A Planet's Search For History

by Burbaugh, MF;

  “I know, we made mistakes, but we didn’t understand the enemy then. We do now. We can win, we must win or humanity in this galaxy is doomed.”

  ~~~

  The Council meeting started on time. Anyone who was anyone, or thought they were, was there from both planets.

  A roll was taken of elected officials. All were present. Old business covered reports on food and housing as well as planting schedules. What new manufacturing had started. The normal items in any town-hall type meeting.

  Under new business Lucy let her new assistants give various reports including the one about having the ability to make an airborne spray.

  El brought up the idea of opening Olgreender back up for manufacturing. At first there was great opposition. Many of those that left the planet in the first place were the most afraid, having new families and children to worry about.

  Lucy explained that the MKs no longer had access to the gates. She had stopped them. We needed Olgreender back for its factories. She went into detail of how she would use the Earth robots to run everything with minimal people involved. She also mentioned three brave crews were even now in space heading there and needed a way to get back here.

  A vote to reopen the gate was taken and passed by six votes.

  El took up the battle—how we could, after two thousand years, take back planets and destroy the MKs. We could finally go on the offensive. She listed all the developments already made and who to thank. Even Myla and Reta from another planet had been part of the great help needed to develop a plan. She caught me off guard—she didn’t specifically ask for permission to open a gate. Rather, she asked permission to finally be allowed to take the war to the MKs instead of living in fear of them. To pursue them and destroy them as means became available. A vote had her resolution pass by almost forty votes. If they only knew how she was using them. We said nothing and most of us voted yes.

  ~~~

  It took five days to open the tunnel to Olgreender and another to get it large enough to get a chopper back through.

  Loka and I finally had our private chat. If I promised to not go to the ends of the galaxy to fight the MKs she would take Myla to our new home and try the motherhood thing. Lucy fixed her and I was working to fulfill my part.

  I helped Lucy move robots and parts from Earth to Olgreender. Lord P’s people were a big help in getting factories up and running again, but we held mass funerals for piles of bones, some stacked six to eight feet high. None identifiable. The MKs ate our people and then threw the bones in big piles. We found no MKs on the planet, but also none of our people alive. That was the hardest part.

  Months ticked by as Lucy made ready to open a gate and I found out Loka was pregnant. The factories started producing a hundred nail guns a week, then it was per day. Lucy set up the very special manufacturing processes needed to make the dangerous power supplies, using all robots but a few volunteers for control and maintenance. She was as afraid of the radiation as we were. We soon had all the helicopters in round-the-clock deliveries from below to the gate. Inside they were moved to storage areas on all the planets that could hold them. We fortified Olgreender II and our home first. If MKs found them they were in for a real shock.

  Our three spaceships under Garth finally arrived to rounds of cheers and a series of parties. One ship went to a special factory where Lucy and robots and a select few scientists tore it apart and put it back together several times. In a few months they had what they were after. The ship was now separated into four quarters that just fit through the gate. Special dollies were built and it took two choppers to lift a section and set it on the ledge outside. A series of factories now dedicated their efforts to make copies of that ship.

  We used people and robots to manhandle the sections onto the dollies and get them through the gate. Meantime I was told Lucy had activated the gate search program with the preferred area of search being the three blue dots in the center of the galaxy. She said it was putting the warpfield generator to the ultimate test as to distance, as it was way beyond recommended specifications. As she explained it, the gate on that end will search to find viable life sustaining planets. We had to wait until it locked onto one. After two months it was still searching and Lucy was getting worried it may either be too far or we were too late to help.

  Almost a year from when Myla turned in the star-chart with their intentions Lucy announced she had a lock. She asked for me and El and Garth and a few other representatives from both planets to meet in the mess hall in Honor Central. Loka was due to deliver any day, but I went at her insistence.

  “Okay, thanks for coming. I received a valid lock from a viable planet. If I do it, it is permanent and unless I do it we don’t have any way of telling what is at the other end. It is on one of the blue dot systems—not sure of the planet until we lock it and go there. Anyone have qualms; now is the time to express them,” she said.

  “I’m curious of the overall plan. If the MKs are not there and there is intelligent life, then what?” Garth asked.

  “It is what we actually want. Some place with at least a rudimentary industrial complex to make what is needed to defeat the MKs.”

  “If there is no advanced life? Then what?” he asked.

  “Then we build one, or we find another planet if there is one near. We need to clobber them. We need to go on the offensive and clobber them!” El said with venom in her voice.

  I told them, “I vote to open it, let’s see what waits on the other side.”

  “Fine for you to say, you’re an explorer type and you are partly to blame for this mess,” a guy in a green suit said.

  El took up my defense. “Yes, without him we’d still be sucking down our drinks and having arguments about our origins while the MKs came closer and closer, waiting to have us for snacks. Thank the gods he is responsible, as we may survive as a result.”

  That seemed to shut him up.

  Lucy said, “Vote. All in favor for the opening raise your hands.” All but three did.

  “Opposed?” Two of those raised their hands.

  “Passed and I will initiate final lock today. We will need an expeditionary force ready to move in twenty hours. Fort, choppers, nail guns, the works. If there are no more questions let’s get to it.”

  As most left I drifted by El and Lucy.

  El asked, “You coming with us?”

  “I don’t know. Loka made it clear she really didn’t want me to leave until after the baby is born and she can go. We are a team you know.”

  “Oh, we know. Still, your help would be a boon,” Lucy said. It was now so hard to think of her as a computer.

  Garth said, “Loka isn’t dumb, she knows the score, lay it out and ask her.”

  “I will, I’ll let Lucy know.”

  I left them sitting there and went toward the gate to get home, going over all the arguments I could think of on why I really needed to go. I mentally rehearsed my pitch, over and over until I walked in the door and Myla said out loud to Loka, “Dad’s home.” Those two words floored me as she stood there with her smile and Loka came from the kitchen wiping her hands. Her belly was so far out she could rest a plate and eat off it. “He wants to go with them to the new gate.”

  “Myla, enough, let him speak. I told you it isn’t polite to read minds without their permission,” Loka chastised her, and gave me a wan smile. “Children, what can you do? Go out and play, Myla.”

  After Myla left Loka kissed me. “She is becoming a handful now that she understands us. She is also a very big help.” She was trying to make conversation but knew it wouldn’t work. “Hungry? Got a meatloaf in the oven, done in half an hour.”

  “Yes, had nothing but coffee at the meeting.”

  “Let me guess, they are going to open the gate and El, Lucy, and Garth want you to go with them.” It wasn’t a question.

  “They’d prefer both of us, but yes.”

  “Dear, I’m selfish, I love you, I want our baby to know its father.” She was absentl
y rubbing her belly. “I want Myla to think she has a stable family. She started calling me mother a few days ago on her own. She is adapting well. Is it wrong to want you to stay here with me?” She had tears in her eyes.

  “Do I really need to answer that? You know I love you and I have always bent to your wishes. Well, most of them. Still, as a guy at the meeting said, we, you and I and Duranu, and Cullves, and Lord P opened this can of worms looking for our roots. You and I are the only two left alive to see what is at the bottom of it and I feel you can’t go look right now, so shouldn’t I?”

  She smiled through her tears. “That really is a lousy analogy you know.”

  “Well, I had it all figured out until Myla called me dad, then my mind totally blanked.”

  “Then you answered my question. You feel you want and need to go.” She placed her hands to each side of my face and kissed me. “My heart and mind are in conflict. We women tend to lead with our hearts but I will force my mind to control it. Go, if you die I will at least have a family to console me.”

  “I won’t die; we’re just going to have a look-see.”

  “Yes, you’ve been in front for more than one look-see dear. I was with you, remember? Call Myla, supper is done.”

  I mentally hollered and Myla walked in and sat at the table. “I’m hungry,” she said, then, “I’m going to miss you.”

  “At most a few days. Just a quick peek.”

  “Did I tell you my name? It’s Rock. I’d be dumb as a rock to believe that.” Myla grinned and I did too.

  “How long before you leave?” Loka asked.

  “About fifteen hours,” I told her.

  “Damn, not wasting time are they?”

  “Nope.”

  “My cue. I have a dissertation on the evils of socialistic behavior in modern human cultures for school tomorrow. Funny, ours was pure socialism,” Myla said.

  “But when they can read minds the truth of who can do what is known. Without that it is more a, ‘why should I work if they will do it for me?’ mentality.”

  “I know, and they are right, of course. Still, doesn’t hurt for humanity to wish.”

  “Your school gets pretty deep for your age.”

  “AP, or Accelerated Placement, is performance based not age based. I should be into my first year college by next year at my current progression rate.” She smiled. Somehow I felt she was getting her childhood ripped away from her.

  “Take time to try to have fun,” I told her.

  She disappeared and Loka and I sat on the couch and snuggled. We dared do nothing else. I got to feel the baby kick and could hear its heartbeat. I fell asleep with her sitting there, resting her head on my shoulder and us both watching the fire dance. So peaceful and so short a time.

  ~~~

  “Commander Gnoth, I hate to disturb you Sir, but the General said to recall everyone.”

  “Thank you, tell her I’m on my way.”

  Loka woke, and asked, “Commander?”

  “El gave us all some type of new ranks. I forgot, you’re one too.” I smiled and kissed her.

  “Eldon, please come back to us.”

  I stood, showered, and was in uniform standing by the door when the car came to transport me to the Honor Gate. So much had changed in so little time. She handed me a bag with clean underwear and socks for my backpack at the base. “Try to come back to us Eldon, please?” she said again.

  I kissed her. “I will. If I miss the baby being born, tell it I apologize, but I am trying to secure its future.”

  She kissed me and started crying but pushed me out the door and closed it.

  ~~~

  Back at Central all was a madhouse, well, a coordinated one. Troops armed and ready stood by all over. The second connection room where the new gate was linked was packed with troops and nail guns on dollies. The helicopters and fort pieces were up various hallways. I had a sense of what it took to even try a mass invasion, all through a little gate.

  Lucy and El were near the gate when I found them. El looked at her watch and hollered, “Ten Minutes. Pass the word.”

  Seems not everyone had earpieces yet, or they had different groups on different freqs. I slipped on my backpack as El said. “Lucy did air analysis: Oxygen 21%, air temperature at 41 degrees, no unknown pathogens in the sample taken. She did not enter, just a quick hand.”

  “Other data?” I asked.

  “She sent a small rover through—it should have returned about five minutes ago. It hasn’t.”

  “Might I suggest we wait a bit then? We seriously need to know the terrain we are entering. Like Olgreender, it could be on the edge of a ledge.”

  El Looked at her watch. “Four Minutes, pass it on.” Then to me, she said, “Honest Eldon, we know what we are doing, well mostly. Us ten are first through—if we don’t come back in a few minutes then the rest will come in with guns blazing.” She smiled. Lucy had actually made a book of old Earth sayings and it was funny how so many referred to war. Well, maybe not so funny, but we all used them.

  Tici said, “Lucy will step through and back first, then we all go in and ensure we don’t drop dead. Then we see from there.”

  “Nice to see you fit and back in action, Tici,” I said.

  “Thanks. Lucy is working on a microglove to replace the fingers and I asked El to marry me. No answer yet.”

  “Thirty seconds,” El said, as Lucy stood there, ready. “Won’t get one either, not until this shit is over. Go.”

  Lucy disappeared, then was back. “Grassy tundra, sparse, cold, maybe winter. The rover is stuck a few feet away—fell off a rock. Let’s go.”

  We moved through and spread in a quick defense, but for as far as we could see it was open, rocky and had turfs of grass clinging to life here and there.

  Lucy did a quick scan. “Well, someone is here someplace. I’m getting various frequencies that are outside nature.”

  “MKs?” El asked.

  “Doubt it. Not their frequencies.”

  “Garth, send someone back and go ahead and bring a small defense force in. Until we see who or what is here let’s not assume they are hostile yet. Put the rest on standby alert for now,” El said. “Oh, bring a chopper in. I don’t feel like walking.”

  Within four hours we had a portable fort up, an array of both 20MMs and needler cannons, and Tici and Garth were putting the finish on the chopper. Lucy added two new items to our arsenal as well. RPVs. or Remote Piloted Vehicles. Fast, agile, minimally armed, with several hundred-mile range capability and good snoop gear.

  I saw two techs with small computers to control them and soon they were airborne. One went west and another to the north.

  Several hours passed as they scanned the areas and finally one tech called El, said, “Contact.”

  We crowded around the screen as he zoomed in. Looked like normal humanoids but they had bald heads except a long single tuft out the center-back of the head. Ears were more perpendicular to the head—they stuck almost straight out the sides. Other than that, the rest that was visible was about the same.

  They had roads and what appeared to be three-wheeled cars. Their homes tended to be more like half cylinders laid on their sides. As the drone went further toward the center of the large town or city I clearly saw multistory buildings, but they were normal squares and rectangles with large glass fronts. The lack of people there was conspicuous.

  “Well, they are not MKs, that is for sure,” Reta said.

  El asked if we saw their faces. Yes, hard to miss, they appeared to be similar to the drawings of what we called the in-between. The ones we thought were between what we were today and what we thought we were when living in the trees.

  Lucy wasn’t too familiar with those as we’d pretty much abandoned those beliefs long ago. She said, “They look very much like the early Mongols from Earth. A mix of tough short steppes people and Chinese.”

  “Does not matter what they look like as humans, they look like all of us, and capable of helping,�
�� Tici said.

  “Staff conference, mess-tent,” El said.

  We all sat around, every month seemed to add more people, well, we were expanding. El asked, “Best approach?”

  “Calm, easy, quiet I’d say. We don’t want to spook them and get them afraid of us as invaders,” Garth said.

  “True, but we need to show ability to use force as well,” Tici said.

  “Eldon?” El asked me.

  “What?” I had been thinking of the past—so wrong for so long.

  “What do you think?” El asked.

  “Sorry, thoughts went elsewhere. I think maybe Lucy and I or some other representative, and possibly Reta, should try to make contact. Lucy for language analysis, Reta to see if she can read anything, and me as a male Olgreender for diversity and to try to cover Reta.”

  “Why not Garth or Tici?” El asked.

  “You want someone close to them in stature. Sorry, Tici and Garth are so muscle-bound they could scare them, make them feel intimidated. No, someone more normal. Doesn’t have to be me. Reta represents both our female cultures well, but their males are few and too tall to be representative of the majority of us. Just thoughts.”

  “Good ones, too,” Lucy said.

  They listened to other ideas and soon El called it quits as we were rehashing the same ideas. “Thank you all. Now clear out and let me have Command Staff only,” El said.

  Well, it had grown slightly now that Garth and Tici and others were part of it, but my wife’s absence was felt—by me anyway.

  They hashed around a bit more then El made her decision and we were done.

  Two nail guns and two 20MMs would stay along with the chopper and fort, everything else would be withdrawn. We’d do it quietly.

  Two days later we found we had not been unobserved but not approached. A recon RPV was heading back and just before landing the screen showed two men on foot near a ridge a couple miles away. What looked like a large scope mounted on a tripod was there and back a few yards into the valley behind them sat a little four-wheeled machine towing a small two-wheeled cart.