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  "Korgul would have no need for security," Beverly said, flitting up next to the ship. As she approached, a rounded rectangle glowed on the ship's skin, illuminating a door. "Place your palm on the hatch and it will open."

  "Crazy talk," AJ said, grinning madly and reaching for a newly highlighted portion with what looked to be a handprint.

  As he touched the ship, the metal beneath his hand warmed slightly and the faint whirring of mechanical gears moving was heard as the larger rectangle inset an inch. AJ stepped back as the door slowly swung outward. A funky, fetid smell wafted from the ship as several large objects fell through the hatch, knocking him to the side.

  "Oh, shit," he said, scrabbling backward. He fell off the side of the flatbed and tumbled into the ditch. "Was that what I think it was?"

  Beverly hovered in front of him, glancing between him and the ship, pensively. "I did not get a very good look," she said. "You need to go back up there."

  AJ crawled out of the ditch and used the frame of the flatbed to bring himself to a standing position. On the deck of the trailer, lying beneath the open spaceship door was an unmistakable pile of alien skeletons.

  Twenty-One

  Final Respect

  "Holy crap, that smells," AJ said, holding a hand over his mouth as a breeze swirled around, mixing with the fetid atmosphere of the ship.

  "The Korgul home planet has an atmospheric composition that includes a low percentage of methane," Beverly said. "When combined with rotting material and nitrogen, the smell is putrid."

  He unfolded his pocketknife and poked at one of the skeletons, then crouched down to inspect it. "Do you know how these guys died?" Tracing his eyes along the bones, he found small patches of withered gray skin but no obvious signs of physical damage.

  "While Korgul Minor are humanoid, they would be unmistakably alien on Earth," Beverly said.

  "So, what? Korgul left them on the ship to die?" AJ asked. "Why not send them back to Korgul?"

  "I am as shocked at this discovery as are you," Beverly said. "There have been rumors of this treatment, but no official report."

  "But you're recording this, right?"

  "I am, although deceased bodies alone don't show intent of harm by the Korgul Prime," she said.

  "They left them in here to die. Assholes," AJ said as he carefully moved the pile away from beneath the door. Standing up through the hatch, he breathed through clenched teeth and coughed as his lungs burned from the foreign atmosphere. "And I thought it smelled bad on the outside! Is this safe to breathe?"

  "No permanent damage is being done," Beverly said. "Place your hand into the cradle to your right. A plunger-styled switch will activate lighting.”

  The gloom of the ship's interior made it nearly impossible to make anything out much past the entry portal. Probably fortunate. She highlighted the hand-shaped grooves in the forward bulkhead next to the door. AJ twisted his hand around and found he had to pin his middle and ring fingers together as the handprint only allowed for three fingers.

  Feeling with the ends of his fingers, he found a soft membrane beneath his pinky. It took effort, but he depressed the membrane and felt a mechanical click. In response, a dim green glow illuminated the deck’s periphery. Because the ship was sitting on its side, the flat deck was across and up, a little more than ninety degrees askew.

  "I guess the ship has power." He leaned in to inspect the wall aft of the hatch. With no bulkhead blocking his way, he had a clear view aft. Along the starboard side, a meter-wide bank of tiny translucent cubes stretched from floor to ceiling all the way to the back of the ship. A pale-yellow light radiated off the cubes, many of which were stained as if fluid had been contained inside but had evaporated. "Ugh, is that a Korgul condo?"

  "That was an excellent intuitive leap," Beverly said, nodding. "I can see no other purpose for such a construct."

  "That's a lot of Korgul. There must be room for several thousand."

  "Completely full, it would hold sixty thousand Korgul," she answered.

  AJ’s appreciative whistle was interrupted by Greybeard barking and climbing onto his leg. "You want a look?" He lifted the dog through the hatch and placed him close to the rows of containers.

  Greybeard walked confidently along the side wall, following the curve until his front paws touched the deck perpendicular to AJ. To his surprise, Greybeard continued forward until he stood upright on the deck in direct conflict with normal gravity. Greybeard shot AJ a pleased look and jogged forward, out of sight.

  "Artificial gravity?" AJ asked, placing his hands on either side of the hatch to lift himself into the spaceship. As he stood on the outside wall, he felt a strange pull toward the deck, as if he were falling toward it, even though he was being pulled downward by Earth's own gravity. "Crap, I guess so."

  "A technology most in the Galactic Empire take for granted," Beverly said as AJ followed Greybeard's example and oriented himself with the spaceship's deck. His stomach flopped as his brain attempted to deal with the reality-bending environment and for a moment, he thought he might throw up.

  Greybeard barked again, standing between two chairs at the extreme fore of the ship's cabin, next to a bulkhead with many complex looking controls.

  "Whatcha got?" he asked, coughing as he sucked in too much of the poor-quality atmosphere. With eyes watering, AJ stumbled over what he realized was another Korgul Minor corpse, separating the pile of bones. "Ah, crap, sorry."

  "Why do you speak to the dead bodies?" Beverly asked. "Do you have a religious belief about the life of the Korgul still residing within its no-longer-animated body?"

  AJ shook his head. "Nah, nothing like that," he said. "Just doesn't seem right to mistreat the dead. If you're right and the Korgul left them locked up in this ship, that's just wrong. They deserved better. It's a respect thing."

  "Despite your desire to appear otherwise, you are an honorable man, Albert Jenkins," Beverly said.

  "You mean for a raccoon?"

  "You do realize it was you who used raccoons as analogous with humans in the eyes of the Galactic Empire, don't you?" she asked.

  "Didn't seem like you felt any need to deny it. What would your Galactic Congress say about Korgul abandoning these guys to die in their ship?"

  "I know it sounds cruel, but the matter is too small to be addressed directly by the Galactic Congress," she said. "We will submit the information we've gathered to a subcommittee that oversees sentient rights violations. If they determine the evidence to be of sufficient merit, an investigation will be launched."

  "And let me guess, nothing will happen after that."

  "There are hundreds of billions of sentients within the Galactic Empire and five thousand representatives," Beverly said. "It is not a perfect system, but since it was formed six hundred years ago, wars have been reduced by tenfold. How quickly does your own government act? Now consider if that government was a hundred times in size."

  "Okay, you got me there," AJ said. He’d lost interest in the conversation about the time she started rattling off numbers. "I don't suppose there's anything we can do about the smell?"

  Greybeard barked and lifted a paw, drawing attention to an angled control surface directly in front of a high-backed chair. AJ tried to sit on the edge of the chair and yelped when the chair responded by tilting such that he fell.

  Recognizing his alarm, Beverly interjected. "It's okay, AJ. That is a Vred-designed auto-adjusting flight chair. The controlling program might take a moment to build a new profile since it's never seen a human."

  "Vred? As in the alligator-looking guys? I thought this was a Korgul ship," AJ sputtered as he struggled with the chair.

  "That is correct," Beverly said. "Vred were the first to discover inertial dampening fields and as a result, their flight chairs are seen in a large percentage of space-going vessels. Pull the flight stick into place. Do not worry, it will not change the attitude of the ship."

  The chair continued to make minor adjustments as AJ sat forward
and grabbed the twin-handled controls that resembled a car's steering wheel with its top and bottom clipped off. He grunted as a small jolt of electricity shot into his palms. "Was that you, BB?" he asked.

  "Very good," she said, sitting with her legs crossed on the bulkhead in front of him. "Give me just one more moment and I'll have established a touch-free connection with the ship's main controls." He waited while she looked off into space. "Oh dear, it appears they've a cypher. How predictable."

  "We're locked out of the controls?" he asked.

  "Just those critical to flight and navigation, although Seamus is working on it. He's always been very good with puzzles," she said as a draft of fetid air pushed past AJ's nose. "On a more positive note, I've successfully interfaced with the atmospheric system, which is also of Vred construction. I've removed the methane from the gas mixture and added a small amount of ozone. According to the environmental package, the biological filters are degraded and will require attention before we consider interstellar travel."

  "Hey, AJ, are you in there?" Darnell's voice carried through the alien ship. "Did you know there's a bunch of dead aliens out here?"

  "I'm up front. Come on in," AJ called back. He turned to watch Darnell enter the ship, still wearing the Fantastium-powered rocket pack.

  "Oh, that's freaky." As Darnell stepped away from the flatbed and flew toward AJ, his body rotated so he was oriented with the ship instead of Earth. "Man, what Pacific Aerodyne would have paid for this anti-gravity tech."

  "Anyone following us?" AJ asked.

  "I stuck around for about half an hour," Darnell said. "Three SUVs went by, headed south. They were moving fast. My guess is, they'll be coming back this way. No idea if they'll think to look up here, though."

  "If they don't tonight, they probably will tomorrow or the next day."

  "I see you got the lights on, does that mean this thing flies? And what the hell is that poop smell?"

  "Did you know Korgul just left their hosts in the ship to die?" AJ asked. "They were all lined up on that door, trying to get out I think."

  "That's a pretty sad picture. Is that what smells?"

  "Their atmosphere has a methane component," AJ said. "I think BB is switching it over. The dead bodies aren't helping, though."

  "That's messed up. I wouldn't think that'd be allowed. Are you sure they got locked in?" Darnell asked.

  "I'm sure they died," AJ said. "BB, any chance the ship has logs that recorded what happened?"

  "It is possible," Beverly said. "As I warned AJ, Earth is far enough out that the Korgul are often able to act with impunity. Murdering their hosts is an unusual behavior and would normally not serve their purposes. It will be difficult to find a sympathetic audience and even when we do, it is likely they will not do more than assess fines."

  "Murder is just the cost of doing business? That's messed up," Darnell said. "How about murdering the crew of your survey mission?"

  "That is also messed up," Beverly said. "Our primary mission is to shed light on the injustice of the Korgul stealing humanity's future. While I do not mean to downplay the heinous nature of murder for convenience, we too must not become distracted from our mission."

  "Where'd all the sludge on the floor come from?" AJ asked, changing topics. "Not that I'm not interested in interstellar politics and intrigue, but if we're going to fly this baby someday, it's gonna need a good scrubbing."

  "That is truer than you understand," Beverly said. "In addition to the atmospheric handling systems, it appears there are significant issues with liquid holding tanks and waste processing system."

  "What kind of problems?" Darnell asked.

  "The liquid most often consumed by humans is water. Korgul also drink water but have no issues with bacterial nor algae growth. According to the ship diagnostics, the tanks are clogged with the unused water from this ship's last trip. As to the waste system, it has also suffered from nonuse. Both systems will need to be removed, purged, and in the case of the waste system, new bacteria will need to be grown."

  "How long will that take?" Darnell asked.

  "The task is not difficult," Beverly said. "The water tanks can be cleaned with a concentration of readily available chlorine as one would use for human swimming pools. Dr. Jayne has the necessary skills for growing and separating the necessary bacterium for the waste system."

  "Let me guess, it's up to me to do the scrubbing," AJ said. "How did I know I was going to be up to my elbows in crap before the end of this trip?"

  "Well, actually," Beverly said. "I would take advantage of your skill in constructing mechanical entities. If the ship's manifest is correct, there is a Vred micro manufactory aboard."

  "Manufactory? Is that the plastic fish tank looking thing in the back?" Darnell asked.

  AJ laughed at his friend's description. "I think that was a Korgul condo, Big D."

  "Oh, ick. Really?"

  "Yup. How big of parts can you get out of your manufactory?" AJ asked.

  "Seriously, what's a manufactory?" Darnell asked again.

  "Manufacturing is moving more and more toward 3D printers," AJ said. "At least for prototypes. My guess is these Vred are far enough ahead of us technology-wise that their 3D printers are impressive. How close am I, BB?"

  "Once again, your intuition surprises me," she said. "You are indeed correct. A manufactory is a term I plucked from English to describe a machine capable of manufacturing objects. All advanced species have differing levels of these types of machines. The speed at which a species is able to quickly transform conceptual ideas to real-life objects is directly correlated to that society's level of technological innovation. Humanity is really just at the beginning of what will be an explosive growth curve."

  "We're already seeing the benefits in aerospace," Darnell said.

  AJ sighed. More unnecessary information. "Tell me how this keeps my hands out of the crapper."

  "Designs for waste system robots are plentiful," Beverly said. "Humanity is not the only species that highly values avoiding contact with their own waste."

  "Where is this manufactory?" he asked.

  A slow blinking blue arrow appeared in his vision and he swiveled his chair until the arrow transformed into a box, highlighting a piece of machinery built into the portside bulkhead just forward of the narrow bunks.

  "The manufactory is not currently in operation," Beverly said.

  "That's fine," he said. "Our goal is to get back home where we can work on this beast. I imagine we can do that without our septic working."

  "The atmosphere is currently toxic for humans," Beverly said. "You will need to increase your caloric intake so that I might effectively filter."

  "I thought you changed it to an Earth mix," AJ said.

  "Wouldn't matter," Darnell said, shaking his head. "Just walking around in here is kicking up mold spores and I can't imagine what else. 2-F has an HUD up for me and it's showing the atmo filtration is completely gobbed up."

  "Right, she did say that," AJ said. "Any estimate on Seamus hacking those flight controls?"

  "Seamus is reporting progress, so it is only a matter of time. Perhaps two hours," she said.

  "And we'll be able to fly out of here? I'm gonna need someone to run me through the controls if you're looking at me to pilot," Darnell stopped talking and froze. He stared straight ahead for several seconds, then moved to sit in the starboard chair. I assumed his HUD had shifted to a tutorial on Vred flight controls. "Never mind."

  AJ's eyes cut to Greybeard, who was lying uncomfortably in the accumulated muck that covered the deck. Pushing himself out of his chair, AJ patted the seat cushion and whistled. Greybeard considered him for a moment and made a weak attempt at jumping into the chair.

  "Not really built for jumping, eh?" AJ said, lifting the dog into the seat. Greybeard woofed happily as the chair conformed to his unique shape.

  "We should inspect the manufactory," Beverly said. "Perhaps it was disconnected before the Korgul departed."


  AJ nodded and walked aft, paying more attention to the small ship's interior this time. He wasn't sure what he’d expected but if anything, the technology wasn’t that mysterious. Directly aft of the four chairs that made up the cockpit were cabinets. As his eyes moved along the cabinets, glowing labels appeared: navigation, communications, etc.

  "How is it you know what is inside all these spaces?" AJ asked, his eyes falling on several cabinets that claimed to be food storage and a short countertop that was labelled galley.

  "Korgul Minor are of limited intelligence," Beverly said. "As a result, security systems are minimal and I’m able to access all ship information. It may not be immediately obvious, but the Korgul Prime have little capacity to manipulate the physical environment around them."

  "More than Beltigersk," AJ said.

  "True enough," Beverly agreed. "The point I'm working toward is that because the Korgul Prime don't want to run every aspect of the Korgul Minor's lives, the environment and controls are necessarily simplified. Minimal security is not surprising when you consider how powerful and vindictive the Korgul can be. Most species would not consider boarding this ship or stealing from them."

  "Ugh," AJ said as he looked past the microwave-sized device Beverly identified as the manufactory. On the lowest bunk, the skeletal remains of a Korgul rested, its hands folded peacefully over its chest. His interest was drawn to a piece of white material between the dead Korgul's fingers. Reaching for it, he teased free what looked like a notecard.

  "You should return that," Beverly said.

  "Why?" AJ inspected the card. Tiny, albeit very neat writing filled both sides.

  "It is a letter addressed to the Korgul Minor's family," Beverly said. "The corpse was an older female who was missing her home."

  "I thought the Korgul took over a person's mind."

  "It's not complete," Beverly said. "Darnell was still inside when you found him, just not in control. Over time, the Korgul would have allowed him control to go about daily functions. Same is true with Korgul Minor, except they grow up knowing they will be controlled by a Prime."