The symbiot suddenly becomes frightened, saying, “Be quiet. She may sense your presence, I can hide you, but you must remain silent.” The symbiot becomes frightened as she hides.
Caleb thinks to himself. What has happened to you Carla, what went wrong?”
Paladin responds to Caleb’s personal thoughts, saying, “Cale, I’ve determined the ship must be without power, or possibly on emergency backup, so until our deflector shields are raised, we’re trapped in here with this part of Carla’s symbiot. I’m sorry my friend, until then I’m afraid we will not know.”
Back on Paladin a day later, repairs move very quickly, even with just the few remaining crewmembers. Paladin’s hull is able to self-repair all types of damage, the metal that Paladin is made from is called Ferrous Anatanium magnetic alloy. A unique metal allows the material to be damaged or destroyed and it reforms itself on a subatomic level. The material, which make up this unique metal, will bond back together, pulling itself back into its original shape. The process takes very little time, but it still needs those damaged fragments to be placed back into their proper position, a task that can only be done by human hands. Once a damage piece is put back in place, that piece self-seals itself back into its original place.
Elsewhere on Paladin, deep down in engineering, Onatof and Benton race to restore main power. The engine room is in complete disarray from the traumatic events of traveling through the time conduit. Onatof feeling exhausted slows down for a moment to catch his breath. He looks over the massive amount of debris still strewn across the deck, and sighs heavily as he dreads the tremendous amount of work before them. He suddenly feels a slight pain in his side. He looks upward as he tries to breathe through the pain.
Benton, noticing the Professors stressed posture says, “Hey Doc, this mess ain’t gonna clean itself up, so get a move on.”
Onatof exhales, as he replies, “I am not as young as I look my loud friend.” He sits down on a power conduit and looks out across the deck, shaking his head.
Benton grins, asking, “Doc, you ain’t going to go soft on me are you?”
Onatof smirks, saying, “Gabriel, this is a job that requires all my attention. Most of these devices are just so incredibly sophisticated.” He pauses, as he once again looks up at everything, saying, “I just feel so overwhelmed. I just try my best to just understand how they work.”
Benton, who is picking up a large device off the deck, places it back into position it then self-seals, repairing itself. Benton unconcerned by the Professors reservations replies, “Doc, What's to know? All we have to do is put whatever the doohickey is back in its spot, and the ship does the rest for us.”
Onatof simply smiles, saying, “For you my good friend that may be enough, but for me, I am a man of science, and I need to know more. I need to understand what it is I’m working with.”
White interrupts, calling down over the ship's internal com system, asking, “Professor, how long until we can power up the mains?”
Onatof looks over at the primary conduit, which is still self-sealing, answering, “The very first repair we completed was the placing the main conduit back into its proper position Commander. However, the ship's self-repairs systems do take longer in some areas than it does on others.” He glares at Benton sarcastically, stating, “Perhaps if I understood it better I could speed things up. Unfortunately, Commander, all I can say for now is that it will take, as long as it takes.”
Back on the bridge, Commander White sits back in his chair frustrated. Once more, he feels the weight of everything upon him, as he reflects to himself. This totally bites, Caleb’s out for the count, Paladin is non-responsive. The ship is badly damaged, and were sitting out here with absolutely no defenses, no scanners, nothing. White shakes his head in complete frustration, letting out a heavy sigh.
Cooley, noticing White’s frustration attempts to cheer him up. She smiles, saying, “Hey luv. Way to motivate us.” Cooley suddenly feels a wave of Deja vu overwhelm her. Stunned, she collapses unconscious on the bridge.
White turns nonchalantly to reply. However, he is shocked to see Cooley lying prone on the deck. He jumps from his chair racing to her yelling “RACHEL!”
Cooley begins to wake, immediately seeing Reggie, hovering over her. Cooley blinks her eyes multiple times, as she attempts to understand just what happened.
White extremely concerned, asks, “Rachel, are you ok?”
Cooley overwhelmed and very confused replies, “Yeah luv, just a bit woozy.”
White visibly concerned for Cooley’s welfare asks, “Do you know what happened Rachel?”
Cooley confused by her déjà vu replies, “Sorry luv, not really sure what just happened, I guess it was just a bit of a head rush.”
White, still overly concerned for the women he loves says, “Well, you’ve been running nonstop for almost thirty-six hours. Why don’t you go take a break?”
Cooley sneers, as she takes in everything that just happened. Confused and worried she takes in a deep breath, saying, “I’ll be fine luv, just give me a few minutes to catch my breath, and I’ll be fine.”
White annoyed states, “You know, I can order you to rest, but I doubt that you would listen.”
Cooley stands up, saying, “You’re learning luv. You’re learning.” Cooley, however, is trying her best to understand the wave of information she just felt, as everything she does, says or senses, feels like she has done it before.”
CHAPTER TWO
CONSEQUENCES
Several days pass, as repairs continue. Main power is restored, as well as the majority of the ships primary systems. Nevertheless, Caleb remains unconscious.
Cooley is currently on the bridge, as the rest of the crew focuses on repairing secondary and backup systems. She is presently focused on the ships long-range sensors, which until just recently were not operational. Suddenly, Cooley detects three ships of unknown origin appearing on Paladins long-range sensors. Paladin’s database shows the vessels to be at least a week away. Unfortunately, for the crew, Paladin’s database is a tad bit outdated.
Cooley quickly alerts the crew, “Attention all hands! We have approaching ships on long-range sensors.”
Benton is the first to arrive on the bridge. He races to weapons station, asking, “Ok Beauty Queen, what do we got?”
Cooley irritated replies, “Relax Gabe, we have a week till there in our weapons range. So keep it in your pants luv.”
White arrives, having heard Cooley’s last statement, says, “Gabe, you better make sure our shields are working, as well as our cloak.”
Benton looks over his instruments, saying, “Shields look to be mostly operational.” Benton checks the systems, stating, “We still have several emitters offline, and some of the conduits still need repairs, the most I’ll be able to get out of the shields is forty-six percent.” He looks at the cloak and lets out a heavy sigh, saying, “Don’t count on the cloak anytime soon. Sucker needs a major overhaul.
Benton then tests the shields, activating them. The deflector and defensive shields come on line, and with that simple action Caleb is instantaneously return to his body, as Paladin regains complete control of the ship.
Paladin quickly analyzes all the data and announces, “Do not disengage the shields Colonel Benton.”
White extremely happy to hear Paladin’s voice elates, “About time you showed up.”
Cooley is about to speak, when she becomes overwhelmed again with another sense of déjà vu. Weakened by the sensation she struggles to remain conscious yelling, “Those ships, they are coming right at us!”
With Cooley revelation, all three ships instantly appear directly in front of Paladin, with their weapons all locked on to them.”
Paladin alerts the crew, “The vessels before us have adequate power to disrupt our shields.”
White, shocked at everything that just occurred quickly takes action, ordering his crew, “Gabe, lock all weapons on the first ship, and prepare to fire on my say so.
Rachel, try and contact those ships, tell them to stand down, we mean no harm.”
Caleb finally wakes in med-bay. His mind is flooded with information from Paladin, “Cale, we are surrounded by three ships, and they may be of Earth origin. However, I cannot confirm this.”
Caleb agonizingly sits up. He slowly tries to stand, as his body is wracked in severe pain. He focuses his thoughts, as he pushes himself through the pain and begins to race towards the bridge. Caleb normally can cross the distance in mere moments. Unfortunately, with the ship being so heavily damaged, Caleb’s speed is severely hampered.
Back on the bridge, Cooley announces, “Reggie, I have an open channel to all three ships, they can hear us, but they are not responding to our hails.”
White says over the com, “This is the Earth Battleship Paladin. We are not here to threaten you.”
A brief moment passes, until a response is heard, “The Battleship Paladin vanished over three thousand years ago.” The voice pauses briefly, continuing, “You will lower your shields and accept our boarders, or be destroyed.”
Caleb finally reaches the bridge. Bleeding badly, he yells, “Gabe, target the first ship's engines and fire all weapons!”
White shocked at Caleb’s sudden appearance asks, “Cale, what are you doing?”
Caleb leans against the entryway on the bridge, saying, “Reggie, plot us a course for deep space top speed.”
Benton locks weapons, as White plots a course. Gabe says, “Ok Cale I have a lock, but if they strike back they’ll finish us.”
Paladin speaks telepathically to Caleb, saying, “Cale, I have deduced that the ships may indeed be Earth X’ena hybrid vessels, and they have most certainly discovered and removed the Paladin protocols, which prevented them from firing on each other. However, I do not know if they have removed the secondary lock that prevented them from firing on us, your gamble is very risky on multiple levels.”
Caleb smiles and yells, “Fire!”
Benton, without hesitation fires all weapons at near point blank range, easily disrupting the first ship's shields and crippling its engines.
Paladin announces, “Cale, your gamble was correct, the ships are unable to return fire. However, it would be an educated guess, but one I’m confident in saying that they are quickly working on correcting that issue, with all due haste.”
White quickly collects his thoughts. He looks across the debris field, scattered all about Paladin and reports, “Cale, we still have a lot of wreckage in orbit around the ship, if we leave it behind, we won’t be able to fully repair the ship.”
Caleb sighs responding, “Extend the shields outward to encompass the debris field, and head us out at best speed.”
White hastily extends the shields out over the debris, as he glances over the power distribution. Frustrated, he states, “Cale, with our shields extended out like this we ain’t going anywhere fast.”
Caleb telepathically asks Paladin, “How long till they figure out how to bypass the weapons block?”
Paladin replies in similar fashion, “Unknown Cale, but as they have already discovered how to bypassed the primary blocks, which prevented them from firing on each other, I would suspect not very long.”
Paladin heads out into deep space. White struggles to contain the debris field. After several minutes he turns towards Caleb, asking, “Cale, what the hell just happened?”
Paladin instead responds, “It appear the Earth forces have removed most of the blocks I had placed on their ship technology over the many eons since we have been gone. However, as they believed this ship was destroyed, they never bothered to remove the blocks, which protected us from their weapons. Unfortunately for us, they are quickly working on correcting that problem now.”
Benton surprised, asks, “Eons? What do you mean eons? Wait…. Forget that. Why are Earth ships firing on us?
Caleb, feeling the strain on the ship as it moves at its best speed through hyperspace, slowly walks to the Captain chair, allowing Paladin to speak for him.
Paladin responds to Gabriel’s question, “Colonel Benton, we have somehow traveled approximately three thousand years into our future. During which time an extremely aggressive Earth Empire has sprung to power. The leader of this tyrannical empire is none other than our very own Carla, Caleb’s daughter”
Cooley shocked, asks, “Cale, what the bloody hell is going on?”
Caleb exhausted, sits back in the Captain’s chair, taking in a deep breath, he replies, “From what I can gather during my extended stay in the psychic realm, it appears that my daughter seems to have somehow lost her mind. She has become some evil empress.”
Cooley shocked, says aloud, asking, “Carla? Our precious little flower, is the bloody bad guy now?”
Caleb lowers his head in disgust, saying, “I don’t know what went wrong Rachel, but Carla is not right. Something went terribly wrong.”
White extremely concerned asks, “Cale, you’ve said numerous times before that her power is unmatched. Perhaps, having so much power corrupted her?”
Paladin responds, “Commander White, while the old Earth proverb regarding power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, could be applicable, it would never apply to Caleb or Carla. When I first analyzed Caleb and his daughter, neither had that attribute within their bodies, this added with the genetic modification from the melding of X’ena D.N.A. into their human systems any trace of this human trait would have effectively been erased from their bodies.”
Caleb listening to Paladin starts to recall an earlier conversation he had back on Earth. Caleb begins to let his mind wander, and as he has done numerous times before he enters a life like world, where he can and often times reflects on past memories.
Caleb returns to a time in his mind where they had recently returned to Earth almost two years for Caleb, but over thousands since it happened. He reflects on this conversation where he rests atop Paladin’s outer bridge leaning out over the exterior railing, as the mighty Paladin battleship sits in the harbor in China’s largest military naval base, Zhanjiang naval base. He leans out further against the railing, as takes in the cool ocean breeze rushing pass him. Caleb focuses on the peace he feels in this moment. A peace he is so often denied and today will be no different.
Wu Lei Chan seeing Caleb out on the outer deck approaches from afar, interrupting his moment of peace, asking, "Admiral Caleb, may I have a moment of your time?”
Caleb pretends not to hear Chan, hoping that he will just go away. Chan now a little annoyed, asks, "Caleb, I know you feel you're above us, but must you always be so rude?"
Caleb sighs, realizing that Chan will not go away, he reluctantly answers, "With all your fellow politicians calling out for my removal on a daily basis, and others wishing to see me dead rather than having to deal with me, why do you now considered me to be the rude one?"
Chan exasperated responds, "That is how many feel Caleb, I will not deny that, but I am not amongst them.” Extremely aggravated Chan says in despair, “All I came here was to thank you for everything you have done, and for being part of the ceremony for my daughter’s wedding."
Caleb exhales, and shakes his head, saying, "I know you're not personally in that circle mister Secretary, I’m sorry for including you, but most of the people you deal with are in that circle.” Caleb pauses for a moment, he takes in a deep breath and says, “I know it's just childish fear they have of my power, my apology for ignoring you."
Secretary-General Chan now curious at Caleb’s statement voices his point, asking, "Caleb, you have power which is unrivaled in our world. How can you claim to be beyond corruption, especially when all our history shows that power corrupts and your power is near absolute?"
Caleb takes pause, as he considers Secretary Chan’s statement, taking a deep breath, he looks out across the harbor once again, closes his eyes and replies, "Secretary Chan that is a human proverb, and although what you say is true, I am no longer completely human, and even if I were completely hu
man, I would have no interest in power. That’s not what I’m all about Chan. Never has been."
Caleb opens his eyes, and turns to Chan his eyes glow deep blue as the energy within him seems to course all around them. He finishes his statement. "I am just a simple man, with no desire, or need of power, I never asked for what happened to me, but I have to accept what I have been chosen for. Nevertheless, if ever I could use this power.” Caleb pauses, as his eyes revert to their human state. He concludes, “If ever I could use this power just for myself I would only want one thing, and that Mr. Secretary.” Caleb pauses once again as he thinks to himself for a moment, he sighs heavily completing his words, “Well that kind of power is far beyond me Secretary Chan."
Caleb turns away, and stares back out into the horizon. Chan approaches him, placing his hand on Caleb’s back, saying, "My daughter has been by your side for many years, and although I know her to speak only the truth I found it hard to believe how she described the real man that you are." Chan leans on the railing next to Caleb, as he too looks out over the mighty ship called Paladin, declaring, "If I could change places with your wife and son, I would gladly give my life to let you have them back. Regrettably, I cannot, so I ask instead that you allow me the honor of letting your daughter to be part of my family. Allow me and my family to help you raise her, as your own family would."
Caleb smiles, he lowers his head, saying, "Wu, I know you're sincere in your offer, but I'm just not ready to let her leave me, at least not just yet…. and not for very long, perhaps I will accept your offer on a limited trial."
Back on board Paladin, current time. Cooley repeats herself a little louder, pulling Caleb out of his trance like state. "Cale, are you there!" she yells.
Caleb grins, as he regains his place answering, "Yeah… Sorry Rachel, I was just recalling a conversation I had with Wu Lei a few years ago."
Cooley annoyed states, "You know Cale, you do that a lot, and its real creepy luv."
The Ocoda Chronicles Book 4 Present Future Past Page 2
