“Unfortunately, the Caldurian vessel, this Crystal City, is not capable of FDL travel. We will not get to Earth within twenty-four hours as long as we are moored here.”
“Can you secure this vessel against intrusion? Leave the shields up?” Jason asked.
“Yes, the raiders, or anyone else for that matter, will not be able to board this vessel. In fact, only another Caldurian vessel would be able to land here, such as we have.”
“Good, then the decision’s made. We’ll come back here after we’ve dealt with the Emperor’s Guard.”
* * *
Jason was tired, not having had a break since before Admiral Cramer’s militia took control of the outpost, then the arduous trek across HAB 12, destroying the Loop on Halimar, the pirates, and most recently the discovery of the Crystal City with its populace all found dead. They’d lifted off from the courtyard and were heading out into open space. Almost immediately,
The Lilly
reconfigured its bridge back to normal. They needed to reach Earth, fast. Even at FDL, it would take them almost twenty-four hours. Now, with Perkins back in the command chair, Jason left the bridge.
He had received a NanoText from Mollie several hours earlier.
Kids and texting
. She had requested he drop by the Zoo; she had something she wanted to show him.
Jason found the Zoo empty, at least of people. He walked to the first habitat across the isle and waited for his favorite creature, the Drapple, to appear. A moment later there it was, seemingly inches from his face, big and powerful, yet agile, as it positioned itself through the water in front of Jason. Jason wondered what was it about this strange creature that evoked such a strong kinship. Being worm-like and not actually having a head made finding the Drapple’s face sometimes a challenge. Then he noticed his smile and then the warm, kind eyes looking back at him. He reached his hand out and placed it on the habitat’s window. The Drapple turned slightly in the water and let his bulk press against the same spot. An unspoken connection.
“Dad! I’m waiting for you. What are you doing?”
Jason turned to see Mollie standing in front of HAB 4. When he turned back, the Drapple was gone.
“I’m just reconnecting with a friend. Where were you?” Jason asked.
“In here, come on before the window times out and I have to get Jack again. I want to show you something,” she said.
Jason jogged over, and he and Mollie entered Habitat 4. The first thing that struck Jason was the humidity. Green and lush, the jungle was alive with sounds and movement. Mollie pulled Jason’s arm towards a makeshift wooden fence. Raja and three other large Indian elephants stood together. Raja’s trunk curled and rose high above its head, as if trumpeting Jason’s arrival. Up close, Jason gave each of the elephants a pat. Jack was nearby, scattering branches with thick green leaves at their feet. Off in the distance, sitting on the fence with her nose in a paperback, was Nan. She looked up and waved, then was back engrossed in her book.
“We’re not here to play with the elephants, Dad. Stand there. This is what I wanted to show you,” Mollie said, then scurried ten yards down the dirt path.
“Alice. Command five. Alice, command five.” Mollie smiled over at her father and then became serious again.
There was rustling off in the distance, deep in the overgrown foliage. Closer now, Jason recognized the sound, the odd gait of the running dog-like creature with its six legs. It broke from the trees, big blue tongue hanging from its mouth. Excited, it headed right for Jason.
“Command five, Alice, Command Five.”
Alice changed course and veered toward Mollie. Once close, she slowed to a walk and then stopped in front of her. She gathered her feet beneath her, crouched low, then sprang into the air and over Mollie’s head. She landed, turned, crouched and sprang again. Once seated in front of Mollie, Alice waited patiently, her eyes never leaving Mollie’s. Mollie waited a moment, then knelt down.
“Good girl, Alice, good girl.” Mollie kissed the creature’s head, then enfolded her in her arms—Alice’s tail wagged and her big tongue licked at Mollie’s face.
“Pretty cool, huh, Dad?”
“Very cool!” Jason replied, excitedly. “How did you do that? Teach her how to do that?”
“She’s really smart. I’ve taught her other things, too. Each trick has a different command number. She’s really good at fetching things. Watch this! Alice, command eight, shoe. Command eight, shoe.”
Alice ran off and disappeared into the trees again, only to return moments later with something in her mouth. She ran until she reached Mollie and dropped an old shoe at her feet. Again, Mollie praised and hugged the animal.
“I’m impressed. And it looks like you’ve made a friend,” Jason said.
“She’s the best friend in the world. I just feel sorry that she doesn’t have other drogs to play with.”
“Drogs?”
“Yeah, that’s what I’ve named her species. Do you like it?” Mollie asked, looking up at her father.
The parallel wasn’t lost on Jason. Mollie too needed to be with other kids. Have a more normal life.
“Alice is a fine drog. I’m going to say hi to your mom. I’ll watch you from over there.”
Mollie was off and running with Alice before Jason finished talking.
As he approach, Nan laid the book down on the wooden fence and looked up at Jason. The sun was low and amber in the sky, and her long chestnut hair fell free around her shoulders. She was wearing jeans and a white button down shirt, and as always, her cleavage caught his eye.
“Sit down next to me for a minute,” she said, smiling.
“You know, I’ve never been in here. It’s nice. Relaxing.”
“It’s one of the few Earth habitats. Whenever I’m homesick, I come sit here on this fence for a while.”
She looked at him, as if studying his face. “What are we doing, Jason?”
He didn’t know how to answer. Things had gotten complicated. After being pushed away for so long, he didn’t know if he could put his heart out there again. And then there was Dira.
“You look beautiful. More beautiful than the day I met you.”
“I bet you say that to all—” She stopped mid sentence. Tears welled up in her eyes and she looked away.
Jason touched her face and gently turned her to look at him. He kissed her softly. Her arms came up and encircled his neck. She kissed him back, just as softly, her eyes open and locked on his.
“I’ve made so many mistakes. I don’t blame you, you know.”
“Blame me for what?” he asked.
“For giving up on me. And for finding someone else. Dira.”
Jason didn’t know how to respond. His feelings for Dira were so new, so undefined. What he had with Nan was the real thing. But he’d been hurt. Numerous times.
“I want to make you a proposition,” she said, leaning away from him, serious and still looking in his eyes.
“A proposition, huh? What kind of proposition?” he asked, equally as serious.
“If you can make me a promise. A very simple one. I propose that you keep on doing what you’re doing. Continue to explore things with Dira. She’s amazing, young, beautiful—”
“Which you are all the above yourself, I might add,” Jason interjected.
“Let me finish. See where it goes. But don’t give up on us either. On me. Maybe it took the cataclysmic events of the last few months, or maybe being chased around the captain’s suite by that pirate thug, but I know you’re the only man I want in my life. But I want you to return to me only after you know for sure what you want. As I now do. I love you, Jason. I’m so sorry I’ve waited so long to do this.” The tears now ran freely down her cheeks, her eyes still locked on his. Jason pulled her in close and wrapped his arms around her.
Chapter 35
The pain struck without warning. Intense and relentless. Jason had caught a few hours of sleep before, as if being hit by a bolt of lightning, he sat up grabbing for his head. It only began to subside once he had showered and dressed. Making his way to Medical, he noticed more and more people in the corridor—all headed in the same direction.
Tired looking, Dira was already there, attending to others. Mollie was crying, Nan holding her tight. Ricket entered Medical several seconds after Jason.
“What is this? What’s going on with everyone?”
Ricket was moving fast. Someone was in a MediPod and he checked its readings. “Nano-devices.”
Jason stopped and stared, paralyzed by the implications. He looked over to Mollie, still crying.
“You’re talking about—”
“Yes,” he said, “same as the Crystal City. They are counting down.”
“How long?”
“Fourteen days, three hours, eight minutes.”
“Can you do something? Turn them off?”
“I’ve turned them off. They turn back on. They are being controlled externally.”
“Can you remove them—maybe the MediPod can remove them?”
“They are permanent—integrated into the bio-structure of the brain. Removing them would be fatal,” Ricket said, still taking readings.
“So what do we do?”
“We need to stop them at the source. I’ve discovered where all Caldurian signals emanate from, including the instructions for wormhole transport—such as what the Crystal City uses.
“Where? We need to change course. Get there and turn these things off!”
“We are already on the right course, Captain.” Ricket said.
“You’re saying it’s Earth?”
“Yes.”
Jason found it nearly impossible to think around the pain. He knelt down next to Mollie. Her eyes were red and puffy.
“Can you make it stop, Dad?”
“We’re going back to Earth, sweetie. Once there, we’ll figure this out.” Jason hugged her then stood and hugged Nan.
“Can you give everyone something for the pain?” Jason asked, looking to Ricket and then to Dira.
Ricket nodded, “Yes. It won’t stop the pain completely, but it will help.”
* * *
From the bridge, Jason sat and watched the overhead display, mesmerized as stars continuously streamed by. He kept coming back to the same conclusion. The reason Earth was generating Caldurian signals was simple: Earth and Calduria were one and the same. It was Earth that had been attacked by the Craing thousands of years earlier. What few remained alive, like those in the Crystal City, now moved about the universe.
How many other crystal cities were there?
He then thought about the Craing and the three Caldurian vessels in Earth orbit.
“That’s why they haven’t been attacking!” he blurted out loud.
Orion looked back at him from her station. “You all right, Cap?”
Jason was still deep in thought, “Oh, yeah. I’m alright, Gunny.”
He needed to contact them. He looked over to the communications station. “Gordon, I want to open a channel.”
“Yes, sir,” came two voices. Both of the red-headed Gordons were on duty. Jason couldn’t remember if it was Jeffery or Michael he was looking at.
“Which one are you?” he asked, irritated.
“Jeffery, sir.”
“I don’t want to see either of you on this bridge again unless you have full name tags, understood?”
“Yes, sir,” the two Gordons replied.
“You, Jeffery, can you open a channel to the shuttle?”
“Yes, sir.”
As Jason waited, he ran through what he had figured out, or at least thought he had figured out. Somewhere on Earth, a Caldurian signal was being generated. It wasn’t a coincidence that the Craing were also searching Earth with those three Caldurian vessels. Where Jason and
The Lilly
’s crew needed to turn off the signals for their nano-devices, the Craing’s search was for something else. What’s the most important thing to the Craing, especially now that the Loop had been destroyed? It was the ability to move about the universe uninhibited. This Caldurian signal—it was universal and powerful. Jason wondered what else it was.
“Channel open, sir,” Jeffery Gordon said.
Admiral Reynolds looked terrible. Annoyed, he spoke first. “I was sleeping. Something that does not come easily lately.”
“Hello to you too, Admiral,” Jason replied. “Let me guess, a blinding headache. You’re ready to jump in front of a bus or dive off a cliff?” Jason asked.
“Exactly, how’d you know?”
“It’s your nano-devices. Dad, like the rest of us, you will be dead in two weeks, actually less now. Sorry for putting it so bluntly.”
“All of us?” the admiral asked.
“Yes, anyone that has these devices in their heads.”
“What can we do to stop this from happening?”
“I believe the answer lies with the cave people you’ve discovered. As we talked about, I’m sure they are descendants of the Caldurians. There’s a universal signal being generated. Multi-functional, it controls things such as wormhole generation, offering Caldurian ships the ability to move about the universe with ease. Apparently it also signals things like our nano-devices to shut down. I’m sure it does far more, but for now finding its source is what’s paramount.”
“Ricket, can you locate this signal?” the admiral asked.
Jason had not noticed the mechanical alien was standing at his side.
“This is not a signal generation in the same sense of a radio frequency or light waves. This would be closer to trying to find the origins of thought or consciousness, nearly impossible,” Ricket said.
“So we need to find this before the Craing do.”
“Yes,” Jason replied. “We have the advantage of knowing where their tribe is located, or at least where one of their tribes is located,” Jason said.
“What do you want me to do? They’re not exactly friendly—it’s not like I can invite them to tea.”
“Who’s there with you in the shuttle?”
“It’s me and two SEALs, that’s it,” the admiral replied.
“If we can get past those three Caldurian vessels, I know exactly who we can send to talk to them,” Jason said.
* * *
“Why me?” Perkins asked, defensively.
“Because you look just like them. Think about it. You won’t be nearly as intimidating as we would be,” Jason replied.
Jason had wanted to talk to Perkins away from everyone else. It was bad enough he looked so peculiar. This was a sensitive conversation. One that only compounded the issue that he was
different
than everyone else.