There was a slight blur, seen through the force-field as drone 23 sped away to the old ship's location.
Their force-craft suddenly rotated to its new heading, then shot forwards, pushing everyone against their seat's side panels.
“Geeze Jenny!” Bren swore under his breath.
“Sorry, I'll try to be gentle with you.”
“Leave him alone, he's mine,” Acarea giggled.
Six minutes later, the force-craft touched down gently, next to the still shimmering drone 23 which had left before them.
Ten metres in front of them was the entrance into the old Starship.
“See Jenny,” Bren remarked, “You can do it if you try!”
“Yea, but it’s not so much fun, though.”
The craft's force-field gently collapsed, and they stepped off the platform onto the firm ground. Susanna walked up to the drone, ‘Guard our craft, and the entrance,' she sent the thought command. ‘Warn me if there is a problem.’
The drone acknowledged.
Sergeant Dean went to speak but thought better of it.
“What were you going to say, Sergeant?” Jenny prompted.
“When we came in, I thought I saw a glint just beyond where the rock covering starts.”
“Probably a piece of twisted metal,” Tim pointed out.
“Seems reasonable. Anyway, let's go, everyone,” Susanna urged. “Time to move.”
The two marines, with side arms drawn, led the way into the entrance, then down through the fourteen-metre diameter metal tunnel and towards the vast metal chamber.
“It’s a huge airlock,” Jim remarked as he turned on two of the items on his belt. One of which, together with one of his ears, began to glow.
Bren looked at him strangely but said nothing.
The two statues they had seen before were still there, guarding the inner room that rose at least twenty metres high, and more than eighty long.
“Looks the same as the last time we were here,” Bren said.
“Those boxes down there have Propagation Equipment, Earth, 2109 printed on them. See,” he said, pointing. “And the floor is too clean for comfort?”
They moved on down the room, past the empty boxes. At the far end saw that the large square section was still open. To one side, the same domed button that Bren had pushed was still steadily blinking red.
They walked through the open doorway and into a large area, from which they could see the three equally-spaced corridors branching off that Bren and Acarea had seen before.
“Ok, we can ignore the tubular passage in the centre,” Jim instructed. “The habitation section would have revolved around that when they were generating gravity.”
“Yes,” Marine Sergeant Dean agreed. “I checked out the corridor layout before we came down.”
“And?” Susanna asked, urging the Marine to continue.
“It was ingenious. When the habitation section was rotating. The only access to the rest of the ship, from the cabins that held the stasis chambers and control room, was through that tubular corridor.
So, the designers incorporated a variable-speed transfer device that you stepped into. This then speeded up to match the speed of the rotating section. Which, then allowed easy access, by just stepping across and into the cabin, or whatever area you wanted to go to.
Then the same method was used to sync with the connecting tubular corridor when you wanted to return,” he finished.
“Of course, the tube would then have to be physically connected to the habitation area. With both locked open, to ensure free access when they tried to land this tub,” the other marine added.
“OK, enough. Can we stop all this gratuitous passing on of knowledge, and get on with what we’re really here for?” Susanna ordered.
They strolled on and down the same corridor that Bren and Acarea had checked on their first visit. First, seeing the ship’s large control room, where most of its panels and equipment had been removed.
Then a second room, which was slightly smaller in size and had several rows of coffin-like marks on the floor.
“This must be the crew stasis chamber area,” the sergeant said.
Further on they found rows of smaller rooms. Each had the same coffin-like marks on the floor.
“The last two rooms that we were able to get to still had units in them,” Bren told them.
When they reached the last two rooms, they saw the coffin-like stasis chambers.
There were six in each of these rooms, all with their backup system connected, as a protection if the ship’s power failed.
It was apparent that they had once held human bodies. But it was evident that the occupants had long gone. And, now, their transparent covers were all raised and the chambers were completely inoperative.
Further, down the corridor, and off to one side was a great tear in the hull, which left the ship's skin open to the outside world. Moving further on, they could see that the roof was lower and in some areas, was almost touching the floor, having been crushed by the rocks above.
After surveying the destruction, they turned around and headed back to the first junction.
“We should try the corridor on the opposite side,” marine Bradley prompted.
“OK,” Susanna agreed.
As they entered the corridor, an angry droid hurled itself towards them. In the blink of an eye, Susanna's weapons were drawn and ready to fire. Bren couldn't believe the speed of what he saw.
“Don't fire at it!” Jim shouted, as he touched his now glowing box and listened.
From the Andromeda, Frank watched the status reports as they came in from the four industrial plants on the planet's surface.
He was pleased to see that the warp crystal growth was ahead of schedule, and the equipment needed to allow the Crillons to change the warp-crystals was almost finished.
The captain of the Illustrious, Derrick Patterson, had already set up the communication's buoy that was to be warped back to Earth. It would be taking data and information that provided details on the old settler ship Acarea, and on its survivors on Delta Pavonis 20 light-years from Earth. Plus, information on the Crillon engagement and the action now underway to rid this system of the Crillons.
The Illustrious would be attempting to create the small connecting wormhole for the buoy, without the ship also entering it herself.
Andromeda had managed to do this once before, but she still didn't quite know how she had done it. Frank, however, was hopeful that the Illustrious would succeed, after having taken some unsure instructions from Andromeda.
If successful, it would be about twelve days before the buoy made contact with Earth. By then, of course, whatever was to take place now, would already have happened.
They had, therefore, agreed that, subject to what happened with the attempt by Illustrious to create the wormhole for the buoy. The Andromeda and Illustrious would both create the wormholes needed for the two Crillon ships to leave on their first leg home.
On reaching Zeta Reticuli, the Crillons would then find the Derringer and Turpin waiting for them. With their Antimatter weapons fully charged in case of trouble. But also, ready to help them, if the Crillons complied and something went wrong.
They had calculated that, subject to how well the hurriedly grown crystals performed, it would take almost seventy-three days for the Crillon ships to reach Crilla, their home planet.
Frank, had seen that both Crillon Captains were impressed by the cooperation they had received from the Humans.
Like Arans and Tarcan, they too had always been bred to think they must destroy all other life, to ensure the survival of their species. They too thought their Senate wouldn’t want to see it any differently.
But, both Tripicac and Bovonivo, had told him they were determined they would fight for change.
“There will be no more planet cleansing if we get home Captain,” Tripicac had said, repeating almost word for word what Arans and Tarcan had said.
‘I wonder,’
thought Frank.
‘I’d better talk to Commander Tripicac, ’and pressed the tab for CS13.
“Yes, captain. What can I do for you?”
“Your natural wormhole, Tripicac. Do you know what the transit time would have been, between Zeta Reticuli and Kepler?”
“About two of your planet weeks,” he replied.
“Do you know why it’s quicker than artificially generated wormholes?
“Can’t help you there. We’re not sure either.
“That’s a shame,” said Frank. “Thanks for your help anyway,” and carried on with his thoughts.
His thoughts then being interrupted by Susanna’s image appearing on his screen.
“Frank,” came Andromeda's voice, “Susanna wants to link with you, through the drone.”
“OK. Open link.”
“Hi, Frank.”
“Are you all right Sues?”
“Yes, don't worry. I'm all right. Everything’s going well so far, and Jim's received an image from a service droid that’s still working. Unbelievable, isn't it? The droid has also given up a lot of information, and Jim’s copied it to Tim in Astro.”
“Good going. Send it to me.”
“Packet received Susanna,” Andromeda confirmed.
“We've one area that, according to the droid, might be interesting, call you later,” Susanna added.
He went to say something, “She's broken contact, Frank.”
“Oh well,” he said, feeling disappointed.
Frank opened the information sent from Susanna and looked at the first image that had been taken from the blue ship's memory banks. His heart sank a little.
The image was of a giant ‘sphere,’ surrounded by a blue radiance. It was floating some metres above the ground, with several white lights nearby.
The ‘sphere’ looked massive, but with only the sky as a background, there was no real reference to determine the actual size.
The second Image showed human-like beings, who were being taken into the Blue Sphere on floating platforms, with each platform being pushed by a small globe like object.
The next picture, showed the settler ship, the Acarea. Still intact, and resting on the ground by the side of a massive rock formation.
'So, our third player,' he thought. 'Well, at least we now know the Acarea landed in one piece.'
The fourth image showed a purple ray bathing the rock formation. Seemingly breaking it up and throwing lumps into the air.
The last was a little blurry and showed the rocks falling and onto the ship. Within the frame, showed an image of a large rock frozen in motion, apparently flattening the drive section of the Acarea.
It ended with a short message from Jim, saying, 'Sorry Frank, the droid's memory is a bit fragmented. There’s some video footage, but not accessible to me at the moment. We'll be bringing it back with us for further analysis. Jim. Out.’
Frank sat a while thinking. 'Should he tell the Crillons about the new player? No,’ he thought. ‘Not yet. More facts were required.’
The image of the Illustrious appeared on his screen. He tapped to save it. Then tapped the icon for the Illustrious. Captain Patterson’s image appeared on the screen.
“Hi Derrick, I assume you’re now ready to try to generate the wormhole externally?”
“Yes, the buoy is already outside, with everything uploaded to it. Andromeda's going to hold my hand,” he said smiling.
“Excellent, when will you start?”
“In ten minutes. We've just had instructions to move so that the Derringer is between us and the Crillons.”
“Just in case you don't make it?” Frank asked jokingly.
“Yes,” he replied, chuckling.
“We've managed to increase the power of the warp sustain nodes, and thanks to the ship's quantum engineering department, the output power of the buoy’s fusion reactor has gone up fifty percent.
But we did need a rapid response from them to make a small modification to the size. That worked as well.”
“Good. So, no wormhole degradation until it reaches Earth?”
“No, hopefully. By the way, the new design of the buoy is impressive.”
Frank nodded agreement. They both knew that once the artificial wormhole had been established. The buoy would have enough of its own power to keep the wormhole open, by using its fusion powered, positive-field generator. And, unlike the enormous power needed to create a wormhole large enough for a StarShip to pass through. The buoy would only require a small amount of power to sustain the small wormhole.
Then the Illustrious, out of sight of the Crillons, started its first attempt to create a little wormhole for the buoy to enter. The diameter of the wormhole was critical to keeping the power required to a minimum.
A warp-warning sounded, followed by the countdown from five to zero.
A tiny swirling white mist appeared just off the bow of the Illustrious. Then, was gone.
A cavalcade of data rattled between Andromeda and Illustrious, as both the sequence and power levels were adjusted.
A second warp warning sounded as Illustrious tried again, then the countdown to zero, again.
The tiny swirling white mist appeared just off its bow, in front of the waiting buoy. The patch was denser with a jet-black centre. But then, it was gone again.
Data continued rattling between Andromeda and the Illustrious.as they made further adjustments.
A third warp warning sounded. Again, the countdown to zero.
The tiny swirling white mist again appeared in front of the waiting buoy. The patch and its black centre was even denser.
Finally, the buoy moved and was gone, as cheers from the crew came over the comms system.
Chapter 29
Exit.
They stood at the corridor junction, surrounding the small droid, with their weapons holstered.
Jim had already got a lot of information from the droid. Then relayed it back to Andromeda and Frank via drone 23 which was waiting outside.
His special computer hummed quietly while a faint yellow beam came from a box on his belt that was making a connection between the droid, his computer and one of Jim's in-ear receivers.
“You’re right about your origins Bren,” Jim said as he studied his computer.
“No doubt about it, this little fellow's been here from the start… And, ah, he apparently gets its power from a solar array outside.”
“That’ll be the glint I saw as we approached,” the sergeant remarked.
“What else?” Susanna asked.
“Well, there seems to be a sort of ‘taboo’ corridor. This one here. It's twenty metres long and even this droid can't pass.”
“What do you mean?” asked Jenny. “A physical or electronic barrier?”
“Some sort of electronic force-field.”
“We've got enough power to blast the nodes out,” Acarea voiced. Amazing herself, by her knowledge.
Bren’s face changed, and he looked very pale, “It's telling me not to come.”
They all felt the instruction.
“It’s coming through our implants,” said the marine.
“You're right,” Jim agreed. “But we can't let that stop us now.”
“Whatever it is, it must be gathering information,” Acarea said. Then, suddenly looking determined, she added.
“It's, well, I can see beneath its veil. It’s evil, not nice at all.”
“Quick, think your implants, off,” Susanna instructed.
A minute later and everyone had managed to think the shutdown code strongly enough to switch the implants to sleep mode.
Susanna knew that drone 23 would communicate immediately with Andromeda about the sudden loss of contact, and thought the drone could come inside the ship if needed. The entrance and cavern were indeed large enough though the corridor was too small to turn in.
She almost jumped out of her skin, as something touched her from behind. She said. “What the?” Then turned around, to see their dr
one 23, or rather an oval part of it, just floating behind her.
She hadn't known the drone had a separate section but had thought that it must be operating a force-field as well, which had been allowing it to float a few centimetres off the floor.
“The alien object’s force-field is still up,” Jenny announced.
“Sorry,” said Jim. “It doesn’t respond to any of my commands.”
“Susanna.” Jenny prompted.
“I understand!”
She looked at Drone 23’s shimmering force field; it hung there not moving.
‘Waiting for what?' she thought.
She couldn't communicate with it. All their implant links were in sleep mode.
The idea came to her though she wasn't sure where it came from. It seemed silly, even dangerous, but she slowly put her hand out and through drone 23’s force-field, and felt her hand tingling as it passed through. Then, on touching the drone’s casing, her implant suddenly became active.
‘Hello Susanna,’ came a voice through her implant. Not a voice she recognized.
‘Andromeda has asked me to help.’
She was taken aback for a moment, then recovered, realising it was the ‘voice’ of drone 23.
‘We need to down this alien object’s force-field in front of us,’ she said.
‘You may take your hand off me, I will keep your link open. Don’t worry there will be no coercion from the alien object.'
The drone then moved up and stopped about a metre from the object’s force-field. It stayed motionless for two minutes then said, ‘It's down; you may proceed.’
They all looked at Susanna, as she stepped forward, with her weapons in her hands. She passed the drone which then followed her.
The Definitive SpaceFed Trilogy (SpaceFed StarShips Trilogy).: A thrilling, action-packed Sci-fi space adventure. (SpaceFed StarShips Series Book 8) Page 37
