The Progenitor (3)
W N Dayley

 

Instead of pursuing his urges, Rekex assumed a composure fitting a Commander. “Report, Adjunct,” he ordered. To his surprise, Zechor shot him a scathing glare, bordering on malevolent. His temper flared immediately at the lack of discipline exhibited by his second, but he managed to rein it in before it could lash out.
“Have you made any progress on the signal?” he asked more seately.
“No. Sir.” Zechor answered, remembering her rank a second too late.
“Thenesh, do you have anything to report?”
“Perhaps, Sir.” Thenesh sounded distracted, but remembered his position.
His response brought Rekex over to his station in a hurry. “What is it?” he demanded.
Thenesh looked at the Commander standing at his right shoulder and recoiled, irritated at the violation of his space. He ran his hand over his forehead several times before letting it rest at his left temple, shielding his view of the Commander. Rekex chose to ignore the slight, however. “I have been working on a theory. Not a theory exactly, just a hunch, I suppose.” Thenesh dropped his hand and typed a series of numbers on the screen. “I have isolated the various bandwidths within the signal, eliminating the frequencies that appear to be redundant, and tracing each one back to a single point. All except the neural waveforms. They defy everything I know about transmissions.” As he spoke, the lines associated with each wavelength faded one at a time.
“I have been able to eliminate all but one frequency, a weak one,” he pointed to the last remaining line on the screen, an angry red line slashing across the display, “barely detectable among the others, which seems to be the source, or at least indicates that it has a source.”
“And when did you find this frequency?” Zechor asked, clearly miffed that he had not reported this information before now, and absently rubbing her left cranial plate.
“About a cycle ago. I was not certain what I had, so I did not say anything.” His tone showed how much he did not think he needed to report to Zechor.
“So? Where is this elusive source?” Rekex injected, attempting to return the conversation to matters of relevance.
“On the third planet. The Humans’ home world, Sir.”
“Helmsman, set course for the third planet. Full power.” Rekex was anxious now, all thoughts of mating gone, replaced by a sense of purpose. They had a target, however elusive, on which to focus. He hoped they would find the solution they were seeking there, before his crew began biting each other.
“Zechor, Thenesh, report to Medical immediately. When Hekten has cleared you for duty, return here at once. Understood?”
“Yes, Sir,” both said at once.
“Dismissed.” As Zechor and Thenesh left the command deck, two other officers came in to assume their vacated posts until they returned. Rekex, feeling better than he had for cycles, strode to his command chair and dropped himself heavily into it. His eyes trained on the imager as the ship began to maneuver through the asteroid belt. Once clear of the belt, they would proceed to Earth and, hopefully, answers.

Ó
Zechor and Thenesh marched through the corridors side-by-side but did not say a word to each other. Passing crewmembers darted furtive glances at them as the passed but, due to their intent demeanors and purposeful strides, deemed it best not to say anything to them. Any other time, both officers would have had words of greetings or at least nods of acknowledgement for their shipmates. Not this day, though. The ill-humor that had begun to overtake them on the bridge was deepening, forcing each deeper into themselves to keep from snapping at those around them. Their crewmates were not particularly inclined to exchange pleasantries either.
To make matters worse, Thenesh felt the familiar tingling along his neck ridges that signaled the beginnings of the mating urge. Its appearance at such an inopportune time served only to further aggravate him.
The pair entered the lift that would take them to the deck on which Medical was located without glancing at each other.
Zechor felt the stirrings also, but refused to acknowledge them. She was a professional, an officer of the Interstellar Commission, and would not deign to copulate with a member of her crew. Such behavior would be scandalous. Yet, the urge to mate was a powerful instinct. For millennia on Serenthii, it had been the overriding instinct in the lives of her people. The world had been an intensely brutal place and offspring had a decreased chance of surviving into adulthood. Producing as many offspring as were manageable was a common practice. The odds of one or two living into adulthood and carrying on the clan bloodline were better with increased numbers. Now, however, her world had been mostly tamed by scientific advances and the need to propagate had been lessened. Every child, barring those born with genetic defects, had an equal chance of survival.
Child-bearing was not something that Zechor had contemplated seriously before. Her position as an Adjunct precluded the possibility of being able to adequately raise her offspring. And, of course, she would need a mate in order to conceive. She preferred a male of suitable intelligence, significant rank and appropriate caste. She was not going to mate with a theologian, for instance. Their offspring would be caught between castes, an outcast. A military theologian – such a thing was unheard of. A military scientist now, that was common. She glanced quickly at Thenesh, sizing him up. He was intelligent, of sufficient rank and not bad looking. He had strong ridgelines and came from a respected clan.
Sensing her eyes on him, Thenesh turned to regard Zechor. “What?” he demanded. “Why are you looking at me like that?” But the answer was clear as soon as he finished the question.
Zechor flared at his tone, but could not help but be aroused by the way his ridges swelled as he looked at her. She dropped her eyes coyly, a slight flush coloring her delicate ridges.
Thenesh noticed Zechor the female for the first time at that moment and felt the tingling along his neck ridges intensify. He stopped, turning toward Zechor and openly stared at her for several seconds. He was not so much leering as he was ogling, but Zechor found to her surprise that she did not mind. The attention was flattering and she felt herself compelled to return the compliment.
For a short time they stood observing each other before deciding to act upon the instincts raging throughout their brains. They came together in a rush, their plating smacking together with a dull thunk! Due to Zechor’s larger size, Thenesh found himself being backed to the wall behind him as Zechor nipped and bit his neck ridges. He caressed her head ridges, tracing the shallow line to where they disappeared beneath her hairline. Soon, however, the sensations her actions were generating pushed him over the edge and he could no longer stand not taking her right there in the corridor.
With an animal passion of which neither believed themselves capable, they mated there in the lift. The doors opened several times as it was called to various decks. Those awaiting its arrival stared at the scene within in shock but said nothing, simply letting the doors slide shut without them. Spontaneous mating was an epidemic onboard ship that day.
When the doors opened onto the lower deck that housed Medical, Thenesh and Zechor exited. Both were flushed with the heat of their mating, and neither so much as looked at the other the rest of the way. As they strolled through the portal to the examination room, Hekten had only to glance at them and she knew what had transpired. She suppressed a chuckle as she directed them to separate tables. “Lay down both of you. This will only take a few intervals.” As she turned to initiate her scans, she was straining to keep the dimples out of her ridges.

“I have released them both to return to duty ten intervals ago, Commander. They should be arriving to resume their duties very soon. Unless . . .” Hekten paused, aware of the implications of finishing the statement she was about to make.
Suddenly suspicious, Commander Rekex prompted the Technician to continue. “Unless what?”
Hekten could not refuse to answer as she had no medical reason to do so. Matters of ship’s protocol were within the Commander’s realm, not hers, to judge. “Unless they have been distracted again.”
“Distracted,” Rekex demanded. “How?”
Ever the diplomat, Hekten tried to soften her blunder. You are aware that members of the crew, yourself included, are experiencing unusual alterations to their behavior as of late: irritability, shortened tempers, in some cases, paranoia, as well as increased sexual urges.” She let it end there.
Rekex, though growing increasingly frustrated, was still in control of his faculties. She did not need to spell it out for him to understand to what she was referring. “Oh,” he said knowingly. Then, as a protective brother or jilted mate would, he repeated it, with more force.
Hekten chose that moment to sever her connection to the Commander, genuinely sorry for her slip. She hoped Rekex would be able to maintain his composure when his officers returned to the command deck. Somehow she doubted it.
Rekex stared at the image of the planet spinning lazily beneath them. Thin wisps of clouds floated in its atmosphere, blurring the tawny surface but lacking the fullness to obscure. According to the reports in the computer’s databases, the surface had once boasted a sizeable quantity of water: nearly three-quarters of its area had been either liquid or frozen water gathered at its poles. He saw only scattered bodies of water, most no larger than a lake, and three little more than inland seas. Sensors reported that vegetation was scarce, as well. Stunted trees radiated out from the areas of water for perhaps two spans, the cover growing thinner the farther out, until it ended altogether. Mountain ranges covered vast swaths of land, their peaks rocky and foreboding and the faintest traces of precipitation clinging to their oxygen-starved heights.
The picture on display was nothing like the image the Serenthii had received nearly two solar centuries previous. Earth was a dead planet.
How then did Thenesh discover a signal source here? He wondered. Thinking of his Science Officer only raised his ire. He could not believe his loyal officers would be so careless as to display their breech of protocol so openly. What could they have been thinking? He slammed his fist into the air of his chair, causing the helmsman to direct a startled glance in his direction. The glower on his face turned the junior officer back around in a hurry, however.
 Before he could redirect his attention to the imager, the portal irised open and Zechor and Thenesh entered the command deck. Their ridges were swollen and flushed, and neither met Rekex’s stare.
The crewmen who replaced them while they were in Medical shot venomous glances at the pair before relinquishing their temporary posts. So distracted were the senior officers that they did not notice the enmity with which their shipmates regarded them. They simply assumed their posts, neither looking at the other.
Rekex watched the drama play itself out, waiting for them to apprise themselves of any new data that may have been collected in their absences. There had been no further developments. Rekex was enjoying the uncomfortable silence, however, and chose to let it last a moment longer before breaking it.
He directed his first question to his Adjunct. “Have you located the area of the planet where the signal was detected?”
“No . . . No, Sir. Sensors are having difficulty narrowing the search to a specific area. The nearest estimate is somewhere near the equatorial region of the Western Hemisphere.”
“And have you been able to analyze the source of the signal, Science Officer?”
“Not as yet, Sir,” Thenesh’s voice was unsteady. “I have detected complex sets of low level gamma radiation emanating from that area of the planet, however.”
“Radiation? Is it interfering with the sensors?
“The levels are too low to cause interference, Sir. According to my calculations, it appears to be a byproduct of . . . something.” He stopped there, his claws punching a series of buttons on his screen. The data on his monitor shifted rapidly through a series of diagrams and charts of various frequencies. As he worked, the lines occupying the diagrams undulated like an epileptic serpent, bucking and writhing in unpredictable patterns. His eyes never left the monitor as his fingers manipulated the buttons of his console. An expression of intense concentration overtook his features, and his tongue darted out to lick the rim of his muzzle repeatedly.
Rather than interrupt his efforts, Rekex shifted his gaze back and forth from Thenesh to the imager to Zechor, who was staring intently at the back of Thenesh’s cranium as if willing him to look at her, to offer some sort of explanation about his efforts. Their coupling seems to have inspired him, Rekex thought. Perhaps I should order the entire crew to mate. A mental chuckle accompanied the thought, as he knew the breach of protocol should not be encouraged. A note of bitterness was also present as he realized he would not be able to participate without seriously undermining his command. Instead of dwelling on that fact, he shrugged off the idea and returned to watching Thenesh.
A moment later, the Science Officer’s fingers rested comfortably on the surface of his work bench and he sat back in his chair. His eyes were still fixed on the monitor, as if seeing something he was having difficulty assimilating.
“Thenesh Have you anything to report?” Zechor inquired.
No response.
“Thenesh?” she prompted again.
When he still did not answer, she looked at Commander Rekex, a baffled expression on her face.
“Science Officer, report,” Rekex ordered.
The sound of the Commander’s voice broke him out of whatever trance had engulfed him. He started, his arms tensing as if for a confrontation, before he realized where he was and who had spoken to him. “Sorry, Sir,” he turned toward Rekex. “It’s amazing, really. And so simple in its complexity. I should have seen it before, but I was blinded by the volume of irrelevant information we had been receiving.”
“What have you found,” Rekex asked.
“The key to the universe, Sir. The answer to the questions every species has been asking since the beginning of time.”
Rekex was not following his Science Officer’s train of thought. “Could you be more specific?”
Thenesh had turned his attention to the image of the barren planet below them. Now he stood up and walked around the command deck to stand before the image of Earth spinning lazily in its orbit. As the globe rotated on the screen, he studied the topography, waiting for something to appear. He was not sure what exactly but his instincts told him he would be when he saw it.
Behind him, Zechor had stood, also. She came to stand next to Rekex who was also standing. Both watched him in confusion. What had he learned? And why had that information affected him so? Was it more of this mood altering phenomenon at work? Rekex wondered if he should summon Hekten to the command deck to observe. He turned to Zechor, to inquire of her mental state, when he noticed she was staring at the imager, as if waiting for something. Before he could ask her anything, she stepped forward and came to stand next to Thenesh. Movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and he turned to see the helmsman rising from his post. “Helmsman,” he barked. “Return to your post at once.”
“Sir, I cannot,” he stated flatly. “I have seen the future and know that what we value as worthy is not.”
“What are you talking about? Have you lost your senses?” Rekex demanded, his ire rising on par with his confusion. These people were acting as if they were drugged. Had the Technician given them a narcotic of some kind to ease their headaches? If so, why was he not acting strangely as well? He was about to contact Hekten when Thenesh spoke up.
“There!” he said, raising his arm to point at the image. On display was a section of the planet near the equatorial region and in the general vicinity of one of the inland seas that dotted the surface. Nearby, an impressive range of mountains that ran from the southern hemisphere up through the equator and continued to just south of the planet’s northern pole sloped up from the western shore of the lake. On its eastern shore, the lake bordered what appeared to be an impact crater some one hundred seventy units in diameter. It was shallow, its rim eroded by nature and time but the signs were unmistakable. Based on its diameter, the meteor that impacted this planet had been of considerable size, perhaps ten units in diameter. Such an impact, Thenesh knew, would have produced violent changes in the planet’s biologic and ecologic makeup. He remembered reading a report in the computer’s database about the Human scientists believing this particular impact set in motion an extinction that eradicated more than half the species inhabiting it surface at that time, including what they termed “dinosaurs” – giant reptiles. He thought that interesting, since his species could trace its evolutionary descent from what the Humans would consider reptiles.
The crater itself was not the reason for his interest in this region, however. “The signal is emanating from the crater, Sir. More specifically, from several units below the crater’s bowl.”
Now, Rekex stood and strode forward to stand before the imager. “Beneath the crater?”
“Yes, Sir.
“I found the source of the signal buried beneath the clutter of all those waveform frequencies that should not have been there. The Alpha, Beta and Delta waves were camouflage meant to distract anyone of sufficient technological advancement from determining where the true source was located. They are satellite signals of the central signal, here,” he pointed to the crater.
Rekex was attempting to follow Thenesh’s logic, but was getting lost in the technical jargon. “Please explain.”
Thenesh turned to face his Commander, an expression of sublime understanding etched across his features. “I cross-referenced the data contained in the ship’s databases concerning the geological history of Earth and discovered mention of this impact crater. The Human’s believed a meteor impacted here over 65 million solar years ago and caused a mass extinction. Reptilian life was decimated on this planet, but mammalian life was able to thrive despite the conditions the impact generated. Over time, these mammalians evolved, through various stages, into the Humans who created the civilization we were coming to contact.
“There is a gap in the anthropological record where Humans began and their closest ancestor ended. Most scientists believed that it was a sudden evolutionary leap, a genetic mutation that caused the change. They could not explain whether a biological, environmental or societal factor had been the catalyst, however.”
“And you believe you have found this catalyst?” Rekex asked. He was no anthropologist. He had studied Serenthi evolution as a student, but it had not been his favorite subject: it was simply required of him. The Serenthi had evolved from reptiles over a period of time comparable to that of the Humans’ evolution. Unlike Earth, there had never been a mass extinction allowing their species to evolve in relative safety. The Serenthi had emerged as a dominant species after fierce competition against species of far greater size and advantage, and a harsh climate.
As if reading his Commander’s thoughts, Thenesh chimed in. “Our evolutionary history is an unbroken line of advancement from on species to the next until we Serenthi are as we are now. Not so for the Humans.”
“You believe an outside influence caused this “evolutionary leap” to occur here?” though his response was framed as a question, he believed he already knew what the answer would be.
“I do, Sir.” Thenesh’s ridges dimpled deeply as he answered. “The signal.”
“The signal is the catalyst?”
“Yes, Sir. The various frequencies and seemingly unrelated waveforms are a cloak of sorts for the true nature of the signal. I detected the Gamma radiation after . . . returning from Medical and wondered why such radiation would be emanating from the surface of a dead planet. This system’s star emits a tremendous amount of Gamma radiation, as does Serenthii’s, due to the fact that it is a colossal nuclear furnace. This radiation accounts for most of the background noise we experience when attempting to decipher signals transmitted by other species across space.”
“Is there a point to this lecture, Science Officer? If so, please make it.” Rekex, perfectly aware of the mechanics of a star, scolded.
“Yes, Sir,” Thenesh had the good grace to be embarrassed. “Sorry, Sir.
“There should have been no nuclear reactions occurring on the planet’s surface, yet I detected high levels of Gamma radiation there. Which indicated that a nuclear device had been detonated, in which case, the levels would be significantly higher – and we would have detected such an event – or a mechanical process, specifically one involving a nuclear reactor, was at work.”
Rekex listened to his Science Officer’s explanation intently, uncertain as to where, exactly he was being led, but fascinated nonetheless. “So you are speculating that a mechanical device with a nuclear reactor is radiating a signal from the surface of a barren planet. For what purpose?”

 

 

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Copyright © 2006 W N Dayley
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