two of them are the greatest Tesseract minds that ever lived. Tesseract scientist Sylvia Vickers, aged 56, and leading Equaliser genius Max Bostrom, aged fifty-two. They’re both underneath 38 Pinewood Road, just on the opposite side of the road. And the other Equaliser is Zach Sukarno, a forty-eight-year-old starship Senior Engineer capable of captaincy. He is underneath 49 Pinewood Road, four bungalows distant. So Tony, what a team we could all form to put a spanner in the humanotic works. But it depends on whether your rocket can return five Equalisers back to the Moon.”

“There’s room for up to eight astronauts in the command module. So on that score, no problem. As for cleaning the virus off our hermetically sealed suits, once we’re on board the rocket, that should be no problem too. I set up some powerful UV lamps and there are ample cleaning agents. I have a humavirus detector to ensure we have cleaned all traces of the virus inside the rocket. Once we are in space, any virus contamination on the hull of the spaceship would quickly be destroyed. But this is a one-off trip. An all-or-nothing affair. I won’t be carrying out any of the hundreds of rocket takeoff checks. We will be relying on the reliability of the MER-2.”

“You must have checked the reliability record of the MER-2, Tony?”

“Yes, and it is next to perfect. But all on the assumption it takes off after passing all rocket takeoff checks. The fact that the rocket is on its maiden voyage is a positive, as it has never been used. And although it is over 2,000 years old, fortunately it was kept in near vacuum conditions, a courtesy of being in a lunar museum.”

“I take it you launched directly from the museum.”

“Yep.”

“I take it the rocket will easily be able to land on the same launch pad it took off from.”

“Correct.”

“So how long will the journey be to get from the museum to an Earth-like environment? We have hermetically sealed suits, but they are not spacesuits designed for the lunar environment.”

“That won’t be a problem. A mechanically operated pressurised walkway will extend to the cargo module, which will allow us to exodus the rocket in Earth-like conditions. The walkway’s even connected to the lunar Earth-like virtual gravity system.”

“Okay, Tony, the four of us bunker-living Equalisers will quickly pack some belongings and be ready to depart from Pinewood Road in an hour. We will travel by hover car and should be able to get to Highcliffe Beach in less than six minutes, as there are no travel police to stop us. No need for you to use the bicycle you arrived on. Any problems with that?”

“Nope. Sounds perfect, as the rocket needs at least another hour to top itself up with liquid-hydrogen, in any case.”

“Well, you can feed Lily now. That’s her name, not Tiger. Obviously we can’t risk taking her with us. Ultraviolet lamps and cleaning agents are all very good for the outside surfaces, but impossible to use on the insides of a mammal.”

“Got you, Susan.”

The monitor switched off.

Tony finally got to walk out of the living room. Opposite him was a bathroom. But to his left was an open door that led to the kitchen.

Not only did Lily get a huge bowl of cat food, but Tony also found a tin of condensed milk, whose contents he poured in a breakfast bowl.

“Enjoy your dinner, my furry orange friend. I will leave all of the boxes and packets of cat food by your bowl. Hopefully you can work out how to rip them open and feed yourself while they last.”

Just over an hour later, Tony and the other four Equalisers were all sitting comfortably in Zach Sukarno’s six-seater hover car.

“Disabling all technology, not related to basic hover drive,” said Zach in a calm, assured voice, sitting in the piloting seat. “Is everybody ready and is comfortable as you can make yourselves in your hermetically sealed suits?”

The others gestured that they were ready.

“Here we go!”

Zach zoomed upwards a couple of feet above the road and skilfully sped off, keeping to the road beneath him.

Six minutes later …

The hover car slowed down as it approached Highcliffe Beach.

The humongous shiny silver antiquated rocket was a magnificent sight and somehow seem to fit in with the visual beauty surrounding.

“Ooh, what a beautiful rocket!” exclaimed Susan. “It’s huge.”

“It’s 124 yards high,” said Tony.

“Somehow I didn’t expect it to be this tall.”

“Probably because it’s chemical,” put in Zach, as he lowered the hover car on the road at the nearest point to the beach.

Tony and the others carefully climbed out of the hover car and made their way to the rocket.

“We couldn’t have timed it better,” said Tony. “The rocket has merely seconds to go in its topping up of liquid-hydrogen.” Just then, the seawater-to-liquid-hydrogen converter started to beep. “There, the process is complete. Just give me a second …”

Tony quickly reeled in the seawater input hose.

“Right. Let’s get going. I’ll go up the elevator first with the seawater-to-liquid-hydrogen converter and open the cargo module’s exit door. Then I’ll sent the elevator back down for the first pair of you to ascend. Then I’ll send it back down for the last pair. Then we’ll do a thorough clean-up job with the ultraviolet lamps and the virus cleaning agents, check we’ve completely eliminated the deadly humavirus, climb out of our hermetically sealed suits and make our way into the command module for the ride of a lifetime. It’s gonna be a violent affair. There’s no virtual gravity. Be prepared to suffer 4Gs gravity at the beginning of the takeoff. You’ll find it difficult to breathe, but I doubt you’ll suffer any injuries. Just don’t panic, it’ll be over before you know it.”

Just over half an hour later, Tony and the others were sitting in their chairs in the command module.

“Well,” said Tony, “here we go. I’ll give us a ten-second countdown before I press the takeoff button. It really is that basic.”

“Basic but brilliant,” said Max Bostrom. “It completely disguises us from humanotic surveillance.”

“If the rocket doesn’t blow up, I’ll agree with you,” said Tony. “Right. Here we go!

“Ten … nine … eight … seven … six … five … four … three … two … one …

“BLAST-OFF!”

Tony’s finger pressed down hard on the takeoff button …

 

3

FLY ME TO THE MOON

THE MER-2 ENGINES roared into life and immediately subjected Tony and his four newly appointed crewmates strapped securely to their seats in the command module to a localised volcanic eruption. They felt a massive kick as the rocket let go of the beach.

“What’s happening?” cried Susan. “Surely we’re about to blow up!”

“Everything’s fine,” assured Tony. “We’re up and running. Although you might think this rattling and shuddering disturbing, we’re actually quite well insulated from the extremes of sound and vibrations caused by the rocket’s engines. Expect your weight to double shortly. Then, as the mass of the rocket decreases due to the spent liquid-hydrogen fuel, expect your weight to quadruple. After just over two minutes, expect to be weightless momentarily as the rocket adjusts to prepare to reach an orbital speed from which it can break orbit and reach for the Moon. We will be accelerating towards the Moon, maintaining a 1G force. In other words, you will feel your normal weight. When we decelerate on approaching the Moon our weight will undergo a series of changes until we hopefully land on the Moon and feel a sixth of our weight. The moment we exit the rocket onto the mobile walkway we’ll be back to our normal weight due to the lunar virtual gravity systems.”

“That’s all very reassuring,” said Susan, “but at the moment, I feel like the occupant of a penthouse suite atop a skyscraper suffering an earthquake.”

At 37 seconds after blast-off …

“The engines are throttling down momentarily to reduce structural stress as we pass through maximum dynamic pressure,” announced Tony.

Seconds later …

“Now throttling back up to main thrust.”

“What is that distant spine-tingling screaming sound?” asked Sylvia. “

“That’s just caused by the rocket’s slipstream,” replied Tony. “We’re punching through the atmosphere at tremendous speed powered by a barely controllable immense power. It won’t last long, as will soon run out of significant atmosphere.”

Minutes later …

The roar of the engines quietened down, and the control module’s rattling and shuddering died down in response.

“We have escaped mother Earth,” announced Tony. “We are now on a moderate acceleration and deceleration flight plan to the Moon. We’ll be there in eight hours. Even if the main engines were to fail us now, we’d still reach the Moon, we’d just take a couple of days to do so. And from what I can ascertain from the rocket’s readings, the rocket is structurally sound with no sign of imminent compromise to structural integrity. Barring an unlikely serious mishap on landing, my mission has been a complete success. More than a complete success, because I brought back you four. Cindy will be surprised.”

“Congratulations on an incredible effort—so far,” said Sylvia. “I will hold back my full congratulations until we have safely landed. I would not like to tempt providence.”

“We could spend these eight hours planning on how we will go about hitting back at the humanotics,” said Sylvia, “but I think all discussions should be made as a team, and that team includes Cindy.”

“I agree with that,” put in Max. “But I’d just like to ask a handful of preliminarily connected questions of you, Tony. If your answers are favourable, it will enable me to think out a plan that will allow us to work completely safe from the humanotics and secure the HTH.”

“Fire away, Professor Bostrom.”

“Max will be fine. We’re all on a first name basis here among friends. What is a title, if not a human concept bestowed by humans? Now that as far as we know, we and Cindy are the only humans left alive, such titles have possibly lost their authenticity. But back to my question. Do you have a modern starship hidden away beneath the lunar surface?”

“Yes. But it is in lockdown, a state even less active than silent running. Even physically entering its doors would tip off the distant surveilling humanotic deep scan systems. And of course, we can’t teleport aboard it as all teleportation has been disabled by the humanotics?”

“Excellent news. I assume there is a cargo bay large enough to hold a football field?”

“The Main Cargo Bay can easily hold a couple of football fields.”

“And finally, has the starship been in its lockdown state and position since before the humanotics disabled Equaliser teleportation?”

“Yes. It was hidden the moment the humanotics started to attack Equaliser colonies. That was about four months before the disabled teleportation mechanism. It’s the starship Equity. The starship Cindy and I served on. The Captain ordered us to remain on the Moon to protect the starship.”

“Ah, the Equity,” put in Susan. “So, that would be captained by Captain Hugo Lorenzo.”

“Yes, that’s right,” confirmed Tony. “Do you know what happened to him, Susan?”

“He was working at the Starship Security Headquarters in Los Angeles, Earth, during the clandestine humavirus infection attack. So … well …”

“I see,” said Tony. “With the disease’s 32-day incubation period, he didn’t stand a chance. Are they in heaven? No, they’re in hell! That’s where those damned dastardly humanotics dwell!” Tony smiled at his own childish poetry.

“You sound like a waxing lyrical latter-day Scarlet Pimpernel,” remarked Susan.

“Huh?” Tony’s eyebrows knotted.

“Never mind,” said Susan. “But you could improve your poem with the opening couplet: They kill them here, they kill them there. Those humanotics kill them everywhere. However, it would be unfair of me not to give credit to the British novelist Baroness Orczy.”

“Never heard of her,” said Tony. Then he blurted out the newly appended poem:

 

They kill them here, they kill them there.

Those humanotics kill them everywhere.

Are they in heaven? — No, they’re in hell!

That’s where those damned dastardly humanotics dwell!

 

His effort was greeted by an embarrassing silence. He shrugged his shoulders and studied the readings on the controls panel.

“Telemetry monitoring of the rocket shows all systems operating correctly and safely within nominal limits. I’ll let you know when we begin decelerating and start our lunar descent. That’ll be in about seven hours.”

For the next seven hours, Tony and the others passed the time engaging in various activities. Max Bostrom worked away on his latest notebook, but the others tended to read from passive digital books or join in on various socially oriented conversations.

Then …

“Beginning deceleration. Expect a brief period of weightlessness followed by a 180° seat swivel.”

Forty minutes later …

“Descent procedure underway. Landing pad identified and we are on target for a perfect landing. All engines go. Plenty of liquid-hydrogen fuel.”

The MER-2 rocket slowly arced down towards its landing destination in the northern hemisphere, a crater on the eastern side of the “Sea of Rains” (Mare Imbrium).

Slowly but surely, it aimed for its target crater like a slow motion arrow seeking its bullseye. Before reaching its target crater, it slowly flipped over so that it could land on its standing legs. Then, with a landing burn it slowed down dramatically and disappeared into the crater.

Seconds later …

“Touchdown!” announced Tony, joyously.

A ripple of enthusiastic applause rang around the command module.

Sylvia was the first of the Equalisers to unstrap herself and give Tony a hearty congratulatory thump on the back.

“Congratulations, Tony!” she said. “You’ve given Good a chance to fight against the forces of Evil.”

“What would any Equaliser expect of another Equaliser? That is what we do—though not usually directly for ourselves, and certainly not in our own Equaliser universe and timeline.”

“I can see the walkway extending to the cargo module,” said Susan, who was peering out of one of the command module’s windows. “It’s like a giant see-through straw.”

Minutes later …

“Crater entrance closed and rocket walkway secured,” announced Tony. “Let’s go. There will be no need to bring our suits because the walkway is secured to an earth-like environment. Also, we have plenty of lunar spacesuits in our hiding centre. They are lightweight and comfortable, and primarily designed for maintenance and building work in our man-made subterranean lunar world. Can’t wait to see Cindy—and surprise her with my booty.”

Tony led the others to the cargo module exit door. He equalised the pressure inside the cargo module and opened the door.

“Careful, now. Remember, the moment you step onto the walkway, you will transition from your lunar weight to your Earth weight.”

Tony gestured each of his four fellow Equalisers through the door.

We then stepped onto the walkway and closed the cargo module’s door behind him.

“Make way,” he said. “Best if I lead the way to get us into the corridor where Cindy will be waiting.”

Tony scampered to the front of the queue and led everybody down a 54-yard walkway.

He approached a plain metallic door with a circular porthole window. Behind the window was the open-mouthed stunned face of starship Chief Security Officer Cindy Lee. No doubt she had spied Tony’s marvellously unexpected booty—and no doubt recognised who some of them were. Her eyes were full of tears.

The door opened in wards with a slight hiss, and in spilled Tony and the others.

Cindy quickly closed the door and stood staring in disbelief at the four Equalisers Tony had brought back with him.

“Tony, how is this possible?  Sylvia Vickers, Max Bostrom, Susan Fox-Walker, and some other impressive-looking Equaliser. These appear to be the leading experts on Tesseractology.”

“They were living in hermetically sealed bunkers under their bungalows in Pinewood Road. Susan, here, is a direct descendant of the founding Equaliser Amy Fox Walker, and she was in her 57 Pinewood Road bunker. So if you think about it this situation is not as miraculous as it might at first appear. Furthermore, not only does Susan have the Tesseract research logbook of her famous ancestor, she will be able to lead us directly to the lunar HTH.”

After some brief handshakes and introductions …

“Let’s get to our hiding centre,” said Cindy. “It’s not far. Follow me.”

Cindy led the entourage through a myriad of metallic cylindrical tubular corridors whose sections of overhead strip lights would only activate on the detection of movement. Sometimes she would descend service ladders to deeper and deeper corridors.

Eventually, Cindy came to a non-descript looking panel on the wall of a corridor. She pressed to hardly noticeable buttons on the top of the panel and it slid to the side … revealing a service ladder.

“Follow me,” she said. “Tony will take up the rear and close up the panel.”

Down, down, down the service ladder, they descended.

Three quarters of the way down, fifty-two-year-old Max complained, “I think I’m a bit too old for this.”

“You’ll be fine,” called up Sylvia to Max, who was climbing the ladder downwards just above her, “I’m 56, and I don’t have the muscles you have.”

“You don’t have the fat either,” retorted Max.

“We’ll soon reach the bottom of the ladder,” shouted up Cindy to the descenders above her.

Thirty seconds later …

One by one, the six Equalisers stepped off the ladder.

“It’s just in here,” said Cindy, pointing out another non-descript panel on the wall of a short section of corridor. She repeated her panel opening technique, pressing two hardly noticeable buttons on the top of the panel. This time when the panel slid open, it revealed an opening into a small anteroom.

After Tony had closed the panel, Cindy led everyone into a large room with a lot of technology on view.

“This is a secret surveillance centre,” said Cindy. “Alas, all of the sophisticated surveillance technology, and any communications technology, has had to be switched off for fear of giving away this location to the humanotics. All we can risk is passive listening surveillance devices.”

“Any news on the humanotics while I was away?” asked Tony, anxiously.

“Unfortunately, yes. And you couldn’t have got back any sooner. The humanotics have sent a clean-up armada to our solar system. They could be here within a couple of hours.”

“Let’s get going right now to the original lunar Hexagonal Tesseract Honeycomb, the lunar HTH,” said Max. “Bring any hand-pads, teleportation bracelets, or any technology you might have found useful in pre-humanotic times. I have a plan that will secure us from the humanotics once we get to the lunar HTH.”

“Just give us twenty minutes to get our spacesuit backpacks filled,” said Cindy. “We’ll need to wear lunar spacesuits as the area around the lunar HTH and the cavern it was built in, isn’t a living environment. You should be able to fit your side-bags into the backpacks designed to be worn with the spacesuits. And you can take any technology you see here. Of course, Tony and I have no idea where the lunar HTH is located. We know it’s close to this hiding centre, but try as much as we have, its location has eluded us.”

“Cindy, is the Mare Imbrium Ventilation Filter Station near here?” asked Susan.

“Yes. It’s just off the corridor we climbed down from to get here.”

“Excellent,” said Susan. “I can get us to the lunar HTH from inside the Ventilation Filter Station.”

“Sure?” asked Tony.

“Certain. The reason I know where the lunar HTH is located is because I’ve visited it many times through my research for the founding Equalisers Institute; of which Sylvia, Max, Zach and I are the leading members. All four of us know how to get to the lunar HTH from the Ventilation Filter Station. We’ve all carried out various experiments inside it where many rooms are filled with highly advanced Tesseract technological devices. It was incredibly frustrating back in our Pinewood Road bungalow bunkers to believe we could have a chance to fight against the humanotics if only we could get to the lunar HTH. And then Tony answered our prayers.”

“Fantastic,” said Cindy. “Come on, Tony, let’s get a move on.”

“And by the way,” put in Max. “There will be no need to bring any food or drink, or extra clothing.”

“In that case,” said Cindy, “we’ll be ready to leave in less than ten minutes.”

Twelve minutes later …

“I’m ready,” announced Cindy with a smile. “Sorry about the slight delay, I’ve found my mislaid personal hand-pad.”

“Glad to hear it,” said Susan.

“So, has everyone got their spacesuit helmet in their backpack?” asked Cindy.

Everyone indicated in the affirmative.

“Okay then,” said Cindy. “I’ll lead the way to the Ventilation Filter Station, and Susan can lead us to the lunar HTH from there.”

Just then, a low volume alarm started to bleep …

Tony rushed over to one of the few technological devices still operating—the passive warp bubble listening device.

“Uh-oh,” he said, looking anxiously down at an electromagnetically shielded screen.

“What is it, Tony?” asked Sylvia, her eyes wide open, reflecting her dread.

“A collapsing warp bubble has been detected close to the Earth. It’s obviously the result of a starship emerging from faster-than-light speed. Judging by the collapsing warp bubble’s signature, it appears to belong to a humanotic-adapted Equaliser scouting starship.”

 

4

THE REMARKABLE LUNAR HTH

“PERHAPS THE VIBRATIONS of the MER-2 blast-off from Earth were detected,” suggested Max. “The humanotics could have instantly received these vibrations via communications satellites providing faster-than-light messaging. I’ll bet the scouting starship will be investigating a certain patch of sand on Highcliffe Beach. Make no mistake; their investigations will lead them to our location.”

“Then we’ve got no time to lose,” said Susan. “Let’s get a move on!”

Cindy quickly led the lunar spacesuited Equalisers to the Ventilation Filter Station.

“So far, so good,” said Cindy. “Over to you, Susan.”

Suddenly …

Boom!

The Ventilation Filter Station shook.

A couple of ceiling light-fittings fell crashing to the floor close by.

“What was that?” asked Susan, fear etched on her eyes.

“Some sort of laser bomb?” queried Tony. “Perhaps firing through the MER-2 hiding crater.”

“I would agree with you on the firing through the MER-2 hiding crater,” said Max, “but I think it’s a humavirus bomb rather than a laser bomb. The humanotics would not want to damage the subterranean lunar world we humans have built. We have time to get to the lunar HTH before the humavirus spreads to us through natural diffusion.”

With a greater sense of urgency, Susan led the Equalisers at a fast jog through various twists and turns of the Ventilation Filter Station’s pathways.

She slowed to a halt at a stairway. A grease-smeared signpost indicated that it led to the “MACHINE MAINTENANCE ROOM”.

“Nearly there,” she said. She looked down at a small device in her hand. “Nothing on my humavirus hand-detector. Let’s get to the temporary safety of the lunar HTH cavern.”

Down the stairway, they bundled.

At the bottom of the stairway was a short straight corridor.

On their left was a steel door …

It was labelled “MACHINE MAINTENANCE ROOM”.

On their right, farther down the corridor, was an incongruous-looking wooden door.

It was labelled “CLEANER’S ROOM”.

Susan approached the door on the right.

She rotated its doorknob three times, then pushed the door forwards.

Into the Cleaner’s Room the Equalisers spilled.

Tony closed the door behind them.

The room was wall-to-wall metal with a matching ceiling and floor. It was quite a large room stuffed with shelves of cleaning gear and an industrial washing machine.

“Gosh,” said Cindy, “this room is stuffed full of the sorts of things I would expect to see in a museum. See that thing over there? I reckon that’s an ancient washing machine of some sort.”

“Never mind that,” said Susan, “it’s the door over there that we should be interested in.” Susan pointed to another incongruous-looking wooden door at the back of the room.

“We’ll need to put on our lunar spacesuit helmets now,” she continued, “not because of the humavirus, but because we’ll soon be entering a lunar environment.”

The Equalisers quickly helped one another to pull out their spacesuit helmets from their backpacks, saving them the effort of taking off their backpacks and putting them back on.

“Don’t forget to turn on your spacesuit helmet external communications for physical listening and speaking. Obviously we should not switch on our internal electromagnetic standard communications channels for the humanotics to eavesdrop on us.”

The Equalisers locked on their spacesuit helmets, which automatically set their spacesuits to pressurise.

Susan rotated the knob of the door three times and pulled open the door … and it revealed another door, a sturdy metallic door.

“We’ll be entering an airlock,” said Susan, her voice sounding tinny from her spacesuit helmet speakers. “When we exit it, we’ll be in a lunar atmosphere.”

Susan attended a number-pad lock system embedded in the door. It had large number buttons in order to aid users who might be wearing spacesuit gloves. Susan carefully typed in a series of numbers …

The door swung inwards with a hiss, revealing an empty metal clad airlock the size of a small bedroom.

Into the airlock bundled the six Equalisers.

“I’m sure we have all had experience of perambulation in a low gravity environment, so ready yourself for that,” said Susan. “Also, we will not be able to communicate easily by sound as it does not travel in a vacuum. We will have to give any urgent messages by touching spacesuit helmets and shouting at the top of our voices. Right, let’s push on. The lunar HTH, here we come.”

Susan tapped a series of numbers into the exit door’s number pad …

The sound of sucking air filled the airlock.

When the sound died away …

The exit door quietly swung inwards, revealing a wide and high roughly cut stone lunar tunnel.

Susan gestured for the others to follow her.

Interestingly, each Equaliser seemed to perambulate in their own unique way, a way that was inconsistent. Perhaps Tony’s method exemplified this best. He would bound, bunny hop and sometimes add in a few front somersaults. He couldn’t resist the opportunity to show off his athletic skills, taking no notice of Cindy’s disapproving looks.

Eventually, the six Equalisers spilled out of the tunnel into a huge subterranean cavern that was softly lit by an array of lamps hanging from the cavern’s ceiling. The Equalisers stood on a ledge and could see the fabled lunar Hexagonal Tesseract Honeycomb (HTH) laid out beneath them. The honeycomb consisted of 271 tessellated Tesseract hexagons in the shape of a giant hexagon with each side measuring 10 hexagons. By comparison, a modern HTH consisted of 1,141 tessellated Tesseract hexagons in the shape of a giant hexagon with each side measuring 20 hexagons. There were many incredible applications possible using HTHs. One such application was teleportation. For instance, the Equalisers created teleportation bracelets that utilise the power of a miniaturised 1,141 cell HTH. But by far the greatest application was movement through not only time and space, but through parallel universes. Of course, there are restrictions necessary to overcome paradoxes. It is the understanding of these restrictions that allow the Equalisers to exercise the enormous power of the HTHs.

Susan gestured for the others to follow her along the ledge that slowly arced down around the edge of the cavern.

Fortunately, the ledge was quite wide with a gentle slope, and the six Equalisers suffered no mishaps reaching the cavern floor.

Susan raced around the lunar HTH structure. The walls of the tessellated Tesseract hexagons were made of gold, which helps to explain why Amy Fox-Walker used the word honeycomb to describe her tessellated structure. On the outside walls of the lunar HTH, except for one, there were no doorways, but by the remarkable properties of Tesseract hexagons, each and every one, when viewed from inside, had a doorway on each of their six sides.

Eventually …

Susan stood in front of the lunar HTH’s entrance Tesseract hexagon that had a gold door with a number pad embedded in it on one of its outside walls.

Susan quickly typed in the entrance code …

The door swung inwards.

Susan ushered in the six Equalisers.

The moment an Equaliser stepped into the Tesseract hexagon, they felt their weight returning to normal and their spacesuit reacting to a greater outside pressure, an Earth atmospheric pressure.

Even though the door was still open, Susan took off her space helmet. This seemed to shock Tony and Cindy, but the others simply followed her lead, prompting Tony and Cindy to follow in kind. Susan closed the door.

“This entrance Tesseract hexagon is an Earth environment,” said Susan as the entrance door automatically slowly closed.

“I don’t get it,” said Tony, “how come each of those two walls either side of the wall with the door in it have open doorways? There were no doorways on their outside.”

“To cut a long story short, and because you are not a Tesseract scientist, I’ll simply say that the inside of a Tesseract whether it be a cube or a hexagonal prism, is not directly physically connected to its outside. Let me show you what can exist through one of the doorways in this entrance Tesseract hexagon.” Susan turned to Max. “We have time for that, don’t we?”

“Yes. The first part of my plan will only take ten minutes to execute. And that should secure the lunar HTH.”

Susan turned to Tony and Cindy.

“Walk up to that doorway!” Susan pointed to the doorway centrally placed in the wall to the right of the wall with the gold door. She followed Tony and Cindy as they walked to the doorway.

“Goodness!” exclaimed Tony, suddenly.

“That’s right,” said Susan. “The moment you get within a yard of the doorway, you can see what’s on the other side of it—and it certainly isn’t the lunar cavern housing the lunar HTH.

Through the doorway, Tony and Cindy could see a mediaeval church fronted by an ancient graveyard all beneath the falling snow.

“The Church of St Michael and all Angels, Aylsham, Norfolk, England,” said Susan.

“But it’s snowing,” said Tony. “It’s the height of summer in England.”

“Ah, but you are talking, Sunday, July 4th, 4230.”

“And?”

“Through the doorway portal it is Monday, January 11th, 2021.”

“Remarkable,” said Cindy.

“It’s just a demonstration doorway that I set up. A proof of concept, if you will, to show that it is possible for someone from this time to exist in that time. Usually, such a time jaunt would be impossible. But in this particular case as there is no one to be seen, and it is unlikely for anyone to make a sudden appearance, it would be possible for you and Cindy to walk through the doorway portal, have a little walk around in the snow, look at a few gravestones, and step back through the doorway portal into this entrance Tesseract hexagon.”

“Why is it unlikely for anyone to make a sudden appearance?” asked Cindy. “Sure, it’s snowing, but the sun is shining.”

“Because in that time period, England, like most of the rest of the world, is going through the second wave of a lethal pandemic coronavirus  causing a disease known as Covid-19. A sort of historical forerunner for the humavirus. Another reason I dialled in this doorway portal.”

“What do you mean by ‘dialled in’?” asked Tony.

Susan pointed up to some gold dials near the top edge of the doorway.

“Each doorway portal has 16 dials. Each dial has 16 numbered increments. They are just simply physical dials. No wires or anything like that. Every time you move a dial, a place in time, space and universe will appear through the doorway portal. And because it matters which order you set the dials in, that is a lot of possible places. If all the dials are set to zero, the doorway portal will become neutral and just lead into another Tesseract hexagon of the lunar HTH.”

“I know we use the HTH technology in microscopic form in our teleportation devices, but darned if I have a clue how it works.” Tony shrugged his shoulders.

“Well,” said Susan, “quickly you two, step through the doorway portal and verify with your own senses the power of a Tesseract hexagon.”

Tony and Cindy stepped through into a cold but sunny Monday, January 11th, 2021, Norfolk, England day. They felt the crispy snow beneath their feet, and the soft kissing snowflakes falling down upon them.

“Look at that gravestone,” said Tony, pointing in the near distance. “It looks pretty new, with its black marble and gold lettering. See what it says?”

 

FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS

 

LIONEL JAMES ADAMS

APRIL 13, 1974 – OCTOBER 27, 2020

 

Beloved Husband

Devoted Father, Son, Brother,

Uncle & Friend

 

Stolen by an evil virus,

delivered to the arms of the good Lord.

 

“Gosh,” said Cindy. “How prescient! This is a sort of gravestone none of us future humans had the opportunity to create.”

“Let’s get back through the doorway. I think those dastardly humanotics might get to us any time soon.”

Tony and Cindy turned back to seek the doorway …

“Oh dear, the doorway has gone!” exclaimed an alarmed Cindy.

“Not necessarily,” said Tony calmly. “We simply have to get within a yard of it to see it, I would have thought.”

“Oh yes. That is probably correct. Let’s just follow our footsteps. Good job it’s snowing.”

Tony and Cindy quickly retraced their footsteps until they were within a yard of where they started. Sure enough, they could see Susan and the other Equalisers through the abruptly appearing doorway.

They stepped through the doorway back into the entrance Tesseract hexagon.

“Satisfied,” said Susan.

“Amazing,” said Tony. “But what if someone from that place walks through the doorway into this Tesseract hexagon?”

“They won’t be able to, Tony,” put in Max. “They won’t even see the doorway. It’s hard to explain, but the doorway doesn’t exist to them. It only exists to you because you passed through it. It’s all to do with something as basic as quantum mechanics. To be more precise, quantum superposition. The exact same atoms in your body are somewhere else in the place you visited. So those atoms are in two places at the same time. It doesn’t matter that they are separated by time as well as space. As I know you’re not a hard-core scientist, it would be pointless attempting to explain such a phenomenon in any detail.”

“I do understand the basics of quantum entanglement and quantum superposition as a Grade 2 starship Science Officer. But not anywhere near to the degree that you, Sylvia and Max do. Most of my science expertise is in the field of faster-than-light propulsion and communications.”

“True. I should apologise,” said Max. “It’s just I’m so used to speaking to people who know nothing of quantum physics and Tesseractology. You are only a Grade 2 Science Officer because you are at an early stage of your career. I will endeavour to educate you on everything I know if time and circumstances permit the opportunity.”

“I’m happy to remain ignorant of such matters,” put in Cindy. “I’m more your physical superhero kickass kind of person than a superhero nerd.”

Susan swivelled to her side and raised a leg at tremendous speed so that the heel of her boot was less than half an inch from Cindy’s neck. Cindy, an absolute expert in self-defence and master of all forms of martial arts, did not even have time to react.

“Never judge a book by its cover!” said Susan before lowering her leg.

“My, what skill,” said a stunned Cindy. “So fast.”

“I doubt I have all the moves you have, or weapons skills; but what I do have gets me by.”

“So I have witnessed.” Cindy gave Susan a nod of respect.

“Well, let’s get on with your plan, Max,” said Sylvia. “Who knows how close the humanotics are to discovering this lunar HTH? And I can’t wait to see how on earth you can make this lunar HTH completely secure and safe from humanotic attack.”