Human Starpilots

by F Stephan

  This day was the first since his arrival where Brian had truly excelled in a contest. Joy overtook him for the first time. After three hard months, he was now making progress with his nanites. Maybe, just maybe, they would be able to help him move further in this program. Illoma went to his arms and kissed him soundly to celebrate his success.

  Then, after having spent all his energy to control the nanites during the labyrinth, he was hit with a searing headache, and he lost consciousness.

  He awoke later in the white infirmary room under the beeping of the monitor. Before he could rise, a nurse arrived to check on him. “All is well. You should eat now. Nanites suck your energy.” She came back a few minutes later with a tray of bland food. “Doesn’t look good, doesn’t taste good, but it’s exactly what you need,” she commented before leaving. Feeling ravenous, Brian devoured the foul meal. He soon felt better.

  A few minutes later, Master Heikert appeared in the door. “Hello, Brian, how do you feel?”

  “Much better, sir, thank you.”

  “Good, good. You have had a good experience today, haven’t you?”

  “Yes. It felt great.”

  The teacher sat beside the bed.

  “Now, I want you to concentrate on exactly what you did and how you felt when the nanites kicked in. This will probably be your mantra, your way into their activation. It is different for everyone, but that feeling may be your break.”

  Brian concentrated, trying to recapture the sensations he had had in the labyrinth. Suddenly, he felt every sense sharpening.

  “You are in, aren’t you?” The sound was so loud and precise in his ears.

  “Yes.”

  “Now, the most difficult part. Release them. Come back to normal.”

  Brian concentrated within himself, closing his eyes again. The senses came back to normal. The world became flat, without any depths. He felt terrible.

  “I know how you feel. Now is your key moment. You need to learn to activate your nanites and to stop them. Or they will kill you. You are not to practice unless monitored.” The teacher tapped his arm. “Good progress, though. Good progress.”

  25 The aliens blog – 2136 AD

  From Mat and not at your side anymore.

  This will be my last blog. I cannot bear what happened last week.

  I never called for murder, wreck, and fires. I, we, strive for truth not for blood and murder. How could we fall so fast from the search of the light into such darkness? Why did you attack the families of those poor boys and girls selected by the aliens? Don’t they suffer enough already? There were ten dead among them and thousands more in the riots. They are sent to their doom, and your response was to riot and kill their parents.

  Worse, your violence has explicitly provided grounds for the president not to explain his acts and to reinforce the secret against the whole operation. The families of the pilots, who sometimes shared their information, have been gathered all over the world in the secure complex of the intelligentsia. They are out of reach not only from you, bloody murderers, but from all of us.

  I will try now to atone for the crimes that were committed last week in our march all over the world. My heart is and will always be with the families of those kids.

  Farewell my readers, farewell my contacts, fare well pilots. May earth survive us.

  Your servant, Mat

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  26 Don Mariano

  Ambassador Don Mariano Della Vega walked slowly and formally into the office of Master Kilet Namek, guild master. He had had a difficult week in Cape Ring to negotiate a trade agreement with the Hydroponics Syndicate, and he had barely succeeded. The agreement would not bring much to Earth, but it would create at least a first few connections. Maybe that would lead to other opportunities. “When you are in a rush,” he thought quietly, “this is where you need to take time”. That was an old saying from his own teacher, back on Earth. So he made himself take small careful steps forward.

  He had received the “invitation” from the master this very morning, and had had to answer and come. Fortunately it was still winter, and he had enjoyed the walk and the nice warmth.

  The guild master was seated opposite him at his desk. He faced him now, still very ostentatious.

  “Mister Ambassador, thank you so much for joining me this afternoon.”

  “Mister Guild Master, it is always a pleasure to meet you.” If this was time for niceties, then he would comply and follow.

  A waiter came in and brought a light ale and a myirt pie he didn’t know. “The pie comes from our home region of Nam in the southwest part of the continent. I hope you will enjoy it.” The ambassador tasted it and found it quite nice, with a sugary finish that he liked. He waited for the next overture.

  “I am happy to confirm that our team will arrive in a month on site to start its exploration. They should be able to bring your ecologist to your orbital station without problem.” Don Mariano breathed easier at this. This had been part of the original agreement, and the expert from Adheek would greatly help organize the efforts on Earth. She knew the CDS very well and would point out key elements. He would need to check the DataDump and confirm this on his own.

  “How fast will you find anything?”

  “This is too early to tell. Unless our teams get really lucky, it will take months and maybe more before we have a result. Don’t get impatient. Please, have a bite.”

  Don Mariano sipped at his lager, slowly pondering the news while Kilet ate his pie. Then Kilet looked at him again.

  “Your assistant and one of your students have started to go regularly to the Rebirth mass.” This was a fact, not a question.

  “Yes. Is that a problem?”

  “No, Rebirth is a fine church, and many in the ships follow this creed. My own brother is Rebirth. The esteemed Bretum, who heads our local church, is a fine person, and I like him very much. This is not a problem. But sometimes, people go further to the Origin Cult. And this will become a problem. You have to check on them and be sure that they remain at the right place.”

  Don Mariano did not like the implied threat in the sentence. “Or?”

  “Or you will find the Origin on your planet, and you will be in a lot of trouble. Following the charter, we can bar them from your world until they have their priest on it. Then they are free to come and go as they please. I think you have similar animals in your world. Rats. I am trying to help.”

  There were other ways to help. Yet this was a strange world, and they needed all advice they could get. “I will check more closely on my compatriots,” answered the ambassador finally. The President of United Organization had again requested him to concentrate all his efforts to secure a place for Earth among those stars and now he had to check the religions his pupils would choose. He hated this role of spy and cop. But that was also part of his job to avoid bringing back bad apples to Earth. And the last religious conflicts on Earth, if not very big, had been extremely violent and had shaken the entire planet.

  27 Brian

  Brian closed his eyes and activated his nanites, murmuring to himself. “They are the light of the night. They are strength of the wind. They are the smell of the stars.” That had become his mantra, and it worked more and more often on his first try. His senses sharpened, and he extended them to the command console in front of him. He took a deep breath and engaged the simulation run… Not only his brain worked faster with the nanites but his body reacted faster to his requests and could now connect directly to the command console.

  More than a thousand debris litter the way between the spaceship and the exit point. This is the most complex run yet. The computer suggests three courses with the related probabilities.

  Confirm course two. Engage thrusters. Engage proximity lasers and ship antirock defenses.

  My hand becomes a mist, a blur, and extends into the controls. Ship reactions are down to a nanosecond.

  Rock on the path. Lasers activated. A laser is hard t
o focus at a distance with significant power. Accuracy confirmed at ninety-nine point ninety-nine. Rock fragmented below risk threshold.

  Adjust thrust, change course, fire, stay on course, adjust, fire again, turn sunward, send the ship into a roll, fire again, reduce speed while turning back rimward, and again, and again…

  I have been on track for an hour with only a few impacts when I clear the debris field.

  The security alert has been ringing for a while; the whole cabin is under a red warning light.

  I start to tremble, and I finally listen to the reaction and deactivate the nanites.

  The door of the simulator opened, and Brian exited the cockpit. His body was aching all over with cramps from the prolonged session, he was trembling from head to toe, and his head ached with a constant throbbing. He sat next to the cockpit, sweat beads rolling down his forehead. His hands clouded now and again, and each change brought new agony.

  “Focus on who you are. Concentrate on this alone until the shifting ceases. Don’t let the hurt distract you. You focus or you die.” The words from Master Heikert and Dr. Nilse had been explicit and adamant. Brian focused all his will on his self-image. He projected, through the pain, his energy into images of himself, and progressively the confusion in forms and shapes ceased. He went from the absolute power of a few moments before to a wreck coughing blood droplets on the floor.

  Master Reinkel went through the floors giving out energy bars and drinks. The food helped a lot to restore some of the energy, and the headache receded. Master Reinkel had monitored all vitals from the central control until then, far and remote, but now he took a little time with each of them to see how they were doing. They were better with this procedure than they had been the first times, and the marines had stopped the supervision of the training sessions.

  Brian chewed his morsels slowly until the trembling ceased. Reinkel ordered them to the cafeteria. Many were still shaking, and most walked with haunted eyes. The nanites’ tremendous power had been left behind, and they were simple humans again. Sonter didn’t look at him; Shanak had his thumb up; Emily had a small little smile. Two months had gone by since the labyrinth, and they were still learning. From the corner of his eye, Brian saw Master Reinkel talking quietly with Li Bao. He could still see her shape still blurring at times; it felt wrong. From where he was, he couldn’t see Illoma but he didn’t worry too much. She had a lot more control than most of them.

  Brian was among the last to leave. He saw the second-year students waiting for the simulators. There was an eager look in their faces he knew well. Be back in the cockpit, feel the power from the connection to the spaceship, feel the intensity. For himself, he would have to wait until the next day to feel it again.

  28 Brian

  “Enough.” The shout rang out in the cafeteria and broke the concentration that had held everyone silent. Sonter stood up. “We go out and we party tonight. This is enough. I need to breathe some air.”

  It was spring now, and they needed a break after the last months facing the nanites.

  “What do we do?” asked Troum.

  “Give me ten minutes, and I’ll find us a party somewhere in town. Everybody, get ready.” Suddenly, there was a rush to their rooms, everyone laughing and excited at the prospect of leaving the confines of the academy.

  Brian was the first back into the cafeteria. “Hello, crappie boy, ready to go?” At least Sonter was smiling. “I’ve found the perfect place for us tonight. It’s farther away on the New Certan side, but you’re going to like it.”

  A commotion broke out outside, and they went to the door. Troupes of Adheekens in strange tunics were marching into the plaza encircling the academy. Brian and Sonter were soon joined by the other students, all in gear to go out.

  “How do we leave?” asked Illoma.

  “You do not.” The baritone voice of Nerm cackled behind them. “Inside. All of you, by order of the dean.” They moved back, clearing the space in front of the door. Brian was pushed to the window.

  “Engage security protocol,” murmured Nerm to his bracelet. The large door rolled in, sealing the building. Brian could see outside protection rising up from the ground. Willfried whistled into his ear. “They could stop one of our assault tanks at full speed. I bet you the lasers on the roof are in position now.”

  Half an hour later, ten marines, armed and grim looking, came running from an underground tunnel. Brian had not known its existence and stood dumb while they exited the dark corridor and positioned themselves at all exits. For once, they were all dressed in black reinforced exoskeleton and wore their sidearms openly.

  The last marine out looked at Brian and smiled. “Don’t worry, kid. This is just a standard reaction. We will be out of here by tomorrow morning.”

  “Sir?”

  “Yes?” sighed the big man, already on the move.

  “We had planned on moving out to a party tonight, quite far from here, on the New Certan side of the city.”

  “Well, it will still be here tomorrow. And our friends from the Origin, probably not. Now, off…” finished the marine.

  When Brian brought the news, Sonter fell on him immediately. “You had to talk to those guys. Really, crappie boy? I thought even you would have better sense. You couldn’t keep your mouth shut and let us slip quietly away. We could have been on our way and then come back tomorrow after all this had ended. Now, what? Now we’re locked up, and we have to hear those pricks shout outside.” The exasperated student left them and went to the other side of the room, muttering to himself. Others joined him, darting dark looks at Brian as they moved to the gymnasium for a party or ball.

  “Don’t mind Sonter. For once, he is right.”

  Oddoril—a lean, wiry, and strangely beautiful dark-haired woman from a tiny but powerful community in the northern continent of Adheek—came to join Brian, followed by Emily, Li Bao, and Willfried. Her clan, the Tourim, had joined the global Adheeken economy only in the last fifty years, and her outsider view of internal politics on the planet often helped them gain perspective.

  “Sorry?” Oddoril was not a strong supporter of the Namek family, and her sudden acceptance of the reaction astounded Brian.

  “It’s been twenty years since the last violent assault by the Origins, and it was under their previous glorified leader.” The scorn and resentment in her accented voice were clear to all. “Sonter has been locked up once every semester for all his life, and he gets really fed up with them. They surely have a second group in front of the Federation building right now.”

  “Why now?” asked Emily.

  “That’s the period, you know, of the renewal of the Chamber of Guilds. Luckily they have stopped violent acts for now.”

  “What do they want?”

  “Ah. Many things, but their key idea is to come back to the time before the Federation. They believe that the former Human Empire crumbled because it went too far in technology and science and lost itself in the process. But to achieve these results, they mainly want to be free to roam the stars and go to all planets. Let’s go and have a look.”

  “Isn’t it something of a contradiction? Go back to the old times without space travel and be allowed to travel anywhere among the stars,” wondered Li Bao aloud.

  “There is the faith and then there are political issues. When the Federation contacted Adheek, the prohibition against the faith propagation was not in place. That’s how the Origin became one of the prominent cult.”

  Tasha and Leopold had retreated to talk together in a quiet corner of the cafeteria. Oddoril brought Emily, Li Bao, Brian and Willfried to the upper floor. She and Willfried watched the group below. While the other three stayed farther away, cringing as the crowd swelled. They had learned the hard way what a crowd could do in a riot.

  “You can come; the protections are activated.” Oddoril showed them the different weapons aligned on the roof.

  “Look, the red bot eating the world, you see it?” They nodded; the crowd had deployed a h
uge flag over themselves. They could hear the chants and smell the odor of a barbecue set up amid the participants. Emily breathed more easily at that. They would not get angry for a while now. Yet she scanned the plaza. Brian knew what she was searching for and soon found the bottles and the alcohol. That’s where things could turn ugly.

  “That is their main belief you see. They believe we will destroy our world again,” Oddoril said slowly.

  “Aren’t they close to Rebirth?” wondered Emily. “Don’t they say that the world is destroyed over and over again?”

  “Yes, Rebirth is the oldest Cult, and a radical splinter became the Origin. The Rebirth believes we shall rise every time, the Origin that we shall fail every time. Two faces of the same creed, you see.”

  “But we don’t know anything of what really happened, do we?” asked Willfried in a subdued voice.

  “No. That’s our main problem. No planetsider truly believes they existed. Everyone goes with it because the DataDump and the trade offered by the Federation in the name of our common ancestors is a massive and tangible carrot for all, but it stops there. There are a few gadgets here and there like the water plaza where we eat. But there are many of those. Pilots in hyperspace.” She paused awhile, looking at the crowd. “They really understand. My older brother is a pilot. He told me we have no clues on how the hyperspace transfer works. We are just tinkers playing with the toys left by our older brothers. You will feel this, believe me.”

  “So, if we know so little, we have no idea if we are moving toward the same catastrophe that swept them away? Or have we chosen another path?” said Brian when Oddoril stopped speaking.

  She nodded. There were no possible answers, and they watched as the night slowly settled around them; the holograms took life on every building, and the tipol went to their daily pilferage, avoiding the chanting crowd.