The Rylerran Gateway

by Mark Ian Kendrick

  “Service,” the shipcomp replied.

  “Access language database for English. Translate the following word.” He spelled out one of them.

  “The language database is limited to the four primary languages of the Empire and Homeworld Telkan. That word matches nothing in any of those databases.”

  “Shit,” Urret said.

  The captain interrupted them. Ocio listened to her comm. “Soldat Ocio. I will see you in my ready room now.”

  Urret looked at her. “He better go easy on you about this.”

  Ocio whispered back, “I can take a reprimand. It’s more than you can say,” she taunted him playfully.

  Soldat Urret gave her a face and a rude hand gesture just before she swiftly left the infirmary.

  The captain, the doctor and the commander stood next to the med table where Tann lay still unconscious. “The boy was only stunned. He’ll wake up shortly. He’ll have a headache, but that’s about all,” the doctor told the captain.

  “Think we should tell our captive we’ve found one of his cohorts?” the commander asked the captain.

  Pacudas nodded in the affirmative. “I want to find out what’s going on here as soon as possible. Have our ‘guest’ taken out of the storage locker and feed him. Water, too. When he’s finished bring him in here. I’m sure the man can identify this boy. Notify me if you discover anything of importance. I need to go over the sensor data.”

  “Yes, sir,” Selaye said.

  The captain returned to his ready room while Selaye went through the corridors to the mess hall. Soldat Barcega was on guard duty outside the locked storage room door.

  Selaye raised his chin. “Open it.”

  Barcega nodded and unlocked the door. Naylon stood up. He had opened one of the myriad lockers that lined the walls of the small room, had pulled out a large can and had been sitting on it. It was more comfortable than the floor. Barcega had a weapon and waved it at Naylon, trying to usher him out. Naylon immediately raised his hands.

  Selaye pushed the weapon down and nodded to Barcega, indicating that he could stand down. Naylon got it and issued a tight smile while he lowered his hands.

  Knowing his captors wouldn’t understand him, he pointed to a smaller empty can. He had taken out what he thought were food bars and had put them back into the locker. “Since you didn’t let me out I had to pee in that can.” Barcega briefly looked in it after Naylon left the storage room. He grinned. No language was needed to see what Naylon was trying to say.

  Selaye led Naylon to the same table he had been seated at before. He spoke, although he knew Naylon wouldn’t understand a word he said. “I’m going to heat you something to eat. I’m sure you like chicken. I’ve added some vegetables, too.” He pulled out a container from a refrigerated compartment and placed it in what looked like a small rice cooker. It hummed briefly. A tiny bright green light illuminated on the lid a few seconds later. It smelled delicious. Selaye pulled out a cup from behind a small cabinet door and filled it with water. He set both items in front of Naylon, along with a napkin and some cutlery.

  Naylon immediately started devouring the food and thirstily emptied the cup of water. He offered the cup to Selaye, indicating he wanted more. Selaye filled it up again and handed it back. Naylon downed half of it then set it down. He finished the rest of the food in record time.

  “English?” Selaye asked.

  Naylon responded by vigorously shaking his head. Enough with this misunderstanding. It was not English. “Lingua,” he said with emphasis.

  The commander had only understood the word Naylon had spoken to mean ‘language’. He shook his head. He still couldn’t understand how this man could possible have arrived on this planet.

  A klaxon sounded throughout the ship. Instantly, Selaye stood up. Naylon felt his heart hammering. What now, he wondered.

  “All personnel: stations. That Telkan ship has been spotted again,” came the warning over the ship’s intercom. A long-range scan had indicated a craft in flight only fifteen minutes previous. It had almost immediately gone out of range, but was back now. This time it was a lot closer and headed their way.

  Selaye held his wrist up and spoke into his communicator. “Lieutenant Navar, are your soldats ready?” They had been waiting for this turn of events.

  “Lazcún and Agrida will be in position in two minutes.”

  “Excellent.”

  Selaye grabbed Naylon’s plate and cup and tossed them into a waste chute. He pointed out the mess hall doorway and motioned him to follow him. Selaye didn’t want Naylon out of his sight and there was no time to put him back in the storage room. Naylon went with him. The captain had already decided, with Selaye agreeing, that Naylon posed little threat. He didn’t look tough enough to know any type of hand-to-hand defense, so was basically harmless. The commander took him to a cabin several meters down a central corridor. Naylon finally got to see another part of the ship as he swiftly accompanied the officer.

  At this point Naylon wasn’t sure whether he’d been rescued or captured and was slightly panicked and bewildered. Who these people were, he had no idea. Indeed, although he hadn’t been following every make and model of shuttles, this one appeared to be much more sophisticated than anything he’d ever seen before. He had already considered these people to be from a colony far outside the reaches of the Consort. If that were so, what were they doing on Rylerra and why had no one ever heard of them before? Had Rylerra been invaded? Was Andakar next? His mind raced at all the possibilities, each more outlandish than the last. He consoled himself with the thought that at least they hadn’t shown any sign of wanting to hurt him. And they had fed him. That was a good sign, right?

  Selaye motioned for Naylon to take a seat in an acceleration chair behind a console that had monitors and displays all over it. Selaye picked up the ends of the straps and pantomimed to Naylon how to secure himself in the chair. Naylon quickly picked up on what was going on. Selaye also made a motion across his throat, then pointed to the console arrays. Naylon knew exactly what that meant: don’t touch.

  Selaye strapped himself in next to Naylon then pressed several icons displayed on his console. Monitors showed fore and aft views of the surrounding area. Naylon realized what was happening. They’d been discovered by someone or someones. Or maybe it was the other way around. He couldn’t tell just yet. Were these people the pirates after all? Maybe the pirates were after these people! It was impossible to discern. Maybe Darreth was wrong. Maybe the pirates were pursuing these guys and not Darreth after all! Whatever was going on it had the entire ship on alert. Naylon could do nothing but watch.

  Selaye spoke to the captain over his comm. “Looks like a scout ship. It’s six kilometers off port. Coming in rapidly.”

  The captain responded quickly. “Wait until they pass us, then proceed south to the clearing we scanned earlier. Cloak is still activated?”

  “Aye,” Selaye responded after glancing at one of his screens.

  Naylon watched the vidscreen in front of him. Coming directly at them was a blip making a beeline toward them. It started to slow as it reached the edge of the short forest that surrounded their cloaked ship. By the time it was in visual range, cameras were on it, tracking. The display started showing lines of text now on both sides of the screen, along with the image. Naylon had no idea what the ship’s designation was. Before it reached them though, it abruptly turned west and followed the course of the river, upstream. Moments later it was gone.

  Selaye grinned at Naylon. “They didn’t detect us.”

  Naylon shrugged his shoulders. He had no idea what the commander had told him, but he was quite smug about it. That much he could tell. He could also tell they were trying not to be found by that ship. But why? Wasn’t their ship cloaked? Perhaps it was only cloaked to the visual spectrum.

  Selaye tucked that shrug into his mind. Was it possible that this Naylon person was completely oblivious to the Telkan threat? The display clearly indicated it was one of
their ships.

  The captain spoke again. “Commander. Move the ship. Bearing one zero six degrees.”

  Selaye spoke through the ship’s comm this time. “All hands. Prepare for departure.” He touched a few of the icons on the console in front of him. Naylon looked on. He realized the ship was preparing to take off. To where? The thought nearly terrified him. Who knew how far they were taking him? More importantly, how would he get back here if he had no clear way to communicate with them?

  Selaye spoke a couple of commands to the navigational computer and it started the take-off sequence. Seconds later they were airborne.

  Naylon continued to watch the display in front of him. It was a forward view. As they ascended, he was able to get a much better lay of the land. He saw a swath cut through the low forest where the river’s course traversed. He calmed some as he saw the bend of the river, which had brought him to the sandbar where he’d been found. At least he was able to recognize some landmark. Now they were headed downriver, roughly following its course. Within minutes, after traveling at an almost supersonic speed, they touched down, again near the river, next to a rock outcrop, hidden in the midst of towering greenery. Fern-like trees, Naylon thought. That would imply they were in some sort of temperate clime, perhaps even tropical. That wasn’t possible. Tropical regions didn’t exist on Rylerra, or so he thought. The mystery of where he was deepened.

  After they touched down, Selaye un-strapped himself and motioned for Naylon to stay put. Naylon did so. Whatever had happened, it had been an emergency and now Selaye seemed to be checking something out. He was more than surprised to be left alone.

  Selaye exited the nav cabin and went to see the doctor. “How’s your patient?” he asked.

  “He’ll come around in a few minutes. I think it’s time to ask Naylon some questions.”

  “Agreed. That’s why I came back here. We’re thirty-eight kilometers from the Telkan ship. Lazcún and Agrida are in position and have activated the sensor probe. We’re receiving data. It indicates the ship’s crisscrossing the area. I’m pretty sure they came across our approach ion trail and are scanning for us. Of course, we won’t be there.” A wide grin appeared on his face.

  “Then it’s safe to proceed?”

  Selaye nodded.

  “The hypo will cause them to appear as if they’re in a coma for at least two hours.”

  “Interesting. Same as with the Telkans.” Selaye raised his arm and called for Ocio. “Bring Naylon to the infirmary. He’s strapped in at my nav station.”

  Tann, strapped to the med bed, had woken up ten minutes ago. At first, he wasn’t sure if he was back on the shuttle or not, then realized that the voices he heard weren’t Lingua. He had glanced around the room, then shut his eyes again. His quick glance told him he might be in a pirate ship’s hospital cabin. A hospital cabin on a pirate ship? Were their ships big enough to have room for one? Maybe they were. He wished he knew more about the different types of ships the Consortium’s starship division manufactured to determine that for sure. He wasn’t entirely sure if pirates used Consortium-built ships. His brother might know what was going on here. His brother! Where was everyone?

  Moments later Naylon was led into the hospital cabin. “Tann!” he cried out immediately.

  Tann’s heart ramped up to hypersonic speed in an instant. He quickly opened his eyes and looked in the direction of what he was sure was Naylon’s voice. Selaye assessed the situation. Clearly, they knew each other.

  Tann raised his head up. “Naylon, tell them to let me go!”

  Selaye was clear about the interaction, too. These two were either collaborators or friends. He wasn’t sure. But that point was moot. As soon as both of them received the Pelinex, the crew would be absolutely sure about how the two had arrived here and who they were.

  Naylon quickly went to the med table, with Ocio right behind him. She grabbed his shoulder and attempted to pull him away from it. He angrily pulled himself from her grip. She raised her weapon and aimed it right at his face without a trace of emotion showing on hers. That wasn’t good at all, Naylon quickly realized. He raised his hands into the air and emitted a nervous laugh. “Don’t move, Tann.” Tann didn’t. In fact, he barely breathed now, terrified that Naylon was going to be shot any instant.

  Ocio motioned for Naylon to take a seat on the table next to Tann. Tann felt especially vulnerable because he was still shirtless and unable to use his arms due to the straps.

  Naylon was still only wearing his t-shirt, his now-dry trousers and his boots. The doctor casually took his upper arm and very calmly placed one end of a five-centimeter long metal cylinder against his tricep. An almost inaudible hiss emitted from the device. Naylon wasn’t prepared for the sensation. At first, he felt exactly like when they were in the cavern and the intense vertigo had overcome him. The vertigo! Maybe that had something to do with what had happened to them. But the thought quickly faded, as did his consciousness. The doctor and Soldat Ocio took hold of Naylon as he slumped over, then laid him out on the adjoining table.

  “What did you do to him? Let me go! Let me go!” Tann screamed as he struggled against the straps, getting red in the face while doing so.

  The doctor took another one of the cylinders from a case in a cabinet, held it up against a scanner, and decided the dosage was appropriate. He took a few steps toward the still struggling Tann. Tann saw it coming. He tried to pull himself out of the straps with all of his might, making fists and grimacing as he exerted himself. The doctor touched Tann’s upper arm with the device. Instantly, a wave of vertigo overcame him and he stopped struggling. His eyelids fluttered as his conscious slipped away.

  “Assist me, please,” he told Ocio. He then proceeded to un-strap Tann from the restraints and put his t-shirt back on.

  “How are our ‘patients’?” the captain asked Selaye when he returned to the main bridge.

  “Sleeping it off.” He looked at his wristcomp. “The doc said he would contact us when they’re awake.”

  The captain looked up briefly from the display he was scanning and nodded.

  Their interlopers would soon divulge who they were and what they knew about the Telkans. He had a nagging suspicion they were spies. If they were, it would be the first time he’d ever heard of a Terran helping Telkans in any way.

  Chapter 20

  Despite the oddity of the situation, Dr. Doratzo was certain he had done the right thing. The language RNA injection he’d just given the two Terran’s had precedent, but not in his own experience. He had only injected Telkans for interrogation purposes. He had never met a single person who didn’t speak at least some Empire Spanish or any of the other languages spoken in the Empire. Thus, the reason for the scans of his patients while they slept. Something just didn’t add up about these two.

  The RNA-encoding was extremely fast acting, so much so that the injection had a sedative in it. It kept the person from realizing the changes that were taking place. It was true no matter what type of RNA injection was being administered. It had long ago been recognized that encoded learning caused intense sensory disorientation. In this case, an entire language database was literally being inserted into the fabric of his two patients’ brain cells. The changes were so intense that it was much easier for a patient to simply sleep it off while their language centers were being modified.

  The doctor pulled the flat plane of the full body scanner from the arm on the ceiling and positioned it above Tann first. The youth looked familiar. In fact, he looked very much like his nephew who lived on the DeSoto peninsula back on Earth. The peninsula stretched many hundreds of kilometers south into the warm waters of the Arawak Sea. A nice place, if one liked heat, humidity, endless pine tree forests and flat sandy land.

  As the doctor mused about the familiarity of the boy, he noted the scan read negative for any hidden nanotech weaponry. That was something he was only somewhat familiar with, but nonetheless made sure none had been placed subcutaneously. His scan completed, he s
witched off the device and logged the report.

  Next, he switched on the scanner over Naylon. Naylon was taller and required two sweeps of the short scanner. It was during Naylon’s upper body sweep that the resonance scan took the doctor completely by surprise. What are those tendrils, he wondered, shocked. They’re in his brain! Had the man been taken over by some sort of metallic organism? If so, the doctor had never heard of such a thing before. His mind was racing now. He immediately changed the scanner’s resolution. A closer examination revealed dozens of tiny strands of something snaking all over the communication and speech center in his brain. They trailed down Naylon’s neck to his shoulder. As the doctor traced the fine lines he noted that they converged on a tiny flat device implanted underneath his right shoulder blade. This was no invasive organism. Only a surgical procedure could have done this. This was tech! Who was this Naylon? The doctor was completely taken aback at the implication. The only living being he’d ever seen with tech inside its brain was a Tasker. It was illegal to interfere with the higher functions of a Terran with Tasker tech. Doing so would result in the revocation of one’s medical license, a jail sentence, and probably even the death penalty. Who in his right mind would dare to have done this to the man?! Was that the reason for him not speaking Empire Spanish? Perhaps this was a botched operation. If so, did he completely miss seeing the tendrils in the boy, he wondered, more mystified by the moment.

  The doctor switched off the scanner and turned back to the still-sleeping Tann. He lowered the scanner again and adjusted it over the teen’s head. He energized the panel, then turned up the resolution. He looked and looked, but found not a single tendril. There must be a rogue doctor someplace who experimented on the older one, he reasoned. That was the only explanation he could come up with.

  “Commander,” he spoke to his comm, “you better come in here. I’ve found something inside the one who calls himself Naylon that you must see. I believe it’s a matter of utmost security.”