The Earth Conundrum: Book 1 of the Alliance Conflict Page 30

They walked down the caribou corridor and into the bridge. The bridge was empty as he had dismissed the three lieutenants. Solear pointed out a few aspects of the bridge section, such as the secondary generator and the double shielding. Solear noticed that Jim kept looking around, so he said, “You seem to think something is missing.”

  Jim chuckled and said, “Is it that obvious?” When Solear nodded, Jim continued, “I was looking for the bridge crew. Are they hiding?”

  Solear smiled and said, “No. The ship is currently on autopilot. I gave the bridge crew a break after the long battle.” This seemed to mollify the human, so Solear said, “Let’s continue.” He led them across the main bridge area and to the electro-magnetic lift.

  The lift was in use though. Lexxi, Clowy, and Ella rode it up and got off back on the bridge. Solear saw their eyes widen when they saw the human. Solear said, “Ah, here is the bridge crew.” The three carefully stepped off of the platform. They could do little else. There was nowhere they could go without looking rude.

  Solear said, “This is Lexxi, our weapons officer.”

  Jim put his hand out. Lexxi looked at him like he was an idiot and he quickly put his hand back down. Jim said, “Lexxi, it is nice to meet you. You are the first Advranki female I have met.”

  Lexxi smiled at him and said, “Correction. I am the best Advranki female you have ever met.” She was surprised how big and tall he was compared to her. He didn’t seem to be attacking her, but she stepped back anyway. She gradually put Clowy between herself and the human.

  Solear continued, “This is Clowy, our communications officer.”

  Jim again said hello. Clowy asked, “Am I the first Altian you have met?”

  Jim replied, “The first female Altian anyway. There was a male Altian on the freighter that took us from Earth to the rendezvous.

  Clowy asked, “Who was he?”

  Jim thought that was odd question. There must be billions of Altians in the galaxy. The odds of her knowing him were astronomical. However, Jim said, “I believe his name was Lorano.” Jim noted that everyone groaned at the mention of his name.

  Clowy answered, “We know him. He was on the Sunflower for a short time. He isn’t a good representative of our species.”

  Jim responded, “He seemed nice enough. He was very helpful the times I talked to him.”

  Clowy said, “Wow, Lorano finally found a species that he can’t intimidate or insult.”

  Solear said, “Finally, this is Ella, our pilot and navigator.”

  Ella had watched some human movies and knew what a handshake was. She stuck out her hand and said, “Hello.”

  Jim reached out and shook her hand. Jim said, “You are the first Solarian I have met. The similarities between us are incredible. You look human.”

  Ella shook his hand. Her hand was small compared to his and almost disappeared in his grasp. She thought it must be similar to a child shaking an adult’s hand. The shake was over as quickly as it had started, but she had felt the strength in his hand. He could have crushed her hand if he had wanted. She responded, “Yes, our two races look strikingly similar.”

  Jim asked, “Are we the same biologically?”

  Before Ella could answer, Lexxi said, “Must be nice. You meet one human and you get asked out on a hot date.”

  Ella felt her face flush and her cheeks turn a little red. She watched the human. He had the same reaction. However, when he flushed, his cheeks turned much redder than hers. She figured it must be that the white skin showed more color. The embarrassment was broken when everyone started laughing at the joke.

  Solear led them onto the platform and they lowered down to the bridge crew quarter level. They walked to the crew’s entertainment room. There was an Advranki female standing next to a flight simulator. She introduced herself as Jetlag, the senior medical technician on the ship.

  Jim tried his hardest, but couldn’t stop himself from giggling. When she looked at him questioningly, he said, “I am sorry. Your name is a word in my language.”

  Jetlag said, “Computer, translate the human word jetlag into Alliance Basic.”

  …99.9% jetlag…

  Jetlag said, “Computer, define the Alliance Basic word jetlag.”

  …Jetlag is the word used to describe feeling very tired when one travels to a different time zone and is awake in that time zone when he should to be asleep in his original time zone …

  Arean smiled at her and said, “You must be very tired.”

  Solear turned to Jim and said, “Jim, I would like you to retake the final pilot’s exam.” Solear thought that Jim suddenly looked shocked and possibly worried.

  Jim said, “Did I do something wrong?” Jim wondered if they had evaluated his performance and noted that it was just slightly below that of the other pilots. Jim was preparing several excuses, including the difficulty in both flying and leading the team.

  Solear answered, “No. Quite the opposite in fact. Your performance was extraordinary. We just want to see you take the test so that we can compare your performance to the Advranki baseline. Also, we will be able to watch your performance on the nearby monitor.”

  This made Jim more nervous. They were going to watch and evaluate the entire obstacle course. Jim answered nervously, “I did pass the test. All of the human pilots passed.”

  Solear answered, “Yes. We saw that you passed. We just need a comparison.”

  Jim responded, “Perhaps I should get our best pilot so that you can get a more accurate comparison.”

  Arean said, “No. That will not be necessary. I am sure that you will do fine.” Arean did not want to march all the way back to the pilot’s quarters and repeat the entire process.

  Jim climbed inside the flight simulator. He noted that it was a newer one, exactly like the model that was on the freighter. He sat down, settled himself as much as possible, donned his cap, and started the simulation. He noted that he more nervous now than when he was facing the Hiriculans in the battle.

  Jim began negotiating with the Advanki female at the start of the simulation for a change to his missile package. He knew better than to call her Karen this time. Eventually, he succeeded in trading his ship buster missile and one shield buster missile for the gravity missile and the hyper communication missile. He launched his fighter from the cruiser and proceeded toward the obstacle course.

  Arean said, “I have never seen anyone be successful in trading missiles. Also, the selection is very odd. He just gave away the only missile capable of doing any damage to the enemy cruiser.” Arean shook his head. Clearly, that was a blunder.

  Solear noted, “Jim is turning off his automatic controls and switching to manual.”

  Jetlag said, “There is the spike in his brain. It looks the information is starting to overload his brain.” She continued to watch his vital signs for another few moments. Then she said, “Wait, wait, he is calming down. He is calming way down. The spike is gone. He is now calmer than his baseline.”

  Jim switched to manual. His felt the onrush of information and momentarily couldn’t find yellow. He could tell that he was nervous. He forced himself to focus and finally found and linked yellow. Then he linked green, then blue, and now they all fell into place. He felt the ship linked directly to him now and was calm and ready to continue.

  Jim flew through the maze with ease, making each turn look easy. He approached the final turn, fired his gravity buster missile, and rode the gravity wave through the 90 degree turn and out of the maze.

  Arean couldn’t believe it. He had never seen someone fly that smoothly through the course and had never seen anyone attempt, let alone make the final turn. He said, “Well, now we know why he wanted a gravity missile.”

  Jim flew to the single fighter. He fired a guided missile, watched the enemy bank left, and fired a dummy missile at that location. He then dodged the oncoming missile and headed for the next challenge. He knew the enemy fighter had been killed, but he checked his sensors anyway.

  Arean
said, “Wow, no dogfight, nothing. He simply fired a missile and hit the Hiriculan fighter.”

  Solear said, “The second missile wasn’t guided. How difficult is it to hit an enemy fighter with an unguided, straight-line missile?”

  Arean said, “I would have told you that it was impossible if I hadn’t just seen him do it.” Arean continued, “Oh well, let’s see how he does now that he has to face 3 fighters.”

  Jim saw the three enemy fighters rapidly approaching. He did a juke down, then a barrel roll back up and over the on-coming fighters. He continued toward the next test. The three Hiriculan fighters turned and started pursuing.

  Arean said, “Wait, he didn’t even engage them.”

  Solear said, “I thought the humans always fought everything. This seems an advanced strategy for them to choose running when facing overwhelming odds.”

  Arean said, “I have never seen anyone try it before. However, now there are three fighters behind him and a cruiser in front. Rather poor odds I would say.”

  Jetlag said, “The human is still as calm as before. Nothing seems to rattle him.”

  Jim began his attack run on the Hiriculan cruiser. He evened his shield between front and back and dove toward the engine room. He juked left, then left, then left again, each time narrowly avoiding enemy fire from the cruiser and his pursuers.

  Jim fired his remaining shield buster missiles and opened a hole in the cruiser’s shields. He then fired his hyper communication missile containing his homing beacon. Jim flew past the cruiser and began a tight 6 gee loop around it. The three enemy fighters locked onto the homing beacon and fired all of their missiles, including the three ship buster missiles.

  The Hiriculan cruiser exploded in a huge cloud of dust and Jim targeted and killed the remaining 3 enemy fighters with his last three missiles. He noted that the he had gotten three kills. He leveled off and began slowing. He flew to the waiting Alliance cruiser and landed.

  Arean was stunned. He simply couldn’t believe that the cruiser and all three enemy fighters had been destroyed. He said, “That was incredible. He used the enemy’s missiles against them.”

  Solear said, “It was surprising how similar the attack on the two destroyers looked to the attack on that cruiser. Now I understand how they knew exactly what to do.”

  Arean answered, “No Alliance pilot has ever thought to try that in the simulation. It is an original, human solution to be sure.”

  Solear said, “Commander, look at this.”

  Arean looked over and saw the human’s final score on the simulation was 11,230. The score was almost 10,000 points higher than the Advranki pilots’ baseline. Arean started to say something, then stopped, then restarted and stopped again. Finally, he said, “Captain, now I know why their scores weren’t in the system. I believe they were intentionally deleted.”

  Solear nodded in agreement and said, “We can’t let anyone find out how good they humans actually are.” He paused for a moment, and then added, “If the Hiriculans discover these scores, they will invade Earth.”

  Arean replied, “And the Alliance will have no choice but to stop them.”

  “It will be the catalyst that starts the war,” Solear stated.

  Arean asked, “And if we don’t tell the Alliance how good the humans are?”

  Solear thought for a moment. He then answered, “If we conceal their performance then the Alliance will fail to take advantage of the best fighter pilots in the galaxy. Humans could be the one tool we need to defeat the Hiriculans.”

  Arean nodded in agreement and said, “Funny to think that we will go to war to protect a species that doesn’t even know we exist; and if they did, would probably try to kill us.”

  Solear summarized, “Well, the Earth is certainly a conundrum.”

  Chapter 18

  Victor walked out onto the top floor balcony of the Ovontaki Hotel and greeted the morning. The hotel is one of the taller buildings in this section of the city, standing just over 100 stories tall. Victor could, if he was so inclined, run in any direction and jump to another skyscraper. He had never seen so many big buildings so close together. Solaria’s main business district seemed tiny by comparison.

  The hotel is located in the heart of the entertainment and shopping district in Advranki Prime’s main city Avunk. Avunk was also the capital of the planet. The city was named after the famous Advranki explorer who had discovered Altian.

  The hotel and corresponding shopping district was located about ½ kilometer from the primary spaceport where their mini-freighter, the Vista, was parked. Victor stretched his hands over his head as high as he could, folded his fingers into each other, and proceeded to yawn.

  Crista was still in bed asleep, but Victor was on the roof because this was his favorite part of the day. The sunrise was exquisite and Victor had gotten up early each day to see it.

  Victor watched as the sunbeams hit one, then the next building. When the light hit the side of the building, it caused a starburst of colors to refract off of it. The metal in the building caused one hue, the semi-permeable glass another color, and the sea-moss growing on the side several others.

  Someone had tried to explain the chemical and photo aspects of how and why the moss gave off color when it first hit the sunlight, but he hadn’t really paid attention. The sight was beautiful; he didn’t really need to understand why.

  Victor noted that there was already a crew out on a nearby skyscraper harvesting the sea-moss. The moss was a staple in the Advranki diet, and they grew it everywhere it seemed. He was currently standing in a patch of it on the roof in fact. He had been told that there were huge, multi-layered moss beds in the countryside, but they had yet to go and see it. What was the point he thought, of seeing a large amount of moss when one could see it right where he stood?

  There was a similar form of the moss that they used for relaxation bathing. Victor remembered last week when the hotel’s concierge had finally convinced Crista and him to try a bath in the stuff. The salesperson had claimed that the bath was the most relaxing and refreshing thing in the universe.

  The traditions and associated rituals had been fun, though they had been a little shy about undressing and bathing in public. The bath-master had scolded Crista and demanded that she remove her necklace before entering. That had caused just a bit of a scene. He chuckled as he recalled Crista rolling up a big ball of moss and throwing it at the man. They had finally compromised by wrapping the collar in a large leaf.

  He hadn’t cared much for the bath. It felt like sitting in seaweed, but Crista really seemed to have enjoyed it. Afterward, they had returned to the room for a quick shower, and well, their first time. And there had been several after that. Victor was happy, happier than he could recall in quite a while. Crista had finally accepted him as her husband and they had even talked about starting a family someday.

  They had planned to only stay on Advranki Prime for 5 days before returning to Solaria. However, the five days had turned into a week and the week had somehow turned into two. They had easily rationalized it because the hotel rate was cheaper by the week.

  The sun was now hitting the building directly beside him. He watched as the brilliant colors reflected off that building. He sighed since this was going to be his last sunrise for a long time. They were planning to leave this afternoon to return to Solaria.

  Now, he wondered if they should delay the trip another week. Heck, he thought, maybe they should just settle down, sell the mini-freighter, and get an apartment here. He could become a moss salesman. If one could sell moss to an Advranki, one could sell anything he supposed.

  The sun was now overhead and the brilliant colors shining off of every nearby building brought him out of his deep thought. He turned in a circle to fully see everything. The sun was fully up now and the spectacle concluded for the day, so Victor headed back down to his room on the 72nd floor.

  Victor entered the room and saw that Crista was up and was packing their luggage. They had visited
all of the tourist attractions and had bought a variety of souvenirs, but overall they hadn’t gone overboard. Despite being in the shopping district for the last two weeks, they had purchased relatively few new items.

  When they had completed packing, Victor did a quick count. Not bad he thought - only four full suitcases and two overnight bags. Victor asked, “Are you ready to go?”

  Crista replied, “Yes. It will be good to get home again.” She waited for a moment and then said, “Let’s take the sky bridge.”

  Victor replied, “Okay, just let me checkout and make arrangements for our bags.”

  Victor used his com pad to complete the hotel’s checkout process and arranged for their luggage to be taken to the spaceport.

  Victor took Crista’s hand and said, “Let’s go.”

  They took the electro lift down the 50th floor and began walking. They walked through the hotel, then through a walkway connecting it to the next building, then through that building, then another walkway and so on. Each building’s 50th floor was connected to another via a sky-bridge. They were able to chart a path that took them all the way back to the spaceport.

  The shopping and entertainment district gave way to a housing district, then a business district, and finally a warehouse and shipping district. The buildings were spaced farther apart and were much shorter in this part of the city. The skywalks were getting longer and lower to the ground. They now went along the roofs instead of through the buildings.

  They arrived at the spaceport and walked to their landing platform. Waiting there for them was a hauler version of a hoverbot with their luggage. Standing beside the hoverbot was a well-dressed Hiriculan.

  Victor said, “Hello mister. To what do I owe the honor of your visit?”

  The Hiriculan said, “Hello. I am ambassador Bline. I need a ride to Solaria as soon as possible. I reviewed all of the ships departing there today and I found that your ship was headed that way. The registry says that the ship belongs to Victor and Crista Bullpeep. I assume that is the two of you?”

  Victor said, “Yes. I am Victor and this is my wife Crista.”