The Interstellar

by David Lund

  By mid-morning, all preparations were complete and they were ready to set off. The wormhole generator had been powered and all they needed to do was exit Earth’s orbit and create the wormhole. They had decided, well John had decided, that they were going to enter the new solar system much closer to the alien world than the Interstellar had, somewhere around the fifth planet.

  He was confident his sensor blocker would work and that they wouldn’t be detected. As for the apparition of the wormhole, John hoped the aliens would believe in a natural phenomenon.

  The hangar doors opened, revealing a gaping hole in the ceiling, and the rockets were fired. The ship rose steadily without any problems, and soon they were in orbit. James looked at the view screen that showed their beautiful planet, and wondered if this was the last time he was seeing it. He glanced sideways at John, who was sitting next to him, studying his console. He seemed unperturbed by this and James tried to shake the feeling.

  They left orbit, making there way out into deep space. The ship was beautiful, she sailed through the vast nothingness, using the Newton Drive without struggling. The artificial gravity worked just as well as the Interstellar’s. The ship revolving around itself and enabling them to stay grounded.

  Only an hour after leaving orbit did John order his men back on Earth to create the wormhole. It was all done from their base. The wormhole took almost two hours to generate. James was mightily impressed by this technology, and wondered of the possibilities. This could enable them to travel to the furthest reaches of the galaxy. Although John had explained that sending them thirty light years was stretching the wormhole’s capability, James saw no reason why the technology might not be improved in years to come.

  While they waited, James took some time to explore the vessel. He wandered down to the mess hall to see if he could find something to eat. This room was on the second floor. It was large and brightly coloured in yellows and greens. Several tables were littered around, seating four people. It seemed John intended to keep separate from his crew, a mistake in James’ opinion. At one end of the galley was a cooking station, and a pimple faced young man stood behind it, apparently waiting. He saw James approach and nodded to him.

  “Anything to eat?” James asked the young man, who immediately prepared him a delicious turkey sandwich, which he ate greedily, sitting at one of tables nearest the windows. Beyond it, James could see the outline of his home planet, getting steadily further away as they sped nearer the coordinates of the wormhole.

  He was just contemplating asking the man for another sandwich when the intercom buzzed, asking all personnel to report to their stations, they were ready. James headed straight back to the bridge.

  “James, we are ready,” John said as he saw James enter the bridge. James sat in his chair. On the view screen was nothing but dark space, but according to the readings on Isobel’s console, the wormhole was there, ready and waiting.

  The ship suddenly vibrated hard, and the lights on the bridge flickered.

  “Nothing to worry about,” John said. “It’s the gravitational pull from the wormhole. Full speed Mr Hobbs,” he added, nodding to the man named Tim.

  “John, you need to activate your sensor blocker now, in case they can get readings from the other side.”

  “Do it,” John said to Isobel. She pressed a few keys.

  “Done, Captain.” James saw John smirk at his self claimed rank, loving it. The ship was vibrating harder than ever now, making it hard to hear each other. The comm buzzed and the engineer informed them that the engines had gone haywire. Worry crossed the lines on John’s face, but Isobel informed them that they were one minute away from the entrance to the wormhole.

  “Brace yourselves,” John yelled into the comm, as they sailed closer.

  29

  Simon Hank found himself on a space station with several Friiist. They were in a cold, darkened room, all sitting on chairs set in a circle. The room was rather bare, and had just one window, which showed the blackness of space beyond.

  They had arrived half an hour earlier and docked with the small space station. Kraywall had explained that it was located on the furthest reaches of the colonies, in a place where the Friiist rarely go and is considered to be the slums. Simon noticed that the stations seemed to be spaced further apart here, that they were smaller and seemed more crowded. The ships docked with the stations seemed to be rather worn and old, compared to the sleek ones he had seen nearer the planet.

  Apparently, poverty wasn’t only a Human concept.

  The people in the room were all part of the rebellion. They believed the Friiist government was lying to the general population and that humanity did not really send the probe. Simon had no idea whether this was true or not. All he knew, was these people seemed to be prepared to help him rejoin with the other humans.

  Once they were all seated, Janewall stood and faced the group. Before speaking, she laid her open translator down next to Simon, so he could understand what was going on.

  “Thank you all for coming. I’d like everybody to meet Simon. We knew the Central was keeping one of the Humans prisoner, and now we’ve finally managed to free him.” There were shouts and whoops from the small crowd. “Our next step,” she continued. “Is to get him back to his own people without being discovered by Central.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “Thanks to Simon, we have learned that more information than we thought has been falsified by the government. We were told that Simon came here to destroy us, but the truth is that he was abducted from his own world by our people.”

  “Are you saying the Central has the means of travelling beyond our solar system?” someone asked.

  “We suspected as much,” Janewall nodded. “But it seems now that we have proof.”

  “How do we know the human is telling the truth?” someone else asked loudly. Another one of them, a female stood angrily.

  “Come on Shawall, you know it’s the truth, think of all the things Central has lied to us about. Does one more thing surprise you? I bet they’re out there exploring every reach of the galaxy to steal technology from any other intelligent race that exists.” She sat down and crossed her arms.

  Simon stared at the female alien and guessed that she was probably one of the youngest ones in the rooms. Her pale face seemed less lined and her voice, although harsh when addressing the poor Shawall, (who seemed somewhat humbled after her outburst), was rather soft and pleasant.

  “We can’t rule that out as a possibility,” Janewall said. “But we need to focus on one problem at

  time. Simon was abducted many years ago. I’m sure he wishes to rejoin his fellow humans.” Simon had not spoken yet, and now he noticed that all eyes were on him. He cleared his throat and stood up.

  “Your people have been abusive, cold and have stolen my life. I don’t know how long your people live, but we only get eighty odd years, so I’m nearing the end of my life. I’ve spent fifty of those locked in a cold and damp cell on your radioactive planet. To be honest, it’s hard to look at you all without feeling angry.” He raised his hands. “I know it isn’t your fault. I can’t judge your whole race by how I was treated by your government. All I want is to go home.” He sat back down and felt tears burn his eyes. It was a strange sensation, he hadn’t cried in years, and he suddenly felt ashamed.

  There was a few seconds of silence after his words, during which the Friiist looked at each other.

  Janewall stood and put one of her hands on his shoulder in a comforting manner.

  “We are going to help you.” A tear fell into his lap. Janewall frowned a him. “Why are you leaking?” She seemed concerned. In spite of everything, he laughed, and it felt great.

  “I’m crying,” he said. “It’s how Humans show emotion.” Kraywall got to his feet too and approached Simon.

  “Did you say you’ve been locked up on the planet for fifty years?”

  “Yes, I think so.” He had tried counting, over the years, the number of meals he had recei
ved, and had come to that conclusion. Although, he may have been wrong.

  “Then, you must have been there when the so-called probe detonated on the planet.”

  Simon frowned.

  “No, I didn’t feel anything.”

  “But that isn’t possible. If you were on the planet, you should have been killed, like everybody else.”

  “But Kraywall, was everybody who was on the planet killed?” Janewall said. “After all, Simon was being held deep underwater, on the other side of the planet from where the bomb hit. The radiation spread there afterwards, but it is possible he didn’t feel the explosion. We weren’t there, we wouldn’t know. Surely, there were people there with him who are alive today.” Kraywall looked at his wife.

  “You may be right,” he said slowly.

  “It’s only in the first couple of years that they took any notice of me. After they had done their experiments, they just fed me. I never understood why they didn’t just kill me.”

  “After the bomb hit, they were probably pre occupied with re building our civilization. And after that? Well, who knows, maybe they thought they could use you when the humans came to finish destroying us. We were told the Humans would come and kill the rest of us after the bomb hit.”

  “But you don’t believe we did send that probe do you?”

  “No, we think the government killed their own people.”

  “To what end?”

  “To make us live in fear. To control us. Mass destruction for better control. It’s their way of doing things.”

  “But not everyone believes this?”

  “No, most of the world believe the Humans want to destroy us. That’s the government’s version of events.”

  “But that’s preposterous,” Simon exclaimed. “First of all, we have no reason to damage your world, we are all for exploration and meeting new species, and we thought we were alone for a long time.

  Maybe we’ve found out about you now – if my species has sent a ship – but it’s definitely not to destroy your people. On top of that, your species is obviously way more advanced than mine. We don’t have the means to defeat you in a fight. There is simply no reason for it.”

  “That is what we think too. Simon, do you think they sent their ship to rescue you?” He thought about it this for a second. He would have loved for this to be true, but didn’t think it likely that they would try after so long a time. He told Janewall as much.

  “Well,” she said. “They are rescuing you whether they like it or not.” She looked around the room.

  “Does anyone have any idea how we can get him back to his people?”

  “They are on Henfor?” the young female asked. “Can we send them a message, and inform them we have one of their people?”

  “It would be tricky, but it’s possible, and also dangerous. The Henfor don’t exactly like us, do they?”

  Kraywall answered.

  “Then I should send the message,” Simon said. “If they are helping others of my kind, they will surely help me.”

  So they got to work. Inside this small room, they had several monitors which Simon guessed were computers. Several Friiist set to work to try and figure out how to send the Henfor an encrypted message they will be able to read, without their own government picking it up. Not a small feat.

  While they were doing this, Simon was trying to work out what he was going to say. What do you tell people you haven’t been in contact with for nearly fifty years? He was becoming emotional again. It felt strange to be planning to talk to Humans. He thought he would die in his cold prison cell, without ever seeing a human face again. When the other Friiist had shown him a picture of the human captain, he had nearly wept, but had held it together. He had almost managed to believe that Earth didn’t exist and that it was only a dream world. He felt that if he could pretend that it didn’t, he wouldn’t get his hopes up again, only causing him more pain.

  But now, it felt so real. He could remember vividly, for the first time in years, his home, his wife

  and his young son. God, he would be in his sixties now. Would he even recognise him? Was he even still alive? No, he mustn’t think about theses things, their was still very little chance of him ever getting home.

  He ran a hand through his long tangled beard. He was a very old man now, he didn’t even know how he had managed to live this long. But for someone who had spent his life in a cell, he felt rather good. Being set free had given him a renewed energy. His hope was back, he couldn’t deny it.

  Almost an hour later, Janewall announced they were ready to send the message. Simon nodded and felt suddenly very nervous. He had worked out what to say. He sat down in front of a camera and with a nod from Janewall, began his recording.

  30

  On the main observation station in the centre complex of the Friiist Central government, many Friiist were working at computers, scanning the space beyond for any unusual activity. These were the ones in communication with the many outposts surrounding the Friiist home world.

  As the workers went about their usual day, checking all the data, reporting anything unusual, communicating with the outposts and general conversation amongst themselves, one young Friiist was bent over her monitor, ignoring everyone else. She was concentrating on the strange phenomenon that had appeared on her screen. It was a grainy picture of a radar. There was a gravity well appearing just outside the planet’s orbit.

  As per Central regulations, she immediately called in the anomaly to her superiors and within minutes, there was a crowd of people standing around her desk, peering at her monitor.

  There wasn’t much to see, it was after all only a grainy image of radar map. The young Friiist brought up further sensor data. The sensory images told them there was indeed something coming out of the phenomenon, and it appeared to be a ship. However, seconds after bringing up this data, the readings disappeared. They pondered over this for a few minutes, until one of the bosses said they were to send a ship to the location at once, and this time, there would be no hesitating. If it was a human ship, they were to be destroyed.

  *

  At the same moment on Henfor, the same readings appeared in one of their satellite stations. The one who saw them first was Krolreen, one of the older workers in the station. He picked up the wormhole while doing a routine scan of the surrounding space, and the gravitational well struck him as odd too.

  His bosses were alerted straight away and Krolreen found himself talking to Barneen, the president of Henfor via video link. The large face of his president was speaking very fast.

  “Are you absolutely sure its creating a gravity well?”

  “Yes, Mr President.”

  “And it’s inside the energy barrier?”

  “Yes.”

  “It sounds like the wormhole Edwards described. Could it be more Humans?”

  “It would seem likely.” Barneen thought for about two seconds then cut the link to Krolreen and opened another to one of his army captains.

  “I need a ship sent to these coordinates,” he barked as he transferred the coordinates to Trineen, one

  of the best Captains in the fleet.

  “What are we looking for?” she asked.

  “A human ship, it is vital you find them before the Friiist. And Captain?”

  “Yes?”

  “Be prepared for a fight.”

  *

  James awoke with a headache, a blaring sound was resonating loudly in his head. After a few moments, he realised it was an alarm. He also noticed that he was lying down on the floor, face first. He got up gingerly and saw blood on his hands, he reached up and touched his face, feeling a deep cut on his forehead. His vision blurred for a second and he steadied himself by reaching out and grabbing a hold of his chair.

  As he caught his breath, he looked around the bridge. Both John and Tim were also lying on the ground and seemed to be out cold, but Isobel was up and was frantically trying to put out a fire that had appeared on one of the consoles with h
er jacket. James sprang into action, pulling out a panel next to the doorway where he knew fire extinguishers were usually kept. Pleased that there was indeed one there, he pulled it out and ran over to Isobel, spraying the fire with foamed CO2. The fire was out in seconds. Isobel breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Are you okay?” he asked her. She coughed and sat down in her chair by the now extinguished console, nodding. James went over to John and felt for a pulse.

  “He’s breathing,” he said, relieved. “But he needs a doctor.” He ran over to John’s console and pressed the comm. “Bridge to sick bay.”

  “The comm’s not working,” Isobel said through a fit of coughs. “And we don’t have a doctor on board.”

  “What?” James barked. “You can’t go on a mission like this and not have a doctor.” He growled as he spoke and went over to Tim. He knew the news was bad before he even reached him. Tim was lying at an awkward angle, his neck bent too far backwards. He knelt down and felt for a pulse.

  Nothing. Panic crept up inside him. He also felt angry at John, he’d told him it wasn’t safe, and now someone was dead, and there may be more.

  He went to John’s chair and pulled round his panel. Thankfully, the sensors were still working.

  He brought up the readings and gasped. Isobel, who was trying to rouse her captain, turned to look at him.

  They had arrived where they expected to: the two suns shone brightly like the only street lights on a dark road, but seeing the alien constructions and ships on the sensors was still a shock. Here

  was a thriving population all around him. That was not what made him gasp however. The constructions were not just around the fifth planet as they had thought, but around the fourth too.