END of LINE: Humanities Last Stand - part 3 (39 page)

There were charts of each system Leviathan had visited as the original Earthlings had searched for a new home. He found a full account of the events
leading up to their departure from the doomed planet and the selection process that had been used to select the survivors. Apparently the only humans to
have been selected came from a place called the United States of America. The banner displayed on the bow of Leviathan was an exact copy of the nation's
flag! Only those who came under the heading of Politically Conversative had made the long list of possible people to be saved. Apparently the original leaders of the survivors had wanted only people who could be trusted to work together without a lot of arguing about religions or cultures or any of the millions of other different disagreements that were normal on Earth. The men had all served in the nation's military at some period of their lives, or worked at the same job for more than three years before their names were added and space provided on the ship. Women had to agree to give birth to two or more offspring once they found a home. While these Americans covered the entire human race in terms of different people from all the races and nationalities living in the country at that time, in making the selections they had, they'd lost untold volumes of knowledge from different cultures and histories not to mention the talents of those people left to die when the planet met its end. He would pay good credits to have someone who understood what this Bible Phillie had mentioned was really trying to say. Jon was sure that one book held many more secrets from human culture than he'd unlocked so far.

To their credit they did make an extensive library of the knowledge of every group on the planet, so they lost very little of their science and medical
knowledge, such as it was. Only the cultures in places that had shunned the modern world had been completely lost. Most of the information on human culture
was already available to everyone back in the Public Library on Haven. Unfortunately, these days no one cared enough to read the hundreds of volumes of
information available at the Library. Even Haven's schools taught that the files were mostly made up legends and not worth studying.

From what Jon had learned, their medical knowledge was limited. People on Earth had still died from diseases that had long ago been wiped out here in
space. No one even knew what cancer was now and diabetes had long since become something used to frighten children who refused to eat their vegetables.
Everything else had been recorded and stored in Leviathans data banks! The knowledge could all be recovered, if only interest in the human race survived
past him. As far as Leviathan itself was concerned, maybe there would be some way to disable her weapons and her drives, before parking her at a station as
a living museum or something. He needed her now though just as she was.

The more he discovered, the more he was glad for all those times when his uncle had made him learn the human's English language. More specifically the
American version of English. Jon could understand most of what he read and those few things that were beyond him, Phillie seemed to know instantly. What
had taken Jon cycles of his childhood life to learn how to read and understand had come to Phillie as if she were born knowing them. Then he opened one
very large and heavy box.

Inside he found a kind of metal device that he could not figure out at all. Once he managed to unflod the thing it had a long metal base, with springs to raise or lower one end. On the base were two rubber treads and some rollers. Then came two posts that were fixed to the base that came up above Jon's waist with some type of control panel on
top that spanned the twin vertical posts. Coming off of the control panel was a power cord of some kind. It had taken Jar over an hour to shove the thing outside of Jon's house and into the shuttle the day he left home. Now he'd need Phillie's help to figure out what exactly it did. He commed her to his stateroom then went back to opening boxes. He'd just opened one that said, “Private Collection” when Phillie knocked.

“Come in Phillie!” Jon called out.

“What's up boss?” she questioned.

Pointing to the strange machine that he had moved to the side out of the way of the rest of the boxes, “Have you got any ideas on what that is?” he asked.

“I watched a vid about this thing that was in with all the technical stuff you gave me. Its some kind of device for walking without moving.” she admitted
with a confused look. “Why would a person waste their time walking someplace and never get there?”

“It must have been important to at least one of my ancestors. I found it in with the things that were hidden in our family vault. Somebody had to have
brought it from Earth before the ship left.” Jon told her as he dug through the stacks of data disks from the box marked Private Collection. Selecting one,
he went over to his desk and inserted it into his tablet. Suddenly his quarters were filled with the sounds of harsh, loud music with a heart stopping
beat! Pulling the disk out Jon breathed a sigh of relief and smiled over at Phillie who had either fallen or jumped into the box she was digging in when he
first inserted the disk. All he could see were her eyes peeking over the top of the open box. “Sorry.” Jon apologized. “I had no idea that was going to happen.”

“Next time warn a person. Jon Connell that must have been some kind of secret weapon or something.”

“That label just says 'Iron Man, ACDC'. I thought it might be the schematics for one of the suits of armor we found in the hanger bay with those ships in the rear hanger.” Jon explained.

“If they used that as a weapon, no wonder they were such great warriors! No one would dare stand against such a noise!” Phillie commented. “AAHHH here it
is. Get me out of this box.” she asked with her arms held out to him. “This is the instruction book. It will explain more about this thing and don't be
like Jarrieal. You can not point and shoot that thing, you need to read the directions to see what its supposed to do.”

“He's right you know. Most of the things Jar and I use all you need to know is point and shoot.” Jon told her with a grin as he lifted her from the box and gently placed her on the floor again.

“AAARRRRGGGGG! MALES!” she half smiled as she sat on Jon's couch to read, while Jon continued to take the Private Collection disks in and out of his
tablet. He found several that he liked and these he would place in his desk to listen to later, others he'd toss back in the box. Some were just too slow,
others far too fast and loud for his musical tastes. A couple of the ones he was going to put back in the box, Phillie had asked if she could listen to
with the promise to return them when she was finished. So Jon started to make three piles. Pile one for him, pile two return to box, and pile three loan to
Phillie. There were two groups who Jon liked better than all the others. One was an orchestra called “Two Steps From Hell.” and the other was a group of
females who called themselves 'Escala'. Another of Jon's personal favorite players was a young female named 'Lindsey Stirling'. The last two because they
played the same instrument in the violin and the first because the music they made seemed to give Jon the feeling of victory over unbeatable odds in their
music. He could picture a small band of warriors emerging victorious over a vastly larger force of attackers. Much like what his teams had done right up to
the Canari raid when they had lost Zeprik to a bunch of pirates. Now that he had Leviathan in his grasp, he had half a mind to return there and turn the
entire planet into space debris!

The angry male voice came back!

“Take a care Warrior” an angry voice called to him. “The time comes when you must decide to forgive. If you can not, my ship will betray you and you will
be he of the painting knowing only darkness and death when love is calling.”

“JON! JON! HEY JON!” Phillie was calling to him.

“Sorry lil' sis. What did you find?” Jon snapped back to the present.

“This thing is called a tread climber. It was a kind of exercise device for people too busy to go to what they called a gym or who lived in climates where
the weather was too harsh to exercise outside. I think it could help you get the strength back in your legs.” she told him. “Watch, I'll try to show you
how it works. First we have to find the right kind of power. This machine has been modified to use the same power crystals as the ship.” Opening a small
compartment she checked on a crystal already installed in a holder. “Looks like its still got plenty of power. So next thing to do is you put your feet on
the belts, one foot on each tread, like this.” she showed him. “Now you just turn it on and start walking,” and when she did, the treads began to raise and
lower while the belts traveled in circles around the rollers. Pushing more buttons on the controls she said, “You can make it go faster or slower, even
increase or decrease the amount of slope.” She continued to change the settings and raised up the speed until she was practically running. Then she turned
it off and stepped down, out of breath. “The directions say that if you use it for thirty minutes a day it will increase your stamina and develop the
muscles in your legs and stomach. Not that your legs or stomach need more muscles, but your legs could certainly use more stamina. Jar told me that he had
to help you get out of your ship after the mission earlier.”

“Jar needs to learn to keep his mouth shut.” Jon said sullenly.

“He's worried about you, just like me. He loves you too you know? Its just he's too much of a Warrior male to tell you.” Phillie told Jon for her mate.
“And yes, he'd point and shoot me if he knew I said that. So don't you go telling him!” Phillie pushed against Jon, “Your turn, climb up on that thing and
give it a try. If it works, you can wear yourself out in here all day and no one will see you falling on your face out in the rest of the ship. Not to
mention Talga screaming until someone comes to pick you up like the last time you went for a walk without your chair!”

“You really like Jar, don't you Phillie?” Jon asked her as he mounted the exercise machine.

“Yes Jon. I never thought I would fall in love again after my mate died. Jar makes me feel all special again. I love him very much.” she told him. “You
gave me a new life and he makes it worth living.”

“That's a good thing. Hold on to him tightly. He's a good male to have on your side when things get tough.” Jon assured her. “He might be a little rough
around the edges, but he always tries to do the right thing.” Turning the machine on to one of the slowest settings he began to make the walking motions
needed to prevent him from falling off. Then he slowly advanced the settings until he was walking at a crisp pace while not over doing the effort needed to
keep up with the moving treads. “This thing is really easy.” he said to Phillie.

“Make sure you have one hand on those handles all the times to help you keep your balance. When you think you can go faster, turn up the speed. Just go
easy until you feel safe. You can over do it and then end up back in the tube again.” Phillie warned him.

“Yes Mother!” Jon kidded. “I think I got this figured out.” Stopping the device he stepped down from it having made up his mind to put the machine to good
use at least once everyday. “I still want to go through some more of the stuff in these boxes. You want to go through them with me?”

“I'd like to, but I still have to finish up with all that salvage. Venus is scheduled to arrive soon and I want to have the first load ready for her to
take back to the scrap yards. Then Mars will arrive shortly after Venus leaves, with Mercury right on her exhaust pipes. Pluto is coming in last. It will
be good to see the old crew again even if it’s just for a quick hi-bye visit.”

“I'd like to see Captain Claudi again myself.” Jon admitted as he opened yet another of the Connell family treasures “PHILLIE! Look at this!” He exclaimed
as he handed Phillie a large three-ringed binder filled with notes and hand made sketches of Leviathan's engines. “I think someone already started to
figure out how the engines work!” Jon saw the look of excitement in his friend's eyes. Phillie had to be the only female he knew whom ships engines
excited.

“Jon, this is a, if they knew about this back then... Jon, they did it! They modified a slipdrive and changed it into a jump drive!” Phillie was ecstatic at
the prospects these notes gave her. “If this really works I can make all of our ships jumpers! We'll never have to slip again! I wonder why they never
built any of these modified engines.”

“What do you need to test it?” he asked her.

“I need a functioning slipdrive and a ship at least the size of Defiance for a test. Anything smaller and the test won't tell us much. It has to be
Defiance or one of the Novas. Something that big or bigger.”

“How about if I see if we can steal you a pirate ship? Minus the pirates of course.” Jon offered.

“As long as it is still flying. You have a habit of blowing them up.” she kidded with him.

Jon had been looking through the other items in the box and found the picture of yet another human female who was smiling out at him. The female was very
beautiful with her long blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. The look in her eyes was inviting to say the least. He recognized what he now knew to be the
house that his ancestor had built on his home world. Someone had written the name Sara on the back of the picture. Jon searched his memories and could not
remember the name in anything his family knew about their famous ancestor. “I think I've found a secret Phillie.” Jon slowly told her. Passing the picture
to Phillie, he said, “Apparently my ancestor had a relationship prior to leaving Earth. Take a look at this picture.”

As soon as she saw the photo Phillies mouth dropped open and she exclaimed, “This is a perfect picture of the Goddess!” Opening her table and scrolling to
a picture that she had held onto from her youth she passed both the picture of the beautiful Earth woman and the likeness of the Goddess of the universe
over to Jon. “How could your ancestor have known that he was taking a picture of the Goddess?”