Tales From The Frontier
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'The Giant Thargoid Eye'
Chapter One - 'The Thargoid Spy'
By Martin Wilson
Not much happens usually day or night on the planet Convar 12. No life has
ever evolved there and no colonists have ever settled there. Its a
beautiful world with a humanoid-bearing atmosphere, so this may seem
strange. Unfortunately Convar 12 has a neighbour, Convar 13, a very large
gas giant, and this neighbour in planetary orbit terms gets rather close
for 23 days of Convar 12's year. This sweeps Convar 12 in the most intense
and varied radiation field yet known in the whole Galaxy, causing the
planet to be completely sterilised. The meeting of these two worlds is so
close that by rights it would be thought that Convar 12 would be pulled
down into the larger planet's gravity, but Convar 13 spins on it's side,
causing enough of a difference in gravity to allow Convar 12 to stay in
it's own orbit. So Convar 12 is a rather quiet world, normally. Today
however, something is afoot.
Dave Hollis is chewing over a rather difficult situation. He's stuck up a
hill on Convar 12, covered in white sand to avoid detection. He's got two
rather pressing problems at this point in time. One problem below him; 12
Federation Navy ships of unknown design are parked on the plain. These
craft are sporting the all-black colouring that signifies these are the
special forces that deal with problems the rest of the Federation don't
even know exist. Problems which are rather sensitive. Certainly, Dave has
no idea what they're doing here and he's been watching them for 3 hours.
He and his comrades (safely back on Paneer) need to know why the Navy are
here. Problem Two; on the horizon is Convar 13, a red gas giant with a
dark red Pole, like a huge eye looking straight at him. This also directly
relates to why the Geiger Counter in his watch is moving steadily up the
scale and making annoying little beeping noises. Given the fact that
radiation is now reaching levels which aren't at all healthy, and that by
leaving he would get chased and most definitely destroyed by the Navy, he
continues to sit and play a waiting game.
Dave racks his brain for some possible third option. He kicks his feet in
the sand a few times as if the movement would increase circulation and
perhaps cause that much-needed solution. His thoughts are slowly changing
from how to survive, to the best way to die. He takes hold of his
binoculars and sets them to the maximum magnification of two thousand
times. The trouble with this is he just couldn't hold them still enough to
concentrate on any of the Navy people moving between the ships down on
the plain. After one mini brainstorm, Dave has sorted out various rocks
into a small wall to rest his binoculars on, and now perhaps his eyes
might get a chance to focus on something long enough to understand what
exactly is going on down there, possibly even lip-read one of the men.
Dave's wall was working very well, and now he looks down and surveys the
scene. The Navy ships were laid out in three rows of four ships. One of
the central craft is a different shape from the rest. Bulkier, but just as
black. It was difficult, but Dave struggled with the lens back and forth
to see if he could pull a name off any of the ships. The nearest was
easiest it would seem, he thought. There was half a name 'Legless', but
the second word only had the first 'L'. It was at this point that Dave
heard something behind him. A low humming noise, and it was gradually
getting louder, and he realised something was coming over the ridge higher
up the hill. Dave dived into the white sand, struggled for a second or two
to right himself so he could just peek out to see what was coming. He
worried for a second if his Cobra at the top of the hill had been
discovered, but he didn't see how. The Cobra had a full camouflage kit
which activitated at the touch of a remote button, mimicking the
surroundings and with zero energy emissions to avoid detection.
The humming was now quite loud and was moving slightly away now, above the
ridge going down the hill. Dave raised his head some more to get the
necessary angle of view, and there it was. 'It' being the operative word;
it was a Thargoid. Floating along on what looked like a rather comfortable
chair with a totally rounded base. Some of the white sand was getting
caught in the air around it, and you could see that some sort of spiral
field was emanating from it's base. Dave was more interested in the
Thargoid itself. He'd never seen a live one, and the dead ones are usually
after some battle and are just pieces of the anatomy sewn back together in
a best guess of how they fit together. This live one however didn't
resemble the dead Thargoids as much as you would expect. The colour is the
main difference. The live blood gives the body a bright green look; once
dead it congeals into a black tar, and therefore so does the body colour.
This Thargoid was going on eight feet tall. Two arms and legs, a torso
with thick insectoid plating, and breathing done through the back and
through the sides of its rear hunch. The head is similar to the house-fly
with the eyes being smaller in relation to the fly's head. Can't be sure
where the ears are; there seems so many little holes dotted around the
head. The mouth is a visual nightmare, with thick fluids trailing between
the long teeth top and bottom, which a spiked tongue intermittently cleans
away.
Strangely, the creature does not look threatening. Dave watches with total
attention. The Thargoid continues to hover at the same place and looks
down at the Navy ships. Dave watches as the Thargoid's metallic fly-like
eyes vary their reflection as they focus. Dave then listens in amazement
as the Thargoid reads out in rather poor but definite English, 'Legless
Lizard'. The Thargoid then takes out some purple bag beside him, and pulls
out a stick of something green and promptly eats it. Dave realises this
Thargoid is a spy and interpreter for the Thargoids. Dave also notices
that the Thargoid is enjoying eating the stick. This obvious pleasure
surprises Dave; he'd always been told they're almost robotic in
personality. After finishing the first stick, the Thargoid hunts for
another in the bag. While the Thargoid is leaning to the right, Dave
notices that the top of the Thargoid's head is transparent, and to his
further amazement it looks like the Thargoid has a brain almost identical
in size and shape to the human brain. The Thargoid returns to looking down
on the ships.
Its then the Thargoid looks visibly shocked. So much so that his next
action is to turn the chair around and start hovering back up the hill.
The Thargoid moves up and out of sight. This gives Dave a sigh of relief
and then suddenly he feels a sharp pain in his wrist and lets out a small
shriek. Dave's watch has given him a small electric shock; the radiation
levels are now at a critical point, given the fact Dave has been on the
planet almost four hours. Four hours with the radiation levels practically
doubling every half hour. Dave's suit being the latest radiation-resistant
design, without it he would have been dead within 15 minutes of leaving
his ship. It would seem now an ideal time for Dave to retreat to his ship,
which at least would give an hour or more of further radiation protection.
Unfortunately, the ship itself had little in the way of radiation
shielding technology. It merely protected due to it's thick metal hull.
The dull hum of the Thargoid's floating chair had gone, and Dave ran as
silently as he could up the hill to his ship, stopping instantly at the
top when he could see the Thargoid's chair parked next to his Cobra. It
must have flown nearby to the Cobra and detected it's metal hull. He could
see the Cobra was moving slightly. Thargoids are high density creatures,
and being 8 feet tall meant a weight equal to four men. Dave reached into
his pocket for his blaster and set it to maximum. With this little blaster
it meant one shot and then a 3-minute recharge. In other words either hit
it first time or die. Dave stealthily approached his Cobra, expecting the
Thargoid to exit the hatch at any time. He waited; he could hear the
Thargoid shuffling inside. A loud thud and a tiny little cry indicated to
Dave that the Thargoid had hit his head. A perfect moment to take the
Thargoid by surprise.
Dave quickly entered the hatch, finger pressed almost to the point of
firing on his blaster. In an instant Dave was facing the Thargoid, which
was rapidly turning round towards Dave. Dave's finger pressed a little
harder, but then Dave could see the Thargoid had covered itself in an
explosives belt, going from shoulder to shoulder. Dave's finger had
pressed too far; the only course of action was for the gun to be pushed
away from aiming at the Thargoid, and the blaster landed a blast into the
corner by the floor, inches away from the Thargoid's foot. It made a
pretty burn pattern, but luckily only hit thick metal panelling, which did
not impair the strength of the hull. Dave looked at the Thargoid whose own
blaster, a much more impressive device, was pointed directly at him.
Unlike Dave, there was no actual reason for the Thargoid not shooting.
Dave knew his number was up. His reaction was simply to close his eyes and
await the blast that would remove his existence from the Universe. A blast
that did not come. Five seconds later when Dave reopened his eyes, the
Thargoid was again enjoying another one of those rather luminous green
chews. The Thargoid moved his blaster to indicate to Dave to sit down by
the console, and then reached into his bag to get another chew, even
though he'd yet to finish his last one. It's next action was to throw a
chew over to Dave. This time the Thargoid spoke. "Try it, you'll like it".
Dave, now getting to grips with a rather unlikely situation, takes a bite.
It is rather pleasant, he thought, before his mind goes back to pondering
the reason why he hadn't been killed. "Do you like it?" says the Thargoid.
"Not bad.... is this the last meal of a dying man?" says Dave. "Yes." was
the rather abrupt reply from the Thargoid. "I'd better eat it slowly
then." says Dave. At this point the Thargoid starts on a rather unlikely
monologue. "You know, I was a human once. Apart from the fact you're about
to die, I envy you. When I was a human child, life seemed wonderful and
exciting. They killed my human body, killed a Thargoid's brain and put my
brain into his body. I was only six at the time, but I still remember it.
After they'd successfully done the operation we all had a good meal. I
later found out that the meal was my human mother".
Dave is amazed by the run of conversation coming out of the Thargoid. The
Thargoid continues, "I hope I didn't give you the wrong impression earlier
about me killing you, as I've never killed anyone. I just meant the
incredible explosion that is about to occur on this planet, which will
wipe out the whole inner system, possibly even the Convar star itself."
"What?" says Dave. He had hoped that he would be given the opportunity to
tackle the Thargoid in one last attempt at survival. "Mind you," says the
Thargoid, "if you were to fly me in this Cobra to Convar 13, I could
activate the hyperspace portal within it's atmosphere and we could escape
this system, but you won't do that I suppose?". Dave senses a certain fear
in the Thargoid's voice, as if to acknowledge that the Thargoid knows Dave
wants to kill him. Dave continues to chew and comments, "The Cobra drive
cannot hyperspace from contaminated or radioactive space, or enter a
hyperspace portal, while the hull is contaminated; its to protect the
point of exit from contamination".
The Thargoid looks puzzled for a moment, then replies. "How about we fly
up to it and position the craft so that the Escape Pod fires into the
portal?" Dave looks at the Thargoid and says, "The only way this ship
could withstand the radiation is to fly at full speed directly into the
portal. Even then I doubt either of us would withstand the radiation. But
there would at least be a small chance". The Thargoid replies, "Radiation
is no longer an issue. The chew you have eaten is the seed to the
production of highly absorbent cells in your body that collect radiation
and emit their energy as light. The only side effect now is that you will
glow as the radiation increases, just like my body glows green. The
radiation will reach levels that may possibly blind us, such will be the
light that our bodies emit. Also, now you have been permanently modified
there is no reversal." Dave's mind is in total confusion. Why does the
Thargoid care if he lives? How long will the Escape Pod provide life
support with both of them squeezed in? Will it's structure support the
weight of himself and the Thargoid combined? What lies on the other side
of the portal? How long before the explosion takes place? "Excuse me,"
says the Thargoid "I know this is all rather confusing. If it helps at
all, may I mention the fact that I've been sent on a suicide mission? I've
completed the mission part, but I'm having difficulty with the suicide
bit. My human brain, although heavily Thargonised, still has a strong
survival instinct." This reassures Dave to some degree. The Thargoid
continues. "My mission was simply to inform on the purpose of these
Federation ships, which I have now transmitted." "What is the purpose?"
asks Dave. "Well, I suppose telling you may build up some trust between
us. Put simply, one of the craft below on the plain is in fact a Forced
Atomic Device. A nuclear bomb based around a super dense atomic matrix.
400 times the atomic weight of Plutonium. So unstable that the bomb itself
must generate an incredible artificial gravity to compress and hold the
atomic matter. The bomb is simply detonated by turning off the gravity
field. At this point the matter will instantly stretch out to about a five
mile radius and then an instant later detonate. It's a very effective
weapon, similar to the one the Federation used to destroy our Thargoid
homeworld many years ago." "The Federation destroyed your home world? I
never knew that." says Dave. The Thargoid looks coldly into Dave's eyes
and says "Surely when your race attempts to destroy an entire
civilisation, you know about it? Do you know of the sixteen other
intelligent civilisations that have been destroyed by the Federation and
Empire?".
Dave's face drops. "All I know is that the Thargoids are an
uncompassionate self-sacrificing race, out to colonise the Universe." The
Thargoid replies "Thargoids lack compassion, its true, but they also lack
hate; they simply exist, and do not conquer other races or destroy them.
I've lived with them now for about thirty old world Thargon years and
feel part of their community, even though I don't think like them. Because
I am unique I am protected, and many Thargoids have died protecting me.
You can't help but feel loyal to a race when they will die for you. But
this important mission where an understanding of the Federation was
required meant that only I was suitable". Dave "Didn't you say they fed
you your own mother?" Thargoid "They did, but its natural for them to make
use of all resources. She was killed after attacking a Thargoid science
vessel. If she hadn't attacked, the Thargoid vessel would have left her
alone."
Dave "It seems to me you're spouting a lot of propaganda about the
Thargoids. I've encountered Thargoid ships and they've fired first, and
all I could do was run." Thargoid "Thargoids will attack any ship piloted
by someone who is on file as already killing other humans. We can access
Federation records just like your own craft. A Thargoid that kills a
Thargoid is a completely defective creature who is terminated, and this
rule is also applied to humans who kill humans." Dave "It sounds like
you're judging us, which surely you have no right to do?" Thargoid "If we
kill a human who kills humans, we are saving the life of other humans who
don't kill other humans. It is Thargoid logic. You see, its all down to
our different cultures." The Thargoid looks to the small window and
notices the Federation craft are leaving, minus the bomb which has been
left down on the plains. He also notices that Convar 12 is almost at it's
nearest point to Convar 13. Dave leans over the Thargoid's shoulder to
watch the last ship move swiftly out of view. A speed that no normal
Federation ship can achieve.
Dave's next action toggles the camouflage mode and the ship begins to
whirr as it turns back into it's normal blue colouring. Dave also notices
in a reflection from the console that his body is glowing quite obviously
now, and the redness of his veins can be clearly seen. A final clunk
sounds and the ship now has no camouflage. The Thargoid puts his blaster
onto the console recess and sits down rather uncomfortably on the small
Cobra seat at the end of the console, his head almost touching the roof
which is lower at the cockpit end. Dave swivels his main chair round to
press a series of buttons. The Cobra is now fully activated. A warning
comes on, projected onto the main window "This Cobra is exceeding safe
radioactive limits, no organic lifeforms are available to pilot it. Please
input robot name and authorisation." At this point Dave makes up some
token name that springs into his head and inputs his Cobra security code
and the controls finally activate.
A quick pull back of the stick and a press of the button for maximum
thrust causes the Cobra to lift off. Luckily the Cobra is carrying hardly
any cargo so the weight of the Thargoid is manageable, even though it
makes the Cobra front-heavy. A quick left push of the stick positions it
directly heading for Convar 13, and the Cobra starts it's journey. Dave
looks to his left to see the Thargoid chewing on another stick while
gazing out the left window. Dave looks behind to see a small explosion
back on Convar 12. The Thargoid pips in "Thats not the bomb, thats just my
hoverchair auto-destructing as I'm more than 50 miles from it; a security
device for spies like me." Dave's radar picks up the departing Federation
ships. No doubt they've picked up the Cobra now, but he doubts if they
will follow him into the intense radiation zone of Convar 13. The thought
crosses his mind though that they may detonate the bomb as soon as they
are at a safe distance, which may be before he enters the portal. The
Cobra continues onward. Both the Thargoid and Dave are glowing quite
brightly now, so much so that Dave struggles to see the console, and
there's a rainbow effect around the edges of his sight. The Thargoid
comments "I'll go and remove the seat in the escape pod and you'll have to
sit on me. We won't be long like that as there's 2,000 Thargoid
fighter/bombers on the other side and one is bound to pick us up". Dave
"What?!! They'll shoot the Escape Pod on sight, or kill me once they've
picked it up... What the hell are 2000 ships doing there anyway?"
Thargoid "You won't be killed, I promise you. In fact they'll probably
replace your old Cobra with something they've captured. You've saved my
life, you've shown you are not anti-Thargoid, so you won't be killed".
Dave "Yes, but the 2000 ships?" Thargoid "They are ships to take on the
Federation and Empire, if the space of the new Thargoid home world is
invaded. In fact because the Federation are blowing up the Convar system
because they believe Convar 13 is a Thargoid base, this may instigate a
new war. A war which the Thargoids will win. However, the war will be
fought purely against the military of both the Federation and Empire; no
civilian populations will be attacked. However, it may be Thargoid policy
to sterilise communities so that they cannot breed, allowing Thargoid
communities to take their place later on.
But this will only be for worlds where the Thargoids had originally been
first to get to, and then been attacked and evicted from by the Federation
and Empire. Also the 16 other intelligent civilisations will be recreated,
as we have genetic material from all of these." The Thargoid continues to
proudly state the intentions of the Thargoid race: "Finally, the Milky Way
Galaxy will be fortified against incoming invasion from other Galaxies.
Thargoid Galaxy probes have encountered 3 other races which are far more
aggressive than any of the civilisations of the Milky Way. It is our
intention to form a collective organisation which will prevent the
Thargoids from being eradicated. Humans are needed for your greater
fighting skills and faster reaction times." Dave "I can't say I believe
all this, but as long as I'm not killed I'm happy." Thargoid "You won't be
killed; the worst possible scenario is your brain will be implanted in a
Thargoid body, and you become one of the Elite human-brained fighter /
bomber pilots." Dave "I'd rather just die now." Thargoid "I assure you
its a very remote possibility." Dave "It better be!".
The Cobra craft is now entering the top layer of Convar 13's atmosphere.
Dave and the Thargoid are really quite luminous now, and the whole
interior of the craft is almost white with brightness. There's a small
trail of dust behind the craft as the paint on the hull is crystallised by
the intense radiation. All instrumentation is failing; it was never meant
to cope with this level of radiation. Dave says "Where the hell is the
portal?" Thargoid "Don't worry about that, the portal will find us,
there's no way any craft can navigate in this thick atmosphere or
radiation." The Thargoid pulls out a little control pad from a small
pocket in its belt. Presses a few buttons. The Thargoid then says "The
portal will now collect us and follow us through the exit, breaking off
the connection with the Convar 13 system. In fact now I come to think of
it, it should just swallow the Cobra, as the Cobra's navigation system
won't see it approach". Dave is starting to lose sight with the intense
brightness of the cabin, there's also a feeling like a wave of weakness
going through his body; the radiation level is just too high. He slips off
his chair and collapses onto the floor. The Thargoid isn't feeling much
better, but remains conscious. The portal comes into sight. Like an ocean
framed as a picture, it slowly approaches, warping space around it as it
moves. Then a sudden immense circle of light fills the sky. This can only
mean that the Forced Atomic Device has detonated. Such a massive explosion
will only take minutes to hit Convar 13, as Convar 12 is only 200,000
miles away. The Cobra enters the portal, and the portal contracts and
disappears with it. The connection with the Convar system will not be
fully broken until they exit the hyperspace gateway. For the moment, the
Cobra races through the gateway at magnitudes of light speed, closely
followed by the portal gateway itself. Dave's body continues to glow, but
the radiation field is gone and Dave goes into a rather deep sleep. The
Thargoid, aware that Dave isn't conscious, starts a vigourous scratching
session using one of his long insect-like arms. "This white sand gets
everywhere".
Next month (if I've got the time) Chapter Two 'Pete's City ship'
Martin Wilson