XIN: The Veiled Genocides, Page 7

  Chapter 7

  Bone yard

  A dark-grey, whirling mass began to form in the vacuum of space, its darker centre slowly widening like the aperture of a camera. Seconds later, the Odyssey shot out of its centre a short distance, and immediately came to a complete stop.

  The hull around the bridge became transparent as Dave powered down the ship’s propulsion systems. He loved the panoramic view – the unobstructed aspect made it easier for his part falcon eyes to sweep the immediate area – but it was mostly for his amusement. The ship’s sensors were more efficient, still, he liked the challenge, and he had turned it into a contest.

  “There it is!” Dave exclaimed. The tiny shape was only visible due to the nearby star’s light reflecting off it.

  “I’ve already scanned it,” Xin replied pretending to gloat. “It’s another dead end I’m afraid, dead being the operative word – it’s a derelict vessel.”

  This was just another of the many disappointments in their search. The outdated history section of the Z’va library had mostly directed them to long dead worlds. One tip had taken them to an advanced civilization, but they had deteriorated into a race of xenophobes, not even worth attempting to contact for fear of being attacked. And now, Xin had made a detour to check out a weak signal midway through a space fold that had led them here.

  Dave piloted the Odyssey toward the relic. It wasn’t what they were looking for, but he was damn curious non the less.

  “Dave, what are you doing?” Xin floated down the hall to hover next to Dave who was seated on the bridge.

  “Just thought we should take a closer look, now that we’re here anyway,” he replied.

  “Very well, but then we should investigate the nearby system. There might be a connection.” Xin tried to sound optimistic. “Perhaps this ship will reveal something.”

  “Woh! Will you look at the size of this thing!” Dave remarked as the massive hulk quickly filled up his vision, and now loomed above them like some ancient sea monster.

  The shape of the enormous ship reminded Dave of a starfish, except that the five monstrous appendages were bent back at about a thirty-degree angle from its centre. It was decorated by countless bumps of varying sizes over its entire surface, and in the dim light of the nearby star, it appeared predominantly dark-purple in colour.

  “What’s the diameter of this thing?” Dave asked without taking his eyes off the leviathan.

  “1.956 kilometres,” was Xin’s machine-mode answer.

  Dave’s implant made a quick calculation for him. “That’s about eighteen football fields, and I mean with the end zones included – it’s huge!”

  “Based on my scans,” Xin analyzed, “this ship was created by a relatively advanced race. The alloys used, the propulsion system, and its power core are all quite impressive. If the civilization that created this ship still exists, they could be a possibility for the Z’va Prime library upload. I cannot get an accurate reading as to the age of this vessel due to the preserving effects of space. This is odd. I am getting some unusual readings from inside the ship. There is a considerable amount of organic matter spread out inside the entire ship.”

  “What sort of organic matter?” Dave asked with a bit of trepidation.

  “Inconclusive,” Xin responded, a bit perplexed. “Its hull is able to block some of my scan modes. It is organic matter but I am not getting any life readings. Also, there is zero gravity, and it is a virtual vacuum inside, except for a small percentage of nitrogen and oxygen molecules at a four to one ratio.”

  “So there are frozen, floating, dead things inside – that’s nice,” Dave summed up sarcastically.

  “I need to get inside this ship to find and access the data storage devices,” Xin determined. “Without them being powered on, it is impossible to locate them.”

  “I’m coming along this time,” Dave stated firmly. “I’ve studied all the Traveler training files,” he added to argue his case.

  “Affirmative,” Xin’s logic programming agreed, “but let’s keep it simple – no space walks – just phase the Odyssey through the hull of that ship.”

  “Affirmative,” Dave parroted back with a smile.

  Dave’s cranial implant relayed his thoughts to the secondary control panel, which was out of sight, and located directly under his chair. The bridge had no buttons, controls, or monitors of any kind, and except for the white, square chair, the bridge was virtually empty. Everything on the ship was controlled via thought. All the information gathered went directly to the implant, and then to Dave’s brain. It took a bit of getting used to in the beginning, but the ship was fast becoming an extension of Dave’s own body, and responding to him almost as quickly.

  The transparent bridge transformed back to a white hull as the Odyssey slowly moved forward. The science ship phased out and through the huge ship’s thick hull at the tip of the nearest appendage.

  Xin’s clinical data of the ship’s interior did nothing to prepare Dave for the visual reality. When he changed the bridge back to transparent mode, Dave was face to face with a monstrous, floating skull, of God knows what, that was about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle.

  “Ahhh!” he yelped as he literally jumped back.

  After he got over the initial shock, he gazed past the frightening skull. It looked like they were inside a dark, giant tunnel with walls that seemed to give off a low, purplish glow just night-light bright enough to illuminate the horror it contained. “It’s a bone yard!” A chill went all the way down Dave’s spine, and he became aware of the cooling sweat on his forehead.

  Randomly suspended in the near vacuum were thousands of bones as far as the eye could see – skulls, jawbones, rib cages, pelvic bones, spinal columns, and others that weren’t even identifiable. Some bones appeared to be from creatures the size of a mouse; others were almost as large as a whale’s, and every size in between. All of these white-yellow bones took on a purplish hue from the eerie glow coming off the walls. Some skulls looked almost familiar, while others were barely recognizable as being a skull, making Dave wonder what these creatures could have possibly looked like – extremely alien, he imagined.

  While Dave was taking in the bizarre view in front of him, Xin had been doing what she did best. “These creatures are not listed in the Z’va Prime library,” she concluded after having scanned all the floating bones. “Of course, that is to be expected, as the information is twenty million years out of date, and I estimate these bones are approximately only 200 years old.”

  “Well, let’s go look for computers, data storage devices, ship’s logs or whatever,” Dave uttered with a twinge of apprehension. “It’s not like I haven’t seen a few bones before, but let’s do it, and get out of here. This place gives me the creeps.”

  A few minutes later, Dave had on a grey flight suit, and an envirosuit strapped in place. The envirosuit was a small, flat, triangular-shaped device that was attached to his back with a black, X-shaped harness and belt. Xin had constructed the sophisticated device in the ships’ science lab using technical blueprints accessed from the Z’va Prime library. Dave touched the buckle of the belt turning the shiny, black device on. The result was a breathable atmosphere that formed thinly around his entire body. It also created a low powered force field to contain the air, as well as providing some minimal protection.

  Dave and Xin entered the small room designed around the phaseway location, which isolated the ship’s portal from the rest of the interior. Xin told the Odyssey to seal off the room with a white wall that grew up from the floor. Next, the ship removed the air in the room to equalize with the outside vacuum. Finally, the phaseway was slowly opened, and the internal artificial gravity was turned off.

  Dave’s laced, black boots no longer touched the floor, as he now floated weightless in the middle of the makeshift air hatch. “How do I move around, Xin?” Dave verbalized.

  The sound waves couldn’t travel through the vacuum, but Xin understood him just the same. “You m
ay speak if you wish, but it isn’t necessary. Your cranial implant will transfer your thoughts to me and vice versa,” Xin instructed.

  “Yeah, right, in space they can’t hear you scream, or talk, or fart,” Dave joked.

  Xin didn’t find it at all funny, as the verbal version didn’t translate well into thoughts that were then relayed via the chip implant. “Dave, I would highly recommend avoiding flatulence within the envirosuit. Anyway, to answer your question, the envirosuit has anti-grav movement capability, just focus on the device; then visualize the direction and speed you wish to go.”

  Dave had been using the implant for months, and had become expert with its use. He was using it to fly the Odyssey, access the Z’va Prime library; he even used it with his Mac laptop he had brought along. It took a bit of practice and patience at first, but he was now able to work with Photoshop and Illustrator by just thought alone.

  So now, he thought about the one centimetre flat device strapped to his back, told it he wanted to go forward, and visualized the speed at about three kilometres per hour. Sure enough, he floated toward the portal at a slow walking speed. Stop, he thought, and he stopped abruptly, arms length from the phaseway portal. “No problem,” Dave said, but Xin only received the thought that he was ready.

  “Good, then let’s go,” Xin replied as she moved through the portal to lead the way. Dave followed right behind her.

  The interior of the tunnel-like appendage was as wide as a football field. The variety of bones weren’t packed thick, nor spread out evenly, so it was easy enough to maneuver through the open gaps. Dave ignored the tiniest bones, letting them reflected off the envirosuit’s low force field. His ability to see in minimal light came in handy as he floated a wide zigzag pattern away from the Odyssey. The slightly curved floor, about a metre below his feet was a very dark (and in this light) undetermined colour.

  “I see something on the side of this tunnel thing, around the bottom half.” Dave’s distance and night vision worked exceptionally well together, even beating Xin to the discovery this time. “Let’s check it out.”

  As they approached the side of the tunnel, a new part of the puzzle emerged – cages, row upon row of cages along the bottom of the high, curving wall. The wall had a bumpy texture, reminiscent of egg carton bottoms, but looked more organic than fabricated due to the randomness in size and placement of the bumps. The cages were set directly into the wall. Again, there was randomness about it, as there were various sizes from the very small to huge, and everything in between. The huge cages were about ten metres square. The smaller ones were stacked in random patterns of various sizes, but grouped, ending up at exactly the same height as the huge ones.

  “I think I know where all those bones came from now.” Dave sent the thought to Xin.

  Xin was thinking the same thing.

  “Was this some sort of alien zoo?” Dave puzzled.

  “Possibly,” Xin responded. “However, I am curious about what caused the damage to some of these cages.”

  Dave examined several of them more closely. Even in the dim light, he could see that although many had their bared doors swung open, the few that were still shut had bent and mangled bars.

  “Well, whatever happened here, happened a long time ago,” Dave commented. “Let’s follow this wall. It probably leads to the centre of the ship; maybe there are some answers there.”

  “Agreed,” Xin confirmed as she set off, keeping the dark-purple, glowing wall to her right.

  There seemed to be no end to the cages as they travelled the length of the wall. They had past hundreds, if not thousands of cages, and there were cages on the opposite wall, as well as four more of these tunnel-like sections to the ship. What’s with all the animals? Dave was mystified. He kept coming back to the zoo idea, but it just didn’t sit right.

  The long tunnel finally opened up into a huge, cavern-like opening. Two other large, tunnel openings could be seen on the left and right of what was the centre of this space hulk – a large, domed structure. The structure appeared to have the same dark-purple colour and organic-like texture of the tunnels. There was nothing different about it except for...

  “Doors!” exclaimed Dave.

  There were five half circle-shaped openings, each one facing their respective tunnel. They were about three metres high, and were simply a hole by which to gain access into the central structure.

  “This could be the primary control location,” Xin guessed as she floated toward the opening directly ahead, followed quickly behind by Dave. He matched Xin’s speed so perfectly, it seemed as if the small probe was pulling him along.

  Inside the structure, the light from the outer glowing walls was absent. Even Dave had trouble making things out in the almost total blackness, until Xin’s outer shell illuminated the immediate area with a moderately bright, white light.

  In the centre of the round, giant room there was a large, waist-high table. It appeared to be made out of a clear, glass-like material with primary coloured shapes, black alien lettering, and a complex series of lines. To Dave, it looked more like an enormous, round piece of abstract art reminiscent of Joan Miró perhaps.

  Xin moved to the centre of the great table to stop and hover over it. “This is it, I suspect.” Xin scanned the ship’s central controls beneath her. “This appears to be in working order, but it needs some electrical current to power it.” No sooner had she made her mechanical prognosis than an electrical streamer came off her outer shell, and went directly into the centre of the translucent table. The table produced a low to high hum as it lit up like a garish, neon sign. Now she needed to access the machine, learn its language and workings.

  It took less than five minutes before she made her assessment. “Although there is some minor damage to the ship and its systems, the main problem is that the ship’s power core has long been depleted. I could transfer some of my energy directly into this ship’s reactor.”

  “Xin, I don’t want to rain on your parade, but you do know that this ship is like a million times bigger than you?” Dave pointed out smugly.

  “I assume you are exaggerating to bolster your point. However, dimension doesn’t always equate proportionately with power,” Xin informed.

  “Huh?”

  “Size doesn’t always matter,” Xin simplified as she phased through the table, then the floor beneath, and continued heading down toward the central power core.

  “So what am I supposed to do?” Dave said glumly.

  “Wait,” came back the reply.

  “Fine.” Dave crossed his arms and mumbled, “I guess size doesn’t matter, when matter thinks big.”

  Xin was still in communication range. “That’s catchy, you should write that down.”

  “Fine.”

  A few minutes later, Xin was back, hovering over the control table once again, but now she was able to power up systems.

  The room they were in lit up as bright as daylight. Next came the sound of rushing air from unseen vents. Dave’s ears told him it was coming from the sides of some of the bumps that decorated the entire interior of this colossal ship. And finally, the pièce de résistance – gravity, and Dave fell down to the hard, metallic floor.

  “Ouch! Man, it’s a good thing my head is even harder than before.” Dave rubbed the back of his head, feeling for a bump that wasn’t there.

  “I am unable to find any ship’s logs to enlighten us as to what has happened here,” Xin stated. “Ship’s logs were either not customary by the captain of this vessel, or they have been deleted – very odd. However, I was able to locate some information about this ship and its destination. This ship was designed to transport a wide variety of creatures from one planet to another.”

  “It’s an ark!” Dave exclaimed with a sudden realization.

  “It would appear that their homeworld’s sun was on the verge of going supernova,” Xin continued. “Their destination was the second planet of the nearby solar system. Obviously, something went terribly wro
ng.”

  “Obviously,” Dave echoed.

  “After transferring energy to this ship’s reactor, I am down to twenty percent power. I need to recharge at the nearby star, then, I will meet you back at this location, and we can explore the second planet together.”

  “Sounds good,” Dave said. “You go ahead. I’m going to walk back to the Odyssey, examine some of those bones, and maybe pick up a couple of souvenir skulls.”

  “Very well. When you’re finished, phase the Odyssey out of this ship, and wait for me please,” Xin instructed. “You can turn off your envirosuit now. The atmosphere and temperature are now at an optimal life sustaining level. I adjusted the interior air and heating systems to be more suitable to your specific biological needs. The default air composition settings of this ship are very similar to Earth’s, but the temperatures for each of the five tunnels were set at various levels, ranging from zero to forty degrees Celsius. I set the entire ship to a comfortable 24 degrees. The other occupants of this ship will no longer need their specific temperatures.”

  “That’s for sure,” Dave agreed turning off his envirosuit as he walked out of the brightly lit domed structure.

  Outside the central dome, Dave was disappointed to find the huge cavern and the five tunnels were just as dimly lit as before. Perhaps the purplish glow given off by the walls had been much brighter at one time. Maybe the passage of time had all but depleted whatever it was that created the fluorescent effect. It was just a thought. There was a change, however. The dark, curved floor of the immense ark was now littered with countless bones, the most pronounced being the rib cages of the whale sized creatures. It truly was a vast animal graveyard that disappeared into the gloomy distance – a visual dreamlike reality.

  “I’ll meet you outside this vessel in approximately one cycle or 68 of your minutes,” Xin said as she quickly levitated upward. She then phased through the ceiling of the huge, cavernous dome, and back out into the cold blackness of space. Unlike most sentients, Xin felt very comfortable and at home in space, and was quite glad to leave the confines of the mysterious ship far behind.

  Dave started to walk toward the Odyssey, which was located near the end of the long, tunnel-like appendage. It was night-light dim, but he could clearly see the bones at his feet, so it was an easy matter to avoid stepping on any. Unfortunately, Xin had adjusted the artificial gravity to suit his higher gravitational needs, making the walk back, just that. No superhuman leaps this time. What was the point of being super if you couldn’t be? It was like being Spiderman with his web slinging ability, but to find everything coated with a non-stick surface.

  Now, let’s look for a nice sample, Dave thought as he began examining the strange variety of skulls on his way back.

  The gigantic ship had many dark, hidden from view places – access tunnels, ventilation systems. The cocoon-like things were well concealed in these secluded, dead end locations. They were shiny, brown-red in colour, about the size of a refrigerator, and with a worm-like surface texture. Each one was surrounded at their base by a large pile of bones. These bones were thinly covered and penetrated by a root-like system of thin, brown tubes that disappeared into the bottom half of each cocoon. Many cocoons had perished, but a few of the hardiest had survived the unnaturally long, hibernation-like state. The warm air lightly touched their surfaces, signaling the extensive drought of vacuum and cold were finally at an end. The process of reanimation rapidly began.

  Upon closer inspection, Dave noticed that many of the bones had signs of trauma, breaks and even deep cut marks on their surfaces. One large skull had an obvious sign of three deep cuts running parallel to each other across its entire side. What had happened here? Some creatures, and nasty ones at that, had gotten loose and went amuck? Then he thought about the bars of the cages.... They were bent inward, not outward.... Something had broken into those cages! Well, whatever happened here, happened a long time ago, he again reminded himself. Still, he decided to forget about the souvenirs, and make his way back to the Odyssey a.s.a.p.

  Their antennae twitched with excitement when the smell of Dave wafted on the recycled air, and all seven of the gigantic arachnids immediately headed in the direction of the fresh food.

  Dave was halfway to the Odyssey when his sensitive hearing picked up multiple clicking sounds coming from behind him. He turned around, and for a moment, froze when he saw the horror that was about fifty metres away, and approaching fast. A group of dark-red, scorpion-like things were heading straight for him. They swished their tails back and forth, and at their tips Dave could see three deadly looking barbs. The three deep cuts in the skull became all too clear to him now.

  Dave instinctively picked up a large pelvic bone at his feet, and flung it with all his might at the centre of the group. The Frisbee from hell hit the alien scorpion leading the group, smashing through its tough exoskeleton like an eggshell, and sending an explosion of green bug juice flying in all directions. The four giant bugs directly behind their swatted leader, piled up into a tangle of legs, snapping pincers, and flailing tails. The two that had been on either side, had avoided the collision, and kept coming without losing a beat.

  Even though Dave could run much faster after his enhancements, he didn’t think he could outrun these things. He turned to his left and started running toward the side wall, and the possible temporary safety of the cages. He looked over his shoulder to see two of them gaining on him. Two? What happened to the other four?

  Making it inside one of the larger cages, he slammed the door shut with only a second to spare. Two monster bugs crashed side by side into the dark, metal bars, their giant pincers straining between the bars making loud, snapping sounds as they attacked the air wildly. Dave quickly backed away from the bars, putting as much distance between him and those deadly claws.

  Once the creatures realized that Dave wasn’t about to walk into their crushing claws, they concentrated on the bars instead. Dave could see, and even hear the metal bars bend under the mangling pressure of those huge pincers. It was only a matter of minutes, perhaps seconds before they would rip their way through. It felt like he was in a can; they were the can opener, and he was the meat inside. He had to do something, and quick.

  Dave looked around the floor of the large, square cage for something else to throw at these things, and spotted a large jawbone. Its size and appearance was reminiscent of a horse’s except for the sharp, carnivorous teeth.

  “Let’s play fetch.” He picked it up, aimed, and threw the curved bone overhead, sending it like a boomerang between two bars, and directly at the centre of one hideous bug. This resulted in a satisfyingly loud crushing sound. The force of the lethal, spinning projectile knocked the creature onto its back, and several metres away from the bars. “Nice catch!”

  Dead or dying, it flailed its six legs and two claws frantically, while its barbed tail snaked wildly on the ground. The second alien thing immediately fell upon the doomed one, and began tearing at it with its vise-like mandibles.

  Dave took advantage of the distraction to squeeze through the bars, and made a run for the Odyssey. Dave assumed that this bug, like the first four, would rather consume an easy meal than deal with food that could fight back, but he was not completely correct. After running for less than a minute, he again heard the now familiar clicking sounds on the deck plating. The last remaining monster had left his still quivering ex-partner (now meal) behind and was quickly gaining on him. His tactic had only bought him a few seconds. Were these things smarter than he had given them credit for?

  He knew he couldn’t outrun it, so the only option was to stand and fight. He frantically looked around for more bone weapons. While doing so, he made a mental note to have Xin make him a ray gun, phaser, AK-47, or whatever; just something better than bone chunks to hurl at alien terrors that see him as a meal on two legs.

  He picked up a large, elongated skull in his left hand, gripped it in an eye socket, and held it up like a shield. For his weapon, he snatch
ed up a thick femur almost two metres long, and held it like a club in his right. “OK, I’m ready, come on you bastard!” he shouted to bolster his courage.

  The monster slowed down when it saw Dave standing his ground with the bone-club high in the air, ready to strike. It was now only five metres away, and began approaching him very cautiously. Did his two kills of its own kind result in this less reckless advance? It held its claws far apart from each other. Its giant pincers opened wide for the opportunity to crush Dave, which it was quite capable of doing. Then the monster started to move sideways like a crab, as if looking for an opening, and/or a way to avoid the threatening club. Dave turned with it, not giving the alien creature the chance it sought.

  When it realized this maneuver wasn’t working, its deadly barbed tail came up and over its back, and pointed toward Dave. The tail was thicker than one of Dave’s legs and had a reach beyond its body. It attacked by swiftly moving forward as its tail snapped three lethal spikes directly at Dave’s chest.

  Dave countered by meeting it with his makeshift shield. The barbs impacted on the bone surface, and luckily, one of the curved, dagger-size barbs somehow became caught on the skull. Taking immediate advantage of the situation, he brought the bone-club down on the tail with all his might. So fast and powerful was the blow that it literally severed the tail, resulting in the thing letting out a loud, unnerving screech. The super-sized bug instantly became more aggressive and reckless as it lunged forward with its snapping pincers.

  Dave dropped the now useless barb tangled skull, and grabbed the bone-club with both hands like a baseball bat. Relying on his incredible agility, he managed to avoid both snapping pincers, followed by his club coming down lethally hard on what Dave guessed was its head. A gratifying crunch of bone through shell resulted in the splatter of thick, alien blood, with some landing on his face. The thing flopped around wildly in its death throes as Dave hit it again and again, more from adrenaline than to make sure the thing was positively dead. He finally stopped more from fatigue than its lack of movement. He glared down at the broken thing, primed to hit it some more, but the only motion it made now was an occasional twitch of a leg or quiver of an antenna.

  When his heart rate started coming back down to normal, he dropped the once white club (now green with syrupy fluid). He then noticed that the alien bug had drawn blood as well – his own! Dave’s grey jumpsuit had a large tear on the left leg, and a great deal of blood was oozing from a large gash on the side of his calf. He remembered that during the fight, one of its claws had swiped him there, and although it hurt, he had assumed it was just a glancing blow. In reality, it was a powerful blow that would have broken a normal human limb in two.

  Trying to ignore the pain, and much to his dismay, Dave found himself limping back to the Odyssey. He had been walking for a few minutes when he heard the distinctive clicking sounds once again. He looked over his shoulder to see the remaining four giant arachnids rushing toward him.

  The ship was close now. Not wasting any time, he picked up the pace to a painful jog. He visualized their distance and speed, then, his distance and speed from the Odyssey, and sent the question to the implant in his head. The answer came back; it was possible. He ignored the increasing pain, forcing his protesting leg to keep moving. He relied on his hearing to judge how close they were. He couldn’t afford to waste any time by turning around.

  The Odyssey was now just ten metres away. The alien bugs were maybe twenty metres and closing. Dave signaled the ship to open the portal, the phaseway expanded to maximum, and Dave jog-limped through. The portal quickly closed behind him, shortly followed by the impact of the bugs causing a series of loud, muffled thuds that vibrated the ship briefly.

  The frustrated monster bugs climbed up the side of the ship, and attacked the Odyssey with their claws in a futile attempt to break through the hull to get at the food inside.

  To Dave’s surprise, the Odyssey’s AI sent a message to his cranial implant, which then relayed the message to his brain. The ship was asking him what he wanted to do. Had there been actual danger to the ship, the Odyssey’s AI would have responded with what it considered appropriate action for self-preservation. But this was just an annoyance to the ship, and it was inquiring if something should be done, if anything at all.

  Dave was tempted to have the Odyssey super heat its hull, but changed his mind. These creatures, no matter how horrific from Dave’s perspective, were nothing more than a bunch of bugs just trying to survive, and were doing what came naturally. There was no evil or malice behind their actions. No, any retribution shouldn’t be wasted on them. However, whoever was responsible for these creatures getting loose or on board this ship, well, that was a different matter.

  Dave ran to the bridge, he strapped in, told the Odyssey to hover up fifteen metres, and turn upside down. This resulted in the creatures dropping harmlessly onto the space ark’s deck. Their single mindedness continued without delay as their pincers stretched up snapping the air frantically. To someone with a strange sense of humour, it might have looked as if the bugs were waving goodbye, a situation that didn’t go to waste on Dave.

  “Bye-bye, you ugly, f#@%ing bugs,” Dave mocked as he waved imitating their pincers with his thumb and fingers.

  Dave left them behind in this agitated state as he turned the Odyssey 180 degrees around, and headed out and away from this insanity. Once phased through the hull of the alien ark, Dave made it a point to put several kilometres between the two ships, and waited for Xin’s return, which should be very soon.

  Now he had time to look at that nasty wound on his leg that he all but forgot about in the excitement. He opened the torn flight suit, but to his surprise, there was no wound! The blood had soaked into the suit and caked his leg, but the large gash that had been there was gone! He knew it must have been the MBRUs, plus his improved metabolism at work, but he had no idea he would heal so quickly. What had it been? Fifteen minutes since the injury? Maybe less.

  Xin made the rendezvous a few minutes later with her Z’va reactor core fully recharged with star power. Dave told her about his horrifying adventure, followed by her profuse apology for leaving him alone.

  “Forget it, Xin, it all worked out OK,” Dave concluded as he downplayed the event, knowing it was partly his fault. “Now, let’s go check out the planet this space ark was heading toward.”

  The sky reminded Dave of a beautiful summer day on Earth. Large, fluffy clouds lazily moved overhead, and a golden sun that felt nicely warm on his face. For a few minutes, he lost himself in the cloud shapes. One resembled a crocodile, an image of a creature foreign to this planet. He didn’t realize how much he missed these simple things. It had been months since leaving Earth.

  From his vantage point atop the foothills, the vast jungle landscape below reminded him of somewhere in South America, or perhaps, a jungle that existed long before man had even walked the Earth.

  “What do you think those are?” Dave pointed at three large, cone-shaped structures far off in the distance. Each grey structure was the size of a small volcano, and looked unnaturally out of place.

  “Those are atmospheric processors, Dave. This planet was perhaps much like your planet Mars, but has been transformed to this. A planet designed to sustain the specific life forms on the space ark.”

  “Strange,” Dave whispered.

  “Strange? How do you mean?”

  “Listen,” Dave instructed as he tilted his ear toward the rain forest.

  “I do not hear any wildlife.”

  “Yes, no birds, no animals, just the wind and the rustling of leaves. How very strange. What do you think happened?”

  Xin didn’t know, but she knew that when Dave asked a question such as this one, he was only looking for an opinion, even if it wasn’t close to the truth. “Something happened on that space ark, whether it was an accident or sabotage, I cannot say. Those automated atmospheric processors completed their task more than 200 years ago, a task that took decades to
complete. There should have been many ships scheduled to arrive at this planet. Yet, for some reason, this race did not claim the planet that so much time and effort was expended on. This is very strange, as you say. I fear that something went terribly wrong, or perhaps something more sinister is involved here.”

  “It’s a mystery all right,” Dave added, deep in thought.

  “We should continue with our search for a race to upload the Z’va Prime library to. I think I will go back to the Z’va Prime history records as a guide,” Xin resolved.

  “Agreed,” Dave comment. “We did come closer with that approach than following this signal. Let’s get back to the ship.”

  Back on the Odyssey, Xin consulted the great library, but this time, plotted a new course for a planet with a younger race in hopes of avoiding the previous disappointments.

  The strangely quiet plant world quickly shrank behind the Odyssey. Dave moved the ship to an optimal position, away from any gravitational forces, for the first of a series of space folds. The space directly ahead of the Odyssey became a swirling mass of black and dark grey. The ship quickly vanished into its black centre, and the fold’s aperture swiftly closed behind it.

  A small scout ship phased back into the present space and time. It was matte-black with a multi-faceted surface over its entire triangular shaped fuselage.

  “They are gone,” updated the high, whiny voice from within the craft.

  “Your report,” the multiple whispers demanded. The low, distorted voices came from a small audio speaker, but seemed to come from every direction on the tiny bridge.

  “A Z’va Prime science ship and probe, and a biological life form of unknown origin,” the small form in shadows replied.

  “Not possible!” the unison voices murmured. “Z’va Prime is a long dead world. All ships and probes were tracked down and destroyed. Send us your data.”

  “Transmitting,” confirmed the spy.

  “We will study and decide. Now, destroy the ship. The experiment is finished. Use the device we gave you,” the whispers ordered as their last word echoed into silence.

  “Yes, Masters,” the spy uttered obediently.

  A bright-white, pulsating missile shot from the scout ship, hitting the gigantic space ark dead centre. The brightness of the impact quickly spread over the entire derelict, consuming it in a pulsating, white glow. With every pulse, the great ship gradually dissolve until the stars it had been blocking could now been seen. When the pulsations weakened and finally stopped, all that remained was a small amount of smoky dust in the faint shape of a giant starfish. And the last ship of that dead, ancient race joined the fate of the seventeen other worlds.

  *****