Author: dhsully
Company: US Army

Sample Chapter
A Journey Too Far

It was strange, he thought, that there had been no response to his attempts to communicate.  It was strange, too, that his approach to Earth had not been intercepted. It was now the forty-second century on Earth, and an ancient ship like The Solarwind should be attracting attention.  But there was not a shadow of activity.
Fearing that the computer might have mistakenly taken him to another world, he checked the monitor showing an image of the planet below, then zoomed in for a closer look. The shape of the Florida peninsula had changed, and some of the state was now under water, but he knew that this was due to the melting of the ice caps.  But there was no doubt: this was Planet Earth.
He left The Solarwind in orbit and descended to Earth in the AGS, antigrav shuttlecar.  He found a suitable stretch of beach on the Florida coast and landed the AGS.
He stepped out of the shuttlecar, stretched, and took a deep breath of the invigorating salt air.  There was no  sign of activity anywhere or no sound except the ceaseless roar of the surf crashing on the shore.
Obeying a hunch, he stepped into the AGS and pulled out a laser pulser, checking to make sure that the weapon held a full charge.  He strapped on a pistol belt containing more charges, holstered the pulser, and set out along the beach.
He was not yet up to full strength, and after thirty minutes of walking he stopped to rest.  After a short rest, he couldn’t resist pulling off his boots and wading in the surf.
He chuckled to himself, “After two millennia, I deserve a little pleasure.”  He’d waded out to knee-deep water when he abruptly stopped.  Something was moving out in front of him.
It seemed to be a large snake, or perhaps an eel.  He started backing away as he saw it coming straight toward him.  As it drew closer, he could see that it was a tentacle, and he looked out to see its owner rising out of the water: a huge octopus-like creature.
He turned to run toward the beach, but even as he turned, he felt something coil around his ankle.  In the next instant he was sputtering and gulping water as the tentacle pulled him through the surf.  Abruptly, he was lifted from the water and found himself dangling like a rag doll as the creature pulled him toward its huge maw.
He struggled to reach the pulser on his hip, hoping that the weapon hadn’t shaken out of the holster.  But he was being tossed around so violently that he couldn’t find the handle.  He was near total exhaustion now, and found it an ordeal just to grope for the pulser.
He was but a few feet from the creature’s maw when his hand found and drew the weapon.  His finger tightened on the trigger, and he fired wildly at the creature, hoping that he would hit a vital spot.  He felt the charge in the pulser empty just as the coil around his ankle relaxed.  He fell in the water and managed to holster the weapon before swimming away from the thrashing monster. 
He made it to shore on adrenaline and the help of a large swell pushing him toward shore.  He lay on the beach face down, utterly exhausted and gasping for breath.  He did not know how much time had passed before he managed to struggle to his feet.  He examined his body, and although he was sore all over, he found no wounds. 
He donned his boots, reloaded his pulser, and continued his trek along the beach.  He grew more and more troubled as he plodded along, for he saw not the slightest sign of another human being.  Other than the monster he’d encountered, the only sign of life he’d seen was a lone coyote.  That meant there were smaller creatures around like rats and rabbits, the coyote’s natural prey.  
But where were the humans?  Had he somehow gone back in time during his journey through space?  Was the tentacled creature some kind of prehistoric monster, long extinct in his own time?  But there was the coyote; it didn’t exist in prehistoric times.  More likely, he thought, he was in the year 4102, two thousand years after leaving Earth in The Solarwind.  But after his departure, something terrible must have happened on Earth.  He headed back to the AGS.  He would set out for Atlanta; maybe he’d find something there to give him a clue as to what happened.
~ ~ * ~ ~
Atlanta was in ruins.  Most buildings were huge piles of rubble, some overgrown with brush and vines.  He set the AGS down outside the ruins and made his way through the rubble, seeking any signs of human life.  He found nothing but rats, cockroaches, and another lone coyote.  Had the human race disappeared from the face of the earth?
His peripheral vision caught a movement to his left.  He turned his head to see a figure about a city block away, moving toward him.  Apparently seeing Jay at the same time, the figure jumped behind a rubble pile.
Jay spread his arms, empty palms forward.  “Hello!  I mean you no harm.”
The figure popped up and fired a beamer at him.  He felt a sting as the beam grazed his left shoulder.  He ducked around the corner of a building.
“You cannot deceive me, android.”  The voice sounded metallic, as if coming from a speaker.
The building was small, but one of the few left intact.  Jay found a door and entered, hoping that the structure didn’t choose this moment to come crashing down.  He pulled his shirt down to expose his left shoulder.  The wound was minor.  There was no blood; the beamer had instantly cauterized the wound.  But it was still painful.
He found the stairway still intact and climbed to the second floor.  He drew his pulser and ran to a window, hoping to spot his assailant below.  What he saw standing directly below the window was a robot.  He drew his head back in.
A robot!  And it appeared to be sentient.  He recalled that the robot had called him an android.  Did sentient robots and androids exist in these times, capable of reasoning and acting on their own?  
He heard voices coming from below.  He peeked out again to discover six robots standing below the window.  He had no trouble hearing the loud, monotone voices.
“It is not logical.  An android would not dare to come to this part of town alone.”
“Logical or not, I saw it with my own sensors.  It wore odd looking garments and tried to deceive me.  It seems to have disappeared, but it can only be in this building.”
“Very well, we shall search the building.  Zeta-One-Five shall guard the front exit, and Delta-Nine shall guard the rear.  The rest of us will enter the building and search.  If the android is spotted, it must be destroyed on sight.”
He was trapped.  This was a small two-story building with only two exits; they wouldn’t be long in finding him.  And they meant to kill him on sight.  They thought him an android, and there must be something going on between robots and androids.  But there was no time to dwell on that; he had to find a way to escape.
He went to the window, a drop of over twenty feet.  About six feet away from the window was a high pile of rubble only a few feet below the level of the window.  He would have a chance, he figured, if he could land on the rubble.  Anyway, there was no other choice.
He crawled into the window, crouched, and pushed off with his legs.  He landed on top of the rubble, but his feet slipped and he tumbled down the side of the pile.  His wounded shoulder struck a jagged chunk of concrete.  He felt pain as the tender wound ripped open.
He heard footsteps as he struggled to his feet, and saw that the robots were almost upon him.  He drew his pulser; at least he would go down fighting.