Logan Ryvenbark's Saga Box Set

Table of contents-4

“I might be able to sit around andplay golf a couple of times a week. I consider making a sub-parroundto be greatness.”

“Whenever you tried that Logan, itdidn’t work out.”

“Not yet. That doesn’t mean itnever will.”

“True. Age changes us. Marriagechanges us. The job changes us. I don’t think I could ever retire,at least not right now, but maybe you could. Besides, we likechallenges. Some men run away from challenges. We run towardthem.”

I sipped more of the liquor. “Perhaps.But that tendency does cut down on the life expectancy.”

Rab raised his glass. “But when wego, we haven’t led lives of quiet desperation.”

“Yes, we’ve led lives of frantic,hectic desperation.”

“And achievement.”

Before I answered Rab, I answered acall.

“Yes, this is Ryvenbark.”

“Major, this is Riley, third level.We have one. A man appeared in one of the caverns. But he’s in badshape. He’s unconscious.”

“Get him to our medical room. Hurry!”I said.

Chapter 8

In his medical cot, the unconscious manlooked human, with the exception of skin the color of bronze. Hehada skintight uniform that was also bronze. The green lines on themedical screen showed he was in good shape. Temperature, bloodpressure, heart rate, etc, were fine. Brain activity, even thoughhewas unconscious, was surprisingly strong. He had suffered a minorconcussion and lacerations appeared on his forehead and cheek, withblood leaking onto his face. The laceration cleared up quickly. Isuspected he had medical nanos or something very much likethat.

Dr. Conroy Manning was standing next tothe bed looking up at the green numbers and lines.

“I have no medical experience, butI’m guessing the numbers indicate he will be fine,” I said.

“He should be. He suffered some typeof trauma trying to get here. But he’s breathing normally andshould awake soon. He got a minor bump on the head, but nothingthatshould cause long-term injury. I don’t know where he came from, butit looks like he had a rough journey.”

“That’s what I want to know; wherehe came from, and if there are any others like him.”

“Give him a little time and he cananswer your questions.”

I nodded.

Gunfire rattled through the chambers.The burst-burst of laser fire.

“MacLean here so. Intruder dead.Level three. Reptilian creature, with a weapon.”

“Getting to be popular location,” Isaid to Rab as we ran out.

Soldier Scotty MacLean was a six-footthree blond who looked like an Olympic gymnast even with the Arcticjacket on. He stood alert over the fallen intruder but gave asnappysalute as we walked. My reply wasn’t quite as snappy, but it was asalute. MacLean looked down at the dead creature.

“About three minutes ago the lightsflashed and the walls rippled. Loud humming from somewhere. Ashadowfirst and then this thing popped up. He was holding a weapon andaimed it at me. But I shot before he did.”

The thing before me had a face like amutated lizard. Large eyes, big nose, teeth like a shark. Darkgreenin coloration. He had hands, but the fingers looked like shorttentacles. Clothed in a dark uniform. MacLean’s laser blasts hadblown two large holes in him, front and back.

“An ugly thing,” Rab said.

“Sure is. Wonder if he came from thesame place the other guy did. And he was carrying a weapon.”

“Doesn’t mean much. When we travelto a world we carry weapons, but we’re incredibly nice guys.” Helooked down at the green intruder. “Although somehow I don’tthink he’s a nice guy. See that mouth?”

“Don’t think I’ve seen anythinglike this before. How about you, Rab?”

Rab had a cigar in his mouth. He tookit out and looked like he was going to reply. Then he frowned. Hestuck the cigar back in and walked to the dead creature. He kneltdown as he puffed on the cigar. Ashes dropped and fell onto thecreature’s face.

“We’ve seen creatures like thisbefore,” he said.

“Where?”

Rab spit out some tobacco. “Ten yearsago. On Vanodor. We didn’t get a good look at them because theyskedaddled when we arrived fully armed. Most of what we saw weretheir backsides, but their fronts looked like this. Remember?”

I did.

A decade ago, a mini-league dictatordecided to take over Vanodor; a nice, scenic, out-of-the-way world.Name was Conbor, but he liked to attach ‘general’ to his name. Abrilliant guy, scientifically speaking. He could have legitimatelyattached ‘genius’ to his name. But the man lusted for power. Thepeople on Vanodor were peaceful and lived a rustic,pre-technologicalexistence. They didn’t have the firepower he did. He had won theallegiance of a bunch of lizard types who, for some reason, didwhatever he wanted them to. Conbor had also assembled a bunch ofrogue scientists around him; men who liked power as much as hedid.

Rab was right. General Conbor’slizard friends looked very similar to the creature on the floor. Ihadn’t thought of it before. We dispatched them rather quickly so Inever got a close view of them. Conbor, somehow, escaped. He wasveryupset at having his plans disrupted. He promised to kill me at anundisclosed later date.

I looked at MacLean. “Good job,soldier.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“We’ll get two men to drag him tothe medical room.” I frowned. “If there’s one of these outthere, I’m guessing there may be a whole bunch of lizards somewhereout there too.” I thought for a minute. “I wonder if he was afterour bronze guest. He came with a gun and the bronze guy wasunarmed.”

“Could be. That’s logical,” Rabsaid.

I checked with the Panther and Cajun,but they still had no idea where the bronze guy had beamed in from.Which made me uneasy. There are still a great many mysteries inspacebut, with our technology, we generally get detailed backgroundknowledge about what we’re facing. The fact that two brilliantscientists knew nothing was bothersome.

“I’m going to check all thecaverns, on all three levels. Why don’t you come with me, Rab?”

“Always ready for a pleasant walk.But I’ll bring my weapon, just in case.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me.”

Chapter 9

The pleasant walk took about an hour.After our two visitors arrived, both the humming and the flashingcolors calmed down. The cavern’s rock stayed silent and stopped theelastic bending. When I got back to the medical room, the bronzeman’s bed was empty.

“He was fine, so I put him in aprivate room. I thought you might like to talk to him,” Dr. Manningsaid.

“Yes, I would.”

“Before you do, there’s something Ineed to tell you.”

I nodded.

The doctor crossed his arms. “Hisname is Tarum, at least that’s a rough translation of it. Becausehe appeared to have a minor concussion I did a scan of his brain.What I saw was amazing. I confirmed my suspicions with him when heawoke. When you talk to him, major, he is going to have to speakveryslowly because he will have to slow his brain down. He has the mostremarkable brain structure I’ve ever seen.”

“So he’s intelligent?” I said.

“Yes, but it’s a great deal morethan that. We are genrich. Our genes are perfect. We’re at an IQlevel previous generations could only dream about. But that’s notwhat sets him apart. I…” Manning shook his head. “I’m notsure how I can explain. His brain simply works faster, much fasterthan ours do.” He gave a sigh of exasperation. “Let me give youan example. Let’s say you and a dozen member of your squad are on aplanet, in a forest. Your soldiers are spread out but they are allconnected, electronically, with you. You can talk to themindividually.”

“OK, let’s say that. Your pointis?”

“My point is Tarum could talk to themall individually and simultaneously.”

It took a second before I realized whatDr. Manning was saying.

“How could he do that without twelvemouths?”

“I don’t know, but I’m tellingyou he has that capacity. I also suspect his race is telepathic.Using his brain, he could ‘talk’ to a dozen people at the sametime and not lose a syllable of the conversation. That’s what Imeant when I said his brain is amazing.”

“That… is rather impressive.”

“That’s why he has to talk slowlyto you. He has to slow his mind down to speak to humans.”

“Akin to us talking to a smallchild?” I said.

“That is a rough analogy but it is,to a degree, apt.”

When I walked in, Tarum was looking ata computer screen where pages from a history book flashed by.Flashing by at an amazing rate. When I stepped in, he was to about1750 in human history. A few seconds later he was in the 21stcentury. He turned his head toward me and smiled.

“You are from an amazing race, major.You have made remarkable achievements in a short period oftime.”

“We have a few things to be proud of.And, like I suppose every race, we’ve blown it a few times.”

He turned around in his chair. “I amTarum. My race is called the Cappnids. That’s a rough translationinto your language.”

“Good to meet you. I’m sure yourrace has many achievements to be proud of too, but right now I haveno time and I need to ask you about other things.”

He nodded. “I have something I musttell you.”

“Where did you come from? I mean whenyou beamed into this place.”

“I came from Sandeling.”

“Where? There is nothing moving orliving on this planet.”

“You are correct, major. I came fromthis planet, but not from this time.”

I leaned back against the door andcrossed my arms. “Generally I have pretty good hearing, but couldyou repeat that one more time?”

“I came from three hundred years inthe past, major.” He raised his hand and gestured toward theoutside. “This structure you see, the caverns, are one vastmachine. A time machine. Which my race had to use to flee theSoltarians or we would have been exterminated.”

“Are the Soltarians a reptilian racewith large eyes and a whole lot of big teeth?”

He looked puzzled and shook his head.“No, they are about six-five, huge and furry. I’ve been readingyour history. The Soltarians look a bit like Earth’s grizzly bears,but they stand on two feet. Their coloration is between orange andbrown. Shorter nose than the grizzly. They do have stubby, hairyfingers, not claws.”

“The Soltarians did this?”

“Yes.”

I stuck another cigar in my mouth andlit it. I was puzzled. The Federation knew very little about theSoltarian race. We didn’t even know where their home planet was.Their communications indicated they desired to be left alone. SotheFederation left them alone. Tarum interrupted my thoughts.

“They are a great danger to my raceand they are now a tremendous danger to your race. They seek toconquer and destroy. We did not understand that, not at first. Wearenon-violent people. We knew nothing of what you call war and didn’twant to learn. Some time ago the Soltarians made contact with usandwe welcomed them, as we would any race. A few of my race becamewaryof Soltarians and warned us of what they believed was a savagenessinthem. We did not listen. As I said, we did not want war.”

“People rarely do. You may not want awar, but if another race decides to make war on you, you have nochoice. War only needs the assent of one side. You either fight ordie.”

For a moment, the bronze man lookedmelancholy.

“Most of us died,” he said. “Whenthe Soltarians attacked, we had no weapons of defense.”

“Tarum, with all your intelligenceyou did not discern their true nature? You didn’t see what theywere?”

“We did not want to see. We wereblind, but it was self-induced. We had had a thousand years ofpeace.We didn’t want a war, so we convinced ourselves one was notcoming.”

“At times I’ve felt intelligentpeople can be the stupidest folks in the galaxy. With all duerespect, I think you’ve proved that.”

“You may be right. But there is notime to commiserate with my race. You must worry about your ownraceand the fate of every other race in the galaxy.”

“Care to explain that? In fact, whydon’t you tell me, in detail, what happened here after theSoltarians attacked?”

He nodded.

“We are not warlike, but we arescientifically and technologically advanced. The Soltarians didn’tmake a military strike, per se, but a biological one. They releasedatoxin that was deadly to my people, and we began dying. The toxin,though, did not affect the Soltarians. But we managed to mutate thetoxin and turned it into an agent that was poisonous to ourinvaders.They began dying too. But our population had been devastated. TheSoltarians, alas, died more slowly than we did. We knew they wouldtrain their weapons upon us. So we made our escape, throughtime.”

“You went back to the past?” Isaid.

“Yes. We thought we might returnafter the toxins faded from the atmosphere. But we made one greatmistake. The invaders discovered our ploy and they too came throughtime. They had three ships circling and preparing to bomb theplanet.But a number of Soltarians, infected with the toxin but not showingany symptoms yet, had returned to their ships. They infected thecrews. In a short time most of them were dying. With no one to runthem, the ships began to fall to earth and were destroyed. When theSoltarians on the last ship saw their comrades dead, they destroyedthe atmosphere and turned the planet into an ice world, thusassuringwe could never return to the present. The remaining Soltarians onthesurface of the planet had gone through time to three hundred yearsinthe past, where they are now.”

“So they are imprisoned in the past.That means we don’t have to worry about them.”

He shook his head. “Just theopposite. Thousands of Soltarians escaped into the past. But theytook with them robots, weapons and all their knowledge. TheSoltarians also bred quickly, very quickly. With the knowledge theytook into the past they can rebuild their civilization. In fiftyyears or less they can be as powerful as you are now. They can makeships and begin their storm of conquest. Can your world of twohundred and fifty years ago stop them?”