"You don't remember?"
"No, not really. We were on a mission down on Earth. We were supposed to pick up a box of some kind. I..." She frowned, "I don't remember anything beyond that."
If she didn't remember the brutal trauma of being horrifically wounded and the battle wherein it had occurred, Zack was pretty sure right now was not the time to fill her in. He'd tell her when she was stronger, though there was also the chance she might remember on her own.
"I'll get you up to speed when you get to feeling better," he said. "Do you remember anything else?"
Her eyelids were growing heavy, and Zack realized his visit had better be drawing to an end. "You need to get more sleep, Ariane. I'll be back to visit you later."
"Okay," she mumbled
As he was getting up to leave, she smiled without opening her eyes and said sleepily, "I do remember holding hands with someone under the stars. Did that really happen or was it just a dream too?"
With that, she drifted back into sleep.
He looked down at her slumbering form and took deep breath. "I think it was just a dream," he said softly.
He turned and headed for the door.
***
Helianthus, Earth Orbit, October 19, 2676
After two more days, Ariane, though still not fully recovered, had regained a substantial measure of her normal strength and was taking walks with Zack through the corridors of Cyrus' station. With her recovery well underway, there was no longer a need for Helianthus to remain attached to the station with its array of vital nutrient sources. Zack was just emerging from Ariane's chamber after returning from their longest walk yet when he was approached by Malus.
"There is a great deal yet to be accomplished, and we have no more time to waste," said the little Hordean. "We must reunite with the rest of our people without further delay."
"I agree," said Zack. "How soon can we be underway?"
"Immediately," was the reply.
After the Hordea took the time to secure plans with Cyrus Keeling regarding the continuation of their agricultural studies, they bid him farewell. Helianthus undocked and drew slowly and majestically away from the station. A Hordean Starflower was like a gigantic and very spindly wheel standing on its rim. As if that wasn't unconventional enough, the craft traveled hub-first. Nor had its creators bothered to differentiate between bow and stern, the ship was capable of full operation in either direction. While sitting idle at Keeling's station, with her stellar collection array deployed, there had been ample time for the Hordea to completely charge her batteries and heal the damage inflicted by Lenin. The ship was again able to operate at full capacity.
When Helianthus reached a safe distance from the station, the Hordea began to use the unusual, spiral-coil reaction engines mounted on the end of each of her spokes to drive the ship out towards the orbit of Mars. Though he had seen with his own eyes that the big ship was both quick and fast, Zack was not prepared for the performance it was capable of when it was at full capacity. They boosted out away from Earth's gravity well and were safely in the sublight zone in about half the time required for even the most powerful of human-built ships. In what seemed like no time at all, the ship transitioned over to sublight drive.
When in sublight, the laws of physics dictated that all ships, Human or Hordean, traveled at the same speed relative to the normal universe. The current orbital positions of Earth and Mars placed them about 0.5 AU apart. With the intrinsic sublight velocity of the Sol system locked in at around 0.15 c, the time required to cover that distance was only about a half hour. As in the case with human ships, the bulk of their transit time to Mars would be spent in normal space on either end of the journey. Because of the amazing performance capabilities of the Hordean ship in normal space, that time would also be shortened considerably.
"How lucky we are to have these gentle beings for allies," thought Zack, as the big ship phased back out of sublight.
Chapter 66. Summit Meeting.
Martian Space, Near Deimos, October 19, 2676.
Helianthus matched velocities with Deimos and the team of Hordean pilots, also sessiles who were integral with the ship, maneuvered the huge craft into its former orbit near the moon. Zack, satisfied Ariane was on the way to a full recovery, and himself well rested after several days of relative inactivity, was feeling pretty much like his old self again. Which was fortunate, because the time for more action was upon them.
During the journey back to Deimos, Zack contacted Arnold and called for a meeting, not only to get everyone up to speed but, more importantly, to determine what to do next. Within an hour after the Hordean ship arrived at Deimos, a delegation from Lenin, including Kozloff, Nuriyev, Bobrik, Zlotnik, Salix, Betula and Quercia were on the Soviet shuttle and headed for Deimos. On their way down, they made a stop at Helianthus to pick up Zack, Ariane and Malus. Erik and Holger, onboard one of the Viking shuttles, came down as well. The Deimos AI astounded all on board the Soviet shuttle by creating yet another hangar-within-a-crater to accommodate the Soviet craft. Erik calmly docked in the hangar space created for the Viking shuttle during his previous visit.
A half hour later, the Deimos common room was holding about as many beings as could be crammed into it. In preparation for the meeting, the AI had reconfigured the seating arrangements, replacing the tables with enough benches to accommodate all of the Humans. The Hordea, who were more comfortable remaining upright anyway, would simply stand behind or beside the rows of benches. At the present time all of them, Human and Hordean alike, were standing in small clusters of three of four beings all of whom were attempting to catch up with one another. In the relatively compact space, the noise level was understandably high.
As usual, Arnold was to act as moderator. Seeing everyone he was expecting had arrived, he called the meeting to order.
"May I have your attention please?" The chamber quieted down over the space of about five seconds as conversation ceased. All of the beings present turned towards Arnold at the front of the chamber. "Get comfortable, everyone, we have work to do."
The room went into motion in an orderly fashion, as all of the humans sought out a place to sit, and the four Hordea lined up behind the rows of benches. Zack and Ariane sat next to one another on the far left side of the back row.
When everyone was settled, Arnold began. "Thank you." Before he continued, he paused and took a moment to survey his audience, ensuring he had everyone's attention. "I'm sure everyone wishes we had more time but, unfortunately, that luxury is simply not available to us. The situation back in the Soviet sphere is getting critical, and we have no reason to believe that things are any better within the Federation. No one leaves here until we come up with a concrete plan. As usual, we'll start out with progress reports, to get all of us on the same page. Captain Kozloff? Would you like to give us a report on your Custodian research?"
Kozloff got up from his seat on the left end of the front bench and went over to stand next to Arnold, facing the audience. "Thank you, Arnold." He paused a moment to collect his thoughts before beginning, "As you all know, a Custodian committed suicide while in our brig just a few days ago. My team, consisting of Betula, Ensign Nuriyev, Petty Officer Bobrik and myself, examined the body in an effort to find weaknesses or anything else we might be able to exploit. Ensign Nuriyev? Would you please report on what we've learned about the biology of these creatures?"
Tatianna stood up from her place in the front row and turned around to present a short report on what they had discovered, cutting right to the chase. "Custodian biology is foreign to anything in the Human or the Hordean knowledge bases. They are...bizarre creatures. If I had to pick an analogy, and this is only a rough approximation, I'd say they most closely resemble the spiders and scorpions of Earth. Thanks to Betula, we know their structure and their chemistry both include a large dependence on silicon-based molecules. This attribute should make them quite resistant to pulse weapons. There are also some sensory organs on and near their 'heads,' wh
ich should be vulnerable, however. We've found out a great deal more, of course, but nothing else that would be of any use in combatting them yet."
A hand went up. "Zack?" said Arnold. "Do you have something to add?"
Zack stood up from his spot in the back row of benches. After a quick glance over and down towards Ariane, he said, "That explains a lot. Our pulse weapons were worthless against the one that attacked us down on Earth, it took two grenades to stop it."
"But the grenades were effective?" asked Kozloff.
"They were, but the first one just knocked it down. Lucky for us, the blast also tore a hole in its armored suit and blew the weapon out of its hands. I targeted the damaged area of the armor with my second grenade and that finally did the trick. Tatiana is right, the damned things are almost immune to pulse weapons."
Elsewhere in the audience, Erik and Zlotnik nodded their heads in agreement.
Zack sat back down and noticed immediately that Ariane had turned pale sometime during his comments. She was also hyperventilating, and from the look on her face was experiencing something greatly disturbing to her. He concluded immediately that hearing his brief report about the near fatal incident had jogged loose some very unpleasant memories. He'd been expecting it to happen sometime, he just hadn't known when or where. Nor was he certain of what to do about it.
As Ariane was listening to Zack's brief description of the battle, she had been suddenly and brutally struck with an overwhelming rush of vivid, violent and profoundly disturbing images. Hearing about the incident had indeed jogged loose memories that had, up till now, been deeply buried in her consciousness. Before Zack even settled into his seat, she reached over and clenched his forearm with a trembling hand. As soon as he sat down, he instinctively covered her hand with his own and applied gentle pressure. To his relief, the simple gesture had the desired effect.
She took a series of shallow breaths as the flood of memories crested and then began to subside. As her breathing returned to normal, Zack could feel the tension going out of her. Over the space of the next few seconds, he watched her reestablish control and regain her composure. After one final calming breath, she gave his forearm a squeeze before releasing it and withdrawing her hand. The entire incident was over in less than ten seconds, but it hadn't gone unnoticed. Everyone was now looking at her and Zack.
"Ariane?" said MacPherson. "Are you alright?"
"It's okay, Father, I just had a flashback to the battle while Zack was talking about it. I...I need to process it, but I think I'm okay now."
The Professor gave her a long, concerned look before turning his attention back to the business at hand. The rest of the group did likewise.
Nuriyev picked up where she'd left off, "Thank you Zack. That fits right in with our findings, they should be vulnerable to mechanical damage like that inflicted by projectile weapons, but we haven't had a chance to test the theory yet. Your experience with the grenades at least indicates we're on the right track."
"It might be possible to test our weapons against some of the live ones on board Lenin," said Kozloff. "We actually succeeded in reviving one of them."
"You have a live Custodian on your ship?" said a horrified Holger.
"We have it under heavy guard and, believe it or not, it's cooperating with us."
"How did you manage that?" asked Zack.
"We figured out how to activate the hibernation capsules," said Kozloff. "We took one of the modules out of the cargo container and revived the creature inside. As soon as it came out of the chamber, we trapped it and held it to the deck with a couple of restraining nets. Bobrik here..." he nodded in the direction of the tech, "...found a translator in the chamber where the first one had been holed up. We used the device to communicate with it."
"What did you say," asked Holger.
"Since the first one committed suicide, I figured we needed to give this one an incentive to stay alive. I promised we wouldn't harm it if it cooperated with us."
"You did what?" said Holger.
"I told it we would return it unharmed to the first Custodians we encounter, in exchange for undetermined concessions."
"And that worked?" said Holger. "I find that hard to believe."
"It actually makes sense," said Ariane, in a soft voice.
"How so?" asked an obviously skeptical Holger.
"We had a conversation with Symantia just before we headed out on our mission. She told us they're a dangerous enemy but, fortunately, they're not very bright. Apparently the Archeons saw to that."
"I might be able to add something to that," said Arnold. "The Archeon Gift -- it's a codex actually -- contains a great deal of information about Custodians and Archeons. Just so you know, the Custodians refer to themselves as 'Overlords.'"
"That's a comforting thought," said Zack. 'How did you figure that out? You've only had the 'gift' for a few days."
"I was granted the ability to read the script just after I came in contact with the protective case. I can't do it quickly and there's still a lot of guesswork, but from what I've found so far, the Custodians were victims of some kind of bioweapon."
"It keeps them from evolving," said Zack. Seeing the disbelieving looks on everyone's face, including Arnold's, he added, "Symantia told us that too, remember?"
"Will any of this knowledge help us in our current situation?" asked Gertrude.
"Unknown," replied Arnold, "Translating the language is some pretty tough going, I'm only about ten percent of the way through the codex. I'm absolutely certain there's a great deal of valuable information contained in it, but we won't know until I get more of it translated."
"It'll just have to do for now, I guess," said Gertrude.
"Indeed," said Arnold. "For the near term, we might get a lot more information from studying the captive Custodians on Lenin." He stopped and looked around at his colleagues. "While it would be desirable if we had more information, we simply do not have time to wait until we can get it. Ready or not, we need to move now. Why don't we all take a ten-minute break and then get down to figuring out what we need to do and when to do it?"
Everyone took a short break and, over the next three hours, the group of Humans and Hordea hammered out a plan of action. What they came up with was far from perfect and had more holes in it than Deimos did, but it would have to do.
Chapter 67. An Introduction.
Nova York Orbital Platform, Central Planets Star System, October 25, 2676.
The Nova York Orbital Station was one of the largest facilities of its type in all of Human space. The sprawling complex could accommodate thousands of spacecraft of all sizes, from giants like the cruiseliner Zack had taken from New Slovenia to Haven, down to ships a fourth the size of Capri. It also contained all of the amenities one would expect to find in any large city: hotels, restaurants, shops and offices as well as permanent housing for the sizeable resident population required to operate and maintain the huge construct. The planetary government maintained a large suite of offices on the station for conducting the bulk of its considerable space-related businesses.
Senator Everett Dawson and his two bodyguards got off the station's tramway and made their way out to a berthing spot in one of the remote arms of the Nova York Station. He was on his way to a meeting requested by Dr. Harold MacPherson, academic leader of an archeological expedition that had just returned from a mysterious mission. Dawson had no idea what to expect and was proceeding with anticipation tempered with a generous measure of skepticism. He'd been disappointed enough times during his long career to allow his expectations to run too high.
Just a month and a half earlier, the senator himself had sponsored MacPherson's expedition on some compelling but rather shaky grounds. His wife and her psychic medium, Madam Miriam Love, had persuaded him that something momentous was about to happen to the human race due to the existence of a small, pyramid-shaped object of unknown function. The last information he'd received concerning the expedition was they may have gone to the Sol S
ystem. There were also unconfirmed reports their ship had been pursued by an armed Soviet courier.
It seemed their ship had stealthily and unexpectedly snuck into the docks late last evening. Soon after arrival, MacPherson called to request a meeting with the senator first thing in the morning, insisting he had information of the utmost urgency. Dawson hoped he was finally going to get some answers.
Dawson and his bodyguards found the expedition ship, a converted freighter called Capri, in a berth on the very fringe of the orbital station's government section. The ship itself looked like just another small freighter in a dense cloud of such ships, except for stripes on her bow and stern painted a rather garish shade of pink and the ship's name emblazoned across her side against a backdrop of palm trees. Dawson was beginning to fear he had made a mistake by sponsoring the expedition in the first place, and was now compounding it by coming here. By keeping the meeting secret, this Professor MacPherson was demonstrating at least some measure of political savvy, of which Dawson approved. He pushed the call button next to the docking tube connecting the ship's airlock to the station.
Almost immediately, a tall, well-dressed and distinguished-looking gentleman strode up the transparent docking tube to greet them. Dawson recognized Dr. Harold MacPherson from the briefing materials he had gone over before lending his support to the mission a month and a half ago.
"Senator Dawson, thank you for coming on such short notice." said the gentleman, who looked to be in his early fifties. His dark, immaculately-groomed hair was peppered here and there with flecks of gray, and a dazzling smile illuminated his rather patrician features. "I'm Harold MacPherson. Please come aboard, Senator. We have much to discuss."
"Thank you, Professor," said Dawson. He and MacPherson, with one bodyguard in front and the other behind, headed down the docking tube towards the open airlock door of Capri. "I assume by the urgency of your request for this meeting your expedition has yielded some results?"
The Archeon Codex: Guardians of the Galactic Sentinel Book 2 Page 34
