The Fifth Civilization: A Novel

by Peter Bingham-Pankratz

  For the first time in months, he’d be laying eyes on the woman he planned to marry.

  Chapter 2

  Kel Streb wasn’t in the arrivals lounge. But an electronic billboard showed her usual ship, the Colobus, docked at Entrepot Row C, and Roan thought he might find her there. Through a maze of elevators and stairways, Roan wound his way to a hallway pungent with the rough smells of sawdust and packing chemicals.

  Stacks of crates sat on steel pallets that covered the floor of Row C. Hoverlifts buzzed around the pallets with geometric precision, scooping up their assigned loads and running them off to the docks. To a novice observer, the haphazard arrangement of so many goods might seem chaotic, but Roan knew the cargo always got where it needed to go. After all, the Company didn’t earn its trillions by sitting around and contemplating the origins of life, but by turning freight hauling into a science. If Roan’s memory served, the percentage of lost cargo was so low as to approach zero.

  Roan closed his eyes and listened for the sound of Kel’s voice above the whir of drills and the hum of the lifts. Kel was somewhere among all these boxes, this way station of trade, this boarding home of commodities. She would often survey the cargo before it was loaded into the ship’s hold, to implant in her mind some physical meaning to her long voyages across space. But as excited as Roan was to see Kel, he knew that the fact she was in the Entrepot wasn’t exactly good: it usually meant she was leaving soon.

  “Give me five more minutes,” Roan heard, ever so faintly. He opened his eyes. Followed the sound of her voice.

  He spotted Kel sitting on a crate. Chin resting on her fist, legs crossed in front of her, lost in thought as she stared at a vintage wood-framed painting propped up against a crate. As Roan got closer, he saw the painting was of a bright ball of yellow flame, very much like a star, only with a black-shadowed, vaguely human form in the center. Roan stopped alongside her crate and leaned down to Kel’s ear.

  “You know, they say you shouldn’t stare directly at the sun.”

  Kel turned her head to him, slowly. She knew he’d been creeping up on her.

  “Well then,” she said, “I guess I’ll look upon something dimmer.”

  Authoritative in the red cap and overalls of a Company captain, Kel usually projected a serious air about herself, even when joking. She kept her body close together, as if to protect it from harm, and allowed nothing unruly to appear on her physical body. Her hair was still short and did not dip below the nape of the neck, and beneath the overalls Roan saw muscles honed from a daily regimen of pull-ups and stretching.

  Kel Streb had the bearing of someone you didn’t want on your bad side. And Roan would know; he’d been on it a few times.

  Speaking of which.

  “So anyway, hello Kel.”

  “Hello, Nick.”

  “I was hoping you’d be in the Arrivals lounge. You know, the place with all the other men and women excited to see each other after months apart.”

  Kel took her chin off her hand and stared up at Roan. “You think I was longing, huh? I can’t deny that I’m touched, Roan. You come five hundred light years back to your home planet and the first person you want to see is me.”

  “Happy New Year, Kel.”

  “Oh really? Did you get me a present?”

  Roan put his arms out wide, proudly displaying his whole body to her.

  “Interesting,” Kel said. His arms still outstretched, Roan waited for an embrace. But she continued to sit there on the waiting room bench, every limb in her body perfectly still. He studied her strong, toned arms, the athletic body that he had taken to the limits of flexibility. She was known to move deliberately. Observe without speaking. Let you do the talking just so she could see what you sputtered.

  And sputter Roan did. “So…as you can guess, I’m happy to see you.”

  “I’m flattered, Roan. Really. But the last time I saw you, you hardly gave me the time of day. Momo Koda was the hot new trend back then. What was it about Momo again? Was it her eyepatch?” She smirked. “Come on, don’t tell me that you’re attracted to women with a little disability.”

  Roan shook his head. “Momo Koda was a long time ago. I don’t even know if she’s still in the solar system. But there’s only one person I’d spend the New Year with.” Roan gestured to the crate. “May I?”

  “Please, Captain.”

  If she wasn’t going to stand up, Roan reasoned, he might as well sit down. He took the spot right next to her, wondering what valuable item was inside this crate they were using as a bench. Kel stared back at him, her chin going back to resting on her fist. She was waiting for him to say more and frankly it made him a little uncomfortable, so he looked out at the bright painting leaning against the crate.

  “That’s a fun old thing,” Roan said. “Haven’t seen one of those since…oh, probably when I was a kid. Nothing three-dimensional about it.”

  “It’s an oil painting.” She turned to look at it, too.

  “Who’s the artist? Mozart?”

  “Mozart wasn’t a painter.”

  “Whoever it was, they made the thing pretty dramatic. Almost like a big, bright star. Only I can’t figure out if that’s a person inside the sun or not.” He slid his arm a little behind her back, but either she didn’t notice or she didn’t care.

  “It’s called Light and Colour,” Kel said. “By a guy named Turner. It’s almost seven hundred years old, and someone on Orion just bought it.” Now she turned back to Roan, leaning forward. Away from his arm. She clasped her hands and brought them in front of her. “It was too beautiful to pack up right away, so I had them wait until the last moment. I wish I could look at it during the voyage but, you know, Company rules.”

  Uh-oh.

  “The voyage?”

  “Yes, Nick.”

  “Don’t tell me you’re going to Orion.”

  “Yes, Nick. A two-month voyage. Leaves tomorrow…or rather I should say today. Not bad for a deep run, but it’s still out in the sticks. If I’m lucky, maybe I can swing past the Helix Nebula and give the crew a beautiful vista.”

  Roan shook his head. This wasn’t how he was expecting this to go at all. He inched ever so slightly away from Kel and shot his eyes to the floor. “I didn’t know,” he mumbled.

  Kel leaned in closer. “How could you, Roan? I didn’t know until a few days ago, either. But the Company needs people who can leave at a moment’s notice, who can take long-haul flights and not get fatigued or snap. That’s the way our employer works, Roan. God knows I need the money.”

  Roan’s eyes lit up. “Wait a minute now. You can’t be leaving right away. There’s a good place in Shiba I’ve never taken you. No one knows about it so I swear it won’t be crowded for New Year’s. I’ll buy you a drink for the new pentury.”

  “The pentury! God…I can’t, Nick. Not tonight. Not for a long time. I need sleep, and my crew needs sleep. Until they can trust computers to ship valuable merch across star systems, the Company’s gonna want humans on their ships. That’s the way it is. I can’t change it.”

  A hoverlift whirred past, something round held in its talons. He tried to focus on his surroundings, but then he realized his environment hummed with things heading to other star systems. Things leaving. “Well,” he tried, but couldn’t think of anything. He could tell his voice showed disappointment, and he could tell Kel knew because she smiled a big smile. Smiles were her way of saying: brace yourself.

  “Kaito’s is having ladies’ night,” he tried. “I saw it advertised in the arrivals lounge.”

  Not his best effort, and he knew it. Kel shook her head and stood up. She looked so magnificent, so tall, so authoritative. The qualities that drew her to him. That made him want to pop the question. They’d been back and forth for so many years, but dammit Kel was a woman with willpower, and he wanted to be with her for the rest of his life.

  “Roan, let me give you the diagnosis.” Kel put her hands on her hips, cocked her head to the side. “We’re t
he problem. We’re irreversible. You know what that means. It means we got the space sickness. Means we have to be out there every year, traveling to some god-awful who-knows-where colony, because otherwise we get restless. That’s why we let ourselves get promoted. Not because we wanted to be held down somewhere. But because we wanted to be free.”

  Roan stood up too. He balled his hands into fists. “What if I thought I was going to put all that behind me? Stay on Earth for a long time, maybe a few years. Settle down.”

  Kel laughed. “You, settle down? You need adventure.”

  “The two of us could be an adventure…”

  “Stop.” Roan felt a chill climb down his body. Kel stopped smiling for a brief second, but only a second. “It’s a big galaxy. I can’t sit still knowing it’s out there. You can’t either—you just might not realize it.” She turned to go. Walked a few feet, then stopped.

  “Happy New Year, Roan,” Kel said over her shoulder. Roan didn’t respond.

  She was off again, weaving her way down the hallway. Roan watched her back, her confident steps, but his mind was elsewhere. The kisses on the beach. The shots on the moon. The fumbling, never-successful lovemaking in zero-g. There wasn’t much more that could be said.

  It took only moments for Kel to disappear behind a multitude of pallets. Roan tried to absorb the ambient sounds of the cargo bay, but his train of thought was interrupted by a workman in overalls pulling up next to him in a hoverlift. Without a word, the workman lifted the painting, frame and all, and slid it into a rectangular storage box. The box sealed with a chirp, and then the hurried worker set it on his machine and hopped into the driver’s seat. He threw Roan a small salute as the cart darted away.

  In the span of a few seconds, Light and Colour had disappeared from Roan’s sight.

  Chapter 3

  The smell was surely the worst thing about Earth.

  Grinek didn’t know if it came from the seafood the residents called salmon or squid, or from the collective odor of all the Earthmen in Tokyo. It was repulsive to his nostrils whatever its source. He regretted cracking the skimmer’s window for air and quickly shut it. Though it wasn’t his first time on the planet, he found Earth as bewildering and offensive as ever.

  He needed only to glance around his immediate area for examples. Why, for instance, would they build mile-high glass buildings that reflected too much sunlight? Why, with all the buses, skytrains, and skimmers darting around, were Tokyo’s streets still choked with humans? And just how could they function with the smell lingering in the air at all times? Grinek decided they must not smell it. The Kotaran snout was useful for hunting the enemy, but not for living among them.

  Beside Grinek, his subordinate Talmar shifted in his seat. Grinek noticed the young agent’s tail wiggling in an attempt to get comfortable in this unpleasant Earth vehicle.

  “Patience,” Grinek said, slowly and solidly.

  “Yes, Commander,” Talmar responded, his tail relaxing and falling to the floor.

  Their skimmer sat idle outside Shinjuku Park, one of the few green spaces left in the city. The twisted branches of trees could be seen just a few meters away, lining lakes traversed by bridges. Glass and steel had conquered so much territory in Tokyo that it was a marvel this natural haven was left alone. But Grinek supposed it was a monument to victory over nature. After all, Tokyo was once the capital of a great empire, and now considered itself one of the cultural centers of Earth. For the city to want a reminder of the planet’s wild past would fit with its character.

  And the past of Earth was very much on Grinek’s mind.

  Just two blocks ahead was the Mizutani Astrophysics Laboratory, a triangular glass building on the city’s western edge. Somewhere inside that skyscraper was their target. A landing by shuttlecraft on the Mizutani was considered but ruled out, as this mission required as much stealth as possible. And stealth was going to be a difficult achievement on Earth.

  Kotarans, much to their pride, stood out on whatever world they put their boots on. Their fat snouts, pointed ears, flat feet, and the long tail that ran between their legs made them instantly recognizable. Walking around Earth, the two would arouse suspicion at best and violence at worst, so Grinek had stipulated that he and Talmar would wear the hooded robes of local monks if they ever had to walk outside. This disguise was not foolproof. Though both beings were only two meters tall and thus shorter than the average Kotaran, they did not speak English or Japanese or any Earth language very well. They would still be conspicuous under the robes, but Grinek believed the monk garb might allow them some protection from those not looking too closely.

  Grinek used his nail to scroll through his datapad and remind himself of their target’s appearance. A file picture of the man came up on screen, snapped during his time on Kotara: a dark-skinned male with thin, curly grey hair on his cranium and around his mouth. Such a repulsive appearance. Even more vulgar was the smile he displayed in the picture.

  He was Aaron Vertulfo. His capture was essential.

  “Commander, this is tiring,” said Talmar, gritting his fangs as he gazed out the window. “We should just enter the laboratory and find the target.”

  In his head, Grinek cursed. Talmar had a reputation for being a wild character, used to fast pace and excitement. Grinek remembered that Talmar’s record indicated he grew up near the high city of Vek, notable for producing many members of the Imperial court. Clearly, Talmar spent too much time enjoying the comforts of urban life instead of the hazards of the field. In fact, the only reason he was on this assignment was his familiarity with Earth.

  “The Mizutani Lab is very secure. We would not succeed,” Grinek said.

  “It would not be hard to find the target, Commander. This Earthman does not look at all like the local population. He would stand out like a flame in the night.”

  “We stay here until I decide otherwise.” Talmar seemed to accept this, but obviously did not like it. Grinek clucked in disapproval and turned his attention to their equipment.

  After buying the skimmer from a disreputable Earthman seller the day before, the two Kotarans outfitted it with surveillance equipment. They’d installed a facial recognition camera on the front of the vehicle, disguising it as a headlight system, and it was now aimed at the boxy entrance to the Mizutani Lab. Their sources said Vertulfo used the front doors every day—if Vertulfo or an associate showed his face coming out of them, the device would recognize his curves and wrinkles and sound an alert. Then the Kotarans could follow and apprehend him. Though the method was crude, they lacked any other options. Vertulfo had hidden himself very well. He’d erased vital personal information about himself from both public and private databases. In the forty-eight hours the Kotarans had been on Earth, they’d been able to find the man’s com number but not his address.

  “You don’t suppose a law enforcement official will question us?” Talmar asked. “On Kotara, an idle vehicle signals loitering.”

  “This is not Kotara,” Grinek grumbled, impatient at Talmar’s ignorance. “We are in a legal area for what the Earthmen call ‘parking.’ ”

  “When I was on this planet, I rarely left the embassy.”

  Grinek clucked again. Normally an External Commander of Intelligence did not go on such missions, but this one was of the utmost importance. Grinek had been in charge with investigating the background of this scientist Vertulfo, as he did with many prominent foreigners who visited Kotara. Vertulfo was an astrophysicist, dealing with celestial bodies and the like, but while on Kotara he also made inquiries at biological institutions. Grinek was very intrigued by the information Vertulfo kept requesting. A few late-night “interviews” with Kotaran associates of the Earthman revealed that the scientist had possibly stumbled upon a truly astonishing discovery.

  Grinek petitioned the Ruling Council and the upper echelons of the intelligence service, and eventually they authorized the current mission. It was deemed Segen Kresha Voo. Ultra-Secret. Once the Council had learned
all the details, Grinek was dumbfounded that they had even held a debate on the matter. Truly, it was the most important assignment in Kotaran history. There were the usual suspicions within the service—was Grinek going to Earth to defect, or trying to gain prestige for a power grab?—and a political officer of unusual cunning was posted on his vessel, to keep Grinek in line.

  But Grinek had no such aspirations. This mission guaranteed a legacy of glory. Not just for Grinek, but for all Kotarans.

  A sharp beep came from the facial recognition device. Grinek and Talmar immediately turned to the screen on the dashboard. Highlighted around a sea of local faces was a blue-feathered Nyden, his features enhanced by the automatic zoom. The alien walked northeast along Chuo-Dori Avenue, and unusually, his bulbous head was uncovered.

  Talmar relayed the information on the being. “His name is…I believe it is pronounced something like Vy Selkek. He is a xenobiologist. Listed here as an assistant of Vertulfo.”

  Grinek knew of this Nyden. Selkek was considered the most trusted confidant and aide of the Earthman scientist, and his appearance leaving the Lab was puzzling. Talmar reached forward to start the vehicle, no doubt intending to pursue the target, but Grinek halted him with his hand.

  “Hold, Talmar. I don’t trust this situation.”

  “Do you think it’s a diversion, Commander?”

  “Possibly. The Nyden could be leaving his office or going for a morning meal. We have no idea. As the saying goes, ‘you don’t go chasing a wild marocha if its mate is waiting in the woods.’ ” He would smile if it were not so rude, so instead he grimaced at how pleasurable his intelligence was.

  “So we wait?”

  “Yes.” Grinek pressed a button to override the alert, which returned the machine to its default scanning position. Faces hurried by the screen, mostly the short and compact features of the local Japanese, all unassumingly beginning their mornings. Grinek focused his eyes on the door of the lab, determined to spot the dark-skinned Vertulfo before the computer even recognized his face.