A month later their radio began to beep. The coded signal which triggered that would only have come from a Reformer ship. They’d be going home after all.
∞ ∞ ∞
The evidence Kukul and Quetz brought back—the biological and geological samples, recordings of compromising transmissions by the priest-observers, as well as the fossil evidence—didn’t incite a revolution on its own. But a revolution had been brewing for a long time; the Reformers were gaining power, and these proofs that the priest class had been deceiving the population for generations was one of the final straws. It would take several hundred years to build, but Kukul and Quetz's findings would trigger a revolution.
39: Carson’s Questions
Aboard the Carcharodon
Carson stood in what seemed to be a briefing room, although it probably doubled as a mess or galley, aboard the Velkaryan ship. His hands stung as he brushed his palms to clean out the grit embedded in them, and his foot, hips, elbows and shoulders ached from where rocks had dug into him when he fell. The ache in his shoulders hadn’t been helped by the two burly men who’d grabbed him and dragged him aboard. They’d also relieved him of his pistol and omni. There was still gravity, but the faint vibration he could feel through the deck implied they were airborne.
“What is this, a kidnapping? What do you want?” he demanded.
“Welcome aboard the Carcharodon,” said a tall man who seemed to be the one in charge. “You might want to think of it as a rescue.”
“A rescue?” That wasn’t at all the response Carson had expected. “From what?”
“From being stranded here. Or weren’t you aware your ship had disappeared?”
“What? What did you do?” He took a step forward, and was grabbed from behind. “Where’s Jackie?” If these bastards had hurt her . . .
“We didn’t do anything. I don’t know who Jackie is—your pilot?—but from orbit we saw something fly over your vessel and after it passed, your ship wasn’t there anymore.”
“What?” I’ve got to stop saying that, I sound like an idiot. “When was this?”
“About a half an hour ago. But whatever it was also disappeared.”
A half an hour, so Jackie might not have made it back to the ship before whatever happened, had happened. “You say my ship disappeared. Was it destroyed?”
“Unknown. We didn’t see any evidence of that.” The tall man straightened up, looking more serious. “But tell me, Doctor Carson—you are Carson, aren’t you?—what brings you to this God-forsaken place?”
Carson didn’t see any problem with telling him the obvious. “Rumors of aliens and artifacts. Some prospectors back at Alpha Mensae even said the place was haunted. If you know who I am, you know I’m an archeologist. Who are you?”
“The name’s Vaughan.”
“Vaughan.” The name wasn’t at all familiar. “You saw something fly over my ship. What was it?”
“Sorry, it’s my turn to ask questions. Why Zeta Reticuli? It’s a long way from your home base. What did you find on Verdigris?”
“Verdigris? Nothing at all. Oh, about a year ago I found an unusual tomb loaded with artifacts, but we got jumped by tomb raiders. They got everything.”
“So why did you go back?”
“A follow-up survey, there are still plenty of ruins in the Verdigris jungle. Do I get to ask a question now?”
“No. So you found nothing on your last trip? Then why blow a hole in the jungle?”
So Vaughan knew about his daisy cutter. Somehow that didn’t surprise him. “Okay, I found another pyramid-shaped tomb. It turned out this one had already been looted before we got there, it was empty. Now, what did you see fly over my ship?”
“Hard to tell from orbit. From overhead it looked square.”
“A pyramid?” Carson blurted out, and then cursed inwardly. He shouldn’t have revealed that.
“A flying pyramid? That sounds a bit like something out of a cheesy science fantasy vid, don’t you think?”
Carson just glared at him.
“Interesting that you should say so, though. As a matter of fact I think it was a pyramid. How did you know?”
Again, Carson said nothing.
“You’ve seen one before, haven’t you?” Vaughan raised his voice. “Where?”
“In a cheesy sci fi vid, where else?”
Vaughan nodded slightly, and Carson felt a sudden blow above his right kidney as the man behind him punched it. He staggered and started to turn to fight back, but two pairs of strong hands gripped his arms.
“Let’s try that again. Where have you seen a flying pyramid before?”
“Just images.” That was technically true, since he’d observed the flying pyramid on Chara through electronic binoculars. “Old files of UFO reports.” That might not be. Had any of the hundreds of blurry, out of focus and overexposed pictures he’d looked at had anything like a flying pyramid? He couldn’t remember.
“I’m not sure that you’re telling me the whole truth, but let’s go back to another question. Why Zeta Reticuli?”
“Again, just rumors. There was a star map—”
“A map?” Vaughan leaned forward, an eager glint in his eye. “What kind? Where did you find it?”
Carson wondered if Vaughan thought he’d meant a talisman. “Just a hand-drawn map,” he said. “In the UFO reports, a supposed alien abduction.” The glint in Vaughan’s eyes dimmed. “Betty Hill, the person’s name was.”
“Alien abduction? Such nonsense.”
“Yet here we are at Zeta Reticuli with a ruined city outside. And something has apparently abducted my spaceship.” The connection jarred Carson. He hadn’t put it all together before; he had assumed that the Betty Hill incident was a hoax or a delusion. But what he’d just said was true. Could there have been something to the report after all? It would mean that aliens had not just been observing Earth back in the mid-twentieth century—possible, if the Spacefarers were still around—but interacting with humans to the point of abduction. Or it was all just coincidence. Carson didn’t like coincidences.
“You raise a good point. All right, that’s all for now.”
“What are you going to do with me? I need to find my shipmates, find my ship.”
“You’re our guest for now. We’ll help you find your shipmates. And we’d be happy to give you all a ride back to civilized T-space.”
“I’m sure.”
“Take Carson to cabin two,” Vaughan said, directing this to the men behind Carson. “I’m sure he wants to clean up. And secure the door.”
∞ ∞ ∞
On the planet (Zirth)
The pyramid was down. It was huge. Jackie had never been to the Egyptian pyramids, which this resembled, but she’d been to Mesoamerica. This might be as large as some of the pyramids at Teotihuacan. It was hard to judge scale this close to it, and surely the clearing hadn’t been that big. But it was larger than any spaceship, let alone starship, had a right to be. Even as it sat there, the ground trembled briefly beneath it, adjusting to its weight. Marten and Jackie had already walked away from the building towards where the giant pyramidal ship rested. Unmoving. Silent. Still as a brick.
They stood there, waiting for whatever would happen next. Five long minutes went by since the landing, and still nothing happened.
“What’s happening?” Marten said. “It’s just sitting there.”
“You’re the archaeologist. Now what?”
“You’re the space pilot, Jackie. You tell me.”
A fair point, thought Jackie. If she had just landed a ship—let alone a huge thing like this—she’d be going through shutdown procedures, checklists, making sure things were ready for takeoff on short notice, testing the air . . . The list was numerous and lengthy, probably more so for something this size. On the other hand, something this size could be crewed by a medium sized army, shutdown shouldn’t take that long. She looked back at the pyramid ship. Partway up the side nearest them, a door began to slid
e open.
40: Ketzshanass
At the Pyramid Ship
In the open doorway stood a humanoid figure, holding its hands—forelimbs, anyway—raised. In surrender or greeting? wondered Jackie, or perhaps threatening, like a bear. As part of her training she’d had a course on first contact, but it had been hypothetical. Nothing she’d studied, not the historical record or the numerous speculative fiction stories, really prepared her for this. The smooth side of the pyramid below the door shifted, morphing into a stairway. That was a good trick. Humans had polymorphic materials of course, but they generally weren’t used in ship hulls; radiation effects damaged the nanostructure and could cause random shape changes. The alien—the proportions weren’t quite right for a human or timoan—began to descend the stairs.
“Greetings,” an amplified voice came from the pyramid. In English? They must have a translator, Jackie decided, and this isn’t the first time our species have met. “Human and timoan, please do not be alarmed, we intend no harm.” They’d obviously been seen, the building hadn’t afforded much cover.
The alien stopped at the bottom of the stair and waved in a beckoning gesture. “Please, there are things we must discuss.”
“Should we answer?” Marten whispered to Jackie.
“They know we’re here,” Jackie said, and although she wanted to just retreat into the building and hide, it might not be the best course. “If we ignore them it may just piss them off. But remember Captain Cook.”
“If they wanted to hurt us they could have already.”
“True,” Jackie said, and came to a decision. “Okay, but if his eyes start glowing, run.”
“Why would his eyes glow? Wouldn’t that interfere with vision?”
Of course Marten wouldn’t get the reference. Carson might, although he’d once said “science fiction” was an oxymoron. A review of science fiction films and literature had been part of her starship pilot training, to encourage flexibility in unusual situations. “Never mind. Old Earth vid show. I was joking.”
She raised her voice, calling back to the alien. “Greetings yourself, what is it you want?”
“Please, we must go inside. It is not safe to remain here.”
“Let’s go,” said Marten.
“What? Are you crazy?” The phrase alien abduction resonated in Jackie’s brain.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve boarded an alien ship. I stowed away on a human ship when I was a kit. With the Sophie gone, and Carson taken by the Velkaryans, what options do we have?”
Jackie considered that. Marten was right, and perhaps these aliens knew what had happened to her ship. She wasn’t happy about it, though. “All right, let’s go.” She felt a hard knot in her stomach as she followed Marten toward the humanoid at the foot of the pyramid.
“Greetings,” she said to the alien again as they reached him. Or her? she wondered. The creature was not mammalian, not with the fine scales on its skin and the colorful plume of feathers at its brow; feathers she’d originally assumed were clothing or decoration. “You’ve apparently met humans or timoans before, how is it we don’t know of you?”
“It will be explained. Come, we must get inside. It is not safe out here. We have your ship.”
“What? You have the Sophie? How? Why?”
“Later. Inside now, please.” The alien made herding motions. Marten was already part way up the pyramid stairs.
“Come on Jackie,” he called back, “we don’t know what happened here. It really may not be safe.”
Jackie looked around, taking in the ruined city. Marten was right. She wondered briefly which was the frying pan and which the fire, but she hastened up the steps, the alien close behind her.
∞ ∞ ∞
They passed through what was clearly an airlock, although both inner and outer doors had been open. The outer door closed behind them as they entered. Jackie turned to her . . . what? Host? Captor? “What’s going on? Where is my ship?”
“We will explain. Please, accompany me to a more comfortable location. Your ship is safe, we have it aboard.”
Aboard? That was interesting, and might give Jackie some leverage. There were over two kilograms of antimatter on the Sophie, courtesy of Ducayne’s extended range modifications and the message torpedoes.
“Who are you?” Marten asked. “Was this . . . is this your planet?”
“Please, follow me. We will explain. You can call me Ketzshanass. ”
“Is that a personal name or your species name? If there’s a difference.”
“There is,” Ketzshanass said as he led them down a corridor. “It is my personal name. You can call us collectively Kesh. And you are?”
Jackie and Marten introduced themselves, although Jackie wondered how much Ketzshanass might actually know. They entered a room which held a table and several backless chairs, more short bench seats really, each with the seat scooped out in the back giving them a slight hourglass shape.
“Please, sit if you will be more comfortable,” Ketzshanass said, gesturing to the seats.
They all sat. Ketzshanass’s anatomy overhung the indentation at the rear of his stool in an odd fashion. A tail? Jackie wondered. The Kesh’s loose clothing made it hard to tell. If it was, it was a short one. “So—” began Jackie, but Ketzshanass cut her off with a raised hand.
“I know you have many questions. Probably many that I cannot or may not answer. Let me say first that I will not answer any questions about the locations of any planets we currently occupy, nor is this a formal ‘first contact’. We’ve had contact with humans, and timoans,” he said with a glance at Marten, “before. We are not sure that you as species are quite yet ready for full-fledged contact and commerce.”
“So why are you here, now?” asked Marten.
“And how are you here? Were you following us?” Jackie fired off questions in rapid succession. “Why was it unsafe outside?”
Again Ketzshanass held up a hand. “I will not give details of technologies you do not yet possess. In any case it is not my field. But we have been observing you for . . . a while.”
“The ruins,” Marten said. “There was a war, wasn’t there? Is that why it is unsafe?”
Ketzshanass paused before answering. “As you surmise. There are automated defenses in this system, some of which are still active, some of which exceed their original parameters. It would not be well to be caught in the open.” He turned to look at Jackie. “That is why we took your ship aboard, to protect it.”
“So you’ll give it back?”
“When it is safe to do so, yes.”
Jackie felt herself relax a little, although she still wondered what Ketz’s definition of “safe” might be, and for whom.
“How is it you speak English?”
“Nous parlons de nombreux des langues humaines, français par example,” Ketzshanass said. He followed with something in a language Roberts didn’t recognize, although it reminded her of the most common timoan dialect in Clarkeville. She looked at Marten, who was nodding as if in understanding.
“Obviously you’ve been observing us for a while, and closely,” she said.
“Consider your town on Taprobane, and your observation of timoans. Like you, we try to observe without interfering. It wasn’t always this way, our ancestors were more direct. We think that was a mistake.”
“Ancestors? From fifteen thousand years ago?”
Ketz’s brow crest feathers waggled, lowering slightly. “These details are not relevant at the moment. What is it you are doing in this system? You are a long way from home.”
“We’re exploring. We found some things elsewhere that made us think there might be something interesting here, although we didn’t know what.”
“Elsewhere? Chara III perhaps?”
“You know about that? We saw a flying pyramid there. Was it this ship?”
“No, we do not follow you that closely. There was a report.”
Jackie considered the dynamics of this. They
’d spent over a month on Sawyers World while the Sophie was being overhauled and they researched the talismans. It was possible. She took note of the Kesh’s feathers and finely scaled skin. “Excuse me if this is an indelicate question, but you’re not mammalian, are you?”
Ketz snorted and waggled his brow crest. “No.”
“So, what then? Avian? Dinosaur?”
“What makes you think we’re even descended from Earth life?” Ketzshanass asked, his brow crest feathers tilting forward in what might have been amusement.
“Everywhere we’ve found life higher than primitive single celled organisms, its DNA has been traceable to Earth. Most of the higher plants and animals have clear Earth heritage. Your scales and feathers suggest an avian origin, but your teeth and hands belie that. And we’ve never found any sign of non-avian dinosaur descendants.”
“Fair enough. If you analyze our DNA you will find it remarkably terrestrial too. We may be Earth descended; independent evolution of complex organisms like ourselves is indeed rare in the galaxy. Not unique, but rare.”
“But the fossil record on your home planet, surely—”
“I will not provide information about my home planet.”
“So the planet we’re on is not your home planet?”
Ketzshanass’s crest flattened back. “I said, I will not provide information about my home planet.”
“Okay, sorry. What about the planets that have been terraformed? Who did that, and why?”
“That was tens of millions of years before us, how would we know?” The brow crest waggled again.
“In your travels and studies . . . .”
“I can tell you this. We don’t have all the answers. But from what we do know, or think we know, the ‘why’ is more relevant today than then, and the answer to ‘who’ may be closer than you think.”
“What does that mean? That gives us more questions than answers.”
“Sometimes the path to the right answer is by way of a different question.”
“That wasn’t very helpful,” said Jackie.
The Reticuli Deception (Adventures of Hannibal Carson Book 2) Page 18