Stowaway (Redleg in Space Book 1) Read online

  As Zade turned around looking for something to throw on for his foray out of the room, he froze. The head of his bed had been butted up against a floor to ceiling viewing window. On the other side, he saw someone in a lab coat and another person in fatigues. They were both rapt by a computer screen and based on their body language, having a heated discussion about something. Neither has noticed that Zade was mobile. Either Zade had taken a pretty bad knock on the head or the glass window was thick enough to change the perception of things outside of it. Neither person on the other side of the glass seemed to be the right color. Standing and observing the two for a few minutes, Zade noticed that the doctor, or at least the one wearing the lab coat had green almost scaly skin. It reminded Zade of the news stories about the new designer drug sweeping across China, Krokodil. But that was only supposed to turn the injection site green, he had never heard about it turning someone’s whole body green and scaly. He seemed to be a stout, well-built individual.

  The other one in the fatigues had distinctly feminine characteristics, but like the first her skin didn’t seem to be quite right. Unlike her green counterpart, her skin seemed to be the slightest bit blue, not enough to notice right away. She carried a sidearm making her, she was most likely part of the military policy, meaning that Zade was in a military hospital. She also appeared to have a Mohawk. She was probably one of those super butch soldiers whose only dream is to be the first female ranger, Zade chuckled to himself, and shook his head.

  Having seen enough, Zade moved back into his room trying to find some way out. He started with the door, which was obviously locked if there was an MP on the floor watching him. Scanning the room Zade could see no other characteristics, no vents, closets, cupboards, nothing. Moving back to the window, Zade saw the two individuals still arguing over the computer screen.

  Well, let’s have some fun with these two.

  While standing as close to the glass as possible, ensuring that his better parts were fully pressed on the window, Zade started pounding on the glass in hopes of scaring the two. Both almost jumped out of their skin. Despite himself, Zade laughed. As he tried to regain control of himself to see their amused faces, those faces stopped his laughing abruptly. Croc Doc had two bulbous eyes with vertical pupils, no nose or ears, and a huge toothless mouth. Lady Ranger had normal features, but they seemed to be the wrong proportion, specifically her eyes. They were almost human like in shape but about twice the size and bereft of irises.

  As the two approached, Zade gasped. The blue one was wearing an almost human scowl, and the green one seemed frightened, a few shades lighter in color than Zade remembered. While the two walked toward the window, Zade moved back into his room realizing that, given the conditions, it was probably more of a cell. The rattled green creature knocked on the glass and pointed to the small device on the table next to the bed. After looking at it and returning his gaze to the creature, it motioned for Zade to place the device in his ear. Zade crossed his arms and shook his head, both out of fear and stubbornness.

  Zade heard the click of an intercom in his room, the creature began talking again. Zade could only hear incomprehensible words. After clicking the intercom off the blue creature leaned over a computer, punched a few keys and video of a UN conference began playing in the top right corner of the window. After a few seconds of watching the video, the green creature pointed to the device on the table again, but instead of motioning for Zade to put it in his ear, he pointed to the video where a circle appeared around the translator headsets that the delegates were wearing. The creature alternated between pointing to the device and to the video.

  Realizing what it must be, Zade questioned, “It’s a translator?”

  Not expecting a response. To his surprise both creatures nodded their heads in unison. After picking up the device, Zade slowly turned it over in his hand examining it. This elicited some conversation between the two outside the room. The device looked harmless enough, almost like an early model Bluetooth headset. If the creatures wanted him dead or wanted to cut him up for science, they would have already done it, or at least he hoped. He found himself wondering if they had done any other experiments to him while he had been asleep. Pushing the thought from his mind, Zade shoved the earpiece in his left ear. To his surprise nothing bad happened. The intercom clicked on again.

  “Mr. US Army, I am Jorloss. The medical doctor and head of biological research on this ship,” the green one stated. “Are you comfortable?”

  “Well, I could use a drink, and a pair of pants,” Zade responded sternly. “Especially if your blue friend is going to keep staring at me.”

  This brought the scowl back to the face of the blue thing almost immediately.

  “This is the captain of this ship. Her name is Samix. Do not be worried, Mr. Army. We mean you no harm. She is simply trying to determine if you are a threat to us. What is it that you would like to drink?”

  “Well, I’m assuming that bourbon and rum are out of the question, so some water would be nice. How are we coming along on clothes? I’m not a shy man but I feel that mankind’s first contact with aliens should be done clothed.”

  “Mr. Army, if you turn around you will see a small compartment next to the door. There is a bottle of water and a one of our ship’s uniforms,” Samix replied, her voice almost musical in Zade’s ear.

  Zade spun around toward a soft hissing sound from the back of his cell. A small compartment about the size of a microwave had opened by the door to his cell. In it was two bottles of water and a neatly folded set of black fatigues and matching boots. Zade grabbed a bottle of water, opened it, and smelled it, ensuring that it didn’t have anything strange in it. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to smell anything, but given the circumstances, he figured it couldn’t hurt. After taking a small sip to ensure it tasted ok, Zade drained the bottle. Zade took the uniform and boots to the bed, carefully unfolding each piece of clothing, checking it for anything strange before donning it. Just as Zade finished tying and blousing his last boot, he heard movement behind him. Grabbing the second bottle of water, Zade turned to find a chair had appeared, facing the window.

  “If you are satisfied, can you sit down? We have some questions,” Samix said over the intercom.

  “Well, I have never been satisfied so far in my life, but I do have some questions myself. The most important of which is where am I? With a runner up of, why do you keep calling me “Mr. US Army?” Rounding out the pack with, where is my equipment and why didn’t you give me my uniform?” Zade said as he took a seat.

  “Our location will be covered in due time. Your equipment is in another lab being analyzed, and your uniform was recycled due to its unserviceable condition. Is “US Army” not your name? We have been collecting and analyzing data from your species and found that the warrior class in your society puts their name on their uniforms. “US Army” was what was written on your uniform,” Samix said.

  Although slightly disturbing, everything Samix had said was correct. The army only issued three uniforms per soldier for a deployment. By default, one has to remain unworn and saved for the flight back stateside, meaning that two uniforms have to survive for 12 months of patrolling. Since it had been a busy deployment and Zade had decided to become an astronaut on the last day, the uniform he was wearing was pretty much rags. Zade also lost a couple of nametapes during the deployment, and had to take the one off his uniform and put it on the other kit every time he geared up. The only tape on his uniform when Samix and her crew captured him must have been his US Army tape.

  “You’re right about the names, but our uniforms have two different patches. One patch is for the organization we belong to, the other is our name. Mine must have fallen off when you captured me. My name is Alex Zade.”

  “Captured you?” Samix recoiled as if she had been slapped. “We wanted nothing to do with your class two species. You moved on our ship and got hung up on the side when we tried to break contact. If you are now comfortable, it is time for
you to explain why you touched my ship, Alex.”

  “I am an officer in the United States Army,” said Zade, his tension easing and curiosity growing. “The US is the most technologically advanced and dominate society on the planet, and as such has become the main target for a religious extremist group who wish to destroy anything that disagrees with their God. Through fear and egregious violence directed towards innocents, this group has been trying to gain a foothold and influence the world. Although military action is only being conducted against the extremists, many heads of state are beginning to realize that all who follow this religious mindset are potential threats to mankind. These extremists operated out of the area where you landed your ship. In an attempt to quarantine the extremists, the United States has been engaging the enemy in that area for the past 16 years. Our base noticed strange lights and activity coming from your landing site, so my men and I were sent out to investigate. Because the enemy regularly tries to blend in with the populace of the country, and use innocent civilians as a deterrent for the use of force, we felt the need to further investigate the projection you ship had created. Our forces call the vehicles you were using as camouflage “jingle trucks,” and speaking from personal experience, are used regularly by the extremists to cause chaos. Many times, they will pack these vehicles with explosives than detonate them in front of non-combatant targets such as schools and hospitals, in an attempt to erode the will of US fighters. Because of this, I chose to further investigate. Once I got close, I couldn’t move and lost consciousness after sustaining a severe electric shock.”

  It took almost two hours of explaining all of the details, periodically digressing to elaborate on certain details that Samix was unclear on. By the end, the demeanors of the two outside the glass had visibly softened and seemed to be less suspicious. Time, Zade thought, well spent. Upon completion of his rendition of events, Zade was given food, which he ate, occasionally glancing at Samix and Jorloss, who were discussing and trying to confirm the validity of Zade’s story. After an hour of watching Samix and Jorloss working on their computer systems, Zade retired to his bed for some shut eye.

  There’s nothing I can do stuck in here. I should stay fresh. I’m sure they will bother me if they need something.

  ∆∆∆

  After Zade finished his story, Samix turned off the intercom, while Jorloss instructed the ship to provide nutrition to Zade. Jorloss began sorting through all of the unencrypted data and news feeds that the ship captured while around Earth in an attempt to confirm the geopolitical situation that Zade had explained in his story. Meanwhile, at the computer station adjacent to Jorloss, Samix began digging through the records, public and encrypted, to find information on an Alex Zade, looking for anything that would suggest that Zade was a threat. The first system Samix infiltrated was the US Army personnel data system. There she found a military record file for Alex Zade.

  Zade’s personnel file confirmed exactly what he had said. He was an officer in the US Army who was currently on orders to Afghanistan. Samix didn’t notice any anomalies in Zade’s file when she compared it to the files of his peers, with the exception of some extensive mental health and personality screenings that were conducted just prior to Zade’s most recent deployment. The last two entries in the file were the most intriguing to Samix. The first, dated at the time of mental evaluation completion, simply said “Cleared for Deployment.” The second, dated two days prior to his deployment said, “Upon completion of mental health and physical capabilities analysis recommend admittance in Phoenix program. High probability of success.” The text was followed by a stamp that simply read USSECDEF. After further digging, Samix found out that the Phoenix project was a classified program where the US consolidated its best warriors and trained them to take on extremely high-risk operations.

  We have been having problems on this ship that the SSILF haven’t been able to handle. With one crewmember bedridden and another lost to indigenous forces, having a capable warrior aboard might not be the worst idea. Zade might be useful.

  “Everything I have researched seems to confirm his story,” Jorloss said, jarring Samix out of her train of thought.

  “Mine too. But, Jorloss, it says he is one of the best warriors in a class two species. He could become a threat if we release him.”

  “I know we have safety protocols to deal with a situation like this. I think we give him the treatment and let him go. Plus, if we let him out of his isolation chamber, he won’t be bothering me while I work up here. We are a science vessel, Samix. We are not equipped to maintain prisoners.”

  “He was given the treatment when I brought him onboard, otherwise his wounds would have killed him. I am going to tell him our side of the events, and I want you to monitor his vitals. If there are any spikes to indicate aggressive behavior, he stays in iso. If he does not react poorly, we will give him a batch of nanites programmed to disable him at the first sign of threatening behavior. We’ll release him from iso and let him stay in one of the extra rooms in the crew quarters until we can drop him off back on his planet,” Samix said authoritatively.

  “How are you going to get him to agree to receive the nanites? I will not force them upon him. I am a doctor, not a deranged experimenter.”

  “To Zade, we are a group of technologically advanced aliens. He must know already that we have technologically far beyond the capacity of his species. I will just make up a description and purpose for the nanites that make them impossible to pass up.”

  “I don’t like this, Samix. If he finds out we lied to him, he is going to be a problem.”

  “Jorloss I am the captain of this ship. That was an order. One which you will obey.”

  ∆∆∆

  Zade had been trying to get to sleep for almost an hour. Zade’s body would not relax enough to let him sleep. His mind was racing through the scenario in which he found himself. It was simply too strange to fall asleep. Zade sat up and moved to sit in the chair, his mind wandering back to the Sci-Fi novels he had left behind during his deployment. After just a few minutes, he heard the intercom click to life.

  “Captain Zade, we have confirmed your story, and in return, we will tell you our side of the events,” Samix’s said, her voice ringing through the small cell from the intercom speaker.

  “That would be appreciated, but I think your records must be wrong,” Zade said, puzzled. I am only a first lieutenant.”

  “You may have been a first lieutenant when you came aboard this ship, but while searching through your personnel file, it was noted that you had ‘made the list.’ You were going to be promoted when you left Afghanistan, which according to records, would have happened three days ago on your world.”

  Samix began to unfold her tale to Zade, who sat quietly in his chair, listening intently, still reeling from the news Samix had just given him. Samix began by explaining where she and Jorloss were from. Samix’s species was the founder of an intragalactic conglomeration known as the Unity. The Unity consists of approximately 50 different species who call Hoag’s Object home. Samix’s people, the Xi’Ga, mastered intragalactic travel hundreds of years ago, but only recently developed the additional technology necessary for intergalactic travel. The ship that Zade was on was called the XES01, or Experimental Exploration Ship 1. It was one of only three ships created with the capability of deep space travel, and was tasked with exploring and cataloging galaxies. The crew of the XES01 were tasked with testing the range capabilities of the ship, and thus were assigned a galaxy that was 600 million light years away from their home galaxy, which landed them in the Milky Way.

  The XES01 was equipped with a material reclamation system, since it would need to be self-sufficient during the long flights away from civilized space. This system broke waste objects down into their core elements, then used the supply of different elements to create items required for the crew and ship’s survival. Upon entering the Earth’s arm of the Milky Way, the ship had completely depleted its supply of iron, forcing the cre
w to search for a planet or asteroid rich in iron, where they could land to resupply. By sheer luck, the ship had been traveling within 100 light years of Earth and began picking up radio transmissions. Assuming that any species capable of creating radio waves was also utilizing iron, Samix ordered the ship to go to the source of the transmissions. By following the radio waves as they got stronger, the XES01 found Earth and began a high orbit.

  While orbiting, one of the scientists on board determined that there was a large iron deposit close to the surface in the mountainous area; that was where Zade found the ship. As the ship descended through the thick nitrogen rich atmosphere of Earth, a malfunction caused the loss of main power. On emergency power, the ship was only able to run the cloaking device, which could project an image, thus hiding the ship. In this case, it was the image of some vehicles that were native to the area. Sometime between landing and regaining main power, Zade and his men had stumbled upon the disabled craft. When the ship regained main power, sensors came back online. As the sensor image resolved on Samix’s command screen, she saw that her ship had been surrounded by primitively armed indigenous people. She ordered the ship into evasive jump procedures.

  The evasive protocol began by raising shields to full strength, and then break for orbit. On the XES01, the projector nodes were three-feet-tall to provide a kinetic weapon’s cushion. Zade had been standing close enough to the ship to become trapped in the cushion. His body had also acted as a short between the shields and the hull, causing a massive amount of energy to flow through his body, which rendered him unconscious. While breaking for orbit, Zade’s body was exposed to extremely high temperatures causing extensive thermal damage.

  The next step in the protocol was to make a short warp jump to the last known hospitable section of space. While back in high orbit, the ship could not make the jump due to a hull anomaly. Making the situation worse, there was a solar flare forecasted to happen within 30 minutes of the ship regaining orbital status. With the time crunch, Samix chose to investigate and try to dislodge the hull anomaly personally. Usually a SSILF would have been sent, but due to their limited processing power there was a distinct possibility that it wouldn’t have been able to fix the problem, and Samix would have to go out anyway. Sending the SSILF was a waste of precious time. As Samix moved over the hull toward the site of the anomaly, she saw Zade pinned to the side of the ship. Running a quick scan Samix was informed that all of Zade’s basic life sustaining functions had stopped; however, there was still electrical activity in the brain.