Traveller - L.W. Samuelson (free e books to read online TXT) 📗

men who have volunteered to evaluate the planet Earth, to prepare the way for our colonization, and to send back reconnaissance information to make our mission a success,” Traveller could hear the muffled words of Logis. He held his head down, climbed the stairs and stood in line with the protectors. Luckily, Porter was on the far end of the group.
When the speech ended, Traveller held his hands up before he bowed. The protectors, more humble than their infiltrator, simply bowed. With the ceremony over, the group filed past Logis and shook hands. The real protectors placed their helmets on afterward.
Traveller brought up the end of the line. When he got to Logis, his head was held down as if in shame. “Running a little late?” asked their leader, the Chosen One.
“Sorry Fa Gnoeth. I was so excited, I didn’t sleep.”
“I understand. Good luck. May you find favor in the universe,” he said not suspecting that it was Traveller. None of the Benwarians saw anything amiss. They never questioned the lumpy interstellar suit or the not quite deep enough voice. What Traveller was attempting lay beyond their comprehension.
“Thank you Fa Gnoeth. May your journey be pleasant,” Traveller said with his heart pounding. He turned and followed the other three into the launch tube.
Once inside, Traveller couldn’t contain an expression of awe. “By the universe,” he said. The spacecraft stretched to the distance of over seventy-five mezures. The front tapered to a point, the back was flat. There we two view panels on this side of the ship.
Porter turned to look at him. After a long silence, he asked, “What did you say?”
Traveller deepened his voice. He felt Porter’s gaze, “I said by the universe.”
Porter smiled. “Oh. By the way, your pod is on the other side.”
“Yeah, right. I just wanted to shake hands and say goodbye,” Traveller held his hand out.
“Good luck,” Porter said as they shook. He found something strange about Bashim’s voice and appearance, especially when the shake was brief, almost perfunctory.
When Porter turned away, Traveller impelled to the back of the accelerator bullet, ran across the flat part of it and impelled again. He landed just past the stairs that led up into the opening with the words ‘Benwar Earth 4’ above it. Up the stairs he bounded. Once inside the pod, he pushed ‘shut’ on the wall panel. The stairs retracted, the door closed. Traveller pressed the ‘lock’ icon before he sat in the pilot’s seat and smiled. Only a deciparse before the launch sequence started.

***

Suddenly Porter’s suspicions burgeoned into realization as he thought about Bashim, his demeanor, they way he talked, they way he stood. He would never enter the flight deck with his helmet on or raise his hands after the ceremony. Porter could hear the barrel contracting as it wrapped the pod in a launch tube. He could feel the energy buildup at the back of the ship. A port opened just wide enough for the pod to exit.
Porter pressed the icon for Bashim’s pod. “This is Porter Tellez. Are you well, Bashim?”
A pause ensued before ‘Bashim’ answered. The voice was forced, not as deep as it should be, “Hi Porter. I am fine.”
“You’re also not Bashim, are you?”
There was no answer. Now Porter was sure of his suspicions. “You Lizerian fool! Listen carefully, we’re about to blast off. You must activate your suit. It’s the third icon on your left wrist control.”
“How do you know I’m not Bashim?”
“There isn’t time for this, Traveller. What you did was foolish. Bashim was trained for the mission, you’re not. On the arm rest there’s an icon labeled chair restraints, activate it now!”
Porter could hear the countdown, “seven, six, five . . .”
Synchronized with the countdown, a deafening whining sound grew louder and louder. The locks on the bottom of the pod clicked open and retracted. “One, zero . . .”
Even with the restraints, the force pushed Porter flat against his chair as a deafening roar obliterated all other sensations.

***

Porter’s words penetrated Traveller’s juvenile impetuousness and tore it asunder. What am I doing? I don’t even know how to navigate this thing he thought as the restraining straps tightened against his body and head. A deciparse after the straps clicked into place, Traveller felt a mega force smash him against the seat. A white light was accompanied by a noise so loud that it penetrated his whole body when it flashed. He lost consciousness.

Traveller could see his father running toward him with arms opened wide. He could hear him yelling something but the distance was too far to distinguish what it was. The words grew louder. As the boy regained his wits, he realized it wasn’t his father but Porter.
“Traveller, are you well? You need to answer me. Traveller?”
“Porter? What happened? I feel like I’ve been smashed into the seat.”
“Have the straps retracted?”
Traveller felt the straps but when he opened his eyes they were gone. “Yes.”
“Can you move?”
The boy lifted his right arm. A painful soreness ensued. The arm felt heavy, awkward. “Not very fast,” he replied.
“You’ll improve. Press the last icon on the bottom row of the left wrist control.”
The boy pressed the icon. He felt inflated as his buoyancy returned as if by magic. The extremely unpleasant sensation of being flat quickly dissipated. “By the universe, thank you,” he said.
“We’ll be outside of Earth’s atmosphere in a little over thirty parsecs. That’s all the time you will have to learn to fly the pod. Once we get to Earth, the master control at the front of the ship will target each pod to a different land mass. After that there may be no contact with other Benwarians. You could well be on your own.”
The weight of Porter’s words robbed Traveller of what little confidence he had left. “I’m so sorry. I can’t believe my Lizerian stupidity.”
“What you did violates all you have learned as a Benwarian, but that is irrelevant. Hopefully, you’ll have time to think about your mistakes when you land on Earth. Bashim had spectrometer implants. Do you know what those are?”
“A device that measures something?’
“They’re devices that allow the wearer to assess a person by evaluating the colors of the lights that emanate from a their soul. The protectors are to use them to see how humans differ from Benwarians. They will also allow us to gauge whether a person can be trusted or not and whether their intentions are good or bad. Unfortunately you won’t be able to do that. You will be at a disadvantage in dealing with the Earthlings without them.
“But that doesn’t matter right now. You have to learn to fly your pod well enough to land it. Your helmet contains a flight simulation program. Familiarize yourself with the controls and start practicing. Make sure you know how to operate the camouflaging unit. If the Earthlings spot you, they might try to destroy your ship.”
Porter’ words again brought a realization to his youthful brain. This is dangerous. I might be killed. What am I going to do when I get there? I don’t know how to speak the language. “Porter? How am I going to talk to the Earthlings?”
“There’s a universal translator on board the ship. If you land safely, you can use it to interpret and communicate. Do not make contact with the natives until you’ve had time to evaluate your situation, but don’t worry about that. Learn to fly the pod or there won’t be any contact except for a fiery explosion when you crash.”
“I hope you’re not trying to build my confidence,” Traveller said with a hint of sarcasm.
“Far from it. I’m trying to make your realize the gravity of your situation. This isn’t like fighting a holographic image of a Lizerian. This is real. We’ll talk later.”
Porter cut the communication off abruptly to emphasize his point. For the first time in his sheltered life, Traveller knew fear. His apprehension grew when he activated the VR sequence. A complicated sequence of controls appeared before him. He didn’t know what any of them were for. Luckily, he remembered the tour of the space jet. It helped him realize that the stick in front of him controlled the craft, but it was too far away to manipulate. There were also pedals on either side of the control stick.
Traveller looked down. Two black crevasses led to either side of the stick. There must be controls to move the seat forward. He took the helmet off then looked until he found a lever on the right side of the seat. When he pushed it forward it moved him toward the control lever. Chapter 8 - Flight Lessons
With the helmet back on, Traveller pushed the lever forward and pushed the right pedal down, the virtual reality ship shot down over the holographic landscape. When he moved it back, the craft elevated. It stopped when the control was brought back to the neutral position and he let up on the pedal. Pulling the stick right moved the craft right, pulling it back brought the craft up.
He operated the pod in clear blue skies until gaining a confidence in its feel. Traveller pushed the level two icon on his left wrist. Now the controls became more sensitive. He pushed the lever forward, pushed the accelerator pedal then crashed into a rock formation that suddenly appeared on screen. The VR helmet went blank. By the universe! Now what do I do? He pressed the row of icons on the control panel of his left hand, the screen remained blank so Traveller removed his helmet. There was a red power button on the right side of it which he pushed to no effect. Lization! There must be a delay mechanism before you can begin the next flight. I’ll have to elevate and go slower until I know the terrain. That is why there is a delay, so I can think about what I did wrong. Traveller pressed the power button every deciparse until it came on. It took over a quarter parse before the helmet activated again.
Once it went live, he put the helmet on, elevated the pod until it was flying over red rock bluffs and trees. The pod was sped up, slowed down, elevated, descended, turned right and turned left with ever greater speed. Once he became comfortable again, the craft was descended into a series of obstacles. A tree loomed in front of the craft; he turned left and elevated then dipped back down. The pod shot toward a bluff, he sped up. Just mezures before the rock, he pulled the lever all the way back. The view screen filled with red sand rock speeding by as the craft scaled the cliff with just inches to spare.
When he brought the craft back down, it sped toward a series of trees arranged in offset rows. He maneuvered the pod left and right to avoid crashing into them. Unconsciously, he had pushed the accelerator down to speed up. Left then right, he brushed the foliage as the trees became denser. Suddenly a mass of green filled the screen. Traveller pulled back hard on the stick and let up on the accelerator pedal. The pod screeched as it brushed through the small branches and leaves of the tree’s top. The screen in his helmet flashed ‘danger’.
Traveller spent over a parsec on level two without wrecking. Afterward, he took the helmet off to stand up and stretch. An examination of the wrist controls revealed that there were three more levels of difficulty.
Level three would have to wait. His parched throat screamed for relief. The boy looked