The Space Traveler (The Space Traveler Saga Book 1)

by Devon Shubin

  “Computer, alert the Queen Leader we are arriving for a routine inspection,” the Space Traveler commanded as he looked at Alegna who was quiet.

  The computer replied after a couple of minutes, “Captain, the transmission was sent but there was no acknowledgement. I tried again and the transmission was blocked.”

  He looked at Alegna and said, “That can’t be good.” He then slid his roving chair over to the pilot’s console and typed in ‘transmission to Hibot.’

  Frantic, he spoke into the microphone, “Chancellor! The Wurthians have blocked our signal and, oh no,” he sighed as he could see ten ships, larger than his, had circled around the backside of the planet and were facing them in battle formation.

  “Mayday, mayday. The Wurthians are in violation of space travel. We have ten, it looks like, yes, ten large fleet ships coming at us. I recommend executing amendment 31 of the universal peace treaty and come rescue us. I repeat, we need a space rescue on Wurtha.”

  Just then the ships interior lights began flickering on and off. Alegna looked around and stood up in a battle defense. The Space Traveler said to the computer, “What is causing that disturbance in our energy?”

  “Calculating Captain.” A moment came and went. The ships were slowly drawing in on them angling to come at them from the sides.

  “The flank is breaking up to net us in. Computer! What is taking so long!” The Space Traveler demanded as Alegna looked out the large glass window to see the odd shaped ships approaching. They resembled white obelisks with a circular ray of white emitting out of the engines. The lights in the Space Travelers ship continued flickering on and off.

  The computer finally responded, “There is a high-powered weapon on the center ship sending a digital virus into my system. I am capable of holding it off for a short period.”

  The lights went completely out and the engine boosters shut down. The ship drifted toward the enemy like a fish caught in the net of a fisherman. The Space Traveler then he hit a few buttons and watched as the digital monitor viewed the transmission he sent to Hibot’s was still pending. Alegna approached him from behind and she too saw that the transmission he sent had not yet reached Hibot’s.

  “If we are going to surrender to them, we should be prepared,” she said as he looked over his right shoulder at her and agreed. “I will set the ships controls on my arm consol.”

  “Computer,” he called out, “I want you to terminate your software system and go offline. Allow me to set the controls manually while I’m mobile. Before you shut down, make sure you leave a back door open for me to access you again. The password is ‘Alegna.’” He said as she grabbed him by his muscular arm and kissed his shoulder.

  “Your orders are fulfilled Captain. Shutting down in five, four, three, two, one.”

  The monitor screens blacked out and the computer shut itself off. The Wurthian ships were closing in on them now and a beam emitted from two of the ships. The emergency lights kicked on and the ground ran beads of white lights running across the hallways and the top edge of the walls. There was just enough light to see each other and to control the ship manually.

  “What do they want Inspector?” She asked him in the dimness of the hallways.

  “I don’t know,” he shrugged his shoulders, “Maybe they want to give us the front door treatment.”

  They could now feel his ship being drawn in to the Wurthians. The ship began to creak and crack as it sounded like metal rubbing up against metal. They both looked up as if the sound was coming from the roof top. Alegna looked at him and he then gently grabbed her by the hand as he scoffed, “I don’t know if that sounds like the front door treatment.”

  The Wurthian ships wasted no time as they began towing his ship toward the metallic planet of Wurtha. Although small compared to other planets, its metallic coloring reflected light from the globe, as the red dwarf star illuminated it.

  “Some escort huh?” he chuckled, but she was not laughing. He quickly read her facial expression and ceased his nervous humor.

  The planet Wurtha grew larger as they moved in closer to it. The artificial atmosphere was visible like a plastic dome over the horizon. Soon they would entire the atmosphere and the vacuum would send the eleven large ships to a fly by on the east side of the planet from the capital of Kroniplea.

  Its red dwarf sun beamed over the landscape of metal buildings, star ships and other intricate machines that either one of them knew what they were or what they can do. For all they knew they were headed to a hostile world of metals. Everything on the land was sharp, hard surfaces and coarse finishes. The last time the Space Traveler was here, he was on the clear opposite side of the planet inspecting the water evaporation systems for dlom. He remembered that none were detected. The planet was cold, robotic in nature and uncomfortable. Just the way the Wurthians created it to their liking.

  Kroniplea was the capital city where the Queen leader resided. Her palace was made of copper, alloys and silver. It was broad and tall, distinct from the other buildings where the Wurthians lived day to day. Atop the highest point of the obelisk shaped palace was a single statue of her. It was pure white and detailed of her eyes on her face. Her platinum blonde hair waving in the wind. The statue of her stood there high above the others, signifying her power over her people.

  When the ship hovered over the landing pad, they were greeted by millions of unfriendly greenish females who the Space Traveler instantly became confused by. The Wurthians skin was pure white, but these beings were quite the opposite. As they lowered to the ground he could see that the females skin color was more of a blackish-green color, sinister, ill-looking. The color reminded him of when a pond grows slimy algae layering over the surface. Something was wrong with the Wurthians here he thought. The question was, why and how did they transform to this appearance?

  “Whatever is happening here needs a full investigation,” he said to Alegna as they both looked out of the larger transom window down the hallway.

  “Didn’t you say they were pure white with golden hair?” Alegna asked him as she pressed her face closer to the window.

  “I did, but I am too confused to understand any of this right now. What we need to do is come up with a plan A and B just in case these folks become hostile,” he answered her as his ship landed on the metal plated ground surrounded by the fifty-foot-tall obelisks.

  Like predators on the attack, thousands of Wurthians were climbing over his ship. Imagine ants in your backyard piled high attacking a helpless grasshopper, that’s the way this scene played out. Scratching and crawling, gnashing and biting their teeth the green females swarmed the Space Travelers ship piling on top of one another. When all the ship was covered by green Wurthians, the windshields, transoms and openings, they stopped moving. Alegna and the Space Traveler looked at each other. There was only silence now as they waited for what was to come next.

  “Well,” he said to her, “They’re hostile.”

  Whispering, “This can’t be good, right?” Alegna lamented.

  Looking toward the main windshield at what was now covered in Wurthians, he sarcastically replied, “Not when I see that lady mooning me it’s not,” he pointed to the window and a lower body part was smashed up against the outside window.

  Alegna smacked his arm, “Now’s not the time to joke. Be serious, we are in real trouble Inspector and I didn’t hear a plan A or B.”

  He rubbed his arm, “I never told you this, but you are very strong for a female.”

  “Not as strong as two million goblins outside your ship! Now what are we going to do?”

  He looked around the interior of the darkened bridge and said, “Follow me.” Running down the hallway to an opening where the space suites and equipment was stored, he stood in the middle of the room and looked around. The room was quiet.

  “What are you looking for?” She asked him as she gently touched the back of his coat, hinting that she was apologetic for smacking him.

  He acknowledged her by s
oftly holding her hand. “Without the computer, I am trying to figure out how we can use the core press. It’s a drill!”

  “What does it look like?”

  “Come on, it’s in the engineer room!” He ran out of the equipment storage block and she raced after him down the hall passing many closed doors. Alegna wondered what was behind them, but now was not the time to inquire. When they came around a corner there was a set of double doors, they tried to slide them open.

  “It’s no use,” he said as they tried for a few seconds and then gave up. To the left of the door was a manual lever, he grabbed it, but it was stuck.

  “The computer locked everything down, she must have placed the ship in safe mode since we were under attack. Smart girl,” he said.

  After he said that, the ship rocked. Alegna held on to the wall to keep herself up. The Space Traveler fell backwards and caught himself before he fell to the metal ground.

  “We’ve got to hurry before they breach the doors.” He looked at the console on his forearm and tried to key in ‘override engineer room doorway.’ He hit the button again but it did not open. He almost gave up when he remembered what the password was for the backdoor. “Alegna!” He said into the mini-microphone on his forearm console.

  The lights came back on and the ship made a long buzzing sound. “She’s waking up,” he said to Alegna as she looked into the transom window through the double doors of the engineer room.

  “Computer!” the Space Traveler called out to her.

  “Good morning Captain,” the computer said.

  “Open the engineer room doors.” He commanded her as he looked up out at the ceilings to the speakers on the wall.

  “I cannot fulfill your command Captain. The proper personal equipment in the storage facility must be donned prior to entering the energy station,” the computer reminded him of the danger he almost put them in.

  “Yes, that’s right! Thank you. Never mind that command-” he could not finish his thought as the ship rocked again and this time he did fall to the ground. Alegna slid down the wall and sat.

  He finished his new command, “Computer, activate the core press.”

  “Activating core press Captain.”

  They could hear the rumbling of the ships bellying and a vibration that hummed along the floors. “What’s happening?” Alegna asked him with wide eyes.

  “It’s the drill, we’re getting out of here.”

  Outside the ship the grotesque greenish Wurthians were frozen to the Space Travelers ship like bugs to an automobile hood. But they were not alone. The Queen Leader, fat and short came pouncing down the tarmac surrounded by creatures who were her protectors. Her flabby skin bounced up and down as she walked with aggression in each step. Her black hair swayed through the air when she moved along with her two creatures moaning as they walked on all four legs. They were hideous animals. Four large eyes protruded from each side of their head, slanted like half-moons frowning with evil intent. Another set of eyes at their foreheads like a mans except hair surrounded their faces like a dog. Now what was also unique about these creatures was the two tusks that hung from under their wide noses. And their teeth, small and jagged like a piranha. Their bear like bodies, covered in brown thick hair looked oily and filthy. The Wurthians didn’t mind the way they smelled, but you would I can assure you of that.

  The Queen Leader stomped down the walkway and came to a Wurthian guard, swatting her legs and the guard fell to the ground groaning in pain. “Where are the intruders?” She called out in her language. Her two creatures began snarling like wild wolves as drips of drool hit the metal ground.

  She looked up at the Space Travelers ship and demanded, “Show me the intruders!”

  As if the Wurthians were a colony of ants and she were its Queen, ten Wurthians slid off the bridge window and exposed the two empty cockpits.

  “The cowards are hiding in the space vessel. Mordlocks! Go and get them!”

  She was speaking about her guard creatures of course. The two large beasts howled and snarled as they ran toward the ship covered in green Wurthians. They climbed up the Wurthians bodies, and as they did so they sliced open backs, shoulders, necks and so forth. Blood ran down the pathway of carnage they created. All the time the Wurthians did not move an inch. When the two Mordlocks reached the top, they swatted some off and began tearing at the metal with their two talons. They were growling, snarling and mumbling the language of the Wurthians.

  Back inside the Space Travelers ship they could not ear the commotion of the two beasts as the corepress was generating a loud noise of its own. They watched with eyeglasses as the large drill ate through the metal panels and sunk down into the soil. Soft reddish dirt piled up as the drill pushed further down.

  “How are we going to stop them from entering after us?” Alegna asked him while she sat on the cold metal floor.

  “Good question. Once we drop down into the underground caverns, the ships computer will close off the flooring. I use this feature whenever I have soil sampling. They will think this is an abandoned ship after the war. Wait a minute, I just gave myself a great idea, and I can’t even believe it,” he excitedly said as he stood up and quickly walked over to the computer station at the end of the south wall.

  The Space Traveler typed into the keypad a code that was to look like a distress video recording. He spoke into the monitor, “This is Captain of the Sequence space shuttle, we have suffered a terrible power outage from a cosmic storm. Our computer has malfunctioned and we are running out of supplies and water. We will not survive long. Please send us a rescue. Again, this is the Captain of the Sequence. Over and out.” He typed in a few codes to include the date of the fake video setting it five months earlier. He then typed a code to include all the modern languages in the seven habitable planetary systems.

  “Do you think they will fall for it?”

  “Perhaps,” he said as he turned around to face her. The drill was lowering itself deeper into the earth. “The computer was the one who sent the transmission to the Queen Leader, perhaps it will work and give us enough time to explore the caverns of Kroniplea.”

  The corepress stopped rotating and then it lifted out of the ground. It rolled over on its large wheels to the docking station on the rear wall. The Space Traveler looked down the dark pit. “This looks all too familiar,” he said to her. She laughed and replied, “Come on Inspector. It won’t be long before we are caught by those horrid people.”

  He looked at her and said, “Those horrid people are the Wurthians.”

  She was stunned. “No, that cannot be them. That must be some other beings. You said the Wurthians are beautiful, those things are horrifying to look at.”

  “They were beautiful,” he said as he reached up at the ceiling and grabbed a hand sized weight that was connected to wire. He pulled down on it and continued his sentence, “But something’s happened to them and we are going to find out what.” He slowly slid down the opening of the ships metal floor into the pit. Clicking the side of his goggles, both lenses beamed a bright light. Then he began lowering himself down into the pit. “Once I’m at the bottom, I will pull the weight and it will retract back up to you.”

  “I understand,” she said as the sound of shrieking metal echoed above them. “Did you hear that?” She asked him as his lower body was already in the ground.

  “Yeah, we don’t have much time. Grab a pair of goggles in the locker,” he replied and then lowered himself down into the darkness.

  Alegna ran over to the lockers and began opening each one until she found a pair of the light vision goggles. She placed them over her head and walked back to the hole. A minute or so came and went. The weight swiftly retracted back from the pit and she caught it. She double checked that it was secure by pulling down and it held her. It seemed secure and so she wrapped her legs around the wire and slowly she dropped down.

  Her light vision goggles beamed around the pit. As she lowered herself she could see the multiple shining m
etals in the soil. Coppers, gold, zinc, silver and other heavy metals she had never seen before. It startled her when she felt her boot being grabbed by someone, even though she knew it was the Space Traveler. “I got you,” he said as he helped her to the ground. She let go of the wire and it retracted back up through the pit and into the ship.

  “Computer,” he spoke into his arm console, “Close the ship access doors.”

  Alegna looked up and could see the belly of the floor closing together, shutting out all the light in the tunnel. Looking back at the Space Traveler their beams of light blinded each other. He looked away and said, “Now we go night vision.” He clicked the side of his goggles again and his light beams went out. He reached out and clicked the side of her goggles, her beams went out and she could see everything in neon green now.