Suddenly he felt undeniably alone and looking at his uncle, who at that moment appeared as a total stranger to him. Hayden’s mood changed. ‘You’re a General,’ he said, looking his uncle in the eye. ‘My science teacher is now some sort of space-ambassador? That’s a spaceship! I mean this is - this a - secret -space -’
Prince Hayden of the House of Greythorn fainted.
CHAPTER NINE
Hayden’s head was foggy when he woke. He was so very tired and he hurt all over from the climb up the mountain. He focused on a familiar sound - his mother’s voice. Extending his left arm to stretch, Amy took his hand in hers and lovingly squeezed it.
‘Everything is going to be alright, my son,’ she soothed.
Eyes still closed, he smiled serenely before yawning deeply.
‘I had the strangest dream. How long have I been asleep?’
Lying on his back he opened his eyes to the dim light and rubbed them with the palm of his free hand. It took a moment to regain his focus but when he did, he looked up and couldn’t see the glow stars anymore. He wasn’t in his own cozy bedroom at all. The ceiling wasn’t the warm white he knew but bronze coloured and metallic. He got that same nervous feeling as he did in the cavern and he shivered. He gripped his mother’s hand tightly and with the other, the linen on the bed that he now knew wasn’t his. It felt soft and warm but in no way was it a comfort to him as his mother was. His eyes had adjusted more and he could see her face clearly now. A reddish glow from something in the room was illuminating her soft, beautiful and homely features. It seemed like an eternity since he’d last seen her but it’d only been half a day. She was wearing clothing not dissimilar to the people he’d seen in the cavern but hers had intricate patterns like golden vines on her shoulders and down her arms.
‘Everything is going to be all right, my son,’ she repeated and Hayden hoped it would be.
A door slid open with a soft whooshing sound and someone entered before the door rapidly slid closed. Hayden sat bolt upright as his uncle extended his hand to help him out of bed. He felt slightly nauseous as he looked at his mother’s brother.
‘If you say I am who you claim I am, then I can get out of bed myself!’ He stated sternly.
‘It’s alright, Sis,’ Jonah nodded sympathetically at his sister’s look of concern. ‘We knew all this would be hard for him.’ He looked at his nephew and became sterner in tone himself. ‘You need to get dressed. There are fresher and more appropriate clothes in here.’
Jonah waved his hand past a glossy black floor to ceiling panel which slid aside almost instantly to reveal a small walk-in wardrobe. ‘We can’t have you running around in your old clothes.’
‘Why not?’ Hayden asked, a little offended. ‘I like them.’
‘I’ve burned them.’
‘You’ve what?’
‘Incinerated them. We don’t want to be taking any free-loading germs where we’re headed.’
‘And -’ Hayden paused with a strange mix of trepidation, excitement and fear as he sat up on the side of the bed, still half covered by the blanket. ‘Where are we headed?’
‘Well, let’s just say we’re going where no one at NASA thought any Earthling could go.’
Hayden shook his head at the word Earthling.
‘We’re needed on the bridge,’ his mother interrupted, her eyes flitting nervously to her brother. Jonah left the room as abruptly as he’d entered and after watching him leave, Amy turned to her son.
‘I’ll wait outside and take you to the bridge.’
‘No.’ Hayden said, ‘I’ll find my own way.’
Amy stood to leave the room but as the door slid aside for her, she paused then turned back to her son and looked at him directly.
‘I am sorry you know- about all of this but you will understand why we kept this from you. Your life is so very important, and not just to us.’
‘I know, it’s really important to me, too!’
She looked up and down the corridor and back at her son then her voice became sterner. ‘When you’re dressed, follow these blue lights to the bridge,’ she pointed at horizontal rows of lights on the wall opposite. ‘The green will take you to the mess and galley, and the red to the engine room. Follow the blue.’ The door swished shut as she left. Hayden stood almost instantly and walked toward the door and it slid open for him. He leant out of the cabin to see after her and he watched until she disappeared round a bend. It was then he realised he was naked and swung back into his cabin and to the still opened closet. The cabin door obligingly sliding shut.
He was alone in a cabin on a spaceship, and as far as he could tell he wasn’t dreaming but pinched the inside of his left elbow to make sure. The sting and the little red mark let him know he more than likely wasn’t. Looking inside at the clothes, they were like those on the people he saw in the cavern. That’s one thing I don’t have to worry about, he thought, fashion not being his thing. He took one off of the rack and bent to pick up some shoes that looked like high-back basketball sneakers with thick socks built into them. Backing out of the closet the door promptly shut. He threw the jumpsuit onto the bed, studied it briefly then picked it up and stepped into it one leg at a time. The upper section hanging around his waist, he easily slid the arms on and fastened down the front with long joining white plastic strips that looked exactly like Velcro and probably were. Lastly, he sat on the bunk and reached over to pick up the boots. Hard to the touch, they were the same colour as the clothing and had big gripping X patterned soles made of some sort of rubber, or it looked like rubber as far as he could tell. Placing his bare feet into them, they slid on easily. Comfy.
He walked about the small cabin for a few minutes gathering up some courage and when he felt he’d gathered enough, he left.
The hallway was lit by small lights embedded in the ceiling that were powered by something extraordinary he guessed. At knee height on the brassy walls running in three rows were the lights his mother had directed him to. Blue to the bridge, blue -bridge. The blue band ran atop the others and pointed to the left, as did the galley/mess band. The red lights that led to the engine room pointed right. That’s aft, Hayden thought, assuming the engine room was near to the stern and thereby gaining a small but very important sense of his orientation.
He followed the blue band tentatively, not knowing what strange thing could possibly startle him and hoping of course that nothing would. He came to a door and heard sounds on the other side of it but noticed the blue band continued on so he followed it.
‘Must be the mess then?’ He said softly as if not to disturb anyone or anything inside.
Winding around a bend he came to a dead-end. A narrow wall and door blocked his way. The blue band had ended with three small round blue lights. The bridge?
Suddenly he heard the door he’d passed open behind him and he rushed forward so as not to meet whoever or whatever came through it. Pressing against the curved dead-end wall, it suddenly slid aside quickly making him trip forward. It wasn’t the bridge but a tiny cylindrical room and the door closed quickly behind him. Hayden then heard a clear female voice offer two choices. ‘Bridge or Mapping? ’
Hayden hesitated slightly before asking for the bridge.
‘Bridge,’ the voice confirmed and a symbol that must’ve meant bridge appeared in a large green display atop the door. He heard a whoosh, his stomach turned over and in half a second he’d very swiftly arrived. The lift door opened and in front of Hayden was a sight almost as incredible to him as that of when he first saw the ship.
The brightly lit bridge spread before him and it was as big as he would have expected a bridge on such a large ship to be.
He watched the crew with backs turned doing whatever it was they did. All along the walls, they were pressing buttons and looking at display panels. There were rectangular, oval and round screens embedded in the bulkhead that followed the curve of the bridge displaying vibrant indecipherable displays. Back from the crew was the command station where h
is uncle and his mother stood. Jonah was looking at Hayden. Between them, presumably by the chair’s size and central position, obscured from view, sat the captain. ‘Come forward,’ Jonah beckoned comfortingly. ‘Come meet the captain of the Copernicus.’
Hayden smiled when he heard the name of the ship as Copernicus, the man, was one of his favorite historical figures. A man whose theories were published in the mid-sixteenth century in a book entitled De revolutionibus orbium coelestium or, in English, On the revolution of the celestial spheres. Copernicus was an astronomy pioneer extraordinaire. Hayden’s own sense of discovery was enlightened as he moved across the floor to meet the captain of the vessel in which he found himself but as he approached, the large chair swiveled around.
Hayden could have been knocked over with a feather.
‘Barry?!’ He reeled, unable to suppress his surprise.
Barry stood up, dressed in a darker uniform that had numerous coloured strips presumably of military decoration across his chest. Bowing his head, he too put his right arm across his chest in salute as the others had done.
‘Your Highness,’ he said, head still lowered. ‘My real name is Baden and I am your servant.’
‘Baden?’ Hayden repeated.
‘Tor Baden. ’
Hayden looked at Tor Baden then at his mother and then his uncle. He hadn’t noticed the title he was addressed as he again tried to take things in. It was odd as he felt a little more comfortable knowing there were more people he knew onboard but at the same time felt tangibly uneasy. ‘Perhaps you’d like me to give you a tour of the ship? ’
Hayden thought for a few seconds. ‘Would I!’ He smiled enthusiastically, rationalising that doing so could inject some focus, some realism into the situation. If he could see how things worked mechanically, he could go from there. ‘When?’
Baden smiled and returned to his chair, ‘Well not just yet,’ he said casually, raising his eyebrows with a nod toward the huge elliptical main viewing window. Hayden suddenly became aware of the engines monotonous rumble in the background and his jaw dropped at what he saw beyond.
Eternity.
The Copernicus was flying through space! Again, he tried to make sense of what was happening. He looked to his mother but all he could do was stare for he felt as if he were in a dream and not there at all. Jonah leant over and prodded the back of his nephew’s shoulder so that he’d snap out of the trance he was in but when he did, Hayden became acutely aware of what Captain Baden was casually referring to and cocked his head to one side in further astonishment. In front of them, a few hundred or so kilometres out, an awesome field of rolling asteroids came into sharp focus. Hayden, almost completely dazed in the moment, hoped that the captain could handle the Copernicus as well as he drove the old school bus? ‘Hope the brakes are better on this thing Barry - I mean -’
‘It’s alright, Hayd,’ Baden interrupted. ‘This old thing’s a beaut.’
The sight ahead, despite the danger, was simply incredible. Millions of reddish brown rocks ranging in size from stones to small planetoids inundated the wide screen. The immense boulders seemed to spin in slow-motion, some battering into each other with awesome force. We could be atomized! Hayden quite rightly feared.
‘Even a small one could do considerable damage if not for our defensive shields,’ Baden revealed, correct about what his young guest was thinking.
Jonah also observed his nephew’s trepidation. ‘We’ve done this many times before, Hayden.’
‘I hope so.’ He answered, immediately imagining them being crushed like an aluminium can hit by sledge hammer. He also wondered when his uncle had had the time to do this many times before.
Captain Baden continued, in Barry’s voice, familiar and calming.
‘The shields are powerful enough to protect us,’ he said as he swirled his right index finger at the view screen and at the many megatons of rock tumbling unceasingly before them. ‘They’re all in relatively stable orbit. It’s the mid-sized units that we need to be wary of. They can be very erratic if glancing -’
‘Glancing?’ Hayden, unable to remove his eyes from the screen, interrupted.
‘When they bounce off of each other,’ Jonah answered.
‘The giants are fine. The ship’s Nav-Com has their orbits locked in,’ Baden continued.
Hayden’s concern was only somewhat relieved. ‘Why do we even need to go in there at all? ’
‘In there, Hayden, is our first port of call.’
Hayden could only imagine what he was talking about while the crew went about their business. The captain plotted a course out aloud to his first-mate who was standing slightly behind the captain’s chair at a dais-like control console. He was a short fat man with a ruddy, unshaven complexion and what was left of mousy brown hair that skirted the rim of his equally ruddy but shiny skull. To Hayden, he looked very much like what he would have imagined a space- monk to look like if indeed there was such a thing as a space- monk. He was dressed like all the other crew excepting that he had a thick yellow stripe running down the outside arms of his uniform, to presumably (like all the other variations in the uniforms) indicate rank. He was someone who Hayden didn’t recognise but that didn’t really matter as he was sure there’d be many such people on the ship that he didn’t.
‘Steady to port,’ the Captain calmly requested.
‘Steady ta’ port,’ the mate repeated in a small weak voice that Hayden thought didn’t suit his role. The ship moved to the left.
‘Shields up,’ Baden ordered.
‘Shields up,’ repeated the First Mate.
‘Shields up,’ replied a crew member that Hayden hoped was really good at being in charge of the shields.
If there was a visual difference with the shields up Hayden couldn’t see it. He was quickly realising that he’d need to put his faith in a great many things in this new universe he now found himself.
A gap in the belt opened before them and without hesitation Captain Baden ordered ‘Ahead three fifths.’
After the mate repeated the command a communicator relayed confirmation of the order from an engineer in the engine room. Hayden noticed that small orange lights appeared atop every operator’s control station with one large orange light above the main view screen. ‘Grab a seat and buckle up, Hayd,’ his uncle insisted and he took hold of the backrest of the nearest chair but he needn’t have. As he felt the ship push powerfully forward, he let go of the chair and stood his ground but not for long as the engines roared making the ship vibrate and he fell over. Jonah leant down and lifted his nephew back to his feet and held on to him. ‘You okay?’ He nodded that he was. Only hours ago I was chopping wood at home. Hayden thought, rubbing his left side and remembering the small mountainside tremors.
Faint zinging sounds from above and below the ship inundated the bridge. ‘Small debris hitting the shields,’ the first-mate sullenly but helpfully pointed out to Hayden.
‘The shield acts like second and third skins to the ship’s hull. They’re reverse polarity electromagnetic-field skins,’ Baden added. Despite being securely held, Hayden’s reflexes got the better of him and he ducked and weaved instinctively, watching the immense geological bulk rapidly fly past.
The gap ahead was getting larger, and though he was pretty scared, far more than the others were, if indeed they were, he was filled with wonder at the sights before him. He looked at the man commanding the Copernicus who only the day before he knew as ‘Barry the bus driver’ and who now was a captain of an actual spaceship guiding them through an immense asteroid field! What else was going to be thrown his way? A huge rock far ahead drew nearer and still nearer and Hayden realised that it looked like they were headed for it.
‘We are very almost at Salar-One,’ Jonah stated. ‘I haven’t been here for a while now.’ Hearing this, Hayden looked up at his uncle as the ship rocked slightly then he looked back out into space. He felt like someone at a party of strangers who was left out of an in- joke.
&nbs
p; ‘Salar-One. Salar-One. Do you copy?’ A communications operator asked of whomever was his equivalent on the small red orb that was growing larger by the second. As far as Hayden could tell they were through the worst of the field as now only the odd small one flew past or zinged into the shield.
There was no response from the Comms officer’s opposite.
‘Salar-One. Salar-One. Do you copy? This is transport-class ship Copernicus requesting docking. Do you copy?’
There was complete silence over the communicator.
‘Could be in’erference Captain? ’ The first-mate gruffly offered.
‘We have clear line-of-sight. We shouldn’t lose comms. ’
All on the bridge waited with bated breath as quite obviously no one wanted to be stranded in an asteroid field.
Finally, crackling over the communications pod they heard a response. ‘-Transport-class ship Copernicus. This is Salar-One. We will allocate docking bay 3. Send registration confirmation and when confirmed the dock shield deactivation will progress.’
‘Received Salar-One,’ the comms officer responded happily then paused to look about the bridge at the smiling faces. ‘Copernicus commencing docking run.’ The rest of the crew clapped and a few whistled and even his mother and uncle looked relieved.
Hayden watched the satellite base get larger and larger on screen, he paying more attention than most, his eyes tracing the limits of the field and settling on the immense vibrant sphere that was apparently known as Salar-Prime.
Captain Baden turned to Hayden. ‘It is not in the Salar-Belt that one wants to be stranded young prince. ’
‘Could we really have been stranded out here?’ Hayden asked.
‘It’s never happened to us before,’ Baden paused. ‘I have heard of times when ships have had to wait as the bays have been very busy.’
The Blake Equation- Discovery Page 7
