by Dean Sault
Benjamin thought about the challenges they faced in the next few days and silently hoped his negotiating skills would measure up to the monumental task ahead. He decided to open their new relationship with a question of mutual interest.
“Doctor, do you know what happened in the sky a short while ago?”
“I was hoping you might tell me. On the way here, we heard communications on the glider radio. It sounded like some kind of combat action. I got the impression a fleet of Heptari ships was in our space, and, just as we arrived here, there was a huge explosion. That’s all I know.”
“We also knew about the Heptaris in orbit. They were scanning the planet for humans, until your military detected their early scans, and your people extended planetary shields. General Tragge refused their request to continue scanning and denied the existence of humans on Tanarac. That is where our information ends.”
Dr. Hadje thought how distasteful it must have been for the old general to defend the very beings he sought to eliminate.
The senior Elder continued. “We were on a trip deep in a cave and did not know about the explosion until we arrived back here. Obviously, hostilities have escalated.”
Another awkward pause ensued as each leader thought about how best to begin serious negotiations.
Hadje took the initiative. “We will have to let General Tragge take care of military matters. It seems you and I have a few things to discuss. Where shall we start?”
“Let me assure you, Doctor, my people have lived in peace for two hundred years. We have virtually no crime in our midst. Our fundamental system of values closely mirrors those of your own culture. I would hope our races could co-exist peacefully, instead of the present captivity of my people. I’m not sure how to begin such a significant shift in our relationship. Obviously, we will need a Tanarac advocate. Are you willing to represent our community of free humans to your government?”
“Of course, I would be honored. You probably realize the depth of the problem. There are many, including General Tragge, who believe the best solution to our human dilemma is to allow your species to become extinct. In fact, a resolution was recently passed—”
“Actually, we already know. We learned of the Human Solution Act when it was transmitted to your office on your private network.”
Dr. Hadje was surprised. “How did you get that information? It was fully encrypted.”
“We broke your encryption codes long ago. It really wasn’t difficult. You Tanaracs should work on that.” Benjamin and Dr. Hadje both smiled at the friendly jab.
“Your government,” Benjamin continued, “made that decision without knowledge of our free society. Perhaps our peaceful existence for so long will change their minds.”
The doctor tried to paint a more realistic picture.
“I don’t know. There is no easy way to break this news to our council. Hardliners will demand immediate capture of all free humans. Even moderate governors will, at the very least, mandate your removal from our sacred Central Jungle.”
Benjamin offered another option.
“We have survived without Tanarac’s knowledge for two hundred years. Perhaps it would be best for us to wait until a better time before divulging our presence.” He privately longed to avoid confrontation, if possible.
Dr. Hadje said, “I’m not sure. This direct Heptari threat may change things. Benjamin, are you willing to risk your personal freedom on behalf of your people?”
“Of course. There is nothing I would not do for my people.”
With that, the human leaders and Tanarac scientists took seats at the large conference table and a plan began to evolve. Throughout the session, Elders answered questions about the free human colony. They were honest in all matters, except one, carefully withholding any reference to their source of knowledge. If all else failed, free humans would still have a glimmer of hope.
The Wall.
Chapter 19
The shroud of light surrounding Simon faded, and gravity resumed its familiar pull. His legs wobbled as weight returned, and tingling in his fingertips subsided. Simon shook his arms.
“Welcome, Simon.” It was the voice from The Wall.
“Where am I?”
Simon found it difficult to distinguish features in the dim light. He seemed to be in the center of a small room, but there were no doors or furniture, only empty space.
A low-pitched hum developed behind him. He turned around, and air in the middle of the room began to shimmer. Distortions formed into a very old man, much older than any person Simon had ever seen in a quarry. The old human wore a long white coat and shoes similar in appearance to Tanarac worker boots.
“Hello, I am Dr. Boroski. You may call me Omar, if you wish. That is my given name.”
Simon had seen holograms before, but this man seemed real. He was not at all like the typical holo-image.
“Yes, I am a hologram of my former self. You must have many questions. Where would you like to start?”
Simon repeated his first question. “Where am I?”
“You’re inside a spaceship, a human space vessel.”
“Spaceship? That’s impossible. We’re inside a mountain.”
“Ah, the mountain. That was quite an outstanding accomplishment.” The old man became animated as he talked. “Dr. Moore, God rest her soul, she was a brilliant geophysicist. She devised an ingenious plan to manufacture and displace magma using our proximal energy field. The field discharge rate had to exactly match our volumetric displacement of fluid rock as we descended. Variances in strata density made it quite challenging. She manually adjusted the—”
The hologram stopped himself when he noticed the confused look on Simon’s face.
“I’m sorry, young man. I tend to get carried away. We can discuss that later. Right now, there are more pressing matters. Tell me, what do you know about the Human War?”
Simon shared his recently expanded knowledge. The hologram listened patiently.
“Unfortunately, that’s accurate,” the hologram said. “Toward the end of the war, I was Chairman of the Science Directorate on Earth. Our military was losing and turned to my department for more lethal weaponry.
“After the Tanarac Empire joined the Alliance, the sheer volume of enemy warships overwhelmed our fleets. Those of us in the Science Directorate knew the war would soon arrive at Earth’s doorstep. There was nothing we could do to stop it.”
One question bothered Simon since the first time he read about it a few days earlier.
“After Tanarac withdrew from the Alliance,” he asked, “was the Earth really destroyed?”
“Yes. Completely incinerated. The crew of this ship were the only humans to survive.”
“How did you escape?”
“We were testing a radical new thrust technology—much faster than anything else in the galaxy. We hoped it might save thousands of lives. There was still enough time to move many of our people to distant regions in space where they might survive.”
Simon mistakenly presumed the outcome of Dr. Boroski’s comments.
“How many of our people got out, and where are they now?”
“Alas, things didn’t work out as we had hoped.” Dr. Boroski stared a moment into some distant and painful memory.
“Our new propulsion system incorporated the external structure of the ship. In essence, the skin of the ship acts as both its fuel reserve and propulsion system, leaving no place to mount weapons. It was suited only to carrying cargo or perhaps for military reconnaissance. Our leaders ordered us to suspend development of this technology. They only wanted better weapons.”
The hologram scientist paced slowly with his arms clasped behind his back while he talked.
“Despite orders from the military, my colleagues and I secretly developed this prototype ship. It incorporates the new theories. I assume you’ve heard of Vagern-Clunn’s time distortion equations.”
Simon shook his head.
“Someday, I’ll explain it to
you. For now, all you need to know is that this propulsion system would extend our range far beyond threats posed by the Alliance. We planned to build a fleet of these ships and save as many people as possible, but the end came much too fast.”
The old-man hologram paused while he thought back.
“Only this one experimental ship was ever built. It was designed to leave Earth with over a thousand of our people, yet, we barely escaped with our own lives. Thirty-nine of us. That’s all. We took the ship into deep space for flight tests. When we returned, the Alliance had surrounded Earth. From safety behind a moon of Jupiter, we watched. Tanarac’s commander negotiated a truce with our people, but Heptari leaders rejected it. In response, the entire Tanarac fleet withdrew from the blockade. We monitored satellite images as the Heptaris incinerated our home world. Even the atmosphere was blown into space.”
Simon knew holograms did not feel emotions, yet Dr. Boroski seemed genuinely upset about the fate of Earth.
“The departure of all those Tanarac ships caused a massive gravity distortion field outside our solar system, temporarily blacking out nearby sensors. We entered the turbulence corridor behind the Tanarac ships and navigated visually until we reached deep space. It was actually an impressive bit of flying by our ship’s pilot. Once in deep space, he hid us in distortion residue until the last of the Tanarac fleet vanished in a gravity loop. We were alone in deep space.”
“What about your families?” Simon was intrigued. “How could you leave them?”
“We didn’t. We remained in deep space, hiding in asteroid fields for months. After the Alliance ships left, we returned to Earth, hoping to find survivors. Unfortunately, Heptari bombardments destroyed everything. They even directed low frequency energy beams into sealed bunkers deep underground. There were no survivors.
“At that point, we proceeded the only way we could. We decided to look for vestiges of humankind, perhaps hidden in some distant star systems. We hoped to rebuild our race far from Alliance threats. We pledged our lives to that mission.”
“Is that how you ended up here at Tanarac?”
“Well, yes and no. We didn’t come here initially. It would have been silly for us to approach the home world of one of our enemies. When Dr. Fine suggested it, we all thought she had gone a bit daft. Then, we saw her logic. She argued that the long-term survival of the human race would require two conditions. First, we needed a human compatible place to live. Second, we would need a sufficient gene pool to support a healthy population. We had neither of those by ourselves. In fact, all but two of the female scientists among us were beyond childbearing years.”
Simon quickly grasped the logic. “So, you figured Tanaracs would not kill their prisoners, and since they are a major power, humans would live safely, even if in captivity.”
“Very intuitive, young man. That simple reality was the genesis of our plan. We remained hidden in deep space for almost a full Earth year waiting for the Alliance races to finish dividing the Earth Empire. We used the time to complete our space trials, and made a few refinements to our ship’s original design.
“Many times during that year, Heptari communications demanded that Tanarac surrender their humans. Tanarac always refused, each time, promising that human prisoners of war would die at the end of normal life expectancies. They claimed to have suspended all reproduction of humans to assure the outcome. We hoped a day might come when we could negotiate with the Tanaracs for the release for our people—before they got too old to reproduce.”
“How did you get inside this mountain without being detected?”
The young man shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
“I’m sorry,” the hologram said. “I forgot what it was like to have physical mass. Please, have a seat.”
A small section of wall near Simon thrust into the room creating a bench. It looked hard but was surprisingly comfortable when he sat on it.
“As I was saying, getting hidden on Tanarac didn’t turn out to be as difficult as we expected. Many asteroid belts around this system made it easy for us to get close to the planet. We initially stayed out of sight in the edge of the last asteroid field to monitor communications and study their planet. It didn’t take long for us to locate the human colonies. Most were in mining camps next to the Central Jungle. We chose this place, because it is centrally located to them.”
Dr. Boroski motioned to the center of the room and a small, three-dimensional image of Tanarac formed in the air. The image rotated slowly on its north-south axis before slowing to a stop above a large, mostly green continent surrounded by a vast blue sea. The image magnified as if the observer was approaching the planet at a high speed. Green landmass began showing markings of cities and outlying agriculture. The image rotated slightly before centering on one particularly large area of green with a single brown dot at its center.
“This is the actual recording of our approach to the surface of Tanarac. Planetary radar was easily fooled.” The scientist explained the changing view. “See that brown spot in the center? That is Mount Vaal.”
The small, brown smudge grew until it filled the entire image grid. Images progressed down into the ancient crater as rugged walls of the extinct volcano rose around the ship. The changing scene slowed to a stop just above the basin floor.
“The hardest part of this journey was penetrating the core of the mountain. Dr. Moore directed a narrow beam of time-phased energy into the primary magma shaft of the volcano. It was sheer brilliance. Porous red-rock slipped into a time shear, and, as it returned to proper time phase, the resulting energy release liquefied it. We simply flew through the magma pool, until we reached this depth. We’ve been here ever since. It’s been nearly three hundred years since we hid inside Vaal.”
“So, you were the first free humans on Tanarac?”
Simon scooted further up on the bench and leaned back against the wall.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, just a little tired.”
“Perhaps you’ll be more comfortable with this.”
The hologram pointed toward the wall next to Simon, and something resembling a bed extended into the room. The young man wasted no time moving onto the soft offering. The floating image of Mount Vaal followed him, repositioning directly above where he now rested.
“Touch it,” Dr. Boroski encouraged.
“But, it’s not real,” Simon protested, but complied with the hologram’s instruction.
As he expected, his finger passed right through the image of rock walls.
“See, it’s not real. I can’t touch it.”
“Try again, only this time, close your eyes. Touch it with your mind at the same time.”
“What do you mean? That doesn’t make sense.”
Despite his skepticism, Simon closed his eyes and pictured the image above. He quickly thrust his finger forward, expecting the same result as before.
“Ouch!”
Simon opened his eyes, startled by the impact against his finger. He reached up, more carefully this time, and again his hand passed through the image of the mountain with no sensation of substance.
“What happened?”
“It’s all in your mind. This time, feel the image with your mind and finger at the same time.”
Simon wasn’t sure what the scientist meant, but he tried. He pictured the rock in his mind as he looked at it. His finger reached the image, but instead of passing through, it touched solid rock that felt cold and hard. Curiosity got the better of him, and he pushed against the image. The mountain moved away under his touch. When he withdrew his finger, the image floated back to its original position.
“Doc, it’s solid! How’d that happen?”
The hologram smiled knowingly.
“You have just discovered something important about yourself. We’ll talk more about that later. Right now, you need to know the rest of the story of the free human society.”
Chapter 20
“We’ll be in the quarry
with the scout glider just after dark. When can you meet us, Kob?”
“Sorry, Dr. Hadje. I can’t get there for a few days. I got transferred to a Tang fighter when the lizards set up a space blockade. With all the tension right now, nobody cares about that SG, but keep it hidden until I can get there.”
“It will be safe in the quarry. Call me on my personal comm line when you’re ready to pick it up. And, thank you for the Tobay monkey fur incident.”
“No problem, Doc. I was looking after both our interests. Make sure nobody fools around with that scout ship. It has anti-personnel cannons in the nose. They’re live. I wouldn’t want anyone messing with em. Can you lock it in a plow shed?”
“I’ll make sure it’s secure. What’s going on with the Heptaris?”
“Dunno. I’m just following orders. They told us to take out a small lizard ship over the top pole. We did it, and then they sent us out after a couple Hep mediums that were blasting one of our old deep space Kyomes. Don’t know why she didn’t fight back. She just came around the planet at full throttle and rammed the Heptari command ship. You shoulda seen the fireworks.”
The transmission ended.
Long evening shadows were beginning to merge into full darkness when Dr. Hadje landed the small scout ship in the quarry. With assistance from his Head Tasker, he maneuvered the military glider into the outermost plow maintenance shed. An hour later, he and Jix unlocked the door to the science lab, where their remarkable journey had begun. The Director went into his private office.
“General,” Dr. Hadje said on his crypto video, “I apologize for calling you after hours.”
“No problem, Hadje, but I’m not interested in discussing your damn humans right now. They’ve already caused enough grief for our people.”
“Byn, I need to meet with you, tonight . . . at my office. Alone. It’s urgent.”
“I’ve got a damn Heptari fleet to find. What’s so damned important that I have to see you in the middle of the night?”
