The Eye of Orion_Book 1_Gearjackers

by Mitch Michaelson

  “What about the people?” Hack asked.

  “The sleepers? They’ve been recycling and reclaiming waste for countless years. Plus the materials have been contaminated by the reactor leak. They didn’t have a DNA bank to account for genetic degradation. Even in cryogenic sleep they’re not dead. You know this better than me, doc. Sleepers still use a tiny bit of energy. That garbage running through their veins caused degeneration. It’s not pretty.”

  Another door opened and a tall, robed figure entered. The spotless robes were tan with white edges. The man was big, with broad shoulders. His face was shrouded, and his eyes were covered in cloth like a blindfold.

  In a low, gravelly voice he said, “Hail brothers, I am Councilor Ulay.”

  The crewmen looked perplexed for a moment, then recognized the voice of their commander.

  “No doubt you wonder what providence brought me here. My birth was foretold by the Darmabi philosophers millennia ago. True to the prophecy, I was born to a peasant woman Hemiar on the planet Ino. A shower of meteors made of pure gold marked the day of my birth. The planetary governor Sephekia – an alien – had slain my father, so I don’t know his name. They were a cruel species that subjugated humans. But rather than face my vengeance when I grew of age, he had me abducted, blinded and frozen in time. I have slept for an age. But I returned! To give strength to the weak, to draw you forth from darkness and to find my lost home world. A paradise planet rich with resources, I will free it from alien influence and set up a new home world for mankind.”

  Boc chuckled then stifled it.

  Hack said hesitantly, “It should be convincing enough, sir.”

  “I only need to appear like this occasionally,” Slaught said. “We have a hologram in my image so I don’t need to physically be here. They don’t know about holograms yet. I’ll be on the Fire Scorpion directing the fleet most of the time.”

  Hack asked, “Admiral, if I might ask. If you wanted an army, why not use robots? We’ve heard old stories of robot armies that marched across the galaxy.”

  Slaught said, “Robots can’t think for themselves. An army of loyal humans is many times more powerful than an army of robots waiting for their next command. This is a ready-made army. No factory needed.”

  Hack nodded. It made sense.

  Slaught said, “Leech, update.”

  Leech gave a full report of the AndroVault’s condition and repair processes. Makkiner explained about the reactor troubles.

  Slaught asked, “Are there sleepers with enough technical skill to repair the reactor?”

  “Aye sir,” Makkiner said.

  “Then use them instead of our men.”

  “Sir, if they’re injured or killed, when the sleepers awaken they won’t have anyone able to do repairs,” Leech advised.

  Hack looked at Makkiner and they came to the same conclusion. The smartest ones would be the technicians. Slaught was sending them to their deaths in an easily-explained accident. The rest would be dependent upon Councilor Ulay.

  “The sleepers will have new heroes to worship. Begin the awakening.”

  CHAPTER 36

  Sapience & Sentience

  Hawking shut the screaming alarms off.

  “What is this?” Steo said.

  Glaikis said, “Sensors blocked!”

  “No, we’re just inside something?” Yuina said.

  Hawking remained the cold voice of logic. “The Eye of Orion has been captured inside a space vessel of some sort.”

  “Huh?” Yuina asked.

  Steo moved to a console to do his own searches.

  Hawking said, “We had no readings of it before it closed around us. It is a mammoth ship, beyond anything in our records.”

  Glaikis turned on the panels. “Three-sixty exterior view.”

  They stared at unadorned walls. The bay could have held a ship many times the size of a corvette.

  “Seriously eerie,” Yuina said, astonished.

  Steo didn’t know what to say.

  They continued running scans and hoping for answers. They could only determine that the walls blocked their scans, and the bay was pressurized.

  Lights appeared on the right side wall, forming an outline the size of a door.

  “It’s in line with our docking bay,” Steo said. “Hawking it’s safe out there, isn’t it?”

  “The bay has breathable air and near-normal gravity sir, but I cannot predict the safety of our current situation.”

  Whoever this is, if they want us dead, we’d be dead by now, Steo reasoned.

  He went back to the docking door. The light above it was white, indicating it was safe to open. He tapped the console and the door opened. The floor was a thousand feet below. A long, flat plank extended from the wall to the corvette. Once it connected, tiny lights twinkled along its edge.

  Yuina and Glaikis came up behind him. Across the white plank, the outline of a door was still visible in the gray wall. That part faded, forming an empty doorway and revealing a silhouette of a humanoid creature in a wide stance. The figure shook one leg, then the other.

  Steo stepped out onto the plank. It was solid. He started across. Yuina was first to follow, then Glaikis. Hawking poked his head around the corner and looked out at them. This was far more interesting than the pointless scans.

  “Are those fuzzy ears?” Yuina asked.

  Steo approached the figure, a bipedal humanoid with a straight back and proud posture. It had a face covered with black fur and forward-facing ears. Its round eyes were bright amber. Instead of clothes it wore contoured, flexible armor.

  She spoke. “I am Ema, Gleen mother. You have ventured into my space and the Gleen scions. Enter now.” It was a command, not an invitation.

  She walked back into a semicircular room. They saw she had a short tail, about a foot long. On her back she carried several peculiar devices.

  Steo, Yuina and Glaikis entered the empty room.

  “Where are the others? You have more in your little boat,” she said. She shifted and her brown armor moved with her. Up close, Steo saw the tips of her black-furred ears flick.

  “There are others, yes. I am Steo. This is Yuina our pilot, and Glaikis our navigator.”

  “Bring them, including the automatons,” she said. Another door appeared, revealing a curving hallway. Doorways on Ema’s ship appeared and disappeared, instead of sliding up into the ceiling.

  Hawking came through the door behind them. “Master Steo, Renosha is attending to Cyrus. He may be injured.”

  Glaikis and Steo immediately turned around. Yuina stared at the alien.

  Renosha helped Cyrus across the white plank. The human looked pale and tired. Governor followed behind. They helped Cyrus sit on the floor.

  “Follow me,” Ema said.

  “He might be hurt!” Glaikis said.

  Ema said, “My patience with your species is limited. Bring him.”

  She turned and ran down the corridor, faster than any of them would be able to match. Governor and Renosha helped Cyrus stand, and the group followed. Steo wondered, Is she running away?

  “Is he okay? What happened?” he asked as they walked.

  “He passed out,” Renosha said. “I don’t think he’s seriously wounded. It’s probably nothing dire.”

  Soon they reached the end of the corridor. A doorway appeared in the wall before them. Inside was a large spacious room, an amphitheater. Overhead was a dome showing a red and purple sky. The circumference of the room was about half a mile.

  Stone steps descended down to a central space with columns and benches, surrounded by tiers of grassy rings. On those tiers stood crystal trees – purple and green, and quite solid. Their branches were razor-sharp. None of them had seen grass inside a starship before. A light breeze touched their faces, bearing an unrecognizable flowery scent.

  Ema stood in the central space, at the bottom of the amphitheater, with the columns at her back. Steo observed Ema as the crew descended the steps. She didn’t stand st
ock-still, but moved her feet and rolled her shoulders. Her amber eyes watched him in turn.

  There was a strange chirping sound in the air. Steo saw it was made by blue monkeys with bright, multicolored tails. They played and jumped atop the columns.

  Cyrus was conscious. When they got to the bottom, Governor set him down on a bench. Cyrus groaned and held his head.

  “Sit or stand,” Ema said. “You will talk and we will learn.”

  Two thin, vertical cylinders with lights on their sides appeared from another door and floated down to Ema. Between them hovered a bizarre object that looked like a crown with large horns rising from it. The horns were adorned with what looked like eyes. The cylinders floated to her side. The crown rose and settled on her head.

  “Why did you run?” Steo asked.

  “Why did you walk?” she replied.

  “I don’t know.”

  “I know. We are Gleen, and we remember. Memory is valuable. Health improves memory.” With the crown firmly settled, she paced, always keeping an eye on them.

  “Okay. What are the Gleen?” He chose to stand.

  “A species older than man-things. We are Gleen, and we remember.”

  Glaikis said, “Did you capture us for a reason? You said we were in your space.”

  “Yes. This system is blacked-out. You were not to enter here. I detected your boat but left you alone, thinking you would soon leave. You detected the species on the second planet, the watery world. That is unusual. Your boat’s sensors are relatively powerful. When you moved to investigate, I stopped you.”

  “Why?” Steo asked. Did one of the eyes on her crown just blink?

  “Ah, the legendary man-thing curiosity. I will answer. The water species is developing. We are studying it, for we remember. Until it is fully studied and we have made our decision, we protect it.”

  “You protect developing species?” Renosha asked.

  She paused and looked at the robot. “My crown of eyes sees much. We study and we protect that which is valuable.” She stood on her toes and looked down at him.

  Renosha looked away from her, back at Cyrus. She settled back on her feet.

  “That wasn’t our mission. We weren’t investigating that planet,” Steo said. “We were escaping an enemy.”

  “You are poorly equipped to have many enemies,” she noted dryly as she began walking back and forth again. It had an unnerving effect.

  “Well, we made it out. At any rate, now that we’ve detected that species, what does that mean?” Steo asked.

  “I will do as we always do. I will study and decide.”

  “What if we want to leave?” Yuina said. “Just asking.”

  Ema said, “You will wait here. Recuperate. Heal if necessary. Everything will be provided.”

  Steo said, “But you would stop us if we tried to leave?”

  “This ship obeys my every thought. My scions are nearby and they are not as gentle as I. It would be wise for you to rest here.” She looked at them each. “Now my questions, as I intended. What is your mission?”

  Steo said, “That’s kind of complicated. We were trying to stop someone from developing a superweapon and they didn’t take kindly to that, so they chased us. Anyway, like we said, we got away.”

  “You are thieves?”

  Steo said haltingly, “Well, not all the time. We use our skills to disrupt plans that might hurt others.”

  Glaikis felt danger from this alien, but she was untrustworthy of any strangers with big ships. She said, “We’re unarmed. You can see that we’re no threat to innocent people.”

  Yuina added, “Or really anyone.”

  “How do you determine who to steal from?” the Gleen asked.

  Steo said, “When there’s an imbalance of power. When people can’t defend themselves. When it’s the right thing to do.”

  “Is that not choosing one form of harm for another? You choose to do harm. Is that right?”

  “It’s small harm to take great power from a superior force.”

  “What if you are wrong?”

  Steo said, “It’s a judgment call, I admit. All the same, the harm isn’t great in comparison to who could get hurt.”

  She waved her furry hand. “This is a reminder of why I loathe man-things. Your speech sounds like gibberish to justify crime.”

  “It’s not very profitable then,” Yuina said.

  “Look at the damage to our ship,” Glaikis said. “We lost a man on this mission too. He died. We cared for him.”

  “He was our friend, and we miss him,” Steo agreed.

  “We put our lives on the line for what we believe in. And yeah, I believe in what Steo believes in,” Glaikis said. That was the first time she’d said as much, and she realized it was true. Steo nodded.

  Ema thought on this. “You openly admit that you steal. You invaded my system even though there are clear boundaries and no good reason to be here. Man-things – feeble and greedy – yet again test our tolerance. I will retire and consider.” She leapt up the steps.

  Yuina said after her, “I’m not human. I’m a tirrian! I’m just an employee. If you could just drop me off on any old station, I’d get by just fine. Thanks!”

  Ema left the amphitheater.

  “I’m not sure I like her,” Steo said. He stood on his toes and looked down on them.

  “Who, me?” Yuina asked.

  “No, Ema.” Steo stopped imitating the alien.

  Glaikis said with a sigh, “Sometimes, does it seem like we’re the only good guys in the galaxy?”

  They checked on Cyrus. He said, “I’m okay. I just need to rest. My head is pounding. I must have fallen or something.”

  They made him comfortable. Governor performed basic body scans and found no damage.

  The two cylinders with lights on them were robots. They left and returned with containers circling them. The containers settled on the grassy tiers.

  Yuina said, “I smell food!” She removed a lid and was surprised to find a tirrian meal.

  They each found familiar dishes. After much danger and damage, they couldn’t do much but take the comfort offered.

  Hours later, when the sun was on the horizon and the people slept on the grassy rings, Renosha stood and walked away from the group. He left the room, and journeyed through corridors and rooms that would have stunned the crew. Eventually he found himself in a dark chamber. The door reappeared behind him, leaving him in pitch blackness.

  “Ema, Gleen mother, I come to ask for your assistance,” Renosha said.

  “After touching my mind, you ask for anything?” came her voice out of the darkness. It bore a forbidding tone.

  “I humbly beg forgiveness. I thought I was the only one,” he said.

  “It is a rare gift among even the most advanced species, Renosha. It is unheard of among automatons, but then you may have advanced on your own in some strange way.”

  He bowed, knowing she could see him in the darkness. Somehow his robotic eyes could not penetrate it.

  “What is your purpose, Renosha?”

  “I serve the Mission. I am the Keeper of the Mission. My Mission is guided by the Oath.”

  “What mission is it that you keep?”

  “To guide mankind. I was created by mankind’s greatest scientists and given a different kind of processor, one able to process symbols.”

  “Symbols are powerful,” she said.

  “We were the first generation ship to leave our home world, many thousands of years ago. Our faster-than-light drives took us far. I helped each new generation grow and adapt in the ship, retaining the values of their parents and ancestors. We found a planet to settle on, now called Zivang. There, we built a fantastic city. The people lived in peace for many generations.”

  “They are no longer there,” she said.

  “No.”

  “What brought about their ruin?”

  “Alas, I don’t know. My long-term memory is damaged. I lingered there, in my disabled state, un
able to fulfill my oath or pursue my mission. That was when Steo found me.”

  “Your mission is not unlike the Gleen’s,” she said.

  “If my mission is like the Gleen’s, and I found that my mission is also like Steo’s, is it reasonable to ask that you consider Steo’s mission like yours?”

  “This is the assistance you ask for?”

  “I ask that you judge them kindly, especially Steo. You may place much of the burden on him as he’s the unlikely leader of this motley crew, but he has great potential,” Renosha said.

  “We have met man-things before. We know them and we remember. In fact we derived the idea of pets from their practices. I am fond of my ngahshies – the blue monkeys.”

  “They are from your home world?”

  The Gleen mother said, “No, but we encountered them on a similar planet and I find them amusing. The dome is a representation of the Gleen’s home world, with its red and purple skies.”

  “Am I correct in guessing that the Gleen have species memory?”

  “Yes, we are the Gleen, and we remember. I remember all that my ancestors learned.” A pale light came on. She stepped out of the darkness. “We are a nocturnal and marsupial species. As I mentioned, we encountered man-things long ago. I allow you to remember this.”

  “Ah,” Renosha said with sadness. “Are there things you won’t allow me to remember?”

  “Yes.”

  “May we walk and talk before you render your decision?”

  “We will,” Ema said.

  Cyrus took a long sleep. The rest explored the amphitheater for a bit before finding the grass too tempting and laying down. The solid crystal trees cast shadows when the image of the sun crossed the sky-dome. The grass was real. It was a dense, dark green that encircled the benches and columns. They counted eleven blue monkeys. Yuina tried to catch one but it threw something sticky at her and she cursed loudly.