Space Fever - short story by J. Robb Montana

Black Angels by Bari Demers

By Bari Demers

[copyright Dec.7,2009]

The young boy gazed at the snowflakes drifting to the ground like a musical waltz.

He perch’s his little framed body onto the wooden white bench, so well crafted like the rest of the Elizabethan home.

 A blizzard had come within the night, creeping amongst the lonely barren moon in silence, and then without warning a whirling storm covers the quiet community of Tetarrais on the rocky base of  Titan.

Titan has been described as a planet very much like Earth's North Pole, if it weren’t for the icy crystal drops of methane scattering the terrain. Titan isn't your average moon, constantly being pulled by the forces of Saturn. A decade before a privately owned company named E-Zone sent probes onto the surface of this precarious moon, looking for rich gases to mine. To their surprise, on the outer region of Titan they discovered a pocket of oxygen trapped in a swirl amongst the outer atmosphere of nitrogen and heavy clouds of methane and ethane. Within a couple of years, a mission was financed to further explore this area in detailed.


E-Zone was well established on the earth's moon during the moon race for profit in 2060 where they had capitalized on the discovery of Black Diamonds deep within the lunar surface. These Black Diamonds weren't your typical diamond; when compressed, it  released an enormous amount of energy. E-Zone established profitable payloads of black diamonds and began shipping it's valuable resource to an already depleted earth with the help of high tech androids.

Black Angels - The Movie - By Bari Demers

It wasn't long before a colony of androids were shipped to Titan to begin excavating it surfaces for rich resources. After billions of dollars E-Zone diligence paid off with the discovery of a new type of Tritanium based alloy that proved to be a very valuable resource for space travel.

Five years later a small colony of scientists established a foothold within Titan's pocket of oxygen named, " The Breathe of Life" precariously swirling amongst the prominent deadly methane atmosphere.

To make their colony represent a feeling of home, specially designed homes were fashioned with Elizabethan Architecture. The colony of only twenty eight used their companies owned androids to perform house duties, not realizing the outcome.

With no children within the small colony, they began adopting the androids as their children. After all their light mechanical features were a haunting resemblance of a little boy. Each designed with Tritanium based alloy limbs with blue electronic eyes and a cosmetic touch of golden locks of gold refined hair. They were given names of their real children and started to love them as if they were their children. It was the only way to fulfilled their void of loneliness.

 The company’s policy had stringent restrictions voiding children on space mission, due to legal and safety issues.

But it wasn’t until the margin of performance of each colony did they realize how important the presence of children became evident.E-Zone was very aware to the physiological effects of human colonies, ever since the lunar disaster where two thousand colonist lost their lives due to "Space Fever". Only after a routine medical scan of the colony did they notice the twenty eight colonists had symptoms of Space Fever. Quick action was taken to prevent the dismal outcome of the lunar disaster; they had to solve this problem before another mutiny happened on Titan.

The psychological reports came back with a surprising outcome. It was obvious what had to be done.

The little android boy quickly picked out a stream of light amongst the winter storm, still perched on the bench under the safety of the enclosed warm shelter. “Oh look,” he points in excitement, “My new brother and sister has arrived Mom!"

By Bari Demers