Voyage of the Hayden (The Adventures of Christopher Slone Book 1)

by Donald Nicklas

  “When we arrived and went into orbit, nothing happened to tell us about the methane breathers. All we could pick up on sensors, was the location beacons of our lost ships. That is what lured us in. They may still be working but, even if they’re not, we know the coordinates of the cavern.”

  “Then you experienced the same lack of signals we are experiencing?” Slone interrupted. “They must have a very advanced civilization here, yet we can’t pick up a single trace of it.”

  “Yes if not for our run in with them, we would have never thought there was anything close to a civilization here. The methane breathers must think strategically or they only respond to penetration of the cavern. They didn’t jump us until we went after the older ship, deep in the cavern. The ship we managed to reach was only at the mouth of the cavern and they must not have viewed us as a threat there.”

  “Unless they were just waiting for you to enter the cave to a point you couldn’t easily escape them.”

  “That’s what concerns me about their strategic thinking,” Alaya continued. “The big question I have about these aliens lies in the fact that they attacked us with copies of our own ships they retrieved from the memory banks of our scouts, yet; they don’t show any evidence of an advanced civilization.”

  “We have not picked up a single transmission or other evidence of advanced activity in this system. This system could be a trap for unwary travelers. We have detected several incoming and outgoing slipstreams. The Methane Breathers could be this galaxies form of pirates.”

  “If that’s true, then there must be a developed destination for the ships and products they acquire.”

  “Yes, indeed, we’ll have to be on our toes here. How do you and Dane intend to get into the cavern for the second scout ship and make it out in one piece?”

  “We have a surprise for them.”

  “The cargo container we loaded onto your scout ship?”

  “Yes. It is filled with liquid oxygen. Harmless to us, lethal to them. It’s their Achilles heel. They’ll never know what hit them.”

  Slone nodded his approval. They engaged in some small talk, something Slone had not done since his wife left him. He had loved his wife well enough, but married her to please his father. It was the mantra of the elder Slone: a man is nothing in this galaxy without a good woman. His father had even picked out his wife from a family closely aligned with his business interests. Slone’s father had been a long haul cargo mover and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps. As a result, he had him marry the daughter of his friend with the hopes both of their cargo businesses would merged. Unfortunately, for the Slone family, Christopher’s father-in-law was more interested in the Slone business than they thought and he slowly lured their best customers away. Soon the Slone’s were bankrupt and his father was lost on a trip along with his ship. Most believed he might have intentionally run it into an asteroid. By that time, Slone’s wife was with child and he joined the Sinclair navy. After that, he had little contact with the woman whose family he blamed for his father’s death and his mother’s grief that drove her into an early grave. Soon Slone and his wife were divorced and they both moved on. Now for the first time in the presence of Alaya Sinclair, he felt stirrings of true feeling for a woman. The universe was laughing at him, since the woman he would love to get to know personally, was far out of his reach. When she had finished her drink, Alaya got up and left the room through the ready room. Slone followed her out with his eyes and realized he could fall in love with a woman like that. At least she was a spacefarer and knew the risks out here. He also knew he would miss her when this mission was over. Slone called Ensign Jones and told her to wake him three hours before orbit or if there was an emergency. He then took off his clothes and went to bed. He could get a good 8 hours sleep before he was needed. Slone was in a sound sleep when his adjutant, Ensign Jones woke him as requested. They were still three hours from orbit and one hour from the staff meeting. Jones had laid fresh clothes out for him and he took a shower, shaved and felt like a new man. He went to the bridge to check on progress before the staff meeting.

  The bridge crew was at their stations and all seemed calmly efficient. Slone looked at the tactical display and saw no threats listed. The third planet was visible as a small, round ringed marble with some points of light in the vicinity. Some of the lights were visible as small marbles and Slone knew that one of them was their destination. He still had some time before the meeting and decided on a little exploration. He pressed the button on his com panel that would put him through to engineering.

  “Commander Stravinsky, do we have anymore of those mining probes aboard we used in our last survey mission?” Sinclair Corp was always looking for new places to mine. They had little interest in permanent colonies, and in truth, there were few earth-like planets to inhabit. Their main interest was money and the huge, galactic human population needs many raw materials for their manufacturing plants. The other thing Sinclair Corp furnished was entertainment of all kinds. Morality and legality rested with the corporate board and religion had become a background noise.

  After a brief delay, the chief engineer came on. “Aye, sir. We have three left. Never had the chance to off load them at Purgatory.”

  “Good. Load a probe into missile tube one and inform navigation when it’s ready.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  Slone closed the channel and waited a short time until navigation told him the probe was loaded. They were just on the outside range of the probe, but he was sure it could make it to the moon before they did. “Navigation, if we send the probe to the moon now, when will it arrive in relation to us?”

  There was a moment’s delay as the navigator calculated the problem and then said, “The probe will arrive about an hour before we do, and we are in range to fire now.”

  “Very well. Program the probe to orbit until we tell it otherwise and fire away.”

  “Yes sir.” The navigator typed in the programming parameters and then pressed the button to fire the probe. Slone could see the flame of the engine as it leaped from the front of the Hayden and quickly disappeared from sight as the gap between it and the cruiser widened. Slone remained on the bridge for a bit more. Navigation informed him that the probe was running hot and true to the target. Telemetry from the probe was now the only emission, other than the Hayden itself, detectable in the system. The time for the staff meeting rolled around and all department heads arrived along with Dane and Alaya. It was decided to approach with extreme caution and explore the moon from orbit for a while before descending to the surface. This will give them ample time to survey the landing zone and make certain it is not a trap. After the basics were worked out, Slone mentioned the probe he ordered to the planet ahead of them. This caused an unexpected reaction from Dane.

  “You did what? You were not authorized to act unilaterally without first consulting us.”

  Slone was not accustomed to having his decisions questioned and he was not about to let a guest aboard his ship be the first. “Major Haroldson, you are a guest aboard my ship, not its commander. I will do what I feel is necessary to protect this ship and the personnel aboard.”

  “I was sent here by Mr. Sinclair himself. As his representative, I demand to be kept informed of all actions taken by you and your crew.”

  “We are over two million light-years from corporate headquarters and it falls on me to get this ship back to our galaxy. I will do as I see fit to accomplish that. If you cannot abide by that, I can spare a shuttle for you to take back through the wormhole. Do we understand each other, Major Haroldson? I am the only commander here.”

  Slone could tell Dane did not like being rebuked and he looked like he was about to say more and thought better of it. He nodded, saluted and sat quietly as the meeting ended. “Major Haroldson, I would ask that you and Alaya be on the bridge when our probe reaches the moon. Then we can explore together.” Slone said this last with a slight note of sarcasm that was not lost on Dane, who left along with the
others. Again, Alaya lagged behind until only she and Slone were left in the room.

  “Captain, I would keep an eye on Dane. He’s good at his job but I never liked or fully trusted him. He fancies himself my father’s right hand man. I believe he is looking to leave the military arm and move up in the business arm of the corporation. He will do anything needed to come out as the hero of this expedition and he will not care if others don’t survive.”

  “Really? What did he do to make you this suspicious?”

  “His last two missions were both successes but only he returned each time. The mission recordings didn’t reveal any wrongdoing on his part, but it seems very odd that people with him do not seem to come back. In addition, the recordings never seem to show the others doing anything to further the mission. It is all Dane. I can’t believe my father would be stupid enough to believe this is all coincidence, but as long as Dane gets the job done, he’ll not take him to task. Since my father has only daughters, I truly think he looks on Dane as a son. I know Dane would like to marry one of the three Sinclair girls still single. Trust me when I tell you, it will not be this Sinclair girl.”

  “Good to know. I’ll keep an eye on him. We have three hundred and seventy-five souls aboard. I’m responsible for all of them when we are this far from help.”

  The intercom whistled. “Captain to the bridge.”

  Slone acknowledged the hail and walked through the bridge door. He could tell immediately that the level of activity had increased with the bridge crew. As he sat in the captain’s chair, the navigator began to speak. “Captain, the probe has reached orbit and there are some slight emissions coming from the moon. They are very subtle and cannot be picked up even at this distance.”

  “Can we see the area of the emissions?”

  “I think so. Let me activate the probe’s cameras.” The navigator pressed some buttons and suddenly the moon appeared in the view screen, replacing the tactical map. Unfortunately, the atmosphere was so dense that there was no visual of the planet surface.

  “Try radar mapping.”

  “Yes, sir.” The navigator pressed a few buttons and the screen switched to a computer generated surface plot based on the radar signals returning from the planet to the probe. Slone called Alaya and Dane to the bridge as the probe continued mapping. The emissions were coming from a large, relatively flat area between mountain ranges. Alaya and Dane walked in just as the image was filling in. They looked at the radar map and Alaya immediately recognized the area. “Captain, I see you’ve found our cavern and much quicker than I thought.”

  “I can’t take credit for that. We’re investigating emissions coming from under the plain to the east of the cavern entrance. We are also picking up your lost ships’ transponders. They are still working, despite the damage you told us about and the time that has passed. It’s almost as if someone is maintaining the function of the transponders as a lure. Tactical, keep a close watch for any activity, no matter how small, in the system. If they are using them as a lure, it would again suggest more intelligence than the lack of structures suggest.”

  “What about those emissions? Could they be living underground?” Alaya asked. “We didn’t pick them up on our trip here, but then we weren't really taking any precautions, since we had no idea we were dealing with alien intelligence. I will have to review the original scans in my ship’s computers.”

  “Certainly possible but our ground penetrating sensors don’t reveal any large hollows under the plain. All we know is there are multiple shallow pits all over the area. Let’s have a look at the surface. Navigator, take the probe down towards the surface and hold as soon as we have visibility.”

  “Captain, it’s pretty dark down there,” Alaya remarked.

  “Good point. Navigator, give me external lights and radar at 100 meters and hold it at that level.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  They watched on the screen as the combination of visual and radar created an image of the moon’s surface coming up to the probe. At 100 meters, the probe stopped its descent and they had a look around. Before them was a relatively flat plain with small streams of liquid methane flowing down from the surrounding mountains. In the distance, the radar showed a large cave opening, which was their mission target. Telemetry on the probe indicated the survey vessel transponders were transmitting from that cavern. Slone wanted to know what the shallow pits were and ordered the probe to do a sweep of the plain, but to his disappointment, no shallow pits were seen on visual, though the radar said they were there. The only explanation was the pits were covered. The disturbing aspect of that idea was the fact that the surface looked natural and that meant the pits were not just covered but camouflaged.

  “Alaya, did your team come across these pits when you were here?”

  “No, Captain, but then we didn’t use radar. We knew our destination and had no reason to suspect anything. All we were tasked to do was recover our ships’ memory cores. We had no expectation of finding anyone alive and thought we were just dealing with two failed missions. After all, no one knew about the wormhole.”

  “Dane, what do you make of these pits from a tactical point of view?”

  “Well, Captain, if I was of a mind to hide something, they would be a perfect place.”

  “Exactly what I was thinking. They seem to stop about a half kilometer from the cave entrance, so they shouldn’t interfere with the mission.”

  “I didn’t notice them when we were here before,” Alaya remarked. “I agree with Dane, they are disturbing. Dane, I think we should go in with stealth operative. They don’t seem to be bothered by the probe, so there is no automatic attack based on motion. The emissions from the probe may be too weak based on size so if we go in with no transmissions, we should be ok.”

  Slone, Alaya and Dane stayed on the bridge for the remaining hour until orbit was achieved. The Hayden was placed in a synchronous orbit to hold position over the cavern and the mysterious plain stretching away from it. Slone had decided to go along with the landing party, despite the objections of both his first officer and the Sinclair group. After hearing about the way Dane runs his away teams, Slone decided an independent commander needed to be on site. He also made it clear that Dane and Alaya would handle the ground mission but all space portions and the decision as to when to leave if things got hot, rested fully with Slone. Of course, this all depended on Dane’s men being willing to take orders from Slone. After the long system traverse, they rested for a day and kept logging more and more information about the system. As far as they could tell, there were several incoming and outgoing slipstreams and the wormhole. Where these other slipstreams went or came from would remain unknown to this mission. Their task was only the computer cores on the lost ships.

  After a full day’s rest, Dane and Alaya went down to the hangar deck to prep the scout ship and Slone turned the bridge over to Hans Stueber, after first making certain the threat board remained clear and the tactical negative. Slone went down to the hangar deck and saw feverish activity around the scout ship he had recovered, what seemed like an eternity ago, in the Bickle system. The ship was completely refitted and covered with a corrosion resistant material, which also helped make it undetectable, by conventional sensors. The liquid oxygen package had been loaded before departure from Purgatory and Dane was busy with his techs to make sure it had survived the wormhole without leaking. Alaya sat in the pilot’s chair. She was going through her preflight check.

  “Permission to come aboard, Captain,” Slone asked, granting Alaya the rank she deserved as captain of her own ship. The scout vessel was not as small as one would think, since it is a mining scout meant to bring back large numbers of samples and carry a large mining crew. The vessel consisted of several compartments. The bridge was up front and had stations for a crew of five to pilot, navigate and manage the vessel and its mission. Behind the bridge, at the end of a short corridor, was a large, multipurpose room that doubled as a mess hall and a place for crew to hang out wh
en in flight or off duty on a planet. The next compartment is sickbay, which also contains 12 stasis chambers, one for each member of the standard crew. Beyond the sickbay was a corridor leading to the cargo hold. On either side of the corridor, there were six stacked compartments for the standard crew of 12. Each compartment was the size of a single bed with a closure for privacy and a footlocker forming the end of the compartment. All members of the crew lived the same, no rank distinctions. Slone admired that. When they had rescued Alaya, Slone had been too busy to check out the mining craft they had pulled aboard during the rescue. Six, of the normal crew, were miners; the others were part of the ship and survey crew. Her previous mission only involved her regular crew, with no added miners, since it was a recovery mission. At the other end of the living corridor, was a bulkhead door entering the large cargo bay. Beyond the cargo bay was a sealed door leading to the engine compartment. That was only entered if repairs were needed. There were also the usual sail compartments around the waist and stern for slipstream travel. Overall, Slone had to admit, he could travel the universe with a ship like this. Best of all, Alaya told him she was fast in system. For armament, she had one forward cannon and one missile tube, both stored and serviced below the bridge from a compartment reached through the floor of the mess hall.

  “Permission granted,” said Alaya. “Glad to have you aboard Captain Slone. You will be riding shotgun while we head down to the planet. Now that we know what awaits us, we are going in better prepared. We have a full bridge crew that will stay in the ship, including you and myself. Dane will go in with his troops and retrieve the computer core from the ship we could not reach. He will take the oxygen with him. I just have a bad feeling about this entire mission. My father said the computer core was needed to learn more about the methane breathers, but we know all we need to know about them from dealing with them. I doubt we will be exchanging ambassadors with them. I told him I think this is too much risk for worthless Intel, but he was adamant and would hear no argument against it. I think if I were not needed here because of my past visit, he would have taken the ship from me and let Dane go on his own. Something here just doesn’t make sense.”