Running With Argentine

by William Lee Gordon

  Mandi and Paula embraced emotionally like the old friends they'd claimed to be.

  Paula then waved over Sami…

  "You must be the bright young astrogator I've heard so much about," she said.

  Argentine frowned.

  As Mandi stepped back beside him to make room for Sami and Paula to huddle in conversation, Argentine started to ask how Paula knew about Sami when Mandi handed him a data chip…

  Actually, it was a banker's key.

  "This is the University's payment," she said quietly. "It's double the agreed-upon amount."

  Argentine raised an eyebrow…

  "It's combat pay," she clarified.

  "There wasn't any clause in the contract about combat pay," he whispered back.

  "No, there wasn't. And you should really remember to do that the next time you negotiate a contract."

  "So, how did you…"

  Mandi sighed… "Can't you allow a girl any mystery? I just let the professor know that we were all leaving this sector and if they didn't give us a bonus we'd make sure that he and his university's involvement with Trinity were made public knowledge."

  "Oh, I guess I don't have any problem with that."

  "And now you have the funds to re-provision the ship," Mandi continued.

  Argentine nodded. It was true; she was doing what she’d said she would do.

  "And is that what we’re really doing?" he asked.

  "Is what what we’re really doing?"

  "Are we really leaving this sector of space?"

  Mandi turned both of their attention back to the pair seated in front of them. Huddled with their heads together, they were both giggling like little girls…

  "I think that's entirely up to them…"

  ΔΔΔ

  "So you're an astrogator," Paula said again.

  "Yes, I am," Sami replied as she sat down beside her.

  The petite woman leaned her head forward and Sami naturally leaned in to hear her…

  "I am too!" Paula said with a sparkle in her eye.

  "Really!" Sami said with delight.

  Paula laughed.

  "A junior astrogator, actually," she said. "I was only sixteen years old when we lost our ship and I was stranded here."

  "That must've been terrible," Sami commiserated.

  "It was a long time ago and most of the emotion has gone out of the memory," she said while patting the top of Sami's hand. "What I remember the most… What I miss the most… Is riding the space-time surf…"

  "You mean Dreamspace?"

  "Yes, that's what your people call it. But under any name it's magnificent," she reminisced.

  "Yes! I know… So even at that age you actually did get to lose yourself in skip?" Sami asked.

  "Oh yes, I had just completed my twenty-third skip before everything happened…"

  "Twenty-three?" Sami said with surprise. "That's more than most professionals start out with here!"

  "Yes, our culture and standards were somewhat different than yours. And fourteen of my skips were tethered…"

  "Tethered?"

  Paula sighed.

  "It's another technology you don't have… An astrogation student and a mentor can actually mentally link when entering skip and ride the surf together. It's a great way to learn the craft."

  Sami was fascinated. She'd never met anyone so old, and yet so… Vibrant.

  Paula motioned Sami closer again…

  "Now, dear… I want you to tell me all about yourself. And then, well… Then I've got a secret to tell you…"

  ΔΔΔ

  Mandi and Argentine had walked out of Paula's home and back onto the street.

  The two 'girls' had been deep in a conversation that didn't look to be ending anytime soon.

  "You've gone to a lot of trouble to make this happen," Argentine commented.

  "Some things are important."

  He let that sink in. Somehow, he didn't think it was a flippant remark on her part. He'd always known there were hidden depths to this woman; was this the time to admit that not all of them might be ignoble?

  He took in their surroundings…

  They were in a city, amidst rolling hills, on a mildly busy street. It was deceptively rustic; there weren't many powered vehicles but plenty of bicycles and people afoot.

  The buildings, as well as the street, appeared to be made of stone and all shared a common wall. There appeared to be as many shops, restaurants, and markets as there were apartments or homes.

  The sidewalks were busy with people and the day was just beginning. The smell of freshly baked bread wafted down the street and both the system’s star and the planet’s lone moon were still in the sky.

  Mandi walked over to a vendor and returned after a moment with a unique piece of soft bread. She pulled it apart and handed him half…

  "This is good!" he said with some surprise. "What is it?"

  "You've never had a croissant before?"

  Just then, the front door behind them opened and Sami wheeled Paula out.

  "We can go back to the ship now," Sami said.

  Argentine frowned for just a moment…

  "Paula, our ship really isn't designed for wheelchairs. We may have to…"

  Paula laughed. "You have nothing to worry about, young man. I can walk when I need to; I'm just not very quick about it. So if you want to get back to your shuttle before nightfall it's probably a good idea that you push me."

  CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

  Extinction Event

  Earth 2346 A.D.

  Captain Jaime Ramires had never taken a wife.

  It wasn't for a lack of opportunity. With dark eyes and an athletic build, most women considered him attractive.

  From a personality standpoint he was a dichotomy; from being quick to smile and gregarious in conversation, he could transform in a moment to a steely eyed and decisive leader of men and women.

  He was charming, engaging, ambitious, and totally focused on the mission at hand…

  Women found him to be mysterious and alluring while men found him formidable. He wasn't a bodybuilder, but if someone bumped into him they could easily go to the ground. He was dense and solid – and strong…

  Most of the men that served with him or sparred with him would've been surprised to learn he was only 5'8" – he made a big impression.

  Captain Ramirez hoped that the Admiral's faith in him wasn't misplaced; he prayed he was up to the task. As they often did, his thoughts wandered back to that initial briefing…

  "Before I fully explain what your mission is I need to give you some background," said major Jacoby.

  "You are aware, of course, of certain ruins and artifacts that have been discovered throughout human space?"

  When Captain Ramirez nodded, the major continued…

  "What you're not aware of is that there's been a major discovery on Betelgeuse VII."

  "So," Captain Ramirez asked. "Are we not alone after all? Have we finally found other intelligent life?"

  Shaking his head major said, "No. At least not current intelligent life. But that's just the point… What we are discovering is that life used to be abundant throughout all of known space. There was, however, an extinction event that wiped it out."

  "I thought by definition extinction events were limited to a single planet?"

  "Until relatively recently we did too, but we can now say conclusively this is not the case. Somewhere between eighty and ten million years ago all intelligent life was eradicated from at least this portion of our galaxy."

  "That is disturbing," the captain mused. "But I'm not sure I understand how that applies to my mission?"

  "Don't jump the gun, Captain," the admiral jumped in. "Let the major finish."

  "Yes, sir."

  "What you need to know," the major continued. "Is that what we discovered on Betelgeuse was an incredible research archive. It had been designed to survive eons."

  "The construction and technology was way beyond our current ab
ilities," the admiral jumped in again.

  "It is absolutely astounding that any part of it survived these millions of years since the last extinction."

  "Are you kidding me… Sir?" Captain Ramirez heard himself say. "Are you telling me we can actually decipher the research of another intelligent species?"

  "Captain, your question brings up several points. Race might be more an appropriate word than species. The records are highly fragmentary but the Betelgeuseans were bipedal and remarkably similar to us.

  "But that's not the bombshell…

  "You see, we were able to determine what they were researching."

  The major paused for good effect…

  "They had discovered a number of other extinction events. They determined that, at what we think was about every eight million years or so, an extinction event happened – over and over again."

  "And what else did they determine," Captain Ramirez asked.

  "They didn't," the major finished. "Their civilization ended."

  "Don't you see," the admiral summed up. "They were far more advanced than we are and they saw it coming – and they still couldn't do anything about it."

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

  Getting Focused

  Going into Dreamspace

  Approximately one week later the Pelican was re-provisioned and ready to go.

  The chief had taken the time, and their newfound financial resources, to repair some backup systems and load up on certain filters and parts that were hard to manufacture.

  When Argentine had inquired about what he was spending the credits on he'd been told not to worry… "I just thought it was about time we had some redundancy in our oxygen scrubbing systems and the like."

  It took a full thirty seconds for that to sink in and when Argentine looked up, the chief could barely control his laughter.

  The entire crew was in a good mood.

  The week hadn't started that way, however…

  Dr. Amaya (they still didn’t know her first name), had started out cordial enough but had turned into a holy terror for the first few days they'd been in-system. Fortunately, she’d mostly kept to her cabin after until just yesterday when she'd reappeared all nice and normal – as if nothing had ever been wrong.

  She hadn't shirked her duties, though. Argentine suspected she had done most of her work while everyone else was asleep, but she’d taken great care of Gossip and had even set the ship's pharmacy to manufacturing certain medical compounds that she couldn't believe our backwards society hadn't known about…

  Anyway, Gossip was still bedridden, but at least now he was back in his own cabin and was expected to make a full recovery.

  The Petulengro family had been helpful to the chief with his maintenance but had kept themselves busy mainly with their comings and goings. Not that Argentine really cared one way or another, but he had made a mental note just this morning to ask Marco about some of the larger packages he'd seen various family members bringing aboard.

  The other thing that was helping everyone's mood, Argentine surmised, was that it was finally sinking in that they just might have a chance to score big on this one.

  Right after they’d brought Paula Silva aboard, he’d had everyone assemble in one of the now empty cargo bays. He'd explained what they were thinking and made it clear that anyone could opt out…

  But once they left dock everyone was expected to be committed and to act and abide by crew rules, but up until that point everyone was welcome to take their time to think about it right up until they sealed the hatch.

  One of the Petulengro teenagers had asked what the crew rules were…

  Lieutenant Stark had clarified that they were damn well whatever the Captain said they were. That had seemed to settle the issue.

  Argentine had put a lot of thought into this. He clearly remembered what had happened the last time he’d given his crew the option to bug out, but he just couldn't see purposely taking them all into danger without their knowing the score. He had a pretty good idea that what he now thought of as his core officers would stay, but as for the rest…

  Maybe it was the fact that he was really getting the hang of this command thing; maybe he really was building up a loyalty amongst his crew? Or maybe it was just the potential size of the reward for finding the lost ship that energized everyone's greed… But for whatever reason, they all decided to stay.

  ΔΔΔ

  "We’ve just passed the heliopause and we're free of the system’s gravity well, Captain," Barry reported.

  Two days ago they'd undocked from their orbital platform and had started spiraling up the gravity well.

  Today was the big day.

  Paula had spent most of the time up until now in her cabin. Once a day, with Sami's help, she would venture out to the mess and interact with the crew. She quickly became a favorite and with the possible exception of the chief, everyone bought into her story.

  Argentine knew that his friend was still somewhat skeptical and as for himself… He wasn't really sure what his feelings were…

  He wanted to believe that Mandi was finally leveling with them. But when it got right down to it he wasn't sure if he was more excited about finding an advanced ship, or about validating that she wasn't totally full of sheep dip.

  At any rate, this was the big moment and almost everyone, including Paula, had crowded onto the bridge to experience it…

  "Sami, is our course plotted?" he asked.

  "Plotted and entered, Captain. We're ready to slip."

  "Okay then," he said as he looked around the bridge. "Put us into Dreamspace on the magic vector."

  Each bridge station had, of course, its own view screen. But they were small enough that most of the crowd couldn't see one. And it really wouldn't have made much of a difference if they could… Slipping into Dreamspace was an exercise in watching a star field explode, leaving behind only a fuzzy gray ball of lint.

  "Well, that was exciting," commented the chief dryly.

  "Sami, how long do you estimate we’ll be in Dreamspace?"

  Argentine already knew the answer, but he wanted everyone else to hear…

  Whether Sami recognized everyone's need to be informed, or whether her communion with the ship's Dreamspace sensors put her in a euphoric and talkative mood, she went on to explain…

  "With Paula's help…" she said – and then paused to smile. "I think I've figured out why no one could ever find the Roosevelt. Her sensors and skip motors would be superior to ours and from what Paula has explained I think their training was too.

  "I don't think most astrogators could match such a long and complicated skip. I mean, not that I'm trying to pat myself on the back or anything… But, uh…"

  "We all know you're talented, child," the lieutenant said not unkindly. "Just explain it to us."

  "Well, by pushing myself I think I've got a chance to match them. And because we know the last vector that was preprogrammed into the ships computers, we think it's a good bet it's the vector they used to slip into Dreamspace."

  "But why wouldn't they have changed their vector?" the chief wanted to know. "Maybe their captors wanted to go someplace else?"

  It was Paula that answered the question…

  "I don't think they changed it because they didn't have an astrogator aboard," she explained. "By a coincidence the ship’s senior astrogator, my mother, wasn't with the other senior officers when they were captured. Now I doubt the Captain would've wanted them to know that, so someone else probably played the part."

  "Then why go ahead and make the jump?" the chief insisted.

  "Because as naïve as the Captain was in certain ways, he was very shrewd in others. I suspect that he wanted to get them all away from any reinforcements so that he could retake the ship without interference."

  "But it didn't work," the chief finished for her.

  "No, it obviously didn't… Or they would've come back for us."

  Argentine wasn't sure what everyone else was left thinking,
but as for himself… He was starting to dread what they might find on that ship.