Last Stand

by Jeffrey M. Fortney

  Figuring to get ahead of his father’s messages, Jarrod opened the most recent one. Glancing at it, he wondered if the e-mail file had been corrupted. The lettering, if that’s what one would call it, initially appeared totally alien to Jarrod. He stared at it for a moment then closed that e-mail and searched through the list of his father’s recent e-mails until he found the earliest one of that group. It dated back several months, shortly after the Europa had shipped out. Jarrod realized that in the course of the Azairi War these earlier e-mails had never been forwarded to the Europa by Fleet Personnel.

  The e-mail opened with his father’s usual greeting to him then went on to describe an upcoming archeological expedition to a system over twenty light years from Camadin in an unexplored part of the Orion-Cygnus Arm, the minor spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy that contains Earth, Camadin, and the other worlds of the Terran Federation. The Terran Federation was funding the expedition and had given it a high enough priority to send the elder Caulder and his team to the system aboard an older Fleet vessel. The vessel, like other Terran Fleet vessels, would drop communications relay buoys along the way.

  The latter half of the e-mail seemed to be his father reminiscing about some stories of the Proge that he had shared with Jarrod when he was a boy. Dr. Caulder reminded Jarrod of what little was known of the Proge. A vast, scientifically advanced, interstellar civilization that had thrived for several millennia, then died out leaving few if any clues of their existence, at least inside the Terran Federation’s territory. One clue involved a great enemy that the Proge had faced and defeated; followed by centuries of peace until…what? No one knew! But Dr. Caulder was hell bent on discovering the secret of the extinction of the Proge as well as their history. The e-mail ended with the doctor’s usual farewell.

  Jarrod sat quietly in thought for several minutes trying to interpret what he’d just read. Then he opened the next e-mail. This e-mail described the expedition’s arrival at a seemingly barren world. Dr. Caulder and his team had just begun their examination of some buried ruins when they discovered another set of clues pointing the way to another star system ten light years further from Camadin. The Caulder Expedition had quickly packed up and shipped out to the new system.

  Each successive e-mail spoke of a new clue, a new star system and another world, and more reminders to Jarrod of stories about the Proge. Dr. Caulder began to incorporate what Jarrod could only assume were words or maybe numbers (or both!) in the Proge language into his e-mails. Strangely enough, they were beginning to appear familiar to Jarrod.

  He continued reading more of his father’s e-mails. Still more of the same…more clues, more stories, more alien text. As Jarrod continued to read, he began to feel that he could recognize patterns in the alien text.

  The the hot dog vendor startled Jarrod by asking if he wanted some more tea. Jarrod suddenly realized he’d become so engrossed in his father’s e-mails that he’d lost track of time. He thanked the vendor and told him no. Jarrod rose and made his way to one of the stores he wished to visit. The time spent sitting at the table had provided some necessary rest and Jarrod was feeling ready to enjoy more of his newfound freedom.

  All in all, Jarrod visited four stores in the Mall, purchasing some civilian clothes, a personal multimedia player and a selection of entertainment cubes, and some groceries, mostly snacks. With his purchases made, Jarrod chose to return to his quarters to put them away. He flagged down an automated transport and punched in the identification code for his quarters.

  The transport carried him quickly and quietly to his floor and section. Reaching his quarters, Jarrod gathered his bags and, placing his right palm on the door’s lock scanner, opened the door, and entered. He spent the next few minutes putting his groceries in the refrigerator and kitchenette cabinets. He put his new civilian clothes into the quarters’ auto-cleaner unit and, several minutes later, they were clean and ready to be put away or worn.

  Checking the time, Jarrod changed out of his uniform and into civvies: station shorts, a pullover shirt, and a pair of slip-on “boat shoes”. Once in his comfortable clothes, he used his comm-unit to call Ian and Maria and invite them to his quarters then to dinner. On a whim, he commed Ellie and invited her to dinner as well.

  With a little time on his hands before dinner, Jarrod opened the next of his father’s e-mails and began to read it. Upon reaching the lines of alien text, he discovered he recognized several words! The stories his father was relating were seemingly being repeated in the Proge text! He set his comm-unit down on the small side table, leaned back in his chair, and put his hands behind his head.

  His father had talked about the Proge for as long as Jarrod could remember. Professor Caulder had told Jarrod all of the known stories and legends about the ancient race. He had shown his son every known discovery about or artifact and scrap of information created by the Proge that had been found by humans. Granted, this hadn’t been much but Jarrod had, for a time, shared his father’s interest in everything regarding the Proge. Could his being exposed throughout his life to the Proge’s written language, and now being reinforced through his father’s e-mails, somehow be helping him translate and understand that language? Was it possible there something more going on? Jarrod wasn’t so sure…

  **********

  Dinner with his friends was a pleasant event and afterwards the quartet returned to Jarrod’s quarters for conversation and drinks. Throughout the evening, Jarrod found his thoughts returning to his father’s e-mails. When his friends commented on his distracted nature that evening, Jarrod apologized. “I’m sorry! I really should be more attentive to my guests.”

  Ellie Rai, a nurse to her core, asked, “Are you feeling unwell, Jarrod?” She pulled out her comm-unit and began to punch up Jarrod’s medical profile from his scanner unit. His readings looked fine to her.

  “I’m actually feeling fine! It’s just…I’ve finally received a batch of e-mails that were held up at Fleet Personnel because of the war and Fleet HQ’s transfer to Terrango Station. I’ve received quite a few e-mails from my father and they’re kinda mysterious.” Jarrod went on to explain his father’s background as a xeno-archeologist and his quest for the Proge homeworld. Then he described the stories his father used to tell him of the Proge when he was a boy. Finally, he told them of the e-mails themselves, the strange text and images embedded in the messages, and how he seemed to be able to decipher some of the language of the Proge.

  Ian, Maria, and Ellie listened intently, only asking a question every now and then for clarification. They asked if they could look at the images and Jarrod found himself sharing them with his friends. He quickly transferred them from his comm-unit to the large screen monitor on the living room wall. They carefully examined the images as best as they could on the monitor but even it didn’t provide sufficient resolution.

  Ian looked at Maria then asked her, “Well, cousin, perhaps we can use your friendship with some of the science types aboard this station to borrow a lab and some computer time?”

  Maria Esteban-Smith blushed, her cheeks turning a reddish hue. She had spent some time amongst the science teams reviewing the video logs of the Battle of Rana and had made friends with some of the scientists. Some of them had even become “close” friends as her distant and very proper cousin, Ian Huntington-Smythe, would teasingly remind her.

  “I think it can be arranged,” Maria answered as she punched Ian lightly on his left bicep. She punched a code into her comm-unit and spoke quietly to someone on the other end of the call. A couple of minutes later, she ended the call and gave her friends a thumbs-up. “Come on! Let’s go!”

  Maria’s friend met them at the entrance of the station’s science section and showed them to an imagery laboratory. The man blushed as Maria gave him a kiss on his cheek and thanked him. Ian’s left eyebrow arched as he witnessed the scene.

  “Tsk tsk,” he said to her teasingly.

  “Oh, stopping being such a prude!” Maria responded in an equally playfu
l mood.

  Inside the lab, Maria set up a secure directory for Jarrod and his friends to use while they tried to decipher Dr. Caulder’s mysterious messages. With the directory set up, Jarrod uploaded all of his father’s e-mail messages, images, and the passages of alien text. Ian recommended that they run the alien text through the station’s universal translator system.

  “I’m sure my father tried that,” Jarrod said.

  Ian nodded before responding. “I’m sure your father used the commercially available UT programs; maybe even some specialty ones from any of the major universities; but I doubt he was able to access the Fleet’s classified UT database.”

  “There’s a chance that Camadin Station’s UT has even more info in its database with the station being out here on the frontier,” added Maria.

  Ellie Rai nodded. “We’ve had a few visits from other spacefaring races in the last few years. Some of them spoke languages we were not familiar with. After a time, the UT program helped us decipher their languages so we could communicate.”

  Maria Esteban-Smith fed the alien text into the UT and once the program was running, they shifted their attention to the images. Blown up on higher resolution monitors, far more details were visible in each of them.

  Maria made the first discovery. “Look!” She used a laser pointer to mark a series of circles within circles on one of the images. She enlarged the image and zoomed in on the irregular yet concentric circles. With the exception of the circle in the center, each of the circles had a single dot located somewhere along the ring. Some of the dots were larger than the others! “That’s a star system map! Look! The circle in the center is a star. Each of these dots is a planet and the circles the dots are set on are orbits. There’s six planets in this map! Three small, two large, and one smaller. Three small worlds close to the star, two larger planets…gas giants, maybe…further out, and a small planet orbiting on the outer edge of the system!”

  A buzz of excitement went through the group. They carefully examined each of the images and found that each held a similar illustration of a star system. Each of the star systems was different from the others. Some held more planets, others fewer. The sizes of the stars and worlds differed as well as the distances between them.

  Time slipped by quickly. When Jarrod yawned, Ellie took it as a hint to check his biometrics again. She could see on her readout that Jarrod needed his medications and some rest so she spoke to the others. “It’s getting late! Jarrod needs to go to his quarters to take his meds and get some sleep. Can we could continue this tomorrow?”

  “We can do better than that,” Maria said. “Let me clear this with my friend…then I’ll set up a couple of programs that can run on their own while we all go get some rest. I’ll be right back!” She stepped out of the lab only to return a few minutes later. “All set! I’ve called a transport for us. It’ll stop at Jarrod’s quarters first then take the rest of us to ours.” Maria spent several minutes setting up the programs she had in mind. Ian contributed several insightful suggestions and soon the computers took over the analysis.

  By the time they reached Jarrod’s quarters, he was about to fall asleep. Ellie helped him from the transport. “You two head on to your quarters,” Ellie told Maria and Ian. “I’ll make sure Jarrod takes his medications before he goes to bed. Goodnight!”

  While the transport pulled away, Ellie helped Jarrod into his quarters and into his bedroom. She stepped into his bathroom and found his medications. She selected the pills he needed to take and filled a glass of water before returning to the bedroom.

  Jarrod hadn’t made any real progress in preparing for bed. Ellie found him sitting half-asleep on the edge of his bed. “Here, Jarrod…take these,” she told him while handing him the pills and glass. Jarrod promptly popped the pills in his mouth and washed them down with a drink of water. Ellie took the glass and set it on the night stand. She had him lay down, removed his shoes, then covered him with a light blanket.

  Ellie returned the glass to the bathroom sink then dimmed the bedroom lights as she stepped through the doorway into the living room. She sat down on the couch and pulled out her comm-unit. She filed a quick report on Jarrod’s condition with the Med-Center’s computer and sent a request to Dr. Rivers for the following day off. As late as it was, Dr. Rivers replied almost immediately, granting Ellie’s request. Ellie sent off a quick ‘thank you’ and sat back on the couch. Before she realized it, she fell asleep.

  Ellie Rai awoke sometime later. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been asleep but a low moan from the bedroom got her attention. Ellie rose from the couch and made her way quietly towards Jarrod in the room beyond. She checked his vital signs via her comm-unit as she walked. His heartbeat and respiration were elevated as was his brain wave activity. He was having a nightmare…part of the post-traumatic stress disorder Jarrod had experienced since the loss of his vessel.

  She found him curled up in a fetal position on the bed, a heavy sweat upon his brow. Ellie paused for a moment then sat down next to Jarrod. She began to hum an old Indian lullaby that had been passed down through the generations in her family. Her mother had hummed it to her when Ellie had trouble sleeping as a child. She hummed the song once, then began humming it again. Jarrod’s vital signs were slowing and the PTSD episode seemed to be passing. As he relaxed, she stretched out on the bed next to him, placed her arm across his chest, all the while humming the ancient lullaby. After awhile, they both slept peacefully.

  **********

  When Ellie awoke later the next morning, she found herself alone in Jarrod’s bed. As she sat up and looked around the room, she found him sitting quietly in a chair on one side of the room. He was watching her with a quizzical look on his face.

  “Good morning, Ellie,” he said, as much a question as a greeting.

  “Good morning!” Ellie replied jovially.

  Jarrod started to speak, stopped, then started again, “Uh, based on the fact that we’re both clothed…I’m going to assume nothing happened last night?” He smiled at her.

  Ellie smiled back at him then answered. “You are quite correct, sir! Nothing happened. You were pretty much asleep on your feet, so I accompanied you into your quarters. Once inside, I helped you take your evening medications and helped you climb into bed. Then, I went out to the living room where I fell asleep. You had a PTSD episode early this morning, so I came in to check on you.”

  Jarrod weighed what Ellie was saying against some fleeting memories that flitted through his mind. “I seem to remember…humming?” He looked at her questioningly.

  The young nurse chuckled. “Yes! You heard humming. It was an old lullaby my mother used to hum to me when I woke up afraid in the night. It would calm me and it seemed to help calm you as well,” Ellie told him. “It also served to put me to sleep! I’m sorry if this is...awkward.”

  “No, no…it’s fine. A little confusing, but fine,” Jarrod said in a matter-of-fact manner. “So what should we do?”

  Ellie paused for a moment then answered, “Well, I got the day off, so perhaps we should get cleaned up, go have some breakfast with Maria and Ian, and plan our next move.”

  “Sounds like a good idea!” said Jarrod. “Would you like to use my shower first?”

  Ellie paused again then replied, “No, you go ahead. There are a couple of things I wish to do first. Take your time.”

  Jarrod gathered some fresh clothes then entered his bathroom. A moment later, Ellie heard the shower running. She filed a brief report on Jarrod’s condition from her comm-unit then punched in a rush order to Supply to be sent to the delivery receptacle in the living room wall of Jarrod’s quarters.

  Jarrod was enjoying the warm, soothing water spraying his body and almost missed hearing the shower door open. He turned and saw the now naked body of Lieutenant Eliana Rai stepping into the shower with him.

  Ellie closed the door and stepped closer to Jarrod. “I thought that we might shower together, Jarrod. I hope you like what you see?” s
he asked as the water began to splash upon her skin. Jarrod paused for only a second then took her into his arms and kissed her.

  Chapter 5

  Personal Log

  Commander Jarrod Caulder

  Camadin Station

  Earthdate: 03 November 2230

  I continue to feel well despite the radiation poisoning that is slowly killing me. Thank goodness I’m not radiating anything harmful as Ellie and I are growing closer…much closer! Ellie, Ian, and Maria have joined my attempt to decipher the clues in my father’s e-mails. Somehow, I think Dad is trying to lead me to his location…and something else.

  Jarrod and Ellie were late meeting Maria and Ian for breakfast that morning. Ian’s left eyebrow rose quizzically upon seeing his tardy friends walk up to the table hand-in-hand. When Ian glanced at Maria he saw her jaw hanging open in surprise.

  “That’s a good way to catch flies, cousin,” Ian whispered to Maria.

  She responded by punching him lightly on the upper arm and saying, “And there are no flies here on Camadin Station!” Ian chuckled, which only irritated Maria more.

  Since none of them would be on duty that day, they had a leisurely breakfast and carefully planned their next moves. With breakfast behind them, they made their way to the the station’s science section. In their assigned laboratory, Maria Esteban-Smith activated the monitors to see how her computer programs were doing.

  The image analysis had found several more star system maps on each of the images with the sizes, locations, and number of planets varying from image to image. Maria stared closely at the enlarged images. Suddenly, her eyes widened and a look of shock spread across her face. “Of course! Of course! It makes sense!” she said with evident excitement in her voice.