Alliance (Terran Chronicles Book 4)

by James Jackson

  Emma breaks the silence when she exclaims, “What the blazes are you?”

  Cindy turns sharply to Emma and asks, “What have you found?”

  Emma’s jaw drops as she replies, “I am reading a faint power signature from somewhere down there.” She points at the waters below with a shaky hand.

  John turns to Emma and asks, “How safe is the water?”

  “Huh?” Emma replies, and then suddenly understands what John plans to do. She reviews her data once more before responding, “It’s safe enough.”

  John glances to Cindy, who simply nods, so he swings the shuttle around, and down. The craft plunges into the waves, leaving a trail of bubbles behind as it descends into the depths. John shuts down the thrusters, and switches to the gravity lift system to maneuver. The bubbles cease as they descend deeper and deeper into a pitch black underwater trench.

  Joe swings to his console where he begins to collect his own data. With a gulp, he reports, “John, the outer hull is up to seven hundred atmospheres, and nearing its safety limits.”

  John replies with a mixture of pride and surprise, “Not bad for a spacecraft!”

  “Well, bad or not, this trench is deep, and we’re nowhere near the bottom.” Joe replies.

  Emma squeals excitedly and says rapidly, “There is a huge cave in the side wall of the canyon!”

  John stares at his console for a few moments before he notices it. He lifts his eyebrows, clearly impressed with Emma for noticing the cave entrance, and then heads toward it. Within minutes they are inside a wide underwater cavern, which slowly ascends.

  Joe taps on his console, reviews the data, and then works faster. He stares at the information and then shakes his head in disbelief. “The hull is reading a mere fifty atmospheres, and yet at this depth, we should still be in the hundreds.”

  Cindy turns to Joe and frowns, it is clear that something else is agitating the man. She finally demands, “What is it?”

  Joe turns to her and blinks blankly before he replies, “The tunnel is not natural, and I think there is an atmosphere ahead.”

  Emma’s jaw drops as she says, “That’s what’s wrong.”

  “Wrong?” Cindy questions.

  Seconds later, the craft breaks through the surface and bobs on the choppy waters created by them. The cavern is as dark as the watery depths. John activates the shuttle’s thrusters and external lights. He slowly swings them around as he examines the large cavern. Water drips from the shuttle as it hovers above the water.

  “Oh, crap!” John suddenly shouts in alarm.

  They all stare in disbelief at the sight before them. Six emaciated Gamin are standing on a nearby metal platform, and they are staring right back at them. The group is wearing rags for clothing, and seems to be as equally stunned as the shuttle crew. They shield their eyes from the shuttle’s bright light.

  Cindy puts a hand to her mouth and says, “Oh crap, is right!”

  Emma makes a strange moaning sound as fear threatens to overcome her. Her hands shake as she confirms that the power source she detected earlier is close by. However, her anxiety prevents her from saying anything.

  Joe stammers, “I wish George were here.”

  John suddenly grins as he says, “Hey! They can’t see us!”

  “That’s right!” Exclaims Joe with relief. “From outside all they can see is the shuttle’s dark paneling.”

  Cindy heaves a huge sigh of relief and asks, “Can we communicate with them, in Gamin?”

  Joe shrugs his shoulders and replies, “I don’t see why not. Let me check the translation matrix.”

  Emma frowns in confusion, and then relaxes as she understands. Usually transmissions are in English, leaving the translation up to the receiving systems.

  Cindy receives a thumbs up from Joe, and then presses her external communications button. “We are friends of Regent Voknor, of the Gamin.”

  The Gamin seem agitated, but do not move. A few minutes later three more Gamin exit from a dark corridor and step onto the platform. They talk quietly amongst themselves, and then one of them points to the shuttle.

  A gravelly voice fills the shuttle’s speakers, “We do not know a Regent Voknor. Did Prime Zorkna send you? And what of Regent Gordok.”

  Cindy turns to Joe with wide eyes and as she shakes her head questioningly, silently mouths, “Who?”

  Joe frowns as he thinks back to their last visit to this planet. The names seem vaguely familiar. He feels a chill as he recalls the logs they recovered. Another thought comes to mind, one that raises the hair on the back of his neck. We never went back and played the rest of the logs.

  The gravelly voice continues, “I am Waazh. Come, meet our group. We are small in number, but have spirit. We have been waiting for the day our clan returns to take us back to the stars where we belong.”

  Cindy cringes, and then says. “A lot has changed since you were marooned here. We were not expecting to find survivors, and will have to come back.”

  Joe gets Cindy’s attention and quietly mouths, “How many?”

  Cindy nods to Joe and then with trepidation asks, “How many of you are there?”

  “Almost two hundred.” Waazh proudly replies.

  Cindy narrows her eyes as she asks one more question, “Can you make it to your old ship?”

  Waazh’s gravelly voice replies, “Prime Zorkna took the last working craft. When he failed to return, we thought him dead. We are unable to escape these catacombs.”

  Cindy sighs with relief. She smiles as she replies. “Fear no longer, I will make arrangements to return to you.”

  “Fear?” Waazh repeats loudly. He continues forcefully, “We fear nothing!”

  Cindy glances around sharply at the tone, and then recalling the respectful way George spoke to Regent Voknor, quickly responds, “I meant no offence. As I said, we are friends of the Gamin. We come from a planet far away, and know few of your customs.” She gulps as she shrugs her shoulders.

  Waazh responds, his curiosity aroused, “Not Gamin? Friends? This is new to us, but we welcome any enemies of the Atlans. Have they been driven back to the rock they sprang from?”

  Cindy pauses for a moment, and then replies, “The war continues to this day, but many Gamin clans survive.”

  Joe taps Cindy’s arm and, once he has her attention, motions that they should go.

  Cindy nods to Joe in agreement, and says, “Waazh, we must leave, but we will return with transports as soon as we can.”

  “We will prepare the hatchery while we wait for your return.” Waazh replies.

  The hair on the back of Cindy’s neck rises in apprehension as she cautiously asks, “How many eggs do we need to accommodate for?”

  The others stare at Cindy in stunned silence. None of them had thought of there being a hatchery.

  “Forty-seven.” Waazh replies proudly.

  “Understood. We will also make preparations.” Cindy says uneasily as she motions for John to get them moving.

  John easily turns the shuttle around in the large cave, and then descends back down the watery tunnel. The trip back to the Terran is quiet, as each of them ponder this new development. The exploration of the rest of the planet is forgotten, for now.

  Look Who’s Coming to Dinner

  As soon as the shuttle crew returns to the Terran, Cindy calls a general meeting in the mess hall. She had considered holding a private session, but decided that exaggerated rumors could cause more harm, than the facts. The main bridge crew, Radclyf’s and Hayato’s teams, and representatives from each of the Army Corps groups, all sit and wait. Suzanne has joined the group, and sits next to Joe. She offers Cindy a curt wave as they catch each other’s eyes. Once again, the kitchen hands get to listen first hand to an important discussion.

  Cindy casts her gaze over the group, and then begins. “During our exploration today we found survivors from the derelict.” Amid the low murmuring that emanates from those gathered, she continues, “The few Gamin we saw appeare
d to be under nourished, and would seem to be no threat to us.”

  The low murmuring picks up in volume. Cindy holds a hand up to quiet the room, and then says with resolve, “I plan to rescue these people.”

  The room instantly becomes a bedlam of noise. A man shouts out, “They’re not people, they’re aliens!”

  Another voice calls out, “We owe them nothing! Did you forget what they did to the Oglans?”

  Cindy takes a deep breath, and then loudly states, “I will not take their technology, and then abandon these Gamin to their fate. That would make us no better than the Regent who destroyed the Oglan civilization, nor the Atlans who destroyed this world.”

  Once again a man calls out from the muttering crowd, “Who cares what happens to a few stupid lizards?”

  With mounting rage Cindy shouts over the racket, “I will not stand idly by and watch these people suffer.” She scans the crowd in an attempt to find the man who spoke.

  Peter quickly gets to Cindy’s side, and then states, “These stupid lizards were building spaceships before we built the first Pyramids!”

  Emma quietly mumbles to herself, “They’re not lizards anyway.”

  Cindy places her hands on her hips and says forcefully, “This is not up for debate! We will be rescuing the stranded Gamin, and, when we are able, we will reunite them with their own kind.”

  A man shouts out from the crowd with hostility in his tone. “They had better not come in here then!”

  Peter takes a step forward, and then states with resolve, “We will make arrangements for the Gamin to be secured in a safe location, away from any command and control systems.”

  Cindy nods her head in agreement at Peter’s proposal while she scans the crowd in an attempt to find out who is against them. She finally spots one of the men, and then with narrowing eyes, scrutinizes him carefully. He appears to be one of the military contractors who signed on with David. She glances to Radclyf, and smiles as she notices that he and Hayato are already slowly making their way to the vocal man.

  Peter casts his gaze around the room and then says, “I for one, will sleep better knowing the Gamin are on this ship, under our watch, than somewhere out there.”

  Cindy purses her lips at Peter’s lie, and then suddenly has an alarming thought. I am taking Waazh’s word that he and the rest of the Gamin are trapped. And for his part, he seemed quick to trust that I am his friend. Why?

  While Cindy ponders her thoughts, Peter ends the meeting. As the people slowly make their way out of the mess hall, one man finds himself facing Radclyf.

  Radclyf pokes the man in the chest and states bluntly, “If anything happens to any Gamin on this ship, I will be holding you personally responsible.”

  The man sneers as he responds, “I am entitled to my opinion.”

  “Look around you Mister, this is not a democracy. If you start any trouble, you will be answering to me.” Radclyf stares at the man with fierce determination.

  The once vocal man swallows hard as he realizes he has misjudged how much this crew actually likes the Gamin. He steps back and lowers his head as he glumly replies, “Well, they’re just stupid lizards anyway. What do I care?”

  Radclyf nods his head. Not because he is in agreement with the man’s comments, but so that the man can retreat with some of his dignity intact. He is, after all a soldier, even if he is a mercenary.

  Cindy waits until the mess hall is almost empty before she sits down. She sighs as she rubs her forehead in an effort to stave off a headache which is forming.

  Peter rests a hand on her shoulder and says, “We will find a secure location for the Gamin, and we will keep them under guard. Both for their protection, and ours.”

  Cindy glances up, and in an uncharacteristic manner, says with trepidation, “I keep thinking of the phrase, no good deed goes unpunished.”

  Peter and Radclyf glance at each other warily, and nod in silent agreement. Both men understand her concerns, and will do everything they can to alleviate them. These Gamin have been trapped on this world for a long time, and do not know the crew the way Regent Voknor, or Sharz does. Both men are uneasy about what the Gamin will do once they are on board the Terran.

  Radclyf glances to Cindy as he suggests, “We could house them in the forward section of the lower decks, where the materials for the passageways were stored.”

  Peter grins as he adds, “Let’s not have them too close to the outer hull though. I don’t want them anywhere near the weapon’s systems we have in place.”

  Cindy taps her fingers on her table, and then says, “We should take our time rescuing them. But, I want to be able to communicate with Waazh while we make our preparations.”

  Peter nods in agreement and says, “I am sure that between Joe and George, they can figure something out.”

  Cindy then says to Peter, “I would also like to wait until we are back in space, before we contact the Gamin about this clan. We do not know why they were left behind.”

  Peter lifts his eyebrows as he replies, “You don’t think they were left here on purpose, do you?”

  “I don’t know, but just in case there is more to this than meets the eye, I would still rather be mobile, than stuck here tethered to that derelict.” Cindy replies warily.

  Peter nods in agreement, and then leaves the mess hall to begin preparations.

  Salvage

  Engineers walk freely along the main passageway from the Terran’s hangar deck to the central hub which rests between the two spacecraft. From this busy hub, the engineers easily access any one of the six passageways which extend into the derelict. Atmosphere is fan-forced from the Terran into these sealed off work areas. Spacesuit-wearing engineers test the air quality, and the seals, before allowing others access.

  The days pass quickly as survey teams evaluate the Gamin ship, and draft plans for the removal of a variety of components. Joe reviews the growing number of reports, and discusses each one in depth with George. Joe deliberates over the plans, and before he makes any decisions, calls a meeting.

  Joe stands on the Terran’s bridge, rallying his thoughts. Cindy, Peter, John, Robert, and George, all wait patiently for him to speak.

  Joe glances to George and then says, “George should be giving this report. He’s the one who figured most of this stuff out.”

  George, who is usually in his bodysuit, feels strange without it. He leans back against his console, and replies, “We worked on it together. Please, go ahead.”

  Joe, realizing that he is stuck doing the presentation, shakes his head, and begins. “I will do my best to summarize what we have learned to date. The ship’s power units are fully depleted, and its main engines are damaged. The main core belonging to each of the engines appears fused. How this was done is unknown. On a positive note, George and I have been able to recover more of the ship’s logs. We have determined that the derelict has only been on this planet for around two thousand years, even though the ship itself is much older, at approximately six thousand years. Where it has been all this time is another mystery. Information about the fleet’s leader, Regent Gordok, does not exist in our navicon’s database.” He shakes his head as he says, “This make no sense at all, especially considering we recovered our navicon from that ship.”

  Cindy frowns at this news and asks, “How is that possible?”

  Joe shrugs his shoulders and motions to George for help.

  With everyone’s eyes turning to him, George replies, “It’s our theory that the navicon synchronized with some central database when we activated it.” He lowers his head as he adds, “And if this is true, then that Regent’s clan no longer exists according to the Gamin, making the survivors in the underwater cavern all that is left of Gordok’s clan.”

  Cindy leans back and stares at the ceiling as she ponders this new development. After a moment’s thought, she leans forward and says, “I want their rescue to be made a higher priority. If they are all that is left of their clan, then we do indeed have a dut
y to get them back to their kind.”

  Joe glances to Peter before he replies, “We can use the short range transmitter we delivered to inform Waazh that we are ready. We’ve been stalling him, as we thought it best to bring them on board when we were closer to completing our work here.”

  Cindy sighs, and says, “It would seem that some of the assumptions we made the last time we were here, were wrong.”

  George responds quickly, “We had very little information to go on last time, and even though we have learned a lot, we could still be wrong. Many of our theories are just that, theories.”

  Cindy nods her head in acknowledgement, then motions to Joe.

  Joe refers to his notes for a moment, then states, “The ship has two distinctive weapons systems, both of which are connected to the ship’s power grid. One is a kinetic style of weapon, which launches projectiles.” He pauses before adding solemnly, “They are much like the asteroids and meteors which impacted Earth.” He quickly continues, “The other is an energy based weapon, with an output that seems to be in the terawatt range.”

  Peter shrugs his shoulders and says, “Terawatt lasers are not that powerful. Even we have those.”

  Joe nods his head in agreement as he says, “True, but the lasers on that ship can fire sustained bursts, which is an order of magnitude far above anything we have developed.”

  “Still,” Peter persists, “I expected something more powerful, especially from a race that has been in space for thousands of years, fighting a war.”

  Joe frowns as Peter’s comment strikes a chord. “You know,” he says as he scratches his head, “you’re right. Anyway, engineers are working to isolate specific areas so that crews can go in and remove some of the weapons.”

  Robert takes advantage of Joe’s pause and asks, “How many of each weapon are there?”

  Joe glances at his notes and then replies, “We have identified ten energy weapons pods, twenty-five smaller kinetic launchers and one large kinetic launcher. We should be able to recover six energy weapons and twenty of the smaller kinetic weapons. The largest one is in the detached nose of the craft, and unrecoverable.”