The Terran Representative (2 page)

The light started to dissipate from around us as the makings of a room began to fade into view. First came the outline of things then the space in between the outline filled in then the textures popped into existence, and finally the colors appeared. It took no more than a split second for it all to happen.

I vomited up the water I’d drunk as the room began to spin around me. It tilted hard to my left, and I crashed onto the cold, metal floor. The grating pressed into my cheek as I felt watery bile start to rise in my throat once more.

“That’ll happen to you the first couple of times you Travel,” said the one holding my arm. Based off of context I assumed it was laughing but what came out was a harsh, raspy breathing sound.

“Who are you?” I stuttered. My teeth felt mossy and gritty, and my throat burned. The remaining water I’d drunk earlier in the day was ejected with a partner of yellow stringy bile. I wasn’t sure that my throat could take much more abuse.

The being holding my arm let it go and took off its helmet. A snub nosed lizard-looking thing stared back at me with red eyes that had narrow, slit pupils. Pointy upper teeth were exposed over its lower lip. It closed its eyes and cracked its neck before a large frill of skin so thin the light shone through expanded to form a collar framing its head.

“They call me Dell,” it said.

The other two took off their helmets. They looked similar except one didn’t have the frill. The one without the frill had yellow-green skin while the other had red-orange. Dell fell somewhere in the middle of the other two with yellowish-red skin.

Dell motioned to the yellow-green one. “She’s Wards.” Wards lowered her head until her chin touched her chest.

“He’s Scort,” said Dell, motioning to the red-orange one. Scort made the same motion as Wards.

I tried to push myself into a sitting position. Dell put his arms under my armpits and with ease lifted me into a standing position. I leaned against him as he moved me towards a chair. Once I was seated he took a step back and gazed at me.

“You probably have a lot of questions,” he said.

I wanted to spout off something sarcastic, but the shock of the situation prevented me from organizing my thoughts, so I asked the first one that came to mind. “Where am I?”

“You’re on the
Confederate Star Ship Alpha
,” said Dell.

My eyes bulged, and I gripped the chair. I gulped, my mouth gone dry, and said, “So I was on a spaceship?”

Dell nodded.

“And you attacked the ship I was on?”

The three exchanged glances before Dell returned his gaze to me. “Yes, we did.”

“Our information led us to believe that the Vantagax ship was carrying an experimental weapon,” said Wards. “When we scanned the ship we found your strange readings.”

“We hadn’t planned on a full scale attack, but they identified our signature,” said Scort. “The original plan was to Travel onto the ship, find the source of the readings, find the weapon and return with our findings.”

“But, because
Alpha
was identified our mission changed. Multiple teams Traveled aboard. We happened to find you and now you’re here,” said Dell.

I didn’t believe it, but I needed to ask to confirm my own suspicions. “And I’m the weapon?”

They exchanged glances again. Dell hesitated to speak, letting out a small hissing sound. His tongue flicked in and out. “No,” he said. “Our information led us to believe there was a weapon, but we found nothing out of the ordinary except you.”

“And now what?” I didn’t want to be a lab rat for them now. Out of the pot and into the fire, I guessed.

“Now you relax and recuperate,” said Wards. “We have a bit of journey ahead of us.”

“You aren’t a weapon, but you are a key,” said Dell.

“A key to what? It seems like no one knew I existed until earlier today,” I said.

Dell walked over to me and patted my shoulder. “In good time. For now we’ll take you to your quarters where you can freshen up.”

“Take a nap or a shower. Grab a bite to eat,” said Wards. She and Scort filed out of the room.

“Just tell me now,” I pleaded. Everyone seemed to have plans for me. I wanted to be in on the decision making.

“In good time,” said Dell.

As Dell took me to my quarters I planned to protest my situation by not showering nor sleeping nor eating, but as soon as the door to my room glided closed behind me the bed beckoned. I’d been asleep for supposedly hundreds of years and all I wanted to do right now was fall into another deep slumber. My resistance failed, so I collapsed onto it and passed out.

The shower after waking up felt better than any I’d had before. The water was just the right temperature. The towels had just the right fluff. Even the soap felt luxurious. Most of my apprehensions washed down the drain.

After getting out of the shower I found an invitation to dinner with the captain on my bed with a grey jumpsuit next to it. I hadn’t heard anyone come into my room. The jumpsuit was too large in the shoulders and too short in the legs, but I couldn’t find my original clothes.

As I sat for dinner, dressed in the ill-fitting clothes, I felt glad I’d taken some time to freshen up. The ship’s captain, Ip, sat across from me with Dell, Wards and Scort joining us.

“I hope you enjoy the food,” said Ip. “It is a traditional Planarium five course meal.”

I nodded. There hadn’t been anything to eat in my room. My stomach grumbled for food, but my appetite hadn’t appeared. “Dell told me when we arrived on the ship that I was a key.”

A covered plate was set before us by lower ranking soldiers, I guessed, in crisp uniforms and white gloves. Looking around I saw that everyone around us, including those at my table, were dressed like they were at a formal event. My ill-fitting clothes stuck out like a sore thumb.

Ip pulled the cover off his plate and moved his face towards the food, his long tongue flicking in and out rapidly. His frill rattled and his eyes closed. He sat the cover down next to him and began picking up pieces of food with his hands. The others followed suit.

“Sort of,” said Ip. “Our probes picked up your signal. It was a broadcasted list of colonial sites. We searched the systems that your broadcast indicated you were traveling to and found nothing. When we went to your system it was dead, littered with wreckage.”

I sighed and said, “And then the Vantagax found me and then you found the Vantagax.” It seemed every time I met someone the introductions would consist of being reminded of the fall of the Sol System.

“No,” said Ip. He finished his dish. The servers whisked the dirty dishes away and brought the next platters out while Ip talked. “We found nothing in your system. All of the major space faring races left probes there to monitor for activity.” He shrugged. “We assumed your race was extinct until we boarded the Vantagax ship.”

“So then how can I be a key?” I said. I hoped my frustration wasn’t coming through too much, but if I was to be a prisoner in a gilded cage then I wanted to know now. At least Roile had been upfront about the Vantagax intentions.

Ip stopped eating, put his elbows on the table and leaned forward. The other three stopped eating. Their gazes flickered between him and me. “We found a monument on a moon in a system your people were going to colonize. It has something in it, but we don’t know what.”

“And you want me to open it?”

“Sort of,” said Ip. “We just need a drop of your blood.”

I reeled back in my seat, confused more than anything. “Why would my blood do anything?”

Ip motioned to Dell, who began to speak. “Not your blood in particular. Just Terran blood. The monument has some kind of locking mechanism. We’ve translated markings on it which indicate that a drop of Terran blood will open it.”

“We’ve tried to synthetically create blood from corpses found in your system, but it doesn’t work,” said Ip. The second course finished and the third came. “It knows somehow.”

I hadn’t taken a bite from either of the two previous courses and the third wasn’t looking any more appetizing. Talk of needing my blood and using corpses as a key hadn’t helped jump start my appetite. “So, we’re going to that moon, and we’re going to open the monument,” said Dell.

“What if I don’t want to?” I said, looking down at my folded hands in my lap. I’d become a Representative for the chance at glory and prestige of being one of the first to meet an alien race. I hadn’t done it to become a pawn in interstellar politics.

Ip’s stare bored into me. He stopped eating and put his hands flat on the table top. “If you don’t want to go that’s fine, but I’m under orders to open that monument now that you’re under our care.”

“What happens if I don’t want to give up my blood?”

“We’ll sedate you and take some then we’ll drop you off at the nearest habitation and be on our way,” said Ip.

“What happens if I agree but it doesn’t open?”

“To you?” Ip shrugged. “Nothing. The Confederacy will help you find gainful employment and somewhere to live. You’ll be resettled and live out your days unmolested by us.”

“And what if it opens?”

Ip smiled, pushed his empty platter out of the way and leaned back in his chair. His teeth shone in the light and his eyes sparkled. He looked like a kid who’d been given a treasure map leading to a lifetime supply of candy. “Then we see where it takes us.”

I sighed, trying to hide the excitement that built in me. It couldn’t be helped even though I knew I was nothing more than a tool to this Confederacy and Captain Ip. Damn if I didn’t want to have an adventure. Glory and prestige could still be mine if I was the one to figure out the mystery of what happened to the Sol System.

Before I’d been cryo-frozen I lived alone, worked in a dead end job and had no living family. My life was a monotonous drain of nothing happening and going nowhere. The chance at immortality, my name in the history books, was why I’d so readily agreed to be frozen.

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s go to this monument.”

I went down with Dell, Wards and Scort to the sixth moon of a gas giant called GP-75. It was lush with varied biomes that had rich flora and fauna but lacked an indigenous sentient lifeform. It hadn’t been colonized before only because it was remote and out of the way.

“Wildcat settlers tried colonizing about several millennia ago,” said Dell over our group’s radio band as we trudged over a rocky outcrop. “Confederacy found out a couple of generations into their experiment.”

The
Alpha
’s supply shop had taken my measurements and printed out an exosuit that fit me. We wore full face helmets, the suits on complete lockdown from the environment. I was told it was standard operating procedure even though the atmosphere wasn’t toxic.

I jumped and the suit added an assist to get me over a large boulder. Even with tens of hours of practice on the
Alpha
my movements were uncoordinated and clunky. I lagged behind and lost sight of the others. My HUD flashed the waypoint for the monument as being over the next boulder pile, and I gave a sigh of relief.

“What happened to them?” I said.

“Extinguished,” said Scort. “It was in a period when the Confederacy was struggling to survive. They felt a show of strength was needed.”

“It’s a funny coincidence that your people chose this moon,” said Dell.

“Why?” I said. The other three had beaten me to the monument and even with the suit’s assists I was out of breath.

On the
Alpha
I’d asked why we couldn’t Travel straight to the monument. Ip had smiled and patted me on the shoulder. He spouted off jargon that I didn’t understand, but I was pretty sure it had something to do with the distance and line of sight. It sounded like my rescue from Braxa had been an extreme and dangerous maneuver that could have ended up with someone materializing in a wall. We’d taken a shuttle down the moon’s surface instead.

Dell shrugged and said, “I don’t know. Just funny.”

Wards hissed in laughter over the radio. I didn’t get it. Planarium humor escaped me for now.

I struggled to get my breath back and used the time to look at the monument. It stood about three feet tall with a small box on top of a pedestal. A small indentation sat on the top of the box. Lichen grew over most of the pedestal but the box was clear. My HUD indicated the surface was made of a fiberglass composite and carbon nano-tubing.

“How did you even know this was here?” I said. “It’s so small.”

“The Confederacy has patrol probes that pass by here looking for illegal settlements as the moon is a known habitable area. On a routine scan it found the monument,” said Wards.

Dell pulled a small vial from one of his suit’s pockets. He held it up for all of us to see. Light shone through the contents: my blood. “Let’s hope this works,” he said.

I nodded in silent agreement. The thought of getting put into another mindless job doing who knows what wasn’t the most pleasant thought for me. I was the last human, the last of my kind, and I might be stuck in a desk job somewhere just like I had been on Earth.

Dell unsealed the vial and dripped two drops of blood into the indentation. They soaked in but at first nothing happened.

I started to say something. Before I could get a comprehensible word out lines in the box formed. They started at the indentation and shot out in unison to each corner. The box split open like a flower blooming. A beam of light sprang from it and fanned out to form a green tinted hologram of a woman. She wore a naval uniform with four stars on her lapel. Her dark hair was close cut in a military style and her boxy face was scrunched into a look of concentration.

“I know her,” I said. “It’s Admiral Kaur.” The others looked towards me. “She personally thanked me during a celebration before I went into my cryo-chamber.” The other didn’t say anything. “She led the first fleet out of the Sol System.”

“Welcome to Augustine, Terran citizen,” said the hologram. “You may be wondering why we have not settled here.”

“It’s a recording,” said Dell.

“You are most likely a follow up party wondering why we have gone radio silent,” said the hologram without pausing. It stared straight ahead looking at something that had been off camera. “Our journey was arduous and the trip took a heavy toll. When we arrived at Augustine we decided that for the safety of all those involved that we would continue on to a more suitable location.”

The hologram of Kaur disappeared to be replaced by a star map that zoomed in on a specific system with several planets circling a large star. I had no idea where it was, but I made sure to have my HUD record everything. I assumed Dell and the others were doing the same.

Kaur continued to speak as a single planet zoomed into view. “We have decided to travel to Masirah. It has been decided amongst those in charge of this effort to move our settlements there.” Kaur reappeared and gave a brief smile. “Good luck, Terran citizen, and we hope to see you soon.” A very brief, unsettling smile flitted across Kaur’s face before the hologram disappeared and the box snapped close.

“Did you get all of that, Wards?” said Dell.

She nodded and said, “They went to a desert planet. It’s livable only if one were to build their habitats underground. It’s too hot to live on the surface.”

Dell shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. That’s where we’re heading next.” He turned to head back to the shuttle.

My HUD lit up. Warnings screamed at me. My suit’s external cameras showed a ball of light flaming into existence, bright enough to cast shadows on the moon’s surface. Smaller lights screamed away from the larger cascading into the moon’s atmosphere.

“No,” yelled Scort.

My stomach sank, and my throat closed up. Sweat beaded on my forehead.

“
Alpha
come in,” said Dell. “
Alpha
respond, this is ground party leader.”

Wards grabbed me. We began running in great, suit assisted bounds. At times I couldn’t keep up, and she dragged me until I gained my footing again. Scort and Dell followed behind, still trying to raise the
Alpha
.

A small communication box popped up in the corner of my HUD. My heart pounded when I saw its occupant.

“Did you think you could get away from me, thieves?” said General Braxa.

Braxa laughed. She ranted and raved until I found a way to mute her and shut off general communication. If I hadn’t been running for my life I’d be thanking my lucky stars I wasn’t still stuck with her.

“The
Alpha
is gone,” said Dell.

“I can’t raise anyone,” said Scort. “Not picking up any
Alpha
shuttles or escape pods.”

Our shuttle came into view. My suit’s cameras zoomed and focused on several small ships descending through the atmosphere. Braxa’s landing parties were coming.

A beam of light streaked through the sky. It struck the shuttle. Everything in front of me exploded in a cloud of dirt and fire and metal.

I screamed.

The world around me spun. I saw the sky then the ground then the sky in repeat. Warnings from the suit howled at me. I felt myself striking something then weightlessness and striking something again before I skidded across the ground.

I stopped face down in the dirt. When I tried to push myself up a searing pain coursed through my right arm. I screamed and fell on my side. My suit alerted me to an administering of first aid while walking through the list of injuries I’d sustained. The world began to feel hazy and soft on the edges as the pain disappeared.

I was pulled upright. Dell and Wards looked at me. Their suits were scorched and scarred from shrapnel. Fires burned in the plant life around us.

“The caves,” yelled Dell. He slapped me on the helmet and pointed to a nearby opening before taking off at a run.

I tried to run after him but collapsed with a shout of surprise. My legs felt numb. If I had paid attention to my injury readout I’d know what was wrong. There wasn’t time now.

Wards picked me up and threw me into a fireman’s carry. We bounced along the ground after Dell. I looked behind us for Scort. My suit pinpointed him. He was pinned to a tree with enough shrapnel protruding from him to make his corpse look like a pin cushion. I didn’t feel anything.

The darkness of the cave enveloped us. Wards continued farther into the tunnels after Dell. They moved like they knew where they were going.

The silence got to me after we had been moving through the darkness for what seemed like too long. “Where are we going?” My words came out slurred, and I realized I’d been drooling for a while now based on the size of puddle forming in my helmet.

“Around,” said Dell. “They’re going to land by our wreckage. They’re going to send out several search parties of three each to look for us. They’re going to leave one party at the wreckage: two outside the shuttle and one in it.”

“How do you know?”

“Because that’s standard Vantagax operating procedure,” said Wards.

I dozed for a bit, woke up and saw we were still in the tunnels. “How do you know these tunnels?” I slurred. I couldn’t remember if I’d asked them about the tunnels before or just thought about it.

“Mapped out,” said Dell. “When we found your monument we made a search of the moon. Some drones mapped out these cave systems.”

I awoke, sitting on the ground, propped up against the cave wall. Light streamed through a cave opening and hurt my eyes. I tried to block it with my hand but the effort was too much, and I did nothing.

Dell and Wards either conversed on a private frequency or at some point I’d muted them. I didn’t bother to investigate. Staying awake was enough of a battle.

Dell kneeled down, put a gun in my hand and patted my helmet. I was sure he spoke to me, but I didn’t hear him. Perhaps he forgot to switch frequencies.

They jogged off in opposite directions and disappeared into the undergrowth. I sighed and looked at the gun in my hand. In my early twenties I’d gone to shooting ranges a couple of times with my friends, but firearms had never been my thing. In theory I knew how to fire it as it looked like any gun I’d seen at the shooting range, but I was in no condition to use it. It felt too heavy to lift and looked too large to hold.

As I contemplated the gun and how best to broach the subject of thanking Dell for the opportunity when he got back, something rustled in the bushes near me. I held my breath forgetting that whatever it was couldn’t hear me breathing. It moved closer, at a slow, deliberate pace, footfalls occurring at almost identical intervals. I gripped the gun tight and lifted it.

The lightness of it surprised me, and I swung it too far. The momentum caused me to fall onto my side into the dirt. I lay there for a few moments listening to my heart beat. The rustling continued and a burst of adrenaline coursed through me. I pushed myself upright. My muscles strained, and I fought against passing out. Darkness hovered at the edge of my vision, but I forced it away and got myself upright once more.

I willed myself to concentrate through my foggy dream. It seemed like my vision became clearer and my sense of hearing more heightened. Each step echoed in my mind. Each blade of grass rustling, each branch pushed out of the way gave off subtle clues to the whereabouts of the noise maker. I felt ready.

The bushes parted. The barrel of a gun poked out and moved back and forth. The barrel grew longer then shorter. It expanded and contracted. Next came a single booted foot that looked like it was thirty stories tall. More of the gun followed. A beak attached to a feathered face that swirled and dripped began to materialize from the shadows.

I screamed and fire my gun twice. Adrenaline cascaded through me. My heartbeat pounded in my ears. I fired three more times into the underbrush.

Nothing moved in front of me. I wasn’t sure if I’d hit my target or if they ran away. My only military training came in the form of war movies. In them the hero continued to move so that the enemy wasn’t able to get a bead on where they were firing from, so I tried to crawl away from my resting spot and get in a new position.

I fell on my side and tried to use my good arm to pull myself forward. My legs were numb, but I found I could still move them if I concentrated on the action. It seemed like a good idea to get into the underbrush. I told myself whoever was out there would be expecting me to hide in the cave where it was dark.

The distance between me and the underbrush expanded and the forest edge pulled away from me. I looked back at the way we came. The mouth of the cave grew fangs and scowled. It reared above me ready to chomp down if I were to crawl back inside. I couldn’t decide what to do as both options seemed daunting.

Sweat rolled down my face. It itched, and I had no way to scratch it while in the suit yet I still brought my hand up and scratched at my faceplate. My arm started to throb with a dull pain as did my right hip. Each breath caused me to moan in pain.

My suit alerted me to another administration of first aid. The world took on a soft glow once more, and my pain subsided. I found the confidence to continue forward into the underbrush. I pulled myself forward, and I dozed.

I awoke and panicked. Something wasn’t right. My arms and legs wouldn’t move. I could move my head around, wiggle my fingers and toes and shimmy a little bit.