The Far Field: A Military Science Fiction Epic (Seedlings Book 1)

by Richard Sosa

  “What?”

  “He made it to the commune in the Perjer Provence. They are a group of isolationist followers of a guru names Maasau. They live off-grid completely.”

  “Let’s get to this place and ask Maasau. My brother is definitely off-grid either intentionally or forced.”

  “Maasau died before my time, his compound is guarded and while that might have been a sanctuary for someone like your brother, especially if he was running from the military. They will not endanger themselves by exposing where he is hidden now. They are still secretive just like their guru.”

  Rik ran his hand through his hair. “In that case hopefully for my brother’s sake, a cult religion is a good thing.”

  “No,” Iris corrected, “this group is not religious. This is a commune; many are brilliant tech types. We think they are too geeky to survive anywhere else. We think they have technology that no one knows about. Ra has a group that is trying to isolate what the hell they know. He has data from them that he’s analyzed before.”

  Rik began, “I thought—

  “While religious wars were primarily responsible for the destruction of ancient Aoife, religion here on this planet has an important role in humanizing, comfort, and fellowship,” Iris said.

  Rik sat back. “Tell more about the star.”

  Iris settled in and made herself comfortable. “In the darkest parts of our society there still is religious absolutism and it is the harbinger of crime, bigotry, and efforts to undermine society while at the same time appearing outwardly, for a show, to be its friend. On Aoife Prime, the entire planet was divided by religious ideology and the divisions widened. Many believed science was going to destroy religion. A world war began, and the believers destroyed the planet with nukes.”

  “Short and sweet,” Rik mused.

  “Will the other Lares come here to fight with us?”

  “What? You’re not tracking. No. The Lares are defeated and defenseless. Most escaped through time stream portals like my brother and me. We are scattered everywhere. We have been slaughtered in this war and as best as I can tell no one else is around. We’re not organized too put up a defense.”

  “Ra disagrees with that. He has managed to reverse your locator data and used our deep space communication platforms and he believes there are others like you, able and possibly willing to fight.”

  “Who's Ra?”

  “A friend. His real name is Rabid,” Iris brought up a frozen image and flashed it at Rik, “You ran away from Da-earra? Do all of you run?”

  “Yeah, sort of. I am not the only one running away. We need to wait until the Orbs are in a ready to harrow mode because that’s when they set the next location. I don’t just run.”

  Iris inspected Rik’s hands as he rung them. “What's wrong? It’s O.K. to be afraid in battle, there is no dishonor in that. But if you run all the time, that’s called cowardice here.”

  “I know what the hell cowardice means, damn you, I didn’t have a choice when I ran. I am not running anymore. I’ll stay here and die with you. I am not a damn coward.”

  Suddenly a blinding laser light passed through the building making a low humming noise. Iris froze. “Crap. Deep scan. Stay still. Very still. Someone wants to make sure you're still here, still alive.”

  Rik was paralyzed and whispered. “Someone? Who?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You know, you’re just not saying.”

  Iris gave him a level stare, but Rik didn’t back down. “Is this Dask’s doing? He’s dangerous I know it and you don’t want to admit that. Are you afraid of him? Are we safe?”

  “Why are you whispering? Why do you think Dask is dangerous, what do you know?”

  Rik gave Iris a blank stare. “Look I don’t want you hurt. Everywhere I go, people, I care about get harmed or killed and I am tired of the responsibility. I think this Dask person, his friends or military types are trying to kill me and my brother. It happens all the time.”

  “Dask doesn’t have friends.”

  Rik listens to the data in his inner ear translator. “My translator connects the name Dask to the military”

  “Yeah, that’s what I said.”

  “I should have easily connected with my brother by now, we always do.”

  “Are there others like you here on Aoife right now?” Iris asked.

  “As far as I can tell, only my brother is here. He’s in a bunker or a hardened cell, being held, I know it, I feel it. I got a trace of his DNA. He’s alive but in a hardened cell.”

  Iris frowned. “A bunker,” the scanning abruptly stopped, and she continued, “a bunker, he’s probably in a military bunker that means Dask does have him,” Iris looked around, “what a mess this place is. We're safe at least for now. When your army arrives, we can organize our defenses.” She stood and pulled the drapes closed completely then started picking up broken plates and food.

  Rik followed and gathered the spoons and knives from the floor. “Army? There's no army, we record, gather locator data and then run away and it's all pointless. My mum—”

  “What?”

  “We used to fight those things every step, but we only record now. Images and evidence are lost when technology changes and our universal multi-verse recording are the only evidence remaining. I cause more harm than good.”

  Iris took everything to the kitchen. “You're giving me major head pain. Answer me simply. Did you know that you would come here? Stop being evasive. I'll kick your ass.”

  “I don't owe a damn thing to you. Back off. We're all going to die. Period. It’s shit, I am sorry. That’s just the way of it. I don’t have an army to save your sorry asses. I don’t have a way to make this go away. Prayer isn’t going to help. I can’t even find my lost brother. Damn it.” Rik pushed his palms into his eyes to rub the tiredness out. “I am sorry, I am not trying to be evasive anymore. I am very concerned about my brother’s safety. You’re just trying to understand this for your world’s survival. You’ve been kind to me.” He inspected the shattered patio door. “Do you want me to try to fix this door and broken window?”

  “No. We have maintenance in the facility for that. It’s going to be O.K.”

  Rik instinctively shook his head ‘no’ and he examined the food-stained on the carpet and imagined Iris dead. After a long awkward silence, Rik said. “I am puzzled by your reaction to all of this. It doesn’t fit anything I’ve experienced before. I wonder where’s your planet location is in this galaxy?”

  Iris gave him a stern look. “We’re not done. I am still asking questions and waiting for the truth. Stop avoiding. This is worse than we think,” she slammed the broken plates into a recycle chute surprising Rik by the violence.

  Rik watched the dishes process into the recycler. “I don’t think metal spoons are recyclable.”

  “Shut the hell up.”

  Rik hung his head and closed his eyes knowing that she was watching him. He carefully peeked back up at her. “I don’t understand everything but you’re a different world, I think, especially with all the data sharing. It’s an attribute I’ve never seen with other harrowed planets and no one is panicking over this information. Obviously, someone wants me dead. Normally I can give some flattery and the seed programming kicks in and you’ll accept what I say on face value. The harrowed seedlings have difficulty with critical thinking and objectivity but are easily swayed by flattery. That doesn’t appear to work here. I need more information. I need to think about what happened to us, I mean to Neil and me.”

  Iris smiled. “That’s the most intelligent thing you’ve said so far. No army is coming so we are it. If everything is as it has been in the past, then you’re here directly in front of our invasion appointment,” Iris had a determined expression, “we don't have much time. Right. You don't understand me at all, but your story has lots of merits.” She tapped and opened her device and carried it over to Rik pointing to a star chart on the screen. “Here's where our scientists say we are in this g
rid. We have some large satellite telescope platforms in space. We just recently completed the long-range telescope project and they are still moving out into deep space.”

  Rik scanned it and stopped as if remembering then pulled out his locator and waved it over the screen. He had to wave it over the screen several times before it worked. He listened to a translator output voice in his inner ear and his gaze shot up. “Really? If I read this correctly, you're somewhere near AC One, One, Eight.”

  Iris frowned and peered at the star chart, “AC One, One, Eight? What is that?”

  Rik re-examined the image and re-scanned it again. “That’s this large star system. Well, that can't be right because that’s way off the beaten path. Way off the ‘beaten path’.”

  Iris gave him a challenging look. “Hey buddy, we don't abuse Pathras, they're pets. I would never beat one they’re furry.”

  They stared blankly at each other. Rik’s shook his head out of his confused trance. “What? No, if I understand your star chart you're far away. Far away from any place, I’ve been before. Far from the invasion pathways and so Da-earra is…damn, can't be right. Just can’t be right.”

  “What can’t be right?” Iris shrugged, “let’s get cleaned up, you first I still need to do some things here.”

  Chapter Eleven

  ***

  Rockets exploded around him, but he didn’t care. He’s focused on survival and he clawed frantically out of the trench. His breath was ragged as panic consumed him. In his mind, he told himself, ‘don’t relive this hell again, no, no don’t’, but he focused on the dirt and grime on his hands and his fingers were covered with burnt flesh. Slimy and black ash covered his chest. He looked back to see the slimed path he made crawling over the dead bodies. Lasers flashed overhead and ricocheted around him. He heard ‘Run,’ ‘Run,’ echo behind him. He didn’t want to see it, he fought his body, ‘no don’t look, don’t you dare look,’ but he turned, and saw his father explode first from his shoulder and then the back of his head in a shower of blood. Multiple lasers struck him and continued to hit the ground around him after he fell. Their eyes met as the man fell forward. Soldiers in the trench looked at Rik and then to his father, then back to him, their eyes accused him. Rik’s legs raced across the uneven ground, tripping, jumping, his arms pumped, he ran for his life, while something began to chase him. Soldiers were dying so he could run away.

  ***

  Rik moaned and rolled over with his hands clawed as he held on to the sheets. Iris looked over at him, dimmed the light in the room and continued to study the images on his laptop late into the night. Every morning and night, except while Rik stayed with her, she used the chin-up bar over the doorway to her bathroom to workout. She looked longingly at the doorway. Her routine included three sets of chin-ups, weights, cardio with Gavit-weights on her ankles to simulate higher gravity for her entire body and every other morning shooting at the range. She missed the routine.

  She tapped keys on her IARI and opened the commons net. She pushed Rik’s locator closer to her console and looked back at Rik who had settled down. She quickly scanned her messages. “Shit. Report in? No,” she said quietly to herself. She composed herself and talked to her computer in a low soft voice. “Contact HQ seven three this is JaensAt three-four twelve contacting.”

  An electronic voice with the volume turned down responded, ‘Standby three-four twelve,’ then a low beep sounded, ‘connected cleared level six.’ Iris sat back and waited. A face came on the screen in a skype-type conversation. “JaensAt, report.”

  Iris stared up to the ceiling and shook her head frustrated. “It will be mostly sunny with scattered showers near the mountain areas,” she pretended to grab papers and read them, “Nope, no snow and nothing more to report.”

  Silence from the man on the screen as he glared back at her. “JaensAt report.”

  “Don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve been out of contact for months now. I don’t have any information to report.”

  “Seven-Three requests your report by tomorrow. You are fully commissioned, since earlier yesterday. Put your wrist unit on. It has your instructions. Signing out.” The screen blinked out.

  Iris blew a ragged breath of frustration out and sat back thinking. She opened her desk door and re-strapped a large wrist unit as it blinked to activate with cycling flashing lights around the dial face. She already read the instruction and activated it. She said out loud. “I need some help. Computer, call X9 and link to ‘all listening and viewing’ mode.” Iris waited for her terminal visual to come on and smiled as Rabid appeared on the screen.

  Rabid Prez, also called ‘Ra’, 26, with long black hair pulled into a ponytail, bent into his screen so that his face filled the view for an instant. Tattoos cover his neck and arms, his earpiece dangled from his hair, he’s tired-looking and Iris can tell he’s been sleeping at his computer communicator. “Hey, girl. Good to see you,” Ra rubbed his eyes and yawned, “what’s up?”

  “Ra, Mouse Man stole access for me from the military then they were stupid enough to commission me. I am diverting this information to the back door of KAF-eight link-up through the clothing antenna system. I am commissioned now so I am scanning my wrist unit so you can download it. Also, our visitor accidentally left this for me to scan,” she placed Rik's laptop on a flat-screen next to her computer and entered scanning commands, “check it out.” A virtual screen appeared and on the side of the screen, the data within Rik’s laptop began to download.

  Rabid was instantly interested and wide awake. “You have a secret, girly. Let me back ya up.” He worked on his console and talked out loud while creating the system backup, “creating a new military password. Enabled.” He sang as he worked, “they will never know. they will never trace this. O.K. Iris, scan that wrist unit.” Iris laid her wrist unit on her IARI, like making an ‘x’ and lights flashed around the wrist unit. Ra continued to type and stopped as if thinking, “O.K. Girly, secure military password Alpha Two DORA. Done. Genius,” he did some final keystrokes, “call me the ‘enabler man.’”

  Iris examined his work. “Enabler? You’re trouble. I am downloading this locator unit now. Ready? Look at this. I also recorded him talking a lot. He's sleeping.”

  Rabid raised one eyebrow. “With you?”

  “No. Not with me. Dumb ass.”

  Iris typed fast and the data transmission populated the new secure slaved military net drive and transferred data from it into Rabid’s encrypted database.

  He watched his monitor, “O.K. receiving,” he quickly read and reviewed Iris' transmission and the information downloaded, “oh man, this is interesting shit, someone's going to want to close this down. This is risky you could lose everything by sharing this.”

  Iris was excited. “I know, isn’t it cool?” She opened Rik’s nap sack and took out the locator unit then gently placed it on a scanning scope. “Ra, I am going to scan this technology and then transmit to you. Bury your tracks. Let me know what's inside and how it works. Get as much data as you can, it’s yours if you can hold it and hide it. This thing does a lot more than ‘location’ according to some. I have a theory. It’s also linked to his translator in his brain connected possibly to an inner ear device or directly to his brain. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  Rabid watched the data transfer with growing interest and the three-dimensional image of the tube floated above his IARI as he rotated it, “this damn thing is secure, I can break into it. You should get me the real thing he won't miss it. I could scan it with a Ramtonbre Seven Wave and then take it apart and put back together in a few negative Trem-hour cycles maybe sooner. We would have a real good idea how it functions without guessing,” he typed more carefully as he thought, “you know, I’ve seen this before, others must be pulling this onto the common net.”

  “No.” Iris let that word draw out longer than she wanted as she contemplated his offer.

  “Come on, I’ll send a secure courier to pick it up and drop o
ff. I have someone two blocks from the park right now.”

  Iris glanced over at Rik sleeping with nightmares. “No. Too risky he’s a light sleeper so you have to work with this. Besides he might be an early morning person. I don’t know.”

  “Chicken.”

  Iris smiled and challenged, “I am into the deep DARP Research Net thanks to Mouse Man and my new access and now I have shadow access. You have data you could not have acquired without me. Do what you do best and put it all that together,” she typed and stopped to think and then typed more, “the DARP is my slave now at least for a while. Download the hell out of it. Let’s see what the goons have on him. It’s their fault, they commissioned me.”

  Rabid typed fast on a standing system and watched his screen. “O.K., I take it back, you’re the only girl I know on this planet with the biggest hairy balls swimming in estrogen. No one gets into DARP and—”

  “Lives to tell about it?”

  “No. And doesn’t end up in jail. You’re a crazy ass. You always go to the most dramatic conclusions. Maybe you should lay off the mystery games.”

  She read the DARP file populating. “Hey, listen to this, Ra, ‘military and science conducted a study of the entry trajectory, the capsule was taken away to an undisclosed location but stellar materials age it two hundred solar ‘cam-sls’ and they have confirmed his DNA as human. They also have a sample of his urine,’ Ick.”

  “That’s standard research protocol except for the pee part,” Ra said.

  “We’ve had a deep scan already so they’re watching him. And someone shot out the balcony door.”

  Rabid was silent for a long time.

  “Ra do you copy? They’re watching him,” she said.

  “Be careful. You might have been placed in a bad situation by going off with that dude before LG Dask could take him away and kill him,” Ra typed on his computer, “there is a lot of people in military ranks that may not play nice. I am going to set a tracking log on who is doing the scanning.”

  “They know a lot now. We need to do something to keep everyone else besides the military informed. Rik said if we can't change, which I guess happens all the time, then we'll die as a planet.”