The Atlantis Chronicles- The Kordam Party

by Michael Brown

  “Luck of the freaking draw, Sir,” Teek growled irritably.

  “What's so important that I got dragged out of my rack in the middle of the night?” Bowen growled.

  “The Tomas Adams spotted an object.”

  Teek Plumbar flipped a wave at the nearest immersive control console. The hologram tank came to life with the depiction of a starship. The ship was roughly rectangular with drum-shaped engine nacelles at the end of stubby, triangular wings. The aft end of these engine nacelles tapered to a cone shape.

  “Is that a Kalvan-class transport ship?” Bowen peered closely.

  “Yes, Sir,” Teek nodded.

  “What's she doing near the Kordam Formation?”

  “So far, she's drifting,” Teek gestured to the vessel. “She is moving like a derelict.”

  “What do the scanners say about her?”

  “Life signs, negative. Atmosphere negative. Power negative. She's dead in the water.”

  “Muster an emergency response team,” Bowen sighed, “have them board the ship. If she's clean, we'll tow her back here.”

  “Aye, Sir.”

  “Let me know what they find.”

  A short while later, Bowen was walking down a corridor in an area of the Atlantis that he had never been in before. The Atlantis was the size of a small city. He had been in command of the Atlantis for only a month, and thus there were parts of the ship that he had actually never set foot in. One such area was the civilian residential section. He moved down a residential corridor until he came to a door with the name ‘Ramirez, Carmen’ on its name plate. He breathed a deep sigh, and then waved his hand over the crystal lens at the right side of the door, which sounded the door chime. He waited for a few moments, and the door opened. Carmen stood in the door, the only thing covering her nudity was a button down shirt, which was only buttoned high enough to cover her crotch. Her breasts were barely covered. Her hair was loose and messy from sleep. She gazed at Bowen for a length of time she needed to recognize him. She brightened when she did. He could actually see her adopt her excessively slinky facade almost like she was putting on a mask.

  “I knew you couldn't resist me, Darling,” Carmen flirted, “but couldn't you have come by my place sooner?”

  “I have a job for you, Carmen,” Bowen tried to keep his voice level and calm.

  “Oh,” Carmen jacked up her winning smile, with great interest, “what is it?”

  “How good are your environment suit skills?”

  “Excellent. You don't think I'd agree to work on a starship without learning how to keep my sexy ass alive in a vacuum. So what's the job?”

  “One of my ships has picked up a derelict. I'm sending an emergency response team aboard. I'd like the boarding documented. If you do it, I'll reconsider your violation of hangar security.”

  “So I don't have to make that stupid training film?” Carmen made her breasts jingle a little to catch his attention.

  “Do this,” Bowen grumbled, “and the training film will be a normal assignment...not a punishment.”

  “Okay,” Carmen smirked. “I'll do this, but only if you have sex with me afterward.”

  “Oh no, I won‘t,” Bowen glared at Carmen sternly.

  “Have sex with me,” Carmen smiled languidly, “or I'm not squeezing my sexy ass into an environment suit any time soon.”

  “Fine,” Bowen growled, “but don't get any ideas of us being in any kind of relationship. Got it?”

  “Fair enough,” Carmen said, “Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to get ready to go on this flight. How long do I have?”

  “About an hour, you'd best get down to the shuttle deck, so they can fit you for an environment suit.”

  “Now, you owe me sex and dinner,” Carmen growled herself, clearly wanting to go back to bed.

  Carmen stepped back and shut the door to her quarters. Bowen turned and left. An hour later, Carmen sat on Ranger-Seven's small mess deck with the four members of the emergency response team. Their environment suits had light armor and close fitting helmets, where hers was form-fitting fabric and featured a classic bubble helmet. When they first saw her, the response team, all men, immediately wanted naked holograms of her doing obscene things. She was only too happy to promise them interactive holograms of her that were programmed to do things that were downright pornographic. After a few minutes, a red light, set into the ceiling, flashed four times. At this, one of the response team stood.

  “Okay, you apes,” the man growled, “this mission is simple. Ranger-Seven is going to latch onto the derelict with tractor beams. We EVA over to her and board her. Once aboard, we assess her situation; determine if she's safe to take aboard Atlantis. If she is, we return to Ranger-Seven and have a nice quick ride while our craft takes the derelict back.”

  “How do we get aboard the ship?” Carmen asked, as she put on her combination holographic camera and communications headset.

  “It's a Kalvan-class transport ship,” the lead responder spoke respectfully. “It's just about the most common civilian ship in the galaxy. It has got an emergency hatch on the top near the bridge. Since the ship's already a vacuum, we don't have to worry about opening it.”

  “Okay,” Carmen clearly did not really understand. “How do I get over there? I'm in a civilian suit.”

  “You can still use a MMU. You'll just jet along with us.”

  “Sounds like fun.”

  “Okay, you apes,” the lead responder snapped to all, “out to the airlock.”

  “YES SIR,” the other responders barked back in unison.

  Carmen couldn't help but get aroused by the amount of testosterone being thrown around. With a hubbub of noise, they all put on their helmets and left for the airlock. She piled her hair on her head and pulled her bubble helmet on. She followed the responders to Ranger-Seven's airlock. Once at the airlock, the lead responder affixed an angular backpack to the back of Carmen's suit. She looked over her shoulder at him as he fixed the pack to backpack clips set in the back of her suit around her suit's oxygen re-breather. Then he slapped a handle into her right hand. The instant she closed her fingers around it, a stem extended from it and clamped a bracelet around her wrist. She instantly figured out that this was the control stick, and the backpack was the MMU or Manned Maneuvering Unit, a jetpack that enabled her to propel herself through space. As the team went one by one into the airlock and out into space, she looked at their MMU packs. It was an angular backpack with a cylindrical propellant tank on the top of the pack with rods sticking out either side, ending in spherical thruster units. She saw secondary thrusters built into the bottom of the pack for up and down movement. Then the lead responder got into the airlock, and was out. Her turn to go outside came. She found that there was no room for more than one person in the airlock. She got a bit nervous when the air was pumped out and the gravity switched off. The outer door opened. She was certain she knew what to do, having watched the lead responder grab the edge of the door and pull himself out. Carmen, imitating him, exited the airlock. When she was outside the hull, she tapped the holographic control console projected from a lens set into the left wrist of her suit. This activated the magnetic panels in the soles of her boots. This helped her to stand on the hull. She gazed around, and saw that the Kalvan transport slowly spun end over end a short distance from Ranger-Seven. To her astonishment, Ranger-Seven latched onto the transport with tractor beams. The beams slowed, and then stopped the ship's spin, bringing it level.

  “Let's go, you apes,” the lead responder snapped.

  The responders deactivated their magnetic boots, using their manned maneuvering units to guide them across the distance separating the two spacecraft. Carmen, deactivated her magnetic boots, and angled her control handle toward the Kalvan transport. She was delighted when her MMU pushed her along with small blasts from its thrusters. She knew she could not close her eyes, but as she jetted along, she fantasized about having sex in zero gravity. After a few moments, they neared the transport. S
he glided along, until she reached the hull of the transport. As she touched the hull, she activated her magnetic boots. The lead responder disconnected the tether. Carmen let go of her MMU's control stick. The control stick folded itself out of the way along her right forearm. Her MMU's thruster arms retracted into the pack, so they could not get snagged on things. Carmen activated her holo-camera and watched as the responders stepped over to the bridge view ports and opened a panel. A lever inside the panel was pulled, and a small view port just behind the main bridge view ports popped open. The responders pulled themselves in one by one. Carmen followed last, pulling herself inside. When she dropped to the deck, she found herself standing in the small cockpit/bridge of the Kalvan transport. It was a simple bridge consisting of pilot and co-pilot stations at the front, and a flight engineer's station in the back, on the left side of the cockpit. These three control stations were separated from the rest of the bridge by a railing behind the flight engineer's station. The back section of the bridge consisted of a sensor/gunnery station and a communications console along the left wall.

  The lead responder stood at the pilot's station, which is clearly dead. As it had holographic controls, its controls are not present. Carmen looked around slowly, allowing her holo-camera to take in the entire room. The responders quickly determined that there was nothing to be found in the cockpit. Carmen followed the responders as they moved on. The responders exited the door at the back of the bridge. This led into a small crew lounge. It consisted of a round table with a curved couch in one corner, and a small food synthesizer against the wall near it. It had a colorful soft drink logo painted on its front panel. A little further aft from this dining area, through an arch, they entered an area that was furnished with a corner sectional couch, and a coffee table with a hologram projector built into its table top. As they walked through this crew lounge, Carmen could see playing cards and little knickknacks that had once belonged to the crew floating about, testifying to the fact that the ship was entirely without power. Moving on, they passed into a narrow passage with two doors on the left side. As they walked down the passage, the responders opened the first door. Behind it was a living cubicle with two bunk beds, two lockers, a desk and chair. The next door opened onto another, identical living cubicle. Both cubicles showed signs of recent occupancy, with disheveled bed sheets, clothes and possessions floating in the air because of the zero-gravity. Past these two cubicles, they came to cluster of rooms.

  Carmen consulted her wrist computer. It displayed a map of the ship. This showed that they had reached the area of the ship where the ship's hull widened from its narrow, rectangular forward hull. The cluster of rooms consisted of the captain's cabin, the medical compartment, the bathroom and a supply storage compartment. The responders each took one of these rooms. They searched the rooms simultaneously, and then moved on to the cargo bay, which was the next area aft on the ship. Carmen looked at the captain's cabin. She found it to be in a similar state to the crew quarters, with the bed sheets disheveled, and the captain's possessions floating about in the absence of gravity. She then moved on to the medical room. She found it to be neat and in good order. To Carmen, the medical room was a rarely used room. She next looked at the bathroom, and found it was also neat. While she was certain that the bathroom was quite frequently used, she suspected the crew had not used it recently. She next looked into the supply storage compartment. She found the ship's supplies neatly stacked on storage shelves with restriction mesh across the front to keep the supplies from drifting off the shelves. Carmen then made her way into the ship's small cargo bay. She found the bay empty. An equipment locker stood against the forward wall of the cargo bay. A cargo handling robot was locked into its storage/charging unit next to the equipment locker.

  Seeing nothing in the cargo bay, they moved on to the engine room. The engine room was also in good order. Carmen found it disconcerting that they had not found anybody aboard.

  “Where is the crew?” Carmen asked, feeling a little scared.

  “Life pod's been jettisoned, Boss,” said one of the responders.

  “Obviously they abandoned ship, Miss Ramirez,” the lead responder snapped, and then he turned to one of the other responders, who were scanning the area with a hand scanner, “what does it say?”

  “No sign of pathogens or toxins.”

  “Any sign of explosives or booby traps?”

  “No, Sir. Looks like the crew abandoned ship. How and why cannot be determined without reactivating the ship.”

  “Understood,” the lead responder nodded, “let's clear out.”

  With that, the survey team made their way back to the emergency hatch they had used to enter the ship. They exited the ship through that hatch. Carmen exited last. She unfolded her MMU's control stick. It flipped into her hand. She gazed over her shoulder and saw the thruster arms extend to the sides. They used their MMUs to return to Ranger-Seven. Once inside the airlock, Carmen followed the lead responder to Ranger-Seven's cockpit. The lead responder sat down at the communications console, and typed out a text message that read:

  ‘Searched derelict starship. Found no crew aboard. Life pods jettisoned. No physical evidence of fate of crew. Recommend towing the ship aboard to be re-powered and its computer logs examined.’

  The lead responder held his hand out for Carmen's holo-camera. She gave it to him, and watched as he uploaded its contents into the communications console. He then sent the entire packet to Atlantis via nanoburst transmission. Once her holo-camera was returned, Carmen made her way to Ranger-Seven's mess deck to wait until it returned to Atlantis.

  Chapter Six

  Doctor Bowen entered the Star Whale's Roost at midday. He was followed by Glitter and Whipple. Together, the trio walked up to the bar, where they found the Blood Claw standing in his accustomed place. He irritably tapped his toe claw on the floor. He snarled at Dr. Bowen, Glitter and Whipple as they approached him.

  “You're late,” the Blood Claw growled.

  “Look, friend,” Dr. Bowen spoke reasonably, “you didn't tell us precisely when to meet you here. Besides, I had to spend the morning looking into something disturbing.”

  “Should I even care what you're talking about?”

  “You don't, but your boss should. Now are we going to meet with him or not?”

  “Fortunately, Iron Claw has agreed to see you,” the Blood Claw grunted. “Follow me.”

  The Blood Claw guided them to the back of the bar, where he ushered them through a door, and closed it behind them. Inside the door, they were met by another Shrive Fighter, who glared at them, irritably tapping his toe claws on the floor. He was standing behind a table.

  “Surrender your weapons,” he growled, tapping a finger talon on the table.

  Whipple reached into his coat, and drew his weapon, a civilian, police special phaser pistol, and placed it on the table. Glitter reached behind her back, and drew the massive phaser revolver pistol that she had inherited from her step-father. The Blood Claw smirked at her, showing his sharp teeth, as Glitter glared at him. She placed her pistol on the table in a manner that said that she would kill anyone who messed with her weapon. Doctor Bowen drew the police special he carried and placed it on the table. Then he reached into his pocket and drew a small pistol. It was a pocket-sized derringer phaser, little known to most people in the galaxy. The Blood Claw smirked at Dr. Bowen.

  “I've never known a human to own a Kumarrin Thundering Cricket. They rarely sell that weapon to any other than their own people.”

  “You'd never believe how I came to obtain this weapon,” Dr. Bowen shrugged, “and I'm not inclined to explain it to you either.”

  “So long as you surrender it,” the Blood Claw growled.

  “I'm getting it back when we're done,” Dr. Bowen glared back at the Shrive Fighter.

  “You have my word of honor. None shall touch your weapons.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Proceed up the stairs,” the Blood Claw pointed at a ne
arby staircase. Doctor Bowen, Glitter and Whipple climbed the stairs. Another Blood Claw met them at the top and guided them to a large pair of double doors. The Blood Claw pushed the doors open, and ushered them in, closing the doors behind them. The room behind the doors was a large office. It was decorated with glass cases displaying weapons of a wide variety of types. Some were projectile fire arms. Others were blades of all shapes and sizes, and most stained with blood of a rainbow of different colors. Other cases held suits of armor of a staggering variety of types and descriptions. At the far end was a massive desk. The Shrive Fighter sitting behind the desk looked enough like Too Far that it was readily obvious that he was Too Far's brother. From his coloring and expensive, armored attire, he was clearly Iron Claw. He glared at the group as they approached him.

  “Welcome, Dr. Bowen,” Iron Claw said, “I would offer you a drink, but humans and Simma would find Shrive spirits to be quite...how shall I put it?...toxic?”

  “We appreciate your hospitality,” Dr. Bowen lowered his voice respectfully; “do we have the honor of speaking to Iron Claw?”

  “I am Iron Claw. I have been told that you seek information about my ancestor, Black Claw.”

  “Yes, I understand you know something about him.”

  “I know much about him,” Iron Claw nodded. “He was once the leader of the entire Blood Claw Clan.”

  “Well, we're interested in the end of his life,” Ed allowed his excitement to bleed into his voice.

  “We...don't speak about that,” Iron Claw growled faintly, “save to say that he went from wisdom into folly.”

  “I understand he went to the Kordam Formation. Why did he go there?”

  “He sought to turn...that place...into an impregnable fortress for the Blood Claws. He went there...and met his death.”

  “How?”

  “We do not know,” Iron Claw said, “one of our ships followed after him. They found only the wreckage of his ship and this.” He took something out of a drawer and threw it onto the desk. It clattered across the desk top, coming to rest near Dr. Bowen. Ed looked it over and recognized the toe claw of a Shrive Fighter. He could tell that it had been stripped of flesh and sprayed with a poly-crystal coating to preserve it.