Tree of Liberty (Book 3 of The Humanity Unlimited Saga)

by Terry Mixon

  “My people and the Volunteers are the most recent immigrants to the stars by many centuries. It has been hundreds of years since we came to this place. I find it curious that you have come through at this particular time. And somewhat confused as to how you managed it.”

  Clayton shrugged. “Not knowing the specifics of your circumstances, I find it difficult to comment. In the end, I can only speak for my own people and how we found our way here.

  “Before I can do that, I want to be sure we don’t see one another as enemies. We have no desire to fight your people or to defend ourselves from you. You said earlier that we weren’t your enemy because we were human. I’m not sure how seriously to take that statement.”

  She considered him shrewdly. “You do not know the circumstances away from Earth, do you?”

  “In large part, no. We’re familiar with the Asharim, though only recently so. My son and people in my employ found discarded items belonging to them only a few months ago. That led us to the discovery of the gates. We are still exploring, but we believe the Asharim have fallen from their pinnacle of technical know-how.”

  “That latter is true,” General Norris said. “The Asharim were no longer wizards when we came to this place, with some limited exceptions. Only their numbers and slaves prevent us from outright victory.

  “Your accent is somewhat strange, but you sound as if you come from the colonies. Might I inquire as to the situation that holds sway there now?”

  “Are you referring to the War of Independence? The fight against King George? If so, that ended successfully. The colonies have become a powerful nation in their own right.”

  The officer gave him a steady look and slowly nodded. “We knew that the fight must have ended long ago, but we took it as an article of faith that our righteous cause would be rewarded.”

  The woman shook her head. “I won’t bother to ask the situation in the Caribbean. My ancestors knew quite well that their time was coming to a close and that was probably a good thing. I might count pirates and privateers among my ancestors, but I don’t think I would relish practicing their trade.”

  She crossed one leg over the other knee. “We have no quarrel with your people. This regiment is moving to secure the ancient city just over the horizon. Every few decades it trades hands between the Asharim and us.

  “The fighting spills our blood, leaving both sides exhausted for years at a time. Once we recover, the fight begins anew. The city holds the only operational gate on this world. We use it to be part of a wider universe of human colonies. I’m unsure what the Asharim do. Nothing good.”

  “You said your people worked with the Volunteers,” Clayton said. “I’m assuming these folk were a militia during the War of Independence, so please correct me if I’m wrong. How did both of your groups find the gate that brought you here? To my sorrow, none of the gates that we have located on Earth are inside the United States.”

  The general leaned back in his chair. “The United States,” he said slowly, seeming to savor every word. “It rings upon the ear, does it not? Oh, I’ve heard the name before. It was bandied about for long years before the fighting started, but it still sends a thrill up my spine.”

  Clayton smiled. “The United States of America came into the world as something completely new and turned all the other nations on their head. Through many of the trials and tribulations in the centuries since its founding, it has stood for truth and justice. Sadly, that has changed in recent years, though we hope to reverse the process.”

  The other man considered that. “I’ve heard it said that from time to time the tree of liberty must be refreshed with the blood of tyrants and patriots. Perhaps such a time has once more come.

  “In any case, I cannot tell you the precise nature of how we came to this place. Our ancestors were maneuvering in the wilds of Virginia when we came across a cave. Inside this cave, they found the wonders of the Asharim. We did not know that at the time, because the place was abandoned.

  “At some point, they found a way through the gate and brought a number of refugees from the fighting with them. This method is still known to us today, but I am not sure how they learned it. That story has been lost in the mists of time.”

  “The story of my people is much the same,” Adorno said. “They were in Port Royale when a mighty earthquake leveled the city. Many of the survivors were brought to a place near the water that had a gate. The people that brought our ancestors there warned of a great tsunami that would likely come.

  “I have no idea who they were. They saw the survivors of Port Royale through the gate just before the wave came. They left us on this world and went elsewhere. Since that time, they have never returned.

  “The Volunteers came through many years after us. They were very lucky that my people had seized the city at the time or the Asharim would have executed them in a grisly fashion.”

  Clayton considered the strangers, but decided he couldn’t worry about them now. He had more important and pressing worries.

  Adorno pressed her lips together. “If you only recently came to this world, where is the gate? Surely not the one in the city. The Asharim would have dealt most harshly with you.”

  He didn’t see how he could avoid talking about that, so he didn’t try to lie. “There’s a hidden cave in a large hill nearby. Inside is a gate. Unfortunately, we have no means of controlling it. Once we came through, we were trapped here. I know how to return to Earth, but I must have a way to control the gate to use it.”

  “I suspected something of the sort. If I am correct about which hill you mean, no one ever had cause to believe there was anything inside it. It’s a place where the Asharim conduct unholy ceremonies.

  “We have discovered that humans must stand together against the Asharim and their slaves, Clayton Rogers. I look forward to hearing more from you and your people. On behalf of my forces, I invite you and yours to come dine with us tonight in safety.”

  Trust had to start somewhere. It wasn’t as if they had much of a choice. They needed these people’s assistance to get back to Earth.

  “We would be happy to join you.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Nathan found the entrance to the small craft easily enough now that he knew where to look. It was a hatch no different from any other he’d seen on the ship with one exception: it had something written on it in an alien script. That was new.

  His mother stopped abruptly in front of the hatch, her mouth hanging open.

  “That’s not a very elegant look, Mother,” he said snidely.

  She ignored his taunt, still staring at the hatch.

  “Mother? What’s wrong?”

  She raised an arm and pointed toward the hatch. “What does that say?”

  He glanced from her to the hatch and back again. “I have no idea.”

  She turned slightly toward him. “I do. It says ‘shuttle access.’ What I don’t know is how that’s even possible, because it’s not in English. Nathan, what’s going on?”

  He stared at her, dumbfounded. “How am I supposed to know? How could you possibly know what it says?”

  His mother rubbed her face. “It had to be the machine I was in. Not only did it heal and make me younger again, but also it put something in my head. The knowledge of what those words mean.”

  Nathan felt his eyes narrow. If it put that in her head, what else might it have done? Could she be under the influence of the alien computer?

  Dealing with his mother was already a frighteningly dangerous proposition, but if she were under alien control, that added an entirely new element of uncertainty.

  One he couldn’t deal with right now. He’d keep an eye on her and see how she behaved going forward. If she became a problem, he’d solve it then.

  He opened the hatch and it led into a short corridor with another hatch at the end. He recognized the far hatch as part of an airlock. That made sense. If the shuttle were gone, you wouldn’t want to open a door into vacuum.

 
; Thankfully, the operation of these hatches was relatively simple. He turned and found his mother still standing in the main corridor.

  “I realize this is unsettling, Mother, but you need to come along. Our time is limited. If something comes and smashes the ship, we don’t want to be here.”

  She shook her head as if she were waking from a daydream. Her face scrunched into a snarl and she stalked forward.

  The two of them entered the airlock and then the shuttle beyond. It was exactly like the ship they’d stolen from his brother. Only this one seemed to be in perfect shape.

  His mother led the way to the front of the shuttle. They settled into the couches set aside for the pilots. She reached out and swiped her hand across the control console.

  It came to life and so did the large screens in front of them. Those showed the view of the ship they’d captured. It was an impressively vivid image.

  “The researchers showed me how to bring the systems on the other shuttle to life,” she said. “Or at least to look at the controls. Beyond that, I’m not sure what I’ll be able to figure out.”

  Nathan wasn’t going to be of any help. His use of the alien technology had been extremely limited. If she couldn’t figure out something, they weren’t going anywhere.

  She stared at the control console for a long moment. “Weirdly, I seem to know what each of these symbols means. I mean as in what will happen if I touch them.”

  Her eyes swiveled toward him. “We want to go to the station?”

  He shrugged. “That seems to be the only place worth visiting, unless there’s something on the planet below that would be useful. That said, I’m not sure how much I’d trust you guiding a spaceship during reentry based on information implanted in you by an alien computer. One mistake and we’d burn up.”

  “I can’t argue with that.” She reached out and tapped one of the icons and the console reconfigured into a different layout. Hesitantly, she touched three symbols in sequence.

  The shuttle shuddered and came loose from the ship. He could see them rising in the screens.

  “We’ve separated from the ship,” his mother said needlessly. “Let’s see if I can guide us toward the station.”

  He hoped she could. They were committed now.

  She tapped a few more controls and the ship reoriented itself and began moving toward the station. Thankfully, not very quickly.

  “What about the debris?” he asked. “If we get hit by a piece of wreckage, we’re done.”

  “The shuttle seems to have taken that into account. It’s marking the courses of everything that might come near us. I have it adjusting course to miss anything flying in our direction. I can’t say that’s going to keep us safe, but it’s the best I can do.”

  The situation unsettled him significantly more than he’d prefer to admit. Trusting his mother’s strange new knowledge and skills was against his nature.

  The station slowly grew larger in front of them. Nathan had no frame of reference, but he thought it was large. Very large.

  It didn’t seem to have taken significant damage, either. Which was odd considering how much debris still floated in the area.

  That made him wonder. How could there still be debris left over from some event that must’ve taken place centuries ago? Perhaps even a thousand years ago. Even at the time of the event, shouldn’t the debris have floated away? Something wasn’t right here.

  His mother brought the shuttle around and he saw places dotted across the hull that looked as though they had massive hatches. She seemed to have one of them selected as a destination. He hoped she could get it to open.

  Thankfully, it began sliding ponderously open as they approached. His mother guided the shuttle through it and into a dark cavern beyond.

  Overhead lights snapped on revealing they were in a massive hangar. One filled with numerous small craft similar to the one they were in and many others beside.

  She brought the shuttle down onto an open area on the deck.

  “I’ve signaled the hatch to close. According to these instruments, there’s air outside. We can go see what’s out there.”

  “Forgive me if I seem confused, but how could there be air outside when we just opened the door?”

  His mother shrugged. “I have no idea.”

  “Why would they even bother to have airlocks if they had a means of keeping air inside? Or did the air come in after we did?”

  “I have no fucking idea,” his mother snapped. “Stop asking me questions I can’t answer.”

  Nathan was tempted to keep badgering her, but he knew he had her right on the edge of outright rage. He’d rather not have her come after him.

  “Sorry, Mother,” he said soothingly. “What should we do now? Is it safe to leave the shuttle?”

  “I suppose there’s only one way to find out.”

  She stood, walked back into the main body of the shuttle, and tapped the control by the airlock. The inner door slid open. She turned toward him. “Are you coming?”

  He’d really rather not, but he supposed he didn’t have a choice. He rose to his feet. “Let’s go see what we found.”

  * * * * *

  Harry made it back to camp in plenty of time. He was sitting at one of the campfires when the people tasked with cooking breakfast rose for the morning.

  He hated that he needed to stay here while the searchers scoured the area. Particularly now that he knew there was no chance they’d find anything.

  That galled him. The list of things he needed to do was ridiculously long. He couldn’t afford to be tied up waiting for them to declare his father lost.

  Worse yet, if he did find a way to activate the gate, he’d need to lead the force after his father. He just couldn’t sit here waiting.

  Well, he supposed some “dire emergency” could call him away. It wasn’t as though he didn’t have enough of those on his hands. Thankfully, the locals didn’t know his true identity. As an employee, he could slip away.

  The court case in Australia was one issue he had to deal with while he was down here. He wanted ownership of Freedom Express in a legal sense. That made everything else they did legitimate. He could deal with that and then come back here when he had more options.

  Molly Goodwin rose just as the sun peeked over the horizon. She got herself a cup of coffee and sat down in a folding chair beside him.

  “You’re up early, Mister Jacobs.”

  “I had trouble sleeping. I must confess that I’m concerned you haven’t managed to locate any of the missing people yet.” He held up a hand to forestall her response. “I’m not implying that you aren’t doing everything you can. It just seems as though some sign of them should’ve turned up already.”

  She sipped her coffee and nodded. “That worries me, too. The terrain around here is very rough, so that makes it hard to spot them, but it also means they can’t have gotten very far.

  “Mister Rogers should have been able to flag down a helicopter. He should’ve realized by now that all the aircraft in the area are friendly.”

  She considered him for a long moment. “I wanted to bring up another issue before the day really gets started. Perhaps you could help me understand something.”

  “I’d be happy to try,” Harry said.

  “We’ll see how happy you are once I’ve asked my question. Is your name really Jacobs? I think the answer is no because I’m almost certain I saw your face on the news. Mister Rogers.”

  Well, this was awkward. Did he attempt to lie his way out of it or did he confess that he’d snuck back to Earth? He probably should’ve sent Rex in his place. Coming had been a mistake. He wasn’t sure what he’d been thinking.

  He took a long drink of his coffee to give him a moment to consider his options. In the end, he decided that it really didn’t matter. His father had bought the land in order to claim the New Zealand base. The place was a wreck. Maybe the gates could be salvaged and relocated elsewhere, but he wasn’t even sure of that.

  The
government of New Zealand would seize the place in a heartbeat. Still, that might work to his advantage. Up until now, they’d been operating in the shadows. Only the US government had a clue what was going on. Perhaps it was time to widen the circle.

  “I prefer to keep that to a limited number of people,” he said softly. “I recognize that you’re going to have to report my presence, but I’d rather not to have it become general knowledge.”

  She shook her head. “I can hardly believe it. You were on Mars, weren’t you? Was that all some kind of trick?”

  “You mean like the conspiracy theory that the moon landing was faked? No. It was real. I was on Mars.”

  “That’s been one of the main features of the news for the last several days. Your spaceship or space station, whatever you want to call it, is still there. How could you possibly be sitting here next to me?”

  He grinned. “Aliens.”

  A bark of laughter escaped before she could clap a hand over her mouth. “I’d say that’s not funny, but it obviously is. You’re not going to be able to get away with laying this at the feet of mysterious aliens you found on Mars.”

  “Let me ask you a question, Miss Goodwin. Do you work for the government of New Zealand?”

  “In a manner of speaking, yes,” she said. “I act as coordinator in cases where people have gone missing in the wilds. I’m not a policewoman or anything. And I’m also not a government bureaucrat. I actually work for a living.”

  “That’s good to hear. I’m going to tell you a story that you’ll find very hard to believe. I can prove it, though. Once everyone is up and about their business, if you’ll accompany me to the top of the mesa, I can show you how I got here. Honestly, you won’t believe me if I told you without proof.”

  She stared at the mesa in the early dawn light. “You’re going to have some kind of alien ship land on the mesa? Is this going to be like a scene out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind?”

  “Something like that. I promise there won’t be any probes.”