Illusion or Reality - A Short Story by M Routh
Sarah sighed impatiently as she walked along the corridor. The high heels of her boots did not click on the sound dampened floor. The pale blue walls of the corridor turned a corner and became a pale olive. A large steel door faced her at the end. She walked up to the door and held her wrist up to a small blinking red light. The magnetic waves read the inside of her wrist, and the red light turned green for a second. Inside the door, tiny neuron processors jumped into play, scanning the DNA signature from the tag and signaling OK. The doors opened like an eye – swirling and expanding until they fully opened. It took seconds. She stepped in.
She was now inside the most secure part of the ship. The plasma skin of the corridor was still the same olive. The corridor ended in another door that opened as she moved towards it. A large bright room came into view. This was the bridge, the nerve center of the ship. The center of their lives for the past however many years it had been since they left the mother planet.
At the center of the room was a console – if you could call it that. It was more like a flat black glossy surface
which could produce holographic projections. Right now, all it projected was the planet that was in front of them.
Sarah walked across to the orb and watched it slowly rotate. Then she looked around, spotting Navin at the communications cube along with Deel. She walked across. ‘Navin,’ she said, ‘you asked me to come here?’
He looked up and smiled – but it was more an automatic smile. His nostrils flared slightly as he caught her extremely subtle perfume – slightly musky with a tinge of spice. ‘Sarah,’ he said. ‘Thank you for coming. Yes, I wanted to have a word with the team. I am waiting on Alice, Jarmin, and Paitro’, he named the other heads of divisions on board. Sarah was head of engineering.
They all were proud that theirs was one of the youngest crews in the galaxy. Navin, their commander was only thirty years old. But he led from the front and gained the respect of his team mates from respecting their abilities.
The rest of the team walked in, and he led them into a small conference room attached to the bridge. A large table dominated the room, and in the center of the table was the same holographic surface. They all sat down. Navin passed his fingers on the polished boards in front of him. A small holographic display of the same planet they were observing emerged into view. Spinning in space, it looked like a beautiful marble, blue and green and white.
‘As you all know, we’ve been sent to observe this planet. We have been here for two weeks now. This is the same as two years on the planet’s surface. Some of these organisms seem to be in the throes of some kind of war or battle. There are multiple organisms or species on this planet and not all of them are involved in this conflict. We have strict orders not to intervene, but I cannot help feeling we can do something to stop this before it escalates’.
‘It’s against our directives, you know.’ Paitro was a tall husky man with a husky voice to match. But put him in front of anything to do with the delicate interior of an electro-neuron gadget and he came alive. His big hands handled the tiny circuitry with such delicacy it was a pleasure to watch him. ‘We are not allowed to interfere in what is a planet’s destiny’.
‘How can that be destiny?’ Deel said. He was the communications chief.
‘Have you picked up anything?’ asked Navin.
‘Not a thing. It is as if they have no technology to even communicate across vast distances. They seem to very primitive in that aspect’.
‘There are several different modes of communication,’ Alice added. ‘Their vocalization is markedly different from ours. They use sounds that we have not heard before. But they use some kind of markers, and make signs on something that resembles the ancient art of writing. These they give to each other’.
Alice was an anthropologist and part of the team that was investigating the planet. She had been down on the surface of the planet with a couple of other team members. They had observed the dwellings, the food and the communication of the major sentient species.
She was tall and slim with a mass of golden hair reaching to below her waist. Her olive skin was in sharp contrast to most of the others, who were darker than she was. Light green eyes and full mouth complemented each other.
She was in sharp contrast to Sarah who was of medium height with dark brown skin and glossy black hair that she wore very, very short. It gave a unique sexiness to her fragile features. Underneath that head was a very sharp brain – one of the best engineering minds of the time.
‘So what brings us to this discussion?’ Jarmin asked. He was the pilot of the ship and usually hated having to designate anyone else to his seat. But they were at staytions so he was alright with leaving his seat.
‘Alice, I need you to debrief us a bit more. I need some things clarified’ Navin said. 'Let's start with the atmosphere'.
‘The atmosphere of the planet is good – clean and breathable. Perhaps too clean. I did not notice any particulate matter in the air samples we brought back. However – ‘ she stopped as a sharp rap came on the intercom to the room.
Neel flicked a hand, ‘Who is it?’ The door turned transparent. It was Ensign Whitby who had been watching over the communications cube.
‘Request permission to come in, sir. It’s a matter of emergency’.
‘Come on in,’ said Navin.
The ensign stepped into the room. He held a small comm-pad in his hand, which he held out to Navin. Navin took it, read it and raised his eyebrows. ‘Team, we have a problem. A Thug ship has just shown up, about 10 light years away and its closing in to us.’
The team looked at each other. ‘We have to see what they want to do,’ said Navin. ‘What’s the estimated time to visual?’ he asked Sarah.
She looked as he felt – concerned, but not scared. ‘About an hour, if they are going warp,’ she said.
Navin tapped the surface of the table in front of it. ‘All hands. This is your captain. We are now under high alert. Please proceed to battle stations and await further instructions.’ He flicked off the comm. ‘Sarah,?’
She nodded. They both stepped out of the room, the others following. The captain moved to his cube. Sarah slipped in beside him. They both knew what needed to get done and they would do it.
The Thugs were not so respectful of other species. If they found a colony they liked – they would take it. This was their way of spreading themselves across the galaxies. They were a nasty breed.
The ship finally came into view. It was big and bristled with arms. For a moment it stayed motionless. It was about 100 parsecs away at about 9 o'clock, slowing down as it came out of warp. Not too far from their ship. Slowly it began to move towards the planet.
‘Oh no, you don’t,’ said Navin. ‘Follow that ship’, he ordered Jarmin, who was now back in his pilot’s seat.
‘Aye, aye, captain’ he said.
And then they were off….
** ** **
The two little boys ran along the river’s edge, stopping now and then to skip stones along the river. A few minutes later, their mother came out of the cottage. She called out to them, ‘Jules! Paul! Come inside, dears. Supper is ready!’
‘Coming, mama!’ they cried. They turned and ran back towards the little cottage. Darkness fell outside as the little family had their supper and finally headed to bed. Little Jules lay in bed, unable to sleep. Deciding he needed a drink of water he headed downstairs. His father sat by the fireside, reading a book, and his mother continued her knitting. They spoke in hushed voices so as not to disturb the little boys. Little Jules padded into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water. Walking over to the window, he looked up at the night sky. From all the stars he could see, all of a sudden, he watched as one star moved quickly away, followed by another.
‘Look, mama – I see shooting stars!’ he exclaimed.
‘Hush, little one,’ his mother said. ‘You will wake up your brother’. She led him out of the kitchen and up the stairs. Tucking him into his bed, she kissed his forehead and told him to close his eyes. He closed his eyes.
As soon as she left, he opened them and looked out of the window, searching for his stars.
Sure enough, there they were, the two stars, darting about, ……and coming closer? And what were those strange beams from one to the other? He had never seen anything like it! But soon his little eyes closed and he fell asleep.
** ** **
Navin watched the Thug craft move into warp speed and leave. This is what made life worth living, he thought, protecting an unprepared sentient species from extinction. He turned to Sarah and they smiled at each other. Another battle fought, another species saved, although they never knew it.
‘All hands, stand down. The threat has been averted. We are no longer on alert’. With that satisfying announcement he walked across the bridge, touching the shoulders of his team as he passed their stations.
Ensign Whitby stopped in front of him. This time there was a smile on his face as he handed the comm-pad over. Navin read it and smiled too.
‘Everybody, listen up. We’re going home.’
Whoops of joy came from different quarters of the room. ‘Sarah, I need you to prep the engine for the long haul back’.
‘Aye, aye, sir’ she smiled.
Two weeks later, they orbited their home. The blue, green and white planet looked gorgeous to their eyes. They were waiting for landing stations to clear them to land. The space station loomed to their left, its dull grey exterior not catching the sun’s light.
‘We’ve been given clearance, sir’, said Deel.
‘Let’s go home, ‘ Navin said.
The ship slowly moved towards the planet, picking up speed as it got closer and closer and the bigger the planet got. The sight never failed to move him. Then they were inside the atmosphere, tracking towards the Nevada desert where they would land the craft in the huge Salt Lake Space Terminal. The sun bounced off the dry surface of the desert as they slowly came in and made a perfect landing. No bounces or jiggles, just a smooth settling down.
‘As always, nice job, Deel’, he complimented.
The main doors of the craft slowly lowered and they stepped out one by one into the hot, dry air.
‘It always smells so sweet, when we land,’ said Sarah.
‘Yes,’ Navin smiled, looking around in pleasure. He hooked an arm around her waist. ‘Ready to go home, Mrs. Dass?’
‘So ready,’ she said.
‘Welcome back to Earth,’ he whispered, as he softly kissed her lips. ‘Welcome back, yourself,’ she whispered as she kissed him back.
** ** **
Thirty years later, on a planet on the other side of the galaxy, little Jules, now all grown up, woke up with a start. He didn’t know what had wakened him. He lay in bed for a while, the memory of what he had seen years ago, struggling to surface in his mind. Deciding he might as well make good use of his time, he went into his library.
Walking to his desk, he pulled out a sheaf of papers. He sat down, pulled up his chair, dipped his pen in some ink and began writing:
‘De la terre à la lune. Un roman de Jules Verne’
‘From the earth to the moon. A Novel by Jules Verne.'
** ** **