"I couldn't see from where I was at. Here, let me show you what I filmed," Tik said as she pulled out her mini-computer.
She turned it on and showed what she had filmed. The three looked it over and then Ron had her replay it again. None of them could see a way to get into either of the space ships. They kicked around some ideas of creating a diversion but they had no idea what response the Bug guards would have. They all felt really low. Their first idea didn't look like it would work at all. Ron suggested they all go to bed and look again tomorrow. They might have some ideas that would come later and they could do a little more research.
The next morning they went to work as usual and all three were preoccupied with the escape plan. None of them did much work and almost caught Wurden's attention. Ron saw it first and quickly sent out a thought transfer. The other two picked up enough to stay below Wurden's radar. When they got back to the cell, the planning started again. Tik researched and the other two tried to come up with something. Everywhere they turned they seemed to run into a brick wall. It was the same routine for the next week -- work during the day and try to find an escape. Finally, they were just about ready to admit defeat.
The next morning Ron was working on a damaged robot when Wurden came to his work station. He said, "Follow me. We want you to look at something else."
He led Ron beyond the ancient space ship to the far wall of the hangar. Ron had never been over here so he covertly looked everything over. They stopped in front of a rack of a dozen rockets. They were about 12 feet long and were about a foot in diameter with a very thin shell on the outside. There were triangular fins on the base of the rocket and smaller steering fins about two-thirds of the way to the top. There were 1-inch diameter nodes evenly spaced around the circumference of the rocket just behind the nose. There were matching nodes just forward of the tail fins. The sides appeared to have a door in them that would open outward, but no hinges were visible. There was a round six-inch circle in the middle that looked like it could be a port or covered fixture to fill or empty the rockets. Some of them were missing fins or other parts and one looked like it had been badly burnt.
Ron asked, "What are these used for? What are those little nodes around the top and bottom?"
"Nobody knows for sure what they are used for or what any of those things do. We have tried to follow instructions but so far we haven't had any luck making them do anything. We want you to take parts off of that one and make this one work. There's not much on the computer about them but that's all we have."
Ron looked up the information on the computer and studied it for several minutes. Then he turned to the rockets to check them out. He used a meter to see if there was any fuel in the rockets. All of them were completely empty and showed no trace of fuel at all. He signaled a robot to come over and pick up the rocket that was going to be used for parts. He studied the rocket for over an hour. He didn't see anything that gave a clue to the rocket's use. The computer did show a way to open a panel to get inside. He opened the panel and checked inside. On the inside of the panel were faint characters which Ron found to his surprise he could read. He quickly went back to the computer and saw that it mentioned the characters inside the panel but gave no interpretation of what it meant. Ron excitedly went back to the rocket. He slowed himself down because he didn't want Wurden to notice that he was getting excited. He read the inscription on the inside of the panel and then checked the wiring and plumbing inside the rocket. He was pretty sure that this was another artifact from the Alcantarans. The more he studied the rocket, the more sure he was. He really struggled to keep his excitement hidden. He knew what the rockets did and how they worked. He saw that one valve was set in the wrong position and somehow he knew that the rocket wouldn't work properly with the valve set like that.
Slowly he removed fins and other parts. He laid them on his work station. When he had all of the parts off, he had the robot carry it back to the rack. By that time it was the end of the day so they headed back to the dining hall and then to the cell. Ron didn't say a word about the rockets to his friends until they were back in the cell and Tik had set the spy devices off. She had a special video clip that she put into the mother ship computer that made it look like they all went to sleep right away.
Ron started very seriously, "Gus, you mentioned something quite a while ago. Do you remember asking about taking the old derelict space ship in the repair hangar? Maybe we need to pursue what needs to be done to make it fly. Tik, can you do some research on it? What have the Bugs tried? What success have they had?"
Tik started to protest, "That old thing? It's so old I don't know whether I would ever trust it or not. I'll see what the Bugs have and then we can see from there."
Gus had been watching Ron's face and he could see an undercurrent of excitement there. He asked, "Didn't you work on something over by that space ship today? What did you find?"
Ron answered, "I'm not sure. That's why I want Tik to find out everything she can about that ship. See how many other artifacts the Bugs have that they think might belong to the Alcantarans. Right now we know we can get access to that ship. We just need to know if it will fly and how long it would take to get it ready."
Ron and Gus just had to sit back on their bunks while Tik did her research. She found little bits and pieces here and there. It took a long time to make any sense of what she found. Ron and Gus got tired and went to bed as she continued to look. Finally she got tired and went to bed herself.
The next morning Ron said, "Keep your ears open and ask any of the other Bugs that will talk to you about the ship. Try to make it casual and don't show too much interest."
Ron took his time the next day putting things back together. He jury rigged some cables to hook electrical power to the stripped rocket. He figured Wurden would throw a fit if he tried it on the one he was trying to make whole.
Wurden saw the cables and came over to see what he was doing. "What do you think you are doing? Do you have authorization to do that?" Wurden cried in alarm.
"Well, this is just a piece of junk now that everything has been stripped. I just thought I would try this experiment to see if I could tell what this thing was supposed to do. I didn't see anything on the computer that even suggested anybody had ever tried this," Ron stated matter of factly.
He touched a switch and suddenly there was a force field around the rocket. He grabbed a meter to see how strong the field was. It was pretty strong for the little current he was applying. Wurden didn't say another word. He just hovered right over Ron's shoulder as he continued his experiment. Ron increased the current just a tiny bit and the field strength increase four fold. He tried pushing against the field and found he couldn't budge it. He grabbed a hammer and tried smacking the rocket. The force field grabbed the hammer and slowed it to a stop. The hammer felt like he had hit a big bowl of cold molasses. When the blow stopped, he could pull the hammer out with no resistance. The force field momentarily increased from the energy of the blow. Ron shut the power off and reached in the rocket to make a few adjustments. He didn't let Wurden see him flip the valve to the original position. He turned the power back on and tried his experiments again. When he increased the current this time, there was no increase in the field strength. He tried the hammer and this time the force field ricocheted the hammer blow. When the hammer ricocheted back, it almost smacked Wurden in the head. Wurden zipped back a safe distance and continued to watch closely. Ron increased the current quite a bit with no increase in the field strength.
Ron started muttering for Wurden's benefit, "Stupid piece of junk. You work one time this way and the next time you don't work."
He turned off the power and made a couple more adjustments. He tried the experiment with the same results. The meter showed that a large well-placed blow would go right through the force field and destroy the rocket. He continued to make adjustments and experiment with the same results. Finally he turned to Wurden, "I don't know what happened the first time I turned the power
on. It worked fine then but every time since, it just won't work. I think I could take some kind of bar and drive it completely through the rocket with a hammer. The force field is so weak and doesn't get any stronger with an increase in current. Is that what your scientists found?"
Wurden was pretty non-committal but Ron knew he was right. Wurden was making notes and sending them to his superiors about the experiments. Ron had tried some things the Bug's scientists hadn't thought of. Wurden got a response back from his superiors telling him to have Ron check out the ancient space ship.
Wurden stated officiously, "Follow me. We have another mystery for you to take a look at." He led Ron to the rear of the old space ship. He touched some buttons on his personal computer and the rear door on the space ship opened. Ron approached the old ship with awe. No one really knew how old the ship was but it showed its age in the dents and scrapes on the skin. The ship was 579 feet long and cylindrical in shape. It was 175 feet in diameter at the back and stayed that diameter until close to the nose, where it slowly tapered to a blunt nose like on a 747 jet. The bottom was flattened and had legs with pads for landing gear. It had two fins that started as a taper 50 or 60 feet behind the nose and ran the entire length of the ship. They came to a point in the back and stuck past the flat rear for 15 or 20 feet. The fins looked like they were about 60 feet tall. There was a half tube that ran along the side of the ship. It covered about two thirds of the side and was open at both ends. It reminded Ron of the intakes for military jets. Ron couldn't see inside these intakes so he wondered if they might be the engines or the fuel tanks. He didn't understand why a space ship would need air intakes especially in outer space vacuum. The back was flattened and appeared to have a smaller personal door as well as a large door that looked like it could drop and be a ramp. It almost looked like there were three levels but he couldn't see how you would open the door to all three levels. He didn't see any other doors and thought that was odd. He was used to several escape exits on any vessel that large on Earth. It definitely wasn't your typical flying saucer that the movies always showed but it looked like it would really move when it was flying.
Ron shivered with excitement as he climbed into the door. He wondered what the beings that had built and flown this thing looked like. He wondered what had happened to them. Wurden didn't like coming inside the space craft and his unease showed in his every movement. They entered a passageway that was like a tube about 10 feet in diameter with a flat floor. There were lights that came on as they walked toward them. They were not part of the ship and looked like something the Bugs had installed. As they walked, Ron saw doors leading to the interior of the space ship and passageways that went up and down. Wurden didn't even pause at any of them. He led Ron to a door and stepped through. They were inside an immense cargo bay. Ron thought they must be in the top third of the space ship. It looked like there should be other levels below them. Across the deck were rows of doors with two more rows on top of them. There was a narrow catwalk to access these doors but it looked like they had been designed to allow some sort of lifting device to lift items right up to the doors. Ron looked but didn't see anything that looked like a lifting device. Some of the details were hard to see because the lights the Bugs had put up didn't reach all the corners and they weren't very bright. When they stepped out further onto the deck, Ron saw that the wall they had just stepped through was a mirror image of the far wall. To his right or toward the nose of the ship he saw an elevator leading to the different levels. There was also a ladder on the wall.
Wurden explained in his officious way, "We have examined this ship for years and there are parts of it we have not been able to access. There is no fuel on board so the elevator doesn't work. If you climb that ladder, you can access the flight deck and see the controls that fly this ship. We have never fired the engines, so we don't know if they work or not. My superiors would like you to examine the flight deck and see if there is anything you can figure out or experiments that might be useful."
Ron said, "OK, I can do that. Are you coming up there with me?"
Wurden answered, "No, I have pressing business back in the hangar. Watch for the group of beasts leaving tonight and join us."
Ron could see that Wurden was almost in a panic to get out of the old space ship. It made Ron wonder what had happened, if Wurden was the only one who was nervous about being in the ship or if that feeling extended to all the Bugs. Wurden turned and headed for the door. Ron saw him drop to all six legs and skitter rapidly away. Ron just grinned and decided to check out some of the doors. He tried several and found they were locked and wouldn't open. There were a couple that did open and they were just empty rooms. It looked like they used to have something in them but he assumed the Bugs had cleared them out. He turned to the ladder and started climbing. When he reached the top, he walked slowly onto the flight deck while he looked around.
He must have been unknowingly transmitting excitement because he started getting feelings in his head asking where he was at and what he was doing. He was feeling the messages from both Tik and Gus. He walked to the front window and looked out. Gus was just turning from the fuel dump and getting ready to return to the hangar. Tik was there classifying the fuel and logging it in. Ron sent a thought, "Hi guys, look up at the nose of the ancient space ship." They both looked at the same time. Ron was waving in the window and he thought Gus was going to drop the fuel canister. Ron was really feeling the questions then. All he could send was "Tonight".
Ron explored the flight deck and that whole level. He could understand the writing on the instrument panel but didn't understand all of what he read. It would be like a non-pilot sitting in the cockpit of a 747 and trying to figure out what each gauge and instrument was supposed to do. Even the levers and buttons made no sense. He needed to have the hand-held computer in here and learn a lot about how to fly a space ship. He noticed spots on the racks to the side that had empty spaces in them. He look inside the rack to see what all was there. He started opening some of the panels and looking inside. He was looking for any writing that might give him a clue about the intended use for all of the equipment. He looked and then put the panel back in place. He was about a third of the way through when he looked up to see the group getting ready to leave. He hurried out of the flight deck and down the ladder. He arrived at the door to the floor of the hangar and climbed down. Wurden was waiting and Ron would not have been surprised if he saw him tapping his foot in impatience.
"Well, did you discover something our scientists missed?" Wurden snootily asked.
"Just the picture of the pilots family that he hid under the co-pilots dash board," Ron quipped to irate him.
"What! Where is it at? I want to see it," Wurden instantly demanded.
"Well, I left it there. The pilot might come back and he'd sure be upset if it was missing," Ron said with a straight face.
"Our scientists think that ship is over 25,000 years old. How can a pilot come back?" Wurden stated haughtily.
"I don't know. My planet doesn't have anything this sophisticated. Maybe the pilot had a time machine and went somewhere on vacation. When the time is right, he might use the time machine to come back," Ron retorted.
Wurden gave a start at the thought of the ancient race returning for the space ship. Ron saw that was an idea that the Bugs hadn't considered. Wurden said, "There is no such thing as a time machine. You can't travel in time."
"If you say so, but on my planet they have written about it for decades and I figure someone somewhere has figured it out. By the way, I need to take a hand-held computer tonight to start making notes on what I have found. I also need to look at any manuals for that ship. If you don't have any manuals for it, maybe one of the manuals for one of the planetary flyers will give me a clue what the ancient race was doing with the different gauges and instruments."
"Go ahead and get your hand-held computer but hurry up. We're already behind schedule," Wurden said as he started the rest of the line for the door.
Ron grabbed the computer and fell in at the rear of the line. Gus and Tik were near the middle so they couldn't ask the questions that were about to drive them crazy. Ron had a feeling so he concentrated on a thought. "Don't talk when we get to the cell! We are going to have visitors."
Ron kept broadcasting the same thoughts all the way to the cell. He could tell from the body language that the other two were about to burst. The door opened and they went into the cell. He headed straight to his bunk and the other two did the same. Tik could see what he was doing but Gus could only listen. Ron moved the translator before he pulled the computer out of his tool pouch and started dictating information about the ancient space ship. He told about some of his impressions and questions that he had about the different equipment. The other two were about to go crazy because they not only had no idea what was going on but now they couldn't understand what he was saying.
Ron was just starting to ask questions about what experiments the Bugs had done when the door swung open. Four Bugs carrying their stingerrays walked in and formed a line between the trio and the door. They had different colored embroidery around the hoods than Wurden and the other Bugs they were used to seeing. Another Bug followed them in the door on its disk. This Bug was different too and even its robe was a different material and color. It stopped and looked at the three occupants of the cell.
It turned to Ron and asked, "What did you deduct from your experiments with the rocket? Do you have any idea what it is used for?"
Ron answered, "I'm not sure what it's used for. It might be used to scoop up something like air from the stratosphere on a planet. I think that there is a circuit or a program that is missing. The shield worked the first time but wouldn't work after that."
"What circuit or program do you think is missing?"
"I have no idea about that. I'm not an engineer so I can't really design something like that. You should have some engineers that could whip up a circuit in short order," Ron said as he hoped the Bugs couldn't tell he was lying through his teeth.
Alcantaran 1: Alien Abduction Page 8
