The Face of Earth (12 page)

Lantor nodded and led the way. “Captain, bring up the rear, and keep an eye on our new friend.” The alien followed Lantor, jabbering unintelligibly the entire way. Trenor and Halen carried the isolation capsule up the hallway, and Nanot followed.

They walked through the lobby and exited the building. As the assistant scientists loaded up the skiff, the alien looked around at the general devastation of the city. “My god, what happened here?” He looked up at the sky, as if searching for answers. The only thing up there was the sun. He squinted at it. “And why the hell is the sun so small?” He began to shake with the amount of adrenaline his body was producing in reaction to the realization that a worldwide catastrophe had occurred. “Damn that Agnar! I didn’t want to live if there was no life left! What am I supposed to do now?”

Nanot grabbed the alien’s arm. “Did you say Agnar?” he demanded.

The alien beamed, pleased that at least one of his words had gotten a reaction. “Agnar?” he questioned.

“Yes, Agnar.” Nanot nodded encouragingly at him.

The alien crossed his arms on his chest with his open palms resting just below his shoulders. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back, mimicking sleep. Then he opened them and pointed back toward the cryonic room. “Agnar,” he said earnestly.

“Lantor, do you hear that? Agnar must have given these people the cryonic technology, which he probably stole from the Bitowans. He’s had more than enough time to explore the universe, what with his extended life span. He must have been here! That would explain how we found Bitowan technology on an alien planet in an unexplored quadrant.”

Lantor looked the alien straight in the eye. He held his hand at about the eighteen decimeter level, indicating height. “Agnar?” he questioned.

The alien nodded. “Agnar,” he replied decisively.

“Captain Niella, do you know what this means?”

“It means Agnar is now a criminal in every quadrant of the universe,” Nanot answered.

“Well, yes,” Lantor conceded, “but it also means he speaks their language.”

“Yes! Yes, it does!” Nanot exclaimed. “We should return to the Vontyr Galaxy as soon as possible and find him. He’s a mercenary; he’ll translate if we make it worth his while.”

Lantor nodded. “I agree.”

They climbed into the skiff and drove back to the ship, hovering up the ice cliff at a steep angle. The alien seemed very impressed by this. As the skiff lifted up over the edge of the glacier and the huge starship came into view, the alien’s jaw dropped. He stared in awe as Nanot steered the skiff into the massive ship. Once inside the air lock, the outer door closed and the men waited for the pressure to equalize. Then they drove into the cargo bay. Nanot parked the skiff and the men disembarked and removed their suits. Trenor led the alien away. Lantor turned to Nanot.

“Captain Niella, I’d like you to go back to the cryonic room and get the dead aliens. I didn’t want to bring them with the live one so as not to alarm him, but I need those bodies for further study of his species.”

Lantor’s request didn’t surprise Nanot. He hadn’t expected the scientist to leave them behind. “I’ll get them.” He proceeded to climb back into his suit.

“Be discreet when you bring them aboard. Take them directly to my lab.”

“Of course.” Nanot closed up his suit and fastened his helmet. Lantor left the bay, closing the doors on his way out. Nanot climbed back into the skiff and entered the air lock. He exited the ship and drove back to the metal building. The trip didn’t take long, and within the hour he had collected the two dead aliens and was on his way back to the ship. He steered the skiff into the cargo bay and closed the air lock. He piled the bodies on a cart and covered them with a sheet before rolling it out and down the corridor to Lantor’s laboratory. He left the cart in the room, not bothering to unload it. Then he headed to the bridge, where Lantor waited for him. Lantor raised his eyebrows at Nanot inquiringly. Nanot gave a quick, short nod in reply.

“Captain Niella, is there any way we can catch up to Tresar? I’d like to find out what he took from that room,” Lantor asked aloud.

Nanot shook his head. “He’s had a day’s head start and his small ship is faster than this massive tub. We’ll be lucky if we make it back within a week after he does.”

Lantor sighed in disappointment. “As soon as we reach the Vontyr Galaxy, send a message to Yalsa for his arrest. Tresar wouldn’t bother with an artifact unless it had some intrinsic value. He’s not interested in wealth; he already has more than enough. Whatever he took, it’s probably something we’ll want to see.”

Nanot nodded his head in agreement. “And Flavoi would just love to have taken something he thought I wanted right out from under my nose. He’s always been insubordinate with me. We can’t let them get away with it.” Nanot sat in the captain’s chair and ordered his crew to prepare for takeoff.

Lantor exited the bridge and made his way through the corridors of the ship to the med bay. He entered to find the alien sitting up on one of the beds while Trenor examined him. “How’s he doing?” Lantor asked.

“He’s cured. There’s no sign of the anti-immunity virus in his system.”

“Good.”

The alien began making eating gestures at Lantor, and his belly grumbled loudly. “Feed him,” Lantor ordered.

“Kevin,” the alien insisted, pointing to his own chest.

“Feed Kevin,” Lantor reiterated. Kevin grinned at him.

“I’ll take care of him,” Trenor assured Lantor.

Lantor left the med bay and went to his laboratory, anxious to begin dissecting the aliens before their bodies stiffened any further. He hated to leave the unexplored planet so soon after arriving, and he hated that he couldn’t take all of the aliens with them, but at least they had one living and two dead examples of the new species. And he could return later to get the rest. He set each body on a table and began examining the first.

Back in the med bay Trenor determined that the alien had recovered well from the effects of prolonged cryogenic stasis. Kevin talked incessantly despite knowing he wasn’t understood, annoying Trenor. Trenor gave him some clothes to replace the odd rubber suit he wore and waited for him to change. Then he led the alien to the refectory, hoping that filling his mouth with food would shut him up for awhile.

Kevin covered up his surreptitious study of the aliens and their technology with friendly chatter. He didn’t know what had happened to Earth, but it was obviously uninhabitable. If he wanted to continue leading the Lazarus League, he would have to find a new location for their operations. The alien led him into a cafeteria-like setting and sat him at a table. He disappeared for a few minutes before returning with a tray of food, setting it down in front of Kevin. Kevin devoured the food, forgetting his manners in order to satisfy his body’s sudden and insistent demand for nutrients.

Trenor sat across from Kevin and watched him eat. The man had finally shut up. Trenor didn’t know what Lantor’s plans for the alien were, but he hoped that he wouldn’t be the one forced to babysit him on the long trip home. The novelty of Kevin was wearing off, and Trenor began to find him irritating. Kevin yawned as he finished eating, so Trenor led him to some sleeping quarters and left him to get some rest. Trenor posted a guard outside Kevin’s room, with explicit instructions to take the alien to Lantor once he awoke and tried to leave the room.

As soon as Trenor left him alone, Kevin stopped feigning fatigue and examined his quarters. After a thorough search all he had found of interest was a keypad on a table. He sat in the comfortable chair next to it and began tapping at it, trying to get a response. After a few taps, he heard a whirring sound and the center of the table opened to reveal a computer screen. It lit up the moment it appeared, so he didn’t have to search for a power button. He stared uncomprehendingly at the bizarre symbols on the screen and sighed. This was going to take longer than he thought. He tapped the keypad and the table closed over the screen. Standing up, he moved to the bed and pulled back the covers. He may as well have a nap. It would be awhile before he could learn his rescuers’ language and return for his brothers.

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It seemed as if he had been asleep forever. Kevin’s eyes fought against opening, but he forced them to obey. Blinking, he took in his surroundings. The metal walls of the room gleamed in the low light. Sitting up, he looked around at the sparsely furnished space before suddenly remembering recent events. He slid his legs over the side of the bed, stood up, and stretched. His sleep-crumpled clothes bothered his vanity, but he set that thought aside and went to the door. It opened to reveal a narrow hallway and a guard leaning against the opposite wall, watching him. He grinned at the man, understanding the aliens’ need to keep him under surveillance.

“Good morning!” he said cheerily. The guard looked at him uncomprehendingly. “Um . . . take me to your leader?” Kevin asked, suppressing a chuckle.

The guard motioned Kevin to follow him. Kevin fell in step behind him as the guard led him down the corridor. After navigating down several ladders to the lower decks, the guard stopped outside a door. Kevin stopped as well, and they waited. Kevin kept a steady stream of chatter flowing. He wanted to appear as harmless as possible to these aliens. After about fifteen minutes one of the men who had awakened Kevin came strolling toward them.

“I’ve brought you the alien,” the guard said, addressing Lantor.

Lantor looked up from the data tablet he had been reading as he walked. “Oh, good. Leave him to me.”

“Yes, sir.” The guard left, anxious to get away from the babbling alien.

Kevin had stopped talking at Lantor’s approach. He watched the short exchange in silence, waiting for an opportunity to make his wishes known to someone of authority. This man exuded authority. He tapped himself on the chest. “Kevin.”

Lantor looked at him with exasperation. “Yes, I know. You don’t have to keep telling me, Kevin.”

Kevin tapped the man’s chest gently, with a questioning look on his face. Lantor laughed. “Oh, you want my name!” He placed his hand on his own chest. “Lantor.”

“Lantor,” Kevin repeated. His tongue felt strange forming the alien syllables, but he knew that it would become second nature in time. He held up his hand and pointed to it with his other hand. “Hand.” He looked at Lantor again, eyebrows raised.

Lantor became very excited. It seemed that this alien wanted to learn their language and teach them his own. Lantor opened the door to his lab and gestured for Kevin to enter. It would be awhile before they reached the Vontyr Galaxy, plenty of time to test Kevin’s ability to learn. Kevin smiled winningly and entered the room. Lantor followed. They had a lot of work to do.

CHAPTER 9

For several days after her prolonged stasis, Karina spent as much time as she could awake. She filled her days with learning Tresar’s language, sampling the different foods they had on board, and rummaging through the bizarre pile of alien technology in one of the cargo bays. Tresar seemed pleased with her interest in his toys; she wasn’t sure why, but she figured she’d learn as her proficiency with the language increased. She knew she had to learn the language as soon and as well as possible. It would be her only means of communication now that the rest of the human species was gone.

Karina’s favorite part of the day was right before bed, when she climbed up into the observation room at the top of the ship. She had discovered it during her exploration of the ship a few days before. It was a small circular room with only a clear dome separating it from space. It took a little getting used to at first, since it felt like she had climbed right out of the ship to stand on top of the hull, but after awhile it became her favorite place on board. She would watch as the stars streamed past, the closer ones seeming to fly by while the farther stars inched along.

One evening about a week into the journey Karina climbed into the observation room after noticing that the movement of the ship had changed. The vibrations had subsided to the kind of calm felt in an airplane once it reached cruising altitude. Pulling herself up into the room, she discovered that they were no longer passing stars. Instead, smudges of galaxies dominated the forward view. An intense light reflected off the dome and Karina turned around to find its source. She gasped aloud and gaped at the sight. She was mesmerized, unable to take her eyes off the Milky Way. It looked like an enormous whirlpool with a large, bright, golden center. Starfish-like arms spun out from the ends of the rod-like center, glittering in reds, blues, and yellows. The blue was dominant, giving the impression of water flowing into a drain. A belt of smaller galaxies encircled the Milky Way, rotating in a plane at a ninety degree angle to the Milky Way’s disk. The resulting shape reminded her of the Chandler gyroscope she had played with as a child, and Karina felt a sudden surge of homesickness.

She walked toward the wall and placed her hand against it, as if she could touch her galaxy. It may be the last time she’d ever see it. She stood there for hours, watching as the Milky Way slowly shrunk beneath her hand. Her legs grew tired and she sank to the floor, sliding her hand down the wall as if removing it would remove her last link with home.

When Tresar came looking for her the next morning, he found her asleep on the floor, hand pressed hard against the wall. He looked out past her hand as the Milky Way continued to shrink from sight. He stared at Karina in wonder, thinking how odd it was for someone to be so attached to one small place in such a large universe. But then, she had never left that place until now. Tresar tried to visualize growing up on one planet, never leaving it or its galaxy. He couldn’t imagine it, and he sighed, realizing he would never understand that part of Karina. His sigh was loud enough to wake her, and she sat up, bewildered.

She looked up at him with surprise, and then around her at her surroundings. Realizing where she was, she took one last look at the Milky Way before removing her hand from the wall, caressing it as if she could cup the galaxy in her palm. She stood up and smoothed out her wrinkled clothing before addressing Tresar.

“Time for lesson?” she asked.

“Yes, but if you’d like to go to your quarters to freshen up first, and then get some breakfast . . .” Tresar trailed off, realizing by her expression that Karina didn’t understand him. He changed tactics. “Shower? Food?”

Karina grinned at him. Those were two words she knew very well. “Yes,” she answered emphatically, and moved to the opening in the center of the room, descending the ladder rapidly and disappearing down the hall to the crew quarters.

Tresar smiled and followed at a more leisurely pace. Karina seemed so full of life. Everything was new to her, and she made him look at things as if he were seeing them for the first time. Maybe that was why he felt such an attraction for her. That and her thirst for knowledge. Just yesterday, before their language lesson, he had caught her looking at the physics primer on her console. She couldn’t read the language yet, but she was scrolling through the images of how a starship travels through intergalactic space.

Tresar wondered if Karina understood that when they engaged the distortion drive, they weren’t moving far faster than light, they were staying in one place while the universe moved past them. From their perspective inside the distortion, time continued normally, while in the rest of the universe outside the distortion, time appeared to stop.

If she didn’t understand, he couldn’t wait until they could communicate well enough for him to explain it to her. A species like hers that had never made it out of their own solar system, well, it would blow her mind. And he found himself wanting to impress her beyond anything he had ever wanted before.

Lost in his thoughts, Tresar entered the refectory and sat down at the table where Karina usually ate her meals. He had already eaten, but he liked to watch Karina eat. She ate like each bite was a new adventure. He knew it would be awhile before she joined him; after he had first shown her how to use it, Karina had become extremely fascinated with the sonic shower. Since that morning she had been perpetually late for their lessons. Perhaps today he should give her a timepiece and show her how to use that.

“Tresar.”

Tresar jumped at the sound of his name on Karina’s lips. He hadn’t heard her enter the room, and felt guilty for having been caught thinking about her. He didn’t know why, it wasn’t as if she could read his thoughts. He jumped up out of his chair and gave her a slight bow. “Good morning, Karina.”

She returned the salutation the way he had taught her, with a slight bending of her head and a cheery, “Good morning to you, Tresar.”

He patted the chair and said, “Sit. I will get the food.”

Karina only understood ‘sit,’ ‘I,’ and ‘food,’ but that was enough for her to know what Tresar asked. She sat and set her loosely clenched hands on the table, looking at him expectantly. He grinned and went to get her breakfast.

Each breakfast started this way, but as Karina learned to speak more of his language, conversation over the meal improved. Tresar found himself falling in love with the odd alien, forgetting at times that she was alien. She looked so Yalsan, and copied his accent so well that he was sure she could function in Yalsan society and no one would be the wiser.

Time passed quietly as the Vontyr Galaxy advanced toward their ship. Karina made excellent progress in learning their language, and by the ninth month was practically fluent with almost no trace of an accent. She and Tresar pieced together what might have happened to Earth. A gigantic crater on the equator in Africa had been visible from orbit, showing the impact of a passing comet or asteroid. The only thing they couldn’t determine was how long she had been in stasis, since they no longer had access to Earth’s solar system and Yalsan time was calculated differently. Karina decided just to be happy that she was alive and free.

When Karina explained how she had become involved with the Lazarus League, Tresar became uncomfortable. He didn’t like that she had deliberately killed someone. Even when she explained how the man had hurt others, Tresar still didn’t see the justice of it. He excused himself and left, not wanting to hear any of the details. “I should go up to the bridge,” he told Karina and Flavoi, “the Vontyr Galaxy should be close by now.”

Flavoi waved dismissively, intent on Karina’s story. “We’ll join you in a little while.” Flavoi was impressed by Karina’s vengefulness, and wanted to hear more. “So how did you end up as a guinea pig for those men?” he asked as the door closed behind Tresar. He didn’t see the connection between her victim and the Lazarus League.

Karina sighed. “I didn’t know that he had brown-nosed his way into their group. Their leader took his death as a personal insult and bribed some policemen to transfer me into their care. From that point on I was a test subject for their research. By using a human to test cryonics, they were able to perfect it sooner than they would have using animals.” She shivered. “I can still remember the cold creep up my spine at the initial test. It was horrible.”

Flavoi put his arm around her shoulders. “Don’t worry. You’re here now and safe. We won’t let anyone hurt you.”

The ship’s deck began to pulse as Tresar engaged the star drive. Flavoi grinned and pulled Karina by the hand, helping her stand. He pulled her out into the corridor, but instead of heading to the bridge as she expected, he led her in the opposite direction.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“You’ll see.” Flavoi led her to the observation room ladder, letting go of her hand so he could climb it. “Come on!” he encouraged.

She followed him up into the room, lifting herself out of the opening and onto the deck. “Oh!” she exclaimed, her eyes widening at the view.

Flavoi unnecessarily pointed out the galaxy that dominated the space ahead. “That’s where we’re headed, the Vontyr Galaxy. Beautiful, isn’t it?”

Karina stared at the glowing disk. It didn’t look at all like the Milky Way. The center appeared to be a similar glowing orb of light, but it was white rather than golden. As they approached it, she could see that the center was made up of countless globular clusters, and the light given off by the combined luminescence of their stars spread out past the edges of the galaxy. The edge consisted of darker matter, making the galaxy look like a ring of filth in a sink of water pushed back by a drop of dish soap. All the stars were white and blue, giving an overall appearance of dusty white. It was beautiful, but so alien to her. She set her hand on Flavoi’s shoulder. “Yes, it is,” she answered.

Just then the ship lurched as the star drive abruptly disconnected and they were both thrown to the floor. Flavoi helped Karina to her feet. As they turned to descend the ladder, they saw an odd-looking ship behind them, apparently made up of several different ships fitted together like pieces of a puzzle. Karina stared at the ship as Flavoi drew in an audible breath behind her.

“Son of a horned zenothar!” he swore, and slid down the ladder, dropping to the floor and running to the bridge. Karina stared at the strange ship a moment longer before following him.

When Karina entered the bridge, Flavoi was trying to restart the star drive while Tresar worked rapidly at one of the consoles. The viewscreen showed the conglomerate ship hanging in space behind them. The comm was buzzing insistently, so Karina ran over and tapped the comm pad on the console. A man’s rugged face filled the screen. He had very short dark hair and the stubble of a beard.

Tresar gasped as he recognized the man. “How far are we from the Yalsan System?” he hissed at Flavoi.

Flavoi grimaced. “Too far to outrun him.” He looked up at the screen into the grinning face of the most notorious pirate in three quadrants. “And he knows it.”

“What do you want, Agnar?” Tresar asked, hoping to buy time by engaging the pirate in conversation.

Agnar spoke in a deep, gravelly voice. “I want your ship and your cargo, of course.” He shrugged apologetically. “I am a pirate, after all. As I see it, you have two choices. Give up now, and turn over your ship to me, or fight and lose, and I’ll take your ship anyway.” He grinned again. “I’ll give you time to think it over. Okay, time’s up, what’s your decision?”

Tresar went white. He thought about his many inventions stored in one of the cargo bays and what it would mean to lose them. Flavoi was calculating the seconds it would take him to restart the drive and run. Karina was staring at Agnar with an odd look on her face. The look changed to anger as she recognized him. She clenched her fists, and in the silence the men could hear her teeth grinding. Karina confronted the pirate, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

“So, the cryonic salesman isn’t even from Earth. No wonder your blueprints actually worked. Because of you I’ve spent years frozen in an ice coffin!” She paused. Tresar hadn’t taught her any bad names in Yalsan. “You bastard!” she swore in English, knowing Agnar understood her. She continued in Yalsan, “You probably stole that technology from someone else and sold it to the highest bidder, never caring that innocent people might suffer!” Karina ceased her diatribe, trembling with anger.

Agnar squinted at Karina in confusion, then sat back with a chuckle. “I remember you! You’re the wench that killed one of their henchmen! They planned to use you to test the cryogenic pod! Hey, don’t blame me that it didn’t work right off. I stole that schematic from the Bitowans. They aren’t exactly the most intelligent species, you know.”