Discovery (Terran Chronicles)

by Jackson, James

  John reviews his instruments, then pilots them toward some distant structures. George’s jaw drops as the massive city comes into view. Smudged concrete and glass make up the scene before them. Down between the buildings, a series of pathways are evident. John takes them even lower, until small clusters of white objects can be seen dotting the pathways below.

  “Do you think they killed themselves in some biological accident or a war?” George asks out of morbid curiosity. The city rivals that of Earth’s largest and most complex, with tall spires reaching high into the sky. The outskirts of the city has what appears to be industrial areas, while beyond these, lay coffee colored fields.

  John spots an advanced looking monorail that leads out from the city. Wordlessly, he follows the single rail as it traverses the dreary countryside. Lifeless city after depressingly lifeless city is all they find.

  “What is that?” John suddenly exclaims.

  George follows his finger to a massive crater in the distance. Monorails converge here from all directions, they lay bent and twisted, terminating at the raised edge of this massive hollow. The center of this large depression is filled with murky water. He breaks out in a rash of goose bumps the second he spots the single metallic finger pointing up out of the water, aiming at the grey skies above. He gulps as he instantly recognizes it.

  John’s jaw drops in shock as he too spots the strut, identical to those that held the Terran in place back on Earth.

  “I am going to explore more cities,” he says hesitantly.

  George nods, he understands what John is looking for. Flying faster and faster they follow the monorail system, searching as they go. George relays the cheerless news to Cindy while John surveys yet one more dead city. Eventually they find what they both fear and yet half expected to discover.

  “There!” John says, pointing off into the distance.

  On the outskirts of an extremely large city rests a massive object. Even from this distance the resemblance is unmistakable. Monorails lead to this alien craft from all over the countryside. John flies around the monstrosity, confirming their suspicions. It is clearly of Gamin design and is easily the same size as the spacecraft that had landed in Manhattan.

  John’s jaw drops in shock. “Wow!. Look at that!”

  An entire section of the forward hull has been completely destroyed. Metallic remnants are all that remain, as though an area between the front of the ship and the bridge area were just vaporized. Surprisingly enough, the main hull housing the bridge remains intact. The very nose of the ship is still mostly intact and points skyward due to a single landing strut that still holds firm. John takes them down between the damaged sections, then flies around the upward angled nose, which though small in comparison is easily larger that the hangar deck on the Terran. The nose area rising up from the ground, its lower decks crushed where the support struts either gave way or never existed in the first place.

  John looks at George curiously. “Why would someone destroy that area of the ship and not the bridge?”

  George stares transfixed on the scene before them as he tries to comprehend the total devastation they have witnessed this day. He shakes his head silently. Was this civilization destroyed by whoever attacked the Gamin? And if so why? George shudders as he recalls a conversation he overheard so long ago on Regent Voknor’s bridge. With bile rising in his throat he makes a startling revelation.

  “We must return to the ship,” he says gravely, “and quickly.” He looks at John intently, who in return frowns in confusion.

  “You don’t think whoever did this is still around do you?” He replies doubtfully.

  George shakes his head. “No, but I think we now know why the Gamin left Earth when they did.”

  Arriving back on the Terran they both hurry to the bridge where they find the crew oddly silent and tense.

  Cindy stands up as George and John enter. “We found three Gamin satellites over the southern polar region. This planet was once one of theirs.”

  George shakes his head in disagreement. “No, this planet was visited by the Gamin just like we were. An entire civilization existed here, but has since been wiped out. We found the remnants of a construction dock just like the one in the Australian Outback. There is even a partially destroyed spaceship still on the planet.”

  Cindy is feeling a little nervous as she asks what is on everyone’s minds. “When did this happen?”

  John and George look at each other as each man ponders the question. John breaks the silence as the images from below replay themselves in his mind. “We found what could be bones on ground between the city buildings. It takes a while for a body to decompose to that point,” he says morbidly.

  Cindy along with the rest of the bridge crew relax a little as the realization that whatever happened below, did so quite a while ago.

  “OK,” Cindy continues on, “you said there is a Gamin spaceship down there. Let’s all go and investigate it.”

  George hesitates as he considers how to say what is on his mind. With the rest of the bridge crew noticing his pensive expression they wait until he finally relays what has been bothering him.

  “The Gamin left Earth to protect us,” he looks around the room as he shares another thought. “Perhaps they are a target of whoever did this?” He gulps as his mind races on, but he keeps his further thoughts to himself.

  Radclyf whistles in surprise. “So the inhabitants of this planet were simply collateral damage.”

  John adds his own thoughts to the conversation. “Whoever did this did not want the Gamin to be able to come back either. Perhaps they are running out of places to get supplies.” A chill runs down his spine as his words fill the air. He can’t help but look at the dead planet and wonder what really happened here.

  Cindy stares at the planet as well.

  “Well, we can’t do anything for them now, whatever happened here did so a long time ago. What we can do is see if we can salvage anything off that ship down there.”

  Edwards and Aaron make their way to the bridge allowing most of the bridge crew to head to the hangar area. Both men have been slowly learning the Gamin systems, becoming more proficient with each visit. Edwards still resents the way John gained his position, but he is also reluctantly gaining respect for the man.

  Edwards sighs a little. “Well, here we are again, holding the fort while they all gallivant off on some exciting adventure.”

  Aaron smiles but says nothing. Being on the bridge is an adventure to him.

  The group that enters the shuttle does so with a mixture of apprehension and excitement. Cindy sits up front with John while George, Joe, Andrew, and Radclyf occupy the storage area. Hayato and Peter remained on the Terran with Edwards at the piloting station. Aaron occupies Joe’s chair, monitoring communications.

  As the shuttle breaks through the thick clouds Cindy is aghast at the scene before her. “This looks like the work of a biological weapon. Nothing else I know of could do this to an entire planet.”

  Coming in toward the badly damaged spacecraft John flies around it allowing Cindy to get a good view. She is awed by the size of the ship.

  “Wow,” she exclaims, “this ship is as wide as ours is long.”

  Flying in from behind the ship, John takes them even lower, skimming close to the ground beneath its three massive engines. They are set wide apart and form a triangle, with two on top and one below. To their surprise, the ship’s ramp opens in the distance, lowering itself to the ground below. A shimmering is evident between them and the interior. With apprehension building John pilots the shuttle inside. As they enter the monstrous cavern the soft glow of lights powering up great them. John lands the shuttle expertly then runs the onboard system which checks the outside environment. It seems that they learn something new about the Gamin shuttle every time they take it out. He muses. After a moment he is able to read off the data as it feeds to his laptop computer.

  “Gamin air outside and well, gravity is a little more than Earth�
�s.”

  Opening the shuttle’s own ramp allows the foul soupy Gamin air they so happily replaced on the Terran to invade their lungs once more.

  The unpleasant odor is overshadowed as they all stare in astonishment at the two Gamin shuttles occupying the expansive hangar area. Alongside these are a dozen ground vehicles. George walks over to the main ship’s ramp and studies the shimmering.

  “That is not like any shield we have, it is something else completely.”

  Cindy gazes at the ships interior in awe. George surprises them all when he waves his arms in an arc and adds with conviction.

  “The Regent’s ship was truly a monster, this one is actually much smaller. It looks to be roughly the same size as the one that landed in Manhattan, even so, I am sure the Terran could fit in this ship’s hangar.”

  Cindy watches George as he heads back into the shuttle to get his suit. Pensively she considers the reports of his visits to the alien leader’s command ship. She had also heard of an unofficial report that it was he, and not the President that secured the return of the submariners. There is a lot more to George than he lets on.

  It takes them a little longer to get to the bridge than on the Terran. In all they climb forty decks, but not all on foot, thirty-five of these are travelled via an elevator.

  Cindy raises an eyebrow. “Something else, our ship is missing.” The statement is almost a question.

  Arriving at the bridge they quickly notice the many chairs and consoles in the room, more than the Terran has. The command chair is different to the Terran’s as well, but no less ornate. Joe ignores the command chair and wanders over to a console near one of the side walls. As he wipes a thin layer of dust off its surface, it powers up, startling him. The display has many unfamiliar symbols and characters upon its surface.

  “Hey George!”Joe calls out quite perplexed, “what is this console used for?”

  George walks over to Joe, studies the symbols, then frowns. “I don’t know.” Connecting to it he makes an astonishing discovery, then immediately shuts the console down. He can’t contain his excitement.

  “This console,” George ventures eagerly, “is a communications system, one that uses the main drive. I think it can transmit to any Gamin ship or even to the satellites orbiting Earth.”

  Cindy walks over to the two men and asks curiously. “Can we take it with us?”

  George shrugs his shoulders, “possibly,” then leans over to see how it is connected to the wall.

  “Can we send a message from here?” Cindy ventures curiously.

  George stops to consider her question. Powering the console back up he taps on a couple of symbols. His heart races as everything looks to be working. Joe watches George’s fingers as they fly from Gamin symbol to Gamin symbol. After a few moments though their hopes are dashed.

  George sighs as he relays the disappointing news. “The planet’s atmosphere is stopping us. There is some strange ionization, possibly due to whatever was used to wipe out all life on this planet.”

  Joe gazes around the rest of the bridge in awe, he starts to frown as a niggling thought comes to mind.

  “NO!” He says a little too loudly. Everyone stops what they are doing and looks at him. With bubbling excitement he stammers quickly. “It’s the main drive, It needs to be active to make it work!”

  George’s face breaks into a massive grin.

  “Of course!”

  Cindy nods in understanding leaving George the task of removing it. Putting her hand on the central chair she is surprised to find a thin layer of dust on it.

  “How long has the ship been here?” She asks, hoping someone has an idea on how to figure out the answer. Looking at the chair she can see that it looks as though it were carved from some outlandish petrified log.

  “Well,” Joe ventures, “the crew may have left logs?” He raises his eyebrows as he watches George work. “Hey! Do you think we could take a piece of the ship down and somehow date it?”

  Cindy tilts her head at Joe in surprise. “You know, there should be a way. We would need to take a sample of the ship’s atmosphere, and a piece of plating.” Her mind races as she goes over what she knows about carbon dating, and wonders how to apply the technique.

  “We need to get teams down here to explore this ship properly.” She gazes back down at the chair, her eyes locking onto the armrest where a small blank screen rests. They won’t be happy to be breathing this foul soup the Gamin call air, but that’s just too bad. She muses quietly to herself.

  It takes George a few hours to disconnect the bulky console and transport it to the hangar deck. The flurry of activity there surprises him. Dozens and dozens of people are moving around as they load various items onto the three Gamin shuttles. Aaron and John have been kept quite busy flying the shuttles to and from the Terran.

  Radclyf spots George and hollers out over the commotion. “Hey, check these out.”

  George glances to where Radclyf is motioning and does a double take. There lined up along the floor are nine Gamin body suits, one is about the size of his. The other suits are all much smaller, only coming up to the arm pit of the single larger suit. Next to the suits rest a number of modules, some with five prong connectors and others with seven prongs. As George descends to the hangar deck via the elevator Radclyf walks to him.

  Even before the elevator stops Radclyf is hollering out his questions.

  “Are these the combat modules you have referred to? And if so where are the suits?”

  George thinks back to the little he gleaned from Sharz, adding this to the data discovered on the lunar base he shouts back his assumption.

  “The Gamin do not allow servitor races to have access to combat modules. To prevent this all construction suits have the five pin modules.”

  Radclyf tilts his head at George as he asks curiously.

  “One more question then. Why is there only one large suit?”

  “Well the other suits could have been for the local inhabitants of this planet.”

  A tingle travels up Georges spine as he reaches Radclyf. He adds as the elevator stops.

  “Which means that the larger unit could be a template.”

  “I find it odd that a suit which is too small for the Gamin would be their template, unless…” Radclyf gulps as his voice trails off.

  George’s mind is racing, “unless somehow we, or others our size are the template.”

  Hayato interrupts the two men, his voice unusually quiet, as he breaks their thoughts.

  “Come with me. You both should see this.”

  The three men walk quietly through the ship, George and Radclyf’s curiosity mounting. Finally, when they are well away from the bridge Hayato speaks, his voice sounding crestfallen.

  “My men found something disturbing.”

  George wonders what on Earth could disturb one of Hayato’s men. The three men continue to walk forward, all the way to the damaged section of the ship. Chokichi greets them with a curt nod, he stands before a bulkhead that blocks the corridor. As Hayato approaches he silently steps out of the way.

  Hayato stops, then looks back at George.

  “We know what this part of this is used for now. Why it is the most heavily armored part of the ship, with all the extra bulkheads and armor.”

  With that statement he touches a wall panel. The bulkhead slides into the wall revealing a massive open area. Before them all is the huge section of the ship that has been blasted away. The grey mist is held at bay by a shimmering shield, one that was not there earlier. The very nose of the ship is still intact and rests in the distance. Hayato points at the shield.

  “My guess is that when we came aboard the shield powered up along with the rest of the ship’s systems. But that is not what I wanted you to see. Look over to the left.”

  Radclyf’s eyes land on the object of Hayato’s interest and instantly understands the implications.

  “This is not war. This is genocide!”

  George frowns
as he tries to discern what it is he is looking at. The large egg sack before them is grey, as are the few others that seem to be intact.

  “Ohh my.” George says in shock. “The attackers did not care about the bridge. They only wanted to destroy the eggs.”

  Hayato stares at the void, sorrow in his voice.

  “This was their hatchery. These are more than ships of war. There is something else I want you to see.” He turns and starts to walk away.

  George’s eyes glaze over as he spots more grey eggs sacks, most broken, the eggs, the unborn were killed. He imagines a war where children are the target. Chokes back tears that threaten to fall as he says sadly. “Who could do such a thing?”

  Hayato looks back over his shoulder and with unexpected emotion replies. “Only someone with a lot of hate in their heart could do such an unconscionable thing.”

  The men continue back the way they came, each silently contemplating the disturbing find. Hayato leads the other two up a stairway then along another corridor. Finally after a fifteen minute trek, he stops and motions to an open area before him.

  “I was in China when one of these was delivered.” He states matter-of-factly.

  George stares at the solid object before them, his eyes rove up and down as he tries to discern what he is looking at. It reaches up for three decks in height and is equally wide. Walking down its side, he reaches the far end after sixty paces. Walking around the entire object he finds what he is looking for. A single panel is open, with what look like cables snaking from it toward the nearby wall. George smiles as he realizes what he is looking at.

  “This is a power plant.” He says in surprise.

  Hayato is still gazing at it as he replies.

  “The one that was delivered to China was reported to be providing one quarter of their nation’s power needs and my men have found five of these so far.”

  “I have no idea how much power that is. I do know that the Terran is supposed to have four of these installed.”

  Radclyf whistles in amazement then asks the obvious.

  “Tell me we can take these with us.”

  George shakes his head.