Thinking about the Andromeda, Gerry wasn’t sure what relevance the ship had, now. After all, she was well past her sell-by-date, and useless against any of their Naval ships.
Now that preparations for full activation of the Station had been completed. Gerry, along with the other two crew members, had little to do and plenty of time to waste while waiting for the Lexington to pick them up, in exactly six days, thirty-two minutes time.
So, the three of them, trying to reduce the boredom, had spent a considerable amount of their spare time studying an anomaly on the local star system’s planet, HD 212771b.
Up until now, Gerry had had to fight the urge to visit the planet. But now, he needed to go if only to satisfy himself that the anomaly was explainable, rather than it being a threat in the distant future.
Gerry started thinking about the future. After the Garoden war, it had been common knowledge that there had been people from the future who had altered critical moments in time, to supposedly protect the human time-line.
But, Gerry was skeptical about this. He pondered on this for a time, then gave up realizing how fed up he was with nothing much to do.
“It’s boring, boring, boring,” Gerry muttered to himself.
“What’s the matter with you, Gerry?” Bruce asked.
“Nothing much,” Gerry absently replied.
“Okay. So, are you going to try to talk Abby around when we get back to Earth?” Mark then asked.
“No. Abby and I are over,” Gerry matter-of-factly stated.
“You can’t give up on your girl, just like that,” Bruce exclaimed.
“It’s not me who's given up,” Gerry replied, feeling hurt that they both thought he was unreasonable.
“Bin-it. Abby doesn’t want a part-time lover anyway.”
Gerry sighed. He could sympathize with Abby’s view on their relationship. Even though he had been the youngest pilot to come out of Earth’s elite pilot training center, at eighteen years of age. And, had won the medal of honor for his quick reaction in saving the damaged service vessel, Caspian, during the last few days of the Garoden war. With him being anything up to six months away at a time, it was a lot to ask of Abby.
“Why don’t you take the Runabout and check that anomaly while you can?” Bruce urged.
“Maybe I will. Do either of you two want to join me?”
“No. We’ll hold the fort,” Mark stated.
Gerry thought about going, as he ran his fluorescent green colored eyes over the other two crew members.
“Gerry, your eyes are getting scarier by the day,” Bruce nervously commented.
“Sorry. I have to admit your eyes seem more fluorescent than when we first docked at this station.”
However, Gerry knew why they had changed. The second injection of special cells was the reason his eyes were becoming more fluorescent with time.
“Okay. I will go,” Gerry stated, suddenly getting up from his seat. “See you both in two days’ time,” he said as he turned and left the central ops room heading for number three airlock and the entry link to the FTL Runabout.
Once aboard the Runabout, he was greeted by the ship’s AI interface-globe which was floating close to the airlock.
“Welcome aboard sir.”
“Download the data update on 212771b. Especially concerning the anomaly we recently studied,” Gerry said, directing his order at the interface-globe, as he headed for the cockpit.
“Yes, sir.”
The Runabout’s mobile AI was a Space Navy standard 45cm blue-colored interface-globe, that was issued throughout most space-faring ships. Whereas, the Runabout’s real AI was located safely within the vessel and had access to a vast amount of information on which to base its recommendations and actions.
The AI interface received the technical updates before Gerry had secured himself in one of the seven anti-inertia seats.
“I assume we are heading directly for the planet, and its anomaly listed as 771 bg0, sir.”
“Correct,” Gerry confirmed. “Time to target?”
“Three hours, eleven minutes from jump time.”
“Very well. I’ll give you the signal to Jump as soon as I’ve called my colleagues.”
“Yes, sir.”
Gerry quickly contacted Mark and Bruce. “Are you still OK for go, chaps?”
“No Gerry, just go,” Bruce urged. “We aren’t going anywhere soon.”
“Then I’ll see you in two days’ time.”
“Just go.” Mark almost shouted out.
With that, Gerry closed the contact and signaled ok to his AI and was almost immediately greeted with the usual jerking sensation as the Runabout released its mooring, and her Skipper drive moved the ship away from the Monitor Station, ready to jump. Gerry then sensed the ship’s computers going into overdrive, as they calculated the target’s predictive location and the Jump time for warp exit.
Gerry had seen the Monitor Station from this viewpoint many times before. But, he suddenly had a bad feeling about this trip and wondered if this would be the last time he’d see this monitoring station.
A chime sounded as the Runabout’s maneuvering thrusters aligned with the anomaly’s predicted location. Then Gerry felt the usual tingling in his mind as he sensed the Runabout initiating a warp field.
As the ship suddenly surged forward, Gerry saw the familiar elongating of his surroundings, followed by the yanking sensation that made him feel as if his stomach had been left behind.
Now, he was committed. Whether he liked it or not.
Three hours, eleven minutes later, the Runabout exited warp, three light minutes out from the planet and its anomaly designated 771 bg0.
Gerry quickly recovered from the usual feeling of his body trying to catch up when exiting a wormhole. And concentrated his attention on the Runabout’s information display that was rapidly updating with new data and optical imagery from the ship’s sensor grids.
The vessel started to move closer to the planet while gathering a mass of data as it did so. Then it came to a halt at its pre-jump target point.
“Something’s not right,” Gerry muttered to himself, as he felt two conflicting thoughts going through his mind.
One. He wasn’t welcome here.
The other. He was late.
“The only variant here is that the planet’s original composition does not tally with the registered elements such as oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, magnesium, and iron,” the AI stated, jerking him back to reality.
“So, I see. Send a complete data analysis to MV210, and swing us around to the blind side,” Gerry ordered. Then the vessel’s skipper drive engaged again, moving the Runabout towards the dark side of the planet.
“The data suggests there are two ships,” the AI matter-of-factly stated.
Gerry could see glints of something shiny on the planet’s surface in the area where his AI suggested there could be two ships. But neither seemed like ships, to him.
Within seconds, the Runabout’s curving course brought the two metallic structures into full view, enabling the ship’s optics to rapidly expand the structures to fill Gerry’s primary display.
“What are they?” Gerry snapped at the AI.
“No match in my databank.”
“Geeze,” Gerry muttered as their physical size and data started scrolling down the right side of his display.
The two enormous structures could now clearly be seen to be ships that were cylindrical in shape and silver in color. Gerry studied the cylindrical vessels showing on his screen and noted that they each had what appeared to be four cup-like fusion drive units, mounted on a steerable Gimbal system at one end of the ship.
“I’m sure I heard something about ships like these being mentioned at a meeting I attended some years ago on Crilla,” Gerry said. Then thought about it for a while.
“Yes, the Solveron, Savron, told us that the Crillons had destroyed ships like these and that they had belonged to a dying race called the Varons.”
&nb
sp; “I have no record of that sir,” the AI replied.
Gerry didn’t respond. He knew that a Runabout wouldn’t have needed this type of data stored in its memory banks.
“Anyway, I remember seeing, and reading, Savron’s report about the Crillons attack on the Varon race, it was downloaded to all the ships in the area,” Gerry stated. “So, according to the Solverons, there should also be seven smaller ships,” he added. But, he couldn’t see any other ships in the area.
“Sentient beings,” the AI suggested, aiming to sound confident.
“I would think so,” Gerry replied.
“It’s strange though, sir. Both ships are empty shells. Just, derelicts,” his AI said.
“And, although the drives appear to register as fusion, they must be more advanced than I would expect them to be,” the AI speculated. Then, realizing that without physically entering the ships, there was little more to be gained, for now, the AI switched its attention back to the planet.
“My sensor grid indicates a large structure just beneath the surface,” the AI then stated.
Gerry studied the new images of the planet that had been relayed to his display by the ship’s AI. Sure enough, he could see that a large shape had registered as a heat source during their infra-red scan.
Gerry wasn’t sure what the structure was but, knowing he needed to check it out, decided to give the Runabout a safety order.
“Initiate a 48 ship-hour return to station…. Whether I’m on board, or not.”
“Are you sure, sir?”
“Yes. Take us down, and we’ll find out what it is,” Gerry ordered.
Then, as their ship turned and commenced its downward plunge towards the surface targets, Gerry suddenly felt as if something, or someone, was searching his mind.
‘You must leave this place,’ the mental voice invading his mind, ordered.
Gerry then became conscious that his special cells were copying vital recovery data into his mental Bolt-hole. While a stealth-memory membrane formed to prevent any other mental-probe detecting Gerry’s now protected bolt-hole.
Thinking about it, Gerry realized that he had sensed the being sifting through his mind a few seconds earlier. And, that not only had it been able to locate his language memory cells, but it had also assembled enough of the cells to be able to communicate with him.
‘I wish to survey this area,’ Gerry mentally sent back.
‘I am Tamar, one of the Varon High-Seers. You will leave now.’
‘As I indicated, I wish to survey this area,’ Gerry mentally repeated.
Then, Gerry suddenly found himself shaking, while it felt as if his mind was shredding.
Then, only blackness filled his mind.
Chapter 4
Information
Stardate, 2330
Location: Earth. Space Navy Central Intelligence and Tactical HQ.
Frank Richardson was in Admiral Hartington’s office and studying his copy of the Invincible’s security AI’s request for assistance for the advanced heavy cruiser. Including the AI’s detailed report on what had happened to Commodore Jack Earhart and his accompanying Cruisers, Victor and Excalibur.
He noted that the word, Trexis, was linked to this new threat, and mentally broadcast this information to his wife Susanna and his children Alex and Carina, to get their take on the situation.
Before the Garoden war ended, Frank and Susanna had had special cells automatically added to their DNA, courtesy of Charlotte. These cells gave them mental abilities that had also been passed on to all three of their children. Over the following sixteen years, the family continued receiving cell injections, except Carina’s twin Helen who had decided not to have more when she reached the age of seven. At the time, both Frank and Susanna had respected Helen’s wishes, knowing she had found it hard to adjust to an unnatural way of life.
Two years ago, they had initiated an Enhance program for participating officers. With special brain enhancing cells being injected in the officers, in a move to provide protection from any actions that might be made against them by the rogue Time Operator Charlotte, who was pursuing her dream of Galactic domination by her and her children.
Additionally, Alex and Carina, whose mental abilities now far surpassed Frank and Susanna’s, had created so-called automatic mental Bolt-holes in each participating officer’s brain.
In the event of war, these boltholes would then enable Alex and Carina to reconvert the officers who would have inevitably been taken over by the enemy.
Frank had also been pleased that, more recently, Helen had decided to take an active role in the Enhance program and had since been given a series of brain-cell injections, to eventually enable her to catch-up mentally with her siblings.
Although Frank wasn’t attached to the military, nevertheless all the officers respected his views and his children’s contribution in helping to protect them.
Admiral Nick Hartington waited impatiently for Frank to digest the urgent communique.
“Well, Frank. Do we divert the Lexington to assist?”
Although Frank had come to like and respect Nick Hartington and thought he was an incredibly realistic, and intuitive man. Nevertheless, he had decided that this, six-foot tall, slightly arrogant and scruffy looking Admiral could wait while he mentally communicated with his family.
“Give me a few moments,” Frank replied, then concentrated his mental powers.
‘Sues, are we all sure that this is to do with Charlotte?’ Frank sent. Susanna looked at her children, then let Alex reply.
‘Yes, father,’ Alex sent back. ‘We don’t know any other species that would be able to control another mind. Except some of the Temporal minders, of course.’
‘Agreed,’ Carina added. ‘Charlotte’s capabilities are ostensibly the same level as yours, father. But, if her children are like us….’ she sent, letting that comment hang for a moment. ‘Then, dispatching the Lexington would be too risky.’
‘I agree with Carina, father,’ Alex mentally transmitted. ‘Charlotte’s children must be about sixteen years old now, and we still don’t know their full capabilities.’
‘Agreed. We must wait for Charlotte to show more of her hand before we can act,’ Carina added.
‘Then, we are all in agreement, Frank,’ Susanna confirmed and ended the mental link.
“No, Nick. That’s my answer,” Frank firmly told the Admiral. “The Lexington must not fall into Charlotte's hands.”
“Very well, Frank,” Nick reluctantly agreed.
However, Frank could see that Nick was worried. “Spit it out, Nick.”
“We can’t afford to lose ships like the Invincible.”
“I know. But sending the Lexington would create a serious problem if the crew ended up under the control of Charlotte’s children. There would be too many minds for us to reconvert.”
“I get that, Frank. But these cells of yours are doing wonders, why not expand their use more?”
“Don’t worry, Nick. We’ll be doing that soon enough.”
“Yea. But when?”
“My guess would be very soon,” Frank replied. “But we need to look at the long-term, Nick,” he cautioned.
“A mistake now could be catastrophic,” Frank added.
Chapter 5
My Keeper
Gerry’s mind pushed against the blackness that surrounded it. Slowly, the darkness dissipated and once Gerry had regained full consciousness, the feeling that his mind had been shredded evaporated.
After a few seconds, Gerry’s cognitive senses were fully functional, and he realized that he was no longer in the Runabout, but on the surface of the planet and still wearing the same loose-fitting clothes.
This startled him, knowing he wasn’t wearing a survival suit, and he involuntarily gagged for air before realizing there was air in abundance, and he could breathe naturally.
Gerry then surveyed his surroundings and saw that he was within a protected sphere, so was safe for the moment. However, h
e could just see the sphere’s outer edge shimmering about a meter out. Which meant the atmosphere on this planet must be insufficient to support life.
I must be in a ‘Forcefield,’ he thought and felt relieved even though he couldn’t locate a force-field emitter on him.
Gerry looked around and saw that the local area was flat and gray looking. To his far left, however, he could see the terrain was rockier.
Then, a flickering blue light in the distance caught his eye.
“No-no,” he yelled in panic, realizing that it had to be his Runabout taking off.
Horrified, he watched as the point of light rose high in the sky, then suddenly vanished.
Ominously, there was no clap of thunder, that would usually have been expected when the atmosphere rushed in to fill the Runabout’s exit void.
“Tamar,” he angrily shouted. But there was no answer.
Gerry gradually calmed himself, then started to think this situation through, logically.
The Runabout had been programmed to return to the monitor station after two days…. So, had two days passed in the blink of an eye? Or had there been a time-shift? I certainly wouldn’t have known if there was when I blacked out, he decided.
Then he considered the other questions, like why, who, and how.
Gerry suddenly felt his protective sphere start to move.
Galactic War Page 3
