by S A Pavli
“So we are headed for the largest site here on the planet. Um… what is it’s name Jana?”
“Cypra,” she gave a little meaningful look and I grinned back.
“…Obviously. The Sarayans have devoted a lot of effort on this site. Jana, Santol, have you any idea what used to be there?”
“We think it was the site of a large Spaceport,” said Santol. “We have no idea what may have been left behind.”
“Well, we shall soon find out,” I said.
It was just half an hours flying time for the Peacekeeper, although in fact, just about any part of the planet was within half an hours flight of the speedy little craft. The area was a long peninsula, reminding me a little of the Florida peninsula where the NASA Cape Spaceport was situated. Similar flatland, suitable for airports or Spaceports. But it was heavily wooded, mostly scrub and skinny trees. The Saraya had cleared some land and built temporary accommodation. The archaeology site extended over a huge area and there were digging and earth moving machines dotted here and there.
The Saraya had a landing strip for their shuttles but we ignored that and came down next to the main building. Out of the aircraft we decided to explore the buildings first before heading out to the sites. We also wanted to find some transport. The whole area was strewn with boulders and overgrown with stumpy trees which made it difficult for the Peacekeeper fighter to land. We needed ground transport. We split up into three teams, Norton with Jana, Narayan with Santol and me with Cora.
After an hour of tramping around the buildings we met again outside the aircraft. There was little of interest, very similar accommodation to what we had already seen at the main site. We found some transport, a couple of battery powered cars with big chunky tyres. We loaded up bottles of water and food and headed out for the nearest site. We followed a rudimentary dirt road to the somewhat ramshackle building. It was made from plastic panels screwed to metal struts, clearly designed just to keep the weather out. There was no security and we pushed open a large pair of doors to enter. The sight that met our eyes made us pause.
“It’s a shuttle,” exclaimed Alex.
“Sure looks like it,” I agreed. “Or what’s left of it.”
The gaunt skeletal remains of an aircraft occupied the centre of the hanger. It looked remarkably similar to a standard Hanja shuttle, with short stubby wings and the characteristic artificial gravity torus around its middle. The rear was gaping open with the remnants of one fusion rocket motor left. The AG torus had been opened up and its parts largely removed.
“Looks like your ancestors were a bit careless about what was left behind when they moved house,” I said to Jana. “The Saraya now have their hands on AG tech.”
We moved around the shuttle, examining and photographing. There were ladders and gantries around the aircraft and we were able to get close up photos. There seemed to be nothing very much of the original mechanisms and electronics left.
“They really have stripped this,” said Alex. He turned to Santol. “What do you think, could they work out how to build an artificial gravity engine from this?”
“Eventually, yes,” said Santol. “But it does require a level of tech that I suspect the Saraya have not reached.”
I asked Santol a question that had been bothering me for some time.
“Santol, it just seems incredible to me that your ancestors left this planet, with all its buildings and technology, just because of climate change. Surely they could find a solution to that problem?”
Santol and Jana exchanged looks, before he answered my question.
“All the habitable planets in the cluster are unstable because of the proximity of all the stars to each other,” he said. “The Galaxy hub is rich in stable habitable planets. Our civilization has expanded there in a way it could not do here.”
I was not convinced. To move to the galaxy hub made sense, but why abandon these already developed planets? Jana and Santol were hiding something I was sure.
We packed up and moved to our next location. We boarded our cars, and headed further down the dirt track towards a big hanger close to the edge of the cleared area. Behind the hanger the forest was thick, the trees overhanging it. We parked our jeeps outside the big doors, which were closed. The heat and humidity, and the noise of birds and insects from the forest gave the place an exotic air. I could smell the sea which was just a hundred metres behind us.
The doors were electrically operated but the control panel was in clear sight. It was not secured and the doors slid open obligingly when we found the right button.
“Power still on then,” I observed. And sure enough the inside of the hanger was noticeably cooler and less humid. “Air con as well.” There were numerous coffin like boxes around the periphery of the hanger and in the middle a couple of what looked like surgical operations tables, with spotlights and other gadgets around them. We walked up to the first ‘operating table’ and stopped in disbelief. There was a large skeleton on the table.
“What have we here?”
The skeleton was of a biped, about six feet tall, with a large dome like head. Huge eye sockets set wide apart and an even bigger hole where the nose would be. The mouth though was smaller and the teeth ‘normal’, by human standards that is. The rib cage was small, the legs long in proportion. But the skull was large and must clearly have housed a large brain. I turned to Jana and Santol.
“It’s a skeleton of one of your ancestors? I asked. They both nodded. I climbed up onto a step next to the table and peered closely at the creature’s head. I could see through the eye sockets into the inside of the skull. As an explorer, alien biology was part of my skill set. The creatures hands had long fingers, three of them, and an opposed thumb. The teeth were human sized as was the mouth. There was no sign of damage or injury to the body. Except for the cranium, and the damage looked artificial.
“The Saraya have removed something from the skull.” I pointed to three small square holes in the creature‘s skull.
“They must have taken bone samples,” said Santol.
“I don’t think so. Too big. And why three, one would be enough. No, there was something in the skull which they removed.” I peered closely at the holes and then it became obvious. “Implants. Brain implants just on the inside of the skull. I can see the tiny indentations.”
“This creature here is a true Cypraean,” she said. “But your DNA has nothing in common with his species,” Jana said with an expression of what I took to be regret.
“So everything we knew about the so called Makers is wrong?” I asked, trying to get my head around what she was saying.
“No, they were the Makers, as you call them,” she said. “But they did not use their own DNA to engineer yourselves. They used the DNA of another, what you would call humanoid species.”
“Why would they do that? Go around engineering a different species?” I asked. My colleagues were also shaking their heads in puzzlement. “Surely they would want to promote their own species?”
“I’m afraid I have to go back a long time, to a very shameful incident in our race’s history,” said Jana.
“Wait a minute Jana,” I said hastily. “Let us get this clear. Can you confirm that you, the real you not Lanatra’s body, you, and Santol and the other consciousnesses in the virtual habitat, were all originally, physically…. Like that?” I pointed to the creature’s bones on the table.
She looked cautiously at Santol and he shook his head. What are they trying to cover up? I asked myself.
“Yes. We are Cypraeans. That is what we looked like. Well, our bones.”
“So, you was going to explain. Why did the Cypraeans want to create humanoid races?” When I asked that, visions of possible horrific answers passes before my minds eye.
Because we like having sex with you…
Because we like to eat you…
Because we like to keep you as pets….
“As I was saying,” continued Jana, giving me a wide eyed look. “Soon af
ter my species discovered Hyperspace FTL travel we came across a humanoid species within this cluster, about 100 light years from us on the other side of the cluster. They were pre-star travel, just beginning to explore their star system with crude rockets. They were amazed and delighted when we arrived and welcomed our explorers with open arms. Before we landed on the planet or met with them face to face, we conducted extensive biological tests to ensure that we would not pass on any virulent diseases. We were very thorough with our biological cleansing and during our meetings we wore sealed breathing apparatus and avoided any direct contact. Our explorers stayed on the planet for some time, then left to return home with the good news.”
“A larger expedition was organised and travelled back to the humanoids planet. The sight that met our eyes shocked us to the core. The planet was devoid of all advanced life. Only the most primitive animals had survived, and vegetation, bacteria and viruses. All advanced animal life on the planet had been destroyed by some infective agent.” Jana paused, her face clearly showing her emotion.
“Even now, we cannot think about what we did without feeling the most utter remorse, horror and pity.”
“How could that have happened Jana? When you took all those precautions?” I asked.
“We isolated the virus that caused the tragedy. It was a common one on our planet, one that all life was immune to. It was passed on by a single mosquito. Somehow it escaped all our cleansing and isolation, perhaps hidden inside a piece of equipment.”
“So, because all animal life on the planet had died, you could not re-engineer these humanoids?” I asked.
“That is correct,” said Jana. “We had no starting point. Also the science was not fully developed at that point. When we did develop it, we found that we could not use ourselves, or other creatures on our planet, because the differences were too great. We had to find another humanoid species as a starting point.”
“Dear God. So we exist because of one mosquito on the other side of the Galaxy,” I said.
Jana’s story had left us shocked, but we continued with our exploration of the hanger contents. The next ‘operating‘ table also had the bones of a Cypraean, a female this time. We uploaded photographs and video until the scientists in orbit were satisfied, then took some bone samples. I carried out the operations, it was something I did regularly as a Scout explorer so it was routine for me.
We investigated the power system that maintained the air conditioning and found it was a pile of batteries recharged by solar cells. They should have no problem maintaining the environment until we could make more permanent arrangements, so we left them be.
Our return to the Settang in orbit was muted as we all mulled over what we had learned. I caught Alex giving Jana thoughtful looks and could not help thinking that the spell of their initial attraction had been broken. But that was something for them. Unless we could find an answer, Jana and her Cypraean colleagues were sadly not long for this world.
The Peacekeeper eased into its bay and we disembarked. We had an hour to freshen up then we were meeting in the mess hall for dinner before reviewing the days findings. I was missing Manera already so I got Alfred to set us up a private channel to have a chat. When I told her our news she was amazed, her big azure eyes limpid pools of disbelief.
“How absolutely terrible,” she gasped. “All life on the planet? Dead?”
“It was an accident of course. And who was to believe that one bloody tiny mosquito can exterminate a whole civilization. But, it’s still a heavy burden of guilt for these people to carry,” I said.
“And to put it right, they travelled the galaxy looking for likely species to engineer.”
“They started with the Dansai and the Saraya first.”
“Odd that they should abandon the Dansai then?”
“Well…. They didn‘t abandon them. They nurtured them, then left them to their own devices when they emigrated to the Galaxy hub.”
“Still seems odd that they abandoned all their planets here in the cluster and vanished,” she said.
“Yes, Santol said that there are few habitable planets here and they are unstable. But with their technology they could have put that right. There is still a mystery here. But enough of that, I am missing you terribly.”
“Don’t go looking for comfort from that Cypraean vamp,” she said severely.
“Sorry darling… no of course I won’t,” I said putting on my best penitent expression. “Anyway, the vision of what she really looks like is guaranteed to be a passion killer.”
“Doesn’t seem to be the same the other way around,” she remarked.”
“Must be my inner beauty,” I quipped.
“That’s what attracted me,” she smiled. “And your firm muscular …”
“Quite enough of that Miss Hatekan,” I laughed. “Otherwise I’m going to hijack a Peacekeeper fighter and come down to find you.”
“I wish you would,” she said glumly.
“No reason why you should stay on planet darling. We’ll pick you up on our way back tomorrow and we can spend the nights together.”
“Thanks love. I thought I could stay down here a few nights but there’s something about this place that I hate.”
“Some of the soldiers are girls. They will love talking to you.”
“Mmm, yes I’ve already met a couple. Don’t worry about me darling. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
We said our goodbyes and signed off but I was unsettled by Manera’s unhappiness. I cursed my insensitivity because there really was no reason for her to remain on planet overnight.
After a shower and a change of clothing I headed off for dinner with the crew and my team colleagues. Over dinner we were joined by Jana and Santol .We were eating at the same table as Captain Hamolatonen and his chief engineer Colrania, and Guardian Commra.
“Jana, when we first talked to you, back at the habitat, you showed us video of yourself, Santol and others in your capital city. Sentrani was it?”
“Yes,” she nodded.
“Why did you want to perpetuate the fiction that we were your children, as you called us?”
“We wanted you to trust us.”
“So you could then hijack our ships,” I said. It must have sounded accusing because she looked apologetic.
“We are sorry. We meant no harm. There were no bombs in the shuttles. It was all a bluff.”
“We suspected that was the case,” said Captain Norton. “That’s why we took the chance to destroy your robots.”
“What… made you suspect it was a bluff?” asked Jana, looking surprised.
“The protocol the robots used for their regular security transmissions to the shuttles was too simple. Alfred broke it in a few hours,” said Norton. I snorted my amusement.
“Good old Alfred. Not a lot gets past him.”
“Damn right,” said Norton with a grin. “We copied the messages and then knocked out the robots. We are still transmitting security messages to the shuttles.”
“You can stop,” said Santol. “There are no bombs.”
“We would prefer to validate that for ourselves if you don’t mind,” said the Captain. “We are moving your shuttles a good distance from our ships before we stop the transmissions.”
“As you wish,” said Santol.
After dinner we assembled in the conference area to discuss the findings of the different teams. Ours was the most interesting and spectacular by far. The other teams had found archaeological sites, and one building which appeared to have been a technology centre but was now stripped.
It became clear that the Saraya had stolen a lot of tech from the planet. How much they could understand and duplicate was anybody’s guess. But if we did not manage to negotiate some kind of peace between them and the Dansai, then the future for the Dansai seemed precarious.
I went to bed feeling a little lonely, but looking forward to seeing my girl the next day.
Chapter 30
I was awoken from my sleep by the sh
ip’s alarm and the blaring of my comm.
“All officers to the Bridge. All officers to the bridge!”
“Ah shit, what’s happened now…” I dived out of bed and grabbed clothing and shoes. Running down the corridor to the bridge there was a stampede of fellow crew, all struggling to run and put on various bits of clothing at the same time. Colrania galloped past me as I bent over to secure a shoe.
“What’s happening Col?”
“Those ugly Saraya are back,” she shouted as she ran past me.
I secured my shoe and followed her, wondering why we should be panicking because the Saraya had returned. We had their measure surely?
In the bridge, crew were taking their places. The big 3D showed a number of insets, the Earth ships and some other views of Space. The Captain was taking his seat, talking into his comm, stabbing at his controls to bring up displays on his console. I took my seat behind Colrania’s tech team and switched to my private channel with Alfred.
“Alfred, what‘s the emergency?”
“Paul, seventeen Saraya warships have just exited Hyperspace and are heading for the planet.”
“Seventeen? Could we take them?”
“Yes, but we may take casualties.”
“Mmm. Not good. We have to assume they are hostile I guess?”
“Yes, otherwise why come in such numbers.”
“They haven’t contacted us?”
“Not yet.”
“Too far away for us to have any information on their size, armaments?”
“Yes. I will let you know as soon as I know.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
“Attention everyone.” The Captain’s voice came from the permanently open common channel. “Seventeen Saraya ships have exited Hyperspace and are heading our way. They have not contacted us and their intentions are unknown. We have to assume hostile. Our ships are now under the control of the Kuàisù Niao‘s battle computer and we will be taking up formation soon.”
