Energize (From the Logs of Daniel Quinn Book 1)

by Thomas R. Manning

  If the technology was wireless, then how were they connected? Could it have been the very energy source we sought? If the Dawnians powered their tech using empyreus, then they would know and could potentially tell me how to harness it. Of course I just had to figure out when and how I should bring it up to them that I wanted their energy.

  Cessa and I were led to a large building where many Dawnians were entering and exiting, a pleasant aroma filled the air. Inside I was reminded of a buffet style restaurant back on Earth as various seats and tables were placed around a large serving area with large quantities of food. Four Dawnians walked up to us with plates and gave them to us. I took some of the items Laraar and Idza took and hoped they had good taste.

  I recognized the meat and the potato pudding-looking stuff from my imprisonment and I avoided those. I grabbed an orange colored slaw and pasta of some kind. The only drink that seemed to be available was the purple milk stuff. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I heard Cessa gagging every few seconds as she surveyed the food.

  Laraar and Idza waited for the two of us to finish selecting our meal and led us towards an open area of grass and dirt. They sat down on their knees, placed one hand palm up to hold the plate, and proceeded to eat with the other. Reluctantly I did the same, hoping to show them I was eager to learn. Cessa couldn’t care less and sat cross legged.

  We silently sat there and ate. The food hadn’t really improved any from what I previously sampled, however the pasta was well seasoned. Idza smiled at me as I finished all of it.

  “You enjoy Rax?” she asked. I just stared at her, not knowing what rax was. She picked up on it and looked toward the ground, thinking of another word. “Shredded animal,” she followed up with, and my stomach twisted a little. I didn’t really care to know what part of the animal, but the cold and chewy texture led me to believe it was raw.

  “Delicious,” I said. A little white lie never hurt anyone right?

  “You ate little . . . skin shavings,” she said as she pointed to my slaw, and I almost gagged and vomited. I shook the feeling off and coughed a couple of times, feigning an itch in my throat.

  “Same animal? This rax you spoke of?” I asked her, indicating both food items.

  “Not same. Rax land animal, Quer air animal,” She said.

  Great. If their animals were anything like ours, I just sampled shavings of bird feathers. Ick. Laraar sang to Idza, waving his arm over the area we sat. He wasn’t wearing a device today, so I didn’t know what he was saying.

  “Laraar asks how you ingest?”

  “We cook meals, food, for ourselves. We use metal utensils for transferring it from our plate to our mouth to eat it.” I hoped I explained it well enough. If they wanted to know the specific anatomy that allowed us to digest food I would have to decline, but she seemed satisfied and relayed my answer to Laraar.

  “Our . . . people come here to ingest . . . to eat. Food all created here. Nowhere else.”

  I asked her if that meant their version of families, or anyone for that matter didn’t eat in their specific home. She confirmed this. If anyone wanted to eat they had to come here for their breakfast, lunch, and dinner, which I learned was separated throughout the day in multiple meal times. Instead of three meals a day they ate nine times, from sunrise to hours after sundown. I felt fatter just thinking about it.

  When I asked them how they managed to provide so much food and drink throughout the day, they told me that their food doesn’t spoil for days even in an unrefrigerated environment. Their food was also rarely ever cooked. The animals that were sacrificed to become nourishment were pure and untainted by products and ailments.

  Cessa sat with us and listened the entire time, barely touching her food. I tried to get her involved in the conversation but she would only answer with one word, mostly yes, no, or maybe. I wasn’t sure if she was acting this way because she still held hard feelings towards them or she just wasn’t in the mood to converse.

  Three days passed with a sort of schedule governing our time on the planet. It started by being let out of our cells, going to get our first meal, and spending the rest of the day exploring the village, learning crafts and hobbies of the locals, and listening to the melodies and harmonies they sang. Their music, the tasks they set for themselves, and the village around them all existed in a synchronized manner. Watching it was like watching an orchestra on stage perform flawlessly and as such, when I listened to them, I felt my own emotions and feelings matching the tempo and feeling of the music itself. The only time their music was out of tune was when Chorta tried intimidating me in my cell.

  Every night we were led back to our cells and locked inside, which grew a little frustrating. I just told myself that in a matter of hours they would let us out again, but it was another job entirely to make sure Cessa didn’t fly off the deep end or act irrationally, something I worried about every day. I guess I hoped after days of behaving ourselves they might give us open lodgings.

  On the fourth morning after our first breakfast a horn sounded in the distance and everyone stopped eating and conversing and stood up, including Laraar and Idza. We followed suit and watched as Dawnians exited quickly. Idza was particularly pleased, clapping her hands together as she looked at us.

  “You are to see something amazing!” She said excitedly. I picked up my plate to empty my leftovers into whatever they considered a garbage disposal, but Laraar put his hand up to me and then to the ground. I assumed he was telling me to leave it, as that’s what they did. I obeyed, and with Cessa we once again followed the two of them.

  Outside everyone was converging into one line moving outside the village, elder and child alike. I kept pace with them until Cessa grabbed my arm and held me back until we were a few Dawnians away from Laraar and Idza. No one around us wore a translation device.

  “We should sneak away from the group now and search for the empyreus,” she whispered to me.

  “Are you serious?”

  “When will we get a better chance than this? The village is emptying out and you know as well as I do that they have access to the empyreus. Did you see how seamless their technology worked?”

  “Yes, of course I did, but I am not deceiving these people. We are finally starting to earn their trust. Besides, even you can’t be blind to the fact that two humans, or aliens in their eyes walking away from the crowd wouldn’t be suspicious. We are going to keep moving with the group.”

  “Fine then,” she said. Somehow she held back calling me a coward, though she had it written over her face. “I’ll do it myself,” she added. This time I grabbed her arm.

  “No! You will not. You are free because I told them to release you and I am responsible for whatever happens between the two of us. You agreed that we do this my way!”

  I didn’t hear a word from her after that. I let her arm go, though I did look back every few steps to make sure she didn’t wander away. I wasn’t focused on how far we walked, but I started to tire. When we finally slowed down to a stop, I peered out to the side to see where we were going.

  Hundreds, maybe even thousands of Dawnians were entering some sort of pavilion. A wall of tree trunks separated into a wide archway where we entered. More trunks were lying flat on the ground acting as benches where people sat. I noticed all of them were facing a sand ring, just like the one I had been forced to fight in against Grent, except there was a makeshift stage erected at the far side of the ring where a number of other Dawnians already sat.

  “Please tell me I don’t have to fight again,” I said to myself, but Idza heard and laughed.

  “Your place is earned. Now we witness a joining.”

  I wasn’t sure what she meant until I took a closer look at the people sitting on the stage. They were all women. Furthermore I saw two rows filled with male Dawnians in front of the ring. I guessed that we were about to witness some sort of mating ritual. How open were these people with each other? How much were we going to see? That’s all I could think about as the
remaining Dawnians took their seats and quieted down.

  Nothing happened for a couple of minutes. Everyone just sat there looking towards the stage. I glanced over towards Idza, but she placed her hand up to her mouth gesturing for me to keep quiet. That’s when I heard a beautiful soprano voice coming from the stage. Just one. In the second row to the right, the woman was singing her song towards the men in front of her. I never thought of myself as sentimental, but I was moved by her song, and even felt my eyes grow misty. I felt as if she were intentionally causing me to feel this way, longing for someone, lonely that I was alone. I wanted to stand up and go to her, hold her, and tell her it was alright. Someone beat me to it. A man on the right stood and walked to her, joining in her song. Their voices melded as one and the feelings I had previously stopped. It left me confused for a moment.

  The ceremony went on; one by one a woman stood up and sang to the men in front of them. Every single one of them had a different impact on me. One of them made me depressed, only to be healed by their love. Another one embarrassingly aroused me, but each time after the man stood up and joined their woman the moment stopped and I felt like myself again. After nearly two dozen pairings were created, I felt like I had just laughed, cried, sang, fumed, and more all in a matter of minutes. There was so much pressure in my head, but then a gentle hand on my shoulder helped to ease it. Idza was next to me.

  “Forgive . . . Male’s not of age or already paired do not feel effects. I was unsure how you would react, not of our people,” she said reassuringly.

  “Apparently I was of age,” I said, trying to shake off the dizziness. “That was an amazing ceremony. What do you call it?”

  “It is Urar-Viara, you might name . . . Soul Song. Males and females, once of age come together to find Urar-Nika . . . Soul Mate I believe you say . . . Female expresses feelings of want and desire . . . Male answers her call depending on how the song affects them. They are forever bonded.” It took Idza some time to tell me this. Her translation was really improving.

  “What? No dating or friends with benefits?” Cessa spat out with disdain. Her head was resting on her palms and her eyes drooped. I guess romance wasn’t her thing. Then again, I reminded myself who I was talking about.

  During the ceremony, one of the songs recalled the fondness I had for space and my ship in particular. I really needed to return to the Belle at some point soon. I guessed that a week had passed since I had left the ship and I didn’t know what Al would think of that. Was he waiting for me in stand-by mode? Was he actively using his scanners trying to find me or did the Dawnian’s technology allow them to access the ship? Was it now under their control? I shuddered at the last thought.

  “Daniel,” Laraar said to me as he stepped around Idza. He was now wearing his translation device. “Suns . . . moons pass . . . we reveal many things . . . we give you trust . . .” He stopped as he tried searching for the words, but Idza stepped in.

  “Laraar is right. It is, how you say, your turn to trust us to reveal many things. You will show us your vessel you traveled with and you will tell us why you are here.”

  Looks like I wasn’t going to have to wait long to get back to the Belle after all.

  TWELVE

  We weren’t even given a day and night before Cessa and I led the Dawnians to my ship. Laraar and Idza followed us along with two of their companions, Ortu and Druga. None of them talked to me or asked me questions as we made our way back to the Belle, but Cessa was more than willing to speak to me most of the walk.

  “Have you noticed anything strange about these aliens?” she whispered to me.

  “Like what?”

  “While you’ve been running your mouth over the last few days, I’ve been watching them and listening. Don’t you think it’s a little unorthodox how they’ve acted and treated us?”

  I thought about it for a moment and shrugged my shoulders.

  “They’ve treated us well enough, even you can’t argue that,” I told her.

  “That’s the point Daniel! They have treated us well, more than well even. When we’re not sleeping in our cells they practically treat us like we belong. I wasn’t going to complain, but you have to admit how unusual it is that they let you out, and then me as well simply based on conversations and a small skirmish.”

  I wanted to argue against what she thought of as a small skirmish, but her words were a fuel that kicked my mind into gear. She had a good point. I shuddered at the thought of what scientists on Earth were ordered to do to any invading aliens, no matter what the reason. Aliens would be imprisoned much like us, but then things just got darker from there. Experiments, interrogations, and terrifying medical bullshit would be the least intrusive operations. Only after an intense research and identification process would the alien be allowed to walk freely among us. Even then I was pretty sure that they were watched and surveyed during their stay. If the aliens were deemed a threat, well, I didn’t even want to think of what happened next. Our government would just say humanity takes pride and protects its own, but I felt like fear was more the instigator in those types of situations. There was already enough trouble on Earth. The last thing anyone wanted was outside interference.

  The Dawnians caged us, sure, but after only speaking to me for a couple of days they decided to let us out and invited us to witness a very intimate ritual. Don’t get me wrong, I was grateful and thrilled to have them put their trust in me, but the more and more I thought about it, it didn’t make a lot of sense. They released Cessa who had been insanely angry and did her best to intimidate any Dawnian who passed by her. Yet at my word they set her free? And now, we were returning to the Belle and neither of us were tied or cuffed. No guards escorted us. Ortu and Druga were engineers of sorts, interested in studying the ship itself. Did they really trust me so much that I wouldn’t take Cessa, flee into my ship, and take off? Did they not care or did they assume we wouldn’t leave?

  All of these questions ran through my mind as the Belle came into view and my heart leapt out of my chest, like two best friends seeing each other again after a long separation. The Kestrel Belle never looked better. For a moment I did consider running to her and taking off. Ortu and Druga caught up to me as I briskly walked to her, smiling from ear to ear. Cessa backed off, most likely satisfied that she had planted the seed of uncertainty. Both Dawnians sang to me in turns. The two of them had supposedly been doing their own study of human speech, and wore translators similar to Idza.

  “What powers . . . ship?”

  “Where . . . crew?”

  “How . . . you reach us?”

  I felt like a ping pong ball as each of them asked question after question, not even allowing me to answer one. I let them get it out of their system as we walked up to the starboard side of the Belle and then to the cargo bay door. I input my code and the sound and motion of the door dropping brought another smile to my face. Nothing had been messed with as I took an assessment of the bay. Cessa’s cargo was still here, but a grimace on her face told me something wasn’t quite right.

  “Where’s my box?” Cessa exclaimed. Her outburst confused me until I recalled she did have a box she carried outside when we landed. The box was the only thing missing.

  “Safe . . . Rest assured,” Idza said, and the look Cessa gave her put all other looks I’ve seen her give to shame. Her eyebrows dug into her wide eyes and her mouth was a hard frown.

  “I want it back,” she said, gritting her teeth together. Idza smiled and nodded. Was that a yes? I had no idea, but everyone besides my human counterpart turned to me as if saying, ‘Your turn to talk’.

  I didn’t see what choice I had and I didn’t think anything bad would come of giving the Dawnians information on my ship and our race, so I told them what I could. Humans started to explore the stars over twenty years ago. Our ships were powered by what was known as a fusion reactor, which produced an energy output greater than a nuclear blast. Unfortunately neither of my engine cores were powered by renewable energy.
Depending on the type of ship you traveled on, you would need to dock at a space station or refueling platform every six months to a year. Of course the more you used slingspace, the quicker the fuel depleted. The Belle, for an old ship, was very conservative with her energy because she was small and nimble.

  The Dawnians understood some of the things I talked about, but others required a little more explaining. Things like different factions, multiple starship classes, and operating certain stations of the ship were some of the topics I had to elaborate on. All four Dawnians were entranced by what I was saying. They stood so still, like statues, as I told them things I felt could be comfortably discussed. When Ortu again asked about a crew for the ship, I broke eye contact and shrugged.

  “I don’t feel like I can bear the responsibility for the safety of others. I kind of have a bad luck complex. Bad things happen around me.”

  “No kidding,” Cessa muttered. I rolled my eyes at her.

  If only, I thought.

  A flashing light near the bay door latch caught my eye. Everyone turned to look at it.

  “Proximity alarm,” I said to them. “I have to go to the bridge to deactivate it, otherwise it will consider us intruders.” Al you genius, I missed you too.

  “Proceed . . . allow an escort?” Idza asked me. I would have preferred to go myself so I could vocally communicate with Al, but the request didn’t surprise me. I agreed and climbed to the main corridor with Druga behind me. When we got to the bridge he spent most of his time looking at screens and controls. His expression was vague, but if I made a guess I would say his interest in the ship dropped substantially as he looked over the specifications that were available to him.

  I took this time to key into the main screen in front of my chair and typed a message to Al.