by Kord Stone
The last statement got Jason thinking. His half brother’s kids were only one and three years old. How could they be following in his footsteps already?
Alise smiled. “We had tracked your family through time. There was supposed to be more of a selection to choose from but something has altered events in this timeline. In the other timeline your nephews grew up to be like your youngest brother, and your other brothers were still alive as well. The original time we had selected to retrieve Elgon’s replacement was nearly fifteen years from now, but when we arrived, something was wrong, because none of you were there. We feared that one of the races who are aware of temporal changes had set this timeline in motion, but we did not have time to backtrack and find out what happened. You were the first of the acceptable candidates we came across and as it was, we had to backtrack further to find you, so you were selected.”
Jason was confused and thought, How could my brothers have been alive? They died. I saw their bodies.
Alise continued, either not hearing or not commenting on his thought. “We knew of the circumstances of your life in the other timeline. Elgon had wanted either you, Jerren or Justin as his replacement because he believed your military service and code of honor would help. He did not believe the claims you were a murderer in this timeline, and now we know why we could not find any of you in the future of this timeline. As for the medications you were on, he figured they would flush out of your system and any mental instability could be repaired with the bonding process. Little did he know there was no need for repairs.”
“Okay. So he chose me. The question still stands, why me? There are a little over seven billion people on this planet… Any number of them could have been a better choice.”
Her smile was back in place as she said, “Well here is the interesting part. Elgon arranged it so his replacement would have to be a blood descendant. It was something he insisted upon. He feared anyone other than his line might turn out like The Eleven from Lantis, and he proceeded to do a little bit of tinkering. Now only a genetic relative of Elgon can bond with me or this ship.”
Jason looked to the man’s body then back to Alise. “That seems a tad short-sighted. What would have happened if I don’t work out, or the rest of his descendants had died off?”
Alise sighed. “That was a serious possibility, and I addressed it with him on several occasions. He still felt the risk was warranted. So in the end I agreed.”
“Wait a second. He’s an alien isn’t he? And who are The Eleven you spoke of?”
She replied, “Yes and no. In the respect that his family was from another planet he is an alien, but he was actually born on Earth. Most of the ancestors of the humanoid lifeforms currently on Earth did not originate on Earth. The Lantins’ solar system was about to go into a flux due to a rogue star that was on a collision course with their star.
“They knew their solar system would not support life afterward and they searched the universe for a new world to inhabit. As luck would have it, the planet they chose was in the same solar system they had abandoned over three hundred thousand years prior. That planet was called Lanna. You now call it Mars. They sent a probe to the solar system and found that Mars had not recovered from the ecological disaster that had befallen them. The last they had seen of Terra…or…Earth, it was covered in ice and the inhabitants there had, for the most part, died off with the last ice age.
“The probe sent back images and they investigated. The planet had just started to come out of the ice age and had become a kind of penal colony of sorts. Other civilizations had dropped off their interstellar criminals…the riffraff they did not wish to deal with. There were humanoids on the planet already, refugees who had fled Mars hundreds of thousands of years before.
“They were the ones who reached the new home world and did not wish to continue so far away from their home planet. They returned to take up residence on Earth, despite the warnings from the other Lantins. Their numbers were barely maintained and they experienced de-evolution of sorts, with the extreme cold and lack of food, their children became smaller with thicker cranial bones and smaller, less evolved brains. Your people refer to them as Neanderthal. It is because of de-evolution that your people could never find the so-called missing link.”
He nodded in understanding and she continued. “Anyway, the Lantins brought their city ship Lantis to Earth and set it to rest about ten miles west of what you call Gibraltar. There was still a lot of ice on the planet and water levels were very low. The indigenous clans would travel by land for trade and for many thousands of years it was civil. Then some of the barbaric clans, being encouraged by The Eleven decided to overthrow the city and steal Lantin technology. One night someone snuck into the Lantins’ particle chamber and sabotaged it.
“The resulting explosion decimated the area and caused a severe planetary warming event. Very few Lantins survived the blast and the city was ripped apart in a temporal rift. All I could do was sit and watch. There was only one ship.” She spread her hands out. “This ship.” She paused a moment. “My commander was at Lantis at the time and did not survive the blast, and I would have been lost as well. But as luck would have it, I was in orbit using the pyramid generator to store up energy for our next mission. I activated a multiphasic beacon, requesting aid from any other TDS ships, but there was no response. If this ship has a flaw it is that we can never go back to a time and place we have already experienced. Meaning if we were in the same phase, and because I saw the destruction firsthand, I could not take this ship back to prevent the tragedy. I attempted to go further back in time to rescue them but something about the temporal component of the blast prevented me from intervening. Prior to the blast, all I was able to do was observe the events as they replayed, none of the ships functions would work until I passed the event.”
She paused, apparently to let him take in the information, then continued. “It had been twenty-five thousand years since our last contact with another TDS ship and without another ship, I could do nothing. Whether that is a flaw or by design I do not know.” She let out a sorrowful sigh and said. “I scanned the surface and found a dozen Lantin survivors.
“When I contacted them, I had seen into their thoughts and saw the guilt and greed of the eleven I spoke of. They had betrayed their own people for power and financial gain, and instructed the saboteur on what to do. They had hoped to take over the city ship, but the saboteurs did too much damage. I contacted the twelfth man, Elgon here. He was a kind man who had a family with an indigenous woman. They had children and grandchildren. My intent was to have one of his children take over as commander of this ship. But when I informed him of the betrayal of the other eleven, he rushed to confront them. In his anger and grief, he failed to see the danger, and the traitors proceeded to surround and capture him.
His wife and eldest son went to the place where he was being held to plead for his release, and they were brought before the leader. He ordered their deaths to be carried out in front of Elgon,” she finished mournfully.
Jason shook his head with sorrow and said, “That’s sick and wrong!”
She nodded. “Indeed, upon receiving the news of their mother’s and brother’s deaths, the second eldest son contacted me and asked for my assistance. I had located Elgon and transported him to the ship. He was barely alive. I revived him, and when he was well enough, he took his remaining family into hiding. Once he was sure they would be safe he returned and bonded with me.”
“We attempted to track down the eleven to punish them for what they had done, but my transporting Elgon to safety must have alerted them, and we could not locate any of them for several thousand years.”
Jason looked over at Elgon and said, “So, Elgon is my ancestor.”
She looked back at him and simply replied, “Yes.”
Jason looked at her with curiosity. “When did our blood turn from that to the red running through me?” He pointed toward Elgon and the reddish-green blood.
She let out a
nother chuckle as she explained. “His blood was no different from yours in the beginning. The color change is the result of the bonding.”
“So, what…I have antifreeze or hydraulic fluid in my body now?”
This time she doubled over with laughter. A few moments later she regained herself enough to explain. “The greenish hue you see is a concentrated chlorophyll plasma.”
He thought back on his early education and said, “Wait a moment, if I remember right from school chlorophyll was the medium that assisted in photosynthesis.”
She nodded. “You are correct.”
Now he was confused and stated, “Photosynthesis is the process where green plants produce food, and the last I checked, I am neither green nor leafy.”
This really got her going. Something about her laughter calmed his nerves and he politely waited for her to regain her composure.
“I am sorry… Let me explain. In the beginning of space travel there were many mishaps that resulted in a lot of deaths. The main cause was starvation. Many of the space travelers had no real clue how to survive in deep space. They brought food and water of course, but they seriously miscalculated distances and the time it would take for intergalactic travel. Much like your current space program inevitably will, if they progress to that level again.”
Jason looked at her in stunned disbelief and asked, “Again?”
She smiled. “Yes, the civilizations on this planet have reached a pinnacle several times before they either imploded or nature performed a planetary reset. This is the fourth evolution that I know of that the human race on this planet has reached your current level of technology or better. There are still a few races of humanoids from Terra who left ages ago to start new lives in faraway galaxies for one reason or another. For the most part they think this planet is either uninhabitable or are avoiding it because they believe the inhabitants to be too primitive and violent.”
Jason nodded in understanding. He thought back to his captivity and replied, “I can agree with that.”
“Scientists devised a way to stay nourished while in deep space. They bound human and plant mitochondrial DNA, and that allowed humanoids and other species to gain nourishment from both sunlight and the free radiation out in space, in addition to their digestive systems. A few races went to extremes. The Zorans for instance, being a reptilian race, rely heavily on the chlorophyll. They bask in the suns as they travel past them and they do not care about the side effect of the green skin. The Esulan race has photosensitive bodies, and they rely primarily on the free radiation in space to nourish them. Their DNA was combined with that of a spore or mushroom and the result is what your people refer to as the Roswell Grays.” She shook her head. “Those poor souls.”
He looked at her in astonishment. “There were conspiracy theories about them, but our government kept denying their existence.”
Alise said, “Yes, well they made the mistake of listening to some of your radio transmissions as they were passing the solar system, and decided to pay a visit. Look how that turned out for them. They had an engine failure and crash landed, and by the time a rescue ship arrived, the survivors had been killed and dissected by your government.
“None of their race will come close enough to Earth to allow that to happen again, I can assure you. Those particular Esulan were very well liked among their people, and after the killings there was a movement to eradicate the human life on Earth, because it was considered too violent to be allowed to prosper. In the end cooler heads prevailed.
“Within three Earth years, the Esulan along with a few other sympathetic races surrounded this solar system with redirecting beacons hidden in comets and asteroids, informing all races what would happen to them if they entered, and blocked all transmissions that could have been picked up by your people. There are still some species though who tempt fate and go to Earth for a little thrill seeking or just plain mischief.”
“Couldn’t you do something to prevent them from dying? You did say this is a time ship,” he asked.
“We considered it, but the fallout from the event was not significant enough to intervene, not to mention we have had a lot more pressing events to rectify.” She shrugged.
His head was spinning, and he muttered, “Wow that is a lot to take in.”
Alise looked him up and down. “I can inform you about what we do on this ship later if you wish. For now, how about we take a break and I give you a tour?”
Now it was his turn to chuckle. “That shouldn’t take long. I already strolled around when I was looking for the exit and then again for food. We have the control room where I almost lost my life,” he said with a sardonic smile, “the dressing room with the space suits, the shower room to keep me clean and the bedroom where I am to sleep. Although I do believe that bed will need padding because that thing is hard—” And there she goes with the laughter again. He waited for her to regain her composure before breaking in. “Okay, what am I missing?”
Chapter Five
Alise really did have an infectious laugh. He didn’t know why, but he let out a little chuckle of his own.
She regained herself and said, “This is not a bedroom, but you already figured that out. You were close. It is in fact a medical treatment room. Could you stand here a moment please?” She motioned for him to stand away from the exam table.
Alise tapped something on the monitor, and he heard a hum as his deceased relative disappeared from the floor and reappeared on the medical table. He watched as she strode over, looked down at Elgon’s remains and let out a soft sigh. She slowly zipped the body bag and said something he couldn’t quite understand. Then she went back to the monitor pressed another button and with another hum his body disappeared.
As she returned to him she said, “Okay, now on with the tour.”
He looked over at her and asked, “Where did you send him?”
Alise paused a second, “Elgon’s last wish was to have his remains placed in the same location as his wife and child.”
Astounded he asked, “You are able to do that?”
“Yes.”
He looked at her beseechingly. “Could you do that for me as well? Lay me to rest with my brothers. When I die that is,” he added.
She looked hesitantly at him. “We can discuss that at a later date. Follow me,” she said as she exited the room.
Alise entered the corridor and headed toward what he had assumed was the shower room, but now he was not so sure.
When she entered the next room she said, “This is the decontamination room or decon. Upon entering the vessel after any and all missions, you will go through this room. All sensitive areas will be inaccessible until a decontamination sweep has been performed. At that time, the door will open allowing you into the medical room, where you can then be given a complete scan and repair of any damage that may have been done to your body, if it is needed.”
Shocked by that statement he asked, “Okay, so if this ship can repair damage, then why didn’t Elgon just heal himself?”
With a sigh, she looked back at him. “Of all my hosts, Elgon was the biggest risk taker. I knew he felt great agony and guilt about rushing to confront his fellow Lantins over their betrayal because it resulted in his wife and child’s deaths. This guilt triggered an obsessive need to protect people, which resulted in his many injuries. Not to mention making a few enemies along the way. The medical unit can repair most injuries but there is a limit to how many times it can be used on a living being. Elgon surpassed the maximum limit several times over, resulting in regeneration errors. This last mission we were on he was caught in an explosion. His injuries were too severe, and as you know he did not survive.”
Jason contemplated that for a second before asking her, “How many times can someone use the medical unit? And why am I still in pain from the bonding if the medical unit can heal wounds?”
Alise seemed to think over her response before saying, “The number of uses depends on the severity of the damage. The more damage
needing to be repaired, the fewer overall number of times you can safely use it. In Elgon’s case, it was twelve hundred and thirty-three times.”
She looked at him sympathetically. “As to why you are still in pain, I did not use the medical unit to heal you. Not knowing you were injured, I did not think to use it. Even so, your pain would not have merited a medical repair that might be needed in the future for more severe injuries. The pain you are feeling will diminish as the bonding process completes, and the chlorophyll replicates.”
He looked Alise in the eyes and said, “So Elgon was on this ship and needed to be healed twelve hundred and thirty-three times over the fifteen thousand years?”
“Actually Elgon was on this ship a little over thirty-seven thousand years in your time reference.”
Jason just stared back in shock. “How can that be? You said he only bonded with you fifteen thousand years ago.”
Alise let out another sigh and explained, “You are thinking in linear time. Let me try to explain. With this ship, you could quite literally spend a hundred thousand years in here from the day we picked you up, then die tomorrow on Earth and in linear time you would just be a day older. Elgon spent your equivalent of thirty-seven thousand years aboard this ship.”
“Okay…so, how does a mortal being such as myself survive that long then?”
Alise cracked a smile. “You already know how. The chlorophyll in your veins gives you minor regenerative abilities. Aside from healing your wounds it will also prolong your lifespan. It is one of the side effects from the mixing of the DNA. But the extended life works great for our purposes.”
She pointed down the next hall. “Let us proceed to the next room.”
As Alise entered she gestured. “This room is the mission preparedness room or ‘prep’ room. If you place your hand on the wall here and say ‘weapons’, the passage will open for you, see?”