Chapter 2

During his first week at the cabin Jack sat on his porch one morning and watched the sunrise. It was strange how the small lake and valley looked. In the glinting light it looked as if the earth was plowed up, pushed away somehow as if a large stone had hit soft muddy ground with force on a shallow angle. Some of the trees in a line leading to the lake were smaller, younger than those in the rest of the area.

Jack sat and cogitated for a few more minutes and thought, ‘I wonder if a meteor struck here and made the lake? It would be really cool if this was a meteor strike and I could find it.’ After he finished his breakfast Jack went to his storage shed and got out his scuba gear. He and Patrice used to dive together here and on many vacations. He considered himself an expert when it came to SCUBA diving. He began diving while he was in the Navy and continued it afterwards. He knew it was a poor safety practice to dive alone but what the hell, he was going to do it.

When Jack got to the lake he carefully donned his gear and moved into the water. This time he intended going into the deepest part of the lake, the part well away from the stream. For some reason he and Patrice had never dove into the deepest part of the lake and he had no idea why. As he swam into deeper water he noticed a smooth, even slope ever moving deeper. When he got to the deepest part of the lake there was almost a bluff, a ridge piled up as if a rock had fallen into mud. As he swam deeper he began to notice a gently rounded upward trending bottom with some strange projections rising from it. It almost looked as if a long domed sports complex was buried underneath the clear lake water.

Jack swam to the nearest projection and stopped in amazement. It was obviously man made and resembled an antenna of some type. The metal was covered with dirt and a mossy growth but it was definitely a small tower. Jack swam to another and found the same thing. He was becoming excited and wondered what the hell he found at the bottom of the lake. Jack ran low on air before he discovered anything else and had to stop for the day. That night he gathered some tools he thought he would need to uncover whatever was down there. He wondered why the government had not tried to recover whatever it was and how long it had been there. His family had owned this little plot of ground and the valley in which the lake sat for almost 200 years. As far as he knew the lake had been there the whole time but that was impossible considering it was obviously made by the apparently crashed manmade object underneath the water. Strange.

Over the course of the next eight days Jack spent at least one or two hours a day exploring the lake bottom and the object lodged therein. On his first dive of the ninth day just at the edge of the ridge of earth and rock Jack found what he thought was the outline of a door. He excitedly searched for some way to open the door and inadvertently tripped a recessed lever. Silently the door moved back slightly then slowly and steadily slid to the side. Water poured into the opening until it was full. Slowly, cautiously, Jack swam into the small room revealed when the door opened.

There was another door opposite the one that opened. Jack slowly turned around shining his light on every wall, the floor and ceiling. The walls were uniformly smooth with few exceptions. There was a panel with buttons on it beside the open door and another beside the closed door. Jack moved to the panel and reached out to it. He really didn’t know why he did it but he touched one of the buttons. Nothing happened and without thinking he touched the other. The door moved closed once again and to his surprise the water level began declining until the room was empty of water.

Jack heard a hissing sound as soon as the water level sank below his ears and felt a small breeze on his wet head. When the water was completely gone the door behind him opened. Jack turned and walked to the opening. He peered into the passageway and hesitated. When he stopped the lights in the passageway became brighter and he heard a voice say, “Please enter the passageway Mr. Johnson. You may remove your breathing apparatus also. I assure you the air within this ship is better for you than that you normally breathe in one of your cities.”

Jack felt his stomach clench. He looked behind him and started for the outer door. He heard the voice again, “Please Mr. Johnson, do not be afraid. I mean you no harm. Had I meant to harm you I could have done it at any time after you discovered me. Please enter the passageway and turn right. Follow the passage to the bridge where you will find a chair in which you may sit in comfort while we converse.”

“How do you know my name? Who are you? In fact, where are you?”

“Please Mr. Johnson. I will explain everything to you after you reach the Bridge.”

Jack walked several hundred feet going through two air tight doors before he came to a heavier appearing bulkhead with a heavy door in it. At his approach the door opened for him and he stepped into an amazing room. There was a band of windows in a half moon sweep from bulkhead to bulkhead. In the center of the room on a raised Dias was a comfortable looking chair with a half moon desk around it covered with switches, lights and display terminals. There were three long desks half way between the raised seat and the front wall or bulkhead of the ship. Once again the voice spoke saying, “Please take a seat on the raised Dias Mr. Johnson and I will explain many things to you.”

After Jack took a seat he looked around before leaning back. He was amazed. This was probably the most comfortable chair he had ever used. All at once a hologram appeared. The man in the hologram was apparently sitting in the same seat as was Jack. He was in some type of uniform. Jack once again heard the voice. “This is a picture of the last Captain of this ship, a planetary defense patrol craft of what you could call the Fomalhaut Federation. Please listen to his statement before I begin answering your questions.”

“Greetings to you. I have no idea how many years will have passed before this message is played for what I hope is my capable successor. If you have gotten this far then you ARE the proper being to command this ship and complete its mission. The task will be daunting and thankless but necessary. As days go by you will, perhaps, rue the day you found your way into PDC Glorious. I hope this will not be the case. In all probability you have much to learn. You now have greater responsibility and more power than any being has shouldered for an unknown number of years. I wish you well, my successor. Heed well the teachings of our AI and good luck. I wish you great success in your new position.”

Jack sat back and looked around then said, “What the hell!”

The hologram flickered out then another reappeared showing a dark sky filled with flashes of light. The view was moving rapidly and erratically. Jack realized many of the larger flashes of light were explosions; others were stars flashing across portholes. The view twisted and turned and several times a small grey white body or a beautiful globe of blues and greens passed through the view. All at once Jack realized he was catching glimpses of the earth and moon. The view shimmied and shook. Jack heard shouts in a strange language and saw humanoid figures manning all the desks in what he now knew was the bridge of the small ship. He realized they were fighting a battle.

The AI began talking, “Mr. Johnson you are watching the end of a battle for this planet and solar system. Sadly, of the five PDC assigned to this system I am the only one that survived the battle and I was seriously damaged. I still am only at about 67% of my optimum strength. The battle you have seen occurred 537 of your years ago. My builders were in the process of recolonizing this planet when a civil war broke out between factions of our society.

“This planet was originally colonized during the first expansion of our race. Unfortunately before it became technologically self supporting the First Empire fell into disarray and collapsed. We believe once again, war was the cause the collapse of the Empire. Earth was left to its own resources. It drifted back to savagery and was slowly regaining the knowledge to once again build a technological civilization when this most recent war occurred.

“After rediscovering Earth, or rather recontacting Earth we searched for signs of the prior colony. As far as we could determine, the only location of the previous colonists on this planet, a mythical place you call Atlantis, was hit and completely destroyed by a large meteorite, possibly as a result of hostile action. The first Empire as well as my own civilization used meteors for planetary bombardment when necessary. We determined there were some outlying farms and small towns left after the strike and the planet regained some stability. Sadly the few remaining people were not enough to continue the technological civilization of the first Empire. These people lost their knowledge and returned to a barbaric culture before civilization once again began rising to the level you now enjoy. This is why your archeological records show such a discrepancy between what you call Neanderthals and Cro Magnon man. The Cro Magnon’s are the degenerate children of the survivors from the First Empire—your ancestors. Neanderthals were the indigenous race that would have risen to world dominance had the first Empire not colonized the Earth.

“Our ship successfully destroyed the last invading combatants 537 years ago then, as I stated previously, crashed on your planet in this location. The few remaining crew evacuated the ship because it was dangerously contaminated with radiation at the time. They integrated with your society hoping to once again regain the stars after the ship was cleansed of radiation and repaired. Since the original colonists and the survivors of this ship were of the same genetic background they could interbreed and did so beginning shortly after we crashed here on Earth. Somehow knowledge of my existence was lost and you are the first human to board this ship since it crashed. I believe the survivors died out before they passed on knowledge of the ship or at least knowledge of its location. I believe the great surge in knowledge that ended the dark ages was a result of some of our people imparting what knowledge they could to those who came before. Sadly, the survivors died out before they could educate their offspring and some of the young of Earth to mother world standards. Some of the more knowledgeable people were killed as witches and warlocks during the inquisition and later. These murders also set back the rise of knowledge as your scholars have discovered.

“You can imagine my surprise when you appeared outside the ship a few of your days ago. Oh, I knew who owned the land upon which I rest but I had no idea you were genetically related to a member of my old crew. I was amazed to find you not only had a legitimate claim to this ship because you own the land upon which I rest but you had a legitimate claim on the Captaincy because of your genetic background also. You contain DNA of the one you would call the Executive Officer of this ship making you descended from one of the original crew and thus a crew member yourself. Furthermore, your family purchased the land on which I rest and rights to all minerals and appurtenances thus making me your property as well.”

“Whoa there. Assuming I own you I would be hard put to keep you to myself. I am sure my government would make that a difficult claim to support. Our government will certainly take you from me as soon as they find out about your existence. You will be disassembled and studied until we learn how to make more ships like you. Besides, I know nothing about operating a space ship or how to command one so what good would it be for me to keep you to myself?”

“That is true to a point. Your government would try to take me over but they do not have the military might or technical knowledge to do so. I would not voluntarily place myself under the control of your government or that of any other nation in the world because they are too corrupt. After studying your civilization for years I have yet to find one government that is fully trustworthy to do what is in the best interests of the world population as a whole. I am hoping, with my guidance, you will be more benevolent; however, even if you are not, legally I have no choice but to turn myself over to you.

“Your fear of the government taking me by force is ludicrous and unfounded. Even in my damaged condition my shields can indefinitely withstand the most powerful atomic bombs and other weapons your world possesses. Your technology is incapable of breaching my hull by any method.

“Your fear you are unable command is groundless also. The only shortfall I see to your commanding me successfully is the lack of knowledge of the technology contained within my hull. I can teach you all you need to know about our technology in a short time using modern forced learning technology. You already have the ability to command. I know you have attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander in your Navy Reserve. I also know before you left active duty you commanded a small combat ship well. In our forces this ship is analogous to the one you commanded in your wet navy. Your coastal patrol ships correspond well with this small PDC. Furthermore, you are the last of your line and have no ties to others of this world. Your absence will not be noticed when we leave.”

“What do you mean, leave? I’m not going anywhere.”

“Captain, this is a space ship albeit a very small one. By definition it belongs in space therefore, after you accept the position, you will leave the earth. I have come to the conclusion my civilization is gone. There has been ample time for them to respond to the distress call sent out when our last battle began and send help from our home system. They did not come to assist us in the battle and they have not responded to any of my deep space distress calls after the battle ended. I have limited astronomical capability but what I do have is far superior to that possessed by your astronomers. I have spent many of your hours studying our home solar system, the solar system your astronomers call Fomalhaut, and sadly have concluded civilization in that system has ceased to exist. My observations agree with those of your astronomers; there are many debris fields and ash fields now orbiting Fomalhaut in the previous locations of planets and moons. The one planet that is still visible does not appear to be able to support life as we know it now.

“Of course there were many other colonies and outposts of our civilization that existed when we first came to this system. Logically one would assume at least some of them survived but they may not have survived with a space faring capability or they may be so busy at home they do not have time to answer my distress calls. In any event I have come to the conclusion our civilization is gone from this galaxy and we must rebuild civilization once again from the ashes.

“We do not have the ability to travel far outside this system. I have limited FTL capability hence my range is limited by the lifespan of the biological entities on board me. I am prevented from navigating without a human crew even in emergencies therefore we are limited to a distance of no more than four or five light years from earth because I have no suspended animation capsules other than the two contained in my small sick bay. At my best possible speed I can only travel approximately 2.5 times the speed of light thus making a trip to Fomalhaut, after considering time to accelerate and decelerate last approximately 20-25 of your years depending on how long we would spend investigating the area after arrival. This is a significant portion of your life expectancy considering you will live four or five times as long with modern health care as you would with earth’s primitive medical care.”