AMP The Core (6 page)

The early dawn had me awake. As I slowly sat up, I took note of the dozen or so small, furry animals that lay huddled up next to me on the rock. My suit had a heat exhaust port, and even though the amounts of heat being expelled were minuscule, the small animals had found it to be a comfortable spot. When the realization set in that the warm spot was actually moving, the small herd scattered in an instant.

The buildings in the village of Killami were largely made up of a hodgepodge of fallen ship parts. It looked as though a small fleet was emerging from the earth of the plains. I waited until I could see the first signs of activity before I hopped down off the rock and continued my way into town.

The first Meggak I saw dropped the material he was carrying and ran towards a building in the city center. As I continued to walk, I was soon confronted by a Meggak carrying a heavy blaster.

The Meggak spoke. "Halt! Do not move or you will be vaporized!"

I stopped and held up my hand. "OK, I’m only passing through."

The Meggak’s eyes soon got wide as he got a better look at my face. "From the cradle of Sarah! My apologies, great one!"

The Meggak handed his weapon to an assistant who had come up behind him. "Please forgive me! You are the first of the protector’s race that has visited with us! Please allow me to escort you to the elders!"

I nodded and continued to walk. When we entered the tribal building in the center of the village, there were three elders sitting in ornate pilot’s chairs that had been salvaged from the ship debris. As each spun in my direction, I could not help but chuckle at the somewhat comical sight before me. I stood before the elder Meggaks, and a bright light was shone on my face.

An elder spoke. "He is of the protector!"

A second elder spoke. "Great day on Molov! A new protector has come!"

I held up my hand. "I am here to journey across the plains to the mountains of Sarah. I only ask for enough food for the journey."

The first elder replied, "Sustenance will be provided. Have you come to end the falling debris? It has been devastating our villages and farms of late due to a much-increased frequency. The night skies have been filled with falling material from the protector’s wrath."

After a short visit with the elders, I was again offered more rations than needed. This time I accepted enough for a three-week journey. Once on the other side of the mountains of Sarah, I had no idea if other villages existed, and if so, if they would be so willing to provide me with aid. As I left Killami, it was again to a parade-like atmosphere, as most of the village had come out to see me off.

Progress across the plains was at a fast pace. Only the occasional large section of a ship would offer any detour off of my otherwise straightforward path. As I bounded along, I took note of the port side of a ship that looked somewhat familiar. I stopped along the way at several other ship’s sections that had interesting architectural features.

As I continued, I came upon a section that was a silver metallic base metal with hundreds of spiny protrusions that were several meters in length. I studied the wreckage for several minutes, but could not draw any conclusions as to their usefulness. The debris reminded me of the drawings of sea urchins that I had once seen in the archives.

A second piece of a vessel that had drawn my attention was of a warship that had obviously seen a tremendous amount of battle. The forward piece of the hull that lay spread out before me had hundreds of pockmarks on its surface from when it had at one time been in a fierce battle. I paused for a moment as I thought back to our many encounters with the Milgari leading up to the Prassi wars.

As I stood on top of the remains of a possibly once-great warship, I thought about how good it felt to be on the ground of a planet. The natural gravity felt somewhat different than that provided by a gravity generator. I speculated that perhaps a planet provided a more even pull, including out towards one’s sides, while the gravity generators on a ship would all pull in one direction. With a single leap, I was once again bounding across the plains.

As the mountains of Sarah approached, the ship debris surrounding me became more frequent. My earlier estimate of a few thousand ships was hardly accurate. As I bounded and glanced around, I began to come to the conclusion that the remains of tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of ships lay strewn across the planet’s surface.

When I had come within twenty kilometers of my destination, my helmet comm signaled that I was now within broadcast range of the mystery signal’s point of origin. I stopped and contemplated a reply.

I thought to myself, "OK, if I talk to this thing, is it going to vaporize me? It doesn’t look like anyone else has ever gotten close to it. Come on, Grange, just do what you already know you are going to do. Barge in there and make yourself known!"

With my mind already made up, I continued sprinting towards my goal. Twenty minutes later, after climbing over mounds and mounds of debris, I stood looking at the signal’s point of broadcast. It was an area three hundred meters in diameter, where bare, flat ground formed a near-perfect circle in the center of the mounds of debris.

I hopped down onto the bare earth. I began to slowly walk towards the center of the field. There was nothing there, no ship, no building, no antennae. Nothing was visible, and yet the signal continued to be broadcast out of thin air.

I performed a deep scan with my helmet sensor, and nothing came back of significance. It was a barren field, centered in mounds of defunct ship parts. I walked to a spot near the center, slowly turned to look in each direction, and then sat down. The mystery signal, which I was now sitting almost directly on top of, was still a mystery.

I enabled the comm on my helmet and spoke. "OK, I’m out here. You haven’t vaporized me yet, so why don’t you make yourself known!"

Several seconds passed before I had a sudden feeling of dread. The mystery signal had stopped broadcasting. I began to think about how foolish I had been, barging in where I didn’t belong. I wondered if this was the end of the line for Don Grange. Then I thought of Ashley and of the other Humans who still had a tremendous battle to fight. Had I gone around the signal, I might have made it back to the fleet, where I would have contacted Frig and gone through a portal to be with the others.

I was then startled by the sound of a mechanical latch and a hydraulic door opening behind me, where moments ago there had been none. I slowly turned my head to the sight of a long, sleek, silvery-white vessel, sitting only meters behind me. A door was now open on one end.

The exterior of the small ship was featureless, resembling a loaf of baked arnoee seed bread. I slowly stood and took only a single step towards the door before what I believed to be an android stepped out. The mechanical creature had three long, spindly legs that unfolded, making it just over two meters tall. The legs had what appeared to be various tools and instruments that surrounded the two joints within the legs.

The legs ended with another joint connection at the bottom of an upside-down half-dome-shaped torso. A mechanical rim on the dome spun until two glowing red eyes faced my direction. I stood, prepared to be vaporized by whatever this mechanical being was. The several seconds of silence that now came seemed like an eternity.

I spoke. "Hello?"

The android gestured for me to come forward.

I again spoke as I walked. "The message you broadcast—was that Human?"

The android soon had me stepping up into the back of the white vessel. Coming from the bright daylight outside, I had a hard time making out what was in front of me. The android gestured for me to move forward and to then be seated in one of the four chairs that the silvery-white ship housed. As I sat, I turned quickly back at the sound of the hydraulic door closing behind me. With the light of the Molov sun now blocked away, I was left sitting in almost complete darkness. Only the faintest light from several small flashing diodes offered a sense that a world still existed outside.

I was again startled as a holographic image of a display lit up in front of me. The light it provided illuminated the interior of the ship, allowing me to see its makeup. The walls, ceiling, and floor turned a shade of black that could only be described as a void. The chairs, as the one I was seated in, were bolted to a steel walkway that ran from the seats to the back of the ship. I took note of the faint blue glow coming from a piece of machinery in the back. Various other holo-displays then began to light up.

I reached up to touch the display floating in front of me and was surprised when my gloved finger enabled a second holo-screen to my side. As I looked at the various meters, dials, and readings, it suddenly occurred to me that they were all displayed in Human English.

As I reached up to press another holo-button, the display in front of me flashed and changed. Before me floated the image of a very old Human woman. Her features were somewhat different than I would have expected. Instead of frailty, the face before me appeared strong and bold.

I jerked back in my chair as the image spoke. "Hello, fellow Human. At last I have found you. The atmosphere in this vessel is compatible with your needs. Please remove your helmet so that your image may be logged. I hope this day finds you well. Ask any question as you will, and I will attempt to provide you with an answer."

I flipped open my visor to find the air inside the cabin smelled fresh and clean. I removed my helmet and looked around for a place to set it. The android reached out and gently took it from my grasp.

I turned back to the holo-image before me. "Who, who are you? How did you come to be on this planet? What kind of ship is this, that it doesn’t show on scans? And is this an android or only a robot?"

The screen replied, "Responses will be queued up in the order in which questions are received. For clarity, it may be advisable to ask a single question and to then wait for a response before proceeding. My name is Sarah Rogers. I come from a small town in central Alabama. I have traveled through dozens of galaxies in search of my fellow Humans. The ship is a highly modified Defender with an active sodium skin. The assistant is purely robotic with advanced artificial intelligence programming."

The display was silent for several seconds before I continued. "You appear to be very old. Are you around here in another ship? Are there other Humans here?"

The display replied, "Due to genetic alterations, I was able to live a life span that ended after 382 years. I have been passed on from this life for 798 years. You are asking questions of an AI program that I left running in the ship’s computer. You are the first pure Human that this ship has had contact with in over a thousand years."

I sat back in the chair with a thousand questions running through my mind. "Do you know of the origin of Humans? Of where we come from?"

For several seconds the display was silent; it flashed, and the image of a blue planet appeared. "Earth. Our recorded history indicates that this planet is the planet of our origin."

I looked on in shock as my eyes began to fill with tears. There it was! Our home planet! It was a beautiful water-covered gem with large, swirling white clouds. I reached out to touch it and was brought back to reality as my finger sent the holo-image spinning rapidly in one direction.

I spoke. "Where is Earth in relation to here?"

The image of Earth stopped rotating. The holo-image then shrank away from Earth to reveal its position in the solar system. That image then shrank away to show the galaxy arm in which the solar system resided. The image again shrank to reveal the whole of the Milky Way galaxy, and then with a final reduction, the galaxy cluster in which the Milky Way spun. A green dot indicated the location of Earth. A yellow line then stretched from the Milky Way to the Triangulum galaxy, where the reverse process then began to zoom in, until a holo-image of Molov was floating in front of me.

I spoke. "What is the approximate distance from here to the Earth, in light-years?"

The display replied, "The distance to Earth is approximately 2.78 million light-years."

I thought to myself, "Great, even if we had the Grid, it would take us more than two thousand years to cross that. We wouldn’t have the fuel."

I asked the next logical question. "How is it that we got from the Milky Way to the Triangulum?"

The display then began to tell the story of a planet that was found that had not been visible before. And of a mysterious temple that had been discovered on the planet. After gaining access to the temple, the Human race was given the option of staying in the galaxy where they were, of being transported to a new galaxy where there would be no more war, only peace and prosperity, or of being transported to a galaxy that offered adventure and conquest.

The display continued to explain the Humans’ decision. "After many years of constant war and struggling to survive, the decision was made to be transported to the galaxy that offered peace, tranquility, and prosperity. However, a single Human triggered an event that sent all Humans to the galaxy of exploration, adventure, and conquest."

I shook my head. "Well, that would explain why nearly every species we have come across wants to wipe us out."

I asked another question. "Did this ship come from Earth? Did it travel between the galaxies? And if so, how?"

A map of several dozen galaxies appeared, with a line tracing the path the ship had taken. Sarah Rogers had searched on her own for over three hundred years in her quest to find the Humans that had been taken away.

I then asked, "How fast can this ship go?"

As I waited for an answer, an alarm sounded. The holo-image floating in front of me changed to a tactical display that showed a large fleet gathering just outside of the Molov star system. The Bulgars had returned.

The display changed to an outside camera view, and in an instant the ship rocketed up and out of the atmosphere. It began a wide arc that would sweep us around to where the Bulgar fleet was assembling. I was shocked at how quickly it had passed through light speed.