by Thadd Evans
Table of Contents
Title Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
In the distant future, the OTA Corporation, an organization that is spread across many planets, has created elite clones called the C. The C, the smartest humans that have ever lived, fly and maintain OTA’s starships. This is the story of one of them, Jason_664, a man who no longer has to work for OTA.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Brynin 2
Copyright © 2012 Thadd Evans
ISBN: 978-1-77111-207-9
Cover art by Angela Waters
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
Published by Devine Destinies
An imprint of eXtasy Books
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www.devinedestinies.com
Brynin
Part 2
By
Thadd Evans
Chapter One
“As an architect on P L Five, I helped design and construct floating apartments for the Qoowo and Turon. Because every shoreline, ocean, mountain and desert was crowded, erecting these buildings in the sky was the best solution.”
Yeliv Aardliy
Near the bottom of the star map, D24 enlarged, making it easier to study. I peered at Greg, “Have you talked to Palk, Paley, or Yeliv?”
“Yes. Palk and Paley told me that after LN starships landed near their town, robots attacked everyone with laser rifles. Palk and Paley escaped, but the robots murdered their wives and daughters.
“Yeliv said that atomic bombs were dropped on his small town, Fresp, a floating municipality that had been designed to hover a quarter of a mile above the Grua Sea, a body of water six hundred miles north of P L Five’s equator. The blast killed his wife and children. He hopes he can find some of his cousins on Icir.”
“Very sad. The LN kill without remorse.” I shook my head, disgusted.
“Yes.
“By the way, Yar told me that she is an experienced ambassador.” He smiled.
“Interesting. What else do you know about her?”
“Yar listens more than she talks. She speaks Qoowo, Ulthe, Amboa, and at least nine other languages. She owns hundreds of SR translation software applications.”
“Amazing.” I remembered that if two humanoids were speaking to each other in English, Qoowo, Ulthe, Amboa or Aito, SR could translate both party’s speech simultaneously. Perhaps it could decipher Gdii, Etite, Lim, Dseo, Turon and Mlaan, alien languages, just as quickly.
I glanced to the left. Close to the floor, along the edge of the star map, text scrolled. In Coio province, Gra Mountain and Zyy Peak are just over thirty-eight thousand feet high. But there wasn’t any map of D24.
An out of focus D24 slowly materialized. I shook my head, disgusted.
After studying three mountains, Hmou, Bipe and Snom, I felt frustrated. Every slope was too blurred, making it impossible to spot any buildings. “This map is useless. Dortan or somebody else, whoever created it, did a lousy job.”
Greg bit his lip, upset. “I agree. You’d think they would give us better information.”
Chapter Two
“Two years ago, after many battles, our people, the Aito and Qoowo, signed a peace treaty.
“Although Paley and I managed to escape, we are troubled because we must find a tranquil planet to live on.”
Palk Yyin
According to the accelerometer, ST7 had just reached 161, 011 miles per second.
Just over four hours ago, Greg had entered room three and started inspecting the server’s photonic laser mirrors, searching for misaligned ones.
Needing to exercise, I started walking around. Out of the corner of my left eye I noticed something moving and looked up. A slender silhouette, a passenger, someone barely visible against the dark star chart, had entered the bridge.
It was Tia. The right side of her face was severely burned, the eye socket empty, a gaping hole.
I blinked, surprised. “What happened to your face?”
Tia frowned. “Normally, a facial hologram covers the burned part. Something accidentally shut it off.”
“My tablet didn’t pick up that hologram.”
She scowled. “Are you going to kick me off at D24 for breaking SP?”
“No.”
“I don’t know anybody on that planet.” She blinked nervously, a distraught expression on her countenance.
“Don’t worry.”
Her semi-transparent hologram, an eye, cheek, lips, and forehead, appeared. Within seconds, they became opaque. These features blended in perfectly with the other side of her face.
“I need to survive. Without this mask, I can’t get a job. My scarred face scares everyone.”
I smiled. “Understood. How are you getting along with the other passengers?”
She began fidgeting. “Yeliv, Palk, Paley, and Yar are friendly enough, but Bemme just keeps saying she’s hungry. Yeliv says he misses his wife and son.”
I nodded. Although my heart went out to all of them, the only thing I could do was listen patiently.
She cleared her throat, “I just wanted to stop by and say hello. I’m lonely.”
“I enjoy talking to you. The problem is that I need to inspect the barometer because it keeps measuring the air pressure incorrectly. Greg will return to the bridge within an hour and you can spend some time with him. I’m sure he would enjoy speaking to you when he finishes.”
Tia frowned, yet she didn’t say anything. My guess was that she felt I didn’t care enough to listen to everything she wanted to say.
I paused, weighing my options. “I should talk to everyone more often. If it weren’t for the fact that the telescopes, barometers, spectrometers and software needed to be repaired, I could do that a lot more.”
After biting her lip, upset,
she walked away, headed for the passenger compartment.
I felt uncomfortable because although Tia needed company, I had too many responsibilities.
There was another concern. Perhaps I should tell each passenger that once we reached D24 or Icir, all of them would be safe.
When these refugees reached Icir, they could start a new life. Unfortunately, since I didn’t know anyone on either planet, I couldn’t tell any of the passengers when they would find a job or a place to live.
Who was waiting for Tia on Icir? I didn’t know. I would talk to her later and find out what her plans were. Hopefully, I could offer some helpful suggestions, ones that would calm her nerves.
Chapter Three
“In my role as Niil’s Ambassador on P L Five, I taught many Qoowo, Ontx, Glemal, Dseo, Lim, and Embas to become better translators. Some of my students used SR software language applications. Others never used those tools, relying instead on their memories. I worked with all of them.”
Yar Massi, Niil Ambassador
Behind me, boot heels clicked louder. Someone, not Greg, had just entered the bridge. I glanced beyond my right shoulder as a humanoid silhouette, a dimly lit figure, walked through the holographic star map, a wall. It was Bemme.
“I think you saw my recent email, but I wanted to tell you in person that your ability to escape Brynin was impressive.” She grinned.
“Greg played a major role as well, but thanks.” I smiled.
She strolled away and went through the holographic star map, going back to the passenger compartment.
I looked straight ahead. Close to the ceiling, on the star map, a tiny piece of asteroid dust shot by. It had missed our ship by just over eighty feet. At the same time, my heart started pounding, a worried reaction because I realized that the telescopes hadn’t spotted the dust. If a 1/16” diameter piece of dust hit the ship, it would rip a hole in it, and air would leak out.
Behind me, the faint sound of heels scraping against the floor got louder. I glanced to the right as a humanoid silhouette walked through the star map. It was Yar. Although she resembled Homo sapiens, her forehead and high cheekbones were slightly wider than the features on any human’s face.
She stooped next to my chair, facing me, but I couldn’t tell what Yar was gazing at because she didn’t have any pupils. Unlike a human, she had three fingers and thumb. “I want to thonk you forr saving my life.”
“I appreciate it.” She had mispronounced several of her words, but I didn’t mention it because doing so would be it rude.
She raised her hand, the forefinger bent forward.
“I don’t know what that hand gesture means.”
“Ah lay wa.”
At the top of my screen a translating text came into view. Your instructions helped me adjust my seat properly, preventing me from being crushed to death. Thank you for your help.
“You’re welcome. Although software keeps track of your seat, it’s important that I update the software because your heart, veins, and arteries are unlike ours, the Aito, the Qoowo or the Gdii. Eventually, you will have to improve it.”
She tilted her head, but didn’t say word.
As far as I could tell, her earplugs hadn’t translated a single word I had just said. I placed two fingers over the bottom of my tablet.
A Niil welcome response, a greeting my tablet had created, appeared on both sides of my screen, making it possible for both us to read it. Tain, ere.
Yar smiled. “After I learn mooore vo vocabulary, we’ll talk more.”
“I’ll try to learn more as well.” Even though she had mispronounced a couple of words, Yar was doing her best, an effort that impressed me.
She pivoted and left the bridge.
A thought struck me. Because I hadn’t responded to all of her previous thank you notes, just one or two, I felt I was being irresponsible. Hopefully, sometime in the future, I could spend more time speaking to her.
Chapter Four
“At ST7’s near light speeds, the nanorobots, tiny devices which inspect and repair the photonic computer cables, break down because they are twisted and yanked apart by constant hull vibration, acceleration and deceleration.”
Greg Thompson, co-pilot of ST7
Greg sat down.
“Tired?”
“Yes. I’ve been inspecting telescope lens and reinstalling altimeter software,” he murmured, pausing every few seconds to collect his thoughts.
“Both of us need more time to relax. How is Paley doing?”
Greg’s mouth twisted, becoming a frown. “He’s worried. According to him, his friends heard that eight hundred thousand LN foot soldiers and armed humanoid clones killed over a million unarmed beings, including Qoowo, Ulthe, Turon, Etite, Lim, Mlaan, Amboa and Dseo.
“He also said that just before ST Seven left Brynin, the only way his friends could communicate was by using their tablets because LN robots had destroyed all their ships, telescopes and radio transmitters.”
“In addition to that, Palk and Paley’s town, Hovi, was destroyed by shelling, tanks, LN robots and Etite clones. Both of them left in darkness and hiked across a plain as their town burned.
“Later that night, after climbing several mountains, they found a Series One spacecraft in a remote canyon, climbed aboard, and it took off. Just before they reached Brynin, many of the surrounding Aito, Ulthe, Turon and Lim ships were shot down by the LN.”
I paused, shocked by the horrible story. “Tia told me that the LN dropped atomic bombs and nerve gas on Etite and Dseo villages.”
Greg, a stunned expression on his face, pressed his lips together. “Then Palk and Paley glanced at each other, and Palk used his ID tablet to answer my questions. When he was finished, both of them kept silent. I felt that they were tired of talking about the war.”
I nodded. “Anything else?”
“Palk just kept saying he despised the fact that he had to wait in the terminal.”
I paused, imagining mushroom clouds rising above burning towns. I had never seen this kind of devastation. Hopefully, I never would. Chills ran down my spine.
Chapter Five
On screen, our parachute-like solar sail opened, and our ship began slowing down.
“Have the primary cosmic rays affected Yar, Tia or anyone else?” I looked at Greg.
He shook his head. “According to the latest scans, their white blood cell count is normal.”
“Good.” If bacteria or viruses began multiplying, white blood cell production increased, and the white blood cells attacked the bacteria or viruses.
Greg’s expression change and he blurted out, “There aren’t any oceans. According to this screen, D24 is completely covered by mountains.”
At the bottom of a screen scrolled a text message from our client. Deliver the packages to a house at latitude N24.421323 degrees, longitude E91.47522 degrees.
Along the edge of the map, at the bottom of the Xah Gorge, next to a white house, I noticed a small landing pad. We had to drop straight down, then turn abruptly several times to reach the pad or ST7 would smash into cliffs.
According to the map, the right side of the platform was attached to the bottom of a cliff. I had to touch down directly in the center of the platform or else the ship’s port side wheel would miss it, ST7 would tip over, and plunge to the bottom of the gorge.
However, according to the map, there was only a two-foot clearance between the starboard wing tip and the cliff.
I clenched my teeth.
A section of the map, not the entire chart, came into view.
“Greg, can you x-ray and stat that platform?” The results of both probes would tell me how strong the platform was. If the structure was made of wood, carbon nanotubes, plastic, or concrete, Bayesian-like statistical software would tell us how durable it was. If the rating was below thirty percent, we would have to land close by. However, if the dirt was too soft, ST7 would tip over after we touched down.
He sighed. “I’ll give you the resu
lts in eleven minutes.”
“I wish you could do it faster.”
He scowled. “That’s impossible. I’m doing the best I can. I have to rearrange six thousand variables.”
As my heart started racing, a nervous reaction, ST7 accelerated, plummeting, straight down.
Near the middle of the map, the platform vanished—was replaced by an eagle eye view of the cliffs, a location directly below our craft.
At the top of a white screen, the tip of the port wing barely missed a snow-covered ledge.
Greg blurted, “Be careful!”
I blinked.
On another screen, a purple blue one, the tip of the starboard wing went through an icy overhang—smashing the ice to bits.
Greg muttered, “Shit!”
According to a monitor, we had just reached 120 miles per hour. The ship was descending too fast. If either wing hit a cliff, a wing would break off.
I called out, “Ded,”—our spacecraft decelerated, 5 percent.
Along the edge of a gray screen, one covered by a grid, snowflakes blew across the platform, a slick surface.
In front of the grid, several inches from the bottom of it, holographic text enlarged. Platform is 26,103 feet below ST7.
Near the top of a white screen, warning text started flashing. IMPACT ALERT. THE PORT WING IS GOING TO HIT A CLIFF IN FIVE SECONDS.
I rammed my fingers through computer syntax, a floating hologram. Starw.t.s. In less than a second, ST7 veered starboard—that wing tip missed an overhanging rock by inches.
Greg spat, “That was close!”
Along the edge of an ivory screen, three hundred feet directly beneath the port wing, I noticed a protruding boulder. Warning text flashed. IMPACT ALERT. THE STARBOARD WING TIP IS GOING TO SMASH INTO CLIFF.
Much to my surprise, the wind knocked our ship starboard—the starboard wing tip broke through an overhanging snowdrift.
“Isn’t another part of the gorge wider?” My adrenaline pumped faster.
Greg huffed. “I’ll check into it.”
At the bottom of a monitor, in front of us, overhanging rocks blocked our path. If we flew straight ahead, they would tear off the wings.
