Bootstrap Colony Read online

  Bootstrap Colony

  By Chris “Jekyll” Hechtl

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional. The exception is Dr. Bowyer who graciously gave his permission to use his name and his work in this book. Any resemblance to other people is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book and or portions thereof in any form.

  Copyright 2009 by Chris Hechtl

  ISBN/BN# 2940011946943 Bootstrap Colony

  Cover art Copyright 2009 by Chris Hechtl

  Dedication: Since this is my first published book I’d like to dedicate it to my family and Mrs. Phillips.

  Both in their own ways encouraged me to follow my dreams wherever they may take me.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Author's note:

  Appendix and useful References:

  Sneak Peek:

  Prologue

  Mitch looked on, across the sea of machinery and sighed. “Best I can do.” He muttered to himself, and then glanced at his cell phone tablet. “Five minutes to show time.” He looked up, waved to the camera crew nearby.

  When he had won the lotto for the first time it had been a life changing event. The second time had been an eye opening experience. Now here he was two years later; about to take the greatest journey of his life across the sea of stars to a new world. “I hope this is on the up and up boss.” He heard over his Bluetooth. He grimaced wryly at the comment.

  “Yeah, wouldn’t I have egg on my face if I was wrong and no little green aliens show up?” Mitch replied. An earthy chuckle answered that.

  Bob always did have a good sense of humor, and a good sense of proportion. “Not too late to call this off, go get a beer...” Bob left that hanging as he stepped up beside him. Mitch turned a mock glower to his stocky subordinate as he flipped the Bluetooth off.

  Bob was wearing his favorite duster, with his classic marine hair cut. He was only five foot six, far shorter than the broad shouldered six foot one Mitch.

  Mitch pretended to think it over. “Let’s see, go to a new world, or get a beer... Decisions decisions...”

  Bob grinned, “Yeah, a beer sounds good right about now.”

  Mitch snorted. “I have a micro brewery around here somewhere... You did remember to pack it right?”

  Bob looked shocked, and then patted his sides mockingly. ”Let me check my notes...” They both chuckled.

  The sky began to darken ominously over the center of the machinery. “Nice knowing you Bob. Good luck with Mary and the kids, I hope it all works out,” Mitch said, looking at the sky briefly. It was about that time.

  Bob looked up, then into the eyes of his boss. “Nice knowing you Mitch, I wish to god we were going too.” He shook Mitch’s hand, and then jogged to the camera crew waiting a safe distance away. Mitch nodded to them, and then turned his attention to the vortex forming over his head.

  He took a sip of coffee from his mug, and then tossed the rest on the ground. He grimaced because it had gotten cold. He turned and stepped up to his command hummer, getting in and slamming the door just as lightning began to pepper the field perimeter. Instinctively he put his seatbelt on, knowing that it was completely useless, but following ingrained habit.

  “Show time. Hope those boys don’t get fried,” he murmured to himself. He flipped on the Bluetooth and called Bob. “Bob pull your people back a bit out of range of that lightning.” Static was his only answer. He tapped the Bluetooth but it only hissed and popped. He muttered and pulled it from his ear, then looked down to pull up his cell phone. When he looked up the field was gone, a glowing cloud were in front of his crowd of shaken spectators. “Never mind...” he muttered as he watched.

  The cloud retreated, taking on a more distinct and familiar shape. Several more can be seen, they form into ethereal jellyfish shapes darting in and around the vehicle park. “You certainly strained our quantum...” >ME&%$WX static “to the limit homo sapien organism designated Mitch Chambers,” a neutral voice rumbled.

  He smiled. “You said all we own outright,” he replied as he looked around, fumbling with the camera.

  “Affirmative,” the voice replied. He watched as around the perimeter of the park the flares of light pass by.

  “Are those stars?” he asked, astounded.

  “Affirmative. The quantum” >ME&%$WX static pop “effect has some optical bleed on the edge of the field.” One of the creatures paused in front of his vehicle then moved on. “Your materials have strained our power reserve, ordinarily we would plant you with others of your species, however your materials have required a separate transit all on their own.”

  He smiled wryly. That was just as well. He'd hoped to be on his own; it made protecting his stuff all that much more simpler. “Well, I always did march to my own drum.” One of the creatures paused while it ran a tendril over the roof of one of the animal containers.

  “Comment understanding error. Query, rhetorical idiom?”

  He looked over to it. “That is an affirmative,” voice and tone simplifying instinctively into those he used when he used the Voice Address system of his computers. He watched as it ran tendrils all along each of the containers.

  “There are insufficient life forms within to maintain individual species consistency.”

  He smiled. “There is a bank of genetic material in another vehicle,” Mitch replied. The creature bobbed and then moved on.

  “Destination coordinates are Northern Hemisphere Terran resettlement continent.” the alien voice reported after a moment. He nodded.

  “You may feel residual inertia upon ground contact.”

  He chuckled. “In other words keep my seatbelt on and tray back until the ride came to a complete halt.” The creatures stream around the perimeter, which he can barely make out a rush of a planet rising toward him. He always was leery of heights; this wasn’t helping him get over them. A thrill of fear spurts through him, his bladder screamed in protest.

  “Contact with atmosphere. One time unit until transit completion.”

  Mitch looked over to one of the larger creatures. “Can you tell me more about this planet? Gravity, local life forms, location of other humans? Location of raw materials, length of planetary cycle? Solar cycle?” He should have asked about that earlier and knew he'd kick himself later for not thinking of it.

  The nearest creature bobbed slightly, and then a tendril quivered as if in response. “Insufficient time remaining for proper query answer. In order of questions. Zero point nine Terran standard gravity. Too many to be discussed in time allotted.” Images of animals flashed through his mind, blindingly fast. He fumbled with the bottle of aspirin and popped three into his mouth.

  “Sixty kilometers due north nearest transport site of other primates of your species. Others three hundred kilometers south west and two hundred and ninety kilometers south east. All others too many to specify in time. Query not understood. Time measure is irrevalannnn...” With that last answer cut off the creatures sped up and then moved upward into a spiral. A burst of light made him instinctively cover his eyes
with his arms and duck.

  The truck jarred to the ground, bouncing him slightly. When he opened them his eyes were watering, with after images of his forearm bones. He closed his eyes and leaned back into his seat headrest. “Well, that was interesting. Now the fun began.” His head pounded with a migraine. “Happy New Year. Whoopee,” he muttered.

  Chapter 1

  He opened his eyes some time later, feeling the headache receding and vision returning to normal. He looked outside, beyond the top of the trucks to the sky. It was a marvelous shade of blue, speckled with light puffy clouds. Suddenly a four winged creature flew overhead. “Well, Toto, we are definitely not in Kansas anymore,” he said in whimsy as he stared at it as it gracefully soared on out of sight. He smiled wryly and flipped open the laptop.

  He keyed in the activation to his perimeter security robots, and then pulled up the video of the transit. He watched on fast forward, pursing his lips in a silent whistle at the sight of the creatures and show. “Damn what a show... Bit of a bumpy ride, but still worth the price of admission.” He got out, stretched, and then followed natures call since his protesting bladder was about to explode.

  He heard the bawls of the cattle and animals in the nearby containers. “Yeah yeah, I’ll get to you in a minute,” he said, finding a bush and doing his business. He was gratified to see the security robots moving out to secure the perimeter. He turned to look around once more.

  “Command not understood.” The metallic inflection made him turn with a start.

  “Damn! Thought you were one of those aliens.” He gave the nearby general purpose robot an angry glare.

  “Comment classified rhetorical,” the robot replied. He cocked an eyebrow at the machine as a thought struck him.

  “You sound just like them. Hmmm I wonder if they are robots?” he mused.

  The robot turned. “Query not understood,” the AI replied.

  Mitch snorted. “Disregard query. Status report.”

  The robot froze as it digested that order and then answered. “All containers and vehicles within perimeter. No damage detected. Security reported unknown organics outside perimeter. Unknown threat classification. Local organics retreating from area,” the robot reported. Mitch nodded.

  “Launch a UAV; program it to do a perimeter spiral outward one kilometer at max altitude then return.”

  “Affirmative complying,” the robot said and beeped. He turned and looked out over the grass and then up to the sky. The sun was bright, yellow like Earth’s Sol, but he could see the faded image of a pair of small asteroid moons. He turned to examine the surroundings, noting the copse of trees nearby, and herds of giant animals in the distance.

  The UAV, a saucer shaped air craft with an electric driven propeller in its center whooshed off the electric catapult rail and into the sky. Bird creatures in the brush nearby started into flight. Some of them had four wings. He shook his head and took a look at the animals in the distance.

  “Earth reserve huh?” he said thoughtfully as he looked over the animals with renewed interest. Giant six legged behemoths, with hammerheads on either end were off in the distance. Similar creatures of smaller size mill around, as do what look like giant buffalo. “Hmm guess things have changed since they last checked in,” he murmured. The high pitched trumpet of a creature made him turn with a start, a feathered sauropod trumpeted loudly, and then passed near his vehicles and toward the distant herd. Others soon followed at a stately pace.

  “Neighborhood is a bit crowded,” Mitch said dryly, somewhat shaken. He turned to the waiting robot. “Access UAV,” he ordered. He pulled out his tablet. “Send it’s visual to my tablet.” The tablet screen flickered, and then a dizzying sight of flight can be seen. “Give me a map of the area based off of the UAV visual. Expand the map as new data is entered.”

  “Complying,” the robot replied. The scene changed to a map of the area, with a slowly spiraling expansion.

  He noted the direction of the herd and then turned to look west according to the map. He looked at the distant range of hills and mountains. “It looked like about twenty kilometers...” he mused thoughtfully.

  “Query not understood,” the robot said. He doesn’t even look up until the robot repeated the statement.

  “Disregard. Give me a UAV flight time estimate,” he ordered, still looking at the video feed. A countdown clock appeared.

  North and South were ranges of forests. East was a river and North East, a lake, and destination of the herd. “Damn. Okay, looked like we go west to the mountains.” He turned to the robot. “Prep lead vehicles for movement. Follow the leader protocol,” he ordered. He turned to the West, looking at the distant mountain range. The sides looked steep, and the sparkle along one side looked like a series of waterfalls, just what he could use.

  It was about fifty degrees Fahrenheit outside. From the looked of the area it was in late thaw, there were patches of still frozen mud in shady areas. The trees looked almost Terran, if the aliens had transplanted animals it was a safe bet they may have transferred plants as well. After all, the animals needed to eat to survive. Most of the trees nearby seemed to be evergreens, but there were a few deciduous plants and a sprinkling of some truly alien ones to liven things up.

  He checked the tree line carefully, dictating his impressions into the audio log. One of the trees had to be alien; it was purple with a massive growth of roots raising the trunk over two meters off the ground. The trunk looked like it was woven, with patches of bare spots that were occupied by animals as nesting areas. “Wild, exploring this world is going to be quiet the learning experience.”

  “It looked about midmorning if this planet is anything like Earth.” He turned to the robot. “Put another UAV up and direct it West to the range of hills.” He used the tablet’s stylus to draw a flight path.

  “Understood. Launching now,” the AI replied. A second aerial drone launched off the rail on the back of a hummer, banked to the left and then climbed as it headed west. “Error, flight path will exceed UAV flight power allowance due to prevailing winds,” the robot reported after a moment.

  Mitch nodded. The first drone was already at its outermost ring and returning. “Program UAV two to land when power demand dropped below five percent. Keep a running feed and updates the map,” he ordered. He watched as the first drone landed near him. He picked it up, brushed off the grass, and then placed it back on its launch rail.

  “UAV one charging,” the robot reported, and then trundled off and up a ramp into the back of a waiting truck. Mitch nodded and got into the command hummer and buckled up.

  He followed the flight path of the second UAV as best he could, but was forced to detour around obstacles from time to time. Having a real time map was a life saver of time and energy. An hour into the drive he had to pause to recover the UAV. A feathery therapod was checking it out, dancing in the grass at his approach before it ran off. He returned the UAV to its rail then launched the first UAV once more, programming it to head west.

  He reached into the back of the hummer, pulled out a gun harness and strapped it on and then pulled out the Glock nine millimeter and carefully checked it over. He returned the pistol to its holster and then pulled out a shot gun and racked it in front beside him. He pulled out the Bluetooth and flipped it on. He cleared his throat. “Security report.”

  A squelch of static then a robotic voice “No perimeter breach detected.” He grimaced, wishing there had been time to improve the security AI.

  There were five security robot types, but only four were in current use. Each was painted army green. One was the CAT, a four legged robotic jaguar style robot with two rifles on its back.

  The P twins as he called them, P one and P two were prototypes for the ED series of robots. The design team had needed a stable platform to build the torso and develop the software. They used a scaled up General Purpose robotic track drive torso, married to the upper torso of what later became the ED robot.

  The ED robots, so named
because they slightly resembled the robot from the Robocop series, were his strongest line of defense. Each of them was bipedal, with two massive reverse knee legs and an almost humanoid upper torso. Each arm had a trio of weapons. There was also a pair of mortars on the back.

  The Crusher robots were his oldest robots, six wheeled robots developed over a decade ago by the DARPA program. Each had a modular weapon system and a hybrid hydrogen/electric ceramic engine. They were the most proven vehicle in his stable. These robots would form his primary line of defense. They would patrol a perimeter once he had a base set up. However they used massive amounts of fuel to move about, so he had no intention of using them until the base had sufficient supplies. Right now they were all riding along on the back of various vehicles or trailers.

  The last robot was a UAV helicopter. It married the predator design with a scaled down Apache helicopter. Unfortunately bugs in the software had forced the team to shelve the design. It worked fine as long as it was piloted, but in autonomous mode it would attack any living thing. Not good.

  Only two prototypes were built. Since he didn’t want to get shot at, the two he had were boxed and would remain so until he had the time to rewrite their software.

  Half of the other robots would remain behind at his landing site, protecting the equipment and trailers that couldn't be moved until he could get back there to move them. He hated the necessity of it but had no choice.

  After a bit of a bumpy ride through a handful of shallow gullies and a dried up creek he spotted the cliffs, and the distinctive inspiring view of a pair of waterfalls. “Beautiful.” He pulled up next to the drone in the grass, flicked the launch for the second UAV, and pulled out the binoculars.

  He checked the area, and then focused in around the waterfall. He could just make out black spots on the cliff face, possibly caves. “Better and better,” he murmured.

  A low chitter and clucking sound made him freeze. He pulled the binoculars down slowly to see a bird like creature in front of his hummer. It was about a meter tall, bipedal, and three meters long. Its body was covered in feathers. The head was dark, almost like a hawk or falcon. The spine was covered in dark feathers that radiated down the tan sides in tiger stripe markings.