by Richard Sosa
The Far Field
A Military Science Fiction Epic
Seedlings
Book 1
Richard L. Sosa
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by Richard L Sosa
Acknowledgements
My thanks to my beautiful wife and my daughter who encouraged me to write and listened to my stories evolving over the years. A special thanks to the many folks who reviewed, read and commented on this work.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-five
Chapter Thirty-six
Chapter Thirty-seven
Chapter Thirty-eight
Chapter Thirty-nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-one
Chapter Forty-two
Chapter Forty-three
Chapter Forty-four
Chapter Forty-five
Chapter Forty-six
Chapter Forty-seven
Chapter Forty-eight
Chapter Forty-nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-one
Chapter Fifty-two
Chapter Fifty-three
Chapter Fifty-four
Chapter Fifty-five
Chapter One
The planetary data was finally coming online, and Rik mentally congratulated himself. Resting back on both knees, Rik Onanes, from Vega Seven, frowned and scribbled strange character numbers in his notebook as the data streamed from a small instrument sitting atop a plastic tripod. He looked over to his bag on the ground where a laptop was blinking as the data transferred and thought, this is finally going to work, his shoulders loosened, and then thought, it sure as hell better. Without a sound, two black polished shoes stepped into his sight and Rik followed them up to the large police officer standing over him. Rik shielded the sun in his eyes, “morning officer?”
Officer Donally hasn’t had coffee yet. “What are you doing here? Got a call from the neighbors that someone is trespassing and acting suspicious,” his voice impatient, immediately pulling his ticket book from his side pocket and clicking his pen more times than he needed, “I am going to have to see some ID.”
Rik looked around at the open yard with no fence. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to trespass, I am doing a research project for my science class. I am a student,” he gathered his things quickly and stood, “I’ll leave.”
The Officer was focusing on his ticket book, “I need to see some ID,” he ordered.
“Yes, of course, Officer.”
Rik bolted through the yard then rounded the house at breakneck speed before the surprised officer looked up. The Officer dropped his ticket book. He pushed a button on his shoulder radio communication unit and raced after Rik. The chase was on. “Back up on James Avenue and Thirty-Seven Street,” the Officer shouted on his radio, “I have a runner. Average height, black bomber jacket, blonde hair. Fleeing toward the service alley by the canal.”
Rik heard parts of the call in, the Officer’s panting breaths and his heavy steps behind him falling back. He was widening the gap. This isn’t how he envisioned his day to start but he already had a big enough lead to lose him, soon he would have a full block in front of the officer. Officer Donally was a large man, stocky and medically defined as obese, he spent his time off refereeing for the ‘Kicker Robins’ soccer league and running up and down a full field to keep up with eight to twelve-year-old girls was an easy weekend for him. Rik heard a snap like something being unclipped and he glanced back. Donally came out of nowhere and was right on his heels catching up. Crap, Rik thought, he’s going to ‘taz’ me, damn it. Rik abruptly changed course and Donally shifted without missing a step. Rik panicked. Shit, he thought and raced toward a tall wood fence then leaped at the top. It was higher than he estimated, and he flattened himself on it and fell back to the ground. He stood up to see the officer’s gun drawn pointing at his face.
“Hands up in the air,” Donally ordered. Donally’s experience immediately focused on the weight in the bag, “drop that bag.”
Both men were breathing hard. The bag fell off Rik’s shoulder to slide over his arm and in one instant motion, Rik pointed a small tube, hidden in his palm, at the Officer. Donally’s face tightened, he grimaced and then he hit the ground at the same time as the bag. Rik was panicked. “Shit, Shit. O.K., stay calm, stay calm. Shit, Shit, damn it. Shit,” he said out loud, he paced the small space, put his hand on his head, looked up at the tall fence then around to make sure no witnesses were in sight and stared at the man sprawled on the ground. “Shit, what now?” Rik’s sight followed the top of the fence. Searching. There was no quick exit. He walked quickly along the fence and saw an opening. Checked to see if the alley was clear then raced down the alley toward the major connecting street. A police cruiser with lights flashing sped by on the street in front of him and Rik skipped to a stop before diving into a garbage can shed. He sat for a moment, counting his breaths when he saw it was clear he peered out slowly and saw officers entering the alley.
Oh, crap, they have one of those smelling mammals with them. Gotta call and abort this location, he thought and grabbed his phone, struggled to operate it, it flipped open like a book and then he searched for the antenna on the backside, hands shaking, his fingers felt fat. He put the phone to his face. “Shut up don’t talk, change of plans. Avoid James Street.” He noticed his breathing was more rapid, so he tried to slow down. “No, just do what I say and avoid James Street. I’ll tell you later.” He waited to speak, “what? No, it’s not about my girlfriend. Just go to the damn café. No, I am not stopping at the record store, I am on my way. Go to the café.” He tried to speak again, “No. Shut the hell up. Just go to the damn café.” He abruptly closed the phone cover and tossed it in his bag, then ripped off his jacket. Peering out from his cover he saw the officers and police dog race over to their fallen, he had only a few seconds to act. He took his silver tube and manipulated it as if rubbing the sides. His hair turned black, his complexion lightened, and he appeared more muscular. He stood and calmly but quickly walked into the alley with a shimmering light around him. The police officers stepped back into the alley and scanned it. Not seeing anyone they returned to Officer Donally. A police cruiser pulled up blocking Rik’s exit, two officers got out of the car and ran up to him reaching for their weapons and ran past him deeper into the alley. Rik walked out of the alley onto the major street and boarded a bus
headed for the city center.
Rik walked around the corner of a tall building and spied the café in the plaza. After standing in line longer than he wanted he finally had a coffee in hand, found a place to sit and spent a moment looking over the café crowd. He rubbed his hands together as if they were cold to keep them from shaking and after sitting for a few minutes, he felt more comfortable. He removed his paper notepad and opened to a blank page. To-do list, he thought and wrote, ‘coffee, finish math, give the laptop to bro, ‘kill self’, talk to mom.’ He shook his head, who makes a list like that? Stupid I can’t talk to mom if I am dead, he drew little arrows that switched the order but remembered, crap I promised to stop at the bakery today and I need to get my pocket watch from the jewelers and…shit, I promised if I had time, I would help repair the tri-modulator-‘grav’ unit. He came out of his thoughts and nursed the strange drink both loathing and enjoying the taste. He closed his eyes in frustration trying to meditate. He noticed that his hand was massaging his temples and some people were watching him. He stopped and buried himself in his notes.
His plans must execute without a hitch and the pressure on him was crushing but for the moment the warm coffee helped him relax and like a tourist broadcasting his wallet to thieves, he stooped down to check his bag again, his calculator, his computer and at the bottom, his Glock. “These damn numbers better not have changed since yesterday,” he spoke quietly to himself as he lifted his computer carefully from the bag. He flipped open the page on his paper notebook to compare the math and without thinking he wrote, ‘R-U-N’ on the bottom of the page, in big letters, a word that screamed at him. He stared at what he did disbelieving it, “Damn it.” His perfect page of calculations was marred by his thoughtless slip, “Crap, what the hell I am I thinking?” He encapsulated the word in a box, then filled it in with angry strokes with his lead pencil as if the action would erase that word’s weight on his mind. The pencil point broke with the force of his motion, “Damn it.” He used his fingernail in a futile attempt to expose the broken lead and it made matters worse. He examined the writing instrument, it’s a foreign object and frowned at it. That’s when he noticed people were staring at him, so he straightened in his chair and pretended to be focused on his calculations. After an hour and one cold coffee later, his calculations matched his readings from the location identified as four-three-seven South by seven West and the calculations on the size and weight of the planet along with the gravity pull of the nearest large gas giant three light-years away was completed.
Rik’s black hair was longer than he preferred. He stood up to stretch and his shirt rode up to expose hard abs. A young girl walked by and smiled at him and he returned the stare and grinned at her like a kid stealing from a cookie jar. He rested back down and continued to people watch. His eyes, intensely dark almost obsidian, scanned the crowd with purpose. He knew the briefings and theories that described these societies before the harrow as becoming violent and dangerous, but they will be long gone by then. Still, it’s wise not to take chances, he thought.
Rik spaced out in thought before coming back instantly to the present when a young girl walked by and bumped his table. He grabbed his coffee in a lifesaving clutch. “Oh, I am so sorry,” she said insincerely. She glanced at his wrist and smiled. He smiled back at her and watched her butt as she weaved her way through the tables to her waiting friends. Halfway she took an over the shoulder look at him. When she sat down with her friends. They all looked at him and smiled then talked close in and burst out laughing.
Rik scribbled on his napkin trying to get the pencil to work and then took out his nervous energy on the paper itself making a small shredded napkin mountain. “Gezz, I am wasting my day,” he said silently, “where the hell is, he?” He threw the useless writing instrument on the table in frustration, watching it roll off the table to the paver stones. “Shit. Damn it. Why the hell is that pencil round?”
The day started cool and sunny and it’s brighter now but not hot. Rik donned his shades making him more mysterious to the women at the far table. He checked his watch and grimaced because the pink watch band with green unicorns on it is the only timepiece he could find while his watch is being repaired and his damn brother is late again. Even though the watchband was small forcing him to make another pilot hole to fit, he thought, as he moved his wrist to admire, this must be fashionable, people smile and admire it. Finally, a familiar face moved in the crowd and Rik lightened his expression. Before he smiled too broadly a frown crossed his face as he thought, will this guy ever be on time? He took the last sip of cold coffee and jerked his chin up in recognition to his brother.
‘Neil’ walked confidently toward him but immediately got distracted by the backside of a blonde girl. His pace changed from the little boy bounce to a man’s swagger swinging his arms from his shoulders. He walked up to the table and sat, “Hey bro,” he looked at Rik and pointed, “your cloak is turned off, blonde hair, remember?”
Rik checked is watch. “You’re late again. Look at you, you’re not even out of diapers and you’re such a dog. That girl probably has a boyfriend who will kick your ass,” Rik smiled at his brother and the thought, but it’s forced mirth showing through his clamped teeth, “I had to change the calculations. Our point in the orbit around this sun changed and the distance of this planet to the nearest large gas giant in this solar system is tough to track. This planet has a wobble that we didn’t count on. I thought I had it done earlier. I think I have it all figured out now if all the parts work together, we’ll run without incident in the middle of the night five days from now. I also probably killed a police officer.”
Neil watched his brother for a long moment then shrugged. “Dibs on your cool wristwatch when you get your pocket watch back,” he surveyed around them, “all these cute girls. I could get used to this place”.
Rik gave him a hard stare and then focused on the papers in his hand. “Did you hear what I said?” he threw his notebook in his bag, “don’t get used to anything here, we can’t stay.”
“Too late, I already have a girlfriend. Man, these girls are cute,” Neil said, his eyes were light blue and playful as he scanned around the café and smiled at people.
“Get out of here, a girlfriend? You wouldn’t know what to do with one of those. Besides you already have a mom that wipes your nose and cuts up your food. Come on let’s get to work. I am wasting the whole damn day.” Rik grabbed the rest of his papers, which included a map, stacked them roughly as he prepared to leave and shouldered his backpack, “do you have the location selected? I need that part done today. I am ready to inspect it. You’re all set, right?”
“Yeah, it’s ready to go. We need to cut through the park and it’s near Ninth Avenue. You like doing that don’t you.”
“What?”
“Riding me, like I can’t do anything right.”
Rik took the last sip of his cold coffee. “Come on, lead the way.”
As they walked the wind was cold on their faces with the smell of moisture in the air.
The city was large, congested with wide streets and sidewalks still, the pedestrians were pressed together. Cars crept like snails on a cold morning and pollution was suspended permanently high in the gray sky.
“There’s a closed-in alley between two environmental units off Parker and Tenth Avenue,” Neil said as he scanned around and pointed.
“Wait,” Rik said, “is that going to work? Those things put out a lot of energy did you add that to our calculations?”
“Of course,” Neil said without a care, “I did a lot of research on this space. Did you know that no one has ever seen snowcapped mountains or clear mountain streams except in historical media? Have you ever heard of that?”
“Yes, there are some planets like this one,” Rik set his eyes on the structures in the distance, “are those skyscraper-sized building the environmental chillers?”
“Yeah. It turns out that this is the technology that is keeping the planet cool. Too
bad these things generate billions of tons of airborne pollution that just adds to the problem and the maintenance of them consumes most of the planet’s resources but, according to their engineers, it’s the only way they can keep the planet’s temperature at a range for survival. These things are all over the planet.”
Rik eyed the towering structures casting a dark shadow over the street. “Do you have an alternate site?” Neil was focused on a group of girls that smiled at him. “Hey, focus here. Do you have an alternate site?”
The city was organized but the overcrowded environment was a pressure cooker.
Rik looked around first at the cramped streets then his eye settled back on his brother. “Man, you’re all grown up. Where did the time go?”
Neil frowned. “You say things like that to diminish me, what’s up?”
“Nothing, why do you always argue with me?”
They crossed the street where the traffic was stopped but impatient drivers crept forward while pedestrians weaved in front of the cars and flipped the middle finger salute at them. Neil looked back at his older brother with a mischievous smile. Neil’s blue eyes sparkled reflecting a ‘no care in the world’ expression. His frame was slighter than his brother’s, but he was one to never back away from a fight. Side by side they were almost equal in height and with both having black hair it was difficult to tell them apart.
“Hey ‘kid’, you look just like Da remember how big he was?”
“Yeah, I sure miss the old man,” Neil said and huffed air, “I don’t remember what he looked like anymore.”
Rik scanned the surroundings. “This place reminds me. I could get used to this place.”
Neil eyed his brother. “Yeah, but don’t. We can’t stay.” Rik smiled at his brother for a half-second. “Oh, by the way,” Neil said as if remembering, “they have state-of-the-art planetary filtration technology converting their drinking water from their sewage, so keep that in mind at the café,” Neil smirked at his brother. Rik spat without thinking.
They walked into a service alley. “I like that the buildings have closed in this area,” Rik observed, he looked up where the view of the sky above was limited and the alley was long with a faraway closed off end, “O.k. this is good. Just make sure mom knows about the location today. I have some things to do so you can head on home now. I’ll catch up,” Rik said, as he continued to walk deeper into the alley, “recheck the math, don’t rely on the equipment, I am getting a lot of errors, our equipment has seen better days.” He scanned around again and agreed ‘yes’ as he nodded but frowned then took out his map and traced the route with his finger then turned around a few times to orient himself. The people who passed the alley peered at them for an instant then went about their business. Rik pulled his laptop from his backpack and started typing in calculations.
