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

around until he found the synthesizer behind him. There were three icons on the panel above. One for water, one for Blast, and one for food. He pressed the first icon. Before the glass completely filled, Traveller grabbed it and gulped the sparkling water down washing the parched feeling away. He put the glass back in the tray before pushing Blast. The specially formulated energy drink flowed into the clear glass filling it with a yellow liquid that contained oxygenators, electrolytes, minerals, and vitamins. The drink renewed him, his second wind returned.
Back into the seat, helmet on, go! The ship elevated, there was a blur to the right of him, a blast. The screen went dead. Lization! What was that? I just wasted ten deciparses.
Screen back on, Traveller jerked the control lever left then straight. A blast reverberated but it missed. He pulled the control back while pushing the accelerator pedal down. Checking the controls brought disappointment along with frustration. There were no weapons systems. Scanning right he picked up a spacecraft barreling toward him. He banked toward it and down. A laser beam grazed the front of his ship. This isn’t right. That ship is too fast to avoid. There is no way I can win. Traveller banked left then right. Each bank narrowly avoided the cannon fire from the other spacecraft. He was just elevating when a blinding light engulfed the ship. The helmet went blank again. Lization! What happened? The spaceship wasn’t even close. Don’t tell me there are two spaceships at this level. He took a breath to think. There was no way to win. He had no weapons systems; his ship was slower than the attackers’.
Ten deciparses later the screen activated. This time Traveller sped toward the tree maize with the two ships in hot pursuit. After he passed the first tree, the lever was pulled hard right and backward. As the pod elevated sharp right, the two ships sped past. He pushed the pedal to the floor then circled around until he was traveling along the face of a red rock cliff. When he reached a gap in the wall, the ship was banked hard left. Traveller lifted his foot off the pedal, pulled back on the control stick and landed in some shrubs. Seconds later, the attackers sped overhead. At the same time, digits appeared in his lower screen. Now at a half parsec, they were going backward to zero. Maybe that’s it. If you can last a parsec, you win.
With ten deciparses to go, a harsh whining reached Traveller’s ears. Looking over his right shoulder, he saw the attack craft. Panels opened on their wings, cannons popped out. He saw four blasts before his helmet went blank. By the universe! This is like fighting a Lizerian battle commander bare-handed.
He practiced for over three parsecs without resting. Traveller felt like a failure. He never lasted longer than his second attempt. The two attack craft had adjusted to his strategy of hiding. Now he was lucky to last twenty deciparses. His helmet had just gone blank again. Frustration erased any rational thoughts he might have had. Lization! I hate this! I’m never going to learn to fly this thing before we reach Earth. Why in the universe didn’t the engineers include a weapons system?
A voice interrupted Traveller’s thoughts, “How are you doing?” It was Porter.
“This stinks! I am getting worse not better. Why aren’t there any weapons so I can defend myself!” he yelled.
There was no answer. He activated his transcom. “Porter?” What did I do? I know what I did. How many times has he told me to stay calm? I raised my voice, displayed anger. No wonder he won’t answer.
“Porter? I am sorry. I’ll calm down.” Still no answer. Traveller put his hand on his stomach and took a deep breath. He breathed out imagining that his anger rode on the air that left his body. It took ten deep breathes and exhales before he calmed.
Nothing to do but try again. Lization I hope he calls back. The helmet lit up. This time the pod was high above the landscape. He could see the attack craft screaming upward to intercept. He pushed the joystick down along with the accelerator pedal just as the cannon blasts flashed. There has to be something I’m missing he thought as the blasts rumbled overhead.
He looked at the series of controls in front of him. The milliparse his eyes left the sky, the spacecraft closed on him with canons blazing. His helmet went blank yet again.
When he felt the blinding anger consuming him, the helmet was removed. Traveller got off the pilot’s seat, stretched then breathed great breaths. Water was drunk, Blast came after. Even the hated synthowafers were munched and washed down with yellow liquid.
The only way to survive in the open sky would be if the attackers couldn’t see me. Porter said something about that, what was it? That’s it. There’s a camouflaging unit. I wonder what it does.
When his helmet activated again, he searched the controls. One of the icons had an eye with a cross through it. There it is! He started the game. Again the pod was high in the air above the landscape with the attack craft closing in on him. He pressed the eye, descended, then sped up. Now the attackers zoomed past him. They circled around as if confused.
It took over a half parsec before the two spacecraft spotted him again. The pod was cruising over the tree maze when the boy sensed something in his peripheral vision. He let up on the accelerator and put the joystick in neutral just in time to see two cannons blasts shoot past the nose of his craft. They saw me. This thing must take the color of its surroundings. There are probably too many contrasts here.
He pulled back on the lever, the pod shot up. The control was pulled until the pod looped back around. Traveller darted toward the red rock formation, pressed the camouflage icon again. When the pod traveled to a stretch of the face that was relatively the same color, he stopped it. The time mechanism displayed five deciparses left before he won the game.
The attack craft appeared in the right hand corner of his view screen screeching toward him. He took a deep breath, held his position. If I do anything, they see the movement. Just before the cliff face the attackers elevated to fly across the top of his pod. Wow! I thought I was dead. He waited, time ran out. The display blinked a green colored message that read ‘Winner!’

Traveller practiced flying for over fourteen parsecs before his eyelids became too heavy to keep open. The pod crashed into a tree, the helmet went blank, the boy slept. Twelve parsecs later, he awoke to Porter’s voice.
“Traveller?”
“Porter! I’m so sorry for being angry.”
“You didn’t hurt me. You hurt yourself. You’re self-control must be impeccable if you’re going to survive.
“We’ll be able to communicate with Ship in two parsecs, that’s when we’ll drop out of hyper speed. We’ll then have another two and a half parsecs before we split up and descend into Earth’s atmosphere. Are there any questions?”
“How do I gage the entry speed and the trajectory angle when the pod reaches Earth?”
“You don’t. Put the ship on autopilot. The onboard computer will calibrate those things.”
“What do I do when I get there?”
“The only thing you can do is learn all you can about Earth. There’s a lot of equipment on the pod you don’t know how to operate. I suggest you find a secluded spot to hide the pod in and stay there until you can scout around. Maybe we can find each other eventually.”
“Will we be able to communicate?”
“Don’t count on it. When the pods separate, we’ll lose our long distance communications except for digital signaling.”
“What am I going to tell my parents?”
“That you’re sorry. That you love them. That you’ll see them when they get to Earth.”
“Anything else?”
“There is a laser gun on the console to the right of the actual control panel. Set it on low and learn how to use it. You can weld with it, heat things, start a fire. It will come in handy.”
“Can I use it as a weapon?”
“No. Well I guess you could use it to laser something’s head off, if you could get whatever it was to stay still long enough.”
“Thanks Porter. If I survive, it will be because of you.”
“No. It’s entirely up to you. Control your temper and you might make it.”

The parsecond the pods dropped out of hyper speed, General Battier appeared on Traveller’s view screen. “Young man on behalf of the Sanctum Just, I have to say what you did goes against everything Benwar stands for. Truth, honesty, putting the country of Benwar first, honoring your father and mother. You have sabotaged our reconnaissance mission. We are extremely disappointed in you!”
The boy held his head down as he was berated by the military commander. “I am sorry, sir.”
“Sorry won’t enable you to run the mission Bashim was trained for. There are many instruments you are unfamiliar with. Fa Tellez will give you further instructions.”
“Please may I speak . . .” The screen went blank before he could finish his sentence. When he pressed the pod to Ship’s communications icon, there was no response.
He pressed the icon for Porter’s transcom. “Yes?” the protector asked.
“What am I going to do? General Battier called. He was very angry. When he finished reprimanding me, the screen went blank. I didn’t even get to say goodbye to my parents.”
“What did you expect? You will have plenty of time to think about that later. You have two parsecs to try and learn some rudimentary Earth language. From what I’ve downloaded, try American English. You don’t have much time. Forget about the immediate past and concentrate on now. Use the satellite feeds and universal translator to glean the most important words. Learn how to say, ‘I come in peace’.”
“But I’m not ready.”
“It’s too late to worry about that. Study the language. I’ll say goodbye just before the pods separate.”
Stay calm. You brought this on yourself. Yes, but I’ll be totally alone on a planet full of who knows what kind of beings. Porter said to study the language, worrying won’t help. Traveller again took deep breathes to calm himself before engaging the translator. He would speak Benwarian into it and the device would repeat the phrase in English. When he said the phrase correctly he would move on. Sensing how important the lessons were, the boy forgot about everything else and concentrated.
Traveller targeted what he felt were the most important words. Water, food, peace, surrender, help were learned before he moved on to phrases like ‘I surrender’, ‘I come in peace’, ‘I’m hungry’, ‘Give me food’, ‘Hello, my name is Traveller’.
He repeated the phrases over and over again, visualizing the nouns and the actions of the verbs. It seemed like only a few deciparses had passed when Porter called. “Ten deciparses to entry. The separation sequence has begun. You’re a good kid, Traveller. Control your temper, think before you react. I hope to see you again.”
“Thank you Porter. No one could ask for a better friend. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye Traveller. May the universe grant you favor.”
There was a rumble. As the mother pod disintegrated, Traveller felt his pod’s engines engage. He pressed autopilot.
Chapter 9 - Southern Idaho

The boy had five deciparses before entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. He brought the pod’s schematics up on the view screen. The glider pod was encased in a wide, blunt