The Alliance in Peril

by Peter Lewis Atkinson

  I expected both ships to be in orbit. I was dreading flying the battlecruiser. Flying something this big into orbit was giving me the jitters. To make matters worse I had no idea of the layout regarding controls, which I now would have to familiarise myself with first. Luckily, its previous crew were Lusianian. I would definitely need the assistance of Yarkeli for translation during the journey to Earth. But first, we needed to load the gunship into our cargo freighters hold. We left the space station to return to our ship where we picked up Lumi. She then piloted our shuttle to the planet’s surface. It was my job to take the gunship to orbit, before flying it directly into our cargo hold in orbit. I took Perri along with me. The temperature on the surface was seventy below, but we were snug in our environmental suits. All went to plan and I had soon powered up the gunship, flown it to orbit, and then stowed the gunship aboard our freighter. I now had to arrange who would be accompanying me aboard the battlecruiser to Earth. I had already decided that I would require the assistance of Yarkeli and as I would also need a navigator I chose Jenna over Emily due to experience. I also had River and Luka accompany me on the journey. One more, I needed a co-pilot, one of the older daughters. My eldest daughter Ellie was selected because she was not only the eldest but she was also Jenna’s daughter as well. Lumi would pilot our cargo freighter with Emily as her navigator. All the rest of the family would accompany them including Alenna. We packed the shuttle with what was required for the journey. It was time to leave. Lumi, with Alenna as company, now flew us down to the surface. This time we docked onto one of the airlocks on top of the battlecruiser. We had to climb down a ladder. As we entered some low-level lighting was activated. This seemed to make strange shadows on the walls and was a little spooky. We passed all the items down through the airlock from our ship that we had packed for our journey, stacking them into a pile against the corridor wall leading from the airlock on the battlecruiser. When finished we closed the airlock. Lumi and Alenna soon departed. We were now alone!

  I said, “We must stick together. This is a big ship and it would be very easy for any of us to get lost. First, we must find our way to the bridge.” Which way?

  Ellie with her keen eyes had spotted something. She said, “The bridge is that way,” pointing down one of the three corridors.

  I replied, “How do you know which way to go, Ellie?”

  “Simple,” she said, “there is a deck plan on the wall, look!”

  I peered at the wall, Sure enough, there was. It was hidden in the shadows. How Ellie could see that and make out the route to take, I don’t know, but she had.

  I said after shining a light on it, “Everyone please scan this deck plan into your pid’s. If you find yourself lost you should be able to use it to locate where you are.”

  We had quite a walk to do, turning down a number of corridors and passing numerous rooms on our way. Now we had to descend two floors. The lift was not working due to the fact we had not yet brought any of the four fusion reactors online. There was a fairly tight spiral staircase that descended the entire ship of eight floors. Yarkeli was not at all fond of heights. She looked down the shaft that held the staircase and quickly stepped back.

  Yarkeli said in an uneasy voice, “Do we have to go that way?”

  “Yes,” I replied, “The bridge is only a short way ahead beyond the staircase.”

  Yarkeli looked down the shaft again and shook her head saying, “I can’t, I just can’t go down there. Please, can I wait here until you get the lift working?”

  I was not going to force her, so I replied, “Ok Yarkeli, I understand.” Turning to Luka I said, “Do you mind waiting with Yarkeli. It should only be around twenty minutes before the lift has power?”

  Luka, although she did not want to stay, felt she could not leave Yarkeli alone. She knew if the situation was reversed Yarkeli would not leave her alone, so she said, “I will stay with Yarkeli.”

  I said, “Just stay put you two and don’t wander off.”

  Jenna, River, Ellie and I descended the tight spiral staircase, I could understand the concern Yarkeli had regarding the spiral staircase, and after all, it was a long way down. Anyone with a fear of heights would be scared. We were now on the correct level and in seconds we were standing on the bridge. It was huge. The problem I now had was all the controls and buttons were written in Lusianian and we did not have Yarkeli with us to do the required translation. I was hopeful that Jenna could help. On the cargo ships, there would be a single lit button, but this was different; I could not see anything at lit at all. Where is the standby button? We looked for five minutes, then I spotted a small almost hidden flap which was in the most obvious place to find the standby button. I lifted this flap. Lo and behold there was the illuminated button. I pushed it. The instruments all lit up and came to life. Next job was to start the first reactor. There were four on this ship but we only needed to start up two as the other two would only be required if you wanted to use the weapons on the ship, which we didn’t. With the help of Jenna and Ellie, we translated through the pid. Jenna would input the word that I wanted in Alkarren, the pid would translate it to Lusianian and then we would all look for that button, gauge or control. Progress was slow but in the end, we had made it, I had the first reactor online and with that, all the main lights and heating came on. Not forgetting the power to the lift and it was only a short time before Yarkeli and Luka had arrived at the bridge.

  Luka said, “You took your time. We were getting worried. Twenty minutes, it was more like forty.”

  “Sorry,” I said, “Without Yarkeli to help, it took a lot longer than expected.”

  Starting the second reactor was the simple part. I now had to take this monster to orbit. I spun up all the pods; there were several dozen of them. A few were a little sluggish which I put down to the fact they had not done any real work for thirty years and any lubricant in them would be hard. But not to worry, they should soon heat up and in doing so the lubricant in them should soften. I had to familiarise myself with the controls that I needed to use. I could not put it off any longer. I spun the pods further until they created negative gravity and the ship rose from the ground, slowly at first. I lifted the nose a little. I did not want to rush anything. A little power to the main engines and we moved forward and gained height as we did. I was also gaining more confidence now. The battlecruiser may be a lot larger than our cargo freighter, but it behaved in a very similar manner. I raised the stanchions; again there were quite a few dozen of these. I had no idea what the ship weighed, but I guess it was going to amount to many thousands of tonnes. I took it easy and was soon in orbit. Alenna and the family aboard the Albion princess, would, without doubt, reach Earth before we did. This old space vessel had a very early star-drive, its compression rate was quite a bit lower, so we would arrive at Earth somewhere between twenty-four to thirty-six hours behind them. The main thing that I was relieved about was that the star-drive on this vessel was built by the Relnorians. Had the star-drive been built by the Dregg, I would be worried indeed about it blowing up halfway to Earth. We were set to leave, but before we did, Jenna and Emily both confirmed their destination coordinates to one another, just a precautionary matter that they had agreed between each other before departing from this solar system. Without Yarkeli it would have been very time consuming, translating from Lusianian to English. Yarkeli translated all this to Alkarren for me first, so I could then translate it to English, labelling over the Lusianian writing with stickers. It would be down to Earth to do a permanent job. Once we were in star-drive we needed to collect the items we had piled up near the airlock. Jenna and Ellie were left on the bridge while the rest of us went to do this. These items consisted of clothes, bedding, and the all-important food to last the entire journey. All the corridors were now brightly lit so it was not such a scary place now. Our next task was to do some exploring.
We needed to find the galley first, there were two on this ship, one for officers and one for the lower ranks. Yarkeli looked at the projection from her pid.

  Yarkeli said, “I guess we need the officers’ galley.” She pointed at the projection of the deck plan and said, “Here it is.”

  It was just above the bridge, a bulge that protruded above the rest of the ship, the reason why this was the officers’ galley became clear when we entered. It had large windows, and this galley had a superb view of space. We moved all the food to the galley and stacked it on the tables, we would need to do some cleaning before we could even consider having a meal there. Now we had to find three cabins. Again we chose the officers’ quarters. The captain’s cabin was very nice but only had one bunk. We let Yarkeli have that one. We found another with four bunks in. This cabin was for River, Luka and myself. Finally, as Jenna did not wish her daughter to sleep alone on this gigantic ship, she agreed with Ellie to bunk with her and we soon found the ideal cabin for the pair. I wanted to go and do some exploring of the ship but first things first, the cleaning. The four of us returned to the galley where we spent two hours cleaning the thirty years of dust and grime. It was a surprise as to how much had accumulated even though the galley had not been used throughout that time. In the meantime, Jenna and Ellie had been on the bridge. Jenna’s shift was coming to an end, and I took over as it did. This allowed both Jenna and Ellie the time to go and clean their cabin. At the same time, River along with Luka cleaned ours. Yarkeli was left to clean hers all by herself, which she was not all that bothered about. She preferred to do cleaning chores at her own pace. Time seemed to drag for me sitting in the captain’s seat with little to do other than stare out of the windows. My stomach was beginning to rumble; I had not eaten for around eight hours and I guess the others were just as hungry. I called up Jenna and was surprised to find our meal had been dished out and River was on her way to me. Seconds later she arrived with it and I took it from her. River quickly left to hurry back to the galley for hers. I may have been left on my own to eat, but being famished, I did not care. Funny how food always tastes so much better when you’re hungry. With the exception of Ellie, we drew up a rota for bridge watch. This was only precautionary, no one had to do anything, only listen out, just in case an alarm sounded. When my watch had finished it would be Luka’s turn after that it would be River’s then so on. I decided to go exploring the next day. Jenna’s shift for bridge duty coincided during our day periods, so Ellie was not left on her own during the sleep periods. During our first meal of the day Yarkeli produced a picture that had been hanging on the wall of the captain’s cabin. This picture was of the ship. Underneath was a name. It turned out that this battlecruiser had been named. Yarkeli explained that Lusianians always named their ships, though they never painted the name on the outside.

  Yarkeli said, “Do you want to know the name of this ship?”

  I replied, “Yes please, do tell us Yarkeli.”

  Yarkeli said, “This word under the picture translates as the horizon. So I guess the ship is called the Horizon.”

  After we had eaten I found myself with a couple of hours to spare. I was going to use this time for my walkabout, exploring the ship. I was a little uneasy going by myself, perhaps a little wimpish of me, but I found the ship a little eerie. River was willing to join me, so I took advantage of her willingness to accompany me. I wanted to look at the hanger deck. I only needed to go down two floors and walk along a very long corridor. There were various rooms along the way. Every now and again we would stop and look in one; most were storerooms, others were bunk rooms for the crew. We had walked about half way before we reached a point where up till now had been brightly lit, but from this point forward, again we experienced the low-level lighting. I had no idea why the lighting was so dim or how to turn on the main lighting. We went a little further until we came to a room with double doors. I translated the writing on the door through my pid. It read gymnasium. We looked inside. It was pitch black. I could only make out the old blob from the little light from the very dimly lit corridor. Talk about spooky, I had goosebumps and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I quickly closed the door and we moved on.

  River said, “Did you find that room un-nerving? I certainly did.”

  I didn’t want to let River know that indeed I was uneasy or even scared so I just said, “I could not see a thing, so I did not think it was worthwhile stopping there.” I changed the subject saying, “The hanger deck observation room is just ahead, I wonder what we will find.”

  We made it to this observation room. The hanger deck was again very dimly lit. I looked around to see if there was any way to increase the lighting but could not find any switch or control panels. We stared through the observation window, letting our eyes become accustomed to the dim light.

  “River, look,” I said, pointing towards some shadows. “There are a number of interceptors on the flight deck; this ship has a complement of them.” As my eyes became even more accustomed I began to count them. “Twelve, I count twelve, but not only interceptors, there are also three shuttles.”

  River suddenly said, “What that? It’s moving?”

  I peered at the area she was pointing at and replied, “What’s moving? I can’t see anything moving, your eyes are playing tricks on you.”

  River was now getting quite emotional and said, “Can we please return to the others, I scared!”

  I was not happy either so I just said, “Of course.”

  We started to walk back but soon found ourselves running as fast as our feet could carry us. I decided without any hesitation that I did not wish to do any more exploring on this ship. We found all the others on the bridge. Yarkeli had brought with her some artistic material and was sketching the bridge. Just then out of the blue we heard a blood-curdling screeching sound, it lasted about five seconds and seemed to originate from deep within the bows of the ship.

  Jenna horrified screamed out, “What was that?”

  I was about to say I had no idea when I realised someone was not on the bridge and shouted, “Where is Ellie?”

  But before anybody could say anything Ellie ran into the room. She had been in the captain’s ready room which was adjacent to the bridge.

  Ellie looked petrified and said, “What made that noise? I am scared. Is there something on board? It’s not the Silka is it?”

  They all looked towards me for an answer. I did not have one. Again I had goosebumps and my hair was standing up on the back of my neck. I did not want them to think I was worried as it would only stress them further.

  I had to say something so I just said, “I am not sure what made that noise, the most probable cause was some machinery. It has stopped now so don’t worry.”

  Luka said, “We should barricade ourselves onto the bridge for the rest of the journey.”

  River and Ellie agreed with her. Jenna went with their decision, saying, “I am willing to go with that idea as well.”

  I now spoke up, “There are several problems to deal with regarding that idea. One, there is no toilet. Two, there is no way of cooking food. Three, you will not be able to shower. Four, nowhere to sleep.”

  Ellie quickly replied, “There is a toilet. It’s the captain’s personal one. You will find it through a door in the captain’s ready room.”

  Replying to Ellie’s answer I said, “That is just one problem solved, but what about the other three?”

  Ellie again said, “We could just eat cold food.”

  I shook my head and replied, “That won’t work, and I know you would not eat uncooked rice, fish or most of the vegetables we have brought with us. I for one will not barricade myself within the area of the bridge.”

  Yarkeli up to now had said nothing, and she now spoke up, “I’m wi
th Jake on that one. The noise we heard was a little concerning, but I’m sure what we heard was mechanical in nature. I going to put my foot down in that I will not be swapping the luxury of sleeping in the captain’s bunk, to having to sleep on the floor. I also don’t fancy eating raw vegetables.”

  They were all, apart from myself and Yarkeli, unwilling to leave the bridge. I did not wish to force them at this time. I decided to wait until they became hungry and see what happened then. It was around half an hour later when again heard that awful spine-chilling sound. I thought, is that mechanical or not? I checked to see that everyone was present. Luka was not.

  But again I was about to ask where was Luka, when she rushed out of the captain’s ready room, screaming, “I heard that awful noise again, did you?”

  Jenna said, “Yes, we all heard it. I don’t know what we should do about it. Surely we don’t have to put up with it for a whole week until we reach Earth. It sends shivers down my spine.”

  It was not long after that before yet again for the third time we were subjected to that disconcerting sound. As before I checked to make sure all were present. This time River was missing. I was about to ask where she was when again she exited the captain’s ready room. It suddenly hit me. I smelt a rat. Why do we hear that sound when somebody is in the captain’s ready room? I now had an idea.

  After calming River and the others down, I said, “I would not normally ask this of you, but would any of you wish to use the toilet in the ready room?”

  “Jake! Don’t talk about such a personal thing. We are not children!” replied Jenna.

  I put my hands up admitting that I had overstepped the mark and said, “Sorry, but there was a reason why I asked.” I walked away towards the ready room. As I did I said, “Listen.”

  I first looked at the toilet. Right, I did not want to use the toilet, but I would simulate what would happen, so I just sat on the seat, nothing. Right, I would stand up. As I did the chute opened. At the same time, I heard that sound again. I now knew what it was. To confirm my findings I sat back down and then stood up again almost immediately and as predicted that sound was heard again. I left the ready room. They all stared at me as I entered the bridge, I was smiling to myself, and they all looked quite stern at first. I started laughing.