He looked down on his naked body and shivered.
There was the sound of light feminine laughter in his mind.
Zed rubbed his stomach.
The lights came on as he entered a gymnasium sized room set with long tables and benches.
“You’re welcome, Zed.” A woman’s warm contralto voice said out of the empty air. It was the same voice he ’heard’ in his mind.
“Robo-Burger??” Lola said out of the air. “I believe that I’ve been insulted, Zed.”
“It wasn’t meant as an insult.” Zed explained quickly. “Just a very crude comparison. I apologize.”
“Accepted.” The voice huffed. “But I get the point.”
The new captain squirmed in the big command chair, sitting in the middle of the alien, and yet not so alien bridge. He knew, thanks to his memory implants, what everything did - in a textbook sort of way. Under him the chair squirmed back, adjusting itself to allow for maximum comfort and blood flow. He was slightly surprised he didn’t see ghosts manning the various bridge stations.
“View ahead.” He said, sounding stupidly formal. The whole front wall of the bridge became transparent, and Zed couldn’t suppress his gasp of sheer awe.
“View ahead, Captain.” Lola, obviously, was picking up his mood and responding in kind. “We are deep in a debris field, Captain.”
“Raise shields and slow ahead until we clear the asteroids, then ahead normal.”
“Affirmative. Shields up, ahead slow.” Zed could see the great ship begin to slide through the debris field, the deflector shunting aside huge rocks before they could get close enough to present a problem.
“Evasive course as necessary, Lola. We don’t need to try and push everything away.”
“Very good, Captain. Evasion as necessary. We will be departing the asteroid belt in thirty minutes. After that it is another ten weeks to Thal’ark Station.”
“Very good.” He glanced around the unfilled bridge, reflecting on the length of his upcoming voyage, and the emptiness of the ship.
“Captain, I am picking up faint communications that I believe are suit to suit radios from the people on Europa Base. If I interpret the conversation correctly, there has been a meteor impact and the base and their resupply ship have been severely damaged. They are trying to repair the radio in the supply ship, but the attempt is not expected to succeed. The ship is named the Tiāntǐ fēng, or Celestial Wind. It is a Chinese ship. Even if they successfully repair the radio in the ship, a rescue will not be possible for many months.”
Zed frowned. For the last fifty years relations between the People’s Republic of China and the United States had been deteriorating. Nevertheless, he couldn’t leave people alone in space to die. Not and call himself human. “My God!” His breath caught. “What are they saying, Lola?”
“They claim that there was an explosion at Europa Base, and the base was heavily damaged. Of one hundred people, forty three are still alive on the base and eight more on the ship.”
“Do we have a vessel that could rescue those people?”
“Yes Zed, this one, however… there may be a small problem.”
The new captain frowned. “Yes?”
“Remember that this is a classic flying saucer, feared by millions for more years than you can count.”
“And now you want me to rescue the stranded Earthmen with it?” He wiped the tears of laughter from his eyes. “I can see it on You Tube tonight. What a political nightmare.” He grinned. “We rescue them and we head out-system, right?”
“That is the idea.”
“How do we do it?”
“The plans and pictures I’ve seen of Europa Base describe it as a big flat two story tall coin, twenty five meters in diameter, with an attached coin for a garage, another coin for a hangar and a third dome for hydroponics. The upper story of the main dome is dormitories, the lower is labs and engineering. We simply slice off the connecting tubes and lift the whole central structure off Europa and deposit it into the hanger. There is sufficient room.”
“I like it.” Zed had an evil grin on his face. “The Americans won’t like it, and the Chinese definitely will not. What was the population demographics of the station, before the explosion?”
“Ten Americans, twelve Chinese, ten British, eight Russians, eight Indian, five French and four Japanese. The rest are made of ones or twos from a number of countries.”
Zed nodded his approval. “Let’s do it.”
“Already underway, Captain. Arrival at Europa Base in thirty seven minutes.”
“Can we tell them we’re coming?”
“Yes Zed, however we cannot differentiate between individual suit radios. They will all get the same message.”
He grinned into the air. “Maybe that’s a good thing. They’ll all get the same message of hope.”
From a distance of a half mile the damage to Europa Base was evident. A string of three moderate meteorites had impacted the surface of the Jovian moon, the first missing the camp entirely, the second striking the auxiliary domes, destroying all three, and the third striking the edge of the main complex. Zed could see water and air bleeding into the thin Europan atmosphere. The resupply ship Tiāntǐ fēng was lying bent against an outcropping of ice. It was lucky anybody had survived at all.
“Europa Base, this is 7651 Rose of the Dawn. Stand by for rescue.”
There was a sharp burst of static. The sound of many voices shouting at once blasted onto the bridge, some crying. “This is Europa Base.” A British voice exclaimed, somewhat calmer than the rest. “What do you want us to do?”
Zed chuckled. “Get everyone into the main Base building. Make sure that all your door
s are sealed. If anyone is not in a vacuum suit, tell them to put it on. We will cut away your connecting tunnels and lift your entire facility to our hangar. You will be in death vacuum for approximately five minutes. After that you will be deposited in a hangar, and full atmosphere will then be restored. Medical facilities will be made available.” There was dead silence and even the people who had been crying were quiet. “Europa Base, do you copy?”
“Roger, copy.” The quiet male voice was trembling with emotion. From another radio he heard a woman weeping. “How soon? Our suit air only lasts forty more minutes. For god’s sake hurry.”
“We will be overhead in three… two… one… now.”
“Oh my god!!!” A voice whispered.
Zed swallowed.
The AI paused for a long moment.
“Europa Base, this is the Rose of the Dawn. You should have breathable air in five minutes. Feel free to exit your facility at that time, if you wish, but stay close until I’ve had a chance to speak with you all.”
“What is this place?” A man’s voice whispered in reply.
“Just a hangar, sir. Rose of the Dawn out.”
Heads turned when the door slid opened and he stepped into the hangar. Zed had thought of changing out of his midnight blue uniform, but decided not to at the last moment. His new guests had the right to know who they were dealing with.
Eight people in military EVA suits, helmets tucked under their arms, and an older civilian man with gray hair and a white bandage on the side of his head stepped forward. “I’m Ian Sutherland, Manager of Europa Base.” The older man said, a little shakily. “Are you our mysterious rescuer?”
Zed grinned, set down the case of beer he’d been carrying and took the man’s hand. The grip he noted was quite firm. “You can call me Zed, and yeah I rescued you. My ship did, actually.” He handed a bottle to the startled British man, then turned to the people in EVA suits. All wore the arm flash of the United States. He held out a beer as a woman came toward him. She wore Major’s rank on her name tag.
The astronaut looked from Zed to the beer now in her hand. Finally she looked up at the small saucer sitting neatly across the hangar floor, and the racked fighters. Taking a long drink from the bottle, she sighed; her eyes were thoughtful. “We have met the aliens… and they are us.” She murmured in a soft Midwestern voice. “Who the hell are you—what the hell are you?”
Zed handed a beer to the second American astronaut, a wide shouldered young man with thick dark hair in a marine cut. He took the beer, giving Zed a quizzical look.
“I was born in New York, and used to work for the SPace And Mining Corporation, (SPAM) as a Flight Engineer on one of their orbital garbage collectors. A few months ago, just after the destruction of Delhi India, we had an unusual encounter.”
The second astronaut looked surprised. “I heard something about that in a classified briefing. You were supposed to have found a ship?”
“The ship found me, actually.” Zed replied sadly. “When things started to get strange my SPAM crew abandoned me and headed for Earth. I survived, as you can see.”
The woman was shaking her head. “The ‘official’ story is alien abduction.”
Zed laughed. “I don’t feel abducted.”
The Major blinked. “I’m sorry. I am Alina DeThomaso, the Mission Commander of the Tiāntǐ fēng.” The tired looking woman nodded to the second EVA suited figure. “Major Michael Flaherty, my First Officer.”
Zed frowned. “Isn’t the Tiāntǐ fēng a Chinese ship?”
Alina’s smile was crooked. “We had to buy it second-hand from the Chinese, and then rent space on a Russian heavy-lift vehicle to get it back into orbit. It’s the only way we can stay in space at all.”
Zed sighed at the political reality of the situation. Politics and apathy had sapped the once vital American spirit of exploration. Americans on welfare now sat back and watched the Chinese, and Indians, and Japanese explore the solar system without them. “I assume that you would like to call home, and tell them that everyone isn’t dead.”
Ian blinked. “Oh, yes, yes. I, we would like that very much.”
“And the frequency?”
“Oh, 1128745.973.”
“Will that be a problem, Lola?” Zed said into the air.
“Of course not.” Lola’s contralto sounded smug, and both Ian and the flight crew looked around for the source of the voice. “Go ahead Mister Sutherland, Major DeThomaso. Just speak normally. I have a short range FTL link in Earth orbit to cut down the fifty minute time delay.”
Ian had turned pale. “Europa Control this is Europa Base. Do you copy?” His voice was shaking, and the man looked faint.
“Europa Base this is Europa Control. How the hell are you speaking to us? Satellite based telescopes recorded the meteor strikes on Europa. We all assumed the worst.” An Asian male voice replied, with more than a little relief. “Your signal is so strong now it’s about to fry our receivers.”
Ian gave Zed a wide-eyed look. “We were rescued, Europa Control. We’re talking to you from…” He gave Zed a curious look.
“He’s talking to you from the hangar of the Imperial Daignault Class Heavy Destroyer, 7651 Rose of the Dawn, under the command of Fernandez Edwardo Raphael Daniel Yates.”
There was a very long pause. “You’re kidding. There is no such class of warship.”
“Not on Earth.” Zed replied in an even tone. “I suggest that you give your Control the list of your dead. Then we should see to the living.”
Sutherland was getting glassy-eyed. “Of course.” He licked his lips. “These are the dead: Mei Tian, Shen Li, Stephan Romero, Marissa and Saul Johansen…” The list went on and on.
Zed turned and walked toward an older woman who was kneeling, tending the injured. “My name is Zed. Can I be of service?”
She looked up and gave him a tired smile. Her eyes were bloodshot blue. “Everyone needs food and water.” She looked at three people lying at her feet, and seemed to deflate. “These three need a miracle.”
“I specialize in miracles, Doctor…” Zed raised an eyebrow as he reached down and touched the cheek of a young girl lying at his feet. She’d once been pretty, but now her red hair was matted with blood, and her pale cheeks were sunken, and tinged with gray. She was, he guessed, only thirteen or fourteen years old.
“Helen Sutherland.” The doctor’s tone was flat. Zed raised his other eyebrow and looked over at Ian, who was still going through the list with Control. “Yes, I’m his former-wife.”
Zed winced. “That must be awkward.”
“You have no idea.” She glanced down at the young woman Zed was touching and frowned. The girls breathing was visibly easier, and pink had begun to replace the gray in her cheeks. “What did you do to her? She was dying a moment ago.”
“Any technol
ogy that is sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic, a wise man once said.” He looked down at the girl. “Do you usually take children to visit distant planets under hazardous circumstances?”
Helen sighed. “Katherine is a more than gifted thirteen year old. She is the daughter of Marissa and Saul Johansen, who were both killed in the initial meteor impact. They brought her here to study and work.” Helen reached down and touched the girl’s other cheek. “She doesn’t know about her parents yet. She was injured in the same explosion that killed her parents.”
“I don’t envy you your job of telling her, doctor, but she will at least live to hear the news.” He gave her a smile as three gurneys floated soundlessly up and stopped beside him. “These will take your injured to the sick bay. You may find more miracles there than you can imagine. If you have any questions just ask Lola. She is the real miracle worker around here.”
“You’re going to give me a swelled head, Zed.” Lola’s voice said out of the air. Helen turned around with a startled look, searching for the speaker.
“Lola is the ship’s AI. If you have questions about anything, ask her. She will show you to the Medical Bay.”
“Good afternoon, Doctor Sutherland.” Lola’s voice was soft and warm.
Helen’s smile was tentative. “Good afternoon Lola. Could we get these folks to your Medical Bay? I’d like to see what miracles you have up your sleeve.”
“I was about to suggest that, Doctor.” Zed gently loaded the gurneys with the injured, and they drifted soundlessly out of the room, followed by the bemused doctor.
Zed turned to the crowd of people who had been standing around listening to him speak with Helen Sutherland. “Doctor Sutherland mentioned that you all need food and water. I would be happy to show you all to the Dining Hall. After that you will be shown to your rooms where you may bathe and go to bed, if you wish.” Everyone’s eyes widened at the word bathe.
A slim dark haired woman stepped forward. “You mentioned earlier that this was a ship. Will you be bringing us back home then?”
Zed sighed and caught Ian Sutherland staring at him. “Regretfully, no; at least not right away. We have a little journey to take.” He looked up to the ceiling. “How far are we going, Lola?”
... and they are us Page 3
