She tried not to look triumphant that she’d been right. ‘Yes, the brain should be at the back.’
Quickly they went on. It was farther to the bottom than he’d thought; another eighteen feet at least, and he would’ve made a nasty landing if he’d missed that railing.
Once they reached the stone floor, a lamp struggled weakly alive and showed them a long, tiled room with copper pipes and panels with dials and instruments. At the end was a large machine with a human brain drifting in a clear fluid.
‘Oh,’ Jathra said. ‘So that’s how they look like. I wasn’t sure, but it really is as the course taught me.’ She walked forward. ‘And so is the machine. Those Moi have standardized everything; that makes life a lot easier.’
There was a row of buttons below the brain’s encasing and she quickly pressed them from left to right. A single light turned green. There was a whirring sound and far away, Kyrus heard other noises start up.
‘Something’s working,’ he said.
‘The big level overhead should point to the left,’ Jathra said. ‘It’s out of my reach.’
Kyrus swung her up, and she yanked the handle.
‘Thanks.’ She walked round the room and like with his sister at Mathras, Kyrus soon lost any idea what she was doing.
‘That’s it,’ Jathra said finally. ‘Best is to get out first, close the hatch, replace the cover and then, when all is as it was, call the outpost’s name.’
‘Good job.’ They ran up the stairs, back to the hall.
‘How do we close the hatch?’
‘Like this.’ Jathra put a finger to the red button, and the hatch slammed shut. She replaced the copper panel and then they looked at each other.
‘I never worked with living machinery,’ Jathra said. ‘It’s very... tense.’
‘Always remember brain people are human. My sister would call what you did tech healing rather than mechanics.’ Kyrus shook his head. ‘Tense is the right word.’
The two stepped back until they face the desk again.
‘Your turn. Wake him up, sir.’
‘I just call the outpost’s name?’ Kyrus said.
‘Yes. That should awaken him. If not...’
‘Then?’
‘I must go down again and kill him,’ Jathra said quietly.
Kyrus thought of his sister and the power crystal she had smashed at Athelstan’s outpost. Kill a living brain? He shivered. ‘Why?’
‘You don’t want to be a mad brain locked up in a glass container forever and ever,’ Jathra said. ‘That’s horrible.’
Kyrus looked at the girl. Like twin had done with that cracked power crystal, he thought. Only this is a human being. ‘Let’s hope it won’t come to that. Here goes. Shan 4? Are you there, Shan 4?’
‘What?’ A hoarse male voice said. ‘Who? Of course I’m here. I... Calculating... Recalculating... What the heck?’
‘Report, Shan 4,’ Kyrus snapped in his best broomrider boss voice.
‘Eighth Fleet Base Shan 4 reporting. My data seem off. What... when is it?’
‘I don’t know the exact day, but it has been a thousand years.’
‘This can’t be. Still... My fleet? My base... I remember. The mana quake. Overload, shutdown...’
‘You were not the only one, Shan 4. I am Captain Kyrus of Realmfleet. What we know is the quake happened, and after that the Moi Realm went silent. My crew and I are trying to find and reactivate as many brains as we can. I am mightily glad to discover you well.’
‘Hardly well, with my fleet in ruins and my people gone. Now what?’
‘We’ll discuss that. How may we call you?’
‘What? Sha... You mean my name? Atharn, Captain Atharn, Realmfleet. That’s it! I’m not a number, not a code.’
‘You’re a human, Captain Atharn,’ Kyrus said. ‘Techneer Jathra, call in the others.’
‘My base,’ Atharn said. ‘This won’t do at all. Where’s the dome? What about my energy? I’m down to reserves. I must request your help, Captain. You have to restart my mana pump before my crystals run out.’
‘Of course.’ Kyrus hurried after the tech. ‘Wait,’ he said to the others about to come in. ‘Jathra, the mana pump is down.’
‘It is the first building to the left. I will unlock the doors,’ Atharn said.
‘Leave it to me, sir,’ Jathra said. ‘Come on, guys, you can all watch me do it.’ They ran off.
‘Now, Captain.’ Kyrus walked back into the ruined hall. ‘We are trying to find out what happened. What was the last you remembered?’
‘The mana quake. As an officer and as a brain, I have served for over a century. I weathered a mana quake before, but it was not nearly this big. Still, even this one wouldn’t have bothered me much; the ground and the jungle would have absorbed most of the stuff. So why...? Glory of the Moi, there was something... I had my dome down. Why? Check the log... No use, I must have my energy supply back up first.’
‘All right, take it easy for now. Conserve power, we’ll talk about it later.’
From outside came a loud banging noise, and Kyrus hurried over to the engine room. Jathra sat on her knees, staring at the mana pump with an intent face. Kyrus crouched down beside her and peered at the pump’s pipes. There were smudges of blue at the edges.
Jathra banged the pipes again, and a load of powdery blue came down. ‘That’s it.’
The girl pressed the pump’s start button, and coughing, it came alive.
‘It works again,’ she said.
‘What’s that blue stuff?’ Kyrus said.
‘Dried mana. I asked the brain person, and he told me the dome was down when that mana quake hit. I think there was such an enormous load of raw mana that the pump simply stalled. The mana already in the pipe solidified, and the pump failed. With the brain shut down, there wasn’t anyone to restart it, so the whole base died.’
‘I didn’t know it could do that,’ Kyrus said. ‘Not that quickly.’ He grinned, seeing the expression on her face. ‘I’m not a tech, of course.’
As they walked back to the hall, the air around the base shimmered and the dome came alive. From another building, a host of servor machines scuttled out and started attacking the vines.
‘Thank you,’ Atharn said. ‘I’m most grateful, Captain, techneer. Now, what were we discussing? I had my dome down. Oh Shards of Space, the new admiral!’
‘There was an admiral?’ Kyrus said.
‘Yes, our new CO was coming to take command. That’s why the dome was down and the whole fleet grounded and defenseless, to show our traditional surrender to his higher authority. He had his brand-new flagship, the battlecruiser Lin-Gor 9. She and I were discussing approach, and then the mana quake...’ His voice trailed off.
‘There is no sign of a crash,’ Kyrus said finally.
Atharn’s voice made a rasping noise ‘Sir, if Lin-Gor had crashed, there wouldn’t have been a base.’
‘Maybe the ship is in orbit, can you see it, Captain?’
‘No, sir; my ground-to-space communicator is still out.’
‘Can you reach my ship?’ Kyrus said.
‘I can.’ A moment’s silence. ‘S-Az 113 reports a vessel in orbit. It is at present on the night side of the planet.’
‘I will need the command code,’ Kyrus said.
‘I have the code,’ Atharn said. ‘But my protocols...’
‘Let’s be honest with each other, Captain. If the admiral is dead, secrecy doesn’t matter. If he’s in stasis, he must be saved. In both cases I need the code. You are a human, not a machine, Captain Atharn. Decide.’
‘Sir,’ Atharn said. ‘Permit me to mindspeak.’
‘Go ahead, Captain,’ Kyrus said.
‘Yill 179.’ Atharn said with some difficulty.
‘Thank you, Captain. I will go over.’
‘S-Az,’ Kyrus said when they were back on board. ‘How are we supposed to communicate with you when we’re away?’
‘You could order me to activate my
thought module, sir,’ the ship said. ‘I cannot mindspeak when the module is off.’
‘Your... thought module,’ Kyrus said exasperated. ‘And of course you couldn’t tell me that yourself.’
‘No, sir.’
‘Well, turn it on. With whom can you mindspeak?’
‘Should you be so good as to think something at me, sir, I can recognize the waves of your, ah, brain, and communicate with you.’
‘Then we shall all think at you.’
‘No, sir. My memory banks have only room for two more voices.’
‘Me and Ginny will do?’
‘I will be pleased to mindspeak with the First Officer, sir,’ the AI said.
Ginny stifled a laugh.
The ship lifted up through the atmosphere and raced over the planet to rendezvous with the derelict vessel.
Kyrus stood on the bridge, hands to his back and legs apart, as he watched the clouds speed past. Below, it was night, and the endless forests were hidden from view.
‘Vessel on visual, sir,’ S-Az said.
‘I see her,’ Kyrus said curtly. ‘Prepare for boarding.’
‘Chottapan’s Breath,’ Ginny muttered behind him. ‘Is that what you get when you pour twenty WyDir airships into one vessel and kick it into space?’
The ship’s comm. bleeped and Ginny leaped to accept the call.
‘Attention, S-Az 113, this is Lin-Gor 9,’ a voice blared. ‘We are in need of assistance. Please send your techneer over to Airlock Seven, by order of Realmfleet.’
‘Someone will come, Lin-Gor 9,’ Kyrus said.
‘Very well, S-Az 113. I have activated the airlock lights.’
‘On our way, Lin-Gor 9.’ Kyrus turned around. ‘Jathra, we’ll both go.’ He got his broom and a few minutes later, the two of them shot away to the battlecruiser.
Apart from some training, it was the first time they rode from ship to ship across the airless depths of space, and Kyrus felt his heart beat faster with the beauty of it. Below them, the outer layers of the planet’s atmosphere shimmered. This part of the world was still in darkness, but the mighty expanse of stars around them was bright enough to see everything.
‘This is glorious,’ he said aloud. ‘Absolutely glorious.’
Ahead, the spaceship’s hull grew to an enormous size, and then they were at an airlock, with a number seven painted beside it.
‘Well, how do we get inside?’ Kyrus looked vainly for a door handle.
‘Button Four on your belt, sir,’ S-Az said. ‘That is a short-range portal. Press it and it will automatically take you to the portal inside. First check the dials beside the door for the ship’s life systems.’
Kyrus repeated it to the tech.
‘Button four.’ She peered at the dials. ‘All green.’
‘Here goes.’ Kyrus thumbed the button.
Immediately, Jathra appeared beside him. He downed his shield and took a cautious sniff. The air was fresh and smelled vaguely of brass polish and ozone. ‘Lin-Gor 9?’
‘Welcome aboard, tech,’ the ship’s brain said.
‘Not me, I am Captain Kyrus. Prepare for a Change of Overall Command.’
‘Understood. Command code?’
‘Yill 179.’
‘Change of Overall Command noted. May I have your name for the log, sir?’
‘Captain Kyrus of Kalbakar, Realmfleet High Command. And your name?’
‘My... personhood name? Emma, sir.’
‘Pleased to meet you, Emma Lin-Gor,’ Kyrus said. ‘My tech’s name is Jathra. Are there any survivors?’
‘Only one, sir,’ Emma said. ‘You see, we were joining 8th Fleet, and in the middle of our landing sequence when that mana quake struck. I had my shields down; I wouldn’t have fitted into their base with them active. Stars in a nutshell!’ she burst out. ‘I advised the admiral to leave me in orbit and go down in the tender, but no; he had to show me off to his new second-in-command. Well, it’s too late now.’
‘Yes.’ Kyrus noted her anguish. ‘It’s not your fault. Where is the survivor?’
‘Ah, he is part of my problem, sir. You see, he was the only one who still wore his stasis suit. As a techneer midshipman, Mr. Larn was on duty in the engine room. Now he is blocking the one unlocked door, and my servors can’t get in. My drive is switched off, and I cannot reactivate it myself. I must wake Mr. Larn, but my stasis controller is down. To do it manually, I must reach him, but for that I must get into the engine room and I can’t.’
‘I see.’ Kyrus walked from the airlock. ‘Where do I find the engine room?’
‘It’s on the machine deck, sir. There is a way in through the Engineer’s cabin, sir. It is right above the engine room and it has an emergency hatch leading into it. Follow the signs to Officers’ Quarters; the Engineer had room 6.’
‘Signs?’
‘Up there.’ Jathra waved a hand and Kyrus saw the discrete signs on the wall pointing toward various destinations. One arrow said “Officers’ Quarters”.
‘Frustrating,’ Jathra said. ‘I would say this whole system of lockdown should be re-evaluated.’
‘It does sound as if it wasn’t properly tested,’ Kyrus said. ‘Perhaps they never had a true disaster before.’
They came to a ramp leading down to a series of cabins.
Number 6 wasn’t large, but well appointed. They found the hatch hidden under a small rug and a table, which made Jathra sniff.
‘Clever, hiding your emergency hatch under a load of furniture. Now it only needs to be locked to make it totally useless. Fools.’
But the hatch opened easily, and they saw a steel ladder.
Hand over hand, Kyrus climbed down until he reached the floor of the engine room. Jathra followed him and looked around.
‘Oh my.’ Jathra’s eyes lighted up as a kid in a sweetshop. There was a large mana pump, shiningly clean, and a tall column housing twenty large power crystals. The walls showed a mighty array of lights, levers, dials and buttons, all dark and silent.
‘There is the midshipman,’ Kyrus said, disregarding the technology around him. ‘Emma, we are in the engine room.’
Emma rattled off a series of instructions that send Jathra round pulling levers, flicking switches and pressing buttons, while behind her panel after panel came alive.
Finally, a bell sounded, and the crystals began to glow.
Kyrus couldn’t hear their song, but he knew they were working again.
‘Thank you!’ Emma cried. ‘Oh! I can feel again! How wonderful!’
A loud groan made Kyrus turn around and he saw the midshipman’s stasis suit had gone. The boy, for he couldn’t be older that they were, besides looking very Vanhaari with his gray skin and white-haired crew cut, opened his eyes.
‘What happened?’ Then he saw Kyrus and Jathra, and his brow creased. ‘You’re not crew. Are you from the base? Have we landed?’
‘No,’ Kyrus said. ‘How do you feel?’
The boy sat up, blinking his eyes. ‘All right, I guess. Did I fall?’
‘Probably,’ Kyrus said. ‘Your stasis suit activated. Are you feeling very strong? I’m afraid what I am going to tell you will hurt.’
‘The ship?’ the boy said, jumping to his feet. ‘We were about to land. Was there an accident? Where is everybody?’
‘You’re the only survivor.’ Kyrus watched the boy closely.
The midshipman stared at them wide-eyed. ‘They’re dead? But how? What happened?’
‘It was a long time ago. There was a mana quake. A very big one. It hit the ship and the base just as you were going down. You were the only one with his belt on. The others died. Only you, your ship’s brain person Emma and the base brain survived.’ Kyrus hesitated. Better give him all at once, he thought. ‘This happened roughly a thousand years ago. From that moment, all contact with your people ceased. Every ship, station and base is silent. My people managed to reawaken one outpost and two bases and we will go on doing the rest, but we fear your civilization as such is g
one.’
The boy stood there silently. ‘Who are you?’ he said finally. ‘The girl is Moi but you are not, yet you do the talking like her superior.’
‘I am Captain Kyrus. Techneer Jathra is a member of my crew. We are all from Firstworld, Flor 3.’
‘Never heard of the place,’ the boy said. ‘Not that I know many worlds. I’m a t-t-techneer.’
‘Are you feeling all right, Mr. Larn?’
‘N-numb,’ he said, grabbing his head. ‘I’m not p-processing it yet. A thousand years? All is g-gone?’
‘We don’t know that yet,’ Kyrus said. ‘Let’s go to our home base. Our medics will check you over and we can talk. Emma, you have the coordinates of Flor 3 Realmport?’
‘Yes, sir, but I may not go there. It is a prohibited area.’
‘My code made you part of Realmport’s fleet,’ Kyrus said. ‘For the moment you will be stationed there.’
‘Very well, sir.’
‘Ginny?’
‘You still at the battlecruiser?’ The first officer sounded relieved to get his call.
‘For the moment. We woke the ship. You take S-Az back to Realmport. Jathra and I will follow with Lin-Gor.’
‘Aye aye, sir.’
‘Captain Atharn? We recovered the flagship and one midshipman. The others are all gone, I fear. For now, we are returning to Realmport. You can reach us there; call if you should need anything. We will be back, Captain.’
‘Very well, sir. Thank you for your assistance, Captain Kyrus.’
‘My pleasure, Captain Atharn.’ He smiled at the shaking midshipman. ‘Let’s go. Emma, take us to Realmport, will you?’
‘Certainly, sir.’
Darkness.
‘We are in position over the spaceport, sir,’ Emma reported. ‘The dome isn’t large enough for me, sir. My tender is ready to take you down.’
‘Thank you.’ Kyrus looked at the midshipman standing motionless beside him, with Jathra watching him. ‘Show us where the tender is, Mr. Larn.’
The boy emerged from his thoughts, nodded, and without a word, led them through the paneled corridors to an airlock. They went inside and the doors closed. Like every vessel they had seen yet, the tender had an airship design. This one was quite small, with room for a hundred men at most. They fell away from the big ship and the field came up rapidly.
Firstworld Page 10
