The lever moved with ease, breaking the hatch’s seal with a metallic clunk. The door swung outward. One of Sky Listener’s assistants was immediately available with a lamp, shining it into the space beyond the door.
“Looks like a corridor as expected,” the man said, backing away.
Hawke pushed the door open and led the way into the passage. A lamp was immediately installed in the passageway even before Kashuba and Night Rain had entered the passage.
“As I mentioned earlier, we should head aft,” Hawke said, pointing down the corridor, “And if we find any corridors branching off to the left, I recommend taking those also as we try to locate the center of the ship.”
No one argued or had anything else to offer. They followed Hawke’s lead while Sky Listener’s assistants continued to hang lamps every ten to twenty yards. They wanted to make sure that if a hasty escape were necessary, there would be no problem locating the way back.
Fifteen
The drawing of the ship as well as the sonograms didn’t give justice to the ship’s true magnitude. Although they had entered fairly close to the gravitational-reflex ring, it was soon determined that they had travelled about two hundred yards aft and probably an equal amount inward before they located the spot where the engineering section should have been located. There was nothing beyond that of two large storage rooms with vacant shelves and an enormous laundry facility.
After much discussion and theorizing, they determined that the true center of the ring would probably be located a few decks beneath them. If the ship had multiple levels, which they knew to be true based on the three stairwells they had already passed, then they were probably standing above the actual center of the gravitational-reflex ring.
Their logic proved to be accurate. Four decks beneath them, they located not only the main engineering area, but also everything else in regards to the ship’s energy production. Everything was understandably offline, but to Hawke’s relief, it was all fully accessible. He had initially postulated that security measures would be in place to keep people from accessing the sensitive areas of the ship such as engineering.
Hawke quickly located the heart of the gravitational-reflex ring and was beyond satisfied with the discovery. Much to his dismay however, he was unable to hold back the tears as he gaped in awe at a significantly scaled-up version of his own creation. He took three slow steps forward and touched the enormous gravitational enhancement coil, imagining the amount of power required to bring such a thing online.
“Are you okay?” Kashuba asked, reaching out and wiping the tear from his cheek, “What’s wrong?”
He shook his head and pointed to the towering cylinder beside her. Stenciled clearly on the side, it read “Hawke Radiation Deflector.” She touched his name.
“I once postulated that if my device was used on an obscenely larger scale, the size of the gravitational warp field might cause an odd form of gamma radiation near the core of the ship,” he said, “A dangerous form of radiation that could only be caused by a manmade warp in the very fabric of space. I have to assume that since I created this device and predicted the dangerous side effect, the resulting radiation would be named after me.”
“Hawke radiation,” she repeated with a grin, “Isn’t radiation a bad thing though?”
“Usually,” he said, “But I’m honored nonetheless.”
“So, you are actually famous on your home world in spite of your long absence,” Sky Listener said, putting an arm around Hawke, “Does all this stuff in this room look anything like the engine you created?”
“It’s nearly identical, though scaled up in size significantly,” he replied, moving cautiously around the equipment.
Although some of the wiring had to be buried in the floor or ceiling, it wasn’t hard for him to trace the connections between the systems. He located the main operating system and control panel, all of which was covered in dust. It wouldn’t serve him any to stir up the dust on an inoperable display, so he continued his search deeper into the room.
“What does all this run on? It certainly can’t be coal, wood, or even bane,” Night Rain asked.
“In order to create an artificial gravitational warp field, it requires even more energy than can be generated by the modern systems we used on Earth,” Hawke stated, “We used the natural energy available in a heavy metal we called Uranium to build up a charge in several large batteries. Then we used a combined burst from both the reactor and some of the batteries to basically ignite the engines. There’s really no ‘igniting’ of course, but that’s the only way I can think to describe it for you.”
When he finally located the spot where the giant batteries should have been, there was nothing but a sturdy steel cylinder wrapped in a metal black spring that wound from the base of the cylinder to the top. It was only slightly larger than the common refrigerator and offered no identifying controls, labels, or features.
He was able to trace two wide black pipes from the odd cylinder. One connected it to the main operating system and the other went into the wall beside a yellow hatch. It was the first hatch he’d seen so far painted anything besides grey or naked steel. Hawke opened the hatch and then asked for some lighting. Two of Sky Listener’s assistants approached quickly and offered two beams into the small room.
They followed him into a small room with three chairs mounted in front of ergonomically designed control panels. One of the three seats faced a glass window with a radiation-warning symbol displayed in the corner. He understood instantly what the room was used for. Nuclear engineers even on a ship of this size didn’t require a lot of space since most of their duties consisted of the mere monitoring of systems.
He took one of the lights that was offered to him and shone it through the window into the reactor. The fuel rods had been lifted from the reactor and remained frozen in time as though awaiting their usefulness again. He stared at those rods; challenging them in the same way those rods had challenged him. It was a stare down to see who would buckle first under the pressure. Alas, he crumbled as he often did when faced with a very powerful adversary. He shined his light to the floor of the reactor, tracing the gentle slope of the deck. It was easy to locate the drain in the corner. He then shone the light on the fuel rods again, daring them to deny the exceptionally long half-life of Uranium or Plutonium.
If those rods had been raised from the reactor while they still had some life in them, and even if the ship had been buried for centuries, they would still be fully operational today. And as clean as the rods appeared, they might as well have been brand new. He turned and glanced around the room, looking for some form of manual controls. All nuclear reactors could be manually brought on and offline. In the far corner, he saw the clear box on the wall, protecting those very levers from being bumped into accidentally.
He then began searching the room for a water control valve. It took some effort, but he finally located it beneath one of the control panels. He knelt there for a moment, then gripped the metal ring. Then he stopped and stared at his hand, still holding the cool piece of steel.
Everything he was considering at the moment went against common sense and general decency. If he calculated for a moment the safety of these people as well as those in the city above, he would never attempt to bring a nuclear reactor online. Even if he were a trained nuclear engineer, he wouldn’t attempt such a thing alone.
But one fact remained; these people were somehow distant relatives of his. They were generations behind their enemies who lived on the other continent and would never stand a chance against them should a real war break out. These people who called themselves Cheronook were not interested in weaponry or warfare, but rather in the ability to leave their planet and explore the galaxy.
Nevertheless, he had no right to endanger the Cheronook no matter how much he believed in his ability to bring the reactor online. He decided to leave the water valve alone and join the others who were already returning to the corridor.
“Do y
ou think it would be possible to recreate anything here if you had the supplies and the available workers?” Night Rain asked, “We would put the whole world at your disposal if that was required in order to give us these flying cities.”
Hawke breathed out heavily, then nodded as he pondered all the potential before him.
“I know it would do us no good being that we’re encased in ice, but I think these systems might very well still be operational,” Hawke replied, “I see no reason why we couldn’t cannibalize this very ship and use the important parts up above to install inside a creation of our own.”
“Really?” Sky Listener asked, startled at such an offer.
“We’d certainly need to widen the tunnel as well as the entryway into this ship, but yeah, why not? With enough people involved, I could see us launching a good size ship inside a decade,” he replied.
“How can we turn this from mere words into action, then?” Night Rain asked, his excitement almost palpable, “What kind of tools would we need to fashion? What kind of design is best for space travel? How many people do we need on this?”
“Slow down, governor,” Sky Listener stated, “We should gather the best minds in all fields of science and engineering and meet down here to give them all a visual of what a real functional spacecraft looks like. Then we can work together to develop a plan that could be overseen by each of these individuals.”
“Good thinking,” Night Rain said, scratching his head as he stared down the corridor, “If we start this thing with a few dozen people who can be leaders in their different areas of expertise, we can literally have a few dozen projects going on at the same time.”
“As much as I would like to see the rest of this ship right now, I propose we all go topside and get this plan moving. I would like to see a large group of educated people meeting in the gymnasium tomorrow to get this ball rolling right away,” Sky Listener said, “What do you say, Hawke?”
Hawke shrugged and then turned to Night Rain.
“I have nothing better to do,” he replied.
Sixteen
The return trip to the surface was anything but easy. By the time they reached the surface, Hawke’s calves and thighs were hurting due to the extended incline. All the others appeared to be in great physical shape including Kashuba, so no one else mimicked the kind of distress Hawke was experiencing.
Kashuba joined Hawke where he had tumbled to the snowy ground near the canopy. The others continued on, still discussing all their plans for the next day. Hawke just wanted to collapse into bed in spite of the fact that the day was only half over.
“You slept for thousands of years, Hawke,” Kashuba said, massaging his right calf, “No one thinks less of you. It makes sense that you’d be weaker than the rest of us.”
Her strong hands nearly brought tears to his eyes as she worked the tight muscle in his leg.
“How did you know?” he groaned, closing his eyes as he leaned back into the snow mound.
“We all saw how you were about to fall over the whole way,” she said, “Why do you think I kept pretending I wanted to take a break?”
He opened his eyes and looked at her. She smiled at him, kneading the muscles in his thigh now.
“You really amaze me, Kashuba,” he said.
“As you do me,” she replied, pulling his left leg over and into her hands, “You were about to do something in that engine room, weren’t you?”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“I didn’t care about anyone else but you while we were down there, Hawke. So I stayed with you the whole time whether you noticed me or not. I saw the way you looked into that room with those hanging rods. I saw the way you looked at the controls and when you grabbed a hold of the thing beneath one of the chairs,” she said, squeezing a knot that had formed in his calf, “You weren’t just offering to dismantle that machinery and bring it up here. You were actually considering whether or not you could start up that very ship right then and there.”
He clenched his teeth, holding back the desire to cry out as she worked out his taut muscle.
“And I that transparent?” he groaned.
“No, I’m just that observant,” she said, “I also knew you were in pain and I also knew where it hurt. I also know that you don’t want to join Sky Listener at the physics lab because you were hoping I still felt the same way as I did last night. You were hoping we could go to the tent instead.”
He stared at her, fearful for only a moment that she had the ability to read his mind. He wondered if that was an evolutionary change that had come about since he last walked the Earth. She smiled at him and winked.
“Can you read my mind?” he asked, “Seriously, I would like to know if you are able to.”
“No, Hawke,” she said, tilting her head, “I’m truly very observant and I feel that I understand you more than anyone I’ve ever known.”
He sighed, then smiled back at her. He leaned forward and took her hands in his. They felt warm in his frigid hands.
“I know I don’t deserve this after all this time of making you feel rejected, but I was wondering something. I’m pretty certain that I’d like to spend the rest of my days with you. And nights also, of course,” he said, still keeping a hold of her warm hands, “And since I’m on your world now, I believe you said that when a person decides that he wants no one else for the rest of his life, he seals that relationship with the woman he loves. If you would have me, I’d like to be yours and yours alone.”
She returned a shaky smile with tears now pooling in her eyes.
“Men on this planet don’t talk like you do, Hawke. As a matter of fact, they don’t share many words with their women at all. A woman merely knows she belongs to the man forever because he finally joins her in bed. But you make it seem like I am a prize and that if I wanted to, I could refuse you,” she said, shaking her head, “But believe me, I don’t want to refuse you and I won’t. But since you were kind enough to ask with actual words, let me reply in the same. Yes, Hawke, I’d be glad to accept you as mine alone and I will give you myself to be yours alone forever.”
He scooted to her and took her into his arms, holding her tight. They stayed there in the snow for several minutes, oblivious to those around them. She then whispered an invitation and he accepted, finding the strength to walk her back to his tent while the blue sun was high in the sky.
Seventeen
When Hawke hadn’t shown up at the newly formed “Hidden Earth Committee” meeting as planned, an undergrad named Harvest Reaper had sought him out. Harvest Reaper reported back to committee at dinner that Hawke had for all intents and purposes just wed his fiancée and had other things on his mind. While it was a major inconvenience for the committee and had transpired at the worst time possible, such events were still held in high regard and respected by all. Sky Listener simply sent notice to the newlyweds requesting (demanding) their presence at the canopy entrance the next morning so they could be brought up to speed and things could continue to proceed as planned.
Morning had dawned much earlier than either expected. Hawke and Kashuba had skipped lunch and dinner the previous day and were now being greeted by the morning sun famished and dehydrated. To the credit of Night Rain, such a morning had apparently been expected, so they awoke to a congratulatory basket of fresh rolls, butter, water, fruit, and dried meats.
“I’m not sure I’m ready for a day inside a dreary cold starship,” Kashuba whined, seated on the fur carpet in front of the decorative basket, “I’m tired, sore, hungry, and ready for another day uninterrupted.”
Hawke groaned his agreement and seated himself on the carpet beside her, kissing her on the cheek. He took the carafe of iced water and poured it into both of the gift mugs.
“I’m not going to ask how this basket got here,” he said, “But I’m glad it did. I’m starved and I blame it all on you.”
“Me?” she laughed, grabbing what resembled a purple apple from the basket, “I believe I was the one
who said we should go to the diner at sunset. As I recall, you replied with a kiss in a very sensitive spot.”
“So, you think I shouldn’t have kissed you?” he asked, taking a long drink from his mug.
“I’m saying it was very hazardous to my health,” she replied, “A woman could starve to death from kisses like those.”
She took a bite of her fruit, eying him with her usual flirtations. He suddenly wished for another day free from responsibility. She was making that particular fruit look appealing, so he grabbed a similar one from the basket.
“Unfortunately, I think the little card requesting our presence at the tunnel wasn’t actually a request,” he said, “I propose that we get this day over with as quickly as possible and return to our honeymoon.”
“Honeymoon?” she asked.
“Where I come from, it’s what we call the private time that follows the ‘consummation’ and it usually lasts more than a single day.”
“Ah, yes, a time we call ‘the familiarity.’ I do wish that you weren’t so important to them, but I also understand,” she said.
. . . .
Hawke and Kashuba arrived at the canopy to discover that more than half the committee had already descended. Sky Listener was also already on his way down toward the ship, leaving Night Rain and a small group of mechanics, engineers, and medical personnel waiting topside. Night Rain hurriedly introduced them, making no effort to hide his impatience. He then led the way into the tunnel.
Even though the descent should have been easier now, Hawke quickly discovered that his legs still ached from the previous day. He did his best to ignore the pain, but after nearly a half-mile, his calves were knotting up. He found himself moving with a prominent limp by the time the earthquake hit.
The whole tunnel trembled, causing Hawke to stumble and inadvertently tow Kashuba down to the floor with him. All eyes were on the ceiling, somehow expecting the icy roof to come crashing down. The world shook again, this time causing chunks of ice to fall from above.
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