Hades. The First Steps (hadesjan cycle Book 1) Read online

  © Copyright by Ernest Filak

  Cover design by Damian Popiół www.popeq.pl

  ISBN 978-83-934499-3-4

  All rights reserved. Distribution and copying of all or part of the publication is prohibited without written permission.

  Ernest Filak

  HADES. THE FIRST STEPS.

  Translated by Karolina Kwasik

  „ For more than two thousand years humankind has been exploring the Universe, which is developing with a speed as yet unknown. Such an expansion requires more and more resources. Big companies provide the supplies required. The jurisdiction of Earth, spread over an enormous area, does not reach everywhere. The law is not properly obeyed. Money and corruption prevail. Hades is a distant mining planet, located far away from the center of the system. It has an almost infinite wealth of resources. Many want to take control over them. The time of change is coming.”

  Prologue

  In the space surrounding a planetary system almost devoid of any celestial objects, a new ship emerged. The massive construction of this colossus was truly amazing due to its enormous size. The drive module was hard to see, covered with a number of cubical containers. The grayish-green plates of the body turned rusty in many places, a result of many years of constant usage. Brighter scars of welds showed frequent earlier renovations and modifications of the monster. Of the lamps located in rows along both sides only half were lit. The green and red signalers at the bow and stern were flashing irregularly. Only two of the four nozzles of the main pulling motor were blazing and leading the ship through space. The remaining two were irregularly fired by ignition bursts, but were unable to maintain a stable pull. Alternations in power delivery kept the hull vibrating, making the corroding internal frames even weaker. Uncontrolled jerks made the ship drift off the course set by the navigator.

  An echoing of a radio signal transmitted from the centre of the system reached the newcomer. As a response, gigantic telescopic dishes of radio transmitters slowly moved to their working positions. Contact was established.

  “Flight control of VP 393 system speaking. Provide name of charter, name of ship and destination.” There was no reply.

  “Flight control of VP 393 speaking to unidentified object, provide the code of charter.” No reply, just some static noise and interference in the background. The controller on duty started to lose his patience.

  “Control unit speaking, damn it! Unidentified object, you are entering military frequency, you idiot! You either change to civilian or I’ll shoot your balls off, moron!”

  This time the interference was interrupted with a calm voice.

  “This is the Ghost. Delivering fresh meat. My engine is knocking and I can’t keep the speed of approach. I’ll go down a bit, ok?” The voice of the captain was nonchalant and self-confident.

  The flight control system fell silent. The astounded controller was unable to utter a word. It’s true that he’d been working for this station for only a month, but this kind of response didn’t fit any regulations he received. He knew that each station had a set of its own informal commands, but such blatant disregard of discipline, especially on such a station, was unacceptable. No, the controller wasn’t one of those eating out of the hand of any pizza guy.

  “VP 393 to unidentified object, continue 202 course and keep the speed. Return to the ecliptic pattern, maximum error 2%. If you cannot keep the speed of approach, stop. We’ll send a tug to help you. Over.”

  “This is the Ghost– are you totally insane? Who am I speaking to? Vlad, is that you? Don’t fuck with me. My bucket is falling apart. I can’t keep the speed! I’m going down to lower frequency. Keep a free passage for me if you can, okay?”

  John Dillins had been a controller for twenty-three years. He served in so many places that he had a hard time remembering them all himself. He thought that he had seen it all in his life. He knew the tricks of cunning captains, with all their games and unwritten laws. And this Ghost, as he was calling himself, was just asking for trouble. Acting according to the procedure, he called for the Chief Controller.

  “What’s up Johnny?”

  “I have a guy on the approach who doesn’t want to give his charter code. He keeps violating our procedures claiming he has a broken engine and is switching to the military frequency,” the controller explained.

  “All right then. I’ll be there in a minute.”

  After a while in the door stood Nick Romero, a fifty-five-year-old corpulent blond-haired man with a double chin. His chubbiness was a standing joke on the whole orbital station. He squeezed into the controller seat with difficulty and typed in the authorization code rapidly. He gazed at the screen for a moment and analyzed the data, which illustrated the movement of the object, the parameters of mass and speed, and any special features. Romero scrutinized the enlarged and processed picture from the telescope. He compared the results he got with those from the database. After that, he listened to the recent radio transmissions between the station and the ship.

  “What do we do with this mess, boss?” somebody asked from behind the chair. “Shall we pass him on to the military? They’ll trash him….”

  The fat man pondered and a predatory smile appeared on his face.

  “If he sticks out his butt unasked, we’ll kick him,” he decided.

  “But boss, if he has any passengers aboard, it will be a slaughter.”

  The Chief Controller looked carefully at his man. “Johnny, you haven’t been working here long and if you want to stick around, you must remember to follow the orders of your superiors without question.”

  “But....”

  “Pass him on to the military forces and help the controllers to deal with all this traffic around the station. We’ll have over one hundred charters today, so you can’t complain about not having anything to do. Is my command clear enough to you?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Good boy,” the fat man patted John’s face. “Who knows, you may become a good controller one day. If you don’t like working on the orbit, we can always transfer you there,” he pointed his finger to the biggest screen in the hall, which was displaying the picture of the planet they were circulating.

  The russet -colored discus was rotating slowly, showing dark areas of land and flashing with the bright lights of active volcanoes. It was a big planet, still seismically active. It was currently going through a time of its continents forming into their future shape. Clouds of toxic vapors covered its deceitful facade. Even if those clouds were dispersed for a brief moment, one would not find areas of green or blue oceans of water. It was all metallic rocks with lakes of liquids, which were by no means fit for drinking: a black slush, mud, and quagmire full of all known and unknown elements. And all of that near at hand, on the surface. A paradise for a psychopathic chemist. Looking at this cosmic phenomenon, Johnny couldn’t help but compare the planet to a newly swollen ulcer, ready to be squeezed.

  The controller felt a cold shiver down his spine. “No, thank you. I’d rather stay here,” he replied.

  The Chief Controller headed towards his office, stopped before entering, turned back and said, “Just as I thought. Pass him on to the soldiers then and forget about him.”

  Dillins called out military supervision. “VP to Fleet 1 Supervision. Over.”

  “Hades 1 Fleet here, what do you have VP? “

  “I have an uncontrolled usage of your frequency. The subject does not respond to any orders.”

  “Are you passing him on to us?”

  “Yes. Positive.”

  “All right, copy that.”

  Dillins returned to his regular duties. He and a few dozen w
orkers of the VP393 space transport control were monitoring the entire traffic in their respective area. It was a lot of work with dozens of flights of cargo ships carrying resources from mining corporations to the planet, to which almost everything had to be delivered. What is more, they controlled all the traffic caused by transferring excavated minerals to orbital processing stations, which would in turn push all the output into space and ultimately to all the recipients waiting for it on the other inhabited planets of the system.

  His everyday toil was extremely hard to bear, but nothing compared to the conditions down there. Still, his curiosity was too strong to resist. He found the military operator’s communication frequency used to connect with the approaching ship. The coding systems had taken control over the signal, disfiguring it into a series of high-pitched sounds. However, after so many years of work he knew how to get around such security measures. After a while, he could hear the decoded voice in his headphones.

  “Continue approach, fly along this path for the next 100 units, then 10 units lower on 03.”

  “Copy that,” the voice of the ship’s captain confirmed the order.

  For a long time nothing happened.

  “Flight control, this is the Ghost speaking. I can see three fast moving units on the radar. They are coming right at me. Should I change my course?”

  “No, keep the course and the speed,” the operator advised him.

  “But....”

  “Keep your current position.”

  “They’ve launched rockets!” A panicky voice screamed in the speaker. “There are six rockets coming right at me, they’ll hit me in 35 seconds.”

  An automatic voice was counting down in the background.

  “30 seconds to collision.”

  “29 seconds to collision.”

  “The Pride of Heldor cargo ship here, charter 123 comma 29. We are a civilian unit. Mayday! Mayday!”

  “27 seconds to collision.”

  “Hello Ghost,” a new voice joined the conversation.

  “What? Who is speaking?” the transporter’s captain cried in panic.

  “You sold me fake stuff the last time. It is now time for you to become a real ghost.”

  “25 seconds to collision.”

  “Wait! Let me explain. I didn’t know it wasn’t original.”

  “It’s too late for explanations. You won’t take me for a ride again.”

  “Come on, I’ll give you a discount and give the money back. Just stop those rockets.”

  “17 seconds to collision.”

  “How much discount will you give me?”

  “20%!”

  “12 seconds to collision.”

  “11 seconds to collision.”

  “25%?”

  “10 seconds to collision.”

  “9 seconds to collision.”

  “30%, once you smash me you will get nothing!”

  “8 seconds to collision.”

  “7 seconds to collision.”

  “6 seconds to collision.”

  Premature detonation of the rockets.

  “Okay Ghost, you‘ve convinced me. Moor in the 8D sector. Welcome to Hades.”

  Chapter I

  The Orbit of Hades. A Military Orbital Station.

  In the arrival station, three platoons of Star Troopers were taking their position. Sergeant Andy Gall was giving orders to his boys.

  “Pickers and Stevens, move your asses to the airlock before others will spread around and we won’t be able to get them to their coops by tomorrow.”

  “Andy, fuck, why me again? Pick some of the young ones.”

  “Corporal Stevens, you can call me Andy in the canteen after work, now speak to me with proper respect.”

  “Yes, sir!” the corporal stood up but ridiculing the proper military position, “but Picky’s ass smells like hell, and we had bean soup for breakfast today.”

  “Stevens, get that fag out of your mouth when talking to your supervisor!” Sergeant Gall’s yelling woke the insubordinate soldier up. “Stevie, wasn’t it you who let this young twat in? The one who the whole C company was searching for for three days in the vent system?” The cigarette fell out of the astounded soldier’s mouth like a suddenly-shot jetfighter and, followed by a faint streak of smoke, landed on the ceramic floor. “Just yesterday the captain asked me why, instead of enjoying himself in the company of a jolly widow, he had to inhale the stench from the latrines. And you know what, you stupid prick, I think that your sloppiness somehow influences the gray matter in my head responsible for memorizing.”

  “Andy, I mean, Sergeant, you won’t do this to me,” the voice of the corporal sounded a bit nervous.

  “Wanna bet?” the sergeant smiled, raising the left corner of his lips.

  The more experienced soldiers of the B platoon knew that this crooked smile wouldn’t bring any good. Just like massive clouds gather before a storm, Gall’s lips gave away his mood pretty well. A single lip movement said more than a thousand words. The corporal was pretty sure that he had just seen the other side of Gall’s lips start moving upwards nervously.

  “Come on, Picky, an order is an order.”

  Both Star Troopers flung their laser guns onto their shoulders and leisurely proceeded in the direction of the airlock doors painted in black and yellow stripes.

  The sergeant turned to the rest of his platoon. With the look of a hungry wolf, he inspected the irregular row. Those more nervous started rearranging the equipment, tightening buckles and tapping their leather leg protectors with their paralyze batons. The rest were looking ahead, trying not to make eye contact.

  “Attention!” Gall ordered. The soldiers stood erect obediently. Muted conversations instantly stopped.

  “Well, my dear ladies, I want to tell you something before we start work. You know your duties. We are the soldiers of the United Nations of Earth. We protect and maintain law and order. In the docking unit you’ll find settlers and miners. Show them your respect!”

  His words were met with outbursts of laughter and inappropriate comments. “Shut the fuck up! I said: respect! No groping and stay away from the ladies. There will be a time for everything later. Can you hear that, Novik? If I see you fondling jailbaits, the next opportunity will not come for a really long time. What’s so funny, Ramon? If you hit someone with the shocker, spare the head. Do you realize how expensive the treatment of your last engineer was?” The sergeant pondered a while, then took a deep breath and reeled off another set of recommendations. “If you beat them, try to hit the legs, okay? The treatment is much cheaper. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, sir!” roared every member of the platoon at the same time.

  “Stand at ease! Dismissed to your positions!”

  The row split into two-man teams, which spread around the hall quickly. Flashes of orange signalers lit the arrival hall. The docking ship was being awaited by its very own welcoming committee.

  ☼ ☼ ☼

  HMES The Pride of Heldor

  Igor Guzenko, his wife and a six-year-old daughter were sitting huddled in a cramped cabin. Little Viera was terrified. She was hugging her mother, sobbing quietly on her shoulder. With every more alarming turbulence, the girl clenched her fists trembling with fear. The father, seeing his child’s dismay, could only gnash his teeth.

  “Why did I even take this contract? We could have stayed on Tau 4.”

  “Don’t worry too much,” Nadia comforted him, “the beginning is always hard. The last time you worried you would fail too. And how did it all end? You met me, Vierochka was born, and you became a foreman.”

  “I know, I know, honey. You may be right, but I’m worried about you guys. I’m too old to start everything from scratch.”

  “You? Too old?” the wife smiled at him flirtatiously. “Last night it was really hard to notice you getting old at all. I would even say you were acting like a teenager!”

  “Oh, come on Nadia!” Igor protested. “Let’s not talk about it around a child.”
>
  “And what is it that we have to stay so discreet about? Some things are completely natural for humans. There is nothing to be ashamed of!”

  “Okay, okay, this is not a good time to talk about it. I am nervous, because that’s not the way it was supposed to be. Do you remember what they promised us when I was signing the contract? We were supposed to fly business class on board a liner.”

  “You know well that those frauds will promise you anything to make you sign the contract.”

  “Yes, I know, but I didn’t sign it in a dingy recruitment office. It was at Semi-Tech’s headquarters in the presence of the chief engineer. It is not the kind of company that would offer you shady contracts to break them soon afterwards. I don’t know, I think this whole thing goes deeper than that.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, I have been doing this job since my childhood. Before I got this contract, I had to turn down the offer of promotion to shift manager. It was a tie-in transaction, give and take.”

  “Why didn’t we stay on Tau, then? I thought that we were coming here for you to be promoted.”

  “It is partially true. I had this promotion granted, but then I had some trouble with the management.”

  “Who exactly?” Nadia asked.

  “This pedant from the management, Zeb or Zed the creep’s name was, hell only knows. We argued about increasing the norms on the night shift. I didn’t agree to them, others backed me up, and there was a huge row. The thing went further up. An inspection showed that I was right. What’s more, it turned out that this Zed guy didn’t care much about periodic technical inspection of the equipment. They fired him and suggested that I get promoted and move to work in a new place.”

  “Oh, Igor, do you always have to follow the rules so strictly? If you had a cool attitude, everyone would be far better off with it.”

  “Who would be better off? Only those officials, I think. Do you know what it means to turn a blind eye to the technical condition of machines?”