Aurona, page 59
“You’re gettin’ real close, guys,” he said, grinning. “When she heard that my grandfather still might be alive and we’d be looking for him, she suddenly remembered one of his best inventions, little satellites called ‘MicroSats’! When he arrived centuries ago, he’d brought CAD drawings of the gizmos with him. He reprogrammed them with a lot of radical, updated features, and then repurposed the Spyder’s nano-assembly lines to produce hundreds of ‘em! And-and here’s the best part,” he gushed. “She’s got buckets and buckets of these MicroSats stashed away, just waitin’ for us to use ‘em!”
He paused, studying the crew’s faces in exasperation: They seemed to be made of stone. “So whaddaya waitin’ for?” he urged. “Let’s go! Who’s coming?”
There it was: their old, familiar Adam was back, as brilliant and full of life as ever, perhaps even more so. A chuckling Tola and a very relieved Elena picked an enthusiastically waving team. They’d signed on for this wild ride and loved it.
After the crew had retrieved their personal belongings, everyone took off and rendezvoused inside the Bandor’s mountain stronghold. With their arms full, they boarded an identical copy of their saucer, picked at random from the hundreds lining the walls in the enormous vault. They could only stare in amazement at the huge array: as wonderful and unique as their starship had seemed, it was just one of a vast fleet, ready to roam the universe.
Early the next morning the Phantom Cruiser and its handpicked crew of fifty flew to the Island. Roson was waving from the roof, circled by her robodiggers carrying heavy buckets of MicroSats. Thanking her profusely, they went right to work.
Circling in a low orbit over Aurona, they dumped out a great cloud of MicroSats and then sat back to watch in amazement. The tiny spheres quickly defaulted into a self-distributing, radar-distancing phase: with powerful, miniature ion propulsion thrusters, they shot away from each other at a tremendous speed to form an evenly seeded blanket of bright, metallic dots. Greatly encouraged, the crew prepped many Spyders to drop from the center hold: some objects of interest may be down on the planet’s surface.
Adam settled into his gimbaled chair. Strapping his e-helmet on his head, he rested his fingertips on the galvanic pads and cranked up the Cruiser’s sensors to the max. With his grandfather’s MicroSats beaming out their extremely detailed 3D maps, it didn’t take long to realize that he didn’t need any of his big monitor’s visual information: some kind of weird synergy was happening. He shook his head in confusion. Was his mind becoming one with the electronics?
As he turned off the bright screen in front of him, he let out a sigh of relief. The total darkness enabled him to focus clearly on the mental images and reams of amazing feedback pouring in. He activated a mind-switch: Advanced Autopilot would have to take over the search in an auto-grid pattern.
Shortly, he began to hear a tiny, distant ping above all the electronic chatter. He recognized it immediately and shouted into his headset. “Listen everyone! I hear one of our little guys, ah, talking to us! Yeah, that’s right, we have a Spyder signal, four hundred miles East of Prima! Turn up your audio! Help me scan for it!”
In minutes, a voice returned. “Got it, sir! Transmission code’s on the way!”
As Adam locked onto the signal, a disturbing scene flashed into view on his face shield. A lone Spyder was high in a Motherlode, its hooked suction feet gripping tightly to a narrow band of dirty, slate blue fabric. There was a frantic breathing sound. Alarmed, he commandeered the robotoid to release its grip and fly a few feet away. As he swiveled it around to see what was going on, his eyes popped.
“W-what?” he sputtered. “You’re kidding! It can’t be! How could anyone survive, alone and unarmed in the middle of the jungle? I know it’s been more than three weeks since the big guy disappeared, but….”
“Senn?” Kron interrupted. “You’re saying that Senn’s still alive?”
“Yup, alive and kickin’! He looks really weak though, and he might fall. It’s a long way to the ground from that Motherlode!”
The heavyset man had finally wormed his way through the tight web of Dazeen spikes on the trunk and was now inching his way upward on the rough bark. He’d obviously been through torture: he was definitely thinner, scrapes and scars covered his skin, and stains of blood were oozing through his uniform. He appeared to be extremely nervous and kept glancing downward into the big clearing below him.
Adam swiveled his Spyder to follow his line of sight. Sniffing around the trunk of a newly germinated AugerBlade seedling, a whole family of Razahs was on the prowl! Off to the side, Senn’s one-man SpeedSled lay upside down. Tucking in his paddle feet, he dove. There was a large hole in the floor. The scenario knit itself together quickly.
“Okay guys, it’s Spyder time: pour out about twenty of ‘em! There’s a family of Razahs down here and they’ve almost figured out where Senn is!”
Elena’s voice shot back. “Okay, the Spyders are flying! Do you want us to…?”
“Yes!” he interrupted. “Land on all the Razah heads you see, just like you did before! Stink out the little ones, too, but don’t empty your tanks. We only want to scare those nosey buggers away!”
It didn’t take much of a purple cloud to send the Razahs careening back into the jungle. As Adam called off the swarm of black dots, they rose quickly on the upwelling currents toward Senn and surrounded him. He’d been climbing steadily and focusing all his attention upward, but looked startled and overjoyed as they landed on his arms. Adam directed his Spyder to point downward emphatically with its manipulator claw. Senn’s ridged brow furrowed for a moment, and then he caught on. He looked down.
His SpeedSled was still working! With a loud clank and a great deal of sparks, it had somehow righted itself and was climbing rapidly toward him! His eyes wide, the big man crawled aboard the sputtering craft. Swiftly, the sled rose to the top of the Motherlode. He looked up. The Phantom Cruiser was descending silently, carefully, bit-by-bit, to within inches of his upraised arms. He cowered in terror, fearing he’d be squashed. A small, round center hatch opened and many strong arms pulled him inside.
Senn’s amazing tale of survival spilled out as he was wheeled into sickbay. The man was severely dehydrated and covered with gashes, but full of gratitude. “I-I still can’t believe it’s youse guys! I wuz almost losin’ my grip on da big tree! I wuz eatin’ fruit off da ground an’ hidin’ under da SpeedSled every night…. Hey, the cloakin’ part an’ shields still worked; who knew? An’-an’ whassup with this ship? Where’d it come from? How’d you find me? An’ how’s Dexor an’ the guys? Are they still alive? An’….”
Joelle finished emptying her syringe into his arm. He’d be out for a while, long enough for Fenet’s surgical team to glue him back together and give the Hyper Stemcell solution a chance to do its work. She rolled her eyes at Elena, shaking her head.
“Wow, hon, talk about a last-second intervention; we almost lost this guy! Those Razahs were so close! All they had to do was look up, and … bam! Lunch!”
Adam smiled, turned off his sickbay monitor, and immediately defaulted back into his Cruiser’s auto-grid pattern. He was really glad to have Senn back; he actually liked the simple man and had always been bothered that he’d been so easily duped by his companions. He sighed and closed his eyes to concentrate.
The Cruiser’s sensors and MicroSats were now speaking to him in volumes: like DNA, their encrypted chatter was weaving into long threads of electronic information, streaming many-layered, extremely detailed 3D schematics of Aurona’s surface directly into his mind. He sat there enthralled, surrounded by the sights, sounds, odors and textures. His galvanic finger pads could actually feel the surfaces of the leaves, rocks, and water!
Soon, just the anomalies started to pop out: the MicroSat’s AI had easily adjusted to the regular pattern of life below, but now the differences were appearing! Startled, he focused on this new set of extreme, boldly colored graphics, trying hard to understand what he was seeing.
Yes, that was it! Highlighted in bright, glowing orange, the Cruiser’s ground-penetrating, Deep-X radar was revealing the underground domes of long-abandoned Bandor dwellings! He turned his eyes and spotted a set of glowing, moving dots: a family of Razahs was on the prowl, standing out in bright infrared against the gridwork of green. Fluorescent purple identified large groves of AugerBlade trees clustering along some newly forming, pale green gaps in the planet’s underground wiring. Yes, the invasive species was indeed spreading and proliferating rapidly, commandeering a lot of the Motherlode’s former turf.
Astonished, he sank back into his chair. What a breakthrough! Now that he could see where the Razahs, Spyrins, and Augerblades lived, it would be a cinch for his capture and extermination crews to find them! A sudden thought flashed through his mind: his grandfather had figured out all this electronic wizardry before he disappeared, but had he planted the MicroSats with Roson, knowing that when his grandson finally arrived, he’d use this stuff to locate him in the jungle? His head beginning to spin off his shoulders with all the possibilities when another color suddenly showed up: a deep, vibrant blue, tinged with metallic gold edges.
“What’s that?” He dropped like a stone out of the sky to get a closer look. The large, squashy central shape seemed to be deformed, like a caved-in oval. It had two wispy, curving passageways snaking out through the jungle that seemed to end in odd, domelike tips. Could it be? He dove to treetop level, hovering.
“Duron! Elena! Everybody!” he gasped. “I think I found him! Let’s go see!”
With the Phantom Cruiser locked securely in a hover, Adam and a search party exited from several airlocks. It took a lot of tricky maneuvering to pilot their squadron of SpeedSleds down through the tangled canopy. They had to work their SpeedSleds through extremely tight spaces, using the strength of their shields to shove the heavy vegetation aside.
Duron nudged Adam with a bony finger. “Ah, you must be aware that Roson is watching everything through my telepathic eyes, Adam; I do not have to describe what I am seeing, as she is here! Just like you ‘saw’ Tola’s early childhood on the plains of Oklahoma, she is reading my mind-pictures.” The old one reflected quietly. “She is eager to know everything, Adam; she, ah, cared very deeply for your grandfather.”
Elena turned to him. “That little lady’s super excited her man might still be alive! We had a long, heart-to-heart talk.”
“It’s been a long time,” Adam muttered. “I-I just hope that he’s survived.”
They landed in a small group, their runners crunching into forest litter. Fallen trees were everywhere and vigorous new growth was straining toward the few remaining openings overhead. On high alert they disembarked, walking in a tight, nervous knot. The dilapidated-looking structure appeared to have no entrances and was surrounded with a deteriorating force field: Clumps of bright gold particles were hovering in the depressions with a thin, blue haze wavering around them. As they walked a bit further around the perimeter, they stopped short.
“Oh, no!” Elena’s hands flew to her mouth. “It sure doesn’t look good, Adam!”
An enormous tree had caved in the roof. The force field may have resisted the great weight for a while, but as the trunk leaned further into it and more debris fell from overhead, the electrical shield had weakened. They noticed a small hole at the top. Thinking quickly, Adam tapped the shield with the toe of his boot: yes, there was a slight tingle, but he got used to it quickly. “Okay guys, we’ve got an entrance. I’m sure we can make it to the top, but we’ll have to climb through some floppy FlexNet. Who’s game?”
There was no hesitation: ten people joined him and picked their way carefully up the side, untangling their feet as they went. Bioluminescent lizards were everywhere, scampering out of their path like bright streaks of lightning. Evidently, these creatures had grown used to the weak electrical charge.
Adam reached the top first, and put his eye up to the small opening: there was an enormous oval room below him. “Wow,” he mumbled. “It’s really cluttered down there…,” he pulled back, startled. “Huh? Light? Hey, he’s got solar optics still working after all these centuries. Everything’s flooded with daylight down there!” Excited, he tugged at a chunk of the rubbery FlexFoam, testing its resilience. “And this stuff is flat amazing; it’s still just as strong as the day he sprayed it!” He stood up and fumbled around in his pockets, balancing on the springy surface. “Rats! Where’s my portable laser cutter? I know I put it into my SpeedSled!”
The last man in line turned around and picked his way down the side to retrieve it. In moments, the group handed him the flashing instrument. Many nervous hands had passed it up to the top.
“Wait a sec….” Adam tested the power, setting the cutting distance to less than a foot. In seconds, chunks of foam fell inward and there was a hole big enough to squeeze through. Satisfied, he pocketed the cutter and glanced nervously over his shoulder. “I’m going in!” Twiddling with the strength of his antigrav belt, he floated halfway down and then hovered in place. “Okay, guys, set your Stiflers to stun, turn on your belts, and follow me. The rest of you down there, just guard the perimeter!”
They landed in the center of an instrument-cluttered room. Although the ceiling was lopsided and pushed in, the structure was still intact and in good shape. Someone let out a cry. A few scurrying and slithering forms had caught his eye. “Rats, sir! At-at least … I think they’re rats. And I saw a skinny snake, too!”
Tola focused his Asron torch down into a thin beam, then checked under a desk. Several sets of eyes blinked and turned away from the bright light. “Not rats, guys. No tails. Ears way too big! Snake’s good sized, though. Maybe three feet.”
Adam stood there, calculating. “Well, if there ever was food in here, it’s long gone. These critters are using this place as a burrow or a den, and I’m sure the snake’s in here after them.”
Tola doused his torch. “Well, sorry, sir, it doesn’t look like your grandfather’s here; the room’s totally empty. What a great collection of stuff, though!”
Adam scowled and pivoted on his heel. “C’mon, the pod’s gotta be here somewhere!” Suddenly, he spotted a pencil-thin shaft of light filtering through a torn curtain. As he touched the fabric, it crumbled and dropped to the floor in a heap. “Aha!” he shouted. “A tunnel! I’m sure this is one of those long arms I saw twisting through the jungle!” He glanced over his shoulder at the crew and nodded toward the opening.
They followed eagerly. The passageway was quite long and completely lined with shelves and cabinets, the drawers brimming with odd instruments and yellowing stacks of papers. In a moment the passage widened, and then ended abruptly in a small, domed chamber. Adam stopped short in the doorway, quaking and speechless.
A pod stood in the center of the room!
As the crew circled the silent, oval shape, Adam’s eyes filled with unbidden tears. A small table had been pushed up against the pod, a yellowing parchment note lying on top. Taking a breath, he read it aloud, his barely-restrained tears brimming over.
“Adam,” he choked, “I’m sure many centuries will have passed by the time you read this note. I followed your journey as long as I could, until I had to sleep. Both my mind and body were giving out. Hopefully, my long rest will repair some damage. I’m so sorry about all my secrecy, sorry about my funeral deception, and especially sorry that we didn’t have time to say our goodbyes. It was all my fault. When I went back to my saucer near the Galaxy Room, I made a huge mistake….”
A mistake? Startled, Adam paused to wipe his eyes with his sleeve, took a breath and continued. “I pushed the wrong button. My little TimeWarper got locked into a sequence and there was no turning around! To make matters worse, I had the keys to your starship in my pocket! It didn’t take long to get here, but then I had to figure out a way to get your keys back to you and put them exclusively into your hands. It took a while to cobble my elaborate plan together. I’m sure that by the time you’re reading this note, you’ll have figured out a few details of my quite necessary trickery. As long as I’m apologizing, I’m really sorry about that scary-looking clone. Hey, it worked, didn’t it? Well, I’m glad to see you’re on your way. Gallons of love, G’pa.
P.S. -Tell Roson I miss her terribly, more than she’ll ever know.”
Composing himself, Adam peered through the dark glass. A yellow light was pulsing with a disturbing message. “Huh?” He rubbed his eyes and focused, his face pressed tightly against the surface. “Hey guys! We gotta get this pod outta here, ASAP! There’s no juice! The backup power’s running low!”
Tola flashed his Asron torch under the pod. “Wow! Look, sir! The cord’s been chewed by one of the critters!” Gritting his teeth, he yanked out the plug. They immediately put their backs to the heavy pod, levering, steering, and rolling it toward the long passageway. They burst into the big oval room, pulling away cabinets and bookcases, clearing a narrow path around the perimeter. It didn’t take long; a particularly heavy wooden cabinet concealed the only exit: a wide door, bolted from the inside! As they released the catch, it creaked loudly and swung inward. The smells and sounds of the jungle poured in, and here and there, they caught glimpses of their SpeedSleds through the heavily overgrown FlexNet. Winking, Adam handed his laser cutter to Kron, and then stood aside to concentrate intently with his mind.
As the men heaved the pod outside, suddenly, quite by itself, a large utility barge pushed down through the treetops and landed next to them, crunching into the litter. Looking pointedly at Adam, they heaved the pod aboard. Bolting the dome’s door from the inside and securing the hole in the roof with a makeshift patch, they jumped aboard their SpeedSleds. As they circled the oddly shaped structure, the rescue crew gave each other enthusiastic high fives: The whole operation had taken less than two hours.
Chapter 32: ZERAN
The cavernous Pod Room was echoing with a persistent rapping sound: several Bandor pod specialists were poring over the smooth surface, checking for cracks in the glass and making sure that none of the seals had been broken. Satisfied, they carefully spliced on a replacement cord. Adam had been anxiously monitoring the progress and held his breath as they plugged it into a simulated mainframe.
