The Sakkara

by Donald Nicklas

  Chapter 5 - Heimat

  The Romani group walked the three kilometers to the location of the freighter. The planet had an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere with a slightly higher percentage of oxygen than Earth, but close to the same amount in the atmosphere of Nova Romae. They felt comfortable in their normal combat gear and the ambient temperature was 16 degrees Celsius, a nice spring night. The planet was covered with all manner of vegetation and there was a tree canopy. Oddly, the trees only grew in the hilly areas, rather than the valleys. Either that was their nature or the humans had cleared the valleys for other purposes. Alaya hoped they had not landed in an area meant for farming, but they had not seen anything that resembled farm fields when they checked the landing area. They finally went over the hills and reached the next valley that contained the freighter. As they neared the antique ship, they could see that it was in worse shape than it appeared from orbit. On close examination, it was obvious that the freighter was actually cobbled together out of fragments from other ships and Christopher soon realized that they were looking at the remnants of all three freighters that went through the wormhole eight centuries before. The loading ramp was down and the group entered the ship by climbing the ramp. The Slones were hoping the ship was used as a domicile so they could make contact with a limited number of inhabitants. Walking into the settlement without a proper introduction would be the least desirable outcome. Half the squad stayed on the ramp with their shields up and swords out. The Slones and the other half of the squad entered the ship with Decanus Howard Davis in command. As soon as they entered the ship, they could see it was just a shell with no working parts. The ramp was on the side of the vessel and they moved forward towards the bow to check out the bridge. All of the doors were open and the group soon arrived on the bridge. It was a standard freighter bridge of an older design. Alaya had no expectation that the batteries for the consoles were still viable, but all scouts carried extra batteries. She only hoped they would fit into an eight hundred year old console, since this ship could only have come from the group sent here by Commander Hammond’s wormhole drive. Alaya went to the navigation console and plugged in a battery. The console was completely dead. She next tried the engineering console, since there was no weapons’ console on a freighter. As the battery made contact, the console suddenly came to life. The lights on the console went on and read outs began to appear. It was soon evident that the engines were missing; however, the wiring to some of the lighting was still connected. Alaya then went over to a wall panel and placed another battery into a socket on the panel. As soon as the battery was in the socket, the bridge lights came on, at least enough of them to see without personal lights. Someone was keeping the interior clean, that much was evident since there was little dust on the panels.

  Suddenly, there was a noise in the corner and some items fell down as a dark mass bolted into the light and headed for the exit. Standing at the only entrance to the bridge was Decanus Davis who only had to put his shield up and let the runner hit it and bounce off backwards. The Slones ran over to the prostrate runner and discovered it was a teenager. As soon as the light hit his face, they could see pure panic in his expression.

  “Please, I’m sorry I was in here. Please don’t tell the High Priest,” The boy said.

  Alaya tried to assure him he was not in danger. He was speaking human standard but an archaic form that Alaya had to listen to carefully to understand it. She asked the boy to speak slowly. “We are not with the High Priest. We are visitors here and we would like to meet with the leaders of your settlement. What’s your name?”

  Alaya still had her helmet on with the face shield down and, combined with her armor and shield, looked very intimidating to the boy. “My name is Heinz Weber,” the boy said, the fear still palpable in his speech. “Are you gods?”

  Alaya and the others were taken aback at this question. “What makes you think we are gods?”

  “Only the High Priest and gods can enter this temple.”

  “And yet you are here.”

  The boy looked scared when this last statement was made. “Please, don’t sacrifice me,” the boy said and then burst into tears.

  The Slones helped him up and sat him on an old crate. The Romani were satisfied to let Alaya continue dealing with the boy. The Decanus told his troops on the ramp to pull back to the top of the ramp so they were not visible if anyone were to come by, since he could see that dawn was starting to break. They maintained their position across the ship entrance at the top of the ramp. Alaya continued questioning the boy.

  “We do not sacrifice anyone. What makes you think that we would?”

  “The High Priest takes some of us for sacrifice to the minions of the god Navigator.”

  “Where is this god?” Alaya asked.

  “Follow me,” And the boy lead them to the main cargo hold. There they were confronted with a dark hold, which they lit with their hand held lights. To their shock, in the middle of the cargo hold stood a statue labeled ‘The Navigator’ and to the Slone’s shock, on that pedestal was a statue of Julia Hammond. That was disturbing enough, but on either side of the statue were smaller statues of worm-like creatures, the Saltic.

  “Heinz, are these the minions the sacrifices are given to?”

  “Yes, but we have to leave before the god becomes angry. Please let me go.”

  Alaya thought a second, “You were here overnight, won’t your parents be looking for you?”

  “They were sacrificed along with my sisters. I ran and came here to pray the god would not take me. If the High Priest finds me here, he will take me for the next time to be sent with the Navigator’s minions.”

  “Not if I can help it,” Alaya said with conviction. “I’m taking you to a place where they can’t get to you.”

  “The god and her minions are everywhere. Some have tried to escape but they are always found.”

  “Would you go with us? We need to know more about your settlement.”

  Heinz nodded and Alaya lead him to the rest of the group. “Decanus, I think we should return to the ship and head to the Tempestas now that we know the Saltic are part of the equation.”

  “I agree,” Decanus Davis said and ordered the squad to form up for return to the ship. By this time, every Romani knew about the Saltic and the Hayden incident was part of the lore of the Romani. Everyone knew that they did not want to be taken by the Saltic to have their brains used as computers. The landing party moved away from the old freighter as the red dwarf star was moving above the horizon. The planet had a bluish atmosphere with a red tinge related to the system star. The group retraced their steps and returned to the valley wherein the Mary Rose was located. When the boy saw the Mary Rose, he stopped.

  “You have a temple also? I don’t want to go into your temple.”

  Alaya looked at Heinz and said, “That is not a temple that is our ship.”

  Heinz looked at her and said, “What is a ship?”

  “It is the house we live in.”

  “You live in a temple? Are you a priest?”

  Alaya was beginning to realize that the boy had limited experience and the humans on this planet had lost all of their old knowledge. She needed to get Heinz up to the Tempestas to help them learn about the settlement here. They moved to the ship and entered the side airlock, which had a ladder extended down from the vessel. At first, Heinz did not want to go up into the ship, but Alaya was able to coax him in and they pulled up the ladder and closed the airlock. Alaya led Heinz through the vessel and he saw the serpents. After the initial shock, he simply accepted them as some kind of minions associated with these beings. He was still certain they must be gods of some kind. Alaya took him up to the bridge and ordered Hatch to make them invisible.

  “You can make your temple invisible?” Heinz asked.

  “I told you before, this is not a temple and we are not gods.” Alaya then turned to Tavia, “Tavia, take us back to the Tempestas.”

  “Yes Captain.”

&n
bsp; The ship leapt into the air as Tavia fired the repulsors and then the main engines. As soon as the ship began to move, Heinz broke away from Alaya and rolled up in the corner of the bridge, shaking with fear. She went over to him and talked as soothingly as possible. “It’s alright, Heinz. We are just going to where we live.”

  “You live in heaven, you must be gods.”

  Alaya now realized she was not going to get through to this boy and decided on a different approach. The human colony had regressed to a very primitive state and she needed to know how the Saltic fit into all of this. Since she had no modern reference to the ideology of the human settlement, she felt it was best to go along with what they believed.

  “You are right, Heinz, we are gods and we are here with the Navigator.”

  Humans and serpents on the bridge looked at Alaya with various levels of disbelief, at least on the human faces. “Hatch, make us visible. Tavia ask the Tempestas to become visible and ask for clearance to land on the flight deck.” Alaya then looked at the boy, “Heinz, stand up and come over to me or I will not speak well of you to the Navigator.”

  The frightened boy stood up and came over to Alaya who then spun him around so he could look out the front of the bridge bubble and she pointed to the Tempestas and said, “That is the true temple of the god Navigator. What you have built is a poor copy.”

  The boy could see the massive battleship as it grew ever larger in their view and he pulled closer to Alaya for protection. She found it odd that the serpents did not frighten him as much as meeting his god did. Alaya remembered her mother talking about God but nothing was mentioned about him after her death. What most stuck in her head as a little girl was the fact that God was not to be feared, whereas these people were frightened to death of their god, who they themselves created. The Mary Rose entered the force field around the flight deck and Tavia brought her in for the usual perfect landing. Once the ship was locked down, the Slones and Tavia left the bridge along with Hatch. They lead the boy down to the lower level airlock, which opened onto the deck with a short ladder. Though the boy was frightened, his curiosity got the best of him and he began looking around at all the ships and activity on the flight deck. As they were walking towards the exit of the flight deck, the boy suddenly stopped and fell to his knees. He was shaking and Alaya noticed he was staring at the Sakkara.

  “What’s wrong, Heinz?” Alaya asked.

  “You have a Saltic minions’ ship. Am I going to be sacrificed?” This last said with stark terror in his voice.

  Alaya got down on one knee and shook the boy. “Heinz, I told you we do not sacrifice anyone. If we had wanted to sacrifice you we could have done that in your temple.”

  This calmed him down for a few minutes until his system was rocked by the most frightening experience he could have imagined. He came face to face with his god as Julia Hammond came out of the Sakkara, with Paul McMann. Julia was startled by the scream of anguish let out by the boy as he fell face down on the deck and started to mumble something the others could not understand. When he looked up again he said, with a trembling voice, “Navigator, great god of Heimat, please spare me, please, please, please.” The rest was cut short by sobs. Commander Hammond went over to the boy, helped him up, and noticed that he was visibly trembling. She then looked at Alaya.

  “Captain, who is this boy and why does he think I am some kind of religious object?”

  Alaya looked at Julia and said, “He is the descendant of the people you sent here in the past and they worship you as a god called ‘The Navigator’. They have a temple made of fragments of several freighters and a larger than life statue of you. It is actually a good likeness.” Alaya let that sink in for a minute. “From what we can gather from talking to the boy, they sacrifice members of their group to you and the sacrifices are picked up by helpers of yours they call your minions. These are also depicted next to your statue and they are depicted as Saltic aliens. I think that somehow the Saltic established themselves in this part of our galaxy and are harvesting brains from the human sacrifices given them. I am afraid the descendents of the people you sent here eight centuries ago, have reverted to a very primitive and superstitious existence and this boy is an example of this. His name is Heinz and his entire family was set apart for sacrificing to the minions of their god when they arrive.”

  “That would mean that the Saltic are coming back,” Commander Hammond responded, a little in shock about her being a god. The Slones knew what that would mean. They had to get the humans off the planet and out of this system.

  Slone called up to the bridge, “Hister, make us invisible. Tom, set up a meeting of all department heads and primary centurions for one hour from now.”

  “Yes sir.”

  Slone then turned to Commander Hammond, “Commander, I would like you to join us at the meeting.”

  “I’ll be there, Captain, but what do we do with this boy?”

  Slone called down to the children’s area and had a teacher come up and take custody of the boy and bring him to the area the children were staying while in a war zone. Heinz had mixed emotions about leaving. He greatly feared the unknown, yet he feared being in the presence of his god more. He ended up going without a fuss.

  The Slones left the flight deck and Paul McMann returned to work on the wormhole drive along with Julia Hammond. The Slones returned to their quarters. They sat down in the living area with a beverage from the drink dispenser. Christopher was the first to speak, “What have we gotten ourselves into?” Slone could only shake his head as he contemplated their predicament. “Here we are, on the far side of the galaxy, with no way to get home. If they don’t find a way to get that wormhole drive working, then we will have to find a way to make a life out here. The problem with that is, we will regress over time just as the exodus group did. For the first time I am thankful for the Romani policy of keeping families together on ships.”

  Alaya looked at her husband, “Chris, I rather not think about spending the rest of my life here. Not to mention the fact that, at some point, the Saltic are going to show up.”

  “We have to discuss how to deal with that threat and get the humans off that planet. No matter what, we cannot stay in this system.” Christopher said. “I don’t plan to let those worms kick my ass again and do to the Tempestas what they did to the Hayden.”

  Thereafter, they both sat lost in their thoughts as they drank their beverages. Normally they would have had some wine to relax, but the situation called for clear heads. If there was any chance to get out of this, they needed time and patience. The only problem was, the Saltic might not let them have either. As the meeting neared, Slone called down to the kitchen to make sure a light snack and beverages would be served. For now, they appeared to be safe and he was not ready to give up Romani comforts when there was no one to fight. The time for the meeting came around and the Slones left their quarters and went down to the conference room. The rest of the attendees were already seated or standing when the Slones walked in and all of the humans stood and saluted. Naturally, the serpents were already standing and they never saluted the humans. The Tempestas carried a full legion. As a result, there were ten primary centurions. Since the legion was half serpent, five of the primary centurions were serpents. Also present were all of the department heads along with Tavia and Hatch, Julia Hammond and Arabella Shegai. Slone called the meeting to order.

  “We have a monumental problem on our hands and limited time to solve it. We are 80,000 light years from home. Even if we knew the slipstreams back, it will take us over seven years to get home. Our food and fuel will run out long before then, even if we were full on both commodities. So I want engineering and navigation to give complete priority to figuring out how that wormhole drive works and determine how we can get back to Nova Romae.”

  All at the table nodded. “Normally we would have plenty of time to do that, but our other problem is the return of the Saltic to pick up their sacrifices. Since there are those in the room who have de
alt with them before and are aware that they are after living brains to power their computers, I will assume that the current crop of sacrifices the humans in this system have set aside, are still alive. We need to get these humans off that planet. To do that we will need the help of the boy we brought up from the planet. We also have no idea how much time we have and I would prefer not to fight the Saltic, since we know they have an EMP weapon that can render all of us unconscious and at their mercy. If it comes to a fight, it is my intention to shoot first and hit them with all we have before they can charge their main weapon. Unless these are a different version of the Andromeda Saltic, they also have energy weapons that they did not use on us, so I have no idea what they will do to this vessel. If it comes to combat, I want our serpent ship squadron to be ready to take the battle into the enemy ship through its hangar.”

  The serpent flight leader present nodded ascent and her lips began to undulate, “Sss. We will be ready on your command, Captain.” She said in the hissing manner serpents spoke human language.

  Slone contacted the children’s area and ordered one of the teachers to bring Heinz to the conference room. He saw that some at the table had a quizzical look. “We need the information he has about who exactly is in charge down there. We will need to get them behind us for an evacuation. Hopefully, Heinz will know the exact number of inhabitants on the planet.”

  One of the teachers brought Heinz into the conference room and snapped a salute to the captain. Slone looked at the boy they had found on the planet and could hardly recognize him. In the short time he was in the children’s section, he had a shower, haircut and was put in a new children’s jumpsuit. He seemed to be less skittish, though he still could not look directly at Commander Hammond. Slone directed the teacher to sit with Heinz at the conference table near the Navigator.

  “Heinz, can you answer some questions for us?” Slone asked.

  Heinz looked furtively sideways at Commander Hammond and said, quietly, “If the Navigator wants me to.”