Alien Enigma (6 page)

"But sir ...how ...I mean why would anyone do something like that? Be willing to mix it up with us, since Wannstead's ships are registered with the United States? It doesn't make sense for anyone to take that kind of risk, does it?" Dunaway asked.

"Tell that to the Chinese. Wars and more wars have been started for less than logical reasons," Mullins said, reminiscing about his encounter with
Minglong
.

Keane tugged at an ear lobe and considered the idea. He remembered an article he'd read in
Space News
, a magazine with a small circulation and no advertising. He had subscribed to it for years. "Haven't there been reports of
Wannstead Industries
building a colony somewhere? I know they have the right but if they've ever exercised it they haven't announced the fact publicly."

"Give the man a teddy bear. Yes, and our intelligence service knows the reports are accurate. Wannstead actually has two colonies somewhere but our agencies also discount the possibility of Wannstead being the culprit in this case. Otherwise, why turn it over to us? As Commander Dunaway says, it doesn't make sense for him, not to mention anyone else, to risk everything they own to keep others away from a colony. Besides, he's given us the location and a recording of the alien city."

Keane mentally reviewed what he knew of Wannstead. He had to admit he had little comprehension of how the mind of a man such as Wannstead operated. His stature as the son of the inventor of the quantum drive and associated gravity technology, and the fact that he had used those inventions to drive a bargain no one had thought possible, made him a figure larger than life, even to the point where most people believed he actually made the inventions himself rather than his father. Keane thought he rightfully should be given credit for what he had accomplished in the course of his life. His political manipulations, and his industrial complex that manufactured the great interstellar space ships, had pushed the world from space flight no farther than the moon into interstellar exploration and colonization of planets light years from Earth in a single generation, and did it without a war. Even so, it didn't seem possible for him to be manipulating the Navy in a situation like this. He said so.

"I agree," Mullins said. He spread his hands in a gesture of explanation. "Starships are rather hard to kill unless they're on the ground or ....have compromised computer systems."

"Yes, sir," Keane said. "But ...I suppose his status would tend to make him think he can get away with things we ordinary mortals can't, though."

"That's true," Dunaway agreed.

"All right, enough of this speculation. I just wanted to jack you around a bit and make certain your minds are working. You've got to be aware of every possible threat. Now." He tapped a spot on his desk and a galactoview came up. He pointed. "According to Wannstead, all the missing ships had the cluster in general and Xanadu in particular on their itinerary. Intelligence has gone over their intended routes so we're suggesting you take a different approach. Right now, though, I want you to take a gander at the city."

"Great!" Keane exclaimed. No other alien species had been discovered so far, nor any remnant of one other than what Wannstead had found. He was anxious to see what it looked like.

Mullins dimmed the lights and brought up a holoscreen. Keane leaned forward, peering closely at the recording as it played. Several views from orbit showed the alien city from different angles. Toward the last the experimental ship had come in closer, giving a better view. The city was circular. The scale below it told him it was more than five miles in diameter. The outer part that consisted of spires and domes was almost two miles across and surrounded an inner circle of predominantly green vegetation a mile in diameter. The recordings were all fuzzy from being seen through atmosphere but it was still apparent that the buildings were undamaged by time. The spires glowed faintly with a pink color. The domes were a light blue. The square buildings were silver. It was hard to tell but he suspected there were walkways or streets circling the buildings and running through the city. He could see no movement except for large machinery in the unfinished part of the alien metropolis because the recording had been taken from too far away. If the place was inhabited, the beings were undetectable.

"Damn, it looks as if it's never been lived in, doesn't it?" Dunaway remarked.

"Uh huh. No telling how old it is but did you notice there was no sign of encroachment from the jungle surrounding it? No debris anywhere we can see?"

"I noticed the buildings had a faint glow. Are they lighted from within? Or is it the material they're made of?"

"We don't know, although spectrographic and other analytical recordings were made." Mullins leaned back in his chair and went into lecture mode. "The analysts think the faint glow is inherent in the building material, which, by the way, is a composite never seen before. There are a few more interesting features not noticeable in the recordings. The city is under power. Emission recordings found all sorts of subatomic particles, although none that would be threatening to humans. Our people, as well as Wannstead's scientists, think its fusion power. Gravitic activity was also detected. No one is taking guesses on what that might mean."

"How about the vegetation? Is it chlorophyll based?" Keane asked.

"Good question. Yes it is. That is a really good world if it could be colonized, Xanadu city or not."

"Did any of Wannstead's ships have orders to land anywhere other than near the city? Or do we know?"

"Another good question. Wannstead told us all his ships were under instructions to investigate other earth-type planets in the cluster on the way but other than that he left it to the discretion of their Captains. They still didn't come back."

"So ..." Dunaway began to say something but his voice trailed off.

"Hence the
Doc Travis
." Keane furnished.

"Odd name for an interstellar space ship, isn't it?" Dunaway commented.

"
Doc Travis
is the nickname of a science fiction writer. He was very popular until he retired from writing about twenty years ago. He was also a damned fine physicist, and probably still is. He popularized the Casimer phenomena which gave Rex Wannstead the first hints of how the quantum drive he ultimately developed might work," Keane explained, drawing a raised brow from the admiral, but he made no vocal comment.

"How many of the crew will be military other than the Marines?" Dunaway asked.

"It will be about half and half. Most of the operational crew will be military personnel, experienced ones. Almost all your officers and enlisted personnel have served aboard an interstellar ship. The rest of the personnel will be mostly service techs and scientists. I understand you've met Lieutenant Fred Jergens, your electronics warfare officer. All the others will be top notch scientists and technicians, the best we could enlist for a dangerous mission. You're going into the unknown so we want to give you every advantage we can."

"What do we know about the Bolt Cluster, sir? Other than it contains a planet that appears to be adverse to exploration," Keane asked.

The admiral shrugged and grinned. "Succinct way of putting it. Not much. It's mostly obscured from our solar system so the stars in it haven't been studied that much. Your astrogator knows as much as anyone. She'll brief you in much better detail than I could. And by the way, you'll be leaving in sixty days."

Chapter Four: Sinchik Slavery

Life without the courage for death is slavery.

-
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

"Toug! Come!"

"Shit!"Douglas Trevanne cursed, wondering what the sonofabitch wanted now. It wasn't as if he was called on to perform onerous chores very often but he still resented having to answer to the bastards. In fact, his status as a household slave gave him a life considerably better than most other humans here on this world, but he absolutely hated the aliens he was forced to obey. Nevertheless, he got quickly to his feet from where he had been lounging in his
Wah
, the Sinchik term designated for his living area, a tiny single room with a faucet for washing and a hole for sanitary use. He hurried out into the passageway that led to Frang's den. He stopped at the open arch and stamped his foot and said "
Jah!
" in a loud voice. Even after fifteen years he still wasn't sure of its exact meaning other than as a term of respect humans were forced to use toward Sinchiks of whatever gender or status.

Frang turned both turreted eyes toward him. The alien motioned with one of his second tier appendages for Doug to enter. He walked forward until he was two steps distance from the alien and bowed, gritting his teeth as he did. The furry creature looked somewhat like a large, fat, ten-legged caterpillar except that its upper four appendages were used for manipulation.

"You are to be bred for the next week. A favored female of the Stronge
Welshass
has been selected and is in fertile status. Report to Stronge's den. Carry on well."

"Jah! Where is Stronge's den?"
Stupid fuck!

Frang leaned forward as if he was on the verge of rising on his two heavy rear appendages and cuffing him. He braced himself to accept the reprimand stolidly. The alien apparently decided he wasn't being disrespectful and resumed his previous position with his middle two limbs on a rest in front of him, his bottom four on the floor and upper four free for use.

"It is located in the Beta section. Ask any Sinchik when you arrive. They will instruct you further."

"Jah! I obey." He turned and departed, walking slowly as became a human in the presence of a 'Sinchik'. That wasn't the exact pronunciation but it was as close as humans could come to the name the species used for themselves.

It was raining outside, a slow dripping he knew wouldn't quit soon. No help for it, he would get wet. It was never a good idea to delay in carrying out an order, no matter what the weather was like outside.

The Beta section was a long way off, on the other side of the central city area reserved for crops. Some of it was being allowed to lie fallow. For reasons unknown, the number of Sinchiks had been decreasing since construction of the last part of the city was completed. He had rarely been to Beta section but he could see the Stronge spire in the distance, probably two miles from where he stood outside the domed enclave of Frang's family, or '
Welshass'
as the Sinchik called it. Frang's family consisted of it, two other males of indeterminate status, and a dozen or so females. Plus a half dozen humans. He had yet to decide whether Frang or one of the females was the ultimate honcho of their
Welshass
, not that it really mattered. He was bound to obey them all, just as other humans in the family were.

They were all slaves, pure and simple, although he suspected the Sinchik had never owned slaves before they encountered humans. After the surrender they worked at it clumsily, using up a number of humans in the process until arriving at a system that seemed to suit them. The humans hadn't been asked. Nor were they consulted when occasionally one of them was taken away and never seen again. Many were originally questioned on the location of Earth, but Wannstead had a ship failsafe that deleted all star charts and records-and that made explaining the exact location of home difficult, if not impossible. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the astrogators from each ship had died. Some speculated they were imbued with a hypnotic compulsion that required suicide if questioned about Earth's location by aliens. Doug thought the death of the
Jeane Baptiste
astrogator Helmsley was strange-rumored to be a heart attack soon after crash landing. No one knew for certain, though.

As he walked through the crop-growing area over the heat-glazed trail toward Beta section, drops of rain filtered through the canopy of fern-like trees above the path. They dripped on his head and ran beneath the collar of the remnants of his Wannstead uniform. It was in a sad state of repair but he stuck with it as a matter of principle, one of the few the Sinchik allowed. It was just about all that was left to remind him of who and what he had once been. He thought again of the events that had led him here, he and the other surviving crew of the
Jean Baptiste
, the Wannstead starship that had been disabled by the Sinchik almost two decades ago. It had been on an exploratory voyage to the Bolt Cluster, a group of stars with a relative plethora of earth-type planets discovered on a preliminary voyage by Wannstead's first experimental interstellar ship, the
Liberty
.

The
Jeane Baptiste
had been the next ship entering the cluster, intending to stop and cautiously explore some of earthlike planets along the way, but landing on the planet Xanadu, near the alien city given the same name, was the primary mission. Instead, the ship had been disabled then caught in a tractor beam and brought down. Hard. He and the other security specialists aboard had fought the aliens that boiled out of Xanadu after their ship was captured, leading the surviving crew in the battle. It had been hopeless from the start, and contrary to the Captain's orders. They were outgunned, outnumbered and overwhelmed quickly. When Captain Susan McDevitt again ordered them to surrender they had done so. As a previous pilot of the elite Air Force X-Vulture squadron, it went against his grain and that of most of the crew, but they had seen that resistance was hopeless. Many times since he and others wished they had disregarded her order because surrendering wound up making slaves of every surviving human, including himself. Those who didn't submit were beaten and not infrequently killed for being slow to recognize their new status.

An underground resistance movement had been formed but it was a fragile thing, with only about a quarter of the survivors belonging to it because of the punishment if caught with weapons or any other rebellious paraphernalia. It took only one example to keep the underground well and truly in check. He still shuddered when he remembered how he and all the other humans had been forced to watch Seegers being flayed alive. He screamed and cried out in horrible agony. Soon he was begging them to kill him and be done with it.