Deathship (The Outsider Series Book 1)

Deathship (The Outsider Series Book 1) Page 5

by Steven Oaks

  “Well, you seem to have thought of this for awhile. That’s a great deal of effort just for me to go out for a stroll in a country that has, as you have ascertained, interested me. You still haven’t addressed the fact that you are currently a very, very large vehicle. Even if you were to gently set us down in that lake, don’t you think that would cause a stir if anyone was looking?”

  “They might—that is if I do not engage our invisibility cloak,” she said.

  “What, we have one of those? Why didn’t we use it in Paris then? You saw what trouble that started,” I said loudly in confusion.

  “Well, I was hoping that being invisible to radar would be enough. It was night there, and with us being dark toned ourselves, it should not have caused many to see us. Perhaps I was mistaken as someone had notified their air-force. The reason I generally do not use it is, well, as I have said I prefer being blind to radar. I can change the colorization of the skin of this ship. When I do anything but the current black as you see it, it makes us visible to radar. When I say invisibility, I just mean I shall match the surroundings’ image on the surface skin. I will only engage it as we get under most radar. If I were to have done so in Paris, as high as we were, we would have been spotted. Not only by the military, but commercial radar as well. I did not want to cause a fuss. I think we will have to explain that when we return. So lets at least have some fun before we do,” she said.

  “I don’t have much of a reason to say no, unless I don’t feel like getting exercise today. I suppose as you’ve allayed most of my fears, lets go for it,” I said, growing more excited by the idea.

  “Excellent, we are descending now. How about you get out of that chair and I will have the suit ready for you by the door you entered. Do you remember the way back?” she said, her voice growing excited.

  “I think so. Does the suit you mentioned go on like the suits they had me try on earlier during the physical?”

  “Yes Captain,” Athene replied.

  With that I got out of the chair. As I did, the controls sank into the floor once more. I suddenly felt as though I was falling from a great height. “Whoa, this is disorienting!” I said while flailing a bit, trying to find my balance.

  “Oh, sorry about that, I’ll turn off the other screens.” As she said this the room changed back to black, save for the monitor in front of me. I was once more able to stand without feeling like I was in free fall.

  “As for the suit, Captain, it should be very similar to the ones you practiced in. Although, like I said, it is of a lighter variety. You simply have to step into it and zip up the front and pull the helmet over your head like a hood. While it is soft and appears to be a simple hood it will form a protective and translucent shield for your head. Once you do this, it will seal tight and you will be able to breath underwater, or even in space for a short time,” she said this like an instructor, quick and to the point. “Now don’t forget to wear the watch, otherwise you might have a harder time.”

  I pulled the watch out of the nook and fastened it onto my left wrist. It was all black, and from my brief glance at Adam’s it appeared to be very similar. I hadn’t worn a watch in several years, which led me to fumble with it for a moment. Finally I was able to pull the strap tight to buckle it and cinched it into place.

  “Now you see the little nub on the left side of the face? Pull that part out. It will look like a little piece of plastic, but when you put it into your ear it will expand. You will then be able to hear me outside the ship. Go ahead and try it.” Once more she was using her lecture tone.

  I pulled the button off like she said and held it to my ear. I could already feel it expanding, so I held it in my ear canal.

  “This won’t, like, expand so much as to pop my ear off by any chance will it?” I said, only half kidding.

  “No, it should have been calibrated to fit your ear canal. Remember all those measurements they were taking when you went through your physical? That was one of them. Even if you had not been measured it will only expand enough to fill most canals. It should be spongy enough to fit snug so it will not ever be jarred loose. You can then pinch it to cause it to shrink back down to reattach back to the watch,” she said.

  “Good, I’d hate to have something stuck in my ear forever. As for communication, do you need me to speak directly into the watch or something?”

  “No, that is not necessary. The ear piece works as a transmitter as well. But if you could get the watch nearer to whomever you are talking to with, that will help make it clearer to me what they are saying.”

  “Good to know. Well, I’m off to get dressed,” I said, leaving the command center and walking back through the twisted hallway.

  I was still impressed by the luxurious nature of not only the hallways, but by the rooms that I had seen. Everything seemed to be styled in an almost Victorian aesthetic.

  While I continued the trek to the front room I said, “Athene, who was the decorator for you? It’s rather fancy and, well, beautiful.”

  I could hear the smile in her voice as she said, “None other than myself, my dear Captain. I am glad you like it. But if there is anything you happen to not like, it can be changed. At least it can be as long as we have access to the facilities to do so.”

  “I’ve seen nothing to offend me enough to have it changed. While I may be living here within you, it’s still your body, of sorts. I’d hate to impose my ideas of what anyone wishes to look like on another.”

  I imagined I heard a sigh of relief before she said, “Michael, you are very sweet. But really, I am just a program that happens to have delusions of being a person. You make yourself at home here. Do not let me, as you say, impose my ideas of beauty on you.”

  “I think you and I are a little too similar for that to be a problem. The only problem I foresee from our interactions, thus far, is we might goad each other into doing more outrageous things. Like my little trek into Kyoto here.”

  “Very well. Now hurry up, we are almost ready for your departure to adventure.”

  “Yes Athene, I’ll walk faster,” I said.

  “Run, run, run! Get your tail gone. If I see you here one more pace, I shall call you a disgrace,” she said in a sing song voice.

  While laughing I started to jog. I was amazed at how we could have been traveling so fast before, and now, I could only assume we were dropping to lower speeds. I could not feel any change in velocity. It really had to be an interesting system making all of this possible. When I had arrived on board I thought the statue was a silly thing to have as we were flinging ourselves about in the sky. Then I thought maybe it was screwed into the floor. Now I wondered if it was secured at all. I would hate to have the inertial dampers, or whatever they were calling it, fail and have all these expensive looking items hurled against the walls and floor.

  But I forgot those things as I reached the room I had first spied when I arrived. The suit was laid out on a chair. This chair, much like the rest of the ship, was Victorian in style. Wood carved legs and accents among its shiny red silk upholstery with red silk covered buttons dotted along the back and seat.

  The suit itself appeared to be of an iridescent material that looked black at first but shown with a variety of colors as it moved in your vision. It seemed an impractical color for space as any black might fade into the darkness of the abyss. But like Athene had promised, it was easy to put on. It appeared to be much like a coverall that a house painter would wear over his clothes. It had both boots and gloves along with a transparent—though tinted—globe for a helmet that was folded back appearing as a hood. I slipped this on easily, zipped it up, and as instructed, pulled the loose material of the helmet over my head. It hardened into place while the suit made a hissing noise. I knew then I had been sealed in.

  “Alright Athene, I’m ready when you are. Are you quite sure I
can swim in this? It seems like I’ll just sink, though I feel I could move enough to swim,” I said, slightly concerned while I tested out my own mobility by swinging my arms about and running in place.

  As I said this I noticed how muffled I sounded to myself. I experimented by tapping the nearest wall to see if I could hear a difference. The sound of my fingers knocking the walls came to me as clearly as if I were not wearing anything over my head. The fabric of this suit would need to have been made of some material that allowed the free movement of sound from the outside. I suppose it was being sealed in and hearing my own voice bounce back at me that made me feel I was muffled.

  “Do not you worry. The suit will fill with air when you touch the water, and you will float like a boat yourself. Also notice the color? I can change it at will much like I can the outside of this ship. You will be invisible as you swim to shore. Now I am going to set us down gently so no waves will present themselves, but when you get into the water I am going to cause one large wave that should carry you mostly to shore—so you will not be too exhausted to walk around and enjoy yourself,” Athene explained. “I am about to open the door as we have just touched down. Are you ready?” she said with the same enthusiasm in her voice as when she suggested this whole outing.

  “I suppose so, I mean you only live once?” I paused. “Man, do I hate that saying. Shouldn’t that mean that you should be more cautious? Anyway, fire when ready!” I said, trying not to sound as nervous and excited as I was.

  “Here we go!” she said as the hatch slid away, absorbed like a liquid back into the hull of the ship flowing out of my path. A small set of stairs led into the water, and as my eyes adjusted to the sunlight I could see the calm waters of the lake I had to traverse. “Jump on out, and try to keep your head aimed away from me. That should give you the general direction of the shore.”

  Her voice was coming in through my left ear clearly and as if she were just over my shoulder. I had unconsciously turned my head toward the sound and chuckled at myself for my own reaction.

  The waters were lapping at the last step and I was easily able to walk into the water and push off from it. I hoped I was aimed correctly. Turning did not seem like it would be an easy maneuver in this outfit. I do not know why, but I was expecting a shock of cold water to envelop me. That did not happen despite the thinness of the fabric of the space suit. The technology of the Outsiders seemed to have my complete comfort in mind.

  “Alright, you are facing the correct direction. Prepare for a bit of a wave,” she said.

  “Roger Roger,” I said trying to keep some humor in my voice. This was one of the craziest things I had ever done. I do not know how she talked me into this. Luckily the suit seemed to keep me afloat as promised. I would rather not have to walk ashore from the bottom of this lake. It was as if I were enveloped in a life jacket, and I bobbed slightly in the gentle current of the lake’s surface.

  “Splash down mountain away!” she said with a strange enthusiasm that still haunts me to this day. Life seems to flash in front of ones eyes when you have an experiences like this, but I could only think of multiple possibilities of my impending doom.

  I felt the recession of water as she moved out of the lake and I was slowly pulled back to where the ship had been moments before. Then suddenly I was propelled forward. I could see myself rising far above the rest of the lake and I understood she had, as stated, made a splash mountain.

  I was pushed forward with such momentum it was hard for me to stay facing the shore. By some lucky trick of maneuvering I was able to keep the shoreline mostly in sight. Though I did roll about quite a bit. A few times I felt my legs tossed over my head, and could not always tell what was up or down. Soon enough the wave crested and I was left with gentle, residual waves to push me forward. At that point I began to swim. It was not as hard as I imagined it would be. The suit did cause me to have more buoyancy than I would usually have, but kicking and using my arms provided much less forward momentum than I was expecting. In the end I felt my arms were not doing much good. As I did not have to keep my head above water to swim, I just put my face down and simply kicked.

  “Athene, I’m just going to blindly kick until I’m near the shore. Could you make sure that I’m going in the right direction, or are you able to do that from where you are?” I asked.

  “Oh I can tell where you are, but if you get too far from me—like half way around the world, there would be a bit of delay. I can tell you are going in the right direction. You should get there in just a couple more minutes. Fortunately for you, you have at least some practice with extended exercise, correct?” she said once more in a playful voice.

  “I do get out and run ever other day, so yes. But this is a fair bit different than just running. I’m having more resistance right now. I’m gonna need something to drink when I get there. Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink,” I said, my voice sounding just slightly strained with exertion.

  “That is more true than you know. This lake is not known to be clean. There have been a few studies that found nearly thirty different pesticides, some insecticides, fungicides and multiple herbicides within its waters. So while you may thirst from your little swim, do not be tempted to drink straight from the lake. It is probably a good thing you are self contained in your suit,” she said.

  “Okay Athene, I know you have access to all sorts of facts, but shouldn’t you be telling me these things before I jumped into the water?” I panted. My breathing was becoming ragged as I continued to glide through the lake.

  “Yes, you are correct. I should search out information about all aspects of an area before sending you out. Understood. I was focusing on other things. I did not think to look up the toxicology as you were going to be in a space suit. But then you stated you would be thirsty, and I ran a search on the local water supply. I am sorry I failed you,” she said first cold and logically, but by the end she was speaking quickly, almost sounding like she would break into tears any second.

  I stopped swimming and said, “Athene, I understand. I was making a little joke. We can’t all think of everything. We are limited beings even though I assume you have a fair amount of computing power that I don’t. So don’t feel bad, even if I were upset by it, I wouldn’t blame you. It would just be an issue if you didn’t tell me about any, I don’t know, blood thirsty animals that might try to kill me as I’m out for my little swim here,” I said.

  “No Captain, no blood thirsty animals. The splash down should have taken care of any interest they might have had in you.” I could detect a hint of a reassured smile in her voice.

  “Well, that’s good to know. Do you have a time frame for when they’ll show signs of interest again—because remember I have to leave.” My eyes widened. “Oh jeez, I’m going to have to swim back to you. I’m going to be so tired.” The sudden realization I would have a longer work out than anticipated quickly killed the enthusiasm I was feeling up until this moment.

  “Well, I suppose you could swim all the way back if you wanted. But I was going to launch a tow rope to you. I could not launch you out the same way—but I can certainly pull you back. So even if those little blood thirsty creatures in the water wanted to eat you, they would find you hard to catch,” she spoke with a titter of laughter. I think she was getting into the idea that I might be eaten.

  “I do hope you aren’t at all serious about predators in these waters,” I said. I continued to swim towards shore again.

  “It was a little joke that you started. You are fine. Even if there were anything that found you delectable they would find it difficult for another reason. That suit you are wearing will stiffen up to any external attack. I wager you would even be safe near a nuclear explosion. Just do not go standing on any targeting ranges. It is only good as long as it has power. The stiffening mechanism eats power equal to the force used
against it. So while I am saying you would be safe near a nuclear explosion, you might not be for long.”

  “Well that’s good to know. How much of a charge does this thing have?” I asked.

  “You should be fine for quite awhile. As long as you do not get into any war zones. The technology for energy storage from the Outsiders is exceptional. You also have to remember as long as you are in an environment that has any heat, or type of radiation, including sunlight, it will be charging its batteries. The surface of the suit doubles as a solar power unit, among other energy producing systems. Come to think of it, maybe you would survive a nuclear strike, as long as you were not at the center of the kinetic blast,” she mused. “That might overpower the systems. So stay away from kinetic bombardments.”

  “Will do. But lets hope we don’t have to test that out. Now how close am I? I’m starting to get a little bit tired.” I was underestimating. I was actually starting to breathe very heavily.

  “You should be there momentarily. Also I was able to contact someone local. They are going to lend you a bike.” she said.

  “A bike? Am I suppose to peddle everywhere now?” I gasped, feeling incredibly tired. “Well I should definitely remain fit if this is how our little ventures will always be.”

 

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