by Atri Kundu
Predators
by ATRI KUNDU
The Space Time Saga
Book 1
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Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, or the author has used them fictitiously.
To my Eternal Best Friend,
Table of contents
Predators-a short story
Acknowledgement
About the author
More from Atri Kundu
Predators
With slow steps, he walked up to the steel railings and looked up. From that height, the twin-tallest manmade buildings blocked his vision. The Union Nations HQ and United Forces HQ ‒ the names were displayed in bold. He wondered if anyone would walk into them ever again. A long bridge connected the two gigantic towers, and above it, the sun was dipping into the horizon. He felt a certain connection with it for a moment.
It was time for them too. Time to go down. Time to set.
He looked at the small device in his hand. Similar to the cell phones of 29th century but a slight larger and thicker. On its right side was a little switch and as he pressed it, a three inch stick pushed out of the device, the Antenna. He had made it look a little old-fashioned intentionally.
A couple of scrambled footsteps sounded behind him in the rooftop. He didn’t bother to turn for he knew well why they had come. “Dr. Faulkner, you should come down. The evacuation is complete, everyone else has moved to the bunkers.”
“They are here, aren’t they?”
“Yes sir.”
“How long?”
“Five minutes.” Just the way he had predicted, decades ago.
He let out a short sigh and gulped back the fear that was churning inside his throat. It was time to press the blue button. The message was already written in bold. He pressed it. ‘Time is a very strange thing,’ he remembered his father telling him ages ago.
“You gotta go son. I’m staying right here,” he said.
“But sir—”
“Go!” Faulkner squeezed out a short yell through his tightly clasped teeth. “This little building of USRA is my home. I’m dying with it.” He could say no more. USRA. United Space Research Agency—the name meant so much to him.
He heard those footsteps retreating. They did hope to survive, he smiled. Hope—clinging on to the last drops of hope, that’s what made humans human. He looked at the small watch kept on the ground, a small but powerful device. A device that gave him glimpses of the future. He invented it when he was just twenty-one but it had one problem, it always paused at one certain date. 27th November 3567. That’s today.
Back then, he tried everything to repair this flaw but he couldn’t. Thinking of it now, he realized, the flaw was never in the device. What future would it show if there wasn’t any?
His peripheral vision caught something, he swiveled to his right. That’s the end of the rope. They’re here. He gritted. It wouldn’t be too hard; he thought he had prepared himself for this since he built that time clock, some forty years ago. Preparing for the end.
But now, staring at the death in the horizon—he wasn’t prepared. No one ever is.
He waited; it wouldn’t take them more than a minute to reach him. He stared with a void gaze, his eyes didn’t blink. Houses, stores, hospitals—all fell before him. And then the UNO’s building crumbled into dust, then the other half of it. A few hundred meters between them, maybe only sixty-seven meters now.
He was in the range.
No one kills me, other than myself. He smiled, and pressed his thumb on the switch.
He blinked. Goodbye, Earth. The remote dropped from his grasp, hit the ground and shattered.
Amidst all the other shrieks and blasts that escaped from the Earth, one certain explosion at a certain USRA HQ stood out.
And then it was darkness, forever.
Every predator is a prey.
“Hey Ryan,” I called out, “we’ve got the first clear visual of our destination.” Without detaching my eyes from the screen I felt Ryan, George, Adam and everyone else on the ship falling over my shoulder to get a glimpse of it. A glimpse of our future. Human future!
I zoomed in on the image, the stars and comets constituting the cosmic latte faded out, and then the only thing on the screen was that planet. Bf5109. Genesis, as we call it.
My lips opened involuntarily at the beauty of the sight. “Awe!” A planet that beautiful, humans of our age could never imagine. It was a giant sphere, more like a giant soccer ball with different shades of brown, crystal blue and patches of white in between but not much of greenery, at least our telescope didn’t pick out much so far.
I heard small shrieks and yells of joy behind me—human emotions that were long forgotten. Would humans turn to being humans again on Genesis?
“Give me back my seat, will you?” A resonant female voice pierced through all the joyous exclamations. Marlene. “And the rest of you please go back to your seats. This is my job now.”
I let out a sigh and jumped out of the chair. “All yours,” I said with a bow.
She made a dumb face. “Why are you bending your head like that?”
“That’s an old gesture; it’s a kind of greeting.” I smiled, at myself and at my stupid habit of reliving things lost in the past.
She said nothing, took the chair and submerged into the world of space, computers and switches, taking notes and calculating a thousand things that only she understood. That was Marlene—the best astrophysicist, researcher on divergent life-forms and inventor of the spaceship which can travel to almost any part of the Universe, which was where I was standing now. And these were times when I think about her works that I wonder, how come I, her brother, be just an army general and a demo space pilot.
“I’ll go and make sure that Adam has done charging up of our drones.” I said after some time, taking a step towards the door.
“Syl, wait.” I heard her voice, faint and rasp.
I turned. “Hey, what?” She was still busy in her own world. But something didn’t seem right. She was tapping the floor with her left foot. That was a sign, something was worrying her.
At last she took her eyes off the screen and looked straight at me, after how many days I couldn’t recall. “You’ve seen the planet’s image, right? I mean, you were the first person to get this view past its thick atmosphere.”
“Yeah. So, what’s up with that?”
“The white patches. Did you see those?”
“Yes, I did.”
“What do you think they are?”
I paused for a moment. I was never good at analyzing these things, it was her job. How could I say? But I made a guess, waiting to be proved wrong. “Some snow. Mountains maybe.”
“Yes, you are correct. But only partially,” she turned back to the screen and zoomed in on the image. Then, she did something that sharpened the image and I could see a complete new BF5109 Genesis. Now, even I could realize my mistake. “It’s not
‘some’ snow, it’s all snow.” Suddenly, her voice had lost its commanding nature, sounding more like a wet, strangled voice.
“So what?” I couldn’t help asking.
“This world has changed,” she paused for a moment, hesitating. Her glance fell back on the screen. “Most of the world is frozen, at least the side we are seeing now is. The temperature would be well below freezing point, which means no water and no life,” she said, without looking up.
I didn’t know what to reply. A long Sylence prevailed in the observatory room of our space shuttle. Her words struck a hammer in my heart. “Syl, I’m… I’m scared. What if we fail? What if my calculations were wrong?”
And these are the times when I think, my job as her big brother is important as well. Even a superhero like her needed comfort. Slowly, I went up to her and knelt down on the floor. Then I drew her hand into mine. It was cold, cold with fear. She stared at me with red, void eyes. “It’s okay,” I whispered. “We won’t fail. Your calculations couldn’t be wrong because it was father’s too. You think he will make mistakes? I don’t.”
“Neither do I,” she smiled. A fake one.
She tried to get off the chair and with a light push, I forced her back in. If she breaks down now, then it will really be over. “Everything has a point and even if this world is dead, do you remember where we are from? It’s far worse there now and soon even that won’t be left.”
“You know why father named our ship Hope, because he wanted us to have that.” I held her by her chin and drew up her face. “Remember, what dad used to say? Miracles can always happen. And you are that miracle, you can’t give up now. Not ever. Okay my little sister?”
She stared at me for few moments and pressed her lips together, then smiled. It was again a fake one, I knew, just to please me. But how many real smiles did we have since our birth on Earth?
I didn’t remember much.
***
“Hey Syl! Silvestre!”
Silvestre, that’s me. But why was someone yelling my name?
A pair of sturdy hands gave me a jerk, a strong one. “Get up. The sight you and we all dreamed of is waiting. Come on.” George’s voice brimmed with excitement.
Oh! Right! The spaceship, I’m inside it and still alive. BF5109 Genesis. How could I doze off at this time? I shook my head thrice and pulled up my glasses that hung loosely from my nose. “I am sorry. I just…”
“It’s okay. Now, come on mate. Mar is waiting for you.” Giving nicknames, and enjoying what’s left—that’s George for you, might be the coolest scientist of this world, though strictly speaking we were in space right now and looking for some place to call our world.
When I stood up, my eyes fell over a small transparent slid. Witnessing cosmic latte through the spaceship window was a dream I thought would never be reality. Millions of tiny luminescent dots were hanging in the dark space, as if someone has scattered a huge handful of them randomly some billions of years ago and together they emit the radiance which we observe in the telescopes. On our way to observatory, was a bigger transparent window. Innumerable rocky asteroids passed us in a blink. We must be passing an asteroid belt. I felt a thrill inside my stomach.
Far away, I saw a brilliant stream of light. Some unknown galaxy. Could anything ever be more beautiful? I sighed. Somewhere down there lay our own solar system, our Sun and our home Earth. Old home rather, as of now we were searching for home somewhere else, on BF5109 Genesis. Barry Selvig Faulkner, my dad, first saw it on his Cosmo-future telescope.
And it was the beginning of hope.
The satellites sent here could hardly give all the necessary information. Not enough man-power to build tons of others. This was mankind’s last mission and it had to be a manned one.
Not that it matters, in a few years we all would die eventually.
As I stepped inside the observatory, I found all the twelve members of our ship clustered at a point. Though, one person was missing and I didn’t expect him to be a part of any enjoyment either.
“Our last skip is completed. Only a million miles and we’d be there,” George pointed his finger to the largest transparent window of our spaceship. Beyond it, almost at my arm’s reach was Genesis.
***
5 hours later.
Our ship had successfully entered the atmosphere of Genesis two hours ago and we were now floating a few miles above the surface. The mother spaceship was not allowed to go beyond this point. From here on, it would be the drones that would inspect the entire planet.
“Does anyone feel their heartbeats rising?” Jane asked, scrutinizing every nuts and bolts of the helmet. The muscles of her face squeezed and relaxed in succession, she had always loathed the helmet design, even though it was her own.
“Nope, not me,” George entered the bay. He was already in the spacesuit. “It’s just that I can’t feel anything at all. My mind has gone numb.”
I tried to smile, but it came out very dry. Marlene’s words still echoed in my mind. If George or Jane, or anyone else on the ship knew it they wouldn’t dare joking.
“This world’s dead, just like ours,” she told me an hour ago.
I was alone with her on the observation room, she wanted an announcement but I stopped her. Father didn’t want them to lose hope, neither did I and that was my only gift from my father—the ability to Hope. I could feel the cracks, nevertheless. Slow, small cracks, ripping apart that hope into pieces.
Back on earth, I used to be a United Force, i.e., the world’s police force member. Heavy artillery, weapons were my areas of expertise and not astrophysics, unlike my father, mother and sister. So, it took me by surprise when five years back my name was listed on the people going to Genesis, especially when my training of a space pilot never went beyond demo classes.
So, it took some effort from Marlene to make me understand the situation. “There is no water, or at least no surface water and no greenery left on Genesis. They are all gone.”
“But how is this possible? Why?” We all saw a planet similar to what Earth used to be some thousand years ago through the Cosmo-future telescope. Rivers, oceans, greenery and peace. Father’s inventions couldn’t be wrong, they never were.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know,” she replied.
Rhythmic and coordinated footsteps snapped me back to reality. Corrie McClenaghan.
And there was one more reason why I wanted her thoughts to be a secret for now. The reason was this man. A true beast, ferocious and yet the best man of our forces. If he realized this trip was already over, who knows what he would do.
“Everyone geared up?” he asked. I took a good look at him, two RAGs (Rapid Airburst Gun) were attached to his back in a cross-shaped pattern and a particle canon hung from his belt. Even in this ridiculous space suit, he claimed the looks of a marching soldier.
We nodded.
My hands reached down to my belt where only two particle canons were clinging. No RAG, not even now. It was always reserved for Corrie.
Not that I was envious.
“I hope Endeavor is right on her track,” he said, in a voice cold and dry like a desert. Endeavor was the second spaceship that left for Genesis. Not having the means to build a second launch system, she was launched five hours after us from the same launch pad. Over this time, she made up for three hours and now lagged by just two.
“Yes,” replied George. “She has successfully escaped the last time skip, and is right on schedule. She’ll land two hours after us, right on the marked spot.”
“Let’s hope everything goes well,” Jane spoke in the mouthpiece of her helmet. Her voice reverberated in each of our helmets. She was on open frequency.
“Let’s not ‘just’ hope. We have to force everything right, that’s our job.” Corrie took off in the direction of the drone launch-pad.
We looked at each other. Everyone seemed ready. “Best of luck to us,” I said.
“Best of luck to humanity,” a reply came from behind. I turned a
nd saw Marlene standing at the entrance of the bay. She was smiling, but again it was just a mask. She lifted her right arm and raised her thumb—a gesture new to her but I knew the meaning. “I’m going back to my place in the command room; you have ten minutes to get inside the drones.”
Within five minutes, we were all well-placed on the pilot seats of each drone. There were seven drones, each to accommodate the pilot and armed with Earth’s best and most advanced technologies and weaponry system. This might be my last fight; I heaved a sigh and hung my helmet on a hook. I wouldn’t need it here, there was oxygen supply for twelve hours inside the machine. I hoped I wouldn’t need it on the planet either.
“Two minutes to launch,” Marlene’s voice buzzed in the speakers.
HOPE. The word flashed in my mind. It’s the name of our space-shuttle too. Father named it, he really believed in the word. My father was probably the best space scientist our Earth ever had. His Cosmo-future telescope was the first one to see through the surface of last scattering.
“One minute to launch,” Marlene sounded like a robot.
Actually, that telescope was an extended modification of the Byron-Ford’s model, built some three centuries back. Through it father discovered this planet, two thousand three hundred light years from Earth. He named it Genesis – a new beginning. For us, for humanity. The image he got was of a sphere two-times larger than Earth, greener and bluer. Studying it for decades, he measured the distance from Earth and together with Marlene, designed a way to travel to Genesis.
Time holes. Based on his cosmic string theory, he found a way to build time holes. Our ship left Earth almost three years back, which was not enough time to cross thousands of light years. We skipped time, millions of years in one skip and five skips in total.
