"Of course not."
Jamie took another look at the displays, and saw nothing at all which might be promising.
"How do we get more information without going down there?" he asked.
"We send down a satellite. One designed to tell if the local farmers have their beans in upside down."
"Do we have one aboard?"
"It's not standard equipment, but luckily the fabricator which makes our missiles can also produce the satellite."
"How long will it take to make?"
"Already done. I started the process as soon as you started talking about ice."
"Launch it please."
"Confirmed."
A grey dot appeared on the HUD, and rapidly moved into a lower polar orbit. The amount of data on the displays tripled immediately.
After the satellite had made a half dozen complete orbits, Sissness came onto the bridge.
"I’ve found a lot of fascinating information about the planet’s history, but nothing specific to an 'ark'. Sorry."
One by one, they all returned to the bridge, and looked at a set of visuals of the planet below.
"Bingo!" cried Jamie.
"What?" asked Snark.
"Have a look at this. At the southern pole, there seems to be a large object showing as metal on the scanners."
Snark checked what Jamie was pointing at. On one screen showed an ice field, but on another was clearly a large building, and on a third was a set of readings indicting mainly metal.
"Humph! We’ll need to go down there."
The others were excited. Perhaps Anna had had a true Seeing, and they would have more information to add to their search.
Jamie enhanced the area he’d pinpointed on the screen. It looked like just ice, however there was a large hump in the middle of what was an ice sheet, with no other mountains in the same location. The scanners definitely showed an expanse of metal, but no other information. They couldn’t penetrate the object itself.
"If my Seeing is correct, we’d be able to access the ark the same way as in my dream," said Anna.
"Definitely worth a look," confirmed Jamie.
Snark and the others agreed, and they discussed who would go down to the planet. It was decided Snark would stay on the Seasprite, with Patters and Brindle, while Sissness, Anna, and Jamie would take the shuttle down to the location of the object.
They investigated snow outfits on their belt menus, and Jamie was soon enveloped in a full one-piece snow suit, with hood, and face guard. Ice hiking boots were included in the suit.
"Bright orange?" asked Anna.
"High vis," he replied.
"Not a good look for you," she commented wryly.
"Oh, I don’t know. Sets off my red hair nicely, I thought."
He grinned. Anna chose the same outfit. Sissness however didn’t have a version available to her, so was limited to protection mode. Snark rushed out, and a short time later came back with a woolly jumper, which was obviously too big for her. When she activated protection mode with her face not covered, and slipped on the jumper, she found it nicely covered most of her face as well, leaving only a small gap to see out of. She removed it, shifted back to a belt, and stuffed it into her backpack.
Into their backpacks went torches, survival rations, ropes, and Jamie carried a full survival med kit.
"It’s a real expedition," said Brindle. "Better you than me. I’d rather be in the warm."
The other cats agreed. Sissness still looked excited.
They wore normal clothes for the shuttle journey, and would change to snow gear when they arrived.
Jamie eased the shuttle out of the hanger, and they set off down to Winter.
Forty
Brother Paulus was happy. He'd reported progress to Brother Prime, and hadn't been criticised. This meant he was pleased. And when Brother Prime was pleased, Paulus was very pleased indeed.
His strategy was paying off. He'd co-opted a number of individuals, groups, planets, and militaries in this part of the sector, and had them all on the lookout for the Seasprite.
He could afford to wait and see. He could feel the weight of the Stone in his hand, and was looking forward to learning its power.
He parted his beak in his avian smile.
It was all going to plan.
Forty One
It was cold. Jamie had been cold before, but nothing like this. As well as being well below zero, there was also a wind, which added to the cold with wind chill factor. Jamie wondered if the suits had even been tested in this sort of environment. Space was cold, but this seemed colder. He wasn’t sure if the suit was failing to keep all the cold out, or if his body was just reacting as if it wasn’t. His PC popped up a comparison of cold environments. Fine, he thought. It's in my head.
Jamie and Anna were covered head to feet by their suits, and were able to see only through the sensors in the suit sending directly to their eyes via their PC's. Sissness on the other hand was shivering. She had Snark's jumper on over her suit, but in order to see, the suit wasn’t covering all of her head. The wool did, but it wasn’t up to the job.
They'd landed as close to the object as possible, and where they felt was a reasonably stable surface. They had to trust to luck and sensors to select a landing site. It was still some distance for them to go on foot to get to the entrance, but at least there wasn’t a storm, just the constant chilled wind. They were only a short distance from the shuttle.
"It wasn’t like this before," said Anna.
Completely suited up, Anna's voice was sent PC to PC to Jamie, and PC to tablet for Sissness.
"It was blowing a gale, and there was a full-on storm. You couldn’t see your hand in front of your face."
"Let’s hope it stays this way," said Sissness seriously.
"What we understand of the weather system, says we should be fine," said Jamie, glancing up at the blue sky and sun shining weakly.
"Fine or not, I don’t think I can come with you. I'm not protected enough. I'll have to wait in the shuttle."
Jamie thought for a moment, turned around, and led Sissness back to the shuttle. Once inside he had her shift her suit back to a belt, and had her put the belt on the outside of the jumper.
"How will this help?" she asked. "Snark said he nearly melted when he had it on under the suit."
"Let's try something. Before you shift your belt to a suit, I want you to connect the belt to your tablet for vid, and hold the tablet screen against where the jumper is too big for your face, and is forming a hood. Then shift, and see if you can see."
She did as he said, and the suit formed around the shape of the jumper, and the arm holding the tablet.
"Can you see?"
"Yes, I can. It's not particularly good, but I can see enough to walk without banging into things. Now let me get out of here before I melt."
Outside, they re-joined Anna.
"Now this is nice and toasty," said Sissness, with a laugh in her voice, her tablet sending to both the PC's.
They started off in the direction indicated by Jamie's PC, which had a map downloaded from the ships sensors. As they walked, they kept their eyes on the terrain, as although it looked fairly smooth going, there could easily be crevasses or other anomalies to deal with. Every now and then they looked up at the vast skyline, and the wild scenery in awe. The shelf of ice they were on stretched out towards the horizon, where it met the blue of the sky in a haze. Ice mountains rose in the distance behind them, giving at least some relief from the relentless starkness of the surroundings. Many different shades of white, as well as the blue of ice, and black of their shadows, were the only colours. They could make out the 'hill' they thought contained the 'ark' in front of them, and made their way steadily towards it.
Forty Two
Snark decided to spend the time while the others were on the planet, getting something useful done. Seasprite had reminded him they had hull material ready for repairs to begin. All the repairs had needed was them to be stopped somewhere, a
nd now they were. He gave the go ahead to commence the work, given he expected them to be here for some time.
He also decided to go looking for any other tracking devices. He'd fashioned a locator device based on the signal the tracker they'd found had put out. He was determined to make sure they had the situation of anyone knowing their whereabouts under control. He’d left Patters on the bridge with strict instructions to let him know of anything coming through the jump point, or anything untoward occurring on the watch. Including messages from the ground.
Brindle was also on the bridge, which was not her usual habit. Patters was showing her the sensor console, and taking her through the process to check for approaching vessels. She was bored. It was all very well knowing a little about ship’s operations, but it wasn’t as if she would ever really need to know what she was doing. And the ship’s computer thingy was there as well. She could just turn on the voice interface, and ask a question of the computer. It could handle anything coming up.
"…you’ve got all that?" asked Patters.
Brindle nodded quickly and smiled.
"Piece of cake," she said, thinking a cake might be a good idea.
Some baking would be therapeutic while they were waiting for something to happen, and also a bit of a crowd pleaser, especially for people coming ‘in from the cold’. Perhaps a hot pudding? She started thinking of various recipes in anticipation. She could create a new dessert called 'Winter' in honour of the expedition.
Patters was talking again, but she wasn’t really listening.
"…would that be ok?"
"Huh?" asked Brindle.
"If you could mind things while I pop out to get some things done," repeated Patters looking askance at Brindle. "You just need to keep an eye on the scanners, and also respond to coms from the planet." She looked slightly worried. "Ok?"
"Of course."
Brindle nodded enthusiastically, but was secretly dismayed. She’d be stuck on the Bridge. Patters paced off, while looking back at Brindle doubtfully. Brindle smiled, and 'shooed' her away using a three arm gesture.
As soon as Patters was gone, Brindle’s smile disappeared. A petulant expression replaced it. She scowled at the sensor display.
"Oh well," she said to herself. "Time for me to spend some time on the bridge, I suppose."
She looked at the display, which was exactly as it had been before. Nothing. Nothing from the coms either.
Boring.
She settled herself at the back of the bridge in the cat bed, as this was much cosier. She closed her eyes. Just a short break. She soon slept.
Forty Three
Down on the planet, they found the entrance they were seeking. While invisible from above, a metal door in a sea of snow and ice, set back in a way the snow couldn’t hide it, was actually fairly easy to find. Even if they'd come in from the wrong direction, walking around the 'hill' would have brought them here eventually.
"It's exactly the same!" exclaimed Anna.
She placed her hand on the door, and pushed hard. Nothing.
She looked at the others.
"It took several goes before as well."
She tried several different places, and pushed as hard as she could.
Nothing.
She had her suit peel back leaving her hands bare, and pushed again.
Still nothing. She hastily covered her hands again.
"Your hands should have stuck to the metal," said Sissness. "That was a pretty stupid thing to do."
"It felt warm," Anna replied. "Which is odd, because warmth would melt the ice around the door, and it hasn’t."
Jamie placed his bare hands on the surface of the door, as Anna had. Same result. Nothing.
The door soared above them, suggesting the facility was enormous. They each had another go at different places on the door, pushing as hard as they could, with bare hands, and getting them covered as fast as possible but nothing happened. All they managed was near frozen hands.
"I’m trying to think what happened in my Seeing," said Anna anxiously. "But I think I just placed my hand on, and pushed."
They kept trying, and at one time when they were pushing in unison, the door gave slightly. They pushed again, and it swung open, revealing the entrance hall Anna had described.
The outer door shut behind them, and their still bare hands told them there was warmth in here. They quickly moved to the internal door, and tried the same thing. The door responded to the three hands and pressure, and pivoted open. They each squeezed through.
The lights came on, revealing the console and the single chair. Jamie and Anna shifted back to normal suits, while Sissness shifted back to a belt.
Anna moved swiftly over to the console, and checked the right hand top corner of the surface.
"It’s here!" she called to the others excitedly.
They moved over, Sissness getting her tablet ready to take images.
Sure enough, there was another star chart with several highlighted places. Sissness took images. The text was there, which she snapped images of as well. But there was also something Anna hadn’t seen last time. More text. Sissness faithfully took images of everything.
Jamie was translating the text. Sissness moved to the console itself, as she wanted to see the contents of the 'ark' herself. She found images of colourful winged insects.
"Beautiful," she sighed.
She couldn’t imagine beings who could create such an amazing place. Perhaps a means of creating a new world? How long had it stayed here in this cold wasteland?
"I wonder if Anastasia and Vasily came here?" asked Anna, half to herself. "In my vision, I was myself."
"If only the righteous can be admitted, then I can’t see Vasily being able to enter," said Jamie.
"They must have come here if the star chart gives more information," said Anna sadly. "Perhaps Anastasia entered on her own?"
"Who knows?" said Jamie.
Jamie checked Sissness’ images. He expanded them to see more details.
"Looks like not only a star chart, but here’s an inserted map of some kind," he commented to the others.
The text was translated.
Jamie read it out loud.
"’Freedom comes with the fortune of the Talisman.’ That really helps a lot." Jamie smiled.
Sissness looked up, and also smiled.
"I’ve seen that before."
She explained how she'd seen this in the texts on the Cat Homeworld.
"Is there anything else we need tae do here?" asked Jamie, after a pause.
"Wish I could stay longer," said Sissness.
"How much longer would you need?" asked Anna, with a grin.
They all laughed.
"Let’s check around in case there’s any other clues," suggested Anna.
They did a bit of a search, but there was nothing obvious. When they ventured down the lanes between the rows of drawers, the lights came on, but they were all the same, rows upon rows into the distance. The scale of the place was daunting, and eerie at the same time.
They turned to go.
There was a loud echoing bang on the external door, and then another and another. The echoes spread, and rolled around the space.
Jamie, Anna, and Sissness all looked at each other in disbelief.
"Someone’s at the door," said Jamie.
"We better see who it is," said Anna, in a stronger voice than she felt internally.
Jamie opened the internal door, and they made their way into the hallway.
All three of them pushed on the external door, and it pivoted open.
They looked outside.
Forty Four
Brindle woke to a voice intruding on her dreams.
"We have intruders aboard," said Seasprite, matter of factly.
Brindle started awake properly, and jumped to the console where the voice was coming from.
"What?" she cried.
"The ship is being boarded."
"Why didn’t you say something
before?"
"Sensors showed approaching ships some time ago. I did warn the bridge, but had no response."
"I was asleep. Surely you could have warned Snark and Patters."
"Snark is not detected at this time. Patters is incommunicado in the secondary hold."
"Where are these boarders now?"
The Seasprite didn’t answer, but a voice came from the bridge entrance.
"Lower your weapons!"
Brindle didn’t have any to lower. She looked at the figures in the doorway, and shook.
Three giant beings entered the bridge, two moving immediately to the ship’s consoles, and the last standing at the back of the bridge pointing a weapon at Brindle.
Brindle immediately put her three arms up, with her paws outwards in the universal signal of surrender.
To Brindle, they looked nothing like anything she'd seen before. They had the same basic body shape as her, with four legs, but they were enormous to her, heavily muscled with bristles all over their body. Their chests were burly, and their heads had a circle of eyes all around them, giving them the look of arachnid muscle beings.
The one facing her looked her over, and yelled to a guard just outside, who came and picked her up by the scruff of her neck, and carrying her, left the bridge. He took her to the nearest room, looked inside, saw there was nothing but storage, threw her in, and locked the door.
Forty Five
"Is it really a good idea to let these creatures on board?" asked Seasprite, in AI mode.
"Jane told us to go along with whatever was decided," answered Warspite.
"They didn’t decide to allow the ship to be boarded."
"True. But Snark hasn’t been paying attention, Patters is off training, and Brindle fell asleep. They didn’t hear your warnings. So no decisions have been made, leaving action to the two of us."
"But why let them on board?"
"We need to know who they are. If possible, I want live prisoners."
"Well, they're on the bridge now."
Destiny Stone (A.I. Destiny Book 4) Page 18
