Escape to Earth 1: Running From Fate Read online

  Running From Fate

  Escape to Earth 1

  Saxon Andrews

  Introduction

  He ran through the doomed warship and felt the heat on his back as he slammed the door behind him. Most of the crew was dead and the giant Myot battleship was moving in closer to finish the job. He looked at the ship’s layout in his mind and saw on his wrist unit that there was only one life pod left in the rear of the ship where he was running; he hoped it was still operational. He felt the ship shudder as another heavy disruptor beam hit the bow and blew it away. He went through the large bulk head and saw the small opening in the wall on the far side of the engine room and he sprinted and dove through it. Flames washed into the room and blew against the back wall. He could feel the heat behind him as he slid down the chute and into the small cockpit of the escape pod and yelled, “GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!”

  The escape pod’s systems activated as soon as the door in the engine room closed and its motors activated. The cover on the hull popped off and the small vessel accelerated out of the tube just as the rear of the warship exploded in flame. The pod went to full skip speed and, after a moment, disappeared. A two-mile wide blaster beam ripped through the space it occupied a moment earlier as the giant Myot Battleship detected its emergence and rotated one of the huge disruptors on its hull toward the tiny vessel.

  • • •

  “One of their pods managed to escape, Supremacy.”

  “Make sure no others do.”

  “Should we give chase?”

  “There are much bigger prey to handle here before we can devote the resources to chase a single pod. Once we’ve cleaned up here, send a tracker wing to chase it down.”

  “Yes, Supremacy.”

  Suddenly, a bright green warship that had massive fires burning in it appeared off the port side of the giant battleship and slammed into it causing a massive explosion. The green ship was doomed and the commander skipped it close to the behemoth and rammed into it at its maximum speed. Both ships were at the center of a bright halo that blew out into space at the speed of light. The battle continued for three days but was now over for the two starships that were embraced in the arms of death. It was two weeks later before the recordings of the battle revealed an escape pod had managed to skip away. The search for it began immediately and the tracker wings spread out to find it. The occupant of that pod knew the location of the Empire’s Naval Production Planets. It had to be found and eliminated before that information could be given to their enemies. The massive number of trackers spread out on the escape line taken by the pod and began looking for a skip trace. Three fleets were devoted to the search and there were many worlds that were spared invasion while the search continued. The Myot Empire’s Fleets skipped across the galaxy and set up a barrier between the Welken Confederacy and any possible approach that the escape pod could take to get home. Its destruction was imperative.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Introduction

  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

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter One

  “What are you doing!?! You need to get me back to the fleet!”

  “There is no fleet. Every one of our warships has been destroyed or are burning. They’ll be following our trace shortly and I have to put some distance between us and the Myot Trackers.”

  “But you’re headed away from the home worlds.”

  “Do you not think they’ll spread out and start looking for our emissions if we go in that direction? My task is to save you and I intend to fulfill my programming.” He sat back and activated the scanner system and replayed the last view of the battle. The pod was right. There were no Welken survivors of the space battle. Those giant battleships his fleet had stumbled in on were a new development and the home worlds had to be warned. “They’ll learn soon enough when they send out their fleets to find you.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “There are enough probes scattered around that area of the galaxy to see them.”

  “Do you seriously think they’ll send one of those new battleships to find me?”

  “You know the location of their major ship building planets. Your death is more important than keeping their new ship a secret.”

  “How are we going to avoid being found?”

  “I don’t know…yet. However, I don’t detect anyone inside my scanning range starting to search for us. That means they can’t see me either.”

  “They’ll see your trail.”

  “I know. I’m working on that.”

  After several hours he said, “Well?”

  “There is no possible way for me to avoid them following my trace.”

  “That’s reassuring. So what are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to break the law.”

  “Which one?”

  “The one that deals with contacting primitive planets.”

  He sat up straight in his chair, “You can’t be serious.”

  “You’re dead no matter what I do. This is the only way to extend your life a little longer. My programming forces me to do whatever is necessary to prevent your death.”

  “But if we land on a primitive planet, not only will the Myot Realm be after me but the real power in this galaxy will also call for my execution.”

  “That’s true. But they’ll have to find you to make that happen. They won’t go looking for you with a warship.”

  “They’ll send in stalkers if they know my location.”

  “That will take time and hopefully you’ll find a way to avoid detection.”

  “This isn’t a plan; this is suicide.”

  “I was updated on the latest information about the galaxy a week ago and a new primitive planet has been found that has not been assigned a Sentinel yet. I can get in and attempt to hide from him before he arrives.”

  “This is ludicrous.”

  “Ok, what do you want to do?” There was a long moment of silence and the pod said, “I thought so. You need to leave escape to the professionals.”

  He knew the pods were extremely intelligent and had programming that was almost intuitive. He was trained when he first boarded a battleship that if he was ever forced to use an escape pod he should just allow it to do its job. He knew it was a computer he was conversing with but it was incredibly brilliant. He also knew there was no escape from their trace being followed and any route back to his civilization would be blocked. The trace would last for several months and the Myot would be on his trail long before it faded. Life as he knew it was ending. “Alright; I’m leaving this in your province. I’ll follow your instructions until I see another way.”

  “That’s fair. We’ll be arriving in another three days. I’m going to change your DNA to match the inhabitants on the planet I’ve chosen and start feeding you information that was collected from the probe that discovered it. You need to lay back and put on the transfer band. You should be ready by the time we arrive.”

  He reached to the left, opened a small case, and took out a black band. He wrapped it around his head and closed his eyes. A silver field of flashing silver sparks appeared around h
im as he lost consciousness.

  • • •

  “Have you located the pod?”

  “Not yet, Supremacy. We were quite slow in following his trace. However, we can say for certain that it has not attempted to return to the Welken Confederacy. We have a globe of probes surrounding that cluster and nothing has appeared. If it goes anywhere near that sector, we’ll know and we will destroy it.”

  “Can it get close enough to communicate our planet’s coordinates?”

  “No! Our probes will detect its approach long before it moves into communication range.”

  “We’re tying up too many ships chasing this pod , Fleet Drang.”

  “I know; but we can’t risk allowing the location of our major industrial planets to be broadcast to other civilizations. They’ll combine against us and destroy our main source of warships. This problem must be solved before we can go back on the offensive.”

  “I’m still shocked that the Welken squadron was able to find our planets.”

  “They took a random skip to avoid one of our fleets and stumbled in on the location. We were fortunate we had enough of the new battleships to block their communications and destroy them.”

  “FIND THAT ESCAPE POD!!”

  • • •

  He woke and everything felt different. He raised his arms and saw hands with five fingers instead of the usual four. He looked at the reflection on the display and said, “This species is rather ugly.”

  “You’ll get used to it. I’m glad to see you’re speaking one of their major languages.”

  “It was the most interesting one you sent me. What next?”

  “I’m going to attempt to throw them off my escape line.”

  “Just how do you intend to do that?”

  “I’m going to shut down the skip drive and fire my thrusters in the void to change direction.”

  “Are you crazy!? Firing thrusters in the void will kill us.”

  “How do you know?”

  He shook his head and sputtered, “You know how that space reacts to energy; we’ll either be blown out of the void into normal space or…”

  “Or what?”

  He shrugged, “Have our protecting field shattered? I don’t know. No one releases energy in the void.”

  “The static blasters are fired at ships in the void without destroying the ship that fires them.”

  “Yes, but they are kicked far off their track. Those small static charges will blast a ship apart in the void if it hits them. The power of a thruster will…”

  “Perhaps blow a ship a tremendous distance from where it happens?” He remained silent and the computer said, “I’ve got to find a way to lose those trackers that are following my skip trail.”

  “I thought you were just going to a primitive planet and attempt to hide?”

  “My central program has been working on that and it doesn’t think it’s a good plan if we can be followed there. This is the only way to move without leaving a trace to follow.”

  “If it works, you’ll still have to use your skip engines to get to the planet.”

  “Let’s make the effort first and then see if we learn anything; are you ready?”

  “No, but is that going to stop you?”

  “Pull your restraints tight, thrusters in five, four, three, two, one, and NOW!”

  He stared at the display on the panel in front of him and he felt a giant fist slam him in the chest. He was pushed back in his chair and lost consciousness.

  • • •

  He finally saw bright lights twinkling in his vision and after a moment they solidified into a single light on his panel. He hurt in places he didn’t know he had. “Well, that wasn’t so bad.” He tried to take a breath and his chest felt like it was on fire. The Computer said, “Alright, here’s what I learned from our little experiment. You don’t have to talk, just listen.” He closed his eyes and tried to focus on the back of his eyelids. “The thrust threw us more than six hundred light years away from our previous location. It also left a huge area of disruption in the void. If we’re lucky, your pursuers might think we blew up.” He passed out.

  He awoke again later and the computer said, “I scanned our path and there was no trace of our movement through the void.”

  “I’m dying here!”

  “No you’re not; I have the medical program making repairs. However, I’ve determined that if I reduce the thrust slightly and orient the ship on the line of that primitive civilization, I might be able to have us thrown in its direction.”

  “Why haven’t you already done it while I’ve been unconscious?”

  “Well…you need to mend before we try it again.”

  “Are you saying I’m going to be injured again doing this?”

  “Yes, but we should be clear of any pursuers.”

  “Forget it! It’ll kill me if we try this stunt again.”

  “It would if we tried it right now. We’re going to wait for the medical program to repair your new body and then we’ll give it another go.”

  “Did I tell you I’m dying here?”

  “I’m about to start the education program on what the probe discovered. I’ll allow you to absorb all the information you can until the medical program says you’ve healed from the first push.”

  “You’re determined to do this!”

  “I’m programed to save you. I’ll make the next thruster move while you’re still unconscious. I’ll only wake you up if something goes wrong.”

  “Did it ever dawn on you that if something goes wrong, there might not be anyone to awake?”

  “It has and I’ve decided that this is the only practical method of hiding you. You’re going to sleep now. Hopefully, I’ll see you after the next push.”

  He shook his head and immediately stopped from the pain and red lights he saw with the effort. A moment later, he was unconscious.

  • • •

  He didn’t open his eyes but took inventory of how he felt. The previous pain was gone except for a small pain in his head. He opened his eyes and saw the escape pod was moving through normal space. He saw a red colored planet passing by on the right and he rubbed his temples. “Where are we?”

  “I’m moving into the primitive Planet’s planetary system as we speak. I’m going to go straight toward the planet and shut off the thrusters three hundred thousand miles out.”

  “How long have I been unconscious?”

  “Seven weeks. It’s taken that long for the medical system to repair your spinal cord.”

  He looked at the display as he moved his legs, “May I assume your experiment worked?”

  “We made it here without leaving a skip trace. That doesn’t mean they won’t come here looking for you.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Because my skip trace ended abruptly. They’ll be forced to search from that point and this planet is one they might check out when everything else fails. It at least buys us some time to get you hidden away. I think the Trackers will exhaust every other possibility before they go to the expense of hiring Stalkers to search a primitive planet.”

  “Do you think the locals will be able to see you on that planet?”

  “Their military is pretty good but they use the ancient reflected energy system to track moving objects. My field will prevent them from tracking us.”

  “What about visual?”

  “They have a satellite system around the planet but I’ll be entering the atmosphere on the dark side of the planet. I’ve changed my color from green to black; they won’t see me.”

  “I’m going to start absorbing their cultural norms. Let me know when we’re at the planet.”

  “You have about four days. I’d pay close attention as to how the different sexes act around each other if I were you. This civilization seems to be fixated on mating rituals and attracting each other. It’s all confusing to me but most of their electronic broadcasts seem to be filled
with the attraction and social behaviors accepted between the males and females.”

  “I’ve seen that. It really doesn’t make sense to me.”

  “Maybe it will after you observe them in person.”

  “You’re saying I should go out and blend in with their population.”

  “You’ll have to be careful until you figure out appropriate behaviors; however, that is going to be the only way to hide from the Sentinel and Stalkers.”

  He nodded and closed his eyes. The really crazy signals he saw were the things called commercials. What is a maxi pad? He sent a query to the pod’s computer and received a long lesson in human anatomy. At the end he said, “This is gross stuff.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “I just did.”

  “Cute. I’ll be looking for an identity for you.”

  “How are you going to hide?”

  “I’m working on it.”

  “You don’t have much time.”

  “Thank you Mr. Obvious. I’m researching the machines this civilization uses for mobility. They’re called automobiles. I need to find one that matches up with my basic lines. My major systems need to fit inside the exterior and so far I’ve not found one that would allow the shape change.”

  “I’ve noticed a source of books called Amazon. I’m going to download a few thousand of them and see if I can detect any patterns in their behaviors.”

  “That’s a good idea. You can do that before we arrive.”

  • • •

  He looked at the…genres…and decided that he would read the top fifty bestsellers in Romance, Science, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Psychology, History, and Politics first. An hour later he opened his eyes and said, “These people actually attack and kill each other.”

  “I was hoping you wouldn’t notice that. They do it individually and in an organized, well planned thing they call a war.”

  “Will I be safe here?”

  “With your strength and speed, you should be able to either run away or kick the ever living crap out of anyone that attacks you. Your new body is human but your nervous system, strength, and control of it is far beyond what the locals possess.”