by James Wilson
The four Eark paused about 100 yards before reaching the orchard to observe. All was quiet as Tevek and Zoskerladne took the lead toward the area where the problems had occurred the day before. They both saw a figure rise out of the grass. A shot was fired, sending fear into all four of the Eark. Doug had shot his net gun and hit Zoskerladne directly.
As Zoskerladne struggled to get out of the net, Tevek leaped into the air full speed directly toward Doug. Tevek swung his feet in front and struck Doug right in the chest, propelling him back about five feet and to the ground.
Tevek turned toward Zoskerladne and was relieved to see him still alive and apparently unharmed. Just as he was about to fly toward him to help out, two shots rang out from the tree stand. The first bullet struck him in the back where his heart would be if he were a human, and the second hit his head. Tevek’s life left his body before it hit the ground.
Zoskerladne managed to pull out his bushwhacker from his belt clip and was able to cut holes in the net he was stuck in. As he worked on the net, Doug struggled to get back up, and Greg was moving toward Zoskerladne with his pistol drawn. As Zoskerladne finished removing the net, Greg fired two shots, striking Zoskerladne both in the hand and in the shoulder. Zoskerladne fired the bushwhacker first at Greg, with the trigger depressed more than halfway; the beam was so powerful it burned a hole completely through Greg’s chest.
Zoskerladne saw that the bushwhacker had been badly damaged from the gunshot when it started to get hot in his hand. Immediately, he fired again at Doug who was running toward him. Doug was shot directly in his face, ending both of the brothers’ lives. Then the bushwhacker caught fire and Zoskerladne had to drop it.
Michael, who was nearby and still hidden, saw Zoskerladne drop his damaged weapon. He moved himself into range and fired his Taser at Zoskerladne. With a direct hit to the chest, Zoskerladne dropped to the ground. As Michael prepared to fire again, Brian shot his net gun at Keiske. Then Michael tasered Vensecosk.
With all four of the aliens either dead or incapacitated, Michael wanted to get them all secured. He called out commands on his wrist pad. “Joe, bring a roll of rope from the bunker to the northwest corner of the orchard. Hurry, boy, as fast as you can move!”
He pointed to where Keiske and Vensecosk were lying and called. “George, Roger, watch those two. Make sure they don’t get up and cause any more trouble. Nice shooting, Drew. I want you to stay put and keep an eye out in case there are any more.”
CHAPTER 52
TRADE
A room in the lower level at the Commons was quickly set up as the holding cell for the three aliens that were still alive. The body of the fourth was wrapped and put in one of the coolers. Heather, Michael’s older daughter and the only one with any medical training, attempted to examine Zoskerladne’s wounds, but before she could do anything, Vensecosk started making noise. She motioned, pointing to her side.
“Maybe it wants the bag that it was wearing when we captured them,” Lenny said.
They emptied the contents of the bag on a nearby table and Vensecosk pointed to one of the items. Heather popped open the lid on the tube. A little of the gel came out and Vensecosk gestured, indicating to apply the gel to the wound. Heather began to apply the gel to Zoskerladne’s wounds and Vensecosk nodded. Next, she pointed to another item on the table. It was a small pouch with bandages. Heather covered Zoskerladne’s wounds with one of the bandages.
The aliens seemed to be quiet and non-threatening, so they were allowed to all stay in the same room together. It was decided that at least two guards would be stationed twenty-four hours a day. With the loss of both Doug and Greg, simply providing the guards would be hard enough for the little group. There was also the issue of feeding and providing air for their guests. It was unknown just what it was that they were breathing or how much longer their food and air would last. They were at least able to establish that they did drink water.
In order to keep his location a secret, Michael traveled into the Houston underground and used a public terminal to contact the IPDC. He insisted on speaking with General Joiner. After waiting fifteen minutes, he finally got to speak to General John Gehlhausen, who had taken over after General Joiner retired.
Michael explained the whole story and showed the general several pictures of the aliens and some of the gear that they recovered. Further, he listed what he wanted in exchange for the prisoners and explained that there was not much time, as he didn’t know how long he would be able to keep them alive.
The general agreed to all of the material and personal items, but said that he would only be able to provide half the amount of cash that was asked for. Michael agreed and the deal was struck. A plane would be dispatched from England that night and would arrive before dawn. The IPDC team would spend the day there and leave for London with the aliens and all their gear just after sunset tomorrow. An advanced team would leave from Chicago immediately and arrive in about three hours to try to help with the health and medical needs of the aliens.
CHAPTER 53
THE CAPTIVES
Under the direction of Major Kent Winter, getting settled in at their new home in London was no easy task. A new ventilation system was needed to provide the high pressure and high concentration of O2 that the aliens needed. Furniture was a problem also: conventional chairs would not work as the aliens’ tails were in the way; stools worked better. In lieu of chairs, the aliens would simply sit on their tails. The aliens did not like human beds either. They ended up using pillows and blankets arranged like a nest for sleeping. Attempting to establish any kind of dialogue with the aliens proved challenging. The humans started with simple shapes and colors, hoping to teach the aliens our words for things like blue, red, circle, and square and to learn the alien’s words for the items. However, the aliens could not comprehend human speech and we couldn’t comprehend theirs either.
There seemed to be no consistency between the aliens’ words for any object. Experts were brought in to record the sounds the aliens made and convert them to wave forms that could be analyzed graphically and numerically. One alien saying a word on Monday would have little resemblance to the same alien saying the same word on Tuesday, and the problem was even worse when comparing the same word spoken by two different aliens.
One of the audio engineers, Stacie, who also designed RF (radio frequency) electronic circuits, theorized that maybe they were not capturing all of the wave form. She suggested that they record the sounds at a much higher sampling rate. The audible sounds that the humans were hearing turned out to not carry any useful information. The actual speech was at a much higher frequency beyond the range of human hearing. With that discovery, they were able to begin to communicate with the aliens.
Excellent translation machines existed at the time, but they had no capacity to work with the alien speech. A new device had to be designed to accomplish the task. Major Winter assigned a small team to redesign the translator, and in less than a year, a working translation machine was put into use, which helped speed the process. The machine had two modes—learning and translation.
With the translator in learning mode, the human would show the alien something like water and would speak the word. The translator would recognize the English word and repeat it back. The translator would then indicate whether or not it had an alien word for water. A button could then be pressed and the alien would speak its word for water. The translator would record both the high and low frequency parts of the speech. In this manner, a database of the alien language could slowly be built up.
In translation mode, a human or an alien could speak a word or a phrase and if the translator had that word in its database, it would repeat that word or phrase back in the other language.
CHAPTER 54
SIGNAL LOSS
Ever since the crew arrived at P3, Chevekov had gotten into the habit of checking the incoming transmission feed each day. One day, he received a transmission detailing the encounter that resulted in Vensecosk gett
ing hit in the head, losing her sample collection, and losing her sample sealant gun. Keiske’s message also mentioned their plans to return to the orchard the next day to see if there was anything more they could learn. Later that day, he received another message from Zoskerladne, detailing how he had modified the bushwhacker to make a crude weapon.
The next day, to Chevekov’s surprise, no messages arrived from the crew at P3. There was only the usual automated signal from the ship transmitting its full status, including its position. Chevekov thought maybe the crew simply forgot to send an update. He left a message for them and went about his other tasks for the day.
For the next three days, there was still no message from the crew on P3. Chevekov became concerned. It was not like Keiske to not keep him updated. He sent a message to both the captain and the admiral, alerting them to the fact that he had not heard from the crew for several days now. While the captain was away working on some issues at Sols South Pole, Admiral Nikodima requested a meeting with Chevekov for a full update on the situation at P3.
In their meeting, Chevekov presented all the information he had from the crew and the ship at P3.
“Keep me posted, lad, if there are any changes,” the admiral told Chevekov. “If we don’t hear back from them soon, we will have to start planning a rescue mission. I won’t leave any Eark unaccounted for. If there is no more communication from P3, we will reconvene in three weeks to begin to formulate our strategy going forward.”
Another two weeks passed with no word from P3. Chevekov requested an update from the ship as he had done every day since the crew’s disappearance. This time, however, he got no response. When the admiral heard this news, he decided to move forward with a rescue mission. He asked the captain, who had just returned from the South Pole, to work with Chevekov and put together a plan and to convene a meeting once they had the outlines of that plan.
CHAPTER 55
RESCUE MISSION
It was decided that Chevekov and his spouse Voska would lead the rescue mission. They would take three ships and a total of ten Eark. Each ship would be able to hold up to five crew members. This would allow more than enough room for everyone, including the four Eark from the first mission, to return. First, they had to build the three ships. While the ships were being assembled, they would develop some type of weapon, as they really had none to speak of. They planned to leave for P3 early in the year 4856 with the hopes of finding the four missing Eark and returning quickly.
Everyone knew of Tevek’s trip to P3 and of the incredible discoveries of life. They were also aware that Tevek’s group never returned from their trip. Soon after Chevekov posted the first flyers, word spread quickly throughout both the North and South stations that Chevekov was recruiting eight Eark for a four-year mission to P3. He was going to collect applications for about ten days and then start interviewing candidates. He hoped to have his team in place soon so he could start training.
Crafa had just finished a fifteen-hour shift working on repairs to a small transport vessel when he heard about the recruitment effort. His friend Gebek, who was one of the pilots of the ship he was working on, stopped by the hangar to check on how the ion engine modifications were progressing.
“Hey, did you hear there is going to be a rescue mission to P3? They’re looking for eight volunteers, including three pilots. I’m going to put in my application today. I know you like to explore planets: you should apply,” Gebek suggested.
“I hadn’t heard about that, but it sounds exciting,” Crafa said. “I’d love to go to P3 and get away from here for a while.”
Crafa was meeting a group of friends for dinner after work that day. After having their fill of sea creatures in the pool, he tried to convince them all to join him in applying to go on the mission. Lelo said, “You can count me out. You know, Tevek never came back from that mission for a reason. I don’t want to go and find out what that reason is. I’ve been married for less than a year now, and I’m very happy to go home to my wife every night. I couldn’t stand to be away from her for four years.”
His other friend Selta said, “I’ll go with you to apply. I’ve never been to a planet before and the pictures I’ve seen from P3 look a lot like some of the pictures from Timouri. I’ve always dreamed of going to the home world. This might be as close as I can ever get.”
The number of applicants was overwhelming. Over the next couple of weeks the team began to take shape. Gebek and Citar, both from the South, along with Shni from the North would be the three pilots. Crafa and Selta were also selected from the South station. A group of three friends that worked in the fabrication department at the North station, Shuzo, Pampai, and Kulkul were all selected as well. Each of the volunteers, including Chevekov and Voska, were required to take a few emergency medical classes before leaving. They would also have to complete several training sessions with the new weapon once it was ready.
The Eark were not a warring species and really had no experience with weapons beyond the ancient hunting tools used on Timouri before they had developed high technology. The most sophisticated weapons in their arsenal were knives, spears, and something similar to a bow and arrow.
Two exceptionally capable engineers were assigned to the task of designing a suitable weapon. From watching his last transmission from P3, they were aware of the modifications Zoskerladne had made to his bushwhacker. They thought something along those lines would be a good starting point for their new weapon.
They developed a directed-energy weapon that looked something like a large pistol. There were five adjustable settings. One controlled the frequency of output with ranges in the audio, RF, microwave, and x-ray. A second knob controlled the output duration. The center control knob allowed for the output power to be adjusted, and the last two control knobs set the output angle. There was one for horizontal and one for vertical, allowing the output to vary between a wide beam and a pinpoint beam. The idea was that this weapon would be versatile enough for whatever unknowns they might encounter on P3. All of the crew members for this mission would be extensively trained on how to use the new weapon. What really made the weapon both powerful and versatile though, was the high-density battery that could deliver an incredible amount of power by quickly converting matter into energy.
CHAPTER 56
ALIEN SHIP
Drew’s surviving son Joe used to go out hoverboard riding with his little brother almost every afternoon after they finished their studies. Since Matt died three weeks ago, he had been going out alone each day. Today however, he asked his cousin Tina, who had just lost her father Greg, if she wanted to go out with him. “You can use my brother’s board if you want to join me,” he told her.
The area west of the orchard was flat and wide open, a great place to burn up some fuel. They stopped at one of Matt’s favorite places to have a snack when Joe saw something unusual in between two groups of trees. “Do you see how the trees look distorted out there?” Joe asked.
“Yeah, there’s something funny about how they look, and if you move around a little, it gets worse,” Tina replied.
Joe said, “After we finish these figs, we should go check it out.”
As they got closer, the distortion increased. They could see that there was something there, and they slowed down as they approached. Without warning, Joe smacked right into something and was knocked off his board. His board kept going for several more feet before it stopped. “Whatever it is, it’s big and almost completely invisible,” Joe said.
They threw some grass and dirt on it so they could get an idea/of just how big it was. They were also able to determine that it stood on three sets of legs. It was a lot like a small plane.
They spent a few more minutes trying to figure out what the strange object could be before heading back to their underground home to tell Joe’s Uncle Lenny about their findings. Joe’s parents, Drew and Connie, were away on business in England.
“Good job, boy,” Lenny said to his nephew. “Tomorrow I’ll be bu
sy all day. I want you to stay away from the area in case anyone comes back looking for it. The next day, though, you, me, and Grandpa will go out and have a look.”
Joe asked, “Would it be okay for Tina to come along with us?”
“Sure, boy; she can join us,” Lenny answered.
Lenny always kept two electric bikes at the bunker near the orchard. Michael and Tina grabbed one bike, and Lenny and Joe took the other. Soon they were approaching the site.
“Uncle Lenny, slow down! It’s almost impossible to see, and if you hit it, it will knock you off your bike,” Joe said. “Stop! This is the place.”
They got off their bikes and approached on foot.
Lenny removed the blanket from the saddlebag on his bike and used it to drape over the object. With that, they were able to get an idea of the shape and size of the thing. It was a little like a small corporate jet with swept-back wings. Michael concluded that it must be the ship that the aliens came in.
“I want to take it back to my hangar at the lake,” Lenny said. “Can you imagine if we could figure out how to fly it? The only hard part is going to be loading it into the back of the truck.” Looking at Michael, he asked, “How am I going to do that?”
“You’ll need to rent a crane,” Michael answered. “First, we’ll drape it in tarps so we can see it, then with the crane, we’ll lift it using two sets of straps and place it in the back of your truck. It should be no different than loading a large tunnel-boring rig.
“Get the crane and we’ll move it over the weekend.”