Obsidian Ressurection

by T J Bryan

  Abel could see nothing except the hatch opening and the Quark beyond. Black in space was very, very black. After a few tries he found 'black' on the menu and blinked on 'vision'. The darkened hold of the SAR suddenly turned to something resembling daylight or sun time. The sudden change was at first disorienting but Abel was grateful for the ability to see in the darkened ship. Abel looked about the ten by forty meter hold and noted two hatches one forward and one aft toward what he assumed was the engine bay. Both hatches were open to the void.

  Emmitt spoke first, "Lets start with the aft fusion engines." Abel could hear the excitement and impatience in Emmitt's voice as his increased breathing carried through on his comm.

  "Good. Engine bay it is," replied Helen. A few steps toward what they assumed was the engine bay brought them to a passage lined with lockers. Abel was last in and fought to suppress his instinctive reaction to always close and seal hatches as he passed. Abel paused a moment and fumbled with the locker latches. He opened one and found the locker full of odd tools and what must have been hard copy manuals or documents.

  "Hard copy documents? Why hard copy?" Abel asked no one.

  "Abel, remember this is a warship. Things go boom and then go to hell. If the comp is down and you need to fix the toilet you need hard copy instructions." Helen laughed.

  Emmitt's impatience showing said, "We can do that later. Lets see the condition of the fusion engines."

  A few more steps brought them into a tight aft compartment. There were, Abel recognized, four fusion engines in a line and perpendicular to the long side of the ship. They looked inactive. Each engine was an oblong tube with a flat face covered by instrumentation. Stanchions held each engine in place and the entire compartment seemed to be about 30 meters wide and perhaps 26 long. The engines themselves were less than six meters wide and about 18 meters long. With four engines the compartment had almost no room for any of them to manoeuvre.

  "Tight space," Helen said. "Almost impossible for crew to work. Must have had droids work in here. Makes sense. When these fusion engine were hot this compartment would be flooded with radiation. Too hot for mankind."

  "Look at that!" Emmitt said while pointing to one engine's maintenance plate. "The tell-tale is green. I think the engine is good. Good to go."

  Hellen responded with some irritation, "Your not proposing we fire this ship up are you?"

  After a moment Emmitt responded, "Hell no. This ship is probably three or four hundred years old. Starting her up and we will probably make it to Valhalla instantly. She is just as likely to blow us to smithereens as to restart any function. No, we need to be very careful and see if we can move these engines to the Habitat. If we can get them running then the Energy League will bow down and kiss our feet. Figuratively speaking of course." Emmitt laughed.

  "Lets move forward," Helen said. "We don't have a lot of time and there is a lot to discover here." Helen turned toward the forward hatch and back through what Abel realized was the small cargo hold they had entered from the Quark. As they passed through the hold Abel ducked under the boarding cable and was grateful it still seemed well attached. "Must be 'B' deck said Helen. Abel thought; how did she know this was 'B' deck, until he saw on the bulkhead above the forward hatch a stencil that read 'B Deck.' Abel laughed. The passage though the forward hatch was narrow and ran about 20 meters. On each side of the passage were lockers, enclosures, and equipment filled cabinets. As much as Abel wanted to study the contents Hellen insisted they press forward. At the end of the passage they found a small circular room easily capable of holding the three of them in their vac suits. Another hatch forward was labelled "Weapons Bay" and was open. On the wall to their left and attached to the small room was a bulkhead ladder next to which a stencil read "Bridge" with a large arrow pointing up. The hatch to the Bridge lay open.

  "Bridge," said Hellen in almost a whisper pointing upward as she grasped the railing attached to the ladder. Without gravity she simply gave the ladder a tug and up she went.

  Abel followed and upon exiting the bridge hatch Abel shuffled a bit to the left as his gravitic boots took hold. He found himself standing upon what was obviously the bridge of frigate SAR 1042. The bridge was circular with the hatch placed in the middle of the floor. Two other passages led off from the bridge, one left and one right. On the forward bulkhead were flight stations and Abel counted four and behind them was what he realized was a command chair or captain's chair. Before taking a closer look, Abel turned in the other direction and saw two more stations and from where he stood he could read stencils above one. 'Environment' the stencil read.

  "Well I'll be..." Abel heard Emmitt mutter. "Just look at these forward stations." Abel turned and took a few steps past the command chair to look where Emmitt was pointing. Four stations each with deck chairs stood silent. Abel took a closer look and then at the chairs. The chairs showed signs of wear and one had a burn hole in the leatherette cushion. Emmitt continued while pointing, "There's Astro, and then the pilots station and then two others." Emmitt stepped closer. Reading the labels above the stations he replied, "Yea, that one is weapons and the other one defence."

  "Makes sense," Hellen said. "That's how the EG said the ships were organized. Crew of nine. That's all they needed. A few to maintain watch and all stations manned in battle. Simplicity itself thanks to automation. Must be droids someplace. For maintenance and damage control. Perhaps forward?"

  Emmitt spoke before Abel could reply, "We can look for droids later Helen. Let's see if we can find some more vac suits." Emmitt proceeded to the left most passageway from the bridge and stopped. He looked down and then knelt. Emmitt reached for a yellow frame about a meter square and 20 centimetres thick that lay abandoned on the deck. It was a rectangle and on every edge of the frame were fiber optic connectors and power conduits. In the center of the frame was a hole surrounded by a melted mass of electrocene and severed optic lines.

  "That's the brains of the ship," whispered Hellen. "Looks like Unity Navy slagged it to keep her from ever flying again. No wonder they didn't disable the fusion engines. Without the control systems this crate will never fly."

  Abel thought a moment. "Can't be fixed?"

  "No," replied Emmitt. "The control frame is completely fried." Emmitt paused a moment deep in thought. "These control systems were undoubtedly the work of millions and millions of man hours. These ships were entirely automated and in many respects autonomous in many functions. We could never duplicate this work. Besides without a comprehensive understanding of the systems circuitry and integration no amount of coding and programming could re-establish control. Might as well build a new ship from scratch. No, Helen is right. This thing will never fly."

  Emmitt stood and continued toward the passage way. Like the rest of the ship the hatch was open. Helen and Abel followed. The passage was perhaps tree meters in length before it branched to another passage. This new passage was curved in both directions and Abel realized that the bridge and what soon became apparent were the living quarters, were arranged in a concentric circle around the flight bridge. Emmitt turned left and Abel followed. Helen turned to the right.

  "Don't get lost Helen." Emmitt laughed.

  Not more than a meter into the passageway Emmitt paused and looking inward toward the center was a hatch with the label 'Captain." The hatch was open and both Emmitt and Abel looked in. The captains quarters were a small room divided into two sections. Forward and near the hatch was a table and small chair. Against the bulkhead was a vid screen. Emmitt stepped in and glanced into the second section. "Bunk for one and some lockers. That about it" Emmitt turned to leave but paused. "Well we found another one."

  "What?" Abel asked?

  "Another vac suit. Hanging here on the wall next to the bunk. Has a label - says Captain Alton and some numbers. Probably serial number or id numbers of some kind. Tell-tale is green. Its' got a little wear but its' a good suit."

  Abel felt a rush of relief. If there was one vac suit there would b
e others.

  Abel heard Helen on the com. 'Same here. Found two more in the room with 'Crew A' on the door. Small room with two bunks. Oh, and some soft ship suits as well. Look in good shape, but the O2 bottles are missing. More Unity security perhaps."

  Across from the Captain's quarters was a wall of lockers. Abel wanted to take a look but Emmitt kept motioning to continue down the corridor. They soon passed a hatch that said 'Toilet' and another labelled 'Showers.' On the far side of the corridor they found another open hatch labelled 'Mess' and inside they saw a long table and perhaps nine or ten chairs affixed to the deck. Along the far bulkhead were a variety of what must have been food stations."

  "Lets keep going," said Emmitt with obvious irritation building in his voice.

  Moments later they came to the second passage. Abel figured it was 180 degrees from their departure. There stood Helen motioning them to continue. "You really have to see this," Helen said in almost a whisper. She turned and began walking a few meters. Emmitt and Abel followed and approached a hatch with a 'Medical' label. Helen stepped into the compartment. "I've only read about these but this could be a God send." The space was tight but along one wall were two bunks with some complex apparatus hanging down. Against the other wall were two glass tubes about a meter wide three long. They were stacked one on top of the other and at their two ends were highly instrumented end caps each about half a meter long. The tell-tales were green.

  "Ok, you got me," Abel said. "What are those tubes."

  Helen turned to Abel. "Those my friend, are automated surgical med stations. The crews called them 'Doc-in-a-box.' The injured and wounded would be brought here placed into these tube and the auto doc would set about operating on them. If successful they would be moved to the bunks over there for recovery. If not, well, I'm not sure." Helen paused and took a long long look at the instrument panels of the 'docs'. Then she quickly turned to a panel against the bulkhead. "My, my. Meds. Pharmaceuticals. And in stasis."

  "Greayson meds?" asked Emmit. "In stasis? You think some might be still good?"

  Helen responded "I'm not sure. Well, I am certain they are well past their 'sell by date', but stasis chambers are very good at long term preservation and these ships were made to go for years without resupply. We have to get this back to the Medical School at the Collegium. Only they can tell us."

  As they continued on around the circular passage way they found compartments for stores, purser, and an exercise room that was tight but seemingly complete, and against one outer wall, in an indent in the wall itself rather than in a separate compartment, was a cramped but familiar duplicate of the bridge flight stations..

  "Another flight station?" asked Abel.

  Emmitt pointed up to the sign above the station. 'Simulator' it read. "It's just a simulator. Probably for training and planning. It would not be connected to the actual flight controls. That would be too dangerous. You don't want to practice an attack run and have it go live. Besides it really too tight here to engage in actual flight."

  For the first time in over two hours they heard Lennie's voice. "How much longer you guys?"

  Abel responded knowing that Emmitt and Helen would not like his response. "Were just about done for this trip. Lets gather up the suits we found here and get back to Quark. We can come back tomorrow with more folks and begin to really search and inventory this ship." Abel expected Emmitt and Helen to object but he heard nothing.

  The Emmitt spoke, "We need to take our time and get some of the ME Faculty and grad students over here before we blow something up."

  A few minutes later while grasping nine military grad vac suits, a bit worn for wear, but clearly serviceable they returned to Quark and set off to the Habitat.

  As Lennie closed the hatch to the cargo hold and slowly brought the ship about on manoeuvring thrusters Abel, Helen, and Emmitt began the cumbersome process of removing their suits. Halfway through the 'de-suiting' process Helen turned to both Abel and Emmitt. "We need to keep what we found a secret. At least until we talk to the Chairman. The last thing we need is some crazy teens coming out here and grabbing a carton of plasma rifles on a lark and taking them back to the Habitat."

  As a police officer with long experience Abel knew she was right. The temptation for anyone might well become great enough that the safety of the Habitat could be threatened by citizens looting the ships and bringing back all kinds of dangerous equipment not to mention the potential of disrupting their already fragile economy.

  Emmitt asked "How long do you think we can keep this a secret?"

  Helen shrugged as she broke open the seals on her left boot actuator. "Not long, that's for sure. With Ingvar's body in the hold and more vac-suits were gonna need a story of some kind."

  After a moment Abel responded, "Something like this we can't keep secret. Perhaps 24 hours maybe a bit longer. But it's bound to get out, or worse yes some kids go out to throw rocks and discover the truth. No, we need to get to the Chairman and the Executive Committee immediately. Then we need to quarantine the zone. Set up an inspection protocol for runabouts leaving and entering the Public Dock. Lock it down until we can figure out how to handle this."

  They fell into silence as they returned the vac suits to lockers on the wall of the hold. Climbing the ladder to the bridge Abel was reminded of the death of Ingvar and the weight of the loss upon young Lennie.

  "Lennie, were going to have to keep this secret for a day or two," Abel said.

  Lennie looked shocked and then angry. "But my Dad? We gotta do something about my Dad. And Silvi. What will I tell her?" Lennie began to cry and then sob as he fell into the pilots seat his hands clutching his face.

  "It's ok Lennie. We only need a day or two." Abel felt rotten but there was simply too much at stake. "Lennie, listen, can you get me a comm link to Maint-Stat? I need to talk to the Chairman.

  Lennie looked up wiping the tears from his face, threw a few switches and handed Abel the mic.

  "Maint-Stat, Quark here."

  "Quark, Maint-Stat, I copy. You returning?"

  "Yes, be there in about an hour be I have a request. Actually an ES order. I need a secure line."

  "Ok Chief. I'll get ES Station command on the secure line."

  Moments later Abel was able to tell Officer Winton to get a full turnout crew from EmVac to meet them at the dock with sliders. They had more vac-suits and needed to get them to the Collegium for evaluation as fast as possible. To the surprise of Officer Winton Abel said he needed the coroner and a body bag. He continued that there had been an accident and that Ingvar Karrlson was killed. Then he lied and said that Lennie insisted that word not get out about Ingvar's death until Lennie had time to tell Silvi about the death. Winton made no objection. Looking at Lennie he knew this was what Lennie wanted as well. Sudden death was all to common in the Jamon system.

  Soon after Abel asked for and got a secure line to the Council Chambers and the Chairman's auto-phone. The Chairman was out so Abel left a message that there was a class three emergency alert and that the Chairman, and the Chairman alone must meet him on the dock when the Quark returned in an hour. He knew that the words 'class three emergency alert' would result in the auto-phone breaking into whatever activity the Chairman was engaged in.

  Abel sat and tried to lean back in the jump seat of Quark, but hit his head against the bulkhead instead. Now we can only wait and pray.

  Chapter Six

  Jamon System - Habitat - Chairman's Chambers - Year 3245. May 15 ET: 20:53

  Chairman Victor Norlik hadn't moved for the last ten minutes. He only sat quietly with his color mismatched eyes closed, breathing slowly, and clearly concentrating of Helen's narrative. Norlik was well into his 150's and had been Chariman for three six year terms and his age was not just beginning to show but was clearly affecting his body. He was getting slower in his actions and recently his 'bum' leg had made walking almost unbearable. Still he pressed on as head of the Assembly and Helen knew that there was nothing wrong with h
is sharp wit and even sharper mind.

  After Helen, Abel, and Emmitt completed their description of the what had been found in the zone Victor had remained quiet and said not a word for almost five minutes. Then he opened his eyes, one green and one blue.

  "That's it?" Victor asked. "There is no chance we can get one of those ships running?" Victor looked to Emmitt.

  "None, or at least none that I can see," Emmitt responded. He continued, "Our problem is the propulsion of those ships. Unity used something they called a Displacement Drive. Displacement Drives were not as fast and reliable as Greayson's but they were easy to maintain; that is unless it failed and then all was lost including any ships unfortunate to be within two light seconds of the failure. Displacement drive requires anti-matter which we simply do not have and cannot create with the technology we have."

  "Greayson propelled its' ships using the fast variable speed Gravity Well system. Greayson ships simply formed a gravity well in what ever direction they wanted to go and proceeded to fall into that direction. Our problem is that while the theory of the GW system is almost understood at the Collegium, by perhaps two professors and one grad student..." Emmitt paused a moment, " No, make that four." After a moments thought he continued, "But no one has any idea how to implement the drive. Greayson kept it a complete secret. Perhaps their best kept secret since it's been more than four hundred years since its' implementation. The EG says that those who tampered with Gravity Well Engines found themselves falling into a micro gravity black hole. Many tried. All died. The ships were fail safed to an incredible degree and even if the GWP engines are intact on those ships, and they probably are, given the command cores total destruction and the complexity of managing such power, we will never be able to use them."