Legend of Oria 1: Initial Contact (13 page)

Pentagon STAR HAWKS Operations Center

It was early in the morning, when Major Karen Brown was waiting for the worn out coffee machine to produce its usual dose of muddy fluid.  She was tired from being rudely awaken the night before by a big flash of light illuminating the night sky brighter than daylight.  She contacted her office and found out no one knew anything more than she did.

Her cup was almost full when General Bronson walked in.

The General looked at her and said “Good morning Karen.  You look as tired as everyone else in Washington this morning.”

“Good morning General Bronson, so it woke you too?”

“No, I managed to sleep through the flash.  My pager got me.  When I returned the call, they told me about the flash.”

“Sorry to hear that, sir.”

“Me too, no one knows anything.  Have you talked with any of your friends in Florida?”

Karen smiled to herself.  Since she was still officially part of STAR Hawks, it seemed that everyone still expected her to be on top of all of their operations.  “Yes, and they don't know anything either.”

Bronson did not think STAR Hawks had anything to do with the explosion.  It had to be something else.  “I saw one report this morning that scientists are estimating the blast to be thousands of times greater than anything we could produce.  They're trying to determine if it was a collision between meteorites or something.”

“What timing.  Didn't you take your wife to that meteor movie last night?”

A slight smile broke across Bronson’s face.  “That's right.  It's funny, my wife and I enjoyed the movie immensely and joked about having an unknown comet hit Earth.”

“Oh well, I have to get back to work.  By the way Major, would you like to get some more flight time?  I'm working on getting you some time so that one of our better pilots does not become rusty because of a short stint at the Pentagon.  Colonel Henley would not appreciate that.”

“Yes General.  Nothing personal, but I would much prefer to be sitting in a cockpit than behind a desk.”

“As expected, Major.  Um, I have a request to make of you.  Do you recall Dr. Caldwell's new book on gamma radiation?”

“Yes sir.”  Karen thought, great, Bronson must have another boring assignment for her.

“I think we should get a copy.  It contains some interesting findings on the effects of gamma radiation on mice from an earlier space shuttle flight.  It might relate to the special project you are working on.  In addition, I hear Dr. Caldwell is conducting a book signing at
a downtown bookstore on 18
th
and L St.  Why don't you head down there, check it out, and pick up a copy of her book.  You should plan to attend her High Energy Symposium too.  Brief me on anything that relates to our operation.”

“Yes sir, I will take care of it.” What Karen really wanted to do was find out all she could about last night’s mysterious flash.  Sometimes, the General could be a royal pain in her butt.

West Virginia, Ocean City, Maryland

It took several hours for the magnetic effects of Yasinomot’s explosion to settle down and permit Retilia to establish communications with the Creyte command post on Earth.  The Creytes built the command post several years ago to initiate the tasks required to convert a planet into a farm planet.  The command post could handle up to a 100 Creytes and included facilities to train human overseers.

Retilia guided the small escape pod to the command post’s entrance deep in the side of a remote West Virginia mountain.  Once inside, Retilia landed his craft and he climbed down to the landing dock below with two other survivors off the Yasinomot.  Lieutenant Durinea, the post’s commanding officer, greeted Retilia.  “Hello sir, I believe you will find everything in order at this post.”

“Very well Lieutenant.  I did not come here to inspect your post.”

“For what purpose then do we owe the pleasure of your visit?”

Retilia felt a burning anger inside of his belly.  He was not going to let a lowly Lieutenant interrogate him.  It was bad enough that no longer commanded a ship of war, but now he also had lost a ship in battle.  Retilia knew that if his famous father still lived, he would find the double embarrassment of his son unbearable.  Retilia had to make the rest of this mission successful.  Destroying Oria was the only way that he could think of to rebuild his name and restore himself to his former position.  The lowly Lieutenant was about to feel the full force of Retilia’s wrath.

Retilia roared at Durinea “The United Creyte Republic is not satisfied with your progress!  It is imperative that Earth is conquered and turned into a farm planet and that we destroy Oria, it’s most famous offspring.  The Republic does not see any evidence that you are on top of the situation.”

“Sir, please correct me where we’ve failed.  I thought we were right on target for completing the mission as outlined in my orders.”

Retilia gave Durinea an evil stare.  “Are you trying to correct me Lieutenant?”

“No sir, that was not my intention, it’s just . . .”

“I’m not interested in your excuses, only the results from this mission.  Please brief me on your current situation.”

Durinea led Retilia to a small briefing room in the command post.  At first, he felt grateful to have assistance in accomplishing his mission.  Now he wasn’t so sure.  Durinea had dealt with Retilia’s type before.  Having climbed through the ranks to reach officer status, Durinea was accustomed to unfair treatment from superior officers.  Whatever chip Retilia had on his shoulder, it was now his chip as well.

Durinea briefed Retilia for several hours.  He explained Earth’s political structure, technological capabilities, and all preparations that had been in advance of starting a takeover.  Retilia was surprised at the amount and quality of work done by Durinea.  If Durinea wasn’t a lower caste officer, Retilia might actually want to cut him some slack. 

Once Durinea completed his briefing to Retilia, they walked to a small room down the hall from the briefing room.  Durinea broke out into a smile as he showed Retilia a new device that his team had just completed.

“Commander, I believe we can use this machine to further determine the natural flying capabilities of humans from Earth.”

“And how is that Durinea?”

“Sir, this is a flight simulator game machine.  It simulates the flight characteristics of an Azortec starfighter.”

“I see, but how do you expect to get anyone to fly it?”

“People on Earth are somewhat strange.  Unlike others of their species, these people will actually pay to fly simulated combat missions.”

“You’ve got to be kidding, humans with a warrior-like mentality?”

“That’s right Commander.  With all due respect, I believe you will find humans from the primitive planets more violent and prone to war.  It is Azortec that is the exception.”

“Go on.”

“This particular machine can seat two people.  They can fly unrelated missions, together on the same mission, or fight each other. I thought we might plant it at a tourist location.”

“It appears that you have this pretty much worked out already.”

“Yes.  We hired several lackeys to work for us.  They are arranging to set up the simulator at an arcade in Ocean City, Maryland.”

“How do we get data out of it?”

“We plan to install it this afternoon and it will be immediately start collecting data.  The data is automatically fed to our systems here in West Virginia.”

“Excellent, how do you plan on rating each person?”

“We have designed 10 levels into the machine.  Level 4 is approximately the level of a rookie Azortec pilot.  We derived Levels 8-10 from recorded battle sequences with Admiral Oria.  I don’t expect many to reach that level.”

“Durinea, there may be an added bonus.  A Battle Class Azortec Starship attacked the Yasinomot today.  I believe it was the Hercules.”

“Sir, that doesn’t make sense.  Why just this morning, we received reports of the Hercules and Admiral Oria being in the 4
th
Quadrant.”

Retilia roared back “I know Lieutenant, we had the same reports on the Yasinomot!  The Hercules that I battled with last night used technology that Azortec is not yet known to have.  Our sensors could not see through their stealth shield.”

“That’s not possible, unless . . .”

“I know.  Oria’s the only one who may have the physical capacity to navigate through the continuum.”

“We have to inform Creyte Central Command.”

Washington D.C.

Oria arrived in Washington D.C. a few hours prior to the Particle Energy Symposium to gain a better feel of the town.  It had been a long night and he was disturbed that the Creytes were already infiltrating Earth with the addition of several new Creytes including Retilia.  He knew that they would complicate his plans immensely.

Oria walked up 18
th
St. towards the corner of 18
th
& L Streets NW.  At the corner was a large bookstore.  It looked like a great place to begin more research on Earth.  Oria had always found the written word to be one of the best ways to gain a more in depth understanding of a place and its culture, particularly primitive ones.  The bookstore looked like it had a sufficiently large collection where someone could spend days browsing the collection and not see everything.

Oria walked into the store and past a line of people browsing magazine racks on the left side of the store.  He saw a small coffee shop a bit further down on the right.  The sight and thought of something to drink made Oria thirsty, so he headed towards the coffee shop.

As Oria approached the shop, he saw a sharp looking woman in uniform.  He thought, “She’s good looking.  I haven't thought of a woman in romantic terms for I don't want to think of how long.  Earth must be getting to me.  I don't have time for romance.”

Oria decided to be bold and attempted to start a conversation with the attractive woman.  He walked over to her and said, “Hi, do you know why that lady is writing on copies of this book?  It looks weird to me.”

Karen gave him strange look and said, “She's the author!” In her thoughts she added ‘you moron’.”  She then said to Oria “Although it is a bit weird to have someone autographing technical books.”

Oria replied, “Does that happen often here?”

Karen was thinking, “Where do you come from, another planet or something?”

Oria added, “I guess I sound a bit stupid.”

“A bit!  You sound like you just beamed down, like, on Star Trek or something.”

Oria smiled and responded “Star Trek?  I'm somewhat familiar with that show.  Do you think people from Earth could ever fly into space like that?”

Karen was thinking that if this guy weren’t so cute, she would quickly stop this stupid conversation.  However, she was somewhat interested in Oria and continued on “Maybe.  We’re building a space station.  However, I think we’re a long way from warp drives.”

Oria chuckled and said, “Maybe the technology that will enable interstellar travel is something different than Star Trek warp drives.  I have always believed there are forms of energy that have not been quite discovered yet on Earth.”

Karen was not following Oria's slight change in topics so she asked, “How did we get from gamma radiation to space travel?”

“Good question, hey, I was on my way to buy some coffee, may I buy you one?”

Karen was thinking, “This is definitely a pick-up.  He's sort of cute and I have some time to kill, I’ll play his game for a little longer.”  Karen further hoped that Oria had some military background.  She seemed to have little luck with non-military types.

Karen then responded to Oria “Sure, I'll grab us a seat, why don't you get me a cup of their Hazel Nut, black.”

“Alright, I'll be back shortly.”

Karen picked up Dr. Caldwell's book and headed towards the coffee shop.  She thought, “I really don't have time for this.  I can't believe I said yes to this space head.”

Karen found a seat on the far side of the shop.  She was hoping no one she knew would see her with this strange man.  She was starting to have second thoughts about agreeing to have coffee with him.

Oria returned carrying two cups of coffee and some Danish.

Karen smiled at him and said, “Gee, I don't think I can eat all that.  By the way, what's your name?”

“
Oria and yours?”

“Karen.  This coffee does smell good.  If we were on Star Trek, I guess we could crack jokes about the reconstituted coffee.”

“I guess so.  I haven't had a fresh cup in, well, you would not believe how long.”

“Try me.”

Oria thought to himself about Linda’s comment about him getting into trouble without even trying.  She was right.  Oria finally replied, “I'd have to give you my life history.  Parts of it are classified.  If I say too much guess I'd….”

Karen laughed and finished the expression “I know you'd have to kill me.  That's an old one.  I know.  I use it myself.”