Legacy (5 page)

Even though a lot of this didn’t make any sense, I was fairly certain I knew what they were talking about. That ship had the misfortune of landing somewhere in the land of Mystics. We knew to stay away from those kinds of people, but the people of Earth couldn’t have known.

January 20, 2377

The holographic image of a man standing on a pier in the Florida Keys flicked over to an old image of the USSC Pioneer docked at the Xenia Space Station.

“
When the ship left our solar system on that fateful day, it was carrying 978 people as well as ten Indentures and 48 potential Indentures. The ship buried beneath this island contains only the remains of seven people of which two of them were Indentured. Where are the remaining 971 people?”

The image switched to a lighted view inside the dark tomb.

“
In the forward shuttle bay, there’s no shuttle. In the aft bay, there isn’t a shuttle. The Jump Drive itself appears to have been cut out of the ship altogether. And here’s the most interesting part:”

The image switched to another very large room, lit up by several floodlights.

“
The Colonial Establishment Pods, carrying all the supplies that a new colony would need, are gone. Also missing from the USSC Pioneer are the two titanium building-frames for the four-story housing structures they were to build. Where are these people and why is their ship buried under a thousand years of coral and dirt?”

5

Braxton

Blaze Continent

I don’t know how long I had been lying there since I may have fallen asleep, but it was enough time for several members of The Guard to show up. I dragged myself up from the grass, feeling significantly better than I had before.

“
We’ve got a live one over here,” someone shouted.

Two people rushed over to me, looking like they were prepared for a fight.

“
It’s okay, he’s a Mystic,” one said.

That was probably one of the few times I was thankful for my freak-glove. I found the strength to stand up, finally taking a moment to check my surroundings. The ship was still resting quietly in the same spot as before. None of the dead had been moved from their positions despite the fact that there were probably twenty or so members of the Guard walking around.

“
He’s the Mystic that stopped them!” one of the guys hollered, rushing over to me, “You should have seen the blast he sent at them. Never seen anything like it before.”

“
Is that true, son?” another guy spoke from behind me.

I turned to see a very decorated member of the Guard. I never understood their ranking system, but I was quite certain this grey-haired guy was a leader of some sort.

“
They killed my dad. I didn’t really have a choice,” I muttered, glancing over at the crumpled figure of my father, “I can’t really control my surges yet.”

“
You probably saved us all,” he replied, “Who knows how many others they had in that ship before you fried them all.”

“
You should have seen their rifles,” another stated, “They were shooting little fireballs or something.”

It sounded like these people were enjoying all the death around them. I still couldn’t get past the fact that we attacked these visitors with no provocation whatsoever.

“
Did anyone go inside that ship yet?” I asked, “Like, are you sure they’re all dead?”

The leader chuckled, then patted me on the shoulder, “From what I heard of your actions, there’s no chance anything is alive in there. As a matter of fact, when we’re done evaluating the crime scene and getting our notes together, I’d like to see about The Guard sponsoring your future at the Mystic Academy.”

The look on his face said
“You should worship me for such an offer – go ahead and cry as you offer your undying gratitude.”
I hoped suddenly that my expression didn’t reveal what I was thinking:
“My father was just murdered by aliens right in front of me and my rage was expressed in a way I can’t really control, but HURRAY, thank you so much for sending me to the Academy!”

“
Thanks, but I think I’d better head home.” I replied.

I glanced again at my father and realized for a moment that none of this was real. My dad simply wasn’t someone who dies in the real world. Iron ships cannot fly in the real world. Earthians don’t exist in the real world. Mystics can’t shoot four lightning bolts from their hand in the real world. I was somehow living in a nightmare right now and I’d wake up safely in bed with nothing but a peaceful day of fishing on my mind again.

“
Braxton!”

I turned to the woods and saw Kiernan running toward me. His bloodied and bruised appearance stopped my progress.

“
What happened to you?” I asked.

“
The freakin’ Guard,” he replied, nodding toward the soldiers nearby, “I heard the explosions and ran back to see if you were hurt. The ugly guy over there tackled me, claiming it was a military operation. His black eye was courtesy of my left foot, but that just made him angrier.”

The Guard must have heard Kiernan because he looked in our direction in that moment. I shook my head, realizing again that this was all just a dream.

“
The aliens killed my dad, but I blame The Guard for attacking them in the first place.”

“
Wait… your dad? No way!” he said, probably confused about my lack of tears.

I was equally as confused by my lack of emotion, but I suppose I always react this way in my dreams. I just wanted to go home, go to bed, and wake up to the real world tomorrow.

“
Let’s get out of here before-”

That was the moment the other iron dragon appeared, racing in over the treetops. Thunder rumbled in its wake. Its shadow fell over us, turning the bright morning into a vision of late evening.

“
Get out of here!” I shouted, grabbing Kiernan by the forearm and running to the woods.

I knew it was definitely a nightmare now. Wasn’t this how they always played out? I could already hear the multiple discharges of The Guard’s RD-10s, which I knew would be having no effect on the ship above us.

“
We are here to investigate the attack on our shuttle. You are ordered to stand down at this moment or there will be retaliation,” the iron dragon blared its confusing words from above us, “We have come in peace and we will remain intent on establishing a peaceful relationship. This is your last warning to stand down.”

The dragon was confusing me now. I had initially thought it was a metal creature, then later settled on the belief that it was probably a space-faring vessel, and now that it spoke, I was at the belief again that the monster was a living being again of some sort. Kiernan and I continued quickly toward the woods.

The RD-10s continued to fire behind us despite the warning from the dragon. Once Kiernan and I reached the cover of the trees, our curiosity required us to turn and get one more glimpse. That glimpse was all it took to finally wake me up from my shock-induced dream. That glimpse contained more death than I had witnessed in my entire life. The dragon rained down fire from two separate areas on its underbelly. Each stream of fire hit its mark, dropping every armed member of The Guard and leaving four fleeing in fear.

“
They didn’t shoot the ones who are running,” I muttered.

“
What? Let’s get out of here,” Kiernan growled, “You just saw what that monster is capable of!”

“
They claimed peaceful intentions both times and both times, they only attacked when…” I replied, remembering the evil expression of the alien who shot my father, “I just find it hard to believe that they intend us harm.”

He tugged my arm, drawing me away from the tree I had been using as cover.

“
Let’s go!” he said, “This isn’t our battle!”

I allowed myself to be dragged several paces down the gravel path, unable to draw my focus away from the shadowy meadow where I’d spent many a day digging up the objects of the Metal-Masters. I could almost see the dragon descending beyond the foliage.

“
No, I belong there. Those are the Metal-Masters and my dad died for them,” I said, yanking my arm from Kiernan’s grasp, “I gave them so much of my own time and then they forced me to become an enemy. If they truly are a peaceful race, then they need to hear my story as much as I need to hear theirs.”

“
No, you can’t.”

“
Stay here, Kiernan. This is your life,” I replied, already heading back up the path, “I can’t let my dad die for nothing.”

“
I… you can’t… Good luck, Braxton,” he said, the sadness unmistakable in his statement.

“
Tell my mom why…”

“
I will,” he said, probably understanding my failed words.

I turned and headed back toward the meadow, toward the iron dragon.

April 8, 2377

In a private conference room on the sixth floor of the United Scientist Space Command Headquarters, three leaders from the USSC Pioneer Investigation Team met with six members of the hierarchy of the Space Command. It was one of those rare moments when a hush fell upon the associates who worked on the sixth floor because it wasn’t often that the two vice presidents, the president, and the chief scientist breezed through the legal department in the span of five minutes.

“
So, just tell me what I’m looking at here,” Chief Scientist Ritter said, dropping the paper to the table in front of him.

“
You’re looking at a ship that has just tested an experimental Jump Drive that would supposedly send it instantly to a star system 24 light years away. The scientific understanding at the time was that if there was a dilation of time involved, it would be along the lines of a few decades at the most. This was-”

“
Wait,” the CEO inserted, “We didn’t have any concrete testing done to show how much time would be warped by the Jump Drive before testing it on a multi-billion-dollar spacecraft?”

“
The testing was done with a probe launched from lunar orbit to the Titan Space Station near Saturn. The probe arrived at the space station 33 hours before we ever launched it – not a significant dilation factor,” Chief Scientist Ritter added before the Pioneer Investigation Team Leader had a chance to reply.

“
But still, we were talking about a
great
possibility of this ship never arriving at the Beta Hydri
instantaneously
like everyone was led to believe,” the CEO stated, “Which means we were listening to that system 24 years later knowing that we wouldn’t hear anything. Well, nothing different than the…”

The room was hushed in that moment as people started to see the real purpose of this meeting. Commander Martinez from the Pioneer Investigation Team stood up, realizing it was time to just say the words everyone was thinking.

“
The Hydrus Signals were sent in a form of our English language,” he said, walking toward the front of the conference room, “A language that evolved nearly a thousand years on a planet where they had no contact with Earth. If you’ll turn to page two, it’ll explain the math of our theory.”

He waited while the people flipped to the second page of the handout.

“
Travelling toward Beta Hydri at a comparable superluminal speed that would make a transit of 24 light years seem instantaneous would in effect cause a dilation not of 24 years, but rather 926.3 years. You simply need to take Einstein’s formula that states we take the square root of one minus V over C squared. Granted, we use this formula to define warp percentages of subluminal speeds, but it also works with superluminal speeds too. You just-”

“
That’s fine, Martinez. I don’t need a refresher course. But nine hundred years? We’re saying that the Pioneer
did
indeed make it to the Hydri system, but it was somewhere around the 1400’s?” the CEO asked.