You Can Never Go Home Again

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  “Let me introduce Kookli.” Jonathan introduced her to the residents of Camp Ma.

  “She is an alien.”

  Disbelieving silence. Some smiles and a few chuckles as the Camp Ma residents looked at each other as if saying, ‘Some card this Prezlee is.’

  Jonathan shook his head with a sigh. “Seriously, she is an alien and there are more aliens. And they believe in slavery and murder.” Jonathan turned to Kookli, “I and another guy named Turk watched as the boss slaver murdered her mother.”

  “With this.” Jonathan held up one of the four ray guns he and Turk and liberated from the slaves.

  Stunned silence. The residents looked at her as if she was in a fish bowl. Everyone spoke at once.

  “Hold on. Let me talk a little bit and then I’ll take questions. Okay?”

  Keoni sat up straighter and looked around. He nodded to Jonathan who knew no interruptions would follow. At least for a time. Hopefully for a long time.

  Jonathan told the gathering at Camp Ma how he met Turk and that Turk confirmed Hawk’s opinion. He had to see for himself and Turk knew a safe route that overlooked the clearing by the cove.

  He told them how he watched the workers put up a tent and build barracks. He mentioned the transport ship and for a difficult space of time related the murder of Kookli’s mother.

  Jonathan told everyone how they found Kookli and the fight and the deaths of the slaves. He brought them up to date with brevity and he hoped clarity. He turned to the alien girl.

  “Kookli, could you tell us what you know about the transport ship and what the slavers are doing and who they are? Any information at all would be helpful.”

  “I only know what my father told me and the little he had told my mother.” She looked down and sighed. She still held the radio near her ear playing static.

  “My father told me these people, the slave masters, he called them Peeds, and the slaves had originally come from this planet. They had been taken away from this planet many thousand years ago by benign aliens, non-human, who wanted to save a remnant of the humans who dwelled here. The Peeds do not know but guess it was around thirty thousand years ago. Your years.”

  “These aliens transported selected humans and some animals to another planet. Little is known because the humans had no written language nor advanced technology. Some of the Peeds observed these aliens en route and learned to write and admire the technology. The trip took many, many years. Lifetimes I was told. By the time they arrived to the new planet a number of Peeds had developed beyond the normal transition of civilization. When the aliens left these Peeds enslaved the others.”

  “The Peeds continued to develop technology and wanted to emulate the aliens in space travel. Also to control the slaves. But little else.”

  “My mother and other breeders are not given the same implant as the other slaves. The implant is fairly new in use but the Peeds found that with the usual implants the mothers would not be nurturing and the babies died. The Peeds communicate through the implant and I believe with each other.”

  “Do you have an implant? Is playing the static related to that?” asked Beth. She had been holding her child a little closer than usual but relaxed a little when Kookli had paused.

  “Yes, but my father had it disabled. He disabled my mother’s but I do not know how. It does seem though that the implant has a location beacon.”

  “Why would he do that? About the disabling,” someone asked.

  “He loved my mother. And I guess he loves me too. My mother and I spent little time in the pods so we grew up in a normal way or at least as normal as anyone can living on a space ship with thousands of slaves and Peeds in stasis.”

  “Why would there be thousands in stasis?” asked Jim.

  “It takes many hundreds, perhaps thousands of years to reach this planet. So much is automated that only a few need to be awake to run the ship. Usually a Peed and a few educated slaves.”

  “They educate slaves?” asked Lorazini.

  “A few they teach to fly the cargo ships and a few are taught skills like engineering. These are given implants like my mother. In the pods they are given information and it s retained quite well. I speak English well though I have never talked to anyone but my mother and my father until now. And Spanish though I haven’t had a chance to speak it.”

  “They sure have bad timing. Imagine. To travel thousands of years to get here and arrive just in time for another catastrophe,” said one the newer residents.

  Kookli looked up. “They caused this catastrophe. They thought no humans would be here. They had been taught through the generations that the catastrophe they were saved from had ended most of all life here. My father said when they entered this solar system they were shocked that over six billion people inhabited the planet.”

  “How did these Peeds cause the catastrophe?” asked Jim.

  “I believe that they used some form of electromagnetism to bring asteroids from the asteroid field out where the fifth planet should be.”

  “Why did they think meteors could cause a catastrophe?” asked Jim.

  “They knew a pole shift would cause a catastrophe. It had happened when the humans were taken from earth. The earth has had many abrupt pole shifts. It is recorded in the geologic strata my father said. Your fossils are a result from these catastrophes. That was my father’s expertise. Catastrophes.”

  Everyone was silent for a few minutes.

  “So we no longer have to fear the meteors?” asked Terry.

  “No. The Peeds sent them into your prime star to be burned up.”

  Jonathan had thought this would be cause for celebration and was encouraged that no celebratory antics occurred. This meant to him that here the people of Camp Ma understood the problem had not ended with the elimination of the swarm. They understood the slavers were an even more dangerous problem and had to be faced immediately.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “You can see the tail of the airplane I and many others came here on.” Jonathan pointed to the mouth of the valley called Busland.

  Jonathan and Kookli still had a half hours walk from the beached canoe. The cratering had been extensive and most of the craters were now small ponds so they had to weave their way through and around the hazards.

  Kookli on leaving the canoe had returned to carrying the radio playing static. She had abandoned it to help paddle. She wanted to quickly reach the area where surgeons might be found and Jonathan had reasoned if the slavers did pick up her signal they might wonder why she was on water. It could throw the slavers off the scent. At least for a little while.

  “So the godless one has returned,” a voice shouted.

  Both Jonathan and Kookli stopped and looked around. They spotted the speaker. Jonathan couldn’t remember his name but knew him to be one of the zealots. He was returning from Port Hardy or what was left of the little town.

  Jonathan called out to him, “have some news you’ll want to hear. Why don’t you and your friends come over to where…?”

  “Don’t dictate to me…”

  “I was not dictating and if you had any intelligence you would have realized I asked a ques…”

  “I have more intelligence than…”

  “Hey, go fuck yourself you ignorant bigot. I’ll say this one more time. I have news that you and your…”

  “Don’t curse me you godless freak…”

  “Than go fuck yourself again.” Jonathan strode off in a huff with Kookli trying to keep up. The half hour went by quickly and Jonathan’s anger was almost dissipated by the time they came to the main shelter in the little hollow.

  He was greeted by Tony and Bob. They had heard Jonathan.

  “G’day mate,” Bob said. A big smile creased his face. “No meteors for some time. I wonder why?”

  “You can stop wondering. I’ll tell you why but better get everyone here so I don’t have to repeat myself.”

  Bob and Tony looked a bit stunned. Jonathan’s ang
er at the religious zealot had not completely waned.

  “And is Dr. Bond around? I have need of his advice.”

  “Jonathan what’s up?”

  “Tony you remember I said the swarm behavior defied the laws of science?”

  “Sure. But they seemed to.”

  “No. The laws of science were true but the truth was too, ah, too weird to believe so none of us could comprehend the phenomenon. Bob get the others. Everyone needs to hear this.”

  As Bob moved off shaking his head Jonathan called after him, “and be sure to find Dr. Bond.” Bob’s head shaking turned to nodding.

  Fifty to sixty people would eventually gather in the shelter of the hollow. Stragglers occasionally wondered in to swell the ranks but many of the non-religious survivors were off doing chores or had no interest in what Prezlee had to say.

  There were fewer survivors living at Busland now. A sizable number had decided to cross to the mainland and seek refuge in the city of Vancouver when the meteors failed to come back regularly.

  Jonathan had wandered there but had reported the city was devastated by the earthquakes, meteors and the volcanic ash. People had survived living there but it was difficult.

  At least it had some form of stable government and work had been underway to regain the material aspects of the culture. Not hard to see why many people would want to go there.

  Captain Schollander, Dr. Bond and a few others only stayed out of a sense of duty to those who did not wish to travel to Vancouver. Jonathan tried not to minimize what he saw in Vancouver when he reported. He told the Busland residents that there was little food and rationing was practiced. All the canned food was gone. With the earthquakes, volcanic ash still falling, and the occasional the meteor swarm acquiring food was difficult. Many in Busland had decided to stay. None of the religious survivors had left their camp further down the valley.

  “Jonathan would you introduce me to your companion? And why is she holding that radio to her ear when all it gets is static?”

  “Kookli this is Tony Schollander. He’s captain of the flight, this plane.” Jonathan pointed to the airbus which had little in the way to call it an airplane anymore. What was left was a rough shell pockmarked with hundreds of holes from the swarm.

  Jonathan turned, “Tony this is Kookli. She’s an alien from outer space.” He watched Schollander for the reaction. He wasn’t disappointed.

  Schollander at first looked stunned. This turned to credulousness then finally a big smile. “Oh, you’re giving me the mickey.”

  Jonathan smiled, “no. No I’m not. It’s an interesting story but we’ll tell it when everyone is here. And there’s an important reason why she’s holding a radio playing static.”

  >

  “Okay everyone. I have some bad news and some worse news. Let me start with the bad news first. By the way, where’s Dr. Bond?”

  Jonathan repeated to those in attendance what he had told the residents of Camp Ma. Kookli also told everyone what she had related to the group up north. When they came to the part of the meteors a celebration did take place. This bothered Jonathan though he did not speak of it.

  “It’s time to break out the booze,” someone yelled. Others cheered and called for the spirits which some inventive survivor had made.

  “Hold on,” Jonathan said loudly. He would have to yell if he was going to be heard.

  “HOLD ON.”

  “I don’t think you appreciate the possible danger from these slave masters.”

  “If they exist we’ll take care of them.”

  “With what?” Jonathan had to put both hands together so he could be heard. “They have weapons. This is one of their weapons.”

  “Do you really expect us to believe that?”

  “Why not? Why would I lie?” Jonathan looked for Tony and Bob. These two were not smiling and looked pensive.

  “Aw, you always exaggerate.”

  “I never exaggerate.”

  “Bullshit. Where’s the booze?” Another cheer went up.

  Jonathan didn’t know what to do. This was crazy. It may be true that the slavers would leave everyone alone. But there was no way to determine that a priori. It simply was illogical to assume it.

  Jonathan stood up from the crate he had been sitting on. He took the ray gun and aimed it at the airbus. The green bolt burst forth. He did feel a slight vibration and there was a very mild sound if up close but otherwise most would not hear it.

  Few people seemed to see the green bolt. It hit the airbus above the small windows of the cabin. Jonathan had no idea what the ray gun could do as he had not fired it.

  However, within moments he could see the destructiveness of the green bolt. It quickly punched a hole in the metal skin of the airplane. He moved the ray gun incrementally to his right and a hole widened. As he continued to pan right with the ray gun the hole elongated. Some few had finally noticed what Jonathan was doing.

  “Hey man. Don’t…” Jonathan continued to move the ray gun and there appeared an extended thin empty space. By the time there was a foot long empty space above the windows everyone in the hollow had quieted and stood or sat watching Prezlee’s destruction of the airplane. He stopped and turned to the audience.

  “So you think you can beat some slavers who have slaves which will die without protest with the weapons you have? I don’t think so.”

  He had their full attention now. “We must assume these slavers will either kill us or try to enslave us. And where the hell is Dr. Bond?”

  “Jonathan what do you think we need to do?” Tony asked.

  “Those not willing or able to fight get out of here. Go to Vancouver or any place though it would be a good idea if there was some sort of communication. Most people have learned Morse code so we could set up a system from ridge to ridge.”

  “What are you planning to do?” Bob asked. Dr. Bond finally strolled into the hollow.

  “I’d like to set up a guerrilla force…hey Dr. Bond, Jim, I need you. Well, she needs you.”

  “What is it Jonathan?” Dr. Bond looked at Kookli who still had the radio playing by her ear. “This is Kookli. She has an implant. There by…you haven’t any idea what we’ve been talking about have you?”

  Dr. Bond shook his head. Jonathan went through much of what he had already told those at Camp Ma and at the hollow. The one thing most at the hollow recognized now as supremely important was the reason Kookli played static by her ear.

  “An implant?” Dr. Bond said as he examined Kookli’s neck. “Look down for me Kookli.”

  Dr. Bond felt along Kookli’s neck vertebrae. He nodded absentmindedly. “Yes, I can feel it. An operation would be exceedingly difficult if I knew what the implant looked like. But quite impossible as it is now.”

  “Jim, Kookli’s in danger of being killed by the slavers.” The radio suddenly stopped playing static. The batteries were dead. This caused a stir in the hollow.

  “The hell with her. What about us? Aren’t we in jeopardy with her here?”

  Jonathan turned angry eyes to the speaker but many in the hollow nodded and otherwise supported the contentious statement. Where was Keoni when he needed the big Hawaiian?

  After much grumbling there was silence.

  “Jonathan,” asked Dr. Bond, “you went to Vancouver four or five months ago right?”

  Jonathan nodded.

  “They may have imaging equipment by now. A surgeon would have some idea what the implant looked like and how it was attached to her brain stem.”

  Jonathan looked at Kookli but spoke for all to hear, “you’ll have to go to Vancouver. They may be able to do the operation there. I think they should have…”

  Turk, Keoni and Terry McNeill entered the hollow.

  “Hey Jonathan. Good news,” said Turk as he held up his hand. He was clutching something in his fist. “I got both of ‘em.”

  As greetings were winding down Jonathan asked Dr. Bond what he thought about the implants.

  “Not quite
as difficult as I assumed but still not something we should do here. A brain operation is a very tricky thing. One slip and she’d be paralyzed for life.”

  “Damn.”

  “Jonathan what do you think I should do?” asked Kookli.

  “Kookli you should go to Vancouver. I had hoped…well, could you draw me a map of the space ship and tell me everything about the flight controls of the transport?”

  “Jonathan,” said Kookli, horror registering on her face. “You are not thinking of going up to the space ship?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m thinking.”

  PART III

  CHAPTER ONE

  The group of six watched the slavers’ camp north of it and from the location Turk had taken Jonathan. There were several other groups of the new guerrilla force spaced out along the ridge south of the clearing.

  Jonathan, Turk, Terry, Bob, Keoni and Hawk overlooked the clearing in one group. They didn’t like what they were looking at. As the binoculars were passed around frowns deepened. The camp had grown since Jonathan and Turk had witnessed the murder of Kookli’s mother. They had been observing the camp and its activities for the past hour. It was early morning and still dark.

  All in the new Earthland security force had paddled, board sailed or poled to Camp Ma. There they had made plans. In all there were eighteen freedom fighters. Jonathan and Turk realized the first order of business was everyone should observe the enemy.

  Jonathan, Turk, Terry and Bob were all dressed in the slaves’ clothes and each carried a ray gun which had hung from the belts of the four dead slaves.

  When the six had returned to Turk’s camp they found the two slaves still bound and gagged but dead. No marks on them. They undressed the corpses and took their weapons. It occurred to them that one of the probable functions of the implants was to kill as well as communicate or utilize as a homing beacon.

  Fortunately Jonathan, Turk, Terry and Bob were nearly equivalent in height and about equal in size to the slaves. The clothes of the dead slaves could be worn nominally well. Keoni and Hawk were too big for the clothes to fit them. It occurred to Jonathan none of the slaves they had seen had been of color.

  All the slaves in view were of a similar height and weight and skin color. Only the hair had differences and that was slight.