Starborn Odyssey (The Starborn Odyssey Trilogy Book 1)

by Haines Sigurdsson

  It was clear from the start that they wanted to know where we came from, and we did our best to show them with drawings and pictures brought out of the ship. They were fascinated by our photos from space, but brought out a few relics and some pottery depicting their landing on this planet a long, long time ago. They didn’t seem to have any idea how far back, and up till now, most of them thought it was just a myth. We showed them copies of a few of the photos from the station on their moon, but didn’t show them any pictures inside the base itself, not wanting to show them the fate of their people immediately, for fear of freaking them out.

  The people of the settlement weren’t as unsophisticated as colonials often were, and they still schooled their young in writing, math, and what history and mythology they knew, and were much better off than I would have expected from a primitive culture. They had worked hard to keep their history alive, along with at least an awareness of their former technology, much the same as our myths of Atlantis, (which made me wonder about our own myths) for more than three thousand years. I didn’t think it would take them long to come up to speed; but would that be a good thing to do? I was glad I wouldn’t have to make that decision. They had knowledge of how to generate electricity, but lacked sufficient metals to make wires and equipment to do so. They used oil lamps fueled by animal fats to light their homes, and wood for heat, using the trees they’d transplanted on the world to burn—not the trees that produced alcohol!

  There was no longer any concern about contaminating the native cultures on Sne-az; that apparently was done long ago. We stayed there for two days, exchanging information, and saw for the first time, snow falling on the village. This was the beginning of their warmer season and would equal spring snow on Earth. It was exciting to us in any event. We moved our ship to an area they called the purg, oddly there word for park, or grass land as near as we could tell; still amazingly close to our language.

  A male and a female were to leave the village with us to see our colony and start some cultural exchange. Ian and Mogi Lund were their names. I think they were the equivalent of a married couple, but I didn’t know for sure if it was like marriage in our culture; some rules may vary. Blurg also volunteered to come; he had an insatiable appetite for knowledge, and I feared that might not be as good as it seemed at the time either, but for now all was well. Much of the language was surprisingly like some combinations of Earth languages, though the meanings were usually completely different. Still, our linguists seemed to be doing extremely well with interpreting sufficiently to translate the writings we’d gotten from the moon station, to give us a lot more accurate picture of the last days. How they had tried to rush their space program to get off their world before it was destroyed. Many had died in the attempts but at least this one colony had survived when a rogue planet hit the second planet in the system. They only had about fifteen years to take their fledgling space program to a fully operational colonizing project; they were only partially successful. The best that could be said is that the race had survived, and now could accelerate back to where it had been so many years before.

  We lifted off to go and tow the saucer craft and insectoid corpse back to Zeus. The people from the old world, which they called Reesh, had never heard anything about the insect creatures, but had myths about flying saucers, just like all Earth cultures. Now, for the first time we were forced to wonder if these same creatures had in fact visited Earth in the distant past. The two Reeshians looked on the body of the insectoid with absolute horror; they had never imagined any such creatures could really exist. Their general response seemed to be, could these things be anything but evil? It could be thousands of years before we would get the chance to find out the real character of the insectoids; on the other hand . . .

  Genetic tests on the Zorpeg/Reeshians showed they were almost identical to us, as opposed to the Fenninz or the Vortlepeg, which were very different. The Fenninz were called the Drolpeg by the Vortlepeg, who said they can’t live where it gets too cold. Can’t and won’t seem to be the same word in their language, and was determined only by how it’s said, so I could have that wrong.

  Another difference in the northern climate was that some of the trees were much lighter colors, leaning toward pink and violet, and the alcohol levels were much lower. There were also some sort of small brown rodents called Chakk which we nick named “Ratbits” because they looked like a blend of the two: pointed snout, long tail and long rabbit like ears, though once again had no fur.

  Setting up the Saucer for towing turned out to be a real task. Braces had to be clamped to the edges on three sides, and huge metal plates attached to those, and connected by cross braces so they couldn’t come loose. Then it was ready for a magnetic tractor beam to pull it along on the underside of our ship. I had a feeling it was capable of doing a better job on its own. Our new friends weren’t much happier than I was at being attached to that thing; there was just something way too alien about it.

  The trip back to our new home was tedious because we had to avoid sudden changes in speed, and it was especially tricky for Brad bringing it down though the atmosphere of Zeus, and setting it down, then releasing the tractor beam without flying up into the air upon the release like a sling shot.

  There was a science team waiting for it when we arrived, all chomping at the bit for the chance to see what we had. I personally was glad to be excluded from their group. I was creeped out enough to lose sleep over it; Nettie and Ira felt the same way. Some insects can lie dormant for long periods of time; or at least their eggs can, and the thought of one of those alive was more than I was ready for. We all felt that our fear was illogical; that any beings smart enough to build a craft like that weren’t likely to be monsters; we just saw to many old Sci-Fi thrillers. Still, leave it to someone else to do that research. We happily headed for home.

  A Short Break

  While we were away the twelfth anniversary of the last message from Earth had passed; it was a big deal. Not one message had been received in all these years, and it was a very bad sign for Earth. They may have come to one of the very disasters that had been the reason for us heading out to colonize in the first place. It was odd to me that we had found the survivors of just such an incident at the very time that we were starting to think such a thing might have happened to our original home world. Perhaps that is the cycle of the universe; civilizations only last long enough to spread their seed to a few places before coming to an end themselves.

  Our trip had been a very revealing one, and we were all glad to be home on Olympus. The Captain was pleased that so many questions had been answered, and now we had some new friends. Hero, our little Fenninz/Drolpeg friend was glad to see us as well. He jumped right up onto Nettie’s lap, and settled down while the Captain received our full reports.

  I’m not sure that Hero realized these new people, Ian and Mogi, were from his world. There was no question that he knew the Vortlepeg. At first looked terrified—after all, he was familiar with that race— though he seemed to relax after seeing that Blurg wasn’t being aggressive. Hero really seemed to trust our judgment most of the time. The only way I could tell how Hero was feeling was by the way he moved his ears and shoulders. Almost like a cat he would flatten his ears back if scared or upset; it takes a while to pick up other subtle changes in posture, since Fenninz faces were not flexible except for their jaw and bottom lip.

  Practically the entire colony had turned out to see the new people; our nearest relatives so far since leaving Earth. It struck me that while I was away, people had adjusted to living by a natural planetary day and night schedule. My world was changing so rapidly that I wasn’t sure I could catch up with it. The days were twenty four and a half hours long, and seasonal in the divisions of light and dark the same as Earth. It would require resetting our time pieces to measure slightly slower to make a twenty four hour day work for us to be practical. Years, months and weeks still needed to be worked out.

  Our research so far showed that t
he Reeshians were genetically so close to us that we could almost certainly produce offspring, though it was uncertain which genes would dominate the features that were not the same. I was sure we would find out eventually; human nature (and Reeshian nature, perhaps?) rules. The Reeshians were fascinated by our technology and how our small city was being set up. It was as much ahead of their current technology as theirs was above that of a Stone Age village. Ian and Mogi were a hit with the people, but there were a lot of distrusting looks at Blurg; people weren’t use to the Dragon appearance as something other than evil and dangerous. It would definitely take a period of adjustment for those who hadn’t been exposed to all the different species we’d met, since our arrival to our new Solar System; our new home.

  Scans of Blurg’s body showed that he was an adult who had already laid his eggs; there would be no babies from him. Hero, on the other hand, would probably lay his eggs soon. I had no idea how they hatched or raised their young, but I guess that won’t be my problem. I think we were all a bit curious about it, and would find out eventually.

  The reports on the alien corpse down on the surface of Zeus were baffling. The insect appearance was just that; appearance only. The cellular structure was unlike anything our science could recognize; almost like they were from a different universe. They definitely didn’t breathe the same atmosphere as us, so we probably would never have one for a neighbor. Professor White thought they might actually be from another dimension, and that their ship might not travel though space in any way that would achieve what we hoped for. Their DNA was so completely different than anything our scientists had ever seen; not just the sequencing, but actually different or unrecognizable components.

  The other issue that was increasingly on everybody’s minds was the fact that we still had heard nothing from Earth. We were continuing to send regular reports to them, but now we were beginning to doubt that they were receiving the info that we sent. We also sent out messages to the other ships that had left Earth before us, in hopes that some of the messages would one day get a response. There were ships that left Earth after us, but we received no response from them either. Was it possible that we were the only ship still surviving? Some of the other ships were of course traveling away from us at equal speeds to what we had achieved and some even greater, but we knew at least one ship had been heading for a star no more than a few light years from our destination. It was hoped we would a least hear from them.

  I was scanning through the last communications from Earth to see if there were any references that might hint at some problems or threats that we failed to notice, but there was nothing at all. If something had gone wrong, it was nothing that gave any real warning. At the distance we were from Earth we could see Sol in the sky but even our best scopes couldn’t pick out Earth itself. Nothing to do but wait and see.

  Several other survey ships had been dispatched to explore more of the planet, since we had only covered a thousand mile radius on the initial mission. So far no other significant life forms had been detected on either continent, though exploration certainly was going to be far from complete for a long time to come. Absolutely no exploration of the oceans had yet been made, though scans showed that the seas were shallow; less than half a mile deep at the deepest part barring possible crevasses not wide enough to show on our initial scans. We would have time to investigate those at a later date, after we were settled. Plate tectonics were obviously still active.

  Olympus was an active planet, still cooling, and it was decided that being only one hundred ten thousand miles from Zeus, it had been a good deal closer causing it to flex until quite recently, geologically speaking, keeping the little planet from cooling. We had to be grateful for that, since it kept its magnetosphere giving us protection from the sun’s radiation. For the first time we had natural protection against everything, except those six legged cats.

  It was our next mission to go and fetch one of those cats, and also to bring back a pair of the Yak. If we were lucky the Yak would add a great deal to our small herds of live stock from Earth. Perhaps a variety of dairy products to decrease our dependence on the synthetics; which could be bland sometimes because of the lack of varied samples to work from. Things were always exactly perfect reproductions of the samples introduced, whether recent or back when we first left Earth, so anything new would be welcomed.

  Nettie came over to see me after our arrival back from our trip to tell me of her appointment to the staff at the new hospital as a Psychologist. It seemed that a lot of people were having a difficult time adjusting to their new life. Many needed to alter their careers to fit our new environment, specifically those with jobs that were limited to the needs on board the ship. Although most jobs would convert easily there were a few that weren’t related to life on the planet surface. Anything dealing with work in a vacuum, or on the Matter Compression System, which we wouldn’t dare build on a planet surface, for fear of it getting out of control. It was a necessary evil on the ship, and had many redundant systems to protect against power failures and anything else unforeseen. We wouldn’t risk it getting loose on the world we chose to live on; it could be devastating.

  “I can’t believe I got the appointment,” she said, excitedly. “The only person over me will be Helen Chalmers, she was my Professor, in school and said she made her choice based on the grades of all the people she had available.”

  “Did you have to apply, or was it just sprung on you?” I asked. “I mean, did you want that job?”

  “Of course I wanted it, but Helen asked me before posting it, because she wanted somebody she could work with and that isn’t just anybody; she can be a bit eccentric,” she answered.

  “In that case, I am really glad you got it,” I laughed. “Congratulations. Man, things are moving so fast I need time to catch up. Now you’ve started your career in your field of choice; you can’t ask for better than that!” I pulled her close. “Now if I can land a Teaching position in communications I’ll be as happy as you are.”

  “I can’t imagine you having any problem there, your grades and work records are perfect and you know it,” she said nestling in to the hug. “On the other hand, the Captain may still want to keep you on the exploration teams for a while yet; after all, you’re the most experienced leader he has.”

  “I’ll admit that I wouldn’t mind that, but at some point I’d like to settle down with the woman I love.” I nuzzled her fondly and she laughed.

  “As a matter of fact, I really want to get settled with you too, before you go away and don’t come back. What if you meet some alien girl that captures your heart?” She asked joking. “Seriously, I do want us to be together soon. My clock is ticking, and I feel the time is right for us to start a family. And yet, can it be right at this time when others are in so much pain?”

  I pulled back. “What do you mean?”

  She furrowed her brow and pouted. “I mean like Roger. He’s really been down since his father’s death. I hate to feel so happy when he’s so unhappy.”

  “Been spending an awful lot of time with Roger lately, haven’t you?” I asked, slightly put out by her concern.

  “It’s my job to help people right now,” she answered, sounding mildly offended. “Though I suppose we could or should set a wedding date and pacify everyone for the moment.”

  I could see that she was serious about that aspect of things. “I think I have a short mission coming up just to bring in a cat and a couple of Yak, unless he sends someone else, but that’s unlikely, since I know where they are. I do want to get our life together started soon, too,” I told her in spite of some misgivings, (kept to myself), and that seemed to be what she wanted to hear and that settled the matter. It wasn’t that I didn’t love Nettie—I did, as much as ever. But with the world changing so quickly, I felt unsettled and unsure about everything.

  “We’ll have to apply for an apartment of our own right away if we’re going to get one any time soon,” Nettie observed. “There are still families
that haven’t come down to the planet surface yet, though I think we’re very close to enough housing now, or so I’ve been told.

  “We could always live on the ship for a little while until there is enough housing, but I don’t think we’ll need to,” I suggested. “We haven’t really had a chance to think that far ahead. There does still have to be a skeleton crew aboard Astro II just to keep servicing the Matter Compressor. I qualify for that job temporarily, until they decide what to do with the ship. Launch it into the sun probably; can’t shut down the compressor safely in less than five years of slow dissipation. There are those who want to maintain it in case we ever need it again, and I don’t think that’s a bad idea.”

  “We’ll leave that for the future to decide,” said Nettie with a grin. “I think we’ll have enough to do just organizing our own lives. Let me go home and change into civilian clothes,” she said as she headed for the door. “Come on over after you get changed yourself.”

  “I’ll do that,” I said, giving her a quick kiss goodbye and heading into my room to change.

  It was half an hour before I arrived at her place and Ollie answered the door.

  “Heard anything new about the saucer since you got back?” Asked Ollie as soon as I entered.

  “Nothing that isn’t pretty much common knowledge,” I answered, and told him and the rest of the family as they entered the room what Professor White had said about it possibly being from a different dimension.