Short Story: Transfer (Chapter 3 of 3)

Team Savant is on hiatus for a few weeks. Here is an adventure of an outlaw set three centuries into the future. Have fun as you follow the adventure of Tyson. To read the previous chapter of Transfer click Here for Short Story: Transfer Chapter 2

She stopped breathing by the time her body hit the table. He ripped her shirt, exposing her olive-skinned torso. He tore her brassier and cast the leather aside. He then lowered the surgical covering. He removed her helmet, exposing curly black hair.

Her body appeared on a screen overhead. A red alert appeared on the lung. The heart beat was rapid but there was no breathing. Tyson tapped a few buttons and she gasped for air. Her heartbeat slowed.

Sanchez opened her eyes.

“That’s some force of will you have there,” Tyson said. “Fighting to stay alive, when you should be dead. I would respect you if you weren’t so pathetic. Showing loyalty to someone who doesn’t care about you. I should have let you died.” Tyson turned around.

“Tyson?” she said weakly.

Tyson stopped.

“You are the kid who escaped the prison planet,” she said. “Always wanted to meet you, always wanted to know why was a child in a prison planet and how did he escape.”

“Since you are probably going to die anyway,” Tyson said. “I guess I could tell you. I hypnotized a few guards…took me a couple of months to get it right. So when it was time to leave, I simply walked out, took a ship and flew out of there. Just like I am going to do here.”

“They are going to kill you.”

“They will try.” Tyson said. He left the medical room, walked quickly down the hallway and into the cockpit. He checked on Computer. Uploading had slowed. He would need more time. Time that he didn’t have. He checked the outside monitor; the chief’s men were at work. Time was short. They would cut through the door soon. He panned over the ship, but a sound caught his attention. He concentrated and listened. Just like his eyes was different. So was his hearing.

They were inside the ship!

Tyson stood up and moved out of the cockpit. He pulled the gun out of his jumpsuit. He heard a shift and pointed in the direction of the sound. An invisible assassin tackled him while another grabbed for the gun. He lost his gun but he continued to fight.  Punching and receiving punches. He eventually grabbed one and slammed him into the nearest wall.  He felt an arm tighten around his neck, but he braced himself and threw him down to the floor. Two shots rang out and the bodies appeared—stunned by the shot. Tyson looked up to see Sanchez trying desperately to support herself, leaning against the entranceway, guns pointed at the two of them. “Either you are a terrible shot,” Tyson said, “or you just switched sides.”

“If Warren…breaks in here. He will kill us both.” Sanchez limped toward the cockpit. Tyson followed her. She sat down in the co-pilot’s seat. She typed in a long code and the bay doors opened. “This is our only chance.”

Tyson sat down, reached for the pilot’s shades and put them on. “So, you knew the access code all along.” He ignited the engine. “Now, why would someone at the bottom of the totem pole have access to the codes for the main bay doors?”

“I am the curious type,” she said.

“Nosy, is more accurate,” he said. The caution light for the landing gear beeped twice. Tyson ignored the alarm and increased the engine output. Damaged landing gear was the least of his worries. He imagined the twisted mess of the landing gear would be something he could easily fix later. He tore the ship from the docking bay. He pressed a button and jumped into hyperspace. When it was safe, he swiveled the seat around and stood up.

 Sanchez grabbed his arm. “You don’t have to kill them.”

Tyson tensed his arm. “I am going to take their stealth suits, put them in one of escape pods, turn on their emergency beacon and jettison them into hyperspace. They won’t die if the UP idiots find them.” Tyson reached back and adjusted the hyperspace instruments. “Besides, shouldn’t you worry about your own life?” Tyson walked out of the cockpit. He stripped the men of their equipment and placed them into an escape pod. Along with fixing the landing gear he would need to replace the escape pod as well. He immediately went to the cockpit to check on Sanchez. She hadn’t move from the co-pilot’s chair. Tyson noticed the color had drained from her face. “You should go back and complete your treatment,” he said.

“What are you going to do to me?”  

“I have use of you,” Tyson said. “I will drop you off at the nearest colony unharmed, once you tell me everything I need to know about this ship.”

Another alert. The artificial intelligence was online. “Tyson? I feel different.”

“You are in a different ship, Computer.”

“I detect use of the medical room, are you harmed?”

“No, I am fine. I hijacked a patrol class ship. Had to do a blind jump into hyperspace, I am going to need you to drop us out of hyperspace when you are a hundred percent.”

“And what of the female?”

“Oh Sanchez? She knows more about the ship than I do. We are going to keep her around for a short while.”

“If I get caught, I will go straight to the penal colony. I am an officer that aided a man with a bounty on his head. I have nowhere to go.”

“What do you want me to do about it?”

“Let me stay with you until I can find a safe place.”

“Aren’t you worried about being with a criminal and his sentient computer? We may plot to kill you in your sleep. We may push you out of the airlock just for the fun of it.”

“The power to the nanites you flooded her with has decreased,” Computer said. “If Sanchez does not finish her medical care, her wounds will reopen and she will die anyway.”

“I turn myself over to your protection,” Sanchez grabbed his arm again.

This time Tyson pulled away. “What?”

“I don’t know why there is such a high bounty for you,” Sanchez said. “But I don’t think that you are a criminal. I believe you are a good person.”

Tyson looked out of the debris shield and stared at the shifting stars. “You don’t know a thing about me….” He turned to her and something about her look of determination swayed him. “Fine. You can stay. But if you cross me, I won’t kill you. I will use these eyes of mine and bury your consciousness so deep it will take decades to come out of your mental prison.”

Sanchez gingerly stood up. “Thank you,” she said as she limped out of the cockpit.

Tyson leaned back and closed the cockpit door. “Computer, I want a watch on her every move.”

“Acknowledged…. Tyson?”

“Yes?”

“Female companionship may be a good thing for you. Studies have shown that human males live longer when they have a family.”

“I am hardly human or the family type. How could that be true for me? I was born different. If I have children with these eyes, the UP will chase them down and try to eradicate them too.”

“But we won’t let that happen,” Computer said.

 “You sound awful confident,” Tyson said.

“I am as my programmer made me.”   

   

The End.

Team Savant will return next Saturday. In the meantime, feel free to check out some of my older stories on this website.

NOTE:

You can buy my adult scifi novel Hearteless: A Journey to Second Earth @amazon or here.

For email updates, please click HERE and feel free to leave a message.

Also, feel free to comment below and follow me on Google and Twitter @ Frank_D_Rogers

Short Story: Transfer (Chapter 2 of 3)

Team Savant is on hiatus for a few weeks. Here is an adventure of an outlaw set three centuries into the future. Have fun as you follow the adventure of Tyson. To read the previous chapter of Transfer click Here for the Transfer short story Chapter 1

 

Tyson stood up and walked forward. He ran his fingers along the side of the walls. “Where are you?”

“Over here,” she said. “What are you doing?”

“I am trying to get close,” Tyson said. “Give you a good look at my eyes.”

“Don’t try anything funny.”  

Tyson opened his eyes. By sheer force of will, he changed the color.  

“Your eyes,” the soldier stood there with her mouth opened. “How did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Change your eyes from—I don’t know...electric white to blood red?”

“That’s all? Look closely, you can see concentric circles.”

“Yes.”

“From your perspective, they appear to be rotating, and your body is relaxing. Your eyes feel heavy. You want to close them but you can’t, not until I tell you.”

“How are you—“

“My ship’s computer taught me when I was just a kid. Now, open this door.” The officer opened the door. ”Take me to your fastest ship.” The UP officer turned around and strolled away. “Wait.” Tyson took her personal weapon and released the clip. He gave the empty gun back to her. “I am your prisoner, remember?”

The officer shook her head to say yes. She held the gun to Tyson’ back and gently guided him out of the holding cell. They met another officer along the way. Tyson averted his eyes in an attempt to hide his eye color. “Sanchez,” the other officer said. “Has he already been processed?”

Sanchez didn’t answer. Tyson grabbed Sanchez’s gun faster than the other officer could react. “Don’t move,” Tyson said.

He stiffened. “You won’t get away with this, there are security monitors everywhere.”

“We are at a blind spot right now.” Tyson said. “I sensed all of them on the way in. Besides, no one will raise an alarm if an officer has a gun on a prisoner.”

A small amount of concern formed on his face. “Sanchez?”

“Sanchez has checked out for the time being,” Tyson said.

“What do you want?”

“I just want to get off this rock. Sanchez is going to take me to the fastest ship and I am going to fly out of here.”

“Won’t work. Even with the fastest ship, you will be blown away before you reach high velocity.”

“Already, thought of that,” Tyson said. “Haven’t you noticed my eyes?”

“What?”

“Relax,” Tyson said as he stared intently at the new officer. He placed his hand on the man’s shoulder. “You have a job to do.”

“Yes, I have to do my job.”

“If you want to stop me from escaping, you will have to cut the power to all of the external weapons of this post so I can’t use them to escape.”

“Yes of course,” he said.

“You will be a hero.”

“I will be a hero.”

Tyson took the officer’s gun and placed the weapon inside of his jumpsuit. “Let’s go,” he said to Sanchez.

 Moments later, he made it to the ship. The government escort ship was a sleek work of art. A work of art meant to hold only a crew of four, but capable of being piloted by an individual.

Sanchez opened the ship’s door. “Ready this ship for departure.” Tyson lifted his foot, reached into the heel of his boot and pulled out a data crystal. He heard the blare of a post-wide alarm.

His time was up.

He found an access panel, slid the crystal into its proper place and turned counter clockwise. Computer’s data, programming and essence uploaded into the new system. Tyson checked a holographic readout. “A fifth of an hour,” he said. “Don’t have that much time.” He checked Sanchez. She was still under his influence. “You will wake up and remember everything,” Tyson said as he placed his hand on her shoulder. The scales of a dream dropped from her eyes. She grabbed his wrist and sent him tumbling five feet away. She pulled her gun out and pulled the trigger.

“It’s empty, remember?” Tyson stood up.

She threw the gun at him and charged.  He ducked and picked her up. She flipped over him and continued to kick and pummel him until he pointed the barrel of a gun to her face. “Trying really hard not to kill you,” he said.

“What are you going to do with me?”

“Well, if you behave yourself, I will try not to kill you.” Tyson directed her to the door. “When your boss gets here, I am going to trade you in exchange for safe passage out of here.”

“Chief Officer Warren will not negotiate.”

“I am sure he will, I doubt if there are a lot of women on this rock.”

“You are wrong. He didn’t want me here in the first place.”

Tyson checked the outside monitor. A platoon of officers was gathering outside. “We will find out eventually.” He pressed the button to open the ships door but remained in the shadow. He sent Sanchez out. “One false move and I will shoot you in the back,” he said to her.

 “Throw out your weapon and come on out, Tyson,” Warren said.

“If you know my name, then you know that it would be in everyone’s best interest to just let me go.”

“With our fastest ship? I don’t think so. You are going back to Prison Planet Europa. You cannot take all of us.”

“I have a better plan,” Tyson said. “Let me go and you get your officer back in one piece.” Tyson heard a laugh, a gun blast and Sanchez flew some four feet into the ship. Tyson pressed the button to close the door.  He stood over her and watched as she gasped for air. The wound missed the heart by a couple of inches. She would die but not anytime soon. He picked her up and carried her to the medical room.


NOTE:

You can buy my adult scifi novel Hearteless: A Journey to Second Earth @amazon or here.

For email updates, please click HERE and feel free to leave a message.

Also, feel free to comment below and follow me on Google and Twitter @ Frank_D_Rogers

Short Story: Transfer (Chapter 1 of 3)

Team Savant is on hiatus for a few weeks. Here is an adventure of an outlaw set three centuries into the future. Have fun as you follow the adventure of Tyson. To read the previous Team Savant story click here to go to Short Story: Big Trouble in Little Hela.

The sun shone through the debris shield of his ship. The pilot’s shades Tyson wore protected his eyes from the bright light.  With life support at minimal, the light became an unwelcome furnace.  The radiation from the light reached unhealthy levels; however, thanks to his genetically enhanced, melanin rich skin, the sun was the least of his worries.

He gathered the two wires under the control panel and soldered them to the motherboard. He moved quickly to the main power panel in the cargo hold. He grabbed the railing, held on tight, pushed all of the air out of his lungs and pulled the red lever. The lights went out, the air became nonexistent and gravity ceased to exist. He would need to wait five minutes for a full reboot.

Tyson hummed a song in his head. A lullaby. He had no idea why he knew—any song. He never knew his mother and his taste in music leaned toward Jovian Rhythm and Blues. When his wrist indicator flashed he pulled hard on the lever. Gravity. Power. Oxygen, all returned instantly. He fell hard to the floor but immediately rolled up and ran to the cockpit. He re-started the engine and the main computer. Switching to manual control, a circular steering wheel appeared from the floor of the shuttle. He tilted the steering column downward and the ship gently shifted downward. He pressed a button and the ship streaked through space. “Computer, complete a full systems check,” he said.

“Full systems check complete.”

He pushed the steering mechanism away. “Report.”

“Systematic systems crash eminent.”

“How much time?”

“Seventeen United Planetary hours.”

“Tell me how to stop the cascade.”

“You cannot. You can only download my mind into another ship.”

“Closest colony?”

“Mercury is forty hours away at top speed… Tyson, serving you has been an adventure.”

“Don’t be so quick to say goodbye,” Tyson said. He pushed back from the controls and stood up. He walked into the cargo bay—his makeshift quarters. He pressed a button and a bed shot out from the wall. He lay down and relaxed. “Computer…you do know that if I can’t fix you that I will die out here too.”

“Yes.”

“I will not die. Not like this. Never like this.”

“There is a way for you to live, but you may choose death.”

“I am allergic to dying, so tell me my options.”

“There is a UP security post twelve hours away.”

“So die or go back to Europa,” he said. “Death does sound appealing… Plot a course for the security post. As soon as we are in range of their sensors download your consciousness into a sustainable crystal.”

“What are you planning?”

     “Don’t worry. I am not letting you go that easy.”

“You don’t have a plan do you.”

“No.”

Within ten hours two fighter pilots intercepted Tyson’s ship. Tyson put on a cloak to cover his black and gold pilot’s jumpsuit, a moment after the ship landed in the central bay. When he walked out the main doors, three men greeted him with power rifles. A dark contrast to their silver body armor.

“Take off the cloak, move forward and prepare to be scanned.”

Tyson stepped forward. As soon as one of the officers took his cloak, the overhead scanner bathed him with invasive rays.

“Your bone and muscular density is twice as high as an earth born human. What colony are you from?”

“Does it matter?”

“Answer truthfully or we will shoot you.”

“I don’t have a home. I am a criminal and I would like to turn myself in. That is all. I don’t really feel like having a conversation.”

“We will find your identity as soon as we get a DNA sample. Take those glasses off.”

“My eyes are light sensitive,” Tyson said.

One of the officers struck him in the back of his head with the butt of his rifle. He then grabbed the shades and ripped them off. Tyson immediately covered his eyes. The officers hit him until he stopped moving.

“Take him to the holding cell until we are ready to process him,” one of them said. “If he gives you any trouble, you may shoot him.” They proceeded to drag him to a cell. For three minutes they dragged him along the metal floor. The light reflecting off the metal floors were blinding. Tyson relied on his other senses along the way to get his bearings. He could take out the two men, but doing so would just cause even more trouble. He needed to be subtle. One guard pulled a string of hair from his head.

He needed to hurry.

It would only be a moment before they found his true identity. 

Once Tyson was in his cell, he curled up in a corner. A post like this was guaranteed to have thirty UP officers. Could he take them all? Once again, he tapped into his senses; there was only one guard on duty. The guard, too small and curvy to be a man, seemed almost disinterested in the job. He sniffed and caught the musk of a woman. It was a sweet smell like stolen candy. Still he was cautious. Even a single guard. Male or female could get lucky.

“Hey. What’s up with your eyes?” she asked.

Tyson held his smile in check. “My eyes are light sensitive.”

“Really? Are your eyes genetically enhanced? Made for working in the adamantium mines?

“Well, that was the intent,” Tyson said.

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s just say it didn’t go as planned.” He leaned back against the wall “Why are you so curious?”

“I don’t get to see much around here,” she said. “It’s rare that we even get a prisoner around here. You may be the only decent conversation that I get.”

                  

                 End of Chapter 1

Return next Saturday for Chapter 2 of Transfer.

NOTE:

You can buy my adult scifi novel Hearteless: A Journey to Second Earth @amazon or here.

For email updates, please click HERE and feel free to leave a message.

Also, feel free to comment below and follow me on Google and Twitter @ Frank_D_Rogers

Short Story: Big Trouble in Little Hela {Chapter 4 of 4}

A shy stutterer became friends with a narcoleptic girl, a telepath that looks surprisingly like the Roswell alien, a guy with three eyes, a water breathing princess with blue skin and a girl who can split herself into three people. From that day forward, he became Savant, the boy with a saber tooth tiger in his head. He along with his friends are Team Savant, the greatest cadet action team in the known universe. To read the previous chapter click HERE

 

Nathaniel mastered the language in roughly fifteen minutes. He spent the next six hours working on a computer program that would mend the tear in the very fabric of reality. Zorn spent the better part of six hours writing the program and another three hour editing. Lights flickered as Elmo worked furiously to prepare his ship. He finally gave the three-dimensional image to Nathaniel who observed it for an hour before announcing the edits as he worked.

It was during the third simulation that their guests arrived. Four hulking blue men appeared outside of Elmo’s ship. They walked equidistant apart, guns at the ready.

“Aquarian rebels,” Nathaniel said. “They appear to be on steroids.”

“I can’t risk any damage to the ship,” Elmo said.

“There won’t be any damage,” Nathaniel said. “I will draw them away and soon as we are clear, you can take off.”

“I can’t leave you in danger,” Elmo said.

“We are not in any danger,” Nathaniel said.

“Those guys look plenty strong,” Zorn said.

“They are,” Nathaniel said as he stood up.

Zorn stood up as well. “Are they susceptible to telepathic blasts?”

“Normally no,” Nathaniel said. “But you are strong enough to blast through.”

“Doesn’t give me a lot of confidence.”

“Just follow my run pattern,” Nathaniel said.

The two of them stepped out of the ship waved at the rebels and ran for dear life. Blasts of laser fire heated the air around them.   Nathaniel zigged and zagged. Zorn followed as closely as possible, bounding over fallen trees, bushes and rocks. Soon they came to a clearing. “Why are we stopping in an open space?”

“So we can fight.”

“Did you bring a weapon?”

He pointed to three pebbles on the ground. “I could use those, but since you are here, I will go easy.”

“What?”

The four behemoths bounded into the open space. “Well, if it isn’t our queen’s boy toy.”

“I am your future king,” Nathaniel said.

“You are no king of mine.”

“Well, I guess since you are giving up your citizenship, there is no need to hold back.” He ran forward. “I will take the two on the right,” he said to Zorn. All four of them fired upon him, missing their shots by the narrowest of margins. One abandoned his weapon when he realized the ineffectiveness of the attack. Nathaniel disarmed the other, grabbing his power cell from his weapon and threw it at another assailant. The cell blew up in the face of the giant. He fell forward, his gun discharging as he hit the ground. The blast hit the standing Aquarian squarely in the chest and just like that, the second one was down. Two smarter creatures backtracked while firing. Zorn grabbed the mind of one, they mentally wrestled for a moment, but Zorn was the stronger. He forced him to put his weapon on stun and fire at his friend and then at himself.

Zorn walked over to Nathaniel who hovered over one of the fallen Aquarian. “Is he?”

“No, the blast missed his heart by five centimeters. The first aid I administered will keep him alive until the authorities come.”

A close sonic boom drew their attention the sky. Elmo’s ship entered the tear and disappeared out of their current reality. The tear closed. “We did it!”

“I have to go. I have to find Isis. My Isis.” Nathaniel took off in a sprint. “I will see you on the other side.”

As he ran, reality swirled around him as if flushed down a drain.

Darkness followed.

 Zorn opened his eyes. He was in his bunk. “If that was a dream I will make plans to destroy this planet,” he said.

A thump startled him. He looked over his bed—Nathaniel was sprawled out on the floor. He stood up, grabbed his robe, put it on and limped to the door.

“Nate?”

“Hey, what is all the commotion?” Jon asked.

Nathaniel opened the door. Isis was standing there ready to knock on the door. “Hello,” she beamed.

“Isis, are you all right?” Nathaniel asked.

“Yes.” She frowned as she cocked her head sideways.

“I had a bad feeling,” Nathaniel said.

“You had a nightmare, doofus,” Jon said.

“I would still like to run a diagnostic on our ship—maybe scan the planet,” Nathaniel said.

Isis shook her head. “Proteus ordered us to relax,” Isis said. “As the official captain of this mission, I am ordering you to relax.”

Nathaniel nodded. “Yes Cadet Captain.”

“Good. I have plans for us today…be ready at 0930. Bring bathing suits.”

“We will,” Zorn said.

She stared at Zorn and then back to Nathaniel. “I had the strangest dream. I was Queen and you were first in line to be my king.”

Nathaniel straightened. “I dreamed that you got mad at me for bowing to you.”

“Of course, I would.”

“And then there was this ship and a ghost.”

“A ship and a ghost?” Jon laughed. “Sounds like a nightmare to me.  I had a dream that Isis hated Zorn.”

Jon rubbed his head. Remembering the pain administered by Angela. “I am certain that in such a dream…the feeling was mutual.”   

                                                                  The End

Team Savant will be on hiatus for a few weeks, but I will post a different sci-fi short story during that time. So, new post, next Saturday! Chapter 1 of Transfer. In the meantime, feel free to check out some of my older stories on this website.

NOTE:

You can buy my adult scifi novel Hearteless: A Journey to Second Earth @amazon or here.

For email updates, please click HERE and feel free to leave a message.

Also, feel free to comment below and follow me on Google and Twitter @ Frank_D_Rogers