Joe frowns as he thinks back to their last visit to this planet. The names seem vaguely familiar. He feels a chill as he recalls the logs they recovered. Another thought comes to mind, one that raises the hair on the back of his neck. We never went back and played the rest of the logs.
The gravelly voice continues, “I am Waazh. Come, meet our group. We are small in number, but have spirit. We have been waiting for the day our clan returns to take us back to the stars where we belong.”
Cindy cringes, and then says. “A lot has changed since you were marooned here. We were not expecting to find survivors, and will have to come back.”
Joe gets Cindy’s attention and quietly mouths, “How many?”
Cindy nods to Joe and then with trepidation asks, “How many of you are there?”
“Almost two hundred.” Waazh proudly replies.
Cindy narrows her eyes as she asks one more question, “Can you make it to your old ship?”
Waazh’s gravelly voice replies, “Prime Zorkna took the last working craft. When he failed to return, we thought him dead. We are unable to escape these catacombs.”
Cindy sighs with relief. She smiles as she replies. “Fear no longer, I will make arrangements to return to you.”
“Fear?” Waazh repeats loudly. He continues forcefully, “We fear nothing!”
Cindy glances around sharply at the tone, and then recalling the respectful way George spoke to Regent Voknor, quickly responds, “I meant no offence. As I said, we are friends of the Gamin. We come from a planet far away, and know few of your customs.” She gulps as she shrugs her shoulders.
Waazh responds, his curiosity aroused, “Not Gamin? Friends? This is new to us, but we welcome any enemies of the Atlans. Have they been driven back to the rock they sprang from?”
Cindy pauses for a moment, and then replies, “The war continues to this day, but many Gamin clans survive.”
Joe taps Cindy’s arm and, once he has her attention, motions that they should go.
Cindy nods to Joe in agreement, and says, “Waazh, we must leave, but we will return with transports as soon as we can.”
“We will prepare the hatchery while we wait for your return.” Waazh replies.
The hair on the back of Cindy’s neck rises in apprehension as she cautiously asks, “How many eggs do we need to accommodate for?”
The others stare at Cindy in stunned silence. None of them had thought of there being a hatchery.
“Forty-seven.” Waazh replies proudly.
“Understood. We will also make preparations.” Cindy says uneasily as she motions for John to get them moving.
John easily turns the shuttle around in the large cave, and then descends back down the watery tunnel. The trip back to the Terran is quiet, as each of them ponder this new development. The exploration of the rest of the planet is forgotten, for now.
Look Who’s Coming to Dinner
As soon as the shuttle crew returns to the Terran, Cindy calls a general meeting in the mess hall. She had considered holding a private session, but decided that exaggerated rumors could cause more harm, than the facts. The main bridge crew, Radclyf’s and Hayato’s teams, and representatives from each of the Army Corps groups, all sit and wait. Suzanne has joined the group, and sits next to Joe. She offers Cindy a curt wave as they catch each other’s eyes. Once again, the kitchen hands get to listen first hand to an important discussion.
Cindy casts her gaze over the group, and then begins. “During our exploration today we found survivors from the derelict.” Amid the low murmuring that emanates from those gathered, she continues, “The few Gamin we saw appeared to be under nourished, and would seem to be no threat to us.”
The low murmuring picks up in volume. Cindy holds a hand up to quiet the room, and then says with resolve, “I plan to rescue these people.”
The room instantly becomes a bedlam of noise. A man shouts out, “They’re not people, they’re aliens!”
Another voice calls out, “We owe them nothing! Did you forget what they did to the Oglans?”
Cindy takes a deep breath, and then loudly states, “I will not take their technology, and then abandon these Gamin to their fate. That would make us no better than the Regent who destroyed the Oglan civilization, nor the Atlans who destroyed this world.”
Once again, a man calls out from the muttering crowd, “Who cares what happens to a few stupid lizards?”
With mounting rage Cindy shouts over the racket, “I will not stand idly by and watch these people suffer.” She scans the crowd in an attempt to find the man who spoke.
Peter quickly gets to Cindy’s side, and then states, “These stupid lizards were building spaceships before we built the first Pyramids!”
Emma quietly mumbles to herself, “They’re not lizards anyway.”
Cindy places her hands on her hips and says forcefully, “This is not up for debate! We will be rescuing the stranded Gamin, and, when we are able, we will reunite them with their own kind.”
A man shouts out from the crowd with hostility in his tone. “They had better not come in here then!”
Peter takes a step forward, and then states with resolve, “We will make arrangements for the Gamin to be secured in a safe location, away from any command and control systems.”
Cindy nods her head in agreement at Peter’s proposal while she scans the crowd in an attempt to find out who is against them. She finally spots one of the men, and then with narrowing eyes, scrutinizes him carefully. He appears to be one of the military contractors who signed on with David. She glances to Radclyf, and smiles as she notices that he and Hayato are already slowly making their way to the vocal man.
Peter casts his gaze around the room and then says, “I for one, will sleep better knowing the Gamin are on this ship, under our watch, than somewhere out there.”
Cindy purses her lips at Peter’s lie, and then suddenly has an alarming thought. I am taking Waazh’s word that he and the rest of the Gamin are trapped. And for his part, he seemed quick to trust that I am his friend. Why?
While Cindy ponders her thoughts, Peter ends the meeting. As the people slowly make their way out of the mess hall, one man finds himself facing Radclyf.
Radclyf pokes the man in the chest and states bluntly, “If anything happens to any Gamin on this ship, I will be holding you personally responsible.”
The man sneers as he responds, “I am entitled to my opinion.”
“Look around you Mister, this is not a democracy. If you start any trouble, you will be answering to me.” Radclyf stares at the man with fierce determination.
The once vocal man swallows hard as he realizes he has misjudged how much this crew actually likes the Gamin. He steps back and lowers his head as he glumly replies, “Well, they’re just stupid lizards anyway. What do I care?”
Radclyf nods his head. Not because he is in agreement with the man’s comments, but so that the man can retreat with some of his dignity intact. He is, after all a soldier, even if he is a mercenary.
Cindy waits until the mess hall is almost empty before she sits down. She sighs as she rubs her forehead in an effort to stave off a headache which is forming.
Peter rests a hand on her shoulder and says, “We will find a secure location for the Gamin, and we will keep them under guard. Both for their protection, and ours.”
Cindy glances up, and in an uncharacteristic manner, says with trepidation, “I keep thinking of the phrase, no good deed goes unpunished.”
Peter and Radclyf glance at each other warily, and nod in silent agreement. Both men understand her concerns, and will do everything they can to alleviate them. These Gamin have been trapped on this world for a long time, and do not know the crew the way Regent Voknor, or Sharz does. Both men are uneasy about what the Gamin will do once they are on board the Terran.
Radclyf glances to Cindy as he suggests, “We could house them in the forward section of the lower decks, where the materials for the passageways were stored.”
Peter grins as he adds, “Let’s not have them too close to the outer hull though. I don’t want them anywhere near the weapon’s systems we have in place.”
Cindy taps her fingers on her table, and then says, “We should take our time rescuing them. But, I want to be able to communicate with Waazh while we make our preparations.”
Peter nods in agreement and says, “I am sure that between Joe and George, they can figure something out.”
Cindy then says to Peter, “I would also like to wait until we are back in space, before we contact the Gamin about this clan. We do not know why they were left behind.”
Peter lifts his eyebrows as he replies, “You don’t think they were left here on purpose, do you?”
“I don’t know, but just in case there is more to this than meets the eye, I would still rather be mobile, than stuck here tethered to that derelict.” Cindy replies warily.
Peter nods in agreement, and then leaves the mess hall to begin preparations.
Salvage
Engineers walk freely along the main passageway from the Terran’s hangar deck to the central hub which rests between the two spacecraft. From this busy hub, the engineers easily access any one of the six passageways which extend into the derelict. Atmosphere is fan-forced from the Terran into these sealed off work areas. Spacesuit-wearing engineers test the air quality, and the seals, before allowing others access.
The days pass quickly as survey teams evaluate the Gamin ship, and draft plans for the removal of a variety of components. Joe reviews the growing number of reports, and discusses each one in depth with George. Joe deliberates over the plans, and before he makes any decisions, calls a meeting.
Joe stands on the Terran’s bridge, rallying his thoughts. Cindy, Peter, John, Robert, and George, all wait patiently for him to speak.
Joe glances to George and then says, “George should be giving this report. He’s the one who figured most of this stuff out.”
George, who is usually in his bodysuit, feels strange without it. He leans back against his console, and replies, “We worked on it together. Please, go ahead.”
Joe, realizing that he is stuck doing the presentation, shakes his head, and begins. “I will do my best to summarize what we have learned to date. The ship’s power units are fully depleted, and its main engines are damaged. The main core belonging to each of the engines appears fused. How this was done is unknown. On a positive note, George and I have been able to recover more of the ship’s logs. We have determined that the derelict has only been on this planet for around two thousand years, even though the ship itself is much older, at approximately six thousand years. Where it has been all this time is another mystery. Information about the fleet’s leader, Regent Gordok, does not exist in our navicon’s database.” He shakes his head as he says, “This make no sense at all, especially considering we recovered our navicon from that ship.”
Cindy frowns at this news and asks, “How is that possible?”
Joe shrugs his shoulders and motions to George for help.
With everyone’s eyes turning to him, George replies, “It’s our theory that the navicon synchronized with some central database when we activated it.” He lowers his head as he adds, “And if this is true, then that Regent’s clan no longer exists according to the Gamin, making the survivors in the underwater cavern all that is left of Gordok’s clan.”
Cindy leans back and stares at the ceiling as she ponders this new development. After a moment’s thought, she leans forward and says, “I want their rescue to be made a higher priority. If they are all that is left of their clan, then we do indeed have a duty to get them back to their kind.”
Joe glances to Peter before he replies, “We can use the short-range transmitter we delivered to inform Waazh that we are ready. We’ve been stalling him, as we thought it best to bring them on board when we were closer to completing our work here.”
Cindy sighs, and says, “It would seem that some of the assumptions we made the last time we were here, were wrong.”
George responds quickly, “We had very little information to go on last time, and even though we have learned a lot, we could still be wrong. Many of our theories are just that, theories.”
Cindy nods her head in acknowledgement, then motions to Joe.
Joe refers to his notes for a moment, then states, “The ship has two distinctive weapons systems, both of which are connected to the ship’s power grid. One is a kinetic style of weapon, which launches projectiles.” He pauses before adding solemnly, “They are much like the asteroids and meteors which impacted Earth.” He quickly continues, “The other is an energy based weapon, with an output that seems to be in the terawatt range.”
Peter shrugs his shoulders and says, “Terawatt lasers are not that powerful. Even we have those.”
Joe nods his head in agreement as he says, “True, but the lasers on that ship can fire sustained bursts, which is an order of magnitude far above anything we have developed.”
“Still,” Peter persists, “I expected something more powerful, especially from a race that has been in space for thousands of years, fighting a war.”
Joe frowns as Peter’s comment strikes a chord. “You know,” he says as he scratches his head, “you’re right. Anyway, engineers are working to isolate specific areas so that crews can go in and remove some of the weapons.”
Robert takes advantage of Joe’s pause and asks, “How many of each weapon are there?”
Joe glances at his notes and then replies, “We have identified ten energy weapons pods, twenty-five smaller kinetic launchers and one large kinetic launcher. We should be able to recover six energy weapons and twenty of the smaller kinetic weapons. The largest one is in the detached nose of the craft, and unrecoverable.”
Robert adds to his notes while the rest of the bridge crew waits.
Cindy turns her attention to Joe and asks, “Anything else?”
“Oh yes,” Joe says with a smile. “The derelict has two Gamin shuttles, and a dozen ground vehicles in its hangar deck.”
“Good.” Cindy replies with a smile. She then adds, “If any of that equipment is still serviceable, bring it over here.”
Joe replies, “No worries.” He checks his notes once again then says, “The derelict has numerous computer consoles which we should be able to salvage as well.”
Cindy stands up, and with a widening smile, says, “It looks like things are finally going our way. Let’s get this done people.”
George smiles as well, walks up to Joe, and slaps him on the back. “I can help you with the consoles, and when I find Patrick, I will ask him to assist with the weapons removal.”
John finds the smiles infectious, and grins as he says, “I will check out the equipment.”
Peter’s voice fills the bridge as he turns his attention to Cindy. “The area designated for the Gamin survivors is ready. Just give the order and we can bring them here.”
Cindy purses her lips before she slowly replies, “Tell Waazh that we will be ready to transport his clan in a few days.”
Peter nods as he replies, “As you wish.”
The group continues to discuss the finer details of each salvage process before they retire for the night.
Joe wakes to George’s excited voice coming through his room’s speakers. “Wake up sleepy head. I am with Suzanne in the computer room. We’re hooking up one of the derelict’s consoles to GUS.”
Joe jumps out of bed and hurriedly gets dressed. Minutes later, he is running down the corridors towards GUS. He rushes into the room, and comes to a sliding stop in front of Suzanne.
George steps from his bodysuit and says, “The console was easier to remove than I expected, so I brought it here for you guys to check out.”
Joe’s jaw drops as he notices the console looks almost the same as those on the Terran.
Suzanne stares at it excitedly, and says, “We should run every test imaginable on it.”
Both men understand h
er enthusiasm, and assist her. Using the Gamin systems is one thing, being able to test one without fear of damaging a crucial component aboard the Terran, is another completely.
They use GUS to test the console’s storage capacity, and stare in surprise when GUS returns an error. The same thing happens when they attempt to determine the unit’s calculations per second. These are a few of the simple tests that Joe has waited for a long time to perform. The three of them perform test upon test, as they disassemble the console.
Suzanne frowns as she states, “We have no idea how they work, and yet rely on them completely.”
Joe replies, “It’s okay. Think about it, we left Jux in the same position. The Oglans have no means of replicating the computers we left them. They do not even have the technology to replace any components. But they can still use them, just as we can use the consoles on this ship.”
“I had hoped to find some answers, at least to our basic questions.” Suzanne replies, a little defeated.
Joe shakes his head, and with a smile replies, “You’re disappointed because you haven’t figured out the console in one day. Well, I have been studying this technology for a couple of years now, and I still have no idea how they work.”
She frowns as she reads her notes out loud, “Not only can I not get a computational speed, I can’t even identify where the processor is, or where the memory is.”
“Ah,” Joe replies, “Well, I have some of those answers. The console has carbon based memory strands imprinted on what we would consider a main board. But as for the CPU, I too have been unable to locate one.”
George adds what he knows. “One side of the unit is the touch screen, while the other is the imprinted board. The rest of the console’s space is used as storage, or left empty.”
Suzanne turns to George and asks, “Why can’t you make these?”
George points his thumb over his shoulder at his suit as he replies “The suits can craft objects from thought, but only if the desired item is in the attached module’s database, or is a simple thing.”
Initiation Series: Series One Compilation (Terran Chronicles) Page 128
