by Karl Morgan
“I’m afraid so, honey,” she smiled as she dried her hair with a second towel. “We are just arriving at Nanda and I’m scheduled to meet with Odo Pak in two hours. How are you, Dave?”
“We will arrive in the Gallicea system soon and there is a communications blackout there, so I thought I’d better call to tell you I love you before then,” he replied.
“I spoke with De-o-Nu’s wife last night and she told me about the blackout,” Darlene said. “I was going to call you after I got dressed, but I’m glad you called first.”
“No problem, sweetheart,” he beamed. “By the way, I was talking with Jake and he said the time eddy problem could be caused by time travelers or Hive agents trying to change the past or mask events. You might let Aria know that too.”
“Chief Engineer Lanz Lagerfeld said the same thing, Dave,” she replied. “Unfortunately, evidence is hard to find. Once the past is changed, the new past becomes the reality. But changing the past is very dangerous. If an agent changed one minor event, he or she might never have lived to make the change. The possibilities are too frightening to imagine.”
“I’m not sure someone is trying to change the past so much as mask events from Hive agents. You remember our talk with Fola Untor, don’t you?” he asked.
“Yes, but I can’t say I understood what he meant. He was very cryptic with his words. I get the creepy feeling he is hiding a lot more than he told us,” she replied.
“No doubt about that, honey,” he said. “By the way, Jake also confirmed that a Maklakar battle station is approaching our space. Have you heard any more about that from Darak or Arrin?”
“Yes. It appears the ship is approaching a system about five thousand light-years away,” Darlene said. “Apparently, the system includes at least one valakar planet. So far, everything seems to be peaceful. Perhaps they are not as aggressive as we thought although I’m certain the tekkans would disagree. I also did speak with Zee Gongaleg yesterday. The Hive will be going online in three days. He did have to bring in a lot of maklans from No-Makla to replace the injured and dead. He has invited us to join The Hive as soon as your Sojourn is over.”
“That would be great, but I’m not sure our schedule has any room,” Dave frowned. “We’ve got a big fleet to manage now, honey. The sooner we find locations for new Hives or a natural Hive, the better. The Maklakar are too big of a threat to ignore.” A tone sounded throughout the ship. “Darlene, that tone means we are entering the Gallicean system in two minutes, so I’ll have to let you go.”
“Okay, honey. You take care and keep safe. I love you and can’t wait to hold you in my arms again,” Darlene said.
“I love you too, babe. Take care and I’ll see you in a few days. Kong-Fa out,” he finished as he closed the connection. He sat back in his chair and pondered the absence of communication. He had become so accustomed to the constant connection to his family and crew that the quiet in his earpiece would be very strange. A tone told him that guests were outside his door. He pressed a button and the inner door opened.
Fa-a-Di and De-o-Nu entered his cabin. De-o-Nu carried a case of whisky under his arm. Dave rose to hug both men and offered them seats on the large couches. De-o-Nu opened a bottle and poured three full glasses of whisky and handed them to his friends. “Dave, this is a monumental event for us,” De-o-Nu said. “You are the first non-Gallicean to visit these planets. I’m still amazed you are here with us.”
“Gentlemen, to our health!” Dave said as he raised his glass to touch the others. “It is a great honor for me to share this Sojourn with my two brothers. I must say I’m very excited, but I don’t know what to expect.”
Fa-a-Di laughed, “Don’t worry, brother, we will be with you the whole time. But let me give you some of the details.”
“Jake should be here,” Dave said. “I’d call him but communications are prohibited.”
“Nonsense,” Fa-a-Di replied. “Communications to the outside are prohibited, but we must talk to each other. Imagine if your translator was prohibited. We wouldn’t understand each other at all.” They heard the sound of glass clinking and turned to see Jake and Mitch pulling a second bottle from the case and flying it over to the table.
“Are you psychic, Jake,” Dave asked. “I was just thinking about you.”
“Dave, don’t get crazy,” Jake laughed. “You asked Mitch and me to keep an eye on the general and when we saw him coming this way with whisky, we knew our lunch was on the way.” He extended a thin tendril into the bottle and drank. “That’s better.”
“I’m glad you’re here, Jake,” Dave smiled. “Fa-a-Di was just going to go over the itinerary for the next few days. Please go ahead, brother.”
“Well, frankly there is no agenda to follow,” Fa-a-Di replied. “The tradition requires us to visit both planets at least once every ten years. The visit is supposed to be freeform to allow us to experience the planets in our own way. My brother-in-law comes more often than me. For some reason, I find the experience of these planets very upsetting. I dread the trip each time and am rewarded with weeks of misery and nightmares.”
“I can’t say my experience is anything like that,” De-o-Nu said. “Each time I am on Gallicea, my heart soars and I feel filled with love and contentment. The other planet is the opposite. I feel much the same as Fa-a-Di there. Since our custom dictates that we visit both, I generally spend only one day on the terrestrial planet and a week or more on Gallicea.”
“Jake, why are you glowing?” Fa-a-Di said.
“Yikes! I hadn’t even noticed that,” Jake said as he saw his body filled with a deep blue light. “I’m not sensing anything, but my body tells me differently.”
“Isn’t the blue light a good thing?” Dave asked. “You seem to be happy when you glow that color, as I recall.”
“Yes, blue is a peaceful color, but I don’t know why this is happening to me,” Jake replied. “When we glow, it’s usually a sign of strong emotion, and yet I feel nothing special right now.”
“It’s likely the effect of Gallicea, Jake,” Fa-a-Di said. “You can expect things to become stranger as we approach the planets. I can already feel a sense of dread growing in the back of my head. How do you feel, Brother-in-law?”
“I’ve been feeling great since you agreed to allow me to join you, brother,” De-o-Nu replied. “But I don’t feel any different than before we entered the system. How about you, Dave?”
“I feel fine too,” Dave said. “I’m a little anxious about this trip and what might happen, but nothing else. Fa-a-Di, what do you want to do when we arrive at Gallicea?”
“First, I will take a shuttle to Sa-la-Na, the temple city that manages the system. Even though your presence was already approved, I need to meet with the High Priest and get his personal blessing before you and Jake come down to the planet,” Fa-a-Di said. “It is just a formality, I can assure you. Once that is done, De-o-Nu will bring you to the city where our quarters are set up for the evening. I will need to make a number of perfunctory visits to different parts of the planet. It’s part of my role as High Commissioner. De-o-Nu will see you are entertained tonight.”
“And tomorrow morning, we will venture out to my favorite Ka-la-a,” De-o-Nu beamed. “I have a small lodge there where we will stay as long as my brother-in-law can stand it. I have also made arrangements for a suite of rooms to have an Earthlike atmosphere there. Tonight, you will probably have to sleep in your pressure suit. I’m sure Jake will keep an eye on you though.” He turned to Jake, “If Dave is having any air supply issues, please jump him back here.”
“When I’ve had all of Gallicea I can stand, we will travel by shuttle to the terrestrial planet, where God willing, we will spend one day and one night only,” Fa-a-Di grimaced. “The worst part of staying there is knowing my ancestor made the edict forcing me to go there in the first place.”
“I was thinking the similarities between this system and the first time you encountered the maklans are amazing,” Dave said. �
��Galliceans sense strong negative feelings and then correlate those to aggression. Remember that No-Makla was attacked due to a misunderstanding of maklan intentions.”
“Are you suggesting that maklans live in this system and we are mistaking their thoughts for antagonism towards Galliceans?” Fa-a-Di asked.
“No, not at all,” Dave replied. “However, the feelings of dread and misery could be a reaction to thoughts from another culture.”
De-o-Nu and Fa-a-Di were laughing. “Dave, the Beings that used to inhabit that planet have been extinct for too many generations to remember. It’s ridiculous to believe they could still be alive. Why haven’t they reached out to us?”
“Well, the last time they did, things did not go too well for them,” Jake replied. “I don’t think we should discount Dave’s theory so soon. My body is glowing for a reason. Both of you have conflicting feelings about the planets here. Fa-a-Di has been in a somber mood for a long time. These things may well be connected.”
“Perhaps you are right, Jake,” Fa-a-Di laughed. “None of us thought humans and Galliceans originated in the Andromeda Galaxy until Dave casually ran into Loni Arrak in the Tak-Makla Hive. Maybe that’s why you two are here. Every Gallicean has visited these planets over the last thousand generations and no one found any sentient life. But maybe this time you will. It seems we are in orbit and I need to change for my meeting with the High Priest. You three can keep drinking if you like.” Fa-a-Di left the room, still laughing.
Chapter 10
The Gallicean shuttle slipped out of the shuttle bay and dove toward Gallicea. Dave Brewster was wearing his clear pressure suit over his clothes and Jake was clinging to his chest to monitor the readings. De-o-Nu was piloting the craft down toward the swirling atmosphere of the planet. After the shuttle had traveled some distance, the Kong-Fa left orbit and headed out of the system and back to Earth. As the shuttle entered the top layers of the atmosphere, it began to be pushed around by the high speed winds. Gallicea was the same size as Jupiter with similar bands of gas moving rapidly in opposite directions. That made it difficult and bumpy for the craft to travel north and south.
A small speck of silver appeared on the horizon and the shuttle raced toward it. Gradually the speck resolved into a large city floating in the gas. The island city of Sa-la-Na was very large, with a footprint of one hundred square miles. It was suspended above the planet by electro-magnetic field generators powered by the rapidly moving gas and the planetary magnetic fields. The permanent population was only a few million, most of whom were either in the priesthood or hospitality industry, serving the billions of annual visitors. Shuttle docks formed the outer edge of the city. From there, rings of hotels and restaurants reached to the city center, which was dominated by a large hill covered with temples.
Given the importance of the visitors, the shuttle was allowed to land at a small star port in the temple zone normally reserved for the priesthood. The visit to the holy planets by the High Commissioner and non-Galliceans was very highly anticipated on Gallicea. Throughout Greater Gallia, people were concerned and anxious to find out what would happen on this trip.
De-o-Nu piloted the shuttle over the city and into the temple zone. A number of priests were directing the ship to its landing spot where De-o-Nu touched the ship down on its marks, and powered down. He unbuckled his harness and turned to his passengers. “Whoa!” he shouted, “What’s going on with you, Jake?”
Jake was glowing brightly and changing colors rapidly. “I have no idea,” he said. “I don’t feel any different at all. There is definitely something strange going on here on Gallicea. Dave, what do you make of it?”
“You look like a disco ball, Jake,” Dave laughed. “But I have to agree with you. The entire planet seems to be energized. Ever since we entered the atmosphere, I’ve been seeing flashes of light out of the corners of my eyes. It’s very distracting.” He unbuckled his harness and stood up and promptly stumbled. “Whoa! I’m feeling very light-headed.”
“Let me check your air supply,” Jake said. “According to the system, everything is normal. I think it must be the energy in the atmosphere that’s affecting us both.”
“Jake, do you think you and Dave should jump back to the Kong-Fa?” De-o-Nu asked. “We’ll be in range for several more hours.”
“No, I don’t want to do that,” Dave said. “I’m sure this is like landing in a high altitude city in the twenty-first. It just takes some time to get used to it. Let’s go.”
A line of priests in dark gray robes were waiting for them as they exited the shuttle. Most of them had met De-o-Nu many times and they were happy to see him again. He introduced Dave and Jake to the priests, who seemed pleased to welcome non-Galliceans to their most sacred planet. No-be-Ka was the leader of the group of priests and spoke first, saying, “Admiral Brewster, it is an honor to welcome a friend of De-o-Nu and Fa-a-Di to our world. I also want to thank you for helping me choose to be a priest.”
“You’re welcome,” Dave said, “but I really don’t know what you mean. I don’t believe we have met before.” The group began to walk toward a terminal building next to the landing area.
“No, we have not met before,” No-be-Ka said. “However, I was the helmsman on one of the three cruisers that attacked No-Makla when the Predaxians were controlling our captains. We were all frightened and nervous when we were ordered to attack, especially knowing our comrades were going to Nom-Kat-La to fight the real battle. We were a young crew and none of us dared to question our captain. When the soldier jumped onto our bridge and uncovered the Predaxian agent, we were stunned again. That day, I realized that I was never meant to be a soldier. I did continue to serve during the Second Predaxian War, but after that, I resigned and joined the priesthood.”
“Your words are very kind, but I don’t know how I helped you,” Dave said. “It was De-o-Nu and his loyal lieutenants who ended the battle.”
“Of course, Dave, but it was you who stopped the carnage by finding a link to the maklans and helping our leaders to learn their true intentions. Without you, I fear the worst would have happened,” No-be-Ka replied.
“Well, then you are most welcome,” Dave smiled. “But most of the credit should go to my maklan friend here. No-be-Ka, this is Jacomofledes Benomafolays.”
“Jake the maklan!” No-be-Ka exclaimed. “This is a wonderful day for all of us. Thank you Jake for helping us to defeat the Predaxian Alliance.”
“You’re welcome; however, it was primarily the Galliceans who fought the war. We were happy to do our part, and fortunately, we succeeded,” Jake said.
The group entered the terminal building where hundreds of priests were just arriving or preparing to leave Gallicea for the other planets. Many had come to bear witness to the first visit of aliens to the planet. As Dave and Jake moved through the crowd, most stopped and stared. Dave smiled and waved, but the priests were too stunned to react. While Greater Gallia had trading relationships with many alien societies, the average Gallicean had little contact with them. As they continued through the hall, a single Gallicean in ornate ivory-colored robes approached them. The priests around Dave stopped and bowed deeply. De-o-Nu smiled and hurried forward to greet the man. The two hugged and shook hands. They then came over to Dave.
“Dave, please let me introduce you to my brother, De-o-Pa,” De-o-Nu said.
“How do you do, Dave Brewster?” De-o-Pa asked. “My brother has told me everything about you. Welcome to Gallicea! I have just arrived as well along with a contingent of my priests from Jupiter.”
“It is my pleasure, De-o-Pa,” Dave replied. “As my friend’s brother, you are now my brother as well.”
“Prelate, it is an honor to have you with us,” No-be-Ka said with his head still bowed. “How may we serve you today, sir?”
“Please straighten up, priest,” De-o-Pa said. “There is no need for formality here. We are all just traveling through. I am simply here to welcome my brother and his friends.”
&
nbsp; “Thank you, Prelate,” No-be-Ka replied. “We were just escorting them to their quarters. Would you care to join us?”
“Thank you, but no,” De-o-Pa said. “I have a meeting with Fa-a-Di and High Priest Um-e-Ka in one hour. Then I’m afraid I must return to Jupiter. We have more settlers arriving every day, and I want to meet each one personally. They must know they are still Galliceans even though they are far from the home worlds.”
“Pa, I was hoping you could spend a day with us at our family lodge,” De-o-Nu said disappointedly. “You and Fa-a-Di always get along so well. Also, I have told you about his mood change. I need you to help me with that.”
“I’ll see what I can do, brother,” the Prelate said. “When were you planning to go there, Nu?”
“Tomorrow at sunrise, I hope,” he answered. “Fa-a-Di is traveling around on official rounds today. If he is ready then, we will go.”
“Perhaps I will travel with him after the meeting then,” De-o-Pa said. “I will use my wits to expedite our return.”
“Perfect,” De-o-Nu replied. “Hopefully, Dave, Jake and I will see you both later this evening.”
“That sounds great, brother,” De-o-Pa smiled. “Dave and Jake, it was a pleasure to meet you both. I hope we will share food and whisky tonight and tomorrow.” He shook their hands, hugged his brother and walked away.
“I guess I should have known he was your brother, De-o-Nu,” Dave laughed. “He’s the only other Gallicean I’ve seen as tall as you.”
“True, but good things come in really big packages,” De-o-Nu replied.
Chapter 11
The Maklakar battle station had slowed to a dead stop ten million miles from the valakar planet. The defensive arrays were online but the weapon systems remained cold. Five small star cruisers had slowed and now blocked the path forward. Commander Vard Kalak sat in his command chair watching the scene unfold. His communications team had spent several hours building a translation database from the data stream from both the ships and the planet which hung like a crescent moon in the distance.