Orta Read online

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  COPYRIGHT

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Orta

  Engine of Creation Book 5

  By Frank Carey

  COPYRIGHT

  Copyright © 2017 by Frank Carey

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  League Tale #37

  CHAPTER ONE

  Earth, not long after the destruction of the planet known as Destiny…

  “Daddy, read me a story,” 4-year-old Saffron asked Gabe as he finished tucking her into bed. He looked over at his other daughter, 9-year-old Rista, and saw she was fast asleep.

  “Sure, Punkin. Which one would you like to hear?”

  “The one about the spaceship that saved the planet,” she replied.

  He sat back and told the tale of the League Transport Vessel Ascendant, and its crew, Pilot Jason Thurgood, Co-pilot Natalie Markle, Navigator Carla Dael Rey, and Dr. Nebulon Blyst, the ship’s historian and security officer. Sent by Cube Director Ciara Devlin to a remote space station, they must solve the riddle of an ancient treasure chest before it’s too late.

  Saffron was soon asleep, her little hands clutching her favorite stuffed spaceship. He leaned over his little girl and kissed the top of her head before turning off the light and quietly exiting the room.

  ###

  Present day…

  Zoe's scientists stared at the artifact while their scanners went berserk over the readings they were getting. Zoe and four strykers ran in after getting a panic call from all ten of the boffins she had sent into the cavern.

  "What's wrong," she yelled as no one in the room even noticed her arrival.

  The lead scientist pointed at the artifact, but said nothing.

  "OK, it's an artifact. So, what? "

  He handed her his scanner, then reached over and activated it. "Look at the isotopic dating," he said.

  She looked, then looked again. "Is that possible?"

  He shook his head. "We made a ten-minute recording of the images being displayed and correlated them to the readings. We then checked the League database and have concluded that the readings are correct. What you see violates several physical laws, and in doing so, rewrites our understanding of science."

  "You found a temporal gateway!"

  He nodded.

  "How do we control it?"

  He shrugged. "The real question is: do we want to?"

  "Oh, yes, we want very much to control it. I have a particular use for it." She turned to the other scientists. "Figure it out! You have 24-hours!" She turned on her heel and stormed out of the cave.

  One of the scientists yelled after the departing strykers, "Could you just kill us now?"

  He continued out of the cave while ignoring her plea.

  "A girl has to try, doesn't she?"

  ###

  Detective Chief Inspector Gabriel Adon listened to the museum's Director of Antiquities finish his speech while his daughter, Patrol Officer Rista Adon stood nearby, her ears swiveling about as they tracked every sound. He was amazed at how much she resembled her mother, Commissioner Priscilla Kitra-Adon, right down to the striping on the tail.

  "And now, without further ado, I would like to introduce our guest of honor, DCI Gabriel Adon of Earth Security. DCI Adon?"

  Gabe walked up to the podium and looked around the crowd. "Hello everyone. Just to let you all know, I've already seen the exhibit, and I must say it looks just like the New York I lived in almost three hundred years ago. I think you'll love it as much as I do. How about I shut up and let you all in to see the real star of this show."

  He walked over to where several dignitaries stood, and using a pair of giant, ceremonial scissors, he cut a huge red ribbon, opening the exhibit for the reporters and dignitaries. Once they were finished, the public would we welcomed.

  ###

  Gabe stood off to the side and stared at his past. "DCI Adon, you look like you've seen a ghost."

  He turned and saw a human woman in an OffSec dress uniform, her nametag declaring "Markle" while her eyes were fire, literally. "Agent Markle, what brings you to Earth?" he asked while marveling at the technology required to insulate an 800-degree Celsius Orta from a 20-degree Celsius room.

  She walked over to stand next to him. "It’s Ambassador now. I was in town and heard about the exhibit opening. So, why is this 'Car' so interesting?"

  "Congratulations are in order, at least I hope they are,” He said as he shook her hand. He turned back to the car and said, “Her name is Nadine, and I died in her."

  Natalie looked at the information plate on the hood. "Wow. OK, I understand... I think." She looked up and saw a set of steps leading up to what is now called Precinct One. "I assume that's where you worked?"

  "I worked there and several other locations in the city when I wasn't part of an operation. The places I stayed during an op are not something that I would want to share with the sane."

  Pris, Rista, and Saffron chose that moment to join them. "Gabe, care to introduce us to your friend?" Pris said with a voice tinged with something less than approval.

  "Commissioner Kitra-Adon, Officer Adon, and Ms. Adon, this is Ambassador Natalie Markle... "

  "The Orta Ambassador at Large, at your service. Good to meet you all."

  "You are the Orta Dad talked to on Tralaska, aren't you, Ambassador?" Rista asked while her mother tried to shut down her emotional response to a female entering her territory.

  "Yes, that would be me, only this time I'm wearing my environmental suit. Commissioner, how's the anger suppression working?"

  "Um, yeah, sorry. My Katalan heritage sometimes gets the best of me."

  "It's the same for all our species. Males: can't live with them; can't live without them. I'm glad you're all here. Gabe, I would like to extend an invitation to you and your family. There's a diplomatic get together on Primus next week, and I would like for all of you to attend."

  The Adon ladies' eyes went wide in shock while Gabe frowned. "What's a Primus?" he asked.

  "Only the most luxurious space station in the League," Saffron explained.

  "It's our main encounter point between the Orta and the citizenry of the League. Do you think you could make it?"

  He looked at his family and saw three heads nodding emphatically. "Yes, we would love to."

  Nat handed him a data chip. "Here's the invite and details. I look forward to seeing you there. Now, it you'll excuse me, I see my assistant needs me. Good meeting you all." She turned and walked away, leaving three of the Adons in shock while one turned back to stare at a car.

  "I miss Nadine," Gabe said.

  Pris rolled her eyes. "Earth to Gabe with a special announcement."

  "Hmmm? What?"

  "Do you realize that only heads of state get invited to a Primus party? Mister, this is big. Real big. "

  "Wai
t, you mean you've never been there?"

  "I'm the police commissioner for a single Earth precinct. The Earth president has only been there once during her term. Husband, this is a very big to-do."

  He sighed, then turned away from his past. "Has anyone, other than Ortas, that is, ever been on Orta?"

  "Dad! Orta is like Venus, only people have evolved there. No one except an Orta has ever been on the surface of the planet... Wait a minute! You could go there!"

  "Huh?" a befuddled Saffron asked. "Wouldn't he get cooked?"

  "Not with his new nanobots," Pris said. "My love, I think you're the only person in the League who could pull off a visit. Wow! I have no idea where to go with this."

  "Nowhere would be fine by me. We'll go to the party and eat little sandwiches while sipping Champagne. How's that sound?"

  "Works for me," Pris said. "Girls! We need new dresses, and I need to call the office to inform my boss. He will be sooooo jealous. Gabe, what are you going to do?"

  He turned back to Nadine. "I need to see if I can find a three-century old used car. You three have fun." He tilted his head and wondered where he should start his search.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Zoey glared at the device as if she thought her anger could drive it. It ignored her efforts.

  "Well?" she quietly asked. The scientist in charge took it as an order.

  "We have the power, and we have the device. What we don't have is a way of controlling the power precisely enough to go back in time farther than, say, a few milliseconds."

  "What happens if we just open the spigot and pour in the juice?" Stryker-100 asked. He was the latest of Zoe's creations.

  "How can I put this simply enough for you to understand?" Dr. Nize said, his voice dripping with contempt. He didn't like cyborgs. He pressed his palms together, then pulled them apart. "Boom!"

  "Knock it off, Silas, or I'll let Mark use you as a sparring partner." She looked closer at the device. "How do we control the energy flow enough to allow a larger time interval."

  "How long an interval?” Nize asked.

  "Decades."

  "Stryker-1 prior to his transformation?" Nize asked.

  "He’s unavailable."

  Nize shut down the experiment before answering the question. "Anticipating your question, I did some searching..."

  "Where?" Zoe asked.

  "The Dark IntraWeb. They've got petabytes of data scavenged from every computer databank in the League."

  "What did you find?"

  "You're not going to like it..."

  "Silas!"

  "Orta. "

  "Orta? Are you nuts?" Stryker-100 yelled. "No one's been on Orta. Our stryker forms can't handle the heat."

  "Mark! Silas, please continue," Zoe ordered.

  "According to some very sensitive material from the Orta database, the people of Orta use a network of control crystals to channel the raw energy of their sun into a life-sustaining field blanketing the planet. Each crystal has a backup unit in case of failure. We can steal a backup without them even knowing it."

  "What about the heat?" Zoe asked. "We're talking about conditions that fall somewhere between Mercury and Hell."

  "The planet is closer to the sun than Mercury, so it's temperature is higher, but it has no atmo, so the temperature swing is huge. We can choose a facility on the dark side of the planet. Figure we have five hours of darkness before the sun comes over the horizon and cooks our asses."

  "Silas, you’re just so romantic. Mark, tie into the data Silas is accessing and see what you can find out about the Orta planetary defense system. Question: can our stealth fields get us past their defenses while remaining undetected?"

  Mark's eye slits flashed as his systems accessed the data. "Yes, Mother. We can do this."

  "Excellent. I want a full briefing in two hours. Mark, we'll take a stryker team of your choice. Silas, you choose a tech team. I want to leave for Orta by nightfall."

  "Yes, mistress," they replied.

  "Mark, one more thing. Follow me to my lab."

  "Yes, mistress."

  When they entered the lab, Zoe walked over to a table to retrieve a small box. Inside were a dozen small spheres. She took one out and showed it to the stryker. "These are based on Harmon Aymar's hacker balls."

  "What do they do?"

  "They can force a stryker to instantly revert to human form and stay that way for an hour. "

  "Why would you create a weapon that can only be used against a stryker, milady?"

  She gave him a sideways look. "They're not for you, silly. They're for Gabe. These will allow you and your team to survive meeting him long enough to capture him and bring him to me in chains."

  "Mistress, we don't need toys..."

  "They're not toys, but you do need them. He is far stronger, faster, and more intelligent than all of you put together. Now, hand these out to your team. You never know when you might encounter Stryker-1."

  "I assure you, mistress, Sryker-1 is no match for me or my team."

  "Right," she said gently slapping his cheek. "Keep telling yourself that and maybe you'll believe it. Now, off with you."

  "Yes, mistress," Mark replied.

  "I love it when my plans come together."

  ###

  The transport landed just outside the power conversion facility. The sun had just set and the temperature was plummeting. While the ship remained cloaked, the team of strykers exited and scanned the area for security traps. "Clear!" Mark told the techs inside via his comm system. The ship's stealth field collapsed while it extended its thermal shielding over the building to maintain a livable environment for the techs.

  "Move with a purpose, people! Moonlight is burning," Mark yelled as he looked up to watch Primus Station pass overhead. "We need to be out of here in five hours, so chop-chop!"

  The tech team moved into the building and set up shop near a pedestal holding a teardrop-shaped crystal about three-feet tall, while outside, the stryker team patrolled the perimeter. One hour in, and the building lights flickered and died. "Dammit!" Mark yelled as he headed inside. When he made it to the room, he found most of the techs cowering against the wall, all of them staring at the smoldering remains of one of the scientists surrounded by broken shards of crystal. "Silas! What the hell happened?"

  "He slipped, causing his hand to touch the crystal, killing him instantly while shattering the crystal." Silas scanned the now darkened crystal. "He's fried the system. I don't know if we can reboot it..."

  "Forget about rebooting it! Can you remove the primary and get it out of here before sunrise? We're running out of time!"

  "We can't do that! We'll kill the Orta race!"

  "Better them dying then us cooking. Now move!"

  Silas was about to say something, but stopped when Mark transformed into a stryker and pointed a lethal-looking weapon in his face. "Right. On it, boss!"

  Mark stormed out of the room, barking orders at the first stryker he found. "Stryker-108, unload the shuttle and prepare it for immediate launch. We're going to load the crystal on it the moment the boffins get it free." I don't want it on this planet for a second longer than necessary."

  "Yes, sir!"

  Silas glared at the landscape. "Damn, I hate working with amateurs."

  CHAPTER THREE

  When the Adon girls were 8 and 14-years-old…

  Gabe kneaded bread while Rista and Saffron worked on their homework on the kitchen counter. He loved times like this when he and the girls could be together and talk. At any moment, his wife, Priscilla would walk in with news of the world and the League, but for now it was just the three of them surrounded by the aroma of yeast and bread.

  “Dad, have you ever met an Orta?” Rista asked. He moved around the table, moving the loaf with him, so that he could see what his eldest daughter was reading.

  “Hmmm League history.” He read the passage. “Orta: one of the founding members of the League. Thought to be corporeal energy beings, far more advanced
than even the Tralaskans. Yes, I met one once. It was right before you were born. Your mom and I were at some diplomatic function when this Orta walked up and introduced himself. Nice guy.”

  “What did he look like?”

  “Human with fiery red eyes. Never saw him outside his environmental suit. Remember those stories I told you about the Ascendant?”

  “The League Transport Vessel Ascendant and her fearless crew,” Saffron noted.

  “Well, Natalie is an Orta. Remember the story about Jason repairing her environmental suit while she floated about the cabin?”

  “Yeah, now I remember,” Rista said. “I thought those were just myths. ”

  “What, myths? We had Director Devlin over for dinner just last week,” he reminded her. “What does your book say about why the Orta helped form the League?”

  “Trade, exploration, and mutual protection. Dad, if the Orta are as powerful as everyone thinks, why would they need mutual protection?”

  “That, my dear Rista, is a question that has vexed many a citizen since the League was founded.” Gabe glanced at the front entry scanner. “And you mother is home,” he said as the front door opened followed by a weary Priscilla walking in, dropping shoes and bags on her way to the kitchen and her family.

  ###

  Present day…

  The trip to Orta took two days by chartered space liner with much of the time spent mingling with other Primus Party invitees. While Pris and the girls pressed the flesh, and made the rounds of sundry "mini-parties" Gabe spent his time touring the ship and learning about how it functioned. You see, Gabriel Adon was a gear-head through and through.

  Gabe's first stop was the engine room where the massive other-space engines resided along with their equally massive real-space kin. Ringing both were giant power converters which transformed fuel into pure energy. Gabe spent two hours listening to the chief engineer explain the types of fuel used including an experimental concoction made mainly from anti-deuterium. After a brief private chat with the chief, Gabe moved on to the computer center, then environmental control before attending a lecture on celestial navigation by the chief navigator. At the end of the day, Gabe was exhausted, so he retreated to the observation deck where he ordered something called a "Unicorn Fart."