When he reached the perimeter, he called Edward, filling him in on what happened. His mother heard the transmission and demanded to know more. The captain overrode them all and told Chris to stop talking and get Al to the clinic. The radio chatter continued, but Chris did not participate.
Four people lifted Al from the cart and carried him into the clinic. Edward arrived and ushered everyone from the room but Cody, Elizabeth, and his assistant Ana.
Doctor Cody started bandaging his wounds while Edward talked to Al.
“How are you doing Mister Clark?”
“I have had better days Mister Florida.”
“So…you can’t move at all?”
“Only my eyes. Which is better than being without sight or sound like last time. Now that was scary.”
“What did your meter read when you collapsed?”
“Two percent and flashing.”
Edward nodded, “That explains why you can still see. The last time you were running on backup power. I did manage to produce another power cell before leaving Atlantis, but I need special equipment to install it. You will have to excuse me while I go and see what I can put together.”
Ana went with Edward to assist him and left Elizabeth alone with her husband. Elizabeth stepped to his side and held his hand. She was concerned and knew his time was limited. Every second counted. Unfortunately, time would not stop while they prepared to help him.
There were people outside wanting to see him, which she could not deny. It could be their last chance to say goodbye. She allowed them in one by one but warned them to keep a positive attitude. They tried valiantly but ultimately failed.
She was wiping the blood from his head, trying her best to think of anything more she could do to help when Al’s radio squawked and a strong new voice came over it. “Attention to the parties using this frequency. This is Commander Jack Stevenson of the Colonial Starship Demeter, asking if you are in need of assistance. Please respond.”
Chapter Twenty
The captain was meeting with the town planners and the people assigned to construction when he heard Al was hurt. He purposely left his data pad set to radio mode with the volume down so he could monitor the radio chatter. When Commander Stevenson’s voice came from the speaker, he found it difficult to believe. What made it harder to accept was that he knew him.
“This is Captain Tobias Effinger of the Colonial Starship Excalibur. I am not only surprised but elated to hear your voice, Jack. Where are you?”
Static took over for a full minute before he got his reply, “I am as surprised as you are Captain Effinger. We heard the Excalibur was lost—with all hands on-board.”
“It’s a long story, but we made it. We are not lost. Well—we weren’t all killed. Where are you speaking from?”
“I am in the town of Rivertown, not more than twenty-five miles from your location. Can I be of assistance?”
“Do you have a working medical center?”
“Yes, we do. Aboard the ship.”
“Is it possible to get a couple of passengers up to it?”
“You won’t need to. The ship is parked outside of town.”
“You have a starship capable of atmospheric flight?”
“Yes sir, been sitting here for more than twenty years. She’s old, and will never fly again, but the med center is first rate.”
“I have a casualty in need of attention, and we are not equipped to handle it here. Can we use your facilities?”
Again, there was a pause; as if a consultation was taking place. Then Stevenson replied, “I can have a shuttle there in fifteen minutes, sir.”
The captain had trained this man; twenty years his junior many years ago, and remembered him for his intelligence, his professionalism, and his heart. A rare thing in military commanders. “We need to talk—Commander. Do you mind if I tag along.”
This time, the response was immediate. “Please do Captain. I look forward to seeing you again. Fifteen minutes, sir. Please be prepared.”
****
Commander Stevenson was true to his word, and exactly fifteen minutes later a shuttlecraft landed softly in the meadow. It was similar to the Excalibur’s spacecraft, but of a newer design. Captain Effinger, always the pilot, was impressed.
Doctor Cody, Edward Florida, Ana, and the captain brought Al aboard and locked the bed in place. Al was not joking anymore. He had lost the audio and could no longer hear what was going on around him. He only knew that a shuttle had appeared, and they were putting him on it.
Elizabeth and Chris both begged to go along, but the captain explained, “These people don’t know us. If we show up with a lot of new faces, it might make them uncomfortable. I need to speak with them and find out their story first.”
“They don’t know Al,” she objected. If they discover what he is, there could be trouble.”
“You let me deal with that. Right now, our priority is to get Al the attention he needs. We’ll have him back here safe and sound as soon as we can.”
By now a crowd had gathered around the shuttle, with a mixture of awe, relief, and suspicion apparent on their faces. The captain looked around and then spoke to Elizabeth, “I need you to explain why there is a shuttle here, and where it came from. These people are going to want answers, and if they don’t get them, they will begin to make guesses. Some of those uninformed conclusions could cause panic. Tell them enough to satisfy them but no more. Do you understand?”
She trusted the captain. Their friendship started long ago, and she trusted his leadership. She also decided he was right. “I’ll do the best I can, Captain. But please, come back soon—and take care of my husband.”
The shuttle doors closed, and it lifted from the ground; pausing at one-hundred feet, it accelerated rapidly and sped towards the North.
Al was confused, and getting increasingly concerned. He had lost the ability to move his eyes. Now all he could do was stare at the ceiling in silence. He felt nothing, heard nothing, and had only the top of the shuttle to keep him planted in sanity. His friends would look down from above, and speak, but it meant nothing to him. He could not understand.
The flight was smooth and fast, and fifteen minutes later the people looking out the windows got their first view of Rivertown. It was not a large settlement, with roughly two-hundred homes, but it was well laid out, and colorful. Each house displayed a different bright color, and a gentle river ran straight through the middle. Tiny boats were docked in individual slips, while others navigated the water; going about their business.
Cody loved it. “It reminds me of Haiti. We too love our homes to have many colors.”
The captain made an observation. “It looks like they have been here a while.”
The Starship Demeter was magnificent. Parked on the East side of town, it was the size of a football field, but smaller than Excalibur, and different in design. Well maintained pathways connected the settlement to the space ship through cultivated fields that led to open cargo doors on both ends. It appeared as if Rivertown spilled from the ship.
The shuttle landed at a small landing area outside of town, opposite the hulking ship. When the doors opened, they were met by Commander Stevenson and two armed security guards.
The captain turned to his companions and said, “Stay here. I need to speak with the commander first, and then we’ll get Al to the hospital.”
His companions acknowledged his request, and he stepped from the shuttle to approach the welcoming party.
****
The man from his past was twenty-one years old, with wavy blonde hair. Now Commander Stevenson was on the other side of forty, and bald. The younger man offered a sharp salute, and the captain returned the traditional honor. Then they shook hands. “Captain Effinger, I am so glad to see you, sir. I thought you were dead.”
“Well, as you can see, you should not believe everything you hear. You look well Jack. It appears this life agrees with you.”
“Yes sir, we have a nice little town
here. Life is good.”
The captain grew fidgety, thinking of Al in the shuttle. “Can we go somewhere and talk—in private?”
“Sure Captain, right over here.”
The two security officers stayed by the shuttle while they went to a maintenance shed on the edge of the pad to talk. The captain knew that he needed to keep Al’s operation secret. There was no way to tell what the reaction might be to having a cybernetic human in their midst.
“I need to ask a favor of you Jack.”
“Anything Captain. I’ll do whatever I can.”
“My casualty needs immediate attention, and there is no time to lose. I need you to trust me and not ask a lot of questions. I mean…until I can fill you in on the details.”
The commander tilted his head slightly, and accompanied it with a questioning look, but in the end, he gave a single nod. “Of course Captain—for the time being. Let’s get your patient to sick bay.”
A blanket covered his body, but his face was exposed when they picked up the stretcher and carried him out. The commander noticed the blood and the damage to one cheek. Silver metal was visible in the wound and the captain watched as the young leader realized what it meant. He looked from Al to the man he respected and asked, “What is this? You didn’t say anything about bringing a—.”
Tobias cut him off, “This man is extremely important to me—and a lot of other people. He must get treatment immediately, or he will die. Please, trust me on this. Once he is settled into the med center, and my friends can get started, I will explain.”
The two security men and the pilot were watching, and certainly overheard the conversation. They were professionals and said not a word, waiting for a cue from their commander.
“Not a word of this gets out,” he said to them. “For the time being, this will be our little secret. Understand?”
The three officers were not only in his command but his friends. They knew each other well, and they trusted him to get to the bottom of this. When he learned more, they would be informed. The security men nodded, and the pilot said, “Yes sir, as you wish.”
The commander had a suggestion. “I think it might be better if we take the shuttle to the hangar bay on the ship. If we don’t, we will have to take your patient through the heart of town, and that would not be a good idea.”
The captain worried only about time. “Would that be faster?”
“You don’t understand Captain. An experimental cyborg secretly hidden among the passengers was blamed for the Excalibur’s destruction. All robotic research was banned on Earth and strictly enforced. If that is what’s on that gurney, we could have problems.”
****
They re-boarded the shuttlecraft, flew above the town to the ship, and into the safety of the hangar bay. The commander escorted them to the medical center, where the two doctors and Ana began preparations for the transplant. After his team settled Al into a bed and began the procedure, the commander invited the captain to his house where they could talk.
He had a lovely little home. More like a cottage than a house, it was located close to the ship, and as green as Falkor’s scales. The decorations made the captain believe a woman’s touch was involved. They sat alone, across a highly polished table drinking coffee.
The captain asked, “Where is your wife? If I remember correctly, you got married right after graduation.”
A sad look crossed his eyes, and he replied, “I lost her in a freak accident not long after arrival. As you can see by my house, I haven’t made many changes. It helps to remind me of her.”
Jack was not in the mood for sad reflection, so he moved the conversation forward. “How many people do you have Captain?”
“The last tally was one thousand and fifty-four.”
“That is a lot of people, Sir. Did all your colonists survive?”
“No. Sadly, they did not,” he answered slowly. “There was sabotage—but not by any robot. The trip out took thirty years, and when we finally did wake up, we discovered we had been orbiting our destination for ten years. Someone on Earth disabled the revival circuits of our Hiber-Pods before we left Earth. The man in your medical center saved us.”
“You were scheduled to go to Avalon. Is that where you wound up?”
“Yes, and it was great for five years; except for the Riktors. Unlike Earth, Avalon did not experience the mass extinction experienced early in our history, and these animals remained at the top of the food chain because of their size and intelligence.”
“Intelligent predators?” asked the commander.
“You may not believe this, but they were like dinosaurs from Earth—but smart. They killed a lot of people before we were able to escape. The people I’m responsible for now are a mix of the surviving colonists, refugees from an island that exploded, and some Avalonian natives.”
“Three different civilizations? All together in one place?”
“Yes. As I said, it is a complicated story.”
Commander Stevenson had a thousand questions he wanted to ask, but one came to mind that required an immediate answer, “What is that in my med center, Captain?”
The captain leaned back in his chair and took a sip of his coffee. He used the time to think. Commander Stevenson was duty bound to stay well advised of the activities taking place on his ship, and there would be no skirting the truth. He told him Al’s story, leaving nothing out.
“A cybernetically enhanced human being?” asked the commander.
“Yes, and the only one of his kind. If he were to die, it would leave a large hole in many people’s lives.”
“Do they have the parts—or whatever—to fix him?”
The captain smiled, knowing how hard it was to keep a human perspective on a mechanical man. “Our roboticist, Edward Florida, thinks so. The fabrication of the power pack was last minute, and rushed, but he believes it will work.”
“How long have you been here? We only picked up your radio signals today by chance.”
We came to the mainland by transporter only four days ago. Did you see the plume of smoke from the volcanic eruption? That is where we came from.”
The skies had been clouded for days, and was Jack had investigated. “That island no longer exists, and the tsunami it caused reached for hundreds of miles. You are lucky to be alive. Wait—you said transporter?”
“Yes. Getting on and off that island is a story of its own. It’s a teleporter, to be more specific.”
Then he told him of the Caretakers, and the technology they discovered in their alien outposts, both on Avalon and the island. Technology that saved their lives twice.
“You have had quite the adventure Captain. Your story would make a good book.”
The captain laughed, “Yeah, like I would ever have time for that. How long have you been here? The town looks well settled.”
“We’ve been here for twenty years, Captain, and we left Earth ten years after you did.”
This information shocked the captain. A ship that left ten years after them with fifteen additional years to build a community seemed almost unfair. “How long did it take to get here?”
“Ten years in transit, with the latest drive system, but we spent the better part of it in stasis.”
“I am so envious. How were things on Earth when you left? Was it getting worse or better?”
Jack’s frown answered the captain’s question before he spoke, “Yeah, it was getting crazy. Even the governments of the large countries were failing. They could not keep up with the accelerated climate change, expanding populations, or the failing financial systems. I think one of the worst things the United States did was outlaw robots. It threw us back a hundred years.”
“Why did they…ban the robots?”
“A big part of it was because of the Excalibur. The powers that be decided technology was becoming too intelligent. Too unpredictable. When word got out about the untested machine that went crazy and killed all aboard, leaving the ship dead in the water and headed
to dark space, it scared enough people to pass the legislation.”
A confused captain asked, “Where did they get their information? That is not at all what happened.”
“Nobody knows how the story started, but it went viral, and the rumors portrayed as fact. The speculation and the decision were all over the newsfeeds for months.”
“Are we going to be able to keep this quiet?”
“I’ll do what I can, Captain, but I have to report to the civilian board. I’ll think of something to tell them, but if you are going to require our assistance while you get settled, we will have to be very careful how we proceed.”
“Speaking of assistance. I need to be getting back. I have over a thousand people camped out in a field, without any of the conveniences that make life pleasant. Could I trouble you for a ride?”
“Of course. Is there anything I can do to help? We have some portable shelters in storage that should still be in decent shape. Do you have enough food and water? I can probably come up with some ready-made meals and a couple of hundred gallons of drinking water.”
“You are the answer to a prayer, Jack. In so many ways.”
****
Rivertown is a farming community. They came to Thera to live as their ancestors did, and spent their days working the fields. The evenings were for family. Their community was a throwback in time, living full and contented lives. Technology was used sparingly, the citizens preferring to use the techniques of old, with only a touch of science. They hunted with gunpowder and bullets and processed the meat as they did hundreds of years ago.
The ship that brought them was a private enterprise, and each passenger paid a stiff price for passage on the journey. Most of the three hundred settlers were professionals, and intelligent enough to make substantial amounts of money on a failing world. Some spent their life savings for the chance to be included.
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