Human Starpilots

by F Stephan

  As soon as she left the shuttle, Derantor gave the order for the second flight. They rushed to the central hangar and strapped in.

  Sonter was in command, with Brian standing backup on the way down. The last days had helped them work better together even if they didn’t like each other. At the command desk, the young pilot was calm, relaxed, and utterly in control. He knew the descent procedures far better than Brian and launched the flight with confidence.

  Ten minutes later, they started aerobraking, and Brian clenched his fists. Two years after his initial landing on Adheek, he still disliked the process profoundly. Sonter guided the ship down and soon reached the landing path. After a few heartbeats, he landed the shuttle; Rendor and Zertal, two of the marines on board for this trip, moved everyone from the station inside the ship and strapped them in while Brian prepared the pilot console from the take off. He was so focused on his coming flight he didn’t even look at his passengers.

  He launched the ship from the runway and took off to reach his flight altitude. With a strong buffeting wind, he aligned his ship with the upward path Taolel provided him to the station and prepared to engage his boosters over the jungle. At that moment, a huge noise resounded in the cabin; the craft lurched in a giant leap and lost its propulsion. Brian fought hard to keep it under control and glide toward the ground, instead of crashing down. He heard confused shouts around him, felt panic swell. Then came a loud crash, and he lost consciousness.

  74 Brian

  Lights and sirens were tearing Brian’s skull apart when he woke. He blocked the noise with a touch of nanites and opened his eyes. Smoke limited his vision, but from the broken cockpit, he could see jungle outside. Nausea overtook him. “Shock and loss of equilibrium.”

  Slowly, he unbuckled his straps and crawled to the door. He propped himself on his forearm and released the ejection cartridges. The door blew with a loud bang, and he heard some moans behind him. The smoke cleared a little with the fresh air from the outside. He coughed.

  First, he checked on Sonter. Pulse OK, breathing not as good as he would have liked but OK. Heavy bleeding on the forehead. He released Sonter’s straps and dragged him outside. There, he laid him on a patch of clear grass in a safe position. Once Sonter was secure, he went back inside to get the others.

  He found Rendor and Zertal regaining consciousness. He checked on them carefully and helped them out, one at a time. His head felt light, and shards of lights blurred his vision. Yet he moved back in to get Lanakar and Nillaz, the last marine. Nillaz was a short, muscular man from Nelom. He also had scars all over his body and a cybernetic arm; he carried an impressive electronic pack. Lanakar was breathing irregularly, clearly shocked.

  At last it was the turn of the local residents. The tilt of the head of the last research member told him one hadn’t made it. Everyone else was breathing, but they were disoriented or unconscious; several probably had concussions. The exertion of trying to get them off the ruined ship overwhelmed Brian, and he passed out again. When he woke up, he had been carried out and was lying close to Sonter.

  Rendor had taken over to organize the camp outside, and Zertal was salvaging all the equipment he could from the shuttle. He sat for long minutes, catching his breath in the middle of the improvised camp, and looked around him, gathering his thoughts.

  Half the wing from the shuttle had been torn from the craft during the crash. He looked at the tear and swallowed hard. Their accident had not come from a mechanical failure of the wing. He had seen those marks on war relics in the Chicago museum. They had been hit by a ground missile. The rear fin had also taken a hit during the descent and was shredded into shrapnel behind the shuttle. This explained the loss of bearing during the flight.

  Sonter groaned beside him.

  “You’ve managed to lose a wing and our rear on plain flight. You are really getting worse, Brian.” Brian noted the change in epithet. The lack of mocking condescension was not a good sign.

  “We won’t take off in those conditions.”

  Sonter coughed. “Remind me. You had a diploma in engineering before being enrolled for this. You have a wonderful capacity for deduction.”

  “Thank you. We need to move what we have.”

  “I agree. Communications?”

  Brian checked on his bracelet. “I’m not getting any signal from here. We’re going to have to check the satellite dish.”

  “Do you mean the one attached on the left rear pod next to the fin? Is that right?” snorted Sonter.

  Brian looked blandly at him, and then at the shuttle, and swore for a long minute.

  “There should be a third shuttle in the settlement. If it’s intact, we can fly,” Sonter said quietly. “How far would that be?”

  From what he remembered before the crash, they were to engage the boosters midway between the research station and the main settlement. He went through the map in his head. “We are more or less one hundred kilometers away from the settlement.”

  Rendor had joined them in the meantime. “Three to four days of trek in the jungle. I’ll ask Zertal to gather what we need for the trip.”

  “What is the status on our passengers?”

  “Everyone from our ship is bruised but OK. Lanakar has a split arm. He’ll have to walk with a sling. Six from Fizhert should wake up soon. The last two are confirmed dead.”

  “Did you have the time to get their names?” said Brian looking at the six local figures.

  “Yes,” answered Rendor, “The tall lean guy on the left with the Origin tattoo is Ishnam.”

  “The one with the cybernetic eye like Master Kilet’s?”

  “Yes,” commented Sonter. “This is very weird. The Federation doesn’t know how to build those prostheses. The one that was lent to my father is connected by nanites and was found in an old ship. There are, to my knowledge, two others known.”

  “You mean to say that in an Origin untouched world, a man walks casually with a device no one can build nowadays.”

  “Again, you amaze me with your bright spirit.”

  “Thanks,” answered Brian drily. “And the others?”

  “We have two pairs of researchers. Reshu and Venrom, her husband, over there,” he pointed. “And Quilm and Azol are on the opposite side. The last is the brown bodybuilder on the other side, and his name is Lish. I guess he was some sort of security.” All had the greenish complexion originating from Adheek. They now slowly woke up and came to their senses. Then the screams began.

  75 Derantor

  “What?” shouted the captain. She had left the bridge to rest in her chamber when the shuttle had reached flight altitude, and she seemed to have been dozing.

  Taolel had been expecting the reaction. She was trembling from head to toe. Yet she took a deep breath and answered. “They were flying back normally. The north wind rose, and Brian took flight path number two above the jungle. Suddenly, we detected a heat signal in the jungle, and five seconds after, the shuttle was hit by something and went into an uncontrolled descent. It crashed in a few minutes even though Brian seemed to have broken the chute. We have partial visuals on the landing site.”

  Derantor grabbed her jacket and rushed to the bridge, Taolel on her heels.

  “Why only partial visual?”

  “When we were shot at, some of our communication gear took damages. This included the orbit-to-ground opticals.” Derantor swore. This trip accumulated stroke after stroke of bad luck. Yet there were no trips without incident, without repairs or problems. Space was always dangerous, and she was trained to deal with that. She would get her crew back safe on board.

  “What do they say? What are the reports?”

  “We lost communications with them during the crash.”

  “OK. Prepare the shuttle. I’m going back to get them.”

  Shaz’al’nak came in at this time. “I am afraid that I cannot allow this, with all due respect.”

  “How are you going to forbid anything, doctor? I am the captain of this ship.�
�

  “And the single remaining hyperspace pilot.”

  The simple answer struck home, and the captain blanched. If she was shot down, no one could leave.

  Droum added in a little voice. “Anyway, the shuttle is incapacitated, and our best engineer is on the ground.”

  “Can you do something to repair it?”

  “I am not skilled enough. I will check with our passengers if we picked the right skills.” With that, she moved away with more grace than her build should have allowed for.

  Derantor turned to the doctor and said sourly, “What do you propose, then, doctor?”

  “Can you fix opticals to watch the ground in more detail?” The captain nodded. She would need the help of Taolel, but she could do it. “Then, I would respectfully suggest that you get good visuals and then parachute communication gear with one of the remaining drop capsules.” She might be the oldest on board and maybe in the Federation, but her voice had lost none of her edge.

  “You were there back in Filb,” commented Taolel with a sad look at her doctor.

  “Yes, unfortunately. But that will not change anything here. Now, let’s move.”

  Two hours later, Droum came back for a report.

  “We have a weather physicist and a school teacher. No useful skills in our situation.”

  Derantor had already expected it. “We’re going to need your help. I can’t rig a good enough optical from the station. At least not without damaging the ship. Any chance of building a small satellite?”

  “I will have a look, but the Origin was very clear it didn’t want anyone looking from space.”

  “Good.” Then, she added, other matters surfacing. “You have talked with our guests? Why did they need rescue?”

  “They have very strong accents. It was hard at first, and they are under shock.”

  “Come to the matter, woman.” Taolel raised her head out of the spare-part compartment.

  At last, Droum told them what she had understood. Taolel burst into tears. Derantor started to shake violently.

  “Stop.” Shaz’al’nak was firm and direct. “What you fear may be possible. Or you may be proven wrong. Now, we stop all fantasies and we watch. Set up as much monitoring of the planet as you can”.

  Silently, they wiped the tears and began to work. One hour later, a set of 3-D screens detailed what they could see from the surface.

  76 Brian

  “The jungle.” Those were the only words that Brian could distinguish in the screams.

  “Can someone do something?” shouted Brian. Within a minute, Nillaz arrived with a syringe and injected a shot of tranquilizer each into six shoulders. The noise stopped. Entirely. The jungle was now completely soundless. No birds, no wind rustling the trees, no small animals scuttling in all directions. Pure, terrifying silence. Rendor, Zertal, and Nillaz stood up, each facing a different area. After a hand motion from them, the others went inside the circle the marines had drawn. Brian increased his nanites level for maximum senses.

  He felt more than saw the creature. It leaped out of the jungle and attacked Nillaz in two leaps. It had no real shape. Its legs muted into limbs, paws into hands, mouth into maw, scales into fur. And then everything back. Nillaz, Zertal and Rendor shot repeatedly at it with their tasers. The creature dropped just in front of Nillaz and dissolved into a white goo on the ground. Brian inhaled, shocked at the sight and suddenly felt foreign nanites attack him from the air he had breathed.

  “Holy shit,” said Rendor. “Zertal, the protocol, now. Everyone. Sit, shut your eyes, and concentrate on your nanites control. Now.” Brian didn’t understand what Rendor was saying. Yet, the last word had such urgency in the command it scared Brian into immediate obedience. Master Heikert had drilled them for hours about nanite control. As he lay on the ground, he felt the foreign nanites attack his body. Wild nanites ran madly in his blood. Pain erupted everywhere in his body. Suddenly, he felt a stab in his back and an influx of blocking nanites. All his extended senses shut down one after another. All nanites in him, stopped progressively. He was paralyzed with fear. But with the reduction of the onslaught, he found enough strength to control his own nanites and push back the foreigners. The external world disappeared, and he was solely in himself focused on his fight to retain his own identity in the face of an enemy inside him, trying to dissolve him into nothingness.

  After an eternity, Brian opened his eyes. Night had fallen. They were under an improvised tent. His throat was sore from screaming. “Brian. How are you? Talk to me.”

  To be that polite, Sonter had to be extremely scared, thought Brian with a tight smile. It hurt. “How did it go?”

  “Drink first.” Sonter handed him a flask of water. “You were closest to the attack, and you took the heaviest load. Maybe you did learn something from your last experiences. Nillaz and Lish were the second in line, behind you. Nillaz made it through, but he is severely battered. He will not use nanites for a long time, and he will need heavy surgery. The nanites damaged his body severely. Lish couldn’t control the nanites and dissolved into goo an hour ago. The others are gathered under the tent. I haven’t seen them.”

  Rendor arrived with a steaming ration.

  “What did you do to us?” asked Brian.

  “Standard antinanites injection, sir. This is extremely dangerous for unprepared humans. But it’s the only known antidote under a wild nanites attack.”

  “Any other casualties?”

  “We’re lucky to have only two dead out of ten in those conditions. In standard conditions, the statistics would have proven worse.” The marine was grim faced as he quoted the medical results.

  “What are those wild nanites? Do attack nanites exist?” asked Brian, hoarsely.

  “Yes, but they are prohibited in the whole Federation. Only marines are trained to manage them, and even with our training, Nillaz barely made it through.”

  “Do I understand correctly that prohibited nanites run freely in this jungle?”

  “Yes, and that’s why the local inhabitants were scared shitless as soon as they saw we were in the jungle.”

  “And our own nanites?”

  “You will regain them in the next hours. You might feel some pangs here and there if wild nanites reactivate faster. But your nanites will learn to protect you, and you’ll develop a little immunity.”

  Brian felt a pang of fear in his bones. He was under attack from within.

  “Sonter, Rendor, why don’t we talk with our new friends and figure out why we have secret nanites attacking us in the middle of the jungle?”

  Brian sat next to Venrom and Reshu. Both seemed in a kind of trance induced by the medicine they had been shot with.

  “So, fellows, what happened here in this jungle?” asked Brian.

  Venrom sat cross-legged with his arms folded around him. He was muttering to himself a kind of prayer in a low voice and was oblivious to the rest. Reshu looked up at them.

  “We have always found artifacts from ancient times.”

  “What, the Origin went to settle an old world?” interrupted Sonter.

  “Yes, that would seem so, although I was not in the priesthood and was not in the secrets. When he wakes up, Ishnam might know more. A few months ago, we discovered a city. A group was organized to investigate. We dissented and were sent to the research station. For weeks, the news was good, and we found a lot.”

  “I didn’t see anything about this in the DataDump,” said Brian, astounded.

  “For our protection from the godforsaken, our ancestors firewalled us from the DataDump,” Venrom quoted the sentence by heart. “The reverse seems also true. The spaceships would not have had the capacity to detect the city from orbit.”

  “This is against all Federation rules,” confirmed Sonter, red faced.

  “Anyway, we had a first strange report two weeks ago. They found their way into the core vault of the city, and we had a radio alert. Then, nothing happened for a few days. A first expedition was sent and lost. T
he priesthood decided to quarantine the site. But then, the city…” Her voice broke and she wept. “It was awful. We only had them on radio. We heard them scream, and then the silence settled in.”

  “You didn’t have any video feed?”

  “When they exiled us, the priesthood said we were isolated from the network for our own protection. In a couple of hours, there were no signals anymore. We knew a ship would arrive sooner or later. So, we rigged a scope to monitor the station and a small radio to beam toward it. And we waited for death to come. This is all I know.” Her sobs increased, smothering her voice.

  Brian turned toward the jungle. They had one hundred kilometers to cover in the dense foliage; Lanakar and Nillaz were already hurt, and only four of the people they had set out to rescue remained alive.

  77 Don Mariano

  Tasha has asked to meet Leandra at their usual cantina, Detram and Myirt, in the Plaza of Waterways. Don Mariano had let his assistant go and sat brooding in the silence of the apartment.

  “Thank you for coming.” Tasha was very well dressed today, in the formal suit of the Russian apparatchik. Leandra had worked a lot as a liaison to the first laborer and knew the significance of the attire. She went immediately formal.

  “Thank you for asking me to join you. Shall we have tea together?”

  “I have brought some for you.” Tasha had brought two ancient cups with her. She poured the tea from the decanter she had bought and set the myirt pie in the middle of the table.

  “What is it, Natalya? What do you want to talk about?”

  Tasha stopped. She hadn’t been used to such direct bluntness for a while. Yet she recovered quickly and looked at Leandra, eyes to eye.

  “You have worked with the first laborer and his staff in the past.” Leandra nodded. “My mother has called in all the favors my father had obtained. But this is now coming to an end.” Leandra recalled the circumstances of the demise of Tasha’s father. The apparatchik had ruled a large corporation from the Baikal Complex.