LIZARD’S            

                                                       LAIR

                                                                                                     ONE

The starcraft Aurora’s mission to Alpha Centauri B-III was prompted by receipt of a message transmission from deep space.

     They had just broken out of orbit from Arcturus V--having completed a routine exploratory mission--and had left the planetary system and shifted into quantum drive through hyperspace as the astrogators plotted a course for Earthport, when communications detected the old style space message coming from the vicinity of Alpha Centauri. 

     At first they were unable at all to play the message on the control deck’s central viewing screen, which brought up only static and severely scrambled images reminiscent of old Earth television signals. Andrea Varnak, the Aurora science officer, had the computer run an analytical search for a match in the archives and sure enough the computer located and downloaded the encryption codes of an extremely archaic form of space message transmission.

     The transmission had both audio and video components. Into the viewing screen sprang the image of General Timothy Haskins, whom Landry remembered from historical accounts. Some four centuries ago General Haskins had been commander of the Green Horizon--Earth’s first nuclear fusion-powered interstellar craft traveling at a fraction of light speed--which was sent to Earth’s nearest star system of Alpha Centauri, there to colonize any terrestrial-type planet capable of sustaining human life.

     The broadcast, in fact, was estimated to be some four hundred years old, received in the archaic form of message transmission traveling far below the speed of light, long pre-dating modern hyperspace communications. It had taken quite a long time for the message beam to travel from Alpha Centauri to the present spatial position of the Aurora. 

     “Greetings,” said Haskins on the Aurora control deck viewing screen. “I am General Haskins of the Green Horizon expedition. I am transmitting to you from the third planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B. The planet has a lethal atmosphere. We have managed to erect a dome with an Earth-like atmosphere. But the dome can only sustain us for approximately one Earth year. After that we will die.” He paused, his expression infinitely somber.

    Haskins continued. “I have no realistic expectation that any Earth vessel can possibly intercept this message within the very short time allotted to us for our survival here. However, I do hope and pray that by some great long shot or miracle someone from Earth will receive this message in time enough to assist the Green Horizon colonists.”

     Haskins ended the transmission and his image faded from the screen.       

     Colonel Kendrick Landry--commander of the Aurora--would have preferred to stay en route to Earthport. From the content of the transmission, it appeared that the Green Horizon colonists had perished long ago. But the regulations of the First Intergalactic Alliance nonetheless clearly required responding to the message. The Earth Confederation was a founding member of the Alliance, so Landry had no choice in the matter.

     “Astrogators,” he called, “plot a course for Alpha Centauri B-III.”   

     Major Andrea Varnak--his science officer, chief astrophysicist, and chief astrogator--acknowledged the order at the astrogation station in the control pit below Landry’s command station.  Andrea was smoothly adept at managing her team of specialists in executing astrogation’s dual tasks of determining present location and plotting of destination--all affected by factors including propulsion, gravity, space obstacles, radiation and other hazards, distance, and time.

                                                                                                     ***         

     They intercepted one more of the archaic space message transmissions while en route to Alpha Centauri B. Haskins’ face appeared wild on the screen.

     “If you are viewing this transmission it is probably only because you came looking for us,” he said. “Be warned. If you have come and are viewing this message, you must immediately change course away from this planet. I am transmitting to you now secretly, and at great risk. You are in grave danger and you should leave while you still can.” He spoke in a low, desperate, and urgent voice, obviously trying not to be overhead.

     Behind Haskins and down on the deck below the communications platform where he sat, a group of naked human colonists was being herded about by lizard-like creatures clad in silver garments. The lizard creatures stood erect on two legs like a human, were about the size of a very large man and extremely muscular, and they had sleeves at the back of their clothing from which protruded long, sturdy, thick green tails which apparently served a balancing function for the bipedal creatures. The lizards stood on uncovered broad, claw-like feet with long nails, securely gripping the deck. The lizard creature had two powerful arms and leathery hands with a greater than human number of fingers.  

     There were apparent ear holes on each side of the lizard head, and the dark green face was offset by alert ocher eyes and a wide mouth full of long pointed teeth. On occasion a lizard’s upper lip would peel back and one could see the teeth angled downward as if in an ambiguous smile or snarl. The lizards had an obvious military bearing and their silver garments appeared to be uniforms bearing some apparent form of varied rank insignia.

    The creatures were callously dragging the humans about. The humans were being made to operate unidentifiable machinery for the lizards.

    “There are many of us in a resistance force,” said Haskins. “We are organizing an uprising but I am not expecting . . .”

     Then the transmission was broken and the screen was awash in a blur of static. Haskins had been discovered and silenced, or perhaps the signal had simply been lost due to technical difficulties. Regardless, Haskins was long dead now. 

     Landry knew that he should give at least passing heed to Haskins’ warning and consider changing course and not going to Alpha Centauri B at all. And yet, all of that had been so long ago that taking flight seemed eminently unreasonable. He would keep an open mind until after communications, if any, were opened with the destination planet. He and the Aurora were, after all, in the business of exploration and should not turn tail and run at the slightest shadow on the wall.

                                                                                                         ***   

     The Aurora was now traveling in quantum drive mode, surrounded within the bubble of energy generated by its matter-antimatter reactor, the energy bubble pulsing to warp normal space--contracting space behind the craft and expanding space before the craft while en route to its destination. The starcraft rode enclosed within the energy wave--gliding along the cosmic plane of space like a surfer on the ocean--and with no time dilation; the craft, its crew and the surrounding universe all continually existed at a more or less constant rate within the space-time continuum. The quantum drive--developed some eighty years after Earth’s dispatch of the Green Horizon to Alpha Centauri--permitted immediate interstellar and intergalactic transport rather than the impracticably slow fractional light speed of early vessels including the Green Horizon.

     When the Aurora was just outside the star system of Alpha Centauri B, the engineers shifted over to the momentum engines which were powered by the craft’s nuclear fusion reactor. Then the Aurora traveled to and settled into orbit around the planet of Alpha Centauri B-III, which had been identified as the source of the intercepted space message transmissions. The planet had a methane-ammonia atmosphere, and the flight crew of the Aurora soon spotted a terraformed, Earth environment-enclosed domed metropolis. 

     They opened hailing frequencies and made contact with a planetary official, a young man-–truly a young man as this civilization had no genetic enhancement technology capable of suspending adult human aging as was common in the time of Colonel Landry and the Aurora. The man was literally only about the age of thirty years in the Old Time of Earth.

    His name was Jason Turden, and he was chief prefect of the province of Alfaron, a name applied very generally to the domed city and indeed the planet as a whole. The descendants of General Haskins’ colonists had long ago discarded the planetary classification name of Alpha Centauri B-III. 

     Turden was cordial enough, if somewhat cool, and had invited down Colonel Landry and his senior officers. Landry accepted the invitation.

     Landry considered how he and his officers could most practically get down to the planet’s surface.

The Aurora was a massive vessel--larger than Earth’s North American continent. Although the craft could easily house literally cities of planetary voyagers, the primary mission of the Aurora was specialized scientific research and military engagements on behalf of the Alliance. The craft’s hangar deck held numerous exploratory space cruisers poised for launch, each cruiser normally manned by some four hundred and fifty flight member specialists. The Aurora could easily accommodate entire armies and fleets of battle cruisers, and during military campaigns the craft held a massive bay of electron torpedoes.

     But the Aurora was not designed to ever land planet-side; rather, the craft was intended to be an ever-traveling mammoth space platform. And the planetary civilization of Alfaron apparently had no quantum teleportation technology. The Alliance had perfected quantum teleportation of objects, humans, and other intelligent beings in many varied forms since the middle of Earth’s twenty-second century.

     But Landry had always held repugnance for the concept of quantum teleportation, which required actual destruction of the original teleported subject to render an adequate encoding of the subject’s atomic structure data. The destroyed subject’s matter data was then transmitted to the new location, where the data was used to create an exact copy of the original subject. The replication was flawlessly exact, the duplicate identical to the original--physically, mentally, the same memories, the same life. Identical in every way.

     Some had argued that the duplicate for all practical purposes was the original. But that was only a semantic game. There was no factual question that the original teleported subject was destroyed and that the duplicate was an entirely new being.

    All of that was a moot point in the present situation. The Alliance quantum teleportation technology required matter data transmission to occur only between a transmitting station and a receiving station. The Aurora had a teleportation chamber. But there had to be two teleportation stations and Alfaron had none.

     It was just as well to Landry. “We will go down in the Beagle,” he said. Andrea had told him that the domed city had an impressive docking station.               

     He left his second-in-command--Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Quinn--in charge of the Aurora. That was standard protocol, and Landry rested easy knowing that the Aurora could not be in better hands during his absence. He only regretted, as he often did, not being able to take Quinn along and down to the planet.    

     Then Landry and other senior officers embarked down to the planet’s surface in a planetary cruiser--the Beagle, Landry’s favorite cruiser, a massive vessel normally staffed with some four hundred and fifty specialists on exploratory missions.

     The Beagle launched off of the Aurora hangar deck and descended into the planet’s atmosphere. A transparent airlock, set within the atmospheric dome of the planetary metropolis, spiraled open to admit the Beagle and the cruiser dropped toward the metropolis far below. Landry docked the cruiser into the domed city’s hangar station.