“Where is my fleet now?” Araman asked.
“Sitting in between the Oleander and the Novenian fleet unable to move or either side will take it as a hostile action.”
“They are not exactly a promising ally.” He remarked. “They already interfered with our mission once, wanting the same target we did.”
Herse nodded. “The delegates were to discuss with us their concerns with the Oleander extracting experiments, hence their visit. Oleander moles discovered the agenda and they were of course effectively stopped. Your target was an operative on its first initial tests of which your ship and the delegates were the victims of.”
“Why aren’t the Novenians leaving it up to us? They admitted they did not have the Intelligence abilities we do in Oleander.”
“After you were reported missing from Orpheaus Six, they thought our means were less than satisfactory and now there is a stand off. Oleander is dangling a truce in front of us and Novena threatening to attack us if we do not side with them.”
Araman ran a hand through his blonde hair. “And because we share trade routes with Oleander either action will be seen as hostile.” He thought for a moment. Oleander is the planet they shared their solar system with but Novena supplied both protection and resources along the routes.
“It seems, Commandant, that your honeymoon will have to wait.” Herse’s tone was dry. “The Regent has been given a small window of time to answer to both parties.”
“How small a window?” Araman asked.
“Eighty-two lunar hours.”
“Can you stall if need be?”
Herse gave a snort. “Stall?” Then he paused and thought. “If need be, I think we can find a malfunction with the communications for a few hours. Don’t push it. Just get in there and get the delegates out.” He reached forward to his console. “Good luck Commandant.” Herse faded from the screen.
“Santari?” Araman called out.
“Yes?” The Commander’s red head popped through the door.
“What is this pod capable of?”
“Getting us from point A to point B Sir so long as we are not in a hurry. I could do some tweaking?” Santari offered.
“Then I suggest you do it, we leave for Oleander as soon as you’re done.”
Chapter Fifteen
The pod shot off into the Shinwa night breaking free of the dark planet and finding its way across the black of space. Santari’s enhancements to the vessel’s engines did nothing to improve the cramped quarters the three flew in.
“Entering the outer edge of Terrian space Commandant.” Santari hit a pad on the console. The engine was purring along although the crystals feeding the engine were starting to show decline. He sat figuring in his head the mathematics of the crystals endurance for the remainder of the voyage to Oleander. “We are half way.” He spoke out loud to himself.
“Uh, Santari? How exactly did you boost the speed of this ship?” Araman asked feeling more comfortable back in his uniform.
Santari hit another button not liking his calculations of coming up short of fuel. “I simply rerouted the main power of the ships computer using limited support.” He looked up. “Why?”
“Would one of the support systems be the gravity hold?” The Commandant moved his hand from the end of the armrest and a metal screw started to float slowly away from his hand.
“It seems to be happening here too.” Brea spoke up trying to gather her hair from the ceiling of the pod. She was thankful for the strap keeping her pinned to her seat.
A yellow light flashed above Santari’s head as an alarm sounded in their ears. The constant blaring was becoming increasingly louder.
“What’s wrong?” Yelled Brea.
“We are losing life support.” Araman shouted back as his finger flew across his pad trying to undo the damage. “We have ten minutes Commander.”
Santari squeezed himself between his chair and the console and ripped open the door to the inner gizzards of the console. He started ripping and pulling out wires and boards.
“What are you doing?” Araman demanded to know.
Without looking up from his task, “I’m getting us air.” He plugged in a panel and the engine began to slag. “That’s not it.” He pulled the panel out again and tried a different one. Three tries later the alarm shut off leaving only a ringing in their ears.
“Next problem?” Santari returned to his seat.
“Is this thing going to make it?” Araman asked.
“Yes and no.” Santari lit up the gauges ignoring the use of power it pulled from the engines. “Because we are on limited life support we theoretically can make it to Oleander. The crystals are only a temporary fuel source.”
“I though you said we could make it back?”
“I was wrong.” Santari shrugged. “I didn’t realize the crystals only had so much life in them. This is an escape pod, Commandant, not a winged fighter.” Santari turned the gauges off.
“I am aware of that Commander.” Araman spoke through gritted teeth. “Can we energize the crystals.” Thinking of a laser pistol.
“Too fragile, they will burst upon contact.” Santari faced Araman. “I have run the diagnostics in my head and on the machine. No matter how I figure it out, we come up eight lunar hours short of Oleander.”
Araman thought for a moment. “Can this thing give us a long range trajectory?”
Santari looked to the console and knit his brows together. He slowly started to shake his head. “This thing is your basic model. No frills.”
“Would that not bring you to your moons?” Brea spoke up from behind. The two men looked over to her. “It takes ten lunar hours to travel through your moons.”
Santari glanced from Brea to Araman, “She’s right. We would be on the outer edge.…” Another alarm lit up on the console as its baritone beep interrupted his sentence.
“Now what?” Araman demanded to know.
“It’s the crystals.” Santari explained. “There is enough power left to reach the outer moon Tetris.”
Just as he spoke the words a large bang then an ominous creak came from behind Brea. She gulped as she returned her jade eyes to Araman.
“There may be power but will there be a ship?” Brea whispered.
A ripple shook the pod knocking the three around as it began to spin out of control. It dropped several meters before lurching back up as Santari struggled to bring them out of the roll. Araman helped Brea extinguish the fires breaking out. The pod fought back with more alarms blaring, steam shooting out from snapped hoses and resisting Santari’s attempts to rein it in.
Brea managed to shut the hoses off but not before the ship decided to lash out at her. An overhead compartment opened up and dumped its entire contents of First Aid gear on top of her head. Its final blow was the door falling off and slamming into her shoulder.
“Frigg!” She swore trying to regain her balance.
Finally the pod slowly came out of the roll. Araman assessed the damage while Santari wiped the sweat from his forehead with his arm. Santari looked around and then tried to switch on the outer cameras.
“Is it me or does this thing seem lighter?” He asked punching the keypad on the console, which was not responding. He looked back out the viewer. “Look out there.” Santari gestured with his chin.
“What?” Araman stared out. “How far off course are we?”
Santari fiddled with some wires directly underneath the console managing to retrieve some power for the computer. His fingers flew across the pad seeking the data he needed.
“Looks like we are only twenty cubics off course, just enough to add to the situation.” He pressed a few more flat buttons. “Life support will hold.…” He made a face, “But the crystals have lost more power, we are down to seven hours.”
“One problem at a time. Let’s get this piece of Oleander crap back on target.” Araman ran a frustrated hand through his hair. He brought up the star charts and manually tracked their position. At the prese
nt speed and direction they would fall short of Tetris and its gravity pull.
“What’s the status of the controls?”
“Fine as long as we are manual. I have some maneuvering capabilities.” Santari answered. He looked over to the maps to see what Araman had in mind. He nodded slowly.
“Take her down, slow and easy.” Araman instructed. Santari gave a nod and gripped the ‘U’ shaped helm and dipped the shuttle’s nose a few degrees. He watched both the map and open space until they hit their mark.
“Shut down.” Araman hit the console and switched off the computer saving what precious power they had left. He released a tight breath of air as the first of the two problems was hopefully solved.
Santari turned in his seat and stared behind Brea. His fingers rubbed his chin as he thought for a moment. His mahogany eyes held fixed on the compartment holding the fragile fuel.
“I think I can get us at least two more lunar hours.” He turned to Araman.
“Do it. The gravitational pull of the moon will do the rest.”
Santari squeezed in between the chair and console and once again pulled panels and wires. Araman watched as he crossed wires with panels and then shoved the whole mess back into the cubbyhole of the console.
“What in Frigg’s name are you doing?” He growled.
“It only looks worse than it is. I’ve just cut the heat from the life support. I suggest you bundle up.”
Brea jumped up and searched the tiny cabin for emergency blankets. She found the silver foil packets in amongst the First Aid gear spread out across the floor at her feet. She could only find two and handed them to the men. Inside another compartment running vertical she found two survival jackets and decided they would work for her.
The pod moved at a steady pace while the interior shuttered and shook its passengers. Each hour was passed in silence as each kept careful watch for any more trouble from the shuttle as their breath began to condense with the air growing colder. Another cause for Araman’s concern as he heard a small cough from behind.
“Co2 levels are high, there is something wrong with the ventilator.” He undid his safety restraints and slid over beside Brea. He examined the component. “Give me power here.”
The indicator lit up then sounded the alarm for its dangerous levels. Araman could hear it working and yet the levels were not dropping. He opened up the panel and could see no damage. It was as though a part of it had some how been by-passed.
“I need to see the outside of this ship.” Araman looked over to Santari who shook his head.
“The digitals are down.”
“I need to get outside this ship.”
“Sorry Commandant, we don’t have the suits.”
Brea looked up at Araman. “You don’t need a suit. Use your energy to seek it out.”
Araman kissed the top of her forehead. “Thank you Lyra, for reminding me.” He settled back into his seat.
Santari watched as Araman slipped into a meditation. He turned and saw Brea was doing the same and began to wonder about their sanity of the situation. He stood up and slipped over to the Co2 vent and checked the gauge. It was only two degrees from the top. Santari prayed that whatever Araman was doing would work.
With three deep breaths, Araman managed to let his aura take flight and circle around the pod. It took him several seconds to get his bearings before examining the ship. He felt another presence with him and turned to see Brea’s glowing shadow beside him.
“This is why Santari thought the ship was lighter. This entire side has been sheared by something.” Araman pointed out. Along the hull sharp scratches blazed the trail.
“Could this be it?” Brea pointed to a spot near the front of the pod door. Its outer hull had been blown away. Araman scrutinized the spot.
Black around the jagged edges indicated something had exploded. He looked in further to see two worn stray wires had crossed in the vibrations blowing out part of the shell. Even at the slower speed of the pod it was still quick enough that at the time of the explosion, the ship’s ventilation system passed and was sheared.
Araman nodded before re-examining the missing section. “It’s clean and fused. Here is where the trapped oxygen lies and here,” he pointed to another section, “is where the fan is pulling for it. The friggin’ engineers designed it to flow along the outside. Idiots!”
“Can it be fixed?” Brea asked.
“I have to try.” He disappeared and managed to find a large hose dangling off the port of the pod. He reappeared and held it along the side. “This will reach, but attaching it and opening it may prove difficult.”
Araman stared at the situation for a moment, knowing inside the level has moved one bar higher. He held the hose against the hull. With the strength of his mind he imagined the hose and metal melt together. He felt Santari’s hope when the bar stopped moving. He did the same at the other end of the hose.
Brea came up in between Araman and the pod. She sent a wave of energy to act as a shield surrounding the mechanical bandage. Araman sent his own aura to reinforce Brea’s. They both felt Santari’s relief at the gauge falling as they returned to their bodies.
Santari stood staring at both of them in disbelief at what they had just done.
“I watched a hose float by the window without anyone there.” He stated. “Does anyone care to explain?”
“I’m not sure you would understand.” Araman answered. “Co2?”
“We are good. Scrubber is working like a charm.” Santari returned to his chair. “Can you do that with the crystals?”
“No.” Araman shook his head. “As you said, they are too fragile. Any fluctuation with them could damage them further.” He glanced out the viewer. The outer edges of a galaxy were growing larger by the second. “It’s looking familiar out there. What’s our distance?”
“One hundred thousand parsecs and closing. Power is holding.” Santari informed him. “Navigations are still unresponsive, on line for manual. Preparing for gravitational pull. No signs of the Oleander or Novena fleet. Looks like they left a hole for us. If this baby flies straight we won’t be detected either. Their scanners are focused on each other.”
The Commandant nodded as he looked downwards. “Life support is still operational.” Araman looked up from the console and back to the sparkling asteroid dust they were entering. “Outer hull holding.”
The ship began to slow. It was undetectable in the first few thousand parsecs the pod flew. Araman and Santari looked up at the console simultaneously then to each other.
“You felt that too?” Santari asked. Araman nodded.
“Range?” Blue eyes focused on the levels of the crystals.
“Forty thousand kilometers until gravitational pull.”
A grim expression shadowed Araman’s face. “We’re losing speed.” He stared at the gauge. A thought formulated in brain as his eyes slid over to Santari. “We could do a burn, glide off the burst.”
The reddish-brown head turned slowly to his superior officer. “That would work. We just need to be close enough to let the laws of gravity do its duty.” Santari gripped the manual controls. “On you mark.”
Araman put his finger over the flat keypad, “Thirty, twenty, ten. Fire.” He punched the keypad.
The pod jumped forward and then shot forward targeting the huge white moon like a bullet to the bull’s eye. Santari held the controls in his steel grip while Araman gave him the degrees to lift or drop the nose. The pod began to shake and quiver from the stress. The burn was enough to bring them to the outer orbit of their target when the crystals finally evaporated. The pod glided into the last thousand kilometers.
The violent tug told the men they were in the moon’s hold. Brea held her breath as the surface of Tetris filled the viewer within a heartbeat. Santari fought the tired ship against the moon’s force trying not to incinerate them upon entering the atmosphere. They punched through.
The damaged pod limped its way to the surface where it landed
with a crash. Santari swore he heard the last breath of the ship escape before finally giving up its mechanical life. The three removed their restraints and scrambled out of the pod before it decided to do something like cave in on them.
“Do you think we were detected?” Santari asked looking at the crumpled pod.
“I don’t think we should stick around to find out.” Araman said as he pulled out a scanner from his utility belt. He flipped it open and slowly made a wide circle searching for the direction of the central mine. A soft beep indicated the direction. “This way.”
Darkness fell all around by the time the three reached the mine. The loud hiss of air-compressed pistons releasing filled the air combined with the screeching of wheels as they came to a slow stop. The outer lights of the gray supply shacks provided ample shadows to move through as Araman reached the first of the outer buildings.
With his back against the shell, he took a peek around the corner. Straight ahead lay the mouth of the mine and the transport ships they needed. To the right stood three more small storage buildings and to the left, the main office for the mine. Oleander officers and so-called miners seem to be milling around. The miners were too well armed for regular workers.
“What’s wrong?” Santari asked as Araman turned back.
“It’s covered. We do not have a clean break to the ship.” He gestured with his blonde head for his Commander to take a look.
“Can’t you people make an invisible shield or something?” Santari shot out sarcastically as he shifted over to investigate around the corner. He saw the same thing Araman did—no route to the bay.
“May be if we.…”
“Hush.” Brea silenced him. “Something is coming.”
The quiet hum of a gliding cargo container and footsteps grinding the fine gravel grew louder. To their relief the large metal box hid their presence.
“Halt!” A female voice shouted. The three froze instantly. “Where are you going?”
“To the loading dock. It’s designated for refill.” Came the masculine answer.
Santari didn’t wait for the other two to follow. He made his way to the back of the container and climbed in through the open top. He heard the other two shuffle in behind him.
Araman's Aria Page 21
