Deadly Planet (Logan Ryvenbark's Saga Book 2) Read online

  DEADLY

  PLANET

  * * *

  GRAY

  LANTER

  BLUE SHELF BOOKSTORE

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  Deadly Planet

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  Deadly Voyage

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1

  Bureaucracies or chains of command, whether military or civilian, are exasperating because they often move at a snail's pace. Occasionally, though, when the Powers That Be want something done, they react with astonishing speed.

  It was the latter case when Dr. Edison Altamonte was literally dropped in front of my make-shift command post on Jardoval just three days and five hours after I had requested him. Dr. Altamonte had been a few solar systems over but Earth Command demanded light-speed priority in getting him to the base.

  As he shuffled into my office, while wiping the dirt from his wrinkled uniform, Dr. Altamonte did not look happy. His hair was ruffled, a red, ugly bruise spotted his forehead and a few nodules of the black Jardoval sand darkened his chin.

  Because he had been so rushed, I forgave him for his ragged salute.

  “You requested me, sir.”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “May I be at ease, sir?”

  “Yes.”

  “Thank you. May I speak freely?”

  “No.”

  He growled but I ignored it.

  “I know what you're going to say Major, and I don't want to hear it. I need you here.”

  “Do you know where I was?”

  “Probably chasing skirts on some obscure planet where the women have not yet heard of your reputation.”

  “No, sir, I wasn't. The women on Jamaica Two don't wear skirts. It's a beautiful planet with no large land mass. Thousands of islands are spread across a watery landscape. The weather is tropical and the women, at least in the bar I was at, wear very skimpy outfits. Hardly anything at all actually. I had a month's leave.”

  “Sit down.”

  He plopped down in the chair and sighed heavily. “On Jamaica Two they also have an amazing drink called Coral Reef Punch. It is the finest liquor I have ever tasted.”

  I had moved over to the small bar and held up a bottle.

  “Straight whisky?”

  “That'll be fine.”

  I poured a drink and took it over to him. “I need a man of your expertise. You are the best in your field, or fields, as the case may be. The sooner I get answers the sooner you go back to your island paradise.”

  I moved back behind my desk and sat down in the black officer's chair. Altamonte sipped his drink.

  “What is it, exactly, you want me to do?”

  I waved my hand to indicate the planet around us. “This un-island paradise is Jardoval. A few solar systems down from here is a planet called Titus, named for one of early galactic explorers.”

  “Spare me the travelogue. Just the basic details… sir.”

  “Titus has about twenty thousand colonists. However, seismic activity threatens to, in the future, rip the planet apart. Evacuation plans are being made. This is the closest habitable planet and was thought to be a perfect place to move all the colonists.”

  Altamonte gave me a quizzical look. “But why would this concern Logan Ryvenbark and his band of merry mercenaries? This sounds like official government business and you are, shall we say, a private contractor. My orders came through official government channels and I was told to report to Major – Major, mind you – Ryvenbark. Not that I don’t think you’d do a good job… Major.” He shrugged. “But I’m aware of your disdain for governments. Still, I must admit, it appears you have the government working for you and not the other way around.”

  I grinned. “I also have a working arrangement with Belen Morganthal. Let’s say I help provide security to her many corporations. Belen was thinking of constructing some huge space facility on this planet, which would help somehow in her many businesses. So she and planetary governments worked out a little arrangement. The Federation is stretched a bit thin right now so I was offered the job.”

  “Were the governments generous?”

  “The governments were exceedingly generous. After all, they have to worry about 20,000 colonists.”

  “Plus, cover their own butts. I’m guessing it was the governments’ mistakes that put the colonists on the planet to begin.”

  “You’re guessing right. And governments will pay a great deal to cover their butts.”

  “I see. So what’s the problem? Move them and let me go back to Jamaica.”

  “There's one small issue. At one time this planet was inhabited. A primitive, rural culture, much like prehistoric man back on Earth. That's our best guess anyway.

  But all the inhabitants have disappeared. As if they were wiped off the face of the planet. The Federation is not about to transplant colonists until they find out what happened to the original inhabitants. If something killed the first group, the new colonists could be in danger too. It is believed the natives lived here until relatively recently, then…” I snapped my fingers. “Nothing. They vanished.”

  He drained his glass. “As usual, when the civilian command has a problem they send for us. Bet you prefer dealing with ravenous Chinors than with bureaucrats and politicians.”

  “It's a toss-up. So I need your expertise. I need to find the Grim Reaper on this planet and, if necessary, break his scythe. To do that, I need you.”

  “OK. Piece of cake.”

  “That's one thing I like about you, Ed. That overwhelming sense of modesty. But you do have an amazing ability to piece together disparate information to find the truth. Your science facility is two doors down from here.”

  “Close enough so you can keep an eye on me.”

  “Close enough so we can communicate with each other. I want daily reports. I envision a smooth working relationship. Work as quickly as possible. The governments are getting antsy about the colonists. Losing twenty thousand people would be a huge public relations black eye.”

  “Not to mention all the lawsuits by family members claiming the planetary government screwed up. No wonder they were so generous. No matter what you get paid, you’re probably saving them money in the long run.”

  “I’m sure that was a consideration.”

  “And you’re getting paid from Ms. Morganthal too.”

  I nodded. “She is chipping in a few bucks. I appreciate it. After this job I’m going to retire.”

  He sneered. “You’re never retire, Logan. Adventure is in your DNA.”

  “Not anymore. I’ve had it removed. It’s amazing what doctors can do today. I’d think I’ll be content playing golf every day. I could carry a wood or iron instead of a laser rifle.”

  “It might be a little dull.”

  “Golf is never dull. The game is always challenging.”

  “In three months, you’d get bored and want another assignment. I can’t picture Logan Ryvenbark playing golf every day and settling down. We tend to be addicted to space.”

  “Nevertheless, I a
m thinking seriously about early retirement. Besides Astrid thinks it’s a great idea.”

  “The lovely former Lt. Paxton is as addicted to the hunt as you are. She's a spacer and could never be happy roaming around a solitary planet. Does she still have the neuro-electro implants?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I will greet her from afar. She never liked me.”

  “Perhaps I should tell you that Carmen Hidalgo is with the squad here and she wants to kick your butt too.”

  “Carmen wants to kick everybody’s butt and she has the leg for it.”

  “Fortunately for you, I’ve told her I don’t want you harmed, at least until the mission is completed.”

  “Always nice to have official protection.”

  “Don’t count on it too much. Carmen has never been one to slavishly obey orders.”

  He sighed again and stiffened in the chair. “Duly noted. As for the job, if I need something done, I don't want to start filing forms in electronic triplicate.”

  “The scientific staff and the military personnel have been informed that your wishes are the highest priority. All the information our science teams have gathered is in your office. In addition, I have several squadrons on the ground and two ships hovering above us. The two ships have fully-staffed science departments to help.”

  He drained his glass. “So I will get to work. Any preliminary theories on what happened to all the sentient life? Plague? War? Meteor? Pollution?”

  “No on all of those. We see no trace of plague or any toxins. A war would have left some trace, such as bombed out cities, dead bodies, lingering radiation. None of that here either. No asteroid hit the planet. The waters are clean and the air is pure. We have no idea of what happened to the people here. They simply vanished. Poof. Like in thin air.”

  “How much of the planet was inhabited?”

  “Guessing about forty percent.”

  I flicked a switch and a holographic image of Jardoval appeared over my desk. The planet had four major continents. We sat in the northern hemisphere. I pointed it out to Altamonte. A thousand miles of ocean separated the northern continent from the southern one. The holograph also showed the major flora and fauna of the areas. On the other side of the globe, the other two hemispheres were connected by a thin one hundred mile piece of rough, mountainous land.

  “As far as we can tell, all the continents were inhabited but the guess is sparsely. There was no overpopulation here. There’s no sign of warfare. There’s no sign of anything for that matter. That’s what's so puzzling. How could they just disappear?”

  The three captains I had sent for walked in and saluted five minutes after Altamonte left. I flicked on the holograph again but focused on this hemisphere. I picked up a pointer.

  “Gentlemen, you will take your ships and crews to these three locations where you will set up facilities. These are three areas where there may be some evidence or artifacts of the race that once lived here. We want to find and analyze any item, no matter how insignificant, that might provide information about the races and about how they died. Or why they left. Maybe some huge spaceship came by, offered their transportation so they decided to leave,” I said.

  “That would go along with the evidence we have, which is nothing. Maybe it was a mass migration,” said Captain Anders Rourk.

  “I’m open to any theory. Although why any other race would want to help a mass exodus from this planet I don’t know. Who knows? Maybe we will find there’s a universal taxi service we didn’t know about.”

  “Whatever happened to these people, it doesn’t appear to be war related. We have found no evidence of violence or battles or anything warlike in nature,” said Captain Trent Hardy. Hardy was a fine soldier but he moved with all the speed of a turtle on tranquilizers. Unless he was in a battle and had to move faster.

  “Nor does the answer seem to be a natural disaster,” I said. “There is no evidence of a volcano blowing up or massive earthquakes or anything like that. I, and the Federation scientists are stumped. So that’s why we’re sending out you three. To unstump them. To find some evidence that will help us to explain what happened here. Keep in contact with the main base here and send all information to Major Altamonte.”

  “How is Ed?” Handy asked.

  “He’s as cranky as ever.”

  “Sounds like him.”

  “Thank you, gentlemen. You’re dismissed.”

  “Yes, sir,” they said.

  I leaned back in my chair and looked at the hologram again.

  “A virus,” I said aloud. “Some type of virus might have eliminated the races.”

  Then I shook my head. “No, if it were a virus then we’d have bodies galore piling up on the planet. But there are no bodies. There are no people. It’s as quiet as a cemetery on a Sunday morning.”

  But sometimes stillness can be unsettling, I thought.

  I walked out. Our huge transport ship sat about a mile away. The three smaller shuttles were closer to camp. The transports are used to move soldiers to and from the interstellar ships, which can’t land on a planet. Our interstellar taxi, the William T. Sherman, orbited above.

  CHAPTER 2

  “That’s not true. I never disliked Ed. Well, not much,” Astrid said as we flew over a Jardoval forest. We both had jet packs on as we surveyed the landscape. “He can be a very charming guy. I didn't approve of his lifestyle. Didn't like his ego either. It's as big as the orb of Jupiter.”

  I smiled. “Humility is not one of his strong points.”

  We turned north into the wind as the forest dwindled into hilly, yellow plains. She wore the blue vid-binoculars but her golden hair blew in the breezes. On a scale of one to 10, the scenic condition of Jardoval would rate only a five. Most of the region we had surveyed was flat land. A few thousand miles away there was a mountain range, the lone one in the northern hemisphere. The southern hemisphere was hillier. To the north another forest appeared, a checkerboard of green and browns and dark purples. Deep purple leaves decorated many trees on this planet. One of the few pleasant sights. I decided Jardoval would never be a vacation paradise. Nothing like Lacanshire where rainbow streams flow across the surface. Incredibly beautiful. Millions of tourists travel every year to swim in rainbow colors. The Diamond Mountains of Baljour are also breathtaking. Nothing like them in the galaxy.

  Jardoval had no such sights. It wasn’t ugly. There are a few planets that fit in that category but it wasn’t distinctive. Rather just a dull, mundane, ordinary planet. Shielding a great mystery.

  “The first time he sees a female,” Astrid said, raising her voice over the wind.

  “He won't be distracted. He is, first and foremost, a scientist. Give him a scientific challenge and the juices start flowing. When he gets his teeth in something, he has an intensity that will melt steel.”

  We eased down and landed on flat, barren land. The Jardoval grasses, six inches of green reeds, swayed in the wind. A half-dozen huts stood before us, abandoned and decrepit.

  I looked around but saw nothing moving.

  Astrid knelt down and ran her hand along the ground. She scooped a handful of dust up, tossed it and then brushed her hand against her leg.

  “I don’t like this planet.” She shook her head. “Something is odd here. Have you noticed that, in addition to no people, there are not that many animals in the forests and brooks? All this fertile land should be teeming with creatures.”