Space sharks, p.1
Space Sharks, page 1
Space Sharks
By Ian Thomas Healy
Copyright 2013 Ian Thomas Healy
Smashwords Edition
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Cover design and original photo by Ian Thomas Healy
In the year 2271, humanity has spread throughout the stars. The future looks bright… Except on the waterworld mining colony of Poseidon. Native predators called octopiranhas are rapidly making humans an endangered species. If not for the need for fuel for the interstellar D-Cain Drives, Poseidon would have been abandoned long ago.
Fortunately, science has hit upon a solution to the Poseidon Problem. Scientists plan to introduce genetically modified sharks into the Poseidon ecosystem to hunt and control the native monsters, allowing the necessary mining to continue. Only by sending nature’s perfect predator to hunt the hunters does humanity have a chance to survive.
Chapter One
Interstellar Transport Baldwin
T-Minus 12 hours to Poseidon
The transport ship exited D-Cain space on schedule, with planet Poseidon looming large in the distance, framed by the brilliance of a star whose light wouldn’t reach Earth for some sixty years. The Baldwin was a long-range freighter built for the express purpose of transporting biological cargo that couldn’t travel in hibernation, the way her crew did. With six gargantuan spherical tanks, the actual crew and engine portion of the ship seemed almost like an afterthought. The Baldwin’s nuclear engines glowed with fresh power as it approached its final destination with all the grace of a stripper, if that stripper had six enormous breasts full of sharks.
Inside their tanks, generipped and modified great whites and makos swam back and forth like caged tigers, darting after the tilapia the ship’s automated systems fed them regularly. Soon those tanks would open, spilling their toothsome contents into Poseidon’s oceans, giving humanity a fighting chance against the octopiranhas that were tearing apart man and machine alike with their eight mouths full of razor-sharp teeth.
The crew pods in the main cabin hummed as the ship’s computer commenced the laborious process of thawing out the humans. Seven pods lit up, their indicator lights switching from red to green, displaying that all was good even though there was nobody to intervene if it wasn’t. Suspension fluid drained away, leaving the crew uncovered but for their thin gray undergarments. In perfect mechanical synchronicity, the pod lids opened and their inhabitants drew their first full breaths in months of travel.
Captain Tina Thomersen was the first to sit up in her cocoon. The chilly air made her nipples stand out against her thin gray shift. Nobody commented upon them. Recovering from hibernation was easier in cold air. The shock of it helped to kickstart brains that had been idle for months.
Besides, men invariably awakened with erections. Everyone joked about it at first, but eventually it became just another part of waking up, like stubbly faces, legs, and armpits, and dry mouth.
“Hey, Charlie, check it out. I was dreaming about you, sweetcheeks.” Pilot-navigator Brion Jameson wiggled his hips in his cocoon, making the tent in his shorts jiggle back and forth.
Charlene Sheen, the environmental specialist, rolled her eyes. “Give it a rest, Brion. Nobody cares about your amateur pop gun. I used to have sex with real men.”
Brion snorted. “Sexbot.”
“Former sexbot,” said Dr. Henriksen, the creator of the mutated sharks in the Baldwin’s holds. He sat up and wiped the remnants of hibernation gel from his beard. “Androids were emancipated last year. The only ones still working in the flesh parlors are doing so out of choice and for pay.”
Brion sneered. “I bet you seen your fair share of robot punani, Doc.” He turned to look at Terri Reid, the other passenger aboard besides Henriksen. She was a biologist coming to catalog some of Poseidon’s less-lethal native life forms—at least, until the sharks made them scarce. “How about it, Terri? You don’t want this to go to waste, do you?”
Terri said nothing, bowing her head forward to hide her face behind her gooey blonde hair.
“Give it a rest, Brion,” said Tina. She activated an electronic cigarette and took a long drag of the tobacco mist, letting it warm her from the inside. “Goddamn cold makes me cranky. Baldwin, turn the heat up already.”
“I’m sorry, Captain. Regulations clearly state that minimum temperature is to be maintained until all crew members have fully awakened from hibernation and performed all physical assessments. The ship’s computer spoke in a neutral female voice that might have evolved from original samples of the first smartphone personal assistant.
“Until all crew… Dammit, who’s still asleep?” yelled Tina. She looked over at Rob Perlman, the large, muscular black man with the dreadlocks who maintained the ship, fixed broken things, and cheerfully lent his muscles and the cybernetic lower half of his left arm whenever duty required it.
Rob shook his head and motioned to his left. The motors in his arm made a quiet whine as he moved.
Tina’s gaze fell upon Howard Clintock, their computer and communications technician. The mousy little man was snoring in his cocoon, a smile on his face. “Howard!” she screeched.
He cracked open one eye. “Captain? Why are you in my dream and not naked?”
“Get up and override the environmental controls. I’m freezing my not-naked ass right off.”
Howard jumped out of his cocoon at the tone in her voice and his feet slipped out from under him. He just caught himself on the edge of the cocoon, a sheepish look plastered across his thin face. “Sorry, Captain. I’ll get right on that.”
A few minutes later, after Howard had tinkered at a console, warm air blew from the vents. “Much better,” said Tina. “Everyone line up for testing.”
Good-natured grumbling followed as the sticky, slippery crew and passengers submitted to a series of computer-run tests to determine if they had suffered any ill physical or mental defects from hibernation. Their grip strength, flexibility, and breath power were tested against their baselines. Sensors checked their heart rates, circulation, and oxygen saturation. They performed various tests to check visual and mental acuity ranging from simple color identification to organizing items and solving simple puzzles.
At last, the Baldwin’s central computer approved all of them for active duty. “Hit the showers,” said Tina. “Let’s get this delivery made and get paid.”
“Hell, yes!” said Brion.
“Amen,” added Rob, kissing the silver Star of David on the chain around his neck.
The crew and passengers had the luxury of lengthy showers. One benefit to their cargo was that water was ample, unlike when they hauled bulk dry goods or ore. They washed away the last of the hibernation gel and threw their stained undergarments into a vacuum hamper for automatic cleaning.
As usual, Tina was the first one out of the shower. She stood under the heat lamps for a minute, letting the moisture bake away from her skin, and then dressed in a tank top, underwear, and zipped a shipboard jumpsuit over it all. She pulled her pale blonde hair back into a ponytail and stepped into rubber-soled slippers.
“Captain,” said Dr. Henriksen as he stepped out of his own shower.
“Doctor.” Tina politely averted her eyes from his nude form. Not that he had much of anything to interest her. After a youthful fling that had been proven to be a mistake through and through, she remained married first and foremost to the Baldwin, and that left precious little room for anyone else in her life.
“I’ll want to check on the sharks as soon as possible. I don’t trust the equipment to have taken as good care of them as I could have.”
Tina bristled. “Baldwin has excellent automatics, and Howard and Rob maintain them in tip top shape.”
“Nevertheless, I insist.”
“Very well, Doctor. As soon as we’ve verified our position, notified Poseidon of our approach, and verified Baldwin’s function, you may check on your charges. I’m sure one more hour won’t make much difference.”
Henriksen looked disappointed. “I suppose not.”
Brion stepped out of his shower, rampant in his nudity. “Hey hey hey, Captain.”
“Jameson, you’re out of uniform.”
“Birthday suit is my first uniform, ma’am.” He leered at her. “See anything you like?”
“There’s something that looks like a miniature version of a penis. Or maybe it’s just a birth defect.”
Charlie overheard the comment and giggled as she stepped out of her own shower. “Don’t worry, Brion. I’m sure the other one will drop any day now.”
Brion’s ears turned red. He grabbed a towel and his uniform. “I gotta go unlock the flight console. Too much estrogen around here anyway.”
“But I’m an android…” said Charlie, but Brion had already left.
“He’s quite a find,” said Terri Reid as she toweled herself off. “Does he have secrets he’s blackmailing you with? Or maybe he’s just the owner’s nephew?”
“No, he’s just a good pilot,” said Tina.
“And a misogynist,” said Charlie.
“I thought that went out in the twenty-first century,” said Terri.
“He’s retro,” said Rob as he stepped out of his own shower, water droplets glistening on his chocolate skin.
“You mean repro. As in reprobate,” said Howard, toweling his freshly-shaved head and removing the caps from his cybernetic interface jacks.
Tina nodded. “That’s enough piling on for today. I want everyone up on the bridge in five minutes.” She tugged on her ponytail, a habit she’d had since she was a little girl. “We’ve got a job to do and a planet to save.”
Chapter Two
Interstellar Transport Baldwin
T-Minus 10 hours to Poseidon
The Baldwin’s bridge had a musty smell, like the rest of the ship, which came from the stale air that hadn’t circulated until shortly before the sleeping passengers and crew awakened. Tina loved that smell; it was a familiar reminder that nobody had touched anything in her ship since she first lay down to sleep. She and the other four crewmembers sat at their duty stations, activating consoles and running diagnostics on their systems. Dr. Henriksen and Terri sat at auxiliary stations off to one side. Henriksen was trying to glean information about his cargo from the recalcitrant computer, while Terri seemed content to sit and wait things out. Brion was hunched over the flight console, but instead of checking controls, he was making a few judicious trims to the branches of his prized bonsai tree. Tina had asked him about it once and he’d said offhand that chicks dug the guys who had a sensitive side. He’d sounded flippant and coarse, but woe be to anyone who teased him about his plant. As Howard said, he took that shit seriously.
“Everyone sound off. Is my ship still holding together?” asked Tina.
“Baldwin is on course for Poseidon with minimal variation and at established velocity,” said Brion. “ETA is ten hours to Poseidon Station.”
“I’ve got increased humidity levels in the lower deck and maintenance tubes,” said Charlie. “They’re elevated enough to trip the sensors. One of the tanks might have a leak.”
“Getting some moisture showing in the engine room as well,” said Rob.
“You two go check on that,” said Tina. “Last thing we need is to have something important short out because half of this ship was built by the lowest bidder and the rest in China. Howard, how are the systems looking?”
“Everything is five by five, Captain. Computer’s running at peak efficiency, and I’ve got you an open channel to Poseidon Station.” Howard grinned through his awkwardly arranged teeth.
Tina had never understood why her computer engineer hadn’t ever bothered to have his teeth fixed. It was the future, for God’s sake! They had starships and suspended animation and even the flying cars that had been promised for three centuries. Tooth straightening wasn’t even done the barbaric way with braces and framework like they did in the Dark Ages. It was all done with nanobots that actually moved the teeth through softened bone before setting it solid again. It was an outpatient procedure. Oh well, she thought. Some men were just dumb about some things. “Poseidon Station, this is the USSS Baldwin, just arrived in system. Over.”
“Baldwin, this is Poseidon Station. We’re receiving you loud and clear. You’ve got some freight for us?”
“Affirmative,” said Tina. “Your new sentries. Roughly three hundred great whites and almost a thousand mako sharks, all generipped and modified to survive in your oceans.”
“Great news, Captain. We’re down to a single active mine outpost now. If we can’t start beating back the octopiranhas, we’re going to lose the whole operation.”
“Our ETA to Poseidon is ten hours. Once we achieve orbital insertion, we can have the tanks down to the surface six hours after that.”
“Excellent,” said the voice over the radio. “And now, there’s someone here who wants to say hello.”
Tina raised an eyebrow. “Go ahead, Poseidon.”
A new voice came over the radio. “Hello, Tina.”
Tina’s mouth flew open in shock. What was he doing here? She found her voice. “Casper?”
“One and the same. Of all the star systems in all the galaxies, you had to fly into mine.”
Tina made an exasperated noise and said, “Baldwin out.” She shut off the radio with a decisive click.
“Who was that?” asked Terri, her eyes wide.
“Casper Vandeen. A real son of a bitch.” Tina grimaced. “My husband.”
“You’re married? You never said anything about it.”
“We haven’t been together for years.”
“As you know, Terri, marriage was made a permanent state with the passage of the Forty-Second Amendment,” said Dr. Henriksen. “Once married, forever married, as they like to say.”
“Oh. I’m Canadian. We can marry as many people, animals, or inanimate objects as we want at one time. It’s really progressive,” said Terri brightly. “If you hate Casper so much, why did you marry him?”
Tina sighed. “We were young, dumb, and in love.”
Dr. Henriksen laughed. “So many things in this universe can be boiled down to the maxim it seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“You didn’t stay in love?” Terri pressed.
Tina’s laugh was sharp and without mirth. “No, being in love fades, and if that was all you had, there’s nothing left. Not even great sex. And Casper decided to get his great sex all over the Solar System. If divorce was still legal, I’d have done it years ago. As it stands now, every time I get laid, I get to feel like I’m cheating on my husband. It’s a small thing, but it’s mine.”
“Captain, if you don’t require us on the bridge any longer, perhaps Dr. Reid and I could check in on our cargo,” said Dr. Henriksen.
Tina waved them off. “Yeah, go ahead. I’ve got logs to check from the D-Cain flight as it is.”
Henriksen scratched his beard. “Come along, my dear. Let’s check on my beasties, shall we?”
“I hate sharks,” said Terri with vehemence, but she dutifully followed Henriksen off the bridge.
“Alone at last, Captain.” Brion gave her his best leer and swept his bonsai trimmings onto the deck.
“Hey, what about me?” asked Howard, but nobody paid him any mind.
“Get to work, Brion,” said Tina.
“How about if I work on—”
“No. Believe me, I’m not in the mood for your crap.”
“You never are.” Brion turned around in his seat to face his control panel.
Tina thought she heard a muttered “Bitch,” from his direction but let it go.
Chapter Three
Interstellar Transport Baldwin
T-Minus 9 hours to Poseidon
As Rob and Charlie got closer to the engine room, the air took on a distinctive brackish odor. “Feels humid,” observed the engineer. “And it smells like the damn Jersey shore.”
“That’s not a nice place, I take it?” asked Charlie.
“It’s like a spacer’s armpit after a double shift in a suit,” said Rob.
“Sounds divine. Maybe you can take me there. I’ve never been to Earth.”
“I’ll take you to Kauai. Now that’s a spot worth the spacefare.”
Charlie touched a bulkhead. It was slick with moisture. “I think we definitely have a leak.”
“All those damn tanks full of sharks. No wonder. Baldwin wasn’t meant to haul bulk liquids or organics.”
Charlie smiled at the engineer. “Yeah, but you’re good enough to make it work, right?”
“Damn right.” Rob touched the door control to the next compartment. It slid open to reveal a shallow pond on the floor. “Aw, hell. We got to find that leak before something important gets wet.”
Charlie dipped a finger into the water, sniffed it, and then tasted it. “Seawater and organics. Ninety-four percent match to Earthly oceans, ninety-seven percent match to Poseidon. This is coming from a tank.”
“Damn it,” said Rob. “Sharks. I hate ’em. You can tell all that from a taste? I thought you were a sexbot, not a science drone.”
“Former sexbot,” said Charlie. “I had new chemical analysis software installed. It makes my job a lot easier.”
