Legacy (7 page)

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Tachyon Text Sent 02:14 4/9/77
… USSC to Captain Reiss: Search for definitive evidence that population are all descendants of the Pioneer Colony... also try to establish a USSC ground base for follow up ships... send results of valuable mineral scan.

7

Braxton

Blaze Continent

The dragon was definitely not a living creature. I understood that now as I was being led through a large room full of seats, then into a much smaller room with three sofas surrounding a square table. The two guards who escorted me into the room had me sit down with my hands planted in my lap. They remained by the doorway, never taking their eyes off me. I was sort of surprised that they seemed to understand the meaning of my glove.

The door opened again, this time to allow three fairly ordinary people to enter the room. One was a very pale-skinned man with long black hair, the other a man of equally pale skin with blond hair that didn’t really match his brown beard. The final was a young woman probably a few harvests younger than me, with beautiful blonde hair that was tied back into a tail. She had the typical tan skin-tone of everyone else in Blaze. I wondered for a moment if she wasn’t an alien at all.

“
Welcome to my shuttle. I’d shake your hand, but I don’t think that would be quite wise of me,” the black-haired man stated as he took a seat on the sofa across from me, “My name is Captain Chris Reiss, this other gentleman is our legal advisor Stone Rodgers, and this lovely lady is Diana Ten from the continent you call Green.”

I looked to the woman who was now sitting on the sofa to the right of me, feeling a bit shocked that I wasn’t the only one from Legacy in this room.

“
My name is Braxton Three and I’m a prospective geologist, a current archaeologist under my father’s tutorage which…well… and I’m also a forced Mystic,” I replied, “Are you the Metal-Masters? By that, I mean, did you guys build those two cages out there?”

“
The cages…” he repeated, “Oh, you mean the building frames? We didn’t build those, but yes, it was our people. None of it makes any real sense to us, but I definitely recognize those structures.”

“
I’ve dedicated my life to the study of your metals and ceramoid,” I said, “I’d love to learn your metallurgy methods. I’d love to-”

“
Please, if I may,” the captain said, raising his hand, “I’m in a sticky situation right now where I need some answers to protect the rest of my crew, both here on this shuttle and in orbit above. I’d be glad to share any of our technology with your people, but we need to take care of the problem at hand first.”

I couldn’t understand fully half the words he spoke and his rapid speech made it all the more harder. It sounded to me like he was willing to tell me what I wanted to know, but that I first had to help him feel safe.

“
I didn’t shoot the rocket at your shuttle and to be honest, I think it was downright stupid of the Guard. It was an unprovoked attack,” I stated, “I saw the whole thing.”

He nodded, then looked over to the man beside him.

“
That’s good to know,” Stone stated, “That shuttle was not on a mission of violence. Its crew was sent to investigate the remains of the Pioneer Colony.”

I just stared stupidly at the man, then turned to Diana.

“
Can you understand these people? You’re from Green, right?” I asked.

A smile appeared on her face, but it looked like she was fighting it. She nodded subtly, then turned to the captain.

“
You guys have a very fast speech compared to our own,” she said, by means of explanation to the captain, “And you have many words we’ve never heard of. I can get the general idea usually of what you’re saying, but it’s not easy.”

“
Thank you,” he replied to Diana, “This is actually why I have you here. We may need some help communicating. I’ll definitely make a point to talk slower.”

“
Are you guys from another planet?” I asked.

“
Yes, we’re from the planet Earth in a completely different star system. One of our ships carried those ‘cages’ here, but we thought it happened more recently than it appears. Do you know how long they’ve been here?” the captain asked.

“
My father guessed at more than five hundred harvests, though we only have documented proof of at least three hundred and twenty. It was mentioned in the writings of Douglas Seven whom we know lived about three hundred harvests ago.”

“
Harvests…” the captain nodded, “I’m going to assume that’s the equivalent word of ‘years’ for my people. That’s good information, though still confusing.”

“
I have a confession,” I stated, “One I’m not proud of.”

Stone leaned forward, clasping his hands together. The captain nodded, but said nothing.

“
After the Guard attacked your people, my dad ran to go help them. We both didn’t understand the motives of the Guard and we definitely didn’t want to see anyone suffer. My dad told me to run and get a doctor. I was about to, but then one of your people came out and started shooting,” I said, looking down at my hands, “I didn’t blame them one bit for shooting the Guard. Heck, I wanted to shoot them myself.”

I shook my head, remembering the vision of my dad, completely ignorant of the violence happening around him. He had his hand pressed on the thigh of one of the aliens, probably trying to stop the blood flow. He was too busy trying to save lives to concern himself with the people dropping around him.

“
They shot your father,” the captain said.

I nodded.

“
I know it won’t make a lot of sense, but we come from a violent planet. In a world of violence, we have a lot of laws we have to follow that are supposed to prevent future violence,” Stone said, “One of those laws demand a life for a life. If that rocket killed ten people in the shuttle and there were only nine Guards…”

“
No, that’s not good enough,” I said, embarrassed suddenly by the tears in my eyes, “My dad was trying to stop the bleeding of one of your people. My dad should have been heralded a hero – not shot for trying to help.”

I felt the familiar tingling building up in the pit of my stomach again as I recalled the images of that day. I slid my hands under my legs, hoping no current would go through my arms.

“
Your power?” the captain asked, nodding toward the unusual way I was sitting.

“
I can’t control it. Some people can, but I don’t know how. I couldn’t control it the day my father was shot,” I said, closing my eyes and making a conscious attempt to calm my breathing.

“
Are you a danger right now?” Stone asked.

“
No,” I replied, keeping my eyes closed, “I got the tingling feeling, but it’s fading. Besides, it would be my own butt that would fry if I couldn’t control it.”

“
Can you remove the glove?” the captain asked.

“
No, mine is riveted on,” I said, “If I had a surge without the glove on my hand, I would burn or electrocute myself in an equal amount as my target.”

I finally opened my eyes and breathed out a sigh of relief.

“
I’m sorry for what I did to the shuttle and whoever was inside and I accept the consequences of my actions, but I don’t think I deserve any punishment,” I said, “But if my life is called for in order to prevent you from taking out your wrath on my people, I’m willing to offer it.”

Diana snickered, looking at me with an expression that I couldn’t quite understand. That captain turned his attention to her probably equally as confused by her response.

“
I’m sorry,” she said, shaking her head, “I just… I might have some preconceived notions about the people of Blaze that might be wrong.”

“
Don’t apologize. As the saying goes ‘Legacy hates it’s Mystics’,” I replied, “I’ve never been too fond of the freaks myself.”

She laughed at that, getting a grin also from the others in the room. I have to say though; I loved the way she was looking at me right then. I could almost feel her pleasant gaze entering me.

“
I just assumed it was the Guard who were the civilized ones and the Mystics who were savages,” she admitted.

“
After what I saw today, I think it’s the Guard who are definitely the savages of our world. Mystics might be a bunch of freaks, but all the ones I know do have a conscious and they all live by The Code whether they’ve been to the Academy or not,” I replied.

“
I’m sorry, Diana, but I’ve used my visual communication while you two were talking,” the captain stated, “But I had an important communiqué from orbit and besides, I needed to discuss this situation with my fellow commanders.”

“
Please consider that my dad was killed right in front of me,” I said, suddenly a little fearful of their response, “Please understand my uncontrolled reaction to that.”

Stone nodded, then turned to the captain waiting for a reply.

“
All the people of Legacy are descendants of the people from the planet Earth. Even in the short time we’ve been here, it’s become all the more evident that you all have come from the genealogy of our Colonial Establishment Cruiser that we sent here long ago,” the captain stated, quickly waving off the impending questions on both my and Diana’s lips, “The reason I’m going off in this direction is because my people have come to an agreement. There will be no repercussions for your actions against our shuttle if you’d be willing to submit yourself to a few medical exams. Basically, we’re curious to know how or why you’ve developed this electrical capability outside of the evolution of Earth. And why does this only occur on Blaze, but not on Green?”

“
So you’re offering me the life of a sneeberjack?” I asked.

“
A sneeberjack?” the captain asked.

“
Oh, sorry. We use these animals called sneeberjacks to test our medicines on. Doctors are always experimenting on them because their bodies seem to react a lot like ours,” I said.

“
No, I promise we intend to be as non-invasive as possible. I doubt we’d need your services for more than a couple days,” he said, “But it would require a trip into orbit – far above your planet. You’d get to see what Legacy looks like from space, though.”

“
I’ll be a sneeberjack!” Diana interjected, “I want to go up there.”

The captain laughed, nodding at Diana before turning to me. I really didn’t know what to say to this, though I did find comfort in the idea of Diana coming with me.

“
A free trip to space and a free trip back,” the captain urged.

I nodded, then turned to Diana.

“
Only if she comes too,” I said, “I need a witness in case people don’t believe me in the generations to come.”

April 12, 2377

“
So, did we get a reply from Captain Reiss last night?”the Colonial Development Chief asked, closing the armored door behind him.

The Tachyon Communications Relay was kept in a separate vault-like room on the basement level of the USSC Headquarters in Cleveland. The United Nations had classified this, the world’s only Earth-based Tachyon Relay, as a potential weapon of mass destruction since it could transmit text-communication at speeds exceeding that of light. Any message hitching a ride on a superluminal tachyon beam would be literally travelling backward in time. While this was beneficial for speedy communication between the stars, it could cause some significant violations of causality if such a devise was abused.

The United Nations monitored all Tachyon communications, no matter how private, to ensure that it was never used in violation of the UN TacCom Law. While the USSC understood the UN need to monitor their communications, this still posed a problem to the security of the USSC. Nothing they spoke to their ships would be private.

“
Yes, we actually got a text about an hour ago,” TacCom Ensign Struthers replied, handing a printout to the chief.

Tachyon Text Received 08:03 4/12/77
… Captain Reiss to USSC: Fairly certain all here are descendants from the Pioneer Colony… will test2 subjects from 2 continents to determine relation… Planet, henceforth referred to as Legacy, has many deposits of valuable minerals including larger deposits of radioactive minerals than Earth... Silver & gold in abundance, to the extreme where even 1 “state” uses gold for most of their metal furnishings… we’re not planning to conquistador these people are we?