Twilight Earth (8 page)

“If they know about us, what’s to stop them from digging us out?” Jon asked.

“Both the ‘Sal'andori’ and the survivors abandoned the planet two hundred and thirty years ago. There’s a ton of data, but from what I can gather, neither race could live here anymore. There was a mention of a third race called Lizards, but I had trouble finding data on them. What I did find indicated that they were fighting the Sal'andori as well as us. The report said they left the same time as the Sal'andori.

“I can’t reach the satellite to confirm surface conditions, but I am going to take the warning seriously. I got the impression they knew about the first awakening, but not the second,” Ben replied.

“What if they do?” Jon asked.

Shrugging, Ben answered. “It won’t matter; we can’t sleep more. Once we all awaken, we’ll stay down here until we can figure out what’s happening on the surface and take the appropriate action from there.”

“Ben, we’ll go insane down here. I love my family and the rest of the folks seem real nice, but we’re gonna need to get outta here, or people will start to flip-out.”

“Is that the clinical term for it?” Ben asked smiling slightly.

“Damn right it is, now answer the question!”

“We’re not isolated down here. Every pod is connected through a transport system that is constantly maintained. There is also the communication network and the entertainment database. Don’t worry, with the replicators and the hydroponics, we could live down here for a very long time,” Ben explained.

“It sure seems like we’re relying on the technology more than we should,” Jon said halfheartedly. He knew that they were relying on it completely. If any of it failed, people were going to die. Jon knew that as well as Ben. Jon just needed to complain about something.

“Did you get to eat something?” Ben asked.

“First thing I did. Damn, I was hungry! Damn freezers don’t feed you like they should.”

Ben chuckled at his friend. “Come on then, let’s go take our last nap. A whole new world awaits us.”

“Provided we live long enough!”

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S
urvival Pod 0001a

Fulton's Prairie, Missouri

Former United States

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E
ven in the best computers systems, or the best designed equipment, there is always the possibility for failure of some kind. Someone once said, the more complex the piece of equipment, the more likely the event of failure.

The most complex computer system ever built was the one developed as the master computer for the Pods. Each pod had redundant systems of course, and multiple safety protocols to ensure that the chance for loss of life was reduced to the absolute minimum. But failure is always an option.

When the primary computer went down due to component failure, the back-up system immediately came online to assume control of the network, but the original failure took place during a data back-up to the memory store, which corrupting the data.

The new system did the best it could with the information at hand and successfully assumed control of the network and all the smaller computers connected to it; including the ones controlling the Hibernation Chambers.

The new computer was intelligent enough to realize some of the data was bad and corrected it, but since it was unable to contact the surface, or the satellite to verify the date, it was forced to accept that the current date was accurate and proceed from there. It had no way to know the date wasn’t June 23rd 5235 BC.

Since the computer could only use that date as a reference, it waited until the originally programmed released date arrived. Finally, April the twenty-second, 3020 AD arrived; it began the long awaited process of awakening the remaining members of the human race on the planet.

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Waking up was far more difficult than it had been the first time. Again, the first thing Ben noticed was the cold. This time though, he felt like he imagined he would feel after being rescued from freezing. He felt like his blood was only slowly beginning to flow in his body. Making his extremities burn and hurt.

He was stiff. He tried to lift one hand to look at his fingers and it was like trying to pull it out of concrete. When he did get it high enough for him to see it, it took a few moments to realize the reason his fingers hurt so much was because his fingernails had grown so long.

He pushed on the door to the chamber and it opened slowly. Ben honestly couldn't tell if the door was resisting his push, or if he was just that weak. However, the air smelled a little stale and he thought he saw some dust as he opened the pod door. His first impression was that it had been longer than the programmed one-thousand-year sleep.

He groaned as he all but fell out of the pod and sat on the bench immediately in front of it. After he mustered the energy, he turned slightly at the sound of another groan. Jorga had managed to push the pod door open and was blinking her eyes repeatedly.

Ben got up and pulled the pod doors open for the remaining three chambers. He smiled at Deirdre when she opened her eyes. Marcy and Kait groaned like it was a school morning.

Jorga kissed him when he offered and he took the time to hold her for a moment before helping the rest of his family out of the high tech coffins. He gave each woman a hug to let her know he cared for her.

Beside each pod was a small locker that held the clothes that each person had taken off before getting into the pods. The instructions had suggested everyone change into utility coveralls before coming to the facility, which is how Ben had coveralls on hand when he woke before.

He pulled out the clothes and soft-soled shoes and began the task of trying to remember how to put them on. He grinned to himself as he remembered an old joke about writing TGIF on the shoe. (Toes Go In First)

“I don't know if we're the first ones to awaken, or not, but if the Doctor is up, we should try to help the others after getting checked out ourselves. Marcy, after you wake up fully, would you check with the computer to make sure of the date? Granted, it was a bitch waking up after two hundred and fifty years, but nothing like this,” Ben said.

After they all got dressed, Ben led the girls to the small medical facility were Jon was just finishing up with his own family.

“Am I imaging it, or was that way worse than the first time?” Jon asked when he saw Ben.

“I didn't get up the first time, but I can safely tell you I'm glad we can't use those again,” Jorga offered.

“How are your girls, Jon?” Ben asked.

“About like yours and everyone else; groaning, but alive. Some of the other pods aren't so lucky,” Jon replied quietly.

“What? How many did we lose?” Ben asked while Jon began checking him over.

“About two-hundred and fifty, not counting the loss of the Hawaiian Pods of course. Ben, the cryo computer is reporting an overage alarm, but the clock is correct. It would have awakened us, but the master computer overruled it, it reset the clock, but couldn't reset the alarm in my logs,” Jon reported. “Something wonky happened.”

“I asked Marcy to look into it. Are the rest of the pods waking up?” Ben asked.

Jon nodded. “Yeah, right now, we are all taking care of our own. There will be a medical staff meeting in twenty-four hours. Luckily, none of the medical personnel were among the casualties.”

“I guess that's a relative observation, Jon. The human race is on the endangered species list. We can't afford any losses,” Ben said grimly.

“What about the evacuees? Don't you think any of them made it?” Jon asked hopefully.

“I certainly hope so, Doctor, but we can't bank on it. According to that report, there had only been two hundred thousand of them. Besides, after all this time, I really doubt most of them even remember the Earth,” Ben replied. “Let's just hope they weren't the only ones to forget about us.”

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P
lanet Terral III

Cassian March

Duchy of Cassias

Hyclarion Imperial Consortium

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A
ddson Dee was very excited. She had just discovered the ruins of another ancient city. She had been lucky in that. She happened to catch a glimpse of a hard trail in the shallows between small islands that lead out into the northern barrier sea.

She flew all the way up to the face of the glacier, and saw the remnants of a building falling out of the ice and into the ocean. Taking a great risk, the young prospector landed her skipper in the rough water, and took a few sonograms of the bottom.

At first, she thought she had only found a small village that the glacier hadn't wiped away, but then she started getting larger and larger readings from structures still in the ice! She moved a mile to the east then a mile to the west, just so she could get an idea of how large this find actually was.

The elders would pay greatly for the salvage if she could just lay claim to it before anyone else found it. Of course, then there was the problem of getting to it. The Northern Barrier was an unforgiving sea. It was notorious for blowing up freakish storms, or becoming suddenly, eerily calm. The latter being far more unnerving to her than the storms. Then there were the giants that lived here.

Huge black and white demons that lived in the water. Addson had heard of a major find to the west that was supposedly protected by the great menaces. There were also the pack hunters. Easily half the size of the skipper she flew, the intelligent denizens only had fear for the bigger killers. No, the waters on this planet were no place for young scavengers like Addson. However, a person had to make a living doing something, and getting killed in space didn't appeal to her.

She spent the rest of the day mapping the parts of the underwater city she had found, before heading back to the Aerie. She set her course, and followed the same track as she did on her way out this morning. Even though she was low to the surface of the water, she missed the surfacing of a small buoy.

The sensor pod, however, didn't miss her. Had she been equipped with the instrumentation to detect it, she would have been frightened being scanned this far away from the Aerie. However, she flew on, blissfully unaware that she had been observed.

As she flew south through the mountain range called the Wall, she tried to contact her home base.

“Great Falls Aerie, this is prospector three-nine-four, over.”

The name Great Falls was adopted from a piece of heavily corroded metal that was found near the base of the Aerie. The 'story files tell of a city that once stood very close to where the Aerie was placed a thousand years ago. The city ruins had been one of the ancients, so it was even older still.

Addson had once heard that someone discovered ruins on the Aramic Plateau that were older than even the ancients’ ruins. She was one of the few that agreed with the archaeologists that had flocked to the Aramic site; the human race had begun on this world. However, no matter the amount of proof recovered, it still hadn't been enough to press a claim with the Consortium.

“Great Falls Aerie, this is prospector three-nine-four, over.” Addson repeated. This time she got an answer.

“Three-nine-four, this is Great Falls, What can we do for you, Addson?” a male voice replied.

“Great Falls, I'm approaching from the north, and request landing clearance.”

“You're still an hour away, Addson. Why are you calling in this soon? Did ya find something?”

“What I find or don't find is none of your business, Billy! I'm calling in this early because control wants all returning prospector flights to call in as soon as they can establish contact because of the pirate raids,” Addson replied.

“I bet you found something. You never come back this early unless you think you have something,” Billy replied.

“Look, can I land when I get there or not?” Addson asked, clearly getting irritated with the young man.

“Where else can you go? If I tell you can't land, you're just gonna have to sit out there and wait. Now, tell me what you found, and I'll think about letting you land,” Billy replied.

“Billy, there are four other Aeries on Usa (she pronounced it Oosa) Major that I can reach, I can also make it to StarDock down on Usa Minor. So, unless you want to explain all this to Howath, you better give me a landing pad!”

“Okay, okay, sheesh! I was only playin'! No need to get yer panties in a knot,” Billy replied, and assigned pad fourteen to Addson's skipper. “I put you on pad fourteen; don't forget to decon!”

“You're a real pal, Billy. One of these days, I'm going to bring you along, and drop you off out here somewhere. Then you can tell us what you found!”

“Good luck with that, the home office is suspending all prospecting permits. Once you land, that's it, you won't be going back out for a while,” Billy replied grinning. If she wanted to be a shit, fine, he could be a shit too.

“Why? There's still a lot of stuff out there to find!” Addson replied.

“I think they've finally came to the conclusion that there's nothing of value left. At least nothing worth risking credits on. I'd have to agree with them; those people didn't have much that is of value to the here and now. After ten thousand years, what they did have has crumbled away to dust.”

“I think we still have a lot to learn from them. For example, did you know that these people were actually our ancestors, and we originated here?” Addson replied.

“Oh that's just bullshit! Think about it, if they were our ancestors, then how did they breathe? What did they eat? Most of the plants here are poisonous to us. No, I'd believe the Hyclerians rescued us from slavery before I'd believe we started out here,” Billy replied.

“There was a great war that changed the planet, which is why we left. Too much time has passed, and both our race, and the planet have changed too much, but we did start out here. At least, that's what those archaeologists on the Aramic Plateau are saying,” Addson countered.

“They'll say anything in order to keep the credits flowing for their research. Either way, all prospecting has come to a halt. I think they're going to re-task you to anti-piracy duty. The damn pirates have been getting more aggressive lately. They intercepted our supply tram and stole all the cargo.”