Deep Space Intelligence : Complete Series

by Gary Weston

  Sam Thorne tried to think of tiny insignificant thoughts as he entered the crater that inexplicably shielded humans from Masters mind probing. He was followed by Smithers and Syrup.

  ‘The Masters gave me specific instructions of what they wanted us to do. Captain Syrup. It involves radical work in your ship.’

  ‘I’m hating this already. What do they want done?’

  ‘To build them a tank to transport them off the planet.’

  Smithers said, ‘A Tank? We have no glass thick enough to make a tank out of.’

  ‘The Masters know that. They saw the interior of the ship from my memories. We are to rip out a lot of the central seats and accommodation, then laser weld the doors to seal them. The door already has unbreakable glass in it. We will also need to put bracing wall to wall to allow for the extra internal pressure because of the weight of the liquid.’

  Captain Syrup said, ‘You are saying fifty percent of the ship used for people will be made into a tank for those monsters. To do that would mean leaving behind half of those who came here. What would happen to them?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Thorne. ‘We know so little about the world of the Masters. No human has ever gone into that sea and come out alive to tell about it. For all we know, there maybe a hundred, a thousand or even millions in that sea. Perhaps those using the ship are just a small percentage, wanting to develop new worlds for their own kind.’

  Smithers said, ‘Why, Thorne? They are clearly limited to having to live in that liquid. What advantage can they have by simply living in another load of green liquid on another planet?’

  Syrup said, ‘He has a good point, Thorne. Where are other planets with a sea like that? Where would we possibly take them? I know I’m not aware of a similar environment they could…Oh!’

  ‘What?’ asked Smithers.

  ‘I remember reading about the space station the Masters were using, before the D S I smashed it and killed those in that tank. One of those captured drixolate slaves who were helping the Masters said something about the Masters having a way to turn a regular ocean into the liquid they live in. But they needed humans to do the actual conversion. The Masters have the knowledge, but they can’t leave the liquid to do the conversion. Once that’s done, the Masters can live in it and still control the humans to do their bidding and…’ Syrup sighed. ‘And to provide food for them. Us.’

  Smithers said, ‘So why did they use the drixolate to control humans?’

  Thorne said, ‘Expediency. There are billions of humans on many planets. Even the Masters can’t control all of us.’

  ‘Ok,’ said Syrup. ‘So, wouldn’t they select a planet with enough humans for them to control but not enough for them to be overrun by us? Certainly less than a million. They control over two thousand of us here, by simply threatening to hurt and kill the children and families. Nobody dare lift a finger against them having experienced the pain and suffering they can inflict on people.’

  Smithers said, ‘What sort of planet fits that…Of course. Tryzon. In the tourist season, there’s less than a million people at any one time. I should know, because that’s where I was before being brought here. In the off season, about one third of that number.’

  Syrup said, ‘It’s the off season now. You lot were almost the last of the tourists to be leaving Tryzon. The last figure I heard of people permanently living there is about two hundred and forty thousand.’

  ‘Tryzon sounds about right for their plan,’ said Thorne. ‘South of the city are the Valley Lakes. Practically as large as a sea, except it’s fresh water.’

  Smithers said, ‘I think they just intend to colonise another planet, not move all their kind from here to there. That’s why they will leave most of us here, so we can be farmed for the ones left behind to eat. They’ll only need the number of us required to fly the ships. The skyliner and the two fighters to protect them.’

  Syrup said, ‘There’s next to no defence on Tryzone to fight off attacks from space. Maybe a token laser cannon, nothing more. They simply didn’t need it, until now.’

  ‘No fighter ship?’ said Smithers.

  ‘None that I’m aware of,’ answered Syrup. ‘Practically defenceless.’

  Thorne sighed. ‘It sounds more and more likely it would be Tryzon, and they would live in the ship until humans turned the lakes into a new home for the Masters.’

  Smithers fumed, ‘I’m not being used by those monsters like that. Thorne. We should get in the fighters and just laser the sea until we kill the lot of them.’

  Thorne placed his hand on Smithers’ shoulder. ‘A few had the same idea a year ago. A dozen took a fighter and started blasting the sea. Using their minds collectively, the Masters brought the ship under their own control. The men were forced to turn the lasers on the people. Hundreds were killed. Women, children. When the men were allowed to land the ship, they were forced to walk into the sea. Do you really want to try that again?’

  The images were too much for Smithers. He dropped to his knees and vomited. When he’d finished, Thorne held out his hand to help the man to his feet.

  Thorne said, ‘We will find a way. But not that way.’

  Chapter 219

  Raven stared incredulously at Commander Felix Gordon. ‘Hit me with that again?’

  ‘Invisible…something. That’s what General Millet reported, Boss.’ Gordon read from the notes. ‘They were forced to stay overnight to make a repair to the ship. Shorty and their science guy, Warner, went off exploring. Found some kind of monolith with hieroglyphics all over it. They went to have a look, fell into a pit-trap. Luppino and Singh pulled them out uninjured. General Millet, then aware the planet was inhabited by sentient beings, had the shooters guard the ships with the cannon. Just after dawn, the general took a look outside and found the same hieroglyphics daubed on the side of the ship. Whatever did it, hadn’t set off the alarms or been seen by the shooters. As they were about to take off, something surrounded them and was approaching the ship at speed. They only just got the ship off the ground before being swamped.’

  Boss said, ‘Wow! Nobody could see what it was at all?’

  ‘No, Boss. Although when they attacked in numbers, the sensors picked them up that time and set off the alarms.’

  ‘Right. But as interesting as that may be, there’s still no sign of or word from those damn pirates.’

  Gordon shook his head. ‘That’s about the size of it, Boss. General Millet and his crews are on their way to the next planet. That should take a few days.’

  Raven thumped the desk. ‘And in the meantime, we grind to a standstill. Felix. Level with me. Am I handling this the wrong way?’

  ‘Tagg. Just because you’re new at being Boss, doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong. If I were in your boots, I wouldn’t do anything different.’

  Boss smiled. ‘Thanks, Felix. I appreciate that.’

  ‘I’ll get back to the communications centre. Boss. This will be sorted out one way or another. It always is.’

  ‘Yes. I know. Thanks, Commander.’

  As Commander Gordon was leaving, Agent Tilly Jordan entered.

  ‘Good morning, Boss.’

  ‘Tilly. You’re sounding better. Take a seat.’

  Tilly sat and said, ‘Agent Tilly Jordan reporting for duty, Boss.’

  ‘Excellent. I wish I had something for you.’

  Tilly looked puzzled. ‘With all this going on? There must be something I can do?’

  ‘Sure,’ said Boss. ‘Go catch me a bunch of pirates.’

  ‘But you still have no idea where they are?’

  Raven shook his head. ‘Not a clue. General Millet has two fully loaded fighters searching the galaxy for them. Apart from a few adventures of their own, they haven’t found any signs of the pirates whereabouts. Not only that, the pirates still haven’t demanded anything for the people and ships they’ve captured.’

  ‘What the hell is going on, Tagg?’

  ‘Tilly. I’d be a happier man if
I knew the answer to that one. I’m so damn frustrated not being able to do anything.’

  ‘Sorry I can’t be more helpful, Boss.’

  Boss said, ‘All I can suggest is that you join Commander Gordon in communications and give him a hand in the meantime.’

  Tilly stood up and said, ‘Ok. Boss. I just want to say that I don’t need handling with kid gloves. I’m an agent. When we get a fix on this, just remember that, ok?’

  ‘I will. Thanks, Agent Jordan.’

  Chapter 220

  Working with hand held lasers, wishing he was using them on the Masters to kill them, instead of fusing metal together, Thorne was welding lengths of pipe from one side of the ship to the other to act as braces to compensate for liquid the section would soon be filled with. Others were stripping out the seating and most of the accommodation used for the comfort of paying passengers. They all worked in silence, hating every second of what they did. The main passenger section was originally designed to be completely divided from other sections by metal walls with central doors. A hole had been neatly lasered out of one door, large enough for the huge flexible hose to which the ships pump would suck up the green liquid of the sea to almost fill the “tank”.

  Occasionally, Thorne felt his mind being probed as the Masters checked on the progress. He had trained himself to control his anger at being invaded and keeping his head as vacant as possible. He knew the others were being probed in just the same way. It would take another three days work before the ship was ready to take off, with Tryzon being the safe-bet destination. Thorne felt physical work very tiring, the unpleasant and unhealthy atmosphere taking its toll on all the humans. At least if they did end up on Tryzon, the air would be healthier.

  As already debated with Smithers and Syrup, not all of the Masters would be off to colonise another planet, and those staying behind would use the humans not going to Tryzon as human cattle. It never ceased to amaze Thorne that although it was the humans who had built the ships and travelled across the galaxy, they were thought of as inferior beings by the Masters living their lives in a thick, green sea. Such audacity was incredible.

  In his darkest moments as he lay awake in his crude bed in his even cruder shanty-town rooms, he wondered what the world of the Masters was really like. What was it in their world gave them the right to think they were in any way superior to the humans who travelled amongst the stars? What was so special in that murky, vile mess, where creatures of unimaginable sadistic cruelty deemed to reign over the humans, swam, ate and produced more abominations like themselves, he would take the greatest of pleasure in destroying it all, given the opportunity.

  He was brought out of his dark thoughts by a sound behind him. A man had collapsed on the floor, clutching his chest. Thorne rushed to him, taking the man’s head in his arms.

  ‘Barry. Come on, pal. Nice deep breaths.’

  Barry Farmer’s eyes opened and stared up at Thorne. ‘I’ve done with breathing, Sam. Too tired. Too sick. Better this way. Sam. Promise me. Don’t feed my body to those monsters.’

  ‘Barry…’

  ‘Sam. You have to promise me.’

  ‘I promise you they won’t have you, Barry.’

  The sickly face, looking years older than it ever should have, tried to smile, and the eyes rolled back in his head and Barry gasped his last breath and died in Thorne’s arms. Thorne closed Barry’s eyes and held the man awhile longer, the others gathered around them.

  ‘I Promise, Barry. I promise.’

  Chapter 221

  Millet invited Shorty and Warner to sit with him and they ate the simple food and drank juice. It was just casual conversation without rank interfering.

  Millet said, ‘Troy. The more I think about that planet, the less it all makes any kind of sense. What’s your take on what happened?’

  ‘I’ve been trying to figure it out myself. For one thing, we can’t take it for granted that whatever circled the ship were the ones who made the monolith.’

  Shorty said, ‘Oh, come on, Troy. It sure wasn’t those big slugs who were about to attack us.’

  ‘Were we being attacked?’ Troy asked.

  ‘It looked that way to me,’ said Millet. ‘I wasn’t about to hang around to find out.’

  Troy sipped on his reconstituted juice of unspecified flavour. ‘My point being, we don’t know if we were or not. The same as we can’t be certain the ones surrounding us were the ones who did the writing or made the monolith and pit. I realise it’s easy to jump to those conclusions, but it isn’t hard fact.’

  Millet looked at a doubtful Shorty. ‘Troy’s right. We don’t know anything about either the monolith, the writing or the things that surrounded us to state categorically they are the same creatures. I feel we were under attack, but that doesn’t prove that we were.’

  Shorty said, ‘I studied the computer records of the things circling the ships, right up until we took off. Nothing visual. Like, invisible. I think I saw the bushes and stuff being moved by them, but not the creatures themselves. Don’t know about you, but I don’t believe in invisible creatures.’

  Troy said, ‘Not seeing them kinda suggests invisibility, or at least opens the possibility of it.’

  ‘Are you crazy?’ said Shorty. ‘You think those things are actually invisible?’

  ‘Why not?’ said Troy. ‘Just because we can’t see something, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. It isn’t my area of expertise, but my understanding of it is, we see things because of…Look. To become invisible, an object must do two things. It has to be able to bend light around itself, so that it casts no shadow, and it must produce no reflection.’

  ‘A neat party trick,’ said Shorty. ‘I’ll give that a go one day. I got the muscles. Just how do I bend light?’

  ‘Simple,’ said Warner. ‘To bend light around an object requires a material to have a negative refractive index.’

  ‘I want one of those,’ said Shorty.

  ‘I’ll buy you one for your birthday present,’ said Millet. ‘Carry on, Troy. This is interesting.’

  ‘Ok. The refractive index is a property that dictates how light passes through a medium. An example. Right. Ok. You know how a stick will look bent when placed in water? If water had a negative refractive index, it would make the stick look as though it were bending back on itself.’

  Shorty said, ‘Stop. Enough already. I’m getting a headache. So, what you’re saying, using these negative indexy things…’

  Warner said, ‘Negative refractive index.’

  ‘That’s what I said. But something could be invisible?’

  ‘That’s how it’s looking,’ Troy said. ‘The original survey team reported they didn’t “see” any sentient beings. True, they didn’t stay long, and they could have been thousands of miles away from where we happened to land. It was by pure fluke we found that monolith. But think about it. Many creatures have evolved to change their skin pigmentation to blend into the background. Suppose a creature took it one step further to actually be able use light, spectrum and wavelengths and protons the same way. What better way to survive?’

  Millet added, ‘The shooters saw nothing. And yet, something wrote that stuff on the ship.’

  ‘Just be open minded, that’s all I’m saying,’ said Warner.

  Shorty looked up at Millet. ‘You have a mission to a planet with invisible critters, I might just turn invisible myself and disappear.’

  ‘Oh, Shorty. You’re only trying to cheer me up,’ said Millet, with a grin.

  Chapter 222

  Captain Mabel Syrup took her copilot and her technical officer Lieutenant Steve Crocker and Su Kane aside from the others. She indicated they were to follow her to the crater where their thoughts could not be read by the Masters.

  ‘Listen. You know what’s going on,’ said Syrup. ‘We have to move our ship closer to the sea. We need to pump some of that gunk into the tank we made. I want you two to make sure that when we take off, you both come with us. For one thing, I need you
to help me fly the ship.’

  Kane and Crocker shared a look and Kane said, ‘Steve and I have been talking things through. We think flying those creatures is like spreading some vile disease or virus. We don’t want to be apart of it.’

  Syrup bristled. ‘Is that what you think we’ve been doing? Helping those monsters?’

  Crocker snapped back, ‘Well, isn’t that what you’ve been doing? Me and Su don’t want to be ferrying those creatures anywhere.’

  ‘Well, thanks for your trust, you pair. You have to try to see the bigger picture. We have no choice but to do what we are doing. If we don’t, people will be tortured. Killed. That includes the kids. We can’t let that happen.’

  ‘But helping them?’ said Su. ‘Wouldn’t it be better to fight them and die, rather than be used by them?’

  Syrup said, ‘We’ve been through all that. Can you really stand to see kids being hurt and killed? I know I couldn’t.’

  ‘Somebody’s coming,’ said Crocker.

  Syrup turned around to see Thorne carrying the body of Barry Farmer. He entered the crater and carefully placed the body on the ground.

  ‘What happened?’ asked Syrup.

  ‘Barry’s lungs and heart gave up,’ said Thorne. ‘He was amongst the first to be brought here. This stinking air killed him with each breath he took. Working on the ship was more than his body could take.’

  ‘So why did he?’ asked Crocker. ‘He should have let the fitter ones do the work.’

  Thorne said, ‘Let me tell you something about Barry. He had friends and family. He’s watched them all die, either as slaves until their bodies gave up, or as food for the Masters. He knew that by getting the ships and as many people away from the planet is the only way to save as many as we can. He wasn’t bothered about himself. He knew his time was up. But he wanted to give as many a chance to get away from here and live to fight the Masters as possible. For that belief, he gave his life.’

  Syrup said, ‘That’s what I’m talking about. You stay, you’ll end up like poor Barry here. Come with us, we’ll find a way to kill the masters.’ Syrup looked down at the body on the ground, then squared up to Su Kane and Steve Crocker. ‘Did Barry die for nothing?’