Worlds Without End: The Mission (Book 1)

by Shaun F. Messick

  **********

  Five days later ?

  Skip sat up in his bed in a dimly lit room. The only light provided in the room was by a lamp that looked like it was made by a boy scout trying to earn a merit badge. The room was small. There was barely enough room for the bed that Skip was in and the other four people in the room. Jake sat in a small wooden rocking chair in the corner of the room. It was still hard for him to stand for long periods of time as his new stomach muscles were not yet at full strength.

  A day earlier, Skip had awakened from the complicated surgery he had undergone. The last thing he remembered was falling asleep in the strange temple with the hieroglyphs that he wanted desperately to learn more about.

  When he had woken up, standing over him was a large, middle-aged black man with an exceptionally warm and inviting smile. The black man introduced himself as Doctor Charles Porter, or "Doc" as everyone else called him. Skip knew who Doc was the moment he told him his name. Doc explained to Skip what injuries he had and how they were mended.

  Doc also explained that the reason he continued to feel pain in his side was because he had suffered a broken rib that punctured his lung. Doc had fixed his rib and told him that he would heal quickly from that injury. Skip was surprised when Doc told him to reach down and feel his left leg. Skip, at first, thought the man was crazy. Didn't he know that he had lost his leg in the crash?

  Nonetheless, Skip reached down and felt a leg where just days earlier there wasn't one. He immediately began to cry when he felt a leg, and what astonished him even more, was the fact that the leg had feeling and was covered in what seemed like human skin.

  Doc explained that just days earlier, in what Skip thought was a strange coincidence or some divine intervention, Doc and Sean Gibson had developed the technology to produce cybernetic limbs, which would help so many of the rebel soldiers in their war against the Gnols. The cybernetic leg was made out of some kind of metal alloy that was only indigenous to this planet. Doc said that the metal was actually stronger than stainless steel or other metals found on Earth, and it didn't rust. Skip couldn't remember what Doc called it, but continued to be amazed at everything Doc and Sean had done for his new left leg.

  Skip learned that smart processors were embedded throughout his new leg. At the top of the cybernetic leg, there was a master smart chip into which his nerves were miraculously threaded. The master chip then sent signals to the other smart chips that acted like a knee, a calf muscle, an ankle, and a foot. As a result, Skip could move his new leg just like his old one without even thinking about it. He also learned that the new leg was hollow so that it wasn't too heavy for his body, and that the outside of the leg was covered with some sort of synthetic rubber that felt like real skin. He was even more astonished to learn that he could feel as a result of small sensors placed within the rubber that sent signals to his brain.

  After learning about his new leg, Doc had Skip walk on it. He broke down in tears of joy because he could walk and run, just like he did before he lost his leg. He immediately hugged Doc after testing his leg. The big doctor hugged him back, and the two seemed to hit if off immediately. And now, here he was a day later, almost entirely back to one hundred percent, the same as Jake.

  Skip scratched at the IV in his arm. Doc had told him that he had to continue to receive plasma to help replenish all of the blood he had lost. It was a miracle he was even alive.

  Adrian broke the silence first. "I'm so glad to see you doing so well, Skip."

  Skip smiled. "It truly is a miracle. That doctor of yours is the best," he said, looking at Doc.

  Adrian returned his smile. "He is. Except he can have a little ego problem sometimes."

  Doc lightly punched Adrian in the shoulder. "Careful, General, or you're going to find yourself without a limb, and I won't replace it."

  Everyone in the room laughed except for Jake, who knew that laughing would be painful.

  After the laughing stopped, Adrian said, "There's a reason why we are all here today. I told Jake that when both of you were well, we would explain what happened to us, and then you will have the chance to explain what this rescue mission is all about.

  "As you both have already figured out, we were sucked through some kind of wormhole while Gloria-"

  Adrian suddenly became sad. Jake noticed and expressed his concern. "What is it, Dad?"

  Adrian looked at Jake. "Do you remember Gloria, Jake? You were only five at the time."

  Jake thought for a moment. "I remember vaguely. I think I can remember you bringing a woman to the house sometimes while you were training for the Mars mission. I remember she was really pretty and nice, but that's all I can remember."

  "Yes, that was her, son." Adrian paused and then continued. "While Gloria was working on the space station that orbited Mars, this circular thing opened up that looked like some sort of water ripple in space."

  "That's exactly what it was, General. That was the wormhole," Skip interrupted.

  "Please, call me Adrian, Skip. Any friend of Jake doesn't need to be so formal with me."

  Skip just nodded and allowed Adrian to continue.

  "Well, to make a long story short, Mars I was sucked into the wormhole, leaving Gloria behind. When we came through the wormhole, we all assumed that Gloria would either kill herself, knowing that we were gone, and she was left alone in space, or that the gravity of Mars would pull her in."

  "What happened after you came through the wormhole?" Skip asked.

  "When we came through the wormhole, Mars I was in pretty bad shape. Maggie was down, and-"

  "Maggie?" questioned Jake.

  Sean broke in before Adrian could answer. "Yes, Maggie was the pet name I gave to the computer system of Mars I."

  "The computer you were in love with, you mean," said Doc.

  Everyone in the room laughed again; even Sean laughed, seeing the humor in naming a computer and actually having feelings for it.

  Adrian continued. "The computer system was malfunctioning, and we were losing power fast. The reactor was close to meltdown, and Peter Sanchez - our nuclear engineer on the mission - knew he wouldn't be able to repair it. So, I decided that we would abandon ship. Everyone in the crew agreed, except for Don."

  "Donald Garrett, your copilot, right?" Skip questioned.

  "Yes, Don thought that we should stay on Mars I and try to repair her. Once she was fixed, he thought we should wait until the wormhole opened up again and try to return to our solar system. I didn't agree with him. Petey had told me that the core of the reactor was about to melt down because of a jammed rod, and there was no possible way he could fix it.

  "As a result, I had to make a quick decision. I decided that we would all load up into the landing craft and try our luck on the planet below us. We didn't even know if the planet would support life, but we had a good reference that it would because it looked a lot like Earth - an atmosphere, continents and islands and, of course, oceans.

  "However, Don was absolutely opposed to the idea. He was so opposed to the idea that he attacked me in front of the rest of the crew in the flight deck."

  "He attacked you?" Jake asked.

  Doc spoke first. "Yeah ? Don, for the entire mission, had been strongly against every decision Adrian had made. He hated your father."

  "Wow," said Jake. "That doesn't make for a very successful mission."

  Doc continued, "Yeah, it doesn't. But Don was so jealous of your dad because he was passed over to command the mission for Adrian. Of course your dad was the best choice. But your dad, with the feeling of inadequacy that he has always had, chose Don as his copilot because he didn't believe that NASA made the right decision."

  Jake looked questioningly at his father.

  "Believe me, Jake. I now realize that NASA had made the right decision and I the wrong one. As I was saying, Don attacked me. When I was getting out of the pilot's chair, he pushed himself from his seat and forced us both against the plasma shield of the shuttle. Before I realiz
ed what he was doing, he was strangling me. He would have succeeded too, if it wasn't for Doc."

  Skip looked at Doc. "What did you do?"

  Doc gave Skip that glowing smile of his. "Oh, it was nothing. I just ripped my computer monitor off its station and hit him in the back of the head with it."

  Sean laughed. "Yeah, and it knocked him out cold."

  Doc laughed as well. "You know I wanted to leave him there while we all went to the surface, but your dad, having that kind heart of his, ordered me to carry that s-"

  "Hey, watch the language, Doc. My son and his friend are here."

  "It isn't anything I haven't heard before, Dad. I'm not five anymore."

  Adrian gave Jake a warm smile. From the smile, Jake could tell that his father wished he was still that five-year-old boy he had left on Earth nearly twenty-five years before.

  "Will you guys let me get through the story before the day is over? We've got a lot of other things to worry about," said Adrian. "Yes, I ordered Doc to carry Don onto NightHawk. Doc buckled Don into his seat next to me. But just as I was about to exit the payload-deck, Don woke up. He must have realized what we had done to him because he unbuckled himself so fast that none of us realized what he was doing. Then he was on top of me again. He hit me as hard as he could in my right eye. That's where this scar came from."

  Jake, as painful as it was, stood up and walked over to his father. He looked at his father's right eye. Just under his bottom eyelid, was a scar that extended about half an inch from the bridge of his nose to his cheekbone.

  "Wow, that must have been some hit," said Jake.

  "It was. I blacked out for a moment, which caused me to veer left into the payload-deck door. As a result, we lost one of our engines.

  "Doc hit Don, knocking him out again. He then grabbed the duct tape in the supply locker and taped him to his seat."

  "How did you survive the descent to the surface with only one engine?" Jake asked.

  "That was difficult. Somehow, I managed to keep the ship at a forty-degree angle, so we wouldn't burn up. When we were finally safe, I looked for a safe place to land the ship. I spotted a clearing just on the other side of a small forest, within a few miles of a city. In fact, that was the same city where Kylee and her squadron rescued you two. The city's name is Talead. It's actually the capital city of this planet."

  "What is this planet called?" Skip questioned.

  "The planet is called Terrest. At least that's what the people called it when we were finally able to understand them."

  "You mean there were people in the city when you arrived?" asked Jake.

  "Yes. We estimated that the city's population was about one-and-a-half million people. But before I get to that, let me tell you what happened after we landed.

  "It was dark when we landed. So, we decided that we would just camp out for the night and make our way to the city in the morning. We even kept Don taped in his chair. When he woke up, he demanded that we let him go. Doc was hesitant, but Don promised he wouldn't attack me again. We cut him loose-"

  Adrian stopped as emotion crept into his voice.

  "What's wrong, Dad?" Jake asked.

  "It's just ? that when we cut Don loose ? all he did was glare at me and then he said, 'Well, you should be proud of yourself, Commander. You've not only failed one of the most important missions of mankind, you've managed to kill one of your crew members and leave the rest of us to rot on this pitiful planet.' I can still remember what he said, word-for-word."

  Doc put a hand on Adrian's shoulder. "You've got to forget it, Adrian. The man snapped. He went crazy. And, you know that everything that happened was outside of your control."

  Adrian put his hand on Doc's. "Yes, I know, old friend, but I just can't help but feel responsible for what he did next. I mean, as a leader, you're supposed to keep your crew together, no matter what."

  "What did he do next?" Skip asked.

  "Well, right after he said what he said to me, he just walked off into the night. We haven't heard from or seen him since."

  "Wow, he just up and left? The man must have really fallen off his rocker," said Jake.

  "That's what we all thought before he left," uttered Sean.

  Adrian forced a small smile, but Jake could tell that his father carried a lot of guilt.

  Adrian continued. "The next day, we made our way into the city. The city ? I mean, Talead, reminded us all of a city set in the eighteenth century back on Earth. You should have seen the looks we got from the local population. They were dressed the way people dressed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries back on Earth, and here we come into town dressed in our flight suits. People were even scared of us.

  "The city was extremely busy. We were astonished to find that the people on this planet were actually human. We were all expecting to find some sort of lizard-like, alien species on this planet. You know the kind we saw in science fiction movies back on Earth?"

  Everyone in the room nodded in agreement, but no one spoke a word. They were interested in hearing the rest of the story, including Doc and Sean, who had lived through it all with Adrian.

  "Some of the people that were afraid of us must have gone and told the authorities because, about thirty minutes after we entered the town, four men that were dressed like the three musketeers with swords and everything, came riding up to us on horses. Yes, believe it or not, they were actually horses. In fact, this planet seems to be almost identical to Earth. It has different climates like Earth - deserts, jungles, and frozen wastelands. The animal life, from what we know so far, is even the same."

  Skip, unable to control his excitement, interrupted again. "Incredible. I wonder if this is some kind of mirror world to Earth. Who knows? Maybe we didn't end up on the other side of the galaxy; maybe we entered some sort of other dimension."

  "Whoa, hold on there, Skip. Don't go getting any more theories in your head. Let my dad finish his story before we jump to conclusions," Jake said.

  "No. I think your first theory about us being on the other side of the galaxy is correct, Skip. I'll get to that later. But first, the four musketeers actually arrested us. We were taken to the palace in the center of the city-"

  Jake interrupted. "That must have been the building that looked like the Parthenon."

  Adrian nodded. "That would be the palace. We were taken to the king. His name was Adrimd Xuta. In English, his name was actually Edward Cole."

  "Edward Cole?" asked Skip. "How did you decipher an alien name into English?"

  "I'll get into linguistics later. Anyway, the language barrier prevented us from communicating with each other effectively. The king saw us as a threat and sent us to prison for several weeks.

  "After a while, he decided that we weren't a threat at all. He released us from prison on the condition we live with him in the palace and help him. As time passed, we learned each other's languages. We learned from him that this planet was, in fact, unified. We learned the history of Terrest. We learned that, at one time, there were warring tribes and countries, very similar to Earth. But about five hundred ten years ago on this planet ? By the way, a year on this planet is three hundred sixty-five days, the same as Earth's rotation around its sun."

  "Amazing," Skip said.

  Adrian nodded and continued. "About five hundred ten years ago, King Xuta's ancestor - they called him Juzs Lza Bmail - led a crusade and conquered the planet. He unified the entire planet under one banner." Adrian pointed to his left shoulder. "This is the banner."

  Jake leaned forward to get a closer look. On his father's shoulder was a circular badge. The badge had a black border on the outside and was yellow on the inside. In the middle of the badge was a planet, obviously representing Terrest, and in the background were Terrest's two moons. Near the top of the badge was a saying that Jake could not read. "What does the banner say?"

  "It says, Esolad Ra Ylisd. Os Uem Jud Ra Lmeyl. In English, it means United We Stand. In Our God We Trust."

  Adrian con
tinued, "Juzs Lza Bmail united Terrest under one language, which is called Tilicah, named after the tribe he came from. He also united Terrest under one religious banner."

  Skip interjected, "He must have been a tyrant."

  "Actually, he wasn't," Adrian said. "According to King Xuta, Juzs actually believed in the God of his tribe. His tribe believed in one God. They believed that they were actually visited by their God about two thousand years ago. In fact, the temple where Kylee found you two was a temple built to worship their God."

  Skip was dying to ask more questions about the temple, but he controlled himself and let Adrian continue.

  "Bmail continued to worship his tribe's God. To say the least, his ideals created the most peaceful civilization that I have ever seen."

  Skip's curiosity got the best of him. He had to ask. "Well, then why are the Terrest people at war now?"

  Adrian smiled at Skip, holding his hand up. "Patience, Skip. Anyway, King Xuta was the leader of Terrest when we met him. Like I said, after several weeks in prison, Xuta released us. Not only did we learn from him, but he learned from us as well.

  "After he learned of our knowledge of technology, he placed us in important roles within the government, and we gladly accepted because we knew there wasn't any possible way we could return to Earth."

  Adrian placed a hand on Doc's right shoulder. "Doc was named Director of Medicine. He actually started the first medical school on the planet. Sean was named Director of Technology and Computer Development. Using your uncle's smart chip technology, Sean introduced this planet to the car, established a number of computer centers throughout the planet, and opened a computer school. Peter Sanchez, our mission's nuclear engineer, was named Director of Energy. He developed power plants throughout the planet and is currently working on the nuclear reactor for our second base of operations. Skyler Green, our mission's botanist, was named Director of Science and Biology. Five years later, he was commissioned by the king to travel the planet and identify plants and animals. He kept in contact with us, but we haven't heard from him since the Gnols attacked. We assumed that he was either killed or captured and forced into slavery.

  "We've been trying to locate him as we free the other slaves, but so far no luck." Adrian said.

  "What about Isaac Cooper, your mission's physicist?" Skip asked.

  Jake could tell that his father's sadness seemed to deepen when Skip mentioned the Isaac's name.

  "Isaac was named Director of Physics. In fact, he and I were working on the planet's first airplane ?" Adrian paused, and his voice trembled. " ? Isaac was killed when the Gnols attacked. He ?" Adrian tried to hide his emotion, but it was useless.

  Jake stood up, walked next to his father, and placed his arm around him. "It's okay, Dad. You don't have to go into details. I know it's painful. Why don't you tell us what King Xuta put you and Scott Hauler in charge of?"

  Adrian looked at his son, who was now a grown man and a few inches taller, and smiled. "Scott and I were put in charge of Terrest's army. He and I were both named generals. As we speak, Scott is at our second base of operations with Petey. His division is getting it ready just in case the Gnols discover this base."

  "I'm impressed, Adrian. It sure looks like all of you did a lot for this planet," said Skip.

  "Yeah, in just ten short years after we arrived, we had introduced almost every modern convenience we enjoyed on Earth to Terrest like indoor plumbing. You name it, we invented it."

  Doc placed his bulging arm on Adrian's shoulder and looked at Jake. "Your father is being modest, Jake."

  Jake gave Doc a confused look. "What do you mean?"

  Doc gently patted Adrian's shoulder. "Why don't you tell him, Adrian? What you've done for us, and the people of this world, is far more important than any new technology."

  Adrian shook his head. "No, we don't need to get into that now, Doc. Jake and Skip want to find out what happened."

  Adrian was about to continue, but Doc spoke first. Doc, usually lighthearted, looked solemnly at Jake. His eyes almost welled up with tears as he spoke. "Your dad, Jake ?"

  "What, Doc? What did my dad do?"

  Adrian held up his left hand to stop Doc. "Doc, this isn't the right time. I prefer to speak with Jake and Skip alone on this matter."

  Doc shook his head and was about to speak when he looked at his best friend and realized Adrian was serious. This wasn't the time. Doc nodded his head and said, "Okay, Adrian. Why don't you tell them about Anyta?"

  Adrian smiled with the mention of Anyta. "Anyta is King Xuta's daughter."

  Doc interrupted. "Yeah, your dad married royalty."

  "We were married about two years after we arrived," said Adrian, giving Doc an annoyed look. "Doc hasn't wanted to settle down, and believe me, he's had plenty of callers."

  Doc chuckled. "I just haven't found the right one yet, that's all."

  Skip looked at Sean who was staring at the wall with a blank stare. "What about you, Sean? Did you ever get married?"

  Sean slowly turned to face Skip. "I did. I was married a few days after Adrian." Sean's eyes then reddened with tears.

  Skip looked confused. He glanced at Sean and then at Adrian.

  Adrian spoke for Sean. "When the Gnols attacked, they captured his wife, Xmhylit - Crystal in English - and their son, Luke, who was six at the time." Adrian turned and looked at Jake. "In fact, Jake, Luke would be the same age as Kylee."

  Sean finally gained the composure to speak again. "They're still alive. Some of our spies have video footage of her and my son in the jungle mining camp of Zikf. We haven't attempted a rescue for that slave camp yet because we don't have the resources."

  "We are planning an attack within the next year," Adrian said.

  Skip glanced at Sean and could tell that he was annoyed with Adrian's answer. Sean was about to speak, but Skip beat him to it.

  "Who are the Gnols, and why did they attack?"

  "About ten years after we arrived, the entire planet was attacked. It was a simultaneous attack. Every major city on Terrest was attacked by ships that looked similar to Mars I and NightHawk."

  "Those were the same kinds of ships we ran into when we came through the wormhole," Jake said.

  "Yes, they were. We didn't know for the longest time where the Gnols came from, but about seven years ago, one of their top government agents turned to our side. She has been working on our side ever since, giving us valuable information. The Gnols still haven't discovered that she is working with us. When she turned, she held a private meeting with me and explained the reason behind the attack on Terrest.

  "She told me that the Gnols came from a planet called Gnolom. Their planet is in orbit next to Terrest. We estimated that Gnolom is the same distance from Terrest as Mars is from Earth."

  "Amazing," said Skip, obviously captivated.

  Adrian chuckled and said, "You'll also find this interesting, Skip. Our source also told me that Gnolom is a dying planet. Most of the oceans have dried up. In fact, she showed me pictures and Gnolom is beginning to look a lot like Mars. That's why they attacked. The Gnols were looking for a new home."