Chapter Two
Murderous Beginnings
Just after the riots of Mazere, Richard Charlton had been sitting in a comfortable armchair he was with a tall-distinguished looking American, John Blazer, who sat just four feet away from him.
“I am going over to the Blazer Explorer this morning John to check on the ship, the new systems should be up and running by then, because Peter Reynolds and the rest of the crew have been working flat out for the last two days to ensure that the work is finished on schedule. I will contact you as soon as I have been over the ship. We should be able to leave within the next forty eight hours if everything is all ok, and according to Peter Reynolds it is.” Reynolds was the starship`s chief engineer and had checked every nut, bolt and connection that had been put into the Explorer during its refit.
John Blazer smiled back at the man he had known for so long, and liked and respected for almost as long.
“How is your son Richard, is he any better? You know I still feel rather guilty at your leaving Earth, to go and prospect for me in deepest space. I could easily find someone else to take over the Explorer for this one voyage, that is if you would rather stay behind and look after David, especially after the other thing?”
The other thing was Patricia Charlton, the wife of Richard Charlton and the mother of David Charlton. She is thought to have died in a plane crash three weeks prior to the accident that had put David into a coma. She was on a trip back to the spaceport, a trip that was supposed to carry John Blazer, but who actually missed it and came on a later flight. A comprehensive search was made of the area of the coastline that the plane went down in, but only the body of the pilot was found, washed up by the tide, of Patricia Charlton there was no trace. Richard Charlton had spent seven long days and nights searching the beaches and the ocean for signs of his wife without success, before he finally gave up. John Blazer had wanted to appoint another captain to the Blazer Explorer following this tragedy, but Richard Charlton had refused to step down. He told his friend that he couldn`t face staying on Earth to spend his time grieving, no he needed to be far away from home, and had demanded that the trip go ahead with him as captain.
David Charlton had taken the loss of his mother badly, but with his father fully intending to make the trip out to deep space, he had also stated his intention of joining him on this voyage. As he had said at the time, he didn`t intend to lose his father as well, but then had come the accident that had put David Charlton into a coma. Richard Charlton and his son had been crossing the road that ran along the perimeter fence of the Washington space port late one night, it was after a visit to John Blazer, when a car had appeared out of nowhere and swerved violently across the road and drove straight at them. David Charlton had pushed his father to one side but unfortunately he had been hit by the vehicle and thrown into one of the concrete posts that supported the wire fence that ran around the space port, he had been in a coma ever since. The police had found the vehicle, but not until after its driver had torched it, all that was left for them to find were the melted remains of a bottle of Scotch whisky.
John Blazer had asked Richard to stay home and come to terms with all that had happened. However, Richard Charlton would not agree, he repeated his earlier demands. He said that he badly needed to get away from everything, and to get involved in something substantial, rather than to sit and dwell on all that had happened to his family.
“There is absolutely nothing that I can do to help him John, and anyway he is in the best of care thanks to you. If he should come out of the coma while I am away, then I am sure that you will look after him until I return, you and that little filly that he has at his beck and call.”
John Blazer had insisted on David Charlton being cared for in the Collingswood clinic in Washington DC, where he would receive the best of care. Blazer was paying for his godson`s treatment, he had no other family, and so he had been only too happy to ‘adopt’ the Charlton boy as his own grandson, and so he had felt the pain of David Charlton`s critical accident almost as much as Richard Charlton had. It could not have come at a worse time; this trip into deepest space had been planned for months and was to have been the first time that David Charlton would have travelled with his father as first mate.
Leaving the offices of John Blazer, Richard Charlton drove the short distance between there and the space port, and once inside he headed over to the large bay that was home to the Blazer Explorer team. Over the front of the bay, a sign declared in bold letters ‘Blazer Freight shipper to the stars and beyond’. On the concrete before the bay stood a small sleek starship, its silver hull glistening proudly as it stood awaiting its trip into unexplored space. Its destination lay beyond the small mining colony based upon a moon that orbited a gas giant in the Pollux planetary system in the constellation of Gemini, a system some thirty-four light years from Earth. They would stop off at the colony while they dropped off some medical supplies and some spare parts that were desperately needed by the miners there. The fee for the delivery would help pay for the rest of the voyage, one that would take them another twenty six light years further on from this system, to a newly discovered planetary system around the star Rho Geminorum. Photographs showed the star to have an Earth like planet orbiting inside of the goldilocks zone. This term meant that the newly discovered planet was in an orbit around its sun that was just right for the presence of life to be possible.
Charlton parked his car behind the large bay and stood for a moment as his grey eyes took in the scene; his six feet two inch tall heavily built body stood rigidly erect, his smile emphasising his good looks, a stray curl of his brown hair hung down just above his eyes. Charlton had been in space for many of his fifty years, and wouldn`t change his lifestyle now for anything or anybody.
Peter Reynolds was just entering the craft followed by the other two ship`s engineers. Reynolds like Richard Charlton was originally from England. David Charlton had dual nationality as his mother Patricia Charlton was American, and due to his having been born in Washington DC.
The other two engineers were Anthony Rodriguez who was the ships electrical specialist and Bill Partridge; they were two of the Americans that John Blazer had appointed to the crew along with Chris Anderson, who was the ships computer operator but also a first rate geologist. Richard Charlton had insisted though that Peter Reynolds be the chief engineer, as the two men had been firm friends for a lifetime and both of these two men respected the other’s abilities. The last of the crew were Alan Lee, an Australian of Chinese descent who would be working with him on the bridge as helmsman and Millicent McIntosh, a Scot who was the team`s biologist, and also the only member of the crew with any real medical training. Alan Lee had become the ship`s first mate now that David Charlton was unable to accompany them. He had been recommended to Richard Charlton by an old friend who said that Lee needed a berth to get him away from a broken marriage. He would soon show Charlton that he was a good man to have aboard, having been the first mate on many a space voyage. He would also easily fit in with the rest of the crew as he was a gregarious sort of a chap, and so Charlton had agreed to take him on board to make up the crew.
As he approached the starship, Charlton`s attention was caught by a man who was struggling with two of the space port`s security guards, they had stopped him to ask to see inside of his backpack that he had strapped to his back. The man seemed to surrender for a moment before breaking free, but instead of running for the perimeter fence that would offer a forlorn hope of freedom, he ran towards the Blazer Explorer. He was almost at the top of the ramp that led up to the starship before one of the security guards fired a stun gun at the fleeing man. The buzzing bolt of energy hit the man in the middle of the backpack just as the man reached the airlock. For a second the man held himself upright against the silver hull of the starship, before he disappeared amongst a massive explosion of energy and fire, which flung Richard Charlton to the ground. When he looked across at his ship, the only sign of the man was the blood and guts th
at clung to the concrete in front of the starship. As for the sleek and shiny starship, a massive hole had appeared where the airlock had once been.
It took Richard Charlton more then a moment to get over the shock of seeing the stranger exploding at the entrance to his ship. Sure, he was not a stranger to sudden death, having experienced it first hand in a battle against some space pirates when he was much younger, but to see a life snuffed out so suddenly was still a shock to his whole being. The next thought that galloped through his mind was why his starship had suddenly become the target for such a terrible attack. Something the security guards were wondering about, as suddenly they were everywhere, but he ignored them as he ran towards his ship to check on his crew, who thankfully appeared behind the gaping hole in the hull of the starship. As Richard Charlton neared the starship, Peter Reynolds shouted over to him that they were all well. They had been giving the airlock a final check over as it had not been sealing completely, which of course could be fatal in space, and they had closed it to check that the seals were finally ok after replacing them all. It would not be just the seals that would need replacing now but the complete airlock, and the surrounding metal of the ship`s hull.
Ten minutes later and the local security guards were showing federal agents and then crime of scene operatives around the outside of the starship and the surrounding ground, but there was little left of the dead man for them to find and identify. John Blazer stood just apart from them surveying the scene; Blazer was tall and lean with a mass of grey hair despite his sixty-eight years of age. He looked at the damage to his latest starship and shook his head; he was still just a little bewildered by this explosive event. Beside him stood Richard Charlton and Peter Reynolds, Reynolds was almost a head shorter than his friend. He was lean like the other two men with brown hair and eyes to match.
“Mr Blazer if you can get us another airlock to replace the one that was destroyed then I will guarantee to have the Explorer ready to lift off on time. Although if you can supply a couple of your maintenance men to help in the repair of the hull it will help to reduce the hours that my team and I will have to put in prior to departure.” Peter Reynolds promised.
“I will see to the new airlock, and also have a team of engineers to fix the hole in the hull of my ship, don`t you fret about that Peter, in fact I will get onto it right now.” John Blazer promised. With that, he walked across to the maintenance bay and began speaking with his supervisor.
One hour later and a team of six experienced engineers were working on the hull of the damaged starship to have it ready to accept a new airlock, which Blazer had somehow talked Boeing Space into letting him have. One that one hour before had been due to be taken up to the space dock, high above the atmosphere of Earth. Here it was to have been fitted into the latest starship being built for American Space Liners. Blazer had argued that the liner could wait for it without incurring a delay to the launch date, as it was just a small maintenance airlock, while his ship couldn`t, something his long-time friend, George Ryan, who was the president of the mega company, decided to accept. It would of course mean some extra work for the engineer in overall charge of the project while he rescheduled the workload of his team of engineers, a team who were currently working flat out at the space dock. Ryan had promised to send a replacement maintenance airlock up to the space dock high above the earth within days so that the overall schedule wouldn`t be compromised, and Blazer had agreed to foot the overtime bill to ensure that this happened.
John Blazer and Richard Charlton spoke about the attack on the starship until midnight, when they both decided to give it up, for they had come up with no good reason as to why someone would want to attack them, but that it must be related to the attacks on Charlton`s family was without question.