by Bob Mauldin
“Hon,” Simon asked softly, “how did you get the computer to talk to you?”
Kitty let go of the power arm and waved her hand nonchalantly. First she said, “Computer, take us slowly to orbit, then let me know.” She looked up at Simon, her whole posture screaming for attention. “Once I had the power to the control panels on, all I did was ask myself a question out loud and the computer asked if it was a request for information. After my heart started beating again, I asked, and it answered.” She sat silent for a while, listening to the sounds moving the ship farther from Earth. “Then I had to decide whether we’re really going to turn over what we’ve found or find a way to keep it.”
Simon interrupted. “You had to decide?”
“Yes, Dear. After all, I am the one flying the ship. And that’s another thing. I say we keep it. You will have to be in charge of most things. Any recruits we manage to find will respond to a mature male quicker than a tiny, red-headed girl.” Simon sat back, apparently thinking about what his wife had just said.
The view outside the cockpit window took on the true colors of space ... black highlighted by every color in the rainbow, or to be more precise, in the stellar spectrum. The Earth’s atmosphere washes out the color from most of the smaller stars, leaving a neutral white speck. Beyond the upper reaches of the atmosphere, the stars gleamed like jewels strewn upon the velvet darkness of space. Kitty watched the slowly changing vista for a while, and then moved the attitude control a fraction, turning the shuttle so that they were able to view Earth from an ever-increasing height.
“Oh, my God.” Kitty looked over her shoulder to find Gayle standing there, one hand on the back of Kitty’s chair. Gayle was staring at the planet below. “I think I can make out Japan down there,” she said pointing.
“Right,” Kitty said. “And there is the northern part of Australia. They are just starting their morning. If we keep on going, we’ll see the lights of some of the larger cities of Russia and Europe.”
Simon, mouth open, got interrupted. “We have reached,” the computer announced, “twelve thousand miles above the planet’s surface. If you wish to dock, begin reducing power by pushing the power arm forward until the image of the ship is stable in the holographic display.”
Kitty gently eased the power arm forward until the image of the ship was centered in the display and holding position above the Earth. She let out a sigh and dropped both hands into her lap, massaging her forearms. She looked into the display. No medium-size dot. “Computer, can you increase the range of our scanners?”
“Navigation station has the controls for that as well as the homing beacon. Left-side station.”
Kitty waved Gayle back to the station. “Let’s find the ship first. Gayle press whatever flashes and we can see what happens.”
“Okay,” came back with little enthusiasm. “I just hope that I don’t open the door or something.”
“Certain actions are not possible when the vessel is in flight status.”
“That’s just reassuring as all get-out,” Gayle said sarcastically. Presently a pulsing green dot appeared in the display. Kitty, now comfortable with the controls, moved the shuttle closer.
Gayle had a confused look on her face. “Kitty, what are covert systems?”
Kitty stared at the holo-display glowing in the forward window and twitched the control arm, adjusting their course, watching the dot that represented their ship move closer to the dot the computer called the Dalgor Kreth. “Simon would be better able to answer that, really.”
“Not really, Gayle,” Simon demurred. “I don’t know any more about this stuff than you do. But I have to agree with Kitty. The term covert systems could apply to any number of things technology-wise. It does look like it foxes radar though.”
Kitty sat up straight in her chair. “No cuts, bruises or contusions, ladies and gentlemen,” she said lightly. Simon looked at her, asking with his eyes. She pointed out the window. “I think we’ve reached our destination.”
Gayle was the first to see it. “Looks like a two-by-four from here,” she observed.
“That ‘two-by-four’ has room to park this shuttle, two others, and something called a fuel scoop,” Kitty stated quietly. “We’re still a long way off.”
Simon peered out at the sight. “I don’t have anything to reference it against. How big is the damned thing?”
“The Dalgor Kreth is two hundred thirty-six feet high, six hundred and eighteen feet wide, and three thousand eight hundred forty-one feet long,” offered the computer.
As they approached, the shuttle seemed to slow down on its own. The size of the larger vessel became more apparent the closer they got. Simon began to comprehend the true size when a door slowly opened low on the side of the gigantic craft. “It’s huge! Something like this had to be built in orbit. I wonder if they’ve had any contact with humans before?”
“From what Kitty told me, I’d have to guess not,” Gayle offered. “Otherwise, the alien would have been able to speak English, don’t you think?” Simon remained silent.
The shuttle floated into a large space in the side of the gigantic mother ship. Noises and vibrations came from beneath their feet, then the ship settled onto the floor of the chamber. Several seconds later, the noises they had come to associate with an active ship began to disappear one by one as the ship shut itself down. “I guess you never really know what you hear until you can’t hear it anymore,” Kitty said. “So, this is the end of the trip. What do we do now?”
“We should definitely leave the ship, this one, that is. We need to find out if the alien meant that the crew of the shuttle died of the plague or the crew of this bigger ship, too.” Simon suited action to words and headed for the exit ramp.
Two buttons were flashing alternately when he arrived at the door. Gayle looked at them and asked, “What does that mean?”
“How about, leave them alone for a while? Could be that something isn’t ready to operate,” Kitty surmised, looking over her shoulder at the other door and imagining that she could see that one flashing, too
Simon was about to comment when the panel steadied down. He reached out and pressed the button with the open ramp symbol on it. “My guess is that the atmosphere had to equalize,” he said as the door first popped out about four inches, then opened. Simon stepped out onto the ramp and shivered. “Cold out here.”
Large enough to hold the shuttle and three others as well, the room was lit by the same dim red light as the inside of the shuttle. Simon walked to the front of the shuttle and looked down the line of vessels. Theirs sat at one end of the row.
Kitty’s voice brought his attention back. “This one looks like ours, don’t you think?” She stood on the deck a bit forward of the ramp, hands on hips, looking from one vessel to another.
Simon peered into the gloom. While the hanger, for that was all he could think of calling it, was definitely brighter than the inside of the shuttle, it didn’t do much to help human vision. Kitty’s form was little more than a silhouette she stood at the mid-point of the shuttle about seventy-five feet away. “I think so, Dear,” he said, pitching his voice to carry without quite yelling. “The next space over has another ship that looks the same from here. Looks like a fourth ship parked way down there, but I’m not positive. I’m going to take a quick look.”
Simon strode down the line of ships until he stood in front of the fourth one. The ship sitting there bore only a slight resemblance to the other shuttles. More squat, no windows at all, and somehow it seemed more ... used, more worn. He walked back to where Kitty waited, straining to make out details in the reddish half-light. To his left was the hatch that served as exits for the ships he passed. His steps quickened when his imagination gave him all the gory details of what could happen if someone cycled the airlock while they were out of a ship. At the same time, his mind felt numb as the implications of what they were doing finally struck home.
Simon reached Kitty and slid
his arm around her waist. She hugged him back, then quickly pushed away, looked him in the eyes, and said, “We are standing in an alien spaceship, and you go wandering off! Both of you! And left me standing here! What the hell got into you?” The tremor in her voice told him just how tightly she was wound.
Simon was saved from having to respond when Gayle appeared out of the gloom. “I found a door in the wall back that way. Looks like a more complicated system than on the shuttle though.” She nodded her head over her shoulder back in the direction she had just come from.
“Well, then, that would be where we need to be,” Simon declared, a feeling of unease settling onto his shoulders. “Ladies, let’s go.” He put his arm back around Kitty’s waist and pulled her close. “Unless you’d rather stay here?” he asked jokingly.
“No, I’m coming, Simon,” Kitty said. “Where you go, I go. That’s what I promised fifteen years ago. I just didn’t imagine this!” Her voice started to quiver and she took a deep breath, eyes closed. “We’re here, on an alien spaceship, twelve thousand miles above the Earth. It just takes some getting used to.” She waved a hand in the direction Gayle had indicated. “But, maybe we should get started, so let’s go.”
Her enthusiasm growing more evident with each step, Kitty walked alongside Simon, disengaging his arm from around her waist and sliding her hand into his. Her head moved from side to side as she looked for some sign of the inhabitants, passengers, crew, of this larger ship. Gayle, right behind her, was doing the same. “So, what did you see?”
“Just about the strangest thing I ever saw,” Simon proclaimed.
Kitty began to hiccup followed immediately by hysterical laughter.
Simon noted the manic quality in her laughter. “What’s the matter, Hon?”
“What the matter is, is that we are on a spaceship God only knows how many miles from home and you just saw the strangest thing in the world, that’s what. The first thing that went through my mind was, How did your mother get here ahead of us? Okay, so she’s not exactly strange, just a little bit eccentric,” Kitty temporized, “but my mind isn’t exactly working right at the moment. Can you say for sure that yours is?”
“Well, no,” Simon agreed sheepishly.
“So, what’s so strange, Simon?” Gayle asked lightly, trying to divert the conversation onto another track. “If it’s not your mother, what is it?”
“Don’t you start, too!” Simon growled. “Just a weird ship. Sorta like these three shuttles, but more ... I don’t know. Just different. You should see it.”
“Okay, Dear. Why don’t we do that before we leave here? We might not get another chance for a while.”
The trio walked around the front of the second shuttle, affording everyone a better view of that quarter, and moved across the open space to stare at the squat, half-melted-looking ship sitting alone at the side of the room. Roughly the size and shape of the shuttle they had ridden up here, it had a broader, less aerodynamic bow, and didn’t seem to have any view-ports or access except through a front opening that resembled a scoop. Its battered appearance gave it the impression of being either very old or heavily armored and even more heavily used.
“You’re right, Simon, that’s even stranger than your mother.” Kitty giggled. “Sorry, Darling, I’ll get myself under control sooner or later.”
“Sooner would be better,” he growled under his breath. Aloud he said, “I’d like to get a better look at that one. Why so beat up?”
“We can do that some other time, maybe,” Kitty said, clearly uninterested in the strange ship. “I can’t help but feel that there’s someone here, somewhere. How sure can we be that we’re alone on this thing?”
CHAPTER FIVE
“If I was running the show,” Simon said, “I’d be right on the other side.” He indicated the door Gayle had found in the back wall of the landing bay. “I’d expect someone on the other side of this door except that we’ve been here for over half-an-hour now. Maybe that alien actually meant that the ship is uninhabited.”
“That’s fine for you to say, but I’m not in as big a hurry as you are,” Gayle said, standing beside him. “Kitty, I’m going to borrow one side of your husband for comfort. You can have the other.” She moved back a step and looked around Simon at the door. Placing her right hand on his shoulder, she looked at Kitty and reached for her hand.
Simon looked over the door. Not really more complicated, just more moving parts. A wheel was centered in the door, twelve cantilevered bars attached, much like watertight hatches in use on Earth. The door opened outward. “I think that if this side was still in vacuum, this door wouldn’t open, anyway. The pressure on the other side would keep it shut. Like in a submarine,” he said to the girls. “Ready?”
“No,” Gayle said flatly.
“Not really,” Kitty agreed, “but go ahead. We’re out of options, aren’t we?”
Simon shrugged, stepped forward and turned wheel firmly. The bars smoothly disengaged from the bulkhead and the wheel stopped with a faint click.
When nothing happened, he pushed on the door and it opened as smoothly as the ones in the shuttle. This far more massive door absorbed the energy of Simon’s push and stopped about half-way open. The sight that greeted them was ... anti-climactic. The same red light, and the deck plates continued on into the murky distance, nothing in sight but the floor. Simon spoke first. “There’s nothing. Warmer, though. Let’s look around.”
“This is going from scary to spooky,” Kitty said. Simon pushed harder on the door. Before he could stop it, the door pivoted all the way around and banged against the metal bulkhead.
The resultant clang echoed back twice, indicating a very large open space ahead of them. “Well, there went our last chance to sneak up on ‘em,” he quipped, stepping through the hatch. “If any of them still exist, remember.”
Kitty and Gayle followed Simon through the door into a red-tinged, nearly formless void. The only point of reality was the deck stretching out of sight until Kitty reached back and grabbed the wall for support. She tilted her head up, eyes following the wall into the gloom and saw a straight line. Immediately, her depth perception asserted itself and she recognized the ceiling about twenty-five feet above her head. She let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding.
Simon heard and turned away from his fruitless scan of the area in their immediate vicinity. “What? Are you okay, Hon?”
Kitty smiled. Even though his face was in deep shadow, she knew the worry lines were pinching the corners of his eyes in a most unattractive manner. “I’m fine, Love. I just discovered the ceiling.” She knew it sounded inane, but she didn’t care.
Simon and Gayle looked up as well. Kitty saw the gleam in Simon’s eye when he looked back at her. “Now I don’t feel like I’m under a microscope. Just a bug on a plate. A subtle difference, but an improvement, I think.”
“Wanna make a map or something?” Gayle asked. “I have a notebook and pen in the Jeep.” She laughed nervously. “Or we could leave a trail of shredded paper. A paper trail. Get it?”
“Not a bad idea,” Kitty agreed. “I’ll get them and handle making the map. Maybe it’ll help me stay focused.” She glared meaningfully at Simon and walked purposefully back to the shuttle. She had complained only moments before about being left alone and now she was walking off on her own to prove ... what?
Not being able to see the far side of the room due to the dim lighting, Simon chose to begin the map from the open shuttle bay door. He arbitrarily turned right and began counting paces aloud while he considered the notion of confronting Kitty about her inconsistent behavior. A team leader needed to be able to depend on the actions and attitudes of his team. And she had specifically asked him to act as a team leader, thinking of her as an asset rather than a wife.
It was hard, but he was trying. He realized before opening his mouth that he had almost fallen into the trap of thinking that he was really on an assignment. He decid
ed, also, that the two women were holding up remarkably well under the circumstances and that discretion was certainly the better part of valor.
A door appeared out of the gloom. This one had a small, lighted panel next to it. Set into the bottom of the panel was an icon that could be interpreted as an up arrow if one stretched a point, or maybe an ‘A’ without its cross-bar. Touching it opened the door onto a small chamber that would be crowded with a dozen people in it. A strip of buttons graced the inside wall next to the open door, the bottom one lit. “Elevator. I’ll bet on it. Looks like I’ve got a new saying for a while: Form follows function. Let’s see what else we can find. I suggest we finish walking the perimeter of this… room.”
“You’re in charge of the reconnaissance mission, Dear,” Kitty said. Gayle remained uncharacteristically silent.
The first piece of… machinery… that manifested out of the gloom startled the explorers at first. While looking the device over, whether accidentally or not, Gayle pushed a button set apart from the others. A faint hum emanated from somewhere inside the thing and it rose up off the floor about four inches.
The noise made Simon jump. When the machine rose in the air, he said, “Okay. Who did what? We need to be careful here. I don’t want anybody getting hurt. We’re a long way from a doctor.”
“Sorry, Simon,” Gayle said, her voice not quite carrying the sentiment. “I’ll be more careful.” She pushed the button again, this time obviously, and the hum died out as the thing settled back to the floor.
The mysterious shapes that presented themselves after that didn’t evoke as much apprehension as the first. Several different types of machines were noted during the walk-around of the room, and numerous racks affixed to sections of the walls held unidentifiable objects. Tools, possibly? Reaching a second corner he announced, “A little over two thousand feet. I figured this thing was big when we started to dock with it, but two thousand feet?”
