Moon 514- Blaze and the White Griffon

by Drew Briney

  Evelia gasped when she first saw the ship and Greydon stood transfixed in the middle of the room like a bug staring at some light glowing in the darkness. It was Vardn who first spoke.

  "Captain, they have been trying to communicate with us for a few minutes. None of our ship translators have been able to do anything whatsoever with their transmissions but we sent our standard peaceful salutations in the several hundred languages preserved in our database. I think we sent it ..." He paused as he looked at the timepiece displayed over the top of the huge linatech panelling Blaze continued to stare through. "I think we sent it less than five minutes ago but they are indicating that they are ready to respond. Shall I put the reception for everyone to hear or would you like to take it through your personal station?"

  "Pass it through universal audio of course," Blaze responded. Although appreciative of the respectful question, he couldn't imagine taking any communication like this through his own private station. "Record the transmission. If they send a visual, display it on the main panel."

  "Of course," Vardn answered, swathing through his station's cube and giving it oral cues. Pausing for a moment, he looked at the cube in disbelief and then focused his eyes on Blaze without even trying to mask his puzzled look. "Sir, the instructions they are sending reflect perfect English and the coding that they are using nearly matches old school linatech math based programming. It's like the are already familiar ..." He paused again as he considered whether or not his thoughts were legitimate or superstitious.

  Blaze and Evelia exchanged brief glances while Blaze furrowed his brow in compulsory, instinctive deep thought. Earth had zero credible history of interactions with aliens. The most interaction recorded anywhere had been their own recent experiences with the magic woman and she had been left on accident during an exploratory mission of her species to find a new planet - apparently, this had been their first visit ... Surely they knew nothing about the human culture they had only briefly encountered. As Blaze's mind whirled with speculations and puzzlement that mirrored Vardn's own misgivings, the transmission appeared on the linatech paneling.

  A large humanoid man appeared in front of them. Although it was readily apparent that the creature they were beholding was similar to the magic woman they had all recently observed, there were several marked differences that shocked everyone in the room ... excepting Evelia. She had, after all, seen several male versions of the magic woman's alien race so there was nothing so shocking about this particular male other than his particularly strong coloring and muscular build. To the rest of the crew on board, the small horns protruding from his cheekbones and the back of his head, the spikes that appeared like sculpted, protective decorations around his shoulders, and the piercing, nearly milky white irises of his eyes, made this particular alien quite remarkable - and that was to say nothing about the strong iridescent reflections that came off of his dark colored skin. Other than these few differences, this alien looked much like one might expect a male version of the magic woman to look like. Then again, these few differences made him intimidating to look upon and they left the crewmen somewhat stressed. Unknown to them, these physical differences were miniscule compared to the mental powers he wielded.

  While it was evident to everyone observing the linatech paneling that his mouth movements did not match the words that came across the transmission, every member on board was taken aback by the perfect - and modern - English that came through. Nothing about the tempo, grammar, pronunciation, enunciation, or tone of voice betrayed the slightest unfamiliarity with the language these crewmen had heard since their birth – there was, of course, one detail that immediately caught Blaze's attention - the contractions.

  “Hello.” The first word came in isolation, as if nothing more would be said. It was friendly - albeit perfunctory, short - but not curt, charismatic - but not bubbly. Then, after a brief pause, the following rather blunt message came through: “We've observed your course for quite some time now. Your apparent course is Moon 514, our home. We are very aware that your species has an extensive history of warfare. Please state your intentions.” And that was it. Clearly, extensive and flamboyant public relations campaigns were not deeply engrained into this culture.

  “Captain.” Vardn tentatively spoke after Blaze's pause lasted an uncomfortably long time. “The alien is using our old school intergalactic numbering system for worlds and moons but he is correct – Moon 514 is in fact our destination. Would you like to respond through holographic imaging or just send audio?” The question was pointless. No member of the crew would have expected Blaze to send anything less than a holographic transmission. However, the question served its purpose - it awakened Blaze out of his silence.

  “Holographic imaging, of course,” Blaze answered. The tempo of his answer showed that he had been thinking carefully in silence rather than wasting his time away in the shocked stupor that seemed to prevail at Greydon's station. “Tell me when you are ready,” Blaze finished. Greydon sat motionless, stressed, uncertain, and perhaps disbelieving. Blaze passingly noticed that Greydon may have been a good soldier in some ways but he would never amount to a great officer - unless his ability to respond to stressful situations quickly changed. He seemed to be in some sort of crisis mode. Blaze said nothing but silently noted this detail in case he urgently needed something from Greydon's station - it might be better to request the information from someone else - even if they were less qualified or less well trained in Greydon's duties.

  "I'm ready now, Captain," Vardn perfunctorily responded.

  "Greetings," Blaze began, a little unsure himself why he was using this old school, nearly archaic form of salutation. "Rest assured, we come in peace," he began. "It appears that you inadvertently left a member of your community on our planet," Blaze explained. He had thought about this conversation a little bit during his free time but he hadn't expected to be having this conversation so soon and he wasn't expecting it to go quite like this. All of a sudden, he was improvising a dialogue that he had expected to give with much more thoughtful preparation – some other time and some other place. "We began our trip with the intent of bringing her back home," Blaze began again, uncertain how he was going to present this detail. "Sadly, she did not make it." He left an uncomfortably long pause. "However, she left a message with a friend of hers," he explained, motioning towards Evelia, "and asked that she pass it on to her family when we arrived."

  Blaze, Evelia silently protested, please, don't say anything more about that. She pleaded with a surprising urgence that Blaze did not understand - indeed, he had no paradigm to understand her request as she had clearly explained her intention to deliver the message just as he had described. Why would she change her mind so late in the game?

  “What is the message?” came the very quick, almost too spontaneous reply.

  Blaze looked over at Evelia now, uncertain what to do or how to explain the message that he had only heard very little about. Tell him that I would rather give the message in his own language but that I can only do that telepathically, Evelia instructed.

  “She would prefer to deliver the message in your native tongue," Blaze confidently explained, masking his complete and utter perplexity. “If it pleases you, we would be happy to welcome you aboard our ship at your earliest convenience.”

  “No,” came the nearly instantaneous reply. “However, we will be happy to have you come aboard our ship,” the alien commander revised. “Can you be prepared in three of your earth hours?” This attention to detail was quite unnerving to Blaze. How much did they really know about human culture already? He only hoped the entire species was as benevolent as the magic woman and hoped that they would be even more well behaved. Something about boarding an alien ship for the first time seemed a bit daring, perhaps foolhardy. His training never included making decisions like this one. If anything, he felt sparsely equipped to handle uneventful peaceful encounters with alien species. He had killed hundreds – if not thousands – of them in the simulator
but he had never made friends with one until he met the magic woman. To an outsider, it might have seemed like an easy thing to peacefully board an alien spacecraft without much thought. To Blaze, it seemed somewhat like donating an organ: you might be willing to do it but it’s probably best to think it through before doing it.

  “Yes. Three earth hours sounds fine,” Blaze offered, a little unsure as to whether or not three hours would be enough time for Evelia to get her message ready.

  “Done,” the alien voice responded. “We'll make the arrangements and send a transport unit.” Then, rather abruptly, the transmission ended, leaving Blaze, Evelia, and every other member of the crew in utter disbelief.

  “Now what?” Evelia queried.

  “It looks like we should be getting ready for another adventure,” Blaze answered.

  “I cannot share the message Blaze,” Evelia quietly explained.

  “What?” Blaze shot back, both surprised and annoyed. He already had plenty stress; the last thing he needed was more. “What do you mean you cannot share the very message we are flying across several galaxies to deliver?” Blaze asked in frustration. “I just promised him that we would deliver the message in three hours. Now you are telling me that you cannot do it. What are you thinking?”

  “The message is very private,” Evelia explained. “and it would be dangerous to give it to just anybody,” she finished, worried that such a vague statement might be unhelpful. “I'll ask them to allow me to speak to her family.” Trust me, she silently pleaded. I know this seems confusing but I have a really good reason - I just can’t share it in front of everyone on deck, she finished.

  "Right," Blaze answered out loud, hoping his answer matched whatever she had said out loud before making her silent plea. "Well, let us get ready. Vardn, make sure we have a backup transport unit ready for launch in three hours minus ten minutes. Greydon, please look up any previous histories about dealings with alien races - everything the database has apart from sources that were obviously created for the sole purpose of entertainment. Aria, get me a report of the autopsy of the magic woman." Then, after a significant but short pause, Blaze reconsidered his request and added the modifier: "in English. ... I do not want a bunch of technical information - I just want basic information to share with this man."

  "Captain, Aria is not on deck ... she ..." Vardn paused.

  "Right," Blaze responded with impressively fast reactions. Trying to save face while suffering mild embarrassment for his faux pas – Aria did not work on deck – Blaze revised his order: "Whoever on deck is in charge over the biological unit ... make sure Aria is aware of that last order so that I can speak with her about this development.

  "Yes, sir."

  Blaze was beginning to like the sound of that.

  STEELY BLUE EYES PEERED DEEPLY into a seemingly bottomless cavern. He had flown days to arrive here. How many days, he really didn't know. All that could pass through his mind right now were the words of the magic woman. He remembered what she had said about him - about how the earth willed him to be created by the gene splicing team, how his thick fur was intended for cooler climates, how his muscles were enhanced for unequaled endurance, how he was destined to accomplish some great work that only the earth knew about. Now, he wondered if he was truly destined to do anything besides flying. Nevertheless, he felt something pulling him to continue his flight – but not northward this time.

  He stared downward into the cavern for several minutes. Whatever the magic woman's purpose, he was happy that he had followed her directions to come here – it hadn’t been short. At the same time, this whole journey seemed very surreal. This was clearly the place that she had shown him when she gave her last instructions. This was where he was supposed to stay and wait for the young man she called Blaze. This was where he was supposed to find the young man and this was where he was supposed to find his happiness.

  Suddenly, he felt compelled to fly down into the cavern; he felt an irresistible need to plunge deep into the depths of this earth. He felt a need to explore.

  Without considering the question of whether or not he would be able to see within the depths of this deep cavern and without considering whether or not he would be able to respond to the physical risks of flying within the depths of a great chasm created by an earthquake hundreds of years earlier, the griffon tore through the air and plunged into the black abyss below.

  “HAVE YOU HEARD THE NEWS?” Her voice was slightly incredulous, an emotion she hadn’t intended to so carelessly divulge.

  Toka suppressed his instinct to be annoyed by her interruption. Everyone who worked with him was well aware of how frustrated he became over trivial interruptions so this was an unacceptable oversight. “Our new captain agreed to board an enormous spaceship controlled by a species of aliens we know very little about other than their ability to control our minds …” Toka said this as if it was a questionable response – as if Aria could have been referring to something else.

  “Yes,” she responded with waning confidence. Somehow, Toka frequently managed to leave her feeling foolish – perhaps nothing more than a nuisance to be tolerated – and she was nearly regretting her decision to speak with him. Still, she couldn’t help but satiate her curiosity. “Are you going to take over the ship while he is gone?” She estimated that her question was probably expected but she also knew that Toka would never offer this information to her until it was painfully inconvenient – and she didn’t want to be surprised.

  “Of course …” His long pause was clearly deliberate as he refused to stop pushing and repositioning the holographic image of some bacteria that was imprisoning his attention. “… not,” he finished. Another long pause followed. His clear lack of desire to divulge any information was grating on Aria. On the one hand, that was the answer she was hoping to hear. On the other hand, her insatiable curiosity demanded that she know why. Then again, this may be a delicate issue, she considered.

  Subtly releasing an amount of pheromones that she knew would attract Toka’s subconscious attention and carefully adjusting her tone of voice to better obtain his focus, Aria was careful not to betray her attempt to manipulate her unpredictable master. Then she tossed him a follow up question: “Why not? This could be your golden opportunity. He is becoming unstable … that couldn’t have escaped your notice?” she offered – the last comment was more of a statement than a question but she had to intone her voice carefully to encourage any appreciable response.

  “Of course,” he offered somewhat distractedly. But this time, he sat back in his chair and allowed his eyes to loiter over his elegant creation. The exercise made Aria feel uncomfortable but she was somewhat used to it and it was an outward manifestation that her ploy was working – he would speak to her now – so she offered an alluring, yet inquisitive expression as further encouragement to tell her more.

  Toka was quite proud of his handiwork: in his eyes, Aria was the epitome of beauty and there was nothing left to improve upon her physical features. As a child, she had been diseased, disfigured, and crippled. Now, thanks to his brilliant work, Aria struggled not to feel annoyed by the many heads she turned. And while Toka frequently reveled in this, the pinnacle of his achievements, he was more than unhappy with her personality – it was astoundingly resilient in resisting genetic manipulation and sadly, he found her quite annoying. But his hopes remained high so he continued with their conversation.

  “Regrettably, Blaze does seem to be growing unpredictable – perhaps even erratic – or perhaps unstable as you suggested. I warned Dr. Boyd of this."

  "You spoke to Dr. Boyd?" Aria interrupted, incredulous. She instantly regretted cutting off Toka's train of thought but was pleasantly surprised by his response: he smiled mischievously.

  "Not directly. But of course, I maintained connections."

  As these words crossed Toka's lips, Aria found herself both surprised and disturbed. It seemed Toka always had something up his sleeve but to be able to keep indirect contact with hi
s avowed enemy for so many years seemed nothing less than prodigious - especially considering that he had kept this secret from Aria, his work companion who spent most of every day right by his side.

  Speaking over the top of Aria's contemplations, he continued his mental meanderings. “Perhaps this is only temporary … he has been under a tremendous amount of stress so there is some possibility that his actions could be environmentally motivated? … No. These are surely reactions to genetic enhancements made only weeks ago. Still his actions have been notably out of character …” Toka’s voice trailed off as he considered various factors that might account for Blaze’s rash and uncharacteristic behavior over the past few weeks. He seemed lost in thought so Aria increased her alluring scents to get him back on track – and it worked.

  “Still,” he continued, “under the circumstances, having Blaze as captain may be quite useful. He essentially gave me a venue to move forward and a carte blanche to recruit new followers. If we…” he paused after emphasizing the last word. “If we can gain his confidence, I think I could be successful in encouraging him to seek further mental enhancements – enhancements that just might go wrong and leave him my puppet. That might be much more advantageous than taking over the ship myself – I could control things without having to fuss over all of those miserable administrative details that captains have to oversee. Did you finalize that virus for release into the circulation vents?”