The Imprisoned Earth

by Vaughn Heppner

  Calidore glanced at me. “Communication with the Galilean moon-colonists ceased one month after that.”

  “You mean their communication with Terra?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “How long ago did that happen?”

  “That is an astute question. Let me say that communication with Ceres ended a month after we stopped hearing from the Galilean colonists, while a month after that, we no longer heard anything from the Mars colonists.”

  “Has been it a month since Terra has heard from Mars?”

  “It’s been twenty-seven days,” Calidore said.

  “The alien ship,” I said. “It’s here now. But…”

  “Go on,” he said. “Let me see if you can reason it out.”

  “The corporations have huge orbital telescopes,” I said. “Surely, corporation astronomers would have seen the alien ship approaching Terra. I would imagine braking its velocity would cause its thrusters to burn bright like the Sun.”

  “I will have to revise my estimation of the Nevada Territory Wolf Clan,” Calidore said. “That is well reasoned, very well-reasoned and also completely wrong. The corporation astronomers have not witnessed the alien ship’s travel, although they discovered the asteroidal vessel five days ago in its present orbit.”

  “You’re suggesting that the alien ship just appeared?”

  “I have made no suggestions.”

  “It didn’t just appear then?” I asked.

  “I didn’t say that, either. Really, Bain, if you’re going to claim high intelligence, you’re going to have reason better than that.”

  Now Calidore sounded like Elder Paris Roan. I nodded, accepting the rebuke. “Do we have any idea what happened to the various colonies that may have caused them to stop communicating with Terra?”

  Calidore took his time answering. “There is much debate and little agreement as to what happened. I have seen shots from the orbital telescopes. To my mind, it appears as if hard crystalline…membranes, I suppose will suffice, now surround three of the Galilean moons, and Ceres, and the entire planet of Mars.”

  “Crystals, like those at the tip of a laser rifle?” I asked.

  “The crystalline sheaths around the moons, asteroid and planet are clear, too clear some say for that to be the answer. And the question immediately asserts itself, how could anyone form such vast sheaths or structures around large moons, a dwarf planet like Ceres and a genuine planet like Mars? It defies logic. How could an alien ship just appear at three times Luna’s orbit without anyone having witnessed its travel or its exhaust plumes?”

  “I take it there are no teleoptic shots of the alien ship at the Galilean moons, Ceres or Mars.”

  “You take it wrong,” Calidore said. “There is one grainy photo of an asteroid ship near Ganymede, or half the alien ship, I should say. It is my contention that the pilot of the alien ship normally kept his vessel behind the moons, asteroid and planet in relation to Terra’s orbital telescopes.”

  “Would I be right in thinking you believe the alien ship appeared because of the destruction of the structures on Titan?” I asked.

  “You would,” Calidore said.

  “But…that’s incredible. Why did the aliens wait until now to show themselves?”

  “An excellent question,” Calidore said.

  “Do you think the Sun Tzu will use nuclear-armed torpedoes on the alien ship?”

  “I do not.”

  “Oh. Then—”

  “I believe the Sun Tzu will use the torpedoes on the other corporation vessels. That would include the Manhattan. Remember, few people know what I do.”

  I frowned, trying to understand. “Are you saying few people know about the alien structures on Titan?”

  Calidore stared at me in a calculating manner. “Yes,” he said in a low voice. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. The Galilean moon-colonists kept that information to themselves. I happened to have a spy in their highest councils, however, and learned about that through back channels.”

  That seemed wrong to me, as that would make Calidore the Allan Corporation spymaster or some other high-level rank. Yet, the doctor acted as an ordinary scientist, assigned three barbarian guards instead of highly trained guards a spymaster would have.

  “Why did the other corporation voyagers come unarmed?” I asked.

  “Each corporation wants alien technology. To forestall another worldwide nuclear war, the corporations agreed to a peaceful exploration of the new object. That’s why we’re here.”

  “But if humanity is in jeopardy from the aliens, wouldn’t you try your hardest to tell the Allan Corporation directors what’s really at stake?”

  Once more, Calidore studied me. “What does the word ‘mentalist’ mean to you?”

  I shrugged. “One who engages in mental activities, I guess.”

  Tension deflated from the doctor, and his suspicions against me departed. “Yes, yes, that’s a good description,” he said, as if relieved.

  I glanced at Hector. He shrugged and held up his hands.

  “What does a mentalist have to do with the alien ship?” I asked.

  “Nothing, nothing at all,” Calidore said breezily, quite convincing me otherwise.

  “Shouldn’t you warn the Manhattan’s captain about the Chin Corporation’s coming treachery?” I asked.

  “I already tried,” Calidore said. “Our captain contacted the Sun Tzu, demanding to know if what I said was true. Their answer mollified him, and I believe it accelerated the Chin Corporation timetable. The sneak attack is going to take place sooner than otherwise. Thus, time is running out for us.”

  “What are we going to attempt, then?” I asked.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” he said.

  I shook my head.

  “We’re going to land on the alien ship before anyone else can. We’re going to grab the alien technology for ourselves.”

  “What? How? If the aliens can do everything you suggest they can, how can four men capture a ship a fourth the size of our Moon?”

  For just a moment, Calidore’s brown eyes gleamed. “That, my barbarian guard, is a surprise for now. I have ways and means, and you three will harvest rich rewards for helping me, believe you me.”

  I did not believe him. What he’d just told me was confusing and seemed…like sorcery. I was a rational man, but crystalline structures around an entire planet, and alien ships that just appeared? Those concepts seemed preposterous, and it was just as crazy that the four us of could grab an asteroid-ship full of alien technology from its alien crew.

  I thought about it as logically as I could, and I concluded that there was much Calidore had left out. I was going to watch him closely from now on, and strike to subdue him when the time came. Had he really told the Manhattan’s captain about the Sun Tzu? Why would the corporations send unarmed ships to an object that just appeared? If they understood the significance of the silent colonists, wouldn’t the voyagers come armed to the teeth?

  I wish I knew what the corporation directors were thinking and that I knew more about inter-corporation politics, because this was becoming weird.

  -12-

  I dozed for a time, waking up with a jolt and seeing that nothing had changed. Each time I looked up, Calidore sat as before, with his hands on his chest and his eyes wide open.

  Didn’t he sleep like us?

  I determined to stay awake and watch, but soon found that my eyelids were drooping again. I struggled to keep awake and jolted up in my chair later, realizing I’d lost the fight once again.

  A glance showed me that Calidore was just like before.

  “Is there a problem?” he asked, perhaps noting my scrutiny.

  “None,” I said. “By the way, when are we going to turn around?”

  “I beg your pardon? We’re going all the way. I thought I’d made that clear.”

  “No, no, when will the Manhattan rotate and begin deceleration?”

  “Oh. It already happened. We are decelerati
ng. We should be near the target in another—” he squinted as if checking an invisible, internal clock— “twenty-eight minutes.”

  “We have to contact the Manhattan’s captain!” I shouted. “We have to warn him about the Sun Tzu.”

  “I tried, remember?”

  “That’s what you told us,” I said.

  Calidore shook his head. “Insinuating that I lied about it isn’t going to anger me at this juncture. You have no idea how long I’ve waited for this event, no idea at all.”

  “But I do. A few days or maybe a few months if you started the counting from when the torpedo destroyed the Titan structures. Why are you insinuating it’s been a lifetime?”

  “You’re delusional, Bain. I’ve insinuated no such thing.”

  I dropped my gaze and forced myself to rub my forehead. I noticed he’d dropped a hand to the round device on his belt. I needed to be careful what I said to him. There was more going on than I understood, but I needed to not give away my suspicions.

  “This is confusing,” I muttered, deciding to play on his sense of superiority. “I want to go home.”

  He snorted in contempt at my apparent weakness. But his right hand moved away from the round device as he tapped a control on the console. His chair slid closer to the control panel.

  “I’m adjusting your chairs,” he said, “as we’re leaving the Manhattan soon.”

  His fingers blurred over the controls as if he’d done this a thousand times. Our chairs moved into new directions as I heard clangs and clanks from outside.

  “What’s happening?” I asked in a frightened tone.

  “Fear not,” Calidore said. “Those are merely the locks unlatching. We’re almost at our destination, and the Sun Tzu is coming upon the others. The Chin Corporation voyager found a reason to delay. That was for obvious reasons.”

  Lee signaled me silently. I nodded. The small Wolf Clan warrior licked his brown teeth and stared intently at the doctor. Then, he sliced an index finger across his throat.

  I shook my head. Lee shrugged, as if asking, “Why not?”

  “Wait,” I mouthed. “Later.”

  Lee nodded.

  Hector was on the other side of Calidore, so we couldn’t signal him just yet. Hector saw us, though, but he looked elsewhere lest he give us away to the doctor.

  “There,” Calidore crooned. “Do you see?”

  I looked out of the small window ahead of us. I did see a small dark object in the stellar distance.

  “Is that the alien ship?” I asked.

  “It is. It is,” Calidore said, sounding enraptured. “After all this time…this is incredible.” He laughed as if his body could not contain his high good humor. “This is close to a miracle, and I’m the one to have achieved it.”

  “We’re not on the alien ship yet,” I warned.

  He glanced at me. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. You think—” He glanced at Hector and then at Lee and me. “Oh. It seems I’ve miscalculated concerning you three. Well, no matter.”

  His right hand dropped to the round device on his belt. He tapped buttons—

  A terrible lethargy fell over me. It was all I could do to keep my eyes open as I stared like one bereft of his wits at Calidore.

  “What…just…happened…?” I slurred.

  “There will be no mutiny against me,” Calidore said in a sharp voice. “I’ve waited a lifetime for this moment. I’ve endured thirty hard years on this mud-ball planet of yours, enduring a nuclear war, no less. Do you know how dull and bloodthirsty you Terrans are? It is maddening indeed.” He sighed. “I hesitated sending the voyager to Titan. It was a measure of my desperation that I ordered the beautiful structures destroyed. But I’d guessed right on the reaction. Do you realize what that means? I guessed correctly and I am about to reach the ship of my dreams.

  “Gentlemen, it is my contention that there before you is a genuine vessel of the Avantis. I calculated its existence through the tiniest of clues, finally believing it the reason Terra has been separated all this time from the rest of the Orion Arm civilized community. Do you realize that no one knows about Terra? I stumbled across your star system by accident, slipping past several guardian monitors in the Farther Oort Cloud. I trusted my calculations, believing the hidden ship’s ancient directives remained active. There is the direct evidence that I was right. Now, oh yes now, I shall land and take control of the ancient vessel of the Avantis. With it, I shall return to civilization as the great victor and conqueror. I shall enact a fierce revenge against all those who threw me out of the Singularity those many years ago. I shall become the Prime of the Higher Cognizance and give full and proper mastery to the mentalists of the Orion Arm.”

  “How…can…you…do…this?” I asked sleepily.

  He chuckled, tapping piloting controls.

  There was a lurch. The shuttle drifted as it fully detached from the Manhattan.

  “The risks I’ve taken to reach this moment,” Calidore gloated. “Were I not a mentalist I would merely hope at this point. But I have maneuvered the Chin Corporation to do my killing for me. If they only understood—but how could they? I have out-calculated an entire planet of bloodthirsty schemers.

  “Watch,” he said, while tapping piloting controls, “and witness my ruthless efficiency.”

  A screen flickered on. With exceeding effort, I managed to slowly shift my gaze to it. On the screen, I saw a braking voyager, the long exhaust plumes showing the effort it took to slow its velocity.

  “Ah,” Calidore said.

  Dark objects detached from the slowing voyager. Long blue tails burst into existence as orange fire blossomed from each exhaust. The dark objects—nuclear-tipped torpedoes, my groggy brain imagined—gained velocity with great suddenness.

  Calidore tapped the control board.

  The screen showed the torpedoes accelerating away from what had to be the Sun Tzu. It took time—minutes—and my mind become cloudy.

  Then, as if by surprise, great white explosions appeared on the screen. I counted four of them.

  “Yes!” Calidore gloated. “Four great voyagers are no more. Now, it is between the Sun Tzu and us, and we hold all the advantages.”

  I saw Calidore peer at me. “I have a few errands to perform. Perhaps it is best if you slept for a time.”

  His right hand went back to the round device on his belt. He tapped it, and I knew no more.

  -13-

  I awoke by degrees, feeling sluggish and disoriented. Calidore had done something to me…

  Calidore!

  I raised my head, and it hurt like crazy, a pounding feeling in my skull that I soon realized was synchronized with my thumping heart. I found myself panting, waiting for it, waiting…

  I frowned. Waiting for what? Then, I realized that I was waiting for a heart attack or a stroke to kill me. My heart raced and it felt as if the pounding in my head would explode my skull.

  I began breathing deeply, holding it for three seconds and then slowly letting my breath out. I did it several times, trying to breath even deeper and make the exhale a little longer each time—finally, I felt my heart begin slowing down, and the throbbing in my head receded. I found, now that I could think again, that my eyesight was horribly blurry and there was a funny taste in my mouth. I hated this, but I endured.

  When I decided I was going to live, I concentrated, trying to peer past the blurriness in my eyes. The control room was empty. Calidore, Hector and Lee were gone.

  Why had the doctor left me behind?

  I groaned as I raised my hands. They felt numb and useless.

  I suppose I could explain each painful attempt and drag out the process, but I will forgo that. It is enough to realize that it took me an hour, at least, to make my hands unbuckle my restraints. I shoved up out of the chair after that, the blurriness simply a nuisance at this point and the headache a dull throb that I had begun to ignore.

  I realized I did not float, but the gravitational pull was minute. T
hat would mean—the alien ship! The shuttle must have landed on it. Calidore had said the ship’s size was about a quarter the size of the Moon, and thus it would have a gravitational pull due to its mass.

  That was all basic science that I had read and learned from Paris Roan and my teachers. So don’t be surprised that a so-called barbarian knew these things. There had simply been too many books in the pre-nuclear-war world for those who thirsted after learning to remain ignorant.

  I stood in the control room, inhaling and exhaling with deliberation, gathering my resolve. If it had taken me an hour to get my body functioning again, I had to presume that the shuttle was empty. In that time, wouldn’t someone have entered the control room to see how I was doing?

  I looked around. There was no weapon lying around. Then I remembered my knife. It was in the sheath on my belt. I did not draw it, but I drew comfort from having it. I was a trained Wolf Clan warrior, and I was armed after a fashion.

  I noticed a red flashing light on the control panel. I shifted there, walking tentatively so I didn’t propel myself up against the ceiling. After studying the board, I tapped an obvious switch.

  The screen flickered on. It showed a drifting voyager. There was something wrong with it, but I couldn’t immediately tell what. Then it registered. The forward living quarters had been smashed, half of it missing.

  Did that mean everyone aboard the Chin Corporation voyager was dead? It seemed probable.

  I studied it longer, seeing if I could glean any further information from it. Yes… The two shuttles were gone. Maybe some of the Chin Corporation crew had escaped.

  I turned around, heading for the hatch, wondering what I’d find in the other compartments. I drew my knife and slowly opened the hatch, peering through into the next compartment. I heard nothing and saw nothing moving.

  Tentatively, I eased into the compartment. By careful degrees, I scouted the interior of the shuttle. The battlesuits were gone. I went to each cell. They were empty—no Allan Corporation people nor Calidore or my arm guards.

  Had Calidore taken Hector and Lee with him when he left the shuttle?