by Trent Falls
“How do you propose to do that?” John asked.
“I have an advanced autorepair system on my ship.” Alex explained. “Alien technology, yes, but I built it myself with parts I made on Earth. The Tequesta looks like she’s….” Alex shut his eyes. He looked as though they were rolling back in their sockets. “… just about ready to fly again. There’s just one problem.”
“What’s that?” John pressed.
“The super condensing coils on the ship need time to extract the necessary oxygen and hydrogen from the atmosphere to refill the standard cryofuel tanks.”
“A ship that big needs, what, about eight hours?” John guessed.
“About nine hours and fifteen minutes from dead empty.” Alex corrected. “They’ve been active for about one, so we’ve got eight to go.”
“This is ridiculous. The Xen recon will find your ship before it can refuel.” John groaned.
“Assuming it’s even in the same place.” Alex grinned back at John wisely.
John stared at Alex for a moment then shook his head. “This is crazy!”
“What’s crazy?” Alex asked. “This place? The planet we’re stuck on? The whole scenario???”
John exhaled in frustration.
“John you scarcely have an idea of how big this situation is.” Alex explained. “Much of what you know as speculation is true. The Norn HAVE visited Earth many times in the past and contributed to humankind’s discovery of warp drive. The problem is… many in what you call The Norn have come to regret that intervention. If Scott Euler is able to discover more about the Norn and our technology it could pose a serious risk to humankind.”
“Well, how much worse can we fuck things up, Alex?” John replied snidely.
Alex’s glowing eyes stared at John in an emotionless manner. “The Norn will not allow humans to obtain further knowledge of us – of our technology. The only way to limit the misuse of that knowledge is to eliminate those who would misuse it.”
The half grin on John’s face melted away. “They wouldn’t!” John exclaimed in shock.
“The human race has already done enough damage with hyperdrive technology.” Alex stated coldly. “Your people took something beautiful and turned it around to use in your petty wars. All the while, you ignore the basic fact that you’re all human beings. You’re all of the same race, yet you continue to divide into factions to kill each other.”
John continued to look at Alex blankly.
“It took a great deal of debate to keep those who would eliminate the human race at bay. To give your people a second chance.” Alex continued. “I revealed this to you, not only because of your memory block rupture, but because a part of you needs to know the stakes.”
“Damn!” John breathed soberly. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The Norn? Eliminate the human race?? “It can’t be” John looked up at Alex again. “I just…. All I wanted to do is find my niece! That’s all! I’m not out to save the universe! Or convince the Norn that we’re worth saving!”
“No one is asking you to do any of that.” Alex replied evenly. “I’m going to repair your memory as best I can. I can’t allow you to remember this exchange, though. Not clearly enough to cause trauma. We will find your niece, John. I will help you get her home. You need to help me, though, stop Scott Euler and his team from locating The Watchtower.”
“So the Watchtower is real?” John’s head tilted slightly in surprise.
Alex didn’t respond. His eyes glowed brightly again. Eventually the white glow from his eyes grew incredibly brilliant, blocking out all detail of the rest of Alex’s body. Soon the surrounding York, Pennsylvania neighborhood faded into the bright white light.
John blinked. Everything went dark.
When John’s eyes opened again he could see nothing. Slowly, as his pupils adjusted, he could make out Alex’s form standing in the darkness in front of him. There was no longer a glow from Alex’s eyes, which appeared as normal as ever. The surrounding rainforest soon appeared as well as dark hues of green amidst leafy shadows.
“You understand then?” Alex asked John plainly.
For John’s part he could recall very little of what had happened. He knew Alex was different. He kind of knew Alex wasn’t completely human. John remembered that stopping Euler from finding Norn technology was as important as finding Julie. Beyond that his mind could not summon the detail to fill in the blanks. John focused really hard to remember but couldn’t. And for some reason, it didn’t matter.
“Yeah, I understand.” John nodded. “Let’s get back towards your ship. We need to get the hell of this rock!”
Chapter 14
The rainforest was dark. The leaves of the trees were outlined in the silver light of the two moons of Altair Nine; one a sliver of a crescent and the other a much larger hazy grey outline taking up more of the night sky. A salamander-like creature crawled down the stems of one of the trees, stopping to take a few laps at a broad wet leaf with its tongue. A group of indigenous primates that looked like large marmosets scurried along the leafy rainforest floor to look for grubs to eat.
They froze. One by one they turned their heads towards some unseen dark point in the rainforest. Their large red eyes fixated on one point. A barely audible crunch of wet leaves was heard. The large marmosets vanished, scurrying away or up into the trees for safety.
A unit of Xen advanced recon soldiers emerged from various points in the dark forest. They all wore their standard lightweight padded flash armor, flat grey and olive drab in color, with light tactical lenses over their eyes. The inside of the lenses relayed information from their central command in a heads-up display while also amplifying the available light to make the surrounding jungle more visible. Most of the soldiers carried submachine guns, with a few assigned standard assault rifles for longer-range firing capability.
The unit emerged out into the wet grass clearing where the Tequesta had crash landed. Part of the long gouge was visible about two hundred meters away. With such a vast amount of open space, the broad field of grass offered pause to the unit commander. Recon preferred the cover of the jungle.
“Rauch, Lei, Wong, Russo. Spread out and watch the perimeter tree line.” The unit’s lieutenant spoke into his headset coms system. “Everyone else spread out in a wide squad wedge. Stay sharp.”
The soldiers dispersed as ordered. Rauch, Lei, Wong, and Russo, all of whom had assault rifles, moved in quick step to the very outer flanks of the field, all the while keeping their tactical lenses fixed out to the tree line. The rest of the squad dispersed over the broad range of the field into a loose wedge formation. The lieutenant walked in the center of the wedge as the unit moved at an even pace towards the crash site. A light drizzle began to tap on their heads, popping off the glazed outer shell of their goggles. The rain water didn’t register within the tac lenses. Instead, the lieutenant and his men saw a blue green rendition of the nighttime environment.
It was a fairly long walk along the trench that the Tequesta had gouged in the earth. The riflemen and a pair of submachine gun wielding recon soldiers walked across the muddy gouge to the opposite side to secure the area. In all the recon soldiers covered a wide line over a hundred meters wide, all the while being alert of their surroundings and while keeping an eye on their fellow soldiers.
It took about twenty minutes for the group to close in on the end of the trench. The rich brown mud in the trench grew thicker. The lieutenant fixed his eyes forward. The computer inside his lenses could sense him squint and adjusted focus digitally to compensate. Neither he nor his men could see the ship ahead, though it was very dark and the muddy earth had been pushed up into a large heap obscuring the end of the trench.
“Yao. Turgot.” The lieutenant called into his com. “Guns up! Let’s go in smart.”
The lieutenant raised his own submachine gun up to his sight. A holographic reticule activated within his tac lenses. A pair of markers beneath the reticule helped put his head in line with the gun
’s sights. Range to target was indicated in the upper right at forty seven meters.
The recon team moved in to the end of the gouge. The squad wedge closed in, though they didn’t bunch up too tightly, as they walked the last few steps.
“Sir.” The lieutenant spoke aloud to some unseen higher power on his coms.
“Go ahead, lieutenant.” a captain replied over the com.
Lieutenant Surgh and his men stood at the edge of the pit at the end of the crash gouge. There was a massive spade shaped imprint in the mud where the Tequesta had once rested. The 46 meter vessel itself was missing. The crater where it had come to a stop was empty.
“We’ve arrived at the crash site only… the vehicle is gone.” The lieutenant noted.
“Say again, Surgh.” The captain demanded.
“The rogue civilian transport that crashed at these coordinates.” Surgh clarified. “It’s gone sir! No evidence of wreckage! Nothing!”
“Well where the hell did it go?” the captain demanded.
“No idea, sir.” Surgh answered. “Maybe we have the wrong coordinates.”
“Wrong coordinates?” the captain’s voice replied. “Lieutenant, you’re standing at the end of a half mile long gouge in the ground on a relatively uninhabited planet. I think you have the right coordinates. Find that ship!”
Captain Yuri Magnuson was fairly typical of many Xen. His great grandparents were a mix of humans from Earth. Norwegian, Chinese, Russian, a little Ukrainian, and even a bit of Jordanian was in his genetic background. Visibly he looked very similar to any other human. Only minor stylistic differences marked him as Xen. His well groomed beard had sharp, yet subtle, accents to its shape. His eyes had the subtle epicanthic fold features hinting at his Chinese genetics. His hair and beard had a bit of an odd orange tinge. Magnuson had a somewhat unusual appearance for Xen senior command. Most of the Xen Navy skewed towards commanders more Asian in appearance; a hangover of human bias.
Magnuson poured himself a glass of Krynien bourbon. It name was from the Krynien Region of Xen. It was smooth; almost cherry red in color. Magnuson let out a deep breath from his fifty two year old frame before lifting the glass to his lips for a drink. He sat in the command office of his ship, which was much like Shin’s on the Ao Shun. The broad forward viewport was at his back, with the star filled sea of black beyond. Magnuson, in his navy blue command uniform, took another sip of his bourbon.
The door to his office chimed.
“Come in.” Magnuson said aloud. He depressed the door release on the touchscreen of his desk’s workstation.
The door slid open. One of the Xinglong’s marines entered first, wearing the padded navy blue armor typical of their ranks. The armed guard turned inside the doorway to secure the entry. Scott Euler entered next, followed by Lieutenant Zao and two of Zao’s men. The second of Magnuson’s marines entered, securing the other side of the door.
“Mister Euler?” Magnuson spoke from his chair behind his desk. In his tone he was unsure if the Earthling standing before him was, in fact, Euler.
“Yes, Captain. Scott Euler.” Euler nodded, not sure what else to do.
“And you?” Magnuson looked to Zao, as he was the senior Xen officer among Euler’s team.
“Lieutenant David Zao. Attaché to Captain Quan Shin of the Ao Shun and, by extension, the Xen high council.”
“Marines.” Magnuson spoke directly to his guards. “Please stand watch outside. We require a measure of privacy.”
The marines complied. The two soldiers in their thick blue armor walked out of the sliding door to the office. The door hissed shut behind them.
“You operate under command authority from the Xen High Council.” Magnuson spoke more freely. “I require command codes to verify.”
“One Echo One Lima Kilo Foxtrot November Tango.” Euler spoke aloud instead. “Codeword authentication - Overlord.”
Magnuson’s eyebrows rose for a moment. He shook his head slightly, exhaled, and took another sip of his bourbon. “An Earthling with our top secret authentication codes.” Magnuson smirked. “My how times have changed.”
“My bold friend here is a trusted agent of the High Council.” Zao noted. “Times, yes, have changed. We are undertaking a joint expedition to locate new… resources for the Xen Republic.”
“And what’s in it for the Terran?” Magnuson asked Zao, glancing with his eyes at Euler.
“Money.” Zao explained simply. “The war is over. Economics is the framework for moving forward.”
“Yes.” Magnuson grinned again at Zao. “A textbook academy response. I did enjoy the lectures on the United States’ Civil War as well.”
“What we are looking for is more vital to our Empire than what was gained during the American Reconstruction.” Zao explained.
Magnuson set his glass down. He silently mulled if he should pour himself another drink but decided not to. He thought silently for a moment, eventually looking back up ad Zao and Euler.
“I don’t know what the council intends to accomplish with all of this… and I honestly don’t care.” Magnuson noted. “If you ask me, we’ve been without real direction since the end of the war.” Magnuson paused and looked at Euler. “No offense.”
“None taken.” Euler noted evenly.
“We will have command authority over you and your men.” Zao explained what Magnuson already knew. “We will be as unobtrusive as possible. Really, we’re just looking for the two individuals on the planet. Once they’re apprehended and in our custody we’ll be on our way.”
“You didn’t expect to find us here, did you?” Magnuson observed.
“I’m sorry?” Zao asked.
“I was talking to the Terran.” Magnuson clarified, looking directly at Euler. “You didn’t expect to find us here, did you?”
“It wasn’t in our plans, no.” Euler responded. “We expected to rendezvous with the ship your fighters shot down.”
“Well, your pilot was spooked by our alert fighters.” Magnuson noted. “Whoever that pilot is he's an excellent pilot. He managed to fly two of my GV-47 starfighters into the ground. And my alert pilots aren’t rookies, either.”
“That transport ship is supposed to be unarmed.” Euler stated with some surprise.
“Yeah,” Magnuson breathed, “it was an unarmed vessel. Yeah.”
Euler offered only a blank expression in response.
“This pilot you’re looking for is skilled.” Magnuson noted. “Some might say elite. To take a flying bus and outwit two of my best pilots in Xen starfighters… impressive to say the least.”
Euler looked at Magnuson blankly for a moment. “Perhaps your men had a bad day. I’m sorry for the loss of your men, but we have a mission to accomplish.”
“Of course.” Magnuson smirked.
“By your leave, Captain.” Zao bowed slightly.
Lieutenant Zao turned and led Euler and his group away. Captain Magnuson remained behind his desk with his empty glass tilted in his hands.
Aiyana’s ship sat very still, nearly motionless, in space. She tried her best to inconspicuously keep the ship’s round forward viewport aimed at the blue and green planet of Altair Nine ahead. She knew that if she were spotted she’d have very little time to get her main engines up and run. She’d likely be killed by an overwhelming number of Xen fighters.
All the same, she was there. The risk had been taken.
The Martian Steel prospecting ship was much like an elongated three-sided pyramid set on its side. Three round engine bells protruded out the back of the ship; two at the flat top of the craft and one below at the ventral point of the triangular hull. All three engines were stone cold.
In her time floating in space Aiyana had been able to gather more intelligence on the Xen and the goings on around the planet. The Xen were conducting a serious search and rescue operation. More burst transmissions were sent back to the 61 Virginis region of space. It was heavy encryption. She had managed to isolate some of the transmission co
de an analyzed it. While she wasn’t able to break the code to get at the content she did recognize the style of encryption. It was EEF!
Scott Euler or his men were somewhere on the Xen carrier; of that Aiyana could be certain.
Her ship was getting cold. She really wanted to activate the interior lights and the heater but she knew bringing up those systems would cause her energy signature to spike, likely enough to attract attention from the Xen navigators on the carrier in her field of vision.
The carrier WAS massive! It was easily one of the largest ships she had seen; larger than the bulk cargo ships of her company. Even though it was too far away for her to make out detail she knew that it also bristled with armament. As she thought about it the Xen might not send fighters after her if she were detected. They could simply launch a tactical missile or two at her and blow her to kingdom come. The thought of it was sobering and scary enough to keep her awake even though the freezing cold of her ship made her want to sleep. Her black flight suit’s thermal layering offered some warmth but not enough.
Aiyana looked out to the blue and green planet again.
She knew John was on that planet!
The dark of night had faded into a light grey of dawn. The sun’s rays were just outlining the distant mountain chain. The light rain that had passed was gone. The ground and the surrounding rainforest remained damp but wasn’t as bad as the night before. A cold had settled in from a passing front.
John walked slowly behind Alex. As had become typical, John’s M-10 was ever ready in his grip. He held its pistol grip firmly with his index finger extended over the trigger guard in a safe position. John’s black cargo pants and black shirt were a bit damp but not uncomfortable. Thankfully, his feet were still dry in his tactical style hiking boots.
He looked at Alex as he walked ahead of him. There was something about Alex he couldn’t place. Something he couldn’t remember. Alex had looked different somehow than the friend he had known for the last ten years or so. He knew there was some new importance to Alex – something he had learned… but couldn’t remember.