Shadows of Golstar

by Terrence Scott

  CHAPTER 35

  Linden was furious. They had been forced to split up. Well before reaching orbit around Selane, the ship’s sensors had registered the outsider’s ship fleeing the planet’s atmosphere. The shortened distance between the two ships indicated that the smaller ship likely had sufficient time to land and take off again. The question was had the ship actually landed and dropped off the outsider or had he remained onboard? It was an obvious ploy but that made it no less effective. They could not take a chance on either possibility.

  So Linden had no alternative course of action; he had been obligated to select four of the crew to accompany him down to the planet’s surface. It would be up to those remaining on the Light Avenger to continue to chase the fleeing ship. He had his doubts as to how effective they would be. The mutineers were few in number to begin with. The original plan hinged on total surprise. They should have ended the threat with one lightning strike, a single sudden devastating blow. However, the Light Saber proved to be surprisingly resilient. Instead of a quick victory, the mutineers were forced into sustained attack. The bombardment lasted much longer than anyone had expected and to top it off, the dark-bringer had still managed to escape. In their confidence, they had not been prepared for such a contingency.

  Their crew size was sufficient to fire the big ships’ weapons and maintain station-keeping positions, but they were woefully undermanned to effectively pilot and maintain the warships in combat status. Once the Light Saber had been destroyed, they planned to scuttle the battleships and return using their ships’ sub-light shuttles to avoid detection.

  Instead, they were paying for their failure to terminate the dark-bringer earlier. With that failure, they had been forced to remain on one of the battleships in order to complete their unfinished task. As a result, they struggled to pursue the enemy ship with such an undermanned crew. And now Linden was forced to deplete their numbers even further. He smacked the armrest of his seat in frustration. They had been stymied at every move.

  The ship’s shuttle took that moment to shake violently. An alarm sounded, but it was quickly silenced. The pilot was taking them in manually; the auto-comp was off-line. He looked at the other three men, he had selected to accompany him down to the planet. They were white-faced with expressions of dread apprehension. He snorted at their obvious cowardice and wondered what value they would be in the hunt for the dark-bringer on the planet’s surface. The shaking gradually subsided and the sweating pilot muttered something under his breath.

  Linden smacked the armrest again. They would be lucky to reach the planet’s surface in one piece. He swore to himself that the dark-bringer would die by his own hand.

  CHAPTER 36

  They walked deeper into the forest. The open areas between the trees and undergrowth allowed them to keep up the rapid pace. Owens reckoned it was late morning. A cool breeze continued to rustle the leaves in the trees and the rich smell of growing things grew stronger. It was a welcome change from the ship’s sterilized atmosphere. He looked down at his wrist-comp. He had put it in compass mode when they started out. If the wrist-comp was homed correctly to the planet’s magnetic north pole, they were heading in a westerly direction.

  “Well,” he said. “It’s been over an hour. By now, our friends should be heading down to Selane’s surface if they’re not already here. With any luck, they’ll have no idea where we landed other than somewhere in this hemisphere. If that’s the case, with a land mass this size, we shouldn’t have any trouble remaining undetected.” Owens slowed his pace and asked Sharné, “How are you holding up?”

  “Very well, actually,” she answered. “Physical fitness is a virtue that is promoted in Golstar. Sport and health centers are supported by our government. Everyone is encouraged to be physically active. I am particularly partial to walking when my schedule permits. If our circumstances were not so dire, I might actually enjoy this.”

  He looked at her, idly wondering if she would ever say anything without first prefacing it with a reference to ‘how they do it in Golstar.’

  A small note of anxiety entered her voice. “Do you truly think we might actually evade their search?”

  He shrugged. “Well, as I said, this is a big planet with a lot of land area; I think we have a real chance. If they can’t scan the surface, they can’t know exactly where we came down. The energy from the impeller field is long gone by now. It would be a problem if it turns out that they’re equipped with heat sensors. I only hope the heat from the Holmes’ hot landing will have dissipated, if and when they come close enough to scan it.”

  He suddenly smiled. “Besides, how would they know where to look in the first place? You said yourself the battleship won’t be able to land; they’ll be forced to land in a shuttle. That will take some extra time and I doubt they’re equipped with much more than the basic equipment needed for a soft landing. They’ll be guessing. So, unless they’re incredibly lucky, I don’t see how they can find us before your rescue party.”

  She nodded, “It does make sense. I hope you are right.”

  Owens noted that they had slowed their pace even more during their discussion. “We need to step it up a little; I want to get a lot deeper into the woods before nightfall.”

  Sharné quickened her strides, and they resumed a brisk pace. An hour later the sun slowly rose, approaching midday. Owens felt the temperature gradually increase. He was thankful for the blanket of shade the trees provided them. Sharné continued to match Owens step for step. He noted that although the air was getting warmer, she seemed relaxed and cool. The survival suits, although somewhat bulky allowed some air to circulate around their bodies, keeping them relatively comfortable.

  The exercise was welcome after the time spent aboard the Holmes and Sharné was beginning to relax. Owens walked beside her, looking ahead for any threat. She watched Owens from the corner of her eye. His eyes were in constant movement. His gaze never rested on a rock or tree for more than a moment, he was continually scanning for trouble. He did not hesitate; his long strides were smooth and seemed effortless. Once again, she gave thanks for his strength. She could imagine his muscles effortlessly driving his incredible body beneath the survival suit. The vision of a sleek, powerful animal, barely held in check again came to her mind. A flush of heat colored her face, but it was not from exertion. Fortunately, he did not witness her discomfiture; he was still looking ahead, scanning for movement.

  “What’s that?” He stopped suddenly, raising an arm to block her from going any farther.

  She stopped and moved closer to him. “What do you see?” Her heart began to beat rapidly. Could they have been found already?

  “Over there,” he pointed. “Do you see it?”

  She looked in the direction he had indicated and saw something shining, in the distance. It was about a hundred and fifty meters from their position, in an area sparsely populated by trees. It was partially concealed by a tall patch of thick bushes, but she could still make out the hint of a curved surface.

  “To me, that looks like a reflection off of glass or metal,” he said.

  “They found us?” she started to crouch down.

  “It’s possible but I don’t think so,” he replied. “Don’t bother trying to duck. Whatever that is, it’s had a clear view of us before I spotted it. I couldn’t see it until the angle changed, and I noticed the reflection. It hasn’t moved.”

  She moved closer to Owens. “How can you be sure it is not the mutineers?”

  “I can’t, it’s just an educated guess. From here, it’s hard to judge its size, but I’d say it’s three meters tall, maybe as wide. I doubt if the mutineers would lug around something that size.” He paused, “Unless that’s part of a ground vehicle.”

  Straightening, she said, “No, I do not think that it is. Some of the shuttles do carry small ground vehicles. However, they are built low to the ground, painted in muted colors.”

  He asked, “Well then, could it possibly be some sort of self-propell
ed, heavy weapon?”

  “I think that is unlikely also,” she shook her head. “As I said before, the ships we sent were all space-to-space class battleships. I cannot believe their equipment would include ground-class weaponry. Furthermore, as we discussed, the ships were decommissioned before being pressed into service for this one special mission, and as such were long ago stripped of portable equipment.”

  He stood there gazing at the mysterious object. What was it? He strained his eyes but could detect no motion. “Well if that’s true, then I guess we had better find out exactly what it is. If it is a weapon, it’s already locked on our position. Running would do us little good. If it isn’t…”

  She felt a stab of fear. “What can we do?”

  He looked at her and smiled. “Why, we’re going to introduce ourselves. Come on, let’s say hello.” Before she could respond, he started walking purposely forward, in a straight line towards the object. She hesitated only a moment, then hurried to catch up.

  As they approached, the thing slowly resolved into a large metal sphere, closer to four meters in diameter. They came nearer and saw that it had no external markings or protuberances. It rested on a squat cylinder with two rings positioned along its axis that appeared to be made of the same material as the sphere. The metal appeared polished, without a trace of corrosion or discoloration.

  Owens looked down at the base and saw a shallow trench on one side and a large mound of fresh earth on the other side. It must have been moving parallel to the ground when it fell. “Well I don’t see any tracks leading in any direction from it, so it must use some sort of impeller field to move. Judging by the depth that the base is driven into the ground, it looks like it abruptly lost power. It must be pretty heavy too,” he kicked at the pile of earth. He turned to Sharné. “Any idea what it is?”

  She slowly tore her eyes away from the object. “Now that we are closer, yes, I believe I do, although I have never seen one in person. It is what we call a Sentinel. I had believed that they were phased out long ago. It must be an older model, one that has not been used by Golstar for at least a hundred years.”

  He frowned, “Sentinel? Sounds like a guard.”

  She nodded and looked back at the shining sphere, “In a way yes. It was a form of a robot used to protect government installations and supplement our military ground forces. When active, it could be a formidable adversary. I never thought I would actually see one.” She hesitated, then reached out and touched its surface.

  He watched Sharné and asked, “It carried weapons?”

  “Yes, a number of energy-based weapons reside within the Sentinel’s body. I recall from my teachings that when required, the Sentinel could open ports on its surface and extend its weaponry. One Sentinel was more than equal to a platoon of human infantry carrying a complement of medium and long-range weapons.”

  Owens looked closely at the Sentinel’s metal skin, but couldn’t find any seams or marking that would indicate a weapon port. He rapped his knuckles on the sphere’s surface. It barely gave off a sound; it felt like solid metal. If Sharné was being truthful about the Sentinel’s capabilities, then here was the first hard example of Golstar’s superior technology. The technology used just to create the Sentinel’s seamless outer housing was still beyond that employed by Confederated Planets, let alone the portable firepower Sharné purported it to possess. He stared at silent machine, lost in thought.

  Sharné slowly drew away from the Sentinel and said, “I am thankful it is inactive. If it were hostile to our presence, we would have no defense against it.” Owens was still staring at the Sentinel. She wondered if he had heard her. “Owens, this is totally unexpected. I had no idea that any active Sentinels were stationed on Selane. I thought that they were only a footnote in our historical records. Who would believe that we would encounter a piece of Golstar’s past? And a most dangerous one at that,” she added.

  He looked over his shoulder, back at Sharné. “Then you wouldn’t know if there are any more of these things?”

  He had been listening. She shook her head, “I am sorry, no, but where there is one, there may be...”

  “…others,” he finished. He turned back to the silent machine and took one more look at it. He wondered if it had stopped because of some sort of malfunction. However, that didn’t feel right. There was no visible physical damage, no burn marks or scorching from malfunctioning machinery or circuitry. It looked like it had just dropped from the air, as if suddenly its power had switched off. But who could be responsible, and for that matter, why? Someone else was on the planet, someone who had control of these machines. It couldn’t be anyone associated with their attackers. If they had control of the Sentinels, turning them off would make no sense.

  Sharné asked, “What should we do?”

  “I don’t see what we can do. If there are other active Sentinels, and we encounter one, I don’t think our weapons would even make a scratch on its surface. He aimed a futile kick at the Sentinel’s solid metal hide, and then turned to Sharné. “Unfortunately, this is one more mystery that will have to remain unsolved, at least, for the time being. We’d better go now. As interesting as this thing is, we still have people trying to find us and kill us.” Their gaze lingered a moment longer on the inert Sentinel, then they turned and resumed their trek.

  They walked on for another hour, not speaking, each settling into their private thoughts. It wasn’t long before Owens spotted another Sentinel. They stopped to inspect it. It appeared inactive like the first one they had encountered. They continued on and occasionally saw other Sentinels, in the distance. As the grounded Sentinels had thus far posed no threat, they purposely ignored them and instead concentrated on putting distance between them and the landing site.

  They encountered one more unexpected hazard. They came upon a large swarm of flying insects. The thick cloud of tiny pests suddenly turned and attacked their exposed skin. Owens hoped that their bites wouldn’t prove toxic. Mosquito-like, their bites only itched. He was thankful that after just a few minutes they vanished as quickly as they had appeared. Selanes’s insects seemed as mild as its climate. If he ignored the downed Sentinels, he could easily imagine that they were on a wilderness hike instead of fleeing for their lives.

  The terrain changed. The distance between the gigantic trees gradually began to shorten and the layer of leaves on the forest’s floor became thicker. The density of the ground vegetation increased. Their pace gradually slowed as they were forced to walk around thick clumps of smaller trees and shrubs.

  Scratching his neck where he had received most of the insect bites, Owens broke the silence. “Let’s stop for a breather.” He guided Sharné over to base of a particularly large but normal-seeming tree, shed his pack and rifle and sat down with his back against the rough bark. He patted the ground next to him, motioning for her to join him. Sharné removed her pack and sat down beside him. He paused for a moment and took in the sounds and smells of the surrounding forest. Too bad they were running for their lives, he thought this would be a great place to reconnect with nature. A rumbling from his stomach reminded him that he was hungry. He asked, “Are you ready to eat?” She nodded and he opened his pack and removed some of their rations. They ate and the silence between them returned.

  After they were finished, Owens carefully buried the empty containers and scattered leaves to conceal their presence from anyone who might follow. He stretched and then said, “If you need to answer the call of nature before we start out again, I suggest you use that cover over there.” He pointed to a particularly dense cluster of trees and shrubs. “I’ll finish up here.”

  She looked to where he pointed and nodded. He knelt to begin repacking their provisions as she began walking toward the area he had indicated. He was just fastening the last closure on the pack when he heard her scream.

  ● ● ●

  By mutual agreement, Linden had taken sole command of the combined crews as they began the final cleanup of the remaining piece
s of the Light Saber. He had been elated at first, knowing he would receive the lion’s share of the praise for the success of the mission. Since then, he had begun to regret his new position of leadership, knowing now that success had not been achieved after all. If they failed this time, the lion’s share for the failure would be his instead. He simply could not allow another failure.

  Linden stared down at his clenched fists. They must succeed, but his patience was reaching its limit. Every moment they failed to find any indication of the dark-bringer allowed the man extra time to find deep cover. On top of everything else, without proper scanning equipment, they were forced to rely on visual observations. Time crawled as the shuttle traveled in a crosshatch pattern, hoping to get some sort of indication as to where the foreign ship might have landed.

  “I am receiving a strange signal,” the pilot called over to Linden.

  Startled, Linden looked up towards the pilot. “What? What kind of signal?”

  “I can only tell you what it is not. It is definitely not in a standard format.” He tapped a panel inset with a small glowing display. Symbols rapidly scrolled across its surface. “The data packets are not synchronizing with our equipment. I cannot decipher it. I can only determine the general area from which the signal originates.”

  Linden felt a surge of excitement. “Is it a Confederated Planet’s signal?”

  The pilot shook his head. “I do not know. I have no training in that area. I cannot even tell if it is telemetry or some form of communication.”

  Linden rasped, “Well, is there anything that you can you tell me?”

  The pilot reached forward and slapped at a control. He paused, looking at a small panel with graphic plot flickering across another display. “Only what I have already told you. I detected it because we are passing within the vicinity of its source. The com equipment on this shuttle is pretty rudimentary. Frankly, I am surprised we picked up anything.”