Guardian Generations

by C. Osborne Rapley

  “Hello, the terminal building is over there – they are expecting you. Is there anyone else on board?”

  Other than a strange accent, the Cartigian language had changed hardly at all. Octavian could speak it fluently.

  “Yes, but there seems to be something up with their stasis pods – they haven’t revived yet.”

  “OK, we’ll have a look in a moment.” The technician turned to pick up his tools. Octavian started towards the terminal building, resisting the urge to run, feeling the muscles tense between his shoulders. Half expecting a challenging shout from behind, he hunched himself up. His luck was holding; it was dusk and there was a chill in the air so the cloak would not be out of place. He walked towards the main building. As soon as he dared he ducked behind what appeared to be a large freighter. It was parked near the perimeter of the port. A high fence surrounded the area. Beyond was a large city with dark heavy buildings – typical Cartigian architecture, Octavian thought.

  He glanced round; there was no one near. The other side of the fence was a deserted street leading away into the city. He activated his armour, setting the servo assistance to maximum, ran to the fence, and jumped. He cleared the fence, landing with a crash the other side and he continued running. He ducked into a darkened alleyway and folded his armour. His blood was pounding in his ears and his breath coming in short gasps. He tried to calm his breathing and to listen. There was no sound of pursuit, but he waited to let his heart rate slow back to normal. He had escaped for the moment at least. He was on a world where there were spacecraft and computers, so at least he had a chance to get away and find out what really happened to the Guardians. If he were very lucky, he might be able to steal a ship. He needed to find a planet with an active AI; he would then be safe and be able to make plans for what to do next. It would be a pleasant change from having to react to what life had been throwing at him over the last few weeks. He smiled involuntarily to himself; it seemed like weeks to him anyway.

  Octavian pulled the hood of the cloak forward over his eyes and started to walk into the city. Even in the civilised days of the Guardians, the Cartigian cities had slum areas. He hoped this one would be no exception, and he could hide there among the dropouts and dregs, where no one would take any notice of him.

  Nine: Cousins

  James stepped back and nearly lost his balance in the low gravity. He had expected some strange alien, not the slim attractive young woman who stood in the doorway. A momentary look of surprise clouded her face, and then she smiled at him. In perfect English she said, “Quickly, Lieutenant Taylor, follow me.”

  He noticed she was holding some sort of heavy rifle in her arms, and hesitated. She turned back; he was suddenly struck by the blueness of her eyes.

  “Quickly, we have no time to lose.”

  She hurried down the corridor, and in the reduced gravity he had difficulty keeping up with her. She turned down another corridor with a jagged hole at the end. Bending down she stepped through the hole, and James followed, stepping through after her. He was caught unawares by the return to full gravity and stumbled. Tristain steadied him and James felt his face start to flush. He tried to cover his embarrassment, but that only made things worse – he felt his face burn.

  “By the way, how do you know my name and rank?” he asked.

  She laughed. “It’s written on your flying suit!” She smiled again.

  James wished he could disappear back through the jagged hole, but he just smiled back at the young woman. “Oh yes, I forgot it was there.”

  “Don’t worry, I expect everything is strange for you at the moment. I don’t know how I would react in your place,” Tristain replied.

  She activated the air lock, and the door behind them slid silently into place. The inner door opened, and they stepped through into Tristain’s ship. She locked the laser into the gun rack on the wall, and turning back to James said, “Follow me I will explain everything to you in a moment. Everything I know at least,” she added. She turned down a corridor, and they quickly reached the control room of the ship. James was surprised to see another young woman sitting at one of the consoles. She turned towards them as they entered.

  “Hello, Lieutenant Taylor,” she said in perfect, accent-free English. This one had dark, short hair in contrast to the woman who had ‘rescued’ him.

  James wasn’t sure if he had been rescued; he needed to know what was going on. What were two attractive women who both spoke perfect English doing out here? He had expected aliens!

  The young, white-haired woman smiled at him. “I am an alien, well half an alien anyway.” She pushed her long hair back with her fingers. James could see her strange ears. “You can close your mouth now, Lieutenant Taylor.”

  James hadn’t realised, but he had been gawking at her ears. He shut his mouth. “Sorry.”

  Tristain laughed again. “That’s all right, I don’t mind.”

  The dark-haired woman coughed. “Please sit down, Lieutenant.” She indicated one of the chairs. James sat. The chair seemed to mould itself to his body and after the hard cell bench it was amazingly comfortable.

  “Are you hungry or thirsty?” she asked.

  “No, I’m fine at the moment thank you. I would like to know what’s going on though,” James suddenly started. He turned to the fair-haired woman. “How did you know I was expecting to see aliens? I didn’t say anything!”

  She smiled again. “I will explain.”

  Tristain glanced at Cassiopeia. Where shall I start?

  You need to find out about him. It is too much of a coincidence that he is a Taylor as well.

  OK, but let’s move away from here, just in case anyone comes to investigate the attack on that ship.

  Cassiopeia jumped their ship away from the damaged alien transport. Keep an eye on it. We need to follow anyone who comes to investigate. Cassiopeia nodded.

  The exchange between them took only a couple of seconds, and James didn’t even notice the short pause.

  “First, let me introduce myself – my name is Tristain Taylor; my companion is Cassiopeia.”

  James looked from one to the other. ‘How can you have the same surname as me, is this some kind of joke?”

  Tristain shook her head. “No, it is no joke, my father is an Englishman, and his name is Tristan Taylor. My mother named me after him. It is a custom of her people to name the first-born daughter after her father.”

  James shook his head. ‘This is weird; I had an uncle called Tristan Taylor. I never met him as far as I can remember, but my mother used to talk of him often. He disappeared without a trace when I was very young.”

  Tristain, ask him what he knows about his uncle.

  All right, give me a chance!

  Tristain continued, “Did your mother tell you anything about your uncle?”

  “Yes, before he disappeared he became a bit of a recluse. He had taken part in some medical experiment while he was in the Navy. It apparently went wrong, and it left him almost unable to function, so he was pensioned off. He brought a small cottage on the edge of Exmoor where he had been living for some months when he disappeared without a trace. Unfortunately, it was several weeks before he was missed. No one knew where he had gone to and no body was ever found.”

  James paused a moment. “There were reports and rumours of UFOs in that area at around the same time. We used to joke that aliens had abducted Uncle Tristan!”

  Tristain groped for the chair behind her and sat down. “That is true he… he was, by my mother!” Tristain felt the breath catch in her throat. “You are my cousin! There is something going on here. It is far too much of a coincidence that you were taken a prisoner by that ship. They must have sought you out.” Tristain shook her head. “But why?”

  “I’m sorry to interrupt your train of thought, but you have not answered my question. How did you know what I was thinking?” James asked.

  Tristain blinked. “I’m sorry. It’s a long story, but in a nutshell you and all humans are the s
ole remaining survivors of an ancient race who called themselves Lantians. Earth is not your original home; it belonged to a synthetic race called the Cartigians. There was a gathering of Lantians on Cartigia … Earth … when there was a natural disaster and all civilisations were destroyed. The survivors quickly fell back to being primitive hunter-gathers. The Lantians, though few, quickly spread across the planet and the surviving Cartigians did not have a chance against them. Father thinks the Cartigians were what you now call Neanderthals.

  “The remaining Lantians around the known galaxy were always few, and they quickly died out. Unfortunately for the rest of the galaxy, the early Lantians had produced all other races, my mother’s race being one of the first. The younger races had a tendency to war and violence. The Lantians formed a sort of Police Force to keep the peace. They called themselves Guardians. Without the Guardians, the galaxy quickly fell into anarchy and many races either died out or lost their veneer of civilisation. Some however survived, generally intact. My mother’s, the Sicceians, being one.”

  Tristain paused for a moment and glanced across to Cassiopeia.

  James leant forward in his chair, “Go on.”

  “Well,” she continued, “On each race’s original home planet the Guardians constructed powerful Artificial Intelligences deep underground. They were designed and constructed to aid the Guardians in their task. These AIs had built-in interlocks so they would only function for a Guardian. When the Guardians disappeared the AIs could no longer operate.

  “One important ability of the Lantians was they could communicate with their machines using their minds. They had a sort of telepathy. It was not clear enough for good communication between each other, just conveying feelings really. However between them and the machines it was the primary communication. My mother’s race was left with a rudimentary version of the same ability. Not sufficient for the AIs but enough for controlling their own computer systems.

  “We believe that during the time when your race became hunter-gatherers they lost that ability. It became dormant. My father took part in a military weapons experiment, which included putting a computer interface in his head. Although the experiment was a failure, we believe it reactivated the dormant ability. Father’s presence on the Sicceian World activated the AI, and over the years, because of him, peace and stability have returned. I, my brothers and sister, have the same ability inherited from him.”

  She turned to Cassiopeia. “Cassiopeia is one of the AIs. The person you see here is an avatar of the planetary computer – she is a machine.”

  James turned to Cassiopeia. “Well, I would never have believed it!”

  Cassiopeia nodded. “It is true, I am a machine, albeit a very sophisticated one.” She smiled.

  “If it were not for the fact of what I have been through these past few weeks, I would have difficulty believing any of it! So let me get this straight,” James continued. “My uncle is alive – I assume he is still alive?”

  Tristain nodded, “Yes.”

  “And you are my cousin and only half human?”

  Tristain nodded again. “Yes.”

  “I gather from what you are saying you are one of these Guardians?”

  Tristain glanced at Cassiopeia and nodded. “Yes, I have been trained as a Guardian since I was a small child.”

  James shook his head. “Bloody hell! It’s a lot to take in all at once.”

  Tristain, a ship has just come into sensor range. It is heading this way.

  Cassiopeia, I think it would be best if we used verbal communication in deference to James Taylor.

  We could reactivate his ability.

  No, Cassiopeia, not at the moment; we do not have time for the necessary training.

  Tristain turned back to James, who had noticed the slight pause. “A ship is approaching, we need to monitor it, please remain seated for the time being.”

  James nodded, “OK.”

  Tristain opened her mind to the ship’s sensors. Her mind and senses expanded. She was out among the stars again, hard points of light against the blackness of space. The indication and targeting information appeared to float at the top of her vision. She loved the sensation; it never failed to give her a thrill, the great expanse before her. She could change her view, move around and expand a point at will. It was automatic to her now, just like walking and talking.

  She turned towards the damaged ship. The stars seemed to blur in her vision giving her the sensation of great speed. The sensor system passed the position of the approaching ship to her, and she adjusted her point of view beyond the damaged ship. At the limit of her ‘vision’, she saw the approaching craft. She activated the scanners. The ship was large and heavily armed, of an unknown configuration.

  Assessment Cassiopeia. Damn!

  “Assessment Cassiopeia?”

  “It is equivalent to a heavy cruiser. However, it is not as advanced as our ships. From the power signature of the weapons and the shielding we are a match for it.”

  “Good, that’s something anyway.”

  Tristain watched as the ship drew close to the damaged hulk. Cassiopeia had hidden their ship in the shadow of a large gas giant orbiting a nearby star. There was little chance of them being discovered if they stayed where they were.

  “Can you sense anything from their main computer Cassiopeia?” Tristain asked.

  “No, nothing. We will have to wait until they move off. I should be able to calculate their direction and get a rough idea of the distance from the power signature when they activate their Star Drive. I can plot a course to follow them then.”

  Tristain watched as the hulk was drawn into one of the cruiser’s docking ports. The cruiser turned, activated its Star Drive, and disappeared.

  “Did you get the information you needed, Cassiopeia?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can we jump after them?” Tristain tried to keep the edge out of her voice. Cassiopeia was silent for a moment.

  “I have calculated their course, we can follow when you are ready.”

  Tristain sighed. “Let’s go then.”

  The Star Drive activated. Tristain’s view of the stars blurred, and they became streaks across her field of vision. She disconnected her mind from the sensors. She blinked, and it took a moment for her senses to adjust back to normal. She turned to James, who had been sitting silently watching.

  “Right, let’s go to the galley. I’m hungry, and there will be several hours before we reach our destination.”

  “It isn’t instant then, this Star Drive?”

  “No, it’s very complicated but, put simply, it’s like moving to another dimension where it’s possible to travel faster than light. The travel time between points is still finite. While the Star Drive is active, it is not possible to sense or track a ship. We can take advantage of that and follow the cruiser, providing Cassiopeia calculated their course correctly just as they activated their Star Drive. They will not know we are following them as long as we are careful.”

  James followed Tristain through to the galley.

  “I could murder a cup of tea.”

  Tristain laughed. “My father says that! Unfortunately, I have never tasted tea as we don’t have anything like it. I know my father has tried to get something similar, but nothing has come close to what he wanted. We have fruit juice and something that is apparently very close to what you would call coffee.”

  They sat in the galley, and Tristain spent most of the time questioning James about her father’s family.

  Tristain?

  Yes, Cassiopeia what is it?

  We will shortly be returning to normal space.

  Tristain stood. “It seems we will shortly be arriving at our destination. If you would please follow me back to the control room. We may have to manoeuvre once we are in normal space, and it would be best if you were strapped in.”

  They settled into the control room chairs and fastened the straps. Cassiopeia was already sitting at one of the control consoles.
<
br />   “We should arrive outside the system hopefully beyond sensor range.”

  James found it difficult to think of Cassiopeia as a machine. She seemed to use concepts and the language of a living person. Machines did not say ‘hopefully’.

  Stars suddenly appeared outside the control room windows. Tristain shut down all power; it would give them time to assess the situation while minimising the chances of detection. Tristain accessed the ship’s detection systems. They were on the extreme edge of a small planetary system. The third planet was habitable. There was a medium-sized gas giant as well as small planetoids orbiting the outer reaches, an orbiting defensive grid around the third planet, and an outer sensor system just outside the orbit of the furthest planetoid. A large fleet was in orbit around one of the planetoids.

  They sat quietly for a while, and then Cassiopeia broke the silence. “I have analysed their transmissions. They are Cartigians.”

  “I thought you said they were extinct?”

  Tristain turned to James. “We thought they were. This could well have been a colony world that survived the great Dark Age. I’m surprised they have regained space flight. They were reported to be one of the ‘slower’ races.”

  Tristain thought for a moment, and then turned to Cassiopeia. “Can we sneak past their defensive systems and land on the main planet undetected?”

  “If we keep our power to a minimum our cloaking systems are sufficient for us to remain undetected, so yes it is possible.”

  “Right, being a Cartigian world it should be cold and wet. Can you access their commercial networks and find out what they are currently wearing? I need to know whether it’s hooded cloaks or something similar. If they’re the current fashion it will be easy for us to move around.”

  Cassiopeia replied almost immediately, “Yes, they use hooded cloaks. I can construct three for us and pad the shoulders. If we all walk with a stoop we should be able to move around a crowed city easily.”

  Tristain turned to James. “That is if you wish to accompany us; otherwise, you can remain with the ship.”