The Adventures of Alizar
The Beginning
By F. Darnall Daley, Jr.
Book Cover Designed by Ikuborije O. Opeyemi. www.fiverr.com/crea8tive
Copyright © 2017 F. Darnall Daley, Jr.
F. D. Daley & Associates
All rights reserved
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
List of Characters
Afterword
Dedication
Dedicated in memory of our son, Christopher Michael Daley (1960 – 2009). He was a huge science fiction fan. We remember that he memorized all 68 episodes of the original Star Trek Series. We miss you, Chris, every day!
Other books by F. Darnall Daley, Jr.
The Commissioner’s Corner – A collection of inspirational essays
MyEasyJobSearch.com – How to get a job in the 21st Century
(With F. D. “Dale” Daley. III)
The Home World depends on us. From orbit to orbit at each dawning through all our lives we live to serve the Home World.
The People’s oath to the Home World
Chapter 1
3rd Planet
I am Alizar el Shelaman XCVII. I started my ninety seventh journey into this life late in the afternoon of the 127st dawning in the 3,686st orbit. My rebirth was otherwise uneventful and, as is the custom among the People, she-who-released-my-soul, Elith Alimay Botarus LIII brought me up to date on the events in the world since I was Alizar el Shelamus XCVI.
Since Elith Alimay Botarus and I had known each other in other lives, she knew that the first thing I would want to know was the number of the current dawning. I was pleased but not surprised to learn that it had been exactly one thousand one hundred seventy seven dawnings since Alizar el Shelamus XCVI on the afternoon of 48th dawning in the 3,683rd orbit left life to go no-one-knows-where.
It was in my 23rd life that I, as a mathematical philosopher, discovered the principle now known as Shelaman’s Law – “It is always a prime number of dawnings between the-leaving-of-life and rebirth.” The shortest number of dawnings ever recorded was 11 and the longest I remembered was 1,000,037. I was very interested to learn that a longer span had occurred since I was keeping track of such things but she-who-released-my-soul could not remember who it was nor how many dawnings had elapsed.
No matter, I would find this out in due time. Of course, I had to wait until much later to discover through conversings with my emanate colleague Warus ben Shuster CCCLIII, a mathematical philosopher almost as well known as myself that the soul in question had been Narithe Qarus Marithus II who entered his second life after 2,000,197 dawnings. His was a most unusual case. The reason I had to wait is that the early days in each life are always taken up with plain survival. One must get used to a new body and teach it how to grow. My new body was solid black and I was sure from the first that I would be quite pleased with it.
But I am getting ahead of my story. You see, I am giving this tale to you Marus Dithnar CCII because you are a renowned recaller and also the greatest pathfinder in all the lives. So, as you recall my tale over the lives, perhaps one of the pathfinders may come up with a way to solve the problem. If not in this life time, then perhaps the solution will be available to me in another. The problem you see is that I am lost.
So I will relate this 97th life of mine and maybe someone will understand how terribly inconvenient the whole thing is.
Chapter 2
(1st dawning of the 1st orbit)
In space
He was so excited. Normally, the People don’t get excited. When you can remember dozens of past lives spanning hundreds of orbits, what is there to get excited about? Nevertheless, Sebold Wacahoota was excited. All of his lives he had been a quiet, stay at home sort of person. In all his previous lives if you walked into a room where he was doing hand stands, you would not notice him. If you past him on the street, he would go unnoticed. He had always been invisible. But in this life he had decided he would be different. In school he had studied hard and played sports. He had gained entrance to the Northern Star Space Academy. He had graduated a few dawnings ago. Now here he was; Ensign Sebold Wacahoota LXXXIV, a very junior officer on a planetary expedition ship.
The planetary system that they were approaching looked very promising. Spectral analysis from space had revealed that the third planet and the satellites of several other planets were rich in elements 39, 60, 63, 65, and 66. There was also an asteroid region between the 4th and 5th planets that also appeared to be rich in these elements. These elements are scarce on the Home World. These are also the elements that were vitally needed for the very star drive that powered their planetary expedition ship. It was this star drive in all the space ships of the People that had allowed them to invade and conquer hundreds of star systems throughout the galaxy. With this drive system their ships could travel up to half light speed in close proximity to a star. Between stars the ships traveled non-relativistically at many times the speed of light. The space drive made the exploitation of space possible.
(Editor’s Note: The elements mentioned above are what on third planet are called rare earth elements by the aliens. This is a misnomer. These elements and the minerals that contain them are in fact quite common. The People do not have names for the elements like the aliens do. They simply refer to the elements by their atomic number.)
Alien Name
Atomic Number
Uses by Aliens
Yttrium [Y]
39
Used in lasers, super conductors, and microwave filters
Neodymium [Nd]
60
Used in magnets, laser technology and radiation filtering
Europium [Eu]
61
Used in TV, laser technology and nuclear reactors
Terbium [Tb]
65
Used in fuel cells, electronic devices and solar systems
Dysprosium [Dy]
66
Used in magnets, laser technology and nuclear reactors
Chapter 3
(127th dawning of the 3,686th orbit)
3rd Planet
As I have said, she-who-released-my-soul filled me in on what was happening in our star system. In the early days of a life there is not much you can do about events but it is nice to be brought up to date and it passes the time. If there is one thing that the People have learned, it is how to pass the time. We know that we have plenty of it, if not in this life then in the next.
The People decided from the beginning that most of us would eventually try living with the aliens; over the lives it has become more and more common for us to do so. Therefore, I was not particularly surprised to learn from she-who-released-my-soul that we were in the dwelling of a she-alien.
What did surprise me was the number of the People who were together in the dwelling of this she-alien. There were at the time of my rebirth 17 of the People gathered together in this dwelling, which is an unusually large number. The aliens don’t usually allow that many of us to li
ve together, as you know. Nor do that many of us ordinarily congregate in the wild. I soon learned that this she-alien ran a sort of way station for the People and would in time find places for each of us in the dwelling of other of the aliens. I had run into similar situations before but to the best of my knowledge we have never been able to determine what motivates the aliens to engage in such behavior. For that matter, we have seldom been able to calculate the motivation for any of the alien behavior patterns.
We have discovered that the aliens make a very fine meal ticket. They allow us to live in their dwellings and they provide us with food. When we first arrived on this world, many of the aliens, though somewhat civilized, lived primitively. Others of the aliens lived in highly developed civilizations. We decided to initially have nothing to do with them. We, of course, had great curiosity about them but we kept our distance. We continued to live as we were designed to live, hunting for our food among the smaller wild creatures of this world and to seek shelter where we could. One of the rationales for this is that we represented small wild creatures that the aliens could hunt for food. To this day all of the People can still live in the wild but you’ll have to admit it is more pleasant to have you food brought to you than to have to hunt and kill your dinner. And you miss a lot fewer meals when the aliens bring it to you. You do, of course, give up a slight measure of freedom when you allow one of the aliens to keep you. We have found over the lives that the restrictions are usually minimal. One can always leave a particular alien and seek another. Or one can return to the wild, if that is one’s choice.
For myself, I have always tried to find an alien to keep me whenever I could. A mathematical philosopher can do much better work when he doesn’t have to worry about the mundane matters of food and shelter.
Of course, it is hard to know what the aliens are going to do. We cannot converse with them. As incredible as it may seem the aliens do not converse in the mind but make noises to communicate. As you know, we cannot imitate these noises, except to convey to the most primitive emotions so there was no way that she-who-released-my-soul could know for sure what the she-alien in whose dwelling we were, was going to do. But Elith Alimay Botarus had reports from others who had shared this dwelling and had been removed. They had reported that they had been taken to the dwellings of other aliens and were living quite comfortably. Furthermore, I had witnessed this pattern of behavior in other lives and I was not concerned.
In the dawnings that followed I taught my new body to grow and was beginning to have some energy leftover from this activity to start conversing. It is always interesting to learn when one starts a new life which of one’s acquaintances from previous lives are sharing this particular time.
Thus I passed the next 45 dawnings.
Chapter 4
(5th dawning of the 1st orbit)
In space
Ensign Wacahoota settled into his chair in the briefing room. Today’s briefing would be very interesting. The ship’s Chief Biologist was going to report on the species development projects that were under way. All the officers not essential to the immediate running of the ship were seated in the orderly rows of chairs in the briefing room.
The Captain walked majestically to the podium. Ensign Wacahoota thought he’d have to remember that walk for when he became a Captain. The Captain projected his thoughts to the group, [Assembled officers, today’s briefing will be conducted by our Chief Biologist who will report on the findings of the Biology Department concerning this star system.]
The Chief Biologist didn’t display the majestic stride of the captain as he walked to the podium. With a nod to the Captain he began. [Assembled officers, having established that this star system has the minerals that we need and want, our expeditionary ship was sent here to conquer this star system. Over thousands of orbits the People have developed a system for doing this. We could come with armies of destruction and we sometimes do. But the People are expert biologists. Rather than come with conquering armies, we introduce invading species. The biologists in the expeditionary force are developing new species that are compatible with the local environment. The dominate life form in this star system is a bipedal, slightly hairy creature about 1.2 to 2.1 meters tall. Their skin tone varies from pink to black. In this situation it was decided to develop four new species. All of these will be People. Like all of the People these will communicate telepathically. They are reincarnated. Some will remember their past lives immediately at birth.]
[Alphas: A four legged, small, furry animal with varying color patterns between 20 and 35 centimeters tall with a proportional tail. Because of their smaller size they will be able to go anywhere. They will be able to live in the wild. Even though they can live in the wild our plan is that they will eventually live with the aliens. The idea is that because of their small size they will not be seen as a threat to the aliens. They will remember past lives at birth.]
[Betas: These will look exactly like what we believe is the dominant alien species. They will remember their past lives only if they are awakened by an alpha companion when they are between the ages of 13 and 25 orbits. If this process doesn’t take place, then these will still be capable of genetically passing on the ability of becoming a beta to their offspring. This training process will be called the Weckspringe. They will be able to reproduce with aliens. They will be able to accurately predict near term future events. This is a capability that we have only recently been able to duplicate. They will be on the average 30% stronger than the aliens. This will happen after they have been awakened and trained by an alpha and have learned to make their bodies grow. Betas will be the conduit to introduce the technology of the People to the aliens.]
[Gammas: A two legged animal. They will be 40% bigger than the aliens. They will be 40% stronger than the aliens. They will be much hairier. They will remember past lives at birth. They will be designed to live in small family groups in the wild with little or no contact with the aliens. They will be primarily nocturnal creatures. To aid in this their eyesight will extend into the infrared. The family groups will consist of one adult male and one or more adult females and all the off spring that have not reached adulthood.]
[Deltas: An aquatic animal. Since much of the surface to the 3rd planet is covered with liquid water, we thought it would be prudent to have an aquatic creature. At this point we haven’t decided what their role will. They will remember past lives at birth.]
[All of these species will be innately loyal to the People and the Home World. They will be dedicated to supplying the minerals we need to the Home World. Are there any general questions? I hope you find this interesting. The success of our mission dictates that we get this right. If any of you have any questions after we leave this briefing, please stop by the Biology Department. Your questions may lead us to a better understanding. If there are no immediate questions, I thank you for your attention. You are dismissed.]
Chapter 5
(10th dawning of the 1st orbit)
In space
Every day Ensign Wacahoota was even more grateful that he had chosen this exciting new life. The new life was made even more exciting by the existence of Ensign Daribeth Wootelbom. Daribeth and he had attended different space academies. Amazingly, this interschool rivalry had drawn them together rather than driven them apart. As the most junior officers, they had been seated next to each other in the officer’s mess. As much as he found her fascinating, he was delighted to learn that she seemed to find him fascinating too. They had developed the habit of spending their off duty hours together discussing the progress of the ship’s mission. Sebold Wacahoota thought and hoped that if their relationship continued to progress they would have to go to the ship’s morale officer to get permission to engage in sexual activities.
[Daribeth Wootelbom, did you hear that it has been decided to establish a permanent base on the largest satellite of the 5th planet? We’re moving our operations there now.]
(Editor’s note: The aliens eventually came to know this sa
tellite as Ganymede. Thus I will refer to this base as the Ganymede station.)
(Editor’s note: It has been a problem in deciding how to render names in this narrative, for the People names are rendered as a sound image combined with a visual image. For clarity we decided to produce a representation in the alien language, English, that somewhat represents the sound image.)
Wacahoota continues, [The reason for the Ganymede station is to provide a permanent base to support operations on the 3rd planet and to have a collecting point for minerals to be shipped to the Home World of the People. Studies of the aliens that populate the 3rd planet show that they have not yet discovered the elements that are of interest to the People so it will be hundreds of orbits before mining operations by the aliens will produce shippable quantities.]
[What we’re going to do is capture aliens and bring them to this Ganymede Station to mine the minerals that exist on the satellite. In that way we can start supplying the Home World with the elements that are needed until such a time as these are discovered by the aliens on the 3rd planet.]
Daribeth always seemed content to let him ramble on. [Sebold Wacahoota, that’s so exciting.]
[Daribeth Wootelbom, the station will be populated by aliens from earth. A society will be formed where the aliens will believe that they have a free community. Their work will be to mine the minerals, refine them and prepare them for shipment to the Home World. The aliens on this station will not know of the 3rd planet. They will be captured as infants and raised here. Over time betas will continue to capture infants and bring them to the Ganymede base to maintain the diversity of the gene pool. While the society will appear free to the aliens, key positions will be held by betas aided by alphas. Isn’t that clever?]
The Adventures of Alizar: The Beginning (Aizar Book 1) Page 1