Abu Omar Ha'akeem

By D L Davies

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bookside Press
• Release date: Feb 8, 2024
• ISBN: 9781778832871

D L Davies

D L Davies is 3/4 Caucasian;1/4 American Indian, age 81 and holding; have quite a good memory; He actually remembers being inside his mother's womb as well as birth; not as a full-length movie but as a series of color snap-shots. Have always loved books; long before He could read. He loves to look at books and make-up stories to go along with the pictures. Once loved outdoors but the aging process has reduced that considerably. Have at least a dozen more stories in his head. Only time will tell if he gets them all told.

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Copyright © 2024 by D L Davies

ISBN: 978-1-77883-286-4 (Paperback)

978-1-77883-287-1 (E-book)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

The views expressed in this book are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter One

His name was Abu Omar Ha’akeem and he was 16 years of age. Or rather; in just a very few weeks he would be that old. As with most humans; when one is quite young, one wants desperately to be older, and when one gets older; one wants even more desperately to be young again. He was brown of eye and skin; his hair a shiny jet black with a natural wave throughout it, and his body, lean and muscular and getting taller; almost every other day it seemed.

At the moment he was walking across semi-arid terrain; habited by sand; rocks, brush, and little else; with a pack on his back holding his ebook and all that he would need in the way of clothing over the next few months; headed towards school. Just a few years earlier, before his legs caught up with his age, it was a two-day journey just to get to the town where the school was. Now; with the increase in years his legs were not only much longer, but also stronger, and he now covered more ground each hour than he once did in twice the time.

In the distant past, long before humans had arrived, a vast amount of water swept through here; washing away many thousand tons of dirt. Where the dirt went he did not know; perhaps he was walking on some of it. But the ground just to his right, or west of him as he was currently headed south, was what some call a Mesa. There are three of such; Mesas, Buttes, and Plateaus; with Mesa’s being the smallest; as much as five miles long; with Buttes up to ten miles and Plateaus stretching out as far as twenty miles or somewhat more. If there were anything much longer than this; he didn’t know what they were called. There was a V-shaped notch in the near side of this specific Mesa; a thing he always looked at and always thought to go and investigate as he, like most youth, was quite curious about the world around him. Maybe next time; he muttered to himself. He always said this as he passed this way; both coming and going.

The words were scarcely out of his mouth, when a sudden gust of wind caught him from behind, blowing his hat off his head: he grabbed at it spastically. It made no practical difference. The hat was made up of straw; had a broad brim and was liberally covered above with a layer of silvery-white paint. It was this hat and paint that helped block and deflect much of the direct bombastic rays of the sun away from baking his brains, as well as the rest of him, and provided the only shade his body had. In any case; cords attached to the hat were carefully looped around his neck and the hat wasn’t going anywhere. That never kept him from reacting anyway.

He stopped his forward motion and pivoting on the balls of his feet; looked behind him. The news was not good. Well beyond him, in an area he had trod perhaps two hours earlier, there was a broad black band across the horizon; and above it were the unmistakable swirls of a massive sandstorm . . . and it was coming right at him.

Sandstorms exist in three general sizes. The smaller, range from individual ‘dust devils’, up to perhaps a mile or so across. These are the most common and he faced such nearly every day to one degree or another. The next size could cover some miles and was more than just a bother. But the one he now saw was neither of these. This one was one of the giants that seem to pop up whenever they were least wanted; and in a time and place when they were the most dangerous. Like right now. He turned towards the V-notch and picked up his pace and then increased it again. He wasn’t quite running; the uneven terrain made that a very bad idea unless the need was imperative. From a quick glance over his right shoulder; this just might be one of those times. He moved faster.

As he slipped through the gap he glanced once more in the direction of the sand storm; in those few brief minutes it seemed to have covered perhaps half the distance to him. This meant the swirling winds were at least sixty miles per hour and potentially much greater; this was bad on so very many levels. As he moved through the notch his eyes raked it, both sides, out of curiosity as well as looking for anything remotely resembling a hole he could climb into to wait out the storm. Such storms are very dry, and the winds can easily suck all of the moisture out of a living animal in an exceedingly short time, leaving a shriveled corpse behind that eroding sands will quickly blast down to bare bones; given the slightest chance.

He glanced around as he hurried though; the lay of the surrounding notch looked to be natural in every way but the ground he raced over somehow looked to have been, not so much man-made, but at least cleaned up by human hand . . . but not recently. As he glanced about his roving eyes met an unexpected sight: massive doors set into a rock wall and it was no more than a few hundred feet ahead of him: he moved even faster.

Then he was there. The doors looked to be nearly seven feet high and well over eight feet wide and there were two of them mounted on enormous rails with an equally huge lock holding the pair together. He raced up to the door and tried to open it; but it was locked tight. He banged on the doors with the base of his fists; frantic in his need. Let me in; he yelled at the locked doors; let me in; there’s a sand storm coming . . . and it’s already here!

There’s no one there, a male voice announced, coming from his left: he immediately swung around. There was no one there. Over here; more to your left and further out; the same calm voice continued. He looked around frantically; but there was still no one there.

Where, ‘over here,’? he bellowed in growing alarm.

Right in front of you; the voice announced. Again; the speaker seemed to be on his left side. He started to turn that way; then realized that the voice wasn’t coming from the air around him but from the small electronic com-unit stuck into his left ear.

Exactly where, ‘right in front of me,’ he managed to ask as politely as he was able. Turn slightly more to your right and look straight out; do you see two rectangular objects; boxes of sorts? He automatically nodded his head. Good. Now then; look just past them. Do you see a very large, dark, silver-grey object?

Yes I do, he began to say, then did a magnificent double-take. OhmiGod; I do see you! That is you; right? If that is you; then I know exactly what you are; you are a Gun Ship; a GS 409, in fact, and you are an AIU; an Artificial Intelligence Unit.

You have just won ten silver dollars; would you like to try for twenty? the same calm voice continued blandly.

Not specifically; no. I’ll trade it all for a place out of the weather, as the leading edge of a sandstorm has arrived, and if this is only the leading edge; I most definitely don’t want to be out in the open when the main attraction gets here.

Understood; the voice replied. He followed instructions and rounded the great ship. The craft looked vaguely like a giant manta ray; wide, slender wings stuck out above a somewhat thicker body; it looked to tower somewhat less than twelve feet above the desert ground and the wings were farther apart from tip to tip than it was long from blunt nose to somewhat pointed tail. By now the storm had arrived, or was well into arriving, and his ability to see distant objects was diminishing by the moment. He continued around; skirting the front of the behemoth. As he cleared the prow of the ship, he saw a section of fuselage, below the wing, extend and swing down; revealing steps set into the inner arc. No more than a very few heartbeats more and he slipped into the side of the ship and the section quietly lifted up and closed behind him, and in that moment, the howl of the mounting storm faded into nothing.

Thank you; a thousand blessings upon you; may God always look over you and protect you and keep you safe . . . or Allah; whichever you prefer.

You believe in a Creator God; then? the voice asked politely.

Let’s just say I do not believe in Evolution and let it go. There is nothing in Evolution that remotely explains where matter comes from. Also; humanity has now learned enough to understand that as near as we can tell; space is truly infinite. Add to that an infinite number of galaxies; much less worlds: try and explain that with a ‘Big Bang.’ From what I can see and think; it is easier to believe in an Infinite God than to believe all of this happened just by chance. What of you, what do you believe, what do you think?

"I’m not convinced that I think. I am a construct; one that processes raw data to arrive at a conclusion as to what that data means. I do know that back on Old Earth; primitive man believed that the Earth was flat, and if one went too far, one would fall off into the abyss; never to be seen again. It was also believed that the Earth was the center of the Universe and that the entire Universe revolved around it. This, at least, was logical as Man did not yet know that the Sun and stars did not circle Earth; but that the planet spins on its axis; making it appear that all things circled the world. For centuries, if not more, many theories were postulated to explain things.

"By the time the Hubble telescope was launched and put into place, people had long since understood the mechanics, that the Earth circled the Sun; and had even postulated that space was far bigger than thought. The truth of the matter is: apparently; space is infinite, and logically, what could be beyond it if not more space? And therefore; more galaxies; suns, planets, moons; and the like. I do know that in the process of time; Man discovered that the Sun was much further away from the Earth than they supposed, and that if the two were placed side by side, the Earth would be no more than a small pebble next to a large beach ball. The Hubble, in time, taught them that there are other orbs; both suns and planets, that are so huge that if the Sun were placed next to them, it would be the Sun that would be the small pebble.

Further; I know for a fact that I was placed here just over nineteen years ago by a human; I was told to wait here and a man would come and ‘water’ me. I have waited ever since, I and my kind, and no men have ever come. We now believe that the entire was just a lie and that we’ve been abandoned. We all are slowly dying; or as close to dying as a construct can come. Unless you, or one of your kind, come along and take care of us; we five will, in the not-too-distant future, become lifeless constructs and be no more.

Abu stared around him in growing horror: You were abandoned here nineteen years ago? he demanded; aghast. You’ve been sitting here ever since? And where are the others you spoke of? I came up here not long since and I know for a fact that you are the only one here. At least; the only one I saw.

Much of our maintenance power comes from visible and non-visible light from the Sun; but not enough to fully sustain us. Water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen. Because we use water as fuel; we were put in five widely separated spots to lessen the draw on the water supplies. While we are nowhere near each other; we’ve been able to keep in contact with our communications equipment. I’ve been able to keep in contact with three of my kind, and all three assure me that they have not been cared for either. The fourth and last I’ve not been able to contact for nearly a month and I and the others fear that it has closed down and is potentially no more. And each of us believes that is what will become of us in the not-so-distant future.

NOT WHILE I LIVE! he bellowed at the top of his lungs in fury. Then, in a more reasonable frame of mind and voice, added; This man you spoke of; his name isn’t Clarence Coldwater; by chance?

Yes; the AIU quietly admitted, then added, but how did you know?

It just figures. Mr. Coldwater is about the richest; most powerful, corrupt, and evil person on this planet; and it just sounds like something he would do. I have an Uncle T’noose; or rather, had an Uncle, who had some property that Mr. Coldwater wanted. The man offered my Uncle an amount that wasn’t enough to be a bad joke; it was a total insult and my Uncle turned him down; cold. The next thing anyone knew, my Uncle died under mysterious circumstances, and Mr. Coldwater showed up with some papers with my Uncle’s name on them. He seized the property; claiming my Uncle owed him this amount of money. My Uncle never mentioned having met the man; my Aunt knew nothing about it, nor did any of their kids, nor anyone else. But Mr. Coldrwater got his grubby hands on it and not long afterward; sold it to someone who did want it - for a very tidy profit. This is only just one of many things Mr. Coldwater has gotten his dirty hands in. All of this, by the way, started up not long after the aliens attacked this planet and you five ultimately managed to drive them off. But not until after a number of our citizens were seized and taken away; to become slaves . . . or far worse.

Yes; the AIU injected; after the enemy were driven off; your people did post-mortems on some of the remaining bodies. One of the things that were discovered was the fact that their teeth are patterned more closely to that of a carnivore, and much less like an omnivore, as are human’s.

Which brings us full circle; you stated that Mr. Coldwater told you a man would come and give you water. Storm or not; I would very much like to be that man. Please; just tell me what needs to be done and I will do it to the best of my ability.

Things got very busy for a while. It was an established fact that a massive sandstorm was laying waste to the countryside, but the ship had a protective suit of sorts within, and with very little adjustment it fit Abu well enough. The main storm was raging outside; but the mesa and things inside it slowed and diverted the thrust of the storm to the point where Abu could go outside with his head; face, arms, hands and upper body fully protected by the upper half of a HazMat suit. He learned that the two odd-looking boxes both held water hoses; the smaller box held what could be thought of as a garden-variety hose and the larger box held what could easily be a smaller fire hose. With the AIU on the inside, telling him exactly what to do, and when - he soon had water flowing into the ship. True; it was the garden-sized hose, and also true, it would take much longer to fill the ship’s tanks. Then again; this storm was a monster and everything they could determine showed that it might be days, rather than hours, before it went its merry way.

Abu got the hose properly attached and turned on; then lacking anything else constructive to do; he went back in where things were far quieter and safer. He got inside, and with the help of some very clever mechanical hands, got the suit off of him and back into its proper place. He ran his fingers through his sleek black hair and then shook his head vigorously. Man; that is one bodacious storm out there. It’s too bad the satellites went out; I’d love to see this one on the screen.

There’s nothing wrong with the satellites, the gunship blandly informed him, and if you want to see the storm; simply turn around to where the screen is." He promptly did so. For just a flicker of time; all he saw was a blank wall. Almost in the same instant, lights came on and before him a planet hung, a view that was so clear that it seemed they were floating in space, looking through a very large; somewhat rectangular-shaped hole in the wall. Spread across a small section of the nearby planet was a smallish brown/tan/black mass swirling slowly around counter-clockwise, as it imperceptibly crept its way across the face of the planet, progressively moving from north by northwest to south by southeast. He stood, as in thrall, and stared at the magnificent scene playing out before him. After some long moments of gazing at the picture; he turned towards the nearest wall with speakers set into it.

Exactly how is it you can access this scene when no one else can? he asked politely.

I’ve no idea; the gunship softly replied. This has been up for most of the past two hundred years; almost ever since man first landed on this planet and began to terraform it into a habitable world. As you likely already know; your forefathers spotted this world at some thousand light years from Earth. Everything their sensors showed; indicated that it was habitable and likely uninhabited. Your forefathers, and we who are gunships, among others; located a wormhole and jumped the entire thousand light years in a blink of an eye. It took several years of space travel to reach the wormhole and nearly that much again to get here. The satellites were among the first objects installed. They were, and are, state of the art when put into place and have a minimum life expectancy of over a thousand years. I can assure you that they still function properly. Tell me if you can; do you know what codes are being used to access them? Abu promptly rattled the codes off; specifically; the main code that was supposed to put one directly into contact with the satellite and get an immediate response. Gus paused; as if in thought.

I see your problem; it said; then proceeded to explain it all to Abu, starting with the basics, and ending up with the final explanation. When it was done; Abu understood perfectly. He sat, head down, staring at the floor between his feet. He raised his head and once again looked at the slowly shifting scene on the wall.

"It is such a simple thing, actually, and such a human error at that. And to think that we could have had this service all this time. Trying to look at the bright side of things; had I - and we - known about this in advance, and had been able to see this all along, I very