23 Mar 2011

Promethium

Posted by joncooper

“One more hour,” Davis Silver whispered. The unshaven man sat in the cockpit of the starship Aurora, which was hurtling toward its destination with all the speed Davis could coax out of the aging vessel. He had spent the past two days trying to repair the ship’s erratic drive but he finally gave up out of sheer frustration. This worthless piece of junk is just too far gone to be fixed, he thought bitterly.

Behind him someone coughed violently but the pilot didn’t turn around. He knew exactly who it was and felt only irritation at the unwelcome sound. In the back of the ship an elderly man was lying on a dirty cot. He had been sleeping for hours and was finally regaining consciousness. The injured man was too weak to get out of bed, but he was able to lift up his head and see what Davis was doing in the cockpit. A look of fear crossed the man’s face when he saw the ship’s current position and heading. “You shouldn’t be doing this, you know. This isn’t going to end well for you.”

“I told you to shut up, Julius!” Davis snarled. “I don’t want to hear it. You whine a lot, you know that?”

“You stole my ship,” Julius whispered. “You–”

“I had to steal your ship, you moron – it was the only way I could save my planet! With millions of lives at stake you expected me to take the time to mull over the ethics of private property? Besides, if you hadn’t resisted you wouldn’t have a broken arm right now. All of this is your fault.”

“You didn’t have to take me with you,” Julius protested. “That was not wise. I’m sure my people have already–”

“Blah, blah, blah,” Davis shot back. “I don’t want to hear it. Besides, we’re almost to Marilla now. After I get the promethium I need we’ll turn around and head back to my planet. You can find your way home from there. What happens to you is not my problem. I’ve got bigger things to care about than someone who’s almost dead anyway.”

“You’re never going to reach your home,” Julius said. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. Marilla is in Guardian territory. If you go there and steal its resources it will be considered an act of war. They’re going to–”

Davis whirled around in his chair. “I’ve about had it with you, you know that? You’ve done nothing but complain for the past two days. If I didn’t need you as a hostage I would have shoved you out of the airlock days ago. I’m not interested in your fairy tales about all-powerful beings that protect weak morons such as yourself. I don’t care about your planet, your people, or your problems. You don’t seem to understand that if I don’t get a supply of promethium 147 back to my home world its nuclear batteries will shut down, its life support will fail, and they’ll all die. Millions of lives are at stake and all you seem to care about is yourself.”

“That is why you should ask for their help,” Julius said. “The Guardians are generous. If you were to approach them–”

“I don’t care,” Davis shouted. “I’m going to take what I need and then get back home. They’ll never even know I was there. And as for you – I don’t want to hear anything else out of you, understand?”

* * * * *

 

Despite his bluster the pilot was more than a little nervous about crossing into Guardian space. While his people had never had dealings with them they had heard many stories. Officially the Guardians were just legends – tales supposedly invented to hide the fact that no one knew what lurked in the outer fringes of space. Until Davis had stolen the Aurora from Julius he had never even encountered a planet that had met them. Or claimed to have met them, at least.

And yet nothing happened. The Aurora crossed the invisible boundary line into Guardian space with no fanfare of any kind. No one hailed him and no ships appeared on the ship’s radar. For all intents and purposes the surrounding star systems appeared to be abandoned.

So he shook off his fears and pressed on.

An hour later the Aurora entered orbit around the desert planet Marilla. Davis had learned of the planet’s existence weeks ago, during his home world’s desperate search for a new source of promethium. Some decades-old records indicated that the remote planet Sarnaap II had scouted this region of space and located a large deposit of the rare element. Since they could find no other supply the governing council ordered Davis to travel to Marilla and bring its promethium back home. Davis then used a Gateway to reach Sarnaap II, stole the Aurora, and the rest was history.

Marilla was a large, rocky world, with only trace amounts of atmospheric gases. To Davis’ immense relief the planet did not appear to have any signs of life or settlements of any kind. The pilot finally began to relax.

“And there it is!” he said excitedly. “Right where the probe said it should be – and what a rich deposit it is, too! Why, if these readings are correct then that should be enough promethium to last us for years. This is everything we were hoping for!”

Julius said nothing.

As the pilot began to make preparations for landing a message appeared on a nearby console. Davis stared at it, frowning. “That’s odd,” he said. “It looks like there’s some kind of automated factory down there, right next to the mineral deposit.”

“Are they mining the element?” Julius asked.

“I don’t think so,” Davis said. “The sensors – well, it’s unclear, I guess. I really don’t know what that machine is doing. What I do know is that it’s going to be a problem. It’s generating some kind of intense distortion field. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Ok,” Julius replied. “Is that important?”

Davis sighed. “Look. Promethium is highly radioactive – it’s volatile, dangerous, and hazardous. I can’t just go and pick it up off the ground with my bare hands! That’s why I brought all those autominers with me. They can handle extracting the element and packaging it so that it’s stable for transport. But that distortion field down there is intense enough to fry their circuits. There’s no way the autominers could operate inside it.”

“So what now?” Julius asked.

The pilot thought for a moment. “I guess we’ll just have to remove the obstacle,” he said.

“How do you plan on doing that? My ship is not armed.”

“I know,” Davis said. “I wish I’d known that before we left – I might have chosen a different ship. But that’s ok. Your ship can launch probes, and as it happens I brought my own weapons.”

Davis left the cockpit and went into the ship’s cargo hold. He came back out ten minutes later, highly pleased with himself. He then took his seat back in the cockpit.

“What are you doing?” Julius asked nervously.

“I’m removing a problem,” Davis replied. “As it turns out, the antimatter weapon I brought with me fits into your probe launching system just fine. It should have no problem eliminating that facility.”

“You can’t do that!” Julius exclaimed, horrified. “You shouldn’t even be here in the first place. But to openly attack a Guardian facility–”

“Too late!” Davis shouted gleefully. He pressed a button on the console. “It’s done. And there it goes!”

Davis watched the ship’s console and tracked the progress of the antimatter weapon as it made its way toward the planet below. The Aurora’s computer guided the bomb with exquisite precision. It smashed into the unknown facility fifteen minutes later, detonating with tremendous force. Even from orbit Davis could see the brilliant flash of light that erupted when the bomb’s antimatter reacted with the normal matter around it.

“And there it goes!” he said. “The distortion field is gone, the facility is gone, and the path ahead is clear. Now it’s time for us to land.”

* * * * *

 

Julius spent the next several hours drifting in an out of consciousness. Davis had broken his arm two days before and had done a poor job of resetting it. He knew that the wound had become infected and at his age the effect was devastating. He was in poor health to begin with and this only compounded the problems. All he could do now is hope that, somehow, he could stay alive until they reached Davis’ home world. If, that is, Davis kept his word and actually released him once they got there.

He was only vaguely aware of what Davis was doing. The Aurora eventually landed on Marilla and Davis spent a lot of time going back and forth between the cockpit and the cargo hold. Eventually the autominers were released and set out to extract the promethium. Although barely conscious, Julius could tell that Davis was very pleased with the results. The ore deposit, it seemed, was a good one.

Julius wasn’t sure how much time Davis had spent on the surface but the Aurura must have eventually left the planet, for Julius suddenly realized that they were back in space again. Warning sirens were going off and Davis was panicking.

“What is wrong with this ship anyway?” Davis screamed, as he pounded the control panel again and again. “Why can’t it go any faster? Don’t you imbeciles know how to build ships?”

As weary as he was, Julius struggled to get out of bed and painfully made his way over to the cockpit. He sank down in the copilot’s chair and looked at the console.

“You’re pushing her pretty hard,” Julius pointed out. “She won’t last long at this rate! You’re going to burn out the engines.”

We’re not going to last long either!” Davis shouted. “Don’t you see that thing?”

Julius glanced at the radar and saw that they were being followed. On the extreme outer limit of the sensor display was the largest spaceship he had ever seen. It was still light-years away but it was coming toward them at an unbelievable rate.

“Why, that ship is more than a thousand miles wide,” Julius whispered. “It’s big enough to be a planet.”

“It’s not fair!” Davis cried out. “We left Guardian space five minutes ago but it’s still chasing us. Don’t they realize we’re not in their territory anymore?”

“Maybe they want their promethium back,” Julius replied.

“Well they’re not going to get it!” Davis screamed. He quickly changed course and the ship shot toward the nearest star system.

Julius looked at him curiously. “Why are you going there? It’s an empty system – there’s no one there to protect you. There’s nothing there but rocks.”

“Exactly,” Davis said. “The two planets in that system were destroyed ages ago in the Kreuger Rebellion. There are asteroids everywhere and they’re laced with radiation. We should be able to hide there until these monsters get bored and go home.”

“Do you really think that rocks can hide you from the masters of space?” Julius asked.

“I’m counting on it,” Davis replied.

The pilot maintained the ship’s breakneck pace well into the star system. He only slowed down when the computer told him that total destruction was imminent. With a watchful eye on the rapidly-approaching Guardians, he guided the Aurora into the heart of a cluster of asteroids.

“There we go,” he said, as he landed the ship in a deep crater on a particularly large planetary fragment. “The intense radiation from the surrounding rocks completely blocks our sensors – in fact, it’s saturating everything. I can’t detect the Guardians at all anymore so hopefully they can’t detect us either. And as long as we’re in this crater they shouldn’t be able to see us, either. Now all we have to do is wait.”

“How long?” Julius asked.

Davis shrugged. “The last time I saw them they were still a half-hour away. So we’ve got a bit of breathing room.”

Julius shook his head. “That’s not what I mean. How long are you planning on waiting? An hour? A day? If you can’t detect them then how will you know they’re gone? And this radiation – the ship wasn’t designed to–”

“I’m sure we’ll figure something out,” Davis said. “Besides, I don’t see them sticking around long. They’ll soon realize it’s a hopeless task and will leave. After all, it’s only a bit of promethium – which they weren’t even mining! It’s not like they’re going to miss it.”

So they waited. The minutes crawled slowly by. Julius longed to go back to bed but decided to stay in the cockpit and see what happened. He looked through the cockpit’s crystal windows but could see very little. Around them was utter darkness. Their crater was on the dark side of the asteroid, far away from sunlight. He could not even see the surface of the rock. Davis had killed the ship’s lights in order to keep their position hidden, so the dim glow of the console was their only source of light.

As his eyes became accustomed to the darkness he realized that there were stars overhead. Occasionally a dark mass passed in front of stars, which Julius guessed were simply the bodies of nearby asteroids that happened to be drifting by. Still, it gave him comfort to see the stars. It was comforting to think that, perhaps, one of them was his home. He wondered if he would live to see it again.

Nothing happened for a long time and neither of them said anything. They simply waited. Eventually Julius drifted off to sleep.

* * * * *

 

He was suddenly startled back to consciousness by a brilliant flood of light. The area around them was illuminated with intense energy. The shadows were driven away and the stars vanished. Every detail of the crater and the ship were revealed. They had been found.

It took Julius a moment to realize that the light was coming from above them. A giant starship completely filled the visible sky and white light was emanating from it in all directions. Davis was screaming something but Julius ignored him. He simply stared up at the ship with a feeling of awe and wonder. Unlike Davis, he was not afraid. He actually found himself feeling excited for the first time in years. He had heard stories of the Guardians for so long but this was the first time he had actually seen them for himself.

Julius finally realized that Davis was talking to someone. He tore his gaze away from the scene outside and looked at Davis, who was staring at the back of the ship with an expression of complete terror. “I didn’t do it! It’s not my fault!”

The elderly man turned and saw that there was now a third person in the ship. Julius could not make out any details of this third being; all he could see was an outline of a man that was clothed in radiant energy. It was a beautiful sight.

“You have done a great deal,” the being said, in a voice that sounded like music. “You have stolen the Aurora from Julius Hargrove and injured him to the point of death. You have invaded our territory, attacked our planet, and stolen our resources. In short, you have declared war on us. We are not amused.”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Davis screamed. “I had to do it! Our people were dying. This was the only way to save them. Did you want me to let all those people die? You have no idea what it’s like back home!”

“We will soon,” the alien replied. “Even now a fleet of our ships is en route to your home world. It will arrive within the hour. When it does we will take control of it and decide what measures are appropriate.”

“You have no right to do that!” Davis shouted. “You leave us alone!”

“We have every right, Davis Silver. You have proven yourself to be a threat to life in this galaxy. If your whole planet is as corrupt as you are then it cannot be allowed freedom. We may be forced to deny your people access to space in order to protect those who live around you – people such as Julius Hargrove, for example.”

“Thank you,” Julius said. “Who are you? What is your name?”

“I am Meza,” the alien replied. He approached Julius and put his hand on his shoulder. A feeling of warm energy coursed through his body. The pain that had tormented him for days vanished and he felt a renewed strength.

“I can feel my arm again,” Julius said in wonder. “Thank you.”

“You may return home now,” Meza replied. He made a motion with his hand and Julius disappeared.

“And you can just take your ship and get out of here,” Davis said. “You have no right to interfere with us!”

“Your planet requires our intervention in order to survive,” the alien pointed out. “Without our aid all life on your planet will die. We must also find a way to protect your neighbors from you. After your world has been stabilized it may be necessary to impose a quarantine.”

“I’ve got plenty of promethium already, moron! We can help ourselves. Just get out of our way. I have a planet to save, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“You have no promethium at all, Davis Silver. The supply you had obtained did not belong to you and has been removed from your ship. We will not allow you to profit from your activities.”

Davis looked at the alien with a feeling of intense anger. “I hate you! I hate you and all of your miserable kind. All you want to do is impose your will on other people. Well, I’ve had it, you hear? I want you to get out of my life and away from this place.”

“You need our help,” Meza said. “You cannot survive without us, Davis.”

“I don’t care!” he shouted. “Just leave – you hear me?”

Meza paused. “Very well. The choice is yours. I will not save Davis Silver against his will.” With that the alien disappeared. A moment later the spaceship disappeared as well and the brilliant light vanished with it. The crater was plunged back into darkness.

Still angry, Davis pressed a button on the console to activate the ship’s engines. Nothing happened. Annoyed, he tried it again and again. The engines refused to fire.

“Why won’t you start?” he screamed. “What’s the matter with you? What have you done to my ship, Meza?”

As he stared at the console in frustration he suddenly saw something. A warning message was flashing in bright red – a message that had apparently been flashing for quite some time. “RADIATION DAMAGE”, it blared. “SYSTEM FAILURE IMMINENT.”

Only then did Davis realize what he had done. The Aurora was an old ship, well past its prime, and he had plunged it into an area of intense radiation. The radiation had begun to work its way through the hull and started destroying its critical systems. The fragile engines were already gone and there was no way to repair them. It would only be a matter of time – perhaps a short time – before life support followed.

He could call for help but the intense radiation blocked all outgoing signals. Even if he could have sent out a signal no one could possibly find him. The radiation could not hide him from the Guardians, but it was extremely effective at hiding him from everyone else.

As the Aurora began to die Davis realized bitterly that he had been granted his wish – he was very much alone. This asteroid was destined to be his home for a short time, after which it would be his tomb for a very long time. The intense radiation would not fade away for hundreds of thousands of years, and as long as it lasted it would keep the curious at bay. No one would ever bother Davis again.

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