The Silver Age #1
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The Silver Age #1 |
"The Form Of Things Unknown"
Professor Neville Connors had no idea what had prompted him to adjust the scanners that day to their maximum setting. Usually, the standard scans were enough, but on that day, when he reported for his shift, he sipped his mug of coffee, examined his board and with several taps, adjusted the scanners to maximum. His partner on the shift, Lt. Dora Lockridge watched what he was doing with great interest. Their voices echoed in the cavernous, circular control center, bouncing off the silvery-gray walls. Banks of computers went about their assigned tasks, quietly humming to themselves.
"Expecting something interesting, Professor?" Dora asked, a small smile on her beautiful, heart-shaped face. Connors shrugged carelessly as he seated himself at his board.
"Not really, just a hunch you might say." Connors replied.
Connors and Dora were two of the thirty-member crew stationed on the orbital space platform Freedom's Light. Built some fifteen years ago, it was manned by scientists and military personal from the United States, Britain, Canada, France and Japan. The joint project between those nations was one designed to promote a new era of scientific co-operation as well as providing yet another early warning system for Earth's defense. The amount of alien invasions had grown alarmingly during the past twenty years. Earth was practically becoming a galactic rest stop on some interstellar superhighway and the more eyes the bright blue world had in the sky, the better it was for the inhabitants.
Connors was the third in command of the station, but he didn't act like it. In fact, the tone aboard the station was pretty relaxed and informal. Hardly anybody used titles or ranks and kept things on a first name basis. Connors and Dora exchanged pleasantries as they went about their jobs of monitoring and cataloging data while they conversated. Usually there was a schism between military and scientific personnel, but quarters aboard the station were too tight for such nonsense and even though Connors was a theoretical astrophysicist and Dora was a career Marine, they spoke as equals and friends.
The station's lighting had been dimmed to night mode. Right now, beside Connors and Dora, there were only eight other team members on duty and they were in other sections of the station.
"So where are you going on your leave?" Connors asked. "You've got one coming up pretty soon, don't you?"
"Four more days and then its back to Earth for seven weeks." Dora confirmed happily. "Hardly enough to recover from a eight month tour of duty aboard this heap, but I'll take what I can get."
"So where are you going?"
"I'm going to be doing some deep sea diving with an old friend of mine. You might have heard of him. Prof Haley."
Connors looked impressed as he sipped more coffee. "You mean THE Prof Haley? From The Challengers Of The Unknown? I didn't know you knew him."
Dora nodded. "I've known him since college. We both love deep sea diving and we've done a lot of diving together. We fell out of touch for a while when he and his partners first had their plane crash and formed The Challengers, but we got back in touch when I got assigned to Freedom's Light. He suggested I join him in Australia when I got my leave and do some diving with him there."
Connors grinned. "An invitation to go with The Challengers Of The Unknown on an adventure? Wish I could go."
"Sorry to disappoint you, but it'll be just me and Prof. He's doing some research on his own, without his partners."
"Still, the chance to work with Professor Mark Haley is nothing to shrug off…."
Dora nodded in agreement. Indeed, she was greatly looking forward to seeing her old friend again herself. It had been a while since she'd seen him but like most of the world, she'd been following the exploits of The Challengers Of The Unknown with rapt fascination and just a touch of awe.
It hadn't been that long ago when four men, all leaders in their respective fields were flying cross-country to appear on a national television show. The plane had crashed, due to a mechanical malfunction. Dora had seen pictures of the crash and even now, she marveled that the four men had emerged from the twisted, ragged hunk of brutalized metal without even their hair being mussed. In fact, the only causality of the crash, besides the plane had been the wristwatches of the four men, which had all stopped at exactly the same time.
Right on the spot, the four men had decided to form a team dedicated the exploring and uncovering the mysteries and secrets of the world. Living on borrowed time, they consistently pitted their skills and strengths against any and all challenges.
Mark 'Prof' Haley was an internationally known scientist. Prof had been something of a child prodigy, graduating from Miskatonic University at the age of fifteen. By the time he was twenty he had a fistful of degrees in various fields of study and his renown as a theoretical and research scientist was right up there with William Magnus and Niles Caulder. But his true passion was deep-sea exploration and Prof had set many records for solo dives into a staggering number of still unexplored regions of the world beneath the waves.
Kyle 'Ace' Morgan's fame had come from his war record. One of the most accomplished combat pilots who'd ever plugged himself into a cockpit, Ace had distinguished himself in the last two wars as his numerous medals and decorations attested to. After his hitch in the service was over, he'd become a test pilot, flying an astonishing range of experimental aircraft with a skill and expertise that drew words of praise from such well-known hotdog stick jockeys like Hal Jordan and Larry Trainor.
Matthew 'Red' Ryan came from an enormously wealthy family background with diverse holdings in real estate, electronics and biomechanical research, oil refineries and solar power plants. Everything had come easy to Red. Perhaps that was why he had sought to carve his own niche in the world by competing in the most rigorous and grueling of extreme sports. Red quickly became something of an idol to the under culture of adrenaline junkies who followed his outstanding achievements in free rock and mountain climbing, mountain biking, sky surfing, BASE jumping and the street luge.
Leslie 'Rocky' Davis was quite simply one of the world's most impressively physical men. After winning Olympic gold medals in both boxing and wrestling, he had not simply rested on his laurels and raked in the money from the dozen or so companies that had signed him on to endorse their products. Rocky had then gone on to compete in the world famous Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon which he proceeded to win five years in a row. Rocky's enormous strength and near bottomless reserves of endurance was legendary.
And perhaps that was the quality that made The Challengers Of The Unknown so loved by the ordinary Joe and Jane Punchclock. The fact that The Challengers were ordinary humans who had pushed themselves to the pinnacle of human achievement. Sure, it was fun to read about Superman and Captain Marvel, who could shove around continents without breaking a sweat. And it was comforting to know that there was a Justice League of America when hostile Red Lectroids from the 8th Dimension invaded your neighborhood. And when Captain Cold or Solomon Grundy took it into their heads to make an unscheduled midnight withdrawal from the local bank, you couldn't ask for better than The Flash and Green Lantern to be there to put the breaks on them. But the Challengers were different. They took on aliens and super criminals and deranged monsters and slobbering things with forty eyes just like the super powered set. And they did it with nothing more than their superbly trained bodies and brains.
And they won. They challenged the unknown every day and they won.
A telltale on the main board lit up, demanding attention from Connors. He put his coffee mug down and sat up straighter, moving his chair closer as his fingers danced over touch sensitive control panels.
"What is it?" Dora asked. "Comet going to impact with the Earth?"
Connors's face was puzzled as he answered. "No..this isn't something that's coming from outer space…believe it or not, its coming from Earth. On a heading right for us."
Dora didn't waste a moment. She swung into action, getting on the radio to NASA headquarters, asking if there were any unscheduled flights that had been launched by any nation on Earth. The answer was quick in coming. The answer was most definitely negative.
"Freedom's Light, can you identify the UFO?" NASA asked anxiously.
Dora looked over at Connors, who was working frantically to identify the craft. "No. It's reflecting all our scans right back at us. I can't tell how big it is or…Dora, hit the red alert. Get everybody up here and I mean right now."
Prof Haley lay on the deck of his sixty-foot yacht, Sea Hunter, anchored some ninety miles off the coast of Sydney, looking up at the outrageously beautiful Australian night sky, wondering which one of those thousands of points of light was the orbital space station Freedom's Light. Ever since he had heard from Dora Lockridge, his thoughts had been more and more turning toward outer space. Strange for a man who had spent as much time underwater as Ace Morgan had spent in the air to be contemplating the stars so much. But Dora had always had that effect on him. After he graduated Miskatonic University, he had attended various schools of higher learning, acquiring degrees the way a homeless man collects empty soda cans. It was while he had been attending Rutledge University that he had met Dora. Prof hadn't made many friends there. His fame as some kind of genius prodigy had proceeded him and most of the other students took it for granted that he was some kind of stuck up wonder boy and left him alone, giving him the ig. Not that Prof looked like your typical scientist. Lean, with straight brown hair and wide, penetrating brown eyes in a thin, handsome face. And with a bronzed, muscular body, he looked more like a gymnast. The solid muscle came from years of swimming in every sea, ocean, river and mud puddle in the world. The few times the football jocks had decided to pick on the 'Big Brain' had been their last. Prof was nobody's pushover.
Dora had kindled a spark in his heart that had very rapidly turned into a full-blown furnace of hot emotion. She'd given him eight of the happiest months he'd ever known. But it didn't last. It couldn't. Both of them were too ambitious, wanted too much for their careers and a steady relationship had no place in either of their plans. Their split had been friendly and Prof had never really gotten her out of his system. He'd been overjoyed to hear from her and quickly made plans for her to join him once she got her leave approved.
Prof's cell phone bleeped. Not his regular cell phone either. This was the one that had only five buttons on it, since it was meant for secure communications with only five other people. The back of the phone boasted a yellow hourglass symbol. Prof looked at the color of the button that was lit up. White. That meant it was Ace. Prof hit the button.
"Hey, Ace. What's going on?"
"Prof, we might have a situation here."
Prof groaned inwardly. Normally, the mention of a new adventure would have made him leap to his feet excitedly, asking when and where Ace wanted to meet him. But this was to have been a special trip and right now, Prof didn't particularly care for the idea of fighting Multi-Man again or any of those crackpots that called themselves The League Of Challenger Haters.
"I hope this is important, Ace. You know how much this trip means to me."
"Prof, I wouldn't have dreamed of calling you but this involves your friend Dora."
Prof scrambled to his feet. "What's going on, Ace? Give it to me straight."
"A little over sixty minutes ago, the orbital platform Freedom's Light simply vanished without a trace."
"Vanished? What do you mean, vanished? A whole space station disappears and nobody knows what happened to it?"
"Prof…just take it easy…"
"Have you talked to June? Is she going to make sure we get handed this one?"
"I'm going to call her right after I get off the phone with you. I wanted you to hear it from me since there's a total media blackout on this and it's going to take you a whole day to get back here."
"I'll hire a pilot and a plane. You know anybody down here?"
"I'll make some calls. You stay by the phone."
"Ace.."
"Yeah, Prof?"
"You tell June that we get this one. Not the Justice League. Not The Doom Patrol. Whatever strings she's got to pull or however many favors she's got to call in, WE get this one."
"I'll make sure she knows, Prof. You just get back here."
"You spoke to Rocky or Red, yet?"
"Rocky was with me when we got the news. Red's out in California doing some commercials for Nike. I left a message at his hotel. You just get on back here. And Prof…"
"Yeah?"
"We're going to find your friend."
"You got that right."
June Robbins felt her Challenger cell phone vibrating against her hip. Quietly, she slipped out of the packed conference room, located in a secure area deep in the bowels of The Pentagon and into the hallway. She activated the phone and said, "Go ahead, Ace."
"June, we've heard about Freedom's Light. We want in on this one."
June Robbins laughed lightly. "You must be psychic."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because The Challengers was the first choice of The Joint Chiefs of Staff to look for the space station."
"What's the matter, the capes are on strike?"
"The feeling here is that if this some kind of prelude to yet another alien attack, The Justice League should be preparing for that. The Justice Society is meeting with The JLA to plot strategy."
"What about The Doom Patrol and The Blackhawks? What are they doing?"
"Nobody knows. The Blackhawks haven't answered any calls and The Doom Patrol hasn't been seen in Midway City for days. Washington scuttlebutt has it they went to South America with Amanda Waller on one of her super secret top priority missions."
"If The Doom Patrol went with The Wall, they probably won't come back," Ace said, somewhat unkindly. June grinned. Ace and Amanda Waller weren't exactly the best of friends. "But it's just as well. Prof has a close friend on the station and he's wasn't about to take no for an answer."
"Well, he doesn't have to worry. The Challengers have the green light."
"Meet us at Challenger Mountain as soon as you can."
Some ten hours later, June Robbins was landing her helicopter inside the immense hangar bay of Challenger Mountain, the impregnable HQ of The Challengers Of The Unknown. The hangar bay was home to at least a dozen types of aircraft, some conventional, others of radically experimental design created by Ace Morgan. When not on Challenger business, Ace worked as a consultant to many aerospace and airline concerns. Like his teammates, Ace was a fabulously wealthy man in his own right and like his partners, placed a good deal of his fortune into the maintenance and funding of the team.
June walked toward the shuttle that would take her to the pinnacle of Challenger Mountain where the team's command center was located. A tall willowy blonde knockout with captivatingly large light gray eyes, June's ties to the intelligence and government communities had placed her in the position of being the liaison between Washington and The Challengers and she was referred to somewhat jokingly in the press as the 'unofficial fifth Challenger'.
The shuttle hissed to a stop and the canopy swung open and June stepped out, throwing her purse and light leather jacket onto a table and walking into the huge circular command center. Ace, Rocky and Red were standing around the map table, talking and as June came closer, her eyes widened. "Hey! A new look!"
The three men turned to greet her and June examined them with approval. When The Challengers had first formed, they had all worn purple jumpsuits and then switched to yellow and red, neither outfit meeting with much approval from the men. The Challengers were now sporting steel blue jumpsuits that had different color piping running along the outside of their legs, continuing up their torsos and the insides of their arms, ending at the wrists. Piping also ran along their shoulder and down their arms. Ace's piping was white, Red's was, naturally, red and Rocky's boasted a bright gold piping. But they all had the yellow hourglass they had adopted as The Challenger symbol on their left breast, over their hearts.
"Cool. Who's idea was this? And where's my uniform?" June laughed delightedly.
"Alla us, really," Rocky answered in his gruff, gravelly voice. Rocky was an easy six-footer and so massively muscled that his arms could not hang straight at his sides. His biceps were easily the size of footballs. "We all got tired a' skippin' around in them silly yellow things. We needed somethin' functional. Ace and Red designed 'em."
Red pointed at the thick Sam Browne belt around his waist, which contained numerous snap shut pockets. The shortest Challenger at five foot seven, it was easy to see why he was nicknamed 'Red', due to his bright shock of blazing red hair and the amazing amount of freckles on his round, boyish face. "We kinda stole an idea from Batman and came up with these belts to hold stuff we need. I for one got tired of not having pockets."
"I like them. Where's mine?"
"We didn't know what color you wanted for your piping, June. Any suggestions?"
"What color does Prof have?"
"Purple. He said he wanted something from one of our old uniforms. You know how sentimental he can be."
"Nothing wrong with that and I agree. Give me yellow."
Ace smiled. He looked like Mr. Clean Marine himself with his painfully neat and meticulous blond crew cut and square, open face that radiated confidence and honesty. "We'll order you up a uniform when we get a chance. Right now, we've got more important things to think about than making it on Mr. Blackwell's list this year. Let's get down to business."
June bent over the table. "There's not a whole lot to go on, boys. Freedom's Light contacted NASA to report that an object from Earth from heading right for them. While NASA was waiting for confirmation, the station simply vanished from all of our radar screens. Without a trace."
"So its been ruled out that it was shot down by a hostile?" Ace asked.
June nodded. "Even if it HAD been shot down, the explosion would have been detected and we could have tracked the debris. No, Freedom's Light has just disappeared as if it were never there. And you've got the job of finding it and its crew. Think you're up to it?
Dora Lockridge awoke in a featureless cell that contained only the bare necessities. A cot, which she lay on, a toilet and a sink and a recessed light. She sat up slowly, checking herself for injuries. She seemed to be fine. She reviewed what had happened. She'd been talking with Connors when the scanners had detected the UFO. The object had hurtled up towards them at frightening speed and then some kind of energy beam had hit them. The power had shut down and she'd lost consciousness and she knew nothing more until…
The door of her cell was being opened. Dora got to her feet. Time to get some answers. She watched as the thick metal door slowly swung opened and two men stepped inside. Dora's eyes opened in horror. Whatever she had been expecting, it wasn't THIS.
One of the men was Neville Connors. But it was a horribly changed Connors. He was covered with some kind of biomechanical circuitry that twined around his body like ivy, burrowing under his skin, reaching into his flesh. His eyes were gone, replaced with two bulbous optic receptors that glowed like baleful orange headlights. A ridge of metal spines ran along the top of his bald, scarred head and down his spine. The other man was the station command, Tom Brooks and he had been terribly dehumanized in a like manner.
"Jesus Christ Almighty…Neville…Tom…what's happened to you?"
The two cyborgs said nothing, merely seized hold of Dora's arms and dragged her from her cell, marching her through stone corridors and then up a flight of metal stairs until they came to a gigantic hangar that contained the space station, Freedom's Light. Dora looked in amazement. It looked as if the entire crew of the station, except for her had been turned into cyborgs and they were working on the space station, refitting it…for what…?
Dora heard heavy, thudding steps behind her and she was turned to face an imposing, terrifying sight.
A huge creature of metal, standing some eight feet tall, humanoid in shape, but clearly a machine. It's slitted optic sensors glared with a hatred of humanity and ageless malice. It flexed metal fingers as it spoke in a clear, yet grating artificial voice. <Welcome, Lt. Lockridge. A pleasure to meet your acquaintance at last.>
"Who the hell are you? WHAT the hell are you? What have you done with my people?" Dora twisted in the grip of her former friends, trying to fight free, but they had firm, impersonal hold on her as that awful metal face bent closer.
<You should be thanking me. You have been spared the fate of your fellow meat bags only because of your connection to Mark Haley>
"Prof? I don't understand..what's Prof got to do with this?! What in God's name do you want?"
<Mark Haley is one of the hated Challengers Of The Unknown and it is an 89% probability that he and the other Challengers will come to look for you and the Freedom's Light>
"Who ARE you? What do you want?"
<I am Kra…I am the most perfect form of artificial intelligence you will ever have the honor to encounter in your disgusting organic life…as to what I want…that is quite simple…I want to bring about the end of human life on Earth>
And Now, A Word From The Author:
Here it is, finally…the beginning of the Challengers Of The Unknown story I told Tim Hartin I was thinking about doing way back when I first began Doom Patrol: The Silver Age. It was a natural, I think. Given the fact that The Challengers and The Patrol operate in that Silver Age period when metahumans first started taking over as the first line of Earth's defense and guys like The Challengers, The Blackhawks, Sea Devils and The Doom Patrol were sorta pushed into the second-stringer status.
My thinking is this; there's no reason for a team like The Challengers to have to take a back seat to ANYBODY. In fact, I can see them being more accessible to the government and the average man on the street than teams like the JLA or JSA, who are after all somewhat remote due to their god-like abilities. Which is what you'll see as the series progresses. The public LIKES and trusts these guys. And why not? They're handsome, talented, and rich and they kick major booty when they gotta.
You'll note that there are a lot of modern touches in the series. Even though this is set during The Silver Age, it's a Silver Age with cell phones, Brittany Spears, The Internet and nanotechnology. And I've taken the liberty of upgrading The Challengers a bit with their uniforms as well as their professions. Back when the legendary Jack Kirby first created them, their professions were pretty much on the cutting edge. Well, Ace is still a pilot, but that's because pilot/adventurers have a long and highly regarded history in comics/pulp fiction. But today, I don't think we're all that awed by a mountain climber, wrestler and diver. So Red, Rocky and Prof have all gotten upgrades in their professions to reflect more modern sensibilities. Especially Red and Prof and the upgrades will be reflected as the story goes on and we see how The Challengers not only balance their private professional careers with their lives as Challengers.
You're going to see some old Challenger villains here, don't worry. Kra is one of their oldest foes and founded The League Of Challenger Haters and yes, you're going to see Multi-Man popping up as well as some new foes and supporting characters I've got in mind that I hope will add to the rich history of The Challengers.
And before I go, here's an added treat; while writing my stories, I usually picture actors I like as the characters since that helps me get a handle on their appearance so here's The Challengers Of The Unknown Casting Call…
Ace Morgan…..Ed Harris
Prof Haley…..Scott Glenn
Red Ryan…..Matt Damon
Rocky Davis…..Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson
June Robbins…..Jeri Ryan
Dora Lockridge…..Janeane Garofalo
Kra…..Voice Of John Lithgow
So stick around and let's see how the DCL Challengers Of The Unknown handle this latest challenge and I hope I can provide you with some enjoyable stories during this summer. And if you like what I'm doing here, by all means, feel free to check out my Doom Patrol: The Silver Age and Mon-El series, also featured here at DC LEGENDS. And as always, I encourage you to write me and let me know what you liked and what you don't like about the series. I want to have letters to post with the next issue and that's where YOU come in. Write me at DerrickFerguson1@aol.com. And now it's time for the ubiquitous NEXT ISSUE blurb…
NEXT ISSUE: Kra reveals his plan for the destruction of life on Earth as The Challengers search the world for the missing Freedom's Light!