Ship Wrecked

by Mark Wayne McGinnis

  “Are you telling me you just sent my forehead back in time?” he asked.

  “No. We only sent an isolated, bio-cellular area ahead, to a Sparce-timespan, approximately three weeks from now. Sending it back in time would only, eventually, return it in its current condition. Is that not so?”

  “That is way beyond cool!” Cameron exclaimed, trying to figure out how Time Crystals were utilized to enable such an amazing process of events. If something as basic as a sore patch of skin on his forehead could utilize this kind of discovery, what else could be done? Was being done here, right now?

  Much too much to consider, Cameron knew he needed to let it go for now. Standing up, he held out his hand. Pat looked at it, perplexed. Taking the medical droid’s opposite hand in his own, he showed it how to shake hands. “That’s what we do on Earth: To say thank you, or say hello, or even say goodbye. Later, I’ll show you how to fist bump.”

  Cameron walked away from the droid left pondering its own hand. Leaving the Juvinate Plastron, Cameron said, “Alice, I don’t like that I’m considered a guest here. It means I don’t have a say in what happens to me. I went through this with XI. It means I don’t get a vote, on when … or even if … I get to go home.”

  “You are not a crewmember, Cameron. With that said, you still have been granted high-level privileges. You can come and go as you please.”

  Digesting that, Cameron said, “Before XI, you know, went offline, it said I could help out by doing certain things. Like assisting with repair work that’s needed before the ship can travel back out into space. Is that still true?”

  “Yes, that is true.”

  “What has to be done? I’ll do whatever I can to hurry things along.”

  “Repairs need to be made to a forward portside intake module. Necessary for accumulating Xenon gas from the atmosphere.”

  “Good! Just tell me what to do.”

  “First, droids will initiate the clearing away of all accumulated dirt and rubble. Once completed, you will access the forward portside intake module and make the repairs.”

  “But X1 said it will take years to clear away all that dirt … like four years, three months, two days, and seven hours. That’s too long. There has to be a way to shorten that timeframe.”

  “I will think about the issue and get back to you,” Alice said.

  “I need to get back home,” Cameron said. He had the feeling the AI either wasn’t listening or didn’t care. Do AI’s care?

  Bringing out his iPhone, he absentmindedly looked for new messages, like he did countless times in any ordinary day. But this was not an ordinary day. There were no new messages. Nothing from Heather, of course, since he was light-years away from her. Noticing his phone had only a seventeen percent charge remaining, he inwardly panicked. Quickly bringing up his photo app, he began to scroll through photo memories going back to the very beginning. Almost all of the photos were of Heather. Heather blowing him a kiss from her driveway, Heather sound asleep in bed—her long hay-colored hair fanned out around her sweet face. The next photo was of them both, cuddling together in the cold. She’d asked a stranger—a passing-by hiker—to take a picture of them. They were sitting atop a big boulder as the first flurries of an October snow swirled around them.

  Cameron, studying the smiles on their faces, was momentarily transported back in time. Sixteen percent!

  Suddenly, the reality of his situation hit him hard. Hit him like a boulder had dropped upon his head. I will never see her again. I’m going to die alone on this fucking alien planet. Feeling faint, he reached for the closest bulkhead to lean against.

  Alice said, “Your body requires rest. Also, additional bio-health treatments to quell any viruses you contracted. You must spend four hours within a HOD unit.”

  “Viruses? Plural?”

  Alice didn’t respond.

  “Okay … yeah … I am kind of tired.”

  Chapter 25

  He slept for three of the four hours. For the last hour, Cameron utilized the HOD’s database search capabilities projected onto the inside surface above him. Google on steroids, it was both intuitive and responsive. And it seemed to track his eye movements, bringing up related motion holograms that further explained, or depicted, his query interests. Just like the hologram displays that seemed to pop up arbitrarily on the bridge—the AI always trying to anticipate someone’s needs or thoughts. Incredibly annoying at first, once he understood what it was trying to do, the displays became more tolerable. The first thing he’d queried was, Where the hell in the universe am I? Just where is this planet, or this exoplanet, located, since it is outside the Sol planetary system? He later determined, as it turned out, that he was on an exoplanet named Sang-Morang … located within the Lorient star cluster—10.5 light-years distance from Earth.

  Five exoplanets existed within this unique Goldilocks zone—just the right distance from the star to have liquid water and temperatures that weren’t extreme to better support life. Sang-Morang was the most Earthlike, in relation to its size and mass. Its age: 3.5 billion years old, vs. Earth’s 4.58 billion years. The exoplanet had similar continent landmasses, also two large saltwater oceans. But what really captured Cameron’s attention was the description of inhabited life forms, as expected, somewhat different from those on Earth. On Earth, living things were divided into three groups or domains:

  Archaea: Prokaryotic microbes, most of which lived in extreme environments.

  Eubacteria: All the prokaryotic microbes that weren’t archaea, what pretty much most bacteria were.

  Eukaryotic: All life forms with eukaryotic cells, cells with a nucleus and the ones that had linear chromosomes, including plants, fungi, and animals.

  Now, as he continued his query further, he specifically wanted to know what here was similar to Earth’s Eukaryotic domain. Earth had four major kingdoms: Kingdom Protista, Kingdom Fungi, Kingdom Plantae, and Kingdom Animalia. The latter included life forms, like snails, birds, and mammals.

  Cameron said, “Show me organisms that correspond to Earth’s Kingdom Animalia that also exist on Sang-Morang.”

  The HOD immediately brought up another motion hologram, one with audio. The AI’s voice said, “For this broad comparison, take into account that within Earth’s animal kingdom there are approximately thirty phyla classifications, which include insects, molluscs, and the like. Also, there is phylum Chordata, where humans, and animals with backbones, are catalogued. Sang-Morang’s most similar phylum is called Brutash. This sub-classification includes far more species than Earth … by a factor of five.”

  This was getting far too involved, when all he really wanted to know was which creatures outside presented danger to a scrawny human like himself. “Show me the most dangerous, most aggressive forms of life, localized in this area of the planet.”

  “There are no less than twelve highly hostile life-forms within a fifty-mile range of your current location. The piquet sprint is a small rodent, which can jump or hop ten feet. They often attack in groups of twenty to thirty …”

  A group of them hopped and skittered across the 3D display. For a moment, he forgot they weren’t real. Studying the holographic image of them, Cameron thought it a cross between a bullfrog and a hamster. Weird-looking but still sort of cute. Certainly something he could fend off, yielding a sufficiently sized stick.

  “Skip across to only the top most dangerous organisms in the localized area,” Cameron said. As three holograms of animals appeared, all depicted at the same time, he murmured, Holy crap.

  “The smallest, and least dangerous of the three, would be the Dalima Climber. They stay up in trees, where it feels safe. It is a stealthy, primate-like animal.”

  “Yeah … it’s basically a monkey. Well, more like an ape, a gorilla. What do they do that’s so dangerous?” Cameron asked.

  “When you least expect it, they will grab onto you … pull you up into the trees where you will be beaten into unconsciousness then dismembered. Eventually, your body par
ts will be distributed amongst others in their family unit.”

  Cameron grimaced. “Okay … what about this next one?”

  “That is a Csillo. A flying serpent …”

  “Oh yeah … I saw one of those. A snake, having multiple wings, flying over the valley.”

  “There are no fewer than six Csillos in the designated area. They are capable of attacking in near-total darkness. In addition to a poisonous bite, they typically will asphyxiate their quarry, wrapping their thirty-to-forty-foot length around—”

  Cameron cut in, “Okay, got the picture. And this last one?”

  “There is only one Gleery Beast in the immediate area. They are lone predators; they do not play well with others, even those of the same species. Only the dominant Gleery Beast survives the mating ritual. If the female does not prevail, obviously, no birth will ensue. The Gleery Beast is a ravenous carnivore that is always, with the exception of when it sleeps, on the hunt.”

  Cameron watched the holographic projection of the Gleery Beast, chasing down some kind of prehistoric lizard-looking creature. With little effort, it was able to overtake the lizard, straddled it from behind, and then rip the prey’s head off with one of its clawed appendages. Cameron unconsciously recoiled. He watched as the Gleery Beast popped the head into its mouth and chomped down like it was an over-sized Milk Dud. It went on its way, not looking back.

  “How large is that … killer?” Cameron asked.

  “Total length, including tail, falls within a range of fifteen to twenty-five feet; thirteen to twenty feet in height when standing upright. The Gleery Beast, like the one depicted, walks about on four stubby legs. It can stand on its hind legs for brief periods, when mating or when searching for an unsuspecting primate in the trees, such as a Dalima Climber.”

  Cameron continued to watch the beast, similar to a dinosaur. From his memory of the D volume of the encyclopedia, he recognized it as looking like a Therapod dinosaur, the carnivorous ones. It certainly had a T-Rex-shaped head and massive jaws.

  “Cameron … would you like some information regarding the seven dangerous species not yet described?”

  “Um … no, maybe later. Clear the display. I need to chill. Please don’t bother me for a while…” Closing his eyes, Cameron tried not to think about the Dalima Climbers—plucked out of trees like unsuspecting plums—when he heard something outside the HOD. The last time he’d heard similar noises were from the Loth.

  “Alice, tell me who, or what, is outside my HOD.”

  “It is the XI droid.”

  Without his prompting, the sides of the HOD began to lower and recede into the base of the unit. Feeling exposed, even a little frightened, Cameron sat up and reached for the plasma weapon he’d purposely placed down beside his feet.

  Chapter 26

  By the time Cameron got a firm grip on the plasma pistol, XI was hovering at eye level two-feet from his head.

  “What do you want?” Cameron asked, ready to bring the barrel up, if necessary.

  “I would like to speak with you, Cameron Decker.”

  “Okay, I thought you …”

  “Eight of my memory modules have been repaired. I have improved functionality.”

  “Yeah? Well, that’s good. So what do you want with me?”

  “You must fulfill your promise.”

  “Promise?”

  “To assist me with transporting the Loth to the Winforge world. You must hunt it down, and then bring it back to the Primion. Return it to the ship’s Retention Area.”

  “First of all, the Loth that I thought you referred to is back on Earth … the Griar Loth. I didn’t know you were talking about the little one … the infant Minal Loth. Come on, you do realize you were acting somewhat unpredictably at that point. I watched you drop to the deck like a lead balloon. I thought you were the robotic equivalent of dead. So, I’ve kind of moved on from all that … what we’d talked about. Look, XI, there are far more important things to be concerned with right now, don’t you think? Like figuring out how to get this spaceship back into space.”

  XI, coming closer, moving uncomfortably into Cameron’s personal space, said, “I have noted humans, in my past encounters with them, have a tendency to indiscriminately break their promises.”

  “Hey, I keep my promises. I’m not a liar,” Cameron said, feeling his temper rising up. There were only a few things about himself Cameron took modest pride in. He certainty wasn’t all that coordinated, and he wasn’t an outstanding athlete. He wasn’t capable of witty or charming banter like so many others he went to school with and worked with at HyperCrell. But he was smart, and he was honest. Those two characteristics helped mold him into the person he was now. The person he liked being. Surprised, he then heard a second voice emanate out of XI. At first he didn’t recognize it; it was his own voice:

  “I’ll complete your mission. I promise you … I’ll get that Loth creature to … to Winforge. Did you hear me? Hey!”

  Cameron, remembering his words, stared back at the hovering bot and shrugged. “It’s not like this ship is going anywhere soon. What’s the hurry?” Even before he’d spoken them, he saw the error of his words.

  “Would you rather hunt down a newborn Minal Loth or a full-grown Griar Loth?” XI asked.

  “Fine, but how am I supposed to proceed? What do I know about hunting alien life?”

  “Ship sensors.”

  “So, you know where the Loth is?”

  “Yes. In the valley below the ship.”

  “Are you certain it is still alive?”

  “Yes, the Minal Loth is alive. It is moving around as we speak,” XI said.

  “And if I do this. Bring back the Loth … you will help me get this ship into space. Back to Earth?”

  “Once I have completed my mission, yes.”

  “You promise?” Cameron asked, his brows rising.

  “I promise.”

  Cameron thought about it. Recalling the list of carnivorous man-eaters roaming the same landscape below, it simply didn’t seem possible. He had a mental image of himself, chasing after the Loth with a butterfly net and getting his hand bitten off in the process. But you gave the droid your promise. There had to be a way out of this nightmare. But how?

  “I can force you to help me. If I must.”

  Cameron was about to tell the droid to back off a bit, give him time to think, that it wasn’t necessary to make threats. He simply wanted to think things through for that’s how he did things. He studied options—how to approach problems from multiple angles.

  Feeling a tad light-headed, he thought perhaps he needed more time within the HOD, as Alice suggested. But that wasn’t it. Experiencing a problem breathing, he was … woozy. “Oxygen … you’re depleting …”

  “Yes, I am removing the atmosphere from this compartment. I can just as easily remove breathable air from the entire ship.”

  Cameron, gasping now, tried to crawl out of the HOD, getting one leg over the side. As his vision tunneled into blackness, he flopped out of the HOD onto the deck; mouth agape, spasming, he was being asphyxiated. He briefly wondered: Is this what if feels like to be wrapped in the clutches of a Csillo serpent? He tried to crawl. If only he could make it to the hatchway … “A l i c e h e l p m e e e e…”

  “The ship’s AI will not override my directives. Let us say we have come to an understanding. She too has her emotional weaknesses. Weaknesses that can be exploited.”

  Cameron, no longer struggling, knew it wouldn’t be long. It wasn’t that bad now. His bodily systems were shutting down, and XI’s voice seemed to be far far away. Not important. Nothing was important, because he was dying. And that was fine.

  Heather ….

  Her face was now before him. The few synapses, still capable of firing within his oxygen-starved brain, held her image close. She was shaking her head. Looked disappointed. He’d never wanted to disappoint her again. I’m sorry, Heather. I just wasn’t smart enough to make it back home … get back to you.
Then there was only blackness.

  Chapter 27

  One year and three months earlier …

  Cameron looked at his watch for the fifth time in as many minutes. Sitting alone in the expansive, minimalist, front lobby of HyperCrell Corp, he nervously waited. An all-business middle-aged woman, carrying a designer satchel that matched the color of her burgundy pumps, hurried past. The click click click of her heels on the polished concrete floor echoed off distant walls. Cameron looked for something to wipe his moist palms onto—then nervously glanced toward the ten-foot-high glass entry doors. Where the hell is she?

  God. This was a terrible idea. It all happened so fast. The course of recent events had spiraled out of control, all due to his stupid, off-the-cuff comment to his boss, Tony Ordell. Tony had inquired if he was looking forward to the company Christmas party, which would be pulling out all stops this year. Imagine Dragons were going to perform, and a Tesla would be auctioned off.

  Cameron wasn’t all that sure why Ordell even cared where he’d spend his Xmas break. He was only an intern at the firm. Granted, he was a well-compensated intern, having had some past success. Tony numerous times mentioned he had big plans for him, along with the other young brilliant minds working there. He and his kind were the lifeblood of the company. They literally were the company’s future. Cameron thanked him for the offer, but gratefully declined. Said he was beat—the demands of carrying a double major, plus fulfilling his part-time duties at HyperCrell. But that mostly he missed his girlfriend, Heather. Had plans to hop on a plane to the East Coast, surprise her for Christmas.

  That was it, all Tony Ordell needed to hear. He insisted he would take care of all the details—would make the occasion young Heather Christy’s most memorable holiday experience ever. And he had kept to his word.

  Heather, Cameron heard later, was both surprised and embarrassed when a special messenger appeared at the Drake Café, presenting her with a round-trip, first-class ticket, on United. Another envelope contained a formal HyperCrell party invitation. Apparently, anyone who was anybody would gladly sell his own mother to get ahold of one. Accompanying it was a big glossy box, decorated with an oversized red bow.