The Launch of Leviathan, Volume 1, Mona Lisa on the Moon, Thirty-Two Thousand Years in the Making
The largest, fastest, most advanced Mother Ship ever built by mankind was launched today.
The above is the press release from the World Alliance. Captain Mona Ann Lisa gave the following speech just before the launch. It was viewed by most of the five hundred million people now existing on Earth, its orbiting habitats, the Moon and by delay Mars and the planetoid Ceres.
Mona began her
announcement. “We launch today the fastest, largest, most capable spaceship
ever constructed by humankind. This ship is dedicated to scientific research
and to the progress of the entire human species. We celebrate this accomplishment
just as we celebrated the construction of the six low-orbit habitats that
circle our Earth. These are a visual reminder of our climb from the destruction
of our first high civilization some thirty thousand years ago. Today we are a
civilization who has progressed for eight thousand years without war. It is my
fervent hope that this continues unabated for thirty thousand more years. I
dedicate this magnificent ship to the search of everlasting peace. Thank you
for your commitment and preparation for this mission. We now launch! Release
the catwalks, engage the starboard and stern thrusters, and secure the harbor
tugs. We are underway!”
Mona rushed from the
podium as if on urgent official business. The truth was that she wanted no
chance for congratulations or questions. The irony was that she talked about
the fervent search for peace while she planned for the most destructive war the
Earth has ever seen.
The WAMS Leviathan had moved almost one thousand miles from Earth before Mona engaged the ion drive. It would now pulsate with a blue-green glow not unlike the bioluminescent light from the aquatic tanks in the upper cargo hold. The drives would fire constantly for three weeks, accelerating from about 1,500 miles per hour to over 77,000 miles per hour. The Leviathan would then glide to within the vicinity of Mars before making another strategic maneuver.
Leviathan, two miles long and the newest ship in the World Alliance Fleet of Asteroid mining Motherships
Meet Dr. Sue Grammar, she
is Captain Mona Ann Lisa’s best friend. She has several titles not the least of
which is Doctor of Antiquities.
Dr. Sue Grammar was one of Mona’s professors and later became her big sister
The crashed World Alliance All-Purpose Rescue Craft, Sue is trapped on board
Excerpts from the book
Dr. Sue Grammar, professor of antiquities and World Alliance War Planning Committee member, was balled up in a tight fetal position in the shower stall of her private apartment, considering thoughts of suicide.
Sue screamed to herself, “What the hell did I do? Sure, be a
patriot! Step up and be the mother of a new civilization. Save humankind from
extinction. I believed my own trite propaganda. I volunteered for this—first in
line to be permanently modified … God, this sucks!”
Sue was having menstrual cramps, the scourge of woman every month
since the great global war some thirty-two thousand years ago. Before the
genetically engineered change, women had one ovulation per year; now, of course,
in the twenty-first century, women ovulate once a month.
***
Sue was now and had been in an underground shelter for five
months. This shelter was designed for the leaders of the World Alliance to
maintain communication with the assumed surviving assets of the dwindling
Alliance. It was coincidence she was there at all. Sue was simply on a tour
with other War Planning Committee members when the first Atlantis strike
literally obliterated SpaceJump City. She was a lucky woman, though she was
presently in much mental and internal agony. Over three million people had died
on the surface in a matter of seconds.
***
The floor in the front portion of the
storage hold had peeled back on itself like the sole of an old shoe ripped from
its threads and creased, the front half lying under the back half. Sue, seeing
Mankiller’s eyes through a wide crack, could hear the pack digging in the hard
earth to get under the metal bulkhead in the front of the compartment. The only
thing between them and Sue was a few feet of earth and about twenty feet of
cluttered space between the front of the hold and where Sue was barricaded up
against the wall in the back.
Sue watched in horror as several paws became visible, digging
frantically under the metal bulkhead in the front of the hold.
Sue had to react quickly. “Well, guess I need to time this
perfectly. Once the canister is fired, there is a pause between the launch and
the ignition of the flare. I can either try to target one animal with the
canister or just fire before the group gets in and hope the heat from the flare
will discourage them. Maybe, just maybe, I can reload and get another round
off.”
Sue could see Mankiller getting closer to the craft, his eyes staring
into hers, looking through the wide breach. He was enjoying the thought of
ripping this human female apart while she was still alive and screaming.
Sue picked up the flare gun with both hands and aimed at the area
where the paws were digging. She thought, At least I don’t have to experience any more of those infernal cramps every month! She
then suddenly turned and fired through the large fissure in the bulkhead, hitting
Mankiller square in the chest. He fell back as the canister’s propellant drove
the flare casing deep into his body.
Sue immediately reloaded and fired toward the paws under the front
bulkhead. The last thing she experienced was the flash of the flare and the
intense heat from the phosphorus.
Sue was smiling to herself, thinking she had gotten the last laugh
on the ancient Mankiller. Was she dead? Where was the tunnel of light? She had
a list of things to do when she died; one was to look up her old boyfriend from the Atlantis Alliance. She
had been told when young that one got a perfect body after one died. She couldn’t
wait to see if her tattoo was missing.
Sue prepared to fire the flair-gun at the wolf pack about to dig into her crashed aircraft
CapHead . . . The supreme leader of tribe II of the Cloud. He is a massive humanoid some nine feet tall with blue or green skin color and weighing over 900 pounds. This species call themselves Scavengers. For at least a thousand years they have been following Chaos and picking up the remnants of races and pieces of technology left after the targeted systems are devastated by Chaos, the Scavenger’s destructive benefactor. They invade a solar system in a circular cloud of space ships and habitats surrounding a central power source which they use to move from solar system to solar system. Their numbers were estimated by Mona’s team to exceed 30 billion individuals. Mona and her team formulate a plan to defeat the invaders and the results are both amazing and comical.
The Swarm or Cloud as the Scavengers call their nomadic abode, is a spherical formation of hundreds of thousands of ships surrounding a massive power source. It is seen to the right of Saturn.
From Mona’s first dealing with the enormous alien
CapHead screamed as she walked away in his cursing tone, reserved for subordinates and slaves, “Who do you think you are, creature … threatening a supreme leader of three billion lives?”
Mona gave the signal, and the lights were switched off, leaving the screaming and cursing scavenger in pitch-black darkness. The mold CapHead was half encased in had been used to make ten life-size replicas of scavengers and dozens of reptilians. The replicas had been jettisoned into the drifting wreckage, wearing appropriate attire that had been stripped from live creatures. According to the collective’s custom, bodies were never recovered from space. It was considered an honor to die in the vacuum and remain where one perished.
A ruthless ruler that led the military of the Swarm.The Scavengers liked to use primitive weapons in hand to hand combat.
Leviathan (Mona’s Mothership) and home of Levie. Levie, a female persona by design, is a near sentient quantum computer and sister to Moonbeam (an older computer first fabricated on the Moon by Captain Mona Ann Lisa’s parents (Doctors Ben and Peggy Lisa). Levie, is newer than her sister, and is installed and fully integrated into the World Alliance Mothership the WAMS Leviathan. Levie is the main force in the operation of the enormous two-mile-long asteroid mining vessel. She only answers to Mona. When connected to Captain Mona Lisa through cybernetic connections, Levie is fully operational. This connection allows real-time, instantaneous communication and dual consciousness, a unique and first-time accomplishment.
Mona received an encrypted voice and image file of the proceedings of the war council. The first message received since the ion thrust had been shut down. Her first thoughts were about her parents. She knew without asking that they would be the last two humans on the moon from the World Alliance. The two thick-headed, stubborn, addlepated old farts that they were … she loved them all the more.
Mona started a dialogue
with Levie. “Levie, status report please?”
Levie responded with
quick and detailed accuracy, as always. “M … all readings normal. Proceeding
at 77,564.02344 miles per hour toward Mars to accomplish Mars vicinity
approach.”
Since there still were a
few weeks before the need to alter Leviathan’s alignment with Mars (for the slingshot maneuver to
Ceres), Mona had some time to think and reminisce. She knew her beloved
wilderness near SpaceJump City might soon become only a memory.
Mona continued. “Levie, after
updating the most recent data from the alliance, do you have any change in our
success probabilities?”
“Only a marginal change,
M,” Mona replied.
“That’s what I thought,
but I just needed to ask anyway, Levie.”
Mona thought, I wonder what Sue and Jim are
thinking. Their world is soon to crash into a black hole, and no one knows if they
will come out the other end. Humankind is on the very edge of changes they
cannot comprehend.
Mars had been stripped
of most of its atmosphere two hundred thousand years before Leviathan made
its approach. However, the alliance had been experimenting with terraforming
the planet with plant species genetically capable of withstanding the extremes
in temperature and UV radiation. They had met with some success.
Excerpts revealing Chaos, another interesting character from Volume 1, Mona Lisa on the Moon, Thirty-Two Thousand Years in the Making.
Chaos was expecting interference from the technically advanced sentient inhabitants of this solar system. They always thought it was easier to divert him from his target when the distance from his objective was the greatest. So he was ready to extend his force field around PlanetKiller at a second’s notice.
Chaos normally didn’t
leave the shadow of his battering ram; to do so would tip off the inhabitants
that the tumbling boulder in front was not the only problem. (This time it wasn’t
that important; he had already tipped his hand because of the earlier
interrogation from the sisters.) However, Chaos was so arrogant he didn’t feel
the need to change his tactics.
