Starborn Odyssey (The Starborn Odyssey Trilogy Book 1)

by Haines Sigurdsson

  During the trip back to the Reeshian settlement, Blurg approached me with concern about the Togii. “There’ll come a time when we’ll have to deal with them,” he told me. “They’ll put the new technology to bad use; make no mistake. We’ll have to fight them sooner or later. We have to keep an eye on the development of their war technologies; that’s what they do, fight and deceive; they’ve shown us that.”

  “The histories of my own home world are not that different from yours.” I told him. “On Earth, our ancestors had great wars, and as their technology grew, so too, did their ability to make war on an even grander scale. The eventual development of weapons that could reduce our world to rubble, made warfare obsolete. Little point in fighting a war where nobody survives; but there are always those who’re willing to try and win anyway. We haven’t heard from our home world in many years; most of us fear something of that nature may in fact have happened there. That is why I was so hesitant to destroy the foundry that we helped build. I hope we can convince them to temper their development in a more peaceful direction.” Blurg looked skeptical and I sighed. “You’re right, of course. In the end, we’ll probably have to beat them on the battlefield. But I think we should avoid it if we can.”

  “I would like to set up a patrol among my people to keep an eye on them,” Blurg offered. “I fear their desire for conquest too much to ignore. Just help me to equip such a force and we can keep the north safe for a long time to come, I hope.”

  “I will do all that I can.” I promised. Perhaps I had made a mistake in not hitting them hard now instead of giving them the chance to get stronger. Hind sight always works better than foresight; there was still time to reconsider things, but at least if it came to destroying their culture, it wouldn’t be by my decision alone. I had no taste for leaving their village a tomb like the Reeshian fort we’d found.

  After a few hours of zigzagging across the continent, we arrived back at the settlement and a decent night’s rest. An info plate—a private coded message—was received for me that very evening and was given to me as I made my rounds seeing that everything was shut down and secure. I sat down in the comm chair to read it. It was from Nettie, and I accessed it with dread.

  “Captain Pierce called me into his office today to tell me all that has happened. Rest assured that I fully understand the biological reasons why it was beyond your control to avoid this alteration to our lives. Well my dear; it seems that our marriage plans were rather ill timed. We should have waited a bit to see how things were going be once we were settled on our new world.” Nettie’s voice was free of rancor or accusation, which made me feel all the worse. She was remarkable, and my oldest friend, and I felt sick. She continued calmly: “I understand what’s happened to you, and Dr. White says it’s really the best thing for both of our races. You know; expands the gene pool and ties our people together. In my job, I’ve been dealing with this and other problems of adaptation that our people are going through. It’s been a real eye opener—I’ve often wished you were here to discuss these cases with! Anyway, I need to tell you that I think perhaps your . . . situation . . . is actually for the best. Once I realized things between us had changed, it allowed me to acknowledge something I hadn’t before. I have become attached to someone else, someone who has needed my help, and who has helped me in turn.” I could hear embarrassment creep into her voice, and knew exactly the look she’d have on her face. It made me grin, a little sadly.

  “I guess it should be no surprise to me,” Nettie said, “but it was. Still, it has helped me to understand you, and has helped me put things in the past where they belong. You and I have always been close—perhaps more like brother and sister than lovers. I hope we always will be close. So I guess what I’m trying to say is, everything’s alright. I wish you luck, and I’m truly happy for you. I’ll always love you as my oldest and dearest friend. I wish we could have discussed it face to face, but I was determined not to let you worry longer than you had to; as I know you would. I also thought, perhaps, that you might have some decisions to make before returning, and that, by freeing you, perhaps I could make that easier. It’s been so bad for some of the marriages affected, but I am doing my best to help bring peace to the wives here.” There was a long pause and I almost thought Nettie had ended her message there. Then I heard a deep breath, and she finished: “See you when you return to the colony. Oh yes; your mom and your sister are fixing up an apartment for you and . . . your friend . . . for when you return, so it shouldn’t be too awkward. Take good care of yourself, Eric.” The message ended.

  I let Meeza listen along with me, a second time. Though she didn’t yet know our language well, Meeza got the gist. “She’s a really fine person,” she said with a tear dripping from her cheek. “I don’t think I could have been half as courageous as she was if I had lost you.”

  I nodded. “She’s the best. But it’s like she said; we’ve been friends all of our lives. We thought that what we had was all there was.” I looked Meeza in the eye and felt as though we were connected, our souls knotted together somehow, and I smiled. “Now I know things can be so much more.” I held her close for a long time; there was nothing else that needed saying. Slowly we walked back toward the village.

  “You and I can stay together tonight?” Meeza asked a bit shyly.

  “I don’t see why not.” I answered with a laugh. “I’ve got a room all to myself in the temporary shelter by the Andromeda. That way we won’t have to deal with your father tonight.”

  “After the ordeal with the storm aftermath, there isn’t any real problem there either,” she reminded me.

  And so we spent our first night together as a couple, actually sleeping in a bed together. As I drifted to sleep, I felt happier than I had in as long as I could remember, and hopeful, too. Let’s see what surprises tomorrow brings, I thought, and closed my eyes.

  Retribution

  The next morning I woke up to find Meeza snuggled tightly against me; I had no desire to get out of bed whatsoever. She cracked her eyes opened and smiled. The room had one small window, through which I could see that it was a misty gray morning. I rolled over and kissed Meeza and warmth flowed through my body. I knew I wouldn’t get out of bed for a while yet.

  Our second awakening was two hours later when there was a knock at the door. It was Olga. “We need you at the comm center, Eric.” She said through the door with a hint of exasperation. “The captain needs to speak with you right away.”

  “I’ll be there momentarily.” I answered, and proceeded to get dressed.

  “What is it?” Asked Meeza drowsily.

  “Something’s up; Capt Pierce wants to talk to me right away.” I told her. “It could be anything; so I’ll go find out while you’re getting dressed. It’s too bad we don’t have full comm link here yet,” I mused as I headed out the door.

  “Ok, if you aren’t back in fifteen minutes I’ll come looking for you,” she said in mock, or maybe not so mock, possessiveness.

  “I won’t be long.” I assured her with a grin.

  I trotted off to see what was going on. I arrived at the Andromeda a few moments later and asked to use their link, and was admitted immediately. Max Burnum was on deck and in charge; his wife Shannon was making coffee and immediately offered a cup which I gladly accepted. I never knew either of them well, being ten years younger, but they’d always been kind to me; I would definitely make an effort to know them better in the future.

  “I need to call Capt. Pierce right away,” I told Max. He gestured for me to make myself comfortable at the console. The Captain was there to answer the comm personally.

  “Ah, Eric my lad; I’ve been trying to track you down for a couple of hours, but nobody knew for sure where you were. I know you just returned from a long excursion around the planet, and I hated to disturb you so early in your first day back; but there are a couple of things you need to know about before you can make any decisions about the time table for your return here.” Captain Pierce look
ed worn out, as though he hadn’t slept much in the past week or two.

  “First; I talked briefly with Blurg about your visit with those barbarians. He’s really concerned that they’ll not rest until they find a way of taking control of the entire continent; and he doesn’t think it will take the Vortlepeg Garn long to set his sights on the land of the soft people, as he calls them. I have to say that I believe he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to those creatures. He said that you didn’t destroy the new foundry we helped them build when they tried to ambush you. We need to do that as soon as possible now that we know that they were deceiving you. I think you’ll have to take a hard line with them if Humans and Zorpeg are going to remain on that planet.” He poured this out so rapidly I barely had time to think.

  “I know Blurg’s opinion,” I responded. “I just couldn’t blast them at the foundry without warning. There were about fifty of them working on it when we flew over; I can’t kill even them in cold blood.

  “You’ll have to, if what Blurg says is true, Eric. I know it isn’t what you want to do, but the safety of the colony has to come first; these Togii are not going to leave you in peace for very long by the sound of things, and I won’t let one more person die at their hands.”

  I could see that there was no sense in arguing the point; I couldn’t put off a raid against them because I couldn’t even justify it to myself. I had thought about dropping a warning in whatever language Blurg said they’d would understand but, it would allow them to hide all of the components that they didn’t have the technology to replace as yet so that they could build it again as soon as we left.

  “Ok; we’ll go and blast the foundry out of existence today.” I promised.

  “You’ll have to make sure that you break the back of their governing forces as well,” he told me. “We can’t leave the King or Garn alive to stir his people up against us. Blurg says that sadly, it’s the ruling class that drives them to fight anybody that isn’t under their control. Target the foundry and the Garn’s Palace to eliminate the source of the trouble.”

  I could see the logic in that, but every part of my existence fought against it. Killing those who couldn’t possibly defend themselves against that kind of attack felt cowardly and wrong; and yet I knew it was the only way to deal with this kind of leader. I had to keep in mind that the Garn had attempted to sneak up on us and kill us after promising to work with us. I had to remember what they’d done to our first ship full of people. Destroying their ability to attack us was truly the only option left. We were too few to fight them in a so-called fair fight. But I hoped such action wouldn’t simply inspire more hatred in the Togii.

  “I understand, Captain,” I said. “I had wanted to handle things some other way but I see that you’re right. I suppose I should apologize for not having done it in the first place, but you know I was hoping to come up with a better solution.”

  “It’s because you would prefer a different solution that I put you in charge in the first place,” he said with a slight grimace. “I know I’m ordering you to go against your instincts, but I also know that you’ll do it to save lives in the long run, and that’s how it has to be; the responsibility and blame will be mine,” he said with grim finality.

  “Now for the other item,” he said. “We’re having some problems with colonists who don’t want the Reeshians here on Olympus; I want you to stay away while until we undermine these few, just to avoid trouble. I believe some of them will go to another place or another planet to have their own way; if that’s what they choose to do, I’ll let them go.”

  I agreed with him and told him I had no problem with staying here a while and then we’d see how many of the Reeshians wanted to migrate. With that settled we signed off and I drank my coffee. While doing so Meeza caught up with me. She’d never had coffee before, but with cream and lots of sugar she decided she could get used to it. Max and Shannon made her feel welcomed; for that I was truly grateful. Shannon seemed genuinely delighted by Meeza, and Meeza was charming all around. It was a very pleasant half hour; then I had to go and assemble my crew for the job I really didn’t want to do.

  Meeza wanted to go on the trip and I told her what the mission was to be; she still wanted to go. “I think that if the Togii know where we are; and Blurg says they do now; then they’ve done this to themselves. We really don’t have a choice, as unpleasant as the solution is,” Meeza said gravely.

  In the end I gave in and let her come. Damn; I just can’t say no to her!

  We lifted off and flew to the village of the Togii in just a few minutes. I just wanted to get it over with. “I want to fly over the first time and blast the foundry one good shot and then back off to give them a chance to run. While they clear out of there, hopefully, we’ll blast the palace. I want it leveled because that was the order I was given,” I told my crew. We took the first shot as I ordered; Togii were running as I hoped they would. We turned our weapon on the palace and it took only seconds for it to explode in flames. We swung back around and blasted the foundry again; there was nothing left after only a minute more, not to mention that half the village was in flames. Message delivered!

  We turned for home; I felt sick for what I felt had been an unfair fight. In truth, a fair fight and we’d have all died, so looking at the options we did the only thing we could. It would be a very long time before they would recover enough to cause us any grief. And then . . . well, we’d cross that bridge when we came to it.

  “We will send word to the Togii explaining that the attack was for trying to kill us after making a false truce; deception won’t be dealt with lightly. If they wish to live in peace then we’ll be happy to have them as friends,” Blurg informed me. “That is the only thing they will understand.”

  I could tell that Blurg was no more happy about the attack than I was, but he was very pragmatic about these things. We had in fact tried to deal with the Togii straight, but the results would have killed us all if not for having kept such a good watch. I hoped that it would really lead to a better future; a peaceful one, for them as well as for ourselves.

  We flew back toward the village and on the way we stopped briefly to observe the only Drolpeg/Fenninz, village I’d seen on the northern end of the continent. They had a small walled town of perhaps a thousand people and were equipped with swords and axes; mostly copies of those used by the barbarians, though smaller and lighter. They had apparently succeeded in defending the town in the past; hard as that was to imagine. We didn’t stop on that trip, but made note to make sure they had our protection if the barbarians ever did attack them. The walls were little more than piled dirt with stockade style posts on top. Crude but adequate for the type of warfare they had built it for.

  We arrived home and I spent the rest of the day, after reporting to Capt. Pierce, trying to forget that today had even really happened. Meeza helped me to forget the horrors I felt I had committed by taking me on a bit of a sightseeing tour of the area around her home. I’d never had the time to do things like that since landing on my first planet. She told me as much of the myths and legends of her people as she could without consulting their ancient records. The countryside surrounding her village was spectacular by my standards. I left Brad in command of the ship during my absence, though I always kept a comm link on as we hiked around the country. We wore backpacks carrying food and even tents to sleep in. It was the first real adventure I’d ever gone on. We built camp fires every night to stay warm and to cook our food. I felt for the first time like a real pioneer. The stars were so bright at night that I sometimes felt the way I did when I went outside the ship when I was young; except that I didn’t need to wear a big cumbersome suit to keep from suffocating. We didn’t really go far, but for all the quiet, it could have been a thousand miles.

  One day we ran into a group of Drolpeg who were following a herd of Mulz. They stopped and visited with us for several hours and shared some of their food with us. They were very much interested in who we were and w
here we came from. When I explained it all as best as I could, with a little help from Meeza, they were stunned to know that the stars were really other suns with planets and in some cases other life forms all around them. Like most ancient cultures, their mythology had stories about how the different stars came to be from things that happened in the past. I’m not too sure they actually believed all that we told them, but in the future it wouldn’t really be a shock when they learned that it was all true.

  We lived that way for about three weeks until one day the Captain called to tell us the time was approaching for us to come home, and that any of the Reeshians who wished to come back with us were welcomed.

  “Does our invitation include Vortlepeg and Drolpeg?” I asked. I couldn’t imagine not including any who wished to start a new life not being included.

  “We’ve never discussed the other races; only the Reeshians; that was because they were already displaced and for that matter, it was they who started the terraforming of this planet. Everyone agreed that it is their right to claim a residence here. I truly cannot make the decision about the other races alone, and you know it.” The Captain evaded.

  “I suspect that there will be some, like Blurg and a few of his people, who will want to come with us.” I told him. “And Hero’s People; some may want to join him, though I don’t think we’ll have any contact with them without a real effort on our part. They’re so shy, not to mention far away from here. There are however some of his kind that come and go from the Reeshian settlement.” It was mostly Blurg’s people I was concerned with. I wouldn’t want to make enemies of them; that could be a big mistake.

  “Eric; I believe we can safely leave it wide open, and let the chips fall as they may,” he offered non-committally.