Reunion

by Greg Mutton

  Aaron stopped. ‘Don’t start,’ he spoke to the cat. ’I know what I’m doing.’ Prince appeared to give a feline version of a shrug and curled up to sleep.

  Inside Aaron was filled with questions and a strange feeling deep in his gut. He kept pacing, back and forth, trying to piece the puzzle together in his mind. It was like the solution was there, just out of reach, but no matter how hard he tried to stretch his mind, he just couldn’t grasp it.

  Then, finally he remembered an old Zandian meditation trick one of his crew had taught him many years ago. He dimmed the lights and lay on the bed and started the ritual. He focussed all his mental energy on a single spot, letting all his questions float out of that spot. Slowly, very slowly, he began to descend into the meditative trance, allowing his mind to free itself of any questions or concerns and pave a way for the solution to find him.

  ***

  Aaron could hear a sound, like a bell chiming — but couldn’t understand what it was. It sounded again. Slowly the fog of his meditative state cleared and he realised it was his door annunciator. ‘Enter,’ he called.

  ‘Sorry to disturb you Sir. This just came in on the encrypted channel.’ Lieutenant Commander Albrecht stood at the door with a message pad in her hand. Aaron let her in and moved to his console, activating the message and noting the time: 14:32. He had been in a meditative state for most of the day, and still a solution evaded him.

  ‘Commander, have you replied to this?’ Aaron called from his console.

  ‘No. I couldn’t decode it, so I recorded it and brought it straight here,’ Kate replied.

  ‘What time did it arrive?’

  ‘About seven minutes ago.’

  ‘It doesn’t make any sense. It says that the Coalition Space Corps wants us to divert to Medros 6 and await further instruction. It’s an old encryption but still valid; but there’s no originator or authentication.’ Aaron paused. ‘Is Simon still on duty?’ Dumb question, he thought—these two are always on duty together. He pressed the communicator on his console.

  ‘Navigator, can you come to my cabin please,’ he paused. ‘And wake Commander Mannix, she needs to be read in on this.’ Two minutes later, the door chimed again and Simon Holm entered, with Petra close behind him. Aaron directed her to the console where she read the communique.

  ‘Simon, what’s at Medros Six?’ Aaron asked.

  Simon thought for a moment. ‘Nothing, it’s basically a rock… no life… a barely breathable atmosphere and not much else. It’s in the middle of nowhere, totally off any main flight paths.’

  ‘Who’s in the chair now?’ Aaron asked.

  ‘Holland Sir,’ Kate replied.

  ‘Good. Call David and meet us in the ready room in ten minutes,’ Aaron commanded and Simon and Kate headed back to the door. ‘Number One, a moment please,’ Simon and Kate left and Aaron turned to Petra. ‘Can you collect our guest and bring him to the ready room in about fifteen minutes? It’s time everyone found out what we’re doing.’

  As she walked past towards the door, their hands brushed, a momentary and almost imperceptible contact, but Aaron felt that, now-familiar electric shock; the hairs on his arm began to stand and he had that strange fluttering in his stomach again. Their eyes met for the briefest of moments, but to Aaron, it seemed that their gaze locked for an hour.

  Petra refocused. ‘I’ll go and wake your guest.’

  ‘Y… yes,’ Aaron stammered, his throat felt bone dry. ‘Be careful… he may be a good friend but he has a reputation… if you know what I mean.’

  ‘Yes Sir, I understand. I think I can handle myself, don’t you?’ Without waiting for an answer, she opened the door and was gone. Aaron just stood in the same spot, his mind reeling, his heart racing.

  Simon, Kate and David were waiting for their Captain when he entered the ready room ten minutes later.

  ‘I know I’ve been a bit vague lately, but you’ll all see why soon.’ Aaron moved to his desk and brought up the message they had received from Coalition Space Corps. ‘Anyone have any thoughts on this?’

  Dave Carter spoke up and shook his head. ‘Only that it makes no bloody sense at all! Medros six is so far out of the way; why send us there?’ As he finished, the door opened and Petra entered, followed by Admiral Dokad.

  ‘I want to introduce my guest,’ Aaron said, ‘and the reason for this trip. Admiral Dokad, this is my senior staff.’ A hush came over the room as Aaron made the introductions — the Admiral dismissing any formalities. When introductions were complete, Aaron turned back to his staff.

  ‘Please sit, this will take a bit to explain. I was asked by Prime Grainger to deliver the Admiral safely to Earth. He also intimated that we could run into some complications and we should be careful; I think we know what he meant now. My problem is that I hate not knowing what is going on around me and I will not put my crew in harm’s way unless we are all aware of the risks. The developments we have seen make it imperative you all know what the score is. Admiral, can you please enlighten my staff?’

  Admiral Dokad stood as Aaron sat beside Petra. ‘Firstly, I must apologise for any danger I have placed you in and thank each of you for helping me. Believe me, your actions may be the most significant ever.’ He paused to gauge their reaction, before continuing.

  ‘I believe you all are aware of the structure of our society. What no-one is aware of is that it is currently in crisis. Our Emperor is gravely ill and will soon die. This would normally be a period of transition with his named successor taking over. Unfortunately his successor, his eldest son, is a weakling, with no military experience and more importantly, no backing from the Todak council. There is a great deal of posturing and intrigue going on.

  ‘To stop this, Da’Lak, the heir apparent, formally abdicated his position and will name another to take the throne on the death of his father. There has been an undercurrent of dissatisfaction and several Todak’s have removed themselves from the council and a program of de-stabilisation has begun. The apparent assassination attempt on me was part of this.’ He paused, catching breath.

  ‘But this, in itself, is nothing new for us. We have a rich history of coups, uprisings and power games. In isolation, all this is just business as usual in Krell politics. But there is another element that I believe is more far reaching.

  ‘The rebelling Todaks have joined forces, something that is very unusual. But what’s even more interesting … they have elected their own leader. And this leader has formed alliances with dissidents on some of the Coalition colonies. This human element seems to be led by one person … but the identity still eludes me.

  ‘As you all know, the peace treaty that has allowed both of our societies to thrive has led us to dramatically reduce our military forces. It seems that our mutual opponents, however, have been doing the exact opposite and arming themselves at an accelerated rate.

  ‘The reason I must meet with President Malik is to identify who the human component of this action is, and stop it before it becomes too difficult.’ He stopped and studied his audience, noting the grave faces.

  Aaron looked quizzically at the Admiral. ‘I still don’t understand the significance of the transmission we received or where Ga’Dok fits.’

  ‘Ga’Dok is the leader of a minor family siding with the dissidents,’ Dokad answered, ‘but he has risen much too fast to be discounted. The fact that he commands a battle group attests to that,’ he stated with conviction. ‘Why anyone would request you to wait at Medros Six is mystifying, but it is part of Ga’Dok’s family holdings. Actually, it is the reason his family met with hard times. His father’s father invested heavily in a mining operation on that rock. It was a spectacular failure, one almost of legend. They were trying to mine a new source of energy, a mineral that humans had played with unsuccessfully; Trisidium.’

  The very mention of this caused the hairs on the back of Aaron’s neck to stand. He interrupted Dokad. ‘My great, great, grandfather had some stories about that mineral! It’s extremely
rare, as it is only found in a few places in the whole galaxy. In its unrefined state it’s inert and not very impressive. At one time the human race tried to harness its potential, one of the most brilliant human minds, Eugene Sarclan, discovered that it could be processed into an energy source to power existing nuclear reactors, with a huge increase in output and efficiency.

  ‘At the time Earth was dying and energy was in very short supply, Trisidic Reactors, as they became known, could have been the answer we had been looking for. We discovered one problem though: nothing could shield us from the radiation and thousands died. Sarclan also developed a genetic patch… basically a mutation of the human genome that enabled us to cope with limited exposure.’

  ‘Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your point of view, the coalition government decided to ban any use or development of Trisidium. All reactors were demolished and any refined ore remaining was sent into our sun. There was some political and civil unrest as the company that developed the technology went into liquidation. With his company now defunct, Sarclan began a campaign of political sniping, fanning unrest and rebellion.

  ‘They even gave his group a name… the Sarclan Sedition. Eugene Sarclan was a pure genius, but also a sociopathic egomaniac. Eventually he was subdued and, with the last of his followers, he left earth never to be heard of again.’ Aaron focussed on Dokad. ‘I never knew your people also played with this mineral.’

  The Admiral looked back at Aaron. ‘Unfortunately we did. It has a much worse effect on the Krell physiology than yours. Millions died before it was banned. We thought we would never hear of this mineral again. We were wrong! It appears that our Emperor has been exposed to Trisidic radiation. That is what’s killing him and, I fear others in the Imperial family may also have been exposed.’

  The gravity of the situation was now evident. It was David Carter who spoke next. ‘Then this message must be a trap, or a ruse to locate us. If we answer, our subspace transmission may be tracked.’

  ‘Simon, what is our displacement status?’ Aaron asked.

  ‘Currently twelve, and steady.’

  Aaron started pacing again. ‘What would happen if we increased the displacement?’

  ‘Shit skipper, I really don’t know.’ Travelling in hyperspace was a very delicate operation and any changes while in the worm hole were not something to be considered lightly. ‘It’d throw our reinsertion way out… I’ve never done it before.’ Simon sounded worried.

  ‘If we increase the displacement, we change our entire flight profile, not to mention the fact that we really don’t know what other things we would alter. We’ve calculated our reinsertion to the millisecond… any change in the displacement will change our reinsertion timing. Effectively, we may arrive earlier, but Earth will not be in the same place. Nothing will! I’ll need to work this out very carefully, but it’s not something I’d recommend.’

  Aaron could see it was a huge dilemma, for Simon. ‘Ok, let’s assume it is not a viable course of action. I’m just thinking out loud and I want all of you to do the same. I agree… if we comply with this request, we’ll end up in a world of hurt. Also, I believe that if we respond, it will allow our position to be pin-pointed. How about a delayed transmission?’ Aaron suggested. ‘What if we drop a drone and it sends a response timed to give the impression the transmission is from Condor? That should give us enough time to clear the area.’

  ‘Could be done,’ Dave Carter added. ‘We drop a drone in its’ own displacement field, leave a timed message, and be long gone when it transmits.’

  ‘Seems we have been well and truly dropped in the proverbial,’ Simon added wryly. ‘While we are reasonably safe here in the worm hole, we are still three and a half hours from any Coalition assistance. We might as well be on the far side of the galaxy.’

  Aaron spoke again. ‘We still have one ace… we could jump.’ He paused, waiting for any comments. ‘Simon, I need you to work out where we can reinsert and initiate a jump immediately — just a precaution. I think Dave’s proposal will work, but just in case…’ his voice trailed off, Simon got the message.

  ‘Number Two, you and Lieutenant Holland set up the drone, set the delay timing for fifteen minutes; any longer would look suspicious. Also, send a message to Earth and Argos informing them of the situation; heavily encrypted of course. David, spin up the weapons again and wake everyone up; we need to be ready. Number One, I need you to take the con.’ Aaron turned to Dokad. ‘Admiral, would you care to join our bridge team?’

  As Aaron and the Admiral entered the bridge, Simon motioned to his skipper. ‘The only jump point that coincides with a possible reinsertion will be in…’ he looked back at the clock, ‘twenty two minutes.’

  Aaron patted his navigator on the back. ‘Good work. We’ll know if the drone worked or not by then; proceed as if we are going to initiate. How long would the jump take?’

  ‘Three minutes and twenty six seconds.’

  ‘Drone’s ready, Captain,’ Petra called from the con.

  ‘Release,’ Aaron replied. The Communication drone was ejected from the rear torpedo bay. It was caught, momentarily, in Condor’s displacement wake, but soon began to fade into the distance.

  ‘Number Two, what’s the sequence?’

  Kate looked up from her console. ‘Fifteen minutes: a dual burst transmission to Earth and Argos; ten seconds later a standard sub space transmission to reply to the original message; thirty seconds later the displacement field will collapse and the drone will commence its self-destruct sequence — timed for another thirty seconds.’

  Thirty seconds would give the drone enough time to reinsert into normal space before self-destruct — the last thing anybody wanted was an explosion inside hyperspace. With the drone at a virtual standstill and Condor still travelling at a displacement of 12, there should be more than enough distance between them when it exploded. All eyes were on the timer on the view screen.

  Kate Albrecht’s voice broke the silence. ‘Transmission should be now.’

  Suddenly the sensor alarms sounded. Ensign Croker watched in horror as every sensor the ship had suddenly went crazy.

  ‘What the…?’ he cried. ‘The self-destruct must have cycled early, but that explosion was far too big!’

  Aaron leapt to his side. ‘That is a lot more than a drone self-destructing. Kate did the transmissions go out?’

  ‘Can’t confirm, but that explosion was twenty seconds after the second transmission was due to go,’ she replied. ‘Looks like someone didn’t like our answer,’

  Croker looked very worried. He motioned for Phillip Harper to join him; Aaron moved out of the way.

  ‘What’s the problem, Ensign?’ he asked.

  ‘Sir that was a huge explosion inside hyperspace… we can expect a sub-space shock wave, but with our sensors out, I can’t see it,’ Harper replied. Both he and Croker were frantically working on the sensor console.

  Minutes flew by; with tension on the bridge building. No-one spoke, the only sounds came from Croker and Harper as they desperately raced against time to restore the ship’s eyes. Finally, Harper spoke. ‘That should do it.’ As if by his command, the sensors came back online.

  Croker’s fingers raced across the panel, searching for any indication of the shock wave. ‘Got it… it’s out to about fifty million kilometres and growing, it’s expanding at a DF of fifteen’. He paused, watching the read outs. ‘Initial reading was fifteen now fourteen point five… and still growing!’

  Aaron’s face was a mask of concern. A shock wave in their worm hole would smash the ship like an egg shell.

  ‘Navigator, will it catch us?’

  Simon was now beside Croker with a Nav Pad, frantically working on the readings. Minutes passed before the image projected on the sensor screen showed the growing shock wave as a red ring.

  ‘Put it on the Bubble,’ Simon shouted. ‘Make the explosion epicentre the reference point!’

  The Bubble glowed and settled to show epicentr
e of the explosion as a brilliant red spot, and the shock wave as a growing red ball expanding from it. Condor was outside this field but was slowly being overtaken. Croker, Harper and Simon were a study of concentration, making more and more calculations until finally Croker looked up, relief etched across his face.

  ‘Captain, we’ll be okay. It’s slowing down; should start to dissipate in about five minutes… already its expansion is down to DF nine.’

  Just as it had started the energy wave disappeared; there was a collective sigh of relief. Again disaster had been avoided — for Condor at least. An explosion in space generates a ball of energy that dissipates slowly over time. A planetary explosion does the same but the atmosphere, terrain and other factors can limit its reach; in space there are no such limiting features. And In hyperspace the effect could be even more catastrophic, as previous accidents had proved.

  ‘Do we know of any other ships in the area?’ Petra asked. The thought of other travellers being caught was horrific. ‘We should send out a few probes to make sure.’

  Aaron nodded. ‘Good idea … make it happen, and record all data on the shock wave propagation.’ He looked back toward Dokad. ‘What sort of idiot would deliberately use a weapon in sub space?’ he asked in disbelief.’

  The Admiral shook his head and leaned against the comms console as Petra commenced to launch four new probes; hopefully they would find nothing, but they had to be certain.

  Aaron spoke briskly. ‘Send one directly into the epicentre; I want to know just what that was. If it was our drone, then we are the fools and need to make sure it can’t happen again. If not, it means that whoever did that has the ability to fire a weapon at a target in Hyperspace.’ That thought made him shiver.

  Croker was scratching his head as he worked his console.

  ‘Is there a problem, Ensign?’ Aaron asked.

  ‘Sir, if that was an explosion inside a worm hole my calculations show the shock wave should have grown to at least 500 million kilometres in diameter.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘Sir, this one dissipated almost completely at just over 100 million — like it just bled away. No, that’s not right; more like it just dumped instantly somewhere else.’ Croaker was obviously concerned.