Dominion

by Scott McElhaney

  “Get out of here!” someone called from below.

  All at once, people were making a mad rush for the surface. Hawke grabbed hold of Kashuba’s hand and nearly dragged her behind him as he joined in the rush to the surface. Night Rain was already a dozen paces ahead of them, shouting in fright as the tunnel shuddered again.

  Suddenly, the world around them reversed and the rush to flee upward became instead, a rush to the steel shelter down below. People were suddenly plowing violently through them, running downward toward the ship beneath them. Screams were coming from above as people shouted of Shomani attacks.

  “What’s going on?” Hawke hollered to a man who nearly knocked him down.

  “They’ve sunken all our vessels! There’s a whole Shomani armada out there and they’re destroying everything! Everything!”

  A woman running with a baby in her arms cried that it was raining fire up above and that everyone was dead. It made no sense to Hawke that these people were running downward into a dark metal coffin even if a war was suddenly taking place. That was the moment he saw the landslide of ice headed their way. He turned and wrapped Kashuba in his arms, aware of the fact that he was about to be hit with a painful blast of ice.

  To his surprise, only his feet were knocked out from beneath him as a powerful force landed him against an angled wall of shattered ice. Kashuba remained in his arms, also knocked off balance by the destructive force. The woman with the baby was far enough down that nothing significant had hit her. She kept running with no regard for the two of them.

  “What happened?” Kashuba huffed, rising up and turning toward the missing tunnel.

  Hawke rolled over onto the mound of icy shards to discover the same thing Kashuba was looking at. The tunnel was gone and nothing remained of those who had been ahead of them in their escape. The last Hawke had seen of Night Rain, he had been several paces ahead of them, coaxing others to turn and head upward.

  “No,” Hawke muttered, “No, this isn’t how it goes.”

  He grabbed onto the edge of a healthy-size ice chunk and worked it free from the mound. He tossed it behind him, then dug his hands into the hole he had created. He started raking furiously at the wall of ice, achieving nothing in his moment of rage.

  “We’re trapped,” Kashuba hollered at Hawke, taking a hold of his shoulders, “Stop it, Hawke. We’re trapped.”

  “No, this isn’t the way it goes,” he pulled a chunk of ice free, “People were counting on me. You were counting on me. This isn’t how it ends!”

  “Hawke!” she hollered again, shaking him, “It’s not a ‘were’ Hawke! It’s not a ‘were’.”

  He clawed at the wall again, this time cutting the tip of his thumb on a sharp piece of ice. He stuck his thumb in his mouth, realizing suddenly how cold his hands were. He closed his eyes and shook his head.

  “It’s not a what?” he asked.

  “It’s not a ‘were’. You said that people were counting on you. You said the same of me. It’s not ‘were’. People are counting on you. I’m counting on you,” she said, pointing down toward the bottom of the tunnel, “Present tense.”

  He followed her finger, unable to see the woman who had been fleeing earlier with her child. He took the thumb from his mouth, no longer able to taste any blood. Then he looked at Kashuba.

  The Shomani weren’t a race of people who gave up. He saw it when the Savior was initially attacked at sea. Then he saw it when they attacked it again in the middle of the night and nearly destroyed the ship. Why did he think they would give up even after the Savior won two battles and limped back into port? They wanted vengeance for the theft of the Pioneer and the abduction of Hawke and Kashuba. He was the sole reason that hundreds or even thousands of Cheronook have just been slaughtered. He was the reason that the Frozen North had just been annihilated. He was the reason that their world no longer existed.

  But it did exist, just not on the surface. The best minds of the Frozen North were seeking shelter down below in the refuge of an ancient starship. Hawke was still alive as were any others in the tunnel below. They had a lot of potential and they also had a ship with a reactor that appeared to be operational. Perhaps all hope wasn’t actually lost.

  “We need to bring the ship online,” he said, “Will you help me, Kashuba?”

  “Wherever you go, I’ll go,” she replied, offering her hand.

  Eighteen

  The lighting in the tunnel was still operational all the way down to the ship. Intermittent tremors still threatened to collapse the rest of the tunnel, but it held up during the several minutes it took for Hawke and Kashuba to reach the ship’s entrance.

  A man with a rifle met them at the end of the tunnel, apparently guarding against a Shomani invasion.

  “We’re the last,” Hawke informed him, “Anyone who was further up toward the surface was crushed.”

  “The governor?”

  “Yes,” he replied sadly, “He wasn’t very far ahead of us.”

  “They’ve won. The Shomani have destroyed the Frozen North,” he spoke, lowering his weapon, “And they’ve killed our leadership.”

  “No, you see, there are survivors inside this ship and I don’t believe they’re going to be willing to give up just yet,” Hawke said, gesturing toward the concert of echoing shouts and cries coming from the ship.

  “They’re in a tomb beneath a mile of ice,” he replied, “It’s not going to take them long to realize this.”

  “They are waiting inside a ship that was intentionally shut down a long time ago. It’s not a broken ship, my friend. It’s a ship that was merely turned off,” Hawke replied, “Let’s get inside and let the others know. And please, try your best not to appear so afraid.”

  The man looked up from the ground and locked eyes with Hawke. He lifted his rifle and nodded to him. Then he turned and led the way across the newly reinforced bridge. Hawke and Kashuba followed, dropping into the gymnasium.

  The scene before them was filled with faces that were completely aware of just how disturbingly grim their situation was. A father knelt near his two toddlers, consoling their cries with vague promises. A cluster of three women nearby was inventorying a crate of food that was probably intended as merely a single picnic lunch for the entire group. One of the women in that group glanced around the room with a grave expression on her face. She knew the amount of food wouldn’t suffice. Two men had taken to the bleachers, apparently settling in for their inevitable deaths. The rest of the people were conversing quietly, their voices echoing off the walls.

  Sky Listener caught sight of them and grabbed one of the people in his huddle and rushed over to them.

  “Hawke, you made it,” he spoke with evident relief, “I heard the tunnel is collapsed. Would a ship like this offer any digging utensils or machinery that we could use?”

  “I have no idea. This ship came about long after my generation,” Hawke replied, putting an arm around Kashuba, “Since the ship appears to have been intentionally shut down and abandoned, I can only assume that it was intended to come here on a one-way trip to deliver a colony. I would imagine that if this were the case, they would have taken every tool that they could get their hands on, especially if they were starting from scratch on a new world.”

  “Uh, I think Sky Listener was looking for more of an ‘I don’t know. How about we go check the ship and see what we can find’,” the man at Sky Listener’s side said with a smirk.

  “No, I wanted the truth,” he replied, putting a hand on the man’s shoulder, “Hawke, this is our best engineer, Fire Dragon. If anyone could be considered a scientist and engineer of the mystical elements, this would be the man. Fire Dragon, this is Hawke – a pilot and engineer who knows all about how this ship flies.”

  Fire Dragon reached out and shook Hawke’s hand.

  “I look forward to… I mean, I looked forward to learning what you know about getting a ship this size into space,” he said, “I was hoping to be one of the first Cheronook to be call
ed a star sailor.”

  “No,” Hawke said, waving his hand in irritation, “No, you guys all need to stop this if we’re going to survive.”

  Hawke moved past Sky Listener and walked toward the center of the gymnasium, clapping his hands loudly. Everyone’s attention was instantly turned to him as he moved to a spot where he could face all of them.

  “Can I have your attention please? Some of you may know me and some perhaps have heard of me. My name is Meriwether Hawke and I hail from the same planet that made this ship you’re currently standing in. If I were to guess, I’d say this ship was created only a century or two after I left my home world. That’s to say, it doesn’t seem too far advanced from the technologies I knew. I guess what I’m trying to say is that some of you appear to have given up. You are acting like it’s over and we might as well settle in and die.

  “I looked at the engineering systems yesterday and while I may be wrong, I believe those systems were shut down intentionally to keep them from damage and to keep them from wasting what remained of the fuel. I may also be wrong in my belief that those same systems can be brought back online. I don’t know any of this for a fact, but I’m willing to give it a shot. I’m willing to at least search for a way to turn on the power inside this ship and to get the life support system going again.

  “I’m willing to go all the way actually if we discover that we can get the engines operating. Granted, we are beneath a lot of ice, but I also know what a gravitational-reflex field can do to its environment. I am willing to try all of this because I’m not willing to die like the Shomani intended. My efforts may prove useless, but at least I would die knowing I gave it my best shot. I was wondering if I could get some help though. I don’t believe I can do it alone.”

  Kashuba approached him and put her arm around his waist. Sky Listener clapped his hands, also joining him in the center of the gym. Several others started clapping before eventually the whole room erupted in applause.

  Fire Dragon leaned in close to Hawke and said “I’d like to get started on it right away if you can show me the way to engineering. I still intend to be a star sailor.”

  Hawke smiled and nodded, putting an arm around him.

  Nineteen

  “So Uranium is not all that different from bane ore,” Fire Dragon said, kneeling next to Hawke on the floor of the reactor control room, “It has an energy all its own.”

  “Not exactly,” Hawke replied, gripping the water valve and twisting it several turns to the left.

  He could hear water flowing from beyond the wall.

  “Your bane ore seems to radiate a harmless heat all its own which I find very interesting. Uranium is deadly to us and it only radiates useful energy when we encourage a chain reaction by introducing neutrons to the metal,” Hawke said, standing up and brushing the dust from his hands.

  “What’s that noise in here?” Sky Listener hollered, rushing into the room with another unknown associate of his.

  “I need to see if the drain to the reactor is closed or open,” Hawke stated, shining a light through the window into the reactor, “This will tell me if it really was shut down intentionally or if all the water just evaporated over the centuries.”

  He watched as the rust-colored water flowed in from a pipe located on the far wall. It started to puddle up on the floor, but when the brown river reached the drain, it swirled quickly down.

  “Perfect,” Hawke said, kneeling back down beneath the control panel.

  He twisted the other valve located near the water knob, then stood up and looked through the window again. The water was now puddling up at the drain and starting to cover the floor. He aimed the light at the inlet and was pleased to note that the incoming water was clear now.

  “I have to wonder if something similar can be created using the bane ore,” Fire Dragon said to himself, staring in at the reactor.

  “I’m shocked to see that the water inside this ship isn’t frozen,” Sky Listener stated, watching the scene with his arms folded, “Is this whole energy system familiar to you?”

  “Uh… well, no, not really,” he replied, watching the water slowly fill the room around the reactor, “I have a basic understanding since my ship had a mini self-sustaining reactor. I also learned a little about them in college.”

  The water was high enough to start seeping into the ventilation slots of the reactor itself.

  “What are all those pipes hanging down over the center unit?” Sky Listener asked.

  “Those are the fuel rods. We will be lowering them into the reactor in the hopes that the neutron initiator still works. If it does, we will be able to create a chain reaction and…” he started to explain for the second time today, “Basically, those bars will heat up the water and create steam that will spin some turbines similar to your own steam driven vehicles. One of these reactors can most likely power the whole ship for fifteen to twenty years before the rods need replaced.”

  “And you will be able to start this energy machine without any currently stored energy at your disposal?” Sky Listener asked.

  Fire Dragon pointed to the clear box on the wall. Hawke had already explained to Fire Dragon what his plan was. He also told him about the severe danger to everyone on the ship if he ends up starting the reactor and not finding a way to control the chain reaction. A meltdown would mark the end for all of them.

  “I just need to make sure the water is up to that top fill line marked on the side of the reactor. I’m sure that once we have power, the water levels will be maintained in an automated way like it was on my ship,” Hawke said, “Reactors require a lot of water since it is continually turning it into steam.”

  “How much longer do you think?” Sky Listener asked.

  Hawke turned to him, wondering if the man was really that impatient or if he was joking. Everyone he’d encountered didn’t seem to comprehend how dangerous it was to have a “nobody” attempt to start up a cold nuclear reactor. They seemed to think it was the same as lighting an oil lamp or starting up a furnace.

  Sky Listener did appear to want an answer to his question. No amount of explaining would change their attitude toward the nuclear reactor. To these people, Hawke was a man who understood all futuristic technologies and could handle anything thrown his way. He only wished he felt as confident as they were.

  “It’s filling pretty quickly. Once the water reaches that line, I believe I just need to lower the rods into the reactor and start the neutron initiator,” he replied, “Once we start getting power though, I have a feeling that there are a lot of things we will need to do in order to make sure everything is up and running. First of all, I have no idea where the life support systems are and I’m not too sure what those systems do or how they work. Again, this is why I asked for help.”

  “I think we’ll find a way to get this all working,” Fire Dragon said, patting Hawke on the shoulder, “My crew at the university are currently working on a petroleum powered vehicle engine that can spin a driveshaft via a system of controlled miniature explosions. We are on the cutting edge and I believe it’s similar to existing Shomani technologies.”

  Hawke nodded, then looked over to Kashuba who was standing in the doorway. She caught his eye and winked at him. If she was still able to read him as she used to, she knew he was very frightened of two things at the moment. First, he was frightened that the reactor wouldn’t work at all, and second, he was frightened that he wouldn’t be able to control the chain reaction and end up killing everyone aboard. Her wink was her way of saying “it’s alright”.

  He looked through the window again and saw that the water was nearing the top of the reactor. He knelt down beneath the control panel and shut the water off. He then stood up and turned to the others in the room.

  “I have to tell you something,” he said, breathing in deeply, then letting it out slowly, “This is the second most dangerous device on the whole ship. The gravitational-reflex drive is the most dangerous, but that is something I fully understand
and feel confident in my abilities to operate. This however is something I am not a hundred percent confident in. Nuclear reactors are operated by some of the most intelligent and well-trained people on my planet and I have to believe there’s a reason for that. People don’t just fill in for nuclear engineers when none are to be found. Do you understand what I’m getting at?”

  Sky Listener nodded, then patted him on the shoulder.

  “You are the most qualified here, Hawke, and without power, we don’t stand a chance,” he replied.

  “I trust you, Hawke,” Kashuba said, “And if an emergency happens, we are all willing to jump in and figure out how to fix it.”

  “If an emergency happens, you all need to run,” Hawke chuckled, “Truly, this reactor contains an invisible poison which is why there is no door into there. If I mess up though, those heated rods will overheat and melt straight through the reactor and through the levels below, irradiating everything on this ship with its poison. This is why I’m so nervous right now.”

  “Then let’s plan on not overheating those rods,” Fire Dragon said.

  Hawke looked at his new friend and smiled. He walked over to the clear box on the wall and unlatched it. He lifted the box and propped it on its hinge, revealing a metal lever that rested in the “down” position. Lifting the lever one notch would bring it to a position labeled “Cold Start – stage one”. In the fine print next to it, it offered a little warning to make sure the neutron initiator was in the “off” position before beginning a cold start.

  He looked to the right of the lever and checked the switch for the initiator. It indeed was switched off. He looked over at Fire Dragon who offered him a nod of encouragement. Hawke took a hold of the lever and lifted it to the stage one position.

  They all looked through the window and watched as the rods lowered into the reactor. They stopped their descent a quarter of the way in. Nothing happened.