Graykar Reunion

“Today, we’re going further into the future than ever before to visit a lost civilization,” Captain Nathaniel announces.

“What about the Marthon?” Haticat asks.

“There is one civilization never overrun by the Marthon. Do you know the story of the Graykar?” Nathaniel asks.

“I’ve never heard of it,” Haticat responds.

Nathaniel explains. “The Graykar were a powerful race of humanoids in the first five hundred years of existence. They lived on the planet Graykar, which circled a very unusual star that was cold, dark, and had a solid, wrinkled surface. They were able to become so powerful by controlling access to the star’s millions of energetic volcanos. What they did not know is that this star of theirs was created during its 506-year cold phase and their power was temporary. Eventually, it went hot and became in most ways a normal star. The radiation was so intense that travel to and from Graykar quickly became impossible. The homeworld became separated from its colony worlds and no one has heard from it since. Nearly one thousand years went by before a clever Saurornithosaur boy scientist figured out that the star’s hot phase was also temporary. He predicted that it would end 40,068 years after it began, returning the star to its cold, wrinkly state, and making it safe once again to land on Graykar. I want to see if the civilization still thrives.”

“I’ll calculate a spacetime interval,” Haticat declares.

When they arrive, they see that the solar wind has already abated to the point that instead of stripping the planet of its atmosphere, it is providing the planet with a new hydrogen atmosphere. They circle the planet, looking for any signs of life. There are none. The surface is dry rock. They scan for subterranean disturbances. “There! Those cracks are filled with metal,” Haticat points out.

“Let’s check them out,” Nathaniel says.

The ship lands to one side of a large crack and the explorers suit up. The crack is not much wider than a typical street and is completely topped with a thick layer of a rare tungsten alloy. “There are empty compartments below. I read a lot of horizontal and vertical surfaces. They could be walls and floors,” Doctor Bill says, holding his scanner.

“Let’s see if we can find a way in,” Nathaniel says. The explorers walk along the fifteen-kilometer crack. There is no evidence of digging. It appears the ancient Graykar simply built very long, thin, sometimes branched cities. Following a side crack for a ways, the explorers finally see an area where the ground has shifted and caused the roof to collapse. There is a way in.

They push rocks aside and climb over fallen pillars until they are deep inside. Every compartment is empty. There are no signs of life and no abandoned technologies. The sharp corners of the walls and pillars cast spooky shadows as the four explorers pan their flashlights over everything. They spend four hours inside the ruins before stepping back out into sunlight.

They are halfway back to the ship when another ship lands in front of them. Out step four humanoids in silvery spacesuits. They have white hair, white skin, and white irises. They are Graykar. “Who are you?” The voice carries through the hot, thin air very faintly before the two groups synch radio frequencies.

“I am Captain Nathaniel, explorer. Are you the ones who made these cities?”

“Our ancestors did before the sun drove them from this world. We are here to see if any of our kin survived and welcome them back into the galactic community,” the lead Graykar says.

“That’s why I’m here. I didn’t know there were any Graykar left. I thought the Marthon had taken over every world,” Nathaniel explains.

“Yes, that’s what we thought. How do you survive?” the Graykar leader asks.

“Hiding on a rogue planet with low reflectivity, you?” Nathaniel lies.

“We keep moving to planets the Marthon have temporarily abandoned,” the Graykar leader says.

“Are those Gruezhlings?” a second Graykar asks.

“Hmm? Yes, this is my crew,” Nathaniel says.

“Hi.” Haticat waves.

“They talk! None of the old legends mentioned they could talk!” The second Graykar is in total awe. Haticat and Fred simply look at each other.

“Well, since we seem to be on the same mission, let’s work together. Have you found a way into the ruins yet?” the Graykar leader asks.

“Only in one city, but there were no signs of life or any tech they might have left behind,” Nathaniel says.

“Hold on a moment, might I take one of your Gruezhlings so I can dissect and analyze it? No one in our society has seen one for thirty thousand years,” the second Graykar asks.

Fred already has his gun out. “No, they wouldn’t like that,” Nathaniel says.

Ignoring his colleague, the leader says, “Let’s look at some of the other cities. Maybe one of them survived.”

“I agree. Let’s survey the entire planet and compare notes,” Nathaniel says.

The Graykar return to their ship and Nathaniel returns to his. When he takes off his spacesuit, he notices three tiny spots on each leg of his suit. Thinking he must have brushed against something, he thinks nothing of it and starts the planetary survey.

There are four Graykar teams, each with four members. They scan and record every city’s location. Two more are found that have opened due to tectonic stress, but these are empty. “It’s likely that the collapses which opened the cities to the vacuum either killed the inhabitants or forced them to move. Our best bet at finding life is in the cities that are still sealed,” the Graykar leader says.

“How are we going to get inside without letting out the air?” Nathaniel asks, scratching his leg with his other foot.

“By welding an airlock to the side and then cutting through,” the leader answers.

“Okay, when do we start?” Nathaniel asks, now scratching his other leg. His legs have been itchy all morning.

“We already have,” he responds.

It takes several hours to cut through the alloy, by which time Nathaniel, Haticat, Fred, and Doctor Bill have arrived to join the infiltration team. They finally break through to find a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere waiting for them. The interior is faintly lit by some sort of sparkly dust collected into the edges and corners of each room. Still, there is no life, no furniture, and no appliances. They press deep into the city, but see no one.

The main hallway splits and they decide to turn left. This brings them into a side crack that gets narrower and narrower. The compartments start getting smaller, too. “Let’s go the other way,” the Graykar leader says.

“Wait, what’s this?” Haticat asks. Nathaniel looks at where Haticat’s flashlight beam has landed. In one spot on the wall is a hole, the compartments rapidly getting smaller and smaller until they disappear around a corner. Some of them are mere centimeters across. “Why build such small rooms?”

“That’s a good question – ow!” Nathaniel says.

“What hurts?” Haticat asks.

“My leg. I don’t know what’s wrong with it,” Nathaniel says.

“We can spend the next five hundred and six years trying to figure out why they built small rooms, or we can ask them when we find them – or read their records if we find those. Let’s keep moving,” the Graykar leader says.

The explorers keep walking but eventually realize that this passageway is getting smaller, too. They have to bend over to walk and it gets harder to squeeze between the pillars holding up the ceiling. “That’s it, boss. I can’t go any further,” the Graykar in front says.

“Well, let’s go back. We’ll open a different city,” the leader says.

“Wait. Let me see.” Nathaniel crawls around the legs of the three Graykar in front of them to see the end of the tunnel. He shines his flashlight down the center, revealing it to go at least another thirty meters and branching off in two more places. He might be able to crawl a bit further than the Graykar, but not much. “It’s like a fractal. Why build spaces too small to fit in?” He stands up and follows the others. “Oh! Now both of my legs hurt.”

“I’m still confident that one of these cities will have an artifact or some other clue how long they lived here and what ultimately happened to them,” the Graykar leader says. He scratches his ankle roughly.

“I believe you’re right,” another Graykar says.

While the Graykar take off to examine another city, Nathaniel returns to his ship to rest and eat. He pulls off his spacesuit to find both of his lower legs are swollen. They are also tender to the touch.

“Hey, the end of my tail seems swollen,” Haticat complains.

“The bottom of my feet itch,” Fred complains.

“Mine too,” Doctor Bill adds.

“Guys, there is life on this planet. We must have an infection. I’ll unpack the microscope,” Nathaniel declares. Looking at a sample from Haticat’s tail, Nathaniel sees rapid cell division and mutation. Small bodies move around between the cells, but he does not recognize them. He zooms in further. They look just like spacesuit-clad humanoids with white hair and white skin! They might be a little fatter and have longer arms than their long-lost kin, but they were unmistakably Graykar. “Our legs are full of people.”

“Why are they so small?” Haticat asks.

Nathaniel slaps his head. “Of course! The clues have been in front of me the whole time!”

“What clues?” Haticat queries.

“The Graykar left behind would have run low on food, resources, and living space as their numbers increased, so they developed the technology to shrink themselves more and more with each generation until they became small enough to fit into the smallest cracks. When we invaded their home, they invaded our bodies,” Nathaniel says.

“How did they get through our spacesuits?” Doctor Bill asks.

Nathaniel runs to the airlock to grab his suit. Every step pains him. He hisses through his teeth. He finds the three miniscule specks on the outside of his suit he noticed before and brings them to the lab to put under the microscope. “It’s melted. They must have used blowtorches.”

“What are we going to do?” Fred asks.

What Nathaniel does is calls the other Graykar to meet him on his ship. “So, where are they?” the leader asks. He is still scratching his legs, too.

“I’ll show you.” Nathaniel uses a pipette to pluck one of the microscopic Graykar from the slide and places him inside a transparent capsule. Then he places the capsule on the floor and takes a remote control from his coat pocket. He presses a single button. The capsule grows and grows until it hits the ceiling, causing the Graykar inside to grow with it.

The leader steps forward. “Hello, I represent the welcoming committee from the Graykar colony worlds. We want to reestablish a relationship with the homeworld.”

“The colonies? How did you get past the sun?” the newly-grown Graykar asks.

“The sun is becoming dark once again, but the galaxy has changed and there is much to talk about. I request a meeting with your leaders, but first I ask that you withdraw your invasion of our bodies,” the leader says.

Soon, Nathaniel has installed his shrinker/expander machine inside the airlock attached to the city such that all who enter the city are shrunk and all who exit it are grown. Diplomatic relations are established between the two Graykar societies and the infection is called off.

Finally, the time comes for Nathaniel to leave. He takes off, settles into orbit, and eats a bowl of cereal, one of his favorites, with nuts and dried fruit in it. He has plenty of time to decide which year to visit next. Ding! Fred checks the mass detector and focuses the telescope. He sees three rounded squares approaching the planet. “Captain! Marthon!”

“What? Why here? Why now?” Haticat asks.

“They must have stumbled across the same astrophysical prediction we did in some library database somewhere. They’re here to collect the Graykar’s tech,” Nathaniel declares.

“We’ve got to warn them,” Fred says.

“We’ve got to help them,” Nathaniel says.

Back on the ground, Nathaniel stands by as the Graykar leaders debate the coming Marthon. He speedreads an electronic tablet. “We can’t evacuate everybody; there isn’t time,” the colonial leader says.

“Then we have to fight,” the homeworld leader says.

“We can’t fight. The Marthon carry the combined technical knowledge of the entire galaxy from the past thirty thousand years,” the colonial leader says.

“Except for this planet,” Nathaniel interjects, still reading his tablet.

They turn to look at him. “What are you reading?” the colonial leader asks.

“While you were debating, I asked the homeworld for a historical report on all the technology they’ve ever invented, even if they don’t use it anymore. I’m looking for something I can turn into a weapon,” Nathaniel explains.

“Do you think you can out-innovate the Marthon in only one hour?” the homeworld leader asks.

“I have to try,” Nathaniel says.

While Nathaniel works on his longshot idea, the Graykar evacuate as many as they can. One ship will carry multitudes of germ-sized Graykar while the other three ships will follow behind. “Oh sweet pudding! I have an idea!” Nathaniel shouts. “Doctor Bill, I need you to prepare twenty kilograms of this substance and cover the ends of four of our eight hyperlaser cannons with it.”

Doctor Bill takes the tablet and reads the manufacturing recipe. “Um, okay, I think I can make this.”

“Good. Fred, I need the antigravity shields modified to produce two beams that can focus on the same target at once – one attractive and one repulsive,” Nathaniel says.

“Yes, Captain,” Fred says and hurries off.

“What do I do?” Haticat asks.

“Help Fred. I’ll help Doctor Bill,” Nathaniel says.

At last, the Marthon reach the planet. They detect the other five ships on the surface. One Marthon ship orbits while the other two land a mere five hundred meters from where the other ships are parked. Immediately, all four Graykar ships take off. One Marthon ship follows them while the other begins to move along the ground towards Nathaniel’s ship on its giant treads. Doctor Bill runs inside. “I could only cover three of the hyperlaser cannons.”

“That’s okay. It’s time to test this idea out. Fred, are we ready?” Nathaniel shouts.

“The shield modifications are complete,” Fred says.

Nathaniel leans back in the captain’s chair, pulls a control panel closer to him, and fires.

Meanwhile in space, the four Graykar ships fend off an attack from two Marthon ships. They fire high-powered lasers, but several layers of force fields and armor of different types disperses, modifies, and channels the energy into the Marthon’s batteries. The Marthon engage their mindwhip, locking onto and temporarily incapacitating every Graykar. The full-size ones manage to get to the medical cabinet and ingest painkillers, but there is no relief for the germ-sized people in storage. By the time they are ready to fight again, the Marthon have disabled their engines, weapons, and shields. They extend a boarding tube. “We’re just waiting to die now,” one Graykar comments.

“Not if I can help it,” the Graykar leader says. “Switch to backup power!” The appropriate switches are flipped, diverting energy from environmental controls and elsewhere to the engine room. A spare antigravity generator is wired in and turned on, creating a new engine. In seconds, they have broken free from the boarding tubes, leaving individual Marthon floating in space. They speed away and one ship follows them. It fires one laser pulse and disables the new engine. “Okay, now we’re waiting to die.”

They all watch their approaching doom on the viewscreen. Suddenly, the Marthon ship splits in two. Each part drifts away from the other. Then the bigger part also splits in two. The Marthon inside tumble out, their tentacles flailing. Then Nathaniel’s ship zips by and shoots them.

The Graykar continue to watch as Nathaniel speeds towards the other Marthon ship in the process of boarding the other three Graykar ships. They watch in awe as it simply falls apart without spark or explosion. The edges of each cut are straight and clean. “He did it. That crazy Dinosaur actually did it,” the colonial Graykar leader says.

They are contacted soon after. “Captain Nathaniel offering assistance.”

“Yes, we need some repairs done, but first tell us how you did it. How did you defeat them?” the leader asks.

“Weaponized sweat. The homeworld Graykar had to deal with very high temperatures for a long time, so they perfected ways of channeling away heat. One of these methods made use of a pseudocrystal compound that focuses all its heat into individual molecules at the tips of its surface spikes that would carry away the excess energy at high velocity, similar to the way sweat evaporation works, but by bending some laws of thermodynamics. What I did was to mold some of this substance into a needlepoint and heat it from within by hyperlaser. That allowed me to fire a narrow beam one molecule wide at relativistic speeds, cutting right through normal Marthon defenses. Then to keep the ship’s molecules from simply reattaching, I used an antigravity field to pull the ship apart. I’ll send you the specs,” Nathaniel explains.

“That’s amazing. How can we reward you?” the leader asks.

“You’ve already rewarded me with the adventure. This is what I live for,” Nathaniel says.

“Well, I hope we meet again during less trying times,” the leader says.

“Maybe we will,” Nathaniel says.

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