The Far Field: A Military Science Fiction Epic (Seedlings Book 1)

by Richard Sosa

  Rik’s translator instantly forced the words into his brain and neurons connected his brain to muscles in his mouth, he thought, who are you and ice cream yourself? Rik stood up shakily and raised his hands in peace while smiling sheepishly. He scanned around searching for a way to run but he’s trapped. He’s surprised to see a futuristic city in the distance, clean, bright, with tall buildings standing at odd angles. The colors white and purple predominate in the architecture and the decor and garments of the onlookers. Women had their hair combed over half the face and held in place with ornate weaves, colored strands of hair, ribbons or vibrating light chasing delicate tubes braided in the hair. They stared back at him but did not smile. The men sported a thin braid of hair fashioned across the face or pulled back behind the ear and they eyed Rik with suspicion and curiosity. It's calm, quiet, in contrast to the chaos he just left. Rik heard tapping and clicking sounds of the crowd using handheld computing devices. A small mechanical flying insect circled him then another joined, and others pestered him, circling, moving close in and out and Rik instinctively swatted at them. The little drones avoided his efforts and continued to circle him.

  Dask re-directed his attention saying loudly to his soldiers. “Hy wa-s gevaarlik.”

  Rik repeated the words silently to himself, “he’s dangerous, watch him close by.” The soldiers took the order to heart and pointed their futuristic-looking rifles at his face while the civilians appeared oblivious to the soldier’s presence and continued to be occupied with data gathering efforts. Dask’s hand indicated an order to the soldiers and they moved closer to Rik with weapons raised. Rik felt the heat on his throat, and he knew his translator was finally working properly, he could speak.

  Dask looked back at Rik and asked again more slowly with a deadly voice, “wie-jy ewes?”

  Rik spoke quickly not sure what he was saying but repeating Dask, “Who are you? Who are you? I am, not, me also, dangerous. I am not ‘body’. I am who you. You’re not dangerous. My data can’t see you by dinner. I want macaroni.”

  Rik eyed Dask to see if his words made an impact. He touched his translator by pretending to rub his chin and the translator vibrated as it worked through the sounds of others around him speaking close enough for his technology to piece language data together and translate the language into his brain. Rik continued. “This, testing. I am ‘friend’. I am well also so you must be a woman. Mommy, I want to go home. Who are you? I am ‘no body’ only an anomaly.”

  Dask listened to the gibberish, “What? Untruth.” Soldiers moved closer pointing menacing weapons at his face, flipped off safety mechanisms and laser targeting lights danced on his legs and chest increasing like a light show.

  Rik was desperate. Putting up his hands out and bowing his head, “Not untruth. Not dangerous, please help,” He said. The citizens and some soldiers frowned in thought and many keyed data into their futuristic hand-held ‘Tablets’, began taking more images, conferring, pointing and concentrating. Rik noticed this was a diverse advanced raced.

  Rik didn’t know how long everyone stood watching him. He felt on display as they pointed and talked and Dask stared at him constantly. The citizens watching Rik exhibited a high degree of empathy for his struggles and touched their thumb and pointing finger together to activate the virtual hand-held ‘Tablet’ and the mechanical insects flew home and docked on the Tablet devise. Those in the crowd who were leaving pressed their thumb and pointer fingers together and in a blip the Tablet device vanished in sparkles of light. In the sky above, two celestial suns, one was larger, and their light gave everything a purplish hue. It's bright everywhere and Rik shaded his eyes. A little girl peeked at him from behind her mother looking at the guns pointing at him, frowned at his situation.

  Rik motioned to them, “Shoo, go way there's ‘no something’ to see here. Mom, please take your little girl out of here. Mommy, I want a…45879 fury mammalian animal pet, accessing more data.” Rik stopped himself and thought, damn it, I am speaking the data CPU’s command, stop that, Rik gestured at the mother and pointed to the little girl and used a ‘shooing away’ motion with his hands.

  Dask turned around to look at the mother and child and watched Rik’s hand motions, he said. “What the hell are you doing?”

  Rik jumped because the words translated perfectly in his brain. Everyone stared at Rik in silence. He heard them talking clearly and the heat on his throat intensified with his translator working rapidly. He raised his hands to his head because the pain drilled into his brain but now at least he could speak. He raised his hands further up in peace or ultimate surrender and without waiting for confirmation or permission he reached down and gathered his equipment, a laptop computer, two recorders, a silver cigar-shaped tube locator unit, a communicator unit, data backup hub. He also grabbed his mother’s bag and shouldered it. He stood tall and looked at the soldiers and then at the mother with the little girl. “Go home, there's nothing to see here anymore this isn’t ‘save’, I mean ‘safe’. This isn’t a safe place with all these guns for that little girl, go home please.” The mother reacted and moved her child away from the front. Rik turned to Dask, “I am Rik. Rik Onanes. I come from over there,” pointing to a distant mountain range, “yes, that’s where I come from.” Dask turned to look at the mountains in the distance. Everyone was surprised by Rik’s stronger voice, he spoke louder, “I need to get out of the sun. My ‘protection’, I mean my ‘protective’ gel is hardening on my jacket, see,” he turned and showed his back to Dask, “I won’t be able to remove it soon. I must act fast. Please help me.” He looked around desperately and saw a blue-eyed girl wearing brown cargo pants. Rik caught his breath and pleaded directly to her. “Come here. Can you help me get this off?”

  The girl was terrified and wrinkled her nose at his appearance, she eyed his wet pants but stepped up after a nod from Dask and reluctantly approached Rik. Rik turned his back to her and started to attempt to remove the jacket himself and she began pulling at the arms as they both struggled to remove the smoking clothing. A sticky substance was hardening on her hands. She realized it appeared to be clothing material but was quickly dissolving into a gelatinous mass that didn’t solidify on her flesh but fell on the ground in clumps hardening immediately into a ceramic polymer substance. Everyone watched with causal objective interest. She turned to someone from the crowd who placed an instrument near the material on her hands and then on the material on the ground.

  Rik looked over at the girl. “What's your name?”

  She stared at him for a long moment. “I—”

  “I must get out of the sun. I mean suns or else I might die,” Rik pointed to the sky, “is there a safe covered place I can run to, I mean ‘go to’? For shelter. Anywhere far from here? Can I get away from here?” The girl watched his hand movements in confusion as he tented them to indicate ‘cover’.

  She rolled her eyes like a teenager, regarded Dask and then halfheartedly pointed. She was surprised when Rik started walking fast and rushed to follow. Dask straightened in surprise as well and raised his hand to prevent his soldiers from following or shooting. A few steps past the crowd the girl indicated another direction at a junction of pathways and Rik looked back to see others following so he picked up the pace to a near run with the girl trying to keep up. The girl turned on the few that remained following and waved them off. Rik and his new companion moved further away from the dispersing crowd.

  Dask eyed them suspiciously. He watched them meander toward pod units on the ridge. “What's the girl’s name?” he said to a soldier next to him.

  The soldier consulted his hand-held Tablet. “Checking, Sir, she's Iris JaensAt, Pod Section seven thirty-four. She's a Seven-M.”

  Dask shook his head as if agreeing with himself. “That’s what I thought, O.K. commission her, get her back in the service.”

  Iris and Rik walked through an urban village center and as he looked around scanning for danger and trying to get to someplace safe, he held his locator uni
t in his hand and tried to hide it as he listened for the telltale sounds and vibrations as it connected to another unit. The street was lined with shops and there were multi-family units on the hillside. Rik saw a sign, ‘EPDAARA URBAN VILLAGE SIX’ and stopped to reach into his bag. He pulled out a small laptop device where he keyed in data and he frowned attempting to understand the result. The girl watched him curiously.

  Rik looked around and spoke to himself. “I am lost.” He pointed in a direction and looked at her for confirmation. He walked at a slower pace up a steep grade and she was still a few paces behind him. She noticed his butt. He stopped again and rooted in his bag taking out a recorder then made entries on a pad unit and spoke at his machine ignoring her. He began to walk again leaving the girl to follow him while he continued to record. “My translator is still working but not well. Not sure where I am but I surmise I am too far north. The sun has its mirror in the sky, so my retinas are refracting somehow and communicating messed up images to my brain. This population appears diverse and they are humanoid with some advancement. Possibly a level one world. My locator is malfunctioning entirely because I landed in broad daylight and I can’t activate any stealth applications.”

  He stopped recording and talked to himself quietly. “Neil, where the hell are you?” Then turned and eyed his companion up and down and started recording again speaking out-loud, “Being assisted by female, red hair, cute, no name, unable to speak, average height, possibly the girl is mute and dumb —”

  Iris grabbed his arm roughly. “Turn that damn thing off before I shove it up your ass.” She gestured to a row of unit homes close by and continued, “go up that path second level. Mute and dumb? What kind of stupid comment is that? Don’t you have a protocol to record data?”

  Her strong character stunned Rik as she passed him and took the lead up the hill. He looked at the units on the ridge where they were stacked but not attached so that each unit was sitting at different angles like tree limbs. On one side was a large park and other units cascaded down the other side of the ridge. The grade put her unit on the second level, and it was accessed by a few stairs. Solar panels were embedded in the street and they projected a purple hue that reflected on the building walls. Rik heard birds chirping again and he let out a sad sigh of relief. He realized she was ahead of him and he ran to catch up asking, “Which one is yours?”

  She pointed.

  “What will your parents think? Bringing a stranger home?” Rik cautiously eyed the front door.

  “Just me, don’t worry but if you try anything, I’ll kill you.” She said annoyed.

  “Whoa, that’s a bit drastic. I am not going into your house. I am just going to get

  my bearings. I just need to find my brother and a place for us to stay for the night and then we’ll be on our way. I don’t want to be a burden to you.”

  Rik looked around and pointed to the park. “Neil and I will camp out over there.”

  The girl looked over at the park. “You’ll be out in the open at night?”

  “Yeah, you think it will rain?”

  “You’re not worried about Babstarkers?”

  “What? What’s a Bab-stark whatever? What should I be worried about?”

  “You’re not from around here. You want to keep your entrails and genitals,

  Right? If a Babstarker comes upon you while you’re sleeping out in the open at night in their park…well, they have sharp teeth and claws.”

  She smiled and focused on her handheld Tablet. Rik looked over at the park, “These Bab…whatever, are they predators?”

  “What’s a predator?”

  “A predator, you know, a creature that stalks and kills other animals or humans.”

  “Yeah, maybe but they understand they’re not allowed in houses or yards. They come out in the parks at night and they’ll tear out your entrails. They don’t attack women or girls just guys, I am not sure what that’s all about.”

  “Gods. I hope Neil is O.K.”

  She’s distracted looking at messages on her Tablet device. “Who’s Neil?”

  Rik regarded her seriously. “Neil is my brother; he’s going to be meeting me. Do the authorities control these wild animals? Are they hunted and destroyed?”

  Iris frowned. “That’s a funny name, Neil. What? Hunted? What do you mean?

  “Hunted? Are they killed and eliminated so they don’t pose a threat? It doesn’t make sense for those things to be out roaming the parks at night.”

  “If you want to go out and try to hunt them be my guest but since they don’t hurt girls or women we don’t care.”

  “What? What kind of stupid world is this? I mean country.”

  She gestured to have him follow her. “Come on, I can put you up for the night.

  Still stands though if you try any funny business, I get to kill you.”

  Rik looked back at the park. “O.K. your house, your rules not a problem. I don’t have much choice and I guess if I am going to be killed, I chose you.”

  “I can be just as mean as a Babstarker. I’d kick in your balls. You might wish you didn’t have them.”

  Rik squeezed his legs together. “Can we change the subject?”

  They climbed to the top of the stairs and from the new vantage point, Rik saw the city completely for the first time. He stood stunned and confused. The modern city had towers of glass-like material and they stood at odd and unsupported angles jutting out like tree branches. There was no outward supporting architecture for the structures and one skyscraper floated. A few slowly rotated. The traffic in the city was composed of vehicles that floated close to the ground and in the sky were transports that moved in organized lines like arteries feeding vital goods to the city. She stood next to Rik looking at what he was seeing but not understanding any significance to the view.

  An older lady with two small children came out their front door, the children screamed and ran fast down the steps and she started walking quickly toward them. Rik jumped and moved toward the porch column to hide. Iris frowned at him then folded her arms. “Why are you hiding from doctor Haratiet Jkot-art?”

  “She might be dangerous,” Rik said cautiously.

  Iris waved at the doctor and smiled at the kids then turned to Rik after her neighbors passed. “Are you kidding me? What the hell are you afraid of? She’s the nutrition biologist at the primary school at the end of this pod section. I don’t think she poses a threat to you unless you refuse to eat your vegetables. If I had her job, I’d ram them down your stupid throat.” Rik stepped out embarrassed but still glanced around as if expecting to be harmed. Iris put her hands on her hips and stared at him for a long moment. The silence between grew then Iris said, “come on, you can’t stand out here all day, you’re a mess.”

  Rik pointed at the skyscrapers, “can we go into the city? Once I get my technology working again, we can go anywhere and be safe,” he glanced again at the city, “but for now I think I need a guide.”

  “Yeah, no big deal. We’ll take some time to do that.”

  She led him into her small flat where they dropped their stuff on the floor. She inspected him head to toe with sympathy. “You look as if a hot shower will do you a whole lot of good,” pointing, “straight down the hall there’s a unit monitor in the bathroom if you want to get caught up on information. Go on.”

  Rik walked zombie-like down the hall and closed the bathroom door behind him. The warm shower was heaven sent and the grime and dust washed off his skin along with the smell of burnt flesh and death but the images that clung to his mind will never be washed away. He closed his eyes letting the hot water beat on his body as if to cleanse his damaged soul and wept at first quietly and then uncontrolled, he stifled them at first, but sobs burst from his throat through clamped teeth and his eyes blurred from the tears.

  Chapter Six

  Rik walked into the small front room, cleaned up and feeling safer, and looked up at the sloping ceilings and round windows of the futuristic pod home. He reali
zed that the entire direction of the unit had changed, and the view was different. Iris was sitting at her table typing fast into her Tablet. She looked up at him for a second and back down typing more. “Until someone comes ‘for’ you, you will stay here. Don’t be insulted but science wants to continue their scanning as long as I am around you with a Gra-L7-478.”

  Rik was nervous and sat down as well. “What’s a Gra…whatever scan?”

  “What?”

  “A Gra-L7 thing.”

  Iris leveled a stare at him. Rooted around her messy table to find her second Tablet-like device and typed into it without looking at Rik. “It’s a bio and cell monitor,” she said, “for me. In case you’re a danger or contagious. Even though we tested you. You know how those science types are always overly cautious.”

  “What’s that machine you’re typing on?” Rik pointed to both units on her table, “What do you mean, ‘comes for me?’ Did you say someone is coming for me? Look, I need to getaway. I need to locate my brother. I am in danger here.”

  “You’re fine. There’s no contamination from us to you so don’t worry,” Iris frowned and pointed at her machine, “you’ve never seen an Interconnected Augmented Reality Interface before?”

  “No, is that the same machines that were turned off and disappeared by the people who came to ‘welcome’ me.”

  “Yeah, but ‘welcome’ is a strong word. More like curiosity, it’s part of their work.”

  “I was just joking about the welcome part. That Interconnected Augmented thing, that’s…something that shouldn’t exist here. Did my brother share that with you? Then, someone, he helped enhanced it or something. Right?”

  Iris frowned harder. “You’re brother? No. We’ve had IARI’s for as long as I can remember. Is your brother from the same mountain region?”

  Rik ignored her question. He had an overwhelming need to sleep and searched for an exit in the pod unit then thought, make yourself non-threatening, build a connection with this person, I think she’s could be spooked to be irrational, “What's your name? Where can I sleep?”