The Fringe Worlds (7 page)

Adam was struck by the fact that he felt no sensation of falling, or any movement at all as a matter of fact. He simply watched as the features on the ground grew larger until he could make out the cris-crossed pattern of a city. As they got closer, the ship slid over toward a large open area dotted with various craft of different shapes and sizes. As they descended, Adam was amazed at how large the area was and how massive some of the ships were.

And then they were down.

“Prepare yourself, I’m dissolving the well.” Kaylor announced to the room. Instantly, Adam felt light headed and he could feel the weight of his body melting away.

Jym noticed Adam’s reaction. “This planet is about .75 of standard. I’m guessing that would make it a little more than half the gravity of your world. You should get along fine here.”

“We’ll see,” was all he could muster.

The three of them left the pilothouse and Kaylor told Adam that Jym would stay on the ship while the two of them went into the Nimorian city of Gildemont to the Ministry Compound and register the salvage. Adam was surprised to see Kaylor was wearing his weapon around his waist.

“So what’s this place like he asked.

“It’s not the roughest place in the Fringe, but it’s close. They’ve only been members of the Expansion for about 20 years, so they still have a lot of tribal factions who go by their own rules. The Ministry is more of a suggestion here rather than any real authority. They have a compound not too far from here. All I want to do is get the salvage officially registered, then we can leave. It will take a couple of months before any resolution is arrived at.”

“What does that mean”

“Simply bringing in a derelict ship doesn’t convey ownership rights. The ship will have to be matched against any missing vessel reports, and then if the rightful owners come forward, we’ll get a salvage reward of 10 percent of the ship’s value. If the owner’s cannot pay, or no one comes forward to claim ownership, then we will be given full ownership. That all takes time, but once we file the salvage, our rights are protected.”

“That makes sense.” Adam said. “So this is a pretty big deal for you”

“It could be worth the effort, eventually.”

They were standing before a door set in an outer wall of the cargo hold. Kaylor pushed a button on a panel and the door slid open.

Warm, dry air rushed in, smelling sweet and fresh. Adam hadn’t realized how stale the air in the ship had been. This was refreshing. They stepped down a ramp that projected from the ship and soon Adam set foot on an alien world.

“That’s one small step for man,” he began softly.

“What did you say”

“Oh nothing. Actually nothing that important anymore.”

It was a pretty good hike through the forest of alien spaceships parked in what Kaylor said was a modest-sized, rundown spaceport, but Adam found it all fascinating. There was a menagerie of creatures all around, tall ones, short ones, disgusting looking things and even some that were kind of pretty. They all went about their business not giving Adam or Kaylor a second glance.

They eventually went through a gate with a bored looking blob of a creature manning a rundown metal booth who seemed not to even notice their passing.

The sun was warm on his skin, but nothing like the Hindu-Kush Mountains of Afghanistan. The humidity was low and it actually felt like his home back in Southern California. A slight breeze stirred up brown dust and they proceeded down the side of a dirt road toward the city proper. Adam found it all incongruous; starships and dirt roads. High tech and low tech.

He also seemed to revel in the light gravity of this world. On Earth he weighed 192 pounds, so here he was just over a hundred.

So can I jump twice as high, or run twice as fast he asked himself. He certainly felt like he could.

So he thought he’d experiment. He fell back slightly behind Kaylor, then crouched down and jumped. Up he went, easily soaring as high as Kaylor was tall, which was close to Adam’s height of six foot one. Kaylor jumped back, placing his hand on the handle of his weapon.

“What did you do that for” Kaylor yelled.

“Just wanted to see if I could.”

“A word of advice: Don’t go showing off around here. Most of the inhabitants are barely out of the trees and will take most actions as a challenge.”

Adam just smiled back at him. Yes, it might be better to keep any special abilities close to the vest for now. First he had to size up the locals. He had done this on numerous occasions during his Navy career. Just be cool until you learn the local customs.

They were soon in the town, walking on a wooden sidewalk past storefronts with glass windows. It was so Old West that Adam had trouble remembering he was on an alien planet. But all it took was for a hairy rodent-looking creature to walk out of a doorway on its two hind legs to shock him back into reality.

Adam was also disappointed to see numerous wheeled vehicles running up and down the road. No hovercraft or anti-gravity machines. These were very similar to small SUV’s, and they even seemed to be obeying traffic rules rather than running around all helter-skelter.

Regarding the Ministry, Kaylor wasn’t kidding. The Ministry, the official government headquarters for this entire planet, was indeed a Compound. It was a vast complex of buildings all behind a massive 12-foot tall stone wall, with one large opening guarded by four gruff-looking creatures about five feet tall, each covered with a black coat of hair or fur and wearing leather-like vests and pants, the same kind of creatures who had come aboard Kaylor’s ship earlier. They carried long-barrel weapons along with sidearms like the one Kaylor wore.

Kaylor told one of them that he was there to register a salvage and was directed to Building Five. He seemed to know where he was going.

Building Five was built of brick and stood four stories tall. They entered through double glass doors and were directed to the second floor, room 12. Inside the room was another black-haired creature - obviously the natives to this world - who directed them both to have a seat in front of his desk.

“I’m Fredic Dess,” he stated. “You are the ones with the class-five salvage”

“That’s right. I’m Kaylor Linn Todd and this is Adam Cain. He was cargo aboard the ship and the only survivor.”

Dess turned his attention to Adam. “Are you a slave”

“Hell no!” Adam spat out, caught completely off guard by the question.

Kaylor placed a hand on Adam’s arm. “There were eighty of his species aboard. You’ll see in the survey that they were in hiberpods. They were being transported in good condition, definitely not as slaves.”

Dess regarded them both for a moment, then just grunted. He wrote something on a form in front of him. “How did you come upon the derelict” he asked without looking up.

Kaylor knew he had to be careful here. “We picked up the gravity signatures in The Void and went to investigate. There were three pirate ships surrounding the derelict and they left as we came on the scene.”

Dess looked up. “They just left You have a cargo hauler, don’t you”

“We, ah, made ourselves out to be more than just a cargo hauler using some satellite drones. We didn’t want to leave the ship to the mercy of the pirates. In The Void, we all have to look out for each other. It just seemed like the right thing to do.”

Again Dess grunted. “And you had nothing to do with the attack that disabled the ship and killed the inhabitants”

“That’s right. Adam here will testify to that.”

Dess looked at Adam. “Is this your testimony”

“All I know is that the ship I was on was attacked and then after a battle aboard, the attackers left in a hurry. Later Kaylor showed up, by himself.” Then Adam looked over at Kaylor. “And he saved my life.”

“How is that”

“I was the only one alive on the ship. If Kaylor had not scared off the pirates, they would have eventually found me and I’d probably be dead by now, just like everyone else. And if not that, then the power would have failed and I would have froze to death. Yeah, I guess he saved my life.”

Then turning his attention to Kaylor again: “What were you doing in The Void”

“We were transporting a string of smokesticks to Rigor.”

Dess nodded, and Adam got the distinct impression that he and Kaylor shared an unstated moment. Then he asked: “Have you removed anything from the derelict prior to registering the salvage” It sounded like an official question.

“Nothing has been removed. I know the law.”

Dess scribbled some more on the form, then punched a button on his desk. A keyboard rotated out of the desk and Dess began to transcribe the information from his paper form into a computer. It took him several minutes to enter the data, during which he didn’t say a word or acknowledge Adam and Kaylor’s existence. Adam followed Kaylor’s lead and just sat there patiently.

Finally, he finished. “The survey will be completed in about an hour. Return here at Day4 and we’ll give you a copy and the registration documentation.”

And that was it. The interview was over. But Adam wasn’t done.

“Wait a minute! What about me I need someone to take me back to Earth.”

The bureaucrat stared back at Adam with a blank stare.

“Kaylor said you could get me back to my planet, to my home—”

“I said he might be able to.” Kaylor interjected.

“Where are you from” Dess asked.

“Earth, I’m from the planet Earth.”

“Dirt What kind of name is that for a planet”

“Yeah, we’ve been through this before. Can you get me there or not”

Dess tapped a few keys on his keypad. “Earth is rumored to be in the Far Arm,” he said after scanning the screen for a moment. “I will stop right there. There is no one, official or not, who can return you to a world in the Far Arm.”

It was as if Adam had been hit with a brick. He broke out into a cold sweat and turned to Kaylor, pleading. “You said—”

“I’m sorry Adam. I told you the Far Arm is mostly unexplored territory. The computer doesn’t even have a location for your home world. It would be impossible to find it.”

“What would it take to get me to the Far Arm”

“First of all, you would need a long-range starship, class 5 or better, and then probably several million credits.” Kaylor answered. “And then you would need to know where you’re going, otherwise you’d spend a thousand years jumping from system to system until you found the right one. How long does your race live”

Adam didn’t like Kaylor’s tone. He stood up, hovering over Kaylor. “Longer than you’re going to if you keep feeding me bullshit!”

“What was I supposed to tell you, that you’re stuck here for the rest of your life with no chance of getting home Would that have made you feel better”

Dess slapped his hand down on his desk, getting both of their attention. “Take this outside. This has nothing to do with the Ministry.”

Kaylor didn’t thank the official, but instead quickly ushered Adam out of the room. Once in the hallway, Kaylor turned to him.

“You better come to terms with your situation! No one is going to take you back to a planet with an unknown location, especially in the Far Arm.”

“But I was abducted, kidnapped. It’s not fair!”

“No it’s not, but this is not my problem.”

“Then you should have left me on that ship—” He stopped suddenly and his eyes grew wide. “The ship!”

“What about it”

“It’s been to Earth.”

“Yes, but the computer core is missing. There’s no way to find where it’s been.”

“But the people who own the ship would know. The people who may come to claim it!”

Kaylor was taken aback. He was right! If the ship is claimed, then Adam could talk with them about where it had been.

“Then you must stay here and wait to see if the ship is claimed,” Kaylor declared.

“You mean you’re not going to wait here yourself”

“No. We’ll come back, if and when the claim is made.”

Adam thought for a while. What would he do here if he stayed How would he survive “You can’t just leave me here. You said it could take a couple of months for the claim to come through. And what if no one ever comes to claim it”

And that was exactly what Kaylor was hoping for. Then the entire ship would be his! He made a quick decision. “This is against my better judgment, but I’ll let you stay with us, at least until the salvage is claimed or not - if you cause us no problems. Two months maximum. But after that, you’re on your own.”

Adam didn’t know whether to be happy or sad. It was obvious he wasn’t getting home anytime soon, and he had no money and no profession in this alien universe. Yet he now found himself grasping for anything even remotely familiar. Staying with Kaylor and Jym would at least give him some time to think, as well as time to acclimate to this strange, new universe. He nodded and said, “Thanks, Kaylor. I’m sorry I keep flying off the handle at you, but I’m pretty messed up right about now.”

“I don’t quite understand the phrasing,” Kaylor said, “but I believe I understand what you mean to say. I can only imagine how strange all of this must seem to you. But if you just stay calm, and stop `flying off the handle,’ things will get better. Jym and I will help you get through.”

Jym! How was Kaylor going to explain to him that Adam was going to be his shipmate for the next two months He’s not going to like this, not at all!

They left the Ministry Compound and headed back into the rustic, Old-West town just as the sun was setting. Kaylor explained that they could take one of the wheeled transports back to the spaceport, but first he wanted to stop by a favorite bar he knew of and have a drink. Never one to pass up the opportunity to throw one back, Adam didn’t resist.

Kaylor stopped at a doorway with a placard hung on a post, written in a scribble Adam couldn’t even begin to read. Then he opened the door and disappeared inside. Like a baby duckling, Adam followed.

The place really had such a foul odor that Adam almost gagged, something he was coming to expect every time he came in contact with aliens. It was as if none of them had a sense of smell! The bar was dark inside, as was to be expected, and populated with a circus of creatures far more exotic and gritty looking than the cantina scene from Star Wars. Also, there were no dancing girls or music playing, just a deafening cacophony of alien voices and the clinking of glasses on wooden tables.