He mused that perhaps, a hundred years ago, he’d have been terribly disappointed to learn that there really was nothing out there.
No, he decided that the adventure itself would have been enough. The hope of finding life elsewhere in the galaxy would have been enough. The slowly dawning reality about mankind’s lonely existence would have gradually worn away his explorer’s optimism, but…
The bus jolted suddenly and Matt dropped his computer. It protested with an electronic ouch and reset itself. A sad face appeared on its display. The face yawned then winked back to life.
He’d found out nothing about the curiously named streets beside the Starport Bar searching the net. Not that he knew where to look. And he’d been distracted by the decayed appearance of the spaceport to the point of looking that up instead. And he’d read about what he’d already known. Lack of discovery, lack of interest, lack of commercial venture. The only people who went to space anymore were the people who worked there. The miners and the prospectors. He supposed that the prospectors were the new explorers, but in a somehow cheap and uncivilised way. They sought commercial gain from the things they could find out there, and even they were few and far between these days. After all, the people had everything they wanted. Food, fuel, health. And you could even leave it all behind if you had enough money, or skill - or friends in the right places.
It was Sunday night. It was ten o’clock. Matt didn’t know why the ship had to board so late, but it did.
Maybe he should have gone to Haven.
Haven was what they called an “Earth Class Planet”. It was a very strange term, as Haven was the only Earth Class Planet that had ever been found in one hundred and thirty years of mankind exploring the Universe.
Unlikely as it seemed, it was true. But the term “Earth Class Planet” was slightly misleading. It really didn’t apply to more than a very, very, very specific planet which could only exist under very specific circumstances. And Haven, discovered in 2121, fulfilled the requirements. There was primitive life there.
Now and then, in his daydreams, Matt would travel to Haven. But he’d travel right back again quickly. Haven was a colony. An earth away from earth governed by the same people who ran things here.
Essentially, Haven was the eighty third state of the United States. It didn’t appeal to Matt. Besides, the cruise ships didn’t go to Haven anymore. Not for the past ten years. You had to ship out with the colonists. And there were fewer colonists each year – and no lottery winners for five years. You had to have something Haven needed or you couldn’t go at all.
He looked Haven up on the net and was reminded of the fact that over a hundred thousand people lived there now in its single city, named after the first man to set foot on the moon.
The bus jolted again and Matt held his computer tight. The little face on the display had moved to the top right and shook its head at him dolefully.
“What?” Matt said to the face, frowning back at it. The face disappeared from the display completely. He realised that he’d used the computer too much today. That’s what the sad face meant. He slipped it into his man bag and looked out the window.
There were maybe twenty people on the bus, but it seated over a hundred. The people on the bus were scattered in their ones and twos. A few families, but not many. The bus was relatively new, but it didn’t belong to the spaceport. There were buses like this all over Seattle. Some on the roads and others making their way through the sky. Matt looked up to the sky and watched the traffic there. Suddenly the huge bulk of the Spirit of the Future loomed above as the bus zoomed beneath her.
The bus eventually arrived in the lower hangar of the vast cruiser and Matt Silverman shuffled off with the rest of the passengers. And then he was doing the thing he’d dreamt of doing since he was a little boy. He felt embarrassing and unwanted tears welling up in his eyes. He made brief eye contact with one of the security guards in the hangar. They both looked away from the other quickly, neither wishing to share the emotions that Matt was experiencing.
Jack Sloane counted off the last of the space tourists as they left the bus. He looked at the last kid a little too long as his mind wandered. The kid reminded him of someone. Someone he hadn’t seen for a long time. Someone he wouldn’t ever see again. His own son, Paul, who’d been killed twenty years ago.
Another ten buses arrived and left and then the ship was almost ready. Davis knew there would be a handful of transports dropping off the stragglers. By four o’clock in the morning, the ship was ready to leave.
Of the eight hundred and seventy passengers on board, seven hundred or more were asleep when the ship started up from the Earth. Matt Silverman was one of the ones who stayed awake to see Earth depart through one of the many crowded viewports that ran along the sides of the ship. The ascent was slow at first, but by the time the ship started to reach the clouds she was already travelling at six times the speed of sound. Soon, the blue grey dawn sky gave in to the darkness of space and Matt was on his way. He’d been in space before. The stars were as beautiful now as they had been on the handful of times he’d driven to the moon. The view was a little more restricted now
He watched the moon fade into the distance behind the ship. He wanted to stay awake long enough to see the ship open and enter a wormhole, but it turned out that the windows he could find all looked to the side and not ahead. But at six a.m. and the ship was still moving through normal space. Matt decided enough was enough. He went back to his room on the lower deck and went to sleep.
The Spirit of the Future did not open up a wormhole until almost eight hours later. By then, Matt was awake and had showered. He’d found the info channel on the entertainment centre in his room and discovered this information just in time to see the ship enter the wormhole. There was a slight vibration as normal space became a conduit through the ether of space and all the stars he could see were replaced by a bright pale blue cocoon of energy from the ship’s protective shield.
He got tired of watching out the window after about thirty minutes and went to explore the ship. He’d spent a long time reading about the Spirit of the Future, but most of the reading he’d done had been with his father long ago. He wondered how much of what they’d read together when he was a boy still applied. He decided to find out in person, the old fashioned way. He figured his father would somehow have appreciated it that way. So he set off to explore the big ship – and to find a late breakfast.
2195AD - Jann Linn Mountain, Relathon.
There was a crashing sound. Jann Linn smiled. He continued his work as he listened to his daughter's approach. There was a swishing of metal as she restacked the metal sheets clumsily and then another clatter as they fell over again. More swishing, and then the funny sounds that Cass herself made when she walked. Then her footsteps approached. They were clumsy, but quick. Too quick. She was in a rush. She had something urgent to say to him. He put down his tools and turned round. He wasn’t smiling anymore. He already knew what she was going to tell him.
“They’re coming.”
Jann Linn looked towards the entrance of the cave.
“Who’s coming? What… Ziin’s shuttle?” he exhaled noisily, his throat rattling.
“I think so, father,” said Cass Linn, “A small ship for certain. It’s almost here,” She added, almost ominously.
“You must hide,” Said Jann Linn, obviously, “He mustn’t see you.”
“Yes father.”
If they found her, they’d want her. They’d take her away – with or without him. They’d hurt her. The things they’d do. She wouldn’t understand. She couldn’t understand.
“You must hide,” He repeated.
She was already gone.
The shuttle was not unexpected. He’d expected Ziin for a few days. Not that Ziin was overdue.
Jann Linn looked at the small pill in his hand. His hand shook.
“Oh God.”
The pill might kill him someday, he realised. With his advancing years, th
is was increasingly likely to happen. And what would become of Cass then?
He took the pill. Quickly, he swallowed water.
He made himself ill.
Dust blew into the cave all the way to Jann Linn’s work station and a few specks of dust tumbled around
Jann Linn’s equipment. He tutted silently. Ziin’s ship was touching down in the usual place.
Jann Linn’s hands were shaking very badly by the time he’d gathered together the things that Ziin would want to see. The pill was working. He hoped the shaking would be enough for to decide, yet again, that Jann Linn was too sick to travel to Enrilea. He continued to look at his hands. A few weeks ago he could stop them shaking even after taking the pill. Now he couldn’t stop them no matter how hard he tried.
The ship outside had landed without a sound. Clever Cass had seen or felt it coming even if Jann’s discreet instruments hadn’t warned him – which they had.
It took about five minutes for Zinn to make his way from the ship to the cave. It then took a further five minutes for him to arrive in front of Jann Linn. He did so alone and arrogant. He didn’t expect trouble.
He expected a frail, frightened old man. Even without the pill, Jann Linn always gave him what he expected. Absently, Jann Linn wondered where Cass was. She would be hiding somewhere, he expected.
“You’re busy,” Zinn said slowly, softly. His narrow yellow eyes regarded Jann Linn with a penetrating but bizarrely friendly stare. “I like that.”
Jann Linn had been busy in more ways than Zinn could know.
“Yes,” He coughed for effect, “I have some things to show you. Something new. Some improvements to old designs. Some things to show you,” He added nervously.
They held each other’s gaze for a time. The old tired wrinkled face and the young intense thin face. Two different worlds meeting – literally. Jann Linn had lived on his hill above his city on his conquered home world for countless years. Zinn, a tolerated invader, came from the world that had destroyed and dominated his world a hundred years earlier. They were very different men but they understood each other.
Jann Linn didn’t hate Zinn. He didn’t fear him either. He feared what Zinn was capable of, but not the man himself. He’d known Zinn for ten years. There was nothing new in their relationship. Zinn asserted his command and Jann Linn was the submissive, subdued dog of a man almost rolling over for his master. Zinn had power, and Jann Linn feared that more than anything else. Lately it had become a delicate struggle to keep Zinn from asserting his power. Or so he thought. Jinn was the most intelligent man in the solar system, but there were many things he didn’t understand.
Five years ago – maybe more – Zinn had removed Jann Linn from his hill. There had been no discussion. Zinn had arrived with some men. It had been the only time Zinn had come with men. And they had been, unnecessarily, armed men. Jann Linn had been given a few minutes to pack a bag, but there hadn’t been time to say goodbye to Cass Linn. He’d had to leave her alone for the first time in her life. And then, Enrilea and the longest most terrible six months of his life.
“The navigational array,” Zinn began, “Is it coming along?”
“Yes. I’ve been working on it, adjusting. Soon there will be a prototype.”
“How soon?”
Jann Linn paused as if to think. “A month, perhaps.”
“Do you need… anything?” Zinn asked slowly. He quickly added, “I can have it brought to you.
Whatever you need. They’ll send it. I… we’ll bring it to you.”
Jann Linn looked in Zinn’s eyes. He rarely did. Usually he stared just above Zinn’s left eye, not quite meeting his gaze. But this time he met his master’s eye. He tried to look thankful and not suspicious. Zinn could see the confusion and it gently amused him.
“I have everything I need,” Jann Linn replied, “But thank you for your… understanding.”
“You’re welcome,” Zinn smiled, “The array improvements are a big talking point among my superiors.
They know that you work well here, alone, and so do I. They’re willing to do whatever it takes to help you. To give you whatever you need. We’re here to help.”
Jann Linn’s mind always moved quickly. Sometimes too quickly. Sometimes his thoughts were a symphony and sometimes they were an orchestra of 5 year olds. Sometimes his thoughts flowed in a swift and orderly fashion and sometimes they tumbled and fell upon each other.
His thoughts were a jumble now as he processed Zinn’s words. He tried to put his thoughts in order, but he was thinking so hard that he felt they must be so loud that Zinn could almost hear them.
“I appreciate that,” Jann Linn said finally, “If I need anything. If I think of anything I need. I’ll contact you,” The obvious lie didn’t come easy to him and he felt that he was disrespecting Zinn by saying it. So he added, “But I don’t want anything, so I probably won’t contact you.”
Zinn laughed genuinely and placed a hand on Jann Linn’s bony shoulder, “Of course, of course. I know, I know. Now, show me the array.”
They spent some time looking at the navigational array. Zinn could see the improvements. The work was in order. A month had passed and Jann Linn had made advances in the design. There were some changes that were extraordinary and that, once he looked closer, made perfect sense and made him wonder how nobody on Enrilea – nobody anywhere – couldn’t have thought of them before. He asked some questions – very delicately – and Jann Linn answered in his usual unintentionally cryptic manner. Jann Linn was an amazing scientist, but he couldn’t explain the things that he could do. Zinn had come to understand that Jann probably didn’t understand his own methods.
Before Zinn left he saw some of the smaller things that Jann Linn was working on. They didn’t interest him too much and he was very happy when Jann Linn produced the quartermaster. Jann Linn could see the pleasure in his eyes as he weighed the gun in his hand. It wasn’t a great deal better than the last version, but it was special to Zinn.
“Excellent,” Zinn smiled. He slipped the other quartermaster out of his holster and handed it to Jann Linn, replacing it with the new one. “Thank you for this.”
“Minor improvements,” Jann Linn said quietly, mildly registering and completely ignoring Zinn’s courtesy
“The energy setting has a slightly higher output. A narrower beam with the same power. More shots per charge.”
“Excellent,” Zinn repeated. He was pleased. He looked Jann Linn in the eye earnestly and nodded slightly. Jann Linn didn’t move or change his expression. Didn’t commit to the moment of… of… what. Zinn looked away. The confused moment was over. Whatever Zinn had tied to convey – if anything – was gone.
The spaceship commander twirled the modified handgun before placing it into its holster. He didn’t turn back as he departed and he walked straight past Cass Linn without even seeing her standing in the shadows.
“Excellent,” Echoed Zinn.
She watched him as he passed her by. She was curious in the shadows. Motionless, like a statue. She regarded the man her father feared long after he had gone.
Ten minutes later the ship took off again. Jann Linn waited another five minutes and then went to check on Cass. She was still standing in the shadows. He wondered if she was afraid – or if she even felt anything. He didn’t want to ask her. They waited another five minutes together then walked out of the cave and down the south side of the hill. Zinn’s ship was still barely visible overhead – a small cigar in the sky sailing over Jann Linn city below.
They reached the ship after walking about fifty metres. Cass still had trouble negotiating the rocks so it took a lot longer than Jann expected. But they reached the half buried ship as the sun was starting to set. Jann figured there was a good two hours of work left in the day.
The ship was almost derelict, but he’d worked hard to stop it from decaying further. It was completely covered in tarpaulins, protecting it from the harsh winds and sandstorms. Still, it wasn’t complete
ly covered and the wind and sand had scoured the hull where the protective covers had blown away. Cass and Jann Linn spent a long time fixing the covers back on. By the time they’d finished there wasn’t really too much time left for anything else. But Jann Linn was determined to tinker with the new array he’d fitted to the ship.
He’d made sure that everything would just fit into place easily enough, but there was still more work than he expected. Or maybe he was getting older or slower or both. Cass tried to help, but she was clumsy.
Zinn’s ship was completely gone now. The sky had darkened. The stars were visible./ Crantarr was a large brown ball rising to the north. Zinn worked slowly and lovingly on the old transport ship. From time to time he stopped to rest his hand on the metal, enjoying quiet memories. Cass watched quietly. She did not speak much. She didn’t understand his fondness for the old ship and didn’t share his enthusiasm for the changes he was making to it.
Jann Linn finished fitting the new navigational array to the front of the small transport ship. The winds had started by the time he needed to move inside to make the connections to the navigation console and the night had fully come. He didn’t feel tired for a long time but when he did it came upon him quickly and in a strong wave. He fell asleep at the controls of the classic stars hip and awoke only briefly to register Cass Linn carrying him to the sleeping area at the back of the ship.
She stayed awake with him for a long time afterwards. She’d made some tea and she kept it warm for him in case he awoke. She hoped that he would wake up, but he didn’t.
The next morning was cool and bright. Jann Linn started early. He enjoyed the tea that Cass had made for him, even though he’d have liked honey with it.
2195AD - Enrilean War Ship “Hard Edge”.
“I wanted to talk to you earlier, but the captain needed me on the bridge,” Commander Finn scratched his head and pushed his hair back from his forehead. “But I have time now. I've missed you.”
Beyond the Starport Adventure (Bullet Book 1) Page 13