Return From Omina

by Roland Starr

  “She wasn’t responding to our signals before we lost the use of the communications equipment!” Vonner tightened his lips. “I suspect, in view of the signal that Farrell picked up earlier, that she ran into some kind of trouble and is in a state of distress. But we’ll know more about that when we come up with her.”

  “Let’s hope her trouble isn’t similar to ours,” Curran said.

  Vonner went on his way then, moving around the entire ship, talking to heads of departments, checking on the situation. He felt buoyant and optimistic, and was aware that his mood came from the effects of the drug Doctor Morley had administered. He knew he had little cause to be optimistic. The ship was facing its greatest crisis since leaving Earth. The odds seemed to be against their safe return to their home planet, and he went on, trying to formulate some plan that would increase their chances of success against Ed Bardo.

  During the next hours there were no further alarms in the ship, and preparations for turning into orbit went ahead. Computer control handled the craft, and Vonner remained in the background with tautly stretched nerves while Commander Hanton acted as Duty Officer. During each passing moment Vonner was half expecting an alarm to sound, warning that one of the crew had spotted the mysterious figure of Ed Bardo prowling the corridors of the great ship intent upon causing more damage, but time passed inexorably, and then the ship was swinging in a vast curve, its speed reduced to enable it to find its parking orbit around the massive planet of Uralis Digis.

  Vonner found his mind inundated with problems, with questions that had no answer. That mystery ship already in orbit! What did its presence signify? Had it been sent out from Earth to back up Orion? If it had, why had he not been informed before the trip commenced? Then there was the question of the mysterious signal they had picked up! Since that scrappy information there had been complete silence, and no reply from the ship, which was still in orbit around the planet.

  Before attempting to eject Bardo from the ship, Vonner intended contacting the other ship, and when they had settled in orbit he gave orders for Orion to overhaul the stranger. They circled the planet for six hours, making half a dozen orbits, before the ship ahead of them was approached and could be seen on their scanners.

  “It is a Space Force craft!” Hanton reported, when Vonner arrived in the control room in response to a report that the ship had been sighted. “It’s the same type and model as Orion, Captain!”

  Vonner studied the smooth outlines of the star ship ahead. He recognised it immediately.

  “Hold this distance,” he ordered. “We don’t want to take our troubles to them. I think it would be better to launch a shuttle craft and make an approach in that. I’ll take Sergeant Nevin and a boarding party. There must be something wrong aboard the ship or we would have been challenged by now.”

  “Perhaps their communications are out of action, like ours,” Howie Farrell commented, and Vonner cast a sidelong glance at his Communications Officer.

  “Perhaps you’d better accompany us, Howie,” Vonner said.

  “I’d be glad to, Captain,” came the immediate reply. “There’s nothing I can do aboard this ship. I’m a man without a job!”

  Leaving Hanton to prepare a shuttle craft, Vonner went along to the sickbay to talk the situation over with Curran. He found the colonel on duty beside the immobiliser, and when he explained what he planned to do the colonel objected at once.

  “Captain, you can’t risk your life in such a situation. It is my duty to handle that chore.”

  “You think I would be safer aboard this ship?” Vonner smiled grimly. “No, Philo! You know what this is all about, and I want you here, at the most vital spot in the ship. I’ll take Sergeant Nevin with me, and a boarding party. We’ll maintain contact with Orion by visual aids. If we can get aboard that other ship we’ll find out what’s wrong.”

  “All right, Captain!” There was disappointment in Curran’s heavy tones. “I’ll instruct Nevin to gather a boarding party. They’d better be heavily armed, just in case. There must be something seriously wrong on that ship! I hope they haven’t found the same kind of trouble that we have!”

  “It’s possible, I suppose!” Vonner spoke slowly, and was aware that the same fear had been in the back of his mind for weeks. But he shrugged aside his thoughts and went to prepare to detach from the ship. Yet he knew in his heart that if they ever saw Earth again they would have to be endowed with a greater slice of good fortune than he could envisage…

  CHAPTER X

  Orion maintained its distant station behind the unknown ship ahead of them in Uralis Digis orbit and Vonner finally boarded a shuttle craft to find Sergeant Nevin and six security guards assembled there. The men were armed with lasers and disintegrators, and each carried a personal stun-gun. Sergeant Nevin reported their readiness, and Vonner sealed the hatch and sat down at the controls. He operated the airlock by remote control and the shuttle was eased out of its cradle by a gantry. When the craft was suspended outside the smooth exterior hull of the parent ship Vonner pressed the detach button and they were released, immediately easing away from the larger craft. They were travelling at Orion’s speed, and Vonner gave the shuttle some power to push it ahead, at the same time ruddering to port to clear the larger vessel.

  The shuttle craft was powerful, and its main drive soon had it gaining on the larger, unknown ship ahead. Checking his equipment, Vonner was surprised to find that his communicator was working, and he was exasperated by the thought that Farrell had not thought of using the shuttles aboard Orion to attempt to communicate with the stranger. The communicators aboard the shuttles were not powerful enough to transmit to Earth, but they had ample range to reach any ship within a few million miles.

  It took several hours to make an approach to the larger ship, and Vonner briefed the guards on what their actions should be when they finally boarded the strange ship. Farrell, sitting in the co-pilot’s seat, tried to raise the stranger on their communicator without success.

  “Are we going to be able to enter her, Captain?” Nevin demanded.

  “We’re going to manoeuvre around her before making any attempt to board,” Vonner replied. “I want to check her exterior for damage. When we do board we shall be using our space suit life support systems, just in case something went wrong with their systems. I have a feeling that the entire crew must be dead or out of action. This is obviously a Space Force ship, and the crew would not permit us to get this close without challenging us if there was no trouble.”

  “Supposing they have their deflector shields erected?” There was a tense note in Farrell’s tones.

  Vonner leaned forward and activated a panel. He motioned at it.

  “That’s a sensor probe,” he remarked. “It will warn us of any force fields before we run into them. Now watch that ship closely on the scanners as we move around her. Report any signs of exterior damage.”

  There was a bank of scanners on the bulkhead, and all eyes watched the glowing screens as the shuttle edged in towards the massive ship that dwarfed it. The stranger was long, sleek and shining, its polished hull reflecting light from the sun of the Urbana Constellation in which Uralis Digis was situated.

  “Call them again, Howie!” Vonner commanded. His narrowed eyes were staring at the scanners, studying the smooth hull of the vast ship on their port side.

  “This is a shuttle from Space Force Ship Orion!” Farrell’s voice was harsh and dry. “Please identify yourself! Who are you and what is your business in this area?”

  Cutting to receive, Farrell glanced at Vonner as they awaited a reply, but apart from a faint hum from the communicator, there was no reply. Farrell switched to transmit and repeated his call, and kept on repeating it when there was no reply from the stranger. Vonner was filled with disappointment. But while they awaited a result to their calls he controlled the shuttle, moving in and forward all the time, sensing that this great sister ship of his own was driving forward blindly in its orbit. If its communication syste
m had broken down then someone aboard would have signalled with a lamp from one of the airlocks! He was aware of this, and as the minutes passed by with no signs of life emanating from the ship he began to accept that the worst possible trouble had befallen this unknown vessel.

  But outwardly the ship was in perfect condition. It was swinging around in orbit under apparently steady control. That meant the gyros were operating normally. Vonner knew its computer would be handling the ship, and the fact that the computer was functioning normally gave him grounds for hope.

  The shuttle edged closer and closer to the giant ship, and its hull soon began to fill the screens on the shuttle’s bulkhead. Details of the larger ship’s exterior could be seen quite plainly. Airlock doors were tightly closed and showed no signs of damage. Vonner knew where they were situated and so knew where to look for them, and but for that knowledge he would have been hard put to locate them. So there had been no sudden decompression of the ship’s interior, he told himself. Inspection ladders encircled the outer hull, looking like silver threads against the smooth metal of the exterior, and he could tell that no plating in the hull had been damaged. If there had been any signs of distortion or buckling he would have guessed that an explosion of some kind had occurred, but there were no visible signs of damage anywhere.

  Also the tripods holding the tiny projectors that were the ship’s eyes were in good condition. None of them appeared to have suffered damage, and Vonner knew that pictures of his shuttle and Orion were being received in the control room of the stranger. But no one aboard was taking notice.

  They completed an examination of the exterior of the ship, passing from the port to the starboard side, and then Farrell uttered an ejaculation and pointed to the centre screen on the top row of scanners.

  “Look there, Captain!” he reported crisply. “There’s a shuttle craft airlock door half open.”

  Vonner took in the picture, and nodded. “Number Four Shuttle Station, Starboard Side!” he said. “So one of their shuttles left the ship. Now we’re getting somewhere!”

  “Can we board the ship through that airlock, Captain?” It was Sergeant Nevin who asked the question.

  “Yes, but we’ll complete our examination of the exterior before trying to board her,” Vonner replied. “Watch those screens for anything unusual.”

  They made a complete circuit of the ship and discovered nothing else amiss. Vonner manoeuvred the shuttle back towards the half open airlock door, and edged in closer, studying the screen containing a picture of the airlock.

  “That door should have been shut after the shuttle detached,” he commented.

  “Is that what caused the trouble they must have experienced?” Farrell asked.

  “That depends if the inner airlock door is closed,” Vonner said. “Howie, you can handle a shuttle, can’t you?”

  “Certainly, Captain.”

  “Then take over this ship and move in until there’s about one hundred metres between the two vessels. Don’t venture any closer than that.”

  “What are you going to do?” Farrell demanded, and there was a trace of alarm in his heavy tones.

  “I’m going to space leap across to the ship and check it out,” Vonner replied, his voice grim.

  “Not alone, I hope, Captain,” Nevin cut in.

  Vonner glanced over his shoulder at the sergeant and shook his head.

  “No, Sergeant,” he replied. “I’m taking you with me. We’ll carry lasers. Leave your communicator on receive, Howie, and if we can use the ship’s system I’ll contact you.”

  “I think you ought to let me go in your place, Captain,” Farrell retorted.

  “No, I’ll handle it! You concentrate upon staying in your correct station to the ship. We’ll be in touch with you.”

  “Very well, sir!” Farrell’s tones suggested that he did not agree, but he accepted the situation.

  “Come on, Nevin!” Vonner closed the shield of his helmet, switching on the suit’s life support system. “The rest of you close up your suits and switch on. We’ve got to depressurise this cabin in order to exit. Make sure you’re strapped in your seats or you’ll be sucked out of the craft. Remain depressurised until you hear from me, Howie. We may need to get back in here in a hurry.”

  They prepared, and Vonner operated the lever that sucked out all trace of air in the cabin. Then he opened the hatch and made ready to depart. He took a laser from one of the guards, motioned for Nevin to follow, and clawed his way into the doorway of the hatch. Pressing his booted feet against the bottom of the hatch, Vonner bent his knees and then thrust with all his strength. He was propelled out of the doorway by the impetus, and tumbled head over heels in the dark space between the two craft. He felt clumsy in the space suit, his limbs moving stiffly as he swam towards the larger ship. All around him was an infinity of vacuum, and despite his many years in Space he felt scared by the knowledge that if he missed his objective he would be fated to fall or drift through the black emptiness for the rest of time.

  He caught a glimpse of Nevin a few metres behind him, arms outstretched as if reaching for the nearest handhold on the unknown ship, and the lights of the shuttle were there in the background, comforting by their presence. As he turned over again under the impetus of his thrust, Vonner spotted the dark shape of Orion, her ports glittering in the surrounding blackness.

  As the velocity of the two ships was matched it was a simple matter for one experienced in space swimming to reach across the intervening space, and although it seemed an age to Vonner, it was merely a matter of minutes before his outstretched hands came into contact with the rung of one of the ladders crisscrossing the smooth hull of the stranger. He grasped the rung, which projected several inches from the outer plates, and held fast as he turned to look for his companion. Nevin was coming towards him, and Vonner reached out with his left hand and seized hold of the sergeant’s belt. The next moment Nevin had secured a handhold upon the ladder.

  They could converse via the communicators built into the space suits, and Vonner indicated that Nevin should follow. He began to work his way along the rungs of the ladders, making for the half-open airlock door, climbing like a fly, clawing and slipping, losing his footing at times, until he came to the half-open door and entered. He clutched at a metal stay and waited for Nevin to join him.

  The shuttle craft bay was empty, its craft gone, and Vonner wondered if the ship had been abandoned just after the distress signal had been broadcast months before. But if the entire crew of nearly eighty had abandoned ship then all the shuttles would have been used and most of the airlock doors would have been open.

  Nevin appeared, clawing his way into the airlock, and Vonner moved to the inner door, reaching out to punch the button that operated the outer door. The inner door could not be opened by any means while the outer door remained open, and Vonner watched anxiously for a result. Nothing happened! The outer door did not react to the circuit Vonner had brought into operation by punching the button. He tried again, and repeated his action several times, without result.

  Nevin moved back towards the outer door, grasping a handhold and using his right hand to operate the outer door manually. It was hard work, weightless as he was, but eventually the door was closed. The sergeant turned to face Vonner, lifting a hand in token of success, and Vonner acknowledged with a wave. But Vonner’s face was taut, his lips compressed as he turned to the controls to try and open the inner door. If power aboard the ship was dead then there would be no means of gaining entry.

  Punching the control that operated the inner door, Vonner felt a surge of relief when the hiss of inrushing air came through his receiver. The airlock became pressurised to the same level that existed inside the ship, and the next moment the inner door slid open. Vonner went forward, closely followed by Sergeant Nevin, and they paused in the corridor, Nevin covering the long, tube-like tunnel while Vonner checked the instruments strapped to the chest of his space suit.

  “Air pressure is normal, and th
e atmosphere is breathable,” Vonner commented. He opened his visor and sniffed tentatively. “No problems with the life support systems. Let’s go take a look around. Sergeant. But keep your laser handy!”

  They started along the corridor and reached an elevator. The ship was exactly the same type as Orion, and Vonner could have found his way around it blindfold. The elevator operated without trouble and they gained the upper control deck. Vonner found himself tense and worried as they made for the control room. There would be a normal crew of around eighty aboard, and so far there had been no signs of life aboard. Yet the ship was functioning normally.

  The control room door slid open as he arrived within three paces of it, and Vonner entered, with Nevin at his back. The big control room was deserted, but all equipment seemed in working order. The scanners were on, and Orion glimmered on a big screen. Another screen held a picture of the shuttle commanded by Farrell, and flickering lights showed that all supports systems were in normal operation.

  Vonner crossed to the communications console and sat down at it. The equipment was set to receive, and he switched to transmit and called urgently.

  “Captain Vonner to space shuttle. Come in, Lieutenant Farrell!” He switched to receive, and immediately heard Farrell’s voice.

  “This is Lieutenant Farrell, sir! Thank God something’s working over there. But what’s the situation, sir?”

  “So far we’ve discovered no one aboard the ship,” Vonner replied. “Stand-by to enter the shuttle airlock that we used. I’m going to operate the airlock, and if the outer door opens then come aboard. Sergeant Nevin will be standing by in the corridor, and when you get aboard he will take the guards and make an exhaustive search of the

  ship. You’ll report to me in the control room, Lieutenant!”

  “Yes, Captain!” Farrell’s voice sounded happy, and Vonner knew great relief as he considered that with this equipment they could make contact with Earth Base.

  “Shall I go along to the airlock, Captain?” Nevin demanded.