The Sakkara

by Donald Nicklas

  The commander began to make twittering noises with his mouthparts and these were picked up by the translator device hanging around his neck, “High Priest, do you have the sacrifices for the god Navigator?”

  Eugen Ebner bowed again and responded, “We have more than usual.” He then indicated the Romani, “These strangers came into our town and we captured them to offer them as a gift to the Navigator.”

  Now it was time for Julia Hammond to do what the Romani had discussed while in the cell. She stepped forward and stood near the statue representing her, “I am the Navigator and these are false minions.”

  There was a collective gasp from the humans. The Romani expected that if the Saltic could gasp they would have. The High Priest and the guards knew that the human stranger looked like the Navigator, but she could not be eight centuries old, so they chalked it up to an odd coincidence. Eugen Ebner said, “She is a liar. The Navigator died eight centuries ago.”

  Alaya looked at the High Priest and said, “If she is your god, how can she die? You knew all along that the Navigator was not a god, yet you used her image to keep your people in line and feed them to the Saltic. Are you even aware that the foods the Saltic give you are the very sacrifices you send them.”

  The High Priest was starting to lose control of the situation and the Saltic were getting nervous. Now Christopher put the final nail into the situation. He looked straight at the Saltic commander and said, “I am Captain Christopher Slone and I was once the captain of a human cruiser named the Hayden. You despicable worms killed my crew in the Andromeda Galaxy and we are here to exact our revenge.”

  As the translator converted the human’s words into Saltic speak, the commander could hardly believe what he was hearing. He had heard about the incident with the human ship and how the harvester ship sent to retrieve the brains sent to his galaxy simply vanished along with the permanent wormhole between the galaxies. Fortunately, that was not the only intergalactic wormhole created by the Saltic. Now here was a human who claimed to have been the captain of that ship they were harvesting. How can this be? The last part of the human’s statement was a threat. As soon as it was translated, the commander ordered his troops to attack, but too late. The Romani moved like lightning, pulled the pistols from where they were on their back, and opened fire. The commander and the Saltic on either side of him dropped from multiple wounds.

  The human colonists in the freighter shell had never seen or heard guns, the noise frightened them, and they ran out of the ship, right past the Saltic, who were confused about what was happening. “Attack the Saltic,” Tavia ordered into her comlink, but she said this in serpent speak and suddenly the serpents hiding just off the road charged at the Saltic from both sides and it was over in seconds with the despicable worms torn to shreds.

  The Saltic captain watched as his ground commander left the ship with the reinforced squad. The humans appeared to be as docile as always and the captain began to think he was getting a bit paranoid. As he watched, the commander went to the top of the ramp and his troops were lined up on either side of the ramp with two at the bottom facing outwards. The captain was listening to the conversation and he perked up when he heard that strangers came to the town. From where did they come? The next part of the conversation chilled him to the core. One of the strangers claimed to have been the captain of the Hayden, a human ship somehow responsible for the loss of a valuable cruiser and mining assets. However this human got here, he will not be sacrificed. He will be sent back to the home galaxy for interrogation. As the captain was mentally disposing of humans not yet in his possession, the situation in the freighter shell changed. He could hear the order for the ground troops to attack. Suddenly there were loud noises and confused chatter coming over the comlink. The captain looked at the hologram projected on the front of the bridge in time to see his ground commander and two guards slide lifelessly down the ramp. As the remainder of the squad prepared to engage whatever the danger in the freighter was, a group of unknown creatures ran out of hiding and tore the Saltic squad to shreds. He turned to his navigator, “Raise the ramp and get us out of here.”

  The Saltic ship rose off the planet even before the ramp was up. They began to enter the upper atmosphere when Alaya spoke into her comlink, “Deadeye, take them down.”

  Aboard the invisible Mary Rose, in orbit above the colony, the serpent gunner placed the target reticle over the Saltic ship and opened fire. The turreted energy cannons sent a stream of energy pulses towards the Saltic ship. The Saltic captain could see the energy bolts heading his way, but could not see the source. The bolts scored multiple hits on the Saltic ship. One of them slammed into the fuel bunkers for the boosters and caused an explosion that filled the ship with flames and incinerated any Saltic they touched. The flaming shell of the ship lost propulsion and fell from the sky. It crashed into the side of a mountain. As soon as the Saltic ship was destroyed, the wormhole they came through closed.

  Alaya ordered the Mary Rose to land in the plaza. The Romani then helped the High Priest off the floor along with the guards. The noise of the pistol shots caused them to throw themselves on the floor with their hands over their ears. She could see they, along with the sacrifices, were in a state of shock as they viewed the carnage wrought by the serpent forces. The serpents were still standing in the road leading up to the freighter. To the colonists they were frightening. Tavia went out of the ship and as soon as the serpents saw her, they faced her and bowed their heads in salute. Tavia acknowledged them and ordered them back to the ship as soon as it landed. The Romani now turned their attention to the human colonists. They had to get them off the planet. Slone had no illusions the Saltic would not send another ship to find out what happened to the first one, and the wormhole drive made it possible for them to bypass the slipstreams as a way of movement. They could drop into the system at any time.

  Alaya went over to the High Priest. She did not trust him but his people did and she needed him. When he saw Alaya moving in his direction, he called his guards over to protect him. Unfortunately, for him, the guards had seen what the pistols of the Romani did to the Saltic and wanted nothing to do with them. “High Priest, we will need you to gather your people for evacuation.”

  “Evacuation, we’re not going anywhere. Look what you have done.”

  Alaya moved closer to the High Priest. “What do you think the Saltic will do when they come here? Our ships are invisible. They will assume your people did this and you won’t have to worry about any more sacrifices. They will have all of you for that purpose.”

  Alaya could see fear in the eyes of the High Priest, but there was more. Something about his reaction bothered Alaya but she could not put her finger on it. “Tavia, contact Hatch and ask her to come over here.”

  “Yes captain,” Tavia said and then activated her comlink. “Hatch, come over to the old freighter.”

  There was a response in serpent speak, and shortly all could see Hatch running down the road coming from the direction of the plaza. Hatch arrived and bowed to Tavia. “Hatch, I need you to ask the High Priest what he is afraid of.”

  “Sss. Yes, Lady Tavia.” Hatch went over to the High Priest and all could see that fear was turning into panic. “Sss. Human, what is it that you fear?”

  The soothing speech of the serpent began to work its magic on the resistance of the High Priest and he visibly relaxed. “I fear the Saltic.”

  Tavia told Hatch in serpent speak to ask what about the Saltic he fears.

  “Sss. Human, what do you fear of from the Saltic? Is it death?”

  By this time, the High Priest was mesmerized and ready to speak truthfully about anything. “I fear the living death.”

  “Sss. Human, what is the living death?”

  “It is body death but brain life.”

  Hatch looked at Tavia to see if there were any further questions. She told her to ask how long the High Priests knew about the living death.

  “Sss. Human, how long have you known
about the living death?”

  “My father, the old High Priest told me.”

  “That’s all we need to know, Hatch. Stay here in case we need you.” Alaya then turned to her husband. “The High Priests know exactly what is happening to their sacrifices. I’ll bet none of their families are ever sacrificed.” Alaya then went over to the High Priest, “So you do know what the Saltic are doing and you are offering your own people up to them.”

  Eugen Ebner was recovered from his trance, since the serpent was no longer questioning him. “I did what I had to for the sake of the colony. Better that some should suffer than all die.”

  Christopher looked at one of the guards still standing near the group. “Guard, have you lost family members to the Saltic?”

  “Yes, we all have,” the guard replied.

  “How many of the High Priests’ family members have been sacrificed?”

  As realization came into the guard’s eyes, he looked at the High Priest and said, “None, none have ever been sacrificed. We all thought the god Navigator was protecting the priestly family.”

  This time Julia Hammond interjected, “Since it appears I am the god Navigator, I have two things to say. I did not protect the Priestly families; they must have rigged the process of choosing sacrifices. Besides that, I am not a god.” Commander Hammond then went over to the statue in her image and pushed it over. It hit the deck of the old freighter and the head broke off, rolled across the floor, and stopped when it hit the wall.

  The guards were shocked when they saw their idol fall, but they also knew that the High Priest was sending their families to their doom. If they were not afraid of the Romani, they would have killed Eugen Ebner now.

  Slone turned to the guards, “Who is second in command of the colony?”

  It was evident from the confusion that there was no one. Slone ordered the guards to release the sacrifices and follow the Romani to the plaza. As the group neared the plaza, people began to come out of hiding, but stayed clear of the Mary Rose. More came out when they saw the sacrifices return. Soon the entire colony of close to 2300 people filled the plaza opposite the Mary Rose. Slone looked around and saw a box just off the plaza. He went and got it to stand on. After mounting the box, Slone called for quiet. Very quickly, the noise died down, but some people could not take their eyes off Hatch, standing next to Tavia.

  Slone took an amplification cube from his pocket and began to speak into it. The Temple guards had returned the Romani swords and daggers, which allowed them to appear in their full uniforms. They still had their grenades on the bandoliers, since the colonists had no idea what they were. “Attention, may I have your attention please.” All residual murmuring ceased. “My name is Captain Christopher Slone and I am in command of the Battleship NR Tempestas. We have come here from human space after discovering a wormhole drive. You have been cruelly treated for the past eight centuries by your High Priests and your families have been given over to a despicable alien race of worms called the Saltic. They use human brains to power their ships and other machines. What they do not tell you, and what your High Priests knew about, the brains remain conscious and aware that they are no longer in their bodies. As a result they are in constant mental agony.” The murmuring continued to increase as Slone gave his explanation, and by the time he said the last word, it was loud enough to force him to wait for it to die down. He then continued, “Make no mistake about it, the Saltic will come back. If for no other reason than to find out what happened to their ship. When they discover what happened, they will take all of you as sacrifices, if we cannot defeat them. If they return before we leave, we will fight them and your destiny will be linked with ours. Go home and pack what you want to take with you, but you are limited to two bags. We will evacuate you to our ship.”

  Again, there was a lot of murmuring then an elderly woman came forward to address the Romani. “Why should we leave our homes? Perhaps the Saltic will defeat you.” She now looked straight at Julia Hammond. “You may look like the Navigator, but you are not our god. The Navigator sent us here for a reason.”

  Julia Hammond tried again to convince them that she was not a god. “I sent you here by mistake because of my ignorance about how the Saltic wormhole drive worked. It was my job to send you to the other side of the galaxy, just outside of human space. But something went wrong and you ended up here.”

  The woman was still not satisfied. “That was eight centuries ago. You cannot be that old.”

  “I can’t believe I am that old either. I have been in cryostasis for all that time.” Julia Hammond could see this answer confused the woman. “I have been frozen during that time in a medical chamber. I am not a god, just a human who has lived beyond her time. Everyone I ever knew is dead and I have only been aware of this fact for two days. I almost wish I were a god, and then I would not realize how truly alone I am.”

  For the first time the Slones realized they never actually gave a thought to how all of this was affecting Commander Hammond. Alaya looked at her and said, “Commander, we can’t change the circumstances that brought you here, but in a sense these are all your people and they will need someone other than this High Priest to lead them.”

  The woman, with whom they had been talking, now spoke up again, “We will choose who leads us and we will not leave our homes.”

  Christopher ordered Hatch to get one of the Saltic bodies. The young serpent ran to where they had been ripped apart, brought one of those shot by the Romani, and dropped it at Slone’s feet. “These are the so called minions of the god you worship. They are flesh and blood, just like us. Their blood is green because it is based on a metal different from ours, but it is blood nonetheless. If they bleed, they die, just as this one did. Make no mistake; we will do all we can to make certain they die. Now, we have spent enough time. I will not force anyone to come with us, but if you value your lives and the lives of your families, you will join us.”

  Slone called up to the ship and had a shuttle come down with Heinz aboard. The shuttle dropped out of the sky and landed next to the Mary Rose. As soon as the door opened, Heinz ran out and his family ran to meet him. He was overjoyed that they were not sacrificed and when he saw the Saltic body, he walked over to it and kicked it. He told his family about the wonders of the great sky ship the humans came in and asked them to join him. Slowly the crowd was won over and family by family went home, packed their few belongings and returned to the plaza. Two more shuttles came down. Since each shuttle held one hundred colonists, they were taken up to the Tempestas three hundred at a time. As more and more colonists decided to evacuate, those planning to stay lost their resolve and in the end, even the High Priest decided to leave, since he no longer had anyone to rule. After the last shuttle was gone, Alaya took the Mary Rose to the sight of the Saltic ship crash to make sure none survived. They landed at the base of the mountain into which the ship crashed. “Tavia come with me. Blue you have the command. Hatch, your with us.”

  “Sss. Yes Captain.”

  On the way out, Alaya took ten troops, a mix of humans and serpents. It was a long climb to the top of the mountain and dawn was starting to break. The evacuation had taken most of the short night and the red orb of the dwarf star was peaking over the more distant mountain range. It took just over an hour to climb to the wreckage. They could have flown there and done a combat drop, but they still would have had to climb down to re-board the ship. As they approached the wreckage, they saw a gaping hole where the fuel bunkers exploded. The ship was half the size of the Mary Rose and had the elongated cuboid shape of the wormhole drive but with curved edges that gave it an aerodynamic look. It was pitch dark inside, so Alaya sent a serpent in, since they had perfect night vision. The serpent indicated the coast was clear and the group entered, leaving two guards outside. Alaya also sent a serpent to check around the ship for any alien who may have been thrown out of the vessel. As the group moved into the alien ship, everything around was either scorched or incinerated. There were burned
aliens lying on the floor. None of them remained alive. They went further forward and entered the bridge. There were blast doors to compartmentalize the ship, but things must have happened so fast, they never closed them or some would have survived. As they entered the bridge, there were burned aliens where the blast door was opened but the bridge had a protected area that shielded one alien from the blast. He was unconscious but only slightly burned.

  “Make sure there is nothing that looks like a weapon on him and let’s take him back with us. Since the Saltic commander had a translation device, we can interrogate this one.” Alaya ordered one of the serpents to carry the Saltic, in case he should wake up. They had Commander Hammond check out the rest of the ship in case there was something they could use. She recognized the wormhole drive, but it was damaged in the crash and she had no idea how to repair it. They carried the Saltic captive down the mountain and returned to the Mary Rose, which took them rapidly back up to the Tempestas. The human colony named Heimat was now abandoned, but they were still far from evacuating the system.

  After landing, the Saltic captive was removed to the sickbay to see what could be done about the burns. Slone knew he could use the translator, since he and the Saltic could understand each other, though the alien was wearing it. He had the staff removed from the High Priest, since he no longer needed a symbol of power and it would let them know when Saltic ships were incoming. That feature could prove handy. All of the colonists were assigned quarters on the ship. It was going to be a bit tight. The Slones could see that they were somewhat dazed by the ship and the bright lights. It took their eyes some time to adapt to the difference in lighting from the red dwarf with which they all grew up. Medical assigned them eye protection and they were more comfortable. Since Slone was back on the ship, Paul McMann relinquished the captaincy of the vessel and returned to working on the wormhole drive along with Julia Hammond and Diana Gardner. Saving the colonists would be short lived if the Saltic returned or they were unable to find a way home.