“Major.”
“Colonel...It seems you made a good find. From the look so far the ship looks well preserved. Who knows maybe the scientists can activate it.”
“That would surely ease our search. It will take a lot more men than we have to search the entire ship properly.”
“Yes it would Fillip.”
“What now?”
Ellis smiled at the last question.
“Now we wait for the scientists and astronauts to come. Then we take a break. The crazy bastards actually put the Deadalus in the hangar.”
That comment made every marine to look up.
“That is… impressive and really stupid.”
“I agree colonel but nothing can be done now about that. And it sure makes things easier.”
“Yes it does.”
After this they both relaxed and sat down on the chairs. As they did that the rest of the marines did the same. Their job was finished. Now was the time for the rest of the teams from Deadalus to do their job.
“Wonder who they fought colonel.”
“Who knows major? But I wonder to. I wonder to.”
Both men went silent after this and let their thoughts occupy their minds. The rest of the marines carefully let them be and continued silently looking at the ships bridge and wonder quietly about its creators.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Jennings looked at Dr. Dubois. The face of the French doctor looked excited. So did the face of Dr. Heller.
And the paper he was holding in his hand was the reason for it. Two hours ago the two doctors with the help of several marines brought back two bodies, one male and one female. And then together with the rest of the scientists they started examining them. And the results looked surprising and fascinating.
“They are human captain. They are definitely human. There are some differences with us but they are human and they came from this world, or better said some of their ancestors came from here.”
Jennings looked at the report written on the paper and then at the two doctors.
“What do you mean some of their ancestors?”
Dubois looked at Heller. She smiled and started the explanation.
“Steven you know about Homo sapiens and Homo erectus our ancestors.”
The captain nodded with his head.
“But first about their origin. They have ancestors, probably very distant ancestors that came from this world. And when I say distant I mean like the first humanoid form of ancestors that appeared on Earth.”
The captain looked surprised at them.
“What do you mean?”
“We don’t exactly know how it happened they might have been taken and developed on another world, we just don’t know. But we know that they are direct descendants because they have a mix in their genes from several human species that developed throughout human history as well as Homo sapiens and Homo erectus. Actually they have them all. And they also have that same ancestral gen that the geneticists discovered several years ago that every living being on Earth has in its genome.”
“You mean the cell that confirmed Darwin’s theory. I remember the study and that research. What was the name of that biochemist Douglas or something…?”
Dubois smiled.
“Douglas Theobald and yes it did confirm Darwin’s theory and this research and this genes are definite proof for his theory. And for that theory that mankind had a common ancestor in the distant past.”
“So they came from Earth.”
“Not this people here but their ancestors… yes they did.”
“The people here yes they are humans but from the composition of their bones they came from a world with a slightly higher gravity than Earth. Can’t tell you exactly how higher but they definitely came from such a world. And they are definitely, sorry were, on a higher level of development. There are some genetic changes in both of them that humanity still hasn’t reached and we probably won’t reach for at least several centuries.”
“What differences?”
“Well for starters they had much longer life spans at least two times as long as the ones we have today maybe even longer and they definitely had cures for many diseases we still have trouble with. They were on a much higher level of development than us.”
“Well it doesn’t take a genetic test to see that one doc. I mean just look at the ship outside and that is more than enough.”
“Yes sorry.”
After this they all went quiet everyone thinking of something. The captain broke the silence first.
“Did you find out how long they are dead and how they died?”
Dr. Heller looked with a face that showed that she was expecting that question for quite some time.
He smiled as he saw her.
“Sorry but with all the information i saw and had in my hands I forgot.”
“It’s ok captain. Yes we did. They died from massive trauma the male on his chest and head and the women from several shrapnel wounds that pierced vital organs. From the injuries their death was quick. I don’t know what kind of a battle they were in but i don’t know of a weapon in our arsenal that can inflict that kind of wounds. As for the time of their deaths we can place it around twelve thousand years ago. Give or take couple of years.”
“Jesus. That long?”
“Yes.”
The captain considered the report for several seconds and then turned to the biochemist and the genetic doctor. They both knew what that look meant and unstrapped from the chairs. As they did that they slowly drifted upwards in the zero g.
As they did that, the captain smiled.
“Thank you gentlemen i believe you want to see the ship to. You can do that now. And after I discuss this with the rest of the crew I think I will join you.”
Dubois nodded with his head and he and Dr. Heller slowly drifted out of the room.
Jennings though for a second and then he to exited the room and went on to inform the crew on the bridge and the military officers. Most of the marines were back on the Deadalus. Just the six of them were still on the bridge of the large alien ship.
The briefing was short and forty minutes later, he together with Linda, Edward and several more scientists entered the large bridge of what they called the capital ship.
A smile came to his face as he saw the frenetic movements of more than twenty scientists and engineers on the bridge. And seeing the calm soldiers that were gathered in front of him it really looked funny. While the scientists were moving around the soldiers just stood and watched them.
Through the radio he could hear the excited voices of every one. It was excitement that he too felt because the ship was a dream come true. From what he understood from the engineers even though it suffered a huge damage in whatever battle it was involved it was still operational. Now everyone was trying to find the commands for activating the ships systems. He hoped that they would manage to do that.
As he watched them two soldiers approached him.
He turned around and noticed that they were major Ellis and Colonel Stefanovski. They moved confidently and their guns were strapped in.
“Sir...”
“Major, Colonel.”
All three men nodded as much as they could with the suits.
“So it’s confirmed. The bodies are human.”
“Yes major. And they died twelve thousand years ago. I wonder were the rest of the crews of all the other ships settled.”
“We all do captain. We all do.” – The comment came from the colonel.
The captain inhaled and changed the subject.
“Did you get the news about the ships weapons and engines?”
“Yes we did. I hope they are right. It would mean a lot. According to the engineers and the scientists we can use most of the guns of the ship and they hope that we can reverse engineer them. And they found the weapons and ammunition their soldiers used. Apparently they still used projectile weapons, according to the scientists some kind of advanced coil gun or rai
l gun. And they say that it is something that will revolutionize our weapon manufacturing.”
The captain smiled inside his helmet. As the information’s arrived the findings looked better and better. He knew that not everything will be as they believe later but if even they could use half the things they found so far that would be of great help in the battle that he knew was coming.
As he thought of that the group of scientists that came with him exchanged information’s from the group that was here. The exchange was short and when it was over the first group slowly left the bridge. Now beside him and Linda on the bridge were only the soldiers and eight scientists. He knew that in several minutes only the scientists will remain and maybe two or three soldiers while the rest will retire on the Deadalus. They were working without break for more than twenty six hours and he knew that everyone was tired. He turned toward Edward. The young scientist was watching one of the consoles and discussing something with one of the engineers.
“Mr. Hanson we will retire on the Deadalus. Your group has this shift.”
The young scientist turned toward the captain and nodded.
“Thanks captain. I think we can handle couple of hours by ourselves. See you in eight hours.”
The captain just nodded and turned. The group that was with Linda went after him. When they left with only the small group of scientists and marines the bridge seemed empty.
Edward watched the captain leave and then continued his discussion with the engineer.
While they talked the marines Ellis and Fillip watched them.
“It is time for another tour of the ship. Take your group and take a look at those weapons they found. And see if you can read some of those manuscripts and papers they found. In your file I read that you speak several dead languages. Who knows we might get lucky.”
Fillip smiled.
“Yes we might major.”
After this he turned and went outside as he did Ellis heard on the military radio.
“Beta team on me…Time for another tour.”
“Shit not again.”
“Shut up Michaels. Or are you scared from ghosts?”
“He’s scared from ghosts alright.”
“You’ll be sorry later boys.”
“Well you might be scared from ghosts but I believe that what we will see now will lift your spirits.”
“What is that?”
“You know some high tech guns and explosives. You know marine stuff.”
“Hurrah for that sir. I was starting to get bored.”
“We all were Manning.”
As the group exited the bridge the chatter and the laughing continued. Ellis looked at Han. They were alone with the scientists. He noticed that same as him Han was smiling as well.
“Michaels will have a fizz when he sees the weapons sir. They are his dream come true.”
Ellis smiled at the comment.
“That will be an interesting story for later. Let’s take a walk in the corridor outside. I want to see the cabins.”
“Yes sir.”
“Mr. Hanson we’ll be right outside if you need us.”
The doctor nodded and turned back to his job and the soldiers exited the bridge and started looking at the crew quarters.
Edward looked again at the console. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he had that it was something important. He looked at the small tiny chip that was obviously removed from it and looked at the buttons on the consoles. It looked a lot like some kind of computer interface or something similar.
He turned to the engineer again.
“Hans I’m telling you it looks like a computer or maybe some kind of interface. And I’m sure that this chip has something to do with activating this ship.”
The German engineer looked at the younger scientist.
“Edward you might be right. But we don’t know. It might be something else entirely and with the damage this ship sustained it won’t be hard to destroy it if we start pressing buttons…Especially wrong buttons. Just leave it for tomorrow.”
“Hans you know as well as me that we searched everything else on this bridge. I agree that it was just a surface search but this console is the only thing left. And I think that it is the most important. No, i don’t think, i know it is.”
The engineer smiled.
“And how would you know that my younger friend?”
“Because it’s my job to know, because i designed the Deadalus, i saw the bridge or what was left of it on the alien ship. It had something similar to this. It was different but it was obviously something important.”
The engineer waved with his hand. He knew that it was pointless to argue with the young scientist.
“Ok Ed. We will try to activate it but first let’s take one more look at the other consoles. After that we will turn our attention on this.”
Edward inhaled and went after the engineer.
“Ok Hans. It waited this long another hour or two won’t make a difference.”
They both slowly moved towards the other consoles and started checking them out. The other scientists were doing the same.
As the scientists studied the consoles, and the soldiers did their second search of the ship and slowly headed towards the armory, two people on the Deadalus looked at strange language on the notes they found. Drs. Karagunis and De Mikelis were both experts on Earths dead languages. Between them they spoke Latin, Ancient Greek, Egyptian and Phoenician. And as they studied the notes they noticed a pattern. Karagunis still felt a little discomfort as he remembered the chat with the colonel. The hatred or better said the intolerance between Macedonia and his own country made him fell unpleasant when the Macedonian soldier was around. It wasn’t that he hated the young man; he actually liked talking with him and admired him. But the situation was still awkward. They never mentioned it and touched that topic but the gap was still there. It was unspoken but it still existed. That made them to avoid each other as much as they could.
Fillip mentioned that the writing looked familiar. He couldn’t exactly place it but he said that they should take a closer look. And he promised to help in his free time.
“Damn that boy had it right. They sure look familiar. They look like a mix of several languages. Just look at the words and the letters. They are not the same but I think what we have here is the language that was the foundation for many of the ancient languages.”
De Mikelis looked at his colleague.
“Maybe even all of them. Remember they dated the bodies as twelve thousand years old. That sure as hell predates almost every ancient civilization.”
“We’ll have a lot of work tomorrow. And I think that the captain will want to hear this.”
“Yes.”
After this they continued to look at the notes and kept trying to translate them from the languages they both knew. They tried to find a familiar pattern.
After two hours of looking Edward and Hans returned to the first console. The others didn’t reveal anything. Although they tried pressing some buttons the ship remained silent.
As Edward studied the console Hans looked uncomfortable. He knew the reason for that. He was tired. While the others rested he stayed here the whole time and he felt that he was near the end of his endurance.
Edward smiled and took one last look at the console.
He looked at the strange chip. He smiled at that word. He couldn’t exactly be sure that it was a data chip but something in his gut told him that it was. It sure as hell looked like that.
He picked up the chip and put it in what looked like the place where it belonged and turned toward Hans and the others that were close and smiled in his helmet.
“Well here goes nothing.”
And he pressed the button.
At first nothing happened. Then slowly the chip activated and it was pulled inside the console.
“Wow. It is active.”
The comment came from one of the scientists behind him.
“Now let’s see what it does
.”
The console activated but nothing else happened, at least anything they could see or hear.
Her conciseness came slowly. She felt strange but she knew that it was normal. As she slowly woke from the long sleep the information’s started coming. The sensors told her that there were intruders on the ship. But as she checked she noticed that the bio readings indicated that they were Alterans. Anaya felt the ship coming to life and waking up as she did. She knew that the people on board couldn’t notice anything, at least not yet.
It was a long time since the last time she was awake. She knew that she set the system to activate her at the first presence of an Alteran or any other creature on board. But as she checked the status of the ship and the information’s she already knew the reason why she wasn’t activated at once. The system was damaged at least some parts of it and the reason was time. She was surprised as she checked the date. Twelve thousand cycles passed since the day she went to sleep. She expected that her creators would come a lot sooner.
Twelve thousand years. As she checked the position of the fleet she noticed that it was still in orbit of the small planet. But several ships were missing. She noticed their remains on the small planet below. Several other ships showed some damage from meteor impacts. When she felt that she was fully in control and the process of reactivating was finished she started checking the ships systems. And at the same time she turned her attention to her visitors.
As she looked at them she felt an urge to talk to them. It was so long since the last time she had a crew, someone to speak to. As she thought of that images of the last crew appeared from her memory.
She felt a moment of sadness but after that she felt happiness. The Icarian was right. The long waiting paid off. Alterans once again walked her decks. She once again had a crew.
She knew that it was time to make them aware of her presence.
Edward looked at the console. He was expecting the ship to slowly activate but nothing happened. The console looked active but everything else was quiet.
He exhaled and both he and Hans turned. As they did both of them and everyone else jumped back and almost lost their balance as a blue shimmering light appeared before their eyes. The light took the image of the most beautiful women they ever imagined. She had long black hair, blue eyes and small full red lips. And a beautiful slender figure, that was covered by a white robe. They could see through her.
The Icarian Legacy Collected Edition: Brave Souls - First Strike (Volume 3) Page 15
