by S A Pavli
What was becoming apparent was that the Makers had disappeared. At least from this ‘neck of the woods’. We were just beginning to believe that conclusion when something unexpected turned up. I was enjoying a game of fintac with Manera, a game similar to squash which the Hianja were hugely fond of, when we were interrupted by a call from the Captain.
“Paul, Manera, something has come up. All executive officers to the flight deck.”
Manera was thrashing me as usual and I was not displeased to be interrupted.
“Oh what a shame. We have to call that a draw,” I said.
“Yes, like the last game when you twisted your ankle and we called it a draw.” She enunciated ’twisted your ankle’ with a childlike whine and made a face.
“Madam, an Earthman doesn’t cheat,” I said, with suitable pomposity.
We put away our rackets and headed quickly down the corridor arm in arm. Colrania joined us from an intersection with another corridor.
“Hey you two. I must give you a game sometime.”
“It’s bad enough being beaten by one woman,” I muttered.
“Is your male pride being damaged,” enquired Colrania with an amused wink at Manera.
“No, my male bloody ankles and knees. I don’t know how you guys can turn so fast.” And indeed it was a feature of the game that great agility was required, and the Hianja seemed able to turn and move incredibly quickly. My human muscles and joints were unable to compete.
“We are being unfair Manera,” said Colrania.
“Yes. Twenty thousand years of genetic engineering, against nature,” she said.
“That’s me. Nature in the raw,” I grinned.
We arrived at the flight deck to find it well populated. The executive officers were the Captain and commander Pariso, Colrania, Manera and myself, and the two guardians, Commra and Lanatra. The captain looked sombre and my relaxed mood evaporated.
“The Surf Rider is in trouble. It was sent to explore a new system. It jumped in, but when it exited hyperspace it lost all fusion power. It is operating on emergency battery backup.”
“How soon after exiting hyperspace did they lose power,” asked Colrania.
“Seventeen seconds.”
I knew that we were all within a few light years of each other, but too far away to see the Surf Rider with any instruments. We could of course receive radio transmissions from them.
“Yes.” Hamolatonen paused and looked around the room. “You can see the problem. It could be a catastrophic system failure. Or something deadly. If we go in after them, we could suffer the same fate.”
“A weapon that takes out their fusion power? That seems unlikely.” I said.
“Some kind of power failure seems more likely,” said Hamolatonen. “I have spoken to Admiral Deshi and we are considering our options.”
“When did this happen?” I asked.
“Ten minutes ago. The Admiral contacted me immediately and asked for a meeting of all executive officers. We are going on line now.” The main screen lit up and showed the bridge of the Kuàisù Niao with Admiral Deshi seated with six of his officers. One other screen lit up to show the bridges of the Atlantis and Surf Rider with their Captains and officers.
I clicked onto my own private channel with Alfred.
“Alfred, are you on?”
“Yes Paul. What can I do for you?”
“Is there any record of this happening before?”
“Ships have been lost fusion power before but not without warning. ”
“That is what I thought. The only other explanation is that we may be dealing with a new kind of weapon. Has the Surf Rider detected anything unusual in its near vicinity?””
“Nothing reported so far.”
“Thank you Alfred.”
“You are welcome Paul.”
I leaned back thoughtfully. Manera leaned over and whispered.
“You’ve been talking to Alfred?” She gave me an enquiring look.
“Yes.” I told Manera what Alfred had told me.
The Admiral was talking.
“….. still investigating what has happened to the Surf Rider. We, that is the crews of the Kuàisù Niao and the Atlantis have decided we will go to the aid of our colleagues. But I believe one ship should remain safe and return to report. We must decide between us who that should be. I make no demands on the Settang Despass, you must be free to make your own decision.”
“Thank you Admiral. I agree.” Hamolatonen turned to us. “Ladies and gentlemen, questions, comments or suggestions please.”
I did not want to be first to offer my suggestion so I waited. Manera spoke first.
“It would make sense for the Kuàisù Niao and Settang Despass to go in,” she said. “They have the most fire power.”
“Firepower may not matter,” said the Admiral “if we are up against a new and deadly weapon.”
“Not if we use different tactics,” said Manera. “Both ships should jump to different locations, far from where the Surf Rider jumped. Sorry to tell you your job Admiral, I am sure you have thought of this.”
“Thank you Miss Manera,” said the Admiral with a smile. “I am always happy to listen to you.”
What a smooth old devil I thought with amusement.
“But you are in the right area,” he continued. “My thoughts are we can jump in, drop a couple of remote surveillance drones with hyperspace transmitters, and then jump out.”
I put my hand up and was recognised.
“If we are too far that may not reveal too much Admiral. Can you confirm that it took about seventeen seconds before the Surf Rider’s fusion power failed?”
“Yes, seventeen point five seconds after hyperspace exit,” said the Admiral.
“We could jump in a bit closer to The Surf Rider.”
“That would be taking a risk Captain.”
I nodded my acceptance. I was not surprised at his response. I was also sure that dropping a couple of drones a million miles away from the Surf Rider was not going to tell us very much. If the Surf Riders surveillance systems could not detect anything in its vicinity, then it was unlikely that our drones would. But I had to hope I was wrong.”
There was some more discussion before we all voted to accept the Admiral’s suggestion. The Settang and the Kuàisù Niao will jump into two separate coordinates, one million miles away from the Surf Rider, drop their surveillance drones, and then immediately jump back to hyperspace. The Atlantis will stay at a safe distance.
Hamolatonen’s usual obsession with democracy meant we also had to get the agreement of the rest of our crew, so a full meeting of the crew was called. They were all in favour of making the rescue attempt, which left me feeling humbly proud of my ship mates.
We prepared the ship for the operation and coordinated with the Kuàisù Niao. Once in hyperspace we made our way to our separate locations and re-charged capacitors to enable us to jump back into hyperspace immediately. The two drones, specially prepared by Colrania with long distance surveillance equipment, were ready in the de-pressurised air lock.
We synchronised timers and jumped out of hyperspace. The millions of crowded stars in the cluster reappeared. The drones were ejected and we felt the massive jolt as the capacitors discharged to switch us back into hyperspace. We all sighed with relief. We were still alive.
That was somewhat butt clenching, I mentally remarked to myself. We started receiving information from our drones and the whole crew gathered around the screens on the Flight Deck to view it. Colrania was able to operate the drones and she now directed their various antennae and telescopes towards he last known location of the Surf Rider.
The Earth ships were doing the same, as well as broadcasting to the Surf Rider. One thing became immediately obvious. The planet that the Surf Rider was exploring was just 3 million miles away. But detailed investigation of the planet had to wait for now while they concentrated on visually locating the Surf Rider. Eventually there was a cry from Colrania.
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br /> “I think I have it.” On the screen we got a tiny fuzzy image. A blob really, which could have been anything.
“What makes you think that’s the ship?” asked the Captain.
“The reflectivity,” said Colrania. “It can only be a metallic object. And it is exactly where the Surf Rider should be.”
“Well done Colrania,” said the captain. He contacted the Admiral and informed him.
“Excellent news captain. At least we know the ship is where it should be.”
He was right of course. That was all we knew.
“How long can the crew survive with emergency power Admiral?” asked Hamolatonen.
“On emergency power the crew gather in one area of the ship to minimise power consumption on heating and air recirculation. As long as there are no other power requirements they have power for a few days.” said the admiral.
“So we have time,” said Hamolatonen. “How would you like to proceed Admiral?”
“We need to scan Space around the Surf Rider for any suspicious objects. They have their own surveillance drones but we can look further away.”
“We can send in one of our own fighters,” said Hamolatonen.
The Admiral agreed.
We proceeded to prepare our respective surveillance aircraft. We agreed the new coordinates for the hyperspace jump and once there we again carried out the manoeuvre to exit hyperspace, release the aircraft and jump back into hyperspace. That done, we settled down with relief to view the feeds from the three surveillance aircraft. The Peacekeeper fighter was much faster than the two Earth ships, but we adjusted our speed to arrive at the Surf Rider at the same time. The three drones we had released earlier were still operational and we could track the three fighters in real Space as they closed in on the Surf Rider.
It was Colrania who again cried out in surprise.
“There is something in orbit about the planet.” She put an image up on the screen. It was a bright featureless dot close to the planet. “It must be artificial, very high reflectivity.”
We had to wait a couple of minutes before she got enough information on its speed and direction.
“It is in synchronous orbit. About one thousand miles up.”
“Any idea of the size Colrania,” asked Hamolatonen.
“Hard to tell sir. Anything between fifty to one hundred miles diameter.”
Damn! I thought. If it’s a ship or an orbital station, that’s huge. Have we found the Makers?
I filed the thought away.
Our fighters would take a few hours to navigate the million miles to the Surf Rider so we split the crew into two shifts and one went off for some food. We were in the second shift, and we had a couple of hours rest before duty. We had a quick meal and managed a couple of hours shut eye before going back on duty.
There was a little more information about the mysterious orbital object. It was about sixty miles in diameter, definitely artificial and probably an orbital station. The Surf Rider could now be seen a little more clearly and appeared undamaged. Our three fighters were now a couple of hundred thousand miles from the ship and were braking heavily to make rendezvous in a couple of hours. Commander Pariso explained that they had made numerous attempts to communicate with the orbital object but it had not responded.
Colrania was with our team and she relieved her senior engineer and took over the comm. The Captain had also taken a break and took over from Commander Pariso. Manera was assigned as Colrania’s backup and assistant. I was the Captains executive officer and I took my place on his right.
Hamolatonen turned to me.
“Any thoughts since you’ve been away Captain?”
“If this is the work of the Makers, I am wondering why have they attacked the Surf Rider?”
“Yes. It made no hostile move,” said the Captain.
“And the attack was immediate. No warning, no conversation.”
“Are you thinking it may be an automated defence system?”
“Yes. But the automated system should have warned its makers by now and they should have come to investigate.”
“Unless its makers, or The Makers, are no longer present,” said Hamolatonen, finishing my thought process. “Then we have a serious problem because at some point the automated system will attack us. Or at least our fighters.”
“Automatic systems usually have a way to be disabled. Or to tell the difference between friend or foe,” I suggested.
“Hmm, well, how could we possibly know how to do that?” said Hamlatonen morosely.
I had been toying with the idea for a while and decided to come out with it.
“The message we received from the Makers,” I said.
He looked at me questioningly.
“Transmit a copy of the message to that orbital,” I said.
“That’s a long shot,,” he said looking lugubriously doubtful.
There was a cry of “Oh no!” from Colrania.
“The fighters have lost power. Fusion rockets not working,” she said. “I’m switching back to the drones.” She switched back to the transmission from the drones but they were too far away to show anything significant.”
Hamolatonen gave me a significant look.
“That proves it. Must be a weapon.” said Hamolatonen.
One of the screens lit up to show the Admiral and the bridge of the Kuàisù Niao .
“Gentlemen, I’m afraid this is what we expected. Any ideas?”
Hamolatonen looked at me, gave a shrug and then explained my idea to the Admiral who looked very doubtful.
“We have to try. Otherwise we will have to bombard the orbital with long range missiles,” said Hamolatonen.
I didn’t want to state the obvious, that the missiles would be disabled long before they reached the orbital. The Admiral nodded slowly.
“Go ahead. What have we to lose.
“We will prepare the transmission,” said Hamolatonen.
“Right. Then we can plan the missile attack. Maybe we can overload the things defences.” The Admiral signed off. He clearly was convinced our plan was fantasy. We prepared to carry out the transmission.
After a few minutes Colrania gave us the sign that she was ready and the Captain nodded his agreement.
“Transmitting,” said Colrania.
We sat back and waited, with, I have to say, little belief that my ‘long shot” would work.” I began to think about the Admiral’s suggestion. If we launched all our fighters, and all our missiles at the same time, would that overload the orbital’s defences? If indeed it was the orbital that was responsible.
The problem was that we were so far away it would take hours for our ships and missiles to get to the orbital. It had plenty of time to take out our ships and missiles, one at a time. And there was no way around that because we could not jump inside the 3 million mile boundary. Well, not without destroying our hyperspace module. It had happened to me on the Lisa Jane. The module had detached and exploded, but the ship had survived. Only a ‘kamikaze’ attack could succeed. Exit hyperspace right next to the orbital and unload all our missiles before it could respond. But if it failed, we were all dead. It was not a decision I wanted to make.
Suddenly, all our screen lit up and there was a scream of delight from Colrania.
“We’re back!” she shouted and Manera joined her, and then the rest of the team.
“It worked? I don’t believe it.” Hamolatonens face was comical. “Paul, you are a magician.”
“Oh ye of little faith,” I said trying to put on a nonchalant air but feeling absurdly pleased with myself. Manera came over and gave me an ostentatiously loud kiss.
“Too much fraternisation between my executive officers,” said Hamolatonen to loud guffaws.
One of the screens lit up to show the Admiral on his bridge. He and his officers were grinning broadly.
“We have been contacted by the Surf Rider,” he declared triumphantly. “They are all well and the ship is now fully operational. Inspire
d suggestion Captain Constantine.”
“Thank you sir. Lucky guess,” I said modestly.
“Do the crew of the Surf Rider have any further ideas what happened?“ asked Hamolatonen when the laughter had died down.
“No. They are examining the instrumentation records in detail.” said the Admiral. I marvelled at the technology that could shut down a fusion reactor from 3 million miles away.
After some further discussion we agreed to join the Surf Rider and proceed with our mission. Journey to the mysterious orbital would take a few hours and we agreed to travel close together, with the idea that this may appear less threatening to the orbital than approaching from different directions.
We exited hyperspace and retrieved our fighters and drones, then made rendezvous with the Surf Rider. The captain thanked us for our efforts. They had gone through a harrowing few hours, convinced that they were about to be destroyed any second.
We headed for the metal orbital in close formation with the other ships, using the opportunity to learn more about the planet. It was about Earth size but closer to the sun and seemed to have a fairly brutal climate. A more extreme inclination and elliptical orbit made for more extreme seasons. The poles were ice covered, the ice extending well down in one hemisphere. The equator was blistering hot and mostly desert.
It appeared to be another planet with extreme weather. Had that also been abandoned by the Makers? If so, what was the orbital? Their last retreat? Attempts to communicate with the orbital elicited no response. That evening, around the bar, we had fun speculating.
Chapter 19
The word awesome is seriously overused, but looking at the orbital, it was the word that came to mind. As well as stupendous, enormous, fantastic, and a few others. We had slipped into orbit next to the silver behemoth feeling like four tiny fishes swimming around the body of a whale. And it was actually more whale shaped than circular. Our instruments showed it to be fifty miles by thirty.
