The Fifth Civilization: A Novel

by Peter Bingham-Pankratz

  Son of a bitch.

  ***

  At first Grinek thought the sound was the scow making a pass over the palace, as Grinek had ordered it to continue doing. The noise had been periodic throughout the gunfight inside, but this sound was much louder and much quicker—it was a larger vessel. He extended his ears to catch the noise and ran out into the rotunda to see if he could spot a shape out the front doors. Surely the Bauxen police hadn’t sent reinforcements; they were squarely allied against Duvurn—but it was possible the ship was…

  “Godsdammit!”

  The distinctive shape of the Earth Type-B freighter appeared, making a turn in the distance and coming around for another. The skies above the palace were now very crowded. Grinek scrambled for his handheld com and called the scow.

  “Tell your men to fire on it! Tell them!” Grinek didn’t want to exude panic, but he wasn’t worried about his image right now. He was concerned that all his plans were being sucked out the airlock.

  “Commander, they’re bigger than us! They’re well armored!”

  “Give me results, not excuses!” And he clicked off the com, returning to the dining room where the explosive banquet adorned the table. Roh was supervising the finishing touches, telling a technician where to wire to maximize the force of the explosion.

  “The human ship has returned,” Grinek reported. Roh snarled.

  “Does our vessel have any weapons?”

  “Ha! That scow couldn’t hurt a seagull.” Grinek pushed the technician out of the way and inspected the bomb. Everything looked in order on it, why not get this debacle over with? “Everyone out! We are detonating this pile immediately.”

  ***

  “Moira? Is that you?” Kel seemed astonished at the voice at the other end of the com, her friend and loyal doctor. Apparently she was directing the Bauxen pilot on where to fly the craft, and how to use the controls. Apart from a few humans on board, the Colobus was being handled by a native crew.

  “Of course, Kel. Listen, we have some Kotarans firing on us now. I don’t think there’s a safe place for us to land.”

  “Try the garden,” Roan suggested, and Duvurn winced.

  “No can do!” Moira reported. “The place is hopping with Kotarans. This thing doesn’t have any weapons, does it?”

  “No,” Kel said. “Company freighters don’t generate enough power to be armed.” And that was an unfortunate truth. Apart from military and pirate vessels, Earth vessels simply were not equipped with laser cannons. There wasn’t anything to use except—

  “The probes!” Roan was almost bursting with excitement. “We’ve got two probes on the Colobus!”

  “One,” Kel corrected. “We used the other as a decoy once.”

  “Fine. One probe. Moira, you can launch them from the cockpit, all you have to do is put in the right commands.”

  “How’s a probe going to help, exactly?”

  “Moira, see if you or one of those Bauxens can aim and fire a probe through the front doors. That should scatter a few people down there.”

  “That’s a long shot, but I’ll try.” On the other end, Roan heard discussion and the beeps of buttons, indicating a Baxuen was being told what to do. He was pretty impressed with himself for thinking of this idea. Duvurn and the rest of those huddled in the panic room leaned in closer to the com. They were eager to hear their salvation.

  “We’ve got it,” Moira reported. “Here goes nothing.”

  ***

  Grinek moved all twenty or so commandos onto the back stairs of the palace, outside, hoping this would shield them from the explosion. Roh pressed a remote to get the detonator to connect, but there was too much interference from all of the communications equipment zigzagging around the area. Above them, the Colobus buzzed the palace, followed closely behind by the scow, whose open side doors were lined with soldiers trying to fire on the vessel. Their potshots were useless.

  “Specialist, I am ordering you to get that bomb working. Do you understand how important this is?”

  Roh seemed slightly annoyed. “Yes, Commander, I am trying.” The detonator beeped to life, and it was apparently now working as hoped. “Praise Fox’Lo.”

  Above the palace, in the distance, the Colobus turned once again, this time lower and at a sharper angle. Grinek was pleased that the vessel would witness the explosion that would kill their friends, and once that was done, the Kotarans could work on capturing that vessel. After the deal Grinek had made with the Bauxens, there’s no way that ship could leave undetected.

  “The bomb is armed,” Roan said.

  He was about to give Roh the order to detonate when a black streak shot out from in front of the Colobus and rocketed toward the palace. It looked to be a missile—but such ships were not armed with weapons! Grinek had the presence of mind to duck before a deafening crash struck the palace. A cloud of smoke and shredded masonry enveloped the rotunda, and then the hulk of a massive cylinder burst out the back doors. Some commandos were flattened by the spiraling projectile.

  Grinek was knocked unconscious by a wooden beam, right after seeing Roh struck by a chunk of concrete.

  ***

  “It worked!” Moira screamed on the com. They felt the impact in the safe room, but apparently the probe had been aimed just right, because the only side effect was a power flicker. Moira then reported that the probe had sliced through the rotunda like a blade and come out the other end, where it had hit some of the Kotarans.

  “What about the Kotaran ship?” Kel asked.

  “It’s landing now, by the garden. It looks as though they’re helping the survivors.”

  “That seems oddly un-Kotaran. But OK, that’s good. See if you can land on the roof. We want to try and meet you up there.”

  “It’s going to be difficult, captain. We need some time to brake.”

  “Put all power to the ventral thrusts,” Roan said, ever the encyclopedic pilot. “And cut engine power to fifty six percent. If that thing’s anything like the Dunnock, you only need a little over half power to land on short notice.”

  “I’m going to trust your judgment on this, Roan.” Moira signed off, barking orders to the Bauxen pilot. Roan set the com down and let out a sigh of relief, hugging the first person in sight: Duvurn, who was a good two feet shorter than him but weighed twice as much. And was much more slippery. The Prince wassshocked but soon joined in the hug, and Kel responded to this outburst by wrapping her arms around David.

  “I don’t understand,” said the Nyden. “We’re still in danger.”

  “He’s right,” Roan said, laughing and letting go of His Excellency. “Open these doors and let’s get to the roof. You can lead us out there, can’t you, Prince? I saw a big, flat, roof when I arrived.”

  “You are right,” Duvurn said. “You there, bodyguard! Get that door open. No, that lever there. We can get to the roof and get out of here, though I might want to gather some of my valuables, first.”

  “No time for that,” Roan chided, and readied his pistol. The bodyguard thrust the lever down and the door creaked open, revealing the bedroom beyond. Just as Roan suspected, there were no Kotarans waiting outside or under the bed; they must’ve all moved away as they prepared to blast the place. That there might be booby-traps was a chance they were going to have to take. Before they left the room, Roan picked up a Kotaran grenade that had been left next to the door, probably to intensify any explosion.

  Duvurn hobbled over to a control panel on the staircase and pressed a button, which caused a whirring noise. Everyone looked to see where it came from, and from the top of the stairs came a carriage, riding along the railing, meant to bring especially rotund occupants to the top floors.

  “We need only wait a moment,” Duvurn said, watching the carriage’s ascent.

  “No time. We’re taking the stairs,” Roan said. He gave a peek into the rotunda at the destruction below. The aquatic columns were shattered and amphibians gasped and writhed on the floor. Poor things. Without the col
umns, the whole rotunda looked in danger of imminent collapse. Yes sir, it was definitely time to leave this palace behind.

  “Wait!” Duvurn said. “I haven’t been up these steps in five years, at least not on my feet!”

  “You should always get back into old habits!” Kel yelled, and while Duvurn and the Bauxens waited below for the carriage, the nimble Earthlings and Nyden jogged up the steps. For a moment, the morning sunlight was blocked out by the shape of the Colobus gliding over the skylight, coming in for a rescue on the roof of the palace.

  ***

  Grinek assumed he hadn’t been unconscious for very long, maybe a handful of minutes. He distinctly remembered the trembling, rumbling sound of a freighter flying low overhead, then the sound of crumbling as bits of rock were moved about. That’s when he awoke, to the image of Roh standing over him, lifting an I-beam and tossing it aside. Another one of the commandos was helping him remove the rocks.

  “What…what happened?” Grinek said, more humiliated at being disoriented than angry. “It looked like a probe.”

  “It was, Commander,” Roh said. Along with the other commando, the Specialist took an arm of Grinek’s and lifted him out of the rubble, wiping away dust and debris from his uniform. The Commander straightened his back and noticed that Roh was wincing in pain, massaging his tail. It was likely he’d been injured by the concrete chunk.

  “Where is the scow?” Grinek said suddenly, scanning the skies. He then noticed that it was parked on the garden, loading dead and injured persons onto the ship, following Kotaran dictum of not leaving any bodies behind for the enemy. “It’s landed! Why didn’t it engage the Earth freighter?”

  “It decided we were of more importance,” Roh said, again rubbing his back. He limped over a rock. “The Earth ship just landed on top of the palace, not one minute ago.”

  “What are we waiting for?” Grinek shouted. Though the steps were little more than piles of rock now, it did not stop him from leaping up each one and back into the ruined interior of the palace. “Come on, everyone! We have to stop these murderers!” Many of the Kotarans were injured and crippled due to the probe strike, but that did not stop them from screeching a war cry and following their leader up the steps, eager to kill.

  ***

  Roan, Kel, and David waited impatiently at the top of the stairs while Duvurn’s carriage arrived, with both his bodyguard and the head servant. Both of these two auxiliary Bauxens did not appear keen on sticking around at the palace, so they were coming along as well. When Duvurn shuffled over to them, the Price realized why they were waiting and casually entered in a code that unlocked the door to the roof.

  “I am sorry that this door is locked. I rarely go up here, you see.”

  “Do you ever go up here?” Kel asked.

  The door sighed open, a sound Duvurn echoed. “No.”

  “That’s what I thought.” A blast of cool air greeted them, a sign of the cool front that had moved in from the nearby Weeden Sea, twenty kilometers to the north. Past antennae and turbines, as well as a few dead birds, they saw the Colobus doing its best to gently land itself on the roof. Rooftop waste whirled in a vortex as the aft thrusters kept the ship floating.

  A gangplank on the ship’s side gently rolled down, and Moira and some Bauxens were at the other end. The Bauxens were holding what appeared to be heavy rifles, ready to deal with any threat. As the group ran toward them, the Bauxens aimed their weapons around the roof, itching for something to shoot.

  Roan waited at the roof door for everyone to run out, holding his weapon and watching the interior staircase for signs of trouble. Duvurn and the Bauxens were the slowest, but once they were out of the threshold Roan gave one last listen inside the door for any pursuers. There were shouts and footsteps, probably several floors down, of what were no doubt a few Kotaran jackboots. Any one of them could blast them all in the back as they ran to the Colobus.

  Always have a backup plan.

  The Kotaran grenade Roan had picked up in the bedroom looked simple enough to use. It was a cylinder, about the size or your average can of booze, with several bands running across the top and bottom. Lines bisected the bands and various intervals A switch was stuck along one of the bands and Roan figured sliding it across would activate the grenade, with the lines indicating the amount of time until it exploded. He told himself some equivalent of “here goes nothing,” then slid the switch to one of the middle intervals on the band. The grenade lit up and started rumbling. He quickly tossed it over the balcony, ran outside, shut the door, and sprinted toward the open cargo door.

  ***

  Halfway up the staircase, Grinek happened to spot the grenade as it made its way down the rotunda. A moment later he realized what it was and called for his men to stop. “Take cover!” he screamed. The order must have come out as panicked to his men. He really had to do better to control his outbursts.

  Roh was right behind him, so he managed to duck in a nearby bedroom along with Grinek. The others didn’t see what he saw, and remained confused on the balcony. They would be remembered as martyrs, Grinek told himself as he covered his ears.

  The grenade exploded.

  A shower of marble and platinum shredded the room. Grinek and Roh were safe, but Grinek heard the grunts and screams of the men outside. Then he remembered the explosives they set up the dining room. When those went off, Grinek hoped he hadn’t dove into the bedroom right over them.

  ***

  Roan jumped on the ramp as one explosion rocked the palace, shattering the windows of the skylight behind them. Kel grabbed onto his arms as some Bauxens steadied her. She hoisted him up as the second, and larger, explosion, visibly swayed the roof under their feet. As the Colobus rose farther from the palace, a bubble of flame shot up from the skylight. While the whole building didn’t explode, the rotunda collapsed, pancaking in on itself until it was only a cloud of dust.

  Duvurn buried his head in his big palms, no doubt weeping for the treasures and riches lost in the explosion. He probably didn’t even have insurance.

  Whoever was following them wasn’t going to be doing that anymore, Roan thought, brushing off some dirt from his clothes. He held onto a railing as the Colobus turned its nose up and headed for the atmosphere. It felt somewhat comforting to be on a ship again, with a clear direction in mind. It was just like the old times.

  Only now he could help change history.

  ***

  Once again, it was Roh that helped Grinek to his feet. The commander coughed. Dust and heat choked the room. Grinek ached whenever he moved, and a ringing swirled in his ears: the explosion might as well have been someone setting off a gunpowder cracker right next to his head. To make sure he didn’t collapse from all the spinning, he sat down on the plush bed to collect himself.

  “Is there anything you request, Commander?” Roh asked, standing to attention before his superior. Despite the pain Roh was surely in, he still retained his composure.

  “Yes, Specialist. For the love of Bar’Hail, get the Hanyek over here.”

  Chapter 27

  Bauxa Control cleared the Colobus to leave and in moments they had entered orbit, another anonymous freighter among the hundreds milling about the planet. According to their sensors, there wasn’t anyone following them, no ships hugging their tail in an effort to catch up. They were safe. Before jumping into FTL, Kel had the Colobus veer back in the direction of Earth with the intention of throwing off any pursuers. After an hour, they would return to the heading indicated by Vertulfo’s coordinates.

  Here they were, a ship of fools: Roan, Kel, David, Moira, Sundar Kher, Joseph, Duvurn, and ten Bauxens. A ship of seventeen, a little less than ideal but adequate to get them to where they needed to go and back. Much better than the nine they had when they landed on Bauxa.

  Even better was the fact that Duvurn’s men had done a good job in repairing the ship, if not exactly a thorough one. In one day, they’d scrubbed and recharged the Alcubierre drive so that it was back at ful
l capacity. Most of the battery backup systems, including the computer core, had also been fully charged, making nearly all essential systems available for use. Waste had been cleared, and there now was a weapon for everyone on board—except that one person could have an extra gun, because David refused to pick one up. The Bauxens had also supplied the freezers with enough meat to last two months, and though it was Bauxen-style meat, it would still be nutritious. Duvurn’s head servant got to work immediately preparing the food, working with Moira (who could cook) to mix Earth and Bauxen dishes. Smells simmered and sizzled down the hallways.

  Based on Aaron’s calculations, it would take another five weeks from Bauxa to reach the location where this panspermia comet originated. They’d probably be searching for it for a few days, but if they came across a planet, hopefully they could find another haven there. Maybe a civilization was flourishing there, as civilizations are always described as doing. This one had a few million years head start after all, before Nydens, or Bauxens, or Kotarans.

  Perhaps this civilization could help them send a message back to Earth announcing first contact. Maybe they’d be treated as heroes on this planet, as the first emissaries of an alien race.

  All this potential in a tiny pad, Roan thought, cradling Aaron’s gift as he walked the corridors of the ship. It was downtime before dinner, where they were going to discuss what happened next, and how to proceed from Bauxa. Roan knew he needed to do something first, and winding through the ship he found the room he sought. He knocked on the door to avoid using the buzzer that its occupant so hated. After a few moments, the door opened.

  “Hello, Mr. Roan,” David said.

  “I wanted to give you this,” Roan said, and held out Aaron’s pad. The Nyden took it and stared at it, as if lost in thought.

  “But Aaron gave this to you, Mr. Roan.”