The Gauloi

by Donald B McFarlane

  “I’ve been looking at the monitors that are showing the exterior of the hull. They’ve been on a loop, and in the time we’ve sat here, whatever is coating the ship lodged into J-Hold has grown.”

  Zaka sprung up from her chair and moved closer to the monitors. “What do you mean?”

  Inkana pointed at the screen. “I mean whatever is covering that thing is spreading to this ship. In J-Hold.”

  Runo bit her bottom lip and waited for the image to cycle through to the J-Hold image, and when it did, she could see just the faintest hints of growth along the hull of the Gauloi. Whatever it was, it was on her ship now.

  When the three groups returned to Deck 3, the information gathered was mixed.

  “Well,” Prub rubbed his chin. “It looks like there isn’t anything wrong with the jump drives, they’re just out of fuel.”

  “What about the engines?” Zaka asked.

  “The engines look like they’re cooked.” Oto replied.

  “Cooked?” Zaka asked, a confused look on her face.

  Oto rubbed his brow. “My guess,” he looked at Prub, “After looking at the internal workings, is that they’ve been running so long, that they burned out.”

  “So, we’re stuck here?” Dupina asked.

  “It means that the engines are no longer serviceable.” Prub answered.

  “Which doesn’t mean we can’t move.” Oto followed. “The ship can still move using the manoeuvring thrusters.”

  “If they’re still operational.” Prub added. “And any flight with them will be slow and short-range.”

  “Where would we go?” Blinji asked.

  “There is an inhabitable planet.” Runo said. “About half a million K away.”

  “Could we get there on manoeuvring thrusters?” Dupina asked, looked at Oto and Prub.

  “In theory, yes.” Prub replied. “But it will take a considerable amount of time.”

  “The issue wouldn’t be getting to this planet with the manoeuvring thrusters.” Oto added. “Landing would be the tricky part.”

  “Before we worry about landing.” Runo pointed at Dupina. “What’s the score on life-support?”

  Dupina smiled. “Life-support is operational.” She looked at Blinji. “Wouldn’t you say?”

  “Sure.” The miner nodded. “Everything looks good. In the primary section of the ship, the filters look capable of supporting a large group indefinitely.”

  “Water systems?” Runo asked.

  “Also good.” Dupina replied.

  “Where does that leave us?” Zaka demanded, her hands on her hips.

  “Well,” Runo paused and considered her reply. “It would appear that we’re in decent shape.” She looked at the other faces. “But we might have a more pressing concern.” She looked at Inkana. “Our friend here noticed that there appears to be some kind of growth on the hull of the ship lodged in the side of J deck.”

  “Growth?”

  “A vine.” Inkana said. “It reminds me of an Ary Vine from Mella II.”

  “Since when did the hooker become an expert on plant-life?” Zaka asked.

  “Shut up.” Runo said. “I know what you mean. I saw it too.”

  “Okay.” Prub said. “So, let’s say that something is growing on the exterior of the hull, how does that affect us?”

  Runo considered the question before answering. “If the growth was all over the ship lodged in J-Hold, there is a chance that the growth is on the inside of this ship.” She looked at Inkana. “And that might have already started.”

  “How can anything grow in a vacuum?” Dupina asked.

  “Perhaps the growth on the ship started when that ship was on some planet, they broke orbit, and the vines went inert.” Oto replied.

  “And now they’re coming back to life.” Blinji said.

  “And?” Zaka asked. “What are the risks.”

  “The risks?” Runo asked back, a shocked look on her face. “That means there would be some kind of contaminant on the inside of the ship.”

  “Could that be behind the failures in the stasis pods?” Blinji asked.

  “I doubt it.” Runo replied. “My money would be on failure due to age. Nothing more sinister than that.”

  “You think we’ve really been out here almost two-hundred years?” Prub asked, shaking his head.

  “I don’t know what to believe.” Runo replied. “The AI is telling me that we’re well past the Reach in an unknown system, and I can’t get the rest of the crew out of stasis.” She looked at the deck. “Bloody safety features.”

  “So, what do you propose?” Dupina asked.

  Runo looked at the hatch for J-Hold. “We need to go in there and find out what the status of the deck is.” She took two steps towards the hatch. “The entire deck.”

  “Yeah.” Prub said. “If all signs lead to a foreign containment affecting our position concerning that planet, it’s got to be something to do with that object lodged in our side.

  “Then what is screwing up life support and jump drives?” Oto asked.

  “Wear and tear.” Runo replied. “It lends credence to the amount of time the computer says we’ve been out here.”

  “So, the ship lodged in the side of the hull has nothing to do with the systems failures on this ship?” Dupina asked.

  “But it’s the reason we’re being dragged towards that planet.” Blinji said.

  “I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves there.” Prub said. “Let’s have a look at J-Hold and assess.”

  It didn’t take long for Runo, Prub, Oto, Blinji and Dupina to get kitted up in the available Haz-Mat suits for their exploration of J-Hold. Zaka and Inkana made their way to the bridge, to keep an eye on the rest of the ship’s functions and a look-out in the event that the Gauloi had company or if the vessel drifted too close to the ringed-planet.

  Standing in front of the J-Hold hatch, Runo gave everyone a final kit check and confirmed that communications with the bridge were working. Everyone in the party had been armed with a tool or some other implement to defend themselves from what, they weren’t sure, but there was a suspicion that something dangerous lurked on the other side of the hatch.

  “Here we go.” Runo said.

  The hatch slid up and out of the way to reveal an almost wholly black J-Hold. Moving inside the cargo chamber first, Runo activated the lighting system and watched the floor and ceiling mounted lighting come on the entire length of the deck, seventy metres to where the unknown object was jammed in the side of the hull.

  Checking the area around the entrance, she counted seven bodies, all in various states of decay.

  “How many stasis pods are on this deck?” Blinji asked.

  “Over eight-hundred.”

  “There is good pressure in the space.” Dupina reported. “You don’t normally get tight seals around impact points like that.”

  “The vegetation you saw could have sealed the hull.” Oto said. “Not instantly, but maybe over time.”

  Runo looked at the dead bodies. “They don’t look like they were killed because of exposure to a vacuum.”

  “Then, the impact and the failure of the stasis pods aren’t connected.” Prub said.

  “What kind of vegetation grows in space?” Blinji asked. “I don’t know of any.”

  “Nobody is saying it grows in space.” Dupina answered. “But maybe once the breach was sealed, it started growing again.”

  “We’ll find out as soon as we get down there. Just keep an eye out for anyone else out of stasis.” Runo instructed.

  “The blue glow is stronger.” Prub pointed towards the rear of the hold. “When I awoke, it wasn’t that bright.”

  “Any guesses?” Dupina asked. “Toxic gas?”

  “Whatever it is, it’s not moving far from the end of the hold.” Runo noted.

  “Let’s get this over with.” Blinji suggested.

  J-Hold was one hundred metres long, and twenty metres wide, just like all the other decks stretching away fr
om the rear of the ship. The stasis pods, all eight-hundred plus of them were aligned left, leaving a large walkway on the right-hand side of the compartment.

  Sticking as far to the right as possible, Runo led the pack, her eyes focused on the object that had somehow wedged itself into the side of the hull most of the way down the deck. The closer she got, she started to get the fainted sense that she recognised the sensor suite sticking out of the side of the ship.

  “Does anyone else see the nodes sticking out of the side of that thing?” She asked.

  “Yes.” Prub answered.

  The group stopped, everyone looking at the cluster of sensors and antenna that Runo was illuminating with her torch.

  “It’s a Richter 75 system.” Prub said with confidence.

  “What kind of ships use those?” Oto asked.

  “Research ships.” Runo answered.

  “That is correct.” Prub seconded.

  “Are you certain?” Dupina asked.

  “Yeah.” Runo answered. “It’s that rare.”

  “So, what does that tell us?” Blinji asked.

  “It tells us that whatever ship we’ve hit, we probably did it while we were still inside the boundaries of the Empire.” Prub said. “That ship is from within the known boundaries of the Empire.”

  “That’s assuming that that ship was inside the Empire when we hit it.” Runo corrected. “What if that ship was past the Reach when we hit it?”

  “I suppose that is a possibility.” Prub replied. “Either way, that’s an advanced ship, possibly with tech on board we can use to get us out of our predicament.”

  “How’s the air quality?” Oto asked as the group reached the half-way mark down the length of the deck.

  “Still breathable, but there are more foreign contaminants in the air.” Dupina reported. “The scanners can’t identify them.” She looked at the vines running along the side of the unknown ship. “It’s got to be coming from that ship.”

  “Let’s keep going.” Runo instructed.

  The closer the group got to the ship, the more detail they were able to see, albeit, most of the vessel was covered in what looked like vegetation, vines wrapping themselves all over the hull, and the whole area around the ship enveloped in a blue mist that hung in the air, refusing to move from the ship.

  “Got a hatch.” Blinji said. “We need to cut away some of these vines.”

  “Do it.” Runo suggested, and watched Oto and Blinji pull the greyish coloured vines away from the skin of the ship. The vegetation seemed to come off quickly, almost as if it were dead, turning to dust when it was torn away from the hull.

  When the hatch was finally cleared, Prub moved up and inspected the access panel. “Well, this ship is from our time.” He looked at Runo. “If we’ve really been out here for almost two hundred years.” He looked back at the pad. “And as such, it conforms to Imperial safety protocols.” He pulled a small silver leaver down and punched a green button that had become visible. “Which means that we should be able to.”

  The hatch jerked half a metre upwards, then groaned to a stop.

  “Excellent.” Prub righted himself and looked at the hatch.

  “Blinji, do you think you could give it a try?” Oto asked.

  The young miner smiled and sauntered up to the hatch, got down into a squatting position, his hands on the underside of the door, then pushed upwards with his legs, the hatch opening more, slowly. When his legs were fully extended, Blinji pushed upwards with his arms until the hatch reached its up and locked position.

  “Bravo.” Dupina said, patting her colleague on the back.

  Taking the lead, Runo slowly made her way into the ship, her torch illuminating the path ahead. They were in a lock-out room, but the inner door was open, covered in the same vines that were on the hull of the vessel.

  “We need to find the bridge, discover what happened.” Runo said, continuing to move forward, one step at a time.

  “What do you have?” Runo asked, looking over at Oto.

  The miner was hunched over the primary engineering control station on the bridge of the Kasvi. “No power. Either the power cells are dead, the fuel is expended, or something isn’t allowing bridge commands to get to engineering.” Oto stood up and shook his head.

  “The main computer is down.” Prub said. “Without an external power source, we’re not going to get this ship up.”

  “Here.” Runo pulled an emergency power-pack from her utility belt and handed it to Prub. “Place it anywhere on the surface, it should transfer power to the consul.”

  Prub took the rectangular object and placed it on top of the primary monitor. “Heavy.”

  Runo nodded. “We use them to power on units in the event they’re cut from main power.”

  I think it’s coming alive.” Blinji said, pointing at a faint green flicker on the monitor.

  “Would you excuse me?” Runo looked at Prub, and the older engineer moved out of the way. Positioning herself in front of the monitor, Runo waited for it to slowly come to life. When it did, a smile came onto her face. “We are on-line.” She said.

  The group watched as white coloured lettering started to populate the screen, the boot-up sequence. Everyone’s eyes tried to track what was happening, trying to make sure that they were nothing missed. Eventually, the screen changed to a light-blue background with a large seal in the middle that everyone easily recognised.

  IMPERIAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCE

  “Research vessel, alright.” Prub said.

  “Yep.” Oto confirmed. “Check the bottom of the crest.”

  Everyone’s eyes drifted downwards to the bottom of the triangular-shaped crest that had the mark HM Loistava.

  “This ship is from the Empire, and from the time when we were still inside its boundaries.” Dupina stated.

  “Looks that way.” Runo said dryly. When the options menu finally popped up, Runo started selected ship navigation logs, and started reading. “I want to know how this thing got lodged in the side of the Gauloi and where these weird vines came from.”

  It took some effort, owing to the different operating systems that the research vessel used, but Runo eventually found the answers she was looking for.

  “They were inside the Kalei nebula.” She reported. “They set down on one of the planets there, and after.” She squinted, looking at the data. “Three days on the surface, they broke orbit, and a day later collided with the Gauloi.”

  “You think they picked up these vines on the surface?” Dupina asked.

  Runo just shook her head and continued to look at the data on the screen. She knew enough about the nebula to know that you just passed through, never deviated off the shipping lanes. Whatever was inside the nebula was the unknown, and had clearly affected the research vessel.

  “Why would the crew have crashed into us?” Blinji asked.

  “The crew might have been incapacitated.” Prub replied.

  “Speaking of that.” Oto added.

  “Where is the crew?” Dupina finally asked.

  “Dead.” Prub said dryly. “They’re dead in three ways, one is vented, two is dead in stasis, or three is dead aft of us.”

  “What’s the crew complement on something like this?” Runo asked.

  “No idea.” Blinji responded. “Can’t be massive, this ship isn’t huge.”

  Runo nodded in agreement. “What’s the status on life support?”

  “The ship’s life support is off-line, like the rest of it, but since we’ve left the hatch to J deck open, the readings inside the ship are improving.” Oto answered. “Give it a few hours, and we’ll be able to remove our hazmat suits.”

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” Dupina said, pointing at a cluster of vegetation that was lining the ceiling of the bridge. “I don’t know what this crap is, but the scanners still detect unknown containments.”

  Blinji cut her off. “It’s dead.” He said. “Look at it. It’s been freezing in here, and without life-s
upport, no vegetation is going to survive.”

  “Then why is it growing on the hull?” Dupina asked.

  Blinji shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “Let’s explore the rest of the ship first, then regroup here.” Runo suggested.

  The group of five explorers left the bridge and followed a narrow corridor towards the rear of the ship. The passage was painted green from the floor to waist height, then yellow up to the ceiling. There were smudges of various colours on the walls, all looking like dried liquid, and a single vine of the vegetation running along the top of the hall with a few dead flowers hanging from them.

  When the group reached the next compartment, they found their first corpse, but only the bottom half of one.

  “What the hell?” Dupina asked.

  Runo didn’t say anything, she just stared at the severed pair of legs that were on the floor, still in their trousers and boots.

  “What could have caused these injuries?” Blinji asked, kneeling next to the limbs.

  “An axe.” Prub replied.

  “You think this person was killed by an axe?” Oto asked.

  Prub knelt next to Blinji and looked at the fleshy ends of the legs. “Maybe, maybe not, but these weren’t amputated by surgery, and the hatch to this room couldn’t have severed them.” He said.

  Runo looked around the space they were in, illuminated by the torches the five were carrying. Four hatches were leading off the room. One to the bridge, one towards the rear of the ship, and one port, one starboard.

  “Let’s check these rooms.” Runo suggested.

  “Okay.” Oto said. “I’m guessing Ship Master quarters.” He moved to the port-side hatch, checked the lock was disabled, then pushed inwards, his torch illuminating the room. “Fuck me.”

  “What?” Prub moved past the miner and into the room swiftly. “Fuck.”

  When everyone was inside, they understood the commotion. The Ship Master, or whom they assumed was the Ship Master was sat at a desk, absent his or her head.

  “What is going on here?” Dupina asked out loud.

  “Something went very wrong here.” Prub stated, his hands on his hips. “One pair of legs, that’s one thing, a decapitated body not far away, that is something you don’t see every day.”