Trellis II (The Lone Colony Book 1)

by David Byrd

  “Well your mother and I are very proud of you and Kai as well. It was a terrible thing that happened and you both have stepped up and accepted a lot of responsibility. I know it can be a weight on your young shoulders at times but just know that we are here for you and you know your aunt and uncle are there for you as well.”

  “Thanks Dad, I’d better be going now before Kai starts nagging me to get to the classroom…Love ya,” she said as she gave him a quick hug and kiss and then left the room.

  Noel watched her leave and was again struck with the thought of how much Elia and Kai had grown in maturity. They had both come to him after the attack and explained the destruction of the TGate. Noel had listened with interest and couldn’t blame them one bit, in fact it was probably a good thing since it would be many years before Earth could launch another attack. It was something however he only disclosed to Faye, Max and Jean. There was too much anger and grief people were working through to be concerned about the power their own children were developing.

  Elia headed down to the new firstborn class of students Jean was teaching again. Kai was already there helping out. In the months following the attack, the firstborn looked to Elia and Kai for support. No one understood them better than another firstborn and they had all come to view Elia as their mentor or leader. Elia and Kai of course shared this responsibility. Since the merge they were closer than ever. They could maintain privacy from each other’s thoughts, but more often than not they were both an open book with each other. For a while they had been a bit frightened at the knowledge they shared in that fateful moment during the attack but they were learning to deal with a lot of new realities.

  “Good morning class,” Elia said inside the minds of all the firstborn in the room. Please be respectful of Auntie Jean and learn all that you can. Kai and I are always ready to help you.”

  Jean waited patiently for this introduction picking up a few of the words Elia was telling the students. She appreciated the effect the two young people were having on the firstborn.

  “Noel my friend,” Max said in link. “I have not found anything of importance in Hollis’ notes here at the habitat. But there is so much information we may never find what we are looking for. There are hundreds of data cubes with experiments and research. You know Hollis spent all of his time in scientific experimentation.”

  “Ah…that’s disappointing Max but just keep looking when you can,” Noel said. “I know it’s not something we need today, but in years to come, we may have a reason to venture back out into space. OK…talk to you later and thanks.” With that he disconnected the link. “Well for better or worse we are on this planet to stay,” he said out loud. After the attack, the control console for the orb defense had been destroyed. And before that, Nick had enacted a radical program that saved them and imprisoned them at the same time. Noel was sure that when Nick had said “I’m sorry,” in those last seconds it was because he knew what would happen. With the orbs permanently active and overlapping each other in a solid shield, there was no way to turn them off. No control mechanism or interface. The onboard power would last hundreds of years. So while they were now protected from attack…they were also imprisoned unless something in Hollis’ notes could be found in the habitat. But that was a longshot.

  Max continued looking through the endless data cubes and experiments in the habitat for months. He found a lot of promising research that he passed on through link to the other scientists in Ancora so that they might benefit from some of the pre-work Hollis had started. At one point he found a reference to beacon. Who or what beacon was, he had yet to find but the word came up several more times in his later experiments. Max missed his friend and colleague as they all did and felt a bit guilty going over all of his personal notes. It felt a bit like desecration but he knew Hollis would understand. “What happened you old nutty professor?” Max asked aloud with affection.

  Chapter 25

  The colony once more prospered in the two years since the attack, and life had settled down to the routine they once enjoyed. Elia and Kai were now both over 18 and while no longer necessary, they wanted to marry to honor the tradition both their parents had followed. The ceremony was a simple affair to take place in Serenity Park below the monument. Everyone was invited and with few exceptions, all had attended. The park had become a beautiful place with lush green grass, trees and flowers of every hue. People casually sat all over the great field with their families. At the monument, Faye and Noel were standing on the bride’s side. Kai along with Max and Jean were on the groom side. Max and Jean were honored when Kai asked them to stand in for his own parents whom he felt closer to here in this place than anywhere else. Elia walked across the field in a simple white gown of a silk like material that caught the reflected light as she moved which looked like colors dancing all over the gown. She had a simple purple flower in her hair.

  The feelings in the meadow were growing by the minute. With all the firstborn in one area and everyone feeling happy and warm toward the couple at the monument, the feelings were magnified and spilled out into the adults. They may not have known why they were all feeling such strong emotions but the feeling was magical…a building wave of warmth spreading all over the meadow. Kai and Elia knew of course and Jean was already crying since she could feel some of what the firstborn felt.

  At the monument, Kai and Elia took each other’s hands and said a few words to make formal that which they already knew. The real ceremony took place mentally where no one else was admitted. They merged again, this time willfully and fully. Setting a bond no one could break not even themselves. Afterward the crowd sensed the completion of the ceremony and the happiness radiated outward. If you were to look closely at the firstborn during that moment of happiness, you would see the softly glowing circle of gold shining in their eyes.

  “We’re home Mrs. Zale,” Kai said as the pulled up to their new home. Max and Noel had rebuilt the habitat that was destroyed in the first attack on the colony for the newlywed couple.

  “What’s this Mrs. Zale thing?” Elia asked. “You know that’s an archaic outdated tradition for the spouse to assume another name. I could be Hasten-Zale you know or just Hasten.”

  Kai knew she was just kidding. They both knew instinctively everything and every mood the other was feeling. They had already decided to use the old traditions like their parents. This was just a friendly sparring. Something familiar for them to ease the tension of the first time they would be intimate with each other. Elia was not sure why they were nervous as they knew every thought and had shared more than anyone could ever share. They went inside and closed the hatch. The next day something that rarely ever happened to Elia. She had been wrong…there was more to share…

  Max gathered the group including Elia and Kai at their place. He only told them on link that he found something. He didn’t want to go further until they were all present in person.

  “So what’s going on buddy?” Noel asked.

  “So you know I’ve been searching for months for the specifications for the orb defense,” Max said. “But what I keep finding is a reference to the word beacon. I’ve seen a lot of material in testing equipment, notes, frequencies…all kinds of obscure references…you know how Hollis was with his discoveries. Anyway, I’ve finally found an entry that explains a repeating signal he is calling beacon originating far to the west in the unexplored hills and ravines.

  “OK go on Uncle Max,” Elia said. “You have all of us on the edge of our seat.”

  “Anyway…I found this small scanner in one of the piles of old experiments. It’s obviously an early model but look when I turn it on.” Max turned on the unit and the display showed a straight line across the screen. For a few seconds the group seemed a bit let down by this and then the line jumped…It pulsed with a frequency of regular sine waves and then stopped again.

  “So you see,” Max said. “This has to be the frequency that Hollis found as the beacon or signal coming from the west. He devoted all h
is time to this before he disappeared and I believe he was searching for this signal on his long trips.”

  “But Max, why was this so important?” Faye asked. “I mean this could have been left by the original hab builders or the site survey ships even.”

  “Yes I thought of that too and wondered why Hollis would devote so much time to it. So I’ve been analyzing the frequency this device is tuned to. It’s not one that Earth has ever used and it’s in such a sub-sonic range it could never have been detected with our normal range of instruments. It’s a mystery signal but from whom…to whom we don’t know.”

  “We’ll go,” Kai said. “Elia and I have been dying to go explore for ages. We are not needed here right now and the rest of you are. We want to try and follow the path Hollis took and maybe we can find out what happened.” Kai and Elia had already discussed this mentally through every possible argument and made their decision well before announcing it. Their communication was instant but for the sake of their gathered family they always talked out loud.

  “Elia,” said Noel. “You have no idea what you might find. You might find Hollis…”

  “Dad…we know what we might find. We just know that this is the right thing for us to do and if it was this important to Uncle Hollis, then it must have some great significance to all of us.”

  “HA HA HA very well said indeed,” laughed Max. “We all know you’re right, we just want to protect you still. They are more like the rest of us hardy pioneers than we give them credit for.”

  “Max is right and we know it,” Faye said as she moved to put her arms around the young couple. “Let’s go make plans and Max can astound us with some new spirit he’s distilled in his spare time…beets or some such weird plant.”

  “Ah my dear Faye knows me so well. Let’s go family,” Max said.

  It took a few weeks to get ready for the trip. Max adapted a portable hab module with a chassis and wheels. They could pull this behind the rover to live in…like a camping trip. The scanner had been modified with an adapter that could in a very rudimentary way indicate the direction of the signal. It was not precise which is probably why it took Hollis many experiments to find the right path.

  The day was warm and sunny when the couple headed out to the west. The open air and new scenery sparked a feeling of adventure in them. After a few hours they reached the edge of the rolling hills. In the distance the hills grew larger until they were deep cliffs and ravines. At some point they may be forced to leave the rover and hab to explore on foot which would greatly limit their range.

  “OK…so the scanner still says due west,” Kai said. “It looks like we still have a good path. The hills are gentile and the grade is nearly flat here.”

  “You know…what would Uncle Hollis have done?” she asked. “I mean, he had to come this far in a rover himself. This is a dry dusty area; there might still be sign of his tracks.”

  Kai doubted this since it had been more than a decade, but this area was very dry and seldom rained. They spread out from the rover and started searching for signs of tracks since Hollis would have been the only person on the planet to pass this way.

  “Find anything?” he asked meeting up with Elia back at the rover.

  “No. Do you think we are on the right track? I mean he could have traveled any route to get here.”

  “I don’t think so…he was a scientist and he probably would have calculated the most efficient route to the destination,” he said.

  “Well I’m starving and it’s getting pretty hot, why don’t we head for that group of rocks up ahead and rest for a bit?” she asked.

  “I’m game.” Kai said as they jumped into the rover and took off for the distant outcropping. They were starting to see more and more groups of rocks and boulders. Eventually the ground would turn hard and the ravines would start.

  They pulled up near a boulder about half the size of the rover and used the backside in the shade to rest for a while. It was too early to make camp, so they just had some food and rested against the cool boulder. The sun shining on the cliffs in the far distance created golden hues shining from afar. The view was beautiful and the boulder was cool. In no time Elia’s head slowly leaned against Kai and before long both were asleep.

  Kai woke with a start; they had not intended to nap and had further to go before dark. He woke Elia up and they made ready to depart once more. Kai loaded the rover while Elia found a place to bury the trash they had from eating protein packs. Elia walked a few feet behind the boulder to sandy soft area where the wind had blown the lighter sands up against the side. She used a small garden spade and buried their trash. As she was about to join Kai the sun glinted off the ground nearby. It looked like a polished rock reflecting the low sun but she used her spade to loosen the soil around it.

  “Kai! Come quick!” Elia yelled.

  “What is it...what’s wrong?” he asked running over to her concern in his mind.

  “Look, it’s an empty packet of a protein meal.”

  “Um…OK so someone else was here before us,” he said.

  Exasperated and sending a quick mental insult to him she explained.

  “This is a hab protein pack. Look at the bottom, it has the Kinsdale logo. I’ve seen these in mom and dad’s hab. It means Uncle Hollis was here.”

  “You’re right…that’s great!” Kai said grinning. “I’m sorry; I didn’t know my wife was such an accomplished archeologist.”

  “Well now you do,” she said playfully.

  Elia linked with her dad and explained what they found. This also served to mark the geo location for the future. Linking was still possible at this distance but it would not be long before they would be out of contact.

  For several days they kept following the smoothest grade possible in a straight line. They assumed that Hollis would have done the same taking the easiest path. During another stop they found a buried water pack so they knew at one time he was passing this way. At noon they rolled up to the edge of the ravines. This was about as far as the rover was going to go so they setup base camp here. They had enough food and water for a couple of weeks before needing to return and resupply. Donning backpacks with essentials they started trekking down into the first canyon. The grade was easy enough to get down to the bottom, and the canyon ran in a north westerly direction. After a couple kilometers of navigating switchbacks and fallen rocks they came to an area where the canyon narrowed overhead. They still had plenty of room to walk but the sky was rapidly closing above them. Both being fatigued they stopped talking aloud, instead switching to their mental abilities.

  “We’re losing the light,” Elia thought.

  “I know…there’s just a few more feet of open sky up there. Have you noticed the sides of the canyon are…shiny?” He thought.

  Elia walked over to the canyon walls and in the dim light she could see that they were indeed shiny but very smooth.

  “This is not natural,” she thought. “It seems to be KT ore and rock melted or ground smooth.”

  Alarm flared in the mental conversation.

  “Elia STOP! Don’t’ go any farther.”

  Switching to verbal, Elia felt his concern and peered into the darkness ahead of them and froze. “Oh my…what…is that?” she asked.

  Up ahead just visible in the darkness was a shimmer. The same kind of shimmer you would see in an energy field but behind that shimmer at the end of the canyon was the cause for concern. There was a sold smooth surface with a door in the center. The door appeared to be about three meters tall and shaped like a tall thin triangle…The door was pointed at the apex of the triangle and flared out at the bottom.

  Chapter 26

  “This is amazing,” Elia said. “This can’t be from Earth or something Uncle Hollis built.”

  “Why not…He was out here for months and could have fabricated this door.” Kai said.

  “Really…just how would he have managed to melt those two materials that formed this tunnel?” She asked. “It’s over a h
undred feet to this end and we have no idea what it is. For that matter why would he build a door like that?”

  OK so I don’t have the answer for that but what do we do now?” Kai asked.

  “It will be dark soon,” she said. “Why don’t we go back to the rover and come back tomorrow. We can take the rover and hab closer to this canyon. Maybe there is a shorter way down here because if uncle Hollis was here, he couldn’t have walked.”

  The couple hiked back to the camp for rest and refueling. The next morning they set out in the rover pulling the hab while they drove directly on the rim of the canyon heading north. They passed near the location of the door at the top of the canyon and kept traveling north. About a kilometer later, they found what looked like a road heading down…it had a gentle grade that was out of place in the steep ravines they had hiked through in the south. Trusting that this was the easiest path Hollis would take, they drove down to the bottom of the ravine and headed south west. It was taking them towards the geo location of the door. A few minutes later, the familiar smooth melted looking material started on the sides of the canyon and moved up to eventually form an almost sealed cave.

  “Look!” She yelled. “It’s his rover.”

  Hollis’ rover was parked near the end of the cave. The tires were flat and it had a thick layer of dust and sand on it. They walked around to the front and there just like the other side was the slight shimmer of an energy field in front of a door like the previous one.

  “We have to get in there.” She said. “He could have been hurt or…”

  “Hon,” he said taking her into his arms, you know it’s been more than a decade; no one could have lived here all that time. I’m sorry but we are likely to just find his body.”

  “I know you’re right…I just wanted to believe he was somehow alright.”