The Sakkara

by Donald Nicklas

  Slone continued, “Commander Hammond, you are aware you have been in stasis for a bit and some things have changed. What year did you enter stasis?”

  “I am aware that some time has passed since I entered stasis. You already told me you picked up my telemetry over two years ago. I entered stasis in the year 2352.”

  “Commander, thank you for clearing up something we have been discussing for a while and that is if you have truly been in stasis as long as we suspected. You have just confirmed it. We do not belong to a corporation but rather a democratic federation of systems called the Republic of Nova Romae.” Slone could see she was about to make a comment when he held up his hand and continued, “It is the year 3127 and you have been in stasis for eight centuries.”

  Slone could tell by the shocked expression on her face, that Julia Hammond had not expect her stasis would last that long. She took another sip of water and regained her composure. Slone had to admire that. He could imagine how much of a shock it would be to him to learn that all he ever knew was gone. She leveled her gaze at the captain and Slone could see some skepticism in her face.

  “How do I know you’re not just trying to deceive me into giving away my secrets by telling me they no longer matter?”

  Slone spoke as if to no one in particular, “Tempestas, what is today’s date?”

  The ship’s computer responded immediately, “October 23, 3127 by Earth measure, Captain.”

  “If that does not satisfy you, feel free to consult whatever references you wish, but you have been in stasis for eight centuries and that will not change. Now perhaps you can tell us how you came into possession of a Saltic ship?”

  Slone could tell that Commander Hammond was startled by his use of the Saltic name. “How do you know the Sakkara is a Saltic ship and how do you know about the Saltic? Have you dealt with them, Captain?”

  “Only in the Andromeda Galaxy. They killed my entire crew of the cruiser SS Hayden, a ship of the Sinclair navy. They were working with Horatio Sinclair, who was CEO of the corporation at the time. We passed through a wormhole, similar to the one we just encountered, and travelled between galaxies. Care to explain where the one we just passed through came from?”

  “I am still having a hard time digesting that I am now over eight centuries old and all I knew is gone. My very existence has been relegated to history, if I am remembered at all.”

  Slone could tell their guest was becoming despondent and needed to calm her down. He gave his wife a helpless look. Alaya took over the discussion.

  “Commander Hammond, all of the corporations you know are still in existence. Nova Romae is a republic beyond corporate space that was founded by the survivors of the Great Spinward Exodus, when the corporations discarded their intellectuals and free thinkers.”

  Julia Hammond could be seen to be lost in thought, “The Great Spinward Exodus,” she had to chuckle. “So is that what history decided to call it. We just called it the Banishment when all of our dreams and hopes were dashed and we were separated from all we knew. We did not have a choice, so it was not an exodus of our choosing.”

  The Romani in the room gave a start when they heard this. Centurion Marshal remarked, “Are you saying you were part of the Exodus?”

  “Yes I was and there were 14 ships with me who depended on me to navigate them to a new home. Did you find any trace of them when you found me in the Freiburg system?”

  Everyone at the table looked puzzled and Christopher Slone again took over the questioning, “We didn’t find you in the Freiburg system. The Sakkara was on the surface of a rogue planet outside the slipstreams in Shin Nippon space. We were working our way back to the slipstream when the wormhole transported us. Now we are in a system on the other side of the galaxy.”

  “May I ask what the coordinates of this system are?”

  Slone nodded to Paul McMann to give the response. “We’re on the outer edge of the Norma Arm at galactic longitude 3.2 degrees. The coordinates are 3.2, -0.344, 42776, 285987.”

  Throughout the questioning, Paul McMann found it difficult to keep his eyes off Julia Hammond. Now she looked directly at him, “That was not the last destination of the fleet. Captain,” Julia Hammond again turned to Slone, “We should be at coordinates, 128, -37.035, 12657, 842155. I put the coordinates in myself.”

  Before Slone could respond, Paul McMann said, “That’s in the middle of the Matsua Rim, where the exodus ended up. If those are the coordinates you put in, then it is not your fault if we ended up here.”

  The Slones looked at each other. They had never seen Paul come to the defense of someone in that way. They now again moved their gaze to Commander Hammond, who said, “Perhaps I should start at the beginning, and tell you about the Sakkara, but first let me ask if you put power to the vessel?”

  This time Diana Gardner responded, “Yes, we hooked up the external power lines to our ship’s power.”

  “That explains it then, but I’m getting ahead of my story,” Commander Hammond began. “Early in 2352 we discovered the elongated cube you have on your ship that was later christened the Sakkara. The name was chosen because the vessel was discovered to be a gateway, just as the ancient Egyptians on Earth thought Sakkara was a gateway to the afterlife. For us we thought it would be a gateway to safety, but now I don’t know if that was ever the case. Have you picked up any evidence of life in this system?”

  Christopher looked a Roger Umgabe, “Anything Roger?”

  Umgabe looked at the console in the table in front of him. He had transferred the bridge station to the conference room to allow him to monitor the approach to the planet. “Captain, we are still just over three hours out from planet fall, but there are no electronic emissions. There appears to be some indication of possible wreckage on the planet, but since it has an atmosphere, there is weather and that disrupts sensors at this distance. Once we are an hour out, we can get a better read.”

  “Then I have time to continue my story,” Commander Hammond said. “The rectangular cuboid was sitting on a moon of the third gas giant of the Freiburg system. We had been traveling from the coreward areas of Brandenburger space with the intent to make our way to the Matsua Rim. Word had filtered to us that some of the banished intellectuals were heading there. We entered the Freiburg system and two of our ships lost a piece of their sail rings. They could be repaired but it would take a few weeks and we were not sure if we could stay in the system. What your history books may have neglected was the fact that after we were banished, the corporations decided they may need us some time, and sent ships after us. It was their intent to make us compulsory workers who were required to conform. Unfortunately, for them and us, we were all non-conformists. I left the military because I could not agree with banishing our best and brightest. As we were looking for a place to repair our ships, we picked up some strange telemetry that did not match anything we had in our computers. It was coming from a large moon circling the third gas giant of the system. When we investigated, we found the rectangular cuboid you have aboard your ship.

  “When we first saw it, given its shape, we thought it was just a large cargo container lost by some freighter that passed through the system. We soon discovered there were no external markings and the usual container accesses were nowhere to be found. We came across a hatch on the side of the cuboid that was labeled in a symbolic language we did not understand. Our computers could also not decipher it. Fortunately, we had some of the best minds of the Brandenburger Corporation with us and they were able to figure out how to open the door. We knew as soon as we entered it, that it was alien. You can imagine the excitement that elicited. The scientists among us went right to work trying to figure out what exactly this rectangular cuboid was. While our scientists and linguists worked on the alien construction, our engineers went to work on the damaged sail rings. Unfortunately, the repair of the sail rings would take more time than we thought, since new pieces would have to be fabricated and we had little in the way of fabrication facilities
. We spent more than a month working on the sail rings and the alien structure. Sadly, we made more headway on the alien than on the sail rings and it looked like we were going to have to abandon two of our ships with all aboard. There was no more room to double up. Fortunately, the Freiburg system was uninhabited and of no economic value. Space is large and no one knew where we were going, so no one had found us to this point.

  “A month and a half into our stay in the system, the pieces were still being fabricated for the sail rings and as many women and children as we had room for were distributed by lottery to any ships that had even one berth due to the deaths that routinely occur among the old. Our linguists made advances into deciphering the Saltic language and we were able to establish that what we had was not a complete ship. As far as we could tell, it was a drive module and from the translation of the manuals, as best our linguists could tell, opened some kind of gate into another area of space. From what we gathered, the module could open the gate and the ships could pass through. We all felt this was our way out. We had no idea how it worked or where it would take us, but anything was preferable to becoming prisoners of the very corporation that just kicked us out. They would use the safety of our families to force us to do their bidding and keep us from criticizing their actions. Our engineers placed human language consoles next to the alien ones, allowing a human to control the mechanism. It also meant that a human had to stay behind to operate the portal and I volunteered for the mission, since I had no family and could afford to be in stasis for a while. I must admit, I did not expect it to last for eight centuries. The artists among us insisted on painting the name of the module on a plaque affixed to the side, as the engineers brought in a nuclear powered stasis chamber. I remember them joking that the power would last a thousand years, but never expected it would come this close. We had planned for the stasis to last a decade, at which time the module would send out a call signal with the name Sakkara. It was hoped that by that time a ship could return to retrieve the module and me. All but one of the ships that were still slipstream capable left and the two with damaged sails and one with engineers and their families stayed behind with the idea that they would pass through the portal to escape the system. The engineers could then fix the sails without fear of being detected.”

  “Sounds like a reasonable plan, but if you sent them to this system, fixing the sails would not do much good since there is no way to make it back to corporate space,” Paul McMann pointed out.

  Julia Hammond continued, “I know but this was not where they were supposed to go. Let me continue and you will see. The linguists determined that the navigation worked on a galactic coordinate system that only required the input of the proper coordinates and it would open a gateway. From maps in their computer, it appeared that the Saltic used the same coordinate system we do, therefore, I am at a loss why we did not end up in the Matsua rim.”

  Slone looked over at his navigator, “Paul, while we are in this system, I would like you and Diana to work with Commander Hammond to try to find out why the coordinates didn’t work on the alien drive. We will need it to be accurate if we are ever to get back home.”

  “Yes, sir,” Paul said, a little more forcefully than he meant to. All could see he was taken with Commander Hammond.

  “If you will please continue, Commander Hammond,” Slone prodded.

  Julia Hammond continued, “There is little left to tell. The Sakkara is a wormhole drive. It can open a wormhole to any location in the galaxy, within a reasonable distance. It folds space. With it you can travel without slipstreams.”

  “That answers a lot of questions about the things we saw in the Andromeda Galaxy when we first encountered the Saltic. Their ship entered the system we were in without sails.”

  Paul McMann now said, “That does still not explain how you ended up on a rogue planet between systems when you were on a moon in the Freiburg system.”

  “I have no answer for that. After the ships went through the wormhole the Sakkara created, I shut down the drive. I then went into stasis and remember nothing until I woke up here.”

  After a few seconds of contemplation, Slone stated, “We will add that tidbit to all of the other mysteries. We all hope the three of you will be able to figure out how this drive can get us home. Our ability to return to our space will depend on getting that wormhole drive working. If we can’t then we are stuck here and I really don’t want to establish a new civilization. I kind of prefer the one we have.” Slone now turned to Roger Umgabe, “Roger, anything on planetary scans yet?”

  “Captain, there are definitely ship fragments on the planet surface. They appear to be near some kind of habitation. However, we are not picking up any electronic emissions from the area. Life signs indicate several thousand humans near the wreckage. They are in the area of the habitation. Scanners indicate a small settlement.”

  “Those must be the descendants of the survivors from the exodus ships. No corporate ships have ever gone out this far.” Slone then turned to his wife, “Alaya, as soon as we are in orbit, I want you to take the Mary Rose down to the surface. We have to make contact with these people, since they are missing corporate citizens. I plan to join you on your exploration.” Slone then turned to Paul McMann, “Paul, how long to planetfall?”

  Paul consulted his console in the tabletop, “We should be in orbit in 45 minutes.”

  “Very well, you are all dismissed then. I want a synchronous orbit above that habitation. Make sure we remain invisible and get help for Hister to keep it that way.”

  The meeting broke up and the Slones, along with Tavia and Hatch, went down to the flight deck were the Mary Rose was docked. Tavia had already called the crew and they were going through the checks. Half the crew was human and half serpent. Because they were certain the humans on the planet had no idea about aliens, it was decided the serpents would remain on the Mary Rose while the humans made contact. Since Alaya was the captain of the Mary Rose, Christopher was a guest aboard and stood next to the captain’s chair on the bridge of the corvette. Alaya’s crew was at their stations. The Mary Rose was docked next to the Sakkara and Alaya could see Paul McMann and Julia Hammond standing at the entrance in discussion. Julia was fascinated with the serpent ships and then looked at the corvette, which was much larger than the serpent vessels. Suddenly, the corvette vanished as Alaya ordered Hatch to make them invisible.

  “I must be hallucinating; I just saw the ship vanish.”

  Paul had to chuckle, since the Romani never knew a time when their ships could not vanish. “The serpents can make our ships invisible.”

  “I wish we would have had that when we escaped during the Banishment.”

  They could feel the Mary Rose lift off and exit the flight deck through the force field. Paul McMann and Julia Hammond then entered the Sakkara to try to discover the reason they were not in the Matsua Rim. Diana Gardner and Sean O’Brian soon joined them and within fifteen minutes of the Mary Rose’s departure, they were deep in discussions as Commander Hammond brought them up to date. Meanwhile, the Mary Rose glided towards the planet. Slone had decided they would enter orbit first and check out the vicinity for any dangers. Since they were well beyond any help, they had to consider this situation similar to when they were in Andromeda. Extreme caution was the order of the day.

  “Sss. We are in orbit above human habitation, Captain Slone,” Blue Scale reported.

  Christopher deferred to his wife as captain of the corvette. “Keep us in a synchronous orbit above the settlement and give me full magnification of the area. Put the image up on the front of the bridge bubble.”

  It was night in the area of habitation and magnification showed a primitive looking settlement consisting of small, wooden structures with light provided by torches. There were no electronic emissions of any kind. The settlement seemed to be constructed around a much larger building that was higher than any other building in the area of habitation.

  Raul Cortega looked up from the scanner conso
le, “Captain, there does not appear to be anything suggesting a higher technology. These must be the descendants of the fugitives from the Great Spinward Exodus, but it appears they have lost all of their modern technology.”

  Slone gave this some thought, “It’s been eight hundred years with no way to repair equipment or maintain electricity. I am not surprised they regressed. We will have to be very careful how we handle this. Most primitive societies are very paranoid and they will not expect other humans. I think we will need to talk with one of them. The only problem is how do we do that?”

  While they were discussing this, the Tempestas entered orbit and stayed invisible, as did the Mary Rose. As the Slones were discussing how to go about making contact with the planetary inhabitants, Raul interrupted them, “Captain, there is an intact ship not far from the settlement. It looks like one of the freighters that brought them here. The other two freighters are not present.”

  “After eight hundred years, I’m surprised that even one still exists,” Alaya said. “Can we land near that ship and not be seen by the settlement if we become visible.”

  Raul consulted the scanners, “There’s no room left in the valley where the freighter is, but there is a valley three kilometers from the freighter that is five kilometers from the settlement. If we land there, we would not be visible from the habitation.”

  “Ok, land us there and let’s try to make contact.”

  The Mary Rose landed in the designated valley. After making certain there was no one in the vicinity, Alaya ordered Hatch to make the ship visible. After the ship appeared, Alaya ordered the serpents to stay aboard and took her husband along with a contingent of human Romani as guards. The Decanus in charge of the Romani squad took over command of the ground operations, as per Romani custom, deferred to Alaya concerning how contact should be made. The group consisted of 10 Romani legionaries and the Slones. They set out from the Mary Rose in the direction of the freighter.