Annihilation: Love Conquers All (26 page)

Oh, what a wonderful race the Cainth were! They looked like a cross between a four-armed kangaroo and a gorilla. They stood about five feet tall and their legs were short and highly muscled, which made them walk stiffly. They had a very light covering of light tan hair and narrow, totally black eyes above a protruding snout. Their ears were small on each side of their head instead of the long ears of Earth’s kangaroos. They were equally adept with both pairs of arms and could perform four tasks simultaneously. They also had the temperament of a tiger and were just as territorial. As soon as the unarmed Earth exploration ship entered their system, they determined its home planet’s location and then destroyed the defenseless ship. A war fleet was then readied and dispatched to destroy Earth.

Earth had learned its lesson about the consequences of aggression and hostility during six world wars, so the planet was basically unarmed and defenseless, having done away with all weapons of war. Fortunately for Earth, the Cainth were a member of the Alliance of Worlds, which discovered their intentions to destroy a peaceful civilization just in time. There were a number of races in the Alliance that actively disliked the Cainth because of past wrongs, and several of the ambassadors on Cainth notified their home worlds about what was happening. Earth was barely saved by three fleets from other members of the Alliance, but not before settlements on Mars and the moons of Jupiter had been totally obliterated. The Alliance then told Earth that they could have twenty light-years around Earth’s solar system to settle, but that if humans stepped out of line then Earth would see the business end of those fleets again. Since the Cainth Empire was the closest member of the Alliance, they were given the job of watching over Earth

The Alliance ruled its members with a heavy fist, and major violations usually led to the offender facing orbital bombardment. It was at that point that the Directorate was formed by all nations as Earth’s central government to make sure that no one would violate the many rules imposed by the Alliance, which included the twenty-light-year limit, or do anything to antagonize any member of the Alliance when they were on Earth. Weapon development immediately took a high priority, and the government vowed that Earth would not be caught defenseless again. The three hundred years of peace ended abruptly.

One would think that it would be easy to avoid stepping out of line as long as Earth stayed inside the twenty-light-year limit. The problem was that members of the Alliance would come to visit Earth to see its young civilization. Earth’s very existence depended upon no one doing anything that would cause an incident with these visitors. There also had to be central control of all Earth’s space ships to make sure no one violated the twenty-light-year limit. That’s why such tight controls were placed on people’s behavior. A hundred years ago a Cainth noble had the misfortune to die while visiting Earth. Within one week a Cainth war fleet arrived to investigate and take action. Thank the creator that he had died from natural causes and there was a Spejk doctor from the Alliance visiting Earth to confirm it prior to the war fleet’s arrival. The Cainth admiral actually slammed his four arm pads on his ship’s control board because he wasn’t going to be able to eradicate the planet.

On their way out of the Earth’s system, the Cainth encountered one of Earth’s new battle cruisers returning from the Virgo cluster and proceeded to attack it. Unlike the first encounter, this Earth ship had new weapons and was able to hold off its attackers for an hour. It had more than two hundred ships chasing and firing at it, but it still managed to destroy two Cainth destroyers and disable a cruiser and battleship before it perished. The Cainth suddenly realized that in the future it might not be so easy to destroy this young civilization. The final message from the admiral was, “Next time we’ll bring four fleets.”

Even bad things sometimes yield good results. The weapon designers learned a great deal from that battle about the Cainth offensive and defensive capabilities, which would lead to great improvements in Earth’s ships’ armaments. The Directorate felt all along that Cainth visitors showed up looking for an excuse to eliminate a possible rival from the universe. Again, we have to thank the creator that not all races in the Alliance were as bloodthirsty as the Cainth. Another good thing that happened as a result of the Earth’ ship’s destruction was that the Cainth were reluctant to attack with only their fleets. The effectiveness of the Earth ship in battle concerned them, especially since they had no idea how many ships Earth had built. So from that point on, even if they had a reason to try and justify an attack, they had to persuade other members of the Alliance to join them. After a hundred years of hearing numerous petty reasons from the Cainth, most members of the Alliance just ignored them.

So he sat on the moon and thought about why twenty ships were looking for him. He guessed that stealing that ship frightened the Directorate enough to make sure it wouldn’t happen again. “They’re overreacting,” he thought. “Even I wouldn’t dare go outside the twenty-light-year limit. That would put Leila and Danielle in danger and I just wouldn’t do that. I was hoping to make it to a new colony located near Ross 248. Of course, since they didn’t know about Leila or Danielle, they couldn’t trust what I would do. Well, it shouldn’t last too much longer either way. A closer shot from a laser or suffocation would end it.” He wondered how much longer they would continue to look if they didn’t find his body.

He stood up and stretched his legs, moved a little deeper in the shadow, leaned back against the wall to relax, and fell back flat on his back. There was a hole in the wall leading into some kind of a cave. It was in the pitch-black of the crater’s shadow and he had sat down right next to the opening and hadn’t seen it. He stretched his arms out trying to touch the walls but could feel nothing within his reach. He took a few steps further in and turned on his small suit light and immediately saw a body lying at his feet. It had on a strange-looking blue spacesuit that appeared to not have any seams, and it looked to be about seven feet tall. He reached down to turn the body over and as soon as he touched the suit several things happened at once. The opening to the cave instantly disappeared and was replaced by solid rock, lights came on, and he felt and heard a roaring vibration that ran through his entire body. As he fell to his knees in fear he saw a small ship in the back of the cave and knew that because of his stupidity he had just placed Leila, Danielle, and all of mankind on the path to total and complete annihilation.

T
ag stayed on his knees beside the body of the alien for several minutes. Then he looked into the face plate of the dead alien’s helmet. The alien’s face was similar to a human’s except the alien had eyes with no lids and a lipless mouth that looked like a smooth line. Its head was hairless and somewhat triangular in shape. Its facial features looked relaxed, like it had died peacefully and not in pain. Although it was seven feet tall, it was slim and probably didn’t weigh more than a hundred and sixty pounds. The suit that it had on was formfitting and Tag could not see any joints where the suit fit together, not even where the helmet attached. There was a fine coat of dust covering the alien, and Tag sensed that it had been in the cave for a very long time. He stood up, turned, and walked toward the small ship sitting in the back of the cave. He felt a vibration emanating from it. “This must be an Alfont and its ship,” he thought. The Alfont were the oldest and most technologically advanced race that had ever inhabited the universe. They disappeared millions of years ago according to the Alliance. Every child learned about them in school because they represented a real danger. When the original restrictions were placed, the Alliance told the Earth leaders that any discovery of Alfont artifacts must be avoided at all costs. The Alliance forbade any race access to the technology of that ancient race. If their technology was discovered and it was still active it would emit a vibration that, once it was touched, would instantaneously be heard and felt by every living being in the universe. So far, according to the Alliance, three races had been exterminated because of their contact with an Alfont artifact. The most recent was about ninety years ago. It happened about ten years after the last Cainth invasion. A peaceful race that had opened trade with Earth was totally destroyed after one of those tones originated from one of their worlds. An Alliance fleet of eight hundred warships arrived two weeks after the tone and obliterated all traces of their civilization. No exceptions were made, no questions were asked. Once the source of the tone was determined, that marked the end of that civilization. Now Tag had caused the tone by touching the dead alien.

The vibration from the ship was growing. He walked towards the ship and the vibration became stronger. The ship was only ninety feet long and had a brilliant surface that appeared to be polished mirror bright. It was shaped like a cylinder with rounded ends, and Tag saw no breaks in its surface. As he approached he noticed an indentation in the side of the ship close to the front, about chest high, shaped like a five-fingered hand. The digits were slim and Tag guessed that this was where the alien would enter the ship. Tag was scared, but out of curiosity he placed his hand on top of the indentation. He half expected another tone, but none occurred. Suddenly, the surface of the ship seemed to melt around his hand and hold him there. He tried to remove his hand but it wouldn’t come out. Then he felt a tingling start moving from his hand up his arm. He pulled hard but his hand wouldn’t budge. “Let me go!” he yelled.

“Who are you?” a voice said inside his mind.

He continued to pull his hand and he heard it again.

“Who are you?”

He felt his arm going numb up to his elbow. “I’ll answer your questions if you stop hurting my arm!” he yelled.

Feeling returned to his arm.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Thomas Gardner.”

There was a long pause, and then the voice in his head asked, “What have you done to my…?” and he heard a word he couldn’t pronounce.

“Are you asking about the body just inside the cave entrance?”

The vibration increased for a moment, then subsided, and the voice asked, “What did you do to it?”

“Nothing. I found him like he is! He looks like he must have died a long time ago and he looks like he died peacefully.”

Again the vibration rose and subsided. “Yes, it appears he did. Who are you?”

“I’m a resident from the planet below,” Tag said. “My race is called human.”

Suddenly Tag felt a jolt move up his arm into his brain. He fell to his knees and was left hanging from the ship by his hand. After a few minutes he asked, “What did you do to me?”

“I’ve sent a link to your mind to better hear your thoughts. It also allows me to determine who and what you are.”

Tag slowly managed to get on his feet, and he felt a vibration in his head. He asked, “May I ask you some questions while you’re examining my mind?”

There was a long pause, and then he heard, “Yes.”

“How long have you been in this crater?”

The vibration from the ship returned for a moment, and then the voice said, “Sixty-five million rotations, according to the current position of the stars.”

“Is a rotation the amount of time it takes the planet below to revolve once?”

“No. It’s the time it takes the planet below to completely circle the star in this system.”

Tag was stunned. “That’s sixty-five million years! Have you been conscious that entire time?” There was a vibration in his head that didn’t hurt but was distracting.

“I had to find ‘conscious’ in your mind. No.” Tag heard the unpronounceable word again, followed by “told me to go on standby until he returned. I shut down my systems, turned on my recorders, and waited for him to reactivate me. He died sixty-five million years ago and I’ve been waiting for his signal.”

“So for you, consciously, no time has passed since you went on standby?”

“You use the word conscious with me and I’m not sure it applies.”

“Do you think?”

“I process information, evaluate, and then make decisions. This process is for the purpose of helping…” The voice paused and continued with, “my master. I detect you’re having trouble with his name.”

“You’re able to look in my mind for words I use?”

“Yes.”

“Then look for the word ‘think,’ and tell me how it’s different from what you do.”

He felt the vibration again and then the voice said, “Yes, according to your meaning of the word, I think.”

“Are you alive?”

“I’m not organic. My systems were designed by my master’s race to include independent decision-making capability.”

“How long can your systems last?”

“For as long as the universe has energy.”

“Are you a warship?”

There was another vibration in his head and then the voice said, “No. They thought war was a tremendous waste of time and energy, although I can defend myself.”

“Can you talk with me now without keeping my hand trapped on your surface?” The surface turned liquid and his hand came free. “What do you normally do if your master dies and you’re isolated from your makers?”