by Bob Blink
Chapter 40
Time Complex
Effective Time: Thursday Evening, 29 September 2006
We met in the complex control room at seven that evening. Carol and I came together. Mike, John, and Al were already there when we arrived. Other than ourselves and the guards Mike had stationed, no one else was present in the complex. It had been a long day and people had retired early. A tour of the alien ship was first on the agenda. Mike explained that what we saw might affect the discussions we needed to have, so he felt we should complete that first. There were no objections. We all were more than a little curious to see the ship for ourselves.
Mike led the way down the hallway to the open airlock door. He showed the others where the aliens had fallen during the battle. The guards parted and made way for us to enter. As we passed through the entrance, we could see how the back of the ship fitted snugly up against the rear of the door. The outside of the complex just beyond the door was hidden from us. The walls we saw were part of the ship, which had fit snugly up against the interface, probably inside a supporting structure attached to the outside structure of the complex. The corridor was roughly a yard thick, before the wall fell away and we entered the main room of the ship.
“Top level,” Mike said unnecessarily. “This level is basically a single room.”
He led us forward directly away from the open door towards the front of the ship. We had been given a rough idea of what to expect earlier, but it was still overwhelming to see it for ourselves. The walls were made of the same material as the complex. Lighting was similar as well, recessed into the ceiling that was at least a dozen feet above the floor. The aliens weren’t as tall as we were, so this was a spacious room. They didn’t need to cramp themselves. That meant they had power to spare. The room itself was roughly circular, about sixty feet in diameter. Five feet into the room we had to make a choice. Semicircular corridors ran away from us on either side. They were defined by low walls and equipment reaching roughly waist high. These ran completely around the perimeter of the room so that by taking either one it would be possible to make a circuit and return to our present position. The third corridor continued our current direction, and blended into an oval area in the center of the room, which housed a large oval table with a number of chairs sitting around the edge. The corridor continued on the far side of the table, intersecting with the semi-circular path at the far side of the ship.
“Follow me,” Mike instructed as he continued straight ahead, walking past the central table and continued to the far end of the ship. The table wasn’t bolted to the floor, but seemed to merge smoothly into the floor material, even though it was clearly a different material altogether. It felt like wood as I ran my fingers over it when we walked past, but I was certain somehow that it was man-made, or alien-made in this case.
The floor was covered with some kind of rubbery material. It provided good traction yet was comfortable to walk on. It was firm, yet pleasant after the metal and stone surfaces we had been on for so long. As we approached the far end of the ship we could see the control panels around the periphery of the ship were alive with lights. Angled back at a thirty-degree angle were more of the alien display screens, positioned much as we would have placed them. The height was a little off, but close enough. On either side of what appeared to be the main control positions were the two large rectangular view portals that provided a view outside. They were positioned so we could look out easily when standing in front of them. Eagerly, we crowded forward for a look.
Standing close to the portal and looking slightly downward we could see the planet below. It didn’t take long to recognize distinctive features. There was little cloud cover today to hide much, and the east coast of North America was clear below us.
“Earth,” noted John standing a little to my right.
“But with some differences,” observed Al. He was the first to look beyond simply identification. “Look south of Mexico. The land connecting North and South America is missing.”
He was right. A section of Central America was no more. Ocean filled the span between the two continents. I wondered what had happened. It must have had some interesting impacts on the weather patterns.
“It looks like a large chunk of Spain is missing as well,” he noted. The third of the world we could see revealed these changes easily. The Mediterranean Sea merged with the Atlantic Ocean through a huge gap rather than the narrow opening near Gibraltar we all knew.
I wasn’t surprised we were above earth. Because the time complex opened exclusively into various eras on earth, it wasn’t surprising to find it below us. All of us had speculated for a number of years whether the complex was buried in the planet or in space above it. However, this was a future earth, not the one we knew. There hadn’t been time to do any investigating, but I wanted to know.
“John, when you get access, see if there is anything that gives a date that can tell us when this is.”
He nodded slightly, still wrapped up in the view below us. This was a sight that only a few lucky people had ever seen. To think that all the years we had spent in the center, this fabulous view had been hidden from us. We had been visiting space for years without any awareness of doing so.
The two forward view portals were open now, but I could see that there were large protective panels, both inside and outside, that would cover and protect them if the operator so chose. Looking around the room, I realized there were two more of the portals along the walls, each roughly a quarter of the way back from the front of the room. These were covered by the protective panels, which had made them far less obvious when we came in. I wished I knew how to open them. If they were open, we would be able to see the complex from the outside. The orientation of the ship with the airlock mating at the rear of the room made the front view portals point directly away. The station wasn’t large enough that we could catch a glimpse via the front portals.
I suspect we would have remained captivated by the view, but Mike had too much to show us. “The seats to the right and left of where we are standing were occupied by the two aliens that were killed inside the ship,” he noted. “From where they sat and the variety of controls in front of them, I am guessing they were the pilots for the ship.”
Controls spread away from each seat location, with a pair of displays set into the flat surface where either position would have had a clear view. After a moment of study I could see that many of the controls were duplicated at either position. Pilot and co-pilot I guessed. Many of the controls resembled the input buttons found on the alien computers, but in other places there were touch panels with the equivalent of slider controls. One control area was set between the two positions and contained an array of buttons, several hundred easily, that could be accessed by either pilot. All of the controls and panels were lighted, either with solid colors or with one or more alien symbols. It would take weeks to map the symbols at just this one position. Several of the display screens had multiple sectors filled with alien’s symbols, some changing as we watched. The ship was alive. They had not pulled in and turned off the ignition. I had the feeling that touching the wrong buttons would start the ship on a journey away from the time complex. Care was required here.
“This is interesting,” Carol commented to my left. She was pointing at yet another pair of the display screens, these mounted off to the side somewhat. The first showed a planetary system, with a purplish light flashing adjacent to the third of the planets. “I’ll bet that’s us,” she said mimicking my thoughts as she pointed to the flashing light.
The second of the panels was more interesting, and perhaps more disturbing. This showed a larger section of space, with perhaps twenty stars showing. Roughly half of these had a small purple light flashing next to them. In the black spaces between them was a larger purple box. It was flashing as well, and there was a faint orange track that traced an elliptical path that made a rough pass close to each of the other glowing dots.
“What’s that one?” Car
ol asked, seeing where my eyes had settled.
“That’s the question, isn’t it?” I responded.
“We haven’t had any time to investigate, but my initial reaction is that the aliens have facilities like this near a number of stars,” said Al. “It also appears that something, a mother ship perhaps, is following some form of path that moves near each of them in some orderly fashion.” He looked around at the rest of us for comment. He had drawn the same conclusions as I.
Carol nodded agreement. “I think so as well. We have no idea of the time scale for the ship to make a circuit, but I drew the same conclusion. The ship is mostly likely from the object on the board. It may be one of many, each servicing one of the stations that appear to be set-up in multiple systems. If we are right, whatever they are doing affects far more than our own world.”
It was a sobering concept. We appeared to be up against a race that was potentially manipulating the futures of multiple species living around star systems scattered through space. Perhaps it was a lot to extrapolate from a couple of graphics, but with the other evidence we had gleaned the past year, I was willing to bet we weren’t too far off. But it put their capabilities in a new light. How could we expect to defeat them?
Mike was eager to continue his tour, knowing we would find things everywhere that would hold our attention for hours. It was going to take months, maybe years to investigate the secrets hidden in this vehicle. Too bad we wouldn’t have that much time, I thought.
“There are six positions on either side as you walk around the outer edge,” he informed us. “The first three on either side appear to be working positions with somewhat different control sets in front of each. We haven’t had time to determine more than that. The remaining three positions have no controls, but each position has an active computer site opposite their position.”
I could see now that the chairs would easily swivel around. Facing opposite to the outside edge of the ship, each position had access to one of the alien computers, virtually identical to those found in the complex. John brightened noticeably at this, knowing that we had the tools to access much of the ship’s information through these machines.
The seats themselves were informative. They were padded and comfortable, designed to support long hours of occupancy, but without any capability to recline. So ‘g’-forces weren’t a concern. However this ship operated, I’d bet the artificial gravity would compensate for any forces associated with accelerating the vehicle. I tried sitting in one and found it comfortable enough, but like everything in the alien ship a bit off for complete comfort.
Mike took us back toward the entrance following the clockwise corridor so we could see the arrays of controls and the variety of display screens that covered the consoles around the perimeter. As we approached the airlock door again, he stopped and opened a compartment just to the left of the airlock opening. The inside held a variety of equipment. Harnesses like we had found on the aliens, a number of the small rectangular units that we had thought might be for communication, and shelves of other devices I couldn’t begin to guess the function of. Obviously, this was gear to support the team that exited the ship. Maybe we would be able to find out how some of them worked. Hopefully the files stored on the ship were more complete than those we had found in the complex were.
Mike shut the door and led us past the airlock. Just on the other side in the position that the storage locker filled on the opposite side of the airlock, was the access ramp that led to the lower deck. “Follow me,” he said as he stepped inside and started downward.
The ramp led us down to the lower level, exiting more forward than we had started at the upper level. We passed through a wide hallway that extended several meters into the interior of the level. The ceiling was lower here, perhaps nine feet, and already it was clear that this level was larger than the one above. It was divided into several compartments, making it more difficult to judge, but I guessed it was maybe eighty feet across, which gave almost twice the floor area of the room above. The fact it was sub-divided must have compensated to some degree for the lower ceiling. Usually large areas with low overheads felt confining. To the immediate right, a door less opening led into a large room that occupied the back of the ship, extending thirty degrees of arc in both directions from dead astern. Mike led us into the room that was filled with pipes, massive machinery, and a few monitors which I assumed gave status of the equipment. Some of the units had controls, an odd mixture of manual or electronic, which may not have seemed odd if one knew the purpose of each. Towards the back of the room large pipes disappeared into the wall, most likely penetrating the hull and leading to the propulsion system external to the ship.
Moving forward out of the machinery area, we could see off to our left a medium sized room that Mike explained was where he had found the spare rifles that his men now carried. It was filled with a variety of equipment, including more of the spare computers we were familiar with as well as dozen of items of non-identifiable purpose. Probably spares for the ships systems. Another mystery that would take our people more time than we had available to sort through.
We were now about a third of the way toward the front of the ship and roughly in the center of the level. A ceiling high wall separated the space all the way to the forward bulkhead. To the right appeared to be crews quarters. To the left was a common room. We looked at a typical area assigned to a crew member. A total of twelve spaces were available, all essentially identical, with the only obvious differences the result of the curving wall that formed the inside of the ships hull. Simple, with a bed, storage and a monitor mounted on one wall. We found a common lavatory along the left wall about midway down the wall.
The common room was equipped with multiple tables, apparently for eating, as well as an area set aside for the preparation of food. A large storage area adjacent to the preparation area was roughly one third filled with packages of oddly colored substances. Most looked a lot like freeze dried trail food, but the process could have been something altogether different. There was also a freezer, which was stocked with numerous packages arranged by type on shelves, and some items that were clearly some form of meat. So, like us, they were flesh eaters.
“We did a rough assessment,” Mike noted. “If they eat roughly the same amount as we would per day, then it appears there is sufficient food for the crew of nine for about four months.”
I looked around. There was room for a lot more. Many of the shelves were empty. Did that represent food that had already been consumed, or hadn’t there been the need to stock the ship any more completely?
The rest of the common area had chairs arranged in a couple of different groupings. One grouping was obvious, each chair arranged to provide a clear view of a large monitor on the opposite wall. Other groupings were not so transparent, but this was clearly the area where the crew gathered socially. The area had no decorations, pictures, paintings, or anything else that we would normally expect in such an area. Spartan was the word that came to mind.
“Functional,” Al noted, echoing my thoughts. “No views outside on this level.”
“That’s all there is,” Mike announced. “We can learn a lot about them given the time, but that’s all there is to see for now.”
The walk through had confirmed in my mind what I had suspected earlier. I would be curious to see what the others thought when we sat down and discussed it in a few minutes. Too much was missing here. I couldn’t see this as the vehicle the aliens would have used to travel between the stars. This was more like a utility shuttle. Something one would take to complete a task before returning to the main ship. The logical end to that line of reasoning was not encouraging.
Mike and Al were talking about something as they led the way back to the upper level. Carol was lost in her own thoughts, as was John. I took another look at everything as we passed, trying to see if there was anything that might reveal a bit more about our adversary. We had seen it all coming in.
Mike had already decide
d on the lab room with its central table as the place to meet. No one had suggested an agenda, but matters took their own direction almost as soon as we sat down.
“They’ll be back,” Carol said without preamble. “And soon.”
“That ship is nothing more than a work shuttle,” Al added. “There has to be another ship out there someplace.”
“How can we be sure?” Mike asked. “Maybe the ship is faster than we think. I have been uncomfortable since I first walked through the ship. It isn’t set up for long occupancy. Maybe it doesn’t take them long to get here from wherever they are based. And what about the food?”
“That’s probably to support them while they work and wait for the mother ship to complete the circuit,” said Carol.
“I agree,” said Al. “I think we were right when we concluded the display indicated a mother ship. Everything I see here make me feel this isn’t the vehicle they used to travel here from their home world.”
Not surprisingly, everyone had been thinking along similar lines. “It doesn’t matter,” I suggested. “If they are very fast, then another ship can get here from their home base soon, and if there is a mother ship that they came from, they can get here as well. Either way, I think we all agree that we can expect another visit. I guess the question is, how soon?”
“We had, what, almost four weeks between the last two visits?” Carol asked. “But we don’t know how much of that was travel time, and how much was just their waiting for things to be ready.”
