SODIUM:4 Gravity

by Arseneault, Stephen

  I asked about the number of Barhoo on the ship and he replied that it was only a small crew of several thousand for maintenance purposes and for re-breeding when we were close to our destination. I asked what happened to the seeming hundreds of thousands to which he replied that they were left behind, ejected into space as they were of no use on the long journey.

  I was shocked at the thought of how little life meant to the Kurtz and the Barhoo. Death seemed to be something that was commonplace, with no real effort put forth to sustain or extend life. That revelation told me that Humans would never submit to the rule of the Frekkin Empire. We valued our lives and would do whatever we could to prolong them.

  I asked about my BGS to which Hershen replied that he did not know of its whereabouts. I asked if the news of its existence had been sent forward to Rial Dorius to which he responded "No."

  Rial Mabia would keep that information close and only deliver it in person where she could claim credit. That type of discovery would not be transmitted for fear of credit going to someone else. Position was a high stakes game and the Royals played it for keeps.

  It was not long before I learned that Boota and the other scientists resided on the second level. Their labs were seven hallways outward from our position. Other than guards surrounding Mabia on the first level, there were no soldiers until level-four where the officers resided with some of the lower ranking civilians. The brig was on level-five.

  The air corridors of the ship were arranged in circles around the ships core. There were 14 hallways with the higher ranking Kurtz towards the outer perimeter. Elevators going up were arranged every 50 meters. One had to have access codes to reach each higher level.

  I asked about why it was rare that anyone besides Hershen and the two day-shift guards walked by my cell. Hershen explained that everyone was in stasis for most of the trip back to the planet I called Alvin. There were five air-levels with each having three shift guards. In addition, a small contingent of guards watched over the sleeping Rial Mabia. At any given time there was only one guard on each floor. When traveling at speed in the dead of space there was little to fear.

  I then inquired about the device in my head and if he knew how it had been deactivated. I prodded him along about how it would be an interesting story on my world. He took the bait.

  It took him months to get the information I sought but he was determined to be the best storyteller Toleda had ever known. There was a small device in the science lab that would place a field around electronics making them inert. If the polarity of the field were to be switched my audio implant would once again begin to function.

  I romanced about the idea of convincing Hershen to somehow retrieve the device, but I knew it was not a possibility. He had no access to the upper levels and I dare not attempt to include anyone else in my scheming.

  I soon began to fake having trouble sleeping. Hershen was kind enough to bring me a sleeping aid that the Kurtz commonly used. Over a several month period I managed to save a large portion of the drug which remained hidden under the pad on my bed.

  It was a courtesy on Toleda to share your food with others. I had shared many meals with Hershen as he was not one to break tradition. On the night I had planned for an adventure I asked if he could bring a tray of fish cakes. I convinced him that it was in celebration of an Earth holiday and that it was a tradition I missed. Hershen eagerly complied.

  When he returned I asked if there would be a second helping, again I alluded to it being a tradition to which he quickly scurried off to retrieve another tray. I pulled the sleep aid from my pad and mixed it into several cakes. If my plan worked I hoped to have a chance to explore.

  When Hershen returned I began to spin a tale about a man who was swallowed by a whale. Hershen listened intently as he feasted on the tainted cakes. The drug worked quickly and within minutes Hershen was fast asleep.

  I tested repeatedly that he would not wake before I removed his armpad. I spoke the command to open the door in my best Kurtz and was rewarded with the wisp sound it made when opening or closing. I stepped nervously into the hallway.

  It had been five years since I had been taken captive and five years since I had been outside of my cell. It felt strangely odd to leave the familiar comfort of my room. It was also the first time in several years that I became aware of my nakedness.

  My body was hard and taught and my mind sharp. My blond hair was now down to my waste and had to constantly be pushed out of my eyes. I walked slowly down the hallway peering into each empty cell as I went. I was the only prisoner on the mega-ship.

  I walked the hallway around the ships core coming once again back to my cell. Hershen continued to sleep. I then walked to the nearest elevator and opened the door. I nervously spoke the command to move to the next level. When the doors opened I waited for my inevitable capture, but it did not happen.

  I peered out of the elevator down the hall in either direction. There was no one there. I stepped out and began a slow walk in an attempt to explore. As I stepped around a corner I came face to face with the level-four guard. He was startled to see anyone awake, especially an alien.

  Inwardly I panicked, but I was somehow able to utter a greeting in his language. I then made up a story that I had mistakenly come down from the level above and was unsure of how to return. My armband code did not seem to be functioning. I begged that he assist me without notifying the guard on that level as I did not want to get in trouble and lose my new position as a liaison.

  I was not sure where the words had come from, but to the guard they seemed to make sense. I asked his name in case I had the chance to return the favor or if perhaps I decided to send him a few credits. His name was Keris and his eyes lit up at the thought of someone in such a high position needing his assistance. I was soon escorted back to the elevator and given a warm goodbye as the door closed behind me.

  On level three I looked for the guard and used the same ruse to once again move up. Brotic was most accommodating. Again I was bid farewell and proceeded to level-two. When the elevator doors opened on level-two the guard was nowhere to be found. I walked the seven hallways outwards until I reached the hall that supposedly held the science lab. I tried each door as I stepped barefoot down the hall.

  Each door opened with a wisp sound to a room that appeared to be a science lab. I did a cursory search in each, but found nothing that resembled the device in question. When I exited the fifth lab I was confronted by the shift guard Corthur. He was immediately inquisitive as to who I was and why I was there.

  I told him I was under direct command of Rial Boota and that I was tasked with checking data in his lab. But I had not been to his lab and was lost. Again I begged for assistance and indicated that I would be extremely grateful for his help. I was then escorted in the other direction to Boota's lab.

  I was amazed at how little security there was on the ship. But then again, it was a ship that traveled in one direction for 13 years. No one came on or got off and most of its inhabitants were asleep in stasis chambers. They were also very aware of the hierarchy rules and knew the consequences of any violations. What I was doing was just something that was not done.

  The door to Boota's lab slid open and I turned to the guard and asked for his discretion about the incident before bidding him good-day. He hesitated for a moment and then turned to continue his dull and monotonous, uneventful rounds. He at least now had thoughts of a possible reward for his kind service from someone of higher stature.

  I moved through the lab examining drawers, shelves and cabinets. I was almost ready to give up when I opened a cabinet and saw a familiar looking device. It was as I remembered and as Hershen had described.

  I gently picked up the tool and examined it for a button or switch. There was none. I checked for compartments or doors and again found nothing that could be opened. I shook the device in frustration. I was annoyed that I was so close to enabling my QE comm, but I had no idea of how the device worked.

  I then
thought back to my capture and to the first time Boota used the device on me. I raised the black 20 centimeter cylinder up to just behind my ear and was startled when I heard the double beep of my audio implant rebooting.

  I replaced the device and hurried out of the lab. I rode the elevator down to level-five and quickly made my way back into the cell where Hershen still lay asleep. I closed the cell door and then replaced his armband. I shook him and he grumbled.

  I shook him again and he awoke groggy, with sleepy eyes. I remarked that there must have been something in the fish because I had fallen asleep too. I helped him to his feet and then said good-night before turning back to my bed. He looked on with half open eyes and then turned and stumbled out of the cell.

  Once he was down the hall I enabled my QE comm channel and sent a text to Command... "Is anyone there?" Several minutes later a reply came back asking who I was. I was rusty in my thought to text conversion and found myself continuously inserting Kurtz words into my conversation. It was all I had spoken for most of the previous five years.

  My contact was a low level comm officer, so I immediately asked for someone from Command. He said that was not possible, but he could relay whatever I needed to the proper officers if I wanted to confer the information to him.

  I was taken aback at the thought of being passed along, but I began to tell the story of what had happened, of my interrogation and of the fact that our BGS technology had been compromised. After my message was sent onwards a response from above the comm officer was slow to come back, so I asked what the status was with the Moon and how Earth had fared.

  The news was not good. It had taken another year for the declining orbit of the Moon to be stopped and reversed. Only now was it nearing its original position. During the time I had been gone the weather had turned nasty and earthquakes had been commonplace.

  Food shortages had been severe due to crop losses from the alien attacks. They had only grown worse with the bad weather. Fish stocks had fallen dramatically in the oceans. There had been two major food wars fought over the remaining fertile grounds with billions dead from the fighting or starved from a lack of food. It had not been Man’s finest hour.

  The last truce had only been holding for two months, but tensions were beginning to rise as food stocks were dwindling. Had the aliens only waited a short while their dominance over the human race would have been complete.

  The world’s population had fallen from 11 billion souls to just under 10 billion when the aliens departed. The wars and starvation had taken those levels down to just under four billion. The devastation was immense with tsunamis, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, snows and earthquakes striking with little or no warning. And the fighting between nations had been equally as destructive with whole cities being razed.

  I then asked about a mission to stop the progress of the alien vessel so that the BGS technology would not fall fully into the enemies hands. None was planned as all resources were being spent on defending North America and its remaining food supplies. I told of the likelihood that the BGS information had not left the ship and that if we could somehow stop the ship we could prevent the knowledge from being used against us. That information would be passed on to Command and decisions would have to be made by them.

  After a long conversation I then asked to disconnect so that I could make an attempt to call my grandfather and parents. I was told the chances of their survival were low and that normal communications had been disrupted for years. I then asked if there was anything that could be done, anyway that I could find out if they were alive.

  Several seconds passed before the comm officer on the other end came back with an attempt. He would try to patch me through to the base in Savannah, but from there it would be hit or miss.

  I thanked him for his effort and waited patiently as the next comm officer connected. After some time I was patched through to Pensacola and then routed to Troy, Alabama. I next heard the old familiar sound of a land line ringing in the farmhouse. It went on for seven rings before it was answered. It was Zack's mother.

  She immediately went outside and called in my father who raced to the phone. The tears flowed as I began sending texts. I dare not talk as I was fearful of them discovering that my comm had been enabled.

  My grandfather had passed away two years since. It had been from natural causes, he had fallen over dead in the tomato patch, going out the way he would have wanted to go. Zack's father had also passed away from illness as there were no more hospitals or doctors anywhere nearby.

  My mother was out tending to the animals and was doing well. I then asked about Zack and my father hesitated. In the second food war he had lost most of his right leg, but soldiers were in need and he was soon again on the front lines using a prosthetic to get around.

  He was one of only a handful of BGS Marines who were left and had seen many days in battle and had taken many lives. My father was worried as the last time he had seen him, his face was sullen and his eyes had no life in them. Such was the life of a soldier in modern war.

  I then told my father of my capture and of how I was still held prisoner on the alien ship. I was in good health, but was still a captive. With all the problems on Earth there were no resources being put in place for a rescue mission, I was likely on my own for the foreseeable future.

  He was thrilled that I was alive, but unhappy at the thought of my continued captivity. I told him that such was war and that each of us had to make sacrifices if we wanted things to ever get better. Before I was able to say goodbye a comm tech came on the line and stated that he was sorry, but the connection had been broken. Other, official communications needed the lines.

  The news from home was bleak. So many lives lost and so much devastation. A weakened Earth would be easily overwhelmed by a sizable alien force. And from what Hershen had told me we had only dealt with a mining fleet that had minimal assault capability. The Frekkin were far superior.

  As I sat in my cell I contemplated what to do next when contacted by Command. My communications had come at a difficult time for Earth, but I was not being ignored. Discussions were in the works and I was to hold my position until such time as further questions could be asked and the proper resources diverted in an attempt to end my dilemma.

  I was thankful and had relayed that I would cooperate fully. I laid back on my pad and looked up at the dull gray ceiling. For five long years I had waited for something to happen, some word from Earth. It was a good feeling to once again be known, a good feeling to hear my own language. I was once again a part of a team, of the race of Man, and I liked it.

  As I settled back I consumed one of the tainted fish cakes. I then began scheming about what I might do next. I could easily overpower Hershen and the other guards up through level-two but I had no idea of what trouble I would meet if I moved beyond.

  And what of my BGS suit and weapon? Should I risk another venture like the last in an attempt to find them? Would the power cell still have Sodium or could I find the stash of Sodium pellets that I once had in my thigh pocket? These were all risks to be contemplated on another day. I soon slept soundly under the influence of the powerful alien sleeping drug.

  If you enjoyed this book please leave a review on the site where it was purchased. If you would like to be notified when the next release is available please leave a comment at comments@arsenex.com. Visit the author's website at www.arsenex.com for the rest of the SODIUM series!