16
Sworda and I sped along in his rover. His brother had put it together only a few days ago and got it working reliably. The second storm wave was looming.
"This one will be an even bigger one! Biggest for the year! It will last for the next three weeks," he shouted over the obnoxious growl of the engine. He took a deep breath from his breathing tanks and exhaled. His tanks' air supply changed colors with the rhythm of his breath.
"I've read some of these storms can last months!" I shouted back.
"Yes! On some years that is so! I am glad it is not this year or everyone will have to go underground again! Whenever that happens the death toll goes up!"
"Well, I hope you don't have to either!"
We arrived at my ship, still stationed on the small hill. I wanted to shout with joy. It seemed I'd landed it in a place obscure and lonely enough that no one had crossed its path since I had left it. Or because I had only been here for a few days.
"Thank you!" I said again. I got out and went to my ship. It was covered in dust. Sworda turned and sped off. I wiped a layer of dust and dirt from underneath the ship and found the code box. It came to life and glowed to indicate by my touch that it was in working order. With a gloved hand, I lightly dialed the code numbers into the screen and the ramp opened and lowered for me. I climbed up the ramp and went inside, listening for the close of the ramp and the sound of the seal of air and the ramp closing before taking off my helmet and suit. All systems came alive inside; the pressurized atmosphere, lights, computers, everything. Through a small, thick viewport I saw his rover racing away across the desert, deftly skirting around and the rocks and sinks. A flickering worry of one of those fierce beasts leaping after him in his open rover crept up but I knew better. Sworda was armed to the teeth under his great hooded cloak. As I watched him recede into the distance I thought about resting first as I was very tired. But the storm was on its way and if I didn't lift off now, it would be impossible to leave later. Nor did I have enough food to wait it out for three weeks. I decided to prepare for take off. I stored my rifle away and put away the environmental suit and my air tanks and put on a flight suit. Then I readied the ship for take off. For the first time in days, I finally felt the aches from my injuries surfacing again. This time I took a bit of time to mentally decompress and just drift silently in my body's pains, aches and sensations that had been pushed beneath the surface of my attentions. I wasn't completely out of shape, but I could feel where I needed to get to work on healing myself and getting strong. I was never really the sort to pay deep attention to my body before. That would have to change.
I felt a slight tremor from the ship preparing for lift off, and from the storm winds. Like a great consuming wall, it was dark and vast. I could feel the engines change their sound and timbre as the little Phoenix lifted. I strapped myself into my harness and hoped beyond all hope that I hadn't waited too late. Too many dust particles, rocks or any debris flying at the ship might turn out to be disastrous and I would never make it off the planet's surface. Below me far way I could see the webs, striations and columns of the city lights from Syzygy growing dimmer. The ship shuttered through the turbulence as the auto-pilot did its best to guide it through the approaching storm. One gale force nearly made the ship flip to its side. My heart pounded itself into twists as I hoped that the auto-pilot would guide me away in one piece as it had guided me here in one piece. I'd wished sorely that I could speak to Will. But he was offline, indefinitely. I saw the vast fists of cresting cloud and the brute force of the dust winds expanding as the storm boiled in upon the area and the ship was buoyed right above it, giving it extra impetus as it climbed high into the stratosphere. The storm had finally descended, making the Phoenix spin nearly off course. I could do nothing but watch helplessly, hoping that I had left early enough. As the ship left the planet's atmosphere I could see the fat, red rust slice of Mars against the black of space. And the ship, now out of turbulence, settled into a smoother course. I checked all systems and the course chart. I was on the path back to Langrenus. I had thought of going straight to Earth, but I had no idea where I would or could land this thing without being shot down. I was already in trouble. But that was nearly twenty days away. All systems were operational and I was headed back. I felt a weight lifted from me. My whole body and soul shuddered and I began to weep. My mind was shaken from despair to hope and back again. I wept for myself, my way of life and my family and friends, my entire world. I had no idea what would happen next and whether we would survive. The future, which had always seemed auspicious and full of sunlight was now a black maw ready to engulf everything I knew. Beyond that hole were horrors I could not see or imagine. There might not be a sun-soaked, ever brightening adventure awaiting us anymore. It looked like a bleak, unknown thing. It looked like annihilation.
As I prepared myself for bed I absently took up my sack, meaning to put it under the pull-out bed when something fell out. It was the little bean bag bear, Reese. My daughter Mary had squirreled it inside the bag, to protect me from danger. A reminder and just at the moment I needed it, a hope. I kissed it as tears came to my eyes. Sticking it back in the bag and putting the bag away under my pillow, I lay down and finally went to sleep as the Phoenix proceeded toward the moon city and I slept, dreaming of massive flagships full of the mysterious peoples of the Realm, encroaching upon Earth's air space like victorious mountains of metal, ready to plunder the little blue planet.
. . .
As I approached Langrenus, after weeks of travel, at first I got the impression that no one had missed my coming or going.
A few minutes later I was disabused of this notion. Upon entering moon space I saw a red light on the ship's console. I was being hailed. I tapped the hailing channel of the Phoenix.
"Unknown ship in U.S. moon space, identify yourself." Said a voice on the intercom. I had no idea what to say. Gasping like a fish and struggling for words, if I weren't so aware of the scope of my troubles the situation would have been comical. Again, the voice came in. If voices could get icier it would have been colder than winter on Pluto. I didn't have much time before they would fire on me. I saw even from far off massive laser guns stationed on gunwales on the Washington space station, just above the city in moon space, trained on me and turning from blue to red, ready to fire. Fighter craft would be descending on me any second. Here goes.
"Please don't shoot! My name is Robert Astor. I'm one of the delegates that arrived at Langrenus from Vartan Industries. Please don't shoot! I am not your enemy!"
"You are in unauthorized moon space!" Said the voice, a little less harshly.
"It's a long story, but a man, Taylor Richmond was murdered in the city and I believe the murderer got away with some valuable information. I tried to retrieve it. I followed the culprit, tried to catch him before he could get away with the information." It sounded to me like a rambling, nonsensical response. I waited, nearly holding my breath as there was a long pause. Then there was a different voice on the other end.
"Do you know what ship you're flying?"
"The Little Phoenix. That's what it says on the side, anyway. Oh, and by the way, this ship is on auto-pilot. I don't really know how to fly a ship." Another pause. Then:
"Standby for escort." Said the second voice. Two sleek, black-wings soon approached, changed course, circled around my ship, one banking to my right and one to my left and paralleled with my ship. I felt a tracking line attaching to my ship as they escorted me back to the small port on Langrenus. I was both relieved that it was over and afraid of what was going to happen next. And I had cause for the latter. As soon as we'd landed I saw a large crowd right there at the port, made up of military police and city security. I was dog-tired from my journey and now this. I had some idea how to approach the situation but I had no idea whether it would work.
Once grounded, I heard a voice on a loudspeaker.
"Please step out of the ship with your hands up." Praying as well as coming down
the ship's ramp with my hands high up in the air with my bag on my back, I was escorted by armed guard into the city but this time to a security complex. I glimpsed the tall skyscrapers being built above the complex, the little lights of green, red, white and blue of the builder mechs against the blackness of space. And welders balanced on tiny hover crafts working like ants on the giant structures. It might be the last time I saw anything but four gray walls. But I didn't have time to ponder how fast they could build military bases to protect Earth. And these people had no idea what was coming.
As I was marched into a cell and all my things taken from me, and my finger prints taken, I realized that they would see me as the prime suspect until I could give them a credible reason why I did what I did. And I had no evidence anyone would believe.
I was left in the cell, a dimly lit, tiny room with a bench, a toilet and a small water fountain. I was there for what seemed many hours, I had no idea. Just as I was ready to doze off to sleep the doors suddenly opened. Three officers retrieved me from the room and took me down the hall toward an interrogation room. I did my best to remain calm. One had a data pad that she was busy scrolling through.
"Do I have the right to call my wife and kids?" I asked. Once, many years ago, such things were guaranteed. No longer.
No one answered me. I didn't ask again. A force-field was temporarily stayed as we walked in and then activated again. In the middle of the room was a table and two chairs on either side, and the interrogator. He motioned for me to sit down, which I did. Two of the officers took residence on either side of the doorway while the third handed him the data tablet and left the room. The interrogator glared at me and then, busy with the tablet console, said into it: "Recording beginning". Then he looked up at me again. A tiny recording mech bobbed quietly beside him.
"So. Robert Astor. We have a problem here. A body was found, the body of Taylor Richmond, one of your fellow delegates. You stated that you found him dead in his room. Then you went through the room and took something out of it. What we're trying to work out is why you felt it was not important to alert the police?"
"Because of the message he sent me."
"What message?"
"I assume all of the things I brought with me on the ship have been scanned and examined. Taylor sent me a drive and a recorded message on it. He said himself that he thought that he was gong to be killed and that whoever was after him wanted the files he had, files for something called a solargate." The interrogator looked at me, his large, gray eyes narrowed slowly. Cold silence. I could only hear my own breathing.
"We never found any such things within your belongings," he finally said. Liar!
"They should be there. The recording and everything!" I said. He shook his head slowly.
"I will ask you again, Mr Astor. When you found the body, why did you not inform the police?" I gritted my teeth.
"I didn't inform the police right away because of the message he'd sent me before his death," I repeated. He looked at me with disbelief, iron edging his voice.
"What did this message say?"
"He said that attempts had been made on his life. That someone wanted to kill him. He wanted someone that he could trust to get the files so that the people after him couldn't get them."
"And he trusted you?"
"Well, I was the only person who seemed to take an interest in him. So, yeah."
"I find that interesting. Perhaps the one after him was you all along."
"No! I didn't kill him!"
"Let's say this story is true. Why you?"
"I don't know. He was. . isolated and stayed to himself during the visit. No one spoke to him. Except once, I did."
"And where was this?"
"In the bar on board the Starbird to Langrenus. He seemed nervous and-"
"You expect me to believe that you - a man who found his dead body alone with no one else in the room and no evidence of anyone else being in the room - did not kill him yourself? That you are not the very one he was trying to flee from? You disturbed the crime scene, you took objects from the scene and you did not inform the police at any time during this incident. Mr. Astor, you are the prime suspect, in fact, you are the only suspect in this murder. You fled the scene and went clear to Mars from what we have examined from the logs on your ship," he said, his eyes narrow, his voice all iron and ice.
"If I did it, why would I bother coming back to the place of the murder?" I asked.
"Well, that's a very good question, isn't it? But it isn't unknown for murderers to return to the scene of the crime. Basically, quite a few turn out to be very stupid. You don't strike me as a genius." He said. I could feel my face burn hot.
"I don't understand how it is that you could examine my ship's logs and know that I'd been to Mars, but you examined the contents of my bag and couldn't find the disk with the recording on it."
"I'll ask the questions, Mr. Astor. Be silent until you are asked to speak." My heart fell into my bowels. They had everything. They had to. If they knew I went to Mars, why not look at his recording? I knew my story would sound crazy, but it didn't even seem as if they were even willing to hear what I had to say.
Now, what if I told them about an outpost city on Mars full of human and alien mercenaries?
They grilled me for hours until I thought my brain would melt and then I was left alone in the interrogation room. He'd threatened me and warned that I would never see my family or daylight ever again, convinced that I was lying. Or maybe he was lying, I don't know. When they came back, I was ready to collapse. Suddenly, he got an urgent call from outside. Clearly angry, he turned off the recorder and left with the other two officers. The tiny recording mech bobbed up and down silently, its little green light beeping, indicating it was still recording. I focused on its two eye lenses. They looked like giant owl eyes fixed in its head. It had what looked like unusual serial numbers on its body: E. V. 1. Concentrating on the little things, the external things and surfaces were what kept me from losing it in situations like this.
About an hour later, he came back. I straightened up, a whirl of emotions clouding my mind. I had nothing else left to tell him or anyone else and we had gone over and over the same story numerous times. That didn't happen again, which was a good thing because I had the strength of a wet toothpick, ready to snap in two.
He glared at me with that cold, gaze that made me feel I was being flayed alive and motioned for me to leave with him. The expression reminded me of Grant at Vartan.
"You are being released, Mr. Astor. It would seem you have important friends." His tone was cool and clipped. He said nothing else and I didn't press, silently jumping for joy for the sudden release. I was escorted through the security complex and toward a large private ship. On the side of it was a name that said: Vermillion. Another group of security officers dressed in red, stationed upon the walkway toward the ship greeted me and I was led up the ramp and into the Vermillion. No one had a word to say to me. I was shown to some small quarters in this spacious ship. I was thoroughly shaken by the time I got to the room and finally left alone. My mind felt like wool. I fell onto the small bed and nearly lay down on top of it when I'd noticed it. My pack. I grabbed it and emptied out the contents. Everything was there. As the Vermillion lifted off, I examined the contents. What happened? I wondered. Who intervened for me? Someone that held an incredible amount of power. Judging by the smooth and slow ride, it felt as if the Vermillion were on a leisurely course. It would be another few days before we would be entering Earth space again.
"Thank God," I whispered. I heard a beep at my door.
"Yes?" I called out, feeling slightly alarmed. The doors slid open and a woman walked in. Well, hot damn! Of all people! It was Robin.
"Robin! What happened?"
"That's what everyone who's in the know want to know about you, Bob."
"It must be all over the place back home," I said feeling defeated. She furrowed her brow at first, but I thought I could detect a faint sm
ile at the corner of her lips. I felt myself growing angry, shaking, especially after the hell I'd been through.
"You'd be surprised how some are able to manage the press and other. . .interests. There are a few whispers but mostly, not many are aware of the situation. Your family was told that you were found missing along with the fact that we had a body and a search was being made. They were told that you were a person of interest even though immediately it was thought by the police that you were a suspect. It was strange. They had already judged and tried you before there was any evidence. One person of special interest that was instrumental in forwarding the charge against you after Bradford left, or rather, fled, was Grant. It was strange. He's still at Vartan. Watch out for him. But you have friends, Bob. And some of those friends decided to step in and put a damper on things. One in particular, the owner of this ship. That person made sure that you were known as merely a person of interest. The fact that Teely is no where to be found bolsters the position and power of your benefactor. He is now the prime suspect, after a lot of wrangling behind the scenes on Langrenus."
"As well he should be!" I said indignantly. " So. . .benefactor," I said. "Would this benefactor have anything to do with my not being fired at work?" She nodded.
"There is much I don't have permission to tell you. We, as in the people I truly work for, are uncovering a massive web of deception, secrets and other things that may change our world forever."
"You don't know the half of it, Robin. The things I've seen-"
"On Mars?" I nodded vigorously, then I was taken aback.
"You know about the outpost there?"
"I and others I work for have heard of it, but we haven't seen proof. I'm thinking that you are now our link to what is really going on out there?"
"I'm your man!"
"Then we are your link to what is happening on Earth. We were able to determine after taking over the investigation that you took the Phoenix, at Taylor's behest, and went all the way to Mars and stayed there for quite some time. What in the stars happened out there? That's what we want to know." I swallowed hard.
"How much time do you have?" I said.
"Try me. I know Teely is a spy for someone and he is not what he seems." I stared hard at her for a long time and she returned it.
"I went to Mars. I followed him out there in his ship. I lost him for a while but eventually caught up with him."
"And?" She prodded, seemingly not surprised by this.
"There's a city there. It's translated into Syzygy, in English. There are aliens already here in our solar system, Robin." I watched her expression. The color drained from her face.
"So our fears are confirmed," she said.
"The aliens are from the planet Eraut. And I found out something else." Her eyes were wide now, but she remained silent and attentive.
"Teely is one of them. His real name is Abor. He's a loyalist for his own government. Their government is called the Realm."
"The Realm," she whispered. "I've heard it only once before. In connection with Earth's future. In a conversation."
"They are ruled by nine royal princes. And most of them want to remove all humans from Earth. Their own planet is dying. They are seeking a new planet to live on. And they are desperate. Some of them made the journey to our solar system many years ago on a great hive ship. A ship big enough to carry many other ships. The interesting thing is, there was a rebellion on that hive ship. Not all of them are loyalists. Some of them want to be our allies, Robin. When I was on Mars, if it hadn't been for some of these rebels, I would have died."
"Who are they?"
"They are the separatists and the independents. The loyalists are looking for various ways to bring the rest of their people on Eraut through the long haul of space to this solar system as quickly as they can. The alien spies here-"
"Found the solargate files and stole them," she finished.
"Yes. You knew that?"
"Only recently. It was surmised after watching the video Taylor sent to you."
"When I was there I managed to track the files down and I destroyed them. The problem is that I don't know if there was a copy made while he was there. That is unknown. If they ever get around to building a solargate, we're in big trouble. The rest of their people are coming. They may have the ability to communicate with them, even across these vast distances, if not reach them in other ways. The last thing we need is for them to have the information to build the gate. And another thing. They have figured out a way to build black hole engines, Robin! Engines with vast amounts of energy! The only problem is that their engines are unstable. But that may change in the future, as they continue to improve upon the technology." I stopped, wondering if she was really following what I'd just said.
"I know that some of them now walk among us and have for quite some time." She seemed to be thinking out loud now, almost as if I weren't there. Then: "So. . the Realm has already arrived?" She asked in a low voice. Her expression solemn.
"Not yet and it will be a very long time before they get here, but it is believed by the rebels that the loyalists have a military base near Jupiter. It must be well cloaked to hide its existence from us. I believe Syzygy too, is cloaked."
"Naturally. And there are humans there as well?" She asked.
"Yes, there are."
"You are a special person, Bob. Before you decided to go out there we could only guess at what was going on. And you're right. We had no idea what was going on outside of Earth and Moon. And you don't know the half of it when it comes to those who would obscure this information. Play on human ideas of special privilege or spread the word that those of us who believe the things that are happening are crackpots."
"Of that I have no doubt. I'm curious, though. What happened to the first coordinator? Why was I even chosen to go?"
"There are a lot of things going on behind the scenes that even I don't know about. What I know is this, the person I work for felt the first coordinator would not be cooperative or amenable to our cause. You were chosen, I think, for your courage. Raw courage, as it was told to me. I'm not at liberty to say more about who I work for but let me say that they saw something valuable in your courage, standing up against Bradford Teely." It had been a very long time since I had anyone compliment me on anything. It made me feel hopeful, and a bit warm and fuzzy.
"I'm so glad to hear it. Thank you. I want to help anywhere I can, Robin. But I want to know something. Why didn't you help Taylor? He needed aid in his darkest hour. Why couldn't anyone help him?"
"We wanted to Bob, but Taylor had made a number of very bad decisions, dangerous decisions that harmed us. He got some of our allies killed because he was reckless. I didn't want those after him to come after me or anyone else and our recent benefactor was not yet in a position to pull the needed strings to help him. He'd been warned about his behavior Robert, but Taylor had always been something of a cowboy. He didn't listen or work with others well. It cost him his life." I swallowed hard, listening to her. Some of that sounded like me.
"Anyway, he put himself in a bad position and finally, after burning his bridges, there was no one to help him. I feel bad. I really do, because he was one of the good guys from what I knew of him."
"Well, hopefully, he didn't die in vain." I think now I understood her odd and skittish behavior on the Starbird.
"If we work together, his death won't be in vain. How many of them do you think there are? The loyalists?"
"I have no idea. Most of those I saw on Syzygy, I think were rebels. But in outpost cities, people disguise themselves and their pasts."
"That complicates things."
"Which is why we need a tight network of people working on this. I have connections on Mars, Robin. Alien rebels and humans who are working against the loyalists. But we need to establish regular communication and share information. We're too scattered and separated from each other."
"You're absolutely right. I can start by telling you what I know and then we ca
n start building networks from there. We found something among your things that was of great interest. It was in a tube. A red wire," she said. I became excited just thinking about that particular find, amongst others.
"I think our benefactor, whoever they are, will find that piece of tech very interesting. From what I was told, it's from an android or a mech from a special type of alien ship. . ."
17
The journey back was as relaxing and nearly stress-free as my expedition to Mars was stressful. I had no idea who was able to wrangle me and my possessions from the clutches of the police, but this person must be a pretty big deal. I was beginning to feel that I could make a difference. I had related all that I could remember, or nearly all of it, to Robin and she told me as much as she knew on the ground. Such as there was a secret watch just put in place on people like Grant, and a few others they were watching at the company. These were lackeys of Teely and we both wondered if they were alien spies. Robin, as it turned out, seemed to have some sort of business relationship to someone powerful at Vartan. I wondered if the ousting of Mr. Vartan was a smokescreen. He was the only person I knew who could pull strings and get things done in this manner. This person at Vartan, who so far remained nameless, had a few ties in the government, the same person that was able to keep me out of the boiling pot of public opinion and eventually saved me from the relentless enemy fire at work. Robin assured me that my family and I would receive protection in case someone decided to come after me. So far, they'd done a good job keeping my exploits out of the news.
Robin wouldn't tell me who this person was, only to say that I may be of great use to them and they to me in the future. Rather cryptic, but that was how things were now. Nothing was entirely straight forward as I would like and there was no help for it. But I thought I had a pretty good idea who this mysterious person might be.
"Is this person Mr. Vartan himself?" I ventured. She didn't answer. There was a warning look in her eyes. I didn't press further.
Robin informed me of what would happen now; I would get my old job back and my family was safe for now, as was I, but that I would be under surveillance from security for our own protection. I would be called in the future to help with secret missions for this mysterious person at Vartan Industries who was acting as my ally and protector. Which meant that there would be times I would be going into special training on how to fly a small ship. On my own, I opted for a weapons training class too. My painful memories of the operation of the atomic rifle cemented that decision.
There were other things that had changed that I had no closure for. Abor was still out there and I still had no idea if I had truly destroyed the files. And how long before they would figure out how to make a gate of their own? How long before their black hole engines were fully stable and operational? What about the Black Fleet? It was only a matter of time.
There were things I held back. I didn't say anything about the aliens that traded and used human bone marrow. I recalled the pain from my incident from my so-called "rescuer". He was out there also, and though he saved my life a threat had been established between us that did not end until I left Mars. The universe had now become a far more threatening place. I still walked as if in a dream, not knowing exactly how to feel about it all. It was still beautiful and awe-inspiring, but it was a dark beauty, marred by fear.
One thing though, when I looked at photos of my wife and kids I felt a sense of stability, and courage bolstered me. Pam may not have married a genius, but she hadn't married a coward either.
Pam herself, though she was not privy to all the craziness that ensued when I'd left, seemed to discern that I had knowledge of information that I could not divulge to her. Perhaps someone had spoken to her. She was angry and then elated when she first saw me walk off the ship at the spaceport in Seattle.
"How. Dare. You! You left us and we had no idea what happened to you! Certain people at your work were even saying you were the main suspect!" She was shaking.
"I'm innocent-"
"Of course, it was a lie! I know that!" She snapped. Her eyes were rimmed with red and her face was red, swollen and damp. "You think I don't know my own husband? We only received a few cryptic messages from you, Bob! How could you? The kids were frantic!" She raged at me when we got into the taxi. And then she broke down and cried.
"It was a long, sordid and insane story, Pam. I'll tell you what happened when we get home. I promise, it wasn't my fault-"
"That, I don't believe for a second, Bob! You are always sticking your neck out for other people and they leave you to clean up the mess when it gets chopped!"
"I know, I know," I said, chastened by her tears. I felt tears welling up in my eyes as well. But I was finally home. After she finished raging at me (and she had a few choice words for me that made the cabbie glance at us through his rear-view mirror in amused surprise) we held on to each other all the way on the trip back home.
. . .
At work, I found that I was no longer isolated like I had been when the CFO had begun his campaign against me. He had been replaced by a new CFO and the CEO had also been replaced.
My work days were still shortened as well as my work week and I still made the same pay. But now I was acting in a different capacity. I was more than a Quality Assurance agent, although no one else knew this. Sitting at my desk overlooking the assembly line below I looked through the screen that checked and examined all the pre-fab components being put together and run through the conveyor belts. Production had increased threefold and quality had gone up. Not nearly as many pieces were going to Recycling. A new project was starting tomorrow. We would be working on a contract for making engine components for the first fleet of passenger class ships that would carry civilians to Mars. That was a five year project into the future and this on top of the new joint contract with Sunsee to produce solar cells. I marveled at the breezy, happy presumption everyone around me had about their place in the universe and in the solar system, which they still believed was solely theirs. It still was, but we had visitors now. Some of those visitors wanted to push us out and they weren't going anywhere anytime soon. Mars was not untapped territory anymore. It was the new Wild West and aliens and humans were battling for life and death. How would this be explained to naive civilians? Or would the government pretend it wasn't happening like they always do when they encountered things they couldn't control? I knew the answer to that one.
But one day the truth was going to come out. And then what? Where would be our bright future that went on ever brighter? I guess I couldn't really be too annoyed at the naiveté of my co-workers. After all, before reality put its foot up my backside, I used to be just like them.
. . .
"Dad?" A voice woke me from my thoughts as I sat in front of the computer screen. I looked over and there was my son, standing in the doorway of the study, looking at me in wonder.
"Come son. What's the matter?" He came and stood next to my chair, his eyes wide and searching.
"What happened to you? No one would tell us anything. Where did you go?"
"What did they tell you?"
"Well. . .Jerome and Fred said that you were detained for some reason and that you would be on the moon longer than everyone thought. But they seemed like they weren't really sure. They wouldn't say anything else with me and my sister around, but once I saw Jerome come to the house one night. It was really late. I couldn't hear everything and I'd guessed he wasn't supposed to be here. But he told mom that there was a murder at Langrenus and that people thought you did it. But that someone at work, he wouldn't say who, said that they were going to make sure that you weren't accused of it. You didn't do it, did you?" I stared at him, dumbfounded.
"No," I said resolutely. "No. I did not. I never hurt anyone, Jonah. Look, I'm not allowed to tell you everything that happened, but I will tell you this. Someone out there reached out to me for help because he had no one else to help him. He was alone and afraid because there were people who wanted to hurt
him. I wasn't able to save him from them, but I was able to save others from being hurt." My son's eyes lit up.
"Did you find the bad guys who did this, dad?"
"To that, I can say, yes, I did. I wasn't able to bring them to justice, but I know who did it. They stole something from this man and I took it away from them. I can't say more."
"Why can't you say more?"
"It's ah. . .classified. Sort of. I've been told by other important people not to say much until we have more facts." He frowned but seemed to accept this for the time being.
"Were you abducted by aliens?" His eyes flashed with mischief at this question.
"Ah. . .well, what a question, Jonah! No, I wasn't abducted by aliens." My son studied me for a while then he nodded his head, seemingly satisfied with my answer.
"Good."
"Bad guys have to be brought to justice. If you see something that is wrong, it is not a good idea to ignore it. I didn't ignore it." I said, wondering if that came out right. Jonah smiled, all confidence in his dad. And that was all the answer I needed to end my brooding.
"I'm glad you caught him, dad," he said and he bounded off to his room to get ready for bed. For now, that was all the answer he required.
My children were the future. Darkness was out there, but they depended on me and other adults to deal with it. And deal with it, I would. I had no training, I certainly wasn't special, but I was going to do something. With my new secret ally and the capacity I would serve going forward, something was just what I was going to do. My son's need for reassurance that his world was not falling apart and that his dad was out there getting the bad guys was what I needed.
Sometimes that was really the whole obligation of a person; to do what was right, regardless of whether things looked rosy or not.
The next day after work I stopped over with Chip at his garage lab once again. We had a lot to discuss. My side of the story was rather a story full of holes. Chip seemed to understand my dilemma and didn't press me too far. He understood enough to know that I'd seen things that no one else was supposed to see or know about. But I had some surprises in store for Chip that would clue him in on the network I was building.
"Will stopped working on me after a few days at Langrenus. Worked like a charm until then. He also worked haphazardly farther out. Can't say much more about that."
"How much farther out?" Chip prodded. He was looking for information in a roundabout way. I obliged as best I could.
"Oh, I don't know. . .maybe about thirty-nine million miles out. Give or take a few million," his face dropped and he fixed me with a look of disbelief.
"Ooookaaay. How useful was he?"
"You'd be surprised what I picked up. The things I'd found is what led to my. . .disappearance. . . for a while. I guess you could say I went on a wild, fact-finding mission. I'll leave it at that."
"You know Bob, while you were gone, doing whatever it was you were doing out there, and I mean everyone around here that would know something is staying quiet about it, even Fred can't get any information out. But anyway, while you were gone, I managed to nearly finish the prototype I've been working on." He gave me a meaningful look.
"Really?" I asked. Delight rose in me. "How far along are you in this project?"
"Far enough that in about a month of building, welding and soldering I may have a solidly built cybernetic body to show you. Something in which to place our hapless friend inside, once again." He smiled, clearly excited and pleased with himself. I was growing equally excited. Will had become like a lost friend to some of us.
"Come. Let me show you what I have so far." He led me to a tiny room off to the side of the lab. Lying upon a long table was the beginning of what looked like a cybernetic body of plasti-flesh, wires, tubes and metal, pieced together. Body parts of what looked like a leg, an arm, and the head were still in pieces, some of these set upon shelves, others in a holding tank filled with a preservation liquid. A row of bio-fluids engineered specifically for androids sat below it.
"Hmm. Interesting." I murmured, wrinkling my nose and flicking my gaze over the pseudo-macabre scene.
"Still organizing and cleaning," he said apologetically. "Look, I'm not working with state of the art stuff here."
"I know." I didn't understand it, but I had great respect for his knowledge and skill in engineering and building intricate machines. I nodded, looking around. It was a highly ordered room, filled to the ceiling with found objects, old and new tech and pieces he'd worked on, gave up on or planned on re-purposing. Every object was cataloged and in its place unless he was currently using it in a project. A far cry from the Odd Parts Lab at work, which was still in existence. His was a brilliant mind I could not begin to comprehend. It was like a wall of shade and curtain to me, the workings of his mind and his ideas. How he came to them was a foreign process but marvelous in what it produced. I would definitely need him as one of the main guys in my network and wondered how he and Genevieve would get on if they ever met. I gave him back the eavesdropper, along with the disks I'd garnered from the gorgon ship.
"I'll re-examine it, and. . .what's this?" He picked up the cube disk, examining it carefully. He looked up at me slyly.
"All I can say is that if you want some idea about what's going on, out there, more about what happened to me, you'll find some answers on these disks. That one especially is unique. I have no idea what's on it." I said, matching his expression. He said nothing but his eyes were lit with a fire.
"What makes you say that?"
"Because that," I said, pointing to the disk, "is not normal technology. Nothing I saw out there was normal, Chip. Nothing. We are living in a brand new universe." I could see his mind working something out.
"Well, it looks normal. Sort of."
"But it isn't. Trust me." Then he had the giddy expression on his face he always did when he discovered or created something new.
"All right. I'll see what I can see," he said.
I went home, finally having settled into normal life or something like it.
For the next few weeks, I worked hard, for we were busy. We were now working on the tail end of a massive project, building housing units for Langrenus and for a new city project that was finally being discussed. Our previous contract to build civilian spaceships was about to be renewed. We had all these, besides the new contracts for the solar cells and the engine parts. I was hearing rumors that a new city would eventually be built on Mars. If only they knew.
The excitement was infectious. I was enveloped with the old team spirit, always floating around at work, which reached a crescendo when projects like this were coming to a close. Mine was tempered with a bit of reality and trepidation. Now that I was back home and building a base of knowledge and help, I saw cause for good things to come but not without a huge fight. Things didn't seem as bleak to me now. But whatever happened, it would be part of an undetermined future.
Epilogue
July 31, 2150.
I was on my way for a beer at one of the company's many bar lounges (called Ninkasi) when I got a message on my data tablet from Chip. Several, in fact. All of them were marked: Urgent!
"Hmm." I frowned. He's found something? I hadn't heard much from him since a few weeks ago when I gave the disks over to him. I texted back: b there soon. wnt 2 have beer with guys @ wrk.
Afterward, I took an air taxi to Chip's place. As soon as I got to the doorstep the door swung open. It was Chip. He was wired.
"What is it?"
"Just come!" I followed him down to the lab. He suddenly whirled around as soon as I entered the lab.
"Those disks you gave me! Bob! I can't believe what's on them!"
"What's on them?" I asked, my own excitement growing. He dumped himself in one of the steel fold chairs by his desk.
"At first I didn't know how to get the information off of them. We still haven't gotten the information off of the cube disk, but I've got people working on it. So, I got a friend to help me with o
ne of the disks. That, in and of itself was a trial but never mind that! Once we were able to get to the information and study it, it looked like gibberish. So we had friends in the network to help us take a look at it. It's creating a firestorm in the Dappa community, Bob!" I didn't need to ask.
"First, it seems the information is incomplete but what we already have could change the nature of how we build things, of technology, science everything!"
"What is it?"
"It looks like schematics or information on how one would build a black hole engine - that actually works!"
"How were you able to guess this from the information?"
"Well, where did you get this disk, Bob?" I hesitated and then he put his hands up.
"I understand-" He began, but I interrupted him.
"No, no! You need to know something. Please don't tell anyone else." I didn't think that was necessary considering what was now released and out in the wild among the Dappa community.
"Okay. . ."
"When I was out there Chip, I. . ." I sighed and scratched my head. "I ended up on Mars. I followed someone out there, someone who had committed a violent crime. While there, I found out that we are not the only ones inhabiting this solar system." Chip's eyes widened like moons. His face turned white as alabaster.
"More are coming. In fact, the person I followed out there is one of them. A spy."
"One of. . ."
"Aliens are here. A first line of colonists have already come to the solar system and made it their home. And they've been here for a long time. Their ships can travel unimaginably long distances, but they are trying to find a way to shorten those distances to get to Earth. I got that disk from an alien ship and the information on it is about how to create their engines. A black hole engine. The problem is, their engines are not entirely stable." I warned. He sat silently for a long time, just staring at me. I went on. "I'm not supposed to be telling you this, but you need to know. And I need your help."
"But surely, with the knowledge already on that disk, someone here can improve upon it! Somehow. I'm sure of it. It still boggles the mind that they have one that works, regardless of stability issues. If a thing can be built-"
"-it can be fixed." I finished. He nodded excitedly.
"You say that there are alien colonists already here? And on Mars?" He countered. I nodded.
"So, where are the others?"
"They are coming. It took the first wave of colonists a hundred years to travel from their home planet twenty-two light-years away from our system. A man named Taylor Richmond was on the delegation with me, Chip. He had schematics to build a solargate, technology to make it possible to jump from one star system or even one galaxy to the next in nearly an instant. This man was killed and the information he had, stolen. I found the culprit and followed him to a secret base on Mars."
"Teely?" He whispered, incredulous. I nodded slowly. I hoped this wouldn't mean trouble for Chip. I was getting nervous.
"Teely was never one of us, Chip. And most of them are looking for a way to get in." Well, the cat's out of the bag now.
"Why?"
"Their planet is dying. So they want ours. Earth is the only planet that is very much like theirs. It can support a wide variety of life, it has water and the right mixture of gases in the air for them to breathe. There! I told you things I wasn't supposed to, but there it is, Chip." Chip was making gasping, surprised noises as he took this all in.
"So, my suspicions were right. Something really is wrong."
"Something is wrong everywhere," I said. It took him a long time to digest this new information.
"Uh. . .well," he finally said, trying to recover, "there's one more thing, Bob."
"What's that?" I asked, sitting down by a small tank full of fluid. A bionic hand trembled and twitched in the liquid like a newly dismembered limb.
"The eaves-dropper, a.k.a, Will. I've been able to fix the chip brain again and examine it further. It seems that Will picked up quite a lot of information on this new language. This I worked on myself. But there were a few things I'd noticed that had similarities with the information on the other disk you gave me. Even while he was not communicating with you during that large time lapse, he was recording, sifting and storing vast amounts of information on this foreign language. We, as in myself and some friends of mine who work in linguistics and philology have been trying to understand this language. They've found some patterns in the speech. The problem is that they still haven't been able to interpret it. However, they have found certain interesting patterns that they grouped together that may bring us closer to understanding it. What one of them found that was very interesting is that it seems rather similar to whale song. Not exactly, but some similar patterns are shared."
"Whale song," I said. Something about that made sense. Teely's true form possessed tentacles. Not all of these aliens from this planet had them, but many of them did. In fact, when I thought on it, it seemed that the largest population of colonists on Mars were Miku. Perhaps the most powerful people of Eraut descended from water cultures, from civilizations that lived underwater. Perhaps water signaled a certain strength, wealth or class. It left me thinking how precious our planet really was.
"Another thing," he said, bringing me out of my thoughts. Now he took on a cheeky expression.
"What?"
"I have recreated Will in human form, once again. I've installed the chip, his brain, with this new information of the alien language, Bob." He grinned widely, looking nearly as euphoric as I felt. Then he widened his eyes in a mock, mad scientist's triumphant gaze. "It's alive!"
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Check out the short story prequel to this series:
The Prototype
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Look for the upcoming second novel
in the Mission space opera series Fall, 2014:
The Lights of Langrenus
Mission: Flight To Mars
By V. A. Jeffrey
Artwork by
Streetlight Graphics
An Epistle Publishing book
Copyright © 2014
All rights reserved.
Also by V. A. Jeffrey:
The Red World series:
Edge of Darkness
Schisms
Cryptic Tongues
Rise of the Red King
Secret Doorway Tales series:
The Green Door
The Pumpkin Princess
The Winter Wolves
The Lady Moons
The Mountain King
The Battle of Dusk and Dawn
Short stories:
The Prototype
Keeping Strange Time (collection)
Rainfall
Dust and Bones
The Candy Shop
Edge of Darkness
3 Fables
Fairy Tales and Fables
Memory Lane
Poetry:
When The Sky Is Gray
Half Light
City Life
October Fog
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