“Alien vessel,” a voice cracked over ancient speakers Daniel did not even realize the shuttle had. “This is Experian Mining Corporation, Jupiter outpost. Please state your point of origin and destination.”
Daniel was still holding the neuro amplifier to his eye and saw that he needed to depress a button before speaking. He cleared his throat and pressed the button.
“My name is Daniel Brickman,” he said hoarsely. “I’m returning from the Tridar system. What year is it?”
“What?” crackled the voice. “What do you mean what year is this? Quit fooling around and state your point of origin and destination. Experian Corporation will prosecute any encroachment of its mining rights.”
“I’m not mining,” Daniel croaked. “My name is Daniel Brickman. I left Earth in the year 2024. I need to speak with the president.” Daniel wasn’t sure if there was a United States anymore, but he didn’t know who else to ask for.
“Alright, wiseass, prepare to be boarded. We know how to deal with your kind.”
“I’m not trying to…” Daniel’s voice trailed off. He knew he couldn’t prove who he was. If they thought he was insane and locked him in a mental institution, there was nothing he could about it. He only hoped that perhaps the shuttle would verify his story.
Daniel watched as a ship rose from the mining station and moved quickly toward him. Suddenly, just as the mining vessel drew near, another voice crackled over the speakers.
“Experian Vessel,” the voice said. “Stand clear of the derelict spacecraft and return to your point of origin.”
“I can’t believe it, a space patrol when you need it. I guess it’s your unlucky day, jackass. Oh, and you could have notified us before we burned hydro, space patrol.”
“Please clear this channel and return to your point of origin, Experian.”
The mining ship pulled away from Daniel, and he noticed a large, oval shaped craft moving into the light glowing off of Jupiter. The ship moved directly over Daniel’s shuttle before slowly lowering down over it.
Daniel tried using the radio to speak to the large ship, but his hails were never answered. The large vessel had opened a bay on the area just above Daniel’s ship and slowly moved down until Daniel’s ship was completely inside the other.
Once the panel below the ship slid closed again, bright flood lights came on and Daniel had to cover his eyes. It wasn’t long until a column of armed men marched out and surrounded the shuttle. Daniel was a little surprised, but he went to the airlock and opened the shuttle’s main hatch.
As the ramp lowered, Daniel saw the men raise their weapons, and Daniel in turn raised his hands. He felt a little foolish in the makeshift clothes, but he had no other options. If the Tridarians hadn’t loaded airtight supplies, he would standing there naked.
“Descend the ramp slowly and keep your hands raised!” ordered a voice that was obviously amplified.
Daniel obeyed and walked down the ramp, wishing he had shoes, but he tried to push those thoughts from his mind. He was back in his own solar system, as odd as that sounded, and surprisingly enough, he was happy about it.
“My name is Daniel Brickman,” Daniel said, his voice clearing a little.
Three armed guards took up stations around Daniel, while several others searched the shuttle.
“I’m the only one,” Daniel said to one of the men, who totally ignored him.
Finally, someone inside the ship called “all clear’ and the group escorted Daniel into a small room with a table and two metal chairs. Daniel waited in the room alone for almost an hour and was beginning to lose his sense of humor, when the door finally opened. The man who entered was tall, with dark hair and an athletic build. He wore a navy blue uniform that was covered with patches and metals and gold roping. He sat down across the table from Daniel and smiled.
“My name is Lt. Ryder Warkoski, Space Patrol. I just have a few questions for you. You said your name was…?”
“Daniel Brickman,” Daniel said.
“Daniel Brickman?” the lieutenant asked. “As in the Daniel Brickman from the revolution?”
“The what?”
Ryder shook his head and continued asking questions, “And you’ve been in the Tolligark system all this time?”
“No, I’ve been in suspended animation,” Daniel was beginning to worry that no one would believe him.
“But you left the Tolligark system in your ship?”
“No, actually, I left the Tridarian system.”
Ryder nodded this time, as if Daniel were talking about the next town over.
“Can you tell me what this is?” He placed the neuro amplifier on the table.
“It’s a neuro amplifier,” Daniel explained. “I took it from a Tolligarkian when we took control of their vessel. I needed it to interface with their technology.”
“I see,” said the lieutenant. “Thank you, Mr. Brickman.”
He stood and turned to leave.
“No, wait, that’s not all,” Daniel said, jumping to his feet. “You need to know that the Tolligarkians are coming. They could be here any day. We have to get ready. Who’s in charge now? What year is it?”
The lieutenant didn’t hesitate but left the room. Daniel pounded on the door and screamed, but the door was locked and no one seemed to care if he screamed all day. He dropped wearily back into the uncomfortable metal chair. He was tired, and wanted to lay down more than anything, but there was no place to do it. After a few moments, the door opened and another armed man in uniform stepped into the room.
“Mr. Brickman, come with me please.”
Daniel stood up. “Where are you taking me?”
“To the latrine, sir, we’re going to get you cleaned up.”
Daniel followed the soldier to a shower facility and was flanked by two others with weapons at the ready. It was the first time Daniel had seen himself in a mirror since the morning he had left Tolligark with Jason. His beard had grown in and his hair had gotten longer, but he didn’t look too bad considering he had been in a hyper-stasis bed for 400 years. The soldier set clothes on a bench, along with a shaving kit and toiletries. Daniel took a hot shower and marveled at how good the water felt. He would have liked to have stayed in the shower, but the soldiers were waiting on him. He got out and combed his hair and shaved. He pulled on the clean clothes. The soldiers escorted him out into a large room where they scanned his image into a computer terminal and then started a video recorder while he explained what had happened and how he had made it back to Earth.
When he was finished, the solider in charge moved away from Daniel and spoke into a station on the wall. After a few minutes, Lt. Ryder Warkoski arrived.
“It’s time to go,” Ryder said.
“Go where?” Daniel asked.
“Earth Station 6,” the lieutenant said. “You’re going home.”
Chapter 46
They walked along a hallway that was lined with windows. Daniel could see the swirling colors of Jupiter’s atmosphere glowing brightly in the light of what seemed like a very distant sun. At the end of the hallway was what appeared to be the bridge, or command center, of the large craft. There were multiple workstations, each with very complicated video displays. The men and women working at the stations were all in uniform and each wore glasses that were exactly the same. The frames were clear plastic and the lenses seemed overly large.
In the center of the room was a small archway that led to nowhere. Daniel recognized it as a transporter. They walked to a workstation near the arch and the lieutenant spoke to the man working there. The man touched his screen and the bridge that Daniel could see through the archway disappeared.
“Let’s go,” said Warkoski. He grabbed Daniel’s arm tightly and pulled him toward the arch. The other officers and the armed guards did not move.
Daniel stepped into the darkness of the transporter and felt the familiar push that felt as if it were mashing him down into a pinpoint of matter before finally reverting him back to his
normal state. It took only a moment, and they were suddenly stepping through onto another room in a space station millions of miles away. Daniel looked around at the large windows of the room and saw Earth, the familiar blue and white planet. His heart swelled at the sight and he wanted nothing more than to go home, to sit in a park and watch the clouds drift by overhead. He longed for trees and grass, cool breezes and warm sunlight on his face. His reverie was interrupted by Warkoski.
“Let’s go,” he said again, pulling Daniel toward a door at the other end of the room. This room was filled with similar work stations, each with a uniformed officer with strange glasses facing colorful video displays, only there were hundreds of stations in this room. The number was quite astonishing, to see so many people, all looking the same, doing seemingly the same thing. There were variations, of course, different skin colors, different hairstyles, but the uniforms and glasses and concentration on the screen before each one gave the illusion of similarity, and the idea reminded Daniel of movies of the future where people mindlessly went about daily tasks, all the same, all without any personality or choice about their daily lives. The feeling of things being so different scared Daniel. He had hoped that he would fit back into daily life easily, that it would be a comfort, but so far he had been treated like a criminal and shocked by what he had seen.
The lieutenant led him down a long hallway that was as barren and dull as anything he had ever seen. It reminded him of a submarine he had once taken a tour of while on vacation with his parents in Mississippi. This hallway was only slightly larger than the submarine’s had been, but it had the same feel of claustrophobic narrowness. There were doors along the hallway, all with touch screen locks. Daniel looked at them, hoping for a sign or label that would tell him what was beyond the door, but they were blank. He found it hard to believe that the lieutenant knew where they were going. They seemed to walk for over a mile, at least, but it was hard to tell. Daniel had no watch and the hallway had no variation.
Finally they came to a door and Warkoski put his hand on the panel beside it. There was a beep and then the door swished open. Daniel wondered if every door would open if the display were touched, or if it had somehow recognized the soldier and allow him access.
In the room beyond, he found that there was still a sense of things he remembered. There were potted plants in this room, which appeared to be a waiting room of some sort. The floor was carpeted with a standard indoor, outdoor Berber. The beige carpet was as bland as the grey metal walkway of the hall they had just left. The walls were painted, but they appeared to be made of metal, and the artwork on the walls, although more vivid than any picture Daniel had ever seen, was still garden variety landscapes and still lifes. The room looked comfortable, with chairs that appeared to be leather lined against the walls. There was a large counter near a door on one wall, and a woman with blond hair tied up in a strange looking knot on the top of her head. She wore the same, strange glasses that the officers had worn on the ship and in the transporter room. She was busy, concentrating on a screen that seemed to be built into the counter desk she was sitting at. She did not look up when they entered, and Warkoski motioned for Daniel to sit.
It was odd to sit in a comfortable seat again. It felt like ages since Daniel had sat in a regular chair. The chair he had occupied in the interrogation room was so hard and small that it was extremely uncomfortable. The shuttle had seats in the cockpits, but like the seats in the Tolligarkian ships, they had no backrests. Daniel sank into his chair and sighed. At least he would be comfortable while they waited. He had taken things like comfort for granted, but no longer. He vowed to himself that he would enjoy things from now on, whether it was a warm breeze, a cool drink, or a comfortable seat. He had traveled the galaxy, met strangers from strange planets, and he knew there was nothing like the comforts of home.
After what seemed like nearly an hour, the woman at the desk motioned to them. Warkoski stood and took hold of Daniel’s arm again.
“You don’t have to do that, you know,” Daniel said. “I’m not going to run away. I wouldn’t know where to go if I did.”
Warkoski merely frowned at Daniel, the look on his face gave Daniel the impression that the soldier didn’t believe a word he said. He pulled Daniel toward the door by the receptionist’s desk.
They walked into a room with a large wooden table in the center. The room was a long rectangle and the far wall was made, it appeared, of solid glass. Daniel could see the moon shining brightly and framed by thousands of stars. He wondered for a moment if one of those stars was at the center of the Tridar System or perhaps the Tolligark system. It felt strange to know he had stood in the light of another star, as if he were somehow a traitor to have left his sun and planet behind. The thuggish nature of Warkoski didn’t help him feel any better. And he was struck once again with an incredible loneliness. No one here knew the world he had known. Perhaps they had read about it, or seen movies that depicted it, but ultimately it was as foreign to them as Tolligark.
Three men entered the room, two taking stations on either side of the door they had come out of. The other moved to stand beside the door Daniel and Warkoski had entered through. The men were all dressed in military uniforms, with tall boots; their pants were tucked into the boots and their jackets were thick, with tall collars that stood up along the back of their necks. They stood at attention, their hands behind their backs, their legs rigid. They had heavy looking belts around their waists, with bulky looking firearms in holsters. The guns looked deadly, and Daniel again wondered why he seemed to be surrounded by military soldiers. Had warfare become common in the future? Was the earth now ruled by a vicious dictator?
Then a man walked in; he was wearing a suit made of material that shimmered and seemed almost liquid as it moved with his every step. The suit itself was similar to a business suit from Daniel’s time, but the cuffs, buttons, and tie were all completely foreign. The man had long, dark hair which was slicked neatly back over his head. His eyes were small but bright, his features stood out boldly, but with a warmth that made Daniel feel at ease. The man walked confidently to chair at the head of the long table and sat easily.
Warkoski motioned for Daniel to sit a few seats down from the man, who was now smiling at him. Daniel sank into the big chair, which seemed to hug Daniel, the contours fitting him perfectly.
“I suppose you’re a little bit out of your element,” said the man. His voice had a strange accent to it. “The real Daniel Brickman, a blast from the past, you might say.”
Daniel didn’t know if the man was making a joke or not, but he smiled as politely as he could before saying, “Yes, sir.”
“Well, I would love to hear your story, but I doubt you could squeeze it all in. I’ve only got a few moments. My name is Elgrin Reynolds and I’m the President of the American Republic.”
“The American Republic?” Daniel asked.
“Yes, the nations of North and South America banned together in a democracy over 150 years ago. We are the largest holder of off world colonies. I’m sure you have a lot of questions and when our liaison arrives, he’ll fill you in. But for now, I’d like to know a thing or two, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“Sure,” Daniel said.
“Did you really think you could pull it off? I mean, I give you kudos for trying. It was a gutsy thing to do, but taking over the government,” the man smiled. “That smacks of imperialism, which I’m afraid isn’t too popular these days.”
“I’m not sure what you mean,” Daniel said, his brows coming together in consternation.
“Well, using the Bactern Status drug in a weaponized form was rather bold, wouldn’t you say?”
“I’d say it was deplorable,” Daniel said, still puzzled. “I’m glad we were able to find the antidote.”
“Oh, that’s right,” said President Reynolds. “I had forgotten that you were trying to be the hero. I suppose that’s why you came back.”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand
. Didn’t Jason McPherson return with data to save people from the plague?”
“Oh, yes, General McPherson was a genuine hero. It was a shame he gave up his commission rather than admit the truth. You must have really done a number on him. They say he stuck by you till his dying day.”
Daniel shook his head, this all seemed a little over the top. It sounded like they were implying that he had tried to conquer America with the Tolligarkian drug. It was ludicrous.
“I’m sorry if I seem disrespectful,” said Daniel slowly. “But do I take you to mean that I caused the plague? That I was somehow hoping to take over the United States.”
The president smiled. “We know the whole story, your sabotage, the people you had burned.”
“We disposed of the bodies in Washington because we thought they were dead!” Daniel said loudly.
Warkoski put his hand on Daniel’s shoulder, but the president raised his hand to stop the soldier from doing anything further.
“I’m sure you did.” The president smiled, but it was forced. “Well, I’m afraid I have to be going. It was…” His voice trailed off, as if he wasn’t sure what to say. “It was an interesting experience.”
Daniel sat motionless in the chair as the president stood. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. How dare this arrogant idiot question me? Daniel thought. How did such an ignorant pompadour get to be president? he wondered.
Then the door swished open again, and Daniel nearly fell out of his chair. Floating on a cushion, his trunk curled weakly, his eyes once again covered with neuro amplifiers, his skin grayish and flaking, was Norixum.
“I’m sure you know Ambassador Norixum,” the president said. “He has graciously offered to escort you to Earth for a short visit before your appointment before the Gookmage. I’ll let you two catch up,” President Reynolds said. Then he walked briskly from the room, followed closely by the three soldiers who had preceded him.
The New World Page 40
