Shackleton's Folly (The Lost Wonder Book 1)

by Yunker, Todd

  Captain K’Dhoplon took his chair and commanded, “Set course to follow.”

  Helmsman Xuen keyed in the course change. “Ready.” The battle systems added their new course onto the situational display. Their entry point was 15 degrees from the Skiptracer’s last position.

  Captain K’Dhoplon looked ahead. “Best speed.”

  Helmsman Xuen keyed in the command.

  Illia and Saleen followed the long, curved path set by their navigators. The battleships encountered the nebula further out from the two smaller ships that had entered before them. Battleships were weapon platforms and were taking a heavy blast from the dust and larger materials making up the nebula. The shields of each of the ships showed the effects of extensive, continuous contact with the abrasive materials. It would not be enough to affect normal operations as long it ended soon, but it was a drain on their resources.

  Gray read a report on a datapad designed for the Koty. It was annoying having to pander to these idiots, but he needed them to live. The prospect of Shackleton actually finding a safe harbor for humanity was preposterous.

  Gray swiped the pad’s screen to the next page. “It seems Shackleton has made a find. The data is a bit sketchy.” He zoomed in on the screen and read further, looking incredulous. “There must be some error.” He stopped reading, eyes widening ever so slightly, and looked up at the forward screen. He asked, “Captain K’Dhoplon, have you reported home recently?”

  Captain K’Dhoplon contemplated the human. “Why?”

  Gray rushed to the station. He said, “Run silent for now, Captain K’Dhoplon. Trust me.”

  Captain K’Dhoplon turned toward Gray and responded indignantly, “You try my patience, Doctor.” He nodded to the two Koty security guards near Gray. They restrained him quickly and started to drag him toward the chipper.

  Gray called out mockingly, “Anything you send now could jeopardize the greatest find of this millennium. It could only be the work of the First Ones.”

  Captain K’Dhoplon hesitated. “Wait.”

  The Koty security guards stopped at the chipper’s opening at hearing this and looked back to the Captain.

  Captain K’Dhoplon got up from his chair and walked over to Gray. “Make sure what you have to say interests me.”

  Gray said, “The Koty will soon have the technology to claim the galaxy, and I can help you.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  The Quest rested in the clearing about 75 meters from the white, sandy beach. Alec stood with his eyes closed, taking in an onshore breeze. Electra stood barefoot, carrying her sneakers, ankle deep in the ocean water.

  Electra smiled. “How long has it been since you took in the sea breeze?”

  Alec let the breeze wash over him. His sneakers were tied together and slung over his shoulder. The warmth of a star above was so different from what he was used to. “I have been to planets with beaches before, and, as to your question: About three years, give or take, since I’ve had the time to enjoy myself.”

  Electra came in from the surf and took Alec’s hand. They started down the beach toward a promontory a few hundred meters away. The vertical cliffs faced them and wrapped around the headland, presenting vertical cliffs there, too. Electra pointed out the cliff and followed it inland from the beach. “There — that is where we will go.” She took Alec down the beach most of the way to the imposing cliffs that now blocked their way and turned inland. The tropical foliage surrounded them entirely. Electra followed a path from the beach; it led them along the face of the cliffs. The tropical flowers filled the air with sweet fragrances. Alien, yet familiar and exotic.

  The sound of falling water built up slowly as they pushed further inland. A clearing opened wide, with a large pool at the base of the falls.

  “Really, more falls?” asked Alec.

  Electra dropped the sneakers she was carrying. “The builders put in this fresh water falls to improve water quality. Come on — the water will be nice.” Electra went to what looked like a natural rock formation at the edge of the pool. She looked down and then dove in. Alec walked to the pool as he watched her progress across the pool underwater. She resurfaced and came back to him. Electra found a spot shallow enough for her to stand. The wet t-shirt clung to her, revealing her excitement. “Alec, the water is great. Come on in,” she asked.

  “I did not come ready for a swim. No swimming trunks,” answered Alec. He put down his bag of goodies and removed the whiskey flask. He opened it and took a sip. It had been an early batch as he experimented with ingredients in his whiskey.

  “Is that all?” Electra slipped off her top as she walked toward shore and slung it at him. It landed at his feet. Electra strode out of the water, the water beading on her skin and running down the curves of her form. She undid the belt hugging her hips and dropped the shorts. She was as beautiful as the day she was born. Electra stood before Alec and reached up with her right hand and caressed his face. “There should be nothing between us.”

  Alec responded by reaching out to her waist and bringing her close. An unquenchable hunger for her came forth, and he kissed her fully; The flavor of the whiskey added a new dimension to her, and she responded to him. The light from above glistened as it struck the soft curves of her body.

  Alec picked her up in his arms and carried her slowly into the pool. Pain from his recent injuries were mentally suppressed or forgotten. The water’s temperature was hardly noticeable to Alec, as his body was aching with desire. Electra disengaged from his arms and undid his shorts; they drifted down. Alec grabbed them and flung them onto the rocks on the shore. He took off the rest of his clothes.

  Electra had waited until Alec’s attention was consumed with undressing. “Got to catch me.” She swam quickly away toward the far side of the pool.

  Alec hurled his clothes at the shore, but they fell short of the rocks, into a patch of shore grass. He turned, dove into the water, and cut the distance between them.

  Electra pulled herself out of the pool onto a rock outcropping and grinned down at Alec as his powerful strokes brought him close. Electra dove off the rock and swam toward the falls at the far end. She had a lead, but Alec was cutting that quicker than he should have. Electra’s progress had subtly slowed. She arrived at the base of the falls just as Alec caught her leg and pulled her toward him.

  “You think you can just take what you want?” She struggled, trying to get away.

  “What we both want,” he said hoarsely.

  Alec drew her closer. The waterfall’s soft, warm spray wafted over them. He blinked, and Electra had turned into him. She ran her fingers over the new scars on his chest.

  “Too soon? I wouldn’t want to hurt you.”

  Alec bent over and whispered, “I need you.”

  Electra threw her arms around his neck and pulled herself up, wrapping her legs about his waist. Alec lifted her to him. Their lips touched softly at first as they became one and moved together. He moved them closer to the spray of the falls. The air was hot with fragrance of flowers, the warm mist, and the lovers. A twinge of pain from his broken rib broke his concentration.

  Electra felt his shiver and stopped looking deep into his eyes. “Are you okay?”

  “I am with you — I couldn’t be better.”

  Electra glanced around and found what she was looking for — a small patch of grass near a bed of flowers. “Come with me.”

  She led the way as he followed. The tropical flowers were thick about them. Electra turned to Alec and knelt down. He followed her lead. She pushed on him until he lay down. Electra picked one of the flowers and put it behind his ear as she straddled him. He reached up and ran his hands from her shoulders down until he cupped both breasts.

  Electra moved her pelvis rhythmically as he moved his hands lower until his fingers dug into her hips, giving her control. He responded to her movements, anticipating, building up to the heightening crescendo of beating hearts. With the breathlessness of desire, Electra arched back, her eyes clo
sing in ecstasy. Alec quickly reached up and brought her forward until she rested her forehead on his. His hands ran up and down her spine, stopping only to hold her close as he peaked. Their breathing labored as he drove deeply. She responded, thrusting, until they both held their breaths. Electra shook with intensity as pleasure washed over both of them. Electra relaxed as she rolled off him onto the grass. Alec’s outstretched arm became her pillow.

  Alec looked deeply into her eyes and smiled. “Beautiful.”

  Electra smiled back. “You are not so bad yourself.” She looked up at the sky. “I think you could hang our clothes out to dry.”

  “I could. What could we do while we wait for them to dry?”

  Electra ran a finger down his chest and whispered, “I have an idea. That is, if you are up to it.”

  *

  A trail of footprints emerged from the water splashed on to the flat rocks nearest the pool and passed the clothes laid out for drying. Alec lay in the shade of the palms, beads of water glistening on his chest. It rose and fell with a satisfaction that could be seen in his face.

  Electra snuggled her wet body into his side. “That was tasty.”

  Alec glanced over at the remnants of the goodies he had packed, piled just out of reach. “I enjoyed every moment. A little swim, then a snack, and a lot more swimming, and a snack…”

  “Oh, hush.” She ran her finger down his chest. “How soon will the wave be here?”

  Alec opened his eyes wide. “Swimming?”

  Electra smiled and said, reassuringly, “That’s not what I asked.”

  Alec announced, “Once we get you home, we will need your help to find the rest of Earth’s survivors. A home again.”

  “We had better be getting back. Dancer must be wondering what happened to us.”

  “He’ll scan us both and know what happened.”

  “Come on,” she laughed.

  “He will — count on it,” he retorted as they got up from the grass. Alec checked his clothes. “They are still a little wet,” he declared as he put on his shorts. He slipped on his shoes. Electra slipped into her clothes and carried her sneakers. Alec joined her, and they started down the path back to the beach together. The sun had moved in the direction of the ocean. He was carrying his shirt with one hand and his bag in the other.

  Electra said, “When we reach my home, we will help find your — I mean our — people.”

  “You have anyone who’ll be waiting for you? Family?” Alec asked.

  Electra smiled. “Yes, I have family.”

  “You have said so little about you, your family, and, for that matter, your people. I cannot hazard a guess as to what I am in for.”

  “I believe you will do alright,” she said.

  They arrived back at the beach, following their own tracks back to the ship. The silence between them was contemplative. A sideways glance, a smile, a firm grip — all saying, “You’re making a commitment.” The trail left the beach inland. In the distance, Dancer inspected the hull.

  Alec broke the silence. “All this time you lived in, or on, the Emperor’s Hanging Gardens, The Eleventh Wonder of the Universe.”

  Electra looked at him intently. “The wave coming our way.”

  “A tsunami,” replied Alec.

  “A tsunami then — it’s a symptom of what’s happening to this world. The Garden’s systems have not required maintenance in thousands of cycles.”

  Alec stopped on the path. He said, “Maintenance.” Alec looked to the sky. “The Emperor’s Hanging Gardens is the largest structure in the galaxy that I know of with more usable real estate than ten thousand worlds.”

  The world around them rocked under their feet, and the force field-enclosed sky changed to darkness. Alec looked up to see the sky flicker from translucent to black and back again. The ocean dropped quickly away from the shoreline.

  Alec grabbed Electra, and they ran together toward the Quest. Alec yelled to Dancer, “That really big tsunami is coming.”

  Alec and Electra ran toward the airlock’s force field.

  Dancer jumped from atop the hull, with his toolkit sinking a little on landing. He darted into the airlock. A loud roar engulfed them, and the ocean rose as it surged ashore with a 20-meter wave behind them. The wave took out the trees nearest the water first. Alec and Electra were 20 meters from the landing.

  Alec held on to Electra tightly and yelled, “Go, go, go!”

  The ocean wave rose to the sky. The wave caught them a meter from the airlock and hurled them against the hull. Alec grabbed the doorframe and pushed Electra through the force field that kept the water from filling the airlock. He pulled himself through as the Quest was picked up by the wave and taken inland.

  Alec kept his footing as the deck pitched back and forth on his way to the command deck. The Quest tumbled in the onshore tide.

  Dancer was strapped into the copilot’s seat. Alec landed in the pilot’s. The forward ports were filled with water and debris.

  “Wow! Shields,” Alec exclaimed.

  Dancer watched his console and incoming readings. “The sphere’s structure shifted, and the garden we are in shifted like a quake, creating a tsunami.”

  Electra made it to the command deck and buckled herself in. She read the instruments in front of her. “This garden is unstable. We are fortunate it was a small wave.”

  Alec and Dancer looked back at Electra.

  “Small?” inquired Dancer.

  Electra said, “The garden’s ocean is capable of producing tsunamis much higher than this.”

  The Quest tossed to and fro. It slowed as the energy of the wave decreased. The ship was no longer among the debris at the top of the wave. The Quest sank within the wave as it slowed; then, it sank further, to the level of the tree tops they had been carried over and which were now hitting the hull of the ship.

  Dancer raised the shields, stopping the thumping from the hull. He looked at their position. “The wave has lifted and carried us inland 12 kilometers,” noted Dancer.

  The Quest slowed further as the wave dissipated and was no longer able to carry them aloft. The waters were filled with vegetation ripped from the soil and swept inland. A small grove of trees blocked their forward progress as the Quest collided with them. The Quest spun around as the water carried it past the grove into an open clearing.

  The ship rocked as the landing gear settled once more on solid soil. Water and floating vegetation were all around them as they looked out the ports. The water lowered as it began to recede from what was once a clearing, now filled with trees and all sorts of debris picked up in the tsunami.

  “Let’s check the hull for damage,” said Alec as he shut down the Quest’s shields. The heavy airlock door opened and vanished into the doorframe. Alec and Electra stood in the doorframe to look out at the destruction. The Quest’s orientation when it touched down was with the airlock pointed in the direction of the shoreline — the way they had come inland. The scene brought up for Alec the memories of videos from Old Earth, where tsunamis had devastated shorelines and communities for millennia. There were few trees, if any, within visual range without some sort of damage — some were just snapped off at their base. The destruction was unimaginable. Alec, Electra, and Dancer left the ship and stepped off into this new world.

  Alec had problems processing the magnitude of what they had just lived through. “Better check out the damage.”

  Dancer replied, “I just took new readings and have a secondary wave coming in but far shorter than this one. We should be okay here. I’ll take the top.” Dancer nimbly scaled the hull of the Quest. Alec had a pair of thick working gloves in hand as he turned to get a better look at the ship’s hull. Tree branches fell from above as Dancer started to clear debris from the ship.

  Electra looked to the trees and back at him. “You don’t need me, do you?” she said with her best alluring smile.

  Alec grinned back at her. “I thought you were all about helping.”

  “Whe
n my people visit other gardens, we look for technology left by the custodians.” She gave him a coy look.

  Alec gave in. “Why don’t you have a look around?”

  Electra looked at the ship. “Are you sure?”

  Alec replied, “Yeah, go ahead. We’ll be here a while. Besides, Dancer isn’t going to let me up there because I’ll just get in the way. We both don’t need to be here.” He slipped the gloves on.

  “If you are sure, I will see what I can find in the area. These gardens have similar systems, and there might be some support system access nearby. Maintenance buildings are hidden in the terrain,” replied Electra. “I’ll change into something more appropriate.”

  Electra ran into the airlock and soon came back out with some self-sizing hiking boots and a small backpack with a camel bladder filled with water. She pulled at the bootlaces, and the boot’s internal systems formed to fit her feet perfectly. Electra admired them and stood up. They fit well and looked good. She looked around at the devastation and decided to head further inland to explore.

  Alec made his way around the Quest to inspect the undercarriage and hull. He pulled limbs and fronds from the landing gear. The enclosed hydraulic systems made them easier to clean. Alec made it to the Quest’s tail and engines. It was hard to distinguish where the Quest started and the trees left off in the debris piled against the ship. He started to clear the debris from the tail of the ship. He examined the ship’s exterior as it was revealed. Alec muttered, “This will never buff out.”

  Electra had a hard time at first getting through some of the tree trunks piled up in front of the Quest. Once past the first set of barriers, she found the going easier. When the wave had set the Quest down, it was already starting to dissipate. The devastation beyond the clearing was minimal, as the trees and other larger pieces of debris had also been set down on the ground. Electra picked her way through the downed trees and finally into a wooded area showing no signs of the devastating wave.

  Electra followed the trail inland. The trail showed signs of animals having used it recently, but there were no signs of anything motorized or of artificial coverings like shoes or boots. Electra clasped the drinking stock from the side of the pack and pulled it to her lips. She took a limited drink, not knowing how long it might be before she would be getting back to the ship. The trail headed for a hillside in the distance, which was exactly what she had been counting on. Garden builders designed their creations so that the supporting systems were out of sight but accessible to the maintenance staff. She guessed that the trail should end with a support building, but, until she found it, she would not know what kind. She closed in on the hillside as the trail ended five meters from its base.