Star Glory (Empire Series Book 1) Read online

  “We will enter and be cleansed,” Morales said quickly, waving to the leader. “Mother Madamedura, I hope we see you when we exit.”

  “You will see me and my family members,” the Melanchon said in a low rumble. “It is our task to acquire your star data and to take you to any part of our habitat ship you wish to visit. We will await you on the other side of this chamber. Father Leksatok will return your devices to you when you emerge.”

  Morales led the way into a yellow-lighted room. I followed after her, Cassie and the major. They turned left and headed for a rectangular opening in the wall. As they put their backpacks into the opening, the base of which moved inward like a conveyor belt, I pulled off my backpack. When my turn came I stuffed mine into the opening. It had my name on the top of the pack, the same as the packs of other folks. When everyone had put packs into the opening, we followed Morales over to a low curving metal beam that had the angles and texture of bark. I stripped off my suit as Morales, Cassie and the major led the way. In two minutes all of us had stripped off vacsuits and hung them from the metal limb. Next came the vacsuit’s skin protection unitard. Which left each of us naked. Doing my best to not stare at the five women, I moved toward an empty floor circle. Sucking in my breath, I stood inside my circle. Then I gave up and looked around.

  Morales stood not far from me, her expression patient, though her eyes scanned the chamber, glancing at each of us. Her breasts were full and drooped a bit. Which fit the fact of her actually being a mother who had birthed children. Her motherhood was clear from the stretch marks on her stomach. But like all of us she was in good shape. She was medium tall, with muscles in her arms and legs. Her heritage of growing up on a farm in the Spanish city of Lérida, in Catalonia province, also showed in the dark brown tan that covered her entirely.

  It was impossible not to look at the other women. I’m male, after all, and my hormones still work. Very nicely, thank you. Chang stood not far away from me, her oval eyes closed as she lifted her face to the warmth of the ceiling lights. Which not only shone yellow star bright, but also contained a secondary glow of infrared, my eyes told me. None of us were going to be chilled here. Looking down Chang’s slim body I saw petite breasts with dark nipples, arms with nice biceps, flaring hips, black hair in her groin and shapely legs that ended in feet with trimmed nails. She was shorter than Cassie but clearly a runner judging by the muscles in her legs.

  Beyond Chang stood Evelyn Kierkgaard. The evolutionary biologist from Science Deck was a classic Irish redhead with curly red hair that flared out and fell to her bare shoulders. The freckles on the woman’s face covered her entire body, from her neck down to very full white breasts with pink nipples, then a flat tummy and on down her legs to her feet. Short red curls filled her groin. Her toenails were also nicely trimmed, unlike my own. She was taller than most women, a good six feet it seemed. While she was very shapely there was no flab on her, anywhere. Evelyn saw me looking. She smiled, waved a hand my way, then gave a wave to my buddy Warren, who seemed very entranced by the only redhead among us.

  Oksana’s blue eyes were remarkable as she stared at me. Then she gave me a grin as if to say “Hay, the gals can enjoy body watching just as much as the guys!” To add to the tease she shook her shoulders, causing her medium-sized breasts to jiggle a bit. Her blond curls also shook. Showing off like that brought a grin to my face. I waved back to her. She looked away and waved to Bill. I could not avoid finishing my lookover. Her groin hair was a nice patch of blond curls, while her hips were only slightly broader than my own. She might not have the Earth Goddess look of Evelyn, but Oksana looked very nice. Plus she was just four years older than me. And at six feet tall, she could meet my eyes. Whenever she chose to.

  Cassandra stood between the large black frame of the major and beer bellied Bjorg, who was running fingers through his shank of long blond hair. Cassie was turned around so I saw her full-on, versus the profile of Chang. Her pretty face glowed under her short black curls. Her brown eyes switched between Owanju and Bjorg as she followed Chang’s advice and chattered with the two men. Which left me free to appreciate her full beauty. Her skin was a classic British pinky white, with a darker pink on her neck and upper chest where her skin had been exposed to natural tanning. Her shoulders were as wide as mine, though her arms lacked the full biceps of our athletic ladies. Her breasts, though, were full, well-shaped and had dark pink nipples. Which were not cold-stiffened, an effect I had enjoyed back in the Great Lakes mixed showers. Her belly did not show the six-pack of muscles that were apparent on Owanju, and on my friends Bill and Warren. But it was nicely flat and led down to a patch of black curls in her groin. Her hips curved nicely but were in proportion to her shoulders. Her legs were even nicer, being gymnast fit and long. Like all the women her toenails were nicely trimmed. Trimmed toenails were one nice aspect of my enhanced eyesight. Another was the infrared glow from her chest and lower body. A glow which was common to all humans in the chamber. But on her it was special. Cassie was not petite like Chang. Instead she was shapely, well-formed and an enticement to dreams any male would welcome!

  The rains came from above and below, interrupting my view. I closed my eyes, gave thanks for my special vision and hoped dear Cassie would say yes to a dinner date!

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Dressed and wearing our backpacks, all ten of us stood in a normal room beyond the decontam chamber. The three Melanchon were already there when we walked out into the room and found our backpacks with our clothes waiting on low metal branches that were close to the chamber exit. Hurriedly we’d all dressed, aware of being watched by the three orang-beings. When dressing was finished, Leksatok had walked up to us, offered two handfuls of tablets to us and waited while we each grabbed our own device. Then he stepped back to join the two females of his family. Who were taller and bulkier than him, we now saw clearly since none of them wore vacsuits. All three did wear shoulder straps that ended in brown carrybags that held metal tools and red tablet devices. In sum, three alien orangutans covered in thick reddish-brown hair stood in front of us, their brown eyes watchful, their faces not moving or showing an expression in the human fashion. Leastwise based on what we could see of their faces, since the red hair covered their cheeks and chins, leaving only brown noses, eyes and foreheads bare of hair. All three seemed comfortable in the warm, humid temp of the room. Me, I felt glad I wore a Type III blue and gray camo short-sleeve like the rest of us, except for the three civies, who wore earth tone blouses or a Hawaiian shirt, like that worn by Bjorg.

  “Would you like to see our Leaders Chamber?” asked Madamedura, who was the tallest of the three.

  I heard her words thanks to a translator tube on my left shoulder. We had found tubes attached to each backpack when we arrived. A bit larger than an over-the-ear head phone and shaped like a fat ink pen, the tube translated what we heard from any Melanchon and picked up our words for transmittal to similar tubes attached to each Melanchon shoulder.

  Morales nodded. “Oh yes! And as you may tell, we humans nod our heads forward in agreement with things said by other humans. Or by you Melanchon.”

  The big leader lifted her thick brown lips. “So we deduced from watching you relate to each other in the broadcast from the Bridge of Father Neil Skorzeny. As you can see, we Melanchon smile in a way similar to you humans. Pleasant that we share these manners, is it not?”

  “Very pleasant,” Cassandra said. “Which way is it to your Leaders Chamber?”

  “Down the hallway that lies outside this room,” Madamedura said in her normal low rumble of barks, chirps and grunts that I now heard in addition to the English translation produced by my shoulder tube. “Our chamber lies close to the front of our habitat ship. You will enjoy the trees in it.”

  “I’m sure we will,” Morales said, moving to walk alongside Madamedura.

  Cassie moved to walk next to Yolomokden while Major Owanju moved to walk alongside Leksatok. The rest of us followed. In seconds we passed through a
nother drop-down door, entered a hallway, turned left and began walking down a long metal hall. Unlike human hallways the overhead was curved, like the top of their doors. And green vines grew along each wall at shoulder height, the plants rooted in long shallow trays. The vines were festooned with red flowers that made the hallway a bright, nature-like venue. Yellow glowspots on the overhead provided illumination every three meters or so. The gravity felt almost Earth-normal to me as we walked, scattered out along the hallway. The lack of formation marching did not bother me. I had had my fill of military marching at the Great Lakes. I far preferred a meandering stroll down to the creek on our ranch property, or bouncing through null-gee in a room at an orbital station where we played three-dee soccer. Military discipline I accepted. But rigid marching for the sake of looking good to higher brass did not appeal to me. Or to any of the enlisteds, NCOs or civies I had met on the Star Glory. At the end of the hall we turned right and walked up a sloping ramp. A very large arch door lay at the top of the ramp. Madamedura reached out, touched a black spot, which turned green. The arch door lowered down. A whiff of flower scent and apple-citrus smells blew out from the room. Which was partly obscured by the brown-barked trees we had all seen in the first image of the Melanchon bridge.

  “Come with me,” Madamedura said in a quick series of barks.

  We all followed her into the expansive room, looking to either side and ahead and finally up. And up. And up even more. This room was clearly the bridge for this alien generation ship, but it was more than that. The large trees we had seen in the vidscreen image rose up twenty and thirty meters toward a distant overhead that glowed like Sol on a Spring morning. The base of each tree was rooted in a depression full of dark brown and black soil. Which made me wonder just how far down the roots of the forest giants had to go. Course they likely went sideways below the metal floor we walked on. But still, this bridge was totally unlike any bridge on a human ship. The apple-citrus smell came from vines that crawled over the distant bulkhead that enclosed the bridge in a wall of metal. A metal half-covered in vines. Where the wall was exposed were vidscreens, below which lay cupped seats that were only knee high to a human. Five orang-beings sat in the cups. They were scattered about the room. Five more orang folks sat on lower limbs of the giant trees, holding red tablets in their furry hands. Each Melanchon looked our way as we entered, then they returned to whatever they were doing at their stations. Or in the trees.

  “Do you like our trees?” Madamedura chirped lightly.

  Lieutenant Morales walked up to a nearby trunk, which was as wide as she. It rose twenty meters above her, its limbs festooned with fat green leaves and red flowers. Yellow fruit balls hung here and there. The brown bark of the trunk was ridged in a way similar to juniper trees I often saw in drier parts of Colorado and New Mexico. She reached out a slim hand, touched the bark, ran her fingers over the trunk, then looked up.

  “Amazing!” the Farm Deck chief said. “Do you have trees everywhere on your ship?”

  “They grow in many places, and bigger than these,” Mother Madamedura barked low. She walked up to stand beside the Spanish woman. Her red-furred fingers reached out, touched the bark near Morales’ fingers, then reached up to wrap long fingers around a low branch. “We love our forests. We love the fruit that comes from them. When we knew our home world was doomed to death by the Empire, we put all our efforts into building these sevens ships and filling them with trees and other Melanchon.”

  Morales nodded and stepped back. She turned and faced a nearby wall which held a large vidscreen. On it glowed the red pencils of the six other Melanchon generation ships. “How many of you are there?”

  “Seven million,” the taller orang said, her voice tone low and sad. “A million Melanchon on each ship. We are all that are left.”

  “What a horror,” said Bjorg, moving to stand on the other side of Madamedura. “We humans have a history of fighting among ourselves. But we have never killed the biome of an entire planet.” The Science Deck chief turned to look at the orang-being who had met us. The Swede’s blue eyes scanned the wide face of the Mother who was a sister to the ship commander. “Mother Madamedura, I am honored to provide you with star listings that we know will offer possible new homes for your people.” The man waved to Cassandra. “Doctor Murphy, will you come over here?” The Swede turned back to the orang leader. “Mother-To-Be Murphy has—”

  “Wait!” called Madamedura. Who lifted her head and let out a low rumbling howl that did not translate. The Melanchon Mother looked down. “Father Bjorg, I have called my sister. She leads us all. She must be here to see your gift of star homes.”

  Around them other orang-beings moved in the trees or on their cup seats. A few dropped from the trees and stood nearby, leaning forward with hunched shoulders. They stood beyond our group of ten humans. But close enough I could see the eagerness in their body stance and the brightness in their brown eyes. From beyond them came movement. Four large orang-beings came into view from behind thick tree trunks. They walked toward us, their short legs moving quickly. In seconds they stood close to Madamedura, Yolomokden and Leksatok. All seven rubbed shoulders. Then the four newcomers, whose reddish-brown fur was longer and stringier than the Melanchon who had met us, looked at us. That was when I noticed they also had shoulder translation tubes. One pursed lips.

  “I am Mother Hatsepsit. Beside me are my family Mothers,” she said. “Welcome Father Magnus Bjorg and Mother-To-Be Cassandra Murphy. Welcome also to your companions.” The leader paused, her dark brown eyes blinking. “It is refreshing to see you in the fur. Especially this one,” she said, turning to face Evelyn. “You are Mother-To-Be Evelyn Kierkgaard, who studies how plants and animals change over time. Your head hair is most appealing. Do many humans have hair like you?”

  Evelyn laughed softly. “Only a few. I come from the island known as Ireland, or Éire to those of us who live there. Other redheads live elsewhere on Earth.” The evolutionary biologist smiled widely. “I am most pleased to meet the leader of all Melanchon.”

  Hatsepsit tilted her head to one side, then scanned the rest of us before looking back to Cassie. “Mother-To-Be Murphy, can you show us these stars with worlds that lie beyond the domain of the Empire?”

  Cassandra nodded, then held out her black tablet. “All the star and planet data is on my device. It can communicate with your tablets, I was told by our AI Heidi. You use the same binary signaling system that we use in our electronic devices.”

  Hatsepsit nodded slowly. She pulled out a red tablet from her shoulder carrybag and held it up. “We do use these devices the same as you.”

  Cassie smiled. Her thumb pressed the side of her tablet as she held it close to the leader’s red tablet. “Done! Would you like to see imagery of these stars?”

  “Yes!” squeaked Madamedura, joined by low squeaks from Mother Yolomokden and Father Leksatok. Similar squeaks of agreement came from the three older Mothers who made up Hatsepsit’s family. Which reminded me their joint husband, Father Woktaken, was already on the Star Glory, hanging with Chief O’Connor. I hoped he and his fellow orang-beings were enjoying their visit as much as I was enjoying mine. Being on the bridge of this giant starship reminded me of groves of trees near our ranch that I had visited when I was younger.

  “Well, then, here is the Orion Arm, with the locations of 294 stars with planets noted as blinking green dots,” Cassie said, holding up her tablet and pointing one end of it outward. Three light beams shot out.

  A hologram nearly as tall as Cassie took form in front of her. The holo was as wide as it was tall. That allowed us all to see the curving sweep of white, red, blue and yellow stars that make up Orion Arm. The lower left end of the star arm touched an inner curving arm, which was labeled as Sagittarius-Carina Arm. A dispersed scatter of stars blinked greenly starting halfway up the arm. The scatter reached out to the end of the uparm segment, a distance of 5,000 light years.

  Cassie’s left hand rose. It held a laser pointer
. She shifted it until its red dot rested near a blinking green dot which lay close to the middle of the arm. “This is the yellow star HD 4203. It lies a good 450 light years distant from the Kepler 22 star. It has two very large gas giants orbiting it. The inner big world lies fully within the star’s liquid water habitable zone. The outer big world lies about seven AU out from the star. While our star viewers have yet to see small worlds transiting this G5V star, it is likely the inner big world has dozens of large moons orbiting it much like our worlds of Jupiter and Saturn in our Sol system.” Cassie moved the laser to put its red dot next to another blinking dot. “This is Gliese 3293, located about 280 light years from here. It is an M2.5 red dwarf star with four worlds in orbit, three of which lie within its habitable zone. The world 3293c is best located to be warm, though it is much larger than Earth. It is possible Earth-size moons orbit this world or the three gas giants known to orbit its red star.” Our astrogeek again shifted her laser pointer. “Another promising star is BD-08 2823. It is a K3V white-yellow star similar to our Sol. It lies about 340 light years away from Kepler 22. It has two known planets, one of them in its habitable zone. While larger than Earth, this planet could host moons with air.” She turned off her pointer and looked to the boss Melanchon even as she held out her tablet with its holo projection. “Mother Hatsepsit, there are many white-yellow, yellow, orange and red stars with planets, some of them with worlds like our Earth. Good hunting!”

  The big Melanchon sighed. She reached out and ran her furry right hand through the holo arc of stars. “So many possible home worlds. So much to do. I will convey this vital news to our own star viewers. But it is encouraging to know so many possible worlds lie within only a few days travel time in the grayness.” The boss Mother looked back to us all. “Father Bjorg, Mother-To-Be Murphy and Mother Gladys Morales, what else can we share with you in our gratitude?”