The Making of an Enemy

By Bobbie Kaald

Bobbie Kaald was born in Snohomish County, in Washington State. She attended the Snohomish School District where she graduated. She then Graduated from Everett CC, and has worked as a nurse for many years. Having had a change of life over 25 years ago, she has decided to try writing. She is a mother of three, and has one granddaughter, Sydny. The heroin is named after her granddaughter. She hopes that you enjoy her first literary work since college. She is in the middle of the sequel that will be named, Unmaking of an Enemy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 10, 2005
• ISBN: 9781462826315

Bobbie Kaald

Born in a small town, Bobbie loved creating things. She was in several plays in high school, and wrote many short papers in school. After a long career in nursing and raising three children, Bobbie began a science fiction series with a heroine named after her grand-daughter, Sydny. A friend at her last nursing job asked her not to finish the enemy/friend series with three books and is now working on the fifth book in the enemy/friend series. She is now writing children’s fiction/fantasy books as well. Spryte and Lily are being published with her fourth book in the Enemy/Friend series, The Enemies and Friends thru the Vortex. Continuing with the children’s books, Bobbie now brings you two new children’s fiction books: Aaron // Aaron and the Lake Animal.

Book preview

INTO SPACE

O n old earth, just before the end, it was more than just crowded with people. Earth literally overflowed with people. There existed little or no room for anything else. Everything grew in hydroponics using op lights and any kind of heat that they could find. The only heat available was not really heat. There was really just a very little flicker of warmth or light for people, but they had to have it for the food as well as some kind of light. Occasionally people slept or just visited in the hydroponics when the temperature dropped to sub artic cold outside. There were so many people that the unrest eventually fulminated into a cataclysm. No one could find any peace, or any place to be alone and just plain think.

Those who sought peace and serenity used to look to the skies, but no longer. No one could even see the sky or know if the stars were still there. No one could even do anything with all the buildings, and rows of lights in the cities that were everywhere. People could no longer go to the country to see the stars because there no longer existed, any place such as the country. Occasionally, when a cascading blackout happened and they chanced to look up, they might get lucky and see the stars. That is if there were not any clouds, smog, or fog.

People formerly made a study of the stars, and they had quite a following for the cause and effect of the stars on their fortunes, or potential futures. Now, the stars lit the heavens, forgotten, in the desperate attempt to survive the overpopulation of the planet.

People also forgot to love one another, and the hatreds of the past welled up and over flowed. The overflow resulted in the worst possible outcome. War broke out again, and again, until a final war to end all wars. It was the worst war of any in history. All of the worst types of weapons resurrected and implemented, bringing with them the end. No one survived this last war and nothing bigger than a cinder remained of the civilization that was. The cinders smoked forever. If there had been any life left amidst all the debris of the destroyed civilizations, the smoke would have killed it.

Fortunately, there were a few brave and bold, long-term, space travelers secretly exploring the universe for a potentially new nirvana. The vessels sent out into space to explore in vessels developed on a secret base in Arizona. Most people thought of it as Area 51, but they were just slightly off the mark. These voyagers would not know for a long time that there would never be any going back to their beloved Earth. Messages traveled the speed of sound in those days and took a long time to catch up to the vessels.

These five exploring vessels peopled with young and virile persons of both sexes. Many were in cryogenic sleep chambers because no one knew how far or how long they would have to go before finding some new place on which to start a new colony. Like the pilgrims who came to America looking for a new home, they flew on in ignorance of the permanent change that took place on Earth in their absence.

Most people of earth had no knowledge about these launches, and frankly would have blown up the earth years sooner if they had known how much money channeled into the space voyages instead of feeding the starving populace. When no messages came in from home, those people who were in space were extremely grateful and full of guilt for being the last survivors of the human race. They felt guilty because they went into space at just the time the end came for those left behind. They were full of guilt that they were not the ones to die. They were feeling grateful, for being alive and free of all the bonds of humanity’s past. No longer would the copious decisions of the past burden them. Decisions and judgments would now be on current information only.

When they got over the shock of realizing they were the last survivors from Earth, it came to them that they were also fully on their own without the possibility of rescue or assistance. The five exploring vessels eventually contacted each other when the connection with Earth ended. This resulted in a vote taken. The outcome of the vote was a rendezvous at coordinates out ahead of the lead vessel. After the rendezvous, they went on together to the most likely spot for a habitable planet.

The colonizing vessels were each on slightly separate trajectories to find five planets. In the light of the sudden drop in the volume of potential inhabitants for any planet that they found, they changed the plan. The small group felt that by pooling their resources and abilities gave them the most possibility of success.

After many attempts at finding a new home planet, they finally found one. It did not have as much water, but it had a couple of continents that could support life. They landed there, and stayed aboard the vessels until shelters were constructed and then they abandoned the vessels.

From there, the colonists proceeded to create a new society. They made a solemn vow, ‘to just get’ along with each other. No cults or separate societies could exist. Otherwise, history would just repeat itself. Of course, it is not human nature to accept what someone else thinks about what should be done, in no time at all a predictable upheaval happened in the new society, and they split up. Each group went their own way. One group left the planet, and went out into the great unknown of space. The other group split into two more groups, and each went to separate continents. They hoped to prevent further upheaval in this way. It did not help.

THE NEW AGE

C enturies later, humankind eventually began forming alliances with the splinter groups again, and these alliances were to begin allowing for the differences of each new world, as long as they did no harm to one another. They called themselves the United Federation of Inhabited Planets. Later, they would eventually revise that to United Federation of Humanoid Planetoids. Someone with a sense of humor prevailed on the old fogies and thus the name became humorous and descriptive. All of the planets thus far habitable were smaller than the Earth of their forefathers, the planet their forefathers decimated so completely.

Their population numbers increased quickly. By some fluke, their births were always multiple births. Perhaps some genius on old Earth who selected the crew, screened them genetically for certain characteristics. Perhaps the original persons aboard the five vessels were bred for their mission. Whatever the reason, it is sure that final outcome was to populate of the universe. No one wanted to overtax a planet, and there were now rules about the allowable level of population. These rules were really not necessary because many people wanted nothing more than to go into outer space as quickly as vessels could be built to take them off planet.

It is into such a universe that our story unfolds. Somewhere along the line, the age-old problem had arisen. The question as always is simple and hard at the same time. Who is right and who is wrong? Who is weak and who is strong? Will the weak triumph over the strong, or the strong triumph over the weak? Is it better to live and be wrong, or be right and die? And of course, am I my brother’s keeper?

THE DISCOVERY

O n one of the smaller planetoids found to be habitable, stood Taisyd. Taisyd was a space base of alien construction and big enough for a huge shipyard. It was a well-built and well-camouflaged construction designed and covered by its creators, whoever they were. Taimen stumbled onto it during an exploration trip, or so he said. In reality, he set the Tressom down for a major repair job, and landed right on top of the alien base without knowing it. They say that most great discoveries are from some kind of accident, and this proved to be no exception.

On landing, Taimen immediately began repairs to the Tressom. He thought nothing of his surroundings. Later, when he felt stymied and frustrated from the repair job not going well, Taimen went for a walk to clear his head. He nearly fell off the edge of the building. When he looked down, the cliff that he thought he found went down at an unnatural ninety-degree angle. This could not be a natural angle. Even a mental midget would know this to be a constructed cliff. Taimen explored every inch of it, and eventually found a way inside of the building.

What he found sparked the creativity inside of him, and the more he walked around the inside, the more that his brain clicked out ideas for the use of this facility. As he saw it, he could make a lot of money, and be set for the rest of all time. He looked around and managed to activate one of the bay doors. He managed to reset the drives of his ship enough to lift off, and flew it inside of his new shipyard. He just decided to appropriate this building and make it his own.

Taimen immediately set about notifying the Federation at Base Able about his claim of the shipyard by right of exploration. Anyone, discovering an abandoned construction had the right to claim it. This huge building was nothing if not abandoned with an inch or so of dust covering everything. He felt he could transform it into a shipyard. It tantalized Taimen’s thought waves to the edge of his creative insight just thinking of things to do with this huge building. It had blank walls everywhere. As his eyes surveyed the building, the walls became murals and then back to blank. What fun it would be to transform this building, Taimen had to have this building for his own.

After sending for the right of discovery, Taimen sent out a fake Mayday to Sorgel for assistance with the needed repairs. It really was not a total lie, he did need help and his ship did need repairs. What Taimen really wanted Sorgel for was a need to show off this monster building and get some input on possible uses for it. Taimen could not postpone. Taimen, already felt committed to this path in his own mind, did not draw out his explanation to Sorgel. It seemed safe to show it to Sorgel because they had similar interests. Any negative input would be easier to discard with Taimen already committed to his chosen path.

When Sorgel’s vessel approached the base or an uninhabited planet as far as he could see, Taimen let him fly around for a bit looking for him, and then opened a docking door. Sorgel saw it immediately, and flew inside.

The look on Sorgel’s face as he exited mirrored the awe felt inside. Taimen felt satisfied by looking at Sorgel’s face, that all of the deception was worthwhile. The look of incredibility, etched into every line of Sorgel’s face as he quickly scanned the scene with his innate assessment skills, said it all. Turning to Taimen, Sorgel announced, You are not broken down you old devil, you just wanted to show off.

Oh, contraire, but I am broken down as you say. I did have a major shipwide breakdown. I set down and began to repair it. I took a break to stretch out my knotted up muscles. Then, I almost broke my neck discovering the edge of this thing. It certainly seemed more than a little bit of a rude way to learn that what I landed on was a roof to a building, not a dead area of dirt. Taimen drawled slowly to impress Sorgel. He stood there with his hands on his hips while he spoke to prevent himself from gesturing at the things he wanted to show Sorgel.

Just then, the lift on Sorgel’s vessel, the Quavada, activated and began to go up. It seemed that Sorgel did not come alone after all. He had a couple of stowaways aboard, or so their story went. Sydny and Rachael accompanied Sorgel on the sly. They apparently had not believed in the legitimacy of the Mayday call, either. They wanted be present, and see for themselves just how badly broken the Tressom actually was.

This suspicious attitude came from Taimen having a reputation as a master fixer of anything mechanical. They all doubted his need for help. For Taimen to need to call for help was a good reason to have a party. A party for all of the times that Taimen came to his friends rescue and fixed their vessels in only a couple of seconds. Not to mention, the verbal harassment that followed for days and days afterward. Taimen could be relentlessness. He could carry a good thing into the ground, and so could they.

When the lift stopped at the end of its run, the two girls took a good look around and were both so excited that they began talking at the same time. Taimen let them go on for a while, basking in the glory and the positive input. It had been long time coming, and there were many negative remarks about his hopes to form a company of starship builders.

Okay, okay, one at a time. I appreciate all of the comments. This time they are all for the good, but I really would like to hear what each of you have to say. Do you or don’t you think that this is a good place to set up shop? Taimen shouted in order to get the attention of everyone, and everyone just started laughing. They laughed to relieve the fear each of them kept inside about their futures and where their livelihood would come from. They had all been worried for a long time about what their future would be and what would happen to them because of all of their recent losses.

Taimen, in all seriousness, this is the most awe inspiring, spectacular discovery that I have ever been a party to. You know we were all very worried, and we will not deny that. This is really going to change everything. Sydny spoke first and everyone else nodded they agreed. I think that a little celebration is definitely in order, and then we are all going to be very busy for quite some time. Would you care to come aboard? She smugly invited Taimen aboard Sorgel’s vessel, the one she on which she most recently was no more than a stowaway. On anyone else’s vessel, this would not happen. However, they were all a team and would be partners soon if she had her way.

Yes, I think that I would, but you really are the master of understatement. It’s going to take two armies to get this place up and running. Taimen smiled as he spoke. His brain was so busy with the things that were going to need that he could barely communicate. You know that we are very close to the blue honeymoon planet of Nebulon and the Federation has a base close by. In fact, it is so close that I find it hard to believe they didn’t know about this place. We are all so fortunate that this place remained undiscovered. No discovery by anyone else means that the group could and would have the right to claim it. It’s certainly extremely camouflaged, but that still does not answer the question as to how no one has ever been to this place in all of the time that the base has been here. Taimen was more or less just talking to himself as they entered the ship. He really was not expecting an answer, but got one anyway.

You’re forgetting the primary rule of a federation crew member on leave, leave the area. There would be no reason for them to come here to explore while they were on leave or at any other time. Sydny said this in all finality, and no one disputed it because they all knew she spoke correctly.

Their voices trailed off as the lift rose, and they all adjourned to the sythesizer room for the beginning of the celebration. They would catch up on the news during the party. Later they would rest, and in the morning would begin a long period of setting up a new shipyard. There would be plenty to do. They would need to hire a crew, call in any markers, and everything that went with the making of a successful business adventure. It took a great deal of help over the next five years, but they would succeed. They succeeded more than any of them would ever have dreamed possible.

THE ARGUMENT

M any years later, the shipyard was finished and operating. The friends were now co-owners of Taisyd, the shipyard. Named after Taimen and Sydny because they grew up together, the corridors emptied after the day’s work. Now, the atmosphere is heating up within a living chamber.

The time was late. The restaurants and bars closed for over an hour ago. No alcoholic beverages were present in the bars as none existed, but the bars and gathering joints still kept to the traditional two a. m. closing. Only one was in the proximity of this corridor to hear or to know when the argument started, and no one could hear well enough to know for sure why the argument. If anyone had been, all they would have heard amounted to a man and a woman arguing with raised voices. No words carried through the walls, just enough to recognize a loud argument. The argument, long and heated, had no known beginning and no official ending.

The argument went on for a gruelingly long time before Sorgel arrived on the scene. Sorgel, a tall and slender man, who always walked with a lilt in his stride, seemed to have been born as a positive and vibrant man. He always saw a little good in all of the bad. Of dark complexion, Sorgel wore dark clothing because he it helped him look and feel his best. At least, he always said this if anyone asked. Today however, the lilt left his walk. Exhaustion erased it earlier today, because he worked close to thirty hours straight on the Minnow XX. He made an unsuccessful quest for a needed completion. He had not made it, and now he went to tell Taimen that the maiden voyage could not happen.

Now, Sorgel walked along the peaceful, mural encrusted corridor with its painted rainforest scenes. The sight of these always brought him a feeling of peace and contentment. With a heavy shuffle to his walk that got heavier and more tentative with each step, he walked the corridor. His steps were getting so small, that they brought him no nearer and the paintings brought him no comfort tonight.

Sorgel was not shocked when he heard the raised voices. He did feel a great deal of embarrassment. He also felt confused as to what he should do now, and if he should continue to go to their suite as he originally intended. Arguing and he did not get along at any time, and he liked it even less when it involved those around him. He did so want to deliver this message and then go on his own harmless way home.

Sorgel intended to find his way to bed after a tediously lengthy day at the shipyard. He always put in long hours when a vessel sat on the precipice of completion. Taimen left earlier because he was not feeling well. Presumably, he intended to go home to rest.

Now, Sorgel knew that the male voice was Taimen’s and that Taimen had not gotten the rest that he hoped for and deeply desired. The closer Sorgel got to the proximity of Taimen’s doorway, the surer he felt correct in his assumption. In fact, Sorgel began to feel doubt about the goal he had in coming here, and dread about the shrinking importance of this goal. His nerves were on edge and his skin began to crawl with the tingles he got when he was about to do something very wrong and still felt the compelling need to do it anyway.

After Taimen left work earlier, Sorgel found a malfunction in the drives of the Minnow XX, and now knew it would be a couple of days or even a week until it was rectified. They may even have to order a part, and that would back up the repairs to six or so months from now.

The bottom line, the Minnow XX would not be ready in the morning as planned, and that could be carved in stone. Because of this, Sorgel stood on Taimen’s doorstep to drop the bombshell. Taimen’s place was on the route to Sorgel’s. Sorgel felt like being a nice ‘guy’ and bringing the message in person when he left the Minnow XX. They used to call it co-dependent or something like that. Now, on the brink of telling Taimen about the change, Sorgel paused with the uncertainty of his next move. Because of the argument ensuing ahead of him behind closed doors, Sorgel vacillated only briefly with his face reddening at the thought of interrupting such a poignant consequence of a close relationship.

Sorgel felt certain about the subject matter of the argument. Sydny wanted to be bonded, and Taimen did not. He just wanted things to stay the same. Taimen grew comfortable with the co-business owner relationship, and Sydny wanted more. She was tired of the working relationship, and had come to love Taimen deeply. Sydny wanted everyone to know this, having confided these very sincere and personal questions to Sorgel one evening. Sydny being a very deep and true friend to Sorgel confided things to him often since then of the non-progress on this situation.

Shaking his head, Sorgel finally made his decision and walked away, leaving the doorway behind. He decided not to interrupt, and continued walking toward his own suite. There would definitely be plenty of time in the morning to break the hideous news. As Sorgel walked slowly away, he shook his head, and tried unsuccessfully not to listen to the barely audible fight that continued behind him, now. The pieces of voices followed him down the corridor on his journey away from the suite in question. Sorgel felt like a man without courage as he walked away, never had he been forced to make such a decision. People did need privacy to work out such things, but this was one time where the business suffered due to interpersonal issues. In the life of the company, this had never happened, and he intended to see to it that it never happened again.

SPACE

L ater that same night, Sydny remained up and pacing, unable to calm down. She was a slim, tall, blonde, and good-looking woman. She worked closely with all of those on the base, especially Taimen. She could not calm her anger. Taimen long since went to bed, and she remained awake and pacing, trying to calming down. Once again, nothing had been resolved, nothing ever was. Arguing with Taimen was so futile and she only managed to alienate Taimen. He was the other person who participated in the verbal altercation with her.

Arguing only seemed to vent pent up feelings and attempt to intimidate someone into doing her bidding. In so doing, Sydny usually got out of hand, and said many things she did not mean. She ended with yelling, at the top of her lungs capacity, the things that she did not mean. Arguing is not really communication in any way because both parties are so defensive that they are not really listening to the other person. Each person is so intent on what their next remark will be, most of which was already been said, in an older argument. They do not listen to the other side. Both parties’ minds are previously made up in arguments, and no one is really listening because everyone’s walls are up so high that no one can even see over them, and no one wants to.

Now, Sydny gave up on sleep for the night. This of course, meant that she was not calming down. In fact, Sydny’s attitude grew progressively worse. She got angry again and this sequentially increased during each second that went by. She had been up so long that a good meal would have helped this, but no one who suffers from insomnia ever thinks about eating as a possible solution.

Emotions escalated inside of Sydny because of the hunger, and they escalated even more when she did not sleep. Sydny was incapable of stopping her anger from escalating. If only she would eat some protein at times like this, and not just drink stimulant drinks that only dropped her blood sugar even lower and droving her temper even higher. She felt so angry by now, that she paced up and down, getting angrier by the second.

Finally, Sydny decided to take a walk to cool off, mistakenly thinking that she could bring her psychotically insane thinking under control on her own. Since she had never undressed for the night, Sydny turned and walked back across her living space and quietly said, Open, and waited. The door contained a voice recognition system. The system coded to her voice as well as Taimen’s. Immediately, the door swished open. It split in the middle, an electronic version of the receding doors developed in the early 1900’s on their planet of origin. This allowed for more living space.

The door slide open quickly and quietly like the parting of the red sea. When open, the door lay completely hidden within the walls on either side of the doorframe.

Sydny exited quickly and clapped her hands sharply once. Thus ordering the door to close and lock. The door slid closed as commanded and left only a seam in the wall to show there was a door. Sydny moved on down the corridor and heard a sharp clicking sound coming from behind when the lock secured the door to all those whom were not in possession of the code.

Not knowing or caring a hoot, it would be a long and dreadful time before Sydny would ever see this door again. Her attitude on life would change for the better, and her life would be on a new wavelength. Without a thought, the svelte, young woman walked down the corridor to face an uncertain destiny. She did not even see the murals because they shrank into oblivion in the darkness.

After walking for a long time, Sydny found herself at the shipyard. She only passed one security man before this, due primarily to the lateness of the hour. She had not smiled, or spoken. Probably, the black look on her face made him think better of trying to communicate with her. Sydny’s reputation for a labile mood once again preceded her, she thought dismally.

There was a second guard at the entrance to the shipyard, sitting at a terminal, probably playing an idiot’s game to pass the time. He looked up, recognized her. Jumping to his feet, a brief look of fear crossed his face. He probably felt worried about her catching him in the act of doing something besides his job.

Nodding briefly to the guard to allay his fears, Sydny walked quickly through the scanner and entered the yard. She could care less what he had been doing. The scanner not only scanned for weapons and explosives, but it identified the occupant by DNA. It told the viewer what the race, genetic type, sex, and many other extraneous things like mutations of the visitor were. Commonly, everyone jokingly said that Big Brother’s great-grandson knew their parents. This factitious remark referred to a nineteen hundred book about the changes in the world that existed at that time, and held equal validity to what the current universe deteriorated down into.

Being a co-owner, she proceeded through without stopping and in truth never stopped. She never stopped for any reason, and really did not need to go through the scanner. She and Taimen went through the scanners just as they required everyone else to do but did not need to. Their rules at the yard were obeyed, without question, because they also obeyed them. They did not give any exceptions or latitude about the rules to the visiting dignitaries, either. This policy made discipline a lot easier. The rules applied to everyone with no exceptions. This made it acceptable to everyone, and prevented hard feelings and stress on the job, a very important factor in a sensitive job like a space vessel construction yard. This fact was crucially important to a base in the desolation of space, where all the occupants lived cocooned in a closed environment. It made it easier to become like a family in a small one bathroom three bedroom home.

Turning to the left, Sydny walked over to the office and entered. This door, also voice recognition, and coded for Taimen, Sorgel, Rachael and Sydny’s voices to open it. They were the command crew, the owners, and the executives of the Palright Company currently homed at Taisyd. The company, so named because they were friends before the company began, and the company became extremely successful later. There were a couple of hard years and the first couple of dozen designs almost bankrupted them. Finally, they got a model that held up to the tests and the maiden voyage slid the company into a great success. They sold three hundred of those, so far. Sydny’s brain was moving so fast that these thoughts passed through her memory and out in only a flash. She could easily go over the edge of reality with the next complete thought.

The construction of the space yard had been complete long before they began making vessels here. Their vessels were constructed slightly differently than the shipyard construction. The doors of the shipyard slid only to the left, and were of an alien design. On the space vessels, the doors opened half to each side. The design saved space, really.

Sydny modified the design of the space yard doors, and guessed at much of the inner workings. Once, she disemboweled the guts of the wiring for the controls to a shipyard door, and was seventy-five percent unable to fathom the alien design. She learned enough though to design her own doors, and Taimen assisted with the security coding.

The exterior of the office wore a painting of a starscape in the form of a wraparound mural that encircled the building. If you stood just right when a ship launched, the walls of the shipyard would optically seem to disappear. The viewer would be unable to tell if the bay doors were open or closed. How Taimen ever accomplished it was somewhat of a mystery to everyone, but a great enjoyment for visiting dignitaries.

In contrast, Taimen opted to keep the rest of the bays plain, and all business. This choice brought a great relief to Sydny because his murals were so beautiful that she got lost in them frequently, and did not get much work done around them. The murals accomplished their desired effect, in other words. They provided the needed rest relief and lowered the stress of the personnel.

After entering the office building, Sydny went directly to the synthesizer and ordered up a hot cocoa synth. It was not the real thing because cocoa and chocolate were no longer available because it never successfully grew on any planet since Earth. This fact proved to be a great loss to Sydny’s way of thinking, and something that she had always meant to work on rectifying. She never really tasted it, but the references in her reading about the decadent taste told her to work for it. There were always a great many things that she wanted to accomplish, but could not quite find enough time in her calendar to do it. Money, no longer an issue, but time definitely had proven to be a big issue.

Going to her desk, Sydny sat down and reclined her chair back. Putting her feet up, she began sipping on the cocoa. Try as she might, she could not find the way to shut off her sleep and food deprived mind. Finally, the cocoa cup had an empty ring in it, but her brain still ran at a hundred miles an hour. No thought of food ever occurred to her with her mind in such a state, too bad because food probably would have helped.

Fine, I might as well go to work! Exasperated with herself, Sydny exploded this aloud to the empty room. She startled herself, sat up, and looked at her desk. It was really a terminal made to look