DARK MATTER
Justin Mark O’Brien
Category: Grade 2-5, Age 7-10
Genre: Chapter Books Dark Matter
Table of Contents
Chapter 1...…………………………………………………………………………………...……1
Chapter 2…………………………………………………………………………………………..5
Chapter 3…………………………………………………………………………………………..9
Chapter 4 ……………………………………………………………………………………...…14
Chapter 5………………………………………………………………………………………....18
Chapter 6……..…………………………………………………………………………………..20
Chapter 7………………………………………………………………………………………....24
Chapter 8…………………………………………………………………………………….…...27
Chapter 9………………………………………………………………………………………....29
Chapter 10……………………………………………………………...... 31 CHAPTER 1
A bright yellow drone zips through the darkness of space. This is not your regular drone flown by a child. This is a small car with eight helicopter blades buzzing around the perimeter. Inside,
Mark Pennywell sings along to the song “1999” by Prince.
“They say two-thousand-zero-zero party over, oops out of time,” Mark sings. “So tonight
I'm gonna party like it's 1999. Well. 2199!”
Mark pauses to pour cheese balls into his mouth and takes a slurp from a fountain drink cup branded with a logo reading Fornax Corporation, only to realize it’s empty and tosses it over his shoulder onto the floor of his drone.
Mark is 24 years old. Naturally fit, but doesn’t workout. Some call him a 'man baby’ because of his short temper and childish ways at times, but really, those people are judging a book by its cover. Mark is this way because he never grew up.
15 years prior, Mark’s parents spent their life savings on one-way tickets to planet
Proxima B for him and his twin brother, Zeta. They knew that the Pennywell name would end if they didn’t escape the inevitable demise of planet Earth. So once Proxima B was discovered as a
1 habitable, near-clone of Earth, they took that opportunity to leave. With Proxima B being just four light-years away, a new Space Race emerged with Fornax Corporation winning by a long shot.
Fornax Corp, for short, was the first company to arrive on the planet and made Earth sized land grabs. Their brand name is plastered on almost every Proxima B building, bus, and billboard.
Mark navigates his drone sideways through two prison bar-esque laser beams. The lasers surround an entire asteroid.
“Ooo suck it in Queen Bee!” Mark talks to his drone like it’s his baby. The drone barely clears the lasers. “Woo! That’s my girl!” He pats the dashboard like a good dog and rotates the drone back to parallel with the asteroid.
One of Fornax Corps' many income-producing ventures is mining asteroids for raw materials and precious metals, this one specifically being gold. Mark lowers the drone just above the surface of the asteroid, then taps a button on his dashboard console.
Clang!
“Woah, easy girl,” Mark chirps confidently as if he's done this a thousand times.
A metal pipe with an auger head extends down from under the spacecraft. The auger head bangs into the surface of the asteroid, jarring Mark in his seat.
“Oops. My bad,” he cringes but quickly pushes a lever up on the console which triggers the noisy drilling vacuum apparatus. Mark monitors the gauges as gold shavings are sucked up the pipe, entering the hopper mounted below Queen Bee.
2 Mark’s done it again. His motto is to take just enough to not get caught! He turns the radio up and leans back in his chair, nodding his head to the beat. Moments later the laser beam security perimeter shuts off. Mark leans forward, turns the radio off, and scans the darkness for any signs of life. He pauses, mouth agape, waiting.
Zoom! A Fornax Corp branded Stingray spacecraft flies quickly overhead.
“Crimony!” Mark shouts.
The large Fornax Stingray ship pulls up and then barrel rolls back towards Mark’s drone.
Mark quickly pulls the drill arm lever down and smashes a console button to cease the gold mining. Nothing happens.
“Oh bee, sweet bee. No no no, not today!” Mark repeatedly taps the button again.
Nothing. He bangs the lever up and down. Notta.
The Stingray ship is seconds away from smashing little Queen Bee into a million pieces.
Mark shakes his head in defeat and abandons his gold haul by flipping up a protective box covering a switch on the console. He grimaces and toggles the switch on. The gold hopper drops to the surface of the asteroid, disconnecting from Queen Bee.
Mark screams, “Ya greedy pigs!”
He slumps forward in his chair as he slings the drone into a downward reverse flight path, narrowly skimming underneath the Stingray passing overhead. Once clear, Mark turns the drone
180 degrees and makes his escape. He’s done this a time or two over the years. Mark glances at the video display screen on his dashboard revealing the Stingray making another turn. The ship is gaining on him.
3 “Oh come on! Really? Ok. Ok!” Mark knowing he can’t out race the bigger ship, he pulls up on his control column until he is flying straight at the Stingray… upside down!
“Wanna play chicken?” Mark says with a crazy look in his eyes and lets out an evil laugh.
The Stingrays tail begins to rotate up over the ship.
Mark confused, “What the-?”
The tail is pointed directly at Queen Bee now. The tip of the tail begins spinning in a circular shape like a lasso. Mark veers the drone left. The rotating tail of the Stingray ship is now an illuminated, arcing electric blue circle. Queen Bee begins to stall out.
Mark pushes the throttle to the max, “Come on!”
The drone stalls completely and floats in gravity-less space for a moment, before jolting backwards towards the Stingray. The spinning tail seems to be sucking the drone in slowly, like a fishing rod reeling in it’s catch ever so slowly. Mark frantically tries nearly every button, lever, and widget inside the drone. He whips his head around for a glimpse at the Stingray's tail just a few feet behind his drone. It looks like a blue electrical hurricane!
“Hold onto your butts!” Mark jokes, but is clearly scared.
The drone disappears into the swirling vortex.
4 CHAPTER 2
Mark blinks awake. He squints to adjust to the bright light and is startled fully awake.
“Goo! Dude!” A big-boned ogre stands bent over inches away from Mark’s face. A native to planet Proxima B, he has green skin and wooly green hair.
“What the heck, man?!” Mark sits upright.
“I was wondering when you’d wake up!” He plops down on the cot, uncomfortably close to Mark and extends his hand, “Hi, I’m Clyde4!”
Mark reluctantly shakes his hand. Clyde4 shakes his entire body with his brute strength.
“Easy, Hulk!” Mark says, shooting him a glare. Mark clenches his hand in pain, “Name’s
Mark.”
Clyde4 lets out a nerdy laugh and asks, “So what was your criminal act?”
Mark finally takes a moment to acknowledge his surroundings —a jail cell. “Um. I. Uh.”
He is still clearly getting his bearings.
Clyde4 points at Queen Bee parked on a landing bay at the end of a long hallway of prison cells, “Is that yours?” Mark looks up.
5 “Yes! Poor Queen Bee,” Mark replies longingly. He stands up and thinks out loud, “Oh man, Vega is gonna kill me.”
“Wait, Vega? Vega Vega?! The most wanted space pirate, Vega?!” Clyde4 questions.
Mark replies, “Yeah, him. I work for Vega. Well, I mine asteroids with his gear and make a cut--”
“Illegally mine asteroids.” Clyde4 interrupts. He gestures to the cell surroundings.
“Well. Yeah. Illegally,” Mark regretfully replies.
“Go on!” Clyde4 grins.
“Ok, so I was illegally mining asteroids and a Stingray came out of nowhere!” Mark starts to pace in the cell and flail his arms as he tells Clyde4 his story.
“But this was no regular Stingray. No, no. This one had something different on the tail. It spun?” Mark points at Clyde4 while rotating his arm in a circle. Clyde smiles and nods, clearly enjoying the story.
Mark continues pacing, “And then it started spinning so fast it created this like, blue electric vortex which slowly sucked my drone in, inch by inch.” Clyde4 leans in for the finale of the story. “But then. Poof! That was it. Black. That’s all I remember. Then I woke up to you huffing onion breath in my face.”
Clyde4 lets out a loud laugh while holding his big bouncing belly, “Oh, I do love onions!
You know what they say? Onion a day, keeps the doctor away!” Clyde4 grins ear to ear.
Mark shakes his head, “Huh? No. That’s not the saying.”
“Yes it is!” Clyde4 replies nodding.
“No it’s not! It’s an--”
6 “Yes it is! And that blue vortex you described wasn’t electricity. It was dark energy.”
Caught off guard by the bold statement Clyde4 just spouted off, Mark replies confused,
“Wait wait, hold up. Dark what?”
“Yes, I built that dark energy harvesting technology for Fornax. Well, I originally thought
I was developing it for Fornax, but it ended up being a fraudulent company just using their name on the invoice at my engineering shop on Proxima B. Oddly enough, they were working for Vega as well and I was arrested for affiliation to the whole thing,” Clyde4 rambles on like Mark is the first conversation he has had in years.
Mark interrupts, “Wait, so how did you end up officially working with Fornax to develop the Stingray thingamajig? I mean, are you working here or in prison here?”
Clyde ponders for a moment, “Hmm, a bit of both, you could say. Upon my arrest, I was transferred here to the Fornax space station under a work release agreement.”
“Wow! Friggin’ Fornax! They really are the judge, jury, and executioner!” Mark shakes his head in disgust. “But hold up, you said dark energy harvesting? Fornax is doing that? I’ve heard stories about attempts at it but that’s it. No results. I thought dark energy was just a myth.
An old wives tale!”
“No, no, no! Dark energy is real,” Clyde4 states. “Space consists of a mixture of gases, yes, but at a granular level, space is composed of just two things. Dark energy and dark matter.
Both are required to keep everything in balance. Dark matter slows down the expansion of the universe, while dark energy speeds it up. Dark matter works like a cosmic cement that holds our universe together, while dark energy is a sort of anti-gravity if you will.”
7 Mark dumbfounded asks, “So you’re telling me Fornax is successfully capturing dark energy?”
“Yes. Well, sort of,” Clyde4 replies. “Preliminary tests have been successful enough to fuel several Fornax devices, like the one that captured you on the Stingray spacecraft. But just harvesting dark energy from outer space produces a low yield. Whoever succeeds at harvesting dark energy specifically from a black hole, will truly have unlimited access to the most powerful source of energy in the universe.”
“Ha. Yea, but it’s called a black hole for a reason. Anything that gets near it is gone forever!” Mark rebukes.
“Technically. But dark energy is not finite. Take you and your drone, for example. You were just transported somewhere else. But our plan now is to perform our first test on the most densely concentrated dark energy source, specifically, the black hole Sagittarius A.”
Mark laughs, “I feel sorry for the sucker that Fornax forces to do that job!”
A Fornax Corporation Space Force officer quickly approaches the cell calling for,
“Pennywell?”
“Yeah?” Mark questions.
Cylde4’s mouth drops open, “Oh no. You’re Mark Pennywell?”
Mark shoots Clyde4 a confused look.
The officer unlocks the cell and orders Mark, “Come with me.”
8 CHAPTER 3
Mark sits at a table in an empty interrogation room on the Fornax Corp space station. His eyes dart to each corner of the room, then straight into the mirror on the wall in front of him. He knows that he is being analyzed like a science experiment.
“Hey! I haven’t gotten my call yet!” Mark shouts at whoever is behind the surveillance mirror.
The single door in the room slides open, revealing the Fornax Space Force General holding a file folder. Confidence practically drips off of him as he walks toward the interrogation table in the center of the room. Like the previous officer that Mark encountered, he wears the same form-fitting, black camouflage uniform, with a black carbon fiber armor plating and a black helmet covering his entire face. The only difference being his helmet has a chrome eyeshield, instead of clear, and he dons a yellow ‘General’ military ranking patch on his upper left arm. He pulls out the chair opposite of where Mark is sitting. Mark gulps as he sits.
He sits silently browsing Mark’s file for a moment. Mark shifts in his chair, noticeably uncomfortable.
9 Mark breaks the silence, “Neat outfit. You look like a video game.” He doesn’t acknowledge Mark.
“Quite the resume you have here,” he replies, still looking down at the file.
Mark smirks, thinking it is a real compliment, “Oh. Thanks. I mean, I am--”
The General cuts him off, “You arrived here from Earth 15 years ago with your twin brother. Both of you entered the foster care system. You committed a slew of petty crimes.
Arrested. New foster home. Grand theft spacecraft. More time in prison. Another foster home. I see a pattern here.”
Mark rolls his eyes, “Ok. Funny guy!”
“It’s interesting how two people with the exact same opportunities end up in such different circumstances,” he replies. Mark furrows his brow confused. The General removes his helmet, revealing a familiar face. It’s Zeta, Mark’s identical twin brother.
“Zeta. Of course! Who’s butt did you kiss to get promoted to General already?” Mark asks, disgusted by his brother.
“It’s called hard work, something you know nothing about,” Zeta responds.
“Ha! Daddy would be proud of his favorite son,” Mark says sarcastically.
Zeta closes the file with a bang of his fist on the table, “Let’s cut the chit chat. We’ve been tracking you. You are the only pilot who’s penetrated our asteroid field security. Multiple times. And the only pilot who’s escaped our endless pursuits and dark energy traps. All except one that is.”
Mark sinks in his chair.
10 “Fornax is launching a dark energy harvesting division and you will be our pilot for black hole missions,” Zeta explains.
“Huh-uh. Nope. Not me. I won’t do it!” Mark shakes his head defiantly.
General Zeta pushes away from the table and stands up authoritatively, “Silence!”
Mark shudders, but then shouts back, “Keep me in that cell. I’m not taking the slave labor work release deal you gave Clyde4.”
“You don’t have an option,” Zeta smirks.
“This is a death sentence! You want me to fly up to a black hole and if I’m not instantly sucked in and killed, you want me to park it and harvest for how long? No. No way. You’re nuts!” Mark barks back.
Zeta responds emotionless, “The decision is final. You have nothing to lose. No career.
No friends. No family. You are, nothing.”
Mark grimaces and clenches his fist, defeated.
“We’ve assembled your team for final preparations.” Zeta exits the room and without looking back states, “First harvest is tonight.” The door slides closed behind Zeta.
Mark stands immediately and throws his chair at the door with a scream. He looks at the mirror, “I need my call!”
***
Mark waits in line behind other prisoners to use the phone. An officer looks on as prisoners speak on the three phone booths evenly spaced in the hallway. Mark sees a prisoner pressing the end key on the smartphone tethered to the booth. Before the prisoner can even fully exit the booth, Mark has impatiently slid by him to make his call.
11 Vega walks through a mobile home park, just outside of Mark’s trailer. Vega is a green, wooly Proxima B native like Cylde4, only Vega is much skinnier and shows his age with a wrinkled face, scars, and a long messy beard.
Vega yells in his gravelly voice at two of his goons fiddling with Mark’s trailer door,
“What’s the hold up? Break it down!” They nod in agreement and clumsily kick the door open to enter. Vega notices his smartphone ringing inside his duster jacket chest pocket. He looks at the screen. Unknown.
Vega answers the phone, “Who is this?”
Mark gulps and replies, “Vega? It’s Mark.”
When Vega hears Mark’s voice, he stops in his tracks, “Oh now you want to talk? I’ve been calling you all day!”
“I’m sorry! I don’t have my phone! I had an issue on my last mining stop,” Mark replies.
“Issue?! What does that mean?! Where are you now?” Vega barks back.
“Well. I’m on the Fornax space station,” Mark replies.
“What?! What are you doing with those autocrats?” Vega replies, livid.
Mark timidly replies, “I. I um...They caught me mining. I’m in a holding cell here now, but--”
Vega interrupts, “Where’s my mining rig? And my drone! I’m coming to get it now!”
“Woah, I have most of Queen Bee paid off,” Mark replies.
“Where is it!?” Vega demands.
“Um. The mining gear? Well, I had to ditch it on the asteroid to save my drone. A
Stingray would have killed me if I didn’t!” Mark pleads with Vega.
12 “You fool. We’re done! This was your last straw! I took you in at your lowest and this is how you repay me?” Vega scolds Mark.
“I’m sorry. Just give me a couple days. I know I can pay you off and more! Way more!”
Mark begs.
“You know our agreement. If you don’t deliver, we collect.” Vega responds.
“Vega please, I’m telling you. Fornax is making me harvest dark energy at Sagittarius A.
It’s happening tonight! They supposedly have the technology ready, I’m just piloting the rig. I’m sure I can start skimming for you. Vega, please!” Mark pleads.
Vega pauses for a moment with this new found knowledge of Fornax, then replies,
“Goodbye, Mark.” Vega ends the call and places the phone back into his jacket.
The goons emerge from the trailer with duffle bags filled with Mark’s most valuable possessions and cash.
“Ready!?” Vega shouts.
They both nod as they scurry towards Vega and shout, “Go, go, go!”
Vega rolls his eyes and walks away from Mark’s trailer toward his midnight black drone parked nearby. The mobile home explodes behind them.
13 CHAPTER 4
Mark walks around the perimeter of Queen Bee, running his hand over the curves. “I’m gonna get you out of here girl.”
“Pennywell!” Cylde4 shouts from across the Fornax Corp space station landing bay.
Mark waves.
A robot rolls in front of Clyde4 stopping him in his tracks. “Oh hey, Donny! No, I didn’t see the game last night.” Clyde4 says with a smile. The robot lets out a sequence of beeps as it rolls by.
Mark smirks and replies, “Clyde!”
Clyde4 continues toward Mark and corrects him, “Clyde’s my father’s name. I’m
Clyde4!”
“Right right, Clyde4. What’s with the four?” Mark asks.
“Well my dad wanted a son with his same name, but he ended up having four boys,
Clyde, Clyde2, Clyde3, and finally me, the baby, Clyde4.”
14 Mark lets out a laugh as Clyde4 finally arrives next him, “Clyde4. The best for last!”
Clyde4 smiles and gives Mark a bear hug, lifting him off the floor. “Ok. Ok! Put me down!”
Mark demands.
A young, fit woman, with long braided hair down to her waist, enters the landing bay.
She comes in serious, wearing the black camouflage Fornax Space Force uniform, without a helmet.
“Am I interrupting something?” She sarcastically asks.
Clyde4 sets down Mark and lets out his signature robust belly laugh, “Mark, this is Pavo.
Pavo, Mark.”
“Hi,” Mark extends his hand. Pavo reluctantly shakes his hand.
“Pavo is the best pilot in the galaxy, well next to you I hear.” Clyde4 states to Mark.
“Well well, I get to finally meet the mysterious Mark Pennywell,” Pavo says with resent.
Mark furrows his brow as she continues, “Well we don’t have much time. Let’s get to it shall we?”
Mark is still unsure of his role in this trio. Pavo leads the group to the corner of the landing bay, where workbenches are scattered with tools. Pavo presses a button on a nearby wall causing the floor to open. A spacecraft rises up from beneath the floor on a mechanics lift.
Mark looks on in awe, “Wow, a Fornax Freedom?! The last time I flew one of these I was… well, stealing it for Vega. But man, these things are powerful!”
“Yes, the Fornax Freedom has the most robust omnidirectional propulsion engine in the galaxy!” Clyde4 responds.
15 “So get this, I was in a free fall into Proxima Canyon while trying to lose some Fornax
Space Force on my tail. We were probably within five feet from the ground when I restarted the engines. Long story short, I lost ‘em, but I’m pretty sure I made Vega poop his pants!” Mark replies.
Clyde4 nearly keels over laughing, holding his bouncing belly.
Pavo interrupts, “Alright, enough boy talk! We are hours away from our first black hole harvest. Ok?!” Pavo storms over to the workbenches, banging and clanging through tools while she looks for what she needs.
Mark looks at Cylde4 with big eyes and whispers, “What’s her deal?!”
“Well. She was the sole pilot for this mission as of this morning, then the ‘best’ pilot in the galaxy fell into Fornax’s lap,” Clyde4 replies with a cheesy smile. Mark rolls his eyes.
Pavo clears her throat, “Guys?”
Cylde4 and Mark shuffle over to Pavo who is now standing underneath the Fornax
Freedom spacecraft.
“Ok, so to get you up to speed Mark, the mission isn’t all that different from your asteroid mining. We’ll be positioning the ship close enough to the black hole for the highest efficiency harvest but also far enough away to not get swallowed up,” Pavo states.
“The strong gravitational field is created by the black hole spinning at the speed of light, so your margin for error is minimal,” Clyde4 adds.
Mark gulps knowing he is in over his head on this mission.
Pavo points at the mirrored dish mounted under the ship, “Once we are in position, this harvesting attachment will emit light into the black hole. Most will be absorbed but the light that
16 doesn't will be slung into orbit around the spinning black hole. These remaining light particles will be dark energy charged and what we will be absorbing into this harvest tank.”
“Wait, so what is Fornax using this stuff for? Just that blue electrical blackhole thingy on the Stingray ship that captured me?” Mark asks.
“That is just one of many applications possible. Dark energy is in a league of its own when it comes to power and weapon implementation,” Clyde4 replies.
“Great, so basically this is Fornax’s greed shining through again?” Mark snickers.
“Oh please, Fornax is the only reason you’re alive” Pavo criticizes Mark.
“But might as well be dead, sending us off to a mission like this. What makes you so loyal to them?” Mark asks.
“You know what I take that back. Your brother is the reason you’re alive,” Pavo snidely replies.
“Zeta has never helped me! I’d be--”
Pavo interrupts Mark, “You should consider yourself lucky Zeta’s even helping you.
Must be hard for him to have to support his failure of a brother. So much for carrying on the
Pennywell name.”
“Oh, little miss know it all?! Somebody read my file and thinks they is important!” Mark says sarcastically.
Pavo scowls at Mark.
“Well Zeta obviously doesn’t trust you if he captured this ‘failure’ to do your dirty work!
I’d rather be extinct on Earth than stuck in this tin can death trap with you!” Mark shouts at
Pavo.
17 “Why don’t you go back then!” Pavo screams at Mark.
“Woah woah, guys! I think you’re both a little hangry.,” Clyde4 interrupts them. “I’m famished! Let's fuel up before the mission,” Clyde4 walks off toward the Fornax cafeteria.
Pavo rolls her eyes at Mark and follows Clyde4.
18 CHAPTER 5
Mark buckles into the captain seat in the Fornax Freedom spacecraft. He toggles on a few switches and checks a monitor on the dashboard. Mark takes a deep breath.
Pavo plops down in the co-pilot seat adjacent to Mark, still angry.
“Um. Hey,” Mark says timidly.
“Hey,” Pavo replies, not making eye contact with Mark while fidgeting with several knobs on the ship's dashboard console.
“So. I just wanted to say sorry. Things got a little heated earlier. My brother just makes me. Crazy!” Mark replies.
“Yea. Well, you drive him pretty crazy too,” Pavo remarks.
“Oh yeah?” Mark questions.
“Uh huh. You and Vega are basically 100% of Zeta’s headaches,” Pavo replies.
Mark chuckles, “Good!”
“You know I was a foster kid too? It doesn’t give you the right to be an arrogant jerk,”
Pavo replies.
19 “Well you got swindled into joining the Space Force and I didn’t, so I don’t know if we can be friends,” Mark replies with a smirk.
Pavo finally smiles.
“And how do you know so much about me?” Mark questions.
“Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer,” Pavo replies.
Clyde4 makes a loud entrance into the cabin by ripping the loudest fart, “Sorry, I think the queso in the cafeteria went bad.”
Mark and Pavo crack up. Clyde4 holds his stomach as he buckles into the seat centered behind them.
“Are you ready?” Pavo asks Mark.
“Umm. I guess as ready as I can be,” Mark timidly replies.
“The goal is to keep the harvest efficiency at 90%,” Pavo taps the efficiency readout monitor on the dashboard which reads ‘0% EFFICIENCY / 0% FULL.’
“90% efficiency is also the safest distance away from the black hole according to my calculations. Any closer and we don’t know if the ship could take it,” Clyde4 responds.
“That black hole wants us for lunch. Our job is to fight it and stay out,” Pavo responds.
Mark gulps, “Ok. Let’s do it.”
Clyde4’s stomach gurgles. Mark smirks at him.
The spacecraft takes off for black hole Sagittarius A.
20 CHAPTER 6
Mark’s eyes dart to each corner of the spacecraft's windshield, taking in the grandeur of the black hole. A mix of blue, red, purple, and orange light swirls around a pitch black circle. Mark slowly positions the Fornax Freedom in front of the black hole.
Mark gets a bit too close to the strong gravitational pull. He pushes up the throttle lever for the forward facing propulsion thrusters.
“Woah, easy cowboy!” Pavo says as she pulls back on her control column. Mark steadies the ship and pulls the propulsion throttle lever back.
“Commencing harvest,” Clyde4 announces as he rotates a large knob on the console attached to his seat. On the outside of the ship, this opens the hole in the harvesting dish that emits a bright white light into the center of the black hole. Instantly, millions of light particles are sent into orbit around the black hole.
“Ok, looking good,” Pavo taps on the harvest efficiency monitor on the dashboard, which reads ‘89% EFFICIENCY / 2% FULL.’
21 Mark pulls back on his control column as he feels the ship getting pulled in. As the ship slightly reverses away from the black hole, the efficiency reading dips to 85%.
“You nervous?” Pavo asks Mark.
“Nope,” Mark shakes his head.
“This will settle your nerves,” Clyde4 taps on a screen in his chair's armrest. Beethoven’s
“Fifth Symphony” begins to play over the speakers in the cockpit.
“Oh yeah. Relaxation 101!” Mark states sarcastically.
Clyde4 closes his eyes and starts moving his fingers in the air like a composer. Mark shoots Pavo a look and she just shrugs her shoulders.
All the while, Vega’s drone is stealthily approaching the underside of their spacecraft and lands on the dark energy harvesting mechanism. Inside the Fornax Freedom, Vega’s abrupt landing causes the crew to jolt in their seats.
“What was that?” Mark looks at Pavo. She glances at the monitor, which reads ‘86%
EFFICIENCY / 39% FULL.’
“We’re not full yet. Let’s get this efficiency up a bit. We don’t want to push the ship much longer,” Pavo replies. Mark moves the ship closer to the black hole, ever so slowly.
Meanwhile, Vega’s drone has tethered itself to the dark energy harvester and has wrapped what looks like black chains around the brackets mounted between the harvester and base of the ship. Vega flicks on a switch inside his drone which illuminates the chains blue. They crackle with electric arcs, melting through the brackets.
The monitor reads ‘95% EFFICIENCY / 71% FULL.’ Mark adjusts the propulsion throttle slightly to avoid the black holes pull.
22 Clang!
Mark, Pavo, and Clyde4 are thrown forward in their seats. The light, which was once shining into the black hole, is gone.
Vega has successfully cut through the brackets and is already flying away from the
Freedom spacecraft with the dark energy harvester in tow. The dismount of Vega’s drone pushed the Freedom too close to the black hole’s gravitational pull.
“Come on!” Mark slams the propulsion throttle full speed in reverse. It’s too little too late. The ship's backend begins rotating towards the black hole, revealing through the windshield
Vega’s drone speeding away with the dark energy device.
“Vega!?” Pavo looks at Mark. “Was this your plan all along?!” Pavo accuses.
“What?! You’re nuts!” Mark slams the propulsion throttle full speed forward.
The monitor reads ‘100% EFFICIENCY / ERROR.'
“We’ve crossed the point of this ship's tested capabilities,” Clyde4 remarks nervously.
The ship continues getting pulled towards the black hole. A light flashes on the dashboard, warning of low oxygen levels inside the cockpit. The brackets Vega melted through also cut holes in the bottom of the ship allowing oxygen to escape.
“Fantastic! If you don’t kill us, we’ll die from no oxygen!” Pavo unbuckles and opens a nearby cabinet. She pulls out three Fornax Corporation branded Space Force helmets, tossing one at Clyde4 and one at Mark, specifically knocking the wind out of Mark with her throw. They all pull on their full coverage, supplemental oxygen helmets.
The ship begins orbiting in the same rotation of the dark energy charged light particles around the black hole.
23 “We’re now entering Sagittarius A’s static limit,” Clyde4 states.
“Shut up!” Mark and Pavo turn and shout at Clyde4 in sync.
“Alright, there’s no fighting this thing. Let’s just use it to our advantage,” Mark pulls back the propulsion throttle to zero. Pavo reaches for the throttle lever, but Mark blocks her hand.
“This is suicide! You’re trying to kill us!” Pavo screams.
“No, he’s correct. The spacecraft isn’t strong enough to beat this gravitational pull. Our only option is to time our exit from the centripetal force,” Clyde4 replies.
Pavo shakes her head in disagreement. Mark places his hand on the propulsion throttle, ready to time his exit before they are completely sucked into the black hole. The ship is orbiting at such a fast rate that the windshield is just a blur. Mark watches a GPS monitor screen waiting.
The spacecraft orbits on an oval path around the black hole. Once the ship reaches an outer edge of the rotation and is pointing in the opposite direction of the black hole, Mark slams the propulsion throttle forward to the highest level. The ship stalls for a moment, then bursts out of the black hole’s gravitational field.
Clyde4 cheers and hugs Mark from behind his chair. Pavo lets out a long sigh of relief.
Mark looks at the flashing oxygen warning on the dashboard. “Alright, we’ll never make it back to Fornax like this. My neighbor on Proxima B will know where to find Vega.”
The Fornax Freedom speeds to the nearby planet.
24 CHAPTER 7
Mark make’s his descent on Proxima B, flying over a trailer park. As they get closer, he notices the charred remains of his home. He gasps in shock and lands nearby.
“Was this your home?” Pavo asks, sadly knowing the answer already.
Mark pulls off his helmet and unbuckles. As he rushes to exit the spacecraft, Clyde4 retrieves a black chain-like whip out of a storage closet next to him. The device looks very similar to what Vega used to burn through the dark energy harvester brackets from earlier.
“Here, take this for protection,” Clyde4 stops Mark before he exits, “This is a darkling.”
Clyde4 presses a button on the handle turning on the dark energy whip, illuminating it blue with crackling electric arcs. He continues, “This is one of the weapons I developed with dark energy.
Basically a handheld version of what caught you on Zeta’s Stingray ship.”
Mark looks into his eyes, clearly distraught about his home. Clyde4 shuts it off and sets it in his hands.
They all exit the Fornax Freedom together. Mark is devastated as he surveys the damage.
“I’m so sorry, Mark,” Pavo consoles Mark.
25 All three turn to the sky as they hear a ship approaching. They were followed.
General Zeta’s Stingray spacecraft lands nearby, sending a plume of dust into the air. Zeta exits the ship with two Space Force officers close behind.
“What happened to your ship? Where is the dark energy harvester?!” Zeta yells at Mark.
“Did you do this?” Mark gestures toward his burnt trailer.
“That? You should thank whoever started that dumpster fire.”
Mark takes a swing at Zeta, but Clyde4 catches his arm before he connects. Clyde4 replies to Zeta, “Vega somehow detached and stole it mid harvest--”
Pavo interrupts, “There’s nothing we could do. Vega forced us into the black hole. We almost died!”
Zeta processes this for a moment before taking a step toward Mark. “If I discover you are still working with Vega on this, you’re done. Forever.”
Mark pulls his arm free from Clyde4 and dusts himself off.
“Your rap sheet just keeps growing. Abetting the most wanted criminal?” Zeta gestures to
Clyde4 and Pavo, “Kidnapping federal employees? Not looking good for you, brother.”
“Sorry I’m not a Fornax henchman,” Mark scowls.
Zeta pulls his darkling out of a holster on his hip, “Why let you rot in prison?!” The darkling illuminates blue as Zeta turns it on. He cracks the darkling like a whip, sending blue sparks into the air.
“Stop it!” Pavo screams and steps in between the two.
Zeta steps back, glaring at Pavo. He orders the two officers behind him “Detain him!”
26 Mark looks down at the darkling stuffed in his own back pocket that Clyde4 gave to him, but then decides to make a run for it. The officers take off after him, pursuing him further into the trailer park.
Zeta turns off his darkling, while shaking his head in disdain. He orders Pavo and Clyde4,
“You’ll come with me, they will bring him back on a transport.” They reluctantly follow him onto the Stingray.
Mark sprints through the trailer park, weaving through spacecraft parts, leaping over a dog-like alien pet on a leash, trying to lose the Space Force officers. Mark spots his friend's trailer and dives underneath, out of the officers' sight. Mark bangs on the floor boards under the trailer, while keeping an eye on the two men to ensure they don’t spot him.
His friend Garrett pokes his head out the door of his trailer. Garrett is a lanky, redneck from Earth. He too works for Vega.
“Pssst,” Mark gets Garrett’s attention while laying on the ground under his front door steps.
“What the heck you doin’ down there?” Garrett questions.
“Shh! Space Force,” Mark points.
Garrett acknowledges the officers with a nod. He steps back inside and waits a beat for them to pass, then holds his door open and waves Mark inside.
27 CHAPTER 8
Mark sits on Garrett’s couch with the darkling on the coffee table in front of him. Garrett stands just across from him in the kitchen of his disheveled bachelor-pad trailer and says, “Honestly, I think you’re lucky.”
Mark laughs, “Oh, do tell wise one?”
“Ok. Yeah, you lost your mobile home for ditching Vega’s mining gear. But you're not in jail anymore! Now you can go square up with Vega, or heck just go on the run,” Garrett responds.
Mark shakes his head, “No, I’m done owing people. I’m done hiding from people. For the first time in my life since leaving Earth, I want to do the right thing!”
“You're as good as dead if you think you’re gonna waltz into Vega’s and steal that dark energy harvester back for Fornax. And who’s saying that’s your get-out-of-jail free card? They’ll probably think you're taking it for yourself and get your butt locked up again! And what about me? Vega will kill me if he finds out I’m involved in this! I can’t sacrifice my job!” Garrett rambles on.
28 “Take me there! Please! That’s it. You don’t have to help me. Just get me there and get out,” Mark pleads.
Garrett fiddles with some trash on the kitchen counter. “I mean. I’ve only been there a couple times. I’m not even sure I could find the place. Proxima C is just one big desert--”
Mark interrupts, “Please!”
Garrett let’s out a long sigh as he shakes his head, “You’re nuts, buddy.” Garrett looks down at the darkling on the coffee table. “If you get out of there alive, you give me that thing when ya get back and you got yourself a deal.”
Mark grins.
***
Mark and Garrett arrive on Proxima C. The planet is extremely arid and windy, forcing its inhabitants to live in caves deep underground. Garrett points at a cave entrance in the distance with General Zeta’s Stingray ship already there.
“That’s a Fornax ship! See, I told you. They beat ya to it!” Garrett exclaims.
“Zeta,” Mark states, “Put us down over there.” Mark points at Vega’s cave entrance.
“What’s the point, man? Let’s get outta here,” Garrett pleads.
“No, I have to finish this,” Mark replies firmly.
Garrett shakes his head and reluctantly lands his spacecraft.
29 CHAPTER 9
Mark enters Vega’s cave with the darkling in hand. The cave is pitch black, so Mark turns on the darkling to light his way. The blue light reflects off his face as he navigates through the narrow tunnels. A group of giant bat-like creatures drop from the ceiling and swoop just over Mark’s head. Mark frantically swings the darkling over his head, swinging the whip like a fly swatter.
He clutches his chest petrified as they fly out of the cave and whispers, “Little vampire devils!”
Mark continues deeper into the cave, eventually entering a torch lit cavern.
“Mark,” Pavo whispers. Mark quickly scans the cavern, not able to see where her voice came from. “Up here,” she whispers again.
Mark looks up and sees Pavo, Clyde4, and Zeta hanging from the ceiling by what looks like clear ropes with blue dark energy flowing through it. Cylde4 and Zeta are unconscious.
Mark mouths the words, “What the--?”
“Hurry. He’s been gone for awhile! He’ll be back any moment!” Pavo whispers quickly.
30 Mark traces the dark energy ropes over to a plateau in the cavern. The dark harvester tank
Vega stole is positioned atop the plateau.
“Ok,” Mark replies to Pavo unconfidently, “I got it.”
Mark shuts off his darkling and slides it in his back pocket. He scales the plateau in hopes to disarm the dark energy device. Half way up, his foot slips causing the darkling to tumble out of his back pocket and to the cave floor.
“Dang it!” Mark says under his breath.
Mark continues to climb until he finally reaches the top, where he inspects the device.
Mark has no idea what he is looking for. He opens a control panel door and flips several breaker switches. The blue current stops flowing through the rope holding the three to the ceiling, instantly dropping them to the cavern floor.
Mark quickly makes his descent down the plateau to help with Pavo who tries everything to awaken Zeta and Clyde4, who are still unconscious. As Mark places his feet on the ground, he hears Vega’s voice from behind him.
“Stop right there! Don’t move another inch,” Vega orders.
31 CHAPTER 10
Mark lets out a frustrated sigh. He raises his hands up in the air, above his head and turns to face
Vega.
Vega squints and then lets out an evil laugh, “A family reunion! How sweet.”
“Vega, this is between you and me. Let them go.” Mark pleads.
Vega unsheathes a darkling like weapon from his jacket.
“Vega. Please,” Mark begs.
Vega turns on the dark energy weapon. The whip crackles blue as it drags on the ground next to Vega. He approaches Mark.
“What are you doing? Do you think these people care about you?” Vega asks.
“They care more about me than you! You destroyed my home!” Mark yells back at Vega.
“I taught you the discipline you lacked,” Vega pounds his chest as he continues, “I taught you to be the greatest pilot in the galaxy! Fornax is just using you! You think they won’t discard you like they’ve done with everything? Sucking every resource from you, then move on to the next!” Vega shouts as he walks around Mark in a circle, his back now to Pavo, Zeta, and Clyde4.
32 Mark looks down conflicted as Vega has been his only father figure since leaving Earth.
“You led me directly to the dark energy source I needed to finish the development of my weapon, the Antimatter.” Vega slings the whip upwards in his hand, which transforms it into a broadsword.
Mark looks on in horror.
“It uses dark matter to shapeshift dark energy into any form! With the Fornax harvesting technology and you as my pilot, we can rule the galaxy, Mark,” Vega extends his free hand,
“Leave them! Come with me!”
Mark rubs his hands through his hair, clearly torn over what to do. Unbeknownst to Mark and Vega, Pavo has been crawling ever so slowly on the ground towards the darkling that fell out of Mark’s pocket. Just as she grabs the darkling and turns it on, Vega spins around. With the tap of a button on the Antimatter, it shapeshifts into a stun gun and fires a shot at Pavo. She collapses instantly, near Zeta and Clyde4.
“No!” Mark screams as he lunges at Vega.
Vega taps the Antimatter handle again, changing it back to a whip which he cracks around Mark’s torso, immobilizing him.
Mark screams in pain and grits his teeth as the whip burns through his shirt.
“I won’t save you again boy!” Vega yells over the crackling Antimatter weapon.
Thud!
Clyde4 tackles Mark to the ground, freeing him from the entangled whip. Before Vega can even grasp what happened, he begins sliding backwards.
33 “What!?” Vega turns his head to see Zeta standing now, rotating Mark’s illuminated darkling in his hand like a lasso, recreating a smaller version of the vortex similar to his Stingray tail.
“Zeta!” Vega screams as he slips closer to the darkling black hole.
“Go!” Zeta screams at Mark and Clyde4. Mark sits up, still dazed. Clyde4 swoops up an unconscious Pavo over one shoulder and Mark over the other. He scurries out of the cave as dust and debris flies by him, towards Zeta’s vortex.
Vega grips to cave floor as he is about to get sucked in. In a last stitch effort to save himself, he shapeshifts the Antimatter into a rifle. He fires one dark energy blast at the Fornax harvester tank on the plateau above.
Boom!
Clyde4, Pavo and Mark are thrown forward from the explosion inside the cave.
Mark crawls towards the cave entrance and screams through his tears, “Zeta!”
Pavo awakens and quickly puts two and two together, grabbing Mark’s foot as he climbs towards the imploding cave and yells, “Mark! Stop!”
Mark slams his fist on the ground as he sobs. He lost his only remaining family and fatherlike figure in the blink of an eye.
Clyde4 storms off toward the Stingray.
Pavo notices and shouts, “Where are you going?”
Without looking back, Clyde4 responds, “Dark energy is not finite.” Clyde4 turns around for one second and notices Mark laying frozen on the ground, shocked and saddened by his loss.
34 “Mark…” Clyde4 shouts, “they have just been transported somewhere else!” Clyde4 continues running toward the Stingray.
Pavo and Mark look at each other.
“They’re alive?” Mark asks.
Pavo nods with a smirk of encouragement.
The End.
35