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

by Donald Nicklas

  “The colony is depressurized. Without power, we’ll have to keep our suits on and that limits our time here. Follow me to the control room. Maybe we can bring the power back on line.”

  They made their way through the upper levels of the subterranean part of the colony to the control room, which they found as deserted as any of the areas they had passed through. Slone was beginning to wonder what exactly had happened to all the people he worked with for the past decade. They went to work on the console in the control room and made a startling discovery. The colony reactors were not just shut down they were gone. The fusion cores were removed. This action indicated that no one was going to return to this system in the near future. The mine had been permanently shut down long before its supply of critical metal ores was exhausted. Slone had never heard of a previous situation where this had happened.

  As communication officer, Tom kept the ship informed of their findings, but communication had become spotty as they moved deeper into the colony to the control room. Alaya and Slone were working at the engineering console. They pushed a few buttons and some of the consoles came to life.

  “We’ve gotten communications and life support back on in the control room and the living quarters.” Alaya reported. “This way we can salvage what we need and restock our larder from the kitchen supplies.”

  “Good work. How long do we have on backup?” asked Slone.

  “The batteries are about half down so, perhaps 12 hours. They must have used them for a time after they took out the fusion cores,” Alaya responded.

  “No time to waste then. I want to restock food, ammunition, and anything else we might need on the trip back to Sinclair Corporate. They might know what happened here.”

  The three left the control room after Tom boosted their communicators through the main console to give a clear communication with the ship. They first made their way to the armory and, after getting an inventory from the ship, replaced all of the weapons and ammo they used in the battles in Andromeda. They put all of their salvage on an antigravity sled kept in the armory and then moved on to the mess hall to raid the kitchen supplies. Slone knew that when a base was abandoned, the foodstuffs were usually left behind to save space on the ships. They can be gotten later or not at all. Even with the main power down, the food was hermetically sealed and it did not need refrigeration to stay fresh. When they reached the mess hall, they stopped short in horror. There were hundreds of bodies, men women and children piled up in the mess hall, frozen from the lack of heat in the colony. Now that the life support was restored, they were going to melt. When the three had recovered their senses, Alaya was the first to get over her shock and speak.

  “What happened here?” She checked some of the bodies and looked back at Slone. “This carnage is criminal. They’ve all been shot.”

  A quick check by Slone and Tom confirmed what Alaya said. Every man, woman and child in the room had been shot.

  “What kind of animals would do this?” Alaya asked.

  “This is worse than anything I’ve read about in the corporate wars. These people were murdered. There’s no sign of a fight or an attempt to defend themselves. These people were not expecting this. Aliens didn’t do this,” Slone surmised.

  At that moment, word came over the coms that Diana and Roger had found more than enough fuel on the derelict to refuel the scout ship and carry some extra for emergencies. Slone ordered them to take on as much fuel as the scout could carry and fill the emergency bunkers. He had no idea how long it would take them to get to wherever it was they would be going. Something did not feel right here and a little voice in the back of his head was telling him, ‘don’t go back to a Sinclair outpost.’

  Further examination of the base revealed some scattered bodies. Like the rest, they had all been shot, apparently while trying to escape the carnage in the cafeteria. Slone recognized most of the bodies in the base. They had all frozen when the power was shut down, but they were now starting to thaw and the base was filling with the unmistakable stench of death. “Let’s get moving and take what supplies we need for a long voyage. It’s months to the core systems.”

  The landing party spread out to fill the supply list they had worked out before landing. Slone went to his living quarters and took what personal items he felt he could keep on the small scout ship. The part of the ship reserved for the six mining surveyors when on a mining mission, would be used to store as many dry goods and other necessities as she could hold. After he was done here, he and Alaya went to the commander’s office and checked the message log. From what they could see, after they had left on their mission the log ended abruptly the next day. Slone and Alaya then went to the CIC room and pulled up the combat logs. To their dismay, all of the logs were blank. There was no mention of the battles with the aliens and no mention even of the aliens. Sinclair Corp. did a wonderful job of keeping the aliens a secret and Slone began to suspect that the room full of corpses was part of the plan. Alaya and Slone then split up and each started to fill an antigravity sled with weapons, ammunition and supplies. When they rendezvoused in the atrium of the airlock to the surface, they had three sleds filled to the top with what they needed.

  “How do we get all of this stuff up to the ship?” Tom asked.

  “We take one of the shuttles we saw in the bay coming down here. At least they were too deep to be taken out by the bombardment. Before we go, Tom lets suit up and shut down the power again. I have a feeling we need to keep this place frozen. I also don’t want anyone to know we were here.”

  Tom nodded and put on his suit with the others. He then shut down the power, but only after opening the inner and outer airlock. This reset the base to the way it was when they found it. They went out, up several demolished floors with their sleds to the shuttle hangar, and found one that was still in working order. They loaded themselves and the sleds aboard and headed for a rendezvous with the Dragon’s Claw. When the ships were side by side, the material was transferred. The fuel had already been loaded aboard and the tanks were removed from the base shuttle and attached to special hooks on the exterior of the Dragon’s Claw. These function as external tanks, as there were also hoses there to feed them directly into the engines. As with the external tanks on old earth military aircraft, fuel would come from them first and when empty they would be jettisoned. Fuel would then come from the internal tanks. There were also emergency fuel tanks inside the first hull layer. These refilled the internal tanks as they were depleted and greatly extended the range of the Dragon’s Claw. After the first batch of supplies was stowed, they made three more trips to the surface for as much as the old base still had to offer. Roger Umgabe went with the teams to retrieve as much data as he could and see if any backups held the missing information. He also wanted to take some electronics for repairs on his systems if needed. As he said, you can never have enough spares. By the end of a day period, they were all exhausted and decided to call it quits until tomorrow. They had enough food for months in space and enough weapons to fight a small war. Slone remembered something and went down on the last trip. As the others gathered more supplies, he took a sled and went to the lowest level of the base. It was obvious that no one had been down there. Frozen rats covered some areas. No matter where man went, his friend the rat went with him. They were ironic symbols of man’s inability to conquer nature completely.

  At the very lowest level, Slone found what he was looking for, a huge vault door. No one had opened it. He doubted anyone but the commander and the captains of the Purgatory defense ships knew this was here. The captains had been sworn I to secrecy. From what the commander had told them, this vault was installed when the base was built, several centuries ago. It was meant to be the armory but as the base grew, it was pushed deeper into the bedrock. Finally, it was forgotten, as was the combination to the door. Fortunately, the lock had rusted and the door would no longer lock. What kept it safe was ignorance of its existence. The last five commanders had sworn all to secrecy. They all knew
what was inside. It was a retirement fund. Over a century of hoarding and skimming, yet no one had so far survived to collect their share. Slone opened the door and loaded the ton of gold unto the sled. As he did so, he was thankful for the lower gravity on purgatory. When the vault was empty and the sled loaded, he again worked his way up to the rendezvous point. He took the gold out to the shuttle and loaded the sled into the ship. Despite thousands of years of human experimentation with currency, gold never lost its luster and Slone doubted it ever would. It was the only currency that readily crossed corporate, planetary, and cultural lines. It was recognized as a store of value throughout the known universe. When humans left earth, they soon discovered that gold was as rare in the cosmos as it was on earth. A ton of gold could make their travels much easier. As the others arrived with their sleds full of stores, they all looked admiring on the massive treasure Slone brought aboard the waiting shuttle. They lifted off and soon the Dragon’s Claw was filled to capacity with supplies and their visit to Purgatory was ending. They decided to rest the next twenty-four hours and during that time decide where to go to report what they found at Purgatory. Since the system was free of any ships other than their own, they decided to relax, not set a watch, and rely on the ship sensors to warn them if there is a change.

  Five hours into the sleep cycle, the crew was awakened by a constant beeping coming from the bridge. As soon as it registered on Slone’s consciousness, he leapt from his bed and headed forward. Some of the crew did not hear the warning but the movement in the ship roused everyone and soon they were all gathered on the bridge. The sound was associated with a flashing yellow light on the communications console. Tom Gardner sat down at his station and switched off the light and beeping. He then pushed some buttons and looked at his screen.

  “A message pod just entered the system. It’s sending out a recognition code for the dreadnought Indianapolis.”

  “Roger, are we still alone in the system?” Slone asked.

  Umgabe had been checking the screens since the warning was received. “Only the message pod entered the system since we arrived.”

  Slone massaged his chin in a thoughtful expression. “Then we can anticipate having company soon. Pull us away from Purgatory and put us near the gas giant in the system. Don’t use the engines, sails only to mask the movement. Let’s see what they do when they arrive.”

  “Yes sir.” Farnsworth said as he moved into the pilot’s seat. Alaya was standing next to Slone and keeping an eye on every part of the ship's bridge. Even though Slone was the senior officer and took command automatically, she knew the ins and outs of her scout ship. She remained ready to step into any position on the bridge.

  Farnsworth unfurled the sails and polarized them. Once the sides were oppositely charged, Slone could feel the movement of the ship under his feet. They pulled out of orbit and moved in the direction of the gas giant. They were a five-hour sail from the giant and had just reached it when Paul McMann reported a ship coming through the inbound slipstream. “A dreadnought class ship just entered the system. Identification code says she’s the Indianapolis.”

  “Hmm. Not hiding her identity. They don’t expect anyone to be here alive. How long till they make orbit around Purgatory?”

  “Under power she will not be there for another eleven hours.”

  “Ok, keep us in orbit around the gas giant and keep running silently. Make the orbit retrograde, and keep us on the Purgatory side of the giant so we can see what they do.”

  “Yes sir.”

  The Dragon’s Claw slipped into orbit and the sails came down. This time they posted a watch and the others went to get more sleep before the dreadnought reached the mining colony. The scout ship disappeared to all sensors and the Indianapolis continued movement towards her rendezvous with Purgatory. Slone and his crew slept as the dreadnought drew closer to the mining colony. An hour before the warship arrived at the colony, the crew of the Dragon’s Claw was once again assembled on the bridge to see what the dreadnought would do.

  “She’s preparing to orbit the planet above Purgatory. I wonder if she was sent to look for survivors.” Alaya mused, more to herself than the others.

  Slone however had a thought about that possibility. “If she does, she will find evidence that we were there. No hiding the missing weapons and supplies.”

  “Which begs the question,” Alaya replied. “Why did they leave the supplies and weapons? It’s as if they didn’t want anything from the base to leave it.”

  “Good Question. Let’s see what they do. Any activity out there?”

  Umgabe checked his sensors and fine-tuned them to make sure he was reading them right. “There is activity, sir, but it doesn’t make any sense. The forward missile tubes just opened.”

  “See if you can get us a visual with magnification,” Slone ordered.

  “Yes, sir,” Umgabe said as he pulled up the external camera feed and magnified the image to maximum. Unfortunately, at their distance from the mining moon, all they could see was the moon and a small dot in orbit above it. They were too far away for any details.

  “I have a missile launch,” Umgabe reported.

  They all looked at the screen but could see nothing until there was a momentary bright flash on the surface of the moon. “That was a nuclear detonation. A second missile has been launched.”

  As they watched, there was a flash in orbit not far from the Indianapolis. “It appears they blew up the alien derelict we salvaged for fuel.”

  “So they are covering up all evidence of any activity here.”

  At this point, Tom Gardner interrupted the discussion in the bridge. “The signal from the message pod has changed. It is now sending out a recognition code meant for a Knut Haroldson.”

  “That’s Dane’s full name. Can we download the message without tipping off the Indianapolis?” Alaya asked.

  “Yes, all I have to do is leave the primary message on the pod and pull off a copy. I‘ll also resend the outgoing signal and it won’t look like anyone touched it.”

  “Ok, do that now.”

  Gardner pushed a few buttons and then announced that it would take a round trip of one and a half hours for the command signal to reach the pod and the copy to return. In the mean time, they continued to monitor the activity at Purgatory, knowing they were seeing events forty-five minutes after they actually happened. Just like travel, communication and visuals over the vast distances of space took time.

  “The Indianapolis broke orbit. She is heading for the outbound slipstream,” Umgabe reported.

  “Any indication she knows we’re here?”

  “None, sir. She is heading straight across the system for the outbound slipstream and doing so under full speed.”

  “So, in a hurry then,” Slone said, mostly to himself. He then turned to Gardner. “See what you can do with that message when it arrives. I think we should all know what they wanted Dane to know, before we return to Sinclair Corp.” Everyone, including Alaya Sinclair, acknowledged the last statement.

  As they were discussing the events of the day, it was hard for Slone to believe what had happened in the past two weeks. His quiet life in a frontier-mining outpost had been totally destroyed without warning. He had also come across the first non-human sentient beings discovered so far in the universe and even made acquaintance with one and allied her in his fight to get home. Not to mention the fact, one of the species now lived in the Bickle star system. He then, for the first time, thought back at all the friends he had lost in the last two weeks. His entire crew from his first command, all gone. He was responsible for them and could not help but feel guilty for not protecting them. If only he had known what they were actually facing on this mission. However, he was sure no one knew of the dangers or they would have left the scouting data in the other galaxy. Then to return to Purgatory after all of the hardships and loss, only to find that everyone he knew was dead there as well and now they were all dust, thanks to the Indianapolis. Tom Gardner, stating t
he transmission meant for Dane had been received, shook Slone out of his thoughts. It was encrypted, but one of the nice features of the advanced scout they were flying, was its ability to break all forms of encryption. It was meant to be a spy ship if the need arose. When Gardner reported the encryption was broken and the message was ready to view, Slone ordered it put on the communications console on the bridge, since whatever was on the message affected them all. Tom Gardner pushed a button and the Sinclair logo appeared on the screen. This was followed by the words “For your eyes only, destroy after receiving.” A third screen just said message follows. An image of Horatio Sinclair appeared, sitting at his desk, aboard his flagship. He was looking straight into the camera as he began to speak.

  ‘Dane, if you are receiving this message, then I congratulate you on your safe return. This message capsule will self destruct one week after entering the Purgatory system, which should be enough time for you to complete your mission. All evidence of alien incursion, along with all witnesses, has been eliminated at this end. I hope you were as successful at your end. If our friends the Saltic were satisfied with all of the new human brains we sent them, there should be no difficulty in receiving a colony of Urk'Radi from them for our methane mines. I was concerned about sending Captain Slone and the Hayden on this mission, he seems a resourceful commander, but he is also a witness, along with his crew. They were the logical ones to send as gifts. It’s unfortunate I had to lose Alaya, but her sacrifice will ensure the future of our company. I have many children, but only one corporation. If all went as planned, you should be alone. Return to Sinclair headquarters and you will be rewarded handsomely. Sinclair out.’ The image on the screen was replaced with a reminder to destroy this message.