Leaving Blue 5.1 (5 page)

“Understood.”

Irea raised her chin. “Captain Frim, I will take you to your quarters.” She pivoted and walked toward adjacent trees, me behind her.

After passing them, we paused next to a nine-foot high, fifteen-foot in diameter dome, one of several.

Irea took a step toward me. “The Reen Council wants to speak with you. They will arrive soon.”

I cringed, insulted by her icy tone. She didn’t care about me. She was only following orders.

Wanting to know more about this area, I looked up.

To my right, a few miles away, smoke came out of a volcano.

In front of me, eighty yards away, a small group of twelve-foot high creatures, a species vaguely resembling silver scorpions, crawled out from behind a grove. Unlike any arachnid, their thoraxes and legs were covered by small diamond shaped facets.

As these repulsive looking beings came closer, my stomach muscles tightened, a nervous reaction. Were they going to tear my body apart, eat it? I couldn’t tell.

Much to my surprise, all six paused, forming a circle around us, Irea and myself.

Irea pointed at them. “This is the Council.”

I remained silent, amazed that they weren’t going to devour me.

Irea glanced at me. “Greg, are you the one who fought the Uduss?”

“Yes, but I wasn’t alone. Jen and two robots helped.”

Irea stared at the Council Members.

To my left, a turquoise head the same size as mine came out of the bottom of a Member’s thorax. The head, a body part that was at the bottom of thick neck, moved toward me. This being didn’t have any eyes, nose or a mouth. Its face was covered by diamond shaped facets. In the middle of its face, several facets rose, creating an oval shape, meaningless to me.

My guess was that the Member was speaking to Irea, using the facets.

She remained silent, staring at the Member. Then Irea glanced at me. “Why didn’t you leave before the Uduss attacked?”

“It broke into Exp One before we could escape.”

“Has any member of your race ever encountered the Uduss before?”

“No.”

“Would you kill them again?”

“Yes.”

Irea glanced at the Member, a blank expression on her face.

Without warning, all the Members turned and hurried away.

I glanced at Irea. “Where are they going?”

She didn’t answer.

I frowned. “Talk to me.”

She remained quiet, stony faced.

“Where is the food? It’s time to inspect it.” I scowled, irritated by her silence. Although we wanted to scan this food from space, vtp’s and other onboard equipment couldn’t do that.

She pointed at a white dome.

I hiked toward it, entered, and stopped next to a table with brown, yellow, and blue wafers, and bottles of liquid on it. Using my vtp, I scanned them. “Irea, the brown and yellow wafers along with the liquid are safe. But the yellow wafers are filled with arsenic. Why the hell did you give us poisonous food?” I glanced at her.

She kept staring at me, a vacant look in her eyes.

I blurted, “Is this some kind of stupid joke? Are you trying to kill us?”

She didn’t blink or flinch.

I went outside, spoke into my vtp. “It’s Greg.

“Hello, it’s Sam. What’s going on?”

I told her about the Council, the wafers, and liquid.

Sam sighed. “I don’t know why they gave us poisonous food. We’ll have to eat the brown and blue wafers. Shit, what a fucking mess!”

I paused, weighing my options.

“Mary, Joel and Jen want to visit E 4. They’re tired of their cramped quarters. Will the Reen allow it?”

“Interesting question.” I turned toward Irea, mentioned Sam’s request.

“They can visit E Four any time they like.”

I told Sam about Irea’s answer.

“Good. UE will fly them down within an hour. He’ll bring along a flamethrower.”

I scowled. “Let me ask Irea about the
flamethrower
. The Council might think I’m going to attack them with it.”

“Okay.”

I took a step toward Irea, mentioned my recent conversation with Sam.

Irea raised her three-fingered hand, the palm aimed at my chest.

“I don’t understand.”

Irea remained silent.

I spoke into the vtp, telling Sam about the cryptic hand signal.

She blurted, “I don’t know what to think.

“UE will bring the flamethrower.”

“Understood.”

The vtp went silent, off.

I had mixed feelings about having a flamethrower. If the Council Members attacked, I couldn’t kill all of them. For all I knew, there were thousands of them, maybe millions. I exhaled, worried about my limited options.

Irea walked away as a clam shaped vehicle about sixteen feet in diameter came to rest in the dirt. On its side, a door opened. She entered the vehicle. It rose, several feet. As the door closed, the vehicle veered right, and drove off.

The shuttle landed. Mary, Joel and Jen climbed out of their compartments and walked down the ramps.

Mary blurted, “Greg. I’m never going back to Exp One! I can’t stand space travel!”

I frowned. “What about your relationship with Alan?”

“We’ve discussed that in private many times.” She hurried away.

I shouted, “We need to talk this over!”

“I’ve made up my mind!” Mary entered a sienna dome.

As I questioned whether I could convince her that returning to our ship was the best choice, Jen hesitated, balanced on crutches.

Joel glanced at her, a determined expression on his face. “I want to end our relationship. Your leg is covered by scars. You look like a hybrid. If we stay together, I couldn’t find a job on Blue because people would think I’m a hybrid sympathizer. There’s no reason for me to discuss the topic anymore.”

Jen started crying and headed toward a gray dome, moving slowly.

I cleared my throat, thinking. “You’ve been with Jen for years.”

Joel scowled. “Yes. I’ve thought about this a great deal. It’s for the best. She needs to find somebody else.”

I raised both eyebrows, shocked by his decision. Nonetheless, I couldn’t force him to love her.

He walked off and entered a green dome, an irritated look on his face.

I headed for mine, hoping my next decisions would be good ones.

After waking from a nap, I went outside, flamethrower in hand, and spoke into my vtp. “Irea, when will you return?”

“Soon.”

Within moments, the clam shaped vehicle came to rest in the dirt. Irea climbed out, a blank expression on her face.

I blinked, surprised. Her eyes were somewhat smaller, her skin a lighter shade of orange, changes that occurred since we first met. “You look more like a human!”

“Yes. The translators adapt.”

I told her about Mary’s plan to remain on E4.

“That is acceptable. However, in the next few years, the planet’s mean surface temperature will drop. Mary will freeze to death because our buildings aren’t warm enough. They aren’t designed for humans.”

“That’s horrible. I’ll tell her about it later. Let’s go for a walk. I want to see what the rest of E Four looks like.” We headed for a distant grove, strolling.

Without warning, five sepia beasts, eleven feet long and vaguely resembling saber tooth tigers, jumped out of adjacent bushes. Unlike giant cats, their legs were covered by leathery skin. One of them roared and all the beasts began circling us.

As my adrenaline started pumping, I raised my flamethrower, ready to fire.

Above me, beyond my peripheral vision, a squawking sound became louder.

Wondering what was making the noise, I glanced at the sky.

Not far away, a large hawk with bright yellow feathers was coming toward Irea, claws extended, attack mode.

I squeezed the trigger – a bright line of crimson shot out of the barrel.

Flames engulfed the hawk. It flapped harder, trying to escape. The bird veered right. Its burning corpse, a violet ball, struck a beast. As flames spread across the cat’s body, it yowled in pain.
Aaaaaoorrrr.

As I watched, astonished, the other beasts attacked the burning cat. Within seconds, they tore it to shreds, and ran away, bloody flesh dangling from their jaws.

I hollered. “Why did the Council build the domes in such a dangerous area? Those animals could have killed us!”

Without a trace of emotion in her voice, Irea replied, “The Council will give your crew two ships, spacecraft that you can use to finish your journey.”

I flinched, caught off guard.

“There are two bombs inside one ship. You must deliver both weapons. One will be dropped on the Taah. The other was created to destroy Uig.”

According to a text message on my vtp, the Taah was the indigo ship, and Uig was the brown moon. “Thank you for giving us the ships. But delivering bombs is an outrageous idea. We aren’t soldiers.”

“That is the final decision. Several translators, including me, will accompany your crew for the rest of the journey.”

I scowled. “You and I can barely communicate. Our cultures are different.”

She didn’t move or respond.

“I don’t have a choice.”

“No.” She walked away.

I blurted, “Can’t we talk this over? Are they atomic bombs? What are the translator’s names?”

She entered the vehicle and drove away, ignoring my questions.

I rubbed my face, shocked by this sudden turn of events. Then I spoke into my vtp, telling Sam about the beasts and my recent conversation with Irea.

“I’m glad that they gave us the ships. But delivering those
bombs
irritates the hell out of me!” She sighed. “This is a lot to think about. I’ll tell everybody else aboard about your recent conversation with her. Let’s talk more about this later.”

“Understood.” My vtp switched off. Somewhere above me, far away, a jet-engine-like drone rumbled louder. Wanting to see this mysterious object, I glanced over my shoulder.

About five thousand feet above the dome, an eighty-foot long white shape—a bird—flew out of a cloud. It entered another one. Gradually, the rumbling sound faded. My adrenaline started pumping. If the bird attacked, I couldn’t kill it with my flamethrower.

I went inside the dome, knowing it was time to update software, a tool that would help everyone aboard, no matter which ships we were using. There was an obstacle—I didn’t understand Sila or Reen hieroglyphics. Operating a Reen spacecraft was going to be a challenge.

In the next few days, we would start teaching the translators how to use Exp One’s SAN, the spherical area network, a linked computer and the interferometric telescopes, because we needed to create new two- and three-D star maps. Our current ones were outdated. Each planet and asteroid belt had moved.

There was another complication—Technical, English, Shan and Over, languages spoken on Blue 5.1, weren’t even remotely similar to Sila, the Reen-spoken language.

Technical, a combination of object-programming syntax, Biology and English, was used in computer networks and medicine. Technical never discussed poetry or history.

Shan, speech and its alphabet, was used by poets, artists, musicians and historians

Over, a combination of legal terms and object-programming syntax, never discussed poetry, music, history, design, art or crafts.

I sat. On my laptop’s screen, text brightened.
This group of Reen hieroglyphics cannot be translated.

I shook my head, disgusted.

Hours later, more Reen hieroglyphcs, part of a huge document scrolled by. Text appeared.
No translations are available.

I lay down and dozed off, feeling frustrated that all my attempts at deciphering Sila had failed.

In the morning, I grabbed the flamethrower and went outside, hoping for inspiration. There had to be a way to grasp Sila. In the far distance, a bird honked,
Okooo, okooo, ooooo.

Another thought came to mind. Both Reen ships had plasma-fusion engines, a source of reliable power. That increased our chances of reaching Blue 5.1.

There was another concern. Because of problems, I had updated EI, software designed to track engine walls, cables, heat, hydrogen-to-helium efficiency and coil temperature. I spoke into my vtp, requesting that the device email this updated version of EI to Joel and David. If they had enough time, they could test it.

Although UE didn’t know as much about language software as I did, his feel for Sila and Reen hieroglyphics was better than mine. I spoke into my vtp, sending a voice email to UE, telling him to supervise the act of translating Reen and Sila into English and vice versa.

In the afternoon, I knocked the entrance door to Mary’s dome.

She emerged, a sad expression on her face.

I blinked. “Are you going to return to Exp One?”

She blurted, “No. I can’t take the emptiness of space anymore. “

“You underwent the same training everyone else did.”

She bowed her head. “If I return to the ship, I would eventually commit suicide.”

“You’re talented, with so much to live for. Is there anything I can say to get you to change your mind?”

She shook her head, then turned and went back inside.

I spoke into my vtp, telling Irea about Mary’s decision to remain on E4.

In a monotone, she murmured, “She is welcome to stay.”

Although I was surprised that someone, perhaps the Council, would allow Mary to remain on this alien planet, I remained silent.

Wanting to know how Jen was doing, I took a few steps and knocked on the entrance to another dome.

She emerged, moving slowly on crutches, her eyes red from crying.

I patted her on the shoulder, trying to comfort her. “I hope you’re feeling better.”

She offered a weak smile. “Not really.”

I hugged her and pulled back. “I’m going to assist you in any way I can.”

“I appreciate it.”

“Let’s go for a short walk. Staying in that dome for too long isn’t healthy.”

She nodded.

We headed for a grove.

Without warning, my vtp rang. Irea’s voice came out of it. “I have an important announcement to make. I will arrive soon, tell you what it is.”