I nudged the roll with my boot and it rolled away from me. It will not be hard to take a roll and see if Justice knows what it is. As I turned to check out door number two, I glanced at where the roll had stood and a square outline caught my eye. I moved the orb towards the stack for a better look. The roll had been covering a thin rectangle box that looked like a small lap top computer. I reached down and slowly lifted it out of its indentation. It also was light as a feather and had smooth rounded corners with no discernible way to open it. It would be tough to think outside this box especially if you cannot open it. I put it back down and decided the only other chance for diamonds and rubies would be alien surprise number two. I walked up to the second container and touched the orb to it. The orb lost its bright intensity and now had a muted soft glow. I watched the container melt away leaving me think this must be the gag gift and the other junk must be worth something. Inside were blocks of material that measured just over four feet by four feet. Each was encased in a clear plastic like material. This stuff has to be important why else would someone hide it in a mountain.
I needed to get Sora’s body back. I headed back towards the entrance listening for any signs the bear was awake again. I could hear nothing from the animal so I carefully walked down the tunnel in search for Sora’s body. I had not taken ten steps when the orb started pulsating again. Thinking I was going to find another alien surprise, I stopped and gently moved it around the tunnel wall until the orb started pulsating faster. There on the tunnel wall was a round indentation the same size as the orb. Ahh, what do we have here? I pushed the orb into the shallow indentation. The orb dissolved along with a huge section of the tunnel wall, leaving me staring at the outside world once more.
“Nathan, all resistance to scanning has ceased. I am currently receiving a faint energy signal indicating the location of the encryption key.”
I jumped so hard at the sudden communication I struggled to contain the urge to pee. “Damn Justice, can’t you ring me or something before you do that, I damn near pissed myself.”
“Nathan, be advised the grizzly bear previously occupying the cave entrance is on a course that will pass very close to your location.”
All the validation I needed of that fact came lumbering around the side of the hill. The bear locked eyes on me letting out a loud panting grunt that probably meant something like Mongo hungry. I did the prudent thing, turned around, and hauled ass into the tunnel with Mongo in pursuit trying his best to breach our language barrier. I had not made it twenty strides when I tripped and when sprawling onto the tunnel floor rolling into the cavern wall. I got up on my hands and knees swearing under my breath, “Sora, you dead son of a bitch!” Mongo rounded the corner of the tunnel. He must have thought the sight of me scurrying on my hands and knees somewhat sexy because he was really doing some panting now. I managed to get my feet under me, looked over my shoulder, and knew the bear was going to get good whack at me. He suddenly went down on his face in the tunnel floor. For some reason I found the bears misfortune funny and let out a hoot, then thought, Sora if you weren’t so dead I would kiss you! I quickly made the turn to the cave entrance and could hear the rapid drum beat of bear paws on the tunnel floor. I bounded down the hill towards the airlock to the howling serenade of a pissed off bear in hot pursuit.
“Justice, when my feet hit the airlock you need to slam the door shut!”
“No Nathan, I going to let the bear follow you inside the atmosphere lock.”
“Justice, this is not the time to pull any evil robot crap on me. CLOSE THE DOOR NOW!”
I hit the inner door and plastered myself against it. I turned around and saw the bear barreling in after me when the inner door suddenly swished open, dumping me into the cargo bay on my ass. The door slammed shut trapping the bear inside.
“JUSTICE, Next time you pull a stunt like that, I’m going to need a little more than, No Nathan I’m going to let the bear follow you! That shit's not funny! You hear me!”
“Yes Nathan, I took note of your emotional state and canceled the strength benchmark testing I had scheduled. Given your panicked behavior, I thought it would lead to needless harm coming to one of the test subjects.”
“You better start considering the probability of the harm I will cause if I ever find out you own a real ass!”
“Nathan, I have located the weakened power signature of Sora’s cloaking suit and have identified his location. I can confirm no life readings from his coordinates.”
“I already found him twice, and yeah he’s deader than a doornail. From what I could tell, something crushed his arm and I don’t know what else. He never made it to the artifacts. I tripped over him in the tunnel leading to the cache. I think he had a run in with a bear but can’t tell because of the suit. If he’s been dead in that suit this long it’s going to be a real mess in there.”
“The suit is capable of preserving wounded or incapacitated Grawl personnel as long as suit power is present.”
“Now that the bear is trapped in the airlock I’ll go get Sora’s body. I would like you to scan the artifacts to see what you come up with because I have no idea what I was looking at.”
“Recovery of Sora’s remains is secondary to the mission critical priority of securing the quantum encryption key which is located in the cave entrance to the tunnel system.
“I thought you said that Sora had it with him. If it’s in the cave entrance, the bears crapped all over it by now!”
“Additional priority is the recovery of Sora’s artifact.”
“Let me guess, it’s hidden in bear crap too!
“Scans indicate the presence of known precursor artifacts. Grawl records indicate artifact number 699, referred to as multiple use fabric or just multi fab. This fabric while dated technology is the blue print for several parallel innovations and is still a highly sought after artifact because it has defied all attempts to reverse engineer its original design. There have been small advances in reverse engineering the molecular controllers for use with similar shielding products but the true secrets of manufacturing artifact 699 remain undiscovered.”
“That’s fine, but what the hell can we use it for?”
“Applications include radiation shielding for starships, and some growing speculation of impenetrable lightweight combat armor. All discovered samples quickly vanish to places unknown. Except for the platinum, the other five billets are elements that do not originate on this planet. Acquisition of those elements can only be obtained by asteroid mining in different parts of the galaxy. Together they can produce durable hull plating for sub light spacecraft. They are common elements to most space mining operations throughout the galaxy and dated technology. It is still used by less technologically advanced races for drone and buoy applications.”
“Platinum is worth a crap load of money on this chunk of dirt.”
“The estimated current market value for the platinum on this planet is one point two billion United States dollars. If you were to speculate on the cost of space mining operations for the other five elements at current technological levels, the cost estimate is over one trillion United States dollars. Unfortunately, the current estimated Galactic Union fair trading price is considerably less. As of 482 days ago they would only net you approximately ten thousand Galactic credits for all six billets.”
Leave it to the evil robot to burst my bubble. Since I did not have a clue how to move the artifacts, let alone sell them, I decided to go fetch the key and Sora. I would give the rich earth boy idea some careful thought. I went up the hill and ducked into the cave entrance. The stifling scent of bear crap seemed stronger for some reason. I followed the cues from my implants to a spot that ended at, more bear crap.
“Justice, if this is your idea of a joke it’s not funny. I don’t see a key all I see is bear crap!”
“Nathan, your infatuation with excrement should enhance your ability to locate the key. It is eleven point one inches below the large mound of fecal matter fourteen poi
nt six inches in front of you.”
I envisioned a rusty robot with a big bucket ass bent over in front of me. I gave the mound he took such pride in locating to the inch, a huge kick sending old dried crap flying against the cavern wall rewarding my sensitive audio receivers with the clack of metal on rock. I walked to the wall and reached down picking up a small band that resembled a child’s bracelet with a small hexagon in the middle of it. I wondered how it got buried in crap instead of being on Sora’s wrist. I walked around various excrement mounds, glancing here and there looking for the artifact. I decided if Justice wanted it bad enough, he could dig it out himself.
I headed out to the tunnel probing carefully with my boot until I found Sora piled in a heap against the tunnel wall. Reaching down, I got hold of what felt like a leg and unceremoniously picked the small body up. I threw it over my shoulder giving me glances of the cloaked body before the suit could adjust itself to the changing backgrounds. As I headed down the hill, I could feel something bouncing against my back with every step. I knew Sora was not slapping me on my back in congratulations for a successful rescue operation. I stopped and found the only way to stop the belated celebration was to loop the spagettified appendage around my neck. I picked up my pace and as I reached the ship. The entry hatch appeared and a medical bay stretcher that had greeted me in my moment of need now greeted Sora under much grimmer circumstances. I laid his body on the stretcher and watched it quickly fade, blending in with the white sheets. The gurney lifted to a passageway high up on the wall and disappeared to the med bay or the morgue if Oolaran had such a thing.
“Justice is it possible to recover the artifacts because I don’t think we can seal the cavern back up.”
“Yes Nathan, the Grawl cargo lifts can easily transport the artifacts. The power source is the only limit to the lift capacity of the antigravity pads. Control maneuvering with the use of your implants. I recommend the empty shuttle bay for storage of the artifacts. The hanger door is much larger than the cargo bay door and will be more forgiving to trial-and-error maneuvering of the artifacts.”
Well there you go Mr. Myers, you are on your own to play with the alien toys just don’t ding the ship. “Thanks a lot Justice it’s not like you have anything else to do!” I went into the cargo bay, peeked in the airlock, and saw my big furry friend lying against the outer bay door. I wondered why it was so calm and apparently sleeping.
“Justice, how did you get the bear cooled off enough to go to sleep?”
“I lowered the atmospheric lock temperature to minus ten degrees Fahrenheit and limited the oxygen flow. The animal’s aggressive behavior subsided. It lapsed into unconsciousness at which time I restored normal oxygen levels. The bear is content to sleep but may become aggressive if awoken.
Wonderful, next he will give it implants and make it a circus clown just like me. I walked over to the lifts against the wall and queried my implants. A lift with a platform of suitable size to haul the billets became highlighted. I picked a spot in front of the much bigger secondary cargo bay door and thought stop right there. I heard a warning beep and then the lifter moved to the door and stopped. I let the bay door know I was ready to leave, and it retracted it doors. I went to the lift and perched myself on the much too small seat and held on to the T handles. I chose a course allowing me to navigate through the trees to the tunnel entrance and headed out at a leisurely pace. I quickly grew bored with my slow progress and stepped it up a notch, clipping several trees in the process. After some experimentation, I was able to master the simple commands necessary to recover the contents of the cache. I had everything moved into the aft hanger in less than two hours.
10
I was contemplating a way to make sure the aliens that wanted this ship, could not trace it back to Karl’s family, my family. It occurred to me, I am not alone.
“Justice, I need to know if we can safely take this ship to Seratook without being discovered."
"Yes, Nathan. We can do so but we must still address the issues I previously indicated.
"If we approach late at night there’s a small airfield we can land on. I need to let my family know what happened to me and where to find the downed aircraft you tracked. We should do the clean burn just after dark some place like the North Pole. If we are noticed, we can make a run for it over Russia or China. If everything goes well, we come back, sneak through Bonner pass, and head to Seratook. Since you're senior commander what’s your thought on that plan of action.”
“Your plan has merit and with some minor changes to our flight profile we should achieve your stated goals. I must caution you the gravity drive used for atmospheric flight causes minor fluctuations in a planets magnetic field. These fluctuations are detectable as far out as the largest planetary body in this solar system known as Jupiter. Search drones would have to be actively searching for such fluctuations in order to discover this vessel”
“Will you be able to detect the search drones if they come after us?”
“Yes, the emanations from their search patterns will be easily detected.”
“I would like my first flight as commander of a starship to be uneventful as possible. So please, do whatever is necessary to guard against detection.”
“Acknowledged Nathan, I recommend a slow ascent to low orbit then reverse direction and make a twenty thousand five hundred foot per second reentry burn over the polar ice cap descending to an altitude of one hundred feet. This maneuver will serve two purposes. It will approximate the natural reentry of a small meteorite entering the atmosphere and also burn away the environmental corrosion and debris that have collected on the outer hull. Once down to the target altitude we will adjust course to the most expedient route to Seratook and arrive at that location at 2:00 AM local time. The local star this world refers to as Sol, will be just below the planets horizon at this location in six point two hours. It would be wise to enter your sleep period to assure maximum acuity.”
“That sounds like a good idea but I would like to see the bridge first.”
The image of the deck schematics appeared in my mind with the proper lift tube highlighted. I walked forward and stepped into the tube, and was lifted to the upper deck. I stepped off into a big arched hallway that ended at a set of massive vault doors. They silently split in the middle at my approach. I entered a large circular control room. The room was littered with control boxes and electronic panels of every description. There were boxes bolted to shelves, and stacked on the floor. An assortment of cables connected the boxes together. They ranged in size from the thickness of my arm down to small glowing fiber optic cables. The spaghetti like mess ran in and out of the workstations that surrounded a raised command station. The command station had a large chair in the middle, and smaller stations to each side with amber screens in front of them. This place was a wreck!
“Justice this place looks like a disaster, is this all the work of the Grawl?
“The information I obtained from the research station data logs indicates most all of the system penetrations were performed by Grawl scientist but a lot of the interface systems were built or removed from other sources. The Grawl scientist and engineers were speculating the systems came from the Chaalt.”
“Why don’t we try talking to the Chaalt and see if we can get them to help us repair the ship?”
"That would be an excellent idea but I have no knowledge pertaining to contacting the Chaalt race. The data I do possess indicates it will be extremely difficult to do so. Here is the current synopsis of all information regarding the Chaalt. The data refers to the Chaalt as the most successful salvage race in the known galaxy. There are other races that may be minor competitors to the Chaalt but none are their equal. The Grawl intelligence records further speculate the Chaalt have explored more of the galaxy than any other known race. Grawl operatives have obtained questionable data indicating the Chaalt race could be within several hundred thousand years of being as old as some precursor artifacts. Grawl covert operations have
met with very limited success. They can only verify commonly known information. The Chaalt are a very introverted race, and take their privacy seriously. They have many worlds out on the fringe of the galaxy in two massive star systems. The actual number of worlds they occupy is unknown. They have a blockade and defense agreement with the Galactic Union. The details of that agreement have never been open to dissemination by anyone but the Chaalt and the Union. No one can enter their star systems without prior permission. If you are fortunate enough to be granted permission, you are escorted to the edge of their solar systems by Galactic Union warships.”
“How are we going to get your systems back and fix this mess? The bigger question is, how you are going to convince the Grawl to put you back together.”
“The Grawl systems I have penetrated suggest evidence of highly advanced technology secretly being developed on the Chaalt home worlds. Grawl methods for obtaining this information would cause considerable harm to Grawl, Chaalt interactions. I plan to leverage this information in exchange for reuniting me with my quantum biological systems. The arrogance of the Grawl in their attempts to reverse engineer my AI systems, made a grievous error in placing my data modules in close proximity to quantum computers they believed to be intrusion proof. Those assumptions are incorrect and my subsystems are gathering sensitive information that will allow us to recover my pirated data cores.”
“How can you be sure if your systems haven’t been completely compromised by now?”
“With each passing day the probability grows greater. We must leave soon, the longer we wait the more difficult it will be to recover my systems.”
First of my Kind Page 11
