The Eden Machine  

George L. Duncan

Fast and lethal.

That’s the reputation of the Spacehawks and we did our best to live up to it on Amacron.

The Garshnooks or “gooks,” as we unaffectionately call them, put their trust in solar and magnetic shields. Fortunately, our technology is better. We knocked out the shields quickly and silently.

They did lock their lab doors, so two Spacehawks slapped the nitro-clay after shooting out the security cameras. The explosion splintered the doors into a thousand pieces.

We rushed in. Lupe’s knife caught a Gook guard in the throat. His scream died with him. I grabbed a green opponent with apparel that I assumed was lab clothing and jammed my pistol under his bony chin.

“The prisoners? Where are they?” I asked.

Tequesta was behind me and repeated the phrase in gook vernacular. He replied quickly.

“Next room,” Tequesta said.

I hammered his head with my weapon and he fell to the floor. In brain mic, Bart shouted the site had been neutralized

As we headed down the corridor, a Gook officer ran out of an office, gun in hand. Before he could fire, my laser blast lifted him off his feet and slammed him back against the wall. Tequesta and I rushed over.

The Garshnooks not only have green, rough flesh, they have green blood and copious amounts ran out of him. He looked up, eyes filled with hate.

“McCloud,” he said.

“None other. Accept no substitutes.”

He lapsed into his own language for a sentence, and then spoke to Tequesta before dying.

We kicked the door in and saw the six humans, three men and three women. They were strapped to tables, with medical monitoring equipment overhead. Two Spacehawks medics carefully removed the tubes that were hooked on two captives. The Spacehawks helped them as we hustled out of the building.

We rushed to the jet transports. The pilot lifted off as soon as we were inside and blasted the facilities when we were in the air, flames towered into the dark Amacron night.

I sat down beside Tequesta.

“By the way, what did the Garshnook officer say?”

“A literal translation is ‘Blue Death.’ Directed at you.”

“Gooks must be color blind. I’m in camouflaged green.”

“I think he meant your regular uniform.”

“Blue death?”

“Yep.”

“I’m disappointed. I’m such a cheerful, happy-go-lucky guy. So what did he call you?”

“Yellow eternity.”

“Really.”

“That’s the literal translation. It is something of a compliment. It means you are fighting a warrior and the last thing you see before heading into eternity is the yellow of her uniform.”

“And you’re such a sweet gal.”

~~~~~

When our transports harbored at the Simak, our mother ship, we carried the six humans to the hospital. Dr. Coral Logerline had corralled off a section for them.  A clear screen rolled out, from one side of bed to the other, enclosing the patient. Some blue mist flew up from containers attached to the bed.

One woman smiled and even waved one hand.

Then her body rippled and changed. Her legs shortened as did her arms. When the mist cleared, she became 12-years-old again – long legs and a bit lanky but with wide eyes and beaming, if weak, smile.

I walked back to our command post and spied Captain Amundsen.

“I think we can leave, Captain.”

“You might want to belay that, commander.”

I hadn’t noticed her but the tall, slender blond operative on loan to us from an intelligence agency had saddled up next to me. Ann Reutloc has one amazingly useful trait – she is never wrong. OK, maybe not ever. But she has a good track record 99 percent of the time. She handed me a paper.

“Might want to look at this,” she said.

“It’s a bunch of squiggly lines with a red dot in the center,” I said.

“With a quick mind like that Seb, it’s a wonder you haven’t been promoted.”

“I’ve been thinking the same thing.” I held up the page. “Just interpret for me.”

“We’ve been looking for the main scientific lab of the Gooks.” Her finger jabbed the red dot several times. “This could be in. It’s on this planet.”

“Oh. Any defenses?”

“Not that we can see.”

I turned my attention from the red dot and wiggly lines and looked at her. “Really, no shields? No protection? No military?”

“It’s possible they thought the atmospheric shields would protect them. If so, they wouldn’t need land defenses. Or they hoped it would avoid detection. It’s on an isolated part of the planet. In scanning we almost missed it.”

Translated from the Ann vernacular that meant without her, our scanners would have missed it.

Our first pass over the facility confirmed our suspicion. The lab was undefended. Three small buildings were surrounded by a simple wire fence. Our three crafts roared in and landed.

Ann, Tequesta and I followed as several Spacehawks kicked down a door. As I walked in I had the silly feeling we could have just opened it. It didn’t appear to have been locked.

The one Gook scientist in the large room didn’t appear to be surprised. Machines, computers and other hardware I wasn’t familiar were jammed inside the room. A seven-foot brown shell – open in the middle - stood isolated in the middle of the room. Another similar shell, clearly of the same material, was over a long bed.

“There is no need for weapons. I am alone,” he said. He looked at me. “You are McCloud.”

“My fame is spreading.”

He turned toward Tequesta. “You are Lynquest.”

“The one and only.”

He next looked toward Ann. “I don’t know you.”

“The blond, beautiful and highly intelligent Ann Reutloc,” I said. I walked up and pointed by laser rifle at his throat. “Now who are you?”

“My name is unimportant. Roughly translated, it’s Roland. I’m the main scientist devoted to understanding…” he stretched his hand toward the two brown shells. “these wondrous inventions.”

“What exactly do they do?”

It was difficult to read expressions in the green, grimy face but the features took on a worshipful expression.

“They stop aging, commander, and they can change old men back into being young.”

“Did you build them?”

“No. It is beyond anything our civilization could create. Or yours for that matter. We found them on this planet. Remarkable.”

“If they’re that remarkable, why leave them undefended?”

“There is no reason to defend them. They cannot be destroyed.”

I heard a whirl and saw Ann had two mini-scanners in her hands and ran them along the surface of the shells. The scanners fed information directly into her mind.

“He’s right, Seb. I don’t know what they’re made of but I don’t think… the sun could nova and I don’t think the heat would melt these two things…this is incredible,” she said.

“Some ancient race built them commander,” Roland said, “possibly millions of years ago.”

I pointed my gun at him again. “Why did you kidnap humans to use in your experiments? Why not your own people?”

“We don’t know who the ancient race but we do know their physiology was more similar to humans than to Garshnooks. Without modification, it would have destroyed our cell structure. To discover how to use the machines, we had to experiment on the closest genetic material to the ancient race. The machines can not just to stop aging but can advance or regress growth and age. Once we perfected our knowledge of the alien technology on humans, we were confident we could modify them to work on our genetic structure. We were almost ready…”

“We need to destroy the lab,” Tequesta said.

Roland jumped out of his seat. “No! You can’t. This is what every race has dreamed of. Eternal youth. With this machine, we will never die. We…we….”

“We shall be as gods,” Tequesta said.

“Yes!”

As two Spacehawks grabbed him, he wailed. “It’s a dream come true.”

“Or a nightmare,” Ann said.

I looked at her. “If he’s right about the shells…” I said.

“We can’t destroy the shells,” Ann said. “But the computer and the medical technology work in conjunction with them and can be blasted.”

I hoisted my weapon, then looked toward the innocuous brown objects. I had been feeling my age lately. Almost a quarter century as a Spacehawk. I had lost a half-step. Not a full step maybe, but a half-step. Small lines had creased the skin around my eyes and on my neck.

Eternal youth. Aging is the enemy of all races. It could be defeated. Once and for all. Perhaps blowing up the lab would be a sin against science.

Ann slapped my shoulder. “Get your butt in gear, Seb.”

“My sentiments exactly,” Tequesta said as she pointed her laser.

A half-dozen yellow blasts came from each weapon. I joined in the second volley.

“Let’s go. It’s time to l leave the Garden again,” Tequesta said.

      }
~~~~~ <~
      }

George Duncan is a journalist who is now the editor of the Lake Placid Journal in Lake Placid, Florida. He previously worked for the Savannah Morning News, the Florence (S.C.) News and the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Va. He was the editorial writer at the Daily News-Record for eight years before moving back to his home state ("after forgetting how HOT it is down here.")

He is also the author of several novels. His book "Galaxy Gems” details other stories about the Spacehawks, including the first adventure Sebastian and Tequesta had. His latest novel is "A Dark Orange Farewell."

When he is not writing, you will probably find him at the golf course.