by Saxon Andrew
“Is he ok, Doctor?”
“Yes, our readouts say his legs are mended and the muscles have not lost any strength during the regeneration.”
The Jenze heard Arvolo’s question and looked around the doctor and saw them standing off to the side. He looked back at the doctor as two orderlies assisted him in sitting up. “Lift him off the table.” The orderlies grabbed the Jenze’s upper arms and slid him off the table to his feet. The Jenze winced again and stood on his legs. He looked at the Doctor and said, “I expected to have more pain than this.”
“You shouldn’t have any and your legs should be stronger than before with all the eltrostimulation you’re been given.”
The Jenze bent his knees, squatted, and immediately stood up. He smiled and said, “Good work.”
The Doctor looked at Arvolo and said, “He’s all yours.” The Jenze looked at Arvolo and his expression immediately turned serious.
“Thank you, Doctor.” Arvolo turned to the Jenze and said, “My name is Arvolo but you can call me RV. This is Isadore Rosillo and we call her Izzy. What do we call you?”
There was a long pause and the Jenze said, “My name is Zack.”
“Well Zack, I would like to take you out to get something to eat. I’m sure you have some questions and I’ll try to answer them.”
“Lead the way.”
Arvolo turned and started out the door. The Jenze and Izzy fell in behind and left the room. The Jenze looked around and said, “I’m surprised you don’t have any guards?”
“I thought about having some here to make sure you didn’t do anything stupid but decided that if you want to escape you should be allowed to go. Holding you against your will is not something I would do.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“There’s a restaurant about two blocks away and I thought the walk would do all of us some good. By-the-way, how are your legs?”
The Jenze went up on his toes as he was walking and raised his shoulders, “It appears they are better than before my accident. I had a bad left knee and it doesn’t hurt anymore.”
“Yeah, I saw that and the Doctor said he could repair it.”
The three exited the building and the Jenze looked up at the tall buildings. The thing that caught his attention was the lanes of traffic flowing overhead, “Those vehicles don’t look like they’re gravity driven.”
“They’re not. We only discovered using gravity as a propulsion system a year or so ago and we’re only using it in our military right now. I’m sure in several years it will make its way into our civilian craft.”
The Jenze looked around and saw the massive crowds on the street and Arvolo knew he could see that if he chose to run there was no way he could be caught. Arvolo continued to walk ahead at a brisk pace and waited for the Jenze to decide his future. The Jenze stopped and Arvolo took Izzy’s hand and said under his breath, “Don’t look back.” He continued to walk and after a few moments the Jenze ran and caught up. Arvolo smiled and Izzy wondered how he knew the Jenze wouldn’t try to escape.
They arrived at the restaurant and the owner saw them enter. He motioned a waiter over and she took them to a table. “Do you eat meat or are you a vegetarian?”
“What is meat?”
Arvolo smiled, “We domesticate some animals on this planet and use them for food.”
“That’s crazy. Most of the animals on our planets have been killed in attacks on the planet.”
“Well, let’s see how you like it.” Arvolo ordered cheeseburgers and fries. The Jenze watched the crowds passing the restaurant in silence until the food arrived and then took a bite of the burger. He stopped as soon as he took the first bite and then chewed it slowly, “This is the best thing I have ever tasted.”
“Enjoy your meal.”
The Jenze finished the burger quickly and Arvolo asked, “Want another?”
“Absolutely.”
Arvolo reordered and Izzy said, “I notice you’re using our language much better.”
“While I was asleep the translator continued to work on your language. It transfers the information instantly and there were a lot of discussions in my room. It appears that those responsible for my care were amazed at my existence.”
“You have had an impact on our beliefs about our origins.”
“How so?”
“Our DNA is identical.”
“You must be Jenze.”
“Actually, we traced our origin from the evolution of primates on this planet. The current belief is that we evolved over a three million year period into what we are today.”
The Jenze thought about that and said, “If that were the case, we could not share DNA.”
“We know. The first modern man appeared about a quarter of a million years ago. We’ve assumed it was the next evolutionary step.”
“Well, if you can go back in the past like you claim, go and see what happened.”
“We’re leaving tomorrow to see what happened to your civilization; the Jenze no longer exist today.” Zack sat back in his chair and stared at them. “The problem we’re having is that according to an ancient civilization we’ve contacted recently; the Jenze disappeared millions of years ago. If that’s true, there was no way the Jenze could have come to our planet just three hundred thousand years ago to start our species.”
“You’re serious?”
“I am.”
“I can take you to one of our planets now and you can see for yourself that our demise is greatly exaggerated.”
Arvolo looked at Izzy and then said to Zack, “I want you to go with us to find out the truth. If your planet is still there, we will return you to your people if you will just make sure we’re not attacked while doing it.”
Zack smiled and said, “You have a deal.” He then grabbed his burger and took another bite. “This is fabulous.”
Izzy looked at Arvolo with a concerned expression and RV shook his head. Izzy knew Zack didn’t believe their statements about time travel. She hoped he wouldn’t be hurt by what happened next.
* * *
The next morning Zack met RV and Izzy outside his assigned quarters and boarded a shuttle. They flew to the space port and exited next to the Ninja. Zack looked at the small ship and turned to RV, “Is this the shuttle to your ship?”
RV smiled, “No, this is the ship we’re going to use to go exploring.”
Zack looked at the ship again and shook his head, “I hope it doesn’t explode if one of us sneezes.”
Izzy laughed and RV smiled, “No, I think it will hold up. We’ve had an extra chair installed on the bridge with a display for you to use. Are you ready?”
“Lead on.”
* * *
The three buckled in to their chairs and RV lifted the Ninja, retracted the landing gear, and accelerated into the early morning light. They arrived in orbit in ten minutes and RV went to light speed and accelerated toward the outer planets. Zack watched his display and furrowed his brow, “Why aren’t you just jumping into Green Space?”
“We can’t inside the solar system. We’ve set off a nuclear blast and the Green Space around the system is disrupted.”
Zack looked at his display again, “You are moving extremely fast; how fast are you traveling?”
“We’re at 96% of light speed.”
Zack stared at RV and looked at the display again. He knew that no ship could travel that fast. Something wasn’t right. The Ninja passed Neptune and RV dropped into Sierra Space. “Do you know the coordinates of the planet you want to travel?”
“Yes, I do.”
“There is a button next to your display that is green. If you press it and enter them with your keyboard, I’ll jump us to that planet.”
Zack stared at RV and was reluctant to give the coordinates of his home but knew that this ship couldn’t stand up to a Jenze Warship. He pressed the button and entered the coordinates. RV looked at his board and pressed the enable pad. The Ninja suddenly appeared outside a large planetary
system and Zack looked at it on his display, “As soon as we enter natural space, let me do all the talking.” RV nodded and pressed the drive pad. The Ninja emerged into normal space looking down on a planet that was a wasteland.
Zack saw the planet and stood up. He said, “We’re in the wrong system. Show me the other planets.” RV began showing the fifteen planets one by one on the wall display and Zack stared at each one and slowly sat down. He looked at the planet on his display and saw the oceans were gone. There was no trace of the cities that once covered the continents. There was nothing but desolation.
RV looked at Zack and said, “Would you like to try another location?”
Zack sat up straight and entered another coordinate. The Ninja arrived and this time they found a planet that had been broken into pieces. Izzy watched the Jenze and saw the horror on his face. RV stared at the display and said, “Do you want to know how this happened?”
Zack turned and stared at him and slowly nodded.
“Izzy, did you get a frequency reading on the first planet?”
“Yes and I also got a frequency on the planetary system as well.”
“Give me a reading on the best line of sight for viewing.”
“How far back do you want to go?”
“We’ll start at sixty million years and work our way forward.”
Izzy entered the data into her board and waited. The board chimed and Izzy sent the coordinates to Arvolo. He hit the stardrive and Ninja disappeared into the green space and reappeared in the vast open space between galaxies. Zack looked at his display and saw they were no longer in the Milky Way. “Where are we?”
“We’re about sixty four million light years from our galaxy.”
“Why are we here?”
“We’re going to collect the light that was reflected off the first planet you took us to sixty four million years ago and see if we can determine what was happening. Give me a few minutes to set up the emitters. This could take a while.” RV oriented the ship while Izzy powered the emitters. “Alright, Izzy, expand the field.”
Izzy watched the readout and said, “The system reported a ninety five percent probability of unobstructed lines.” Zack watched them and began to fear that they were not insane. They waited for an hour and then an alarm sounded, “I’ve got it. I’ve sent the location to your board.”
RV moved the ship at high speed and began adjusting the view controls. Zack watched the main wall display and saw the view on his display move at extreme speed into the galaxy and toward a cluster of stars. It then moved toward a single star and stopped. He looked at the planets in the solar system they were viewing and said, “This is the right place.”
The view moved in rapidly to the fourth planet and he saw his home as he remembered it. It was lush and green with brightly shining oceans. RV looked at him, “Is there any where you want to see?”
“Yes, do you see that large city on the Northern Shore of the ocean on the large continent?”
“The one that has a large bay?”
“Yes, move the view to the southern shore line and follow the road as it moves north.” RV moved the view closer and stopped it a hundred miles above the planet’s surface. “Do you see those large buildings next to the space port?”
“Yes?”
“Just north of them is a yellow and white building about three stories tall.”
RV moved the view in, centered the building, and moved the view in closer. They watched as four people came out of the building and Zack took a quick breath. Izzy said, “What?”
“The young girl you see in the red uniform is my sister. She died two years ago in a head on collision with a hauler. The little boy you see walking beside her is me.” Zack looked at RV and said, “You’ve been telling me the truth, haven’t you?” Zack saw the sadness in Arvolo’s eyes that proved to him that he wasn’t lying. “I need to see what happened.”
“How far in the future was the attack by the Silver Ships?”
“Ten years.”
“Do you know if this planet was attacked?”
“Yes it was.”
“Let’s start there and move forward.” Arvolo adjusted the jump controls and jumped ahead. They emerged into normal space and moved the view out so they were looking at the Milky Way.
Izzy watched and said, “What are you doing?”
“Those silver ships had to come from somewhere. This is the year they attack and I want to see if they came from another galaxy. Arvolo moved the view to the edge of the galaxy and moved forward.
Izzy stared at her display and said, “There, in the edge near the blue star.”
Arvolo brought the view in close and saw thousands of silver ships in formation just outside the Milky Way. “Well, it looks like they came from another galaxy. Let’s move the view to the planet and see what happened.” He moved the view in to the planet and accelerated into the light being focused. Things started moving at high speed until they saw the silver ships arrive.
Zack knew that the Eight Fleet Command was located on his planet and knew that there would be thousands of ships in the system. The silver ships came out of green space and the Jenze Fleet fell on them like a pack of wolves on a Grizzly. The battle was ferocious but the silver ships did not have superior numbers and that spelled their doom. After the last ship was destroyed, two thirds of the Jenze Fleet jumped away to support other planets being attacked.
“What happened to the planet where I was injured?”
“It was destroyed.”
Zack slowly shook his head, “I think we won this war.”
“If you didn’t they would have never sent those ships to destroy your crashed ship. I think it’s a safe bet that the Jenze survived this attack.” Arvolo looked over at Izzy, “Show him the Jenze Ship that landed on Earth.” Zack looked at Arvolo with narrowed eyes. “As this attack was taking place, a Jenze Scientist, I think he was a scientist, landed on my planet and did some research. I want you to take a look at the recording and tell me if you can see what he was doing.”
Izzy started the recording on Zack’s display and as soon as he saw the small ship he said, “That’s Gren.”
“You know him?”
“We went to Military School together.”
“Well, our planet is about to be hit by a comet and most life is going to be wiped out.”
“I remember that mission. He was a member of our surveyors that found planets for us to use for expansion. They would catalogue them for future colonization. According to my ship’s commander, he was going to see if the planet was too damaged by the comet to use. What happened to him?”
Zack continued to watch the recording and saw the attack by the Moets and the T-Rex that killed his friend. Zack took a deep breath, “So much death.”
RV looked at Izzy and then said, “Zack, I’m going to start jumping a million years and see what happens to your home. If we find it destroyed after one of our jumps we’ll back out and see what happened.” Zack nodded.
Over the next four days the three of them watched the Jenze Planet attacked more than thirty times by different ships. Every time the planet managed to survive because of its planetary force field. In ten of the attacks, the field was breeched and some nuclear missiles made it through and though there was damage to some cities, the planet survived. When the Ninja jumped to four million years in the past the planet was destroyed and still burning. Zack stood up and looked in shock at the screen.
Arvolo stared at the dead planet and after a long moment of silence said, “Whoever did this was able to defeat your planetary defenses. I would guess that this is where your, and our, ancestors died. Are you sure you want to see this?”
Zack took a deep breath and nodded, “I’m staggered at the number of times we’ve been attacked. Does this happen to every civilization?”
“We’ve not found any exceptions yet. I’m backing up ten years.”
Izzy looked over at Zack and saw the sorrow written on his face. She reached over and
squeezed his hand. Zack looked at her and continued to hold her hand as Arvolo jumped the ship.
Chapter Twelve
Chris and Jillian looked at Dolly as she contacted George and Meisa. Dolly waited and said, “I don’t why you two are in such a hurry to leave; you just got back a few weeks ago.”
Jillian looked at Chris and looked at him through her eyebrows, “I agree with you. We’ve only gone dancing six times.”
“Oh, and you didn’t invite me?”
“It was a spur of the moment thing.”
“And you didn’t invite me?”
Chris smiled, “It was for professional dancers only. Amateurs were not allowed.”
Dolly looked away from her display and tilted her head, “You two old fuddy duttys can’t keep up with Jeff and I; you’re too stiff. You just didn’t want any competition.” Dolly stared at them and smiled, “You were afraid I wouldn’t dress appropriately, weren’t you?” She saw their guilty expressions and Dolly laughed, “I can’t go around like I used to; I’m a married woman now and I have an image to uphold.”
“You were married the last time you went with us and that didn’t seem to bother you.”
“Yeah, but Jeff put his foot down and said I have to uphold the integrity of my position. He refused to go again if I didn’t turn over a new leaf.”
“Leaves were about all you wore last time, Dolly.”
“Oh Jillian, they were big leaves and it was during the fall. However, I won’t forgive you if you don’t include me in the future.”
The display illuminated and they saw George and Meisa, “We’re sorry; we were ironing out a problem with the Jukebox’s reactors.”
Chris straightened up, “What kind of problem?”
“Relax, it’s nothing serious. We had to modify the frequency of the scanners so that they could see through the force field. It was too strong to allow anything to get through.”
Dolly smiled, “Hi, George and Meisa, it’s good to see you. How strong is it?”
“It’s too strong. We have to set it at fifty percent and have the reserve set to reinforce it if needed. We’ve installed two of the new reactors and one is used for weapons and the other for the force field. The synchronization of the beams was not easy but we solved that problem a week ago.”