The Imprisoned Earth

by Vaughn Heppner

  He gave me a shrewd side-glance. “Under normal conditions, no, we wouldn’t make it, but as I said earlier, I have an ally aboard. There will be a last-minute delay, perhaps giving us the margin we need to reach the shuttle. It will depend on how long my ally can keep the emergency going.”

  “So, you do have time to tell me about this extinction-level threat, let us know what this all about.”

  He pursed his lips as if thinking. I was betting on his need to pontificate and show off his brilliance, and I would have cashed out bigtime if I’d placed a bet on his response.

  “Fine,” he said. “Perhaps I should water your curiosity. It is a trait showing intelligence of sorts. Are you familiar with the various space colonies?”

  I told him what I knew.

  “Interesting,” he said. “Perhaps you’re more than just a braggart, after all.” He adjusted his hat and took a lecturing pose. “The space colonies are a rare example of united corporation wisdom. That wisdom is already cracking, however, as political expediency takes hold. Perhaps as critical is a hardening spirit in the Jupiter colonies. There are three, in fact, one for each Galilean moon.”

  He stared at me.

  “What is it now?” I asked.

  “You claimed to be knowledgeable.”

  “I know what a moon is, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

  “No. There are four Galilean moons, not just three as I implied.”

  “Are you kidding me?” I said. “At first, you believed I knew nothing. Now, you expect me to know the exact number of Galilean moons?”

  “It doesn’t matter. My point is that the extreme distance from Terra has given the Galilean moon-colonists continuing feelings of independence. Are you aware that it takes seven months to reach the moons at the quickest?”

  “No. I didn’t know that either.”

  “I didn’t think so,” Calidore said, a bit too smugly in my opinion. “The latest manifestation of independence was a secret exploratory ship. The three colonies pooled their resources and outfitted an older voyager, sending it to the Saturn System. The journey took over a year, but finally the ship reached the general vicinity of Saturn and began to scan the various moons. At first, they learned routine data that could only be discovered by actually going to a place. Then the crew made a fantastic discovery, one that no one had imagined in their wildest dreams.

  “Now, Titan is Saturn’s largest moon. Titan is also the only moon in the Solar System that has a dense atmosphere.” Calidore looked at me meaningfully.

  “I know what an atmosphere is and realize the significance of it being dense.”

  He nodded, continuing, “The voyager maneuvered into Titan orbit as debates raged among the crew. Finally, they used a shuttle—one of two—and sent down an exploratory team. Do you know what they discovered?”

  I shook my head.

  “Ruins,” he said breathlessly, “ancient ruins in the methane snow.”

  “Human ruins?” I asked, stunned at his words.

  Calidore snorted derisively.

  “I’m asking because human ruins seem impossible,” I said. “According to the histories I’ve read, the pre-nuclear-war world never sent colonists to Titan. They never sent any space colonists anywhere.”

  Calidore raised his eyebrows. “You are correct. And that means the ruins were not human, but inhuman—alien, if you will. The structures were tall, rounded and the size of the Giza pyramids. The team discovered that the smooth monoliths or structures had withstood every impact and every storm particle thrown at them for who knows how many centuries or even millennia. Upon examination, the team found that the outer metal was of an unknown alloy.”

  Our elevator compartment lurched suddenly, and Calidore fell silent.

  “Are we still moving?” I asked.

  Calidore nodded.

  “Did the needed emergency take place?” I asked.

  He pointed at me as relief showed on his face. “The lurch must have been a manifestation of the emergency.” He checked a unit on his belt. “Ah, yes. The countdown has halted for the moment. I’d thought—”

  “What about these ruins?” I asked, interrupting. “What happened on Titan’s surface?”

  “Ah,” he said. “That is an interesting question. The team couldn’t make anything out of the strange structures. One of them finally got clever and tried several expedients. His last attempt was to try to blast off a chunk of alloy. The reaction wasn’t what any of them expected.

  “The smallest structure opened like a flower. Imagine what that meant, as the team had not reported any seam lines anywhere on the structures, but totally smooth metal.”

  “Were the structures really ruins then?” I asked. “An opening structure sounds like an energized reaction.”

  “You are, in fact, correct,” Calidore said. “And I think I understand why. You were sent to Las Vegas looking for artifacts. Your mind is trained to recognize the difference between a ruin and a functioning item.”

  “That’s it,” I said. “What did the open structure do?”

  Calidore nodded. “A device rose from it and aimed at the space-suited explorers. The device must have beamed something deadly, because each person keeled over, dead. The few of us who know about this learned because the shuttle pilot did not wait, but blasted off. He sent video of the event, and video of the device aiming at him. The shuttle came apart seconds later, obviously killing the pilot.

  “Fortunately for the rest of the crew of the orbital voyager, it was on the other side of Titan at the time. The captain had taken that elementary precaution, having put relay stations in orbit.”

  “So those possible alien structures on Titan are the extinction-level threat?” I asked.

  “Not in the slightest,” Calidore replied. “And I would appreciate it if you did not jump to conclusions. Listen and learn instead of looking like a try-hard buffoon making inept guesses.”

  I glanced at Hector before nodding.

  “As can be expected,” Calidore said, “the voyager fled from Titan, working to keep a moon between it and the alien structures at all times. Finally, believing the voyager had gained enough distance, the great vessel headed back for Jupiter. The captain had been brooding over the murders. Finally, in a fit of madness or fear, the captain launched a nuclear-tipped guided torpedo. The torpedo used a similar approach to the alien buildings as the voyager had done. Finally, the guided torpedo reached Titan orbit and accelerated, coming down fast at the strange buildings from over the horizon. The detonating warhead destroyed the alien structures with thermonuclear devastation.”

  I blinked several times, feeling a decided sense of loss. I knew that many of my teachers would have wanted to know more about the aliens who had built the supposedly ancient structures. My teachers would have wished to gain the alien technology.

  At last, I said, “That was a prudent move. The warhead destroyed obvious alien technology but maybe saved humanity through it.”

  “Wrong, dead wrong,” Calidore said. “What did I just tell you about premature conclusions? The wanton destruction triggered the next reaction. Such is my theory, in any case, even if no one else thinks so.”

  “Wait,” I said. “This isn’t making sense. We’re headed for Titan?”

  “Of course not,” Calidore said. “We’re heading for a location a little beyond Luna’s orbital path.”

  “Luna?” I said. “Oh. That’s another name for our Moon, isn’t it?”

  He sighed.

  “I still don’t get it,” I said. “This is amazing news. The alien structures—”

  “No one but for a handful of people even knows about these destroyed structures,” he said, interrupting me.

  “How can that possibly be? You know. The Jupiter moon colonists surely know—”

  “Do not seek to pry my secrets from me.”

  “What in the hell are you talking about now?” I asked angrily.

  He stared at me, frowned and finally rubbed his chin.
Then he checked a unit on his belt. “We’ve run out of time. I will tell you about the extinction-level threat, and I’ll tell you about…the real situation. First, we must commandeer the shuttle.”

  “We’re almost there?”

  “In two more minutes,” he said.

  “How many people are on the shuttle?”

  “Ten.”

  “Are they secured for acceleration?”

  He gave me a feral grin. “Smart wog, aren’t you? I would prefer killing the lot of them while we can, but I suppose you’d try to stop me from doing what is necessary.”

  I said nothing.

  “Fine,” he said. “Here’s what we’re going to do then.” He started to outline his hijacking plan.

  -10-

  The elevator stopped, the doors opened and two marines in battlesuits greeted us with leveled laser rifles aimed at our faces.

  “Put your hands in the air,” one of the marines said through a helmet speaker.

  My shoulders sagged. Calidore’s ally must have screwed up or cracked at the last minute. The shuttle occupants had clearly reacted quickly enough to armor up to greet us.

  “You have—” The marine’s words abruptly cut off in mid-sentence.

  “Tut-tut,” Calidore said, as his right hand lifted from his belt. “You don’t think two clods like you are going to stop me, do you?”

  With my hands still in the air, I glanced at Calidore. He stepped to the side and out of the elevator. I expected to see the crystal tip of a laser rifle glow with power. Instead, nothing happened.

  “Doctor?” I said, with my hands still in the air. Hector and Lee likewise held their hands high.

  Calidore turned around, acting surprised on seeing us. “Come on,” he said, “get the gear out. We don’t have all day.”

  “But…the battlesuits,” I said.

  “Them?” asked Calidore, stepping up and slapping an unmoving, armored sleeve.

  Lee tentatively lowered his hands. “I think he froze them.”

  I blinked in astonishment.

  “That’s right,” Calidore said. “They have no power. Even the emergency exit switch has gone null. Don’t worry about them, my boys. We have work to do and must get to it.”

  I finally lowered my arms, my shoulders tired from the effort of keeping my hands in the air. Along with Hector and Lee, I dragged the equipment out of the elevator, putting it in a pile behind the two frozen battlesuits.

  “Can they breathe in there?” I asked.

  “For a while, anyway,” Calidore said. “Why, do you want me to release them so they can attack us and you’ll be forced to kill them?”

  I shook my head.

  “Good, good,” Calidore said, rubbing his hands. “Let’s hurry, now. I doubt we have much time.”

  The doctor opened a case and took out a gun of sorts. He screwed a vial of yellow liquid onto the back of the weapon.

  “This is a hypogun,” he explained. “I’m going to inject each passenger with Knockout. It will put them into semi-hibernation. They won’t die, and we won’t have to bother with them. Each passenger will have enough fat to sustain himself in semi-hibernation for several weeks, at least.”

  “Then why did you want me to murder people earlier?”

  “Killing is more efficient and with less chance of something happening to turn the tables on us. Besides, Knockout is incredibly expensive to…”

  He was going to say something more but didn’t.

  A klaxon began to blare, so we no longer had time to debate. Calidore floated away and we floated after him.

  The doctor had an override unit on his belt, allowing him into three different shuttle cells. The three of us used needlers, training them on the people as Calidore injected each one with Knockout. Afterward, I double-checked their restraints.

  When we were finished, that left us with the battlesuited marines.

  “Don’t worry about them for now,” Calidore told me.

  “But I am,” I said. “Let’s finish this.” There had been two empty crash seats.

  Calidore sighed, and we went back to the battlesuits. It was delicate, but we released one marine at a time. The first resisted until Hector put him in a wrestling hold. The doctor injected the man with Knockout by putting the nozzle against the struggler’s neck and pulling the trigger so the hypogun hissed, using compressed air to drive the drug under the man’s skin. The second marine understood the odds and did not resist us. We dragged the hibernating marines to the empty crash seats and buckled them in.

  Finally, Calidore guided us to the control room. There, each of us chose a chair, buckling in. At the doctor’s orders, we turned each chair just so. We barely made it in time.

  The klaxon had ceased blaring, and the great Voyager Manhattan started to accelerate. It was more force than the capsule had done from orbit, but not as much as when we’d blasted off from Terra’s surface.

  “This is going to last longer,” Calidore said. “We’re accelerating out there. After a time, the Manhattan will turn around and decelerate until we reach the object.”

  “Not Terra’s moon, though, right?” I asked.

  Calidore smiled faintly. Then he reached over and manipulated a control board. “Watch the main screen.”

  I did, and I gasped a moment later. On the screen was an asteroid-like object. Except, on the “asteroid” were smooth structures, buildings, if you will.

  “What is that thing?” I asked.

  “Depends on who you ask,” Calidore replied. “I believe it is an alien vessel.”

  “In our Moon’s orbital path?” I asked.

  “You really should listen a little better. Remember I told you it’s beyond Luna’s orbit?”

  “I do.”

  “There you have it, then,” he said.

  “How much outside Luna’s orbit?”

  “Three times greater.”

  I nodded. “How big is the asteroid?”

  “I called it a ship, remember?”

  “How big is it?” I asked.

  “A quarter the size of the Moon,” he said.

  “It’s huge, then,” I said, amazed at the size.

  “One could even call it gargantuan,” he said.

  I was puzzled. “How did it get there? I mean—what’s going on, Doctor?”

  “Yes. What’s going on? That’s what we’re trying to determine. I have a suspicion I already know, but no one in power is listening to me.”

  “Why not?” I asked. “You never finished your story.”

  “Right,” he said. “I suppose we have time, finally.” He put his hands over his chest as he leaned back in his chair. “Here’s my estimation of what’s going on and what that alien ship out there means to humanity…”

  -11-

  “The captain of that exploratory voyager sped from Titan and Saturn as she headed back for the Jupiter colonies,” Calidore said in a reminiscent manner. “If you’ll recall what I said earlier, the journey takes at least one year, and that’s only if Saturn and Jupiter are aligned properly. If Saturn and Jupiter are on the opposite sides of the Sun, the journey takes years longer.”

  Calidore turned to me. “Do you know why that’s so?”

  I said nothing, having grown weary of his condescending questions.

  “One can often tell if a creature is a barbarian by his touchiness on certain matters,” Calidore finally said in a nasal tone.

  “I’ll make you a deal,” I said. “If I don’t understand a thing, I’ll ask you about it. That way you don’t have to worry about my so-called touchiness.”

  “Hit a nerve, did I?”

  “Yes, Doctor,” I said sarcastically. “I’m struck to the core.”

  He eyed me. “With that kind of attitude, I’m not sure I want to tell you the rest of the tale.”

  I couldn’t help it. I laughed.

  Color rose on his cheeks. That caused me to laugh harder.

  “Now, see here,” Calidore said, snapping his fingers. “Like t
hat, I could eliminate you and your friends.”

  I noticed that his other hand had dropped to a round device on his belt. I let my gaze slide from it as though I were looking down in submission, lest he realize I’d just memorized the round device. Calidore had told us earlier that scientists had inserted brain chips into the cat men. Had corporation scientists inserted explosive chips into each of us without our knowing it? Would that round device detonate the explosives? I judged that likely and in keeping with corporation belief that we were unruly barbarians from the Badlands.

  “You must give me my due,” Calidore said. “I am the superior here. I am in charge. You will do well to remember that at all times.”

  “Yes, Doctor,” I said in a neutral tone.

  Hector gave me a funny look. I did not respond to that in any way. The time would come to explain the situation to Hector and Lee.

  “I acted in error by laughing,” I told Calidore. “I apologize. Please continue with your explanation about the alien ship.”

  “Humph,” Calidore said. “That’s better.” He drummed his fingers on the control console. “Yes. I have decided to continue. Knowledgeable guards are better than ignoramuses.”

  I wondered, then, if the haughty manner was a disguise. Calidore was clearly competent. Yet, he acted in a buffoonish, touchy way. I did recall that Paris Roan had taught us that highly intelligent people often have unique or even quirky ways. It was as if the superior brain couldn’t contain all that brilliance without bleeding off quirkiness as well.

  For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Maybe Newton’s Third Law of Motion had more than just physical applications.

  Calidore’s finger drumming ceased. He adjusted his position, getting comfortable, it seemed. I determined that he was getting ready to lecture us.

  “The voyager captain never returned to any of the Jupiter moons,” the doctor said. “She did communicate with the directors there, however, including sending video evidence of the alien structures on Titan and their destruction. Ten months after leaving Saturn, the exploratory voyager abruptly ceased transmissions. How and why this happened, neither the directors nor the scientists on the Galilean moons learned.”