Logan Ryvenbark's Saga Box Set

Table of contents-17

“Hear, hear,” Rab said. He clinkedhis glass on hers. We all did.

After we emptied our liquor bottles, wesang songs of war and songs of love.

There was no night in this chamber, butthe sky grew dimmer as the gray of what would be an Earth eveningspread across the empty fields. We ended on a note of joyousmelancholy.

We broke up and roamed around the camp.Usually I can sense when people are near, but I was so relaxed Ididn’t notice Geneva at my elbow.

“Sir, may I talk to you a moment?”

“Of course. What can I do for you?”

“Major, you sense or feel anything orany presence besides the Raiders here?”

I shook my head. “No. Not at all.”

She sighed and crossed her arms. “I’mslightly empathic. The trait isn’t nearly as strong in me as ourofficial empaths, but I have a degree of it. The feeling I have isvague, but I have a sense we’re being watched. That someone orsomething is keeping an eye on us.”

“Are you sure? How could an alien bearound without us seeing him?”

“I don’t know sir, and no, I’mnot sure. My empathic sense is not strong. I could be wrong, but Iwanted to bring this to your attention.”

“Thank you, Geneva. You did the rightthing.” I paused. “You say there is someone watching us. Can youtell anything about this alien or just that he’s close by?”

“I don’t sense any hatred from himor anything hostile. I feel a… curiosity and a puzzlement. And…this is strange… a…”

“A what?”

“Some type of poignancy. But I don’tknow what that means.”

“Neither do I, Geneva. I guess theonly thing we do is wait and watch. But you felt no hostility, noanimosity toward us?”

“No sir. None at all.”

“Keep me informed. Let me know ifthat empathetic sense gets stronger or weaker.”

“Yes, sir.”

I shook my head. An alleged alien beingwho likes off-key singing. The sphere continued to have mysteriesgalore.

Chapter 12

Ifthe mysterious being liked singing, he got an earful of it the nextmorning. We marched toward the next gate. Astrid started withanotherchores of ‘GaryOwen’, and I gavea rendition of Stephen Forster’s ‘BeautifulDreamer’, which Ihad often sung for Astrid. We trudged down the road. Since therewasno decent scenery, we provided our own entertainment.

The day was bright but not very hot. Iguessed the temperature was about 65 degrees, which is not badmarching weather. Or walking. I saw no reason to hurry.

“Have a song about corn?” Rab askedas we passed yet another field.

“Well, there’s Oklahoma where thecorn is as high as an elephant’s eye. I think that’s thelyric.”

We made a slight turn and smiled wherea deep blue lake appeared. The light wind rippled the waters. Smallwaves lapped the ground.

“Wow, something different,” I said.

“Anything to break the monotony,”Astrid said.

Tek stared at his scanner. “Goodnews. The lake not only looks like water; it is water. We canrefillour canteens.”

I dumped my canteen in the blue andwatched the water splashing over it. I motioned to Geneva.

“Any more sensations?” I asked.

“Yes, but very faint. I have to focusmightily to feel anything at all.”

“Anything different than what you’vefelt before?”

“No, sir.”

“Thanks. Just checking. Raiders,let’s make a few more miles before lunch.”

The lake was the only scenic spot onthe trip. We walked three more miles and all we saw werecornfields.No animals, no birds, no inhabitants. Just green stalks and moregreen stalks. It was akin to driving through Kansas or Nebraska.Justflat land.

I halted at a small circle of trees sothe squad could have lunch. I wondered if we should use the jets tocomplete the journey, but decided against it. They were quicker,butwe might need them again and we did not have unlimited power. Wehadone last chamber to travel and I doubted it would be as peaceful asthis one. I wanted all our weapons and equipment ready. We mightneedto take to the air again. Besides, if there was somethingunfriendlyand hiding in this chamber, a flying convoy is an easy target. Wedon’t travel that fast. Anyone with a gun and fair shooting abilitycould easily kill one or two or us before the rest of the squadcouldrespond.

We would walk to the next gate and seewhat was behind it.

I munched a sandwich and Cajun Asianwalked up. The mouth was firm. The eyes alert. The firm mouthturneddownwards in a frown. I didn’t think that was a good sign.

“Major, there’s something wronghere. Very wrong.”

I took another bite of the sandwich.“Did you have to tell me that? Things were going so well. Peaceful,quiet, tranquil.” I finished the sandwich and wiped my hands on theuniform. “So what’s wrong?”

She pointed south. “This chamber isbigger than the first two. This one is about a hundred miles long.Weshould have walked about twenty-five miles, which means we shouldhave seventy-five miles left.”

I nodded. “Just a hop, a skip and ajump until we get to the gate and the next doorway.”

She shook her head. “Not exactly,sir. All our instruments tell us the next gate is still a hundredmiles away from us. We haven’t made any progresswhatsoever.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Wish I was. I double-checked thiswith Tek. He has come to the same conclusion.”

Tek walked up as she finished hersentence.

“I was just about to yell for you,”I said.

“What Cajun told you is true. Ididn’t believe the readings at first. I checked and re-checkedthem. But the fact is we are no closer to the next gate now than wewere two days ago.”

“Could something be throwing theinstruments off?”

“No, they’re fine. We are still ahundred miles away from the next wall. I have a uneasy feeling thatif we keep walking for weeks we’d still be a hundred milesaway.”

I took a swig of water and wished wehadn’t drank all the liquor.

“Isn’t that impossible?” I said.

“Yes, sir. It is.”

“But it’s still true.”

“Yes, sir. It is.”

“It’s some kind of space-timeparadox, Logan,” Cajun said. “I don’t know how to explainit.”

“It’s just in this chamber, not inthe others?”

“Apparently not. I can’t explainthat either.”

“Shucks.”

“That was what I said too,” Teksaid. “Well, actually, I used different words than shucks. My wordshad fewer letters than shucks does.”

“My reaction was a bit more colorfultoo,” Cajun said. She smiled. “We’ll let you think about thisfor a while, sir, so you can come up with a solution.”

“Not me. I’m depending on myscience advisers on this one. I would like somesuggestions.”

A solemn tone came in Tek’s voice.“We don’t have any. Not right now. I’m at a loss. I have noidea how a time paradox would operate in the sphere and I have noidea how to resolve it. The solution to this would take a trainloadof scientists.”

I frowned. “I was thinking of takinga trainload of scientists with us on this mission, but I figured Iwouldn’t need that many. Guess I was wrong.” I shook my head andwalked a couple of steps. Dizziness enveloped me and my footslipped.I stumbled and my knee hit the hard ground. My hands went to myhead.For a moment the world went blurry. Tek and Cajun ran over andgrabbed my arms to support.

“You OK, sir?”

The dizziness passed. The world cameback into focus.

“Yes.” I shook my head. “I justfelt dizzy for a moment.”

My 20/20 vision was back, so I watchedin crystal clarity as Geneva walked up. “A number of Raiders haveexperienced that, sir. I have too; early this morning. It lasts forafew seconds then disappears and everything is fine.”

“Would this be connected with theentity you think you sense?”

“I think so. I think he, or she, orit was probing our minds.”

“Why?”

“Seeking insight perhaps. He maynever have seen humans before. He wants to know about us. We knowsome races who can read minds. At times you can sense you’re beingprobed and other times you can’t. But I didn’t feel any hostileintent when the dizziness hit me. The sense I get was curiosityand…perhaps friendliness.”

“If he wants to know about us perhapswe should invite him over for lunch,” I said.

“Actually this may be a positivesign, sir, the curiosity I mean. Curiosity shows a degree ofintelligence. Some races have very little of it. Curiosity candenotea sense of wonder, of seeking to understand what’s around you.Seeking to understand, not attack or conquer or subjugate.”

“I wish him luck with that. Humanshave been trying to understand other humans for centuries. Haven’thad much success at it. Anyway we have a more immediate problem.Tek,if I understand what you are telling me, then we can walk for days,or months or years without getting any closer to the next gate.Correct?”

“Yes.”

“Can’t go forward, can’t goback.”

“Precisely.”

For the next hour we wandered aroundaimlessly. One of the most agonizing things for a military leader,who is used to action, is to know he is helpless in any particularsituation. To proceed forward was futile. But we couldn’t go back.If we did nothing, we’d spend eternity in the midst of green cornstalks. Even vegetarians would find that annoying. A militaryleaderalso hates a no-win situation and we hope we never have to dealwithone. I sighed. Then looked toward my squad.

“Raiders! We’re moving out. Fiveminutes before we start.”

I felt Astrid’s hand on my shoulder.“Logan, where are we going?”

I pointed toward the path. “That way.Doing something is better than doing nothing. Who knows? Maybewe’llstumble across something that will be a key to thismystery.”

“Sort of grasping at straws, aren’tyou?” she said.

“Yes, but that’s the only thing Ihave to grasp.”

Chapter 13

Aswe walked, Astrid did her best to keep morale high. She sang moresongs. She, Geneva and Carli did a stirring, if slightly off-keyversion, of the ‘Boogie-WoogieBugler from Company B’.She told me it was a song from World War II, made famous by a groupcalled the Andrews Sisters. I took her word for it. But by theafternoon, the Raiders had become dispirited and even Astrid hadclammed up. I didn’t blame them. It’s difficult to keep smilingwhen you’re marching to nowhere. The grasping at straws tacticwasn’t working out.

I looked straight ahead as we steppeddown the road. Most of the other Raiders did, too. But Cricketdidn’t. She wandered over to the side of the path.

“Major, over here!”

With the rest of the squad I ran towardher. She pointed toward an area on the edge of the cornfield.

Five skeletons lay in the dirt.Bleached bones consuming in the light.

“Previous tourists I’m guessing,”Cricket said. “Probably they were trapped here and ran out offood.”

The squad walked over to them. Thedeceased had been humanoid. Fingers, arms, legs. But there wasnothing to indicate what type of humanoid they had been. Or howtheygot here, never to return to their native planet.

“How long have they been here?”

“Difficultto believe, but according to my readings, thousands of years. Itakeback ‘they died of starvation’guess. Maybe they died of old age,” Cricket said.

“Thousands of years. And they haven’tdecayed?”

She looked at me, glanced at theskeletons then looked back at me.

“Nope,” she said.

“I’m going to overlook that sarcasmbecause it was a dumb question.” I frowned. “I was hoping for alocal chamber of commerce branch where employees would welcome ustothe neighborhood and also tell us how to leave.”

“Maybe that’s just around the nextcornfield, sir.”

I slung my laser rifle over my shoulderagain. “Let’s find out. Thirty more minutes and then we stop forthe day. Maybe we’ll find some live beings on the next stage of themarch.”

“Let’s hope they’re live,friendly beings.”

“No, let’s hope they know somethingabout time and paradoxes and how to get out of one,” Cajunsaid.

“What are the chances of that?”

“About a zillion to one.”

I shrugged. “Well, as long as there’sa one in a zillion chance…”

“Yea, let’s go for it,” she said.

Tenminutes later I was humming ‘Youare my Sunshine’when I spotted the figure walking down the path toward us. He wasabout a mile away so I hauled out my binoculars. I halted thecolumnwhile I peered at the straggler.

And I was shocked.

What I was seeing could not be real.

“What is it?” Astrid said.

“Somebody who looks like an oldfriend. Which is impossible.”

“The impossible is becoming routine.”

“Let’s go greet him.”

A half-mile later I could make out theman clearly. So could all the squad members. He wore a brown suitandwas holding a worn-out book bag which looked pretty heavy. The manhelooked like was my friend and professor Clu Ryker. He put down thebag. He had a big smile and blue eyes, with a little gray in hishair. His manner said he didn’t have a care in the word. He stoppedsix feet from us.

“Hello Clu.”

“Good to see you again, Logan,” hereplied.

“So how have you been?”

He nodded. “Doing well. Doing verywell.”

“Glad to hear that.” I raised myrifle but didn’t point it at him. Just eased it down on myshoulder, barrel pointed toward the sky.

“So, who are you really?”

The answer came from Geneva who hadslipped by my elbow. “He’s the man who’s been shadowing us.”She laughed. “The man who has been listening to all oursongs.”

Ryker nodded. “Yes. I am theinhabitant, the sole inhabitant of this chamber. I’m very contenthere. I have no complaints whatsoever. But I rarely have company.Pleasure to have you drop by.” He opened his hands and showed themto us, palms up as if surrendering. “I can change my shape, so Ithought of appearing as one of your old friends, major. My trueshapewould be very ugly to you. I prefer not to shock you.”

“Few things can shock us, but Iappreciate the courtesy. Kinda nice of you.”

For some reason he looked immenselypleased to be talking to us. Akin to a high school nerd when themostbeautiful girl deigns to talk to him. You can look at him and tellhe’s having a good day.

“I had no knowledge of humans beforeyou dropped here. You are an intriguing race. Incredibly complex.And… admirable.”