The Apprentice Starship Engineer: Book One The Link (15 page)

* * * *

Twelve hours and two pots of coffee later, I closed the access cover on the EEV and then started the system check. We decided not to leave before morning.

After putting Sandra to bed, I called Mike and reported about the attack. We decided to recall both EEVs and let everyone know about the code C together. Torance hadn’t noticed any changes in the alien communication.

Once I closed the communication with Mike, I crawled in next to Sandra, who was still dressed in full battle field gear. I went to roll to my side, but one of my grenades dug into my hip so I lay on my back and took her hand. What a pair, I thought as I looked over, checking the location of my rail gun. It was close and indicated full charge. I closed my eyes and slipped into a light sleep.

* * * *

I woke up first, carefully so I wouldn’t get shot. I slipped out to get some coffee and breakfast. The energy bars I’d lived on yesterday just didn’t cut it. Sitting on the side of our bed, I ate as Sandra drank my coffee. I told her about the alien signal and code C.

She laughed. “Being your girlfriend is getting harder all the time. If I agree to be your wife and have six kids, we’re going to have to be friends with those aliens or kick some ass.”

“Yep. You think I’m worth it?”

“Hmm, I might have to contract for forty years.”

“You going to get your lazy butt out of bed?”

“Maybe.”

It was a struggle, but I managed to get some studying done as we followed the EEV to camp. After we got Massa put away inside a more permanent stasis chamber, Mike called. We decided to have a meeting in the cafeteria that evening to let everyone know about the aliens and code C. Mike, Torance and I met that afternoon to make a plan for the meeting. It was obvious Torance was in no shape to make a presentation so I took his part. While Mike got the hard part of explaining our decision to send code C.

As we got ready to go the meeting, Sandra stopped me and strapped a blaster around my waist.

“What the hell Sandra really?”

“Bullies resort to violence when they think they can get away with it. Think of this as a visual aid for them.”

“Everyone else will be offended by this.”

“Let them be offended. Remember the bears,” she said. I sighed.

The room was full and loud. The crews were mad about being pulled back and were voicing their discontent to anyone who’d listen. I started the meeting. The room took a few seconds to settle down. I found Sandra sitting in the front row with a blaster strapped to her waist. She looked cool real bad ass.

I showed slides of the graphs, and talked about the modulation. I told them how we’d tried to isolate for the possibility of our own equipment generating the signal. The room went silent as I conveyed my confidence that it was alien in origin, and that the aliens were more technically advanced than us. I concluded by saying we believed the signals were coming from space and nearby around our camp. I took questions, and got several technical questions. From physics disciplines I was able to answer them clearly.

One of the security personnel stood. “Drake, we have no choice. Everyone in this room knows it. We have to send code C, and should have sent it already. We all knew if we ran into an alien race we’d be abandoned.”

The room was silent, many people were nodding. I looked at Mike, who walked toward the podium as everyone talked among themselves. One of the scientists stood and demanded we send code C immediately.

Another man stood and yelled, “We’ll be stranded here forever. This is where we’ll die.”

Several people turned on him. “You knew the risks,” one shouted.

Mike raised his arms, then resorted to pounding on the table to bring the room to order. “We all signed up knowing if we encountered an alien race we’d be abandoned, and that in all probability no one would attempt to rescue us. We were to destroy star charts and records that could lead aliens to our homes. There are no options. We all signed, promising we’d wipe out our records and send code C.”

A man jumped up. “Code C that means they don’t care about us. We’re dead. They have no responsibility to save us.”

Mike nodded. “Yep, you said it. Forty-three hours ago, we sent the
Armstrong
code C.”

Another man stood. “You bastard, we didn’t even get a chance to vote on this.” The room roared.

Mike pounded on the table, shouting, “There’s no damn vote on this. Are you mental?” The room quieted slightly. “We had no choice. Sorry, but that’s what you signed up for. Your next of kin will be told you’re dead. Did you read before you signed?” The room got quiet. “This is where we are. Code C has been sent. There is nothing to do about that now. We have aliens who are watching us. You’re scientists. What do we do now?” He turned and walked off the stage. The room erupted in many conversations.

Many were angry and loud. Sandra came and grabbed my hand. “Time to go, dear.”    

Chapter 11: The Jackson-Hinton Massacre

It was a beautiful night, walking to our home. I held her hand. The stars were bright, and the air was warm. As we arrived at our quarters, Margret sounded an alarm. Power surge, section thirty-five. Warning power dropping alarms went off all over the compound. Sandra shoved me inside, then set the building’s force field.

“Margret, bring up the video, section thirty-five, fifteen seconds before the anomaly.”

The section appeared, covering the wall. After a few seconds, the trees shook, and a huge creature ran out straight toward the fence. It slammed into the force field, but kept trying to bust through. Lightning flashed, and it started burning. Falling to the ground, it flopped about in pain, its six legs flailing in the air.

“If several of those animals hit at the same time, they could bridge the fence,” I said.             

“We need to go and inspect that animal.”

We took the rescue vehicle and ten security personnel. Mike came with us. The beast was still burning when we arrived. The security personnel took positions around the dead animal.

“Stay close,” Sandra said as she pulled me next to her. “Use your eye. Can you see any natives?”

We stood in the doorway of the rescue vehicle. I panned the trees, looking for natives, picking out a dozen, then more. Maybe hundreds.

From across the compound, I heard a roar and screaming. “Margret, show me the video from section five.” A dozen of the beasts charged the force field. “It was a feint. The real attack is at section five.”

Mike called his men back, but the natives attacked. He changed his orders, having them stand fast and open fire on the attackers.

“Margret, sound the alarm. Have everyone take shelter inside a building. Bring up the buildings’ force fields as soon as possible,” I said.

“Done. The natives have breached the wall and are entering the compound at section five. Seven hundred have entered,” she said.

“Margret, show me the video.”

The beasts were piled up and over the force field wall. Natives climbed over their dead bodies, gaining entry to the compound. As I watched, the beasts caught fire, and the flames stopped more natives from crossing. The seven hundred were having no luck breaking into the buildings.

A group of men ran out of a building lead by Jackson and Hinton. They fired at the natives. It was a slaughter. The natives didn’t have a chance.

Sandra screamed, “Make them stop.”

They pushed the natives into a corner of the compound. The dead bodies were piling high.

“Margret, can you drop the shield wall behind the natives?”

“Yes.”

The natives discovered the shield was down and ran for freedom. I watched in horror as people kept firing, shooting more in the back as they ran for cover. A fight erupted as another group of scientists ran out and attacked the first group, knocking them to the ground. Bodies lay everywhere. It was a ghastly sight. Sandra was crying. Many people who’d been shooting stood looking in horror at what they’d done.

I told Margret to please raise the shield. The fighting was over, and the natives had withdrawn. Holding Sandra, I pulled her back into the emergency vehicle. Mike called his men, and we went to the compound. It was difficult to find a place to land that was not littered with the bodies of natives. Sandra hung off me as we climbed out, stepping over the dead.

Professor Hinton met us, waving a blaster. “See, we don’t need a stinking plan. We just go out and kill them.”

I reached down to a body and pulled its mask off, exposing her face, then rolled her over so the professor could see. She couldn’t have been more than fourteen, and might have passed for the professor’s own daughter. A group of men had assembled around the professor. I lost my temper.

“You brave men, armed with blasters, killed over three hundred people armed with darts. Look what you’ve done.  I asked you to stay inside. We could have herded them out without killing anyone,” I said.

A crowd of people had gathered behind the shooters. Someone called them bastards and another yelled, “Let’s hang the bastards.”

Hinton aimed his blaster at Sandra. “Anyone touches me and she dies.” He looked at me. “I should just shoot you.” He smiled and turned his weapon toward me.

Crack
. The sound of his arm snapping echoed off a nearby building. His weapon flew into the air. Sandra’s next hit dropped him to the ground.

She turned to Mike. “You’d better lock him up. If I see any of these people, I’ll kill them.”

“Let’s kill them now,” someone from the crowd said. A murmur of approval went through the group.

I put my arm around Sandra. She was shaking. “Ladies, gentlemen,” I said. The crowd quieted. “Enough killing. Let’s help any wounded natives. The ones who are dead have families who’ll want to claim their bodies. Take them into the clearing so they can be claimed.”

I sent Sandra to get ready for wounded and then started the grim job of checking the bodies to see if any of the natives were still alive. It was a good thing Mike had locked up the two professors and company. After I’d checked the tenth body, I was mad. By the twentieth I wanted to kill the professors. I found a young man with his hip pulverized who was still alive. We got him on an anti-gravity cart and sent him off to medical. He was the only native I found alive. Many of the natives wore masks. Some of them were of fine quality weaved out of what appeared to be grass and decorated with colored mud. As I looked at one of them, it occurred to me that someone had loved the young man who’d worn it. I kept the mask with his body as we carried him out to be claimed. We worked on into the night, moving all the bodies out so the native population could claim their dead. We arranged them with respect in rows so they would be easier to recognize.

Torance huffed and puffed as we set a big warrior down. Mike looked over at me from where he adjusted another corpse’s mask.

“That was the last one. I’m having my men double check, but we’re sure we have them. All two hundred and seventy-eight. Let’s give Jackson and Hinton a fair trial, then hang them,” he said.

I straightened, stretching my back. “I get to be the one to put the noose around their necks.”

The star started to rise, lightening the sky. Mike looked at it. “Tomorrow, after we get a good night sleep, we’ll talk about it.”

“Yeah, tomorrow then,” I said.

After checking that everyone was back inside the camp, I had Margret close the section of fence we’d been carrying the bodies through. Everyone broke up in to small groups and headed to their quarters. I saw Torance heading toward the communication building. Tired, I made my way to medical. I needed to see Sandra.

She slept in a chair in the garage where a temporary dorm had been set up. The patients were lined up in two rows. Four guards were stationed among them. They looked tired. I put my arms around Sandra and staggered as I picked her up. She doesn’t carry much if any fat. She’s all muscle and doesn’t look as heavy as she is.

She sighed, wrapping her arms around me. One of the guards smiled as he held open the door to my quarters. I struggled past him. After setting Sandra down on our bed, I pulled off her clothes and then rolled her under the covers. Leaving her sleeping, I went to the closet and rummaged around until I found the bottle Jack had given me. I poured a stiff drink and then went back to the garage. I sipped my drink and examined each patient. Three were older. The rest were just kids, fourteen, fifteen maybe. They would all fully recover, thanks to modern medicine. After finishing, I went to bed, crawling in next to a snoring Sandra and telling Margret to wake me at ten.

* * * *

I woke up without disturbing Sandra, made coffee and got a shower as she was waking. I gave her coffee in bed. She still looked tired. “I took samples of their DNA, Drake. The girl could be your sister. These people aren’t aliens. They’re humans like us.”

“Call from Mike,” Margret said.

“Put him on.”

“Drake, you should come. Something is happening. They’ve come to claim the dead.”

Sandra and I rushed out to the fence and joined by Mike and a few others. The first native emerged from the trees. He held his arms out with his palms up as he entered the clearing.

“Put your hands out like his,” I told the group.

Everyone raised their hands, palms up. More natives joined the first, and soon they removed the bodies. Our group grew. Soon everyone watched. How could one go on after losing so much? I hugged Sandra. How could I go on if I lost her?

“I came here to learn, to gain knowledge, not kill and destroy,” a woman said as tears streamed down her face.

“We have to make this right,” a man said.

“Christ, how do we make this right? Are you mental?”

The woman turned to them. “We can’t make this right, but we can keep it from happening again.” She turned to the crowd. “We’re the smart people. Find out everything. How they live, think, talk, breed, everything. First, we need to learn how to communicate with them.”

She was amazing. I watched as she mobilized everyone.

“Willy, you here?” she called.

“Yes, Diane, I’m here,” an anorexic-looking man answered.

“Get your team. Find out how to communicate with these people. We need to talk with them.” He nodded, then turned and walked toward a building. Several people followed, talking to each other. I felt the energy building as groups talked. “Listen, everyone, we can learn from the people who live here. They know the plants and animals. We can get more information from them than we could ever get on our own.”

“I thought so. We took genetic samples from the poor victims of the Hinton-Jackson massacre last night,” a young man said.

“We planted a tracking device on several of the bodies, and can see and hear them. The computer is developing a data base and is learning the language,” a young woman said.

“Very good, Dr. Lin,” Diane said. “Will you work with Professor Willy?”

She smiled. “Certainly.” She turned, heading off to follow Professor Willy.

The crowd dissipated as the natives had removed the bodies. I started to leave, but Diane stopped me. “Drake, do you still need another member for the board?” I nodded. “I’ll take on that responsibility.”

“Sorry. Diane, I didn’t get your full name.”

“Oh. Professor Diane Livingston.”

“I have to check with Mike,” I said, “One moment.” I look around. After finding Mike, I called him over. He looked tired. “Mike, I’ll be brief. This is Professor Diane Livingston. She has volunteered to be on the board. Is that okay with you?”

Mike nodded. “Good. We need you,” he said taking her hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Professor Livingston.”

She smiled. “Thanks. Call me Diane.”

“Welcome aboard, Diane. Let’s meet tomorrow,” I said.

“Tomorrow at the admin building at six?” Mike asked.

“Yeah, six, if that’s good for you, Diane?” She nodded.

Sandra looked at me, and said, “You look like shit. You’d better take a nap or something.”

I walked over and gave her a hug and kiss. I pulled her close as we walked to our quarters. After entering, she deposited me at the table.

“I’ll get you lunch.”

“I never felt as content as I do now,” I said.

She smiled. “Hmm, content. I don’t know. Maybe you should be hungry so you’ll like what I’ve cooked.” She set a plate of food in front of me. I was hungry and wolfed it down before she could get her own. As she sat, she frowned. “Content, huh? I’d hate to see you when you’re hungry.”

“Sandra, I’ve been thinking. We should get married.” She kept her gaze on her plate. I watched her. She didn’t answer me. “Sandra.”

“Yes, okay. Let’s do it. Today or tomorrow. Soon.”

I pulled her out of her chair, knocking over the table and swung her around the room. “Sandra, you’ve made me a happy man. You may regret this, but I promise you I won’t.”

* * * *

Mike said he’d preside over the wedding. Entering it in to the camp log would make it legal. Everything happened very fast, but not fast enough so it took place the next day.

“Welcome, everyone. We’re here to witness the wedding of Drake Wilson to Sandra Marsh. After much bickering, Drake’s last name will be Marsh. What a hassle for those of us who know the Marshes. They should have married before they’d met. Sandra has asked that if someone has a problem, no one wants to hear it. So, Drake, time to man up. You take her forever, no matter what happens?” Mike asked.

“Yeah, forever.”

“Sandra, last chance to dump this loser. So what do you say?”

She smiled. “I’m stuck. Yeah, I’ll marry Drake Wilson, and I changed my mind. I’ll take his last name, Wilson.”

“Sandra, you may kiss the luckiest man in the universe now,” Mike said.

She grabbed me and gave me the best kiss of my life.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Wilsons,” Mike said.

I spent my honey moon working on the fusion reactor. It kept sending out an alarm. Nothing was wrong. I finally found the fault in the alarm reporting board. It was an intermittent problem, and a bitch to find. Sandra was a sport and kept telling me how she’d remind me of how romantic I was on every anniversary. As I closed the panel at five thirty in the morning, I thought well, she’d only have to bring it up forty more times.