[font=Lucida Sans Unicode]Charlie's ship, Saar'floe, was a thing of wonder to his new apprentice. What had at first seemed like a lifeless, sanitary environment soon came alive in ways that Ryan never imagined possible.
He was initially taken down through the dark hole in the floor to a cavernous area below. It was lit with an eerie reddish-orange light that seemed to emanate from the very air. There was a strange fibrous netting that clung to the walls, which were similar in appearance to rusted iron, stark contrast to the polished silver walls up on the higher level.
Aft of this cargo area were the engines. Ryan inspected the massive, purring machinery with awe. He was told that it ran on anti-matter, which it generated itself. (Quite a feat when you consider an ounce of the stuff costs billions of dollars to create on Earth!)
Back up on the crew deck, for that is how Charlie referred to the deck where the bridge was located, he was taken to one of the cookie-cutter chambers.
This is your cabin.
Ryan looked in at the bare walls and the cold steel table, looked back at his host. Uh, it's kind of austere, don't you think?
Only until you decorate.
Decorate? he chuckled, well, when will my U-Haul get here?
U-Haul?
Uh, never mind... what do I decorate with?
Charlie pointed to Ryan's head. Whatever is in there.
Huh?
Observe. He waved his hand across the wall to the right of the entrance. A transparent grid appeared, floating in mid-air. He began to motion with his hand across the grid surface. Before long there appeared a rectangular shape. More gestures rounded its edges and gave it depth. Then it began to plump, as if it were being filled with something. Buttons appeared at evenly spaced intervals across its flattened surface and it gradually bled a pale blue color across it, turning the opaque image into a solid one. Now Ryan could see it was a mattress. Charlie backed up and motioned toward the steel table. The image detached itself and floated over the table, then gently came to rest there.
He motioned to Ryan, try it.
Ryan sat down on the mattress. It was thick, warm and comfortable. He shook his head in disbelief. How did you do that?
I simply manipulated my ship's systems. Come I will instruct you. And he spent the next several hours training his apprentice on how to access and operate the matter creator. When they were done Ryan's cabin had undergone an incredible transformation. It was as if the ship itself was made of some kind of super clay and Ryan was the sculptor! Teak floors replaced the steel, burnished cherry-wood cabinets graced the walls. He knocked an entrance in the back wall and put in a luxurious oasis hot tub that he recalled from a vacation in Vegas. And it just got better from there. He was the proverbial kid in the candy-shop! He just wished Shell was alive to experience it with him...
[font=Lucida Sans Unicode]The next morning, after a quick breakfast, the newest member of Saar'floe's crew came onto the bridge where the master starflyer was watching his console.
Ah, Ryan... good morning... did you manage the sustenance system well enough?
Yeah, yeah... I made me a sausage biscuit and a cup of coffee... my usual fare in the morning.
Good, good, he grinned with genuine joy in his voice, how was it?
Best damn sausage biscuit I ever remember eating.
Good, satisfied, he turned back to the stars, I thought you'd find it so. Now come sit with me... it is time for another lesson.
Ryan walked over and waved his hand at the wall. A chair compliantly detached from it and swung in beneath him as he sat down. Yeah, he could learn to like this new life. So what is it today?
Navigation.
Great, he slapped his hands together in anticipation, right up my alley! I handled the charts on my destroyer...
I know, I read your files...
What? Is nothing sacred?
Charlie laughed, shook his head. The security on your world is abysmal, my friend.
I am beginning to understand this.
Okay, you know charts... that will make this lesson much easier... it is why I paid so much for you, by the way.
Ha... if I gotta be a slave I guess it's good to know I went for premium coin.
Ryan, we discussed this...
He waved a hand in the air to stop him, I know... just kidding... please go on...
Very well, he placed his hands on two indented areas on either side of the console before him. A second later the star vista in the window disappeared to be replaced by what must have been a star chart. Now let me ask you, since you have experience in navigation, how do you get from one point to another?
Generally speaking the fastest route is in as straight a line as possible, all factors considered.
That would be your first error. You see, space is warped, gravity wells pock-mark all star systems, wherein invariably lies your destination. It is always best to manipulate these gravity wells as much as possible in shaping your course. Suppose, for instance, that we take a sheet of cotton fabric and pull it as tight as we can. Now in the center of that blanket let us drop a heavy spherical weight. Now if your ship is a small ball bearing you will need to use the pressure of the weight bearing down on the blanket in shaping your course, no? So, heading away from your intended destination may actually get you there faster. Except in reality you will be contending with a multitude of gravity wells in any given system. Do you understand?
Yes, it is like factoring in set and drift on the ocean.
Similar, but unlike the current of your oceans and her winds, a savvy starflyer can actually manipulate these gravity wells to his benefit. In essence we use their force to slingshot us though space.
Huh, okay... I think I saw that cartoon...
Charlie looked at him sullenly. He was beginning to pick up on his sarcastic tones, didn't really appreciate them. Finally he went on. Now there is one other factor that is critical to efficient long-range navigation. These are anomalies that occur naturally in space called vortices. We use them to traverse long distances.
How does that work?
Do you understand the theory of wormholes as proposed by your Einstein?
Somewhat.
Well, his theory was incomplete, as theories many times are. Wormholes do not occur naturally, but our technology allows us to pinpoint where they may be easily created. They only last a fraction of a second but in that time we actually bend space back on itself. It snaps back like a rubber band and the ship remains in the new spot due to the physics of acceleration.
What's the catch?
Well, if it is previously explored territory there is little danger. New vortices however... well, no-one knows where one will come out until it is used the first time. That is why a probe is generally sent through a new vortex precedent to the ship itself traversing. The probe takes star readings, we pull it back and thereby determine where the vortex leads. That is the safe way... unless of course it is an emergency and you are attempting an escape.
Has that ever happened to you?
Just once... and I was lucky.
Well let's hope your luck holds... as least as long as I'm aboard.
Indeed, he nodded and turned back to the star chart, now to set course for our first mission together.
Ah, where to?
Pella'agre, he motioned at the chart and a glowing point of bright green light appeared. He moved it over to a star located in the upper right-hand corner. We have been commissioned to bring back forty hegredons.
O... kay...
Indigenous creatures... they are considered a delicacy in much of the federation.
Well alright then... let's get to it...
Ah... my eager young apprentice... I do like your attitude...
[font=Lucida Sans Unicode]Ryan could never have imagined what it was like to actually traverse one of the vortices that Charlie had described.
After giving his lesson on navigation, Ryan's master had set a course for a point amongst the Trojan asteroids trailing Jupiter in her orbit around the sun. Apparently vortices tended to occur in areas of overlapping electromagnetic activity, where the force of two bodies of mass exerts equal control. (He seemed to recall that these were known as Lagrange points back home.) This meant that there was generally a plethora of space detritus there also... such as asteroids trapped by the same unseen force that created the vortex. Fortunately, a normal asteroid field features huge distances between the rocks, not much of a real hazard to navigation. Even so he noticed Charlie became much more cautious as they neared their objective, which – if not for the overlying grid and green pinpoint of light marked on the bridge window – Ryan would not have been able to see it at all; it was quite invisible. He suspected the much-vaunted ship's system had isolated the location for them. What an amazing vessel!
Saar'floe now slowed dramatically nearly coming to a complete halt, a black bullet speeding out from the underbelly toward the mark, disappearing into it. They waited but ten or fifteen minutes before seeing it reappear and flee back to the ship. Charlie began pouring over his console minutely.
“Good,” he announced finally, “there is no danger on the other side.”
“I thought you only worried if you had never traversed a particular vortex,” Ryan remarked.
“I am not worried. But an experienced starflyer takes no chances that are not necessary. As with everything else in the universe, vortices are not static. As the celestial bodies in their system move, so do they. At times they may even disappear or become too weak to be useful. And there is also the chance that another ship may be coming through; or that there is a hostile ship on the other side. All of this could be problematic for us. One should always send in the probe first if there is time. How does your Earth saying go? Fools rush in where angels fear to tread?”
“Ha... I didn't know you believed in angels.”
“Oh yes... I have seen them... but let us save that for another day,” he waved off the subject and continued, “for I must warn you of what you will experience on your first traverse.”
“Okay, boss... shoot.” And the old man enumerated the side effects, trying to prepare his pupil as much as possible. It didn't work. How do you prepare someone for being squirted out of a mustard bottle? How do you explain to an adult that they have another trip down the birth canal to make? And then there was the disorientation, debilitating disorientation. Ryan had experienced jet lag before – the worst case was his trip to Russia, until now, that is; it was that by about a thousand! This first trip through a vortex was so bad he had to actually excuse himself to go lie down afterward.
Several hours later he appeared drunkenly back on the bridge.
“How are you feeling, Ryan?”
“Sick as a dog but I'll gut it out,” he responded, ashen-faced.
“You'll be fine, I suspect you have the stars in your blood... it is why I prefer harvesting Terrans. Your people are hardy and filled with the wanderlust. You yearn for the stars! The sickness keeps most of my people on firm rock; they cannot handle the effects of star travel...” he continued to drone on excitedly, oblivious to the fact that his star pupil had stumbled pallidly off the bridge, suddenly feeling like he had gotten up from his bed much too quickly...
[font=Lucida Sans Unicode]They trekked across the new system they now found themselves in utilizing the force of its gravity wells, swinging from one to the other like a monkey through the trees. Ryan had about three days to recover before they got to the next vortex. It was almost enough. Still, the next one hurt a lot less, recovery came much faster. And by the time they went through the third and had set course for their mission destination, he was feeling much better about star travel. (It had been the same in his brief stint in the navy. The first couple of times he got underway he got seasick, then he learned to master it.)
Charlie was demonstrably happy for him, and happy for himself as well. They had had the good fortune to make the trip uneventful. It was not always so, he assured his apprentice with a wry grin. There were all sorts of hazards to avoid... the vast majority of which were sentient.
Aside from the aforementioned species of contenders for that piece of rock that Ryan liked to call home, were a handful of other aliens. Most of them at least disdainful of the sovereignty of the Ka'Osafete Federation and the rights of her citizens. The three main powers in the sector considered these interlopers bandits. Of these outlaws were included a group of Ka'Osafetti renegades that preyed on star shipping wantonly, indiscriminately. Charlie's main concern was that they would run afoul of one of this group, the Szearfetti, as their mission destination was tangential to their normal area of operations. This, fortunately, did not happen. Accordingly, he was delighted to see Pella'agre loom ahead, growing more steadily in the bridge window with every passing moment.
Ryan was sincerely amazed by the high rate of speed of which the Saar'floe was capable. Pella'agre first became visible as a faint star, blossoming fairly quickly into a large, luminous orb of deep emerald, splashed liberally with jagged streaks of light azure. (He assumed these were bodies of liquid water.) She had ice caps at either pole and two rings of pale violet hue waisted her. All in all, she was quite breathtaking!
Charlie looked sideways at his apprentice's awe-struck expression and smiled. “I told you... you have the stars in your blood.”
Ryan just nodded absently. Now he could see twisting tendrils of white vapor dancing regally across the planet's atmosphere (although there was not as much cloud cover as on Earth). Off to their left, a pair of binary stars shone in tandem across the face of this exciting new world – well it was new to Ryan anyway. The stars – one bluish in tint, the other a pale red – mixed the color of their radiated light to bathe Pella'agre's atmosphere in a soft lavender.
Now they were close enough so that the rings were breaking up into individual chunks of ice, also bathed in lavender. Charlie, hands on the indentations on either side of the console, flying the ship, dove it beneath the plane of frozen rubble just before impact. Ryan jumped involuntarily. But he was loving it! He didn't know what his task was – felt he would have been instructed if he had one – so he didn't worry about it... just sat back and enjoyed the ride...
[font=Lucida Sans Unicode]Pella'agre was even more striking up close. She was generously engraved with deep gorges as if by the hand of some cosmic giant. These chasms were filled with huge lakes of a remarkable color blue adorned by fantastically steep cascades on all sides. They sparkled in the twin sunlight like so many wondrous jewels!
The rest of the planet was high plateau country, carpeted in a vivid verge of emerald green. No trees at all were evident but Ryan would expect them to be down in the gorges near the water if there were any.
Now Charlie leveled out the craft, spoiling the view for his new apprentice, who involuntarily let out a grunt in protest. Charlie laughed and waved his hand over the deck. It disappeared, the shock of which caused Ryan to jerk his feet up until he realized the deck had simply gone transparent. He gingerly tapped a toe on it to confirm this. Finally satisfied he set them back down, pushed his chair back and enjoyed the view.
“There...” he suddenly pointed in excitement. “There's a village... with people!”
“Indeed.”
“Are we going to get a chance to meet them?”
“No, no... that is not allowed... except by special permit,” the starflyer announced, “Pella'agre is a class-two world. No unsanctioned contact is allowed. It would make us outlaws... something we want to avoid.”
“But...” Ryan started and then threw on a frown and shut his mouth with obvious force-of-will.
The master looked sidelong at his exasperated apprentice, grinned in empathy. He understood. The first thing anybody wanted to do was meet the people of every new world. But it simply was not possible. It would more than likely be harmful to the inhabitants. He swung Saar'floe around in a tight semi-circle and dove for one of the canyons, neither did he hesitate as the craft hit the surface of the water but rather dove straight in.
“Hey... you might warn a fellow next time... before you do something like that.”
“Sorry, Ryan... we must seek out our quarry now.”
“Ha, I thought I was your quarry.”
“Yes, but every mission there is a new one, no?” Charlie's laugh was punctuated by the sudden appearance of flood lights piercing the depths before them. The old man must have been manipulating them for they began to dance to and fro chaotically. Suddenly they fell across a large, dark shape, roughly the size and profile of a killer whale back home. Now it turned toward the ship and Ryan could see it had large vicious looking fangs, like that of a rattler, poised to strike. It lunged straight at them with obvious deadly intent until a tiny red beam lanced out from the ship, neatly perforating its head with a small hole from which a large red cloud now leaked out into the water.
A different, broader light – one Ryan was familiar with from his levitation experience – fell across the carcass, began pulling it toward the belly of the ship. Somehow he knew there was an opening that had just appeared there, that it was being drawn into it.
“That is one,” chimed Charlie triumphantly, “we have but 39 left to go.”
[font=Lucida Sans Unicode]Of course, Ryan was ready to do a little 'fishing' himself after he watched his boss reel in a few; Charlie was happy to allow his new apprentice to try his hand at it.
It took awhile to get the hang of manipulating the ship system simply by laying his hands on the console and thinking what he wanted done, but Ryan finally grasped the concept. Before long he had hauled in one himself, and then another... Charlie beamed like a proud father.
Let us try another lake now, he said. These creatures can be elusive after they've seen several taken.
Okay... Ryan nodded, mind if I drive?
Uh, not just yet... there are too many things you could run into on a planet. Your first flight lesson should be out in space, where there is a much wider... uh... margin of error.
Although it made sense, Ryan didn't like that answer. He was having too damn much fun to relinquish control just yet. But he knew how to accept an order he didn't like, so he just nodded in compliance and pushed away from the console.
Charlie brought the ship up out of the lake and headed it out across the brilliant Pella'agrene mid-day sky. They were both casting about for their next fishing target when a trio of bright red beams skidded past the window. Charlie went into action immediately, instinctively throwing the ship into an alternating series of dives and climbs, while simultaneously searching his console for some sort of data. He apparently found it.
It is a Szearfetti ship, he announced, half to himself, she must have picked up our signature coming into the planet. Later Ryan found out what that meant. It was hard to disguise a ship entering an atmosphere. Every ship had a distinctive signature caused by her heat-shields. Anyone with the right equipment could pick it up with ease as she threw off sparks from reentry.
They reached the apex of an especially steep climb and Charlie rolled her over and made a long corkscrew dive for the planet far below. He must've figured he could more easily lose their adversary among the canyons down there, for she made a bee-line for a particularly large one now.
It sounded like a good idea to Ryan, nothing Saar'floe had done to this point had worked to accomplish that. Their chaser stuck to them like glue, several lancing beams striking them from behind, causing an alarming jolt to the crew whenever they did. Ryan just clung to his chair and prayed. Suddenly he realized they were firing back as evidenced by the sporadic sound and feel of weapon-fire emanating from the ship.
About the time they neared the canyon, the enemy landed a viscous blow point-blank on their stern. Saar'floe pitch-poled end over end, sailing up high in that attitude until she lost momentum, then paused for a fraction of a second, teetering at height and plunged downward transferring her motion into a flat spin as she did so. If Ryan had never been sick before he was now... all over the bridge! Then the impact came... ushering in with it total blackness...
[font=Lucida Sans Unicode]Ryan awoke to find himself stuck in a web of some type. Disoriented, he fought feebly to free himself. Finally, after much effort, he was successful. He looked around...
His surroundings were vaguely familiar. It was the bridge of Saar'floe, but what was up with all this netting? He suddenly noticed there was another creature in the chamber with him. He waded through the thick webs until he was close enough to make it out. It was some four foot tall with a large bulbous head much too large for it's body. It's two hands sported extra-long fingers and it's skin was a pallid, grayish in hue. Big buggy looking eyes and tiny ears completed the bizarre features of the alien. But who was it? Whoever it was, he (she?) was unconscious, maybe dead. There was a bloody crease across the crown of his head and a thin ribbon of blood traced a path from the corner of his mouth down to his collar bone. Maybe he should finish him off. It he came to he could be trouble.
No, he couldn't do that. He decided to just use the webbing to tie him up good until he found Charlie. Charlie would know what to do with him. This he did, finding the material to be very useful for such a task. It was sticky, elastic and stout. That done he looked around to get his bearings.
Through the window he could see Saar'floe was resting on a flat section of green sward that stretched as far as the eye could see, even to the curve of the planet itself. On Earth it was twelve miles to the horizon, but he knew it depended on the diameter of the planet; didn't know how Pella'agre compared to Earth in that regard... He shook his head, he was allowing his thoughts to ramble. Determined to find Charlie, he turned to the entrance...
[font=Lucida Sans Unicode]Charlie was not on board the ship. Ryan had searched it twice, finally concluding that he must have left in search of help or to elude the aliens that had attacked them. Why he had so rudely left behind his apprentice, he didn't know. Irregardless, Ryan was no longer comfortable on Saar'floe; he wanted off...
In his search for his wayward master, he had discovered that the ship system was not working. He tried to access it just as Charlie had instructed him but to no effect. He did find what appeared to be an obvious hatchway to the outside on the lower deck. But as the system wasn't on-line he was at odds about how to open it. Then he noticed what looked like a control panel about three foot from the floor to the right of it. It was marked with strange writing, not unlike that which graced the console on the bridge. He mentally cursed Charlie for not teaching him what the unusual characters meant. He shrugged. What did he have to lose?
Gingerly he pressed on one of the alien ideograms, the most likely candidate. Bingo! The door slid open, revealing a small chamber on the other side and another closed doorway. Inside were suits of various sizes hanging from the walls. These must be environment suits, he concluded. Now that was confusing; some were extremely small as if for a child. He shook his head, dismissing that particular dilemma. He could ask Charlie about it when he found him. He was confident he didn't need a suit, after all he had seen humanoid people on the surface earlier. Surely it would be safe for him...
The console beside this new door was a clone of the other so there was no mystery on this one; he simply pressed the same symbol. The first door slid closed with alarming finality. Ryan swallowed hard, fighting off the fear that he was trapped. Then the other door popped with an eardrum-cracking sound, swung out and upward. Sunlight flooded in and he cautiously exited the ship...
[font=Lucida Sans Unicode]The carpet of green vegetation felt like just that, a plush carpet. It consisted of some sort of thick moss. Ryan kneeled and felt its texture. It was spongy and fragrant. In fact, the very air itself was fragrant with a wondrous mixture of exotic odors he had never imagined. He drew in a deep breath, enjoying the experience.
Now he examined the landscape. What he had judged to be a flat surface from the air was not so. Rather it was a gently undulating meadow of swales and swells, liberally sprinkled with some type of wiry white-barked bush with purple blossoms and ivory-colored berries. He picked one of the berries, smashed it between his fingers and brought it up to his nostrils. It smelled pungent and tart with a trace of mint.
He cast his eyes to the horizon, there were no breaks at all, for as far as the eye could see... no mountains, no foothills, no rocks. But where were the gorges? He realized they must have landed up on one of the high plateaus.
Charlie! he cried, thinking his boss might be nearby. No answer. Now where the hell had that weird little guy gone off to? Yo... Charlie! No answer. He began to walk around the perimeter of the ship. It was quite a hike for the ship was large, but his efforts proved fruitless still no Charlie.
Now he could see something off in the distance. A tiny speck heading his way. He had an idea that it might be his itinerant master so he walked cautiously in that direction. The closer he got to the figure however, the more concerned he became that he was operating under a faulty assumption. It was too tall a figure by far. Charlie was somewhere around five-seven. This fellow had to be over six foot easy. And now he could make out his features somewhat. He had an incredible mane of wheat-colored hair, braided and fastened in the back somehow. Charlie was nearly bald, and what he did have (just a little around the ears) was cut short and silver gray. And the guy was carrying what looked like a very long bow of some sort.
His error was much too late in being realized for there was absolutely no place to hide. Ryan shrugged and continued, his gait unbroken. Looked like he would get to meet the people of Pella'agre after all!
[font=Lucida Sans Unicode]The man was a truly splendid specimen. He was tall, about six inches taller than Ryan, thin and sinewy with roped cords for biceps and forearms. A dark leather vest laced across his chest and a short kilt of the same leather fell midway down his thighs. His eyes were of the palest blue coloration and were almond-shaped and slightly tilted upward at the corners. His nose was long, thin and regal with a very shallow bridge. He looked Ryan dead in the eye brazenly, fearlessly, wordlessly. They stood locked like that for a small eternity. Finally the man spoke.
“Did you come from the flying stone?” he asked in a deep baritone.
Ryan was shocked to hear him speak English. “How...” he began and then decided to keep it simple at first, just answer his question. “Uh, yes... I came from the flying stone. My name is Ryan Manniks.”
“Aerose,” he stated bluntly, striking himself in the chest with a dull thump.
Now Ryan's eyes went to his weapons. There was the six-foot long bow, a quiver of arrows at his belt and from a baldric slung from his neck was what appeared to be a sheathed long knife. Ryan suddenly felt horribly vulnerable. He knew some TaeKwonDo, had boxed in league in the Navy, used to be a fair hand in fencing with a saber, but was not certain how handy these skills would be against a man armed thus, especially since he had nothing but his bare knuckles with which to defend himself.
“You will come to my hut for dinner. Come.” The man turned and strode away, supremely confident that his invitation would be accepted.
Giving Saar'floe one last forlorn look over his shoulder, Ryan decided he had better follow. What were his options? He did not want to offend this man. Besides, with the ship system down he couldn't even feed himself. And he was stuck with the clothes he had put on this morning: jeans, tennis shoes and a long-sleeve black tee shirt. Oh, well... it could be worse. At least it was warm enough right now for his light-weight clothing to be adequate.
He shrugged and followed his host off into the distance...