COLOSSUS: Departure

by Terry Frost

  “That is correct, Admiral. Maalik was sure to inform me the weapon had properties of an actual gamma-ray burst but didn’t measure up to an actual burst. Even though he was kind enough to tell me about the weapon, I had the distinct feeling he wasn’t telling me everything.”

  “Commodore, how could that even be possible?” Allen asked.

  Commodore Jeeves said, “The idea of having the capability of such a weapon is plausible, Admiral. But I would hypothesize such a weapon would be such a power drain on a ship the size of their Battlestar that either the actual weapon would be diminished greatly, compared to what we know to be a gamma-ray burst, or once fired it would render the Battlestar compromised for some time. I believe both are true, sir.”

  “Very good, Commodore. Admiral, I believe that is why Maalik kept the problem a secret from us. I could see where that would be something the Daakie command wouldn’t want anyone to find out.” Jak said.

  “Well, it is obvious to me that we need to do all we can to make sure the Daakie remain our friends. If they have such a weapon, we sure don’t want them to be an enemy. I’m hoping we will learn what they find out from the Hive member they captured. I’m also concerned, as Maalik was, with the escape of one of the Hive’s larger attack craft.”

  “Yes, sir. Maalik was anxious to leave the Hive training base because he knew the escaped Hive ship would soon return with a large force.”

  “Well, for the moment I need to concentrate on my meeting with the Daakie king, and my immediate concern is to what type of gift I need to take with me for King Gaakin. Commodore, I will leave that decision up to you. This meeting is adjourned.”

  A full day had passed since Jak had gotten back on Colossus, and the next morning Admiral Allen had received the invitation to visit the Daakie king, on planet Daak. Accompanying the admiral was General Dubois, Colonel Hammer, and Commodore Jeeves. They had all boarded a shuttle and were on their way down to the planet.

  Just before reaching the planet they were met by two small fighter spacecraft and the lead fighter contacted the shuttle and told the pilot, which was Hammer, to follow him down to their landing site.

  When the Colossus’s shuttle broke through the stratosphere, the site down below them was amazing. The Daakie homeworld or at least the major city they were flying to was a fully functional modern city, and it covered a vast area.

  The city’s architecture was like none seen on planet Earth. There were hundreds of tube-shaped buildings as tall as skyscrapers erected all over the large city. But every one of the Humans wondered why the tall towers were built leaning about ten degrees to the east.

  Every window in every building resembled more of a port window, usually designed in cruise ships back on Earth. They were round and about two feet in diameter, not very practical for looking out of. Jeeves immediately determined the structures must be habitat for the Daakie population.

  Everywhere they looked they saw a myriad of long fast moving aerodynamic trains moving inside clear tubes. None were exposed to the outside elements. There was no mode of transportation on wheels like cars and trucks on Earth, but there were thousands of various sizes of hovercraft going about their daily business.

  Off to the west of the city were several hundred large biodomes. As they flew closer to the surface it became apparent to the shuttle crew that they were headed for a massive building that sat in the middle of a ring of four-story buildings.

  The building didn’t resemble the rest of the architecture they had seen so far. It was in the shape of a pyramid and covered a large area.

  Pointing at the massive structure, Admiral Allen commented, “That must be King Gaakin's palace. It looks more like a pyramid than a palace to me.”

  “I believe you are correct, Admiral. The structure resembles the architecture of ancient Egyptian engineers,” Jeeves said.

  “Not only that, Commodore. It's obvious the Daakie have an obsession with boomerangs don’t they?” General Dubois asked.

  “It seems so, General.

  Centered on a manicured lawn and fifty yards away from the palace was a large round landing pad similar to the one used by Air Force One helicopters uses to land on the White House lawn back on Earth. Colonel Hammer was instructed by the Daakie fighter pilot to land on the pad.

  Once the shuttle had safely landed the two spacecraft left the immediate area. As the shuttle bay door came down the inhabitants saw three military dressed Daakie soldiers walking down a long ramp to meet them and Burseq Maalik was leading them.

  The soldiers were dressed in full battle gear colored black and gray, and each had some kind of disc-shaped weapon that hung clipped to their hips. Jak could see the outer edges of the weapon glisten as the sun’s rays hit them. As they got close enough for him to see up close he saw the metal was serrated, and figured them to be extremely sharp, and was probably a hand thrown weapon.

  The three soldiers stopped a few feet from their visitors as Maalik stepped up to Admiral Allen and said, “Pleasure to meet you in person, Admiral.”

  “The pleasure is mine, Burseq Maalik.”

  Allen took the time to introduce General Dubois to Maalik. Maalik offered his forearm and when Dubois stuck out his arm Maalik grabbed Dubois’s forearm and clasped his hand on Dubois’s. This was the customary handshake of the Daakie people.

  Maalik turned toward the palace and said, “This way, Admiral. Our King is anxious to meet the Human High Commander.”

  As they continued their walk to the palace Maalik said, “I will escort you as far as our hall of honor where King Gaakin meets dignitaries from other worlds. Then you will be escorted to the King by our version of science officer who is waiting for you there. His given name is, Faadin.”

  Allen was thinking dignitaries from other worlds. I wonder just how many worlds have dignitaries. The USC is going to shit their pants when I tell them not only are we not alone, but there is quite possibly thousands, and maybe millions of planets with intelligent life. I knew it damn it, and I’ve been preaching it for years.

  “When you say, Faadin, is his given name, do you mean his name is given to him by his father and mother?” Jeeves asked.

  “Daakie does not name their offspring. We have a sanctioned committee that has given our people their designations for more than a millennium. We discovered long ago that allowing our citizens to name their offspring was extremely confusing.”

  “How so?”

  “Can you imagine talking to an individual in a large conference hall, or public gathering if many had the same name? How confusing that would be if say, I called the name, Faadin out and more than a dozen answered. Our leadership solved that problem by giving names to all Daakie to eliminate future problems with self-designations.”

  “How do you possibly keep up with all the newborn Daakie to be able to name them?”

  Maalik looks over at Admiral Allen and says, “Your Commodore is full of wonder isn’t he?”

  “We look at it like this, Burseq. Commodore Jeeves is a science officer, and being a science officer, he is expected to question and does, as you can see for yourself.”

  “I believe I would have to agree with your analysis, but I also believe I would tire from too many questions,” Maalik said with a smile.

  Allen smiled along with Maalik then said, “Trust me, I have tired many times.”

  “Our process for naming requires a lengthy explanation. But for you, Commodore Jeeves, I will introduce you to one of our best designators while you are here during your visit.”

  “Thank you, Burseq Maalik. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to talk to one of your designators.”

  Turning his attention back to Admiral Allen, Maalik said, “While you are meeting with King Gaakin, I will be giving your subordinates a tour of our starship construction facilities, which I believe would be most interesting to you, General Dubois, as well as you, Colonel Hammer.”

  “Outstanding, Burseq. Touring your starship construction facility will be most r
ewarding,” General Dubois said.

  When the party got to the twelve foot tall double doors leading into King Gaakin’s palace, Maalik asked everyone but Admiral Allen to wait for his return. Maalik nodded to one of his guards and the guard opened one of the huge doors, and Maalik and Allen entered, then the guard closed the door.

  Chapter 23

  Maalik handed Allen off to Science Officer Faadin and was back to his Human visitors waiting outside of the palace doors in just over a minute.

  “If you’re ready to follow me,” Maalik said.

  The path they walked on was lined with sculptures of past Daakie warriors that must have been considered heroes in battle at one time in the Daakie history, and there were plenty of them. Every sculpture had the name of the warrior, and the conflict he had fought to victory during battle.

  Above, and around them, as they walked were the high-speed trains going about their routes. Jak noticed how quiet the trains ran, and thought that technology would have most surely been welcomed back on Earth.

  Jak had waited as long as he could, so he asked the question about the tilt of the skyscrapers before Jeeves got around to it.

  Addressing Maalik he asked, “I’ve been curious about the tilt of your skyscrapers. Is that by design or does it have another purpose?”

  “I’m surprised that you noticed Colonel Hammer, and yes, the tilt of the skyscrapers, as you call them, does serve another purpose. On Daak we have three seasons a period. We have a mild New Growth Season, a Summer and Winter Solstice.

  “During the New Growth and Summer Solstice, our winds are quite mild. But during the Winter Solstice, our upper winds, which are around three to four hundred feet above the surface can reach a consistent two to three hundred miles per hour. Without the tilt, as you refer to, our skyscrapers could not withstand the winds if they were constructed exactly vertical.

  Our engineer's design all our structures taller than two-hundred feet to be built on a twelve-degree tilt, beginning at the two-hundred-foot height, and on up to the top of the structure.”

  Before long the group came to a two-story building similar to a small plane hangar back on Earth. Inside the hangar were a half-dozen hovercraft that held eight passengers each. They got into the hovercraft and took off toward a large dome off in the distance.

  The dome was the largest dome out in front of the many smaller ones they saw from the shuttle when coming down to the planet. It was located a few hundred yards away from the row after row of similar looking domes.

  Just before stopping at their destination, Jak noticed something odd. One of the Daakie’s super trains had pulled up to an area close to the beginning rows of domes and a large number of people were getting off the train and began walking into the domes.

  What Jak thought was odd was that every alien he saw was of the Venic race. The same race as the beautiful alien Junal, that served him a drink in Maalik’s chambers on the Zurgut. Jak thought why all Venic?And how come so many of them? When Maalik said he rescued her from an attack by the Hive he left me thinking she was the only Venic rescued. I’m wondering if she was, in fact, rescued at all. I’ll need to look into this if I get the chance. I do remember Hopus telling me to not totally trust the Daakie. Should have pressed him a little more on why he would say that.

  Right from the start, it was obvious Maalik was very proud of the engineering it took to build the Daakie Battlestars. The dome was huge and they were working on three Battlestars. Two were near completion, and the third wasn’t far behind.

  Maalik walked the Humans up to a workstation and standing around the station were two Daakie talking to each other. One of them had the typical cornrow hair, but the other had gray dreadlocks down to his shoulders. He was dressed differently from the other Daakie and wore a burgundy smock with a gold band around the neck. The gray-haired Daakie saw his Burseq, and three strange aliens he had never seen before, approaching him and his co-worker.

  Both stopped what they were doing and immediately stood at attention in the presence of the Daakie commander. The older Daakie took Maalik’s forearm as Maalik did the same, and the older Daakie said, “To what pleasure do I humbly get a visit from the great Burseq Maalik?”

  “Always exciting to visit you, Construct Paapik. I would like to introduce you to our Human friends from Planet Earth. This is General Dubois, Colonel Hammer, and Science Officer Commodore Jeeves, from the Earth ship Colossus.”

  After the introductions, and as the four men were walking around the hangar, Maalik asked, “How soon will these Zurguts be ready for duty?”

  “Same old Maalik. Always in a rush to get more battle and space ready protectors of the Daakie homeworld. Nice try Burseq, but you know full well that that information will be given to Naagar (Science Officer) Faadin for delivery to King Gaagin first and foremost, my dear friend.”

  “Well, I thought since you are approaching your twilight period you might be getting a little forgetful,” Maalik said with a wry smile.

  “Not in a million parsecs, most favorable Battlestar Commander.”

  “Well, then, I must press on. I will inform you that I wasn’t asking about the completion dates of the Battlestar for my own personal knowledge, Paapik. I was asking as I am concerned with finding a Hive training base in our system.”

  Paapik’s eyes grew large as he was surprised at Maalik’s announcement of a Hive base being nearby.

  “We succeeded in destroying the base but unfortunately one of their large attack craft got away, and I’m sure the Hive pilot went to recruit one of their Hives to bring back with it.”

  “Well, that is not a very comforting thought. We both know the Hive can cause a lot of problems for anyone that has to engage them. I’ll tell you this, I vow to have at least two more Battlestars ready for King Gaagin’s military in less than 1/12th a period.”

  “That is good news, Construct, I pray they don’t find our homeworld before those two Battlestars are ready. Good day to you, Paapik.”

  Paapik went back to what he was doing prior to Maalik and the Humans stopping by. Maalik and his visitors continued on walking about the hangar as he pointed out some of the features of the new Battlestars.

  After viewing the hangar, Maalik took his visitors the short distances to the biodomes close by. He wanted to show them how proficient his people are at growing some of their food even though it didn’t look like the Daakie were doing the growing. Jak was glad to hear they would be able to look into one or more of the biodomes, as he was still wanting an answer to why the people going into the first biodome closest to the hangar were all of the Venic race.

  When they entered the 10,000 sq ft biodome, the Humans were shocked to see the plants growing inside were grown by using the hydroponic method. Not a single plant was growing in soil. Instead, they were in large vats of nutrient-rich solutions that would make any professed agriculture expert back on Earth envious.

  There were only two types of vegetables (assuming they were, in fact, vegetables) growing in the biodome. One resembled tomatoes, but they were a purple color, and the other was a facsimile of yellow squash.

  Jak was hoping Maalik would tell them what the vegetables actually were, but he was more interested in observing the Venic workers. There was at least fifty of them in the facility tending the vats of vegetables.

  Addressing Maalik, Commodore Jeeves said, “I see you are using self-watering stations for your hydroponics method. A very economical procedure as well, once the initial start-up cost has been absorbed. And since you grow this food in an enclosed environment, you can grow during all three seasons.”

  “That is a correct analysis, Commodore. Do Humans use this method on Earth?”

  “Yes, we have used it for years, but not at the scale you are. I’m assuming the other biodomes we saw before landing at the palace are being used as plant growing facilities as well.”

  “Most are, yes. We have biodomes located in protected areas all over Daak.”

  “What do you mea
n protected, Burseq? Protected from what?” asked General Dubois.

  “Not all of Daak is suitable for biodomes, as we are here in our capital city. We were able to construct hundreds of them here because this location is flat and almost level. In fact, this city is sitting at the lowest level of any surface of this world.

  “A vast portion of our world is mountainous, but we do have a multitude of plateaus that sit at a level higher than 200 feet. Because of our midlevel winds during Winter Soltice, several of those plateus are without windbreaks, and the biodomes couldn’t withstand the strong winter winds.

  “Our engineers were very careful in choosing plateaus with mountain ranges near enough to those to serve as windbreaks from the prevailing winds.”

  Jak noticed the Venics were working steadily, but there was something about their demeanor that didn’t seem right to him. None of them were talking to each other like people normally do when working together, and they weren’t leaving an impression they were happy to be working in the biodome.

  A few more minutes passed and Maalik said they should be heading back to the hovercraft so they could get back to the palace. General Dubois wasn’t too happy about going back to the palace just yet, as he wanted to see more of the military might of the Daakie, but he kept his displeasure to himself.

  And as far as Jak Hammer, he wasn’t quite sure why he hadn’t asked Maalik more about the Venic working at the biodome. All he could think of was the Nawi Hopus’s warning about keeping an eye out on the Daakie.

  ****

  Admiral Allen and King Gaakin had had their formal introductions and were feeling one another out during the first thirty minutes of their meeting. Allen, having a long history of keeping confidential information pertaining to security, mission objectives, etc. on an as the need to know basis. He was artful in the way he gave little tidbits of information about sensitive subjects and making it look as if he was giving all he had available.

  But on the same page was the alien king, sitting across an elaborate, but small conversation table set for two. King Gaakin held a strong presence about him, a regal one. Allen had to keep reminding himself the king probably deserved his position, as he was over five-hundred years old, and with that, Allen thought how the hell does any flesh covered being live to be that damn old?