by Megan Alban
He gave me a nod. And then I got up and ran toward the tunnel, “Carrera,” I yelled on broadcast, “I’m here. Take me. I’m the only one that saw what you saw. Take me and leave the others alone.”
The ground rumbled like a threat.
And then moments later, Carrera emerged from the dusty darkness of the tunnel like an apparition. “The time for bargaining is over,” he said calmly as the glow over his head subsided. “There is no rescue in this mission now. It’s over. For Mine Site Four and for this planet. We all have to go. You won’t take it personally, will you?”
Not Darner. And not the other hardworking men. “You bastard, Carrera. Haven’t you hurt enough people? Don’t you have a heart?”
He shook his head. “You should know better by now Alyse. Don’t you realize yet just how insignificant death is?” Then he broke out into a maniacal laugh. “And how insignificant each of your deaths will be?”
I clenched my fists tight. “No, Carrera, the only insignificant one is you, who pretends to share our cause, and then betrays us all with your own selfishness! This ends now,” I shouted. My feet started. A quick step. Then I broke out into a jog, and rushed him down.
“You’re finished, Alyse,” he shouted, then held a blue glowing hand up.
Suddenly, the Bertha ruptured the ground where I’d just stood. Close call, but no cigar. At the same time, Darner shouted orders to his men, and lasers flew all around me.
“Ahhh!” Carrera cried.
I lunged. Carrera’s face changed as he tried to dodge sideways. But I leaped forward faster. I caught him in my arms before he disappeared into mist again. My quarter-gravity body weight sent him into the collapsed wall behind him with a thud. I grabbed hold of his helmet and frantically searched for a disengage on the spider-like device.
“Get off me!” He swung at me, landing a wild flailing punch into my neck. I fell back just as his weight came over me. My arms flailed, but it was useless. He had pinned me against the ground.
“Watch out, the digger’s coming back,” the marines fought with the machine. The chamber warbled with another crashing round of destruction.
My fingers still reached for him. But he was too heavy. Carrera’s face homed in close to mine. “We humans were never destined to explore the outer reaches of space. Only those who rise above are worthy to see what’s beyond the stars,” he said and reached forward with his hands. The space between my suit and my neck tightened.
I screamed back, fumbling with my fingers against his shoulders, “you call yourself a human. But you’re sub-human. Anyone has the right to seeks the truth, like you and I used to do Carrera. But today, you’ve shown me you can’t handle it. And that’s why you deserve everything you get!” I shouted into my microphone, just as my finger caught on his helmet’s lock near his neck, “it’s over!” I pulled hard.
Carrera screamed.
At the same time, a red light flashed from my right, disappearing into Carrera’s bodysuit. Then the grip over my neck loosened and a surprised expression flashed over the man’s face.
“Got him,” Captain Darner’s voice breathed softly as the wurm’s underground rumbling slowed to a stop.
Then I felt the wind knocked out of me as Carrera’s limp body fell forward on top of me.
Chapter 17
The thirty day emergency trip back to the Milky Way Outpost from the planet SH-17 passed faster than I remembered going to the planet. But between it and the foggy memories of me being evacuated from the mine site by the men, I did not remember much else.
Darner and the other injured men stayed in their own rooms on the space shuttle, only visiting me in the medical bay now and then to chat. Updates came daily from the skeleton staff left behind on SH-17.
The miners who stayed wanted to go back and study Dig Site Four’s inner pit. They found nothing before the mine totally collapsed in on itself a few days after we’d gone.
Carrera made nary a peep from his holding bay, after being medically treated and then promptly put under grand arrest for the rest of the trip.
With a few days before touching back down on the Outpost, I was healthy enough to change out of my hospital-green gown into my space tights and hobble to the men at the meal table. We drank to a cheers and then spoke about other things. Anything but the mine situation. That was, until I was sitting by a seat in the recreation area looking out into the vast blackness of space.
I heard Darner’s heavy belt buckle still clinging to his body and half turned my head to him, “you don’t have to tell me. I screwed up.”
He let out a sigh and sat down beside me on the bench. “Not at all. You did a good job. I didn’t get to thank you back there for putting your life at risk. You saved my life and my marines’,” he said.
I turned to meet him and his handsome face. Blue eyes gazing down at me from his tall frame, making me feel more vulnerable than I’d been when attacked by the wurm. The sheer size of his hands made me feel safer. “I had to. I couldn’t stand by and let the miners go…” I stopped mid-cough. When my throat was steady I went on, “old man Gensworth seems well now too. And that made it all worth it. I would’ve done it again even to give someone else a second chance at life.”
His blues darted left and right over my nose. “Weren’t you afraid?”
I felt his gaze stop somewhere between left and right. On which side his gaze fell, I didn’t quite mind. I was rosy cheeked and flustered to even have him beside me. Was this my chance to finally chat to him on more than a formal level? I looked at him. “Yeah,” I said. “I was scared I wouldn’t make it back. But I guess, I wanted to live on more than I was afraid. But I wouldn’t be here without you too… so I guess it’s my turn to thank you too, Captain Darner,” I said softly, finishing the last word with warm, smiling cheeks.
“You’re more than welcome. And you can call me Gareth,” he said smoothly, as I saw the crystal clear reflection of a spiral-armed galaxy drift by in the shine of his eyes.
The day we returned to the behemoth-sized Outpost, we were escorted directly to the alien quarantine area and scrubbed down. Then we were questioned for four hours. Or at least I was.
The Admiral of the Milky Way Outpost had received Darner’s report while in transit and was not happy about the miners’ deaths. And wanted justification for the very expensive four year excursion that had resulted in nothing but tales of an alien map room.
Within the hour after my interrogation, I was dressed in formal attire and escorted to appear before the post-incident hearing arranged by the pale-faced Admiral himself. A red-haired man in a flowing, black judge’s gown.
“Captain Darner it is good to finally see you in person. We did not think we would ever see anyone return from that cursed planet,” his shoulders were hunched over as he peered over his glasses. His cranky voice echoed in the empty, circular hall.
I watched intently from behind Gareth Darner.
“Of course, Admiral. And I am glad to be back,” Darner appeared confident with his shoulders back, and those big paws of his wrapped around his back.
“I only wish this was in better circumstances. As you know, you are here at the tribunal to testify on the circumstances surrounding the deaths of all six of the mining crew on planet SH-17.”
I watched the back of Darner’s jaws clench. “Five, Admiral. There were only five casualties. One is still alive and well,”
The tension heated up, “don’t talk back to me, Darner. Even one would be too much to bear. Five is catastrophic failure,” the Admiral’s hands locked tight over his notes. “I have read this report. And it is simply astounding, to say the least... how could you let one of your own go rogue on you?”
Darner kept quiet.
“Well?”
“All our psychological tests were passed. There was no indication that there would be a psychological break due to the second part of that report…”
“Ah… yes, I did see that! Well then, why don’t we get onto that. An alien tom
b. A space map to regions untold. All with no evidence!”
“I know how it looks sir, but people I trust saw it,” Darner testified.
The Admiral slammed his hands down on the bench, “do you have anything for me at all? Photographs? Frequency recordings from the Fuzzarios? A sample of the air? Or even a tiny alien tentacle?” He asked with sarcasm.
I felt my jaw tense up with Darner’s. It was clear the Admiral and the panel had no idea what we had gone through.
Darner shook his head defiantly. His back heaved with the labored breaths I imagined he was keeping in. “It is just as the report says.”
“I’ve read the report many times. But without any evidence I cannot simply take your word!”
“We swear on our word-” Darner said.
“Enough!” The Admiral took off his spectacles and pointed a finger to the Captain in the stand, “I know I speak for more than myself on the tribunal when I saw I am thoroughly sick of your excuses. Your youthful arrogance was thought to be an asset to the Operation, so reconsider what you say next very carefully, Captain Darner.”
The Captain remained silent.
“So what can you give me? After all these four years of you being down there, what exactly have you discovered about the broadcast? A room? A blathering room? Please explain what exactly we’ve paid your salaries all these years for!”
I stood up, “please Admiral. If I may?”
Darner spun and watched me. “Only if it’s alright with you, Admiral?”
I stepped forward.
The Admiral flipped his hand in the air, “I would welcome anyone at this stage! Give me anyone who will answer this panel’s questions!” His impatience was not lost on me. But I did not let it affect my poise.
I felt Gareth Darner’s warmth as we swapped places. Without any glass helmets between us, I savored the spicy scent of his cologne.
“Name and rank for the court record,” a red spiky haired Fuzzario in the raised court reporter’s seat asked.
“Miss Alyse Pepperfield, from the mission on Alpha Station, SH-17. In fact, one of the newest human members on the scientific team. If I could, perhaps as the newest science advisor, provide some back insight into the reports on SH-17.”
The judge let his back fall into his seat, “go on.”
“As soon as I landed on Alpha Station I noticed something unusual about the planet. At first it appeared to be a harmless crystalline rock, much like the other stone based planets in the vicinity. The only complication was the fact that its surface moved drastically every now and then - which I’m sure you are aware of. That was the reason for a lot of the delays, and why it maybe took four years instead of the expected three. But the day the event happen, and we all agree that it was a real tragedy, the lead miner Carrera found something. It is what we believe to be the reason for the strange broadcast five years ago-”
An eruption of hushed whispers broke out between the tribunal panel.
I held back my grin, letting it manifest only in the corner of my lips. I had their attention now.
“Order. Order,” the Admiral repeated, “Miss Alyse Pepperfield. Delay no longer. What was it?”
I cleared my throat. “I was in that room. That room’s ceiling was a map of the Universe. But it was more than that. It extended beyond our known limits of the Universe. It shows us what comes after the edge of space itself. What we believe there to be anti-matter, the beings who left that map there knew about new forms of galaxies not even understood to be possible now.”
The Admiral of the farthest Human Outpost pounded his arm on the desk. Glassy bubbles of spit spewed from his gritted mouth, “Please then Miss Pepperfield, explain why this alien race pulsed us with this broadcast more than five years ago? Why did this grand alien civilization send us on this wild goose chase just to discover a blooming map?”
I calmed myself down. I would not let anyone shake me from my train of thought now. This was the truth, and it had to go on record for all of Humanity to see. I slowly shook my head side to side. “The pulse from the alien civilization was not meant for us.”
“What?” The panel erupted into chatter.
“Carrera kept quiet about it. But he went through this realization himself. He saw that the writings on the walls were ancient scripts left for life more intelligent than us. That room was not a map left for galactic travellers’ convenience. I believe that room was a grave for one of the civilization’s explorers, or scouts who could not make it home. And I believe his resting place was the altar at which I saw Carrera, in the depths of SH-17.”
The look on not only the Admiral, but all the graying panel members’ faces was not to be messed with. “Heresy!” He called out.
“Why is it our best cryptographers combined with the collective minds of the Fuzzario assistants cannot decode the message from the alien transmission? The humans’ first transmission into space was simple code. Binary, to allow even the most primitive of receivers to detect a pattern. However, even till this day we are nowhere near making sense out of the broadcast.” I stated clearly and sternly, “the broadcast we received five years ago was a cry for help or an SOS back to that alien race’s home planet. It was not for us.”
Their mouths gaped open.
I went on, “Carrera’s insanity that day was because he could not handle that the alien intelligence that built that cavern undoubtedly had the technology to observe us at the fringe of the Milky Way, but still chose to leave us alone. Carrera ultimately could not handle the idea that we humans, in the grand scheme of things, ranked with zero importance to this great alien civilization.”
The graying Admiral’s hair had come unstuck. He slammed his gavel down at the other members’ mistimed yells of contempt.
My pulse beat at a normal rate in my ears. I rotated my neck to eye each of the panel members in turn. But they looked away. They had had enough.
After a moment the Admiral spoke again. “It’s time we take a break then,” the Admiral placed his spectacles back on after he wiped his eyes. “A long break.”
The gavel came down with a hard smack.
***
Darner and I sat on the outside of the court room in our civilian clothes. It was sunny and warm. Birds sung to each other in the lux-garden trees, calling and fluttering about the red blossoms dotting the trees with their vibrant color. The chirp of Summer crickets whistled around us. A splash from the lake behind our grainy, wooden bench told me of a duck landing. But of course it was all simulated. High resolution holograms combined with temperature and sound effects to give us that magical illusion.
It seemed even after all the years humans had spent off Earth’s planet, something in our DNA still craved a connection with nature. Or scenes of it at least.
What was it that I craved?
A breeze went by, blowing warm but comforting air through my brown locks, toward him. I looked down and sideways trying not to stare too much at his wrists. Under his formal uniform I could see he was so pale from the lack of UV on the planet. A reminder of how long he’d been up there. The shining blond hairs poking from under his circular silver wrist watch reminded me just how human Darner was, and how I’d felt human with him once too, a long time ago.
“Did you ever think we’d be back on the Outpost after all these years?” He broke the silence first. The man who’d first gazed eyes on me. The one in three hundred space academy students who’d stopped and turned to notice me in that grand foyer on my first day. He of course, was to graduate the year I began. And so we never got the chance to speak then. Even more so, when I discovered he had a girlfriend.
My eyes lifted from the spot on the paved floor between my knees. They swept up the endless shapes of his crossed, long legs with his pressed Navy blue pants, past the belt against of his perfectly proportioned waist up to the blue eyes that looked directly into my eyes again.
My mouth felt dry. My pulse rapped in my ears. He wasn’t teasing me nor being an asshole most guys presented them
selves to be. With the new side of him, my body felt stiff, but quickly relaxed. He was comfortable. Like home. His gaze observed me with the same attention and focus he used to when he used to bring me to the grass for evening picnics under the fireworks. God his face lit up all sorts of colors as we looked. Just looked without saying words. Just like I was speechless for words now.
I blushed and spoke gently with myself, forgiving me for ignoring this vulnerable side of me all throughout my academy years. Maybe my father was indeed wrong. I could have it all if I continued working with Darner, and perhaps even see him if he wanted that with me.
Then he surprised us both. He reached over and clasped the back of my neck with his hand. My buttocks slid on the bench and my knees met his in the middle. I welcomed his touch on my lips, and his warm kiss accepted me too.
My heart raced with the same flutter I’d had that first day all those years ago. The same flutter I’d then chosen to ignore. But not anymore.
I decided. Whether it was advancing the human frontier, or finding the love of my life, I would never give up again.
***
The End
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Another Earth
DEMI KNIGHT
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