Space Chronicles: The Last Human War (13 page)

The Wall
.

The shroud of light surrounding Simon faded, and gravity resumed its familiar pull. His legs wobbled as weight returned, and tingling in his fingertips subsided. Simon shook his arms.

“Welcome, Simon.”
It was the voice from The Wall.

“Where am I?”

Simon found it difficult to distinguish features in the dim light. He seemed to be in the center of a small room, but there were no doors or furniture, only empty space.

A low
-pitched hum developed behind him. He turned around, and air in the middle of the room began to shimmer. Distortions formed into a very old man, much older than any person Simon had ever seen in a quarry. The old human wore a long white coat and shoes similar in appearance to Tanarac worker boots.

“Hello, I am Dr. Boroski. You may call me Omar, if you wish. That is my given name.”

Simon had seen holograms before, but this man seemed real. He was not at all like the typical holo-image.

“Yes, I am a hologram of my former self. You must have many questions. Where would you like to start?”

Simon repeated his first question. “Where am I?”

“You’re inside a space
ship, a human space vessel.”

“Spaceship? That’s impossible
. We’re inside a mountain.”

“Ah, the mountain. That was quite an outstanding accomplishment
.” The old man became animated as he talked. “Dr. Moore, God rest her soul, she was a brilliant geophysicist. She devised an ingenious plan to manufacture and displace magma using our proximal energy field. The field discharge rate had to exactly match our volumetric displacement of fluid rock as we descended. Variances in strata density made it quite challenging. She manually adjusted the—”

The hologram
stopped himself when he noticed the confused look on Simon’s face.

“I’m sorry,
young man. I tend to get carried away. We can discuss that later. Right now, there are more pressing matters. Tell me, what do you know about the Human War?”

Simon shared his recently expanded knowledge. The hologram listened patiently.

“Unfortunately, that’s accurate,” the hologram said. “Toward the end of the war, I was Chairman of the Science Directorate on Earth. Our military was losing and turned to my department for more lethal weaponry.

“After
the Tanarac Empire joined the Alliance, the sheer volume of enemy warships overwhelmed our fleets. Those of us in the Science Directorate knew the war would soon arrive at Earth’s doorstep. There was nothing we could do to stop it.”

One question bothered Simon since the first time he read
about it a few days earlier.

“After Tanarac withdrew from the Alliance,
” he asked, “was the Earth really destroyed?”

“Yes. Completely incinerated.
The crew of this ship were the only humans to survive.”

“How did you escape?”

“We were testing a radical new thrust technology—much faster than anything else in the galaxy. We hoped it might save thousands of lives. There was still enough time to move many of our people to distant regions in space where they might survive.”

Simon mistakenly presumed the outcome of Dr. Boroski’s comments.

“How many of our people got out, and where are they now?”

“Alas, things didn’t work
out as we had hoped.” Dr. Boroski stared a moment into some distant and painful memory.

“Our new propulsion system incorporated the external structure of the ship. In essence, the skin of the ship acts as both its fuel reserve and propulsion system
, leaving no place to mount weapons. It was suited only to carrying cargo or perhaps for military reconnaissance. Our leaders ordered us to suspend development of this technology. They only wanted better weapons.”

The hologram scientist paced slowly
with his arms clasped behind his back while he talked.

“Despite orders
from the military, my colleagues and I secretly developed this prototype ship. It incorporates the new theories. I assume you’ve heard of Vagern-Clunn’s time distortion equations.”

Simon shook his head.

“Someday, I’ll explain it to you. For now, all you need to know is that this propulsion system would extend our range far beyond threats posed by the Alliance. We planned to build a fleet of these ships and save as many people as possible, but the end came much too fast.”

The old-man hologram paused
while he thought back.

“
Only this one experimental ship was ever built. It was designed to leave Earth with over a thousand of our people, yet, we barely escaped with our own lives. Thirty-nine of us. That’s all. We took the ship into deep space for flight tests. When we returned, the Alliance had surrounded Earth. From safety behind a moon of Jupiter, we watched. Tanarac’s commander negotiated a truce with our people, but Heptari leaders rejected it. In response, the entire Tanarac fleet withdrew from the blockade. We monitored satellite images as the Heptaris incinerated our home world. Even the atmosphere was blown into space.”

Simon knew holograms did not feel emotions, yet Dr. Boroski seemed genuinely upset about the fate of Earth.

“The departure of all those Tanarac ships caused a massive gravity distortion field outside our solar system, temporarily blacking out nearby sensors. We entered the turbulence corridor behind the Tanarac ships and navigated visually until we reached deep space. It was actually an impressive bit of flying by our ship’s pilot. Once in deep space, he hid us in distortion residue until the last of the Tanarac fleet vanished in a gravity loop. We were alone in deep space.”

“What about your families?” Simon was intrigued
. “How could you leave them?”

“We didn’t. We remained in deep space, hiding in
asteroid fields for months. After the Alliance ships left, we returned to Earth, hoping to find survivors. Unfortunately, Heptari bombardments destroyed everything. They even directed low frequency energy beams into sealed bunkers deep underground. There were no survivors.

“At that point, we proceeded the only way we could. We decided to look for vestiges of humankind, perhaps hidden in some distant
star systems. We hoped to rebuild our race far from Alliance threats. We pledged our lives to that mission.”

“Is that how you ended up here at Tanarac?”

“Well, yes and no. We didn’t come here initially. It would have been silly for us to approach the home world of one of our enemies. When Dr. Fine suggested it, we all thought she had gone a bit daft. Then, we saw her logic. She argued that the long-term survival of the human race would require two conditions. First, we needed a human compatible place to live. Second, we would need a sufficient gene pool to support a healthy population. We had neither of those by ourselves. In fact, all but two of the female scientists among us were beyond childbearing years.”

Simon quickly grasped the logic
. “So, you figured Tanaracs would not kill their prisoners, and since they are a major power, humans would live safely, even if in captivity.”

“Very intuitive, young man. That simple
reality was the genesis of our plan. We remained hidden in deep space for almost a full Earth year waiting for the Alliance races to finish dividing the Earth Empire. We used the time to complete our space trials, and made a few refinements to our ship’s original design.

“Many times during that year, Heptari communications demand
ed that Tanarac surrender their humans. Tanarac always refused, each time, promising that human prisoners of war would die at the end of normal life expectancies. They claimed to have suspended all reproduction of humans to assure the outcome. We hoped a day might come when we could negotiate with the Tanaracs for the release for our people—before they got too old to reproduce.”

“How did you get inside this mountain without being detected?”

The young man shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

“I’m sorry,
” the hologram said. “I forgot what it was like to have physical mass. Please, have a seat.”

A small section of wall near Simon thrust into the room creating a bench. It looked hard but was surprisingly comfortable when he sat on it.

“As I was saying, getting hidden on Tanarac didn’t turn out to be as difficult as we expected. Many asteroid belts around this system made it easy for us to get close to the planet. We initially stayed out of sight in the edge of the last asteroid field to monitor communications and study their planet. It didn’t take long for us to locate the human colonies. Most were in mining camps next to the Central Jungle. We chose this place, because it is centrally located to them.”

Dr. Boroski motioned to the center of the room and a small
, three-dimensional image of Tanarac formed in the air. The image rotated slowly on its north-south axis before slowing to a stop above a large, mostly green continent surrounded by a vast blue sea. The image magnified as if the observer was approaching the planet at a high speed. Green landmass began showing markings of cities and outlying agriculture. The image rotated slightly before centering on one particularly large area of green with a single brown dot at its center.

“This is the actual recording of our approach to the surface of Tanarac. Planetary radar was easily fooled.”
The scientist explained the changing view. “See that brown spot in the center? That is Mount Vaal.”

The small, brown smudge grew until it filled the entire image grid.
Images progressed down into the ancient crater as rugged walls of the extinct volcano rose around the ship. The changing scene slowed to a stop just above the basin floor.

“The hardest part of this journey was penetrating the core of the mountain. Dr. Moore directed a narrow beam of time-phased energy into the primary magma shaft of the volcano. It was sheer brilliance.
Porous red-rock slipped into a time shear, and, as it returned to proper time phase, the resulting energy release liquefied it. We simply flew through the magma pool, until we reached this depth. We’ve been here ever since. It’s been nearly three hundred years since we hid inside Vaal.”

“So,
you were the first free humans on Tanarac?”

Simon scooted further up on the bench and leaned back against the wall.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just a little tired.”

“Perhaps you’ll be more comfortable with this.”

The hologram pointed
toward the wall next to Simon, and something resembling a bed extended into the room. The young man wasted no time moving onto the soft offering. The floating image of Mount Vaal followed him, repositioning directly above where he now rested.

“
Touch it,” Dr. Boroski encouraged.

“But, it’s not
real,” Simon protested, but complied with the hologram’s instruction.

As he expected, his finger passed right through the image of rock walls.

“See, it’s not real. I can’t touch it.”

“Try again,
only this time, close your eyes. Touch it with your mind at the same time.”

“What do you mean? That doesn’t make sense.”

Despite his skepticism, Simon closed his eyes and pictured the image above. He quickly thrust his finger forward, expecting the same result as before.

“Ouch!”

Simon opened his eyes, startled by the impact against his finger. He reached up, more carefully this time, and again his hand passed through the image of the mountain with no sensation of substance.

“What happened?”

“It’s all in your mind. This time, feel the image with your mind and finger at the same time.”

Simon wasn’t sure what the scientist meant, but he tried. He pictured the rock in his mind as he looked at it. His finger reached the image, but instead of passing through, it touched solid
rock that felt cold and hard. Curiosity got the better of him, and he pushed against the image. The mountain moved away under his touch. When he withdrew his finger, the image floated back to its original position.

“Doc, it’s solid! How’d that happen?”

The hologram smiled knowingly.

“You have just discovered something important about yourself. We’ll talk more about that later. Right now, you need to know the rest of the story of the free human society.”

“We’ll be in the quarry with the scout glider just after dark. When can you meet us, Kob?”

“Sorry, Dr. Hadje. I can’t get there for a few days. I got transferred to a Tang fighter when the lizards set up a space blockade. With all the tension right now, nobody cares about that SG, but keep it hidden
until I can get there.”

“It will be safe in the quarry.
Call me on my personal comm line when you’re ready to pick it up. And, thank you for the Tobay monkey fur incident.”

“No problem, Doc. I was looking after both our interests. Make sure nobody fools around with that scout ship. It has anti-personnel cannons in the nose. They’re
live. I wouldn’t want anyone messing with em. Can you lock it in a plow shed?”

“I’ll make sure it’s secure. What’s going on with the Heptaris?”

“Dunno. I’m just following orders. They told us to take out a small lizard ship over the top pole. We did it, and then they sent us out after a couple Hep mediums that were blasting one of our old deep space Kyomes. Don’t know why she didn’t fight back. She just came around the planet at full throttle and rammed the Heptari command ship. You shoulda seen the fireworks.”

The transmission ended.

Long evening shadows were beginning to merge into full darkness when Dr. Hadje landed the small scout ship in the quarry. With assistance from his Head Tasker, he maneuvered the military glider into the outermost plow maintenance shed. An hour later, he and Jix unlocked the door to the science lab, where their remarkable journey had begun. The Director went into his private office.

“General,
” Dr. Hadje said on his crypto video, “I apologize for calling you after hours.”

“No problem, Hadje, but I’m not interested in discussing your damn humans right now. They’ve already caused enough grief for our people.”

“Byn, I need to meet with you, tonight . . . at my office. Alone. It’s urgent.”

“I’ve got a damn Heptari fleet to find. What’s so damned important that I have to see you in the middle of the night?”

“Have I ever given you reason not to trust me, Byn? I have something to show you that may have a strong bearing on our dealings with the Heptaris. You’ll be making a huge mistake if you don’t come.”

“What’s the big secret? Can’t you tell me
now?”

“
Please trust me. I need to show you something.”

“Alright, I’ll be right over, but you damn well better be right about this. I’ve already made
one big mistake today. I can’t afford another. Do you still have my ID code in your security system from my last visit?”

“You won’t need it. I’ll have my assistant meet you at the lab
’s west wing pad in thirty minutes. Thank you.”

The general
’s personal grav glider had not even shut down completely when a young Tanarac wearing a white lab coat jerked opened the pilot’s door. Jix led the complaining general through several dark halls to Dr. Hadje’s small personal lab next to the main computer room. He and the general waited in a lighted area between two tabletops, covered by scientific gadgets. The rest of the room was in shadow.

“General Tragge, I presume.” An electronic voice came out of the darkness.

“Rosh, that you? What, the hell, are you doing? Get outta that shadow, I can’t see you,” the old general blustered.

Before any response came from the direction of the voice, a
lab door opened to the left of the general.

“Hello, Byn. I’m over here. I see you’ve met Benjamin.”

“Benjamin?”

The g
eneral vaguely recognized the sound of a human name, but he had never actually talked to one.

Benjamin walked into the light, stopping directly in front of the general.
He was one of the few humans tall enough to look a Tanarac eye to eye.

“What’s going on here, Hadje?” It was not a question.

General Tragge looked up and down the human leader, as he spoke.

“Shouldn’t he be in a quarry? What’s the matter with you, Rosh? We just had a bunch of Heptari scan
s for human life signs. Are you outta your mind?”

The doctor
stepped next to the human in support.

“General Tragge, my name is Benjamin. I would like to thank you for defending my people today. Our future depends—”

“I wasn’t defending humans!” General Tragge bristled. “I protected my home world, and I stood for Tanarac values. If I had my way, I’d send all of you damn humans off to an isolated planet and let you deal with Heptari spaceships by yourselves.”

“Damn it, Byn!”
The senior scientist experienced a rare moment of lost temper. “Shut up, and hear what this man has to say.”

Benjamin did not react defensively. He understood the general’s hostility.

“I appreciate your feelings, General. Regardless of your motivation, the result was the same. My race continues to exist, thanks to sacrifices by your people.”

“Rosh, why are we listening to this human?”
The general ignored Benjamin. “His damn opinions are irrelevant. Send him back to whatever quarry he came from.”

Dr. Hadje
stepped in front of the general, obscuring the view of Benjamin.

“Benjamin is the leader of a society of free humans. He is not from any of our quarries.”

“What do you mean ‘free’ humans? How’d he get on Tanarac?” The general tried to look over the tall scientist’s shoulder. “Where are you from, human?”

“He’s not from another planet. He lives right here on Tanarac.”

“Impossible! Our satellites scan for runners, in case any of them survive. We haven’t detected a single survivor in two centuries.”

Benjamin stepped
out from behind the Tanarac scientist.

“General, we live in peace in the jungle. We’ve lived there for over two hundred years. Your satellite scans are easy for us to defeat. My people scout for runners
and save them from wild animals and from detection by your satellites.”

The old
military leader caught the human reference to the jungle and became irate.

“Are you saying you
, humans, are defiling our holiest ground? Unacceptable!”

Benjamin attempted reason.

“Sir, we are peace-loving people. In two hundred years, we have not experienced a single incident of violent behavior. If you come visit us, you will see how we—”

The general rejected
the offer before Benjamin could complete his thought.

“No
. And, I guarantee all of you, so-called, ‘free humans’ will be living in quarries, where you belong, within a week. I’ll see to it personally.”

General Tragge stormed out of Dr. Hadje’s office with the head scientist in close pursuit.

“You’re not leaving here until you’ve heard me out!” the doctor called ahead to the fast walking general, but the angry military leader ignored the comments as he charged down one hall after another, headed for the main exit.

“Byn, stop
—stop, right now!” Dr. Hadje demanded.

The general’s anger-driven pace continued without slowing.
The Human Management Director stopped abruptly and spoke into the air around him.

“Emergency security override. Hadje, one, one, seven, one.”

General Tragge hit the automatic doors in full stride. There was a tremendous impact as the heavyset general bounced off locked doors and landed on his bottom in an undignified posture for a decorated senior officer. Enraged, the general jumped to his feet.

“
Release that security lock, now!”

“Not until you’ve heard me out
, Tragge.” Dr. Hadje stood toe-to-toe with the imposing general.

“Damn you, I’ve got a war on my hands. I can have you arrested for treason if you don’t let me go, right now. Open those doors!”

“I’ll take my chances. We’re going to finish this discussion, first.”

“
As soon as I get back to my command center, I’m gonna send my recon units into the jungle to find your damn loose humans. We’ll put them right back in captivity, where they belong.”

“
You can’t do that. You’ll be breaking Tanarac law. These free humans completed the tests stipulated in the original Human Act, three hundred years ago. By our own laws, they are free citizens now. Byn, these humans ARE Tanarac citizens by birth . . . with full legal rights!”

General Tragge paused, confused by
the reasoning.

“Humans are not Tanaracs
. They’re humans. And, they’re no different than they were three hundred years ago. What about the one who attacked your Tasker?”

“
The human who attacked my Tasker is part Tanarac. He’s not even completely human. Free humans are one hundred percent human, and they have not had a single incidence of violence in two hundred years.”

Dr. Hadje extended his logic to a new level. “
Why do we have jails on Tanarac?”

“I don’t have time for verbal games. You know damn well, every society, no matter how peaceful, will have a few deviants who end up in jail. What’s that got to do with humans?”

“Tell me, Byn, how does two hundred years without a single crime compare to our own Tanarac crime rate?”

“
You know their history. This race is more dangerous than any other sentient species in the galaxy. Why do you think we had to join that damn Human War?”

Dr. Hadje ignored
the general’s rhetorical question.

“These free humans lived for two hundred years without a single inciden
ce of violence. Not one! There’s not another city anywhere in the Tanarac Empire with a zero crime rate.”

“Look Hadje, I appreciate your support for these humans. That’s your job. If a handful of free humans happened to get along for a couple centuries, that doesn’t reflect their behavior as a civilization. You should know that
. You’re the stinking behavioral scientist.”

“I’ve been to their community. There’s more than a handful. They number over a thousand, and they exist in several locations. They’ve lived in peace the whole time, and they’re not all runners.” Dr. Hadje hesitated a moment before completing his thought. “Some are freeborn.”

General Tragge’s jaw hung slack at the notion of a thousand free humans hiding in the Central Jungle . . . and breeding.

“That’s impossible.”

“I thought the same thing, until yesterday. We, scientists, failed to genetically engineer humans into a peaceful race, yet they accomplished the goal by themselves, living free and while in hiding. They are every bit as peace-loving as any Tanarac citizen.”

The general’s
hard line began to crack. “Obviously, they have to return to our camps, at least until we figure out what to do with them. They can’t stay in the Central Jungle.”

“
These are free Tanarac citizens. They do not belong in captivity. We need to find a better way to solve this problem. That is why I asked you to come over here tonight. I need your support at the council tomorrow. As you know, law compels me to report this discovery.”

“
By all that is holy, Rosh, your timing couldn’t be worse. We have serious problems with Heptari aggression, and, now, we have free humans living on our home world, and in our most sacred land. At the very least, they’ve gotta be removed from the Central Jungle.”

“Security release, Hadje four, one, nine, two.” Dr. Hadje stepped out of the general’s way so that he was free to exit.

The secured doors made a subtle clicking sound as the locking mechanism retracted.

“You are free to go,
General. I must present this to the Council of Governors in the morning. I need your help. Will you please stay?”

The old general approached the unlocked doors. He looked back at his political nemesis and thought a moment before following
his old adversary and friend back to the office. Benjamin and Jix rose from laboratory stools as the two Tanaracs entered. General Tragge strode straight up to Benjamin.

“So tell me, Benjamin, are all free humans as tall as you?”

Both managed an uncomfortable smile.