It was only a few minutes before everyone except Major Irons, who was still taking a shower, were sitting at the table. Corporal Fields blinked sleepily at the big pot of stew and yawned. Green hadn’t even bothered putting his combat suit back on, and was sitting in his chair in his underwear. Jeff wondered whether he should say anything, but decided not to make himself even more unpopular.
“Smells like home.” Finni laughed, ladling some stew into his bowl. Shorty had found a pack of sliced bread in the cupboard above the fridge and placed it in the middle of the table. Joanne had even found glass salt and pepper shakers in one of the drawers.
Mac grabbed the ladle from Finni and helped himself to some stew. Then he picked up his spoon and dipped it into his bowl.
“Don’t touch that!” The sharp tone in Irons’ voice made Jeff wince. Startled, Finni dropped his spoon.
Jeff swung round and saw the major walking toward the table with a cool expression.
“Where did you get that?” Irons asked.
Joanne briefly explained how she had found the pot in front of the door.
“Corporal Fields!”
“Sir?”
“Get the mass analyzer from the emergency equipment and check the stuff in the pot—and the bread.”
Fields nodded and stood up wordlessly.
“The ship’s computer would hardly have saved us only to poison us,” Castle grumbled.
“Lieutenant Castle, this is an alien ship, controlled by an alien computer. I do not assume any ill intentions, but I doubt it has extensive knowledge of the human metabolism. We cannot rule out that toxic substances were accidentally used in the synthesis of the food. I just want to be sure. We should have done it earlier with the drinks from the fridge.”
“Of course, Sir!”
Fields was now holding a small device in his hand, which he activated with a push of a button. It emitted two beeps, indicating that it was working. Slowly a kind of antenna emerged, which Fields dunked into the liquid in the pot.
“Lieutenant Green!” Irons said sharply.
“Sir?”
“If I find you outside of your room again not wearing a combat suit, I will not hesitate to put you under arrest for the rest of the journey. Is that clear?”
Green nodded hastily, got up, and disappeared to his room.
Irons and Jeff’s eyes met. The major shook his head very softly and pressed his lips together.
I messed up again!
“I have the results,” Fields said.
“And?” Irons asked.
“No toxic ingredients. We can eat it,” Fields said.
Irons nodded.
“It’s actually quite nutritious,” Fields added.
“What’s the nutritional value?”
“Sixty-one kilocalories per hundred milliliters. Carbohydrates, proteins, fats, even vitamins. Everything the human body needs.”
“I wonder how this ship knows how to fold proteins,” Joanne mused. “The computer can’t have learned that from our TV programs.”
“Maybe our bodies were scanned when we came aboard,” Jeff said. “Combined with information from planetary radio signals, you can discover a lot.”
“The Galaxy Net,” Castles said suddenly.
Jeff nodded. That made sense.
“What?” Irons asked.
“The Galaxy Net of the Imperial University Alliance continuously transmits all information from the scientific databases. The encyclopedic knowledge of humanity is sent via the Net and can be received by anyone listening. I bet it includes an explanation of how proteins are folded or vitamins are synthesized.”
“I thought the Galaxy Net is transmitted by hyper radio,” Joanne said.
“Yeah, but the traditional radio transmitters were never turned off,” Green said, stepping into the room again, this time in combat gear.
“Why not? They’re superfluous,” Finni said.
Jeff shook his head. “No,” he said. “We’ve had colonies that were forgotten by humanity for decades, and whose hyper radio failed. At least they could still benefit from our collected knowledge via normal radio. Don’t you remember Praxus-4?”
Nobody answered.
“An earthquake devastated the colony and disabled the hyper-radio transmitter. Due to the lithium crisis, Praxus-4 was forgotten and was isolated for almost fifty years. Thanks to the knowledge from the Galaxy Net, the descendants of the first settlers were able to build a new hyper-radio device and get back in contact.”
Irons nodded. “Now you mention it, I remember once reading a report about it. But we’re moving away from the original subject. Ultimately, we don’t know how this ship was able to make this stew. There are a lot of unanswered questions and we need to talk about how to proceed.”
“Can we eat something first?” Green asked.
Irons sighed. “The analysis was very clear. So sure, go ahead.”
Green and Finni immediately began to slurp their stew loudly from their spoons. Joanne pulled a face, then also tucked in, but less noisily. Jeff had to admit, the stuff didn’t taste bad. Perhaps a little too salty for his taste. He took the slice of bread Joanne handed him and dunked it in the stew.
“Don’t you want to eat, Major?” Castle asked.
Irons shook his head. “I’m not hungry. I’ll eat one of the concentrate bars later on.”
“This tastes a lot better than one of those bars.”
“Life doesn’t revolve around eating,” Irons snapped.
Castle nodded. “You’re right, Major. There’s something else I’d rather do than eat.” As if in slow motion he turned his head and grinned at Joanne, who only looked up after a few seconds. She tapped her forehead with her index finger.
“Dream on, Castle,” she said and turned her attention back to her plate.
“It could be a long and lonely six months aboard this weird ship. My door is always open!”
Joanne shook her head and ignored him. Jeff chuckled. He knew that Joanne was tough and could take this kind of banter in her stride. He was also pretty sure that Castle, with his smoldering dark eyes and cheeky smile, probably enjoyed considerable success with the opposite sex. But he’d have his work cut out for him with Joanne.
“Stop this nonsense,” Irons said sharply. “We’re on board an alien spaceship the size of a moon and at the mercy of the ship’s computer. We’ve got more important things to deal with.”
“Of course, Sir,” Castle said in a tone that contradicted his words.
“How do you propose we proceed, Sir?” Jeff asked.
“First, let’s lay down some ground rules,” Irons said. “I said it once, and I’ll say it again: nobody leaves our quarters without permission. Nobody goes walkabout. Second”—he looked directly at Green—“We keep our combat suits on. Always. Even while sleeping.”
Green dropped his spoon on his plate, aghast. “What the hell for?”
“We have no idea what might happen. We need to be ready for action at all times. Keep your guns on you. Only take off your suits to wash, and then put them straight back on.”
Jeff groaned inwardly. The combat suits weren’t as rigid as the last-generation suits, but wearing them even at night wouldn’t be much fun. Not to mention the inevitable stench after a few days. “Isn’t that a little over-cautious?”
“Better too cautious than dead,” Irons said. “And furthermore: if you notice anything unusual—even if it seems trivial—you must inform me or my XO immediately. Is that clear?”
Joanne and Castle nodded. Green shrugged.
“We also need to guard our quarters at night.”
“Why?” Finni asked.
“The fact that a trolley suddenly appeared in front of our door—it makes me uneasy. Who put it there? I don’t want robots, or drones, or whatever hanging around here at night while we’re sleeping.”
“Don’t you trust the computer?” Joanne asked.
“I repeat: despite the friendly welcome, we have no idea who or
what we’re dealing with here. I don’t want to imply that our host has any bad intentions, but I think it makes sense to take precautions. We’ll take turns at night; two hours each.”
“What about exploring our surroundings?” Jeff asked.
Irons nodded. “I’ve been thinking about that. We need to be systematic and gradually expand the radius, and also map the area we explore. We’ll begin tomorrow morning. I propose that two teams of two set off at the same time. The others hold the fort, collect the radio data, and create a map.”
He turned to Owl. “Will we be able to use our radios here?”
The radio operator wavered for a moment, then shook his head. “No. There’s too much metal everywhere. The radios are likely to work only within a very limited radius.”
Irons grunted. “That’s not what I wanted to hear. I want to be able to stay in touch with the reconnaissance teams at all time. If anything happens, we won’t know about it. If we were forced to go looking for a squad, we’d probably never find them in this labyrinth.”
“Perhaps I can help, Sir.”
Jeff turned around in surprise. He wasn’t used to hearing an unsolicited suggestion from Green. On the other hand, the guy was a good engineer.
Irons signaled to Green to continue.
“I can’t make any guarantees, but I have an idea how we could talk to each other without radio.”
“Go ahead.”
The engineer scratched his nose. “We could use the metal walls of the spaceship to relay electrical impulses. I could modify some of the handhelds to do that.”
“A kind of Morse code?” Joanne asked.
Green shook his head. “No, we would actually be able to talk to each other, even if the quality isn’t very good.”
“How long would it take?” Jeff asked.
He shrugged. “A few hours, maybe. But I can’t make any promises. It’ll only work if all the walls are made of the same material.”
“Please start as soon as this meeting is over.”
“Who’ll be in the recon squads?” Joanne asked.
“We’ll take turns,” Irons replied. “But I’ll stay here at all times to coordinate the missions. Lieutenant Green will also stay here in case there are any communication problems. Lieutenant Castle with Private Short, and Captain Austin with Private McGuinness.”
Jeff nodded numbly. He didn’t mind going on a reconnaissance mission, but did it have to be with Mac? The boorish mechanic despised Jeff and only obeyed his orders reluctantly. Irons must have been aware of this, but maybe he thought a joint mission would help them bond. Jeff had his doubts.
“We’ll meet for breakfast tomorrow at 0600,” Irons said. “At 0700 the squads will set off to explore. I would like to gain an overview of our surroundings as soon as possible.”
“How do we handle the ship’s computer?” Joanne asked.
Irons nodded. “That takes me nicely to the next point.” The major smiled. “I want to find out as much as possible about this ship, its computer, and its builders. Of course, that will require close communication with the computer. We don’t know how these aliens tick—but their psychology may be reflected in the behavior of the computer, which would also explain the strange time out it’s taking. So we have to proceed cautiously. To start with, I’ll be the only one to speak with it. Have you all understood? Lieutenant Green! Stop playing around with your handheld and listen!”
Green put his portable computer aside and looked up. “I understand, Sir.”
“I’m not quite convinced. So, if anyone has any questions for the computer, please pass them on to me.”
“Do you think the computer will let us know when it’s contactable again?” Joanne asked. “It’s already been four hours. Those self-tests are pretty drawn out.”
Irons nodded. “Computer!” he spoke loudly.
Jeff cocked his head. He almost expected to see a hovering figure appear in the room. But there was no answer.
Irons sighed again. “All right, let’s go to our rooms. Corporal Owens, please clear the table. Lieutenant Castle, will you take the first watch?”
“Sure. Who should take over from me?”
“You decide.”
Castle turned his head and grinned at Jeff.
Surprise surprise.
4.
“Computer!” Irons shouted, but again there was no answer.
“I don’t get it,” Joanne said. “It’s been almost sixteen hours. Surely it can’t take that long to carry out a self test.”
“Maybe it’s moved on to a different self test,” Finni suggested, taking a can of beer out of the fridge.
“Or the computer has limited multitasking capabilities. Maybe it’s a reflection of how the builders of this thing functioned,” Owl mused.
“Doesn’t sound very logical,” Irons said dryly. “A computer has to be immediately accessible to its users. Perhaps we’ll find out the reason. Lieutenant Green?”
The engineer was still fiddling around with his handheld and looked up. “Sir?”
“How’s our communication device getting on?”
The engineer smiled. “We’ll find out in a minute.” He handed Irons the handheld. Jeff was standing next to the major and could see that Green had plugged some kind of antenna into the front port of the tablet.
“How does it work?” Irons asked, taking the device from Green.
“The antenna has to be touching the wall.”
“What’s the principle behind it?” Jeff asked, thinking it was an intelligent question to ask.
Green turned around and looked at Jeff as if he were a child who had asked a question to which he wouldn’t understand the answer. “The computer picks up the acoustic signals from our speech and the antenna transmits these into the wall using eddy currents.”
“Ah,” Jeff said.
What are eddy currents?
“The counterpart receives the voltage impulses and transforms them back into speech,” Green added.
“If you say so,” Irons said. “Good work, Lieutenant Green. Attach one of the handhelds to the wall here, so that it’s always receiving.”
“Give me yours and I’ll attach an antenna to it,” Green said, and impulsively reached for the major’s belt.
With lightning speed, Irons grabbed the engineer’s hand and twisted it behind his back. Green grimaced in pain. “Don’t ever try to grab my belt again,” Irons said icily. He let go of the engineer’s hand, and Green staggered forward and fell against the wall. His face was still contorted with pain and he rubbed his hand. “Shit, that hurt!” he whined.
Jeff looked at Irons wordlessly. He thought his reaction had been excessive. It was unusual for the major to use violence on any of his crew. Irons briefly returned his glance and grabbed one of the replacement handhelds from the equipment sled, which Shorty had pulled from the niche to the middle of the room. “Take this and fix it to the wall.” He pointed to a spot beside the front door. Then he went over to a long table that was pushed against the wall nearer the kitchen, and dragged it over to the place he had indicated. “This will be our command post. Joanne?”
“Yes, Sir?”
“This is the sketch I made yesterday on the way to our quarters. Use it to verify the handheld’s automatic tracking and add the data the teams transmit by radio.”
“It isn’t a radio.”
“Excuse me, Lieutenant Green?”
The engineer shook his aching hand and stepped up to the table. He took the handheld and secured it with a clamp so that the antenna he had just attached touched the wall. “I said: it’s not a radio. We’re not exchanging any radio signals, but impulses through the metal of the walls.”
Irons waved his hand dismissively. “Stop quibbling! First we need to find out if these things even work. Lieutenant Castle?”
“Sir?”
“Start the reconnaissance. Go back the way we came yesterday until you reach the last junction. When you get there, turn right. Make sure to first map
the areas near our quarters. At every intersection, stop and message us by radio.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“I just said, it isn’t—” Green began, but was silenced by Irons’ frosty glare.
Castle nodded to Shorty and opened the door into the corridor. The mechanic was carrying a flashlight and a backpack containing some basic equipment, food, and water. Irons closed the door behind him.
“We’ll soon see if your invention works,” Irons said to Green. Green kept quiet and looked fixedly at the handheld on the table.
A few seconds passed and then Castle’s voice—with some interference but clearly intelligible—sounded from the handheld’s speaker.” This is Lieutenant Castle. Can you hear me?”
“Green here. Loud and clear. Can you hear me?”
“Loud and clear. Your construction seems to work.”
“Yup, thought it would.”
“We’re now at the intersection and turning right. The corridor leads into darkness. This shitty flashlight is only lighting up the first thirty or so feet. It’s kind of scary.”
Irons leaned forward. “Record the path with your handheld, but keep sending us info so we can track your route.”
“Understood, we’re setting off now.”
Jeff looked over Joanne’s shoulder. She was drawing lines on the screen of the handheld with her finger. Something occurred to Jeff. He turned to Green. “Tell him to report any changes to the gravity vector, otherwise we might misinterpret it in our sketch.
Green shook his head. “He won’t hear us now. He has to hold the device against the wall to be able to communicate with us. He has to report first.”
It didn’t take long for him to make contact again. “Castle here. Can you hear us?”
“Still loud and clear.”
“We’re at the next intersection. We’ve walked precisely eighty-five feet. This intersection has four turnoffs at right angles to each other. We’re turning right.”
“Understood. One more thing. We need you to report any changes in the gravity vector, understood?”
“Understood.”
Jeff nodded and watched Joanne drawing more lines. A few seconds later, Castle checked back in. He described the route and the next intersection. Joanne entered the data into the mobile device.
The Dark Ship Page 8
