The Unhappy Hero

 Lonely Hero Saga

By

Michael P Feldman

I always wanted to be abducted by aliens until it happened. I was sitting on my balcony, minding my own business when a beam of light came down from the sky. The next thing I knew was floating up in the air at an incredible speed. Everything started to blur until my motion stopped.

I was looking at two snout nosed reptiles and could hear what must have been them inside my head. The one closest was also the largest. He had one yellow jump suit with many pockets. His face looked like a cross between an alligator and a pig,

He appeared to be the one communicating and said “ You are our prisoner and will remain so for the rest of your life. Do not disobey. You will be a servant to those we will sell you to.  You will never again be free”.

“We will keep you alive but do not care about your comfort. We will inject you with nanotech that will provide nourishment and keep you clean.  We will not be feeding you in the normal sense, but you will be sustained.”

With that the alien took out a device and pressed it against my arm. I felt a sort of chill and blacked out.

When I awoke I was in a cage right on what must have been the bridge. It looked like a 50’s movie set. One wall was filled with dials and control knobs. There was what looked like key hole, with a key sticking out with a chain that looked like, you could put it around your neck.

There was a round portal that I learned later to be an escape pod. I watched and I learned.

Overtime, it became clear to me that they were very sloppy as to safety and their controls. When something stopped working they just did a quick fix, similar to putting a penny in a fuse box. That is, they did not bother with safety just expedience.

I saw one control nob that seemed to be something like getting up a head of steam. They were building up some kind of forces pressure. The aliens paid close attention to a pressure dial.

When they started the engines the pressure gage stabilized. Sudden acceleration taught me when the engines were running.

I found out they had never learned the full capabilities of the nanotech they had given me. There was a kind of built in tutorial that they must have never run. I learned that I was not only being sustained but I was being protected.

I had an automatic defensive force shield that popped up only when a danger was detected. Any sharp or speeding object could not pierce my protective shell. My old pains was missing. I felt good!

I did not miss food but I missed eating. I did not need to breath.  I did not need sleep but did anyway. I was happy that I did not have to use the bathroom.

I waited until there was one alone and decided to see what I could do.  They could understand me though their translator.  “I am sorry that I am going to have to do this to you” “you are not aware of all my powers” I was bluffing.

He gave me a quizzical look but did not say anything.

“Okay”, I continued, “you are starting to feel a spot in the middle of your head. It is growing. Each time I count it will grow and get stronger.

One, it is starting to grow. Two, It is starting to itch. Three, it is starting to burn. Four, it is starting to hurt. Five. At each count the pain will double. Six……

I went on and on.

The pig/alligator started to act as if in pain. It was working! Time for the next step. “Let me out now or I will explode your head I continued to count and assure him the pressure was building to the point of no return.

He started to scream and opened the door to my cell. He dropped on the floor and started to roll around in agony begging release.

I ignored him, went to the control panel and turned the head-of-steam knob to maximum. I took out the key.

Forces would now grow with no release. It was time to leave. I entered the escape pod and closed the door. There was frenzied pounding on the hatch. There was one large lever that I guessed to be a release.

I was right. It detached and minutes latter there was a violent explosion. The escape pod broke apart and I was naked in space.

I expected to die. I expected to expand and blow up like an overfilled ballon. It did not happen.

The Nonotech given to me enacted a protective force field that protected me from the vacuum of space. It was like an invisible space suit.

I was fine physically but I was floating in space with no means of propulsion. This seemed to go on for ever.

Luckily, the nanotech had a dream stimulator. The tutorial had told me that it had the ability to use your dreams to pull out and construct a complete personal virtual reality.

The draw back was that it would seem so real that I would loss touch with my real reality. There was no guarantee that I would be able to transition out.

I was lucky to have survived the explosion. To say I was bored would have been an understatement. I was going out of my mind I remembered the enhanced dream program. I did not want to lose the present nor my true past.

Eventually, I had no choice.

My current view evaporated and I found myself sitting in a easy chair in front of a Tri-dee set. A kind of soap opera was in progress. The cheating hero had just narrowly missed discovery; again.

The woman in the next chair spoke “Thanks for letting me watch this Dave. I know it is not your favorite.” I swallowed a lump in my  throat. I did not understand how I had been so incredibly lucky to land the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.

She had luxurious green hair and small shoulders, all but hidden under her shoulder pads. She had an impossible firm bosom and a rear end that would make any opposite number surrender. Overall she was slim and trim with an athletic stance and more grace than gravity.

I had met her when she was too young to realize how beautiful she was. She did need to settle for a lucky smuck like me.

I was okay looking, but no Tri-dee star. My weight fluctuated between almost too fat and kind of okay. I did have a pretty good job and decent income. I always enjoyed teaching.

The “philosophy of consciousness” was not exactly a core subject, but it had its place.  More than any thing else it was just to get people to think, a necessary endeavor.

Lately I have been having these spells. I had trouble describing them, but it was almost like Deja Vue in reverse. I did not seem to know what I knew.

 I hate to admit it but I have been hearing voices. One kept saying “its time to come back. It’s time to come back.”

The room went dark and the voice said.”you know its not real”. What a disturbing thought. I could never leave her. I could never live without her. I would not want to.

My students, My students, why were they fading out. A doctor was looking down at me. “We found you” you need to come back.” I did not want to.

Here I was a hero. I should be happy.  Fame and fortune were mine, but there was no one to share it with. They told me that the aliens had not been found. If they had nanotech like me they should be adrift still alive. I wondered if I would have to face them again. I hoped that the earth was not in danger.

I wish I could go back. I cannot accept that she is not real. I wish I was not real.

Maybe I can buy myself a virtual vacation. Maybe she’ll be there, at least in spirit. Maybe I should have a robot built and try to give it her personality.

We will see. Perception is everything. If I perceive a robot to be my love, it is. I have loved computers for years.

Part Two

Compound interest can earn a lot in a thousand years. The man with the alien nanotech found that he did not age. He decided to cash in on it as he watched the sweep of history.

Mankind spread throughout the solar system. Ships were launched towards the stars. Off world colonies thrived and multiplied. Dave decided it was time to leave earth.

A custom starship would be desired. A run of the mill standard model could have been purchased. With all his money, Dave could afford to customize. He wanted something with hidden abilities.

He opted for a super shield and virtual FTL drive. This was not to be only in the main ship, but also duplicated in the small shuttle. This was far from cost effective, but did not need to be.

The virtual FTL drive circumvented the speed of light limitation by installing a time machines in each space craft. Even before, you could get anywhere you wanted, just with time dilation. It just took too long, with no return possible to the same era.

If you could travel back in time, that, would not matter. The time machines were calibrated to continuingly make the maximum jump backward, while not going further than voyage start less internal time passed. They would not go back in time to before they left.

This creates the illusion of  traveling faster than the speed of light. But that is not what happens.

It would look like your craft was appearing and disappearing with continuing time jumps. That would complicate rendezvous but you needed to be relatively slow to do  that anyway.

One drawback was that it took a lot of power. This made it only feasible for smaller craft. The necessary power needed raised exponentially so large colony generation ships could not have this virtual FTL drive. 

With the space ship competed it was time to decide on a pilot/tutor/companion. Dave decided to just use a built in ship’s brain. You could make them as sophisticated as you wanted.

He chose to plant the personality formed in the alien’s nanotech’s virtual reality program. It was fully formed and therefore had more potential. Dave had been in love with it, but that was a thousand years ago and he had since moved on. He wiped its memory and just used the formed personality as a seed for a new artificial intelligence entity.

It was created by alien technology, part of a nanotech survival suit that had kept Dave alive theses many years. This had been a present from the sloppy aliens who had captured humans he had  previously defeated. (see unhappy hero). He named it Maxine, but ended up calling it Max.

With all preparations completed he was ready to go. “Let’s start at Ceres, Max. Engage”. They were off nice and smooth. Max was so advanced that Dave  was little more than a passenger.

The ship had some generic joysticks, yokes and buttons. Dials could appear and disappear. They had no set function, but could be instantly adapted and programed for any desired action, real or simulated.

If Dave ever had a passenger, he could put on a show of seeming to be in control while Max did all the work. Max’s capabilities were far beyond anything non-alien and she was a sort of secret weapon.

Ceres had been discovered in 1801 (old calendar) by a catholic priest. First thought to be the largest asteroid, it later joined Pluto as a minor planet. It had just enough gravity to take on a round shape but not enough to matter otherwise.

It was a great source water. Those who oversaw the water mining robots lived on a large artificial moon that could be spun for gravity. It was shaped like a hollow ball with the interior having all the living space. Numerous holes thru the surface made access easier.

The interior looked a lot like a 20th century shopping mall except for the Escher-like view.

If you looked up, you could see upside down inhabitants in the distance looking right back at you. Cheap looking glasses were abundant but far better than used back in the day.

Peeping Toming was a national pastime. There were candid shots competitions. Only roofing, not needed for the controlled climate, gave any privacy. Cloth materials were used and house roofs looking like 20th century convertible cars.

I asked Max to make some radio calls and get us some cargo to haul. We got a job to make a delivery at Outpost 507. This was a new colony needing some raw materials not available locally. We loaded a closed container but were not told what was in it.

Colony 507 had been settled by a colony slow boat, without time travel. Prior to picking their destination, they had sent a small ship with virtual FTL  to plant a time rights claim. This protected them from ambush from any time cheats.

They had staked their claim all the way back to the invention date of time travel. This was as far back as anyone can go and became year 1 in the new calendar.

The small ships, capable of virtual FTL were prohibitively expensive. This resulted in their being rented or charted per single use . Few could afford to have one full time. Colonies often did not own one but hired them for the needed time protection claim.

Dave and Max were about half way to colony 507 when a distress call was received. A colony ship had strayed too close to an uncharted Neutron Star. The ship had insufficient power to brake orbit and was trapped.

Dave had no choice but to respond. “Max, let’s see if we can help this ship”. They arrived and Dave instructed Max to access the situation, “There is only one way we can help. If we transfer our shielding and power generator to the trapped ship we can explode ourselves and nudge it out of orbit.”

“What !” Dave said excitedly “Are you serious?”

Max continued “we can transfer to the trapped ship with the shuttle before we blow up our mothership.”

Max spoke to the Colony ship and relayed their plan. Captain Blaine responded “if you are sure, we will accept your help. We cannot pay you and you will have to come with us.”

The plan set, Dave docked with the colony ship and installed his shield and power generator. The power generator, normally used for the excessive demands of time travel, was sufficient to expand the shield to the size of the colony ship. Max was installed on the, more-than-it-looked-like, shuttle and could come with. The shuttle had virtual FTL ability but this was hidden.

Max would explode the engines of their mother ship remotely. With precise calculations coordinated with Captain Blaine, the countdown began.

Everyone was nervous about the  chance of success. The numbers worked, but real life was a lot different than homework. A count down commenced carefully.

At “Zero” everyone held their breath. There was no sound, but the video feed showed what once was Dave’s ship exploding with great force and an expanding debris field.

The colony ships engines were on full and there was an awkward balance between outward force and inward gravity. Debris was hitting our shield taking it’s toll. With the shields down to only 25%, gravity began to lose and the colony ship broke free.

Again, Dave was a hero with a new life ahead of him. But again, the hero was unhappy.

Part Three

Dave was unhappy and hid in his shuttle. The shuttle was parked in the dock of the colony ship he had rescued in transit.

 He was satisfied with the company of Max, his ship’s computer. Facing all of the new people in the Colony ship was not something he was looking forward too.

He asked “Max what should I do.” Max knew him well enough to know exactly what he meant and where he was coming from. “I can afford the loss of the mother ship. I am not stuck here, even though the colonists think I am. Why am I so blue?”

The shuttle had a hidden virtual FTL drive, not normal available in a standard looking shuttle. He felt guilty keeping this secret.

Captain Nelson was more than willing to give Dave some space. He owed Dave a lot. They all did.

Just then there was a banging sound from outside. Some one was trying to get his attention. He looked at the monitor and saw a stunningly beautiful young lady. His heart skipped a beat. “What do you want” ? Dave asked.

“I would like to invite you to dinner” came the reply.

Her name was Alice. In the fullness of time she became/had been the love of his life and mother of his 2 children George and Nancy.

Life had been pleasant because of the bioengineering that had been undertaken,

When the colonists hired a virtual FTL ship to plant time rights protection, they also planted a bioengineering package. This planted the seed of a self-duplicating long term planet changer. In a million years the atmosphere would be breathable and the soil would support earth like plants and animals.

It turned out they had a million years. They were time dilating into the future. The colony ship did not use virtual FTL. Instead it depended on slowing internal time, for a reasonable length journey, for those in the ship. Outside observers would be left in the past.

Dave had been forced to make a decision about his nanotech. Was he going to pass them on or not? Was he going to give them to his wife? It was his voluntary decision.

He thought about the ramifications of seeding the colony with immortality.

Immortality passed into the gene pool would be like giving the colony group cancer. There was also the possibility it would be passed back to the rest of the human race, if contact became easier in the future.

There would be uncontrolled growth crowding out everything else, and overwhelming all resources. Humans would eventually be shoulder to shoulder on the entire planet unable to even fall down.

Dave decided not to allow this to happen. The biotech was not passed on and remained his secret. Max helped him appear to age and also to fake his death

After leaving the planet a decision had to be made on where and when to go. He had time travel hidden in his shuttle. He could travel and return anywhere but there was no one to return to. 

In the alternative he could use just time dilation to travel further into the future. His speed and course would determine how far. With this option He would not go faster than the speed of light but internal time would slow down. This would multiply the passage of time by a desired rate.

In fact if he had a number of predetermined years, Max could use a combination of Virtual FTL and time dilation to get what he wanted.

Dave decided to skip another 1000 years. Maybe he could find happiness in the future.

What happened is not what he expected. He found out he had been a spy. His nanotech had been recording everything and had just sent a report to its manufacturer. The nanotech manufactures call themselves the outers

There was to be a trial. He was to defend humanity. He was not told the stakes but knew losing was not an option. He wandered how fair the aliens were.

They had chosen him, seemingly at random,  and he would have preferred that humanity had a choice on its advocate. As it turns out Dave was not a bad choice. But how did the aliens know this?

It was not necessary to travel to a courtroom. All took place within his head. He was in his comfortable pilots chair within his shuttle craft, drifting in space. Much was happening not visible to an observer.

“How can you justify your warlike species” he was asked internally. It was broadcasting thoughts not speech.

“You are a danger to the more advanced species”. Through out your history there have been terrible cruel tyrants who have caused much suffering. How can we be sure another might arise to take action against us”

“What are you Like” Dave asked “how are you better”

“We all operate within an acceptable range. We are all peaceful. We do not wish to be cruel to another. But we do recognize the necessity of protecting ourselves. We do not enjoy necessary negative action.”

“If you are all the same how have you soared. How does one of you stand out and take things to new heights.”

“We do not”

Let me submit that we are a race of extremes, good and bad. We cannot deny the bad. Consider this:

The influence of humans on your situation would be to brake you out of your static limited existence. We can take you to new heights. Without us you would stay where you are and never evolve further.

Imagine a football field 100 yards long. The 0 Line to the left is evil. The 100 yard line to the right is good. You would all be bunched between the 45 and 55. Humans would be scattered throughout the entire field. Without us you have no path beyond 55. Only the few of us approaching 100 can aid you on your journey.

They then communicated: “You are correct. We need Humans for any chance of further growth.”With that they disappeared except for one final message. “You have done well and deserve a reward. You will discover what it is in due course”.

Dave wondered what was in store for him. Confused by the unknown he was not happy.

Part 4

Dave was not prepared for what was in store for him. He was drafted. His ship was drafted along with him. It was a kind of bring-your-own space force.

The war was about the newly discovered warp tunnels. They allowed instant transport between far apart warp holes

It was discovered was that they not only transported thru space, they also transported thru time. This sort of worm hole time machine was postulated as early as the twentieth century by Carl Sagan. He realized that if you accelerated one end of a warp hole tunnel to close to the speed of light, then time dilatation would drop one end back in time relative to the other.

The warp tunnel network was constructed by unknown aliens. They lived early in the sweep of time of the Universe. At least some of their network had a start point far earlier than the invention of the human’s time machine.

Before this, time travel was limited to not allow travel to dates earlier than the time machine’s invention. Now there was a way to circumvent this limitation. This changed everything.

Time claim rights were no longer enforceable. Colonies would now fear ambush from the past.

Dave and his ship were assigned to a group leader of the loosely affiliated empire. Those opposed called themselves the rebels. The empire now had a king but he was only involved with relationships between planets. He had no authority over internal planetary matters.

It was rare that the King had to get involved as most normal problems were local. Interplanetary war was not normal. They were fighting over control of the warp tunnels.

The military set up was somewhat less centralized than normal when it came to ship owners. Those fighting with their own ships could sometimes pick their own assignments subject to approval, dependent on circumstances.

Ship owners were known to be wildly independent and standard military discipline would have been difficult to sustain. Dave studied the maps and decided ambush thru a warp tunnel was possible.

It would be a dangerous gamble but, if the enemy quickly lined up a closely packed column of war ships, they could get a large force thru the warp tunnel without resistance. By the time they were discovered, their opponents would be surrounded.

One bold stroke could end the war.

Dave decided that the best way to spend one of his active duty assignments, would be to stand guard at a worm hole to prevent ambush. This was easy duty requiring little activity and the prospect of relaxation.

Dave waited near one end of a warp tunnel when there was a sudden flurry of actively. A large enemy battle ship had come thru, quickly followed by another. This would have been upsetting to Dave, if he had not been asleep.

Luckily Max was not asleep. He was Dave’s secret weapon; an advanced ship intelligence, not known to exist.

He woke Dave up abruptly and history would record his famous words; “What the fuck are you waking me for?”. Dave quickly got with the program and later apologized.

As it turned out, he might as well stayed asleep because Max was handling everything. After, what seemed to be a long time, they stopped coming. The count of kills was unbelievable. Debris was all over.

Dave was torn on how long to stay and whether to break radio silence, advertising his location. Faced with an impossible decision he again fell asleep.

Eventually he returned to home base and was promptly arrested for being AWOL.

When they checked his automatic ships log, General Bing was notified. “You mean to tell me that the man who decimated almost the entire rebel space force is in the Brig?” .

Captain Henshaw was at a loss of words as he imagined his career, and hoped for retirement, vanishing to nothing. “Don’t you think we should let him out? Bring Him to me”. General Bing said with a sneer.

Before Dave could be released they received an inquiry from headquarters. It asked if they knew anything about a mysterious debris cloud at one of the warp tunnels.

After all was sorted out, an order was received to send Dave to the King’s Palace. This was to be done immediately but with maximum secrecy.

No one seemed to know exactly what was going on. Dave was somewhat amused by the entire fiasco. He was not worried.

Upon arrival Dave was rushed directly into the Kings private audience chamber. There the king was in earnest conversation with a distinguished looking man. Dave was surprised to recognize him as the often filmed rebel ambassador, Sutton Mills.

The king addressed Dave “Well young man. The ambassador here was just presenting me with an ultimatum about our little war.

He claims they have snuck most of their entire space force to a strategic position well inside our lines. He wants us to surrender. What do you think? “

Dave slowly smiled and said “Ambassador Mills. I am afraid I have some bad news for you.”

As a result of this entire matter Dave gained the one thing he least wanted; Wide spread recognition. This made Dave unhappy.

Part 5

The aliens did not tell me what additional abilities they were going to grant me. This was to be payment for my winning defense of humanity. I was beginning to find out.

Lately I seemed to be changing into a ghost on and off. Items around me were disappearing and reappearing. It was time to search for a new tutorial in the nanotech protector I had been previously given. I found it and was flabbergasted. (flabbergasted is a fancy word for having gas while fat)

I now had ghosting ability. I could half phase myself to be in between something or other. This took away my substance but not ability to observe or move around. It was much easier to move around with no mass, and no momentum, and no effect from any outside force, such as gravity or acceleration. I could stay within an accelerating rocket, if I desired, or stay behind.

I could also cause outside objects to disappear or reappear from my new, seemingly unlimited, storage. Wow!  If I wanted to, I could be the best bank robber in history. Except, that all money was now digital and no longer in vaults. I am sure I could find other things to steal if I were not already rich.

Using these new abilities properly would be difficult. I decided to put Max (my artificial intelligence) in control. With my new powers, he was freed from the confides of our ship. He was able to follow me, half phased in invisibility, and translate my vague commands into specific actions.

I entered a bar which could rightfully be called a dive. The furniture was old and worn. The paint was faded. The patrons were loud and rowdy. I was not afraid due to his protective powers. Still, I was not looking for trouble.

There was a voluptuous cheap looking beauty accompanied by a strong and rough looking man. He was touching her in ways that I would normally not have thought appropriate in public. I could not help but stare. The rough looking man was turning a little red, not happy at being stared at. He stared at me and said,” do you have a problem” .

I responded, “no problem” I said, “you have good taste”.

“Are you making fun of me” the man sneered

“No” I replied. “Why don’t I buy you both a drink”

“We do not need to take drinks from the likes of you” came the reply shortly followed by a swing of his fist. He never connected. It was if I was suddenly not there and yet still standing.

I told Max to make enough blood disappear to make the attacker pass out instantly.  I did not want any permanent harm to come from an unfair fight. I could either make the blood disappear or reappear dramatically on the outside. I decided to be discreet and without visible blood. However, the dramatic effect of clapping my hands once, just as consciousness was lost, seemed to be good showmanship.

Going forward I just need order a “Max clap” when needed.  With a “Max Clap”, my attacker went down like a sack of potatoes. I said, “I guess he drank too much” and discretely left.

I decided to travel and see what I could of our galaxy.  I did not want luxury. I wanted real life. With Max’s help I found a passenger ship called the ”Outward Bound” that was on its way to already established colonies Those on board were mostly normal people, but one notch up from those having to go to raw startups.

I became friendly with the Earthman family, Lou and Gloria with their daughter Gretchen. Lou was leaving a somewhat successful clothing business and wanted to make a new life for his family away from the squalor of Earth. “It’s become one big slum”, Lou would say. “Nobody cared about picking up the trash and there was too much crime.” Lou was mostly bald with well-kept hair in the fringes and a thin mustache.

Gloria was nice looking without overdoing it. Gretchen was about 14, newly installed in a fully mature body. She was full of youthful innocence and optimism. She looked like the farm girl she was destined to become.

At that point in my long life, I had chosen to look about 40, with a trimmed beard and full head of hair worn short. I could have chosen to look any age.

There was a warning announcement from the captain. “We are being pursued by pirates. Please do not panic, we have a good chance of losing them”.  I decided to take a ghosting trip out of body to reconnoiter.  I came to a functional looking ship they contained none other than the pig/alligator aliens  previously encountered. There were many more of them than last time.

They were getting their weapons ready for an apparent boarding.  I studied the situation to decide the best way to handle it. I waited until the chase was over with the aliens attaching to the Outward Bound with a pressurized flexible tunnel. As they entered the tunnel their weapons started to melt. They were just like sand on a beach with the tide coming in. What had been weapons became piles of sand, and even that slowly disappeared.

I did not show myself and let the aliens think whatever they would about what had happened. After the weapons disappeared, they turned tail to their own ship and ejected the tunnel. They went on their way as fast as they could.

When I got back to the ship they asked where I had been during the excitement. “Hiding “I said. I was afraid that my friends thought I was a coward. This made me unhappy.

Copywrite Michael P. Feldman 2020