The Ghosts of Debbin

The Word Count, including this line, is 1995.

“Even this Universe is considered a Parallel Universe according to the other Parallel Universes. Each one thinks they are the main Universe. And the other thousand Universes are the Parallel Universes.”¹

“There are ghosts in every Universe - both the Parallel Universes and the main Universe. And there are a lot of ghost worlds in every Universe, and Parallel Universe, too. In fact, there are about five to ten thousand per Universe – and Parallel Universe. This is one of those worlds.”¹

The Ghosts of Debbin

     The planet of Debbin was a Ghost World. How did it become one? When did it become one? Where are the original Debbins? That was what they were all there to find out.

     That ghost world had only been discovered about a hundred years ago. And it took almost seventy years before a team of scientist could be assembled to solve these questions – and so many more. There were always new questions to be answered when it comes to ghost worlds.

     Why did it take so long to assemble a team to answer all of these questions? It’s not because of the subjects – the ghosts. All of these Scientist were used to subjects like that. In fact, that’s the only kind of subjects they worked with. It’s because the ghost on Debbin didn’t want to be known until about thirty years ago. Why? That was another question that needed an answer to. But that’s why they are there – to get those answers.

     Commander Kelvic was in Command of the Space Station in orbit around the planet of Debbin. Under his Command he had a staff and crew of fifty people on that Space Station. The rest of the occupants living and working there were the Scientist studying The Ghost of Debbin.

     Trisa was the one in charge of the Scientist. She had three other Scientist under their charge. One was Xandar. He was in charge of the history of the Debbins. Who they were? And more importantly where were they now?

     Another one under Trisa’s command was Belinne. She was in charge of the ghost on Debbin. How did they live – because they were living on Debbin? What did they do all day? Who did they haunt? They didn’t haunt each other. So who did they haunt. After all, they are ghosts. And ghosts are Haunters. So who did the Haunters haunt.

     The third one under Trisa’s command was Norith. Norith was in charge of the future of Debbin. What was the future for Debbin? Was there even a future for Debbin? Will it be a ghost world from now one? ‘Once you are a ghost world you are a ghost world forever’ according to most Scientist. But Norith wasn’t one of them. Now all he had to do was prove it.

     Each day Trisa meets with all three of them, wherever they are at, to get an update on their progress – or lack of progress. That was a pretty typical day for all three of them:

*******

     Xandar was pacing around his Data Control Lab when Trisa entered. “I can see by the way you are acting you haven’t anything new to tell me about the Debbins.”

     “I have a lot to tell you today,” said Xandar. “I’m just not sure how to tell you. It’s not good news.”

     “What are you trying not to tell me? Have you lost anymore else under your command?” Trisa managed to calm Xandar down. At least down enough to get him to talk about his problem.

     “How many more Scientist have we lost? Did we get any one of them back?” Trisa had to sit down too after Xandar shook his head to say ‘no.’

     “I’ve lost three more – teams,” said Xandar. “That’s thirteen more GraveDiggers. I sent three separate teams to three different locations on Debbin. And I have lost contact with all three of them.”

     “How many have you lost total? If I’m thinking correctly it’s almost thirty – so far,” said Trisa.

     “Twenty-eight to be exact,” said Xandar. “I have to send Gravediggers down to learn about the Dibbins. And every time there’s a risk of them being discovered by the ghosts.”

     “Xandar, how long has this been going on? And how did the ghosts find out about it?” Trisa was starting to get worried. Xandar could see that by the look on her face.

     “It’s only been happening in the last three months,” said Xandar. “But I have only been sending GraveDiggers down to Debbin for the past three months. They started disappearing right after they went down there.”

     “I thought GraveDiggers were good at checking out the Ruins of a planet without the local population knowing about them,” said Trisa. “How did they get discovered so quickly?”

     “They are experts in not being seen,” said Xandar. “As for how the ghosts found out about them so quickly I don’t know.”

     “One of the GraveDiggers must have been seen,” said Trisa. It’s the only thing that could have happened.”

     “I don’t think that’s what happened,” said Xandar. “I’m not sure how, since the Space Station is invisible to the ghosts below, but I think the ghosts know we are here.”

*******

     The next place was Observation. And to talk to Belinne. Trisa always liked talking to Belinne each day. Mostly because all of her daily updates are pretty much the same. The ghosts were different each day. So was what was going on with them. But their lifestyle was always the same.

     Each day Belinne would pick out a different Village, that’s what the ghosts called them, for the Observers to observe. And each Observer would observer one people. Some of them were single ghosts. But most of them weren’t.

     Except for being ghosts the ghost of Debbin acted just like any other living person who lived on whatever planet they lived on. They had families, yes families, friends, lovers etc. Trisa thought about all of that, and more, on her way to Observation. Which she did every day on her way to Observation.

     Trisa entered Observation. And before Belinne could even acknowledge she was there Trisa said. “What Village have you pick out today? Is it anywhere near Sectors twelve, sixteen and twenty-three.”

     “It’s called Volla,” said Belinne. “And it’s almost opposite Sector twelve. Why do you ask?”

     “Have any of your Observers on the planet disappeared,” said Trisa. Before Belinne could respond Trisa added, “because Xandar has lost twenty-eight of his GraveDiggers.”

     “I haven’t lost any Observers on Debbin,” said Belinne. “And I’m not going too. All of my Observers are like this Space Station. They are invisible to the ghosts. There is no way the ghosts found out they were there from us.”

     “I’m very sorry if I offended you,” Trisa said. “I didn’t think any of your Observers was responsible for them disappearing.”

     “You don’t have to be sorry,” said Belinne. “I’m not offended. But I am curious about what happened to those twenty-eight GraveDiggers. None of my Observers haven’t shown, or given, any signs they have been seen. And they haven’t heard anything about any disappearances. Just the normal family life.”

     “That’s what I was going to ask you next,” said Trisa. “To see if any of the Observers seen or heard anything about the missing GraveDiggers. Please contact them at once. And tell them what I just told you.”

     “I already have.” Belinne pointed to a button on the Control Panel in front of them. “As soon as we started talking about this I contacted them.”

     “Maybe Norith knows what going on here,” said Trisa. “I’m going to talk to him next.”

     “Where were all of the disappearance? Knowing where they were might help figure out what’s going on,” said Belinne.

     Trisa told Belinne where all the other disappearances took place. “So far only one GraveDigger has disappeared at a time. And this was the first time the whole team disappeared. The first time three have disappeared at once.”

     “I don’t know what happened to the GraveDiggers,” said Belinne. But I can tell you something about their disappearances. Almost all of them happened when I had a Village observation opposite them.”

*******

     Trisa almost knocked down one of Norith’s Assistants when she entered his Sleeping Quarters. Which was where he did most of his work from. He did have a Work Area on the Space Station. But hardly ever used it.

     Norith lived like a slob. His Sleeping Quarters were a mess. Papers and trash was everyone. Trisa wondered every time she came in there, which was pretty much daily, how he could live like that. Norith didn’t take his eyes off the Data Monitor he was working at. “Is it that time of day again?”

     “Do you have anything new to tell me? Are the ghosts up to something?” Trisa walked up to Norith as she asked that.

     “Nothing new in the last thirty-three hours. Why do you ask?” Norith suddenly tenses up. Then looked at Trisa. “What do you mean when you said that about the ghosts being up to something?”

     “Then you haven’t heard about the twenty-eight GraveDiggers who are missing – have you? I was hoping you did,” said Trisa.

     “What GraveDiggers? I didn’t know any were missing,” said Norith. “And you think the ghosts are behind it.”

     “It has to be the ghost,” said Trisa. “Who else could it be?”

     “I have done at least one hundred possible futures for Debbin,” said Norith. “And I have a lot left to do. But none of them have anything to do with ghosts doing anything like this. The ghosts don’t even know that we exist.”

     Suddenly a very loud alarm started. There was flashing red light flickering on and off in Norith’s Sleeping Quarters. But the alarm itself sounded like it was all over the Space Station. “What’s going on?” That was Norith who asked that question.

     “I don’t know,” said Trisa. “But I have a bad feeling it has something to do with the missing GraveDiggers.”

*******

     “What’s going on with my Space Station? Commander Kelvic asked was he entered Control.

     “A MiniShip has just returned from Debbin,” said Robbeta. Robbeta was the Communication’s Official.

     “So!” Commander Kelvic was now standing over Robbeta. “What’s wrong with that.”
“There is no one on board,” said Robbeta. “At least no one that is living. My controls say there are several on board. But they aren’t living though.”

     “Are you trying to tell me there are ghosts on board that MiniShip?” Commander Kelvic looked at the Controls too. “How many are there?”

     “It’s hard to tell for sure,” said Robbeta. “It looks like about twelve to fifteen though.”

     “Where are they now? Are they still in the MiniShip Bay?” Commander Kelvic didn’t wait for a response. He headed for Security.

     “They are still in the MiniShip,” said Robbeta not realizing Commander Kelvic was no longer there. “I have been trying to communicate with them, but so far no response back.”

     “I want you to send a Security Patrol down to the MiniShip Bay.”
Commander was talking to his Head of Security – Erran.

     “I’ll send them down there,” said Erran. “It’s not going to do any good though. We can’t kill them. They are already dead.”

     “You’re not going there to kill them,” said Commaner Kelvic. “You are going there to find out what they want.”

     The Security Patrol was already there when Commander Kelvic got down to the MiniShip Bay. They were there just in case of trouble. Commander Kelvic and Erran didn’t think there would be. But why take any chances. The ghosts were probably just curious who they were. And what they were doing there.

     As soon as Commnder Kelvic and Erran entered the doors to that MiniShip disappeared. And thirteen ghosts floated out. It was the thirteen missing GraveDiggers.

The End?

¹Excerps from “My Adventures” not yet Written by SpaceFaction aka PureSciFi.