Shakata

“She’s stable now,” Healer Conry said, leading Commander Kaege into the room with the sleeping woman.

“Have you been able to identify her?” Kaege asked.

Conry shook his head.

“So she’s foreign, then,” Geoff said, nodding to himself.

Conry’s lips quirked up in a smile. “You could say that.”

Kaege cocked an eyebrow. “No need to be cryptic, Healer.”

“My apologies, Commander.” Conry raised a fist in salute. “It’s just all a little…bizarre. Here, come look at this.” The older man led them to a small desk and picked up a sheaf of papers. “These are all her.” The top one looked like a skeleton. At first it seemed normal, but on closer inspection, Kaege realized it was not quite right.

“Those bones seem connected by twine and prayers,” he exclaimed.

Conry nodded. “They may as well be, as far as well can tell. And there’s more.” He shuffled through the papers. “Her muscles and bones are far less dense than normal. They seem to barely be able to withstand half as much pressure as a normal person.”

“A disease?” Geoff asked.

“Unlikely,” Conry said.

Kaege already saw where this was going. “You’ve been speaking to the salvage crew, haven’t you?” he said with a sigh.

Conry shrugged. “Word gets around.”

The salvage crew had been in charge of cleaning up the wreckage after this woman had crash landed in the middle of the Gladed Walk. They had also been in charge of bringing her ship to the SSC maintenance crew, and were already spreading rumors that the ship was other-worldly.

“Does she look like an alien to you?” Kaege asked bluntly.

Conry smiled. “And how would I know what an alien looks like?”

He had a point.

“We won’t know until she wakes up,” Geoff said, shrugging.

Lyn Sae woke up with a blinding headache. Her whole body pulsed with a dull throb, and her skin felt hot. She groaned, memory slowly returning.

She was on a space mission for MESA, one of six pilots sent to find the Shakata. A turbo malfunction, then crashing through an asteroid field. Instead of careful entry, she had crash landed.

But where was the package? She sat up, and almost immediately blacked out from pain and dizziness. She fought the sensation, slowly scanning the room. She saw only a clunky computer monitor, a small table, and some stools.

The door opened and two people entered. They were both very tall, with lean, defined musculature.

“Where’s my ship?” she asked in their language, voice raspy. The General had been scouting out this and other potential planets for years, and satellite signal enhancers gave MESA the ability to listen in on wireless communication on other planets as soon as it began. The advent of wireless communication was what signaled that the planet was ready for contact: for the Exchange. It also allowed them to learn the alien languages.

The man she assumed was younger-she wasn’t certain on alien anatomy-looked shocked. “You speak our language, foreigner?”

“Why are you here?” the older man asked. “Who are you?”

She held up a hand to forestall questions. “Good people, I am sorry to intrude upon you so violently. I am from a planet many lightyears away. I was on a reconnaissance mission when my ship malfunctioned, and I was forced to perform a controlled crash onto your planet.”

Nothing she had said was technically untrue, but it was misleading. She had intended to come to this planet all along. But they didn’t need to know that yet. She had to find out if they had the Shakata before giving them any more information.

“Please,” she said. “Where is my ship?” She knew that the package would be undamaged. It had been tucked inside a safe that could withstand a nuclear blast.

“Your ship is being repaired,” the younger man said. “But forgive me. I am Commander Kaege. And this is Head Healer Conry.”

She nodded respectfully, hoping the gesture would translate over. Knowing the verbal language did not mean knowing proper body cues.

“I am Lyn Sae. Can you take me to my ship?” she asked. The men shared a glance.

“Please,” she said, forcing all of the piteous pleading into her voice that she could muster. “There is something inside that is very dear to me.”

Kaege pulled his lips to a line before flicking his fingers almost dismissively. A yes? It seemed so, because Conry moved over to help her to her feet. He was very strong and likely could have carried her like a doll.

They progressed slowly, but she gritted her teeth and refused to give up, despite the pain. They finally stepped outside, and she was ushered inside some kind of transporter, a hulk of metal on wheels that didn’t seem entirely stable.

The trip was short, and they arrived at a large building that looked a little like a warehouse.

Inside was her ship. She cringed a little at the battered exterior, the scorch marks along the canopy. A large crack next to the front shield indicated how close she had come to being devoured by the vacuum of space. She shuddered.

“Here is the salvage from inside the ship,” Kaege said, leading her to a corner full of scraps and refuse.

And there was the safe, unopened. She fingered it almost reverently, but didn’t open it. Not here, not yet. She had some reconnaissance to do first.

Lyn spent five days recovering, receiving frequent visits from the Commander and Healer. They asked her questions, and she discreetly asked her own.

She needed to find the Shakata, the famed source of renewable energy discovered by the UCA ten years previous, on a distant space expedition. The UCA had tried to keep it secret, but the General had contacts all over the world. After learning of the substance, MESA had decided to try its own expeditions. With the Shakata, the ME could finally escaped the oppressive grip of the UCA, even become a world superpower in their own right. So far, they had been unsuccessful.

Once she was well enough, she decided to do some hands-on investigating by examining the computer monitor and light fixture. The safe was in her room, sitting on the table, but she didn’t want to open it yet. If they stole it from her, then her mission was botched.

The door opened while she was standing on her bed, studying the lightbulb. Commander Kaege strode in, looking amused.

“Is it really so boring in here?” he asked. She blushed.

“No, no. I just-” She took a deep breath. “I was just wondering what powers this light. It looks…different than the ones on my planet.” It didn’t really, except that the glow was a little less even.

“Lictium,” he answered.

She frowned. The word was unfamiliar. “Lictium?”

He nodded. “It’s a chemical that burns at a slow, steady rate, providing uniform light for long periods of time.”

“How long?” She cringed at her own bluntness.

He shrugged. “A long time. It eventually dies out, but the process is very slow. I don’t know much about it.”

Hope surged through her. A slow burning chemical that provided steady energy. Could this be it?

“Of course,” he continued, smiling to himself, “if you mix it with salt, the energy all releases at once. Then things get messy.”

She hesitated. “Salt?”

He nodded.

“But,” she fumbled for words. “But salt is…common. Isn’t it dangerous to use?”

He gave her a strange look. “Perhaps salt is common to you, but it is not common here.”

“Oh,” she said. Then she realized she was still standing on the bed and climbed down.

“I came to tell you that your ship should be space-worthy within the next three days,” he said, ignoring her discomfort. “Most of the damage was external, so our mechanics didn’t have too much trouble. If it had been the insides, though, well, I don’t think we could have helped you there.” He looked troubled.

She understood why. This planet, as far as she could tell, was far less advanced technologically. They had an advantage in physical strength, but that didn’t mean much when you were trying to stop a bullet with your fist.

“Thank you,” she replied sincerely, trying to put him at ease.

Lyn made her decision. Kaege was expecting her to leave once her ship was finished, which would be soon. She needed to test for the Shakata. She was almost certain Lictium was Shakata, and once she confirmed her guess, she would try the Exchange. If refused, she would destroy the Gift and attempt to steal the Shakata and escape.

It was night and she was alone. Now was the time to act. She opened the safe and retrieved the small brown package. It was heavier than it looked, and the brown paper wrapping crinkled at her touch.

She felt a sudden hesitance. If this substance exploded on contact with salt, didn’t that make it a very bad source of energy to use back home?

She walked over to the computer monitor, still thinking.

The General was an ambitious man, always talking about gaining independence. No, not independence-power. But surely he wouldn’t be so foolish as to put this into the hands of every citizen. The lawsuits from accidental deaths would far outweigh any monetary gain from selling the substance as an energy source.

She paused, frowning. The General wouldn’t be that foolish. She was sure of it. He wouldn’t put a weapon like this into the hands of the public. He-

Her heart skipped a beat. Of course the General wouldn’t give such a weapon to the public. But he would most certainly use it himself.

It clicked. The General wasn’t trying to gain power through economic or political means, as he had implied. He saw the UCA gaining a weapon, and he wanted to beat them to it.

Lyn had no love for the UCA, but they were not violent. They controlled world trade almost completely and the taxes were ridiculous, but people of all nations were kept safe and generally didn’t starve. Lyn had no doubt that it would all change if the General took over.

And it wouldn’t just be her world that fell. With a sinking feeling in her stomach, she understood. The General had sent the MESA recruits only to planets that had just barely begun using wireless signals. Just advanced enough that MESA could test for the Shakata, but not advanced enough to fight back.

Horror filled her and she dropped to her knees, the package tumbling from her hands. She trembled there for a moment on the floor, heart thundering traitorously. Finally, she looked up, gaze hardening.

She knew what to do.

Kaege watched the ship launch into the sky with a mixture of awe and foreboding. In his hand, he held a small black rectangle, a gift from Lyn. Her directions had been simple-create an adaptor that would allow him to attach it to a computer. It would give them instructions to create a prototype for a ship like her own.

But her parting words haunted him. Do not trust my people. Do not tell them about the Lictium. Do not trust their gifts.

General Khal watched as the blip appeared on the map before him. He quickly opened a channel to the ship.

“Recruit, check in,” he ordered gruffly.

“Recruit Lyn Sae, sent to planet 114. Returning from contact.”

He tried to contain his excitement. “You made contact? Confirm.”

“Confirmed.”

“And your task?” he asked, leaning forward.

“Negative, sure. The Shakata is not on planet 114.”

He growled softly, slamming his hand down on the button to end the call.

Twenty six attempts, all duds. He stared at the vast map of space, eyes narrow. “I swear,” he hissed, “by my blood and soul, those fiends from the United Continent of America will burn. Maybe not today, but they will burn.”