Captain Bolide! #2 - Part One of Two
A "The Planets are Evil" Inspired Story
Be sure to read the first edition of my pulp series, Captain Bolide!
Captain Bolide and the Evil Planet
Chapter One: The Object at Apollo III
All the lights on the rocket ship’s bridge held their position, as if the entire craft awaited the results. No beeps or boops echoed; instead, the steady drone of the life support systems was the sole sound on board. Even Captain Bolide held his breath.
Then, what sounded like the rattling of small machines came out of T.I.M.’s, Thinking Intelligent Machine, mouth. Two red light bulbs brightening up was the cue signaling that the operation was a success.
“Thank you, captain,” T.I.M. said. “With the new neuroprocessor, I can generate new programming based on our missions together. No longer am I restricted to the system defaults and your customizations.”
Bolide stepped back, his eyes studying T.I.M.’s torso control panel. “Good to hear. I knew the technicians on Runa Pente made quality innovations. The only doubt was in my skill in installing it.”
With a soft pat on T.I.M.’s rounded head, Bolide walked towards his command panel and peered at the data screen. A large white outline of a circle against a black backdrop confirmed that the remaining minutes of the voyage were all clear. To the left of the space radar display was a stream of labels, each one accompanied by a three digit number. The captain was seasoned enough to make sense of the readouts, but it was still nice to gaze up at the little green lights above to confirm all systems were nominal.
A twist of a knob powered the view screen. For Bolide, space appeared empty, but he could hear the whirl inside T.I.M.’s head indicating the robot was zooming in.
“Captain, I am making out an anomaly near Apollo III.”
Bolide lifted an eyebrow and glanced over at T.I.M., but the robot remained silent.
The captain blew air out of the side of his mouth and counted in his head to five. Then, with a sigh, he filled in the robot to the non-verbal hint. “T.I.M., my eyebrow lift is a non-verbal cue for inquiring to know more.”
“Oh, I apologize, captain. I will make a note of that. What I am seeing is there is something large near Apollo III that is not on any star chart.”
Lowering his view back to the data screen, he saw a dot indicating the gas giant Apollo III coming into sensor range. The rest of the screen remained empty.
“There seems to be nothing amiss, T.I.M., maybe the new processor is-.”
Just then, one of the numbers in the data screen read out in four numerals. The sight of it caught Bolide’s attention. He watched it move up as other, three digit numbers come in. Before he could declare it an outlier, another four digit popped up, then another, then a two digit number.
“What the-?”
As more numbers out of whack appeared, the yellow gas giant Apollo III came into view, and with it, a relatively small black sphere was visible. Straining his eyes, Bolide made out red cracks on the black surface and what seemed to be moving dark crimson clouds.
“What the-? Is that a moon?”
More rattling came from T.I.M.’s head. “No, captain. The object’s orbital path is not revolving around Apollo III but the star Apollo itself. It is a planet in its own right, but it is in orbital sync next to Apollo III; however, it appears to be small enough to be locked with Apollo III.”
The captain stared at the object on the viewscreen. There it remained, centered, appearing dark and foreboding. Something about it upset his stomach. He wanted to look away but couldn’t resist remaining transfixed on it. Only the thought of using the data screen to study it freed his eyes.
Twisting knobs and dials failed to obtain any readings of the black planet. It was as if it wasn’t there.
The ship’s radio whistled, indicating an incoming transmission. A man’s voice, out of breath and weak, spoke. “Attention, unidentified vessel. This is Marshall Sam Tejas. I am in need of immediate assistance. Please help.” A series of coughs was replaced with static, and the radio went dead.
Bolide snapped into action. “Sam?! T.I.M., lock onto that signal, we’re going to help!”
Without moving, T.I.M. responded, “Yes, sir.” After a rattling noise, he continued, “His location is on the planet. I am getting readings of a rocket ship.”
The robot went over to its command console and plugged in the coordinates.
For his part, the captain looked at the dark planet and said, “Hold on, Sam, we’re coming.”
Chapter Two: The Message
Hot, humid air filled Captain Bolide’s nose, adding to the surprise that this planet’s air was breathable. The earlier scans stated the atmosphere was normal, too normal for Bolide’s liking. Yet, here he was, breathing in the air that was the right mix of oxygen and nitrogen while also being free of harmful biologics.
Moving forward, he parted the thick brush of ebony ferns and inky tall grass, with T.I.M. trailing behind him.
Then, an opening revealed what they were searching for: Tejas’ rocket ship. The batter hulk lay in three large pieces while smaller chunks were strewn about. The metal was rusted and burnt in places.
“My goodness,” the captain said, “it’s a miracle Tejas survived! I’ll look for the bridge, you scan about.”
With a dash, he raced toward the head of the crashed rocket. However, where it should be, the rocket ship was torn apart. Only the remnant of a captain’s chair was discernible.
Toward the engine’s resting place, T.I.M.’s voice yelled, “Captain, I found something.”
Bolide gasped. He hurried to the robot. When he arrived, he saw a charred leather flightsuit. Something with half a shine grabbed his attention nearby.
“A recorder!” he declared.
Picking it up, he pressed play, and both he and the robot listened to a raspy voice’s last testament.
“This is the log of Deputy Cade Bravura. We, uh, Marshall Tejas and I were investigating reports of space pirates and several cargo carriers disappearing near Apollo III. When we arrived, we found this- this- planet that shouldn’t be here. I know we should have called it in, but something about it made us think we needed to check it out.
“It’s all wrong. Black plants, crimson clouds that don’t move with the wind, and rivers of- well, I’m going to say it- blood.
“I wanted to leave, but Marshall Tejas seems hellbent to keep me here. He is eyeing me up right now. I think he has gone insane. Well, I am preparing for him to turn on me, and when he does, I will take the rocket back and report this planet. Maybe then we can get a proper survey team here. Curse Marshall Tejas. Oh, I hear him coming.”
Both Captain Bolide and T.I.M. stood and looked around.
“Deputy Bravura mentioned nothing about a crash,” the captain said. “And Marshall Tejas always was a good man when I worked with him. Something is horribly wrong here. Let’s split up and see if we can find Tejas and figure out what happened.”
Chapter Three: Encounters
The black jungle thicket gave way to Captain Bolide’s ray gun, which cut a hole through the worst of it. However, tendrils with small dark red barbs kept snagging on the captain’s wavy blonde hair. Meanwhile, the burning plants left toxic smoke that dizzied his head.
“Dag nabbit,” he muttered to himself, “everything about this planet hurts.”
Just then, the ray gun burnt through into a large opening. Bolide holstered his weapon. While he let the thick, visible, black fumes die, he took in what looked like a small pond of clear water surrounded by seemingly the only green grass on the entire planet.
However, before the smoke settled, he heard a moan, a human moan. Twisting his head so his right ear pointed forward, he made out another moan. Pushing forward, he powered through the wavy ebony fumes and made it to a small glen with only sightly shaky vision.
As his head cleared up, he saw lying on the ground Marshall Tejas. The lawman’s eyes were swollen shut, while his hands were burnt and uniform torn.
“Sam!” Bolide cried. “Are you conscious?”
The marshall groaned as his body shifted. His weak voice then came through the moaning. “I needed to stop him. It’s not him.”
Meanwhile…
T.I.M. picked up yet another scrap of the rocket and placed it with the rest. Cataloguing all the pieces would allow Captain Bolide to determine how exactly this tragedy occurred. He said that the loved ones of these fallen law enforcement agents deserved to know what happened. To T.I.M., knowing the importance of informing others about the fate of people registered in a new file, expanding its worldview.
Just then, a small charge of electricity jumped from a black blade of grass to T.I.M.’s foot. In an instant, the robot powered down, its back slumping forward in the off position. But then, internal mechanism began whirring again, and his back straightened up. His eyes were red, but not the normal red; there was something darker in the light.
“I must spread,” T.I.M.’s body said.
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Next time, I will finish the Captain Bolide #2 saga!
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