Buck Rogers
by AJ Marks
Part 23
Buck looked up seeing another alien wrestled into a cell and locked. It screamed a bit in whatever language it used, but ended up as gibberish to his ears. He watched, looking it over as it was dressed in black and seemed to be some sort of flight suit, had two large eyes and seemed to have no nose or ears but a mouth similar to a humans. Its skin was a bit more black color as it raged for a few more minutes before finally quieting down.
“About time, you have a grating voice,” Buck said to it not moving from the lounging on the bed. It looked over at Buck apparently seeing him for the first time.
“Human,” it said in the same grating voice.
They looked at each other for several seconds before the alien finally turned and looked around the room obviously looking for some way to escape. Buck too this time to study how it moved. It was very controlled, but didn’t seem that powerful, more fluid than a few other races.
As he watched the alien tested the bars several times, and looked under the bed for anything it might be able to use.
“You’re not too smart are you,” Buck said gaining its attention. “If you get out of here, then what? Not exactly in a spot full of friendlies are you?”
The alien made a face in his direction which Buck could have taken any which way, but looked more like a demented smile to him.
“All right, your loss,” Buck said. “I’m only in here because you and your drones decided to foolishly attack this planet. You must have some sort of enhanced over-inflated ego for what you did.”
That comment stopped the alien and Buck knew he, or she, understood English which meant they had to have had some contact with humans somewhere. That brought up another question, who had they contacted, someone on Earth or in the Draconian Empire, or somewhere else which he had not yet discovered. It was a lot to think about and wished he had more information.
“So, you attack every race you come across, or only special ones?” Buck asked not expecting a reply but watching the alien’s reaction. “You have a name, or do I make one up for you?”
Still the alien did not reply except for its initial word of ‘human’ earlier but he kept an eye on the reactions coming from the alien.
“Not very talkative are you,” Buck said. “A bit of a bore if you ask me. You seem obsessed with trying to discover a way out but once out you seem to have no idea what to do next. I mean face it, you get out, and as I said earlier, you have nowhere to go, or is someone on board a spy for your race?”
He watched the alien closely at that but it seemed to have either ignored the statement or it meant nothing to him.
“Reminds me of a movie I saw once when I was younger,” Buck said.
“Will you shut up human,” it finally said, its voice still gruff and grating as it looked over at Buck. “Your voice is like an infection among the stars and need to be erased.”
Buck’s eyebrows rose at that comment, and he wondered if perhaps he had stumbled upon some reason why they were attacking Earth.
“Yeah, well yours isn’t that pleasant either,” Buck replied back to it, this time he got a reaction.
“Our voice is the greatest known,” it replied back to Buck.
“You sure? I’m not, by the way, where’d you learn English?” Buck asked watching as it suddenly stopped and glared at him before sitting down on the floor and apparently seemed to be meditating.
Buck went back to relaxing but kept an eye on the alien across from him. He had learned some interesting things and knew with this latest action the alien would be concentrating on not doing anything else while he was here.
*****
Buck looked up as his captors walked in.
“Follow me Captain Rogers,” he was told. Buck walked out of the cell as it was opened and took one last glance at the alien in the other cell.
“Well, see you around,” Buck said to him watching as the alien only slightly twitched but said nothing back and walked out of the cell area.
They went down a few corridors and entering a room where he wasn’t surprised to see Twiki, Doctor Theopolis and Wilma, who seemed relieved when he entered the room.
“Well, this is nostalgic,” Buck said to them as he sat down and saw the others looked perplexed. “It’s close to what happened after the test flight and I found myself in the future,” he told them.
“Ah, yes, I see,” one of the alien said as the door opened and Buck recognized Kreeev entering the room.
“Now that’s everyone’s here, my name is Gziis and I do apologize for detaining Captain Rogers,” the alien said, and Buck figured he was the one in charge.
“I would have thought our recent sharing of information would have counted for something,” Theopolis said.
“Actually, I’m glad,” Buck said shocking everyone in the room.
“What do you mean?” Wilma asked.
“Well, if I hadn’t been captured I wouldn’t have been able to ‘talk’ to that alien,” Buck said.
“And without him the alien would and his ship would have never been captured,” Gziis said.
“Have you discovered anything about it?” Buck asked.
“We were able to get a general direction of the alien ships, but patrols have not discovered anything. If they were there they have since left,” Kreeev said.
“Probably in response to what we did,” Wilma said.
“Most likely, is there anything else you discovered Captain Rogers?” Theopolis asked.
“Well, actually there is one thing, the alien in the cell knew English,” Buck said. “Could understand and speak it, knew that I was a human on sight.”
“That’s a bit disturbing as it means they have had contact with humanity,” Theopolis said.
“Yeah, and there is one other thing,” Buck said recalling one thing. “It seemed to really hate m voice. Thought its voice was the most pleasant sound in the universe.”
“Interesting,” Gziis said as the others looked thoughtful as well.
“Is it all the excuse they need to go to war?” Theopolis asked.
“There have been wars for less, but its rare to happen,” Gziis replied back to him.
“Yes, but the facts in front of us consider they might consider such a thing,” Theopolis said.
“If that’s the case, then why did they attack us as well?” Gziis asked.
“That we do not know, but there are several empires and alliances this group was discovered to have infiltrated and perhaps might be ones to attack, your race was one of them,” Theopolis said. “We’ve been looking to see if there is a common theme to it all.”
Buck sat there thinking before another thought came to him.
“He was really agitated by my voice, is there something similar vocal-wise among all of these races?” Buck asked.
“It’s a possible route, let me analyze it,” Theopolis said silent for a few seconds. “No, but we do share one common trait, we are all social races, all except for the Rizonians who are also involved.”
“They are not social, but are lose allies of ours,” Gziis said. “We’ve been allies in several wars and have strengthening bond.”
“Then perhaps they knew by attacking you it would bring them in as well,” Theopolis said. “Very fascinating.”
“If we discover anything we’ll tell you,” Gziiis said.
“Thank you,” Theopolis stated.
“Your fighters are all ready, we took care of Captain Rogers as well,” Gziis said.
“Thanks,” Buck replied as they stood and were led to the hanger.
“You pull another stunt like that and I’ll ground you,” Wilma said.
“I sense you were worried,” Buck said to her watching as she blushed slightly.
“Of course, you’re part of my squadron,” Wilma replied. “It’s natural for a commanding officer to worry about her squad.”
“As it was, the information Captain Rogers retrieved is valuable to understanding who we’re up against, and perhaps it might even provide the solution to the problem,” Theopolis stated.
“So, you have a solution in mind?” Buck asked as they reached the hanger.
“Perhaps, I will have to talk to the Chancellor over it,” Theopolis replied.
“Fair enough,” Buck said as they reached their fighters. It would good to get back home as he climbed into the fighter and started it up.
End part 23