Map Makers is an ongoing short story series by Matthew D. Miller. To learn more and read other episodes, check out the home page.

Season 1, Episode 1: "The Pluto Incident"

by Matthew D. Miller

Science fiction novels from the twenty-first century depict the twenty-fourth century as an exciting place with star ships zooming all over space. In some novels, great battles occur. In others, explorers meet strange alien races. The truth is that the twenty-fourth century is not all that different from the twenty-first century. The great beast space was tamed by large corporations. Gigantic video billboards orbit every planet in the solar system. Hotels, casinos, and amusement parks are frequent destinations of space travelers.

There is one group of people who are left out of science fiction novels: interstellar cartographers or, in the vernacular, map makers. Map makers venture into unexplored space paving the way to commercialization.

Rusty Wallace slapped the hull of his ship. The ship responded with a rattling sound. "I wouldn't feel comfortable being hurled through space faster than light if my ship was not Reliable," drawled Rusty. Most people did not know that Rusty was not Wilbur Wallace's real name. A name like Wilbur is a moniker you shed quickly in elementary school.

Carters Publishing was a little-known map making company. The competition with their big, shiny ships attracted most of the recruits. Rusty's ship, the Reliable, was a 2319 Oldsmobile Nebula that had seemed like an economic choice when he had bought it. He saw no reason to upgrade to the new 2372 Nebula. Rusty's vessel sat in a dusty yard surrounded on one side with other obsolete ships and on the opposite side by a constantly moving crowd of people. His fellow captains bided their time checking valves and hoses and such until it was their turn to woo the crowd.

A young woman intertwined her fingers with the hand of another--just slightly older but bearing a striking resemblance--young woman. Just two more people in a mass of constantly moving people. She clutched her purse tighter as sweaty shoulders bumped into her shoulders on both sides.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I know Dad won't approve, I just need some time. I can't be cooped up any longer."

"That's not what I mean. We can find some place better. Look how dirty that ship looks...how unsafe."

"This is already our fourth stop. I promise I'll be back eventually. When I'm ready. Let Dad know I love him, sis."

The girl felt her arm go from limp to pulled straight out in front of her. Her sister was moving. She stumbled forward a few steps almost knocking a large drink free from the big, meaty hands of a man standing near her. Her pace quickened. Without stopping, she shrugged in a futile attempt to situate the oversized letterman jacket slipping off her shoulders.

Rusty looked up and noticed two young ladies had joined the crowd. One girl determinedly marched closer with the other in tow who looked more interested in her letterman jacket. The former wore a red blouse, red skirt, red boots, and even carried a red leather purse--not exactly the kind of outfit a map maker might wear. Rusty did not care that she was strikingly beautiful. He was more concerned with the fact that she had one fingernail shorter than the rest. The girl had her hand raised. It was the hand with the short fingernail. She kept her hand up. Finally, it registered with Rusty that she wanted to ask a question. He acknowledged her by nodding.

"Hi, I'm Tonya. Tonya Jones. Where do I go to pick up an application?" she asked. Then she sheepishly continued with a quieter voice, "and where is the restroom?"

Rusty rubbed his beard as a puzzled expression formed on his face. Then he suddenly snapped to attention, pointed to the tall structure sitting next to the shipyard, and recited, "Thank you for coming to Carters Publishing today. We would love to have you join our team. Please return to the lobby located on the first floor. Applications will be available. There are also restroom facilities inside." Rusty turned and began walking toward the office. Before Rusty disappeared, a clanging sound came from within Reliable. A few seconds later a ferret ran out of the ship. Rusty paused just long enough to scoop up the ferret.

Tonya stared at the ship. She nervously bit the fingernail on the middle finger of her left hand. Once she realized what she was doing, she shook her hand in frustration. She held her two hands out in front of herself for a moment. The thought of crossing light years in that ship was not pleasant. Her sister made an awkward half-smile, patted her on the shoulder, and silently disappeared into the crowd.

Faster-than-light travel is not all that wonderful to look forward to. It leaves a sore feeling in your jaw that lasts several hours--similar to biting down on a jawbreaker. If it was not for the fact that it would take millions of years to visit planets outside our solar system otherwise, it would have never been invented. Creating an engine that could cross the galactic gaps of outer space proved to be one of the most difficult advances in the history of humanity. It took Lord Drybel and a team of 118 British scientists sixteen years just to design the exhaust system.

       

Rusty entered the conference room, and sunk down in a black chair. At five feet six inches, he was in no way an imposing man. His ferret hopped into his lap. Rusty had been going on mapping missions for forty-five years. He was now sixty-two--long past retirement, but something had happened to Rusty in the unexplored regions of space. He really did not fit into normal life anymore.

In the late 2320's, faster-than-light travel was brand new. Start-ups calling themselves map making companies began popping up all over. Faster-than-light travel opened up trillions of possible vacation destinations. Trillions of possible vacation destinations opened up a market for trillions of atlases. Entrepreneurs jumped on the opportunity. At the industry's peak, economists estimated that there were over seven hundred map making companies. As things like this usually go, the industry was dominated by two major map making companies while a few smaller ones struggled to make ends meet by the time this story occurs.

When Rusty was seventeen, he saw a poster advertising a map making expedition with a company called Carters Publishing on his way to school everyday. The advertisement called for bold and daring young people to lead the way to the future. This sounded much more exciting than school, so Rusty dropped out at his parent's protest.

Rusty's two best friends dropped out of school with similar objections from their parents. Jimmy's dad even kicked him out of the house. The three of them worked for a year to scrape up enough money to buy a used ship that had been modified for faster-than-light travel.

"She's a beauty."

"Stop salivating, Rusty," Jimmy jibed.

Rusty kept staring at the shiny red hull. "She sure is a beauty. Just imagine the things she is going to take us to see."

"Stop staring and help!" With that, Jimmy tossed the rag he had been using at Rusty.

Rusty picked up a bucket of paint and dragged his hand along the hull of the ship. When he reached the fins at the back, he dipped his paint brush into the bucket and began filling the stencils spelling "RELIABLE" with gold paint. After two weeks of training, Carters Publishing assigned them to an area of space known as the Stellar Graveyard, an obscure area of space dotted with dim and dying stars where large chunks of lifeless rock float about aimlessly.

Something happened on that first expedition that changed Rusty forever. Nobody knows exactly what. His two friends were immediately committed to an asylum and never spoke again. Nobody goes from perfectly normal to perfectly weird. Rusty was definitely perfectly weird after returning from his first mission, which means he was probably only ever somewhat normal.

Because of his age, Rusty had become an insurance risk to Carters Publishing. The captain of the mission usually selected two recruits to accompany him. The executives of Carters Publishing were going to surprise Rusty by already having the recruits for his mission selected. They purposefully chose those least suited. All they needed was one mess up, and they would have an excuse to fire Rusty.

A fidgety, young man entered the room and announced his arrival by clearing his throat. Then he coughed loudly. Then he coughed again. He took a deep breath, and then he violently hacked as if a hairball was about to come spewing out. He regained his composure and took a couple steps.

Then he coughed. "Good morning, John," greeted Rusty. "Aren't we looking dapper in a fine suit today? You can tell me. Do you got a date tonight? Trying to impress Liza? If I was still your age, I might wear a fancy thread or two to win her heart."

"No, not that at all," John stammered as his face flushed with red.

John launched into another coughing fit, but before he became soaked with spittle, Rusty pried further, "Even a tie. Do tell?"

"I'm Carters Publishing's newest junior executive. And as such, Mr. Wallace, I regret to inform you that Mr. Tilly will be unable to attend today's recruitment meeting in person. He does have remote control of an Executive Assistant. I will let Mr. Tilly take it from here. Mr. Tilly, can you hear us okay?"

"John, what have I told you about using the word 'okay?' If you ever want to go from being junior executive to senior executive, you must remove 'okay' from your vocabulary. We senior executives use words like 'affirmative' and 'exuberant.' And, no, I cannot hear you okay!" A scratchy "okay" echoed.

John scurried out of the room. "I'm sorry, sir. I forgot that we have problems with that servo."

"What have I told you about saying 'sorry?' If you ever want to go from being a junior executive to a senior executive..." Tilly's speech became garbled. John stepped backwards into the conference room firmly grasping metallic legs. The Executive Assistant was a robot that many businesses used to complete menial office tasks. His arms were wrapped around the flat robotic feet. "I think I have it from here," the speaker mounted on the faceless head transmitted.

"I will leave you and Mr. Tilly alone now." John quickly exited the room leaving the robot sitting in the middle of the floor with legs jutting straight out in front of him.

"To what do I owe this honor, Mr. Tilly? I don't think I ever recall you attending one of my recruitment meetings," Rusty queried.

"Don't get too excited Rusty. I'm not really here. I'm in Jamaica sitting in the sun fumbling with this confounded remote control." The robot whirred loudly as it stood up. "I took the liberty of assigning you a crew for this mission."

The Executive Assistant stumbled to the door. Its arm swung upward toward the door knob but missed it. The whole upper body spun around. "I knew I shouldn't have trusted that salvage yard." The tube surrounded by a metal frame atop the thin legs filled with a yellowish-green liquid that bubbled several times. "Let me introduce to you: Tonya Jones." The upper body of the robot jerked several times before spinning around and catching hold of the door knob.

The door opened, and Tonya entered. Rusty glanced at her and declared, "I'll assign her to digital spectrography. We met briefly."

"...and Barry Williams." Both Tonya and Rusty turned to look at the open door. "And Barry Williams!"

"He was in the hallway with me a moment ago," Tonya announced. Her slender body leaned through the doorframe as she looked left to right. "Heya, Bear. The adventure is about to begin. You don't want to miss out."

A large man timidly stepped into the room. His friends called him Bear. He was about twice the size of Tonya. Rusty's ferret jumped from Rusty's lap and rushed over to sniff him. He jumped to avoid physical contact. The ferret thought he was playing and jogged after him. The Executive Assistant spun to follow the action and collapsed back into a sitting position on the floor. Rusty shouted, "Also, come here."

Rusty's first ferret was named Reliable. When he died in a tragic accident with Reliable, the ship, Rusty named his second ferret Reliable Too. He shortened it to just Too to avoid confusion with his ship. Too lived a long, healthy life and finally succumbed to natural causes. He named his third ferret Reliable Also.

You are probably wondering why a man like Bear tried out for a position on this mission. Bear had one consuming passion. That passion was cartography. Bear could recall the minutest detail of any map he had ever seen.

Rusty announced, "We'll be leaving in forty-three minutes and twenty seconds." Approximately forty-five minutes later, they all loaded into Reliable. Approximately three minutes after that they landed on Pluto. It actually does not take that long to get from Earth to Pluto. It took Rusty about two minutes to find a parking space.

"This is our last stop before the Asteroid Fields of Ragoo, which I promise you'll get to know very well the next couple months as we plot the trajectory of each and every one of them flying rocks. I'm headed off to Weary Traveler's Chapel. I always stop there before a mission. Kind of a good luck charm, I guess. Plus the pastor is an old family friend. You're all welcome to come if you'd like."

"I saw an outlet mall as we came in, Cap. Bear, want to come shopping with me?" Tonya asked.

"I don't shop. Last time I went into a store I got a carrot stuck in my eye."

"Sure," Tonya replied. "Nice excuse. It's an outlet mall not a grocery store."

Bear countered, "I know. I was in a sporting goods outlet when I got the carrot stuck in my eye."

Square metal buildings dotted the surface of Pluto arranged in rows underneath a translucent canopy. The appearance of the buildings only varied in size. A sign pointed out a historical monument. Bear wandered off in that direction and came to the artificial rain forest on the outskirts of the colony with a plaque at the entrance:

In remembrance of Pluto's planethood.
Once a planet. Now a rock.
Pluto Society, 2280.

       

Artificial rain forests are powered by highly sensitive pleasure receptors. These pleasure receptors automatically determine what sights, sounds, and smells that the person exploring the forest finds enjoyable. The computer generates an environment best suited to please that person.

Bear's phobias vastly outnumbered his hobbies. This was something that the artificial rain forest did not expect. It caused a glitch in its programming. One of his phobias was Zaltarphobia. When he was only eight years old, his older brother drew a picture of an imaginary monster he called a Zaltar. The picture scared Bear so much that he developed a phobia of this imaginary monster in his adult life.

Bear had so many phobias that the pleasure receptors mistook them for the things that made him happy. The beautiful trees began to flicker. The bird songs and squirrel chattering became low and distorted. The entire rain forest disappeared. Milliseconds later it was replaced by a large orange Zaltar. The Zaltar is an odd looking creature. It has six stubby legs and tough skin. You might even say it looked similar to a hippopotamus with an extra set of legs...and orange.

The orange monster stretched his stubby neck around to see Bear stumbling away. Bear sprinted away from the creature. It tried to stretch its neck further as Bear disappeared. As it stretched, its left, front leg involuntarily slid forward. Next, it moved its right leg. By some phenomenon in the wiring, the Zaltar actually materialized. The artificial rain forest engineers never were able to explain it.

The creature was not very intelligent. Creatures that have just materialized about one minute ago generally tend not to be very intelligent. It bounded after the thing running from it not really considering what it would do if it caught up with the thing running from it. At this point, Bear was not considering much of anything.

The massive weight of this giant bounding across Pluto brought everyone running into the streets. Rusty rolled out of the Weary Traveler's Chapel aiming his laser pistol at the monster. A solid arc of light leaped from his pistol to the orange skin of the Zaltar. It stopped in its tracks and looked down with a puzzled look. It let out a half-screech, half-whimper noise.

Rusty fired again. The creature's screech was longer this time, but it choked near the end and a puff of smoke drifted out of its nostrils. The creature curiously stretched his head out, inhaled the smoke, and coughed. A flame leaped from his mouth to the mall where Tonya was shopping. The building glowed red where the flame impacted the building.

The running thing that it had been chasing caught the Zaltar's eye again. Bear neared the other end of the colony. The six-legged monster took several strides to reach him. The creature slid into a residence denting two metal walls inward.

Bear switched directions and continued running. He was panting, but he kept running. The Zaltar followed--usually bumping into one or two buildings on its way.

After five minutes of this chase, Bear rushed back towards the crowd with the fiery creature hot on his heels. The creature skidded to a stop just feet away from the crowd. Bear cowered behind the crowd. An eight-year-old girl with shiny blond hair whimpered. The Zaltar advanced towards her. Her twelve-year-old sister, another girl with shiny blond hair, thought the preceding chase must have been some sort of joke. She jabbed her sister and sneered, "Don't be afraid, cry baby."

"I'm...I'm not afraid!" With that the little girl took a menacing step toward the monster. It hesitantly backed away. A wiry man who worked in the Flying Rock Deli shrieked and ran off. The creature instantly bounded after him.

Rusty's friend, Pastor Timothy, had been carefully watching the events. He shouted to the fleeing deli worker, "Young man, remember what God told the Israelites in last week's Bible study: 'Be strong and courageous.' Stand up to the creature." The pastor's words gave the man the courage he needed. He spun to face the fearsome monster. The creature suddenly stopped and stood in a face-off with the deli worker.

There was complete silence for about a minute. During that span, someone near Bear pieced together the story from Bear's incoherent muttering. Whispers spread across the crowd.

"It's not a real monster. It is an imaginary one."

"It sure looks real."

"Yes, it is real, but it's not."

"Some guy dreamed it up."

"I heard his brother dreamed it up."

"Maybe we should have bought the warranty on that artificial rain forest."

"Mom, can I have one?"

Timothy formulated a plan. "Evidently your crewmate caused this creature to materialize. I hypothesize that if we can get him to face his fear that the monster will just disappear or spontaneously explode or something like that. You need to convince him to stop running away from his fear. It will just keep following him." Timothy explained.

"I don't know. He ran from Also," Rusty responded.

Timothy motioned for Rusty to follow. They both ducked down behind the crowd and rushed over to Bear. Both men supported him with their arms. His captain explained, "To make this monster go away, you have to stop running. You must show it you are not afraid."

"But what if it doesn't go away?" Bear worried.

"I don't know. I hadn't thought about that. Let's go."

Rusty gave Bear a nudge. He just stood there and cowered down further. The two men grabbed his arms and drug him through the crowd. The monster turned to face Bear. The two men continued to support him.

"A very old Proverb says, 'The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.' You're caught in fear's trap, but you can get free if you will face the monster," Timothy whispered.

Bear recalled one of the few good memories from his childhood: Sunday school stories like David and Goliath, and he decided he really would get over his fear. He imagined he was David, but then he thought, I'm not David though. I'm Bear.

Bear was still very much afraid, but in this instant he made an observation. It was one of those observations that makes time appear to move slower for the observer. To Bear, it looked as if the Zaltar was approaching him in slow motion. He observed that no matter how scared he was, he could not run from his fear forever.

Nobody is exactly sure what happened next. Bear had the advantage of watching it in slow motion, but he blocked the situation from his mind. One moment the Zaltar was there; the next moment a tall glistening pirate ship was sitting in the Zaltar's place.

In all actuality, the pirate ship had nothing to do with the disappearance of the Zaltar. The Zaltar disappeared several milliseconds before the pirate ship crashed into the surface of Pluto. The crowd stared as nothing else happened, eventually lost interest, and dissipated.

       

Pirates usually do not venture within the solar system. When they do, nobody pays much attention to them. No pirate is dumb enough to rob anyone within the solar system. He would be caught within twenty-four hours--forty-eight hours tops. No, this is not a great testament to the police of the twenty-fourth century. It is a testament to the great power of money.

Captain Titan and his swashbuckling galactic pirates were infamous throughout the galaxy. They robbed and pillaged some of the largest intergalactic freighters. One day Captain Titan decided that robbing freighters en route with supplies to outer lying colonies was not adventurous enough.

Captain Titan and his crew ventured within the solar system and promptly boarded a first-class passenger carrier homebound from the vacation planet Kyrone Prime. They emptied the wallets of the wealthy passengers and confiscated the t-shirts and souvenir mugs they had bought. After zooming off, they attacked a nearby commercial freighter carrying the latest holographic entertainment systems from Hyperlight Games, Inc., the largest game environment company in the universe. They did not stop there. They stayed in the solar system for two entire weeks robbing companies like Mars Power & Energy and Uncle Joe's Intergalactic Snacks.

These large corporations got fed up with Captain Titan. Uncle Joe himself called a meeting of the executives of the ten largest corporations in the solar system. This temporary alliance offered an unprecedented $500 billion reward to any bounty hunter who could capture Captain Titan and his entire crew. Eleven hours later Captain Titan's ship was towed into earth's orbit by Butch and Son, a small bounty hunting firm.

Butch and Son quit calling themselves a bounty hunter firm and adopted the much more pretentious terminology of private security firm. They are now the largest private security firm in the galaxy. The private security industry exploded. No pirate since Captain Titan has attempted a large heist within the solar system.

The long base of the crashed pirate ship jutted into the surface of Pluto. A tall, slender portion of the ship dotted with windows, sensors, and laser weapons extended up toward the sky. At the top, another long, widening extension protruded horizontally from the slender body of the ship. The ship formed a funny-looking "J."

Rusty looked up and down the ship. Bear clutched Pastor Timothy. Tonya slowly wandered from the smoldering remains of the outlet store to join the rest of her crew.

"You incompetent fool!" the small group heard ring out from the ship. The door at the base burst open and two pirates tumbled out landing on top of one another. "I told you we were coming in too fast," said the tall and skinny pirate struggling for breath underneath the other pirate who was rather portly.

The larger pirate stood up and brushed himself off. "You try steering that thing sometime."

"That's not my job," the skinny pirate countered as he stood up.

"What exactly is your job?"

"I, I," he stuttered. He recomposed himself and continued, "I tell you what to do."

The other pirate had to think about this for a moment, but finally conceded "okay" and reentered the ship.

The skinny pirate continued to brush himself off. Rusty finally spoke up. "Excuse me. What business do you have on Pluto?"

"Pluto?" thought the pirate out loud. "Oh, yes, Pluto. I've come looking for a Rusty Wallace."

"That's me. Who are you?"

"The name's Pirate Bob."

"That's not a very piratey name," Tonya interjected.

"No, not at all," Timothy agreed.

A scowl grew on the pirate's face, and he began to pace. Suddenly he stopped and spun towards the small group. "If you have a problem with my name, you can take it up with my mum. She's the one who gave it to me."

"Pirate Bob?" Rusty queried.

Pirate Bob answered, "Well, actually, Robert, but I go by Bob. Bob. Robert. Get it?"

Rusty stared at Bob for a moment and then shook his head affirmatively. "We need to pick something more piratey like Captain Stubby Nose or Captain Peg Leg."

"But I'm not the captain," Bob explained.

"Who's in charge then?" Rusty asked.

"Well, I am."

"Then we'll call you Captain Dark Star."

"Pirate Dark Star," Bob corrected.

"Pirate Dark Star," Timothy repeated in a sing-song voice.

"Which brings me to the reason I'm here," Bob began. "Our Captain has gone missing. Well, not exactly missing. Let me explain: Captain Margay is the only person in our crew that deserves the title captain. She's a true pirate. As you may know, these are dark times for pirates. With private security firms and all, it's hard to make a living as a pirate.

"I'm just rambling...just rambling. I'm going to get down to the point. An area of space called the Stellar Graveyard was of specific interest to Margay." Rusty's eyes glossed over at the mention of the Stellar Graveyard. "Mr. Wallace you have been to the Stellar Graveyard, haven't you?" Without waiting for Rusty to respond, Bob continued, "Of course, you have Mr. Wallace. You are the only man to return from the Stellar Graveyard to tell the tale. Oh, I always mess up on stories like this. You were actually the second man to return from the Stellar Graveyard to tell of it...the only second man.

"The first man was a man by the name of Temple Pennywonk. The story is told that in the late 2200's, Mr. Pennywonk hid a substantial amount of treasure in the Stellar Graveyard. Now I know you are probably thinking to yourself, that's impossible. Faster-than-light engines weren't perfected until decades after that. Well, sir, don't be too sure that no one had faster-than-light engines in the 2200's. Mr. Pennywonk did, and he hid his treasure in the Stellar Graveyard.

"It was the intention of our noble captain to find this treasure. We flew our ship right to the edge of the Stellar Graveyard when the crew decided it was too risky and petitioned Margay not to send us to our deaths by exploring that awful place.

"She called us babies. Now, of course, I realize we were quite childish. She called us babies, jumped in an escape pod, and launched into the Stellar Graveyard. We knew it was unsafe to be alone in the Stellar Graveyard and considered following her. We just couldn't. Margay has always been the bravest of us all. Don't think of me as a mutineer though. I'm loyal to my captain. We stayed and waited for her to return.

"Two months passed, and she didn't return. We considered going in after her, but we decided to find you, so you could be our guide. How about it, Mr. Wallace? Will you be our guide? Will you help us find our noble captain? I'm so afraid that something terrible has happened to her. Oh, and you would be rewarded handsomely. Once we find the treasure, which I'm sure our captain has already located, you will get your own share of it."

Rusty gazed right through Bob for a few moments. He shook his head and responded, "Two months. Then, what, another two months from there to here? Your captain has been in the Stellar Graveyard for four months by herself: she is dead. No reason to enter and put ourselves in harm's way. Plus another couple months back to the Stellar Graveyard. Nobody can survive there that long on their own."

Instantly Bob's demeanor changed. "Darcy! Darcy!" The plump pirate who had fallen out of the ship with Bob came running out the door.

"Yes, Pirate Bob."

"Call me Pirate Dark Star."

"What?"

"Never mind. Initiate Plan B."

Darcy ran back into the ship. The door closed with a whoosh behind him. Moments later a strange gas began spraying out of the ship. Bear was the first to go unconscious. The gas did not cause it. When he saw the gas, he fainted. Seconds after the gas began to fill the air, all the crew, Pastor Timothy, and even Pirate Dark Star fell to the ground unconscious.

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