A Stranger in Space

[csyphrett]

1
Scott Bolo hated Joe McCarthy for ruining his life. He had been a promising engineer, had a career working on examining technology for the government, and been in the middle of planning a marriage.

All that had gone up in smoke in a few days, and under the scrutiny from the HUAC.

He might as well be a commie since he was in the middle of a blacklist.

He had one hope. He had the leftovers of a mad scientist's invention. If he could get that working, he might be able to salvage his reputation. The rest had gone up in flames.

Scott wondered if he would be even trying to fix the thing in his basement if not for Tailgunner Joe. Maybe he would, but he would have someone to share that with him.

Emily had thrown him away as soon as he had became a pariah.

He should have seen that coming as soon as he got his subpoena.

The doorbell rang. Scott headed for the front door. He had called over a friend. Robert Greenwade was a brilliant physicist, and more importantly, an expert on strange science items confiscated by the government.

If anyone knew how his project should work, it would be Bob Greenwade.

"Thanks for coming over, Bob." Scott allowed his friend inside his house. "I appreciate it."

"I don't know why you need me." Bob stood with his hands in his pockets. His old suit had patches at knees and elbows. "I expect you know more about things than I do."

"You're a rated expert." Scott walked back into his small kitchen. "Beer?"

"No." Bob scratched his cheek. "How can I help you, Scott?"

"I have something to show you." Scott pulled out a bottle of beer. He used a bottle opener to pop the cap.

"Go ahead." Bob made a go ahead gesture with one hand.

"Follow me." Scott led the way to the steps to his basement. He sipped the beer as he went. He hoped Bob could give him some insight in how to make the thing work.

"How did you get that in here?" Bob tried to keep his jaw from dropping. "This could be big trouble for you, Scott."

"It doesn't matter." Scott stepped on the platform that dominated the room. "I don't have that much more they can take from me."

Bob walked around the room. His eyes scanned for anything that might look like a fault. Half of the things he had looked didn't work right because a flaw in the manufacturing process that made them work in the first place, finally ate them up from the inside.

The primary component seemed to be a platform built on some kind of dish. Cables connected it to a control board, portable generators, and a huge bank of a computer filling one wall. Everything looked like it should work from his casual observation.

He would have to open everything up to make sure that all the pieces hooked together like they should.

"This is impressive, and a little scary, Scott." Greenwade pulled out his pipe and chewed on the stem. "If you get caught with this, you're looking at prison."

"I'm hoping that if I can get it working, I can get back to work." Scott sipped his beer. "Got any ideas?"

"I'll have to take a closer look, Scott." Bob bent down and unhooked a cover on the front of the round stage.

"I'm hoping you can give me some idea what I'm doing wrong." Scott watched from where he stood on the disc, bottle in hand. "It should fire, or do something besides sit here."

"It looks like some wires are not hooked together." Bob reached into the guts of the machine. He fiddled with the connections. "That should help."

The platform created a column of light heading straight up through the ceiling. Bob jumped back out of reach. Scott raised his hand. The bottom of the bottle crossed the horizon of the beam. Beer flew as the glass separated.

Lightning blasted around the basement. Bob ducked and covered. The machinery caught fire. The light ended. When it was gone, so was Scott Bolo.

"This is bad." Greenwade headed for the steps. He put his pipe away as fire rushed to the walls from overtaxed controls.

The scientist climbed the steps as fast as he could. The whole house might go up. It didn't occur to him that he would have to explain this when he called the fire department.

He wanted to get clear more than think about what the government thought.

Greenwade headed for the front door. He had to get out of the house. This was huge mess Scott had got him in.

Bob shook his head. At least Scott didn't have to worry about his reputation any more.

[bubba smith]

goood

[DusterBoy]

Okay, this has hooked my interest. You've got a knack for attention-grabbing opening sequences, csyphrett.

[Yansuf]

Just a quibble, Tail-gunner Joe had nothing to do with the HUAC, he was a senator.

[csyphrett]

You're right. Joe McCarthy ran his communist hunting through the Committee of Government Operations, and the subcommittee of internal investigations.
CES

[csyphrett]

2


Scott Bolo dropped his split beer bottle. He looked around. He wondered what had happened to his house. Where was Bob?

Scott looked around. He seemed to be standing in a desert with blue sand blowing in a mild wind. He didn't see any footprints, but he imagined that the wind would cover them if it streamed across the surface fast enough.

Scott figured he couldn't stand out in the open gawking. He needed to pick a direction and start moving. He would fry like an egg if the sun came up and it shone down on the sand hot enough.

Bob must have fired the device by accident. He must be worried sick about what happened. Scott needed to get back to tell him the thing had operated better than he had thought.

How was he going to do that?

Scott looked up at the night sky. He didn't recognize the constellations present. He at least knew Orion and he didn't see anything like that.

How far had he been shot?

Scott did know that he needed to find water, and shelter. If the sun was half as hot as he expected it to be in a desert, he would fry like bacon. He wanted to stay alive long enough to get back to Earth.

Scott looked for anything like a cave as he walked. If he could shelter in one of those, he might be okay.

That assumed that none of the natural wildlife objected.

He wondered what the inhabitants of this world looked like. Would they even look human? What would they think of him? Maybe they could help him.

He hoped someone here knew something about space travel. He didn't want to be lost like some character on X-1. On the other hand, he should have known better than to stand in the working radius of a device that might work.

Bob had just done what he had asked after all.

He still planned to punch his friend when he got home from this little jaunt.

Scott spotted what looked like an igloo in the distance. He made for it. Maybe they could tell him where to go to get back home.

Scott paused when he got to the door. He couldn't just charge in. That might get him shot. He should announce himself if he wanted their help.

"Is anybody home?" Scott yelled into the tube where it opened. "This is Scott Bolo of Earth. I could use some help."

Silence met the announcement. Maybe they were asleep. Maybe they wouldn't open for wanderers at night. Depending on the age of their civilization, there might be some kind of religious rule about giving help to strangers.

What should he do?

Scott decided to at least knock on the door he saw faintly glowing at the end of the tube. It was the least he could do before he gave up. This might be the only redoubt for miles around. He couldn't just give up and press on.

Scott knocked on the door. It seemed to be made out of some crystal. Maybe they made it out of the shifting sand around the igloo. That was a plentiful enough ingredient to use. It also rang slightly from the blows he gave it.

He waited a couple of minutes by his watch before he knocked again. He might as well try a second time in case they didn't hear the gong ringing the first time.

When that didn't elicit a response, Scott wondered if someone was at home. He didn't see a knob. Maybe the door was locked from the inside. Did they have thieves on other worlds?

Scott ran his hands around the door. Maybe there was a hidden switch he could trigger. He hoped that he wasn't getting into a lot of trouble by trying to get in. He didn't know where the next redoubt was, or water, or even food. This might be his only chance to survive.

That is if the natives didn't him for breaking and entering.

A green light pinged under his right hand. The door opened.

[csyphrett]

3

Light Colonel Cygnia walked the bridge of her ship. Her new eye rested in a small mass of scar tissue. It itched. She struggled to not scratch her face. That would send copper blood dripping down her face.

"We have an unmapped planetary system ahead." Sgt. Rondark pressed several commands in with a three fingered hand. That brought up a hologram of their travel line through this unknown mass of planets.

"Scan for broadcasts and threats." Cygnia hoped this would go better than some of the systems they had discovered in the past. She had lost several ships in her small fleet already.

Some days she wanted to be back in the Lost Probe Office waiting for contact.

Now she led a scout fleet toward the probe's final location. She had discovered inhabited and uninhabited systems alike on the way. She had lost one of her shield destroyers to an agent of some peacekeeping force she had never heard of inside the Conglomerate's spreading borders before he died. One system had several champions capable of space flight and able to destroy even a battleship. She had been forced to retreat before she lost her whole force. Now a new challenge was just ahead.

Cygnia leaned over the consoles as each officer performed like a well oiled cog in her machine. The other ships would form up on her flag as they slowed to scan the area ahead. She didn't want any more surprises that would cost her the command.

Being relieved for negligence meant an energy beam in the face.

The three sensor ships assigned to her fleet fed her ship what they could grab off the aether. The picture was looking like a pre-nuclear development stage so far. That meant no space travel of any significance. That made the planet easy pickings if she wanted.

"Transmit back to fleet headquarters." Cygnia didn't want to lose her ships to some unknown and not let the Admiralty know what had happened so far. "Give them our logs and position since last report. Then we'll pick out a moon to land on for resupply before we move on."

"We're not going to establish a presence?" Major Rigel frowned from his stand beside the weapons controls.

"No." Cygnia glared at him. They had a mission. Landing on a planet with what she had to subjugate the dominant intelligent species didn't fit that at all. They were the vanguard, not the garrison force. "We will set up a resupply depot away from the planet so the main fleet will have a forward base to assault the planet, and process the population. Then we'll continue on as ordered."

"The Admiralty has confirmed our position." Rondark cut in without thinking. His commander wanted information from him. He didn't have time for anything else. "The main fleet is bogged down at the Twelve Planets System we discovered. They are bringing up elements for a blockade."

"Confirm the information." Cygnia studied the sensor data. "We'll land on this moon here. It'll have plenty of raw materials for us to use. Tell the engineering captain we'll need a monitoring station as well as a drydock. We don't want this species to develop planet killers without our knowing it."

"Sending the order now." Rondark and Betel loaded projections of landing spots so the colonel could pick the one she wanted. The communications officer on the combat engineer ship sent back confirmation of the orders for a base.

"That crater right there." Cygnia highlighted the specific impact zone she meant with a finger on the hologram. "Have the fleet land there with the sensor ships and escort on rotating duty for guard pickets."

Rondark sent the orders. Command staff would decide effectiveness for each ship. That would decide who stood guard duty at any one time. And none of that had anything to do with him.

"Take us down." Cygnia watched on the screen as her ship led the way to the crater. The mobile base took a spot close to the center as her fellow birds descended to a landing one after the other. "Secure from stations. We'll have a staff meeting as soon as I get an engineering assessment. I'll be in my office, Rigel. Let me know when the other command officers arrive."

"Yes, Colonel." Rigel nodded before moving to the communications console to start sending the invitations to the other ship commanders.

[DusterBoy]

Great writing, csyphrett. Is Lt Col Cygnia the same one from the epilogue of "Into the Past With Strangers"?

[Cygnia]

Hmmm...that name looks familiar...

[csyphrett]

Great writing, csyphrett. Is Lt Col Cygnia the same one from the epilogue of "Into the Past With Strangers"?

yes. I plan to get back to this after the Namo.
CES

[csyphrett]

Hmmm...that name looks familiar...

yes. I hope this isn't too embarrassing.
CES

[kahuna's bro]

whatbecame of this storyline

[csyphrett]

I put the Strangers' stories on hold until I finish the book of the month. CES

[kahuna's bro]

ok thanks

[csyphrett]

4

Scott Bolo wandered the lab he found himself in. He couldn't believe his eyes. He didn't understand everything he saw. Maybe there was something he could use to get home.

Scott hoped Bob was okay. If his fellow physicist had been fried by whatever happened with the equipment, the government would be waiting on him with handcuffs and a few decades in prison.

"Is anyone here?" Scott looked around under the dim lighting. The secret of the illumination could make him a millionaire if he ever got home. He certainly didn't see anything like bulbs in the hanging cubes.

He couldn't see the chains they hung by for that matter.

Experience taught him that where there was power, there had to be a source. If he found that, maybe he could find someone to tell him what had happened.

Scott decided not to touch anything until he knew what they did. He didn't want to get sent somewhere else before he had a chance to examine this place.

Everything looked like objects off a pulp magazine cover. He imagined Captain Future showing up with his rays, and spaceships.

A flickering light caught Scott's attention. It was plainly artificial in its perfect roundness. He walked over. The light floated over what looked like a keyboard. Maybe it was some type of typewriter.

"I wonder what you do." Scott bent over the keyboard. The letters didn't exist on Earth. He expected that.

English wasn't going to be a language off Earth.

Scott put his hands on the keyboard and thought about typing something. He didn't know what. The letters wouldn't correspond with his language. He took his hands away.

He didn't want to blow himself up.

Scott clenched his fists. He looked around. He was afraid of touching anything. He didn't know how to work anything. He had no one to give him information he could use to help himself out of this situation.

He could die because he didn't know what was eatable on the planet.

"How do I get out of this?" Scott banged his hand against his leg repeatedly. He tried to think, but everything was in a fog.

A chittering answered him. He looked around for the source. The dim lighting made his eyes think every shadow was moving.

"Do you speak English?" Scott tried not to laugh at the absurdity of that question. He could feel hysteria setting in. He might break any second.

"Sometimes." The voice emphasized in the wrong places. Scott decided on ‘Sometimes' since the other choice was ‘Sum a ti mess'.

"I am Scott Bolo." Scott looked around for the source of the voice. He hoped it wasn't one of the machines. That always led to bad things in the movies. "I'm lost."

"I am Nolgroth." The voice sounded way too cheerful. "I am not lost."

"Can you help me?" Scott searched the dim room. He didn't see the speaker. Maybe it was some kind of speaker system he heard.

"I suppose." The voice sounded closer and lower than Scott expected. He looked down at the floor. A tiny green man looked up at him with insect eyes and what looked like the longest mustache of gray hair that the earthman had ever seen.

"You suppose?" Scott stepped back. He wondered if the alien could read his mind. He wondered if it ate humans. He also almost didn't want to know. "Can you return me to Earth, or can't you? That seems pretty straightforward."

"I suppose." Nolgroth rubbed his long mustache. "I don't know where Earth is. It might take a while to find."

"If you don't know where Earth is, how did you learn English?" Scott didn't see anyone else in the room. He also hadn't seen this guy either. He suddenly had the feeling that he had become a chess piece in some kind of gigantic game.

He didn't want to be anyone's pawn.

"A friend taught me." Nolgroth went to the keyboard. He lowered it so it would be on his level. He typed in some commands and a square lit up in the air. The square fell away to reveal a picture of the galaxy.

Scott thought it was the Milky Way.

"This is where we are." Nolgroth indicated a small pinpoint on an arm. "This planet only had animal grade life. That's why I picked it for my retirement."

"I don't know where Earth is from here." Scott walked around the floating picture. "I think it's on the outer edge of an arm. I just can't tell you which one."

"Hopefully its not in the direction of the distress calls I have been receiving." Nolgroth indicated a line of travel with a sausage link finger. "They have been coming in for the last thirty-five orbits."

"I don't think so." Scott looked at the spreading stain on the picture. "Earth was having problems, but not from aliens."

"You're the alien here." Nolgroth rubbed his mustache's length again. "I will look into the location of your planet but first I should see what's going on to cause so many to flee."

"I'll look into that." Scott looked around the room. "Do you have a telescope?"

"I think using a spaceship will give us more details." Nolgroth pointed at something the size of a jeep. "You can use that."

"I don't know how to fly a spaceship." Scott held his hands up in protest.

"I will teach you." Nolgroth's eyes glittered in the dim light. "You will be an ace in a matter of spins."

"I'll take your word for that." Scott hoped he hid his skepticism well. This strange little alien was his only means to get home. Until he could find his home, he was trapped. He was at Nolgroth's mercy.