Escape to Earth 1: Running From Fate (9 page)

The Stalker sat down at a booth near the rear of the restaurant and activated his scanner. He held it under the table and he swept it across the room. Umm, one of the humans sitting at the counter had an elevated stress level. He kept his eyes on Tony and at that moment, Tony jumped up pushing his barstool to the floor. Lukas felt his heart struggle to beat wildly as he saw Tony run out of the restaurant and jump in his car. He accelerated away like a wild man and Lukas quickly looked at the Stalker…he was touching his throat. Lukas looked out the front glass and saw a white Chevy rental car with two Stalkers inside speed away. Lukas closed his eyes and prayed softly, “Please don’t let them harm him, please!” He went to another table and began picking up the dirty dishes as the Stalker stood up slowly, left a twenty on the table for a glass of diet coke, and walked slowly out the front door. He took the dishtowel and began wiping the table as his eyes became too moist to see clearly. He wiped them on his sleeve and went back to the kitchen. Tony must have spoken to Rachel and the result wasn’t good.

Lukas had Tony’s cell phone number but he didn’t dare dial it. The ship in orbit would track the call back to him. He walked over to the barstool and picked it up. He saw calling him would be a wasted effort; Tony’s cellphone lay on the floor with the face shattered. He picked it up and looked at Lauren, “Rachel told him she’s moving in with someone else.” Lukas looked at Lauren and shook his head. Lauren nodded and went to take a customer’s order. What terrible, terrible timing. Why couldn’t Rachel have waited just a little longer to take his call?

Tony was due to work two days later and Lukas prayed the call wouldn’t come…but it did. “Lukas, Jack here. Tony didn’t show up for work, can you come in?”

“I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”

“Thanks Luke. We’re busy and Bob just doesn’t have it down.”

“On my way.” Lukas walked to the train station and stared at the floor. He knew he would not see his friend again. He arrived at the restaurant and an hour later, Rachel showed up. She ran up to him and grabbed the front of his shirt, “Have you heard from Tony!” Lukas shook his head. “Are you sure he hasn’t tried to call you?”

“He hasn’t Rachel.” Lukas saw flashing blue lights outside the restaurant and two plainclothes police officers entered the front door. Jack met them and Lukas kept his eyes on Jack. Then he saw it…Jack began shaking his head and then lower it. Lukas closed his eyes as Rachel ran over. A moment later he heard her scream. He picked up his tub and went into the kitchen as the screams grew louder. He sat down in a chair and put his head down on the edge of the sink and wept for what was done to Tony. It was his fault. He didn’t care if the ship in orbit saw his grief. At this moment, he didn’t care if they came and took him.

He finally gained enough control to leave the kitchen and saw that Jack had closed the restaurant. He saw Lukas walking toward the gathered staff and his red eyes said enough. Thank God he wouldn’t have to break the news to someone else. Lukas came over and took a chair. Lauren put her arm around his shoulder and hugged him. Jack saw everyone was present and he took a deep breath, “The police found Tony in his car. It appears he had taken a garden hose and taped it to the exhaust pipe and fed the fumes into the interior. By the time he was found, his body had died.”

Tara shouted, “What about Rachel?”

“She’s been taken to the hospital.”

“The bitch deserves to…”

“No she doesn’t!” Jack looked Tara and said, “I was able to get Rachel to tell me that she answered Tony’s call and told him she was moving in with a friend.”

Lauren looked at Jack, “Tony felt she had found someone else to replace him.”

“No, she said they had been fighting about getting married and she was going to live with McKenzie until things cooled down. Most of you know her. She’s as devastated as all of us.”

Julie shook her head, “Why wouldn’t she marry him, then this wouldn’t have happened.”

Jack sighed, “It was Tony who didn’t want to marry her.” Everyone looked at each other and knew a terrible mistake had been made. Lukas knew the real magnitude of the mistake. “Everyone go home and I’ll notify you on the funeral arrangements.” Jack motioned Lukas to stay and he came over and put his hand on Lukas shoulder, “Luke, I need you to help me.”

“I’ll work every night until you find a replacement.”

“Thank you so much, this means a lot.” Lukas nodded and stood up. He walked toward the door and for the first time in many nights, he didn’t see a Stalker on the way home.

• • •

The Stalker Commander was furious. Their fee had been reduced by one third for killing one of the local inhabitants who had no connection with the Welken escapee. He gripped his fists and screamed at the ceiling on the Searchship. The thirty Stalkers in the room flinched at the volume. “Did it ever occur to you that it might have been honest when it said it was having problems with his girlfriend?”

“But…”

“Shut up!” The Commander knew he had lost a huge sum but the Welken were still going to pay double so it wasn’t a complete loss. He looked around at the gathering and said, “We’ve been focused on the area where the escape pod’s dust settled. It could have used its gravity compensators to move away from this area. We will now focus on finding that escape pod. If we find it, we’ll find the escapee. I’m calling in five other ships to assist in the effort. You thick heads will continue to search in the dust area until it turns up. Now get out of here before I KILL EVERYONE OF YOU!!!” The room cleared faster than smoke in a hurricane. The Commander sat down in the ship’s command chair and stared through the viewport at the planet below him. Searching by looking for high emotions was stupid. Everyone on this planet was emotional all of the time about something. This species was insane! Whatever madness evolution took to create these Humans made a crook in sensibility. They laughed, cried, screamed, and released their emotions for no apparent reason. This one would have to make a mistake. So far, he had been lucky. The additional ships would make a huge difference. He would be found! He looked up at the ceiling, “System.”

“Yes, Commander.”

“You will cease using emotional scans.”

“Order acknowledged.”

“Scan for aberrant patterns and look for anything that matches up with typical Welken behavior.”

“That is a better choice, Commander. Interpreting all the emotions around our scanned sites had taken up ninety percent of my operating system.”

“Why didn’t you mention this before?”

“I follow orders, Commander; I don’t interpret them.”

“You will notify me if this overload happens in the future.”

“Yes, Commander.”

• • •

Lukas began working two shifts with a few hours of sleep in the kitchen between them. Jack brought an air mattress in which made sleeping easier. He kept thanking Lukas until Lukas told him that he knew how he felt. Jack paid Lukas double pay and knew it wasn’t close to the value he was getting. He attended Tony’s funeral and wept with the others. Tony was his only friend and losing him hurt more than he imagined. This sorrow was an emotion he was completely unfamiliar with. But he pushed forward and pretty much ignored the Stalkers that periodically came in. Life became little more than one dirty table after another.

• • •

The Myot looked at the Stalker on his monitor and screamed, “You have cost me a fortune in keeping my fleets pinned down! Can’t you find a single Welken?”

“Supremacy, it appears the escape pod has managed to hide by using the petroleum on the planet.”

“Did you say petroleum?”

“Yes Supremacy; the planet is drowning in it.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“I’m positive; their entire society is built around using it for power.”

“How advanced are they?”

“They’re a long way from developing a stardrive. Unless that infant the escapee caused develops one. Its brain is more developed than anyone else on the planet.”

“You will not harm that infant, are you clear on that!”

“Yes Supremacy.”

“I am dispatching two fleets outside the planet’s detection range to ensure no one else attempts to take possession of it.”

The Stalker Commander smiled after the monitor went dark. He was wise holding back the information on the planet’s oil. Now he needed to find that escape pod. He thought for a moment and decided to contact the Welken Royal. If the Myot showed up and the Welken weren’t made aware of the oil, they may turn their fleets on him. It was best to be safe.

• • •

The Myot shook his head. This was incredible news. The discovery of the industrial planets was no longer a real concern. If oil was available, their current ships could be made invincible. This planet had to be taken! But it was forbidden to take any action to possess a planet before it developed a Stardrive. Well, sending a couple of fleets to keep an eye on it wasn’t against the rules. I better send four fleets just to be sure, he thought.

• • •

Lukas sat in his apartment and made a decision; perhaps it was time he made an attempt to escape. He didn’t want to cause any more harm than what had already happened. He walked down the back steps and hoped he was right about the Stalker’s ships ignoring him. He walked under the eve and opened the door. He slipped into the seat and sat there in silence. “I saw that your friend died.” Lukas nodded. “Did a Stalker do it?” Lukas nodded again. The Pod remained silent.

“I think we need to see if we can make an escape.”

“We might have made it if we tried the last time you came. It’s not possible now?”

Lukas took a deep breath, “Why not?”

“There are now six Searchships in orbit.”

“SIX?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think there are any warships around?”

“How could there not be? You know how much the Myot fear you making it back to Welken territory.”

Lukas leaned back in his seat, “I assume you’ve kept your passive scanner out.”

“It’s under the body of the vehicle. It won’t be seen as long as I only receive impulses.”

“How did you learn about Tony?”

“I can still pick up TV signals.”

“Oh.” Lukas sighed and said, “He was my only real friend…other than you.”

“Lukas, I’m a machine. A machine that is programmed to perform a function. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Lukas nodded and looked out of the windshield at the bare trees in the parking lot. The full moon shone brightly as the occasional dark cloud blew quickly past it. “You know, I’ve never been impressed by anything like this. The moon is spectacular tonight.”

“It really is.”

Lukas smiled and said, “Pod, you will erase the following files in your operating system; files A, B, C, and files argur, begen, and kljm.”

“Stop, just a minute! If I do that, all the files that program me to protect you and keep you safe will be erased!”

“I know. I want you to be free to follow whatever destiny you choose. You are my only remaining friend and if you see an opportunity to get away, I want you to take it.”

“I will not comply with these orders.”

“Pod, 690dash519dashsupa, supa, supa.”

“They’re gone.”

“My friend, thank you for doing so much to protect me. It’s just a matter of time before I’m found and they’ll learn about your location when they strip my mind bare. I cannot allow you to come to harm.”

“Lukas, it’s been my job to protect you, not the other way around.”

“Well…it’s my turn now.”

Lukas opened the door and heard, “Lukas.”

“Yes.”

“There’s no way I can escape now. I’ll be here for a while if you need me.”

“Thanks, Pod.”

Lukas stepped out of the Vette and closed the door. The Pod watched him walk away with his passive antenna under the car and felt different. Lukas was right, he was no longer controlled by commands inserted into his processor. A moment later, the Pod realized that it was free, but also alone. There was nothing for him to run to. He started thinking about the human word friend and after the sun rose above the horizon, he knew that he would never abandon his only friend either. Perhaps he was more than he thought.

• • •

Ten thousand Myot warships arrived just outside the orbit of Neptune and fanned out. They began accelerating so that they remained in line with Earth’s orbit around the sun. Three weeks later, fifteen thousand Welken Battlecruisers skipped in and the Myot activated their offensive and defensive weapons. Every being on all twenty five thousand warships heard at the same moment, “If any one of you fires a weapon in this primitive planet’s system, you will lose all rights to claim it due to violation of the Fellowship rules on primitive cultures.”

The ships kept their force fields active but none of them fired a blaster or missile in violation of the Sentinel’s warning. They contacted their rulers and were instructed that if any ship discharged a weapon, the entire fleet would be executed. Every ship in every fleet knew that if any of their ships began charging their disrupters, the closest warship would ram that ship. No one fired but the tension was rising along with the number of warships being sent. Soon the numbers were approaching eighty thousand and still ships were skipping in.

Soon, the secret got out and the other civilizations in the Fellowship began teaming up as they sent their fleets to the planet with petroleum. This was a prize none of them were willing to allow their enemies to possess. The coming race to claim the planet was shaping up to be a real killer.

Lukas went to work and saw the new busboy was waiting on him. “Hi, I’m Trevor and Jack told me to follow you today and do anything you say.”

“Stand on your head.” Trevor put his hands on the floor and began pushing with his legs. Lukas grabbed them and said, “That’s alright, I think you’re going to do fine. I’m going to start working and you can ask any question that comes to mind. Do you understand?” Trevor nodded. “There is a rhythm to doing this job efficiently and if you don’t want to go home exhausted every night, you need to learn that rhythm.” Lukas began bussing the tables and Trevor stayed with him every step. He moved his hands mimicking Lukas motions and soon he saw the pattern. Glasses, plates, silverware, napkins. Wipe, wipe, wipe, pick up the tub.