Starship X-15

by Alan VanMeter

  “May we commune with you of the Legacy, here?” I ask, because I have some questions.

  “Of course, humanity is our brethren.” It answers.

  “I have so many questions, may I ask you them?”

  “Yes.”

  “What happened to the ‘Hum Drums’ civilization? I know they were once star faring.”

  “They were indeed a very promising race at one time. Then they chose not to listen to us concerning the need to continually mix their genome with new DNA. They chose instead to keep their race pure, and as such they are paying the price for their segregation of themselves.”

  “I don’t understand. How did segregation cause them to lose their technology?”

  “As you can see even in your own planet’s history, small isolated groups of humanity that didn’t have the opportunity to mix their DNA with new sources, or fresh blood as it were; usually became extinct. It is the same when a species expands to the stars. If they don’t mix their genome with fresh sources; eventually they will devolve into their base animal forms that they came from. This is what is happening to the ones you call ‘Hum Drums.’ They will be extinct on all the planets they had spread to within a millennia.”

  “Oh damn! Those poor ‘Hum Drums.’ Isn’t there anything you can do to help them?”

  “They chose to refuse our help, and that is why they are fading from existence.”

  Rick is suddenly worried. “Does this mean that humans will have to breed with aliens?”

  “Aliens. That is such a disturbing word. It implies that a being doesn’t belong. In answer to your question; yes. Humans will also need to spread their genome with others, and vice versa. Otherwise the same thing would eventually happen to your race.”

  “Mom, does that mean that I have to fall in love with a man from another planet?” Haley wears a frown.

  “No, baby. You will fall in love with who you chose to.”

  The rest of the week we pretty much just break down camp, packing only the things we will need. Food and water being foremost of these. I take some of the glow-plant roots and berries, as well as a whole live specimen in soil, wrapped up with some hide. On my way back to camp I see Haley down by the lake. Instead of calling to her, I just walk up, and what I see freezes me. She is holding one of the small rodents, and sucking the soul out of it, I can see the glow from her hand is red. Instead of confronting her, I sneak off quietly back to camp.

  After I send Haley to bed, telling her she needs extra rest for the journey ahead, then I tell Rick what I saw her doing.

  He starts crying, and he confesses, “I’ve seen her do it too. I asked her what she was doing, and she told me that she was hungry.”

  “Oh god, it’s that Soul-Sucker in her baby. We need to get that out of her somehow.”

  “Without hurting her.” He adds, sobbing.

  “Maybe the Legacy can help us.”

  I go to their ship first thing in the morning and ask to speak to them.

  “My daughter has been sucking souls from some of the small rodents here. It has to be because of the Sucker she took in her.”

  “I see. This is a startling development. May we perform some tests on her?”

  “As long as they don’t hurt her, and if she agrees.”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Do you think you can help get it out of her?”

  “That is unknown.”

  I go and have a talk with my daughter next.

  “Baby, I need to talk to you about taking the souls of those animals.”

  “I didn’t do anything wrong mom. I was hungry, so I ate. What does it matter how I eat?” She’s defensive right away.

  “That’s not the issue Haley. What we are worried about is you even having the ability to do that in the first place. It’s a highly unusual ability.”

  “Oh. Yeah, I guess so.”

  “I talked to the Legacy about it, and they asked if they could do some tests to see why you have this new capability. Would that be alright?”

  “Sure, as long as it doesn’t hurt.”

  “They promised that they wouldn’t.”

  The hunter comes to me shortly after finishing with the testing, and Haley has gone back outside.

  “This is most unusual, but a very beneficial occurrence. The soul of the being has fully integrated with your daughter’s soul. This wouldn’t have been possible except for the fact that Haley’s genome has mutated slightly from consuming the indigenous foods on this world. If that hadn’t occurred at a young age, the integration wouldn’t have been possible.”

  “Do you mean that she wouldn’t have been able to kill the Soul-Sucker?”

  “Correct. She would have been killed instead, all of you would have been.

  “So, can it be removed from her then?”

  “No. The integration is permanent, past her present life even. This is actually good news. Your race and their race are now mixed together for the first time. This is important for humanities future survival, as we told you about the need for further intermixing of your genome. Only in this instance the mixing is on the spiritual level, not the genetic, but it has the same effect in the end.”

  “Humanity, and Soul-Suckers are interbred, in my daughter. I don’t like it. No, not at all!”

  “It has been done. There is no reversing this.”

  I start to cry. The very tall hunter actually comforts me with a surprisingly warm hug.

  “Haley will benefit from this with greatly increased longevity, it is good for her, and all of your kind.”

  “Still, it just seems so wrong.”

  I explain to Haley and Rick what the Legacy told me, and she is actually very excited by the news. Rick is not. I can tell by his face that he feels just like I do. Later when we are alone, we cry into each other’s shoulders, and wish for her wellbeing.

  We are just about all packed up when the second ship arrives. It is much larger than the first one, and there are many different sequences of the Legacy members, including a familiar short, shimmering blue Chondeauxk type. Immediately they get to work on our ship. First thing they do is to fire up the main drive, and to hover the ship above the ground. Some robots quickly erect a temporary landing skid to set the ship down on, and then they really go at it. We just stay back, out of the way as the Legacy knows what they are doing, completely.

  It is only about five hours until they have completed outfitting our ship for the long journey ahead. They uploaded their maps of the galaxy, and plotted the best route home for us. Now we can see that big nasty jet stream of time-space that shot us here, and our course is well away from it. To avoid all the stars systems in the way, we will rise above the galactic plane for most of the trip, and back down into it as we near home.

  Haley is beyond excited to go to where there are other people. I hope we can help her become socially adept quickly. Even more so, I hope she can stop soul-sucking. Both Rick and I have tried to explain to her that sort of behavior will quickly get her in big trouble back home. She says she understands, god I hope so.

  Just before we board for departure, the lead hunter and the small shimmering blue Legacy members approach us.

  “We have done as we said we would. Everything you need is aboard. The auto pilot is fully programed for the voyage.”

  “Thank you very much. We will present ourselves to the ambassador for judgment.” I assure them.

  The hunter tells us, “I am sure that the extenuating circumstances will exonerate you. There is something else you will need to inform your people of; when we tested Haley, we found she is carrying a dangerous bacteria in her system as well. We are certain that all three of you are thus infected, and yet immune from its effects. Probably due to your diets. It is necessary for you to take enough of the indigenous foods with you, until you can be treated for it.”

  “Bacteria huh? I guess all in all we are pretty fortunate to be alive.”

  The hunter smiles, and it doesn’t really fit the face. Suddenly I hea
r a clear voice in my mind; ‘We wish you to consider something.’ It is from the shimmering blue Legacy member.

  ‘Sure.’ I think.

  ‘You should consider returning to this planet with enough of your people to form a viable colony. Your race, and the dominant indigent race here, have a possible future combined together.’

  ‘That is an interesting idea, I will consider it.’

  ‘Safe journey.’

  ‘And you as well.’ I bow to it.

  Chapter 11

  Haley’s acceleration couch is right next to ours, so we can see each other just by turning our heads. Her pressure suit fits perfectly, as does her helmet. I explain to her the painful changes in gravitonic pressures that will occur, and that she will be strapped in securely, so all she can do is to take the pain, and suffering. She looks worried, so I tell her that our bodies haven’t evolved to tolerate star travel, yet.

  Very soon Haley’s planet is fading away from us, and Rick seals the first panels shut so we can begin to accelerate through time. The pain isn’t as intense as I remember, and Haley even says it wasn’t that bad after we equalized. Within an hour Rick seals the last of the layered panels closed, and then accelerates us to trans-dimensional hyper-time.

  “In fourteen hours we will have to slow into third dimensional time-space to change course. Then we will have a couple weeks before we drop down again to load a new fuel pellet into the drive.” Rick tells us in the intercom while he unstraps, and disconnects the hoses from himself.

  “Sixty four days in hyper time. I wonder if that will be a record when we get home.” I chuckle at that.

  “Has to be.” He nods.

  We play a lot of silly games to pass the time, any that we can think up. Haley also spends a lot of time on the computer, learning about Earth. She is most excited by learning of the ancient mysteries, and of the Legacy’s true history of these once unfathomable enigmas.

  “Mom, did you know that there was a great civilization before recorded history. They lived in the basin that became the Mediterranean Sea, and had many cities outside of it too, all over the world. Then the ice sheets melted from the ice age ending suddenly from an asteroid strike, and they were flooded. The legend of Atlantis is true!”

  “Yes I did, I learned that at the Academy. Did you know that the Legacy and some other extraterrestrial races helped develop humans, and helped them build our early civilizations?”

  “Yeah, I read that too. That’s how most of the huge monolithic structures were built, by the help of the gods.” She laughs.

  “Let’s see if I can name a monolith that you haven’t heard of then.” I challenge her to a new game.

  “Fire away mom. I got this.”

  “Okay, how about Gobekli Tepe?”

  “Yup, in Turkey. Not too far from Mount Ararat. Radio carbon dated to twelve thousand years ago. It was part of the lost civilization of Atlantis I figure. Giant nineteen foot tall, fifty ton monoliths intricately carved. Most of the carvings and reliefs are of all kinds of animals. The Legacy records state that it was used as support to build large arks to preserve life from the impending flood that everyone saw coming. The ancient people buried them in sand to help brace the supports from the tremendous weight of the arks.”

  “What? You got it all over me in this game girl, dang it.”

  “Okay, now my turn mom. How about… Las Bolas Grandes, though some people just say Las Bolas?”

  I smile, I got this one. “Oh yeah. Costa Rica, and Bosnia. Hundreds of perfect, or nearly perfect spheres carved from super hard granite crystal. Baseball sized, up to house sized, all scattered through the jungle, and through the mountains. They have no real idea why these were made or why they were so randomly scattered about. Nor do they know how the big thirty ton ones were moved. I don’t remember the Legacy discussing these though, just from other archeology books or shows.” I assume a win. “Now my turn to stump you again.”

  “Not so fast there lady. It was a real trick question. They aren’t monoliths at all.” She giggles. “The archeologists are perplexed by the fact of their being so randomly scattered, because that flies in the face of all known human behavior patterns. So I say that it is simple. They weren’t placed there by people. The native legends about the balls in Costa Rica is that they were cannon balls used by the gods in battle.”

  “Aliens?”

  “No, silly. Listen, I read that chemical analysis of one of the Bosnian balls showed that it had been formed from a molten state.”

  She looks at me expectantly, for me to get whatever it is she’s trying to imply. I shake my head, and shrug.

  “They are a form of volcanic bombs, or magma spit up to form rounded, or even tear shaped rocks. These Bolas though probably came from an asteroid strike that flung some magma real high, most likely even out of the atmosphere. There they are spinning real fast and cooling quickly. The smaller ones cooled completely before they came back down, and so of all of them; they are the best shaped spheres, nearly perfect. The bigger ones were still slightly molten on the inside when they came back down, so when they hit, and then sat to cool completely; they formed a flat spot on the bottom of them. I saw pictures of other volcanic bombs that people have found all over, and many are nicely round or tear shaped, but a couple had that flat spot on the bottom. The exterior of these other bombs is what gave me the connection, it looks just like the surface of the Bolas.”

  I can just blink for a moment. “Are you saying that you figured this out?”

  “Yeah.” She chuckles.

  “If you’re right, you’ll be famous baby. I’ll make sure to get you a meeting with a fleet archeologist.”

  “Ha, I figured out something nobody else has.”

  This becomes Haley’s favorite game instantly, and she plays it with Rick, and all three of us together sometimes. She wins every time. Her ability to remember things is uncanny, and her fascination seems limitless. She’s always been very bright, but I can’t help but wonder if that other soul is somehow affecting her intellect. I tell my worries to Rick and he reminds me that if it is, there is nothing we can do about it.

  We are back into hyper time after our second refueling, and are about half way there now. I still play the archeology game with Haley on a daily basis, but have had to limit it to once per day for an hour, otherwise she wouldn’t stop playing it. I’ve also had to increase the difficulty level for her, to present a challenge for her hopefully.

  “Where’s the world’s largest monolithic, cut stone?”

  “The Yonaguni pyramid near Japan.” She answers.

  “Nope, Baalbek, in Lebanon. Sixteen hundred plus tons.” I say with a smug smile, thinking I stumped her finally.

  “Sorry mom, the Yonaguni pyramid is one gigantic, solid carved monolithic block, way bigger than any of the stones at Baalbek.”

  I can only grimace, “Okay… where are the most intricately carved monolithic stones?”

  “Puma Punku, in Bolivia. But they aren’t carved. They were grown in hoppers like artificial crystals are.”

  “Is that what the Legacy history says?”

  “Yup.”

  “Alright, I have one more chance to stump you, or you win the game. Let’s see… What’s the world’s longest… No, that’s too easy…”

  “What is?”

  “The world’s longest megalithic structure…, but that’s not my question!”

  “That is too easy, Carnac in Brittany. You can see it from orbit.”

  “Okay miss smarty pants, name the world’s largest stone, circular megalith.”

  She giggles and motions with a finger for me to wait a moment. Then she goes to the food locker and gets something. When she comes back she hands me a glow-berry.

  “Aveberry Miss, will ya?” She inflects a perfect Cockney accent. “Right.”

  I take it busting up, she’s right again, Aveburry. “Right.”

  “I win again mom.” She smiles.

  I think about our homecoming,
boy will everyone be surprised, especially Alicia. I hope she has already moved on with her life though, because I love Rick and Haley with all my heart, and can’t leave them. There’s no way. It worries me though to think of our reunion, I know I will hug her, and then I will kiss her, and I know where that will lead. Can’t do it. I have to introduce Rick and Haley first, then just a hug. This won’t be easy.

  Our next refueling allows me to take some stellar observations and images for future posterity. Finally I do locate some familiar stars. Alnilam, Alnitak, and Canopus. This will allow me to fix the position of many more stars. Even though we have an updated map from the Legacy, it is far from a complete catalogue, as they gave just enough data for us to get home with. We must explore the galaxy ourselves it seems. There is much we must do on our own, like any other race, though the Legacy has helped us so much already.

  Finally tomorrow we will re-enter the third temporal dimension near our destination; NET Nine. All of us are beyond excited, and can’t wait to see other humans again. Familiar faces. Oh, I wonder what all has transpired in the twelve plus years we’ve been gone. Maybe they’ve even told the general populous about our colonies, and star travel. I’m sure we’ve been listed as dead.

  Rick drops us out of hyper-time several AU from the station, and we hear his radio transmission through the intercom.

  “NET Nine, this is the S.S. X fifteen. Lieutenant Commander Hobart commanding. Request permission to come alongside.” He repeats the message and then we wait for a reply. It takes a few very long minutes before we hear, “S.S. X fifteen, you are cleared to approach. Boy, I was about to read you the riot act sir, until Ambassador TKX showed up and told us you really are the X fifteen. Welcome home sir! Oh, could you tell us the status of Lieutenant Stanley? Over.”

  “She is A-Okay, and so is our daughter.” He proudly announces.

  In a few more minutes we hear, “Repeat that please.” Rick does, and then he warns them that we are infectious and require quarantine.

  As we come alongside NET Nine, a familiar voice comes on the channel.

  “Welcome home Commander Hobart, and Lieutenant Stanley. We thought for sure that we had lost you.” I can tell it is Admiral Romero’s voice. God I missed her.