Titan Stand Read online

  Titan Stand

  c. Max Jager 2019

  Chapter 1

  Titan Stand Chapter 1

  It certainly had been a busy week for Matt Grainger. On Monday, he had worn a tee-shirt to school that had promptly gotten him suspended, on Wednesday his father had returned from Phoenix on a business trip found out about the incident and had charged off to Matt's school where he made school administrator break down crying, and had the cops called on him. On Thursday, both his parents were in consultation with a close friend of his uncle's who specialized in suing schools that tended to adhere to their zero tolerance policy just a little too rigidly. On Friday, his girlfriend stopped talking to him and ignored his texts, probably because her mother was a member of the school board and now one of the people named in the lawsuit. His best friend Liam Trent was ignoring him as well.

  Matt traveled for well over an hour on a torturous trail that took him to a long abandoned ghost town. He and Liam discovered it almost two years ago purely by accident. Both were sure there had been a road through here at one time, but over the years washouts a forest fire and just plain neglect had obliterated all trace of the old mining camp. The only buildings left were what the boys assumed to be a bank and a jail both had been built from the local rock. Another building must have been a general store; it had survived due to the protection of a small stand of lodge pole pine. The remains of four other buildings were largely fallen in, although the whole place was rich in artifacts rusting away. There was also an old mine shaft nearby, but the boys were smart enough not to go in as there was already a partial cave-in and the support beams were completely rotted away. They did manage to remove a small ore cart, with plans to load it onto a cart Matt had attached to his ATV, but so far, they hadn't done that yet. As for the "town" neither knew what its name had been, but Liam had a book describing all sorts of similar towns and gold camps littering these mountains, however this one didn't seem to be listed. Another concern that had to be addressed was the ever present danger of rattlesnakes, and mountain lions. Matt was fortunate that his parents trusted him with a gun. Ever since he was ten, his father had taught him proper gun safety, in fact he had been on the school shooting team until that was eliminated last year. Matt carried a semi-auto version of the military's M4 carbine equipped with a red dot sight. He also carried a small .410 shotgun for killing snakes, which liked to den up under these old buildings, another reason he and Liam didn't go poking around too much.

  There was also a small cemetery at one end of the gulch where the "town" was located, although the four wooden crosses had long since rotted away, but stones marked the graves.

  The boys had built a tree house up in a very large cottonwood tree that stood near a dried up stream. There was a rocky outcrop nearby that a natural spring bubbled out of supplying water for not only the tree, but drinking water as well. The tree house was built from scavenged lumber, and pieces of sheet tin protecting them from lions that might climb the tree to get them, but from snakes, as well as the weather. The tree house was outfitted with a small table, and chest, as well as an old kerosene lantern. Twice when they had come here, it had rained, once rather hard, the tin roof kept them well protected. Matt arrived around two in the afternoon, parking under the tree, hauling his gear up with a rope.

  He spent the rest of the afternoon exploring killing two snakes with his .410, as well as locating a few gold coins with his metal detector. Back up in his tree house, Matt fixed a meal of freeze-dried food the backpackers all liked. He also began to wonder how things were going to work out with his school situation, since being kicked out; he had been forced to re-evaluate everything he had believed about what he was being taught. He had no doubt he was in the right, his parents kept telling him that as well as some of the things he had read.

  He also wondered how this would affect his graduation and chances of college. Under normal circumstances, he and his friends would be graduating next June, but now?

  His mom had signed him up with a tutor until this school business was cleared up, but listening to his father and uncle talk, the school would really be hurting after they got done with them. That would mean hard feelings, and certainly the loss of Patricia Clark his girl friend. Right now he wasn't sure that was such a bad thing, he tried to bring her out here once, but she wouldn't have anything to do with it, she was out of her element here, malls were more to her liking. Matt finally drifted off to sleep, but woke up at one point thinking he heard approaching thunder.

  Looking up at the tin roof, he grinned to himself, anticipating the sound of rain on the metal roof. In the morning, Matt looked out the small window expecting to see signs of rain, but everything was perfectly dry.

  "Guess the rain just passed over," he thought to himself, not feeling hungry, he grabbed his rifle and shotgun, and climbed down the ladder. As he surveyed the area, he thought he saw a man standing near the cemetery. Taking a better look, he realized that it was a man, who wore a white beard, light brown pants some kind of dark brown vest, and a yellow shirt. Cautiously approaching, he stopped when the man turned to look at him. They stared at each other for a few moments, until the man held up his hand, and waved him over.

  Matt made sure he could access his rifle quickly, if the man attempted to assault him, but continued forward. Suddenly, a peculiar feeling came over him; garbled images crossed his mind, but quickly passed.

  "I won't hurt you boy," the man called out, "My name is Greg Tate, and you are?"

  "Uh, my name's Matt Grainger," holding out his hand, the man added,

  "Pleased to meet you Matt, tell me, what's the date today?" Matt gave him a puzzled look, but replied,

  "It's September 27th, 2014, why do you ask?" the man replied,

  "Well I've been traveling for awhile, kind of lost track of time. What are you doing here?"

  "Um, well, I come here from time to time to go camping, and poke around these old ruins." The man seemed to be thinking about something, then looked at Matt and in a somber tone said,

  "Matt, I've come a very long distance to die, and complete a project, would you help me?" Matt looked surprised as he asked.

  "What do you mean you've come to die, you want me to kill you?" Greg, laughed,

  "Oh no, nothing of the kind, you see I am going to die, my life clock says so."

  Holding up his right wrist, he revealed a fancy looking watch like jet pilots wore.

  "Among other things, this is my life clock, it tells me how long I have to live, right down to the sec. I have eight "arr's" twenty-nine "min's" left, so I can't dawdle."

  "What is it you want me to do?" Asked Matt,

  "Well, I'm pretty old, eighty-nine to be exact, and digging my grave might be more than I'm capable of, I might have to have Amber help me, but I'm afraid she's never done this sort of thing before." Now he was even more puzzled than before,

  "Who's this Amber?" He asked, Greg smiled and pointed towards a small cleared area, then speaking to no one in particular, he said,

  "Come Amber, all is safe." Matt turned towards the direction the man had been pointing to, and saw what looked like a naked woman emerge seemingly from nowhere.

  All Matt could do was stare, at the figure walking towards them, she was definitely a woman, her breasts were very well developed, and Matt thought he could see her vagina, but then her color was all wrong. Although she wore long black hair, her skin seemed to be a gray metallic color, and she looked as though she wore some kind of abbreviated mask over her eyes. As she came closer, he thought she was wearing some sort of spacesuit or a body stocking, the mask was of a dark color, and were more like goggles, as he could now see her eyes. Matt tried to avert his eyes as she stood before him, not being used to naked women baring everything in front of him.

&nb
sp; "This is Amber," said Greg, she is a Motok, or android as I've heard them referred to, Amber, say hello to our young friend here." Amber held out her had, which Matt gently accepted,

  "I am very pleased to meet you Matt, and I'm very sorry you cannot attend school and are being misunderstood." Now he was really confused, how did she know about all that? Studying her a bit closer, Matt now realized Amber wasn't human, but she sure was a damn good replica of one.

  "Umm you said something about digging a grave?" questioned Matt.

  "Oh yes," replied Greg, if you could find something for me to sit on, and perhaps a large stone I can carve my name and epitaph on, I will tell you an incredible story concerning this place, or Coryville, as it was first named."

  The man selected a spot in the center of the old cemetery, and scratched out a rough rectangle with his boot.

  Matt brought a camp stool he had packed, as well as a shovel,

  "There's a rock over there," he told Greg, "But it's too heavy for me to lift."

  "Greg just grinned, as Amber followed Matt over to the indicated stone, lifting it with ease, and returning it to where Greg was sitting on the stool. Matt started to drive the point of the shovel into the ground, when Greg requested him to stop.

  "Let Amber make things a little easier for you son, stand back a little please." Matt did as he was told, while he watched Amber trace a rectangular line in the ground with a glowing wand like device. The ground seemed to rumble, and a glowing line appeared in the soil.

  "There, that should make the digging a little easier," said Greg. Before he started to dig, Matt asked,

  "Are you from outer space?" The old man laughed,

  "Well, yes, and no, I was born on another planet, Z'ha'dum to be exact, but my roots are here in this place, my people were taken from this very place so very long ago, I was selected to return and let everyone know what happened to the people of Coryville, as you dig, I will explain."

  Whatever that strange device did, it certainly made digging a breeze, thought Matt, it was just like shoveling loose gravel, the sides of the hole were almost like rock giving Matt the impression he was merely shoveling out a rectangular pit.

  "It was in 1880 that the Neistra came," began Greg, "They came in the night and just swooped up everybody, twenty-one men, and twelve women, gone in an instant. Well they took us to a planet called Z'ha'dum, where they put everyone to work mining Morbidium, and Duranix."

  "They made slaves out of everyone?" Gasped Matt

  "No, not really, they provided these strange looking shelters for everyone, plenty of food, and taught everyone how to operate the mining machines, even the women."

  "How much did people have to mine," continued Matt, Greg chuckled,

  "The Neistra set rather low quotas and with the machines they taught everyone to use, we easily met them. We always exceeded the quotas usually an eight or nine arr day five or six days a week."

  "What did these aliens look like?" asked Matt, Greg shrugged,

  "Can't really say, the Motok acted as their go-betweens, naturally we asked the androids, but none of them would ever say, even Amber here either just won't say or has been programmed not to. It doesn't really mater at this point, I left Z'ha'dum over thirty-nine years ago when I was in my prime, 'course I've made a few stops along the way, but now my race is almost run, after I'm gone, please make sure the records I'm carrying get to the authorities, consider everything else, including my ship, and Amber here…Yours."

  Chapter 2

  Titan Stand Chapter 2

  Matt stopped shoveling, this wasn't right, something was wrong here.

  "Well thank you Mr. Tate, but I couldn't…" Greg shook his head,

  "Sorry son it doesn't work like that, I can't just let poor Amber go off on her own, she may be a Motok, but she is human in every way you could imagine, and there's not a question she couldn't answer, gimmie your hand Matt." He cautiously offered his hand, whereby Greg took it as well as Amber's placing his own hand over both.

  "Amber, from this moment forward, you now belong to Matt Grainger," suddenly Matt felt his hand get very warm as well as a distinct tingling pulse through it all the way up his arm. Amber gazed into his eyes, and stated,

  "I am your's now Matt, I am at your command, if you would like a tutorial on my skills and abilities, pleas indicate with a "yes."

  "Um, that's all right Amber, maybe later. Umm Mr. Tate, what was that you said about a ship?" Greg smiled, and pointed to the place where Amber appeared from,

  "Watch…Over there…Amber." Suddenly a glimmering shape appeared, slowly revealing the shape of a small spacecraft.

  "Oh my god! Gasped Matt, where did that come from?"

  "That my friend is the Nora-Lee, named for a girl I deeply loved, but could never have, feel free to name her anything you like, she's served me well all these years, never given me any problems, she's all your's now Matt."

  "But…But, I don't know how to fly, how would I fly it?" Greg continued to carve into the rock with a pen-like device.

  "Don't worry about it Matt, Amber can fly it, and in time she will teach you to fly it as well." Matt was at a loss for words, focusing his attention on what Greg was doing.

  "What is that you've got?" He asked, Greg continued to work.

  "It's a sculpting tool, it literally melts rock, I use it to mark places where I've cached supplies, here I'll mark this stone with the symbol." Matt watched in fascination as Greg used the tool to cut into the solid rock like a hot knife in butter, he carved a circle with a star inside of it inside the star; he carved a small "G."

  "What do you mean "cached" supplies?" Asked Matt.

  "Just what I mean son," then pointing skyward, he added, "Up there, out in space, there are dozens of planets, some large some small, where I've spent time, I've always hidden certain supplies. Don't know why, it's just something I've done, Amber knows where they're all at." Greg glanced at his life clock again, and said,

  "Better get to digging son, time's running out."

  He quickly resumed his digging, as Greg finished up his headstone,

  "After I'm gone, feel free to take my gun, my knife, this vest I have on, but don't take my cloths, I don't know, it's just a notion I have. Zip me into the bag Amber will give you, make sure I'm comfortable down there. Cover me up, and Amber has something I'd like you to read over my grave if you'd be so kind."

  "Su-r-e Mr. Tate I'll be happy to, but tell me, if I hadn't been around, who would you have gotten to do all this stuff for you?" Greg grinned but kept working,

  "Oh there was never any question that you, or…Someone would be here." Now Matt was really confused,

  "Wait! How could you possibly know I would be here, as far as I know, my friend and I are the only two people who know about this place." Greg stopped working and looked at Matt.

  "Son, when you've traveled the galaxy as long as I have, you wouldn't need to ask that question. Matt, my time is at end, but your's is just beginning, take what is offered you, I don't know what you had planned to do the rest of your life, but I'm offering you something, something that might come only once in a lifetime. Take the next step son…Go to the stars."

  Greg then showed Matt his headstone, at the top was the star in a circle symbol, below it read,

  "Greg Tate

  B-1925 D-2014

  Project Completed"

  "I'm only guessing at when I was born, the date was 200049 by the Neistraen calendar. We knew the Neistraen's grabbed everyone in 1880, but we were never really sure how long the aliens took getting to Z'ha'dum, or if they fooled around elsewhere, it's all speculation."

  "So tell me about this "project," asked Matt, Greg pointed to his grave and said,

  "You just keep digging, and I'll tell you. The project began almost as soon as my people came to Z'ha'dum, careful records were always kept, every opportunity to learn and study the Neistra was taken. Later, we were able to determine that it took about two of our years to get from earth to Z'ha'dum, b
ut it was still only a guess. Some how, some way, we were determined to return to earth and let people know what happened. Well, as things turned out just getting one person back was all we could manage, and I'm that person."

  "Do you think your people are still alive back on Z'ha'dum?" Asked Matt.

  Greg shrugged,

  "Hard to say, we were dying out, there were never enough women to go around, and great care was taken to avoid incest or inbreeding, some of the former whores had children by more than one father, but when I left, the population was rapidly dwindling, the Neistra took care of us, some of the Motok were trained in medicine, overall I think people lived longer, but as far as extended life spans, I don't think folks were living longer than humans were supposed to."

  Continuing with his narrative, Greg said,

  "Over the years, we acquired some of the Motok, Amber is one, they were re-programmed to work for us and help us acquire information. We were able to steal Neistraen technology, but more importantly, the means to build this ship."