They went into the laboratory, and he put the blood sample under his microscope. “There was something I had to check.”
The man had a sparkle in his eyes. A smile even rose on his face. “Take a look.”
He pulled the microscope down so she could see through it from her mobility chair. Her jaw dropped. “My God, his immune system’s fighting it.”
“Not just fighting it but destroying it. I’ve seen nothing like this.”
Susan glanced back through the door at the unconscious body of Kione. “Yes, well, he’s always had a knack of being special.” She shook her head in disbelief. “He’s going to beat this.”
“And with any luck, so will Miss Caldwell.”
“Right. We can synthesize a cure, but without my equipment from the Argo, testing it will take longer than we have. And if we don’t give her the right antidote, it’ll kill her for sure.”
Erkens bit his bottom lip. “One thing at a time, Doctor.”
Chapter 15
Underground Facility
It seemed they were going around in circles. That was until Jason led Althaus to the end of the labyrinth of dark corridors and into a central hub of rooms and offices.
“This facility appears shielded from the electro-magnetic field,” Jason assumed, pointing out the obvious abundance of lighting above their heads.
They approached what looked like a medical facility. Through the open door, they entered a scene very similar to the one they’d found on the alien ship out in the desert. Five skeletons lay on the beds, hooked up to machines surveying their life signs. A droning beep played throughout the room.
Jason couldn’t make head nor tail of the language on the monitors, but the readings were clear. “They’re all dead.”
“What gave it away?” Althaus stepped next to an adjacent bed where another fallen soul rested. He pressed a button on the machine behind it, and it switched off.
“Seems Erkens’s disease reached down here, too.” Jason walked from the infirmary and led Althaus farther through the strange facility.
They found more bodies and discovered a massive control center. At its heart, a cylindrical device rose from the floor and extended upward through the rocky ceiling. Around it was a large bank of computer terminals.
A huge circle, with a crescent shape through its heart, sat on the rear wall. An emblem?
Jason studied the strange symbol and joined Althaus at a workstation. On the monitor was the same language he’d seen in the infirmary.
“What we suspected is true. This array is the source of the electro-magnetic field,” Althaus said, pointing at the cylindrical mechanism. “There seem to be dozens of them all over this world.”
Jason studied the image on the console at the many arrays placed around the planet. “And they’re tapping geothermal energy to power them. The question is, why are we seeing power spikes? Going by this, the electro-magnetic field should be finite.”
Althaus’s gaze darted over the monitor, and he pressed in various keys. Several bar graphs appeared. “If these are power readings, I’d guess there are issues with the conduits linking the geothermal generators to the arrays.”
Jason thought back to the lifeless bodies he’d seen. They’d rotted there for twenty years. “I suppose it’s hard to do maintenance when you’re long dead.”
Althaus nodded. “The conduits no doubt automatically power down at the intervals Alyssa discovered to ensure they continue to operate indefinitely. When it happens, these arrays also power down, opening a short window where the electro-magnetic field ceases.”
“Makes sense. However, it doesn’t explain what brought the Argo here.”
Althaus continued working through the data on the console and brought up a star chart of the system. In a three-light-year radius were dozens of objects surrounding it.
Jason leaned in farther. “What in the hell are those?”
“I’m not sure, but they must be undetectable to our scans. We didn’t see them when we came out of the trans-space vortex.”
Jason paced behind him and pondered. “What if they’re inhibitors?”
“FTL inhibitors?”
“Right. But not just inhibitors, also substantial tractor field generators.” He approached Althaus and pointed at them. “The Argo dropped from FTL within this radius and was pulled to this planet. The same thing happened to the Scorpius and no doubt to that alien ship we found, too.”
“If you’re right that means this planet’s like a Venus flytrap.” Althaus rubbed his chin. “Whoever these people are, they’ve gone to a hell of a lot of trouble to do it. The level of technology required is immense.”
“Karma really bit them in the ass.” While Jason couldn’t condone what Doctor Erkens had done, there was a poetic justice to how they’d met their fate. “Now we know what’s going on here, can you knock it out?”
Althaus studied the monitor. “If I deactivate the geothermal generators on the planet, it’ll shut down these arrays and likely make the inhibitors redundant as they’ll have no computer to network with.”
“Is it possible?”
“I don’t see why not.”
“Good, get cracking.”
While Althaus went to work, Jason sat at an adjacent station and fiddled with the keypad, pretending he knew what he was doing.
Something caught his eye as he fumbled through the alien computer system. An image. It was the Scorpius settlement from the air. “Looks like they have satellites in orbit, too. Handy ones. I reckon if you were standing in the middle of the town center, I’d be able to see the moles on the top of your head.”
Althaus ignored his quip, and Jason found another satellite feed. It was a recording from above the alien ship. The next image was of the Argo.
But then more appeared. “There’re other ships. Dozens of them crashed all over the planet.” His jaw dropped. “Venus flytrap indeed.”
“Huh?” Althaus said, apparently not really listening.
“I think I’ve figured out what this is all about. This underground facility we’re in. It’s an observation post. They’ve used their technology to bring all different species to this world.”
“But why?”
“I’m not sure. To test us maybe.”
Jason discovered a way to enlarge the satellite images and noted a disturbing pattern. “Jesus Christ…”
Skeletons were littered around all the other ships. The only survivors he could see were the colonists of the Scorpius Colony. “Althaus…”
“What?”
“Erkens’s disease…” He turned to his colleague. “It’s killed every other life form on this planet.”
The two stared at each other. It was one thing to do what Erkens had done in the defense of his people against an aggressive enemy, but for it to have the result it had was truly horrific.
Althaus returned his attention to his console. “I think I’ve figured it out. I can switch off the automated shutdown on the power conduits. It’ll cause an overload which will cascade throughout all the arrays on the planet.”
Jason stood and checked over his monitor. “Do it.”
Althaus’s plan didn’t take long to work. The pair hightailed it out of the underground observation post and back up the rabbit hole to the surface.
They scaled their way through the rock formation and hopped on their zillos, leading them to a safe distance. Within minutes, the ground rumbled beneath their feet, and the rock formation exploded in a spectacular rapture upon the planet’s starry night sky.
Jason wished he could’ve learned more from the alien computers, but there was much more at stake. It was now up to Doctor Tai to save Marissa and Kione from their deaths. He didn’t want to add them to what was now a very long list.
*
Cargo Ship Argo
Aly banged her shin crawling out of the maintenance junction, and she seethed at the pain running up her leg.
“Goddamn it!”
Her father poked his he
ad out from underneath the maintenance console. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, fine.” Aly slammed her circuit-separator on the deck and pulled herself up. She stared at the dim light of the candle on the station above her father. “How did people go without electricity for so much of human history?”
“I’m not sure. I’m not that old.” He chuckled. “I guess they didn’t have to worry about fixing cargo ships on faraway worlds in those days.”
“You’re probably right. But how did they cope with all those dinosaurs?”
They laughed, and as if on cue, the lighting above flickered on and consoles powered up. Aly checked her fob watch. The next power spike was right on time.
But then the power didn’t go out as expected. “They did it!”
“Jason to Argo. Come in,” the familiar voice crackled over the speakers.
Aly reached for her commband and activated the commlink. “This is the Argo. Go ahead.”
“I assume everything’s up and running again?”
Her father gave her a thumbs-up from the maintenance console.
“Affirmative.”
“Send your dad in the Julieanne to come and get us.”
“Roger that. He won’t be too long. Argo out.”
Her dad had a solemn look on his face.
“What is it?” she asked.
“While the rest of the ship’s in relatively good nick, the ventral thrusters are fried. They’ll pose a serious problem when we try to take off,” he said.
“We knew that. With the power back on, fixing them won’t be an issue.”
“Yes, but can we do it in six hours?”
“Why?”
He brought up an image on the scanners. “Because this system’s star is blowing a solar wind straight in our direction.”
Aly studied the data. “Just when we thought we were done with power outages.” There was a coronal mass ejection taking place. A nasty one. “If we don’t get up there in six hours, we’ll be stuck here for months.”
Hell…
Chapter 16
Scorpius Colony
“All of them?”
“Every single person on every single ship,” Jason told Tobias as they looked out at a group of children kicking a ball around the center of the settlement. “I counted at least a dozen more crashed ships all over the planet.”
The colony leader’s face went pale. “I’ve had to live with my decision for twenty years. I always told myself it was the wrong thing to do for the right reason. But now to be responsible for so many more deaths. So many innocent lives…”
Jason stopped at the front of Doctor Erkens’s medical facility. “I don’t know what to tell you. I can’t say everything will be okay, because it won’t. This’ll be on your head for the rest of your life. And since another ship from Earth won’t pass this way for a very long time, it may be the harshest justice you’ll ever receive.”
He left Tobias alone to let his words sink in and stepped toward the door, but before he could enter, Doctor Tai blocked his path.
He read the concern on her face. “What is it, Doctor?”
“It’s Erkens…”
Tobias approached the pair. “What about him?”
She escorted them inside. Instead of two patients, there was now three. Doctor Erkens had joined Marissa and Kione on a bed of his own, looking just as sick as them. Tobias hurried to his side while Tai led Jason into the laboratory.
“What the hell happened here?” Jason asked.
“We discovered Kione’s immune system was fighting the disease, so we began work on an antidote.” She frowned. “When we weren’t sure how successful you’d be, we had no choice but to test it the old-fashioned way.”
Jason glanced at Erkens through the door. “He infected himself?”
She nodded. “We broke down his immune system so the disease would take hold. We then tested the untried antidote on him.”
“My God! Why did he—”
“Guilt. Guilt for killing so many people. And for killing his wife.”
Jason had no idea the illness had hit Erkens so close to home. Right now, he didn’t really care. “And the result?”
“I’m about to check.” Tai revealed a blood sample in her hand, and she placed it beneath the microscope on the counter. She peered through the lens.
Jason stood in anticipation, his heart skipping a beat. “Well?”
Her head rose. “He’ll live. And so will—”
“Marissa!” Jason hurried out of the lab and toward Kione who was getting himself up. “Is there anything you’re not capable of?”
He shrugged, and Jason took a seat by Marissa’s side. “It’s me. I’m back.” She was still unconscious, but he swore he saw her eyelid flicker in response.
Tai moved toward her and injected her with the cure.
Jason squeezed her hand. “There, I told you all of this would be sorted out.”
*
Cargo Ship Argo
“How long have we got?”
Jason hurried onto the bridge and took a seat in the captain’s chair, while Kevin walked from the operations station to the helm.
“Minutes only. The storm front has closed in quicker than expected.”
“All right. Let’s get this show in the road.” Jason activated the intercom on the command console. “Are we ready back there, Aly?”
“Uh, not really. But if we don’t—”
“Got it. Everybody strap in and prepare for departure.” Jason buckled his harness, while Althaus stepped through the hatchway and did the same at the operations station.
“Okay, take us up.”
Kevin did as instructed and toggled the controls. The Argo whirred to life, and the ventral thrusters fired. She slowly lifted, and sand rolled down the side of the hull.
Kevin pushed the rear thrusters, and the old girl gained speed. He pointed the nose toward the sky, and the cargo ship rose higher through the atmosphere.
The deck reverberated beneath them. Jason clenched the arms of his chair, worried the Argo might finally give out and disintegrate around them.
The sky turned from blue to black, and the stars of the surrounding universe peeked through. Their legs floated up in the air, and Jason felt considerably lighter.
He activated the intercom. “Uh, Aly, the artificial gravity—”
“Yep. One thing at a time,” she replied.
Jason’s smirked, but it soon disappeared with the wave of the storm heading their way. “Kevin, hard to port!”
Kevin punched the rear thrusters yet again, and the ship shook from the force of the oncoming front.
“It’s closing,” Althaus said. “It’ll be on top of us in seconds!”
“I’m not sure about you, but I don’t want to go crashing back down there.” Jason pressed the intercom again. “Aly, we need FTL now!”
“I’ve done the startup procedure but I can’t make any promises.”
“I’m sure you’ve done everything you can.” Jason stared toward the helm. “Kevin, set any course and get us the hell out of here!”
The Argo vibrated, and Jason’s teeth jangled. Come on, old girl.
“The storm’s about to hit!” Althaus bellowed.
The lighting and consoles winked on and off around them. Come on!
The eerie golden glow of the storm washed throughout the bridge, and the Argo heaved, sparking to life. The ship’s engine fired, and the bright light disappeared into darkness. The power returned, and space bent around them, hurtling the vessel into FTL.
Jason leaned back in his seat and checked around the bridge to make sure the others were okay. He pressed in the intercom. “Good work, Aly.”
There was only silence.
“Aly?” her father said with concern.
An audible sigh sounded from the other end. “Meet me down in the cargo bay. We’ve got a problem.”
Chapter 17
Jason hurried to Aly’s side at the bow of the cargo bay. She’d taken
Nora out of her housing and was on her knees inspecting the trans-space actuator. She’d opened the guts of it and had her hands arm deep inside.
He kneeled beside her. “Aly…” he whispered, doing his best not to startle her.
She pulled a large rectangular part from it and placed it in his hands. It was burned to a crisp.
“What am I looking at here?”
“The result of the solar storm.” She opened the device with a micro-screwdriver and revealed its twisted innards. “This is the particle replicator. Or was, to be more accurate.”
“Particle replicator?” Jason stared blankly at her. “As in, Iota particle replicator?”
“Iota particles aren’t found in nature. At least not as far as we know. Professor Petit had to find a way to replicate them.”
“Which he did.”
“Right.” Aly nodded. “He also needed to continue replicating them to equip the expeditionary force with the ability to not only get to where they were going, but come back as well. Hence what’s in your hand.”
Jason had seen her expression before. “Are you telling me this can’t be fixed?”
Her face said it all. “If we’d just been a few seconds quicker.”
“Hell…” He stood and walked to the bulkhead. He put his head against it then turned around. “How many particles do we have left?”
“None.”
Jason closed his eyes. “So, we’re ninety light-years away from Tyler. At FTL, that equates to—”
“Four and a half years. That’s at constant acceleration, which the ship won’t be able to maintain. So, add another year, perhaps two onto the trip.”
Jason rubbed his chin, pondering. “We need to get back into trans-space. How can we do that?”
Aly stood and indicated to the particle replicator in his hands. “Did you not listen to anything I just said?”
“I heard you.” He handed the device back to her. “You said this was irreparable. What about the rest of Nora?”
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