The Face of Earth

by Kirsty Winkler

  Nanot grabbed the corpse’s ankles and they lifted and carried him out of the room. Nanot almost gagged at the stench of decay from being this close to the body, but he steeled himself against it as he had many times before. This wasn’t the first time he had been on burial detail, and he was certain it wouldn’t be his last. He was relieved when they finally exited the building and most of the smell was carried off by the breeze. They brought the body over to Lantor and set it down next to the hole he was digging.

  Lantor had been busy. The hole was almost deep enough to qualify as a shallow grave. Nanot and Kevin pitched in, and soon they had it deep and long enough to hold Kevin’s son. Nanot helped Kevin place the body in the grave, and then he and Lantor stepped back to allow Kevin a moment with his son. They could hear him mumbling something and choking back sobs. When he began filling the grave with dirt, they rejoined him to help.

  “We have to go now, and quickly,” Nanot said, as they piled the last shovelful of dirt onto the grave.

  Lantor scanned the sky worriedly. “Yes,” he said, “we’ve already stayed too long.”

  “I just need a minute to check the cryonic room,” Kevin said.

  “What for?” Lantor asked incredulously.

  “In case there’s something left to salvage,” Kevin replied.

  “No,” Nanot said. “We already have the cryonic technology, and the Earthlings are dead. There’s nothing down there we need.”

  “I just want to check,” Kevin insisted. What he actually wanted was to get into his hidden office so he could retrieve the League’s jewels and more ammunition for his gun, but he couldn’t tell that to the Yalsans.

  “No,” Nanot reiterated, “we leave now.” He stared Kevin down, and Kevin climbed into the skiff without another word.

  On the drive back to the ship, Kevin silently plotted how he could get back to the building alone. He needed those jewels; without money, he couldn’t regain his former power. He also needed more bullets, if he wanted to keep the gun from becoming a paperweight. Back in the cryonic room he had noticed the empty alcove where Karina’s pod had sat. He had also noticed that its footprint was clean, signifying that it was recently moved. Which meant that Karina might be alive, and should they run into each other again, he wanted the protection of a weapon. The Yalsans wouldn’t allow him to carry any of theirs, so his gun was the only thing that stood between him and that murderous woman. He was sure that once she discovered he was alive, she’d want revenge.

  They boarded the starship and Nanot escorted Kevin to his room. “Stay here. If the Stelairians exterminated the Earthlings, they won’t stop until every last one is gone.”

  Kevin stood in the doorway, undaunted. “How could they find out about me? I speak your language, and I can pass as Yalsan.”

  Nanot frowned. “Everyone on this ship knows you’re an Earthling, and giving you up to the Stelairians could be very lucrative for someone. Staying in your room is the only way Lantor and I can keep you safe. When you aren’t with one of us, you stay here, understand?”

  Kevin nodded. “As you wish.” He turned and went into his room. The door closed behind him.

  Nanot’s cheek twitched as he attempted to suppress a smile. He could be that someone who turned Kevin over to the Stelairians. He wondered how much the Earthling was worth. He hoped it was a lot. He was tired of being a lackey for his government. In this current job he was no more than a glorified chauffeur, and he was sick of it. He wanted enough money to buy his way out of the military and back into civilian life.

  Kevin looked around his room as the door closed behind him. He had to find some way to keep this ship here until he could get back to the building and retrieve the jewels. He may have lost the men of the Lazarus League, but as long as he was alive, he intended to recreate it. There were always his type of man around; men who knew they were better than everyone else. He could rebuild his League with them. But he needed money for that, and his money was sitting in a safe on this planet. He had to get to it before they left.

  He sat down at the desk and pressed the keypad to initiate the alien computer. The desk opened to reveal the screen and Kevin got to work. He would find a way into the main computer and stall the ship before Nanot could start the engines and head back to Yalsa. He only needed an hour to retrieve his goods from the League’s building, and the ship’s crew should be distracted by the malfunction for at least that long.

  * * *

  As the ship orbited Earth, Salgon kept a constant watch on the data readouts. Life was still in its infant stage, but it was evolving a thousand times faster than it would naturally. One day as they passed over one of the northern continents, a blip appeared on the readout. Concerned, Salgon scrolled back the page and scrutinized the data. He steered the ship out of orbit and scanned the area where the anomalous readout originated. His eyes widened as he recognized the life readings.

  “Megg!” he called into the comm. “We have a problem!”

  “On my way,” Megg’s voice replied.

  While he waited for Megg to come to the bridge, Salgon steered the ship down to the planet, toward the coordinates where they had killed the remaining Earthlings a month before.

  Megg stepped through the bridge doors. “What is it?” she asked.

  “Yalsans,” Salgon replied. He pointed to the screen and the ship below them. He hovered over the Yalsan barge, preventing it from leaving, as it was apparently trying to do, engines at full and the ship inches off the ground.

  Megg sighed in exasperation. “Connect with them,” she ordered.

  Salgon tapped the comm pad and connected with the Yalsan ship. A man answered the call, his face filling the screen.

  “I’m Captain Niella, on a scientific mission from Yalsa. How may I help you?” Nanot asked Megg deferentially.

  “This planet is off limits to all outside species. It is an experimental site of the Stelairian government and trespassing will not be tolerated.” Megg’s voice exuded authority.

  Nanot deferred to the Stelairian, not for her claim of the planet, but for her status as a member of an immortal and powerful species. “I apologize. I wasn’t aware that this planet belonged to the Stelairians. We will leave immediately.” As he spoke, a rumbling rolled through the Yalsan ship and the engines died. Nanot’s face disappeared as he fell to the deck when the ship dropped the few inches to the ground, shaking as it hit. His off-screen voice went up a notch in shock at the accident. “What happened?” Nanot demanded of his crew.

  “The engines cut out, sir,” a woman’s voice answered.

  “Why?” Nanot asked.

  “I don’t know, sir,” she answered.

  “Captain Niella,” Megg said impatiently.

  Nanot’s face reappeared on the screen. “Yes, ma’am?” he asked.

  “What is going on?” she demanded.

  “The engines don’t seem to be working anymore,” Nanot replied.

  “Really,” Megg said sarcastically, not believing him.

  “Yes. I do apologize. We’ll leave as soon as we’re able, I promise,” Nanot sincerely replied.

  Megg folded her arms across her chest. “We’ll land and help determine your problem,” she told him.

  “I appreciate your assistance,” Nanot answered, inclining his head at her. The minute she signed off, Nanot turned to his pilot. “Mayla, run some checks to determine why the engines failed.”

  “Yes, sir.” Mayla scanned the affected systems for discrepancies. She had an answer within moments. “Sir, someone has accessed the main drive system and shut it down.”

  “Who?” Nanot asked, seething at the thought that it had been sabotage.

  Mayla ran another check. “The command came from the guest quarters. A console was compromised and the system hacked. There was an attempt to hide the origination of the command, but it failed.”

  “Kevin,” Nanot growled. “Is he still in his room?” he asked Mayla.

  “Yes, sir,” she replied.

&nb
sp; “Lock it down,” he ordered.

  “Yes, sir.” Mayla initiated a lockdown for all guest quarters and Kevin was sealed in his room. The comm chirped. “Sir, the Stelairian wishes to connect with us.”

  “Go ahead,” Nanot said. Mayla connected the call to the viewscreen. The Stelairian woman appeared on the screen.

  “We’ve landed,” she informed him.

  “Thank you,” Nanot replied, “but we’ve already discovered the problem with our drive.”

  “What is it?” the woman asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Sabotage,” Nanot said. “We took aboard an Earthling before we knew that Earth belonged to the Stelairians, and he was the one who shut down our engines.”

  Megg’s face showed surprise. “Only one? There were three empty pods.”

  “The other two Earthlings died,” Nanot told her.

  Megg looked confused. “What about the female Earthling? I saw her on Yalsa.”

  Now Nanot was confused. “The three Earthlings from the pods were men. There were no women.” Then he suddenly realized that it was an Earthling that Tresar and Flavoi had taken from the site. It must have been the rude woman in Flavoi’s lap. He searched his memory, trying to remember if she had spoken. She hadn’t. She must be the other Earthling the Stelairian was talking about.

  Megg changed the subject, waving away the concern about Earthlings with a gesture. “Do you need help repairing your drive or can you do it yourself?” she asked.

  “We can handle it,” Nanot replied. “What about the Earthling? Shall we return him to Earth or give him to you?” He hoped there would be monetary recompense for the Earthling, but he couldn’t ask outright. That would be considered rude.

  “The Earthling can never return to Earth. Earth has been purged of all former life and seeded with new life, and I will not allow the old DNA to pollute the new DNA. You can keep the Earthling if you like, but you must take him away from here forever. We will remain here until your ship is repaired, and then we will escort you out of the system.”

  The finality in Megg’s voice told Nanot that the conversation was over. He inclined his head at Megg in respect and disconnected, hiding his disappointment. “Reconnect the helm control to the engines,” he ordered Mayla, “but first shut down all the consoles in the guest quarters.” He didn’t want Kevin messing with his ship anymore. “I’m going to go have a word with the Earthling,” he informed Mayla, “I’ll be back in a little while.”

  “Yes, sir,” Mayla replied as she worked on reconnecting the drive.

  Nanot strode toward the guest quarters, livid that the Earthling had the gall to rebel against his rescuers. When he reached Kevin’s room, he input a release code into the keypad next to the door, opening it.

  Kevin looked up from his pacing. He had been excited about successfully shutting down the drive, knowing that by the time they fixed the problem he would be back on board with his loot, but then he discovered that he was locked in his room.

  The captain’s face was blue with anger as he confronted Kevin. “What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded.

  Kevin decided to come clean, realizing that without help, he wouldn’t get his jewels back. He sat on the bed. “I just wanted enough time to go back to my building and retrieve some goods,” he replied.

  “I told you we didn’t need any of that stuff,” Nanot retorted.

  “No, not the technology. Jewels,” Kevin said.

  Nanot exhaled, greed replacing his anger. “Jewels?” he questioned, suddenly interested.

  “Yes. My office door is hidden behind a wall in the foyer, and I have a safe full of jewels in there. At least,” he added, “they should be in there, since my son hid the location of the office before he cryogenically froze himself.”

  Nanot rubbed his chin thoughtfully. There might be a way to make money off the alien after all. “So you sabotaged the ship because you didn’t want to share the jewels with anyone, correct?”

  “Yes,” Kevin replied, “but if you help me get them, I’ll share them with you. Nobody else has to know.”

  Nanot nodded in agreement. “Let’s go. Quickly.”

  Nanot led Kevin off the ship. They slipped past Megg’s ship, and Nanot hoped Megg was too preoccupied to see them sneak back to the ruins. They made it to the building without being seen and entered the foyer.

  “What on Earth!” Kevin exclaimed when he saw the wall open and the office door busted down. He ran into his office, Nanot on his heels. The safe door lay on the table, and the safe was empty. He turned to Nanot. “This room was intact an hour ago! On a planet devoid of life, how could someone rob me?”

  Nanot shrugged, confused. “It couldn’t have been any of my crew, they’re all on the ship. And the Stelairian just landed, so it couldn’t have been her, either.”

  Kevin looked suspiciously out of the room. “Maybe they’re still here. We should check the cryonic room.”

  Nanot pulled out a scanner and checked the building. There were no life readings anywhere in the vicinity. Nanot gripped his weapon and turned to Kevin. “You stay here. I’ll check the cryonic room just in case.”

  Kevin allowed himself a small smile as Nanot disappeared down the hallway. He quickly searched the drawers of the desk until he found the extra ammunition for his gun. He stowed it away in his pockets. Then he went out into the foyer to wait. As he stood there, he heard a shout from below. He ran down the hallway and into the cryonic room. Nanot stood just inside the room, pointing his weapon at two people climbing up the metal ladder on the wall to the exit hatch above. He fired at the ceiling to get their attention.

  “I said don’t move,” he shouted. They froze, staring down at Nanot and Kevin.

  “Well, well,” Kevin said with a grin, recognizing them.

  CHAPTER 20

  After a short stop at Yalsa, Agnar and Karina left the Vontyr Galaxy to travel to the Milky Way. Karina found the oddity of the distortion drive fascinating. “So you’re saying that we age, but time stands still in the universe?”

  “Yes. From the perspective of everyone outside the distortion, we’ll come out of it at the same moment, but not the same place, that we went into it. Since we’ll age at a normal rate while in the distortion, it’ll appear to them that we’ve aged.”

  “Well, that sucks.”

  Agnar laughed. “It would if you still had a life span of only a hundred years. Now that you’ll live for thousands of years without appearing to age, I wouldn’t worry about it.”

  Karina grinned. “I do like the idea of an extended youth. I miss my twenties.”

  “With your new life span you’ll lose track of how old you are pretty quickly. I lost track awhile ago, although I think I’m somewhere between eight and nine hundred years old.”

  Karina chuckled. “Well, that narrows it down. I couldn’t tell you my age. I have no idea how long I was frozen, and I didn’t keep track of time after I was rescued, either.”

  Agnar smiled. “How old were you when I saw you at the Lazarus League’s building?”

  “Thirty-four.”

  “It’s been over three hundred years since then.”

  “Holy shit!” Karina exclaimed in English, since Tresar hadn’t taught her any cuss words in Yalsan.

  Agnar laughed. “Get used to it. The elixir you drank will keep you alive and young for thousands of years longer.”

  “I can live with that,” Karina replied, smirking.

  After the Vontyr Galaxy had been traveling away from them for about a week, Agnar stopped the ship and called Karina to the bridge. She flounced in and flopped down comfortably in the captain’s chair, hanging a leg over one of the armrests. “So, what’s so exciting that you had to interrupt my meal for it?” she asked.

  “That.” Agnar pointed to the forward viewscreen, zooming it in to display a bright planet below the ship.

  Karina sat up with interest. “I thought we couldn’t use the distortion drive in a galaxy.”

  “This planet is
n’t in a galaxy. It’s orbiting an intergalactic star.” Agnar zoomed the viewscreen back out to display a giant, bright red star. In the distance Karina could make out other stars, and farther out, clusters of galaxies with Vontyr Galaxy prominent in the foreground.

  “Wow.” For a moment Karina couldn’t think of anything else to say.

  Agnar chuckled. “The first time I saw it, it had that effect on me as well.”

  “I didn’t know stars existed outside of galaxies.”

  “They do. This cluster of stars travels around the Vontyr Galaxy in a continually changing orbit, so it’s never in the same place twice in relation to the galaxy. Its orbit is probably erratic because it is affected by the gravity well of any greater mass it passes. That makes this planet very hard to find, even when you know it exists.” Agnar paused, smiling at Karina. “Would you like to go down to the surface? I know a good place to eat there,” he continued.

  Karina was flabbergasted. “That planet can support life?” she exclaimed.

  “Sure,” Agnar calmly replied. “A planet’s capability of supporting life isn’t dependent on its location in the universe, but on its distance from a suitable star.”

  “Yes,” Karina said excitedly, “I would love to go down there.”

  Agnar turned back to the controls and started the propulsion drive. He steered the ship toward the planet. As they entered the atmosphere, the ride became bumpy. Karina clutched the armrests, watching the viewscreen intently. The planet grew beneath them. She could see oceans and mountains, then rivers and trees. Agnar took them to a shining city. They joined with other airborne traffic before finally landing on an empty dock.