Give this a read..remember it's un-edited.but good!
This is the first cut of my new sci-fi novel un-cut and un-edited..feel free to leave some feed back..it can only make the story line better..
Cohen
From the beginning
Written by
Jason Barton
Chapter One
A small town
In a small sleepy town in southeast Ohio things seemed rather quiet to the unsuspecting eye. I am sure you know the kind of town where all the roads are still gravel for miles and miles. And the dust gathers in thick layers on anything unfortunate enough to be around when the occasional car or truck passes by. It seems that we have all been through a town like that at some point or the other in our lives. And if not then I am sure you have heard about one. The kind of place that time seems to take a little longer to reach. This town is like one of those, just a bit behind the times. A stop sign, a school, a general store, and a post office are the major land marks of towns this size. And the most excitement a person might expect to see, comes when somebody either gets married or dies.
The things most people would find to be outrageous and lacking all shreds of common sense happen in over whelming abundance in places like this. Not that it was scary or creepy in any way it was just lacking a certain amount of sophistication. The people in places like this are truly no different than you or I, they just seem to have a little more time on there hands than they know what to do with.
Either way Cohen Philips could not believe that towns like this still existed. Cohen had lived here for most all his life. A whole thirty years now and he was not at all unhappy about it, yes there were times that he wished things were more exciting, and yes he did wish that he had a few more options in the lady friend department, but all said he thought he had his very own slice of heaven. He was away from the hustle and bustle of big city life. If he wanted to walk around his house naked he could with out worrying about who was looking in his windows. There were no requirements on how much stuff he could have in his yard or how often he needed to cut his grass. No neighbors to complain about loud music at two in the morning and no one knocking on his door unexpected. It was not that Cohen was anti-social or anything like that only that he did enjoy some privacy and life here was running at a much slower pace. His grandfather thought that this was the only way in the world to live and despite there many differences over the years Cohen thought so too. Cohen’s grandfather had come across the ocean from Scotland. At the age of only eight his family was forced to make a choice to survive. It was move to a new country and find work or stay in Scotland and starve to death so they packed up what they could and moved to New York. Then at fifteen Cohen’s grandfather Danny Phillips left his mother and father behind and drifted all around the country. It was not unusual at the time for a young man to strike out to make his own way. Yes Danny was a little young but later in life he would repeatedly tell his only grandson Cohen that it was the only way to really be a man. You had to be out on your own face the world on your own terms. Danny traveled from coast to coast and back again. He had even changed his last name at some point along the way, why he changed his last name nobody really knew. He never told anybody what his real name was, or why he did it. If you asked him he would only reply that he liked the way Phillips sounded. Cohen in his teen years questioned this, he was unsure how any one would even know it if his grandfather had changed his name. He asked his grandfather and was disappointed to find no answer at all. Cohen didn’t even know if his grandmother knew the truth. Some of the old timers said that Danny must of gotten into some trouble before finding this little town in the absolute middle of nowhere. But you could argue that there were a lot better place’s to hide if you were in trouble than a small town were everybody knew everything about everybody. So Cohen never put much stock in the big mystery of Danny Phillips.
Besides as far as anyone really knew this is just the place he found his new wife, Cohen’s grandmother. She would say that her Danny was born to find her and that was the reason why he struck out on his own so young. If that was true then Cohen felt very little connection to his grandfather. Other than a love for this place Cohen had no common traits with Danny Phillips. But he still had to admire his grandfather’s drive to make a home for himself. Danny had a nice farm and a good wife, great country, and a good family. Danny had tried to surround himself with his family. At one point Danny had moved his mother and father down from New York. But they only stayed for about a year. Danny’s father could not stand the lack of entertainment. He had gotten used to the city life and was no longer willing to stay out in the country away from it all. Danny’s mother stayed an additional year while his dad went back to get work and a new house set up for her. Danny had tried to convince his brother and sister to move closer but they too were rooted in the hustle and bustle of city life.
Now that was another difference between the two Phillips, a desire for family. In fact Cohen had no family left around anymore. His mom and dad had gracefully passed on to the next world. First his dad had a stroke in his sleep and just never woke up. Two months later his mother took a nap in the recliner in the living room of there house and had a heart attack. The doctors told him she had no pain and it was very fast. The fact was that he knew she would not last long after his dad’s sudden death. His father was sixty and his mother was only fifty eight. It was a very hard time for Cohen. Especially when both your parents are only children. No uncles or aunts to split the burdens with no family to grieve with. The one thing that always stuck out in his mind was how his parents wanted to see him get married and settle down. And in his mind he would someday get there but for now he was happy with how things were.
Ally Brand had been chasing after him for about five years now. She had limited success and Cohen knew she was a good girl and quite a striking beauty. He knew she would make somebody a good wife someday. But all in all he was fine living by himself. No worries and all the time in the world to do the things he wanted to do.
Cohen had gone away to college for a whole five years and had successfully gotten a degree in civil engineering. Then returned home and started working for the county highway department. Not a real glorious job but it paid the bills. It did have it’s benefits, no one expected him to work any of the major holidays or any over time unless there was a real need for it. Even then it was never a big deal, most people around did not complain to much about any thing. But it did have it’s down side as well.
Once he had to close an old bridge down, and let me say that really pissed some people off. Mainly a very old Mr. Thomas, who still three years later had not let him forget about it. Apparently Mr. Thomas had been crossing that bridge for forty years and it was a very big inconvenience for him to drive a whole mile and one half down and around to get to and from town. Mr. Thomas never said but it was actually longer for him to cross that old bridge than to go the way he does now. Cohen thought it must have been because Thomas had to pass by Vern Capps place.
Vern and Thomas had been feuding for longer than anyone in town could remember. Some say it was over some bad land deal others say Thomas caught Vern with his sister Betty in his old chicken coop. Despite what started the feud the two could barely stand to be in the same room together. And to top it off they were both on city council and never agreed on anything.
These were some of the hazards a fellow could fall into in a small town. Cohen did not let these things bother him in the slightest after the initial encounter. Some would let a thing like that consume them. Like the town mayor Ted Farson.
Mayor Farson had a little different job than most mayors.
He also had to play peace keeper. With a town so small it could not afford a full time police officer or even a jail, they were forced to rely on the state troopers for any help. Out of the fear of gaining a bad reputation with any of the other towns around Mayor Farson spent a lot of his time listening to what seemed to be a never ending stream of gossip. In hopes of heading off any unnecessary confrontations.
On this day however Cohen had nothing to do. Nothing in town, and no need to go to town and deal with anyone or anything. He had been feeling a little more tired than normal. He just wanted to be left alone. For no apparent reason he could think of he had been in some kind of fuzzy drained depression. He had given it a lot of thought but came up with no reason for his foul mood. That alone made his mood worse. He had been in this particular mood for about a month now. It just happened to be spring and he thought he should just be in a better mood. Maybe he thought if it did not quit soon he may talk to the doc about it. He had been thinking it was just the winter blahs but now he was beginning to think it might be something else. But for now he hoped it would clear it’s self up so just for today he wanted to hide from everyone.
So he spent his day fishing in a small creek just about a mile from his house. It did not take long to reach his favorite spot. Problem was that his long time buddies knew where his spot was and more often than not one of them would find him before he could even get his pole in the water. And true to form once he arrived at the creek he saw Jack Cain sitting on a large rock made of limestone under an old walnut tree.
"Hey Jack how they biting?" Cohen had a slightly disappointed tone in his voice that he was sure Jack would not pick up on.
"Hey not bad, been here fifteen minutes and already caught me two croppy!" replied jack
Jack sat his pole down and brought the two fish up out of the water for Cohen to see.
"Good, good, hope you leave some for me" Cohen had tried to sound upbeat.
"Hey now you might have a chance if I let these two go, so you might as well go home cause you know that isn’t going to happen." Jack replied.
Cohen grinned and went a little ways up stream, found a nice big fallen ash tree to sit on and cast his pole. He and Jack fished the day away in relative silence except for the occasional slight witted banter.
Just outside of town John Tyler was having a really bad day. John had been hunting this morning and was on his way back to his house where his wife Kelly would have some lunch ready for him and if he was really lucky he might even get to watch some TV before the kids got home from school. John and Kelly had been married for ten years, with five children. Two boys and three girls. The oldest three were all in school. The younger two were the twins and they would start kindergarten next year. Kelly was a bit of a small town star when she had the twins. All the old women would stop by and visit, give advice on how to raise those twins. Kelly did not mind all the company but John took it a little more personal. He did not see the fascination, they were just two little girls. He thought they were perfect and fine, it did not matter to him if there were two or one. But the old ladies of the town were always telling him spooky stuff about how twins have e.s.p. and all the weird stuff you read about in magazines. John worked the night shift at a slaughter house in the next town over. Most days he would have been hauling meat back for some of the older farmers who don’t like to drive the fifteen miles each way. Most of them would give John a few pounds of meat to compensate his willingness to gopher the meat for them.
In this day and age a man needs to do what he can for his family even if that means you have three large freezers full of beef and pork with the occasional chicken in your basement. So John really didn’t have to hunt for food. In fact he mostly went for the peace and quite. He liked being out in the deep woods surrounded by Gods beauty. He liked to think that if he could get away with it he would be one of those nature walk kind of guys. But around here you either hunt or grow dope and neither is done without a gun. It was really a shame but he had excepted it years ago.
As luck would have it, or maybe it was fate. John had gotten a nasty knot on his head. From either the steering wheel of his 1978 Ford truck or the large oak tree he had just smashed into had stuck its branch through his passenger window and smacked him around. Maybe a little of both he thought as he rubbed the growing lump.
A small trickle of blood dripped from his left ear, he felt that his shirt was damp and clinging to his shoulder, and was now blood soaked.
At first he was unsure where the blood came from but after a fast slightly panicked inspection of the shoulder and neck area he found his bleeding ear. Now wishing he hadn’t. The sudden arrival of pain was sharp and quick. As his hand rubbed across the ear it flopped in a not so normal way that announced itself with brain searing pain. John gasped at the sudden pain. Stomped his foot two or three times and the pain dulled slightly. Just enough for him to regain some of his senses.
He walked back over to his smashed truck to inspect the damage, becoming more aware of new pains and strains with every step. How did he get out of the truck, did it throw him out when he hit the tree. He was not sure he was even driving. At that thought a slight panic over took him. And as if he was startled by a wild bear in the woods, he jumped around the best he could looking for anyone else who may have been in the truck. After the inspection at a rather fast pace for an injured man he came to the hopeful conclusion that he had been alone.
That was good John had thought to himself. And then another thought popped into his head. It was at least a mile into town. A long walk he thought for a man bleeding from the head.
His head had cleared a little more and he came to realize his truck was not going anywhere. The impact of the tree had pretty much guaranteed the end of the old Ford. She was all but split in two. The old tree had hit almost dead center. Both fenders and half the motor had been claimed by the old oak tree.
Waves of nausea and dizziness overcame John and his thoughts returned to how he had gotten there. As he walked away from the truck and on toward town his thoughts cleared a little. It seemed that if he could trust his memory a deer had jumped out of the field and found itself under Johns front left tire which must have taken out his steering somehow. And then the truck skidded into the tree. It had all happened so fast and everything was still a little hazy. He could not quite remember getting out of the truck. But he thought the stress of the impact could have sent him slightly into shock.
By this time his shirt was now off and he had decided to hold it against his ear to help stop the bleeding. It soaked up the blood but he knew his ear was at least in need of some stitches.
The more he walked the more he hurt. He was almost to a crawl two hours later when the sight of town came into his view. Good he thought, finally he could maybe get some help. His spirits were lifted slightly at the site, but a very warm rush went up his back. Then his right leg went numb and he went crashing to the ground. He caught part of his weight with his elbows. The gravel of the road dug in but the quickness of the fall had not allowed him to notice. Fear and panic filled John’s mind as his body began to convulse he had lost complete control of himself but yet his mind was still aware of his plight. His muscles tightened to what he thought must be their breaking point. Pain ravaged his mind until no cohesive thought was left just panic and then black.
Chapter2
Welcome to the universe
A loud boom could be heard in the reactor room of the Egalitarian planetary class flagship the Quasar. The Egalitarian’s were a very order bound society. With all their rules and regulations. There were committees for all things. Somebody was in charge of everything and nothing was left to chance. This type of social structure meant there were always openings for any new and upcoming young leaders to advance. It also garnered a certain amount of criminal activity. The most prominent type of activities were those involving governmental corruption. The penalties were harsh! Death was often the immediate sentence and was often carried out without any trial. Some of their most renowned leaders were found guilty of this very charge as soon as their power began to fade. Not by chance most of them had come into power by the same method. Bribes were paid and fortunes were made and lost. The general populous was oblivious to the true level of corruption. Leaders would lie and deceive to achieve their hidden goals. Most thought this was the only way to stay in power as a galactic leader. But a smaller group felt that the social behavior that had led them to this brink of self annihilation could still be undone. But in a society that is more concerned with one’s own needs rather than the needs of a whole civilization there is truly no hope. And before long you come to a point where the needs of the many out weigh the wants of the few, and you change. Or you end up in total chaos. This is where grand admiral Halos had found himself. He had been commissioned to engage the Copious war ships at the disputed boarder lands. There had not been an all out war yet, but his job was to change that. If his own borders did not enlarge then his people would most definitely suffer great loss. The Egalitarians had become vivacious users of resources, and if new resources were not gained many faced certain death. So here he was as the appointed voice of new change to grow the empire, as he had been doing for a long time now all in the name of the other new changes. He had known these changes to be the lie’s of all the bureaucrats trying to grow there own personal empires. He had been a solider a long time and had seen it time and time again. It was always the same thing, it only looked different. Admiral Halos had gotten word of a minor explosion in his reactor room only two days travel from his primary destination.
Lucky for the admiral the ship was completely war ready which meant he had plenty of spare parts. His first officer had reported an intercooler malfunction and had already begun repairs. The engineering detail that was on duty had been discarded out the aft air lock, just in case it turned out to be sabotage. And that there was nothing else for the admiral to concern himself with. So the admiral ordered defensive readiness condition one, and retired to his cabin to start his reports.
Halos had started out as many other’s before him had. First he spent a fair amount of time in his continual studies of all things galactic. Second it was general math and language skills then on to military applications where he learned to be a solider. And then he got to serve aboard his first ship the Century as security personnel. She was a cutlass class cruiser working the Gorgon boarder patrol. In multiple battles he had earned several citations and promotions. He had also learned what it meant to suffer the loss of friends. He would then take a promotion and transfer as weapons officer aboard another cutlass class ship the Partech. She was newer and faster and it was not long before Halos had mastered her weapons capability to the point of perfection. In one of his defining moments he was impaled in his left leg by a mounting brace that pinned him against his weapons terminal. He could not move away from it. The pain was unimaginable. But he managed to clear his head long enough to fire six volleys of plasma rounds into the enemy cruiser causing enough damage to it that it had to withdraw, only moments later he passed out due to blood loss. It was a good thing Halos was able to keep his head because his ship would not be going anywhere. It was powerless and just barely able to keep life support going. It was rescued three days later and towed into space dock. He was sent to a new ship and given yet another promotion to first officer. He would go through three more ships before earning his chance as captain. His first ship as captain was the War Bird a reaper class ship. She was quite a ship completely dedicated to do battle. She was light on her feet and fast. But completely uncomfortable. Halos thought that one could feel every piece of space dust in the universe. Under Halos’ command the War Bird became a thing of living legends. She had taken part in many battles and came out with barely a mark on her. Surviving missions that were thought to be nothing more than suicide. The War Bird had gotten Halos promoted to admiral and his political ties had gotten him to Grand admiral. After Halos took his promotion to grand admiral the War Bird had been lost in battle in the Tram nebula. Halos sent salvage parties and recon ships to find his beloved ship but to no avail she was lost. Shortly after, the Quasar was commissioned and Halos could think of no other ship that could possibly replace his beloved War Bird.
The Quasar had taken the longest of any other ship to build in Egalitarian history. It was a testament to Egalitarian technology and innovation. And as such it had taken a large amount of resources to build, and was more importantly a cause of great unrest. It was the most powerful ship ever built. It was really a mobile base station. A real triumph in Halos mind. But some how he still yearned for his glory days aboard the War Bird.
Halos finished his report and spun his chair from his desk. He left them neatly in a pile on his desk in front of where his chair used to be. His mind returned to how this had happened. Especially so close to the proposed target. If it had happened in battle the new ship could have been lost, at the very least badly damaged and not to think of the repercussions if he had gotten captured. He would not let that happen. He would blow the damn thing up himself if he had to. Then he began to think of how often he had to make those life and death decisions. As he thought he pulled a bottle of green liquor from his bottom drawer and retrieved his glass from the second drawer, and poured a glass. He did not set the bottle down but instead he drank the liquor down and poured a second glass. This time he sat the glass down on the desk and returned the liquor to the third drawer in the desk and pushed it closed with his foot. Again he gulped down the glass then replaced it in the second drawer and pushed it closed with his hand. The drink burned the second time around and he cleared his throat. He stood from his desk and started for the door. He often would have a drink to honor those who had passed in the line of duty, even if it was not common practice. He had picked the ritual up from his first tour of duty.
Halos was not at all impressed with the choice of officers he was confronted with nowadays. Truth be told he thought that the society had gone a bit overboard with it’s self serving and the proof for him and many others was that now he was about to start another war that was going to cause great financial burden and was guaranteed to cost a great deal of life on both sides. The Copious were a more than capable adversary. They had a real knack one could say for building very rugged ships. And they did not really have a word for surrender. So you never really had to worry about asking them to, they wouldn’t understand you anyway.
Halos continued through his door and down a short five foot hall and onto the bridge deck. To the rear and center of the deck was the command chair. It had a main control read out panel in a half moon shape around the chair. From the waist up the chair was set up for virtual readout display and touch screens. The whole thing was slightly elevated above the deck so the admiral could not only have a readout of every function of the ship if he wanted, but could also bark orders as needed in time of battle.
To the front and center of the deck were the imagers. The admiral could get a view of about any angle of the ship without the worries of actually needing a view glass. It had always been a cause of worry for captains the galaxy over. Without the blast shield closed it was a very weak point of the ship and with no command center or bridge and no captain then no more ship. So although reluctant to change Halos saw the benefits and would even welcome the enclosed bridge configuration.
Halos thought of Stella as he turned to his right and off the bridge. He then made a left and headed toward the promenade. Ultimately he had the engine room on his mind. He wanted to check on repairs himself. But his mind wandered toward Stella. She was his mistress back on Egalitarian prime. She had asked him not to go but all her beauty could not dissuade him. She had tried, meeting him at the door in nothing but a racy negligee after the senate meetings. And threatening to leave him. But nothing worked. Despite her beauty she could not change his mind. He thought often of her beauty now in the hallows of space. He thought of her smooth skin and soft touch, her sweet smell and soft voice. She was so very sultry and so ever sumptuous. Her long legs and tight round buttocks made most men long for her.
She had chosen him somehow, but he was not about to let her change a lifetime of devotion. Some would call him crazy but he had made up his mind.
Halos made his way to the trans tubes, then dialed the engine room and leaned back against the wall. The trans tube rushed along it’s path without any shudder or hesitation.
Halos had only been on the move for a few seconds when the ship shuddered. The trans tube came to a sudden stop causing Halos to slightly loose his balance and stumble slightly forward. The doors opened on the range deck named for it’s variety of personnel. Their were Mylar and Talkie, Celt and Draco. And many other races that the Egalitarians had conquered that now served them. Halos stumbled out of the trans tube as another violent shutter ravaged the ship.
The Vegan ship Fergana had been trailing the Quasar just out of sensor range. The Vegan captain Will Ross was no stranger to absurd odds and it showed. On one hand Will looked old and worn out, his body had been broken several times and his many scars showed all over; but on the other hand this is when Will Ross came to life. This was the moment that a person could see the fire still burning in his soul. The cunning of his own mind gave him great joy.
The Fergana was a frigate class ship and no match for even a destroyer class ship and no where close to a threat to something the size of the Quasar. Captain Ross had been shadowing the Quasar for three days watching and waiting for an opportunity to do some damage.
The Vegan race had been enthralled in a so called underground war with the Egalitarians for years now. The Vegan diplomats called these attacks unsanctioned and would blame them on pirates. Then turn around and pass on information and money to these so called Vegan pirates. The Vegan people had never really excepted their subjugation into the Egalitarian empire. So this was there way of retaliation for a war that cost them their homes and loved ones.
Will Ross was no exception. He too had lost friends and family in the war. And he was more than happy to repay the Egalitarians any way he could. The only down side was he had a very limited crew of twenty men and women and very limited funds. So every thing he did had to count. And to make it a little harder he was up against a whole empire. Will Ross had no delusions of over throwing the empire single handedly. But once again he did take every opportunity to score a hit on them.
Over the last three days he shadowed the Quasar looking for a weak spot in the giant ship. Thirty six hours in, his com officer found a very faint signal coming from the Quasar on the low band. After another ten hours they learned the signal was the harmonic oscillation of the hull plating. It was a lucky break.
Captain Ross had another stroke of his particular brand of genius. They would mach the harmonic oscillation of the Quasar hull to a bunch of space mines and deploy them in front of the Quasar just out side of sensor range and hope that she ran right into there mini mine field.
Will Ross had tried this move before with limited success. Most ships are small enough to hit only one mine and stop. But he was hoping that this ship was too big to stop all at once.
The second part of his plan was if the Quasar hit enough of the mines then he would take his ship in plasma cannons blazing for a quick pass and try for a fast retreat. With any luck he thought he might be able to cripple her life support and force her to return home.
But he was unaware of what the Quasars capabilities really were, in fact he had been unable to get a layout of the ship. For that matter he was not even sure what this new ship was classified as.
His years as a captain had taught him that there were no certain out comes, but today he had a good feeling.
If he and his crew succeeded it would be another small victory for his people.
Captain Ross’s chance had come. First they planted ten pulsar mines. These mines created a small gravity well when detonated. The result would be the crushing of the hull where impacted. The sudden release of energy would often be focused into one spot. Causing the full brunt of the mine to be taken by the internal workings of the ship.
The captain and his crew sat and waited. Then it happened the massive Quasar struck the first mine. A nice explosion could be seen on the front right leading edge of the ship. Will Ross could not tell if the giant ship had even felt it, but then a second mine had struck on her belly about mid ship, and he was certain they felt that. The Quasar began to slow. Obviously they had no idea what had happened. Will could see them in his own mind running back and forth trying franticly to find the culprit. Then a third mine smashed into what Will thought to be her port bank of plasma cannons. He jumped slightly in his chair out of excitement. This explosion seemed to go on causing other smaller explosions to erupt through the hull. This further reinforced his theory that he had hit a main weapon cash at the very least.
The injured giant had come to a wobbly stop at this point. Really it had done so quicker than Will had hoped. But now was decision time, does he go in and try to cripple her more or back off? Will thought coolly and with no distractions in his mind. This is one of the places he felt most comfortable. Do the math in your head first look at the whole situation then weigh the win against the loss.
It had only taken Captain Ross a few seconds to give the order. "Raise armor plating! Make a pass at her port! Half speed."
His orders were smooth and stern. A real pro.
By this time Halos had worked his way back to the command bridge of the Quasar.
"What the hell is going on!" he demanded the answer.
The first officer was running from screen to screen and trying to give orders over the com at the same time up till the admiral arrived only then did he stop.
"We hit a mine field sir, we have considerable damage but we have managed to get her stopped."
"Where did it come from and why in the world did we not see it coming?"
"We are not sure as of yet sir we are still trying to get multiple fires and hull breaches under control."
"Somebody get me a military map I want to know if these damn things were ours or if we should be expecting company."
At that moment the com officer spoke out with a alarmed tone. "Incoming sir!"
"Where and how many?" the admiral did not seem to be surprised, it was almost as if he was only ordering his lunch.
"Only showing one ship sir, three clicks out on our port."
"Ok people raise my armor and get me a weapons lock on that thing."
"We only have injector cannons on the port sir. We lost plasma cannons and missile bay five." the weapons officer was a very beautiful woman named Vi. Halos could tell why every man listened to her when she spoke, and it had nothing to do with whether or not she had anything important to say. But now in this situation she was the most calm person in the room next to Halos. He thought to him self that he would love to ask a woman like her to dinner but now was not the time. But at the very least if she kept this kind of thing up he would put her in for promotion, dinner or not.
"Cannons only then, fire when ready, Helm back us off and spin us around. I want to give that ship a view of our starboard side." with out asking for anything, Vi offered Halos the report on the starboard weapons. "Everything on starboard side weapons system is operational" then as calmly as she could Vi began firing on the oncoming ship.
The frigate came into a wave of injector cannon fire. It began to weave and dodge through the waves of rounds. There were a few near misses but no hits at first. It appeared that the targeting relays on the Quasar had also been damaged. So still the frigate came closer then it opened up with it’s five plasma cannons. At first it was firing at the aft of the Quasar, and connecting, but Halos remained calm. Although his armor was taking a beating it was built to take a lot more than one little ship could throw at it. Vi was starting to get a little more excited, because it looked like the frigate had taken her bait. She had set the cannons to auto fire in a wide spread hoping to draw her enemy in closer where she could reset the auto fire on her cannons to a tight spread and lock on to their ship and in one swoop cripple and maybe even destroy the ship all at once. Before her plan could go into full swing she did start scoring small hits on the ship. The injector cannons were made to destroy small fighter crafts at close range. The fact that they would do any damage to a bigger ship was meaningless. It just took to many rounds to stop it. But Vi reset her cannons to fire a close pattern and tried to fend off the attacking ship anyway. She was itching to get a shot at it with the weapons on the starboard side of the ship. But now she had a gut feeling that this little ship would run off when they had gotten out of the mine field and the ship had turned. Her mind had raced through this whole thing. In fact the frigate had only made it’s way just passed aft not quite to mid ship. The plasma cannons aboard the enemy ship began to find there mark. Some of the volleys hit the ship where the armor had been damaged by the exploding mines and secondary explosions. The Quasar shook and bounced when a new hole was found by the onslaught of the enemy cannons. The frigate had made its way passed mid ship now.
The frigate was starting to take some damage she had several hull breaches at least the size of a softball. And a few that were bigger. Vi could see on her tracking screen that the ship would soon have to leave the fight. So she was sure they would run and determined not to let them get away she ran the fire rate on her injector cannons into the red. They would not last long but they didn’t have to. In a matter of seconds the frigate was being shredded to pieces. Small pieces of the ship began to chunk off with small explosions and a filmy smoke streamed from its back. A sure sign of a coolant fire. Vi continued to fire her cannons. The warning light was flashing rapidly. A few more seconds and they would overheat and shut down. And that is exactly what happened. The injector cannons shut down and were silent. It did not matter the frigate had already started to limp away. It was not firing at them anymore and was desperately trying to get away now.
The Quasar grew quiet, only the various alarms on instrument panels could be heard. "Report!" Halos said knowing the battle to be over.
"Cannons have overheated sir. The enemy ship has been damaged and is in full retreat." Vi was beaming with pride. You could just see it in her.
"Damage report."
The first officer was leaning over the com station, he knew he needed to get his containment details in place and was now waiting for orders.
"Sir we have taken considerable damage from the mine field. Preliminary reports say at least a week to repair the damage."
Halos was not happy. He rubbed his forehead and let out a deep breath.
"Are we clear of the mine field yet?"
"Not yet sir, we will clear the mines in forty two seconds."
"Officer Vi as soon as we are clear finish that ship off with our starboard side!"
"Yes sir" once again he could see the excitement in Vi’s face. He made a mental note to not upset her any time soon. A woman like that could be very, very vengeful. He returned his attention back to his view screen. Then he began the long and arduous process of fixing a crippled ship and crew. There were thirteen dead and five injured aboard the Quasar.
The Vegan ship had not faired as well as Captain Will Ross had hoped. They were in full retreat and in real bad shape. The frigate had been cut to ribbons. There was a coolant fire in engineering and the Fold core was leaking radiation along with a few other problems, including the now dead weapons officer along with six others and three badly wounded. Life support was failing and the hull had countless fractures and now captain Ross was not sure the ship could get completely out of the weapons range of the Quasar. What he did next was completely unheard of. Maybe it was simply he did not think anyone aboard was going to survive anyway or the pain from being impacted by a piece of hot molten shrapnel in the gut blurred his judgment, but he ordered the helm to engage the fold drive. Will knew the Fold drive was damaged by the countless alarms going off. But he knew of no other way out of the situation.
"We will fly apart captain" was the only response he had gotten. And it came from his helms man Todd Edmonds.
"Todd its either that or they blow us up; you choose." Will’s words hit Todd like a rock to the head. Todd had never heard anything like that come from Will before. Todd was a true Vegan, born, bread and raised in the Vegan tradition. But right now he was a little overwhelmed by all the alarms, the dead body’s and fire smoke and sparks that surrounded him. He did not think it right for Will to say such a thing to him. How was he supposed to react at a time like this. Will could see the confusion on Todd’s face.
"Listen Todd when that ship turns on us it will start firing on us again. We are beaten up real bad. The ship is bleeding to death and we are about out of time any way. So we can let them get us here, or, we can snatch this victory from them and keep it for ourselves!"
Will had tried to put Todd at ease over the whole thing and for the first time Todd knew that his time living was about up. He was not sad, or scared, but a little relieved that he had the chance to choose how he got to go.
"What coordinate’s sir?"
"Does it really matter, we wouldn’t make it anyway. So just jump no coordinates"
Todd had never just jumped before. Mostly because it was like playing Russian roulette you could end up in the middle of a sun or planet or whatever. The thought of all those things now made Todd smirk slightly. What a way to go he thought to himself then without a single hesitation longer he spun up the fold drive and throttled the engage.
The ship bent and swayed under the pressure of the fold. Warning lights and alarms were sounding everywhere. Will didn’t look up from his captains chair waiting silently for his ship to give out and the long slumber to begin. Instrument panels exploded under the fluxing power supply. Parts of the hull gave out and began venting atmosphere. A fire started burning just to the left of the nav station up the wall to the ceiling. It was sucking oxygen out of the atmosphere and spiting out toxic fumes. Then the fold began to collapse and Will Ross knew that if it closed in on them they were gone. Almost like he had given up he just sat and watched as it happened. Todd had passed out at the controls as a result of lack of clean air. The fire was spitting out a large amount of smoke and Will was beginning to chock on the foul stench. Will watched as the fold turns against him in a very odd way. Will thought it was the end as he started to lose consciousness. The ship was speeding up to what Will thought was going to be his death. But as suddenly as they had entered the fold it placed them down on an ancient planet without so much as a miss placed dust particle. In a flash of violent blinding green light the ship was softly placed on the surface of a stable life supporting planet. Not even so much as a bump into the ground. A sudden rush of air filled the ship and filled Will’s lunges. Will was completely at a loss for any rational thought and was uncertain of any reality at this point. Was he dead? Was this some sort of miracle? He could not get his head on straight. He had heard that in a ground test they had entered the fold from the ground and returned to the ground without even a piece of grass displaced but never had he heard of any ship going from the fold in space to landing on the ground.
No matter they were here, where ever here was. A belated joy overcame him. He and his crew were still alive. He began to survey his situation. It appeared that Todd was starting to come out of his unconscious haze. But the sudden joy that had overtaken Will Ross was overcome by panic caused by a single flashing red light. He was fortunate to have not gotten out of his captains’ chair yet. He could have missed it altogether. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he was seeing correctly. Yes he was and his mind began to race. He began checking a readout on his view screen. That was it, he had only taken a moment to decide that every body that could get off the ship had to or they would die. So with no more than a brief hesitation Will gave the order.
"Abandon ship! I repeat this is the captain we have a massive silicon gas leak! Abandon ship!"
Will’s mind spun around his crew. How many were left alive, and worse how many were injured and could not get out. He went to his helmsman knowing that he could and would try to get at least him out.
Will drug Todd out of helm control and on to the floor. Todd groaned a little and tried to move. Todd could feel his body ache and his thoughts were unclear. He was confused and unsure of what had happened. But he knew that someone was trying to move him. At this point all Todd could think about was his pain and training. He knew he was in pain and he knew someone was trying to move him and he knew from the amount of pain in his body that he could not move alone. Everything in his gut told him to try to go with the person moving him so he did. First he tried moving his leg’s and get to his feet. He was only partly successful. His left leg must have been broken. Todd was not sure when it had happened or how but he was sure it was. He thought it must have happened during the fight but still how did he not notice it before now.
Will could now tell that Todd got the general idea and that they needed to move, but he didn’t bother trying to talk to him. Will put Todd’s arm around his shoulders and stood up Todd moaned a little out of what Will thought was surely pain. Will could see that Todd’s leg was badly broken and bleeding profusely.
"Come on Todd we’ve got to go. This place is going to fill with silicon gas." Todd recognized the voice of the captain. He was determined to move. His eyes were still foggy and things were all in a blur. The truth was that he knew the captain was his only hope of getting out at this point. The two men went toward the trans tubes.
"Sir we should try your office escape hatch."
The suggestion caught Will by surprise. He thought his helmsmen was to dazed to think that clearly. In fact he had not thought that clearly himself. He was thinking of the port escape launch pods. Mainly because he was not sure of the planet he was on and what supplies he would need. His first instinct was to gather as much survival gear as possible.
But the shape Todd was in would make it very difficult to make it that far to say the least.
"Not a bad idea. I am surprised that I didn’t think of it myself."
"Sure you would have sir."
"Ok. Just stay with me now and I’ll try to get you off this heap."
The two men got into the captain’s office. Will leaned Todd against the desk while he walked across to the access panel. He opened it up and input his code.
"Do you think it will hold the both of us Sir?"
"Oh yes lieutenant unless you weigh more than a metric ton"
"I think were covered there sir. I just went on a diet last week."
Will chuckled and smiled then walked back over to Todd and helped him into the escape hatch then followed him in .
"Say captain why do they make these things so big?"
"I don’t know, but I am glad they do"
Will helped Todd into a chair and strapped him in. Todd was much more clear at this point. And had managed to tie a spare strap around his leg to help stop the bleeding. Will had strapped himself in next to Todd and was ready to push the activation button.
"Now don’t take any deep breaths after we get to the bottom. The gas will be hovering low around the ship. I don’t know if the door seals are in good order they may have been damaged ."
"You don’t have to worry about that."
"Lets go then!"
Will engaged the hatch, and in a second the hatch was speeding down toward the ground. The force made Will think he was going to throw up. And poor Todd howled in pain. Will thought Todd would surely pass out again if the stop at the bottom was very hard. For that matter he hoped the escape hatch path was clear. He had heard of them getting obstructed and causing them to jam. And worse. But it did not bother him to much, the path ran through the middle of the ship for the most part. And unless the ship was broken in half he did not think that it mattered.
The hatch came to a much harder stop than either of them expected. In an instance both the men slammed hard back and down deep into there seats. Todd did not even get a chance to take a breath before he once again passed out. Will was no different this time he also went out.
Chapter three
Welcome to the planet
The Heron were the sole inhabitants of this planet. It was not there home planet. In fact they had only been here a whole three months. These were a small science community. Here to study some strange ruins.
The leader of this expedition was Dorn. He was a well respected and very smart individual. In fact he was highly respected and he knew it so he carried himself accordingly. But he was a little taken aback by the sudden appearance of a space ship just out side of there camp. At first there was some panic among the group but he was able to settle that right out. He had taken up a position in the middle of the camp and gathered every one together.
"listen every one." he paused for there attention.
"Has any one seen or heard of this type of craft before?"
He paused expecting someone to speak up but no one did. So he took a long breath which was his usual routine when he had a big decision to make.
"Ok .no one has seen a ship like this before? Alright then it appears the ship is badly damaged, so I would think it is unstable and might be unsafe to be this close to. So I want half of you to move the camp into the ruins on the other side of the ridge. The rest of you will come with me to see if they need help."
Just then one of his more excitable team members named Jake decided to speak up.
"What if it’s a trick or they attack or something. We are not soldiers they might kill us all."
"If that is the case they will kill us all whether we try to help them or not. So just in the off chance that they really do need help it is our obligation to help so we will."
Dorn had a way to make a statement final and that is what he had just done. So one half of the Heron party started moving the camp about a half mile over a small ridge to a spot well shielded inside the ruins of the city. The other half had gathered some emergency medical supplies and started the quarter mile or so walk to the ship.
It did not take long for the fifteen or so Heron to reach the ship. They did not find much. They really were not sure how to gain access to the interior of the ship. So they spread out to look for any exposed openings or open escape hatches. It was Dorn who found the doors to the escape hatch shaft that contained Will and Todd. Although he was unaware of what it was exactly he and two others worked at opening the door. They tried removing a circuit board and shorting out the door locks but all they accomplished were a lot of sparks and several blown circuit panels. So finally they resorted to brut force. They had picked up a scrap of metal that had come off the ship from some where and tried prying at the door. Dorn’s attention had been drawn to a rather menacing cloud of silicon gas lingering about thirty feet above their head’s. Dorn recognized the gas with a high amount of certainty. He new its color and smell from his school days. All in all it was pretty common on there home world. As long as the gas did not settle on top of them he knew they were fine. He returned his focus to the door they were trying to open. Checking on the cloud from time to time trying not to show any concern over it. He really did not need a bunch of people getting scared over nothing. After several time’s of trying they finally got the doors open.
Slightly to there surprise it was nothing more than some sort of escape hatch. On some level Dorn was hoping for something a little more exciting. It really did not matter to much at this point. He had noticed the cloud of gas had drooped about eight feet. He had done all he felt that he could do. With little hesitation he had his team pick up the two strange looking creatures and take them back to camp. Some of the others of his rescue team had found one other creature staggering around. But upon it seeing them it seemed to lose consciousness. Dorn had them take it back to camp as well. Then he and the rest of the team headed back as well. The cloud of gas had drooped another ten feet and in his mind if there were any others the gas had most likely gotten them.
It was three days before any of the creatures regained consciousness. The ship was still smoking and the hovering gas cloud made any further rescue attempts impossible. Dorn had yet to get a chance to talk to any of the creatures. And he hoped that they could understand his decision to not risk any further rescue’s. After all they were not set up for that type of thing. He had made his way back to the tent that held the creatures.
Will Ross had awoken second. The engineer Sara Tanner had awoke first and to here dismay she thought they were captives. She was very confused. She did not know that the ship had landed on a planet in uncharted space. They could not see the ship from there present location. The small ridge was just tall enough to obscure the site of the ship. She had managed to wake the captain who was a slight bit confused himself.
"Were in the devil are we?"
"I’m not sure captain. I think we have been taken prisoner."
"How long have I been out?"
"Not to sure of that either sir. I just woke up myself but I think we are in a tent."
"Yeah, I would say you are right. Have you tried the door yet?"
"No sir."
"Good, have you tried to wake the lieutenant yet?"
"Yeah but he wouldn’t come too. I think he is drugged or something. And I noticed that it looks like somebody has been trying to fix his leg."
Will got to his feet slowly. He was stiff and he ached everywhere. For a moment he thought that it would have been better to stay down. But he continued up.
"Are you as stiff as I am?" his question caught Sara off guard a little.
"Yeah I am pretty sore."
"That probably means that we have been out for a couple of days."
Before any more conversation could take place a tall figure opened the flap of the tent. And then stepped through. At the site of the figure Sara let slip a small gasp which she tried to hide with a stern cough.
"Forgive me I did not mean to startle you." Dorn had hoped they spoke the same language. It took Will a second before he was able to comprehend the being that now stood in front of him.
"Well it’s ok, we ah were not expecting ah you."
"Oh,.. well we were not expecting your ship to just appear out of thin air either. So I guess that makes us even, so to speak."
"Ah, our ship, is it near?"
"Yes, just over the ridge to the east, but I doubt you will be going to see it."
Realizing that these creatures might think they are some sort of prisoners or something Dorn quickly added to his statement.
"All I mean is that it is still emitting a silicon gas cloud."
"Ah I see." Will was relieved that this creature seemed to be implying that they were not prisoners but Will was not about to let his guard down completely.
Dorn’s curiosity had gotten the better of him. He had a lot of question’s for these strange new visitors he had found.
"If I might be so bold. I know you probably have many questions. But I or should I say we are all wondering what species you are? we have never seen your kind before."
"oh, we are Vegan, to be specific. And just so you know we have never seen anything like you either."
Sara stayed slightly behind the captain. And she did not think it wise to converse with a strange thing like this. For all she knew it would play nice then a whole pack of them would swoop in and eat them alive. But she kept her thoughts to herself. She tried to hide her anxiety.
Dorn was all to excited to here the news of this new race. His scientific mind began to race. A million and one questions ran through his mind. But first he would try to make their guests feel more comfortable.
"We are the Heron, we only came to this world to explore these ruins. And let me say they are promising."
Will was certain that these animal like creatures were not a hostile people at all. In fact he thought they must have come a long way in the fold to find a world and people that had never seen a Vegan.
"Do you have a name?"
"Yes I am sorry you may call me Dorn, I am the leader of this expedition."
"Well it’s nice to meet you Dorn, I am Will Ross the captain,.. I mean I was the captain of the ship that landed here,. and this is Sara and the man there is Todd."
"ok. Very nice to meet you. And just so you know the man Todd their should be fine we gave him a strong pain inhibitor, I’m afraid that we do not know much about your physiology, but my medic tells me he should be fine."
"Thank you again for the help."
"What type of food do you eat?"
Now realizing they must not have eaten in a while Will now noticed that indeed he was very hungry. And he was glad that there host had been giving it some thought. Sara, however, was still not so sure that the Heron were not preparing a pot to put them in. And really was only asking to know what kind of side dish to serve with them. It was really not that far off fore one to think that way. There are a great many things out there in space that would like to make a meal out of them. And the fact that the Heron looked like a ravaged bear like creature, with an elongated neck and a large overbite, did not do her mind any justice. And they seemed to have a very odd odor. She wondered if she was the only one to notice.
There was a short pause as Will pondered how to answer the question. He gave Sara a look but he could tell she was deep in her own thought.
"We eat some type’s of protein’s and vegetation." he was hoping not to offend there host.
"Good,.. good we might have a similar diet requirements. We may be able to find you something suitable."
That was good Will thought to himself. No apparent harm yet.
"If you two will follow me we will get something to eat."
Sara went into a slight panic,
"What about our friend?"
Her voice was deep with concern.
"No worries he will be awoke and brought something when you can tell us what you think he can eat."
She was still not convinced, but it appeared that Will thought it was fine to go. Will retook the attention of Dorn.
"Can you tell us how long we have been hear?"
"You have been hear three days on this planet. But enough questions for now we must find you some food. Please follow me."
Dorn met no other questions or protest from the Vegan’s. In fact it did not take long to walk the thirty or forty feet to the mess tent. And again it did not take long to find the two some food. The three sat and ate. Will and Sara both found the food rather tasty. It seemed to be a carrot like root and a pig like creature. The conversation was mostly one sided. Dorn went on and on about his people and his home world. Why they had come to this world. Which interested Will, who paused to ask a few questions about the ruins and where this planet was. Sara sat through the whole thing saying no more than yes or no. Dorn paused only once to talk to someone about getting a plate together for Todd. Then he was right back to talking about his people. After a long while Sara went back to their tent with the food for Todd. She expressed that in his condition it would be better if she took the food alone. In hope of not spooking him, under the circumstances Will and Dorn both agreed. And she returned unescorted to the tent. She was a little surprised that Dorn let her go alone. Maybe they were not going to eat them after all.
Will and Dorn talked into the night and were fast becoming friends. They were each finding although they were so very different they had a lot in common. Although neither of them had any idea how to get the Vegans home Dorn said for them not to worry. There were plenty of supply’s. The night came to an end when Dorn explained that they had only found the three of them and the gas cloud had prevented them from any further rescue attempts.
Will returned to the tent to find Sara and Todd asleep on the cots they awoke on earlier. The food Sara had brought back had been eaten. So it stood to reason Sara had gotten Todd to eat it. For a moment he wondered whether to wake them and give them the news. But he decided to wait until morning.
He replayed the events that led him there over and over again in his head. As he crawled into the cot next to the door he did not think he would be able to sleep. He had been asleep for three days already. But as he lay their trying to clear his head of all the crew members he had left behind he managed to drift off to sleep.
Chapter four
Back to town
After a long day of fishing Cohen had made his way back home. He had no good luck, he had only caught two or three little ones and had decided to throw them back. That was just the way it went sometimes. All in all it was a good day. He had a shower and some dinner. He really was not all that tired being that it was only seven thirty, so he sat down to watch some TV and have a beer.
It did not take long for the phone to ring, as it often dose when you just get comfortable. So like the rest of us Cohen let out a slight groan and answered his phone.
"Say,. Cohen how you doing?"
Cohen new immediately who it was. It was Mayor Farson. Cohen could never understand why the mayor always started a phone conversation with the word "Say". it never failed every time the mayor had talked to him on the phone he had always started the conversation with that word.
"Fine, fine how you mayor?"
Cohen could just hear the load of crap gossip the mayor was probably going to unload on him. And frankly he wasn’t in the mood for it.
"Good thanks for asking. Jack told me he plain out fished you today."
"He did,.. ah is this a official thing mayor, cause I am sort of busy and you know …"
"Well I’ll tell you it kind of is. Ah have you seen John Tyler today?"
"No I cant say that I have, is everything ok?"
"Yea probably is,.. it’s just that John went hunting earlier today out to Patterson’s ridge and Kelly is pretty worried."
Cohen new John and new he would not just not show up. A small alarm started to go off in Cohen’s head.
"How long’s he been gone?"
"Well Kelly said he left about six this morning."
"That’s a good while ago,. are you organizing a search party, or should I do some calling around or what?"
"Well, I have a few other people calling around, but you were the last on my list. So I guess he probably fell down out in the middle of no were and broke his leg or something. I think every body is meeting at the store in about a half hour, if you can make it be sure to bring your light and maybe a gun, you know in case of coyote."
Cohen had learned from a young age that the woods in this area could be dangerous place. As did most every body else that grew up out in the country. If you got hurt bad then you were going to be on your own for a while! It was not so many years ago that the Jenkins lost a boy to the wilderness. It took three weeks for the search parties to find him. The county corner said he had been dead for at least a week and a half.
"All right mayor I’ll be their!"
"Good you know we will need all the help we can get out there."
"Ok I’ll see you there."
"All right bye."
"Bye."
Cohen hung up the phone and went in search if his boot’s. It seemed strange to him now that people around these parts, after generations and generations still manage to get lost in the woods. None of the main land marks have changed for decades.
His thoughts went to John. They had known each other for a long time. He had spent a good amount of time fishing with John. Cohen was never much for hunting. But it never seemed to matter to much to John weather he was hunting or fishing just that he was in the woods. At least that is what Cohen thought.
He had managed to get his boots on and make his way to his truck. He might not hunt but he knew how to handle a gun. So he checked his glove box for shells, and found two boxes. Then he looked down the barrel of his twelve gage and put it in his gun rack.
He pulled the keys out of his pocked and fired the truck up. The gun rattled behind his head. It may not have been the best place for a gun rack but being in the back glass sure made it handy.
The truck bounced down the road at a good pace now. It would normally take him about ten minutes to get into town, but things being what they were he thought he should step it up a little.
A whole seven minutes later he rolled into town. He found a parking place next to the post office. He could see a large group of people standing around the general store porch. So thinking he should head there first he opened up his door all most right into john’s wife Kelly who had been walking by herself, down the middle of the street.
"Good lord kelly I almost took you nose off. Sorry about that."
She just looked at him with a blank expression on her face. "Say are you o.k.?"
He knew that was a stupid question, of course she’s not o.k. her husband is lost.
"I mean how long you been walking down the middle of the road? That is a darn good way to get run over."
Kelly still did not say any thing. She just looked at him. Here expression was blank and here face was pail. Cohen was starting to get nervous now. All kind of thoughts streamed through his head. Things like did they all ready find john?, was he dead or injured real bad?.
"My goodness kelly lets go find out what is going on."
Cohen took Kelly by the arm and led her toward the crowd of people. After a second he spotted miss gray. He waved her over and she and a few of the other older women took Kelly toward one of there house’s. Cohen was rather unnerved by the whole experience.
Cohen had found Jack in the crowed.
"Hey what’s going on?"
Jack was dressed in his camo witch Cohen thought was silly. Leave it to Jack to get lost in the woods in the middle of the night wearing camo so no one can see him.
"They have decide to split us up into three groups. You may as well go with us. We have the hardest terrain, out past the ridge off rout seventy eight."
Cohen shrugged his shoulders.
"all right."
It was a simple decision for cohen, just do what you need to help.
"Say did you see Kelly?"
Jack looked toward the ground and spat trying to avoid people’s shoes.
"Yep she is clear out of her head. She was ranting on about how she knew John is dead. Like she has esp. or something." jack paused for a moment.
"Cohen, do you think he’s dead?"
"I don’t know, I would think john’s pretty resourceful. He’s not to stupid either. I bet he sprained his ankle or something. He probably has a fire going and is cooking himself up some of what ever he got today. You know what I mean?."
"Yes your right. John’s pretty smart he may have ran out of gas and he’s walking back right now."
The truth of it was that most people around knew that if someone from hear get’s lost in the woods they are hurt if their lucky and dead if they are not.
The two did not talk much more. The mayor got up on the store porch and told every one who was in charge of each search party and passed out some two way radios. Then wished every body good hunting. It did not take long for the crowd to break up into it’s relative groups and people started to head out. Jack and Cohen decided to ride with Jim Cline. The local drunk. Just in case they do find him dead they would likely would be prepared. Jim never went any where with out at least a case of beer and a fifth of whisky.
The floor boards of Jim’s truck were covered with old bottles and beer cans. The occasional bag of half eaten potato chips were bouncing around and Jack thought it was all a little to cliché to comment about. It wouldn’t matter anyway Jim had the radio blasting to the point of deafness. You couldn’t talk if you wanted to.
Jim’s truck had turned onto rout seventy eight heading out of town. Jack and Cohen had been prepared for the long loud ride. They each had road with Jim on the rare occasions that required it. But this time it did not take long for Jim to run off the road. He had swerved hard to his left and had run the truck up on a stump. After the smoke settled and the dust cleared the three climbed out of the truck.
"Say you fellows ok?"
"Yea Jim were o.k."
Cohen and jack were fine just a little dusty and took a second to knock the dust off them self’s.
"Say Jim it’s a good thing we were taking it easy this stump could have really hurt."
"You can say that again."
Jim walked around to were Jack was inspecting the front of the truck.
"Hey Jim what happened?"
Cohen had a breath of aggravation in his voice.
"I’m not sure, Cohen you know I think I saw somebody crawling up out of the ditch back their so I swerved. Did you guy’s see that."
"I think he’s right Cohen I thought I saw some one two!"
"Well then fellows lets go look, before some one else gets run off the road by a mysterious thing crawling out of ditches."
The other two could now tell Cohen did not see anything and was slightly agitated. He could not help thinking that they had just left town and now they are stuck on a stump. And poor John could be out there waiting for help.
The three walked back down the road about twenty feet when a figure appeared out of the dust coming toward them.
"Well I’ll be!"
Jim’s words came out of amazement. Not only was there a person but it was there missing person John.
"Hey John you ok?"
Cohen’s voice gave away his disbelief
"Yes,, I think I crashed my truck back up the road a ways. Then you guys try to run me over. Not my best day."
"Hey Kelly’s worried sick."
"Yea I guess she is..hey what time is it? I mean I know it’s late its pretty much dark and all, but I laid knocked out in that ditch for quite a while. And I was wondering how many people drove right by me."
"I’ll tell you pal, none were the first wave of the search party. And no one said anything about seeing your truck."
"It’s about eight now"
Jack looked at Cohen and grinned.
"Can you guys give me a ride into town I am pretty sore.)
Oh, yea as long as Jim’s truck will back down off that stump over there."
Jim never passed a chance to feel important so he decided now was his chance to play the role of chief get it done.
"We will go try to get it going Cohen you get John up on the bank over there and hang out until we get it,, we’ll holler if we need help. Common jack."
Jim and Jack worked on getting the truck loose. It took about thirty seconds. The truck was not hung up by much. Jack pushed twice and out she came.
Jim spun the truck around in the road kicking up dust in all directions. He pulled down to Cohen and John. John crawled up front and Jack and Cohen got in the back. Now Jack did protest but Jim thought because of John’s injuries he should not be crowed by a third person up front. It was not worth fighting over. Poor John had to endure the ridicules volume on the radio. The very short ride into town was quick. You would have thought Jim was driving in a road race or something. Jack and Cohen had quite the rough ride back. Cohen though for sure that he was going to lose his grip at least a dozen time’s.
Jim slid to a screeching stop in front of the general store. The mayor briskly walked up to the truck, and upon recognizing the passenger he waved a few other older guys to help him. From the over whelming amount of sudden help John didn’t even get a chance to tell anyone he could walk.
The men took John across to the town doctor Remy Hall. While doc Hall patched up John, Jim and Jack told the heroic story of there daring rescue and near death crash. Cohen had managed to sneak off to see if he could check on Kelly.
He found her sitting in miss Alder’s parlor sipping tea. He then told miss Alder they had found John and he seemed ok, and he was at doc Hall’s. She stepped in and told Kelly the news. Cohen didn’t think that Kelly had even heard everything before she bolted out the door and toward doc Hall’s place.
It was about nine pm now and Cohen got to thinking about Johns truck probably blocking the road. After a short talk with the mayor and telling Jim and Jack, who had all ready made there way through a twelve pack and starting another Cohen thought he should go put up road closed sine’s, before someone else crashed into John’s truck.
Cohen slid into his truck feeling very grateful that John was not really hurt or worse. The tension of the day had started to slip away. Cohen had made his way to the town storage building. He slid out of the truck and made his way toward the side door. He fumbled in the dark with the keys. The key finally made it’s way in to the lock and turned with some difficulty. Cohen made his way in and found the light switch. He made his way through the junk filling the room. He found the flashing lights and batteries. Loaded his road closed sine and the rest of the stuff , relocked the door and restarted his truck. He spun the truck around in the parking lot and back out on the road. He cut back through town and back out rout seventy eight. He was going a little faster than he should have been. Lucky for him Johns truck was not blocking the whole road. But by the time he had gotten stopped he was a little close.
Cohen had fully intended on closing the road on both side’s of johns truck but instead he thought he would just put up a caution light on the north side and the same on the south. There was plenty of room to get around. He would come get them tomorrow after the truck is moved.
He had crept down passed the wrecked truck about a quarter mile and placed the caution sine. And now was back stopped looking at the damage to the truck. Cohen thought he had better look to make sure there was nothing left in the truck that might get stolen. It did not happen much but from time to time things had a way of coming up missing. So he had walked up to the passenger door. Cohen tried to pull it open. He fell back on his butt as the door handle broke. It stung a little. His but hurt, he rubbed it as he stood up. On his way back to his feet it just so happened that his flashlight hit something odd. It was round and stuck up out of the ground. It had been made shiny on one side by the truck bumper. It had a red glow about it and from what Cohen could see it looked like it must have been three feet tall. Cohen was having trouble telling what it was. He was thinking it had to be some kind of utility marker. So he thought he better see if it had any markings on it so he could call it in. the only way to get a good view was from just in front of the passenger side front tire. Cohen scrunched down and leaned in-between the truck and tree. He had to really push his arm to squeeze passed the bumper. It was then that he felt some heat from the truck. It was odd he thought. The truck had to have been their for at least half the day, why was it still warm? John must have left it running, it would not be hard to do after bouncing your head off the steering wheel. Cohen thought of how lucky John was to not have been killed. Really the truck was smashed up real good. He wondered how fast a person would have to go to completely bow in the front of a seventy eight ford. Or was it a seventy nine, he was not sure. He could not reach the pole yet so he tried reposition him self a little farther forward. His mind began to wonder again. He thought of Ally, she really was a nice girl, his mom would have liked her he thought. But that doesn’t matter now. Ally was pretty hot and she knew how to cook. Cohen caught himself in mid thought. Was he really thinking of settling down? Or was he just a little shook up buy the day’s events? He was not very sure at this point. Why hadn’t he settled down? He realized that he is not getting any younger and Ally would not wait around forever. As his mind wondered he had almost forgotten what he was trying to do. The pole was defiantly smashed between the tree and truck. He was now not sure that he was even going to be able to reach it. He decided to try to reach it from the top, so he fumbled his way around to what was left of the front of the truck. There was no way he could get the hood up. It had been pushed down and in on it’s self in the impact but that didn’t stop him from giving it a try. He reached his hands down and tried to get in-between the hood lip and grill hopping the latch had been broken. He pulled up hard and to his dismay nothing happened. It was stuck. He was tired and it was dark and was now thinking hard about going home. But he in the back of his head he knew that it had to be some kind of gas line marker. they were the only ones that used any color remotely close to the red color that he thought he was seeing. One more try he said to himself. He knelt down at the very front of the truck were the head light’s should have been . It looked like he could reach it. May be if he stretched he could knock some of the dirt off and find a marker on it. If not he thought he would go home and call the gas company anyway at least then he would have told somebody. And if it was not theirs he was sure they had to notify who ever it was. So he laid flat on his stomach and stretched out his right arm as far as he could. His right hand found it’s way to the red post. But the very second his hand touched it a very violent and wicked charge of energy swelled through Cohen’s body. The pole felt as though it had grabbed a hold of his hand and stopped him from letting go.
Cohen screamed in agony but it did not help he had fallen unconscious. The red pole had taken Cohen to a new place far away. And dissolved into a dirt like powder, allowing the old ford to rock forward and rest fully against the tree.
Chapter five
Union of worlds
The light crept in under Cohen’s heavy eye lids. It was not overly bright but with a headache like the one Cohen had light was the enemy now no matter how bright or dim. He raised his right hand to his face. He rubbed his eyes then repositioned his hat to block the light. As his mind awoke he suddenly became aware of the night before.
Cohen felt the cold embrace of fear crawl up his spine. With no regard to his head he quickly scrambled to his feet checking his body for any injury or missing body parts. To his relief it was all there.
"What the hell happened? Where am I and what is going on?"
He had not realized how big the room around him was until his words slightly echoed back at him. For that matter he had not realized that he had spoke out loud. He very briefly wondered if he did that often.
His self realization was small and really insignificant in comparison to what he had begun to see around him. His attention was now on the room around him.
It was long, around forty feet and surprisingly thin maybe only twelve feet. The lights were dim and did not allow for overly clear vision. It seemed to be like a night with a full moon. Enough light to see but not enough to see any real detail. There was a small round blue light flashing behind him. It was really annoying it almost made it harder to focus on any one object. In the middle of the floor next to him but close to the wall was a rectangular pillar about a foot wide by a foot deep and three feet tall with a round shaft connecting a six inch pyramid. There were two round cables attaching the pillar to the wall Cohen thought they looked like some sort of power cables. For what he was not sure.
As he continued to survey his surroundings. The fear started to intensify. He had come to the conclusion that he was not in a hospital, and he was sure he was not dead, and the pain in his head was too real to be sleeping. His senses on high alert he thought about yelling out for someone but his gut warned him against it. So he began to look for a door. As he continued to look around he noticed a long metal bench attached to the wall on his left. And a large glass window to his right that he tried to look though but the room on the other side was pitch black. The floor seemed to be tile, he could not tell the color but he thought that it must have been white. Then another scary thought, he was at a police station. They had him in a line up room, he had seen them on TV. And other that that pillar it was a close match but why are none of the lights on? And for that matter why would they just leave a unconscious guy on the floor? Maybe the power went out and people trying to fix it, and since he was breathing they just set him down to try to fix the power. He had almost convinced himself now and the fear started to settle.
And what about the lights? His thoughts started to rationalize his predicament. Yes he thought, this must be the back up generator, and the flashing blue light must be the part of the generator system. A warning light or something.
He started to settle down now and made his way over to the metal bench. It was very dusty, and a sizeable cloud surrounded Cohen when he plopped down. The dust made him sneeze, and chocked him. He waved his hands in front of his face trying to clear the air.
After a couple of good hard cough’s ,and a few seconds the air cleared. Ok he thought to himself that is odd. What in the world, either they need to hire a cleaning lady or there something else going on.
The fear started to return. But by now Cohen was getting a little tired of being scared. And had started to get a little angry. His lack of solid answers was starting to eat at him.
He started to think up more excuses for his predicament, earthquakes, volcano’s, crazy wild woods men, but no one thing fit.
Cohen got tired of sitting and thinking of things he could not explain. So he carefully got up trying not to kick up to much dust. He started to look around the room some more. He walked along the wall with the bench until he came to a door.
He paused , what if he was in a police station? With the lights out what are the chances he could get shot by some trigger happy cop? Ah it really did not matter at this point he was really sure that he was not in a operational police station anyway.
He grabbed the door handle almost sure that it would be locked and gave it a turn. Almost to his surprise the latch released and the door swung open.
Once again concern of being shot spun through his head. But the need to explain all that had happened to him trumped the fear. Slowly Cohen stuck his head out the door. It appeared to be a hall. He was now looking down the hall from one end. At the far end there was a hint of natural light that made Cohen feel a little better. He was not sure why but it gave him some burst of confidence. It was around sixty feet of poorly lit hall to a spot were it looked as if one could go left or right. The light was coming from the right he thought. So with a fairly fast paced walk Cohen started down the hall. He was about half way before he noticed that it was really quiet. In fact other than his foot steps there was no noise. No beeping or phones ringing, no people talking or radios. The lack of noise caused him to grow very cautious. His survival training that he had mostly learned back home out in the wood’s on his own was kicked into full tilt. Again the fear started to crept in. he found himself slowing his pace and walking slower. He made his way to the end of the hall.
He stuck his head out into the intersection of the hall fist before stepping out in full. To the left more hall. To his right was a large room with a hotel style front desk type on the far left side. The rest of the room was empty of anything else other than a pair of large broken glass doors at the far end.
Cohen could smell the fresh air blowing in through the broken glass doors. He had not noticed how stale the air had been until that moment. He felt a slight burning in the inside of his left nostril. He rubbed at the out side of his nose and provided him self with relief without sneezing. The light from out side was bright. Cohen had to squint to even make out the doors. Once again he held his hand over his eyes trying to get them to adjust to the light.
After a few seconds Cohen stepped out into the room. To his right he noticed a row of very large windows. The glass in those had also been broken into little shards all over the floor.
Cohen walked out into the middle of the room. He was slowly making his way toward the door’s. he thought that may be it was an earthquake after all. He surveyed the door closer trying to see what was on the other side. All he could make out was a potted plant on the other side of it. It was some kind of vine because it had grown up the arch just out side of the door. He thought it must be some kind of breeze way.
Just then to Cohen’s surprise a very unthinkable thing happened. A one legged man jumped out from behind the desk to Cohen’s left. Cohen froze in tracks. He began to say something to the man but at further observation he wondered if he should be running. The man was about five feet tall and had just apparently jumped onto a desk that set just an inch or two shorter than he was. Not only that but he had one leg, that was centered in the middle of his body. The shock had started to give way to fear. Over the next few seconds Cohen managed to stay calm enough to see that the man also only had three toe’s on his foot, and only four fingers on each hand. He did have two arms but they were really elongated. His neck was long and slender. His mouth was covered by what looked like a rather thick mustache. Cohen began to wonder if the man belonged to a circus until he looked at the mans eyes.
In fact after seeing that the eyes were cat mixed with some kind of lizard Cohen was pretty sure that it was not a man at all. Then the man turned to his side and reached around to his back trying to reach something. That is when Cohen knew for a fact that this was no man. A tail swung back and forth.
Cohen was not sure weather he was going to faint or run. The shock of it all was too much for him. His head began to hurt much worse than before. This is it he thought I am having a stroke. Sharp pain shot behind his right eye. But it did not have time to last. A wild screech noise spat out of the thing’s mouth. This fully grabbed all of Cohen’s attention. He had been rubbing the right side of his head. But after that reached scream his full concentration was now back to the thing still standing on the desk.
The thing was pointing one of it’s four fingers at the door. So with a little hesitation Cohen reluctantly turned his head toward the door. To his dismay there was a giant eye starring at him. The eye filled six foot by seven foot door way. He could not even see the entire eye. His mind whirled what was going on? His mind was now completely switched from fear to agitation. It seemed to him to be completely ridiculous. All this stuff , the truck the waking up in a weird place crazy looking men if that is what it was. And now a giant eye starring him down.
Cohen did a very out of character thing. And somewhat surprising to the thing standing on the desk. He bent down and picked up a large chunk of glass and hurled it at the giant eye. The glass flew like a well thrown Frisbee. It found the iris of the giant eye and impaled it. Cohen’s anger would turn again to fear when he heard a deafening roar of pain. Cohen was sure that he just made a big mistake.
Chapter six
Hello now run
The beast on the other side of the door was making a lot of noise. Roaring in pain and thrashing around. It did not take but only a few seconds for the thing on the deck to jump down and make its way over to Cohen. Cohen had not really noticed that the thing used it’s arms like crutches and swung it’s one leg between them to walk. Or later he would decide that this could be called walking.
For now he was in to bad of a mental place to make any more decisions about things like that.
Cohen turned his head toward the beast that now stood beside him. He really did not know what to think of this thing it had not said or done anything except point out the giant eye thing.
The thing pulled out a grey small box that looked like a very small speaker. Then the man like thing held it out to Cohen. Now after all that had been happing Cohen thought he should take a look at it just in case. When he put his hand out the lousy little box flew out of the beast hand of it’s own accord. then the box zipped around the room for a second or two. At that moment the creature be side him said some thing. At least cohen thought it was trying to talk . It sounded like it was grumbling, like a cat purring. Cohen was not sure so he tried to force a grin. But he knew it was useless.
The box flew down and cohen instinctively stuck his hand out for the little box to land. The very moment the box touched his skin cohen regretted sticking his hand out. A sharp electric shock went down his hand and out his foot.
Cohen withdrew his hand quickly and stomped his foot as he spun in a circle. A few choice words left his mouth. And his gaze met the thing that let that lousy box loose. Cohen was unprepared at what happened next.
"Hurts don’t it."
The words form the thing were as clear as day. Cohen was sure he had just heard the thing talk but he was unsure.
"What?"
"Yes I know, it was quite a shock to me as well when I first got the implant."
Cohen was shocked. He was now hearing the thing talk. He began to wonder why this surprised him. And what was this about an implant.
"What do you mean implant and what are you and what in the world is that thing.. You know the giant eye… and…"
"Whoa, whoa, I knew you must have came through the thread, so I came looking for you. Now I know you have a bunch of questions, and all of them can be answered. But first let me introduce myself. I am called Ra-Zak, I am a Telmeron. Most call me Ra. So it is fine if you do. Now what is your name?"
"It’s Cohen."
Cohen said his own name with no emotion attached and with a puzzled face. His thoughts were in information gathering mode at this point. He needed to understand what was happing to him.
Ra continued on with out any hesitation.
"Real nice to meat you Cohen. Now that we have been introduced I think it is time to get moving before that Artow decides to come through that wall and have us both for lunch"
"Artow?" Cohen questioned
"Yes it is quite a nasty creature. By the way how did you know it was dangerous?"
"Just a guess.. You know strange world, strange people giant eye and all."
"Ok good guess. How did you know I was not dangerous?" "I didn’t I figured you would be next."
"Well I guess it’s a good thing I wasn’t… Now come on lets go"
Ra led Cohen off to the right and through a metal door that led to a small landing and a endless run of very old wooden stairs. that led down below the ground.
"Down here quick. And watch your step, some of the steps are missing."
Ra seemed completely ok with the fact that the steps could give way and drop both of them to there doom.
"Great so far today I have survived the teleported of doom and a giant eye alien monster who wanted to eat me,, I assume, only to fall to my death on old stairs."
Cohen’s voice reeked of sarcasm. A tribute that was not lost on Ra. He even chuckled. It was no real help to Cohen that Ra understood him.
Cohen was a little apprehensive of following Ra down into a dark hole. It was a rather odd sensation to willingly follow a alien anywhere. For most of his life he had not even thought long enough about aliens to decide whether he had an opinion on whether or not they existed. Now that it was decided for him he was certain he would have bet the farm the other way. It did not matter now, the facts were the facts, now he just needed to get somewhere he could sort it all out and try to get his mind around the whole thing.
Cohen followed Ra down about three or four flights of stairs. He could not keep track. For a one legged man he could really move. It was a little funny to watch, Ra was moving along like a monkey. Arms in tandem first followed by the leg between and in front of them. For a moment he wondered whether or not Ra was related to monkeys. His curiosity got the best of him.
"Are all the people like you where you come from?"
Ra was puzzled by the question.
"What do you mean?"
The pace did not slow, Ra may have picked the pace up a little.
"You know… they all look like you."
Cohen was trying not to offend him.
"So you have never seen a Telmeron?"
"No I have never had the pleasure."
"Yes we all look like this."
Cohen had followed Ra down he steps and along a long hall and now they were both standing in front of a steel door that was gapped open just enough for one guy at a time to get through.
"Now when we get in here we must be fast and quite. You got it?"
"Yes but why?"
"Because there is an Artow that has tunneled in
to this room. He sets in there and waits for some thing to run by and then he.. Ah.. Well he grabs it and eats it."
"Now that sucks!. What if he grabs us?"
"As long as we can get half way I think I have enough ammo left in this lovely thing to get us the rest of the way across, then it’s just a short trip out to my ride. And we will be safe their."
Ra was waving what looked like a pistol of some kind. Cohen was not to sure that now was the time to question what it was.
"And if you don’t have enough ammo to get across,, is their a back up plane?.."
"What no confidence in your fellow sentient beings?"
Cohen thought Ra was smiling although he was not sure and so he tried a slight grin back at him.
"Good then you are ready to go?"
Cohen just nodded he had never been less ready but if crossing this room meant a little peace then he was ready for that.
"Now remember follow me and be quite!"
The two slipped out into the dark room. It was all Cohen could do to see the Back of Ra. He tried to keep two steps behind Ra. The floor was covered with dirt, large clumps, and the occasional bone form some animal or another. Cohen tried not to think about it he focused on Ra and tried not to make any noise. They had been creeping along for what felt like twenty minutes when it happened. With out warning a loud whale like screech echoed in the room.
"Run, run, run, now.!!"
Ra was yelling and was firing his pistol to the left. It was now really hard to see, the flashes of electric like explosions coming from the pistol. The pistol fire flashed lighting up the room half blinding Cohen. Ra was surprisingly fast Cohen was having a little trouble keeping pace with him. Cohen was almost at a full flat out run. Again and again the electric flashes of Ra’s gun bounced around the room. The gun was surprisingly quite, it was a sound that Cohen could not put in place, only that it was the sound of Ra’s gun.
Cohen tried to look over his shoulder to see were the Artow was but he could only make out bit’s and pieces. What he did see made him sure that running was the right choice. Once again he could make out a giant eye, only now it looked pissed off. Another flash of the gun and all he saw was a tentacle like what you would see on an octopus. Then another flash but Cohen was to busy jumping a dirt clod to look back. Then another flash and Cohen caught a glimpse of what looked like a giant bird beak. At that point Cohen could see light coming through a door way in front of them.
He had enough of trying to make out what the thing looked like, so he focused on the door. His heart was pounding so hard that he was certain it would leap from his chest. His legs had started to burn but he was not stopping . His legs could fall off for all he cared as long as he got through that door.
After what felt like a life time he burst through the door and slammed into a wall three feet on the other side. He quickly found himself scrambling down a hall with Ra right behind him shooting his pistol at the empty door. After about forty feet of scrambling down the hall Ra grabbed his shoulder and waved for him to stop.
"We are ok now.. It’s too big to follow us now."
"Good!"
Both of them were out of breath. Ra leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor and sat for a moment trying to regain his composure.
Cohen was pacing in a small circle with his hands on his sides gasping for air.
"What the hell was that thing?’ Cohen was still panting as he talked and the question came out a bit choppy.
"That my friend, was one of the ground burro Artow, you know the tentacle and all."
"Wow,. It was huge!"
"Yea, those are bad, but the particularly nasty one’s are the lizard like kind. Man let me tell you they are fast."
"Wait how many things like that are their?"
"Well.. Here on just this world or altogether?"
"What is going on here.. am I dreaming?"
Cohen was at a total loss of comprehension. Now Ra had seen this before. He knew that he needed to explain everything but this was not the place.
"O.k. . hold on I will tell you everything we just have to go right through those doors, my ship is just on the launch pad. Then we will be safe."
"Launch pad?"
"Yea common."
Ra stood up and led Cohen through the doors. On the other side was a launch bay.
Cohen saw for the first time in his life a spaceship. It seemed to him that as of today he had experienced more first times then ever in his life. It occurred to him that he was experiencing more first in human history than any one human in history. Well at least that the government would admit.
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