Although my body had acclimated to the Kurtz climate aboard the mega-ship the lower level of oxygen led to an early fatigue. I leaned over, placing my hands on top of my knees as I gasped for air, but my rest was short lived as the footsteps once again settled outside my door and the torch began to cut away at my defense.
I turned and ran hard slamming into the back wall of the room, but it did not give. I bounced hard whipping my head forward into the hardened bulkhead wall. As I fell back stunned, the blood began to pour from a split on my forehead. Several seconds then passed before I was again on my feet and running towards a side wall.
I crashed into the next room and then into the one beyond, each time jamming the door with a green bolt of energy as I ran. When the panel of the third wall buckled I found myself standing in the connecting hallway going out to hall 13.
I sprinted towards the adjoining hall and continued on until I reached hall 14. I turned and knelt waiting for the first unlucky Kurtz to come into the cross hallway. Two rounded the corner at the same time and two bright green bolts of energy found their marks on the unlucky alien fools.
I sprinted down hall 14 and entered the first door to my right that opened. A startled half nude Kurtz woman was in the process of dressing when I entered the room. She immediately leaped to the left side of the room looking for a weapon. I responded by jumping forward and smashing her skull in with my fist.
I commanded her door to close behind me and then blasted the wall to seal it shut. I hurried to the back wall and tested it for give. The wall bowed under the pressure of my strong arm. I stepped back and powered through the wall into the adjoining room on hall 15. My thoughts quickly turned to finding Rial Mabia as taking her hostage would bring at least a pause to my current dilemma.
I opened the door and poked my head out quickly to see if it was clear. Two blue bolts of energy screamed past my head from the right telling me that it was not. I stepped back and then lunged forward rolling on my side as I went. As I came to a stop I fired 3 bursts at the two guards that stood in front of a door on the left.
The first guard exploded in agony while the second was knocked backwards by debris coming from a bolt hitting the wall. The second guard moved slowly on the floor behind the remains of the first, so I raised my weapon to finish the job. I then noticed a flashing yellow light indicating that my gun was nearly out of energy.
I crossed the hall and then closed and blasted the doorway wall behind me. I turned to the right and ran through the wall in front of me. I burst into a room adorned with ornate decorations. I immediately recognized the blue chair as being the one Rial Mabia had sat in with her gaggle of kids in front of her so many years ago. I turned to see the five small stasis pods along the wall to the left.
I tested the next wall and was relieved when it flexed under my pressure. I stepped back to again get up the speed for crashing through it when something told me to hold back. For a moment I hesitated and then kicked hard at the wall with my right foot. The panel buckled and shattered, raining down pieces before me.
A green bolt of energy whizzed by my right shoulder and I responded by rolling left and firing. A Kurtz guard was torn in half by my shot as two others ducked for cover. I looked down at my gun only to realize the flashing yellow indicator was a solid red. I rolled across the wall opening and fired at the closest guard. A weak blue bolt of energy flew from my weapon striking the squatting Kurtz in the forearm. He fell to the side screaming in pain.
I again looked down at my weapon only to see that the red light was off. My gun was useless. I took cover away from the doorway as one green bolt of energy after another entered my room. I glanced around at the room I was in, but there were no weapons. I next looked for items I could throw, but again nothing came to mind as the room was filled with ornate paintings, draperies, soft furniture and cushions.
As the green bolts continued to come into the room through the missing wall panel I began to notice the angle of fire. The Kurtz were nearing the opening. I moved further back in the room taking up position beside one of the small stasis pods. The continuous barrage of green bolts then quickly came to an end.
A Kurtz guard peered around the opening scanning the room for my location. He then commanded that I give myself up, that I was surrounded and that I could not escape. He was right; I was trapped and I was out of options. I leaned back against a small stasis pod and rolled to the floor on my back as it slid backwards behind me.
After a moment’s hesitation I jumped to my feet and clutched the pod in my hands. I lifted it and then pulled hard, breaking the cables that connected it to power. The lighted pod went dark, ending the life of the alien child inside.
I then ran towards the opening and heaved the stasis pod at the edge of the expanse. The pod crashed hard into the adjacent wall panel hammering the guard who knelt behind it. I turned slightly and dove into the wall panel on the opposite side of the opening crashing through it and crushing the second guard beyond.
I rolled on the floor and then dove forward at the stunned guard who was still holding his forearm. His life quickly came to an end. As I began to stand I picked up his weapon, shaking my head in the affirmative as I inspected to see that the power level was set to maximum.
I then turned to the single stasis pod that sat in the center of the room. As I checked the controls I noted that the pod was already coming to life. Rial Mabia was only seconds away from awakening. I fired a bolt of energy at the door leading to the hall sealing it shut. I then turned the weapon back on Rial Mabia as she slowly opened her eyes. She was my prisoner.
Chapter 3
Ten years had passed since I had been taken captive and another five since taking control of the alien mega-ship. I was Captain, Commander Supreme of all the Kurtz and Barhoo aboard my ship. I had spared the life of Rial Mabia and placed her as my second in command. We were only weeks away from a return to Earth.
I ruled with an iron fist, executing several high ranking Kurtz by crushing their skulls with my bare fist. They had lacked the cooperative spirit that I required of my subjects. It was a difficult undertaking at first, as every fiber of my being told me that it was wrong, it was behavior that would have been looked upon as barbaric back on Earth.
But I was not on Earth, I was in space, trying to keep control over a giant ship that was crewed by aliens who appeared to have no soul. Life had little meaning to them without the constant threat of death or the potential to maintain or move up in their absurd hierarchical structure.
I had become hardened and bold with my actions. I demanded perfection from my crew and in turn took measures to better their lives. New rankings and assignments were given and promotions were commonplace. After all, there was no cost to giving out a title within such a confined community, titles were highly prized among the Kurtz.
My friend Hershen had been promoted five levels to be a member of the Captain's guard. He was ever grateful and ever loyal having moved his family’s position far above what would have normally been achievable in his lifetime. For the former captain, Rial Mabia, my promise of continued life and a position in the Human Empire had her working hard to impress me.
My repeated attempts to contact Command had been met with utter silence. I was returning to Earth with a ship more powerful than Man had ever known... with plans of my own. The first order of business would be to put an end to the ongoing food wars. It was time for Man to be at peace and to grow and to expand out into the stars.
My BGS had been made useless during its study and the bio-gel required for its operation had been destroyed. I wore the bright red uniform of the Kurtz, signifying my position on the ship as Captain. Boota had maintained his position as chief scientist, but I had given him a new title implying a promoted position. He responded by giving me undying loyalty and a fierce work ethic.
The army of utility robots aboard the vessel had been hard at work applying a new active Sodium skin to the ship’s surface. After studying the workings of the power cell from my BGS, Boo
ta had updated the ship’s fusion reactors, yielding six times the power output as compared to before.
The ship’s armaments had been updated, yielding nearly double the reach of the prior gravity beam. The workings of my personal coil gun had been scaled up with much more powerful versions ringing the ships perimeter. The aliens had a large supply of Protactinium for use as the coil guns preferred projectile, its speed neared light speed. In the dead of space the Protactinium would be incredibly difficult for any shield to stop.
The gravity drive system was in the process of being changed out to a new centralized Black-Hole-Drive that made changes in direction near instantaneous. When done, it was expected that the ship would reach light speed in 18 seconds with a maximum safely shielded speed of 7,500 SOL.
When complete, the trip to Epsilon Eridani would be made in just over a day using a mere four million tons of Sodium. Once at speed the reactors would consume two million tons a day. The ship’s hold held 100 million tons giving us more than a month and a half of travel at full speed on a full load. It would allow us to reach the opposite side of our galaxy and to return, if the need should arise.
For the final year of our journey I had ordered that the Barhoo population numbers be restored to their maximums and for the assault ships that they normally manned to be converted to agricultural use. I was going to grow food on land and in the oceans, the likes of which Man had never seen, all with my million squid Barhoo army and their handful of Kurtz taskmasters.
Our aquariums were brimming with Earth's native sea life to be used as the beginnings of repopulating our oceans. The Kurtz hydroponics labs had been used to perfect the seeds of our land crops where disease and drought would have far less impact. Earth with its rich soil and abundant waters would no longer lack for food.
As we entered the heliosphere and sped towards home I was giddy with excitement. I would be returning as a hero, a conqueror and as a force with the will and the might to end all wars on Earth.
I imagined the dawn of a new age for Earth and for Man, the age of the Human Empire was about to begin. We would build a fleet of ultra-fast and powerful ships and the Frekkin Empire would be the first to fall. From there our armies would move throughout the galaxy dominating each of the worlds... the alien worlds, that we knew existed.
In our final days of approach I received a message from my officer of the deck in our command center. She had detected high levels of radiation coming from Earth's direction. The report told that it was the same gamma radiation emitted from our nuclear weapons when they had been detonated during the battle for Earth.
My heart sank into desperation at the thoughts that the food wars had turned nuclear. I wondered if Man had finally gone and done it... pulling the trigger of mutual destruction when all hope was lost. As we passed by Jupiter my worst fears were confirmed.
We approached from behind the sun giving us a near full sunlit view of Earth. Our long range optical sensors showed devastation among many of the planet's major cities; devastation resulting from a policy of scorched-earth. Many of the cities that had survived the alien incursion were nothing more than black wastelands of ash.
The atmosphere was heavy with toxic dust and many of the croplands had a brown rather than green appearance. As my team observed further there was minimal cause for hope. Several of the large cities in Europe and across North Africa were still intact. As we journeyed closer and the world turned, the Americas showed similar results with a handful of the major cities surviving.
A shroud of clouds over the Southeastern US prevented me from seeing my home in Eastern Alabama. I wondered what might lie below. We were soon screaming down through the atmosphere over the Pacific before turning eastward.
San Diego had survived along with Phoenix, but Dallas and Houston were dark wastelands, charred by the large patterns of multiple nuclear strikes. We came to a rest over eastern Alabama at 30,000 meters and descended through the cloud cover to a rain soaked land below.
I watched on the monitor in my cabin as we came to rest a kilometer above my grandfather's farm. The house was intact, but the fields had been reduced to a few acres of sparsely planted corn and potatoes. Our few head of cattle were nowhere to be seen and the old barn was in shambles.
As soon as we came to a stop I boarded a transport and made my way to the surface. The heavy gravity of Earth made for a difficult time for the Kurtz. To them the air was foul with its distinct lack of sulfur in the atmosphere. The current report showed a higher than normal level of radiation, but not at such a level as to be immediately harmful.
When I stepped out of the transport onto the soil of Earth I had an impulse to drop to my knees and run my hands through the dirt. I was home, home on the farm; the farm I had dreamed about for 10 years was finally before me. But I dare not kneel just as I dare not cry as it would show as a sign of weakness, a sign my alien crew, however loyal, would not understand.
As I took my first step towards the farmhouse 40 meters away, a shot rang out from an upstairs window and the Kurtz guard standing just to my left fell silently to the ground with a large hole in his head. When the other guards brought their weapons to bear I gave the order to stand down.
I raised my hand and called out in an attempt to let them know who I was. I made the mistake of speaking in Kurtz to which a second shot rang out and a second guard met with his end. I then yelled out my father’s name in English followed by my mothers. The gun in the window went silent.
I ordered my guards to remain at the transport as I approached the farmhouse. I followed by yelling my own name as I came closer and was soon greeted by a strange man with a rifle standing in the doorway. He demanded that I stop and identify myself. As I told him my name he looked on in disbelief.
He turned and yelled back into the house and an old haggard woman came to the door. I at first did not recognize her as being my own mother. The years away, the food wars and the nuclear fallout had taken a heavy toll. Her hair was gray and frazzled and her clothes tattered, but her recognition of her daughter was immediate.
She raised her arms and let out my name in a weak voice. I responded by walking briskly up onto the porch and past her into the living room beyond. From up close I recognized the stranger as my younger cousin who had been a boy when I was first captured. I commanded both to come into the room and to close the door behind them.
The moment I was out of sight of my crew I broke down in tears, tears of joy that my mother was still alive and tears of joy that I had once again been able to look upon her face. After several minutes of watery eyes and prolonged hugging I began to ask about my father, about Zack and Zack's parents.
My father was on a run to New Orleans in an attempt to find parts for his broken tractor; he had taken Zack's father with him. Zack's mother had passed away due to illness a year before. I then pressed for information on Zack. My mother hesitated before giving an answer. He had been killed in the nuclear strike on Dallas before the last truce had been declared; almost two years had passed since his death.
My mother then proceeded to talk about the wars and about how the Russians had double-crossed their European allies. Other alliances then responded out of fear and within a month three-quarters of the world’s remaining large cities had gone up in cinders. Last she had heard, Earth's population was down to around one-and-one-half billion people, a number that had not been seen since the late 1800s.
Food harvest estimates were at a mostly sustainable level leading to the truces that were currently in place and holding. But everyone lived in fear of a drought or a bad harvest tipping the scales back towards starvation for one alliance or another, once again pitting man against man in a battle to survive, a battle to feed his family.
I then asked about Command and of who was in charge of our military. The answer was of a new capital of the American Alliance that had risen in Savannah, much of the rest of the East Coast had been destroyed. But the military was not as it had been. It was controlled by a council of c
ity governors, many of whom acted like warlords, coming from each of the major cities. The American Alliance council consisted of 14 such governors with Savannah being a neutral site where they would all gather if needed.
As I talked with my mother and cousin I was looking out the window at my guards and the transport. When one of the guards fell to the ground I realized Earth's heavy gravity was taking its toll on their wiry muscles and thin boned frames. I tapped my armband and gave a command in Kurtz to which my cousin looked at me suspiciously.
I ordered the guards to board the transport where the simulated gravity would put them back in their normal environment. It was an order of kindness on my part, but there would be no thanks coming from the guard as to them it was only an order, an order that was not based in kindness, but rooted with reason and purpose, a purpose they did not need to know or understand.
I then sent an order to the ship to have several of the new agricultural robots brought down to the farm. Within half an hour silos were being constructed, corn was being harvested, and barren fields tilled. My grandfather's farm would be the first of many to be reconstructed.
I spent the afternoon telling my mother the story of my captivity and of my escape. I told of the Kurtz and the Barhoo and of how their races functioned and behaved. I then told of the vast resource that was the mega-ship and of how I would use that resource to solve the world's food ills.
She remarked that food shortages were not all that plagued the Earth. We had to contend with Man's hatred of fellow man because of past events. The generation of people in Texas would not soon forgive the Chinese, nor the French their Russian counterparts. The years of war had instilled deep-seated hatred of once friendly nations, a hatred that could easily last a generation.
I wondered if my mother's wisdom was right. I wondered if I had come home to a broken world, a world that could not be fixed, a world that was doomed to failure. It was an outcome that I would not accept, an outcome that I would deny to those who wished it so. I commanded the mega-ship, a ship more powerful than Man had ever known, a ship that was capable of conquering Earth's inhabitants with little effort.
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