Titan Stand

by Max Jager

  "Did the aliens try to chase you when you left?" Asked Matt. Greg chuckled,

  "Naw, by then they seemed to have forgotten us, anyway we were running things, growing our own food, the mines were pretty much played out, and I think the Neistra had moved on, when I left it had been nearly three months since they had picked up ore."

  Matt finally finished Greg's grave, Amber was sitting on the ground just watching, not saying a word,

  "Would you like something to eat Mr. Tate?" Asked Matt. Greg looked at his life clock,

  "Looks like I'm down to two arr's, what the hell! What do ya have?" Matt brought out his supply of freeze-dried food, and began to heat water on his little stove. Greg watched as Matt prepared him some beef stew and coffee, while Matt fixed himself chili Mac with beef. Greg took a sip of coffee studied the cup and remarked,

  "I only know about this stuff from the old timers, the Neistra gave us something called D'ol Meul, wasn't bad, kept you awake, but I was told it couldn't hold a candle to real coffee. Son, this is more that I could have hoped for, and I thank you."

  Greg savored his meal, as his time slowly ran out,

  "Just make sure that packet of data and that little comp get to the authorities," explained Greg, "Oh, I almost forgot,

  "Amber, be a dear and get me that remote." When she returned with a device that was a little bigger than his iphone, Greg handed it to Matt.

  "This device will let you contact Amber along with my ship, I would suggest that you let her maintain an orbit over earth call her when you're ready to leave, she'll come to where you are." Matt took the device and looked at it,

  "I don't understand what these marks and letters mean?"

  "Got something to write with?" asked Greg, Matt rummaged through his pack, and found a felt marker,

  "I'll tell you what these symbols mean then you mark them in your language, by the way, what is your language called?" Matt stared at him,

  "You mean you don't know, it's what you're speaking." Greg shrugged.

  "We never called it anything; it's what everyone spoke, no reason to call it anything."

  Matt wrote down whatever the symbols meant in English, as Greg looked at his life clock again, taking a deep sigh, he said,

  "Almost time, any other questions you want to ask me before I go?"

  "Let me take your picture, you too Amber," said Matt, taking out his iphone he quickly snapped pictures of Greg and Amber, along with the Nora-Lee. Although he had just met Greg, Matt's heart was breaking, holding back tears; he looked the old man in the eye.

  "I'm gonna miss you sir, I've only just met you but I'm really gonna miss you." Greg patted him on his shoulder,

  "You can best remember me by taking the Nora-Lee, as well as Amber, don't mistreat her, go to the stars, find you're destiny it's your's for the taking son."

  Greg checked his life clock again, and said,

  "Amber, would you please get that bag." The android went to the spacecraft and returned with a folded metallic bag. Spreading it out next to the open grave, Amber stood back. Greg then took a small bag from his pocket, and started emptying his pockets into it, then removing his vest, he handed the items to Amber.

  He than took off the device on his wrist,

  "I want you to have this Matt; it's more than a life clock, which by the way, you can turn off if being reminded of your life span bothers you. It's a watch, a communicator, and a tracking device, and did I mention a tiny computer all rolled into one." Matt took the watch but said,

  "Thank you Mr. Tate, I'm not going to wear this right away as my folks would wonder where I got it, but I'll be sure to keep it safe."

  "Time for me to say good-bye Matt, it's been good to know you, do the right thing, and take my advice." He then proceeded to lay down inside the bag, crossed his arms, and closed his eyes. Matt thought this had to be some sort of hoax, but when he thought he heard a small bell ring. Quickly glancing at Greg, he saw the old man stiffen.

  "He is gone," said Amber then looking at Matt, she added,

  "I am your's now, and await your orders." Matt was dumbfounded, now what was he supposed to do?

  "How can someone just die like that? Just know how long you have to live, I can't believe it. Well, I guess we bury him, help me lower him into his grave."

  After zipping Greg into the bag, Matt stood, and said,

  "Goodbye Greg." Then with Amber's help, they lowered the body bag into the grave. Matt placed some small pieces of tin over the bag, before slowly filling the grave in. He had Amber collect rocks to protect the grave, and positioned the headstone at the head of the grave. When everything was finished, he asked Amber for the message Greg wanted read over his grave she handed him a card made of a material that wasn't paper, or even plastic, and began to read the words printed on it.

  "O merciful God, please accept the soul of Greg Tate into your fold. He has fulfilled the task assigned to him, the project is now complete, and it's time to rest." When he finished, Amber began to sing a strange melodic song that Matt found haunting, he didn't realize androids could sing, but Amber certainly could. When she finished, she just stood looking at Matt, who sighed, and said,

  "Well Amber, I need to think."

  Chapter 3

  Titan Stand Chapter 3

  It was getting dark out, and the wind began to pick up, Matt looked at Amber, and said,

  "Well Amber, show me the ship," without a word, she began to walk towards the spacecraft sitting on the ground. Walking up the short ramp, Matt got his first look at an honest-to-god "UFO." The craft seemed to consist of two sections, the "head," or flight deck that angled slightly downward, and the rest that was primarily the engine. In the middle there was a small area consisting of a small cargo bay, with what appeared to be a bunk on one side, with what looked to be a kitchen of some kind on the other.

  "Tell me what we've got here Amber; Greg said you could fly this thing."

  "Pointing to the various parts, Amber began her "tour."

  "This is where you sleep, since I am a Motok, I do not need this, however I can fall into a hibernation state to analyze my systems, and self-repair. That is where Greg…Now you, can prepare your meals, as you can see, this is the cargo area, not very large, but it doesn't really need to be, cone, I will explain the bridge."

  Both then crawled through the hatch into the flight deck, where Matt saw two seats and a confusing array of instruments and controls.

  "Oh shit!" Thought Matt, "How am I ever going to figure any of this out? Uh Amber, I'm gonna really need help figuring all this out." The android sat down in the right seat and indicated to Matt to take the left, turning to him, she said.

  "We will take a short ride, and I will explain everything, please fasten your seat harness."

  Matt gaped at the array of instruments and tried to remember all the space games he had played, but it did no good, all he knew is that they were rapidly climbing into the sky. In moments, he could look out the window in front of him and see the San Juan Mountains spread out below him. Before he knew it, they were now above the clouds, and still climbing. Looking over at Amber he could see her calmly holding a small half-wheel like control as she handled the craft even higher. Matt could now see stars as the earth below became a big blue mass below him. Amber then continued her "tour."

  "I'm holding the "slapper" or the ship's main control, this instrument indicates our height but in "Ing's," you will need to learn Neistraen units of measure, but fear not, I am a very good teacher."

  Matt became more concerned as they began to move deeper into space; the moon now came into prominence as he asked,

  "Are we going to the moon Amber?"

  "Does that frighten you?" She asked.

  "Uhh no, not really, but won't that take awhile?"

  Amber made a facial gesture Matt took for a smile,

  "Not at all…Watch." He watched her touch some buttons which brought up strange symbols on what he took for a computer screen. Suddenly the stars seemed to
melt together, then they became visible again, but he gasped when he realized they were sitting right over the moon. Amber then touched some more buttons, and did something with a touch pad on her right, before he knew it; they were rapidly descending down towards the moon's surface.

  "Goddam! We are really flying over the moon," thought Matt, he sat in amazement as Amber guided the Nora-Lee over the moon's surface, at a speed he could guess at. Looking up, he could see the distant blue planet he called home. It was the same image he had seen in a picture the astronauts had taken long before he was born, smiling to himself, Matt thought,

  "If Liam and Patricia could see me now."

  They continued to "joyride," a little longer, until Amber shot back up into space, and headed for home. Once again, the stars blurred, and they were over earth once more.

  "Tell me Amber;" asked Matt "Is that some sort of warp speed you put us into when the stars melt together like that?" Without looking at him, she responded with,

  "I'm not familiar with this warp speed you speak of, we simply "fold" space, the computer told me how far your moon was, I asked it to calculate how fast we would need to travel based on a given time, in this case, I chose six min's since relatively speaking, we are not that far away. The navigational computer then did the rest."

  "That's awesome," he replied, "What does this ship use for fuel?"

  "This craft utilizes anti-matter particles, which we can scoop up from certain types of stars but it also uses a plasma/druidism pod that must be regenerated from time to time."

  "How do we do that?" He asked,

  "There are…places," was all she would say soon they were back where they started from, Matt's watch told him it was close to five in the morning, and he needed to get back home soon.

  "Look Amber," I've got to get home, Greg said you could hang around in orbit for awhile, how long might that be?"

  "For as long as you need Matt, I am your's now, have you tired of me?"

  "On no! Amber, not in the least, it's…It's just my parents wouldn't understand you, I've got a lot of things to think about, but wait, I've got an idea. There are a number of communications satellites orbiting over earth, all our phone signals go through them, do you think it would be possible to uh, you know hack into one of them and call me on my phone here?"

  "You have the recall device," she said, "Simply contact me with that, and I'll come to you."

  Matt grimaced,

  "Yeah well that might not be the best, at least not right now, how about we use some of that superior alien technology and figure out how to contact me through my phone here, here's the number, keep it in mind and while you're up there, maybe you can hack into a satellite or something and call me?" Amber gave him a puzzled look,

  "Well…"

  "I know it's a long shot, if nothing else, maybe you can figure out how we do things here on earth."

  "Very well," she replied, "Perhaps it will give me something to do after all."

  "If we can talk to each other on the phone, I can let you know what's happening, but right now I'm caught up in a bunch of crap, so if you don't mind."

  "Very well Matt," replied Amber, "I will attempt to contact you but will await your recall signal." Matt did something he never thought he'd do. He moved up to Amber and put his arms around her and gently hugged her. He expected her to be cold, but Amber felt warm like another human, this surprised him, but he didn't let on to his feelings about this.

  "I will see you again Amber, just hang tight until I get some of this shit straightened out OK?"

  "OK…Matt."

  He climbed up into the tree house and packed up all his gear, and loaded everything back on the ATV. Before he left, Matt took the recall device from Amber, then watched as she returned to the spacecraft, and took off. He took one last look at Greg's grave, and sighed, before riding back home. Matt's mind was so crowded by thoughts of Greg, Amber, and even the Nora-Lee, he almost ran off the trail twice. Returning home, an hour later, his father asked where he had been.

  "I went camping, you know that dad, I told you and mom."

  "Yeah, I guess you did at that, my mistake, oh by the way, the school backed down, you've been reinstated with a clean record, isn't it funny what people will do when faced with the loss of everything they own."

  Monday morning came and Matt wasn't so sure he wanted to face school; especially after all he'd just been through. There was a very distinct change when he returned, there were quite a number of kids who came up to him and basically said,

  "Way to go, you showed 'em!" However just as many gave him dirty looks or ignored him completely. The worst rejection came from Patricia. All during the day she avoided him, or just glared at him, after school she came up to him accompanied by Liam, confirming his suspicions that his best friend was after his best girl.

  "What the fuck is the matter with you?" She hissed at him,

  "My mother was sick with fear, my dad worried about loosing our home. It's over between us Matt, don't ever speak to me again, you hear, we're finished you hear me, just get out of my life!" Liam said nothing his smirking said it all. Instead, of arguing with her, Matt just turned and walked away, compared to what he'd just done, and looked forward to, Patricia's problems didn't even register. It was too bad about Liam, but Matt doubted his friend would have been able to keep his mouth shut about Amber or the Nora-Lee.

  Two days later, his folks decided it was time to discuss college again, and where he wanted to go. Unfortunately, Matt's mind was elsewhere, thinking about Amber and what she was doing up there orbiting the earth. Earlier, Matt had settled on studying computer science and possibly game design. His folks were somewhat cool to the idea, but their attitude was,

  "It's your life Matt, all we ask is that you examine your career choice carefully, is there any money in it, can you make a decent living at it, and is it what you really want to do with your life." His mind kept returning to the Nora-Lee, and that incredible bridge, along with the possibility of actually flying that ship someday. Amber was another matter, the more he thought about her, and the fact that she was an android, intrigued him even further. Greg was right, the opportunity of a lifetime awaited him, unfortunately, it would require incredible sacrifice.

  The local community college had a decent computer program, and he could knock out all his prerequisites there as well so if he transferred to a state or private university he could jump right into his major. He convinced his parents to let him attend the two year college first, allowing him to make up his mind as to where he wanted to get his degree from. Actually this was all a ploy to buy him time so he could investigate the opportunities Greg said awaited him. Matt spent several sleepless nights thinking about what he knew would eventually happen. One evening just as he was getting ready for bed, Matt's phone rang.

  "Hello?"

  "Hello Matt…"

  "Amber! Is that really you?"

  "Yes, I did as you suggested, getting into this satellite was incredibly easy, however locating your number took some time, but here we are, how are things with you?"

  He couldn't believe it; Amber actually hacked into the system,

  "I'm so glad you were able to get through Amber, say, I would like to take another ride in the Nora-Lee as well as have you show me more of the ship's controls. We won't go back to that old ghost town, but I know another place you can land, where no one will see you, but when you do, cloak the ship OK?"

  "I will await your signal Matt, good bye."

  Chapter 4

  Titan Stand Chapter 4

  Matt knew of an old little league field that hadn't been used in several years, it was about a mile and a half from his house off the end of the neighborhood. The chance of anybody spotting the ship or him standing in the field as there were no homes close by. Early Saturday morning, he rode his bike down to the old ball park and walked to one edge of the field and turned on the recall device. When he heard the sound of rumbling coming from overhead, He knew Amber was on her way.
Carefully watching the early morning sky, he could just make out a slight shimmering indicating the Nora-Lee, the sudden change in the engine's pitch indicated the craft had landed. Matt waited until he saw Amber suddenly appear in front of him as she stood at the base of the boarding ramp; he walked over to where she was standing and said,

  "Let's get out of here before someone see's us, Amber; I'm ready for you to show me more of the ship's controls." Both climbed back into the flight deck and took their seats.

  "Get us out of here Amber," The android quickly lifted off, then asked,