My men who were behind me died silently as their suits exploded and their blood froze. My arm burned as a nearby Plasma beam punctured a gas tank.
Jell screamed over the ComNet as she and I were blown through a gaping hole in the hull and into space. We tumbled into the darkness and away from the battle. By the time we stabilised ourselves we were alone. ComNet would not respond to us and gradually faded as it gave ever more strident instructions to non-existent Attack Squads.
My suit was punctured somewhere and the oxygen generator was failing. My right arm hurt like hell and I realised that I had a severe burn. Soon the spacesuits would put us into a crude type of suspended animation to conserve energy.
Jella slipped in and out of consciousness as her suit began to degrade. She pulled our helmets together, flicked up her flash screen, "In another life...."
I knew what she meant and my mind travelled back into the long distant Krell Tower when we had first met. In my dream I held her hand and gently squeezed.
#
Off World Contract WilTho26Terra. Year 872.6 Location: Outer Trill System.
The Prembas had floated between the stars for countless millennia at peace and undisturbed to carry out the purpose of their eternal lives; following the will of the Everlasting Galaxy. They generally ignored the occasional upsurges in the activity of biological life-forms that managed to escape their planets gravity because the creatures and their civilisations usually dissipated into the eternal and limitless darkness, leaving nothing behind. Up to now these mortal creatures had been of no consequence.
Looking into the cosmos the Biologicals would only have seen vast dust clouds, not realising they were indeed the only eternal life forms in the galaxy. There was no reason for either life form to ever interact, there being no common ground.
Until Jella and I, in cold and endless sleep entered the periphery of one of the Prembas.
Immediately I entered the consciousness of the great being and sensed its complete shock as it unexpectedly experienced the sentience of a lowly Biological. In a moment the creature knew of every experience of my life and Jella's too. I felt its sorrow for these humble creatures that lived only for a moment and could suffer so much. I also experienced it's amazement at the Nanos that still thrived in the two bodies.
The Premba knew with certainty that there was no such thing as an accident and that these two Biologicals were sent by the Everlasting Galaxy for a purpose. With a flash of insight that it had not experienced for thousands of years it understood that the Nanos would be improved and increased in numbers to a point where the Prembas would enter their next stage of existence and servitude!
Condensing its mass the Premba began urgently to work on the two dying creatures. I sensed its distress as it realised the body of one was beyond repair and the other would require much attention.
The Nanos and the plasti-steel body-coatings were removed from the Biologicals. The Nanos were then sent elsewhere for development. The soul and consciousness of the female Biological were encapsulated, to be saved until another body was available.
I watched from the Premba-Conciousness as my body was swiftly repaired and sealed with Jenna's Encapsulation Module for the long journey back to Earth. Momentarily I had a vision of my parents and thought how nice it would be to see them again but the Premba sent me a thought of regret, which made me realise that it would never be possible.
#
OffWorld Contract WilTho26Terra. Year 875.6 Location: En-route to Earth.
For a long time we floated in the glass-like vessel, gazing at the passing stars and occasionally seeing the pointless striving of the Biological races as they sped by in their little metal ships hating and killing each other.
Next to me was Jenna's Encapsulation Module that spoke to me occasionally with love, "I know I always joked about my luggage not arriving, but I never thought I would actually Be luggage!"
Eventually the Earth filled our vision. I looked more or less how I had last seen it but with a few slight differences I couldn't quite identify and I didn't know why.
Vision was lost as we entered the atmosphere and our shell began to degrade. Soon our speed began to lessen then we slowly landed where the Star Tower had once stood so long ago.
#
As I ended my story there was much muttering amongst the floating globes, then silence that lasted several minutes. The globes that had landed faded from view and out stepped golden-skinned earthmen and women to welcome us with friendly smiles.
"Jella." one said, relieving me of the Encapsulation Module and hurrying away.
Another smiled and put her arm around my shoulders giving me a gentle hug, "Welcome home Will. We were worried that you would now be a warlike alien!"
I smiled back, "No, I'm Only a Man."
THE END
Thank you for reading my book.
If you enjoyed it, won't you please take a moment to leave me a review at your favourite retailer? Many thanks!
George H. Y. Watson. Torrevieja, Spain April 2016.
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About George H. Y. Watson.
After a career in the Aerospace Industry as an engineer I finally retired and moved to Spain with my wife where I am pursuing my life-long fascination with Science Fiction by finally writing rather than solely reading.
I am influenced in my writing by my early massive consumption of Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein and George R. Stewart who still remain my favourites.
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OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR:
INTERPLANETARY TALES.
Fourteen Science Fiction tales that span the galaxy; From a plague-ravaged London to the Galactic Core, from the Krell Empire of the Green Sun to the Epsilon-Eridani System where human mercenaries fight for a hated alien race.
'Interplanetary tales' is a varied selection of stories containing humour, horror and a deep fear of the dark places between the stars.
Available at Amazon Books.
A short story from Interplanetary Tales:
DODRASP TOWN.
DAY 45149.
Kyra-EOB3489 lay in bed eyes open, wide awake. This was unprecedented but she had heard her father’s voice in her dreams. “Kyra. Kyra. Time to Become. Initializing.”
She just knew that there was something different about today! The alarm clock would ring at 08:00hrs in exactly 5 seconds. In one fluid movement she cancelled the alarm and swung her legs out of bed. Ignoring the thick dust that had flown into the air when she disturbed the blankets, she paused for a moment thinking ‘Should I wake Billy Bob? No, let him sleep.’
He lay at the other side of the bed snoring softly.
She tippy-toed towards the chair where her dress lay, then stopped to look into the bathroom and her reflection in the mirror. The silver had begun to flake off the glass all around the edges and quite badly until all that was left was a head-sized oval portion in the centre.
“It really should be replaced,” she thought, “But it’s been like that forever!”
Deep in her memory she seemed to recall a new, pristine mirror and a Billy Bob laughing and dancing around the bedroom.
She turned her gaze to the faucet and knew no water would flow. Looking back into the mirror she thought something wasn’t quite right but no answer came from her foggy thought processes. ‘Still pretty,’ she thought and smiled at herself. Long blond hair flowed down to her shoulders over the smooth fair synthiskin of the left side of her face and over the grey cobalt-steel of the right side.
She dressed quickly and quietly so as not to disturb Billy Bob. The dress was her favourite, covered with multicoloured flowers but very faded and worn now. Again, in the depths of her memory she saw the dress as it had been when it was new. But how long ago was that?
Slipping out of the apartment block she walked along the sidewalk of 3rd Avenue towards the Town Square with its wooden bandstand.
Stopping at the Baker Street crossing she waited. There was no traffic visible but she knew that in 23.5
seconds at 08:15hrs exactly, a yellow school bus would turn the corner from 1st Avenue.
On time the bus appeared and slowly trundled down Baker Street. The driver waved to Kyra as he always did and the six children, always the same six, stopped their playing and stared at her.
Crossing the road Kyra quickly reached the end of 3rd Avenue as the pavement disappeared into a jumble of shattered concrete and a wall of sand that stretched to the horizon.
Suddenly, inside her head Father’s voice spoke again, “Initiating signal for Electro-Organic Legacy Data Update.”
Kyra walked back, re-crossing Baker Street to reach the Town Square. Some people walked slowly clockwise around the bandstand path nodding and smiling at those coming the other way. She had seen this countless times, only now noticing how worn the path was.
“As if people have been walking there for ages,” she thought and prepared to join them.
Suddenly she felt herself compelled to turn around and look at the Dixie Movie Theatre on the other side of 3rd Avenue. Knowing that there were no sand-sweepers due for 3.4 minutes, she crossed to the pay booth and stood in front of the Teller, not knowing why.
The Teller was totally devoid of synthiskin. Time and sunshine had degraded it to a point where it finally crumbled into the dust that covered the ticket machine.
“One for the auditorium Kyra-EOB3489.” the Teller said, shoving a faded ticket though the dust towards her.
Kyra entered the auditorium. No one had collected her ticket. A few dim lights glowed in the ceiling and she heard the squeaking of small rodents amongst the seats. The ticket said Row H, seat 12.
Locating the row, she shuffled along disturbing dust from the ancient seats and the detritus that covered the floor. Seat 12 proved to be in better condition than most and she sat down. Again she heard Father’s voice, “Seat Pressure-Sensor activated. Connecting umbilical.”
A sensation at the back of her neck almost made Kyra stand up, thinking the rodents had found her.
“Downloading legacy data.” said Father.
To Kyra the cinema seemed to suddenly be devoid of light although she suspected what she was seeing was being directly sent to her brain via the umbilical. The screen was suddenly ablaze with moving titles informing the viewer that the following was Industrially Sensitive Data produced for the E.O.C. Corporation of Seattle, Washington.
Then she saw Father standing on Third Street near the Bandstand. Behind him in the distance, the street turned and ascended via an onramp onto the I-5 freeway. In the distance green fields went on and on. Where had all the sand gone?
A caption opened at the bottom of the screen, ‘William Roberts (Billy Bob?) Professor of Organic Chemistry. University of Washington.’
Father began to speak, “Today, the Electro-Organic Computers Corporation of Seattle is proud to open this new state-of-the-art facility in Southern Oregon. A replica of a typical small American town, it is built under the Department Of Defense Robotic Awareness And Sentience Program. ‘DODRASP’ in short. Indeed,” here he laughed a little, “Some are already calling the facility ‘Dodrasp Town!”
“As you all know the new Organic Robotics Programming has been a great success. The performance of humanoid-shaped Robots, governed by our outstanding Electro-Organic Computers has been exceptional in a pre-programmed environment.”
At this point, Father paused and wagged a finger at the camera, “But the robots remain just that. Robots. The purpose of DODRASP is to provide an environment of Repetitive Normality where the Electro-Organic Computers, the Robotic Brains if you must, of our robots will be constantly monitored and updated as they gain in physical experience.”
“It is our fervent hope that the end result will be Sentience and Self-Awareness for our test subjects. In other words, Synthetic Beings with their own personality and able to think for themselves!” Father’s wide beaming smile disappeared as the picture jumped and the sound became garbled before disappearing altogether. For a short while Kyra stared at a black screen. Then a poor quality black and white video began.
An older Father appeared sitting in some kind of underground room and said, “Supplementary information from D.O.D Seattle.”
“It has been ten years since DODRASP started and there have only been glimmers of Sentience indicated amongst the Test Subjects. I have come to the conclusion that achieving Sentience is a far longer process than anticipated. However, the D.O.D. has finally lost patience and intends to terminate the project, switching off the Update Mainframes next week.”
He gestured behind him to a large screen monitor where the CNN news channel showed the Holy Soldiers of the Jihadders laughing and waving their weapons for the camera in front of the Eiffel Tower. Father continued sadly, “Current events may overtake them.” Underneath the monitor a fast moving banner ran from right to left declaring ‘LATEST: U.S.S. Forrestal sunk by nuclear mine near Malta. NATO Retaliatory strikes expected soon in the Iran/Iraq area.’
Father smiled despondently, “Goodbye my children and good luck.”
The picture ended and after a short blackout Kyra felt the umbilical retreat and the dilapidated inside of the theatre was again visible. She rose to leave and noticed a small line of half a dozen shabbily dressed forms at the end of the row.
Exiting the row she smiled to the next in line, “The movie was ok, but the cartoon was stupid!” ‘Why did I say that?’ she thought.
#
DAY 45150.
Kyra lay in bed eyes open wide awake. This was the second time she had heard her father’s voice in her dreams.
“Kyra. Kyra. Sentience achieved! Search and Detect Protocol initiated.”
Again, she just knew that there was something different about today! The alarm clock would ring at 08:00hrs in 5 seconds. In one fluid movement she cancelled the alarm and swung her legs out of bed. Ignoring the thick dust that had flown into the air when she threw the blankets back, she paused for a moment thinking, ‘Should I wake Billy Bob?’
The answer would always be no. Billy Bob would lie at the other side of the bed snoring softly, forever. His Electro-Organic brain had suffered irreparable degeneration 46.3 years ago.
Gazing into the bathroom she looked into the mirror above the hand basin. The silver had begun to flake off the glass all around the edges, quite badly, ‘It really should be replaced,’ she thought, ‘But it’s been there for 123.7 years, after all.’
Deep in her memory she recalled the city of Seattle two hundred miles north where Father lived. “Search and Detect Protocol updating. Loaded.” she said to herself in the mirror.
She ignored the faucet that hadn’t worked for 40 years and looked at her perfect face now that the synthiskin had been reactivated. ‘Still pretty,’ she thought and smiled at herself.
She dressed quickly and quietly so as not to disturb Billy Bob. The Teflon-Coated Forever-Dress was her favourite, covered with multicoloured flowers but very faded and worn now.
#
At the end of 3rd Avenue six companions waited. One held a rifle so rusted that it was probable it would blow up if he tried to use it! Another held a makeshift spear. Kyra had a large hunting knife strapped around her waist in an ancient leather scabbard.
Walking to the head of the line Kyra pointed into the sandy distance, “Seattle.”
The others, nearly in unison repeated, “Seattle,” and the seven of them trudged over the rubble and into the desert.
For all of that day anyone looking down 3rd Avenue could have seen the small figures walking amongst the dunes until shortly before sunset they disappeared over the horizon.
#
DAY 45151.
At 08:15hrs exactly, a yellow school bus turned the corner from 1st Avenue. The bus slowly trundled down Baker Street. The driver waved as he always did and the six children, always the same six, stopped their playing and stared.
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