by Jay Toney
As we neared the planet and its moon, the object grew larger, its details more visible. It was a ship or at least most of one, anyhow. I could make out its name from here. It was the Excelsior.
There was no telling how long the ship had been here in orbit. I remembered the ship's name from stories Doc used to tell me when I was a child. It was the name of the ship that was used as the Trojan Horse to smuggle the troops aboard the space station and end the war between the Alliance and the Collation of Free Worlds. The mass exodus to the new galaxy started shortly after that battle.
It couldn't be the same ship, but that didn't mean it didn't belong to the Alliance. We would have to investigate. Hopefully, the ship's navigation data was still intact.
It was possible that there was some useful information in the ship's log or in the captain's journal. I thought about the journal that it was my duty to maintain. It was supposed to be something like a diary for the ship, listing all significant events that happened each day, the passenger and crew manifest, births, and deaths. It has been two years, and I haven't gotten around to even making the initial entry. I would do it when I had more time.
I was thinking about which of the ship's officers to take with me. Nugget didn't like to fly, at least with me. I would be taking Amber and Persephone along with me. Jewel was still in sickbay, I would have to leave her behind. "Speak of the devil." I didn't mean to say that out loud.
Everyone turned to look at me. When was I going to learn to keep my big mouth shut? Nugget was wondering what I was going to say to do to get out of it. Amber's mouth opened ready to defend Jewel. Persephone laughed, and Jewel turned to me with fire in her eyes. She was mad, more than mad, she was furious.
"Just because I cracked a couple of ribs doesn't mean that I need to take it easy in bed! Doc and Miranda both said that if I couldn't take it easy, in my own quarters and let the bones mend, I would find myself as their guest for the next two weeks recovering in sickbay. I don't need any crap from you too!"
Jewel was definitely not going on the trip. Jewel tended to be a little playful at times, and when she played, she played hard. Her athletic body and her playfulness is what attracted me to her, enough to cheat on Tanya and Amber.
Amber, Persephone, and I headed to the shuttle bay. I no longer had a Marauder to fly. I wasn't quite ready to fly the Medusa fighter again, so that meant Amber would be flying her Marauder. Persephone and I would be her passengers. We launched, heading towards the moon and what was left of the Excelsior.
Amber panned the Marauder's searchlights across the Excelsior's hull. The ship had been in battle a very long time ago. I could see traces of Carbonite around the damaged areas. Energy weapons did not leave Carbonite residue. The damage was caused by explosives.
The shuttle bay doors were open. Amber skillfully flew her Marauder into the open shuttle bay. She landed and shut down its engines. All of us changed into spacesuits, there was no air or pressure outside. After changing and ensuring that our spacesuits were properly sealed Amber began depressurizing the Marauder. The spacesuits expanded as the shuttles pressure dropped. As soon as we were in a total vacuum, Amber opened the rear hatch.
We made our way to the entry airlock. Our magnetic boots kept us in place, with the absence of gravity. I used a spare power cell to provide energy to cycle the doors. We stayed together as a group, walking to engineering. If there was any energy, we could use it to provide power for lighting, life support, and to open and close the doors.
Even with my power cell the door refused to open. I removed the access panel next to the door exposing the manual pump. I started pumping the pump handle and the door began to open. When the door reached 18 inches wide, there was an explosion. Fortunately for us no one was in front of the opening. I had forgotten what Red said about the Alliance setting booby-traps aboard the ships that they abandoned.
I finished pumping the door open. We all entered using care. The ship's main reactor was still providing power. I closed the circuit breakers that would provide power to life support and the ship's computers. The ship began pressurizing and warming up but it would be a while before we could remove our spacesuits.
We headed to the bridge next, keeping a careful eye out for other traps. We stood to the side of the entrance doors to the bridge. They opened with the slightest touch on the door controls. There was no explosion this time.
By now the Excelsior was pressurized, and we were able to remove our helmets. The air was still cold but breathable. There was no useful information in the ship's logs, in fact, there was no information at all. The ship's logs had been erased. There was nothing on the bridge or in the anteroom of any use to us.
We headed to the captain's quarters next. It was a mess inside. It looked like someone got here first and searched the cabin. Whoever did it, did not do a good enough job. Amber noticed one of the floor vents was slightly misaligned. The vent cover came off easily. Inside the ductwork was a single page from the ship's journal. The page was blank except for two words, Gamma Horologii, our next destination.
We left leaving the power on for whoever was next to find the remains of the ship. We put our helmets on before cycling the airlock that would allow us entry into the shuttle bay. As soon as the Marauder was pressurized, we changed out of the spacesuits and back into our flight suits. Amber flew us back to the Persephone.
Jewel was twice as mad when we got back. It was bad enough that she was ordered to rest, but now she had missed another adventure. Persephone filled her in on all of the details, and of all of the juicy bits of gossip she got from the ship's comms. She had the advantage of being able to see and hear everything that happened aboard the ship. In return, she spread all of the news she had about the three of us to her fans. She couldn't help it, she loved to gossip even more than Demeter. If ever there was a goddess of gossip, it would be Persephone.
****
We set course for Gamma Horologii and entered hyperspace. Travel across this constellation would be done in three jumps, and take five days to reach our destination. We were going from end to end, and it was a large constellation. No one had any idea what we would find when we got there.
When Persephone and I entered our cabin, everything was quiet, in fact, it was too quiet. Neither Amber or Jewel were in the cabin. All of our children were gone. I would have panicked, but Tammy was laying on Amber's bed. She turned to us and said, "Demeter has the children. She took them to the park."
"The children will love it there. I remember when mother used to take me to the park. It was a lot of fun."
That wasn't necessarily good. In the last two and a half months we missed six years of Demi's life. Demeter didn't seem to think it was a problem. In fact, she thought she had done us a favor. The way she put it, we should thank her. I had to admit that Demi was a lot more exciting and fun to be with, but Persephone was saddened by missing all of her firsts. We missed her first words, first steps, first teeth, and more.
"Tammy, do you know where Amber and Jewel are?"
"They are in the infirmary with Doc and Miranda. Jewel wanted to prove to Amber that she could still... never mind, they both got hurt. Doc is going to keep them there for a few weeks. That is why Demeter has the children. You're going to have to get a new bed. They broke it even more."
"How in the hell did they do that?" I had seen mattresses up against the walls, footboards and headboards on the floor. I had never seen parts in pieces.
"Jewel tried doing a backflip from the dresser onto the bed, instead of landing next to Amber, she landed on her."
"Why would she do that?"
"Amber dared her to do it."
"Are you leaving anything out?"
"Of course I am. We Nymphs love to kiss and tell. In fact, we often brag about our romantic and sexual encounters. Humans, for some reason, find talking about the details offensive, so I left all of the juicy parts out."
"This will not do." Persephone waved her hands, and the bed was reassembled as well as the rest of the furni
ture. "I must get all of the details. This is to good to let it slip by." Persephone vanished, leaving me alone in the room. Amber and Jewel were her favorite subject to gossip about. She wasn't going to miss out on this. They did something extraordinary to end up in sickbay.
Before Persephone cleaned the mess and fixed the bed, it looked like the room had been ransacked, or there was a major fight. Amber and Jewel would never fight with each other. It was something else. Jewel's idea of a good time was more than a simple tumble. Sometimes furniture accidentally got damaged or broken. This was the worse I had ever seen it. I wasn't mad at them. I was mad because I wasn't here to take part in it. Damn my luck. I would have to get all the details from Persephone when she got back.
She wasn't gone long. "Amber has a broken leg, and Jewel broke two more ribs. Doc is keeping them in sickbay until the nanites completely mend their bones. He says that you have been a bad influence on them. He made me leave, or so he thought. I turned myself invisible so that they could whisper all of the details to me. It's just too good to keep to myself. I have to tell everyone," she vanished again.
I guess I would have to wait until Nugget told me what he heard from the gossip circle. Persephone might be gone for hours. She had a lot of fans. Most of the time she would just message them with the ship's comms. Something this good, she would only do in person.
I touched the Tsurani Suns. They began playing a new melody and putting on a light show. It was as good a time as any to start catching up on my journal. I selected a stylus and sat at my desk. The first entry would start with the christening of the ship, or should it start before that? What was the date? None of the girls were around to help with the details. I closed the book and leaned back in my chair to think about it and maybe take a nap.
"Finished catching up on your journal entries?" Persephone asked.
"Yep, all done." I picked up the journal and walked to the kitchen and put it in the recycler. Its pieces would make a nice snack for our niffids.
"Now that you are caught up with your log entries don't let it get so far behind."
"That won't be a problem," I said joining Persephone in the bedroom. "Now give me all the juicy bits about Jewel and Amber. Don't leave any of the details out."
****
We came out of hyperspace, heading towards a distant yellow sun. It was too large to call it a dwarf star and not quite large enough to classify as a giant. Its size and heat were sufficient enough to bake the first four planets. The fifth planet had some potential for life. Its terrain was a mix of rock and desert sand. The axial tilt was only 3°, not enough for the planet to have any changes of season. Our fleet headed there.
"Captain, I'm picking up what may be satellites of some sort orbiting the planet, but they aren't broadcasting anything."
I cycled the viewscreen to its maximum setting. I could see the metallic objects, reflecting flashes of light, orbiting the planet around its equator. They were too small to be seen as anything more than tiny flashes of light.
"Enter high orbit until we know more." That was playing it safe. We didn't know what the objects were or if there was anyone alive on the planet's surface.
"Nugget, it's you Doc or me. One of has to go down to the planet's surface to investigate. I can rule Doc out. He has patients."
"Self-inflicted injuries don't count." He was referring to the injuries that Amber and Jewel received. They weren't self-inflicted, or at least they were unintentional injuries. Jewel and Amber just got a little carried away. "Still, it comes down to you or me."
"I'll flip you for it." He pulled an old coin out of his pocket. Outside of a museum or my ancient history lessons, I had never seen a coin. Nugget explained that he would flip it into the air. If it landed heads up, I would go to the planet. If it landed tails up, he would go. That sounded fair enough.
Nugget flipped the coin high into the air. The way it was spinning, there was no way he could cheat. The coin landed on the floor, rolling. It finally stopped heads up, Persephone and I would go to the surface.
"Be sure to bring plenty of sunscreen with you. There isn't much shade down there." He picked up the coin and placed it in his pocket. After we left the bridge, he pulled the coin from his pocket, admiring it. It was embossed with the bust of the last king of the Keshian Empire on both sides. "It gets them every time," he chuckled.
****
I was stuck flying a cargo shuttle this time. The Medusa fighter still scared the hell out of me. We flew past the satellites. They weren't really satellites. They were nothing but a string of space junk. Our close-up examination revealed that they were pieces of the Excelsior, blown free of the ship's hull, the remains of a battle from long ago.
The Persephone's sensors found an area on the surface that showed high concentrations of metal, near the polar region. It was the only source of metal on the planet.
The Planet was nothing but a big ball of dust, sand, and rock. There was very little water at the poles. The air was barely breathable with high levels of carbon dioxide and chlorine gas in the upper atmosphere. Nothing could survive on the surface for long.
We landed next to a collection of cargo containers. Most of them were half buried in the sand. The people that had been left behind or marooned here used these containers for shelter. There was no one left alive. Most of the cargo containers had the remains of furnishings and old bones inside of them. Some had bodies that had been modified by the dry conditions and sand.
All of the containers had been placed in a circle surrounding a single red container. It must have belonged to someone important. Like the rest of the cargo containers, this one was mostly empty. It did have one item that might be of use. A single memory chip was in the center of what was left of the table. I would have to see if it contained any useful information. I put the crystal in my pocket, and we headed back to our shuttle.
****
"When Nugget saw us he laughed, "Did sleeping beauty hog all of the sunscreen?"
For some reason, Persephone did not burn or tan. The hot sun didn't affect her. I couldn't say the same about myself. Every bit of exposed skin was reddened by the sun. In some places it was already peeling, in others, it was blistered. My nanites were busy, working to repair the damage. Hopefully, I would learn to regenerate myself sometime soon, so I wouldn't have to depend on them.
The crystal was similar to the ones we used, but would not adapt to any of our sockets. We couldn't download its memory and view the files. Even as old as it was, it was possible that it might still contain information that we could find useful. Either Persephone or I would have to go into the crystal. It was the only way we could extract its memory.
She didn't like merging with objects that held memories. She would reluctantly search memory crystals. She did it all the time with the memory crystals we used for the ship's computers. But she wouldn't merge with walls or doors.
She tried to explain the difference. Crystals were used to store information. It could contain images, sounds, flavors, odors, or any form or combination of information that could be imagined. Walls recorded memories. They were not in any particular order, and they couldn't be used to store and retrieve information, but they remembered everything that happened in front of them. It freaked her out. I tried it once. It wasn't that bad. It felt strange, but that was it. Later she told me that I was lucky. They also held all of the bad memories. They were actual memories that could be experienced. Not files that could simply be viewed, listened to, or read.
I told her I would flip her for it. I knew just where I could get a coin to flip. I borrowed Nuggets coin. I was about to flip it into the air. Persephone stopped me. She yelled, "You would cheat me!" She showed me both sides of the coin before storming away to our cabin. I felt like a fool. I gave the coin back to Nugget ignoring his laughter and headed to our cabin to apologize.
"I should have known you wouldn't cheat me. The niffid bites and mud baths to treat his herpes is nothing compared to what I am going to do to him n
ext." I didn't ask. I didn't want to know. I didn't need nightmares about spiders.
We headed back up to the bridge. I was getting ready to merge with the crystal. Persephone stopped me before I could complete the process. "No! This time we shall do it together.
She took my hand and joined with me, just barely touching me, with her essence, where our hands met. Then she placed her other hand on the memory crystal, and we were transported inside of it.
I was sure that the crystal would hold information that we could use. There were only two files. One was an image. I stared at it. I had seen that flaming red skull several times. I thought the Crimson Tide formed in the other galaxy. I was wrong. We all were. They came from here and followed us to the Andromeda Galaxy. The Excelsior was attacked and captured by the Crimson Tide. The surviving crewmen were marooned here before they departed with the Alliance ship.
It was strange, somehow I knew this to be true. None of our new knowledge was stored in this crystal. It was like we suddenly remembered it. Neither of us could have any memory of these events. Persephone was dead, her soul was trapped in Purgatory until she was reincarnated as our ships AI. I wouldn't even be born for another 4000 years. When I thought about these memories, it was like we were there experiencing them.
We looked at the next file. It consisted of a fragment of a star map. It also had a name, Antares. There was no flood of memories associated with Antares. It wasn't the same Antares that I remembered. This was the Antares that the first settlers, in the new galaxy, named the first-star system they arrived at. Both were binary systems, but the Antares in this star map was a red supergiant. Its companion star, a blue giant. The blue star looked small, like a dwarf star, compared to the size of the red star.
We exited the crystal with this new information. Now we had another destination, Antares.
After hours of searching, we couldn't find the system on our star map. We had the next best thing though, we had a portion of a map that showed us the location of surrounding stars that we could use as reference points. It should be simple to use these stars to draw plot lines and find an intersecting point, or so I thought.
