by SD Tanner
It could change everything they knew about space travel. Less time wasted meant they wouldn’t need to put the Navigators into stasis. If that were the case then they wouldn’t need the Bombardiers to control the ship while the Navigators slept, making him wonder whether they would need them at all. Eliminating them as a line wouldn’t be difficult. They disappeared in space within ten years, so all they had to do was to stop creating Bombardiers.
“If this works will we need the Boms?”
Guiding him towards the stairs that led to the bunker door, Dunk Two replied, “We’ve never liked them.”
“We?”
Taking each step at a steady pace, Dunk Two reached the top of the stairs and turned around. “You know what I mean. The Boms are too capable and they could do a lot of damage. We only created them for space travel, but if we don’t need them anymore…” He finished his sentence with a slight shrug.
He didn’t care about the Bombardiers. They were only a secondary species kept under control by how many CaliTech created. With only two thousand at any point in time, there wasn’t a lot they could do against three hundred thousand Navigators. His only concern was what would happen to Ark Three.
“Why would Ark Three transform if we don’t need the Boms anymore?”
Dunk Two shrugged dismissively. “That’s his call. I don’t care what he does. He’s only one man, so how much trouble can he cause?”
“Why would he cause any trouble?”
“His predecessors haven’t always agreed with our plans, and I don’t expect him to be any more cooperative than they were.”
He and his brother didn’t always see eye to eye. Ark Three believed in the power of people, but he didn’t have a lot of respect for the average man, not that he knew many. Most people were like sheep, deriving pleasure out of small things. The Bombardiers were a different type of problem. With their advanced capabilities, there was always a risk they could rise up against the United Guild, not that they’d ever shown any inclination.
By only ever allowing two thousand Bombardiers they were a hard won right. The average household in the Guild had just enough to get by. Adding a Bombardier or Navigator to the family entitled them to greater privileges, including better housing and extra monthly trading credits. The original Dunk had theorized that if people were kept busy working for their basic needs, and dulled by alcohol and entertainment, they wouldn’t have time to argue with his leadership. His theory had led him to reinstate the Global Entertainment Network dedicated to keeping the masses amused, and instead of alcohol, feel good pills were distributed by CaliTech. In effect, they kept the masses docile through the use of drugs and mindless programming. It meant the bulk of their population were dullards, so only the best were ever chosen to work as Bombardiers or Navigators.
He turned to his clone, giving him a sly smile. “There’s something missing.”
“What’s that?”
“You’re not trying to cure old age.”
Although he’d lived to be one hundred and forty years old, the original Dunk hadn’t been able to renew his cells any further. After becoming too old to live comfortably, he’d left clear orders that they were to continue their research into cell renewal, but it looked as if no one was bothering. It meant that Dunk Two never intended to resurrect the man who had given his DNA to create him.
With a typical outburst of manic laughter, Dunk Two replied, “Why would I do that?”
Smirking cynically, he replied, “Our originator left us orders.”
“He might have donated his cells to create us, but that doesn’t make him the boss.”
It would seem Dunk had underestimated just how like him his clones would be, or maybe he’d always known they wouldn’t bother to bring him back. Turning on his heel, Dunk Two waved at him to follow. Walking behind, studying his thinning hair and narrow shoulders, Dunk Two was the man he was becoming, but knowing he was destined to be an insanely ruthless despot only depressed him.
CHAPTER SEVEN:
A Future Told
(Ark Three)
Puking goo from every orifice, Ark slipped on the floor inside of the Navigator living pod. Prior to this tour, all of his trips into space had lasted no longer than a few days. Now they’d been travelling continuously for several months, each isolated in their stasis tube while the Bombardiers took them from one planet to the next. If this trip was supposed to encourage him to transform it was definitely working. At least as a Bombardier, he would never have to go into stasis again.
“Tank?”
“Yeah.”
“Where are we?”
“Deep space.”
“Where?”
“Do you think knowing the coordinates will help?”
He supposed he was right. Finding a frame of reference in space was difficult, so the coordinates would only be a list of meaningless numbers. Even if he did try to visualize his location compared to Earth, it wouldn’t tell him anything other than he was a long way from home.
“What have you found?”
“Gear up and get to the B-crap.”
After putting on their Navigator gear, the squad zipped through the tubes, finally climbing through the slit that opened into the Battle Command Pod. For the first time since he’d begun traveling through space, he saw something interesting on the screens surrounding the room. Multiple images of the planet showed clouds drifting through the sky, almost obscuring the small patches of blue and wider expanses of green and orange beneath them. They were orbiting a planet that was comparable to Earth.
Sounding as surprised as he felt, he asked, “Is that water?”
“We won’t know until we land, but it looks like it to me.”
Cardiff gave a delighted whoop. “Wow! It looks like another Earth.”
“It’s not quite the same. We sent visibility pods into the atmosphere. The gravity is lower, the air is thinner, but there’s enough oxygen.”
“For Humans or Bombardiers?” He asked Tank.
“Both.”
His squad broke into excited chatter. Finding one planet with life was surprising enough, but two was nothing short of a miracle, making him wonder how Tank knew where to look.
Placing his hand on his mentor’s shoulder, he leaned down. “We must be the luckiest battle team ever.”
Tank didn’t move, but continued running his thickened fingers along the tablet he was holding. “I don’t know what you’re suggesting.”
He wasn’t sure what he was implying either. Bombardiers had travelled the stars for centuries, finding very few planets with any signs of life. Admittedly, their technology had improved so they could travel further and faster than before, but not enough to significantly speed up the expansion of their borders. He thought it was a strange coincidence that, on his first long tour into space, they’d found two planets with signs of advanced life. It was as if Tank knew exactly where to go, implying he’d found the planets on earlier missions, but not told the Guild. Withholding information from the Guild was treason and that would mean Tank was playing a dangerous game.
Narrowing his eyes at Tank’s baldhead, he decided not to pursue the subject. “What’s the plan?”
This time Tank looked up at him. “I was going to ask you that question.”
He was starting to understand how space exploration worked. A Bombardier was close to being indestructible, as were Navigators providing they were in their gear. Every time they found a planet that might contain life, they needed to verify their suspicion, which meant traveling to it in person.
“We should do a flyover and then land if it looks safe enough.”
“How many ships?”
“We’ll take three, but the battleship should stay close enough for us to haul ass if we need to.”
“Good enough.”
Once they were secured in their attack ships, they dropped from the docking bay into the atmosphere. Freefalling onto the planet’s surface, the little vessel plummeted towards the ground. With the lo
wer gravity, their fall was slower than it would have been on Earth, giving him the opportunity to enjoy the ride. Feeling a sense of freedom as if he were flying, he hooted in delight. Something about finding another planet that looked like his own had left him feeling euphoric. This planet had water and that meant it probably contained real lifeforms, not just bugs and bacteria.
Tank wrecked his high when he said, “The alien and the dust bunny went back to Ark Command on a transport pod.”
Even though they were flying to a planet that he was sure would contain life, he felt his mood plummet as quickly as the ship was heading towards the ground. The bird was already gone, no doubt secured behind the walls of CaliTech, never to be seen again. In his mind, its terrified wailing still made his stomach clench with an emotion he didn’t understand. Perhaps it was empathy or pity, but he didn’t really know.
“I promised to take it home.”
“You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.”
At a time when they should have been excited by their discovery, why had Tank chosen to tell him that he’d kidnapped another species, handing it over to people who would think nothing of taking it apart? The creature hadn’t done them any harm and they had no business taking it from its home. His unspoken and barely understood worries about the United Guild took center stage in his mind.
Below him, the clouds were thinning, giving him a view of the green and orange land with the snake shape of blue weaving through it. “What’s your point?”
“What will you do with the species on this planet?”
A spark of anger coursed through him. “It’s not what I’ll do that’s the problem. You’re the one that handed over the bird. I was in stasis.”
“You never told me to do any different.”
“How would it have helped?”
“In space, you’re the battle commander of your vessel. You decide what we do.”
“You should have made that clearer before I went into stasis.”
They were now close to the surface, and he wanted to enjoy exploring the planet, not start an argument with Tank. Leaning into the window, he tried to see the terrain below, but dressed in his full armor his oversized shoulder was blocking the view.
“Tilt right,” he ordered the ship.
Traveling at an angle, he could see the ground that was only five hundred feet beneath him. Using his standard vision, he was able to appreciate the beauty of the colors in a way he knew Tank couldn’t. Bombardiers might have naturally advanced vision, but like the Navigators with computerized orbs, they sacrificed color and granularity. The planet’s surface was covered in rolling low hills of dense green shrubbery speckled with splashes of brilliant purple. Patches of flat land the color of burnt orange broke up the seemingly endless rolling green. A brilliant blue river twisted through the area, contrasting with the colors on the land in a way he’d never seen before. The vivid and starkly different colors were so bright they appeared to be vibrating with energy.
Through his transformed eyes, Tank was seeing something very different. “It’s alive.”
“What is?”
“The whole planet.”
Ordering his visor to advanced viewing, he flicked through spectrums until he found one that best emulated Tank’s vision. The brilliant colors disappeared and now energy was displaying as flares of red. He could see what Tank was saying. The planet was glowing as if every single cell was about to explode. Displaying itself as pure power, small arcs of red were expanding from every cell, making it the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. This planet made the blueness of Earth look dull, almost mundane and lifeless. Through his earpiece, he heard the voices of the battle team.
“Awesome!”
“Woah!”
Smiling to himself, completely caught in the moment of discovering a new world, he forgot all about the bird and the Guild. “We should land.”
“Where?”
“Does it matter?”
Tank ordered the ship to land on a patch of orange ground next to the brilliant blue river. Standing in his seat, he swung his legs over the edge of the cockpit, sliding to the ground. With its lighter gravity, he sunk slowly into the orange surface, finding it spongy in a strangely welcoming way. Turning in a slow circle, he was standing in a small open area hemmed by the green and slowly drifting blue that looked like a river. Twenty feet high, the green walls weren’t trees or shrubs. Lumpy and solid, the formation reminded him of sprayed foam only rather than white, it was light green with splashes of brilliant purple.
While the two-man squads clambered from their ships, he said with some satisfaction, “I think we just landed in paradise.”
Already crouched on the ground, Tank was running his hands along the surface. “It’s not exactly grass, more like moss.”
Leaving Tank to play with the orange surface he knew he couldn’t really see, he walked to the blue river. With no bank between the orange and the blue, only a line divided the two surfaces. Where the orange was static, the blue appeared to be moving. Flashes of silver were flicking through it, making him wonder if they were some sort of fish. The blue was so deep that even with his advanced vision he couldn’t see the bottom. It was then that another flash caught his attention, only this one was somewhere behind the green wall.
“What was that?” He called.
“I don’t know, but I saw it too,” Tank replied as he stood up.
While they both stared intently at the light green wall in front of them, it flashed again. “I’m going to check it out.”
Ordering his Bombardiers to wait for them, Tank took his Burner from its holster. Standing in front of the green wall, he wasn’t sure what was behind it or even how to get inside. While he pondered if they should fire a laser at it, the green rearranged itself until a short corridor appeared in front of him.
“What do you think?” He asked uncertainly.
“I think we’re armed.”
Pulling his own gun from its holster, he raised it ready to fire as he walked into the corridor. Once they both stood inside of it, the green rearranged itself again, effectively closing the door behind them. If he could liken it to anything, it was as if they were walking through a corridor in an underground cave, except the splashes of purple on the walls were lighting their way. Surrounded on all sides by green, he took another step forward. The green parted again, offering him another short corridor. It seemed to be responding to unspoken commands, making him wonder if it was intelligent or only operating instinctively.
His visor wasn’t showing him anything beyond the walls until a flash of brilliant silver caught his attention. Moving towards it, the green wall parted again, only this time the corridor was longer and they weren’t alone. The figure of what looked like a woman was bending low while she put something into a large sack bag across her shoulder. Distracted by whatever she was doing, she didn’t see them until they were less than twenty feet from her. Her hair was a tawny gold, disheveled and wild. When she reached out an arm to pluck something from the ground, he noticed her long fingers were almost twice the length of his own. Finally realizing she was being watched, she turned her head, immediately jumping to her feet. She was tall and her skin was the color of honey. Dressed in a fitted brilliant blue body suit, it clung to her curves, emphasizing her high bust and full hips. Framed by a mane of wild looking hair, her face was fine boned and she looked human.
Dropping whatever it was she had in her hand, the woman turned and ran, making the green walls part. When the wall began to close behind her, he ran towards it, forcing it to open again. Compared to them she looked fragile, and although he didn’t want to frighten her, they needed to talk. With the green opening and closing, he could easily lose her. Resisting the urge grab her, he managed to snag the strap on the bag she was wearing across her body. By holding it firmly he forced her to stop, but she wriggled free of her bag and began pulling away again.
Flicking up his helmet, he called, “Wait!”
Tank
had already pulled his AI unit from his gear and it automatically repeated his words, creating a garbled sound that probably didn’t make much sense to her. Whatever the little box had said it was enough to make her stop. Speaking rapidly in words he didn’t understand, the woman, at least that’s what he believed her to be, ranted and gestured wildly at both of them.
“What’s she saying?” He asked Tank.
“Give the AI a chance to catch up.”
Eventually the little box began to find the patterns in her language, translating as best it could. “No. Go. No.”
An endless stream of rejection flowed from the speaker on the little box, but eventually the woman stopped talking and instead stared at the box in Tank’s armored hand.
“We’re friends.”
When the box spoke to her, she screwed up her face in a way that only added to her striking features. “No.”
“We come from…another planet.”
“I know.”
Her answer surprised him. How could she have known where they were from? Standing in front of him, her posture and expression was defiant, as if she already didn’t like them. Given both he and Tank were more than a foot taller and wider than she was, her aggressive stance was surprising. Compared to them, she was unarmed and defenseless, but she continued to glower at them with eyes that were colored a dark shade of purple.
“Why do you think I’m bad?”
To his surprise, her eyes softened and the glint in her purple eyes turned a shade lighter. “Not bad. Not right.”
Quickly glancing at Tank, he asked, “What does she mean? How am I not right?”
Answering for Tank, the woman sighed and pointed at her chest. “Mariana.”
“I’m Ark. Ark the Third.” Flicking his thumb at Tank, he added, “This is Tank. There’s only one of him.”
While the woman remained completely still, watching him curiously, he struggled to know what to say next. He was on an alien planet talking to a species that were so close to being human it was uncanny. She shouldn’t look like them, but with two eyes, a small nose and a full-lipped mouth, there was little difference between them. If he could move the mane of hair from her face, he was sure he’d find a matching set of ears. The fitted suit she was wearing left no questions as to her shape, and poking from the bottom of it were two slender feet.