Sci-Fi Web Serial by Kyle Pollard
Continued from Blood of the Narlack: Part 6
Lars sat motionless for some time. Everything that had just happened in his life was a lot to process, and there was still missing information. How much time has passed since planet Vorta’s sun went supernova? How many had died? Millions he assumed, and for what?
“I don’t know where to begin,” said Lars.
“I do,” said Ultnobe. “If you are willing to armor up in your GB Battle Mech I have a warship to show you. There are crew members that wish to speak with you.”
“I have a lot of questions,” replied Lars. “I am still sensing blocks on my awareness.”
“All blocks will be removed when you are ready.”
“When” quizzed Lars?
“Tonight” answered Ultnobe. “You would figure out everything on your own with your core’s new processing capabilities. Nothing gained by holding anything back now. Here, follow me.”
Ultnobe led Lars to a door on the far end of the room. When they were near the entry, it silently slid open. The room was a fully stocked armory. Battle mechs lined the far wall standing at attention in docking bays. Row upon row of weapons charged locked in refresh ports, ammunition storage bays glistened and glowed amber from LED status lights.
Ultnobe stopped in front of a mech at the end of the first row. There was a seat in front of the shell awaiting its soul. Ultnobe motioned to a high-backed chair. Lars looked for a moment at where she was pointing and then took a seat. A cable snaked out of the headrest and attached to the back of his head. A feeling of euphoria came over Lars as his digitized self incrementally uploaded from the shunt that Ultnobe had placed his mind in after releasing him from protected memory storage. The upload took only a few minutes. Even as his systems were coming online, he could feel more data uploading in the background, but he sensed that it only took a few minutes to obtain situational awareness. Internal HUDs activated, and a flood of information presented itself.
“Feels good,” said Lars. “Feels damn good.”
“I thought you would like it,” answered Ultnobe.
When Lars received the fully operational message in his HUD, the data upload cable from the chair detached and disappeared into the headrest. He walked over to a full-length body mirror positioned at the end of a long line of stowed mechs, leaving the shunt body sitting in the upload chair. The soldiers used the mirrors for visual inspection of their gear before exiting the armory. He looked up and down at the reflection of the streamlined battle mech in the mirror. Form fitting, the mech that he and Ultnobe used were light infantry models designed for maximum mobility. The interlocking shoulder armor gave his frame a three tiered effect. He felt like a twenty-year-old in a tight fitting uniform designed for contact sports, yet he knew the serious destruction his powered armor could do in the hands of a skilled operator. The highly polished and reflective face shield was the strangest thing thought Lars. After living all those years on Karbackus with a fleshy, pudgy face, to not have facial features was in a word bizarre.
“If you are done getting ready for the ball,” said Ultnobe. “Let’s get moving soldier.” Lars nodded, and they entered the main corridor of the ship which was Spartan in its design, the halls shining from the lightweight highly polished composite ceramics. His HUD displayed the 1g of thrust gravity as he moved alongside Ultnobe.
They had walked for some time before Lars said: “Mind telling where we are going?”
“The bridge,” replied Ultnobe. “Command staff meeting.”
Lars sorta figured that was their destination. He was following their progress on his situational awareness mapping system. He would have to discuss this with Ultonobe when given a chance. How could all this – being a GB soldier – feel so natural, so second hand, and yet at the same time be so foreign to him? He had been watching their progress on a deck map of the ship. Switching between full 3d and wire frame mode, he had been tracking their progress ever since they left the armory together. Their progress through the vessel seemed to be leading them to the area on the ship’s deck map marked GB Command.
It had taken another ten minutes of traversing corridors before they found themselves at the entrance to the bridge. A strange feeling was surging through Lars. He half expected to walk in to discover a spiked bowl of punch and a room full of birthday revelers. Maybe a simulated beach complete with Narlack beetles and party goers jaunting off to some interstellar back eddy beach party. The emotions surging through him bespoke of family ties, of friendship. It was overpowering. When they were just shy of the sensors that would open the door he placed his arm on Ultnobe’s shoulder and stopped her progress.
“These people, these soldiers. I know them.”
“Yes, you do. They have all missed you.” Replied Ultnobe. “You have been gone a long time Lars.”
“Ok, let’s do this,” he said taking another step and triggering the door that silently slid open into a recess in the wall. There was no yell of surprise, but everyone stopped what they were doing and looked towards Lars and Ultnobe, who entered the command deck together. On Lar’s HUD names were instantly connected to the mechs who now stood silently looking in his direction. There was Dirk McLaren, Denny Derson, Mara Ryante, Jesse Sones, Rahy Ryante, and many more. He knew these people. He could feel it. Other names attached to faces by his HUDs AI were foreign to him. Dossiers for Betol and Brenna appeared, and Lars parsed the data. Much to his surprise, everyone in the room brought up a crisp salute and held it waiting for Lars. Even Ultnobe snapped her heels together, turned, and saluted him.
Lars was touched. He quickly returned their salute, held it there for a second, and quickly dropped his arm. Everyone in the room waited for him to drop his before they brought their arms down. The next few moments were pure chaos. The mechs all converged on Lars and greeted him with handshakes, slaps on the back, and all manner of infantry type grunting noises. Or were there any sounds in the room? Lars was so caught up in the emotion of the moment that he had not even realized that all the mechs had opened their face shields to reveal human type facial features.
He stood still for a moment, made an internal command for his face shield to open, and then felt his face with his hands. It was there. He could feel the tears coming, yet not coming. Tears without the moisture.
“What’s wrong Lars?” asked Ultnobe, who noticed something was bothering him.
“It’s silly,” responded Lars.
“You are the one being goofy Lars. I could read your thoughts as I have before, but that’s rude unless in battle when all GB interconnect.”
“I thought for a minute that I had no face.” Said Lars. “I told you it was silly.”
“Oh, that’s all,” she replied. “Wait till you see the face I programmed for you.”
“Close your face shield so I can see my reflection.” Ultnobe complied. Staring back at him was the face of Lars Karnack from Karbackus in every detail: Large black eyes sans pupils, scraggly white hair and beard and mustache, and pointy ears. He was so happy he wanted to hug Ultnobe. He held back, however, still re-adapting to his role as a GB soldier and unsure of the protocol.
After a moment, Ultnobe opened her faceplate again. It was then that he noticed Ultnobe’s face. Perhaps for the first time aboard the ship. Had he looked at it before? She was beautiful. Her face unlocked a flood of memories. Their marriage, children, their time spent together on long deployments fighting impossible battles and winning. Defeat, struggle, happiness and loss. The floodgates were now open, and there was no way to turn back the tide. He grasped her hand in his, made eye contact and said: “I will never question your love again.”
She replied: “Lars, you are the bravest man I know. I would move heaven and earth to stand by your side. For a thousand years, we fought together, cared for each other, loved each other. I have long waited for this day. This very moment.”
To hell with protocol he thought as he pulled her close to his body and planted a kiss on her lips. The entire crew on the command deck cheered. It was then that Lars knew that he was home.
A moment later Lars noticed a human in the room. He looked to be earth-born, but Lars was uncertain of it. He would have to ask Ultnobe later that evening. When the riot of emotion that followed their kiss on the bridge began to quiet down, Lars suggested to Ultnobe that they retire to their quarters.
Ultnobe turned and addressed the mob surrounding them. “We have important matters to discuss. We should discuss them now, but as you can see Lars is not 100% yet.”
“Say no more,” said Jesse Sones, speaking out of turn. “We can hold down the fort here. Take all the time you need. We will finish running all the projections regarding Earth. We still have some serious number crunching to parse.”
“There won’t be another Vorta on this operation Ma’am” chimed in Dirk McLaren, now sitting in a chair in front of an array of holographic monitors. His hands were a blur as he tapped virtual keys and input data into the system.
Lars noticed the look of concern in the eyes of the human when planet Earth entered the conversation. Now that he thought about it – the human’s face looked familiar. Lars snapped a pic and filed it for later pattern matching. Now, he had other business to attend to and felt strangely aroused. Is it even possible to? Just then he noticed a smile cross Ultnobe’s lips.
“Hey,” said Lars. “I thought you were not scanning my thoughts now?”
Ultnobe didn’t say a word as she led Lars by the hand back out into the corridor.
To be continued