Memoirs of a Timelord (7 page)

       "You should talk to Morbester Shaklum, he does custom work on devices like this.  He could show you some areas of improvement." With a touch, DorLek imparted the specific coordinates directly into my Onkx.  A few seconds later he was gone.  That's how the guy rolled, here one minute and gone the next. Always busy.  I never once saw the Boss just sitting around doing nothing.  With him everything was done for a reason.  But back then I was still learning that the old guy was the most deliberate being I would ever meet.  There was a hidden lesson in everything he did; nothing was ever a coincidence with that guy.  I was actually green enough to believe that he had stopped by to see my ship.

       So me and Aldoo jump in the hotrod and jet out to the location the Boss had given me.  It's just a quick hop over to the far side of Jobul.  Anyhow, we get there and the place is a junk yard, and I don't mean that as a euphemism.  I'm scanning the salvaged equipment everywhere and it's all crap.  Just vintage technology or so damned old that the elements have eroded the circuits.  Mosta this stuff woulda been junk back on Earth.  But the Boss gave me these coordinates for a reason, so I decided to check them out.

       Leaving Aldoo in the car, I walked into the office and was greeted by the ugliest fucking secretary I have ever seen.  Rude, vile, and leaking hydrochloric acid from her armpits, she gave me a ration of shit for having the audacity to be a customer.  It was pretty obvious why they weren't doing a lotta business.  With customer service like that, who needs competition?  I was pretty irked at her by the time I stormed out of there and discovered that my car had been stolen.  No, really, someone stole my brand new ship.  Assholes!

       So I start using my DuNai eyes and sensors to look around when I notice a few things; like the heavy shielding the entire place is built upon.  Walking around I finally spotted a seam, but I didn't like the looks of the energy seeping out of the crack.  I'd read about traps like this that used tetrionic energy to inhibit temporal insertions and relocations.  If an unwary Timelord walked into that, they would have a hard time leaving in a hurry.  One thing they were always drilling into my head was the fact that the Onkx was the most powerful device in the known multiverse.  So of course, once the DuNai had mastered temporal relocation, the first thing they did was to prohibit its invention in any other galaxy.  They realized the power of time travel, of being able to visit the parallel dimensions, and they knew that they had to control the technology or what was to stop the next race from erasing the DuNai?  So as you can guess, security is a big deal for Timelords because there are a lotta people who would love to have our abilities.

       Just about then I notice that the junkyard dog has come around the corner.  Now from a distance it faintly resembles a bulldog, but up close the thing is the size of a fucking buffalo, with snot leaking out of its hind quarters.  My first instinct was to run like hell. I mean, this thing could prolly swallow me in one bite.  Between the dog and the signs of a trap, I shoulda fled the scene right then and there.

       But then something occurred to me; when I'm a Timelord will I avoid the bad parts of town just because they're scary?  Hell no.  And I sure as hell wasn't gonna let it be known that I let some asshole get away with stealing my ride...and my boyfriend.  (I almost forgot that I left Aldoo in the car.)

       "Dammit." I scowled as I deep-scanned the place.  I could see the tetrionic trap, the energy lines that fed it, security systems, energy collectives, and all manner of advanced tech.  But in all of that I only saw one guy besides my idiot boyfriend. 

       So the dog comes running up to me and I fall back on my training.  Sure, I coulda used Emanations to send him yelping like I hit him with the Sunday paper, but the dog was just doing his job.  No reason to punish him when it took the same amount of energy to befriend it.

       "Who's a good doggie?  Cuddly Widdle dawgie." I rubbed his head while blasting him with happy aura energy.  Reaching out, I snapped off a piece of Belzium from the trash heap and converted it into a tasty protein snack.  Snatching the treat out of midair, the dog contentedly wandered off to a shady part of the yard to chew on its treasure.

       Next, I focused on the spot directly behind the only guy I could see down there.  I was still fairly green with lateral insertions (point to point jumps), but I did a pretty good job of materializing about three meters behind him.  I was mad enough to snap the guy's neck for stealing my new ride, but as soon as I get down there I'm surprised to find Aldoo chatting happily while the two of them tear apart my hot rod.

       Short, no more than four feet tall, and with brown skin and patches of fur, it was obvious that my car-thief was Kerr, and an old one at that.  Normally his species would have had fur all over, but his current molting state bespoke extreme age, like hundreds of years old.  Nonetheless, his vintage did not seem to keep him from ripping the solar inhibitors out of my baby and tossing them on the floor.

       "Trash, trash, trash." He announced as he threw out the distributor rods.  At the same time I see Aldoo working on the cloaking device.  What in the hell?  I was about to kick some ass when Morbesta turned around to confront me.

       "Were you shopping in the garbage pile when you purchased these parts?  Those rods were only cesium plated, not impregnated.  And those lifters have a maximum load factor of forty kH." His rat-like paw tossed one of the gleaming poles into the pile with a loud clang.

       "Hey, I built that cloak from scratch.  It's got plenty of power, why're you ripping that out too?" I was miffed that he would question so much of my work.  I'd expected a few suggestions, but this guy was tearing my baby down to the frame in some places.

       "It's a senseless design." He dismissed it with a wave of a hand.  "You expend a significant amount of energy just to be invisible.  Then you expend even more energy to run the defensive shielding.  My system not only combines those two units, but as long as you are expending that much energy why settle for being invisible when you can just as easily look like someone else entirely.  They take roughly the same amount of energy.  Think of it as space camoflauge; you can be a rock, or another ship, or just plain old invisible.  Would that be enough of an improvement for you?" He clasped his dirty little fingers as he paused to eye me warily.

       "And the deflector system?" I could not help but notice the incrementor assembly bleeding on the floor.  

       "Your system relocates particulate matter as it travels thru space, but that leaves a wake that can be tracked.  My system partially phases the entire ship so ambient stellar matter passes thru you undisturbed.  But that's not where it really shines.  Ever notice how inconvenient it is to go around other ships, or planets, or stars?  All of those pesky obstacles...what if you could go right through them.  Wouldn't it be easier that way?  It certainly makes the trip a lot more interesting.  Have you ever visited the core of a gas giant?  Parked under the mantle of a newly formed star?  Who needs doors, right?"

       I could see Aldoo was nodding enthusiastically.  My boyfriend practically had a boner for the hardware this guy was showing him.  Figures; under all that pretty exterior Aldoo was just an uber-geek.  He could build a computer from dirt, but had trouble talking to women.  Of course he'd have a man-crush on Morbesta.  I knew it'd be like trying to get kids out of a candy store when time came to take Aldoo home.  I'll probably need to set up a playdate for the two of them.

       "So how much is this going to cost?" I was skeptical, and a little worried since I had no idea what passed for money out here in the sticks.  This fucking guy could be Rumplestiltskin for all I know.

       "Fourteen standard units of Class D preorganic material.  I understand it is difficult to obtain protomatter, so take your time.  I trust you, and I know your boss too." He nodded calmly, as if he had a lotta days left.  Seriously, this guy looks like he graduated from high school two years before Methuselah.  But if his equipment worked as well as he claimed then I would be cutting my mass by thirty percent.  The less mass, the more responsive the handling.  If his claims were true, I would be able to go farther and faster while expending half the energy.  

       At the time I thought I understood why the Boss had sent me to Morbesta.  It would be a few years before I figured out the real reason DorLek had conveniently introduced us.

        

       

       So the custom work on my hotrod turned out to be everything Morby had promised, and more.  My little Mustang had so much power that you got this giddy feeling when you accelerated, even though the inertial systems dampened most of the kinetic forces.  It was like driving a roller coaster.  Her roll rate was so fast that I smacked my head on the canopy the first time I gave her a hard-over on the stick.  I took her out to the Dulask system and toyed with their pursuit cruisers, left their interceptors in the dust, and outflew their best defensive systems.  Essentially I was a UFO to a relatively advanced species.  

       Editor's Note: No Dula were probed in the making of this story.

       I was taking in the scenery just outside of this small star cluster when I spotted three attack-class vessels trying to run down a science ship.  Only lightly armed, I kinda felt sorry for that one ship.  I always believed in a fair fight, and this one was decidedly lopsided.  Three heavily armed ships against one research class vessel.  I know I should have ignored local happenings, this was someone else's galaxy after all, but I'm known to be a little passionate about some things, and right at that moment I was feeling very strongly about kicking a bully's ass.

       All I had to do was think it, and through my touch the Onkx would negotiate with the ship's cloaking device.  In half a second my tiny little craft had grown into a Kelt dreadnaught.   More than a mile long, the massive vessel would have been a travelling port of death, complete with factories, slaughterhouses, airports, weapons, and about a million Kelt warriors.  If you knew anything about staying alive in the Vern quadrant, it was to get the shit outta town when a Kelt battle group showed up.  Those guys were like Death Incorporated.

       These guys attacking the research ship may have been bullies, but they weren't entirely stupid.  Once they saw me in their rear view mirror they jumped out of there so fast they left interstellar skid marks.  They didn't even fire a shot at me.  Likely they were afraid of making me mad enough to pursue them.

       Of course the people in the science ship weren't happy to see me either.  Prolly afraid I was there to harvest them like cattle, they really put the pedal to the metal.  I could actually see them opening up some of their containment fields so they could milk a little extra speed outta her.  Considering the kinda things the Kelt were known to do their prisoners, these people were understandably concerned with my approach.  Out of the frying pan and into the fire, eh?

       So I switch off the cloak, and set my deflector for full phasing so I can fly right thru their bulkhead and park in the hanger.  I do have to admit that right at that moment I was truly enjoying Morbesta's upgrades.  For a big rat, the guy really knew how to trick out a hot rod.

       I was about to disable the energy field that acted as the canopy when I noticed the first people approaching.  It took a second to realize why they were so startling; they were human. 

       I'd been around so many alien species and morphic beings with their perfect looks and beauty for years now.  But these were just ordinary, regular looking humans.  My eyes told me they were not morphic at all.  These were genuine homo sapiens.  The realization knocked the wind out of me.   Had DorLek really made it that easy for me to find my way home?   You have no idea how much I wanted it to be true.  But it just seemed so unlikely that the Boss woulda made it that simple.  There had to be another explanation.

       The leader of the group approaching me had a weapon in her hand.  I guessed that they were the security officers coming to bravely staunch the Kelt invasion.  The one in charge, the little firebrand at the front of the group, she had some serious moxy.  She was aggressive like a rabid Chihuahua.   The other two were scared shitless, but not that little redhead.  She came directly at me, gun out, finger on the trigger.  I barely had time to set up a suppression field around me before she fired at me.  She woulda hit me too if the field hadn't dissipated her shot.  I didn't really blame her for trying.  If they thought I was Kelt then they were afraid for their lives.  Strike that, they were terrified for their lives.  I woulda opened fire on the Kelt too.

       "Whoah there, I come in peace." I kidded as I raised my hands.  "I'm really human, I just looked like a dreadnaught to scare those jagoffs away."

       There was a few seconds of chattering between them.  My advanced ears picked up every word and immediately found a match in the language banks.  They were Voh.

       I'd heard the Boss talk about the Voh, I just had no idea they were human (serves me right for not paying attention in class). 

       So I access the database in my brain and find that their ancestors had been harvested from their home world (Earth) over sixty generations ago.  Basically the Boss had snatched millions of people from places like the Titanic, Hiroshima, and Nanking.  He harvested them from the dead, then repatriated them here to this region of the training galaxy.  It all explained why their language sounded like English and Mandarin jammed together with about fifteen other languages, and then warped by a regional dialect.  It was a mess, really.

       The Voh also had a curious look to them, sort of mottled.  Like you'd get if you bred all the races into one; tan skin, athletic build, sandy brown hair, and blue eyes. There were no Asians or Africans or Caucasions, just the tan people.