Part one: Introduction.
-Preface-
In AD 1982, a man by the name of Trav was abducted from a swamp in
Florida. He'd spent what seemed like decades travelling through
space...
Guy and Mac were buddies in a small backwater town of Echo Point,Texas, and they were sharing a house over the summer.
An object came out of hyperspace in the moon's shadow. Headed towards Earth ...
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South of Echo Point, Texas. June 2nd, 1998
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It was a clear sky that night. The stars twinkled brightly.Guy and
Mac were sitting in wooden chairs on the back porch, sipping drinks
and making comments on life.
"You know, Guy, I've been thinking. We have GOT to get some girls.
This is a big house. With a few ribbons, and some drinks, we could
have party central."
Mac looked at him.
"Yeah, but there aren't many girls in Echo Point."
"So? We could advertise. We have a T-1 Line for Godsakes. It wouldn't
be too hard to log on to the net and post a party-call on a few dozen
message boards."
"You're right. But what about money, food, and drink?" Guy said.
"They'll drive overnight and bring drinks. Remember Arkansas?"
Guy thought for a moment. "Oh yeah, the party at Arkansas."
"Yeah."
"Naw, the place is clean and serene. It'll get thrashed." Guy
stated.
Guy stared up at the sky. The sky stared back. A bright point in the
sky was moving closer.
"Hey look at that!" He screamed.
Mac looked up and saw the light, too. "It's probably just space
station Mir."
"It's coming closer." Guy said, as he began to run into the
house.
As he raced through the screen door, he said: "Gotta get a
camera".
"What is that?" Mac thought. He stood up and stared at the object. It
had grown into a round dot with a short tail.
Guy came back out with a ton of camera gear in his arms. He put it in
the chair and began assembling the parts.
"I don't think that's station Mir." Said Mac.
A figure sat in the small ship, eyes shut tight. He doubted the pod could land properly after flying through high warp for God knows how long. The beeping alerts from the craft didn't reassure him.
Guy had set up a camera with a long-range lens and the tripod wobbled as he fixed on the craft, which was now the size of a marble. "Holy cripes!" Guy said. "It's a spaceship!"
The ship's computer was talking in Ti'lanni. The figure only knew parts of that language. He understood the words "turbulence" and "flight path error". He opened his eyes. His glasses showed a set of numbers such as the rapidly declining altitude and time to impact. A small colored map appeared showing the exact point of impact. One thing that shocked him was the last word of the landing site data. "..Earth.."
The spaceship was a few hundred feet up and falling. Guy had already used two rolls of film on the craft's entry. He loaded a smaller, more portable 32mm camera with film. The ship made a dull thud as it hit the ground somewhere in the meadow beyond the trees.
The figure regained consciousness a short time later. The words "Landing Successful" flashed in red in his glasses, followed by "Damage: Inconclusive." The ship had gotten him to the one planet he'd thought he'd never see again. But K'shon computers weren't the most reliable for navigation. Especially since it was a laptop motherboard instead of a Navigations System piloting the ship...
Mac and Guy arrived at a run, with Guy taking pictures the whole way. The ship was spherical, about big enough to hold a person, and dull grey with dull red markings. It didn't take a astrophysicist to figure the ship was banged up. It looked like something from "Star Trek".No, "StarWars". That's it, Mac thought.
They stopped walking when the front of the craft opened like a gull-wing door, but split. The bottom half lowered and the top half...you get the picture. Inside wasn't an alein but a man wearing a black trenchcoat and a round hat. The man was wearing of dark glasses, the kind with circlar lenses. He was sitting in a chair with a crash harness. When the harness withdrew and the man stood up waved to the boys and stepped out.
He man spoke in a gruff voice. "Hello. Me, Traveller, you, human."
Making hand signals.
"Hi. I'm Guy, This is Mac." Said Guy.
"Oh, good, you speak English." He said. "Is this Earth?" He
asked.
"Yep. You're in good old, Texas, USA."
The man took off his glasses, and his coat and started jumping and
screaming
wildly. "I'm Back!" he yelled.
"I'm back I'm back I'm back I'm Back I'm baaack!"
He stopped when he saw the duo staring.
"Um, I've been gone awhile. A great while as a matter of fact."
He went around to the back of the ship. The two followed.
"I'm Travis Davison. Friends call me Trav," he said as he removed a
panel from the craft. Inside was a bunch of charred stuff, presumably
parts.
"Hi." Guy said. Trav inspected several parts. He pulled out a small
circuit board.
"Hmmm. Not toast." He said. Then he pulled out a large board.
"Ti'lanni technology, gotta love it."
"Excuse me, no offense." Guy said "But could you explain why the hell
a spaceship is on my lawn?"
"I'm sorry, but this baby crashed on your property." (which is
several acres.)
He said. He looked at the ship one more time. And came to a simple
decision.
"This ship is toast. I'm not leaving in this thing."
Guy looked at Mac, they said in unison: "You can stay with us."
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Echo Point Diner, the same night
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Echo's Diner was an original "twinkie" shaped diner. Guy, Mac and Trav where sitting in a booth, waiting for there orders.
Trav had been "picked up" in Florida during an "event" as Ufologists called them. He was in his boat,riding through the swamp when a ship slammed into the black water. Trav, a not-so-bright-at-that-point man, checked it out. The ship was like the "Defiant", only smaller and its ship's occupants were humans. They popped him good and took him with them.
After a few years of roaming the galaxy. Trav, flat broke, joined up with a group of "Wanderers" in their massive hulk of a ship. The Wanderers where a group, a community if you will, of outcasts from across the universe. They were of many races, many origins, either outcasts or lost souls. But at least they cared for each other. After a few months of travelling, the ship crashed on an unnamed planet far out beyond the Inner Ring. Needless to say,they where stuck there pretty good. There was no hope of a being rescued by a passing ship. They managed to piece together several small "Pod" ships to go and get help. Trav was one of the few people selected to go. Of eight ships, his was one of three to make it to hyperspace.
"...And basically my ship crashed here, I met you too, and here we
are." He said.
"That's sad." Mac said.
"But, I made a promise I would get help. And I have to...." He said
sadly.
"I know just the man to help." Guy said.
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Dallas, Texas June 3rd. A day later...
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In a penthouse suite of Greenmore Tower, a man, referred to as the author, was sitting at his desk. He was the senior tech officer of Greenmore Assoc., a large R&D corporation involved in many fields. The company's Dallas building alone had 27 major labs, each for a seperate field of study.
"You have one new Email message," said his computer.
The author read the email.
From: Concerned Reader
Subject: Have you no ethics?
I'm probably not the one to say this, but putting yourself as a character in one of your own stories is desperate cry for attention...
Franklin Yoo.
The author was tired of people mailing him about that. He didn't
give a cripe if someone thought it was wrong. He'd sure as hell make
a few appearances throughout the story...
His thoughts were interrupted by the phone.
"Author here," he said.
"Hi Du- Auth. It's me, Guy."
"Hi Guy."
"I sort of need a favour."
"The last favour I did for was paying for that house of yours, which,
by the way, is still waiting for that check to stop bouncing."
Over the phone he heard a gruff voice say: "Let me handle it."
"Hi, I'm Travis Davison," said the voice.
"Hello," I , um, Author said.
"Hi, how would you like an optical processor to hand to your
boss?"
"A what?" Author asked.
"An optical processor. Mac is downloading the information to your
computer now."
"Ok,so what's this favor."
"I need to make a,uh, long-distance call using one of your phased
array antena systems."
"Oh, ok, As long as it's collect."
"Damn. That's funny."
"Thank you."
------- The Next Morning -------
Mac, Guy, Trav and The Author walked into the mission control room of the Greenmore Radio Astronomy Lab.
In front of all of the people in the room, Trav started playing with the controls.
"This is Gamma-One Fysh..." came over the speakers in the
room.
Trav explained. "Commercial frequency."
Trav spoke into a microphone. "This is Traveller Human. Anyone
there?"
"...Hello Traveller Human...what can I do for you..."
....To Be Continued... (don't ya' just hate it?)
Next issue, the Traveller
prepares to take a trip into outer space, so stay tuned to the
Macoroni E-Zine.
-- Duane Young