[Fiction] Trouble on Mercury

[Cosmic Comet]

Spyridon mentally toggled the exterior camera and watched Mercury clarify on the screen of the aging Hubble Telescope. He sighed, envying the screen. His life was losing focus. His dream of sharing his deep space exploration with Linda had faded with his eruption and even ten years later the memory of face was still etched into his brain. In recent weeks he had dreaded the upcoming 10 year anniversary of her death, as the painful emotions filled his thoughts, and fueled his loneliness in life. His time on earth had done wonders to help him over come these feelings of dread and sorrow, and now here he was back in space where he belonged, on the day of her death. He had made a makeshift grave for her out here on the Moon’s surface and it is here that he has come to make his peace with her death.

Still lost in thought, the sudden beep from his transmitter alerts him to the incoming transmission packet from Central Command at Daedelus. Leave it to Cyrus to call at a time like this. Central Command must have discovered the tests he had rendered a few days ago and issued his dry-dock orders. “Go ahead Cyrus” he reports back. “I want you to check out the phenomenon occurring on the planet Mercury, were picking up large traces of hydrogen from the surface and I need a report back as soon as possible” Cyrus out. “He’s quick to point as usual; well I guess it’s time to check out what’s going on over there.”

Focusing back to his work, the screen revealed a surface pockmarked with thousands of craters, cliffs, and hills that would have given mountain climbers a worthy challenge if the gravity hadn’t been so low. The quiet, tortuous landscape, devoid of any atmosphere or life, had remained unchanged for billions of years; which made Spyridon all the more puzzled as to why, three days earlier, an energy source had emanated from the planet’s surface. Spyridon studied the indicators on the console. He keyed the computer looking for anything on the sensors. The results of the scan came back negative and on Infrared, radio, gravity, and the spectra-analysis all read normal. “Could the energy source have been a solar flare?” he thought. “ No the source of a solar flare is the Sun, and this particular energy source clearly originated on the surface of Mercury, and at present there is no coefficient that would link the two” puzzling indeed.

[Cosmic Comet]

Lowering himself down into the crater, CC runs through some different reasons for the unexplained readings. “Could be the work of an unknown Nova, or it could be man made, the old remains of an old probe from the early 70’s. If I remember right Mariner 10 was sent out here then, maybe that’s it.”

As he moved in closer pain unexpectedly raced thru his head; it felt like rough hands massaging his skull. The pain increased and CC moaned and he lost focus and his vision blurred. He closed his eyes and let out a forced sigh. Suddenly he had visions of a much larger sun darting about his mind. It was a dying sun that he saw; a red giant. A small, scarred planet that Cosmic somehow knew had once been green and fertile circled this dying sun, a white halo illuminating its poisoned skies and overheated landscape. No wonder, Cosmic thought fleetingly, that early man had worshiped the Sun as a source of Godhead. The small planet looked like the once favored son in the shadow of its proud father. Then everything faded to black and consciousness faded away.

,,

[Cosmic Comet]

Cosmic awoke to a cutting headache that throbbed with every heartbeat. He was startled to realize that he was happy to still be alive. He had never suffered a bout of unconsciousness in the ten years he had been a Nova. The distinct possibility of this event being caused by another Nova troubled Cosmic deeply. His interaction with his fellow Nova’s had been mostly on-line rather than in person. Those he had met would have no reason to attack him nor to his knowledge able to even been out in space. Looking around he found himself surveying the ruins of the vessel which could only have been Mariner 10. A faint red glow illuminated the main compartment and revealed that the probe now rested on its side.

Besides the headache, which had grown worse, his chest hurt with every intake of breathe, probably a few broken ribs. His left wrist ached dully; he felt a large bump on the underside: definite fracture. He carefully flexed his legs and felt no pain. A large bump protruded from the top of his head; caked blood attested to the severity of the blow he’d received from hitting the nearby rocks. He tried to collect his thoughts. What had caused him to pass out? And where had those visions come from?

[Cosmic Comet]

Searching the area proved fruitless, his comm unit was gone, and so he couldn’t tell if he was near the energy signature. That was not the least of his worries as he concentrated on trying to locate any source of Quantum in the area other than his own. His injuries took over him and as he felt the signs of another Nova present he passed out again.

He awoke to the blurred sight of a small white light hovering just above the cabinet. When he focused on it the light expanded and developed into a shape. The form was indistinct at first, the light expanding more than shaping. But when the light reached past the chair it became more defined. The light split at three feet into two long sections which remained connected to an upper half that had also split into three sections. It was a human shape. Cosmic wondered, and worried, about his sanity. He didn’t know hallucinations were so vivid.

A tall male stood before him. His white face, with its many wrinkles and even whiter blotches, held a frosty countenance that shed no warmth. He had narrow black eyes and a goatee that hung down over a fuzzy blue vest which was held shut by black buttons. The hallucination had no roundness at all; a cardboard figure that somehow was able to stand.

Cosmic knew who the identity of this person he now envisioned. He faced a fable, a child’s story, the manifestation of cold.

“Jake Frost,” Cosmic whispered.

Jack smiled eerily and bowed deeply, then, as Cosmic’s headache increased, imploded and disappeared.

His eyes narrowed and his mind raced over the implications of what he had just witnessed. Visions, headaches, and hallucinations all added up to more than just a cracked skull.

Cosmic’s head was besieged by a barrage of pain that caused a sob to escape his lips. He felt his consciousness fading away—but he did not black out.

The pain suddenly stopped, but he was unable to move or talk. Wow, he thought, I must have some serious brain damage.

He once again saw a small planet circling a dying sun. But this time he felt uneasy. The sun was about to consume the planet and millions were going to die.

He was mistaken when he thought that the Nova was able to send thoughts and images into his mind. The Nova actually entered his mind. That explained the pain and, at first, clumsy attempts at communication. He was searching for a way to communicate. He must use pictures instead of words. Cosmic's head was filled with the previous vision of that dying sun.

The Nova was using Cosmic’s memories to get across what it wanted; and Cosmic knew what it wanted. He sensed the utter despair urgency the Nova emanated. It seemed that the Nova was trying to tell him that this was the future of Earth. The Nova was using his energy signature to draw someone to him to so that he could share his vision of the future. It just happened to be me he thought.

His message passed on the Nova begins to dissipate leaving Cosmic alone to ponder the future he had seen.