Sojourn

by S. H. Jucha

  After retiring to the traveler, Franz and Suntred ate and then rested, while Julien and Z chatted with their respective partners aboard the Freedom.

  Alex sent from his suite,

  Julien replied.

  Z woke Franz and Suntred, and the group exited the bay.

  Julien asked.

  Alex asked.

  Julien replied.

  Z interjected.

  Franz sent.

  Alex asked.

  Z replied.

  Black space, Alex thought, which transmitted.

  Franz sent.

  Alex sent, his emotions roiling.

  Julien suggested.

  Alex replied.

  Z suggested.

  Alex replied.

  Julien sent.

  Alex requested.

  Z accessed the battleship’s comm panel, selected the comm ID of the leader’s ship, and called.

  “This is Julien. I’m requesting to speak to Leader Di-Orsoo.”

  “This is the captain, Julien. The leader is momentarily indisposed,” Sa-Foosee replied. “It will take some time to make him available.”

  “We’ll wait,” Julien replied.

  -22-

  First Aid

  Di-Orsoo hurried from his pool and quickly donned his suit. Faster than Gotlians had ever observed, the leader appeared on the bridge. He’d been hoping for and dreading this call at the same time. The humans represented a unique opportunity. Yet, they might deny this world to his race.

  “I’m here, Julien,” Di-Orsoo announced.

  “We have matters to discuss,” Julien said.

  Di-Orsoo experienced an emotional lift. “What would you like to know, Julien?”

  “Do you have concerns about the safe return of your ship from your home world?” the SADE inquired.

  “We have expectations,” Di-Orsoo replied cryptically.

  “But no concerns?” Julien pursued.

  “No, we have those too,” Di-Orsoo admitted.

  “Our leader believes your circumstances risk the viable transfer of your race,” Julien said.

  “We haven’t a choice, Julien. Our race can’t survive on our home world. We must relocate, and this is the only water planet available to us. Obtaining these ships emptied our reserves to acquire them. We must make do with them.”

  Alex requested.

  “Our leader wishes to know if you’ll allow us to repair the ship that we’re presently aboard,” Julien said.

  “My engineers have told me that it’s irreparable. I suppose if you make it operational, you’ll have the right to claim it,” Di-Orsoo replied. He deflated, believing he’d been mistaken about the purpose of the call.

  “We’d recondition the ship to aid your purpose,” Julien explained.

  “Why would you do this for us?” Di-Orsoo asked. His tentacles twisted in confusion, echoing the actions of those around him.

  “We want to be good neighbors,” Julien replied.

  Di-Orsoo didn’t recognize the Omnian term, and he glanced at Or-Deebaa and Sa-Foosee. Their entwined tentacles indicated they didn’t either.

  “Do good neighbors require a contract or agreement?” the leader inquired.

  “No,” Julien replied. “It asks that we allow each other to live in peace and extend a helping hand, when it’s needed or requested.”

  “We’ve always been amenable to the races who visited us,” Di-Orsoo replied enthusiastically. “We would receive you in the same manner.”

  Alex asked.

  “Our leader wishes to know if your ships exhibit the same level of preparedness as this one,” Julien relayed.

  “We sent our best ship to Gotl,” Di-Orsoo replied. He embellished the name of the home world with a peculiar burp. “The ship you’re aboard was one of our better conditioned vessels.”

  “It’s possible we could help you with the quality of your ships’ operations,” Julien offered. “Would you allow us to investigate?”

  Julien heard the Gotlian’s consternation, and he waited patiently for a response.

  “Our appearance is disruptive to most races, Julien,” Di-Orsoo replied. “Your efforts would be valuable, but not if it cost us your desire to aid us.”

  “I’m an Omnian, Di-Orsoo, and I’m also a SADE. We are sentient digital entities who’ve chosen to live and work among humans. The SADEs could perform the evaluations and repairs to your ships’ systems. To our minds, all races are just different forms of biology. One shape is as good as another.”

  “How do you appear?” Or-Deebaa asked.

  “And you are?” Julien inquired.

  “Fleet Commander Or-Deebaa,” the commander replied.

  “Commander Or-Deebaa, we can inhabit any avatar, a body, that we can design and construct, but we choose to appear as humans, when we work beside them. You might not find our appearances any more appealing than humans,” Julien said.

  “Julien, it would be better if you first examined and tested your skills on the ship you inhabit. It might be that your services are incompatible with the ship’s systems,” Di-Orsoo suggested.

  “We will need to move our great ship, called the Freedom, and our freighters close to this battleship. In that case, our leader will insist on the fleet’s warships accompanying them,” Julien warned.

  “A wise precaution,” Di-Orsoo allowed. “We’ll move our fleet away. Good neighbors must prove themselves.”

  Julien agreed, and Z closed the comm.

  Alex, at Tatia’s urging, waited to sail until the Gotlian ships were underway. Then the Omnian fleet moved to take up stations around the abandoned ship.

  Mickey, his engineering teams, and freighter crews swarmed aboard the battleship. On Alex’s orders, the armament was checked first.

  Mickey sent, after a brief inspection.

  Alex said curtly. He wasn’t in a good mood. His partner and staff had denied him access to the Gotlian ship. Instead, he received his information via the SADEs, whose comms could reach the traveler in the battleship’s lower bay.

  Mickey replied. He was sympathetic to Alex’s plight and his resulting temper. It had been suggested to him that he not board the ship, and he’d threatened to resign. Unfortunately, Alex had no such option.

  Alex sent.

  <
Correct,> Mickey replied.

  Alex ordered.

  Freighter crews discovered hull plating and beams in a bay, and they used their cargo loaders to ferry the material from the bay to the damaged hull area. The loaders held the beams in position, while crews in suits welded them in place. Then plates were applied inside and outside the hull. It wasn’t a pretty patch, but it was serviceable.

  When pressure in the engine control room was returned, Mickey and his teams investigated the damage. Suntred provided a fairly good summary of the equipment that had been destroyed and its purposes.

  “Mickey, a traveler’s controller could perform these operations with less than ten percent of its capability,” Miriam pronounced.

  “According to Suntred, four pieces of equipment were destroyed, in addition to the master controller,” Luther added, while examining the fused structures. “They were ancillary controllers. Ours can replace them all.”

  Mickey nodded his agreement, and said, “Assign a work team to cut away this junk and pile it in a bay. Get another group working on the controller. After installation and programming, we’ll test it on the ancillary equipment before we try it on the engines. Do we have reaction mass?”

  “Plenty,” Luther replied.

  Mickey glanced at Suntred. “We check the environmental systems next,” he said, and Miriam translated.

  After a thorough inspection, Mickey called Alex. he sent.

  Alex replied.

  Mickey replied.

  Alex asked.

  Mickey queried Miriam, who provided an estimate, and Mickey replied to Alex,

  The fleet’s biochemist, Emile Billings, exited a traveler and was led by Julien to a section of the lower deck that housed the water reclamation tanks, purification ponds, and clean water holding tanks.

  Emile chose to start with the last pond in the purification process. One whiff, after unsealing the access hatch, told Emile the ship was in trouble.

  “Power has been shut off, and the ponds have lost circulation,” Emile announced, shaking his head in disgust. He set about studying the complex system. After collecting his samples, he boarded a traveler to return to his lab. He was back aboard the battleship the next morning.

  “No sleep?” Mickey asked Emile when he met the biochemist in the reclamation section.

  “Does it show?” Emile quipped. He’d seen his red, puffy eyes in the refresher mirror, which he’d only visited briefly. He’d skipped morning meal, choosing to grab some food aboard the traveler.

  “Just a little,” Mickey allowed, and the two men laughed. They were both dedicated to their work.

  “Incredible little organisms,” Emile pronounced, launching into his summary with Mickey, Miriam, and Luther. He walked the engineers through the entire system, detailing the purposes of the ancillary supply tanks, filtration methods, and, essentially, every aspect of the processes.

  “Where do you suggest we start?” asked Mickey, when Emile finished his walk-through and sent the required procedures to them.

  Emile regarded Mickey and grinned. “Mickey,” he said, “I can only tell you what the microbes need. You’re the engineer. You need to figure out how to supply them. However, I can tell you this. These ponds are dying. If they aren’t resurrected soon, you’ll need to clean them out and start over again, and at the moment, I’ve no idea how to do that.”

  Mickey commandeered most of the freighter crews. They were experienced in the transfer of liquid cargo. The teams investigated the gas tanks that fed the pond and discovered stuck valves that weren’t responding to their actuators and leaking piping.

  Several circulation pumps were offline, and others were failing to meet their expected output. You didn’t have to be one of the original ship builders to translate the indicators. The warning sounds and the red tint of the electronic readouts clearly identified the pumps that weren’t performing adequately.

  Three days after Emile had delivered his summary, he was called back to investigate the progress the teams had made. He pronounced the ponds recovering and recommended minor adjustments.

  The Omnian controller was installed; the auxiliary equipment was deemed operational. There was no heat damage. The programming tests for operation of generators and other power equipment were successful. Now it was time for the engine tests. The preparatory processes had been completed, and the engine control circuitry responded as expected.

  Mickey cleared the ship of crew members, and he exited with them.

  “We can only bring the engines online,” Miriam cautioned.

  “Agreed,” Mickey said. “We can’t fire them because we can’t steer the ship. Z says we need a trained Gotlian pilot for that.”

  When every individual was clear of the battleship, sitting a good distance away in travelers, Miriam accessed the controller of an empty traveler, which had been left aboard. In turn, the traveler’s controller signaled the battleship’s new controller to activate engine warm-up routines.

  Miriam, along with the SADEs and humans in the travelers, monitored the obscure readouts. The operating parameters weren’t known. Therefore, the only things they could truly observe were signs of dangerous conditions. Fortunately, the best indications of success were the slow steady climb in readouts that reached peak levels and held there.

  “Not a manual in sight,” Mickey grumped. “How can you set equipment to maximum efficiency without manuals?”

  “What good would they do us?” Miriam riposted. “We couldn’t read them anyway.”

  The test was shut down, when the controller reported a limited flow of reaction mass to the engines. Mickey and his teams landed and investigated the problem. They discovered the same issues as they’d found at the purification system — valve problems and leaking lines.

  “Black space,” Mickey swore. “If it wasn’t for this compartment having been evacuated to space, these leaks would have been responsible for blowing the rear third of this ship off.”

  Repairs were made, and the test resumed. Readouts climbed and surpassed the previous levels by three hundred percent. Then they steadied.

  Mickey sent.

  Alex replied.

  Alex waited until he received Julien’s cue that they were online with Di-Orsoo. Then he sent the opening comment.

  “Di-Orsoo,” Julien said, “repairs are complete on your ship. It required major work. Without knowledge of operating parameters and maintenance procedures, we could only do so much. However, we believe you’ll be pleased with the results.”

  “Thank your leader for his efforts, Julien,” Di-Orsoo said.

  “We respectfully request that you send a team over to verify your ship’s condition,” Julien said. “If you find our work satisfactory, we suggest you transfer another ship’s entire crew to this ship, and we’ll make repairs to the empty ship. In that manner, the work will proceed much faster.”

  Di-Orsoo regarded his commander and captain.

  “If the tests of the abandoned ship prove desirable, w
e should accept the Omnians’ offer,” Or-Deebaa urged.

  “The tests will be fine,” Sa-Foosee pronounced with conviction. “Telemetry has identified heat from the ship’s engines. Our engineers stated that the holed compartment was irreparable.”

  “We certainly don’t have to worry about the Omnians planning treachery,” Di-Orsoo reasoned. “With their fleet’s size and technological prowess, they could have destroyed us, at any time.”

  It was easy for Di-Orsoo to come to a decision. He felt he had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Turning to his commander, he said, “Or-Deebaa, designate a captain, a pilot, and some engineers to board the repaired ship and test its readiness. If successful, station that ship close to another in our fleet and order the transfer.”

  Immediately after the call ended, Franz, with his passengers aboard, swung his traveler out of the battleship. The bay doors were left open behind them. They took up a station in the direction of the Gotlian fleet, and soon afterwards, they watched a shuttle leave a fleet’s ship and make the crossing to the repaired ship.

  The next day, Or-Deebaa received a glowing report from the captain whose engineers had performed the investigation, and the commander immediately visited Di-Orsoo in his stateroom.

  “The captain reports the repairs have exceeded his expectations,” Or-Deebaa said to the leader. “Engine operating parameters are far above where we usually see them, and the air isn’t fouled. Everything the Omnians touched works much better than when we received the ship at Gotl.”

  “A commendable effort,” Di-Orsoo said.

  Or-Deebaa’s mouth opened wide, and his tentacle tips danced in mirth.

  “What?” Di-Orsoo asked.

  “The captain and the crew found the water refreshed. They cleaned out pools in some cabins and bathed. Then they cleaned out their suits and recharged the water before they donned them again,” Or-Deebaa explained. “The captain would like to know if he can command the repaired ship.”

  Di-Orsoo stared at his commander in disbelief. Then the two of them belched and burped their humor.