… and they are us
By PD McClafferty
©2014
Contents
Title Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Epilogue
CHAPTER 1
The Garbage Truck:
The sleek silver rocket tore through the starry firmament, past magnificent ringed planets and swirling azure tinted gaseous nebulae. On the bridge fit young crewmembers in bright uniforms stared intently into a dizzying display of flashing lights and pulsing instruments while around them the great vessel hummed with mechanical satisfaction. The handsome fair-haired captain looked down from his command chair and opened his mouth…
“Zed! Turn off that damn movie and get your ass up here. The lateral thruster is acting up again, and we’ve got a priority message coming in from Central.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m on my way.” Zed Yates slapped the OFF button, and on screen the sleek spaceship continued its merry way. He hit the player with his fist and the screen went dark. Picking up his tool bag, he wove his way forward to the flight deck, wiggling his way into the small crowded space. Through the front windows lay the stars, while a blue green Earth filled the starboard window. Zed loved the stars. It was why he’d gone to space in the first place. “What’s up, Maggie?” Margaret Xian, was a tall thin woman with dark hair, hardened by years in the People's Liberation Army Air Force of China and then by the rigors of space. She was the Mission Commander and Flight Captain of the garbage truck. The Company, for some obscure reason, called their vessel 7651 Rose of the Dawn. The crew simply called it the truck.
“I thought you said these thrusters would be good for two more weeks, dammit.” The flight captain sounded tired.
Zed sighed and began unfastening the face of the console. “That was four weeks ago, Maggie. I ordered the parts, and they’re on back order till next month.” He slid the faceplate aside, and pointed his flashlight into the rusty innards of the command console. He didn’t really need the light, he knew the layout by heart. Taking out a small can of very expensive contact cleaner he shot the thruster controller assembly liberally. “OK, try it now.” The flight captain activated the controller and Zed felt the truck tremble as the thrusters were fired.
“That’s better. What did you do?”
“Used my highly illegal contact cleaner. You should be good for the rest of the flight, but after that…” He shrugged. “Those controllers are shot.” He started to screw the faceplate back on.
“Why is that cleaner illegal, if it’s so good?” Maggie’s voice was curious.
“The company that makes the cleaner refuses to sell out to SPAM, so the SPace And Mining Corporation boycotts the product and we suffer the lack of the best cleaner on the market. I bought this out of my own pocket.”
“So that’s how you keep your reputation as a miracle worker, Yates. You cheat.”
“Aw, your mother wears combat boots, Maggie.” The Chinese captain laughed.
“Dammit to hell!!” A muffled voice came up from the communication cubby, just behind the pilot’s seat. The tousled blond head of Nicole Saint-Claire, the elfin communications officer, peeked around the corner. “Central wants us to retrofit and go snag a rock that’s heading for Earth. Tow it out of the way or something before it hits another city.” Zed began packing his tools away in an ancient mechanic’s canvas bag that had once been green. “They think it’s the same size as the one that just took out Delhi.” The ten mile wide crater that had been Delhi India, the home of twenty five million people was still glowing slightly, a malevolent eye in the dark night that they could see from orbit. Nicole forwarded the message to Maggie, who studied it on her PDA and groaned.
“This was forwarded to us, through Corporate, from an emergency session of the United Nations. It must be serious, but it means a lot of work for you, Zed.” She turned the tablet so that the flight engineer, who was just putting the last of his tools back into his canvas bag, could read it. He glanced at the note and began chuckling.
“Never gonna happen, boss.”
Maggie frowned and tried to look inscrutable. “Say what?”
“Never gonna happen. Most of those parts are no longer available at depot, and the rest won’t fit on a ship as old as this piece of shit.” He slammed a hand against a bulkhead, and a flurry of brown rust flakes drifted weightlessly into the air.
“Yates, this is a Class one A emergency. It says so right here. We have to do it. We get fired if we don’t.”
“They can call it a class zillion for all I care. If we don’t have the stuff to do it, we don’t have…” Flight Engineer Yates got a faraway look in his slightly bloodshot gray eyes. “How are we doing for fuel, Maggie?”
“Full tanks. We topped up at Tolstoy Station two days ago. Why?”
“Well, once upon a time Central decided to outfit all the older ships with pusher bars, so that we could shove things out of the way if need be. Plain old brute force. If we can’t tow this thing, maybe we can give it a shove. Our engines are the old Mark two-eighties, and they have a lot of power and stamina. Not much for speed, but we don’t need speed now.”
Maggie Xian rubbed her narrow jaw and stared at her flight engineer with brown eyes that were every bit as bloodshot as Zed’s. “Call Central, Nicole. Tell them what we’re going to do. When you’ve done that inform our illustrious cargo specialist of what we’re about, if you can wake him up. Nicole had a wicked glint in her eyes.
“You shouldn’t have done that, Maggie. You know that she doesn’t like Damon, and…”
“Attention, attention!” The ship-wide Public Address System wasn’t just set to loud, it was set to bellow. Both Zed and Maggie stuffed fingers in their ears and clamped mouths tightly shut. At this level Nicole’s piercing voice made their teeth hurt. “There has been a mission change. Today we will not be collecting garbage. Today we will be destroying the Earth.”
From far away they heard a heavily accented Jamaican voice curse.
“I’m sorry.” The PA blared again. “I meant to say save Earth.” They could hear Nicole laughing and somewhere far down in the bowels of the ship, the cursing continued.
“What was that all about?” A short brown haired man was standing in the hatchway, rubbing sleep from his eyes. He reminded Zed of Bilbo Baggins, from the famous story.
“Mission change, Ashton.” Maggie handed him the tablet. “The coordinates are in the note. Plot us a course, please. We’re going to try and give that thing a push. Calculate the burn to start in sixty minutes. That will give us all a chance to strap things down.”
Ashton Kane, late of the working class East End of London, and now First Officer and Co-Pilot of the garbage truck shook his head. “You must be kidding!” He muttered in a thick cockney accent. “I was having such a good dream.”
The garbage truck drifted through space serenely, her dented and battered appearance belying an illustrious career that started almost a century earlier with NASA. Tucked in her massive hold several derelict satellites waited transport back to Earth, where they would be salvaged for precious metals. Good orbital slots were at a premium, and for every junker they removed from orbit, three more would be launched the next week. It was called job security.
Earth was just a small blue dot far behind them when the first officer saw it, tumbling like a tossed coin against the glittering star-field fifty kilometers ahead. “What the bloody hell is that?” First Off
icer Kane asked in a shaking voice, his normally tan face turning pale “It’s sure not a bleedin’ rock.”
“That’s our target, Ashton.” Maggie looked up from the controls and her Chinese calm evaporated. “Holy gods!! A real flying saucer! Zed, get up here!”
The flight engineer stuck his slightly balding head up onto the flight deck, staring at the huge black shape for a long time. “Hmmm. It looks as though all the old stories are true after all. I wonder if it carried little green men.” A single eyebrow raised. “She’s a big one. Eight hundred meters wide, at a guess. From the battle damage I’d say she’s a warship. There’s probably a big hangar for smaller craft, although the ship might even be capable of atmospheric work, if she weren’t so beat up. It’s the first spacewreck I’ve ever seen.” He grinned at Maggies back. “I’m glad you’re the one to stop the tumble. I’d probably muck it up and send us both on a slow spiral into the sun.”
“Did anyone ever tell you that you’re just a barrel of laughs?” The mission commander growled, as she studied the tumbling object.
“Nope.” Zed grinned.
Nicole was peeping over the flight engineer’s shoulder, her blue eyes wide. “So, we aren’t alone in the universe after all. That thing gives me the willies just looking at it.” Zed could hear her swallow. “Do you think there’s anybody, any THING, alive on it?” Her voice was tense, fear raising it an octave or two from its normal pitch and almost disguising her native Texan drawl. In a nervous gesture she ran her fingers through her short spiky hair.
Zed squinted at the tumbling spacecraft. “That ship is old. The entire hull is coated with dust from sitting in the asteroid belt for so long.” He pointed. “See that long fresh dent near the edge? That’s probably where our killer asteroid bumped it, knocking it out of a stable orbit and sending it toward Earth.”
“By the way, Flight Engineer Yates.” Maggie murmured, never taking her eyes off the object. “According to regulation it is the duty of the Flight Engineer to be first in to any derelict craft to determine the level of danger for the rest of the crew. You had better prepare for EVA.” Both mission commander and first officer were smiling now.
“I know when I’m not wanted.” Zed turned to the hatch, stopped. “I’ll be asking for salvage rights, if the ship is uninhabited, by the way. Good luck stopping the spin Maggie, but you really don’t need it.” He never saw her smile widen as he exited the flight deck.
Although their fuel level dropped alarmingly, it only took her one try to halt the tumbling ship.
“Nicole!” Maggie called over her shoulder. “Tell Central we’ve arrived at the object, and what we’ve found. Have them send backup. That thing scares the crap outta me.”
“Long range transmitter is out boss.” The communications officer called back. “I told you that last month and you said we didn’t have the money to spend on a replacement. It looks as though we’re on our own.”
“Well, call down to the cargo bay and tell Zed to be careful. No one is going to save his butt.”
Behind her Maggie could hear Nicole laugh. “He’s usually careful, but I’ll tell him anyway.”
The garbage truck drifted over the huge black hull, floodlights playing across the vast scarred black surface. The cramped flight deck smelled of recycled air, and fear.
“Bring it a bit more to port.” Yates called from the cargo bay, where he and Damon Higgins, a tall Jamaican with a PHD in structural engineering who served as loadmaster, were staring at a large three-dee monitor. “There! Stop. Do you see what I’m seeing, Maggie? That looks like battle damage.” A cluster of six meter craters gaped beneath the small human spacecraft. “That didn’t disable the ship, though. Not something this massive. You can keep going.” The garbage truck drifted further. “There we go.” Zed muttered in satisfaction. A seven meter wide gash appeared, starting amidships and close to the upper dome of the saucer, piercing the thick armored hull, before exiting the other side of the saucer, a hundred meters before the edge. “I’d guess the battle damage took out any shielding they might have had, and when they entered our system they hit a small asteroid. That probably took out the power plant, while leaving the drive, which is more than likely in the lower dome, untouched.” Yates clipped a small radiation counter to his work belt and turned it on. “That’s where I’ll have the best chance of entry.”
“Your call.” Maggie’s voice echoed in his ears. The ship quivered as the thrusters fired, slowing the truck to a standstill. “I’d tell you good luck, but you don’t need it.” Maggie murmured in a quiet voice.
“Thank you.” She couldn’t see him smile.
As he drifted closer to the massive ruined ship, Yates could see exposed rooms and equipment, all twisted into tortured shapes by the force of the impact. A nudge from the suit thrusters moved him deeper into the wreck. I’m about to enter a freakin’ flying saucer from an alien world. He thought to himself as he drifted. She was tough though, and fought hard before she died. There were no artificial lights, no movement, and no signs of life. Weak light from the distant sun cast ominous shadows, like fingers reaching out of the dark. The door to a wide corridor gaped open and he floated in, suit lights glinting off pastel blue walls that had been last glimpsed by alien eyes. He followed a severed power conduit back to a heavy door, and it took all his strength to gain entry into what was obviously engineering.
The asteroid’s erratic plunge through the heart of the ship had torn open the far wall of engineering, severing all the massive power cables as neatly as a knife would pass through butter. Zed looked at the glittering wreckage standing starkly in his white suit lights, reached a hand up and touched a button on his wrist. The room plunged into blackness. On a far wall, near a heavily shielded and bolted door that Zed assumed must be the reactor, a single amber light glowed. Grinning, he turned his lights back on.
“Truck, this is EVA.” Silence. Zed frowned, and very slowly and carefully drifted away from the torn back wall and out into space. Free of the metal walls of the ship, he tried once more. “Truck, this is EVA.”
“EVA, this is the truck.” It was Nicole’s worried voice, but then Nicole always sounded worried. “Go ahead.”
“Most of the ship is a total ruin Nicole, however I did find some sign of power down in engineering. A single light is still glowing.”
“Copy, EVA. Don’t touch anything, Zed. You could get yourself into trouble.”
“Would I do that?” Yates chuckled. “I’ll continue my search. EVA out.”
He floated back down into the black cavern of Engineering, and over to the beckoning light. Faceplate almost touching the surface, he studied the alien circuitry. Yup. He thought to himself. Not too different. Primary backup. Secondary backup. He pulled the cover off the box the light glowed in, studying the strangely designed relays. When the ship died the circuits had been trying to shunt power down THAT line. His eyes followed a small conduit that had been cut by a falling beam. Zed reached up, flipped the relay off and began to splice the cut ends of the cable in the conduit. He paused before he flipped the relay back on, really hoping that it wasn’t a self-destruct circuit. The engineer in him won out. It wasn’t.
Somewhere in the room something clunked in the silence of vacuum, and then there was stillness. Hidden behind a fallen section of wall two more lights began to glow amber. Zed shrugged in frustration, and headed for what he hoped was a docking bay.
Two hours of climbing over torn wreckage and twisted corridors later, Zed entered a hanger where he stopped in amazement, his jaw hanging open. Two delta winged craft, each easily the size of the garbage truck, sat locked into a sort of parking garage set against one wall. It was easily big enough for a dozen similar craft in a hanger that could more than accommodate an aircraft carrier. A smaller night-black saucer, barely forty meters in diameter sat secured to the deck. His megawatt halogen suit lights scarcely lit the far wall. Sitting against the far wall, a large square box caught his eye and he squirted his suit thrusters. He
nudged them again to increase his speed — the hangar was even bigger than he’d guessed. Using his thrusters to slow his progress, he came to a rest beside the heavy gray box. Like the smaller box in engineering, this unit also had an amber light glowing on top. Beside the light sat a red button, and under that, a white square with red lettering. This has to say ‘push me’. He had a Cheshire Cat grin on his face as he slapped the button. Nothing hummed and nothing whirred. The back wall of the hanger simply disappeared, and Fernandez Edwardo Raphael Daniel Yates found himself staring out into the limitless depths of space. He tried to swallow the dust that was suddenly in his throat.
“Ahhh, hi guys.”
“Yates! Goddammit Yates, we’ve been calling you for an hour.” Ashton sounded angry. “You are supposed to check in with us. We were about to send Damon in after you.”
“Damon?” Zed laughed. “Damon has claustrophobia, and this place would drive him wild, but can we discuss this later? I found the garage door opener, and this garage would be a handy place to park the old truck, don’t you think? Besides, my suit is beginning to stink.”
There was silence for a long time on the other end. “You opened a door into that thing?” For the first time since he’d known her, Margaret Xian sounded excited, or maybe it was scared.
“Yeah boss, the hanger door, and what a hanger!”
“OK EVA. How do we find you?”
“Just a minute.” Zed engaged his suit jets slightly and drifted further out of the hanger door. “Ahhh. There you are. From your current heading, I’m at 220º, Z minus 10º, range about four hundred meters.” Zed set the emergency strobes on his suit flashing.
“We have you EVA.” Ashton’s voice was calm now, all business. “How big is the garage door?”
Yates laughed. “Big enough to fit an aircraft carrier — sideways. Even Maggie could park the garbage truck in here.”
“Yeah, right. I’ll believe it when I see…” The truck slid into view of the hanger door. “Oh my frigging God.” Ashton murmured. “You really do bring home the bacon, Zed. Which way is down?” He saw the floating figure point. “Roger.”
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