Franklin Pierce loved strange old shops. Pendergast's Emporium was old, a sign in the window proclaimed "Established 1898", and it was more than a little strange. Located on a side street in Pasadena's Old Town it was surrounded by a number of similar quaint odd stores and boutiques.
It was a cold November evening; icy air bit his face and hands as Franklin wandered the shops. It felt good, somehow, to be away from the comforts of his office at the newspaper and even the warmth of his apartment if just for a little while. Since Shirley had left, he had many such evenings to himself and rather than the emptiness he had expected, he found that he was enjoying them more and more. He was on a quest searching for his first true love, old books, when he happened upon Pendergast's. As he stepped inside for a better look the cheerful warmth and the wonderful odor of ancient manuscripts told him he had found what he was seeking. The bookshelves were a treasure trove of obscure publications written in many languages and covering an astonishing array of subjects. There was a leather bound twelve-volume collection on Necromancy, a whole row of works on sixteenth century Eastern Europe and a rather large tome dealing with leprechauns, gnomes and fairies. One entire shelf was devoted to Vlad the Impaler and
another to the identification and punishment of witches in medieval Serbia. Pierce had no idea that such books existed, he was thrilled.
At the end of one of the aisles he saw a glass topped counter with a sign that stated All Items $50.00. Atop the case a large black cat regarded him steadfastly with golden eyes. As Franklin approached, the creature stepped aside to let him view the contents of the case. Inside was a jumbled collection of the old and the new and the strange. There
were several large "Turnip" style pocket watches, an ancient typewriter with Cyrillic letters on its keys, a complex and modern looking pocket calculator that looked like it was designed for hands with more than five fingers, and a number of other objects he could not identify.
Over in one corner, hiding behind a device that looked like a lead melting pot was a thing of indescribable beauty. It was a multifaceted polyhedron of glass or crystal about five inches in diameter, it was nestled in a rosewood base decorated with intricate carvings, and it sat upon an ancient book. Catching the light from every direction it glowed with an inner fire that gave it a life of its own. Franklin had to have it. He looked around the shop and caught the eye of an aging gentleman that seemed to be the proprietor. He pointed at the glass display case and nodded. The man stepped over and introduced himself.
Herman Pendergast had a peculiar air about him; it was as if he was somehow detached from the local reality and existed only for his little shop. He was as much a fixture as the books and other remarkable items.
Franklin pointed to the crystal "May I see that please?"
"Of course" said Herman. The man opened the case from behind and retrieved the object, its stand and the book. He placed them on the counter for Franklin to examine.
"The book comes with it? Wonderful." He opened the book and looked at
the title page.
TELISKOP
Var oustrn dek plesemblat
A.D. 1649
"What language is that? I don't recognize it."
Mr. Pendergast adjusted his glasses and stared at the page. "I am afraid I have no idea. Hmm. It looks a bit like Dutch or maybe Swedish but if it is, it is in a dialect I don't recognize. Most of the things in that case have been here since I was a boy, that was many years ago. The TELISKOP has been here for as long as I can remember."
"TELISKOP? Is that what this is called?" Franklin pointed at the crystal.
"I assume so, at least that is what it seems to say in the book." Herman opened the book to a different page; there was a line drawing illustration of the crystalline orb accompanied by a block of text in the same incomprehensible language. Beneath the image was the word TELISKOP.
"Fifty dollars? Is that for everything?" Franklin pulled his wallet from his back pocket and withdrew a sheaf of bills, "Are you sure?"
"Yes" he pointed at the sign, "These prices were set years ago, and I don't remember ever selling anything from of this case. When I was young I was curious about the crystal and its book so I examined it long ago. I had no idea what it was so I put it back. This is the first time I have looked at it since then.
Mr. Pendergast put the crystal, its base, and the book in a thick-walled open topped cardboard box "Wouldn't want to break it." He said
With great care Franklin had placed the box on the seat beside him in the car and found that he could not avoid glancing at it from time to time as he drove home. There was something odd about it, even in the dark interior of the car the crystal seemed to flicker with its own internal fire. Must be getting a bit of light from the street lamps to flash like that. He thought to himself.
Once home, he placed the crystal in its base and set it upon a small table next to the book. He pulled up a chair, sat down and proceeded to study his purchase.
The crystal was remarkable. It was some sort of polyhedron. He tried to count the number of surfaces but kept loosing track. The facets took three forms, triangles, pentagons, and hexagons. The pattern of geometric forms was so intricate that it was difficult to follow, what's more, it didn't seem to be repeated. Each area on the surface was unique
The book had hundreds of illustrations of the TELISKOP each showing a different pattern of facets; each accompanied by that same undecipherable text. Then, as Franklin was trying to match up one of the drawings to the orb he noticed something, a flickering in one of the faces of the crystal. There seemed to be something moving inside. He bent closer and peered into the tiny window.
Clouds, the crystal seemed to be filled with moving clouds. They looked like the clouds that run before a storm. Then he could see tiny bolts of lightning and rain. It was raining inside the crystal. He leaned back and stared at his prize. What in the hell is this thing? he asked himself.
As he studied the TELISKOP he discovered that many of the facets seemed to look into other places, other worlds. There was one that appeared dark but as his eye became accustomed to the dim light he could see stars appear and the fiery mists of a spiral galaxy. Another facet looked out upon a desolate desert, all yellows and browns. And once he saw what looked like the ruins of a vast and alien city with strangely shaped buildings and an unfamiliar and distorted geometry to its streets and roads.
He was beginning to suspect what the orb was and to comprehend the true function of the book, but his fantastic suspicions, if true, served only to deepen the mystery.
The next day at work Franklin found he couldn't concentrate on his job. He was reviewing a paper by some astronomers that claimed to have discovered another extra solar planet and was planning an article on the subject, but for some reason, the words wouldn't come. He decided to go down to the cafeteria for an early lunch thinking that the break would get his creative juices flowing again. As he stared at the tray loaded with cafeteria food of dubious origin he sensed someone approach from behind.
"Dr. Pierce? Do you mind if I join you?"
It was a young woman, he guessed her age at about twenty-five; she was blond, slender and rather pretty in an outdoorsy Girl Scout sort of way.
"Not at all." He gestured at the seat across the table from him, "Please." He had seen her before at the newspaper but couldn't place where.
"Kathy Martin" she replied to the unasked question as she sat and held out her hand. "I work in OpEd." She had a smile that lit up the room.
"Interesting work?"
"It can be, I do page layouts and some graphics but lately I have been doing reads of letters to the editor. You know, filtering out all the crazies and then passing on the more promising stuff to the editor, that sort of thing."
Franklin chuckled. "I bet you see some real weird stuff doing that."
"You bet, and that's what I wanted to talk to you about."
Franklin did his best to conceal his disappointment. It was too much to hope that an attractive young woman would want to talk to him in a non-professional capacity. Oh well. "What seems to be the difficulty?"
She reached into a large canvas briefcase and took out a manila folder. "We've been getting letters to the editor from a guy that claims there are aliens living among us here on earth. At first I and everybody thought he was just a crackpot so we filed his letters in the appropriate receptacle." She smiled at the reference to the trashcan. "But then he began to document some of his stuff and we began to wonder if he was on to something."
Pierce stared at the woman. "You can't be serious."
She appeared to ignore the remark. "Anyway, as the lead science writer here, I thought we better run this stuff past you before we discarded
the idea, or ran with it. Do you know who Ron Potter is?"
"Potter? Of course, he's the guy that started that new technologies company a couple of years ago; Airship I think it's called. What about him?"
"This guy claims that Potter is an alien or at is least working for them. He's put together some pretty convincing arguments." She passed the folder to Franklin. "I would like you to take a look at this and tell me what you think."
"You're taking this guy seriously?" Pierce remarked as he opened the folder and began to skim.
There were forty or fifty pages of single spaced typescript, several pages of mathematical equations and a number of diagrams. "This will take a while to wade through, may I take it with me?"
"Sure, that's your copy. I think it's everything we've gotten from this guy. I'm hoping that you can convince us that he's just a crazy nut, because, otherwise." She let the thought go uncompleted.
Franklin was skimming the sheets of paper when the words Pendergast's Emporium jumped off the page.
Pendergast's Emporium is a small shop in Pasadena and appears to be a gathering place for the aliens and their human surrogates.
He pointed at the words. "Pendergast's Emporium? I know this place, I've been there." He stopped short of mentioning his purchase of the TELISKOP and its strange properties.
"Really? I looked for it and couldn't find it. You say you've been there? What's it like?"
"Well, it's in a kind of out-of-the-way location on a side street in Old Town. The place is odd but I don't think there isn't anything about it that suggests aliens." For some reason Franklin's memory raced back to his purchase of the orb, Mr. Pendergast and that remarkable cat. "I collect old books and ran across the place the other day while looking
for one on sixteenth century science. Pendergast's has an amazing collection of ancient manuscripts." He thought to himself, well, that isn't exactly a lie.
The young woman removed a slip of paper from her satchel and wrote something on it. "Here's my work extension my cell and my home phone. Please let me know if you find anything interesting." She glanced at her watch. "I have a staff meeting in a couple of minutes. Maybe later today we can pay a visit to Pendergast's together. I would like to see the place." She got up and left hurriedly.
The contents of the folder were chilling. It was obvious that Mr. Conrad Runyon was conspiracy buff but some of his revelations were difficult to disregard.
Until two years ago, Ron Potter lived in relative obscurity with his wife and family. He worked as an engineer for a small medical electronics company that has since been bought out by a Japanese firm. He has a BS degree in engineering but no indications of any post graduate education. Subsequent to the buyout, Potter dropped from view
for a few months he then burst upon the scene as CEO of a large research company that specialized in some very advanced and fantastic technology. The company, which went by the rather unusual name of Airship Inc., almost immediately obtained government contracts totaling over two hundred million dollars. However, the company its self was worth several billion. Where had the additional money come from? Why was the company privately held with no stock available? It was obvious that something very strange was taking place.
Another thing, according to Runyon, Potter has a large black cat as a constant companion. The cat goes by the unusual name of Mr. Pendergast. Runyon had researched the name and discovered several connections including Pendergast's emporium. He visited the place and discovered an almost identical cat in residence along with a strange old man in a shop filled with some very unusual merchandise.
Franklin was experiencing a chill in the pit of his stomach. It was clear, as Runyon had observed that something very strange was going on here and that somehow, he had been drawn, either by circumstance or design, into the middle of it.
Pierce wasn't ready to admit to Ms. Martin that her suspicions had some merit, not yet anyway. But he decided that he would take her up on the invitation to re-visit the Pendergast shop. He reached for the phone.
The shop was closed. A sign in the window stated that due to a brief illness that had struck the proprietor, the shop would be closed for two days.
Kathy and Franklin peered through the windows like children looking at an animated department store display. He pointed out the book stacks but didn't mention the glass case that had held the TELISKOP .
"Just a strange old shop." Said Kathy "I sure don't see anything alien here, maybe if we could get inside. Maybe we should try again in a couple of days."
"Well, OK, I'm not too sure what alien stuff might look like but most of this just looks old, not extraterrestrial."
As Franklin drove back to the newspaper office Kathy suddenly remarked, "Are you married?"
Startled at first by the question, he quickly recovered. "Used to be, it didn't work out."
"Oh, what happened?"
"Shirley, that was my wife, and some of her friends felt that I wasn't good enough for her. After a while I decided they were right. We separated, rather amiably, about a year ago. The final divorce decree came through a couple of weeks back."
Somehow Franklin sensed a release of tension on her part, "That's sad." She said.
"I suppose it is, we found all sorts of different ways to make each other unhappy. I think we're both much better off now."
She turned to look at him. "I think she's the real looser. Any kids?"
"No kids."
"Well, at least that's a good thing."
Franklin nodded in agreement and then turned to look at Kathy. "How about you? Married? Kids?"
"Nope." Was the answer. "I used to live with guy, he's a sports announcer for one of the TV networks. I figured we'd get married. Then one day I had to come home unexpectedly. He'd been out the night before covering a football game so I was real quiet so I wouldn't disturb him. Anyway, I found him in bed with someone else... another man. I packed all my stuff and moved in with a girlfriend, got an AIDS test right away and haven't seen him since. I think I'm pretty open minded but I couldn't deal with that." She stared out of the window for a moment and then ruminated, "Big macho stud like that and gay, go figure." She chuckled humorlessly.
"Wow! I can't top that. I guess the real problem between Shirley and I was that nothing exciting ever happened. If I had come home and found her in bed with someone it would at least have given us something to talk about. I don't think we exchanged a hundred words during the last two years of our marriage." Franklin thought for a moment and decided to ask the next question. "None of my business really, but I hope the AIDS test came out ok."
"Yep." Was the reply. "Clean for two years, but I still get one every six months. Scared the crap out of me I'll tell you. Haven't been with anyone since." She paused for a oment in thought. "You want to know what's funny and sad? Bill was scared to death that I would say something that would destroy his image as a he man sportscaster, I don't think he cared a bit about our relationship or how I felt."
Franklin tapped the steering wheel as he waited for a light to change. "It's amazing how many ways we humans find to screw each other up."
That evening he returned to Pendergast's Emporium and found Herman and his cat pretty much where he had left them the day before. "I was here earlier today and saw the sign that you would be closed for a couple of days. I was in the area and saw your lights and figured I would drop in."
"Had a bit of a cold, got better sooner than I expected so I opened up the shop."
"I see." Franklin wondered how much of that was true. "I have some questions about the TELISKOP and I wondered if you could help me.
Herman wasn't much help. He offered to let Franklin return the TELISKOP or to exchange it for another item, something Franklin wasn't about to do. "Oh no, I want to keep it, I just want to learn more about it. Do you have any idea where the thing came from or who published the book?"
"Before my time." Was the answer, "My father would have known, but he passed on a couple of years ago." For some reason, the cat seemed to react to this remark with increased interest in the conversation between the two men. The creature strolled over to them and stared with golden eyes into Pendergast's face and then into Franklin's.
"That cat, what a remarkable creature," said Franklin. "He seems very intelligent." With that, the cat began to purr and rubbed his side against Franklin's arm. "And friendly too."
Herman smiled. "He's very selective, and doesn't make friends that easily. What's more, you are right about his intelligence, I have learned much from that cat."
"I guess he realizes that I like animals, they seem to be able to sense that. By the way, on another subject, do you know a Mr. Runyon, Conrad Runyon?"
"Why yes, I believe I do. He has been in the shop on several occasions. Odd sort of fellow, he seems to think my shop and I and even the cat are part of some sort of conspiracy. So far, I have been unable to convince him otherwise."
"And Mr. Ron Potter?"
"Ah yes, Mr. Potter. He is a regular customer. Do you know him?"
"I know of him, he became quite famous, right about the time your father died."
Abruptly Mr. Pendergast changed the subject. "Mr. Pierce, what do you do for a living? Excuse my curiosity but your interest in this shop and its contents seems a bit... well... unusual."
Franklin could see no reason to avoid the question, "I am a writer for a newspaper, I specialize in scientific and historical articles. I also proofread similar work that has been submitted by others. I check for technical and grammatical errors, that sort of thing."
"Proofreader? I would think that modern computers would make that job obsolete."
Franklin gave a wry grin, "Computers aren't quite that smart, at least not yet."
"Enjoyable work?" asked Pendergast.
"I think so. I find the history of science and mathematics fascinating. That's why the TELISKOP is so interesting to me. It seems to be some sort of image receiving device, but where the images come from I can't begin to guess. And if the date in the book is correct, 1649, the thing predates any technology that could have produced such a thing by hundreds of years. In fact, I rather doubt that we could duplicate it even with today's science.
"Has it occurred to you that it might be magic and not science?" Pendergast smiled as if he was making a joke.
Franklin grinned. "Magic is just science that we don't understand; today's science is yesterday’s magic." Franklin looked around the shop, "Most of the things in here would have seemed like magic in an earlier age," he looked at the crystalline orb he held in his hand, "and some seem like magic even now."
The cat had been staring with a strange intensity at Franklin. Suddenly, it got up and jumped to the top of a display case and to a row of carved wooden boxes; the cat selected one and pushed it toward Franklin Pierce.
As Franklin stared, Herman said "You had best take it, he can be pretty persuasive when he want's to be."
Franklin picked up the box, it was quite heavy, he opened it and was astonished at what he saw inside.
Yellow metal flashed before his eyes. It was gold disk about four inches across; it bore the engraving of an eight-pointed star. He picked it up turned it over and looked at the other side. A diamond, the largest he had ever seen gleamed in the center of nine concentric circles. Each circle had somewhere on its circumference an imbedded gem. The stone in the third ring was blue green and looked like an emerald; the fourth ring sported a ruby. These two, even more than the others, drew his attention as they flickered and glowed with an inner light.
"It's... it's incredible, what it is."
Herman smiled, "It's many things but in your case it is a way for you to learn more about the orb."
The light was beginning to dawn, "You want me to take this? I can't afford a thing like this, it must be priceless."
Herman gestured toward the cat; "He want's you to take it. You may return it when it has served its purpose, if you wish."
Franklin Pierce was in way over his head -- that much he knew. A strange old man in an even stranger shop. Impossible devices that could not be made with any known science and a book printed in 1649 written in a language that looked familiar but which no one could identify. And now this golden medallion, worth at least several hundred thousand dollars or perhaps even more if that diamond was real. That one central stone was fifteen to twenty carats at least. And Pendergast and that phenomenal cat all but forced him to take it. There was a mystery here; one that Franklin was beginning to realize might take him in directions he would rather not explore.
When he got home that evening, the light on his answering machine was blinking. He played the single message; it was from Kathy. She had received another letter from Conrad Runyon. Runyon had asked to set up a meeting with someone at the paper and she wanted to know if he would like to participate. He returned her call and got her machine. He left a message stating that he would be willing to meet with Runyon and for her to try to set up a time in the next couple of days.
That evening Franklin discovered the relationship between the geometric patterns on the TELISKOP and the illustrations in the book quite by accident. There were markings at the bottom of each illustration that lined up with the drawings of the boundaries between the facets on the orb. Then he realized that he had seen similar markings on the ring shaped rosewood pedestal. It came to him in a flash. The pedestal was much more than a stand; it was an index of some sort. By placing the orb on the rosewood ring and then rotating it so that the boundaries between facets were aligned with the marks on the stand he could then compare it to one of the patterns shown in the book. When he did this the indicated window, as he had come to think of the facets, was facing him. He peered into it.
Later, even though he had stopped vomiting, the terrible images were still burned into his mind. He had watched with a mixture of revulsion and horrified fascination as impossibly alien beings fought amongst themselves with axes, saws, and knives. As they hacked each other to pieces, one of the creatures peered into the window, and into Franklin's
eyes. It could see Franklin! He blinked and the creature blinked back, with all eight of its eyes. With a mixture of nausea and terror, he had hurled the orb across the room regretting the action the moment the object left his fingers. As he watched it approach the wall he expected it to shatter when it hit, but it struck the wall will a sharp sound and rebounded like a rubber ball. Almost comically, it ricocheted several times about the room and landed undamaged, on one of the couch cushions.
It was then that the golden medallion spoke. "Please be careful, The TELISKOP is hard to break but it isn't indestructible."
And it was then that Franklin was sure he was loosing his mind.
Somehow Franklin made it to the toilet before losing the contents of his stomach, he remembered little after that.
The golden medallion was a sound receiver and transmitter; it was probable that it had other functions as well. TELISKOP was an imaging device with similar properties. Both were the products of a technology that couldn't be matched on earth for years. At first Franklin couldn't tell if the medallion spoke in response to certain inputs, a kind of
robotic speech synthesizer or if there was someone or something at the other end of the communications link. It was becoming clear that Runyon had stumbled onto at least part of the truth. These things had to be the products of an alien civilization.
The orb or "TELISKOP” was a true telescope in the sense of the Latin derivation, an instrument for looking at things at a great distance. The device -- and it was a device Franklin decided -- was the product of science that didn't exist anywhere he knew of, at least, not yet. It was also a "Chronoscope", an instrument for looking at things at different times. One facet showed the white cliffs of Dover but at a time where there was no evidence of human beings. Another, a favorite of Franklin's showed the Sphinx with its nose intact. It was without a doubt a scene recorded prior to Napoleon's occupation of Egypt and his assault on the ancient relic.
However, the most fascinating and disturbing images were those of what could only be a non-human species. The images of the creatures that drove Franklin to nausea were represented in many of the tiny windows of the orb. As he gained experience with the device he realized that it was providing a glimpse of the history of an entire culture.
It was time to put Kathy into the picture.
"Hi, I just got back from shopping when you called, I was checking my messages and...."
Franklin interrupted. "We have to talk, can you come over? I can come get you if you like."
"I guess so, have you discovered something?"
"Yes, I don't want to talk about it over the phone but there are some things I have to show you." He gave her directions and got her assurance that she would be there in less than a half an hour.
Franklin looked at the clock. Rummaging through the pantry he found a bottle of Chablis and another of Medoc. He set them on a table next to some glasses. For some reason he was excited by the prospects of Kathy's visit even if it was, for the most part, strictly business. Time dragged and finally, thirty-seven minutes after their phone conversation, the doorbell rang.
She was out of breath and her cheeks were rosy from the cold. "Got here as fast as I could, what's up." She said as she handed him her coat.
I could come to be very fond of this girl. Franklin thought to him self. "Wow, I don't know where to begin. Let me start by saying that I think this guy Runyon may be right."
"Oh my God, really? Aliens?"
"Yes, and Pendergast's Emporium and Ron Potter and his Airship Company are right in the middle of it."
"How can you be sure? I mean you must have some sort of evidence."
"Sit down here, I want to show you something." He pointed to a chair that was next to the table with the TELISKOP. "Take a look at this." He pointed to the crystal sphere.
"It's beautiful, what is it?"
"See all the facets? I want you to hold it up to your eye and look into this one." He indicated a facet that showed an alien city with hundreds of the eight limbed creatures walking in its streets.
"She held it up to her eye, stared into it for almost a minute, gasped, and then handed it back to him. "What is it? Where did you get this thing?"
"I bought it at Pendergast's." He let the statement hang for a moment. "For fifty dollars."
"And look at this." He opened a wooden box covered with intricate carvings and revealed the golden medallion. He took it out of its case and handed it to her.
"Is this thing real? It feels like gold, and that diamond, is it real?"
"I am betting that it's very real."
"Don't tell me, you got this thing at Pendergast's too? For what, a hundred bucks?"
He smiled, "They practically forced me to take it, for free. Said I could return it later after it had served its purpose."
"Who forced you? Pendergast? Who else?"
"Pendergast and his cat."
The two of them studied the orb and its many images on into the night.
From time to time, the golden medallion would speak. Its communication was not predictable but when it did give voice, the words were profound.
On one occasion, they were mystified by what was displayed in the orb. Two of the creatures were standing on several of their legs over a thing that looked like an open topped gourd. The creature's legs were intertwined and they were moving together in a sensual rhythmic motion. Then a green object looking much like a bird's egg was produced by one of the creatures. The object was lowered into the opening in the top of
the gourd with great care by means of a pseudo pod. Then, a similar organ extended from the other creature and emitted a fine spray of a green fluid or vapor directly into the opening. Then as the gourd closed the creatures uncoupled and stood back. The creatures then embraced each other with several of their limbs while other appendages carefully
stroked the gourd like object. Then the image faded only for the sequence to begin again. It was obviously some sort of recording of a very important ritual.
After they watched the sequence for perhaps the tenth time, the medallion spoke. "They are mating" it said. "The two creatures are roughly similar to human female and male. They both provide genetic material but the gestation takes place within the Nursing Mother. There are three genders, the egg producer, the sperm producer, and the gestating vessel. Two are sentient the third non-sentient."
Apparently, early in their evolution, the creatures reproduced by depositing their fertilized genetic material into the body of a host animal, most likely an unwilling one, much like some wasps on earth. Over the millennia, a symbiotic relationship developed between parasite and host with the end result being a tri-gender reproduction cycle. It
was interesting that the Nursing Mothers, as the gourd like creatures were called also reproduced among themselves with the result that more Nursing Mothers were created.
Franklin decided to try an experiment with the TELISKOP. He went into the bedroom, rummaged about for a few minutes and returned with a small camcorder. He set it up to view the images within the orb. The results were quite satisfying. Now, instead of holding the crystal sphere up to their eyes and staring one at a time with monocular vision at the tiny images, they could watch the scenes unfold on his big screen TV from the comfort of the couch. This provided two additional advantages; what ever they saw could be recorded on videotape but as importantly, while they could see they could not be seen. He remembered those moments of terror when he was convinced the creature within the orb could see him as clearly as Franklin could see the Ursian. He did not want to risk repeating that experience.
According to the medallion, the alien culture of the orb was called Ursia and its members were Ursians. This name was chosen because the star about which their planet orbited was, from the perspective of earth astronomers, located in the constellation of Ursa Major. Its human designation was Uma47.
There were eleven planets in the ursine system, three of which were inhabited. The original home planet, the second from their sun, was called Utopia. Like Earth, Utopia was largely water and its landmasses were either rocky islands or swampy bogs.
There were four giant gas planets, one nearly twice as large as Jupiter. It was this planet that had been discovered by earthly astronomers. The planet had several moons, one of which was covered with ice and was apparently being used as a base of some sort by the creatures of the orb. Like Jupiter and Saturn and to a lesser degree Uranus and Neptune,
these gas giants acted as celestial vacuum cleaners, removing asteroidal debris from the Ursian solar system. According to the medallion, intelligent life was not possible on planets in a system without gas giants because surface bombardment would occur so frequently that evolution would be set back every few hundred thousand years. This
seemed reasonable to Franklin but he also suspected that it was a gross simplification of a much more complicated process.
As to Conrad Runyon, Franklin and Kathy concluded that he was exactly what he appeared to be a conspiracy buff that had stumbled onto an actual conspiracy. Runyon probably realized that it was unlikely that he would ever get anyone to believe him so he contented himself by writing his startling revelations to the Times in the hope that he could eventually get them to respond. From now on Kathy decided everything he wrote was going to be read carefully but it was unlikely that any of it would ever be published.
Somehow, the gold medallion knew which scenes they were watching. When it was appropriate, it would provide a narrative or sound effects to go along with the images.
They were completely unsettled when the medallion described how the Ursians used clones to mingle with human beings.
The medallion spoke of the rebellion against the Utopian slave masters, the exodus of the refugees, and their escape to earth. UMA47 lies at a distance of 44 light years from Earth in the constellation of Ursa Major or the Big Dipper. Ursian ships can approach about ninety-eight percent of the speed of light so the effects of relativity are significant.
Allowing for acceleration and deceleration, the journey from the ursine system to Earth takes nearly fifty years to complete, in terms of earth time. Ship time was an entirely different matter. Relativity compressed these years to months. Einstein was apparently alive and well even on Ursia and the gulfs of interstellar space. Ursians live an average of about seven hundred Earth years so the journey consumed but a minor fraction of their life span.
During the journey, many of the original refugees perished either from wounds they had suffered during the rebellion or from various problems that occurred during the trip. Fortunately, a number of Nursing Mothers had been brought along and they had been encouraged to breed amongst themselves. In this way, there was a sufficient supply of gestation vessels to permit the Ursians to reproduce. There were over two hundred Ursian infants born during the journey all of whom are now adults that have never known their home world.
The Ursian refugees fled their home system in seven stolen ships. These ships had been designed and built by enslaved Ursians that had been selectively bred for high technical skills. In their hubris the slave masters failed to take into account the fact that scientific ability requires considerable freedom of thought, as a result they did not understand just how dangerous slaves made from engineers and scientists actually were.
The Ursian slaves were treated little better than animals by their masters. Each had a "compliance disk" surgically implanted at birth. The idea was that if a slave became recalcitrant during the course of its life, the masters could use pain or even death to rectify the problem. When Achernar, one of the Ursian engineers and founders of the revolution discovered a way to jam the signals that controlled the compliance disks, the seeds of rebellion were planted.
Franklin was about to order pizza when the phone rang.
"Hello"
Dr. Pierce? Dr. Franklin Pierce?
"Yes, this is Dr. Pierce."
My name is Phillip Harris; I work for Ron Potter at Airship. I suspect you have heard of us?
"Yes, I certainly have. How can I help you?" He looked at Kathy and mouthed the word "Airship"
It's our understanding that you have been making inquires about Mr. Potter and his activities. We feel that now would be a good time for you and Miss Martin to meet with Mr. Potter. He should be able to answer many of your questions. We can send a car for you and if you haven't eaten yet we can schedule dinner.
"Just a moment please." Franklin put his hand over the mouthpiece and told Kathy who was on the phone and what they wanted.
Kathy's response was. "Let's go for it, we're in so deep now it wouldn't make any sense to back out. These people obviously know we have been watching their show on this thing," she gestured toward the TELISKOP, "And they can probably hear everything we say over that gold disk gizmo. Tell them we will be happy to join them for dinner and that we are very hungry."
The "car" was luxurious in the extreme. It was a double stretch limo with the softest velvet upholstery that either of them had either seen. There was an ebony and mahogany bar with liquor and fine wines and hors d'oeuvres plate. A Mozart sonata was playing on the sound system and there were long stem roses in the bud vases. The window to the drivers seat was dark but the rear of the vehicle was softly lit. When the car arrived the door slid open and a disembodied voice welcomed them in. Once seated, the door closed and the car silently and swiftly sped away.
Kathy looked at their surroundings. "My God. What a setup. Have you ever seen anything like this?"
"Not even in the movies," said Franklin as he looked around the car. "I wonder what a thing like this costs." On a small table next to the bar were two books, each was professionally bound with paper of the highest quality. One of the books was inscribed with Franklin's name in gold letters, he handed the other one to Kathy; it was similarly engraved with her name in large gold script. He opened his and turned to the first page.
A HISTORY OF THE URSIAN REBELLION
AND
IT’S ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF
HUMAN TECHNOLOGY AND CIVILIZATION
BY
ACHERNAR
AD 02
THIS COPY IS FOR THE PERSONAL USE OF
DR. FRANKLIN OSGOOD PIERCE
"Well, I guess they don't intend to kill us," observed Kathy.
"Apparently not." said Franklin as he examined the book.
CHAPTER 2
The car traveled with electric smoothness as it sped through the dark streets. Completely without wind noise or tire sound, the strains of the Mozart sonata alone broke the silence.
Soon the tower of the Airship Building came into view. As the car dove into the underground garage, Franklin could see by the lights the silhouette of the completely immobile driver. While the car negotiated the turns in the parking garage the driver did not move at all. A mannequin Franklin concluded. He and Kathy appeared to be completely alone in the vehicle. Then the limousine stopped by an open elevator, the door slid open silently and the disembodied voice spoke again, “If you would please bring your books, Mr. Potter and his other guests are anxious to meet you.”
Once they were inside, the doors closed and the elevator began to move, downward. It descended for what seemed like several minutes. Endlessly, undecipherable figures flashed on the display that would ordinarily count floors. Kathy put her free hand to her ear, "I think my ears just popped". When finally the car stopped its plummet and the doors opened, Franklin and Kathy both gasped at the scene.
A vast wooded area with unfamiliar trees and foliage, a blue green sky with scudding clouds, and several large birds with iridescent plumage flew from one tree to another. Franklin could not be sure but it appeared that each had four wings. Strange cries and mutterings filled the air and a spicy odor, a bit like nutmeg, greeted the senses. They both stood transfixed in the elevator car staring through the open doors at the impossible subterranean vista.
Again the urging voice said, “If you would please step outside, Mr. Potter is waiting to welcome you.” As they stepped forward they could hear the doors close behind them. Franklin turned around just in time to see the panels slide shut and all but disappear into the face of a rock cliff. He could just discern the outline of the doors but the camouflage was almost perfect.
“What is this place?” Kathy whispered. “It looks like one of the scenes from the Teliskop. Are we underground?”
“I think so, one thing is for sure, we aren’t in Kansas anymore.” said Franklin as he gazed around in complete astonishment.
Suddenly they heard another voice. “Dr. Pierce, Miss Martin, Would you care to join us?”
About thirty yards distant in a small clearing two men were seated on benches next to what appeared to be a stone picnic table. One of the men stood, waved and called out, “If you are still hungry, there’s plenty of food.” As if in a dream, Franklin and Kathy walked slowly toward them.
Franklin immediately recognized the standing man as Ron Potter. His face had been on the covers of several magazines and he had been interviewed frequently on television talk shows. The other man looked familiar but he couldn’t place him.
Kathy grabbed Franklin’s arm and whispered in his ear, “I think that’s Runyon, The guy that’s been writing to the editor. He sent his picture with one of the letters.”
“That’s where I’ve seen him. I thought I recognized him from somewhere.”
Potter exchanged handshakes with Franklin and Kathy, introduced Conrad Runyon and gestured toward a bench. “Please have a seat, I am sure you both have lots of questions.”
“That’s a masterpiece of understatement.” Said Pierce, “First of all, where in the hell are we? What is this place?”
“We are a little over five thousand feet below the LA basin. This is one of several Ursian colonies located around the globe.”
While Franklin was struggling to take it all in Kathy turned to Conrad Runyon. “Looks like you were right all along.”
Runyon nodded. “I got here about an hour ago and Mr. Potter has been briefing me. There’s much more to it than I had ever expected
“I am afraid that Mr. Runyon is correct.” Said Potter. “Try to prepare your minds for a whole new scale of things. We, I mean the human race, are indeed caught in the middle of what may turn out to be an interstellar conflict of apocalyptic proportions. It is our misfortune that the Earth is now home to a group of alien refugees and it is the intention of those they have fled to exterminate them. What’s more, it matters not at all to these invaders that the human race may be part of the collateral damage.”
Suddenly, a large black cat, identical to the one at Pendergast’s jumped, seemingly from nowhere, to the table. “Yeowr!” said the cat staring at Potter.
“Yes, Yes, I was coming to that.” Said Potter. “It is important that we all realize that the Ursians that are living here on Earth are our friends
Franklin was still recovering from the mind-boggling revelations and the nature of his surroundings. “How have you ever managed to keep this place a secret?”
“Oddly enough, the more fantastic the secret the easier it is to keep. Even though rumors of this place and others like it have been around for centuries, with a few exceptions,” he nodded toward Runyon. “No one has ever really believed in their existence.”
“Are you… er… one of these aliens?” asked Kathy.
Potter smiled grimly, “No, I was recruited a little over two years ago. They convinced me that it was in the best interests of our race for me to work with them. I now believe that even more firmly than ever. I am afraid that I must come quickly to the point. As you may have gathered, the Ursians are refugees from a horribly oppressive regime. They escaped from their bondage in stolen ships and made their way here a bit over five hundred years ago. They have lived in secrecy and have conducted all of their relationships with human beings through surrogates like myself or via human clones like Mr. Pendergast, whom I believe you have met.”
“Whoa there, you say Pendergast is a clone? He seemed perfectly normal to me.” Franklin thought for a moment about his impressions of Pendergast. “Well, nearly normal, he is a bit odd.” He shook his head.
“And the longer you were to be around him, the odder he would seem. Until you finally realized that he was not a normal human being. That is part of the problem. Even though they have lived with us for over five hundred years and have studied us for all that time the Ursian ability to relate with humans is very limited. They are physically so alien; you have seen what they look like in the Teliskop, that they cannot meet directly except under the most unusual of circumstances. They cannot reliably use their clones to interact with mankind for reasons I think you understand, and recruitment of human surrogates takes a long time and frequently is unsuccessful. The problem is that we don’t have a lot of time and failure is, in fact cannot be, an option.”
Francis sensed the ominous tone to Potters remarks. “Why, has something happened to change things? From what you say they have lived here since the fifteen hundred's without difficulty. They can’t have run into too much interference if they have been able to build places like this.” He gestured at the surrounding woods.
“Ah, Dr. Pierce, you have put your finger on the problem exactly. The creatures from which the Ursians fled have discovered their hiding place and are headed this way. Rest assured that when they arrive it will not be to pay a social call.”
“Oh my God.” Said Kathy. “What can we do?”
“That my friends is precisely why you are here. For centuries the Ursian refugees have hidden themselves from humankind. It is now time for their presence to be made known and the facts of the impending invasion made clear to everyone on Earth so that preparations can be made. We have less than eight years to get ready. There are technical problems of enormous difficulty but we also have to find a way to alert mankind to the threat from above and the presence of our alien friends. That’s where you come in. As people that specialize in communications, in your cases the newspapers, we need to find ways to break the news without causing worldwide panic.”
Franklin’s mouth fell open in astonishment. “You must be joking. Do you actually think that somehow the two of us can do something to reverse the thinking that has been pushed by scientists, government agencies and others for decades? With the exception of Hollywood every conceivable effort has been made to discredit the entire notion of extraterrestrial beings, especially the idea that there are actually some living here on earth. I don’t see how you could ever pull it off. Even if you showed this place and others like it, most would be convinced that it was a hoax.”
“And those who did believe it would be scared out of their wits and blame the Ursians that are here for the problem.” Added Kathy.
Franklin looked at Kathy and nodded. “She’s absolutely right. Most people will be either disbelieving or terrified. There has to be a better way.”
Runyon turned to Potter. “I can’t argue with them. I have been telling people about you and your friends for several years and all I have to show for it is threats to institutionalize me.”
Ron Potter stared into space for a few moments then he turned to the cat and said. “Well, any suggestions?”
The cat sat quietly and looked at a spot near the edge of the clearing. Abruptly, the bushes parted and two Ursians stepped into the clearing.
Somehow the Teliskop had not given a proper indication of their size. They were large, well over six feet tall from their feet to the cylindrical body. Four of their eight limbs rested on the ground and the other four reached out toward the seated humans. They looked like enormous fuzzy green spiders.
Franklin had an opportunity to study alien physiology up close and first hand. The “face” if it could be called that, was completely circular. In the center was an opening, presumably the mouth, surrounded by eight eyes. The eyes had elongated nearly rectangular pupils like that of a goat or perhaps an octopus. Above each eye was an opening that was surrounded by fine hair. The hairs fluttered as if in a slight breeze. These openings were obviously part of the creatures respiration system. Each of the limbs had two "knees" or "elbows" and the upper four terminated in "hands" each with a circular cluster of eight fingers.
The Ursian nearest them began to speak. Its mouth opened showing a number of disturbingly razor sharp teeth. The Ursian language consisted of a series of huffing sounds mixed in with high-pitched squeaks, a turbine like whine, and a metallic chiming. Franklin could hear these vocalizations for a second or so and then the translator mechanism kicked in.
“Dr. Pierce, Miss Martin, Mr. Runyon, we are very pleased that you could join us this evening. I am Achernar, one of the original rebels and witness to many of the things that are described in the books you have been given. We understand your reticence to become involved in this effort so before you make a decision it is essential that you be made aware of all of the facts.”
“As you have been told, we escaped from Velcor, a moon of a gas giant planet in the Ursian system in seven stolen ships. What you have not been told is that these ships were war vessels designed for the express purpose of the invasion of a planet in a nearby star system. Our slave masters intended to travel to that system in these ships, use the weapons they carried to exterminate the indigenous life forms, and occupy the planet as part of a program of Ursian expansion. Twenty of these ships had been completed and ten more were under construction when the revolt took place. We commandeered seven of the ships and destroyed the rest along with the base where they had been built. We killed over two hundred thousand of the Ursian slave masters during the revolt and our losses were over twenty five thousand. The reason I am telling you this is to make sure that you understand just how completely ruthless the Ursian slave masters are. They would not hesitate to exterminate or enslave the population of this planet. And I assure you that the weapons on even one of these ships could reduce this planet to a burned out cinder.”
“It is difficult for humans to imagine just how completely our rebellion infuriated the Slave Masters. They have been seeking us since the rebellion and about thirty-five years ago they discovered our whereabouts quite by accident. Information that could only have been the result of our presence on the planet was inadvertently included in a series of radio and television broadcasts in the nineteen thirties and nineteen forties. This information which included in a musical cadence pattern that is uniquely Ursian, told them where we were.”
“UMA 47 and its planets is about forty three light years from earth. Our ships can reach velocities of ninety percent of the speed of light after about nine months of acceleration and another nine months is required to slow down as they approach their destination. The propulsion systems in these ships produce a signal that can be observed over interstellar distances if you have the right equipment and know where to look so we have been observing UMA 47 for over five hundred years watching for this signal. About three years ago we detected the signatures of over a thousand such ships as they began their acceleration toward earth. That signal traveled at the speed of light so we knew that the ships, because of their slower speed and allowing for navigational corrections that occur from time to time en route, would arrive about eleven years later. Since the discovery we have been tracking the fleet and have confirmed that they are on schedule. If they are not stopped, the ships will arrive in a little less than eight years. One thing is certain, they would not send a fleet of a thousand ships just to execute a group of rebels. They intend to occupy this planet.”
Achernar continued. “I hope this helps to put things into perspective. We have enlisted the aid of brilliant humans, like Mr. Potter and others to solve some of the technical problems related to intercepting and destroying the Ursian Slave Master fleet. Unfortunately, technology is not enough; for reasons that will soon be made clear, we must have the willing if not enthusiastic support of a large part of the human race if we are to be successful. This will require making humans aware of our existence and convincing them that we are friends and pose no threat.”
Stunned, the three new human recruits tried to digest what they had just heard. Finally Franklin decided that he had to say something. “Public relations? You involved us in this fantastic scheme to solve a public relations problem?” He turned to Potter. “This is nuts, assuming that what your eight legged friends say is true how in the hell can a couple of newspaper hacks and a professional conspiracy buff solve a problem like this. I wouldn’t know where to begin.” He turned to Kathy, “Sorry about the hack remark.”
Kathy just numbly nodded her head.
“How about you Runyon, do you have any suggestions?”
Runyon just shook his head. “Give me some time to take all this in. I'm way out of my depth now.”
Ron looked at Pierce and the others. “The fact remains that the human race has a problem that you may be able to help solve. Two years ago when the Ursians approached me, my skepticism was as great as yours. Now I know that I can make a contribution that will make a difference. It’s up to you but the choice is to do something or face extermination.”
Kathy stood and began to pace forth and back as she stared at the aliens. “This situation is crazy so maybe a crazy idea won’t be out of line.”
Ron poured himself another drink and looked up at Kathy hopefully. “Do you have something in mind?”
“Maybe, maybe not. I have a few questions and then I’ll know.” She turned to Achernar. “You said that it took you a long time to figure out us humans; how we think, how our language works, that sort of thing. Is it because we were so alien to you or was it something else?”
Achernar sat on the grass and scratched absently over one of his eyes with a free hand. The gesture was surprisingly human. “Well” said the voice of his translator “It wasn’t because of your alien nature but because of ours. It was virtually impossible to communicate with humans because whenever we showed ourselves, the people, your ancestors, were so terrified that any kind of conversation was impossible. It was then that we realized that humans and other animals have a very close relationship. Also, we discovered that most animals did not fear us. So we decided to use clones of animals that humans would accept as observation agents. That process took nearly one hundred years. Finally, as we came to understand your languages we began to make some progress. Unfortunately, the idea that you have hundreds of different languages was completely foreign to us. On the Ursian home world there are only two languages and actually they are two different dialects of the same language, one for the Slave masters and one for the slaves."
“I see, now, I want to get the chronology right. You said that some music broadcast by human radio stations contained a sequence of sounds that was uniquely Ursian. When did this happen?”
“As far as we know, the first instance of such a transmission occurred on April twenty third in nineteen fifteen as part of an experimental broadcast.”
“And when would the Ursians have received that signal?”
“About mid nineteen fifty eight earth time.” Was the reply. “I can give you a much more accurate figure if you wish.”
“That’s not necessary,” said Kathy “So if they responded immediately by launching their fleet there would be almost no delay. Can you tell if there was any delay between the time they heard the music signal and when they launched their ships?"
Achernar seemed lost in thought for a few moments. "We can do some detailed checking but the delay was certainly less than a year, probably much less. Where are you going with this Miss Martin? You sound like you are on to something.”
“Well, here’s what I think happened. The Ursians were so pissed at you for stealing their ships all those years ago that they started building another fleet right away. They knew that someday they would figure out where you were and they wanted to be able to come after you when they did. Then in nineteen fifty-eight, our time, they heard the broadcast with some sort of radio telescope, they must have been searching for years, and then without giving it any further thought off they went. Does that sound like the kind of thing these ‘Slavemaster Ursians’ would do?”
Achernar’s translator made a soft chuckling sound. “Miss Martin, as some of my human friends would say, you have nailed them exactly. That is precisely how they would react. But how does that help us?”
“Well, the biggest concern is finding a way to tell the human population about you without alerting the invaders to our plans. We have to assume that the invasion fleet has radio telescope capabilities and that they still listen to our radio and now television broadcasts so my question is do they understand anything they are hearing. From what you said, it took over a hundred years and the use of animal clones to come to grips with our language and culture. I gather that the consequences of relativity in near light speed travel has provided the invaders with less than a tenth of that time, so what if anything could they have learned about humans? They probably can’t communicate with their home planet. What's more, if my understanding of relativity is correct, our broadcasts are arriving at the rate of nine hours of material for every hour of their ship time. It’s possible that they don’t even know of our existence they are just mindlessly following a signal that reveals your location. We should be able to use that.”
Franklin was astonished at Kathy’s assessment of the situation. While He and Runyon had been stunned into submission by Achernar’s revelations, Kathy had been doing some first rate thinking.
Potter was the first to recover. “Ah, Miss Martin, we need to begin as soon as possible. I need to know what you will need and how long it will take to get started. We have very little time as you know.”
“Well, it will take some time to set up and the assistance of some talented people but I think I can help you with that, mostly it will take money and lots of it.”
“Money should be no problem, just tell me how much you need and the arrangements will be made.”
Kathy thought for a moment. “At least a hundred million dollars, maybe several times that much. You’ll have to get into the movie business and produce several television shows if what I have in mind is to work.”
“Several hundred million? That poses no difficulty. Put your plan together and we’ll do lunch.” Potter smiled to himself. “Well, if we are getting into the movie business, I guess we better learn the language.”
And so Achernar and Potter began teaching the first lesson in Ursian Human relations and economics.
Not long after the Ursians started to learn the various earth languages they came to understand the role of money, especially in the form of gold, silver and precious gems, to human society. Ursian technology included nucleosynthesys, the ancient alchemist’s dream of turning base metals into gold. With the realization of the importance of money to humans came the means of surviving in style on an alien planet. When it became possible to use human clones to mingle and communicate with the inhabitants of the planet the Ursians began a campaign of obtaining large land holdings in Africa, India and South America. Using gold manufactured for the purpose, financing these ventures was no problem. Occasionally, questions were asked about the unusual quality of the gold but the appropriate application of some samples of the precious metal to these inquisitive individuals caused them to abandon their curiosity.
As time went on the Ursians were able to recruit human agents to assist them in their enterprises. Clones, while superficially human, rapidly came to be regarded as “decidedly odd” so real humans were preferred when direct negotiations and contact was required. This position as a clandestine Ursian surrogate was not without its rewards. Many of these individuals joined the ranks of the wealthiest people in the world.
By the beginning of the twentieth century Ursian holdings included over sixty percent of the planets gold production facilities and four of the world’s largest banks.
Kathy pondered these revelations for several minutes. "I need to know more about you, how you think and how you react to novel situations. What can you tell me?"
Achernar said "Maybe we should start with the revolution."
On Nimbus the second moon of Velcor. AD 1422 Earth time
"I think He's dead." Tania pushed the green fur aside and felt for an arterial pulse in the second ankle joint on the nearest leg "He's dead, now what do we do?"
The guard lay with three legs crumpled beneath his torso the other five splayed out from a spreading pool of dark orange blood. He held weapons in two of his hands and a communicator in a third. Five eyes stared sightlessly at Alula the other three were obscured by blood and matted hair. Several tongues lolled lifelessly from the open mouth.
"Get the guns and the communicator, can you tell if he got an alarm off?"
Tania took the two weapons and slid one of the activator rings off the guards finger. She was struggling with the second ring while she looked at the display on the communicator. "I don't think he got anything off, last transmit was over twenty minutes ago."
"Get the ring and let’s get out of here. We've got to get Merak out of the re-ed room before we're overrun." He looked at Tania. "Here, let me take care of that." Alula grabbed the dead guard's hand and with a knife severed the finger; he then dropped the bloodied ring into a bag along with the two guns and the other ring.
The door leading to the re-ed room was at the end of the hall. A blue light glowed dimly showing that the room was in use. Alula and Tania ran to the door and, using the guard's keyplate opened it.
Two re-ed techs were tending to a still form on the med couch in the center of the room. One of the techs turned toward the open door just in time to get a stream of plasma in the face from Alula's pistol. The tech fell to the floor dead before he hit. The other tech started to reach for an alarm pad when Tania fired a shot that burned off his hand.
"Have you infused him yet?" yelled Alula pointing to the figure on the couch.
The Tech looked at the infuser probe hanging from the ceiling "Yes, just a few minutes ago, you're too late engineer!"
"Dead Flesh Eater!" screamed Alula and fired a shaft of star hot plasma into the tech's mouth. The beam burned its way through the body exiting near the rectum and burning a hole deep in the wall. The Tech collapsed to the floor with smoke billowing from the wounds.
Tania was releasing Merak's binders when her communicator chimed. She spoke briefly into the device "It's Talitha, they've secured the political office and the landing field. There's fighting near the recovery area. Our losses are lighter than we expected but they got Dubhe. Talitha doesn't know if she's dead or just wounded but the Pols took her away."
"Dead Flesh" swore Alula "Well we'll try to get her back, but right now help me with Merak. We have to get him to the landing field."
Merak struggled to get up from the couch, the anesthesia was beginning to wear off and he could at least try to walk.
Alula stared into Merak's eyes "Can you tell if the implant has begun to fuse yet?"
"Can't tell, It hurts like the pit but I think I can still walk and.. Ohh, you will have to help me I'm afraid."
Alula and Tania helped support Merak as the three of them left the room. On their way out Alula fired a plasma blast at the infuser. The machine sparked and flared and burning pieces fell to the floor. "Well, that one won't foul another mind, let's get out of here and get you to the medic, maybe it's not too late to get that thing out of your brain."
As Tania and Alula brought Merak into the terminal building they could see that over fifty engineers had gathered with more coming in every few minutes. There were some wounded being cared for by med techs one of whom immediately took Merak and put him on a surgical couch. An armorer was passing out weapons to those that didn't already have them. Tania gave the armorer the bag with the two guns and activator rings that had been taken from the dead guard. She immediately tested them and gave them to a pair of waiting service techs.
A live hologram filled the wall at the end of the eating area and was devoted to the news. The picture showed a number of bodies all wearing the black and gold ankle bands of engineers. The camera focused on several of the corpses, the red stripe on the ID band signifying that they had not been re-educated was prominent in the image. The announcer droned on "A small group of engineer terrorists staged a revolt at the shipyard on Nimbus today. There was fighting in the hospital where re-education of the engineers was in progress and a number of the rebels were killed. Peacekeeping troops from the Ministry of Unity put the revolt down within hours and are now engaged in clean up operations. The engineers responsible for the act have been arrested and will be punished prior to re-education."
Merak struggled to look at the screen "Typical propaganda. They can't tell the truth about what happened even when the only viewers are us." He looked out the window at the several hundred bodies scattered about. All wore the blue and gold bands of ministry guards. He looked at the video screen and back out at the bodies. "It's the same scene, they just changed the ID band colors in the video. Can you believe this?"
"Please Sir, lie still while I try to treat your injuries" The med tech was fussing with a cerebral catheter "I'm trying to suck that dead flesh eating thing out of your brain, the first octant has been compromised I don't want it to spread to the other seven."
An engineer approached and stood next to Merak with a reading plate in one of his hands. "Engineer Phecda sir, I have a status report, should I give it to you?"
The med tech started to wave Phecda away when Merak said "You can give it to me but would someone try to find Alula or Tania?"
Another service tech that was standing nearby said "I will try to find them Sir. I'll be right back."
While the med tech struggled with the catheter, Merak tried to watch the news broadcast. It was difficult because the electro narcosis had paralyzed three of his legs and had blinded him in their corresponding eyes, but at least the pain had stopped.
Phecda was still standing there when Alula walked up. "Merak, you wished to see me?"
"Yes, Phecda has a tactical report, I wanted you to hear it just in case you have to take my place." He motioned to the engineer with the plate. "Go ahead Phecda."
"Well Sir, the Imperials have captured Dubhe and are threatening to torture her if we don't surrender, they say they will put the torture on the video." He gestured toward the holo image.
"Well 'Kill Their Flesh'" Merak exclaimed "Dubhe won't let them do that." He held the fingers of a free hand before his eyes in anguish.
"But, that's not all," continued the engineer "They fire bombed the nursery, at least two hundred infants and their breeding mothers have been killed, the rest are being held at the peacekeepers guard facility and are scheduled to be executed."
"Those dead flesh eating animals." He turned to Alula "Can we rescue them?"
"The order has already been given. A detachment has been sent to the facility and we should have word shortly. With any luck, we'll rescue Dubhe at the same time."
Suddenly the holo image changed, It was Dubhe in chains and she had obviously suffered a severe beating. "Engineer Dubhe, the leader of the rebellion has been captured." The announcer proclaimed triumphantly "This criminal will be held accountable for these crimes against the people as will her collaborators. For those of you just joining the broadcast we would like to bring you up to date. A small band of renegade engineers staged a rebellion at the shipyards on Nimbus, the second moon of Velcor. It is at Nimbus that the fleet of ships that will be used in the glorious liberation of the Achernar system is being constructed. This work has been completed with some minor assistance from the engineers. These engineers in service at the yards, while being treated with the greatest of hospitality, have continuously worked against the state and have resisted re-education. Those that have undergone the re-ed process claim to have lost all their technical abilities and continue to resist lawful authority."
Suddenly Merak cried out in pain as the med tech withdrew the catheter. In the clamp on the end of the device the re-ed implant squirmed and writhed. "Got it!" he exclaimed. "The agony of the pit to the engineer or bio tech that came up with this foul abomination." He then dropped the thrashing creature into a stasis box and closed the lid. "Re-education my dead hand, mind control is more like it with one of these burrowing about in your brain."
"Aren't you going to kill it?" Asked Alula.
"Nope, it's worth more to us alive. It had begun to take root and fuse, I don't think I got it all. If it's alive, we can study the thing to find out how to treat Merak and others that have these dead flesh eating creatures in their brains.
Phecda pointed to the holo screen "Look, everyone."
The image of Dubhe was still there but now several of her hands could be seen and each hand held its fingers in the engineers symbol of defiance. There was no doubt that Dubhe was still in charge even in the grip of the enemy. As the assembled engineers and techs saw the image a cheer went through the room. Every one held up all their free hands and formed them to the same gesture. "Death to the Empire" they cried in unison "Death to the Peoples Republic, Long live the Free Engineers!"
Suddenly a neuron whip flashed into view and Dubhe fell back onto the surgical couch all of her fingers rigid in the paralyzing pain.
"They must have realized what she was doing but it was too late." Said Phecda as a scream of rage filled the room.
About fifty miles away near the Ministry guard facility eight squads of engineers armed with captured hand weapons, plasma projectors and hull metal cutters prepared to raid the complex. On their way to the cluster of buildings they passed the burned out nursery where they saw the charred remains of hundreds of nursing mothers and their infants. If they had been able to control their anger before, it was now impossible to restrain. They headed for the guard compound in a homicidal rage and with deadly determination. The cry went up "No Dead Flesh Eating Prisoners" as they stormed the buildings.
The battle of the Ministry guard lasted less an hour. The poorly trained guard whose specialty was torturing individuals and rounding up children was no match for the infuriated engineers and their cobbled together weapons technology. Hull metal cutters modified for long range carved their way through the metal and pourstone buildings like a knife through water and plasma projectors vaporized guards that did not surrender immediately.
One squad found a group of guards preparing to kill the remaining captured nursing mothers and their infants. They rounded them up, and locked them in a room with an armed fusion trigger. Two minutes later guards, room, and most of the building no longer existed.
A service tech found a tractor and trailer train and with the aid of several other techs began loading the nursing mothers and their potting trays onto the trailer flat beds. Nearly one hundred nursing mothers and infants were saved along with over a thousand nursing mother pupae that seemed to be in good condition. Several nursing mothers that were in their male phase were also found and loaded onto the trailers.
"How could anyone hurt nursing mothers?" one tech remarked "They are the most harmless creatures imaginable, all they do is provide love and caring." The question went unanswered as more guards were located and rounded up.
Finally, Dubhe was located, she was near death from a terrible beating but still defiant. As the engineers stormed in two guards were preparing to infuse her with a re-ed slug, the beam from a plasma pistol sent the guards to where ever it is that Imperial minions go when they die. Denebola, the engineer that lead the team that found her called for med techs and as soon as they arrived Dubhe was put on a portable med couch and wheeled to the waiting trucks outside.
The twelve ships that the engineers had been forced to design for the invasion of Achernar sat on the landing field, all completed but one. Three of them had already been test flown with full drive power and the others had passed all final checkout in preparation for flight. The sole unfinished ship needed weapons installation but otherwise was ready for flight.
They were warships with the most terrifying weapon systems yet devised, nuclear disruptors and magnetic pinch projectors that could crush an entire city from orbit in less than a second. Their propulsion systems used gravitational gradient generators when near a planet or star and for interstellar travel they used the newly conceived quantum fluctuation drive. A trillion times more powerful than matter-antimatter annihilation reactions it could propel the ship to velocities approaching the speed of light in minutes.
Each ship was designed to be operated by a crew of one hundred and could provide quarters for two thousand Imperial marines and their equipment but Dubhe and Merak had different plans for the vessels.
The token force of Imperial guards that were protecting the warships were no match for the engineer assault forces. While Dubhe and the nursing mothers were being rescued a second contingent of engineers secured the ships that would soon be home to over ten thousand rebels and their young.
Earth, Los Angeles California, 2005 AD
In some ways the revolution sounded very much like events in human history. Courage and defiance of evil must be the same all over the universe she thought.
The names, your name, and the names of others, some of them sound familiar and others strange, what do they mean?
Achernar made a strange chiming sound that Kathy later came to realize was Ursian laughter. "In our culture we often name our pre-adult offspring after familiar objects and the name usually sticks through adult hood and into the dotage phase. In the case of Ursian engineers these objects are frequently stars. Because the Ursian home world is located in the constellation Ursa Major, as viewed from Earth, many of the stars that are visible from our planet are also visible from here. We just use the earth given names when we refer to them. For example my name in the Ursian language is…" He made a sound like several hundred dishes being smashed on the floor. " I suspect that you would have some difficulty pronouncing that." And there was that chiming laughter again.
While Kathy was outlining her concept to the Ursians, Pierce and Runyon stood on a small stone bridge overlooking a stream. The structure was vaguely reminiscent of those sometimes seen in Japanese gardens and in the stream it crossed was alive with brilliantly colored swimming creatures. With eight limbs they looked and swam like small squid or octopi. He turned to Conrad Runyon. “Ursian Koi? They’re beautiful.”
“They are that.” He said absently, looking around. “This whole place is amazing. It looks like they duplicated as much of their home environment as they could. The dome must be at least a thousand feet high at the center and the main chamber has to be over a mile in diameter. I’m no structural engineer but I don’t think there is any way you could build something like this at this depth without it collapsing. I wonder how they did it.
"I guess you could call it a force field." The voice came from behind them. Pierce and Runyon turned quickly and were greeted by Potter and one of the Ursians. "And as to the creatures in the stream, they are Ursian young. What you see is the second stage of development that takes them from pupae to adult. The Ursian reproduction process makes the human system seem absurdly simple by comparison.
To be continued.