by Robert Boren
“How do you know he’s dead?” Caraway asked.
“He took an arrow in the eye.”
Caraway shuddered. “That’ll do it.”
“Two of the Neanderthals fled,” Nolan said, looking at his hand held. “One’s down. Might be dead from that plasma shot.”
“Forget them for now. Let’s go see who was in that suit.” I ran towards the position, Deneuve out of the Jackal and sprinting behind me as Caraway drove it forward, plasma gun turret aimed at the fallen human.
“Yep, he’s dead all right,” Deneuve said, kneeling next to him. “Don’t recognize the outfit.”
Nolan got closer, looking the body over, then turned towards me. “Just as I thought.”
“Overlords?” I asked.
“The Clan,” Nolan said.
“What?” Deneuve asked.
“The Clan are playing around on a level eight planet in the Central Authority Zone?” I asked. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
A loud cry came from behind us, followed by some rustling around. Deneuve and I glanced at each other.
“That’s just the Neanderthal,” Nolan said.
“Stay here, Nolan,” I said. “Caraway, stay on that plasma gun and watch the sensors and the Nanos. Send a message to the ship, too. The Clan has a ship close by. I want our shields up right now.”
“Hopefully they haven’t taken the ship already,” Nolan said. “Don’t waste too much time on that beast. We need to get back.”
“I’ll take it under advisement,” I said, struggling to keep up with Deneuve.
“He might be right, Captain. There might be a Clan ship there already.”
“Tim and Deacon know what’s going on,” I said. “They’re ready to jump out of trouble, and the Clan can’t catch them.”
We stopped suddenly when we saw the creature. It was a male, sprawled on the ground, with a heavy build, and less body hair than I expected, red and blonde in color.
“Easy there, fella,” I said as we approached, his eyes focused on me like a lion looking at a gazelle.
“These aren’t usually dangerous,” Deneuve said. He slowly approached, putting his hand out. The Neanderthal tried to roll away, but Deneuve rubbed it tenderly on the shoulder right below the neck, and it stopped, looking at him with his huge eyes. “This is something they can’t resist, Captain. They’re all like this.”
“Guess those jerks from the Clan didn’t get the memo,” I said. “He didn’t get hit with the plasma shot. I don’t see any burns.”
“His right arm is broken,” Deneuve said. “See? The plasma blast probably hit the branch he was standing on up there.”
I looked, seeing the forearm bent at a wrong angle. “Oh. We can patch him up. We should take him back with us.”
Deneuve looked at me. “If we do that, we’ll have a hard time putting him back here. They become attached really quick.”
“He just shot an arrow at other humans.”
“Clan scumbags,” Deneuve said. “They’re breaking the treaty.”
I put my hand-held to my mouth. “Caraway, drive over here. We’re gonna load this wounded Neanderthal and take him to sick bay.”
“Say again?” Caraway asked.
“You heard me. Get through to the ship?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine, and the shields are up,” Caraway said. “On my way.”
I looked at the hand held, selecting the Nano display. “They’re still moving away.”
“They’ve got a ship hidden someplace,” Deneuve said. “Looks like they’ve made some technical breakthroughs.”
I nodded. “This development could change everything.”
The Neanderthal looked towards the clearing in a panic, hearing the Jackal before I did. Deneuve looked at me and smiled.
“Yeah,” he said, “these guys are like dogs. Their hearing and sense of smell is much better than humans. Eyesight too. You see him shoot the arrow right into that Clan person’s eye socket? That wasn’t an accident.”
“I’ve read they had superior athletic ability, and better hand-eye muscle coordination than humans.”
Caraway trotted over, freezing when he saw Deneuve rubbing the creature’s massive shoulder. “Well that figures. Way to go, nature boy.”
Deneuve chuckled. “This guy is cool. Maybe we ought to keep him.”
“I’m shocked you would think of that,” Caraway cracked. “It’s gonna take all of us to get him into the Jackal, and that’s if he cooperates.”
“Call Nolan,” I said. “Let’s get this done and go back to the ship. We’re liable to have company again.”
“Won’t we get warning from the Nanos?” Caraway asked.
“They just killed the six Nanos that I sent after them.”
Caraway nodded, pulling out his hand-held. It did take all of us to get the Neanderthal into the Jackal, and he wasn’t helpful, even with Deneuve’s talents for settling him down. Once we were underway he fell asleep.
“You want us to park outside?” Caraway asked.
“No, I’ll open the ramp when we get there. Let’s drive her right inside and button up the ship, just in case.”
“I know how to scan for Clan spacecraft,” Nolan said, “assuming they haven’t upgraded their hardware too much in the last few years.”
“Why didn’t we know they were here?” I asked.
“They could be sitting in the water someplace, like we were.”
The Zephyrus came into view, it’s gold shining in the bright sunlight. I used my hand-held to open the ramp, and we drove up, the door closing as soon as we were in the cargo hold.
“All right, get him to sick bay,” I said. “Call some of Deacon’s men to help. I’m going straight to the bridge. Join me, Nolan.”
“Yes sir,” he said.
We hurried down the hall, Nolan struggling to keep up with me again, but not complaining this time.
“Anything show up on our unexpected friends?” I asked Tim as we entered the bridge.
“Can’t see anything,” Tim said. “Did you really bring a Neanderthal onboard?”
“Yeah, to patch him up.”
Izzy swiveled her chair towards me. “I knew you were a softy, Captain.”
“Be nice.”
She smiled at me. “I’m impressed.”
Nolan chuckled. “That thing is gonna win all of us over, you know. They’re notorious for that.”
“It’s not a thing, Nolan,” Izzy said.
I chuckled. “All right, let’s not get any premature ideas. Nolan, you mentioned you could see Clan spacecraft. Get to it. I want to know where their ship or ships are. Got me?”
“Will do, Captain.” He got into his Chief Scientist’s chair.
“Clan ships can be pretty tough to deal with,” Tim said, “and this is no battle cruiser.”
“I’d rather be on this than a battle cruiser,” Nolan said, not looking up from his screen. “They’re in the water all right.”
“How come they aren’t getting attacked by Mosasaurs?” Izzy asked.
“They’re in a big fresh-water lake. Mosasaurs are sea-dwellers.”
“How can you see them when they’re under water?” Tim asked.
“They aren’t deep enough,” Nolan said. “Their ships can’t take the depth that ours can.”
“Can they see us?” Izzy asked.
“Unknown. Captain, we should move elsewhere.”
“Maybe they’ll tell the Central Authority where we are,” Izzy said.
“Doubtful,” Nolan said. “Them being here breaks the treaty. There’s nothing illegal about us being here, other than the regulations about visiting worlds of this level. It’s our zone.”
I was running scenarios through my head, none of them ending well for us. “This isn’t evidence that we’ve got a plant.”
“Yes, I’d have to agree, Captain,” Nolan said. “I don’t believe the Clan saw us initially. I think they were going after the Neanderthals.”
“Why wo
uld they do that?” I asked.
“Unknown. Revenge, perhaps. Maybe they’ve been hit with Neanderthal arrows before.”
“They had bow and arrows?” Tim asked. “They didn’t on Earth, did they?”
“Remember the Ice Age?” Nolan asked.
“How old do you think we are?” Izzy quipped.
“Cute. You know what I’m asking. Neanderthals didn’t develop as far on Earth before they died out. Most experts blame the Ice Age. A few blame humans.”
“Humans on earth were good at final solutions,” Tim said.
“We’ll never know for sure, but I suspect it was a combination of both, plus some other factors we’re not aware of,” Nolan said. “They could’ve just gotten sick. Neanderthals had western Europe all to themselves before Homo Sapiens showed up. They may have died off due to lack of immunity to human diseases.”
The ship buzzed, lights dimming for a split second, static heavy in the air.
“We’re under attack, Captain,” Izzy said, turning to her console. “Plasma cannon.”
“Get us out of here,” I said.
“Where, Captain?”
“Orbit, until Nolan can figure out a place to go.”
“On it,” Nolan said. “Don’t worry, they’re at the extreme end of their range with that plasma cannon. They’re firing it from their ship, and that’s more than five kilometers away.”
“They were that close?” Izzy asked as she lifted the ship off.
Another burst hit us, pushing us back slightly as we slowly rose above the ground.
“Dammit, get us up there now.” I felt my stomach drop as we shot upward, out of the atmosphere in seconds.
“We’re in orbit, Captain,” Izzy said.
The ship was rocked with another plasma blast.
“What the hell?” I asked.
“Clan Battle Frigate just came out of a jump,” Nolan said. “It was nearby.”
“Tim?”
“I’m letting them have it, sir, but their shields are better than ours. This isn’t a battle ship.”
“Jump coordinates on your PA,” Nolan shouted to Izzy as we got rocked again.
“Gone,” I said, feeling the momentary faintness as we made the jump.
“Something left the ship,” Tim said.
I looked at Nolan. “What’d you do?”
“What makes you think I did something?”
I glared at him. “Come on. What was it?”
He sighed. “Documents.”
“You shot some of our payload down there?” I asked. “That’s a violation.”
“They won’t find it in our lifetimes, but the seeds will be planted.”
I got up and walked to Nolan. “Where did you send them?”
“A remote part of the civilized continent. They won’t find it for several hundred years, but when they do, it’ll get them thinking.”
“That’s evidence that we were on a level eight world right there,” Tim said. “We ought to throw you in the brig, Nolan.”
I shot Tim a glance, then looked at Nolan’s screen over his shoulder. “I understand what you did, and I don’t really disagree, but I need to know before you do things like this. You had to lower the shields to get that out. A lucky shot from that battle frigate might have wasted us.”
“It was a calculated risk,” Nolan said, “but I timed it with our own weapons firing. It was safer than you think.”
I stared him in the face for a moment, trying to calm down. “Where are we jumping?”
“Closer to Sheppard One. It’s a prehistoric planet this time. Level twelve.”
“Won’t we have the same problem with the oceans that we had on Valla Cappos?” Izzy asked.
“I learned something from the Clan,” Nolan said. “We’re setting down in a large fresh-water lake. Should be safer.”
“Why don’t we just go to Sheppard One?” Izzy asked.
“We still don’t know if we have a plant or not,” Nolan said. “Want to doom our allies?”
“How long till we get there?” I asked.
“Couple hours, according to the Samson Drive calculations,” Izzy said, reading her monitor.
“Good, then I’m gonna go get this damn armor off,” I said, standing. “You can do the same, Nolan.”
“In a few minutes,” he said. “I’m working something out.”
“Suit yourself.” I left the bridge, heading for my stateroom, mind reeling. The Clan. What the hell were they doing there?
It was a relief to get the armor off. I used the cleansing unit to clean off the perspiration, dressed, then settled into my chair and hit the touch pad under the right arm rest five times. The holograph frame appeared. I put in a call to Chairman Vermillion. It took a few moments for him to respond.
“Sorry, Captain, caught me napping,” he said, wiping his eyes.
“Oh, sorry sir. There’s been some developments. I thought you needed to know right away. It might change our mission.”
“You’re in a jump, aren’t you?” he asked, a smile washing over his face. “We haven’t even tested this feature yet.”
“How does it look on your end?”
“It jitters slightly,” Vermillion said. “We can fine-tune that, of course. It’s watchable.”
“Looks perfect from here.”
He smiled. “Okay, go ahead. What’s on your mind?”
“We had some unexpected visitors on Valla Cappos.”
“Humans? You had to jump out of there?”
“Yes and yes,” I said.
“Overlords?” he asked, his brow furrowed.
“The Clan.”
“Say again?”
“The Clan,” I said. “They had a ship in a fresh-water lake about five kilometers from where we were.”
“I thought you were going into an ocean.”
I chuckled. “Damn sea monsters chased us out. They work in packs, you know. We had several attacking us all at once. It was either flee or use a weapon we couldn’t hide.”
“You didn’t have to use plasma weapons against the Clan ship?”
“On the surface, no, we just shot into orbit, but when we got there, a Clan Battle Frigate came out of a jump and opened fire. We returned it while Nolan was working out the jump.”
“Damage?” Vermillion asked.
“None, our shields held, but we would’ve been toast if we couldn’t jump away.”
“Dammit,” Vermillion said. “All we need is another war. Every time there’s any kind of skirmish anywhere, the Overlords push for tighter restrictions on the population, and the Central Authority backs them. They’d have a field day with a Clan attack.”
“Couldn’t we just shut down their Samson drives?”
Vermillion leaned back his head, thinking. “That would start another war, and there are natural wormholes that dump off near important planets in our zone.”
“Wouldn’t the self-destruct blow up their ships?”
Vermillion shook his head no. “Not all of them. They’ve got thousands of standard-drive space craft. Don’t blame them. They’ve kept their natural wormhole infrastructure in place all these years, too. Peace is more fragile than most people think.”
“We’ve known this?”
Vermillion smiled. “Of course we’ve known it, but we don’t advertise it.”
“First I’ve heard of it.”
“You didn’t have a need to know before. Now you do.”
My mind flashed to all the things I know about but haven’t told my team. It’s the same with me. Secrets. Up and down the chain.
“I understand, sir. Nolan doesn’t think the Clan saw us. He thinks they were going after some Neanderthals in the area.”
“Why? Do they want to import slaves? There’s plenty of Neanderthals in the Clan Zone.”
“Good question. Three Neanderthals were there. Attacked the Clan fighters even though they had camo armor on. Killed one, wounded another. The Neanderthals were very good with bow and arrows.”
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“The Clan operatives were invisible, but the beasts still managed a successful attack?”
“Hard to say what would’ve happened had we not been there,” I said. “The Clan concentrated on us when they realized we were there. Probably saw us with infrared.”
“Did they kill the Neanderthals?”
I hesitated for a moment.
“Something wrong, Captain?”
“Two fled. Don’t know if they’re wounded or not. We have the other one in sick bay with a broken arm.”
“You removed it from the planet?”
I nodded. “We didn’t expect to be leaving in such a hurry.”
Vermillion was silent for a moment.
“Did I do the wrong thing?”
He smiled. “Technically, yes, as Neanderthals are considered natural resources on worlds above level five,” Vermillion said. “Have Nolan look up the language dialects for the planet. See if your new pet understands any of them. They’re a big part of the society on that planet, and they do converse with humans there.”
“Oh, that reminds me. We were checking out a hut on the un-inhabited continent when all of this started.”
“A human hut?”
“Yep, with mummified remains of a couple and child. Nolan dated them at three hundred years old.”
“So much for the survey. That makes Valla Cappos a level six or seven, not eight.”
“I agree. Maybe this Neanderthal will be able to shed some light on the situation.”
“Worth a try, Captain. Where are you headed?”
“A pre-historic planet. Nolan says it’s a level twelve. We’re gonna set down in a fresh-water lake.”
Vermillion laughed. “The beasties ought to be a little smaller, then. Good luck. Keep me informed, especially about the Neanderthal.”
“Are you going to ring the fire alarm about the Clan being in our zone?”
“Not just yet,” Vermillion said. “Take care.”
His face disappeared. I sat looking at the empty hologram frame for more than a minute.
{ 6 }
Evolution
I went back to the bridge. Tim and Izzy were talking to each other in hushed tones. Nolan wasn’t there.
“Any developments?” I asked.
“We’re in the safest place we can be,” Tim said. “In a wormhole of our own making. Are we sure Nolan’s frequency module isn’t something the Clan can work around?”
