Ally or Alien: A Sci-Fi Novel (11 page)

"Now what is that little beauty?"

Dr. Rao answered first.

"That's a P.E.P.S, a pulsed energy projection system. It is a non-lethal device using directed energy to knock back targets."

eVax' grinned stayed. He must have savored every drop out of this moment.

"And you don't think that constitutes as a weapon?"

Bellrock aided his tech buddy.

"As my pal said, it's non-lethal. In fact, it's so weak, it couldn't even rip a hole through a hull. If you're scared by such a harmless projection system, I worry about your space station's architecture."

Ouch.

Another slammer on the fragile relationship. Dr. Rao shot him a dismissive glance. eLoom stepped in-between and glowed her smile, playing the mediator once again.

"Well, since everything is clear now, let us board the climber module. We are already five and a half minutes behind schedule.”

Bellrock finally noticed the line of Newtype standing a few meters next to him. At least twenty-five units, staring at him in freaky silence. He hadn't noticed them because Newtype rarely used their speech organs to communicate. They always leveraged their brain-2-brain connection, or telepathy, as it was called on Earth.

Bellrock wondered what these shells thought of him right now, hell, they probably calculated a thousand atrocious ways to kill him.

Those freaky doll creatures. 

eLoom summoned her asset verbally.

"eKazumi, would you please help our guests carry their freight?"

"Your wish is my wealth."

The young female unit approached the equipment, but Bellrock intervened.

"I don't think she can carry that much."

eKazumi snatched the three gearbacks and carried a cargo crate in each of her claw-like hands. She looked like little David lifting two Goliaths. The organic exoskeleton on her joint structure probably fortified her already impressive strength manifold. Was she able to lift a single tank with that power?

A scary thought.

eVax flashed the captain with a thin-lipped smile.

"That's Newtype engineering for you."

"Whatever."

"Oh, by the way," eLoom said, "you will not be needing your suits. The climber module is equipped with a life support system that includes an air circulatory unit.”

"Why?" Bellrock said.

"To welcome our future guests from Earth. Once the peace between our races deepens, we expect lots of visits from your home planet."

"Forward thinking," Dr. Rao said.

eLoom nodded.

"It is the Newtype way."

The shutter door opened.

The duo and the Newtype walked over the ramp leading to a horizontally 'parked' vessel pointing Mars-wards. Robotic arms connected with the rear hull and seemed to hold it. Bellrock entered the ship and whistled. The main chamber looked like the lovechild between an industrial cargo lift and a cruiser bridge. 

White, streamlined design.

Pod-like devices extracted from the ground floor and opened up their hulls.

eLoom must have noticed the confused glances and acted as the tour guide again.

"Please attach yourself to a pod for maximum comfort and security. This climber unit can reach speeds up to 1000 meters per second."

Bellrock was the first to sack into a nearby pod when the adaptable technology wrapped his body like syrup.

"Wowzee."

eLoom smiled and looked down at him.

"Do not worry. The wrap is for your own good."

All the other Newtype attached themselves to the ergonomic pods. eLoom, who lay next to Bellrock's unit, sweetened her voice which meant trouble was up ahead.

"Is this your first ride in a space elevator?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Splendid. You will never forget it."

Unfortunately, she was right...

29

982 meters per second.

That's how fast the climber module shot down the plasto-nanotube system. 

Bellrock could see the entry into Mars' thin atmosphere through the transparent walls. 

Well, as much as his EVA suit allowed him to crane his neck.

To be honest, it didn't look that fast at all—more like a cozy flight through the orbit. Maybe it was the ergo pod that wrapped around his suit, or some other stabilizing technology of the climber module, but Bellrock could swear he didn't even feel one G on his body. He straightened his neck and glanced at the 'invisible' ceiling and saw the Ares Nexus ringstation shrinking in size. Before he knew it, only its iconic, white halo remained visible, piercing through the black of space like a beacon.

Soon, the clouds of Mars swallowed it up, too.

Red Planet, here I come.

30

"Entering the Ares Midlands spaceport in T-minus 53 seconds," eLoom said from her pod.

Bellrock, unable to look down due to the restrictions of his ergo wrap, noticed white structures emerging. Dagger-shaped skyscrapers scratched at the Martian atmosphere.

"Please breathe in responsibly and enjoy the planet with care."

eLoom automatically skewed the seats to a 30 degree angle and deactivated them. The vibrations stopped. Bellrock was free to stand up again. The hatch of the climber module opened sideways. eLoom stretched her limbs and stepped out first, followed by her asset.

"How was the lift flight?"

Even eVax cocked his eyebrow. Guess he was just as curious as her, although he tried his best to hide that fact. Bellrock said,

“We’ve made it in one piece, that's all that matters."

Rao answered, too.

"It reminded me of sleeping in an aqua pod. I have to say—your liquid seating is amazing. It seemed to absorb at least 50% of the vibrations."

eVax rolled his eyes.

"88.6 percent to be accurate. That's the power of Newtype engineering."

He started to sound like the PR department of a megacorp. Even eLoom must have grown tired of his constant snarks, because she completely ignored his jabberings. She focused on Bellrock and waved him and the doctor over like a maid welcoming boys to a frat party.

"We are taking the tube to the MagLev station, from where we will travel toward the outpost nearest to the biomorph. As you can see, we have everything planned for you."

"Well, that's the deal," Bellrock said and followed her into the spaceport's tube system. Hundreds of Newtype marched through the hall, accompanied by their assets, low-flying drones and walkers. Most of which looked like oversized, cybernetic insects. Despite the traffic, every one seemed to follow a pattern where each unit fitted into the greater whole.

eLoom took charge and rotated her head.

"Oh, and you can take off your helmet. Like the climber unit, we have made this a welcoming place for humanoids like you—in fact, we wanted this planet to be a center for a cultural encounter. We believe that humans and Newtype alike will live and work in peace on Mars."

If there's a future for this planet, that is.

Bellrock flipped open his helmet and stopped the oxygen recycler. Dr. Rao followed up and breathed in the air from the spaceport's life support system. The oxygen tasted sweet and refreshing. It reminded Bellrock of bubblegum with mint flavor. Asset eKazumi schlepped the mobile creates and gearbacks with her exoskeleton. She stuffed them into the capsule of the nearby tube opening before she flushed with it. Bellrock was just about to enter the tube when he felt eVax' breath on his back.

"Please don't vomit over eLoom again."

Dr. Rao whispered something but Bellrock decided to ignore it.

"Don't worry. If I feel something creeping up my gamut, I make sure I aim at your direction first."

Facepalm on Dr. Rao right there. eVax groaned as he climbed into the one-man capsule in a melodramatic way. Bellrock followed up with his partner and traveled through the pipelined transportation system. Before he could even think about his destination, he was already there.

A whoosh was all it took.

The second he stepped out in front of the spaceport's many exists, eLoom and eKazumi greeted him like interplanetary tour guide sisters. Bellrock noticed a platform with dozens of Newtype in different gears traversing the deck. Some wore regular skintight tech uniforms, others owned some kind of bulky attachments or even extra arms that seemed to merge with their body. When the Earthlings approached the platform, every Newtype in the area craned their necks and gazed at the duo with mouths wide open. A genderless unit touched Dr. Rao's curly hair and grinned with bewilderment. 

"Magnificent. I have never seen a primate with my own optical sensors."

"Nice to meet you, too."

A half-circle gathered around the travelers from Earth. It was surreal for Bellrock, to say the least. Here he was, on a planet millions of miles away from home, standing on their MagLev platform with a hostile alien not too far away, and he and the doc were the most exotic organisms around. The young scientist seemed smitten, almost enamored with the units that looked like females. They touched his skin and hair—Dr. Rao's little groupie moment.

Bellrock stepped next to him and entered his whispering range.

"I have to disappoint you, doc. Not a single one of them carries genitals. You have more luck impregnating a crowbar."

The doc frowned and sent Bellrock a stare filled with vitriol.

"I'm a xenologist, remember? I probably know more about Newtype than you do, sir."

Bellrock was surprised by the aggression of his statement. The doc must have realized that too, because he quickly shifted his attention back to the Newtype group. One unit of the androgynous-looking crowd stepped forward and focused on the captain exclusively.

"Hello Mr. Bellrock, is that the proper way to address you?"

His actual rank was that of a captain, so a 'sir' was more adequate, but who cared. The Newtype didn't seem to have any chain of command anyways.

"Yeah."

The genderless unit said,

"We are pleased to meet you, Mr. Bellrock and Dr. Rao. We hope your arrival will mark the beginning of a new harmonious relationship between our races.”

"Well, we see how it goes."

He faced eLoom and whispered.

"How do they know our names?"

"Through the network. Every active unit is connected to it."

Bellrock nodded. Their version of the net must have been some kind of omnipresent cloud that stored every Newtype's consciousness in real-time. Basically the commlink on steroids.  

Interesting...

And twice as scary, which it didn't feel like, since every Newtype looked so pleasant on the surface. All of them sported Caucasian, Asian and African features. As if a mad scientist took every human ethnicity on Earth, mashed them together and added some cybernetic upgrades to their bodies. 

"What is the matter?" eVax said.

His question came with a sliver of hostility.

"Nothing. I just realized every Newtype looks basically like a Brazilian."

eLoom's sharp ears wiggled.

"What is a Brazilian?"

"Ah, it's someone from Brazil, a territory back on Earth. Famous for its melting pot culture. My ancestors on my mother's side came from there. If you ever want to visit my home planet, you should check it out."

"That sounds lovely. I am going to check out the data points on the network and learn all about it."

"Do that."

eVax approached him from behind and deepened his voice.

"I do not want to interrupt your little superficial chit-chat, but let me remind you that we are on a high-priority mission to gauge the biomorph's threat level."

The sucker was right for once. 

With so many experiences and technology flashing Bellrock's mind, he almost forgot about the damn alien.

Almost.

eLoom updated the announcement. Since the Earthlings weren't connected to their network, she had to voice every status to them. 

"MagLev inbound in T-minus 24 seconds. Target Destination: FO.”

eLoom clapped her hands.

She was so easy to excite.

"We will hover to a station close to the biomorph's impact crater—we call it the Farsight Optimal. And even though it springs from the conflict-ridden days, it is still an impressive outlet with many upgrades and production facilities, allowing for intensive R&D."

Dr. Rao seemed to be the only one impressed about it.

"I can't wait to check it out."

Me too, Bellrock thought, albeit for different reasons...

31

Distance to the biomorph: 1.223 kilometers.

First the ringstation.

Then the tube transportation.

After that, the space elevator.

And now the MagLev.

Bellrock hated to admit it—the Newtype were brilliant at engineering. No wonder they had so many advantages in the Separatist War. As his favorite J-pop droned from his commlink, Bellrock inspected the interior design of his train which offered the same ergonomic design as the ringstation. It started to look samey samey, but this uniformity of tech would allow for maximum inter-connectedness between all the ground-and space-based vessels. But that was off-topic. This situation demanded his attention. 

Group inspection time.

eLoom sat sandwiched between her asset and eVax. She eyed Bellrock with apparent amusement.

"You can close your mouth now."

"I wasn't drooling, I was just thinking about today's operation."

Little grey lie, but it was true.

The more he neared the creature, the more his enhanced muscles sizzled. All this sightseeing was revealing, but it mellowed his battle readiness.

This wasn't a tour trip. 

There was a hostile organism on this planet, threatening intelligent life. Bellrock had to constantly remember that fact because everything was so clean and calm. He tilted his head toward Dr. Rao and whispered,

"Remember doc—we'll approach the biomorph within the safety perimeters, snap some hyper-resolution scans, do some basic analysis and send the information back to the AC's satellite network. Then we're out of here."

The young scientist looked out of the transparent wall and nodded. He seemed still upset about the previous Newtype comment. Bellrock ignored his little spiel and addressed eLoom. She even crossed her legs and had her arms spread, demanding more of the seating space around her. Despite her artificial talking style, she almost seemed human.