Under New Suns by C. Vandyke

Author:C. Vandyke [Vandyke, C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-73550-404-9
Publisher: Skullgate Media

Illustration by E. R. Hoffer

He stepped inside his quarters, and the opening melted back into the wall, leaving only a hairline crack.

“You there, sir?” Unah shouted from the passageway.

“Come in,” said Lazlo. “Here to help me?”

“Quite the opposite,” she said as she sidled into his cabin. “Want you to help me.” Unah looked around. “Brilliant what you’ve done with the place. Early hospital aesthetic, is it? Modernist-like?”

Lazlo noticed the new feature immediately. A bubble of flesh protruded into the room from the exterior wall, growing. He drew Unah’s prying eyes in a different direction by stepping toward the entry. “What do you want? I’m busy staying out of your way, no time for anything else.”

She turned her back to the shivering blob. “I checked you out, Dr. Brizbane. Impressive CV, chock full of algorithms. You can find the key. I’ll decrypt the manual and save everyone on board, yerself included.”

She’d gone to the trouble to look him up. Maybe now he’d receive the respect he deserved. He had to convince her to provide that escape pod. “Interesting. But first, let me apologize. I was wrong to issue demands without explanations. Have a seat. I need to tell you a story.”

“Got no time for that.”

“I’ll be quick, I promise.” Lazlo patted the medical bed, and Unah sat, perched on edge, with legs tensed as if she might take off at any moment. He pulled out the medallion and pressed a red button. A vibrating beam shot out, resolving into a simulation featuring a tiny virtual replica of a tourist craft in an abstract galaxy.

“My tour started before the war. The itinerary took months to plan and my entire net worth of credits to purchase,” said Lazlo.

“Not relevant.” Unah waved a hand to dismiss the display.

“Let me explain.”

Floating, a tiny glowing replica of Lazlo’s tourist craft hung between them, surrounded by planets numbered in itinerary order. The holovid launched, and the ship departed, racing toward the first destination.

“Venus.” Unah frowned at her homeworld. “Grew up there. Been trying to forget it ever since.”

The terraformers of the planet covered the world’s surface in intelligent devices and advanced networks. In the glittering capital city, Lazlo had confronted his fears and found the strength to complete his mission’s first task. “Not fond of the place. The e-clouds were so dense I got crippling migraines,” he said.

“That happens to all you aliens,” she informed him. “Well, except for the headless walkin’ amoebas of Reslyk. They bag the best tourist jobs.”

“Yes! One of them found me a rare native organism in the natural history museum,” Lazlo said as the holovid ran. “Evading security was tricky, but my credits got me top intel. I anticipated guards, disabled cameras, injected my first mRNA module into a plant, and vanished like a pro.”

AI-Chris broke in. “Man, what a boss, except you wrecked that display of…”

“Never mind,” hissed Lazlo, pressing his hand over the AI-Comm to muffle the sound.

“So that’s what you did with yer modules—inserted ‘em into organisms on other planets? Why?” asked Unah.

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