Pete pulled up the activity logs of the orb. “Activation and duration seems very random. There’s no way to tell when it will light up again. This duration was shorter than most.” In a quieter voice Pete continued, “Do you think it’s time to let Grissom know?”
Timmy looked away from Pete, deep in thought.
***
The headaches would return, often in the middle of the night. The ship’s doctor could not offer any explanation, except that whatever the Gothans did must have affected his head in some way. Scans didn’t indicate any noticeable changes other than increased areas of brain activity.
Alex stumbled onto the fact that when he took a walk, the headache would diminish until it went away completely. But taking extended walks posed another problem. Being in close proximity to people in the hallway would expose him to their emotions, and he was still trying to figure out how to handle them.
After inspecting progress on clearing one of the corridors of debris he continued on his way with no particular destination in mind. A young woman was passing him. She was in her UEF uniform, her attention focused completely on her datapad. He knew that she was anticipating something momentous about to happen. It caused Alex to slow his step a bit and he looked back at her as he tried to discern the meaning of it. Doing so was always futile, however, as the details would never emerge, just the feeling.
Another crewman walked by, and this time Alex almost didn’t feel his emotional state. Alex wondered if this guy was immune or different somehow.
“Hey,” Alex said, looking back. Immediately he felt the feeling of shock from the crewman as he too turned around to look at him. “Sorry, wrong person, never mind.”
“Yes, sir,” the crewman responded and continued walking.
Alex turned the corner and was now walking up a slight incline toward the next deck. There were several people in this corridor. Two walking in the same direction as he was, about twenty-five feet in front of him. Alex tried to focus on them but he couldn’t feel their emotions. Maybe he could sense they were there but he wasn’t sure if that was just his mind playing tricks on him or if it was actual emotions, like a slight pressure.
Someone walking toward him interrupted his thoughts. Anger, rage, great sadness, shifting wildly. Yet his face appeared calm and passive. It affected Alex; he couldn’t focus on what he was just thinking about. He noticed the man’s rank before he passed him.
“Lieutenant, what is wrong?” Alex stopped to wait for an answer. He now felt deep frustration from the lieutenant as he too came to a stop in the corridor.
“Nothing, sir, what do you mean?”
Alex lied and said, “Your anger is plastered across your face, Lieutenant. Out with it.”
After a few moments it was Alex that began to get frustrated as an answer was not forthcoming. “Lieutenant, I am busy, and yet I am not leaving here until I get an answer.”
The lieutenant sighed deeply, “It’s nothing, sir, I just caught my girlfriend with someone else. I was walking it off.”
The feeling of deep embarrassment came bursting into his mind and Alex regretted bothering the man, because now he had no idea what to say. Alex tried to appear as sympathetic as he could and managed to say, “Carry on.”
Alex continued walking and felt yet another crewman who had similar feelings; this time Alex didn’t say anything and allowed the crewman to continue on. That decision preoccupied him for quite some time, since he reasoned that it wasn’t likely that this crewman too was experiencing the same issue, a cheating girlfriend, but he didn’t inquire about it. He felt conflicted: individual privacy, or his duty as captain? Where would he draw the line?
He approached the bridge, just outside of which two crewmen stood talking. Alex tried as much as he could to ignore them and block their emotions. It was like trying to push a mountain, pointless. Their feelings were calm and steady. Their calm emotional state gave Alex more thankfulness than he would have anticipated.
There were two people on the bridge when Alex walked in. Neither noticed his arrival.
“What is the ETA to our current destination?” Alex asked.
Both crewmen were startled in their bridge chairs. One frantically closed a bunch of screens to get to the navigation screen. “Fourteen hours, sir!”
“Very well, carry on.” Alex turned away and walked the short distance to his cabin, passing once again the two crewmen conversing in the corridor.
In his quarters, Alex once again tried to lie down and go to sleep, his headache completely gone. His mind was still actively thinking about his new ability, contemplating all the reasons Timmy had them going to a system they had already visited and which was completely empty of anything of interest. He eventually considered those he had lost, like Mason and then Amanda. He reached over toward the second pillow on his bed and imagined her being there, if only for a moment. Sleep continued to elude him. He tossed and turned in his bed far longer than he should have.
Alex awoke with a startle, the ship’s intercom announcing “We are approaching Wolf 151. Please man your stations, ETA fifteen minutes.” Then the message repeated a second and third time.
Reaching over, Alex put on his ship’s earpiece that would link him with Symboli and with Lanora. Only then was he curious if he could sense Symboli, and he made a mental note to go visit its tank. After getting dressed Alex headed for the bridge.
He walked onto the bridge and was relieved that no one shouted, ‘Captain on the bridge.’ He had created an order to stop that kind of thing at the last briefing. He calmly walked over and sat down in his chair next to the ship’s XO, Lanora. He noted Fena and Jack nearby.
“You feeling OK, Sleeping Beauty?” Lanora said.
“Actually, I slept about two hours. I tossed and turned a lot.”
“And wandered the halls, it seems. Symboli gave me an account of the many laps around the ship you have completed since you returned from the planet. Quite impressive.”
Alex eyed his display screens, which showed a countdown timer: ETA 1:43…1:42…1:41.
“Jack, do we have weapons?” Alex asked without looked toward him.
“We have one decoupler. Missile tubes need to be replaced, forward-facing mini-guns are destroyed. Pulse cannons are still down. If we have any trouble, our only real option is to retreat.” The timer continued to tick away.
Alex pulled up the repair schedule on the engineering screen. A few things were marked as having been repaired, but most items were still red or yellow.
“Coming out of FTL in three…two…one,” the pilot was saying.
The shipped shuddered briefly.
“That was the lightest transition yet,” Lanora said.
“Sensors coming online.”
Alex looked at the viewscreen, which showed a front view of the familiar system. Nothing appeared any different about it. To his right his XO was intently watching her display screen.
“Oh my God!” Fena and Lanora said simultaneously. Then the bridge was bathed in red.
Chapter 15
Automatic Response
Philip was actively communicating with a small community of digiforms he put together for his little creation team and was updating them with the information presented at the TIC.
“Philip, so explain to me how this works,” Dayanh asked, as she stood in the TIC and watched a graphical map of a large forested section of Brazil. Dozens of autonomous ground vehicles were being dropped from one of the largest cargo container transport ships in the UEF inventory.
On another screen multiple point-of-view video streams were being broadcasted from the drones moving around on the dense jungle floor, often getting stuck, then unstuck, and then stuck again. A small arm with a tiny saw blade would occasionally swing out and cut a small vine or other obstruction, or the drone would drive and lift itself over small logs or branches. Anything else would require terrain avoidance.
Philip was sitting next to Dayanh with his arms crossed. “So these drones will c
onduct an ever-widening search pattern until they attract some Zorn, then we drop off more drones in that area until we locate the queen.”
“Got one!” one of the drone techs said with excitement. At the moment a Zorn drone was attempting to stab the much smaller UEF drone, which stopped moving on command. At first the Zorn was not able to locate it, but out of sheer luck the Zorn drone happened to step onto the UEF drone, causing significant damage to it. The moment the UEF drone registered critical damage, it detonated.
“OK, reroute Archangel to the explosion and drop off a half dozen more drones. Let’s find that queen,” Grissom said with quiet confidence. At that moment one of the command personnel in the TIC gave a quick command order to Archangel, which doubled back in its flight path.
The UEF drones attached to rope were lowered into the dense jungle floor. When the activation signal was sent the drone startup routine began with a test of the tiny saw blade, which then freed itself from the rope system.
Within the first hour, four drones had detonated within the forested canopy of Brazil. One drone had found a deep cavern and as programmed explored the area as a primary search location. It traveled until it located a Zorn pod, around which were white eggs. The queen attacked the UEF drone to protect its sanctuary, which triggered a massive explosion.
The tech who had monitored the entire scene turned in his seat and said happily, “It’s dead, we killed it.”
The entire TIC screamed with jubilation and excitement. Several people hugged each other, and nearly everyone wanted to shake the hand of the creator.
“Rinse and repeat, gentlemen!” Grissom said calmly. “There are hundreds more to find. Have Archangel release the remaining batches of hunter drones on American soil and get the word out that the drones are not to be disturbed if found, if they value their own lives.”
Grissom turned to newly promoted QK squad leader Dayanh and said, “Get your people suited up, you’re going to recon that site.”
Daynah nodded with a smile and departed the room.
Philip continued typing and answering many questions from the digiforms on a wide variety of topics. Mostly on topics he could never have anticipated.
***
For a moment Alex felt he was somewhere else, lost in a haze of confusion, drunk maybe but not in a fun way. Sounds came to mean nothing and all he could feel was absolute panic. Echoes of a distant reality barraged his senses, familiar yet alien.
“Alex…ALEX!” Lanora watched with utter shock as Alex became unresponsive, his head hanging loosely behind his shoulders, his mouth partially open.
“Active scans detected!” Jack yelled.
“We’ve got ships maneuvering toward us,” Fena replied.
“Tactical, I want one of those ships on the main screen,” Lanora shouted.
A large gray ship appeared, smooth and without angles. Layered windows indicated multiple decks; lights seemed to hide between the seams of the hull. It reoriented unnaturally quick for a spaceship.
“Sensors detecting electron spikes coming from those ships.”
“What does that mean?” Lanora asked, all the while thinking what to do.
“We don’t have any weapons. We can’t stick around here,” Jack offered.
“Pilot, plot a course for home, get us out of here.” Lanora glanced again toward Alex, who seemed to be coming out of whatever happened to him. Just then the bridge changed color as the black of space on the viewscreen was replaced by the bulk of a large gray hull.
“Ship directly ahead of us.”
“Now! Fena, move it!” Lanora shouted.
“What’s happening?” Alex asked a bit groggily.
“Sir, our speed is reducing!” Fena said.
“Our antigravity drive is not effective. Switching to thrusters!”
“Our databanks are being accessed,” Symboli interrupted. “Attempting to intercede.”
The Enterprise had a few well-placed thrusters, each containing a small amount of propellant. Fena reviewed the active ship systems to choose which she would use. Several were red and not functional. Two were yellow, and Fena didn’t want to risk using those; they might be damaged and could blow up if used. The only green thruster was under the nose of the ship forty-five degrees against the x-axis.
The Enterprise picked up speed as the ship began to rotate up and away from the unknown ship. The moment the nose of the Enterprise cleared the alien ship, Fena activated the FTL drive.
“Ports are opening on the alien ship.”
“Another ship five hundred meters on the port side!”
“Get us out of here!” Alex shouted desperately, not knowing fully that everyone was already of the same mind.
Fena watched the countdown tick away, then watched as multiple ports opened on the large gray ship as it passed beneath them. For a split moment Alex thought he could sense the other ship. Or was it the other voices all struggling to get his attention? Then the screen got fuzzy, a sign that the ship was in FTL travel.
“What the hell was that?” Alex shouted.
“Are you OK?” Lanora asked.
Alex fought to control his mind, and it settled once again. “I’m OK, I blacked out in the transition.”
Lanora held his gaze longer than necessary.
“Captain, take a look at the sensors right before we left the system,” Jack demanded.
Alex manipulated his screen and pulled up the sensor history. The ship that first appeared in front of them had launched a smaller craft of some kind and was en route to the Enterprise.
“What was that?” Alex asked.
“Could be anything, a bomber, a shuttle, a boarding pod. We simply just don’t know.”
“The communication array was jammed while we were in the system, sir.”
“What was that electron spike you mentioned?” Lanora asked.
“It might have been their FTL system. One moment that ship was twenty million kilometers away, the next minute it’s two kilometers in front of us.”
“How did they interfere with our antigravity drive?” Fena asked with a stern expression.
“I believe I can answer that question,” Symboli responded on the bridge speakers. “It seems they are much more adept with dark matter than we are. They used a device to increase gravity around our ship. It took several moments longer to adjust for the effect to get into FTL transit. The interference from their ship deactivated your propulsion drive and then repelled your ship.”
“Like trying to trap us?” Fena asked.
“It is the most likely explanation.” Symboli responded
“If they were trying to trap us, then that smaller craft was likely a boarding party,” Jack said.
“What’s our ETA home?” Alex asked.
“Seven days,” Fena responded.
“Symboli, is there any way to know if they are following us?” Jack asked.
Alex felt deep concern spike from all of the bridge crew, and the feeling of fogginess began to return.
“No,” Symboli responded through the headset.
“Those ships were big! Here are the ships’ positions when we entered the system,” Jack commented as he brought up on the main viewscreen the tactical overlay of the system. It showed several dozen ships in the asteroid belt. “These two ships left their position and came right up on us.” Jack pointed to two ships positioned alone and away from the main group.
“Look at this one.” Alex said, indicating a very large ship in the middle of the fleet. “It’s massive, many kilometers long and wide.”
“I believe we interrupted an ice mining operation,” Symboli suggested. “That system’s belt is comprised of mainly ice. Those smaller ships bring the ice to that large ship where it probably converts them to water or stores them to be transported back to wherever they came from.”
Jack, Lanora, and Alex all nodded. Makes sense, Alex thought.
***
The blinking red lights faded to a normal soft constant yellow. The captain
readjusted the visor on his head.
“Captain, that ship doesn’t match anything in our database,” the lead officer responded, from a very comfortable but sturdy-looking bridge chair.
“It looked Tarkaerian,” the second officer responded.
“Nonsense, they were wiped out by the Zorn,” the lead officer rebutted.
The captain raised his head just slightly and with a sigh said, “What was their destination?”
The second officer shuffled the air in front of his face; no one else could see the display he was manipulating. The captain began reading messages from other ships in the belt, which were asking if they should turn about.
“Sir, it seems it was headed to Earth,” the second officer finished weakly.
The captain froze in his chair. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Beam link to the directorate, I’ll be in my space.”
“Yes, sir.”
The captain removed the visor and placed it on a solid steel plate on the arm of the chair. First, the visor levitated about six inches off the plate, and then it disappeared in a barely noticeable soft yellow flash.
The captain walked confidently across the smooth streamlined bridge toward the rear, to his space. The moment he crossed the invisible threshold, a solid glass wall appeared that curved with the bridge and was designed as if that space was hiding in plain sight.
“Computer, activate functionality.” As soon as he said it, his office slowly brightened into existence, and within two seconds, everything appeared as if the furniture had always been there. He walked across to the opposite side of the desk and sat down in a chair that wasn’t connected or touching any other part of the ship.
“Beam link established. Would you like to activate?”
“Yes.” He hadn’t even finished saying the word when the glass wall turned into a large display screen. The face of an old man appeared, except that his face didn’t betray wrinkles, his skin didn’t sag.
“Director Whamell, I wasn’t aware you were still on the rotation,” the captain began.
“Ahh yes, it seems they still have use for me. How can I direct you, Captain?”
Shadows Page 16
