Gus

by Frank Carey

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Sheila's next stop was Kellen's lab to bring him up to speed and see how things were going with his research. On the way there, she brought up on her datapad a series of reports on the Cerberus Survey including those filed by her bond-mate. "Damn, my love, you have been busy." According to the documents, the survey had brought back over five hundred artifacts ranging from ancient texts to statuary. Kellen and his team of students had already cataloged all the pieces and were in the process of performing detailed examinations of the first twenty pieces while teams from other universities were working on the remaining collection.

  "The planet, know to the inhabitants as Tryla, was inhabited by a single dominant, sapient life form known as the Corsa, a bipedal mammalian race resembling the Erdexi," she read to herself. "When they disappeared, they were somewhere around the Age of Discovery... How the hell do you populate a planet without instrumentality? The Sokuhl didn't hit the first billion until we had aircraft. This doesn't make sense." She continued to read the reports until the driver announced they had arrived.

  After paying the driver, she headed into the building where she flashed her University ID, allowing her unfettered access to the building and its facilities. She found herself at the entrance to the History Department's research labs where students and faculty pored over artifacts both from Ventos Prime and other planets in the League.

  "Here we are," she said when she found his lab. Stepping inside, she found a group of researchers standing outside a glass walled enclosure. Inside, she could see Clio and Kel standing next to a large glove box. Sheila walked over to the enclosure's entrance and knocked. Kel waved her inside.

  "Hey, big guy, what’s with all the containment?" she asked while standing on her tip toes to give him a kiss.

  "We found something inside one of the artifacts which doesn't belong. As a precaution, I put it in containment so we could do a complete examination without fear of explosion, chemical agents, or biological agents."

  She peered around him. "What kind of something?"

  "It's a metal sphere about the size of a softball. Design-wise, it doesn't fit with anything else in the shipment which makes me think it’s not an artifact at all. Computer, seal the enclosure and activate a class one forcefield around the center table."

  "Working..." Sheila watched as a field formed around the statue sitting alone on the table in the center of the small room.

  "What is that a statue of, anyway?" she asked.

  "I'm thinking a fertility idol. Computer, deep scan, all frequencies."

  "Working... Bringing results up on main viewer.”

  Everyone in the room turned their attention to the large monitor on the front wall of the room. They could see the statue slowly rotating. "Computer, remove artifact."

  "Working... The statue disappeared. Now, only a metal sphere floated in place.

  "Remove outer casing of sphere."

  The casing disappeared, revealing the inner workings of the device.

  "Identify known explosives or hazardous materials."

  Nothing happened.

  "Computer, zap it."

  The display went blank as the artifact flared with white light.

  "Process complete. Device is inert."

  "Excellent. Computer release forcefield, unseal room, and send all records to R-Sec for further analysis. Alex!"

  "Doctor?" a young, human, male assistant of Kel's replied.

  "Take that statue to my office. I'll examine it there later."

  "Yes, Doctor!" the eager young man said as he walked off to perform his assigned task.

  "Well, that was easy. Hopefully, whoever put that in the statue didn't damage the artifact in the process. How did your meeting go?"

  "They want me to ferry a group of scholars to Tryla where they will meet-up with the rest of the expedition." She stopped and looked at him with eyes filled with worry.

  "How long would you be gone?"

  "A week, two at most. I may do some shopping on Arctillus..."

  "Can you trust me being on my own that long? You know, I may have a box of bonbons stashed away."

  "Fool! I'm taking the bonbons with me! Especially the pink ones."

  He kissed her. "Just be careful. I've met the team, and they're party animals."

  "Promise?"

  "When do you leave?"

  "Tomorrow. Prep is at noon and we take-off at 1400 hours. I get to drive an RN-117!"

  "Isn't that the last one?"

  "Last one what?"

  "The last class of ship you haven't piloted."

  She looked to the ceiling and bit her lip. "I think you're right! Hey, I've got an idea. Why don't you knock off early and take your mate to dinner."

  "I like the way you think, Dr. Minty," Kel said. Removing his gloves, he went to his office to retrieve his briefcase. As he left, he turned off the lights and locked the door behind him, leaving the artifact to sit there in the dark. Taking his wife in arm, they walked out, leaving his students to shut down the lab. The last student out turned off the lights and locked the door behind them.

  The darkened lab was silent except for the squeak of Kel's pet drinking duck. Around it, artifacts waited for researchers to return in the morning. The silence was broken by the sound of breaking pottery as cracks formed in the statue containing the sphere. Soon, the artifact was turned into a pile of shards as the sphere lifted upward to stop at a hover a meter off the desk's top. There, it slowly rotated while emitting a humming noise. It stopped after a few turns as a bright light connected it to Kel's terminal.

  "Computer," a voice said from the sphere. "Recognize Dr. Kellen Matu Hardy."

  "Voice print authorization accepted."

  "Begin transfer of all databases, this terminal."

  "Working... Transfer has begun. Estimated completion time, one hour."

  "Computer, how about some Jazz while we wait. Middle-twentieth century earth."

  Quiet music flowed from the lab's speakers as the sphere soaked in billions of bytes of data. Meanwhile, the duck continued to drink, unconcerned about what was happening around it.

  ###

  Kel walked Sheila over to the pilot's lounge and gave her a kiss. "Have a safe trip, my love. You do remember how to fly, don't you?"

  She cuffed him, then pointed to the ceiling. "That's up."

  "Good. Are you heading straight to Cerberus?"

  "I was, but I got a message about an extra passenger being dropped off at Arctillus."

  "Anyone I know?"

  "That would be me," Clio said as she walked up to the pair. She was wearing sunglasses.

  "Did someone party a little hard last night?" Sheila said to the muse while waggling a finger at her.

  "It was historical," Clio noted before walking up to Kel and giving him a peck on the cheek. "You behave while we're gone, young man," she said. "Now, which way is the departure lounge?"

  Sheila pointed to a podium down from where they stood. With a wave, Clio was off to check-in for her flight.

  "Wow, a drunk immortal. Who would've thought?" Sheila noted. "Well, I need to go do my pilot thing. I'll call you when I get to Arctillus."

  He bent down and kissed her. "I'll miss you to pieces."

  "And I, you, you big dragon." With that, she was through the doors and off to work.

  "I miss her already," he noted as he headed to the conveyance station to catch a cab back to the university.

  ###

  Sheila finished her preflight walk-around while the passengers boarded through the starboard-side hatch. Once she was satisfied everything outside was in order, she entered the ship through the port-side hatch, making her way to the cockpit where she ran through the preflight checklist. A knock at the door only marginally interrupted her. "Come in."

  It was Jarrus Miln, the expedition leader. "Dr. Minty, how are we doing schedule-wise?"

  "We'll leave on schedule and only be delayed a couple of hours to drop-off Clio."

  "Good. T
ell me, have you known Clio for long?"

  "At least a decade. Why?"

  "She claims to be a muse..."

  "Clio is the daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne. She is the immortal half-sister to your patriarch, Red, herself a demigod daughter of Zeus. Didn't they teach you this stuff in school?"

  Jarrus looked shocked. "Red is a demigod?"

  "Yep. I thought she had made the announcement after the incident involving me and my husband."

  "I was on a dig on the other side of the planet. No network access. I guess I need to do a better job reading my e-mails. So, Red is immortal?"

  "No one is quite sure. Ever meet her?"

  "Once, at a reception. Have you?"

  "Yep. She arrested me, then had me interrogated. She's very protective of her citizens. You're lucky to have her."

  "I guess so. I should get back to the others. This Clio sounds fascinating."

  "That's one way to describe her. Good luck."

  Jarrus nodded, then headed back to the lounge area, leaving Sheila to prepare for lift-off.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  When Kel got back to his laboratory, he headed to his office where he found the sphere sitting on a pile of shards. Grabbing a scanner, he checked the sphere and found it was still inert. "Maybe the zap was too much for the statue," he noted. After donning gloves, he gently picked up the sphere and moved it to a cloth-lined box before turning his attention to the remains of the statue.

  Kel spent several hours spreading the shards out on his desk before photographing them, first one side than the other. Gently using forceps, he began the arduous task of painstakingly assembling the parts back into their original form.

  "It's been awhile," he said, stripping off his gloves and placing them next to the partially assembled artifact. He leaned back and closed his eyes to rest them and quickly fell asleep.

  ###

  Alarms went off around Kel, startling him. "Where the hell am I?" he asked while looking around him. He found himself standing on the Bridge of an unknown ship. Around him, members of an unknown species ran around the deck as they dealt with some unknown emergency. A large being sat at the center of the room, barking orders while watching the displays in front of him. "First Officer, report?"

  "We've lost the FTL drive and are running on emergency reserves. Half the crew is dead, and we're about to lose life support."

  "Communications, any luck reaching the home world?"

  "Negative, Captain. Transmitters are dead."

  "Dammit. Close the logs and launch the buoy!"

  The comm officer looked up from her console and shook her head. "Gone, sir."

  The captain cursed again. "What is working around here?"

  "Life boats, main normal-space engines, and the sensor suite, sir," the first officer reported.

  "Sir!" the science officer called out. "Planet dead ahead. It reads as level nine on the habitable scale."

  "Population?"

  "I'm reading several million spread across two continents. Readings suggest pre-industrial."

  "How close?"

  "Life-pod range in sixty seconds, sir."

  "Helm, set the automatics for solar collision. First Officer, sound abandon ship."

  "Sir! What about the First Law of Contact?" the ship's science officer asked, concerned about the damage they could do to the civilization below.

  Calmly, the captain looked at the man and asked, "Would you prefer to stay aboard and fly what's left of the ship into the system's sun?"

  "No, sir!"

  "Good answer," the captain said as the "Abandon Ship" alarm sounded. "Everyone off the ship, now!"

  ###

  Kel's dream shifted to the planet's surface where the group of survivors stood waiting for orders. They were a mix of archaeologists and historians who were returning to their home world when something escaped from the hold and ate half the ship. The captain looked at them for a moment, then began. "OK, we are it," he said. "We are the only survivors." He let it sink in for a moment.

  "What about the ship?" one of the historians asked.

  The captain looked at his wristwatch. "It's entering the star's chromosphere right about now."

  "Did we get off a distress signal?" another scholar asked.

  "Nope. The swarm ate the transmitter, and before you ask, it ate the buoy as well. This is it folks. We are here for the duration."

  "What do we do now?" an archaeologist asked. The captain noted that none of the crew was speaking. They knew the answers better than he did.

  The captain pointed to a walled city in the distance. "We go there and throw ourselves on the mercy of the inhabitants."

  "What if they're cannibals?"

  "Then we're invited to dinner. Think of it as a way of getting away from it all."

  The captain noted that his humor was lost on everyone present.

  ###

  The captain and the survivors of the ill-fated research expedition were gathered in a large room. In front of them stood the local ruler. Hell, he could be the emperor of the planet or perhaps the executive chef. Straightening his shoulders, the captain walked up to the leader and bowed. "Do you understand me?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

  "Of course I do, captain," the leader said. Several scholars fainted. The leader chuckled. "Damn shame about your ship. What the hell happened out there?"

  The captain frowned. "How... How..."

  "How do I know your language or know about your ship? Hell, man, do you think we're a bunch of primitives down here?"

  The captain nodded.

  "Damn good! The deceit is working as it should. Would you like an explanation?"

  The captain nodded.

  "Our people were tech giants back in the day, the stress was killing us, so a number of us moved here and started a 'Back to Nature' movement. Think of us as engineers turned philosophers. Sure, we keep a few tools around, like translator devices and deep space monitors, but for the most part, we're simple folk living simple lives. What the hell happened up there?"

  The captain explained.

  "Damn, that's rough. You sure that thing made sun fall?"

  The captain nodded.

  "Good. Well, we're open to anyone joining our little group. All we ask is that you and your group tell us stories about you and your people. We live for that sort of thing. Any questions?"

  One of the scholars raised their hand.

  "Shoot."

  "You're not going to eat us?"

  "No. That's the schtick of the people who live on the fourth planet. You're lucky you made it here to the third."

  The scholar grinned.

  "Chancellor!"

  "Sir!"

  "Let's get these people settled."

  "Yes, sir."

  The refugees walked out, happy that they had a future ahead of them.

  ###

  The dream shifted to another room, this one filled with people in uniforms. Several of the occupants were heavily armed. At the center of the room stood a woman reading a book while scribbling notes on a notepad. As the rest of the room's personnel moved about at a feverish pace, the woman sat, read, and scribbled. "Got it," she yelled as she threw the pencil down and tore a sheet off the notepad.

  "Are you sure?" a large man asked as he took the page from her.

  "General, given the time constraints? Yes, I am sure. This is how you activate the ancient weapon.

  "Will it kill that thing out there?"

  "We think so. It was built to kill something similar."

  "Did it? Did it kill the something?"

  "We're not exactly sure."

  "Great. Standing between us and annihilation sits a maybe. Captain!"

  "Sir!" the officer said as he ran up and stood at attention.

  "Get this to the team and blow that thing into the next universe."

  The captain saluted, then took the paper and ran out of the room with it.

  "Gods, I hope this works," the general said as the room shook aro
und him.

  ###

  Kel woke up sweating, his hands shaking as adrenaline surged through his body while the sound of his labored breathing echoed through the lab. "What the hell just happened?" he asked, not expecting an answer. As he calmed, he heard an alarm going off somewhere in the lab.

  His office door opened followed by Tannith and a med team. "Kel? What's wrong? The life signs monitor just threw a fit," she asked as she and the team ran over to him. She gasped when she saw the look in his eyes, a look of fear. "Scan him, stat!" she ordered. The medics complied.

  The medic placed an oxygen mask over Kel's nose and mouth. "Sir, you need to take deep breaths. You're having a panic attack," the other medic said as he checked Kel's pulse.

  Kel nodded while forcing his breathing to slow and deepen.

  "Kel, what the hell is going on?"

  "I was reassembling this artifact when I took a break to stretch my wings. I must have fallen asleep."

  "Is this from Cerberus?" she asked.

  "Yes. Yesterday, we found that inside it," he said, pointing to the sphere sitting in its cloth-lined box. "I scanned it, then zapped it. I sent all the collected data to R-Sec for analysis. It's just a paperweight now.”

  "Sir, ma'am, sorry to interrupt, but we're finished here. Dr. Hardy's vitals are dropping to normal levels.”

  "Thanks. It seems my first nightmare was a doozy," Kel noted as he reached over and picked the object up out of its box.

  "Doctor, you've never had a nightmare before?"

  He shook his head. "Nope. Just lucky, I guess. Thanks for the assist, by the way."

  "Not a problem, Doctors. Good day," they said as they packed up their gear and left the lab.

  Kel hung his head. "Sheila's right, I am such a wuss," he said.

  Tannith smiled at the thought of Kel, a dragon personified, being called a wuss by his petite wife. "Tell me about your dream."

  With a chortle, he told her about his dream while it was still fresh in his memory. When he fished, he looked at her and asked, "Crazy, huh."

  "For elves, dreams carry a lot of meaning." She took the sphere from him and turned it over in her hands. "You sure it's dead?"

  "My scans and the computer's scans turn up negative. “