Timestar Read online

  Table of Contents

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Twenty-Six

  Twenty-Seven

  Twenty-Eight

  Twenty-Nine

  Thirty

  Thirty-One

  Thirty-Two

  Thirty-Three

  Thirty-Four

  Thirty-Five

  Thirty-Six

  Thirty-Seven

  Thirty-Eight

  Thirty-Nine

  TIMESTAR

  Robert George Mertens

  Copyright 2004 by Robert George Mertens

  One

  Copyright 2004 by Robert George Mertens

  It was a night flight and Frank Jameson looked out his window toward the ground. There were no lights below, so he guessed that they must be over water. He looked across the cabin at the other passengers. Their faces were white with fear. He glanced at Marker, who appeared as calm as ever.

  "Dyna?" Frank asked quietly, keeping his turned head forward so as not to attract attention to himself.

  "She knows," Marker replied, "Help is on the way."

  "I don't want anyone hurt."

  "YOU!" the hijacker holding the hand grenade yelled, "You have something to say? You say to me!" he ordered. "Everybody keep quiet. You come here!" he was looking at Frank.

  The other passengers looked on fearfully as Frank stalled.

  "I won't say anything else. I promise," Frank answered.

  "COME HERE!"

  "Please; this man will not bother you any more," Marker said, standing.

  Frank was in the window seat and Marker was in the middle. The aisle seat was vacant.

  "You want to die, fool?" he yelled. He reached under his jacket pulling out a club, and struck Marker across the face, knocking him back into his seat. Gasps and cries came from the other passengers.

  Frank knew that this would not hurt Marker in the least, and that Marker had fallen back into his seat intentionally to avoid conflict. The whole action was intended to distract the hijacker from Frank. It worked. The hijacker was called away and Frank was saved from nasty beating. But it did not stop him from hearing the muffled crying nearby.

  "Report," Frank whispered.

  "No damage, sir. How does it look?"

  "The blood looks real. I like your bruise."

  "Thank you, sir."

  Frank heard yelling and screaming at the front of the plane. A young girl could faintly be heard squealing, "No, no, please, no."

  "What's going on, Marker?"

  "As far as I can tell, they're preparing to kill someone."

  "Stop them."

  "Yes, sir."

  They brought one of the passengers to the back of the plane—a young man, pushing him along while holding his hair. He had been beaten. Some of the passengers murmured. Some cried.

  Marker stood up at a crouch and slid into the aisle. Frank watched as Marker sprinted ten yards in a quarter of a second, and with computer accuracy and speed, disabled two of the hijackers. A moment later the two hijackers lay on the floor unconscious and the young man had been seated. Their guns were destroyed, lying in pieces on the floor of the cabin.

  It was the ensuing lack of commotion that aroused the attention of the other hijacker, particularly the one with the hand grenade, who promptly threw it at Marker.

  Screams and gasps penetrated the air as Marker snatched the grenade out of the air and swallowed it whole. A moment later there was a loud thud. Nearby passengers stared in disbelief as he calmly walked back to his seat and sat down next to Frank.

  "I'm afraid I can't be of any more assistance to you, sir," Marker said, and his head fell forward. For a moment he sat erect in his seat. Then his whole upper body slumped forward against the seat in front of him. The man sitting in front of him peered over the back of his chair at Marker.

  "He’ll be alright," Frank told him.

  The man refused to turn around.

  "Indigestion," Frank said, and the man finally sat back in his seat.

  Frank looked on in anger and sadness. Marker had been a friend to him. But he had saved a young man’s life and put two of the hijackers out of commission, not to mention their weapons. Now there were only two armed hijackers left to deal with.

  Dyna monitored Marker's communications link during the hyjacking. Marker still transmitted his homing signal and would continue to do so for several days yet, after which time, without intervention, he would vaporize and turn to dust.

  The hijacker that had thrown the hand grenade ran to the front of the plane to warn the other two of what he had just witnessed. But now, with the exception of his club, he was weaponless. A couple of minutes later he came running back with his partner—the one with the machine-gun. They stopped and stood next to Marker.

  "What is this?" The man with the gun asked, looking at Frank, "Is this a trick? You will die now if you don't tell me!"

  "It's a robot," Frank answered, calmly.

  "You LIE!" he said, wildly, pointing his gun at Frank's face.

  The hijacker froze, as a loud, tearing noise came from the back of the aircraft and below-decks.

  Frank looked over his shoulder to see what held the hijackers in shock. It was a mountain of an android in the shape of a man, with silvery mirror-sheened skin. Frank recognized Trong.

  "Oh my gawd!" came from somewhere.

  "What is it?" from somewhere else.

  "Damn!"

  "Just keep quiet!" from the same place.

  Frank looked at the hijackers and said, "Now you're gonna get it."

  Its deep, powerful voice was unmistakable. "Drop your weapon or die."

  "I wouldn't piss him off, if I were you," Frank warned.

  For a moment, the two hijackers stood frozen. Then, the one with the machine gun aimed it at Trong and fired. The roar of the machine gun deafened as the slapping of bullets flattening themselves against Trong's impenetrable skin. The hijacker emptied the clip against Trong. With lightning speed Trong rushed forward and disabled the hijacker, knocking him unconscious. The one with the club dropped it, put his hands in the air, begging for mercy.

  "Are you alright, sir?" he asked Frank.

  "I'm fine, Trong. See to the rest of the hijackers. What about the one in the cockpit?"

  "That one has been disabled. I will check the rest of the passengers. More help is on the way. An aircar will be here shortly to get you away from here."

  "How did you get the one up front?"

  "That one was disabled by Spydre. I will secure the law-breakers for the authorities to deal with. They'll cause no more problems."

  "There was a bomb on-board somewhere."

  "That has been located and disarmed."

  "Who are you?" The man in the seat in front of him was looking at him again.

  "Be seated, sir. Everything is under control." Trong's voice was a commandment. The man jumped back into his seat.

  "Mind your own business, Fred," came from the seat next to him. It sounded like his wife.

  "Daddy, can I have a robot like that one for Christmas?"

  "No. Be quiet."

  Frank sat and waited as Trong made rounds checking for more hijackers.

  Scanning all of the passengers,
he managed to find one with a pistol. That one turned out to be an off-duty Turkish policeman. More help and supplies arrived in the aircar. All five of the hijackers were handcuffed and stuffed into one of the lavatories, then the door was welded shut. Frank would not have thought that possible if he had not seen Trong stuff them in there. Shortly, a human-shaped workbot came and gathered Marker, carrying him off. Then Trong returned.

  "The aircar is ready, sir. Please come with me."

  "What about the rest of the passengers?"

  "We have checked all of the passengers. They are sound. The stewards will care for the injured man. He'll survive. We must leave."

  Frank followed Trong to the back of the plane and into the luggage compartment. At the center of the compartment was a hole between the aircraft and something down below. He looked down into the hole, seeing the interior of the aircar. Momentarily, he felt some misgivings about climbing out the bottom of an airliner in flight. Finally, he loosened up and climbed down into the aircar. When he got in he saw Marker stored in the back. As soon as Frank had seated himself, Spydre entered and hovered in midair.

  Shortly, the aircar detached itself from the aircraft, and Frank could see workbots scrambling to reseal the hole in its belly.

  "Dyna, can you hear me?"

  "Affirmative, Frank."

  "Would you get that thing out of here please, it scares the hell out of me."

  "Spydre was your invention, Frank."

  "I know."

  A small compartment opened and Spydre zipped into it and disappeared.

  "Where to, Frank?"

  "Drop me off in Turkey."

  Frank was taken to Turkey, and within a day, Marker returned to him, all shiny and new, completely repaired. The rest of Frank’s holiday was fairly uneventful, with the exception of a few minor incidents, the type of which are normal during vacations.

  He returned to his home deep in the Nevada desert after three months and found it completely remodeled. The crew had been living there and in the starship during their training period. All had just returned from two week long visits to their respective homes and were ready to begin the trip.

  When the day came to leave, Dyna brought the shuttle down from behind the moon, where the starship was kept hidden, and landed it in the desert. Frank said goodbye to his home while everyone got into the landcar. He then got into the vehicle with his crew and it drove out to the desert towards the sleek, low profile shuttlecraft about four miles away.

  They were two miles out when Frank looked back to see his home and garden turn to dust in a light explosion. Only the desert and mountains remained. The landcar stopped at the front of the shuttle and everyone got out. Then it scurried around to the back of the shuttle and disappeared up a ramp into an open storage bay. The ramp was drawn up until it was flush with the shuttle’s hull, becoming then a part of the shuttle’s exterior skin. A smaller door stood open and bright lights lit up the entrance. They looked around at each other for a few moments, and then Captain and crew started walking up the ramp leading into the shuttle.

  Once everyone was aboard and seated, the shuttle lifted, gently and swiftly, into the atmosphere, and was high into the darkness of space in a few moments. Frank had a window seat, as usual, and looked out over the world he knew he would not see again for a long time. He did not know how he knew this, it seemed he could almost only feel it. But he knew.

  The 200,000-kilometer trip to the moon took only a few minutes. It was as uneventful as driving a car to the store down the street.

  Each person found spacious private living quarters and even more spacious public quarters within. There were game rooms, libraries, dining rooms, athletic fields, swimming pools, TV rooms, classrooms and myriad other rooms. Dyna reminded them that anything they had on earth could be easily manufactured on the ship. There were even a zoo and a farm, both of which, out of necessity, were tended by robots.

  "Is everything ready?" Frank asked.

  "All systems are go, Frank," Dyna replied.

  "Let's go then."

  There was a hush on the command deck as the forty-three point seven megaton starship quietly rounded the edge of the moon. Frank saw the sun come up as he watched the earth float away. The ship stopped in space for a moment, where he could still see the sun. Then it took a new direction. He watched the sun as it turned red, and in moment of fierce acceleration became a tiny speck and then disappeared into the background of space.

  Two

  To the aft of the ship, the stars turned red and faded together into a mass, while forward, a blue spot in space grew larger and larger.

  "Approaching light speed, Frank," Dyna said. Frank said nothing, but sat and marveled. Sitting in this room gave him the visual sensation of being surrounded by space and experiencing the same motions as the ship, without having to worry about the physiological problems of actually being there. In reality, the room was a sphere onto which was projected an image of what was going on outside the ship.

  "Temporal shift in twelve seconds," Dyna said, again receiving no reply.

  The next few moments were ones Frank would never forget as long as he lived.

  The blue spot in front of the ship expanded and grew rapidly until it became bright blue at the edges and deepened to a dark violet directly in front of the ship. Everything aft of the ship had melded into a red disc. For an instant Frank felt as though he might be crushed between the two discs as they passed into infinity. The blackness of space was gone, as were the stars. Everything was either dark red or violet.

  Then, a pure white sky engulfed the ship, seemingly by sneaking up from behind and swallowing it. The red disc was bleached out by the white of transpace as the violet disc shrank and turned into a pretty blue star. Space here was white and had a whole new set of stars, each one easily remembered by its color.

  "We're at superlight velocity now, Frank, presently three hundred and twenty thousand kilometers per second and acceleration is constant at thirty kilometers per second squared," Dyna remarked.

  Frank stared at the different stars, each with its own aura, each a different flavor. He sat and watched for several minutes. Finally, he touched a switch on the arm of his chair and a moment later he was on the bridge. There, five of the crewmembers were busy watching screens. They were as awestruck as he was. He guessed that the rest must still be in the visual spheres. The environment on the bridge seemed to bring him back to his senses, as though he had been hypnotized.

  "Are you alright Frank? You look a little dazed," Anna asked. Maria, Sandy, Michelle and Nikki started popping out of their visual spheres, also bleary-eyed and slightly dazed.

  "Ah, yeah, I'm okay. What an experience! That was incredible. Dyna should have taken me up earlier, when she was doing those test runs. I never realized what I've been missing."

  "It was beautiful, wasn't it," Suni interjected.

  "But also a little scary," Anna said.

  "Dyna gave us a schedule, Frank. Looks like you're on first shift. However, this is second shift, so Paddy and I are on now. You'll be on in fifteen hours."

  "Sounds fine to me. Dyna, what's our ETA to destination at present acceleration?"

  "Approximately two hundred and seventy years, Frank." A few gasps came out.

  "Gee, is there any way we can shorten that?"

  "Yes, we can increase our acceleration."

  "What are we running now, thirty kpss?"

  "Negative," Dyna answered, "Presently our acceleration is one hundred and sixty, and increasing in steps."

  Suni interrupted, "That was my decision Frank. I asked Dyna not to apply full acceleration right away, as a precautionary measure. We don't really know what's out there yet."

  "I agree. We should take a little time to test the waters. What final acceleration will we need in order to arrive there within a reasonable time period?"

  "About four hundred thousand, Frank," Suni answered, as more gasps slipped into the air. "And that will get us to our destination, thir
ty-two thousand light-years away, in three weeks. Our turn-point velocity will be three hundred and thirty billion KPS. If we hit anything, we'll be dust."

  "Well, at least it'll be quick," Frank answered. "Looks like we have a little time on our hands. Anyone for a game of tennis?"

  "Me!"

  "I do!"

  "Me too!"

  So, Frank and Nikki played a few games of doubles against Heidi and Sandy, while Michelle, Anna, Tia and Maria looked on from the sidelines and Paddy watched from the bridge. Afterwards, the players showered and dressed for dinner. Everyone came to dinner including the watch crew, though Suni kept a console next to her as she ate.

  After dinner Frank said, "How about a movie?"

  "Sorry, Frank," Michelle answered, "Anna and I are on in four hours. I don't know about her, but I'm going to get some sleep."

  "I must also," Anna answered.

  "I'd like to see a movie!" Nikki answered, "I've never seen an American movie where the voices were not in my own language. I'd like to hear what those people really sound like."

  Frank laughed and said, "And so you shall."

  Those who were not on duty or asleep watched a movie.

  Afterwards Frank went to bed. The lights dimmed and he lay there thinking, until he was disturbed by someone entering his quarters.

  "Frank… are you awake?"

  The voice was Nikki's and her silhouette told him she was scantily dressed.

  "Yes," Frank answered, not really knowing what to say or expect. He sat up in his bed.

  "May I sleep with you tonight? I'm a little scared and I want to be with you," she said as she walked into his room.

  Frank was taken aback by this unusual request as he tried to discover the reasoning behind it.

  "What are you scared of Nikki? What's bothering you?"

  "I'm just… a little scared… and lonely. I miss my home."

  "But you've only been away for a few hours."

  "I know, but I've never been this far away. Oh Frank, when will I be able to go home again?"

  Frank thought for a moment and said, "Any time you want Nikki. You just tell me and I'll turn this ship around and take you home."