Stars & Empire: 10 Galactic Tales Read online

  CHAPTER 8

  Jason stood on the bridge of the gunship and gazed at the planet below through the canopy. His face was a stoic mask of calm and confidence, sentiments that were the polar opposite of how he really felt. The alien planet, while similar, could never be mistaken for Earth. The land masses were obviously different but there was a slightly greenish tint to the oceans rather than the deep blue of his home world. I’m the first human to see another planet outside the Solar System. Well … probably, if you don’t believe any of the alien abduction garbage. They had been in a slowly decaying orbit while waiting for clearance to land from the surface, so Jason had been given the opportunity to get a good view of it in its entirety as they orbited the planet multiple times. He was excited beyond belief to get down on the planet and poke around, but there was also a sense of apprehension as the real reason for him even being there was quickly approaching. If Deetz had tricked him for some nefarious reason, he would soon know. Adding to his discomfort, he felt itchy all over, a side-effect of the inoculations he had been given in the medical bay. They would ensure the alien microbes on Breaker’s World didn’t overwhelm his system and cause serious problems once he was on the surface. With the limited facilities on the ship, Deetz told him that he would still probably feel like crap for a few days afterwards, but that would be the extent of it.

  After a few more orbits he heard Deetz talking to the surface controller in a language he didn’t understand. He assumed it meant they would be landing soon so he made his way back to his seat. He had no sooner sat down when he heard the engines throttle down and noticed the nose pitch over towards the planet; the indicated velocity on his display began to decrease. As the ship descended altitude a mild buffeting could be felt through the seat and plasma strings began to dance along the forward collision shields. Soon the entire canopy was awash in superheated gas as the engines throttled back up and pushed the big gunship down into the atmosphere. They eventually leveled out around thirty-five thousand feet and banked gently north, away from the equator. Jason noticed a conspicuous lack of civilization below them as the ship roared north at twice the speed of sound, so he asked Deetz about it.

  “This planet has two fairly large moons that anchor its rotation, but when their orbits overlap, the tidal forces can trigger seismic activity around the planet’s equator. There’s nothing there but rainforest so it’s largely left unsettled. By the way, this planet has a slightly higher oxygen content than what you’re used to on Earth, not by much, but enough that you may notice the effects.”

  “Better too much than too little,” Jason mused out loud as he watched the alien landscape pass by.

  Soon Jason could tell that they were descending towards what looked like a fairly well-developed settlement. With the ship’s artificial gravity and constant pressure, it wasn’t like descending in a commercial airliner; there were no physical sensations other than visual cues from the displays and the view outside. Deetz cycled the landing gear and swung the ship around over a large airfield and brought it to a rock-solid hover thirty feet off the tarmac. After a short conversation with the ground controller, he eased them around and over their landing pad and touched down.

  Jason stood up and walked back over to the canopy as Deetz shut down the engines and put various systems into a standby mode. When he was finished, he looked up at Jason. “I have a gift for you.” Saying nothing else, he rose and walked off the bridge with Jason in tow. They wound their way down to the lower deck, through one of the engineering spaces and into the armory, a place Jason hadn’t been allowed to explore during the trip. He looked around in surprise at the amount of infantry weaponry that was on board the vessel, but his eyes were instantly drawn to the work bench on the far wall and what was sitting on it: his AR-15 that had gone missing.

  “Rather than try and bring you up to speed on the finer points of energy weapons, I decided we’d stick to what you know,” Deetz said as he hefted the weapon. “I modeled this after the chemical propellant slug thrower you boarded with.” So that isn’t my rifle.

  Deetz continued, “This magnetically accelerates a tungsten-carbide projectile at hypersonic velocities. It’s strictly a kinetic weapon, so your line-of-sight aim is just as critical as before. It feeds the projectiles out of a detachable magazine like you’re familiar with, but this magazine holds one hundred fifty rounds as well as the power pack.”

  It took a moment for the significance of Deetz’s sales pitch to sink in. “Holy shit! It’s a handheld railgun!” he exclaimed. The amount of destructive force even a small projectile at hypersonic speeds could unleash was awesome. It both thrilled and terrified Jason to be able to hold that much power in a package the size of an M4. Jason grabbed the weapon and noticed immediately that it was nearly half the weight of his rifle. The barrel was also quite different; the diameter was so large it looked almost like an integrally suppressed M4. The foregrip appeared to be the same as the modular rail grip he had on his own weapon, but it felt distinctly non-metallic in his hands.

  “The fire selector works the same as your own rifle. It has two settings: off and fire. There’s also an emergency mode button behind that that will allow the weapon to fire continuously as long as you keep it and the trigger depressed simultaneously. However, it will not only deplete the power pack rapidly, it will also permanently damage the barrel. This was a bit of a rush job so I didn’t have the opportunity to design a cooling system for such a small unit.” Deetz was watching Jason’s face as he continued his explanation.

  “This is absolutely incredible, Deetz. But why upgrade me to such a powerful weapon?” Jason snapped the railgun up to his shoulder and sighted down through the optics. As soon as he did so an active display lit up and began feeding information about whatever he sighted on. “You’re my backup on this run,” Deetz was explaining. “No matter how unlikely it is that it will be needed, if something happens, I’d like you to be able to provide some level of defense for me”—Jason fixed him with a sour look—”and yourself,” the synth amended quickly. After snapping the weapon up to his shoulder a few more times to get a feel for how it seated into his shoulder and the eye relief, Jason set it back on the bench and began to attach the single-point tactical sling that had been sitting next to it. He noticed right away that this item was his from when he’d originally boarded the gunship.

  “I also have taken the liberty of making body armor that will protect your vital organs,” Deetz said as he walked across the armory to a closed wall locker. The mere mention of the words “body armor” brought a sneer of disgust to Jason’s face as well as an involuntary shudder. He remembered his heavy, hot, smelly plate carrier that he’d worn during his multiple tours in the Middle East. While necessary, it was an unpleasant proposition nonetheless.

  As with his new weapon, he should have known that any armor produced by the ship’s miraculous fabricators would have next to nothing in common with the clunky plate armor of his recent past. When the door to the locker slid back into the wall, he was looking at what closely resembled the lightweight chest protector a motocross racer might wear, albeit with a little more coverage. It also looked to be made of some sort of composite material and reflected the light oddly as he viewed it from different angles. Jason stood patiently and waited for Deetz to explain the apparatus to him.

  “It’ll protect against moderate impacts and also has an ablative layer that should protect against most energy weapon blasts that you’d expect to encounter on this planet,” Deetz was saying. Should? Jason wasn’t sure he liked the sound of that but kept his misgivings to himself as the synth helped him into the armor. He was quite pleased at the diminutive weight and the full range of motion it allowed. The outfit included not only the chest protector and pauldrons but a set of hard-shell gloves, forearm and thigh protectors that strapped on. He looked at himself in the full-length mirror in the armory and was immensely happy with the overall effect. The dark gray of his new “uniform” went well with the shimmering darker
gray/black of the armor. While he was a firm believer in form over function, every warrior still liked to look like a badass.

  “If you’re happy with the fit, there’s one more thing we need to take care of,” Deetz continued, walking over to another touch panel terminal that looked like it had been added to the bulkhead as an afterthought.

  “This terminal, for lack of a better term, is the ship’s treasury. I’ll need to add you to the access list in order for you to be able to authorize payment for our cargo delivery and secure its release. This is the main reason you’re here.” Deetz activated the terminal and then spoke aloud to the ship’s computer, “Computer, please add Jason Burke to the crew manifest and grant access to the treasury terminal.”

  “Jason Burke, human.” After a moment the computer asked, “What rank will be assigned to Crewman Burke?” At this Deetz paused and looked at Jason speculatively.

  “First Officer.”

  “Confirmed. Commander Burke has been added to the crew manifest and has been given the appropriate levels of clearance to the armory, engineering, and treasury.” As the computer called him Commander Burke, a thrill went up Jason’s spine and all of a sudden he was eight years old again: Jason Burke, Space Commander. He smiled to himself as he enjoyed a moment of pure, adolescent joy.

  “There. That should grant you enough privilege to perform your task.” Deetz said, completely oblivious to the human’s overt display of joy. He had a knack for ruining a moment.

  “Thanks,” Jason said drily, slinging his weapon over his right shoulder.

  Commander Burke followed Deetz to a door that was not the one they had entered through. This one was quite a bit larger and much more formidable in its construction. Once it was keyed open, Jason immediately recognized the ship’s cargo bay; this was the lower door he had seen earlier that he hadn’t been able to open during his subsequent trips into the hold. That made sense now. It was direct access to the armory from the cargo bay and rear loading ramp.

  After the pressure was normalized to outside ambient (slightly lower than what it had been during the flight) and the ramp began to lower, Jason’s excitement was dampened by the wash of smell that assailed him from the open cargo bay door. It had a sickly-sweet tang to it that was quite strong. He grimaced. Deetz looked over and explained, “Every planet has its own unique smell, some more pleasant than others. You get used to it after a couple of hours.” The pair walked down the ramp and onto the tarmac. Looking around the space port, Jason couldn’t help but be struck by the similarity between it and any modern airport you would see on Earth, complete with an elevated control tower. He wondered if he should be armed or not, but Deetz had made no move to stop him as he walked out of the armory with the new railgun.

  “I need to go and secure delivery of our cargo. It would be expected that I would be the one to go and handle the details,” Deetz explained. “I’ll be back well before it arrives and will talk you through what you need to do to both accept it and make the payment. I’ve also scheduled engineering services to come out and complete the repairs on the drive emitters and slip reactor. Again, I’m sure I’ll beat them back. For now, just stay here at the foot of the ramp or inside the cargo bay and try to look like you belong here.” The synth then turned and walked towards an approaching vehicle that looked oddly similar to an oversized golf cart. Once the vehicle drove off and was out of sight, Jason walked the perimeter of the ship, both as a security sweep and to get a complete view of the area.

  He was beginning to get bored of walking around the cargo bay when a loud yell from the bottom of the ramp nearly made him jump out of his skin. He turned and saw a strange little being staring at him with large, black eyes and hesitantly waving at him with a six-fingered hand. Despite having been on the ship for a while, and talking to Deetz for hours about alien cultures, seeing his first biological alien in the flesh set his heart to pounding. Trying to appear like this was old hat to him, he gave a friendly wave and walked over to the little guy. Gal? “Hello there, can I help you?” The being’s oversized, pointed ears fluttered like bird wings and it cocked its head to one side. It then answered in a language that Jason had not a prayer of trying to decipher. Oh boy …

  Now that he was closer, Jason could see that though it was short, the alien was solidly built and had dark blue skin. It had a small mouth and a nose that was not nearly as prominent on its face as Jason’s own. Despite the exotic color and appendages, it didn’t look that alien: bipedal, bilateral symmetry, and sporting a set of black coveralls that looked like they belonged on any mechanic. Jason realized it must be from the engineering service Deetz had called. The being eyed the rifle nervously and repeated the noise it had made before. When the human shook his head helplessly it tapped at its own ear and then pointed to Jason’s ear. Not understanding the meaning, Jason dumbly shook his head again, wondering if the universal head shake for “negative” was really all that universal. The alien approached and peeked around both sides of his head before emitting another bizarre sound and walking back down the ramp and out of the ship, seeming to grumble the whole way.

  Following it outside, Jason saw it had arrived in what looked to be a work vehicle. It pressed a couple of buttons and the side began to fold up and over, revealing a work bench and rows of tools. After fishing around in one of the open top bins for a second, it walked back towards Jason with something in its hand, the whole time still jabbering away in its own language, punctuating certain words with a flutter of its ears. It handed the device to Jason and then pointed at his ear again. Understanding what he wanted, Jason held the device up to his ear. As soon as it made contact he could feel it begin to meld around his ear shape until it was securely in place. After this, the alien waved for Jason to follow him back into the ship.

  Marching up to the terminal by the door, it pressed a spot on the screen and spoke up into the air. Almost immediately the computer responded, but to Jason. “Commander Burke, stand by while the interpreter unit is uploaded with the human-English language translation matrix.” The device in his ear beeped softly.

  “Better?” The voice in the earpiece was imposed over the alien’s actual vocalizations. The effect was a bit disconcerting.

  “I can understand you, if that’s what you mean,” Jason answered, realizing for the first time how completely unprepared he was for this moment. Deetz had given him no instructions regarding etiquette or what could be considered an insult.

  “Ah! That’s better! My name is Twingo. I’m the engineer that’s been dispatched to take a look at your grav-emitters and the primary reactor.” Now that the translation was coming through, Jason sensed a prominent gregariousness to Twingo’s personality. He was still talking a mile a minute as he looked around the cargo bay. “Haven’t seen anything like this around here in a while, not too much call for gunships anymore this far down the spiral arm. Looks like she’s taken a bit of a beating. Ha! So what’s the other ship look like?” Jason noticed that the ear flutters seemed to emphasize certain points he was trying to make. Twingo walked up to the terminal without waiting for an answer to his questions and began plugging away at it. Unlike when Jason first touched it that night and it locked him out, it responded immediately and began displaying menus that the engineer could navigate through. He consulted with the terminal in the cargo bay as well as a tablet computer he held in his right hand, harrumphing to himself occasionally as he pored through the scrolling displays.

  It was a good five minutes later when Twingo switched off his own tablet and looked at Jason. “No problem! Need to realign the emitters and then calibrate the fuel flow to the reactor. Your output was so low because the matter-antimatter ratio is off, that will kick the reactor into an emergency safe-mode that can’t be overridden until a full calibration is performed.” Jason wasn’t aware the reactor output was low. Or how it worked. Or where it was. So he just nodded and smiled knowingly.

  “So it’s something you see a lot?” He asked the question more to feel a part
of the process than any real curiosity about Twingo’s workload. The engineer, however, took the question very seriously and in an eerily familiar way looked up at the ceiling and rubbed his chin while he thought it through. Jason saw that the six-fingered hand actually had two opposable thumbs, one on each side of the four middle digits.

  “Not on something like this. We get our fair share of clunkers and scows that the prospectors in the area try to keep in flying order, but most people with a warship this expensive already have an engineer as part of the crew.” Jason pointedly ignored the unasked question so Twingo continued on, “I didn’t get your name anyway … it looks like you’re not from around here. What manner of creature are you?” Jason could tell the question was intended with good humor, so he took no offense at the word “creature.”

  “My name is Jason Burke. I’m a human, although I doubt you’ve seen any of my kind before.” He didn’t elaborate on much more than that. He keenly felt his responsibility to keep Earth a closely guarded secret.

  “Human, eh? Can’t say that I have. Two names as well? Interesting. Not rare, but still interesting. Anyway, from your lack of implants I assume you’re new to the space lanes?” Twingo didn’t press him more about his origins as the unlikely pair walked back down the ramp towards the engineer’s vehicle.

  “Implants?”

  “Yeah, you know … computer interface implants, translator implants, memory implants. All manner of gizmos you can have installed into yourself nowadays. I myself just had my eyes done so I can see in an expanded spectrum, great for my line of work although I had a week of terrible headaches afterwards.” Jason was fascinated by the idea, although he was now wondering why Deetz had neglected to give him a translation device before he left. The ship certainly had to have a couple on board. Hell, the one he currently wore was rattling around in someone’s toolbox a short while ago.