Zhdanov had made this discovery yesterday when he decided to take a break from reviewing the material and got up to check up on the progress in the communication station. He had been surprised to find some of the Blue Stripes hard at work. But he had seen no reason to disrupt their concentration and had been about to head to the Command Center to find Cheung when he heard an exclamation behind him.
The assembled company were hugging and celebrating; a faint transmission from the Scandinavian Base had been received, and with an adjustment, was coming in now loud and clear. The technician sent a message to the nearby Ural Base Communications Center, and a reply arrived in only seconds. Zhdanov hurried back to help them with setting up the receivers for the bridge connection.
Erin Mathieson-Blair had remained a moment longer, assuring her friends that she would meet them in the new mess hall for lunch in a few minutes. She spoke with the technician a minute or so until Zhdanov got up to leave. When she had caught up to him outside the station and some ways down the corridor, he had given her a quizzical sidelong glance, but he had not minded her company.
Then she had stared at him with those strange, keen eyes of hers and asked him a question that had kept him awake since and distracted his train of thought.
“Why don’t you just admit that you love Dr. Knightwood and get married? You don’t have forever.” She had said, and then turned right down a different corridor, leaving him rooted to the floor.
She made it sound so simple.
* * * * *
Two days of blinding snow swept over the Ural Mountains, burying the Discovery once again and delaying the second test flight. As the snowstorm passed, the Discovery’s strange electromagnetic shield activated on its own, melting the snow up to seven hundred meters away despite the biting arctic cold of the Eurasian winter. Then, on a bright, clear afternoon the Discovery rose again from the land of white nights, responding perfectly to the signals of its navigators, shaving twelve seconds off the previous time it had taken to achieve orbit.
Kansier half-smiled as they completed another revolution, peering at the Great Wall of China, an ancient landmark still visible from space. “Now let’s see them attack us!” He said triumphantly, pleased when they passed the point in time when helm control had failed before. In the skies, the Discovery could no longer bring harm to the area where it had been grounded. Only one thing bothered him; but surely after all of their efforts to restore the ship’s guidance systems, they would maintain helm control this time.
Then suddenly, in the middle of the thought, Kansier and the others beside him were thrown to the floor.
The Discovery had changed its course!
“What’s happening?” Kansier shouted, picking himself up and brushing off his uniform, but he knew instinctively what was going on. All around the room, the bridge crew was struggling to remain upright in their seats.
Erin felt her body lurch sideways but told herself to remain calm. She had no intention of letting Knightwood down, not after the faith she had shown in Erin’s ability despite her collapse during the last test run.
“Sir, the ship has adjusted 32 degrees starboard. We’re leaving the Earth’s orbit,” Erin glanced over her panel.
“This course will take us above the solar system between the Mars and Jupiter orbit.” Bekker added.
“Yes, we’ll skirt the asteroid belt if we maintain our present course.” Erin continued. “And according to current acceleration, we’ll pass out of the solar system in only 6.2 Earth hours, sir.”
Erin looked over the figures that readjusted with every passing second. The Discovery was certainly not traveling anywhere near its speed capability, accelerating slowly enough to minimize the negative effects of g forces on its human crew, as if the ship were somehow aware of the frailty of its passengers.
“This can’t be happening,” Kansier protested, knowing full well that it was. “We don’t even have a full crew. Oh my God–we haven’t got any fighters on board.” He paused for only a moment. Dear God, this ship really is possessed. And now it has us. “All right, Knightwood, no luck yet with the planes we’ve got here?”
Knightwood shook her head.
“Lieutenant Fox, get me the Central City Base Command Center. I want Hollander on the wire, now.”
“Yes, sir. They’ve detected our course alteration and are standing by on red alert. I’m patching him in.”
An image of Hollander, Dawe, and several of the scientists gathered in Central City to observe the Discovery’s take-off by satellite appeared on the vidigital screen before them.
“What’s happened?” Dawe asked.
“We don’t know,” Kansier clipped tersely. “But I’ve got a fighter crew with no fighters, and an enemy ship out there that’s bound to figure out sooner or later that something’s going on over here,” Kansier coughed. “We need a ship, and we need it yesterday. “
“None of the ships here on Earth have a crew on board.” Hollander’s brows came together in agitation.
“What about the ships on the space stations, Mars, Titan, anywhere?” Kansier redirected his attention back to his bridge crew long-range radar specialist, Hans Rheinhardt.
“It’s no go, sir. They’re all too far away to catch us at our present speed.” Erin interrupted, looking at her console.
“She’s right, sir,” Hans said. “The nearest available battleship is on Mars right now being refueled.”
“Dammit!” Kansier shouted. “All right, what about space station Gabriel?”
“They’ve only got the Hesperus, sir. That’s a class c cruiser with only three squadrons on board.” Hans offered.
“We need more than that.” Kansier exhaled loudly. “Hollendar, set the ship’s automatic guidance systems and send us the Stargazer. And hurry on it, man! Even she may not be able to catch up with us if you wait any longer. Empty crew or not, we need those fighters.”
“Done,” Dawe bit out, and the communication was abruptly cut off.
“Bring her in to the Great Bay on the port side, lieutenant Bekker.” Kansier ordered.
“She won’t fit in there, sir. The Great Bay is already full.” Lieutenant Fox interrupted.
“Well then we’ll just have to make her fit.” Kansier said, as though Fox’s information was immaterial. “Send every available person you can and use the transporter belts to get that stuff out of there.” He ordered. “We’re going to need all of the room we can get.”
* * * * *
By the time the Stargazer, set at full speed, caught up with the slowly-moving Discovery, the great vessel had passed by the Mars orbit and was nearing the asteroid belt that orbited the solar system between Mars and Jupiter. In the Great Bay, the 192 meter long Earth cruiser squeezed through the low, wide air lock, scraping the sides a few times with a harsh grating sound that was muted by exposure to space beyond the air lock.
All attempts to preserve the atmosphere within had been made by synchronizing raising the inner air lock seal to the second that the Stargazer’s front bow tapped the interior metal plate. Nevertheless, as time passed, precious air slowly leaked out, decreasing the air pressure by 17% before the outer air lock was closed.
This is the real test for these alien suits which they say will keep us alive, Zhdanov thought to himself anxiously when the last corridor seal opened. They had donned their helmets only moments before but had little time to wait to adjust themselves to breathing. Cheung had found a pressurizer in one of the uniform lockers that could re-pressurize and re-oxygenate the small dense atmosphere packs on their backs. Zhdanov prayed he had done the right thing, since his own air supply had been one of the empty ones that they had attempted to refill.
Inside the Great Bay, the temperature had dropped unevenly, only about three degrees Celsius where they stood but as much as twenty over near the air lock doors. But Zhdanov felt no sudden temperature, pressure, or oxygen level changes within his uniform. He decided to confirm his success with the others over the helmet communi
cators and was pleased to find it unanimous. Knightwood then suggested checking on the fighters.
All but a few of the blue fighter planes had been safely relocated to other parts of the ship to bring the Stargazer on board. The few that remained had been pushed by the Stargazer about thirty meters, but when the UESRC scientists moved in to examine them, they were amazed to find them scratched up a little but still intact. Zhdanov was in particular shocked to discover that they hadn’t been crushed, though he had studied their composition and knew how hardy the alien plating was.
“We’ll have to figure out how to re-pressurize and oxygenate this area,” Cheung advised. “Otherwise we’ll have problems unloading the Stargazer with the mingling of the atmospheres.”
“There should be additional oxygen and pressurized atmospheric tanks on board, near the central quarters, and small canisters in every room and section of corridor,” Zhdanov responded. “An extra air supply was implemented in every Earth ship after the Mariner disaster.”
“Sir?” One of the technicians asked, not understanding the reference.
“The Mariner was a ship where the surviving crew was trapped in a single oxygenated space without access to any main functions.” Zhdanov explained. “They finally died when the air supply ran out. The Mariner disaster is ancient history. But I’m not sure if we should waste the extra oxygenated atmosphere supply in here.”
“It wouldn’t be a waste.” Knightwood shook her head. “We’ve got to be able to breathe in here to unload the ship. And if you guys recall, there’s a hydrogarden in the Stargazer’s Mess Hall,” she added.
“A food supply?” Zhdanov perceived.
“And a means of recycling the air if we have to,” Knightwood added. “But shouldn’t we return to the bridge? We can solve this mess later. Right now I think we should help Kansier determine where we’re going.”
* * * * *
Kansier was just asking for another course heading when the scientific team returned to the Command Center.
“It’s very strange, sir. We can move the ship several degrees in any direction,” Dimitriev said, sitting turned around to be heard better, “but it begins to readjust to its former heading within minutes after we try to control the heading.”
“Do you think we can avoid the smaller asteroids?” Kansier persisted.
“Oh yes, sir. We have minimal control, but more than enough to steer clear of any possible collisions. I’ll plot a course heading through them now.” Dimitriev returned his attention back to his console station.
Knightwood found herself mesmerized by the view outside the forward window. Occasionally, a few pebble-sized asteroids appeared before them and then grew, disappearing to either side, lit up briefly by the Discovery’s beacon. Then a few small, distant dark rocks collided noiselessly with the forward viewscreen. Despite a minor collision every ten minutes or so, Discovery’s automatic stabilizers remained unaffected.
“Good. Ah, Zhdanov, Knightwood, Cheung. How is the Stargazer holding up?” Kansier’s face showed only mild concern.
“She’s fine. I think we ought to discuss what we’re going to do now.” Zhdanov put in.
“I see what you mean. In case we can’t go home,” Kansier nodded significantly and sighed.
“We were supposed to engage the Charon aliens, but the Discovery truly does appear to have a mind of its own, as the crew were saying. If we leave the solar system–” Cheung’s voice drifted off.
“We’ll leave the Earth defenseless, without a large portion of its top defense squadrons,” Kansier finished.
“Exactly.” Knightwood agreed.
“Have we heard anything from the UESF yet?” Zhdanov asked.
“The council has called an emergency meeting to discuss the problem.” Kansier replied.
“And the other flagship? Surely they have detected us by now.” Knightwood’s eyes drifted over to the long-range radar screen linkup, but no recent transmissions had arrived.
“Still no word from the Neptune defense ships.” Kansier spoke through clenched teeth.
* * * * *
On board the Orian flagship Enlil, the Orian man Ekasi Iriken Zirnenka had spent nearly every day of his new life in the chambers of the Great Leader Sargon, sometimes contributing to the scientific, diplomatic, and philosophical discussions between the Great Leader and Garen, the Great Leader’s main advisor. But Iriken discovered that most of the time, the Great Leader shunned company. Leader Sargon would spend days at a time in his personal chambers, taking no food, potable, or any other comfort.
Rumor had it that he didn’t have to eat to survive, that he was indeed an immortal being. But who knew? The Great Leader Sargon had lived many centuries, to be sure.
In any event, Iriken found ways to fill his time. Each day he visited the computer archives of his people, and found a wealth of history there that incited and then nurtured his new desire for knowledge. He viewed all of the videoscanned materials of his ancient homeland for the first time and then sought out the civilian sectors on board Enlil, where the likeness of the ancient Orian cities of Nayin and Destria had been recreated.
On a whim, he had looked through ancient history of the worlds where his people, the Orian race, had once lived. Iriken discovered the planet Tiasenne, former twin world to their own Orian planet. And Iriken deepened his understanding of the history of the world known as Tiasenne, which was his own planet’s former enemy. He learned of Tiasenne’s political corruption and vanity, and witnessed its destruction through ancient footage. Most of the archives regarding Tiasenne even Iriken could not access, though he had been granted the highest security clearance.
Through all of his searching, Iriken found only a few stationary views of the ancient world of Tiasenne before its end. One had been taken from the top of a high building, overlooking the horizon, where a beautiful starship reflected the pure blue light of Rigell; another had been taken in a lightly wooded area, depicting only trees and a popular picnic site.
The final image had been taken in a city near a large body of water, showing an angelic Orian boy dressed in a maroon and grey uniform posing before a tall shining white building. Iriken had felt a strange shudder as he saw the image, certain it was a boy who had become their Great Leader Sargon.
Iriken was unable to keep recollections of Kiel3 from surfacing as he observed the beauty of ancient Tiasenne. Instructor Menidir had once taught them about Tiasenne, and how its inhabitants had taken the good fortune of their environment for granted. Remembering his sister Erika’s last discussion with him, it occurred to Iriken that he had not yet discovered the reasons which had compelled them to attack the creatures of Kiel3.
The Zariqua Enassa—also known as Alessia—a mysterious alien creature, was supposed to be hiding somewhere on the planet, on board the ship Selesta. Could it be that the natives were protecting her as she had been hidden on Tiasenne in ancient history? That would explain why the Great Leader had authorized raids into the coastal population centers.
Iriken’s anger flared as he considered how the Earth people had interfered in the Orian design and harbored the Zariqua Enassa. And so the fighter squadrons of Enlil had given them an education and a punishment for their collusion with the enemy of Orian. And then the creatures had further brought conflict upon themselves, firing against Enlil when she first entered the Kiel system.
Iriken would have gladly obeyed if the Great Leader’s command had been to take Enlil to the surface of the third planet and re-create an Orian settlement there. But after years of stationary orbit above the smaller of the two planetoids in the ninth position of the Kiel system, he did not expect Enlil’s awakening.
Or that the day would come when she would be set on a new course.
The Great Leader had been in his private chamber, speaking with several of the elite officers about a new offensive against Kiel3. The intrusion of the small alien group months ago had been only a trifling disturbance, hardly worth retaliation, though they had sent out
a cruiser on schedule. The present proposed attack was merely a routine maneuver; the Great Leader had been unable to extract any information concerning Zariqua Enassa’s location from the alien pilot before he had died on Enlil because the creature’s mind and memory had been damaged in the crash of his fighter.
Then, as Great Leader Sargon listened to his advisors, his face impassive, his eyes had come alive suddenly with motion, no longer focused on the surroundings, but echoing some deep pain from within. He stood abruptly, waving his advisors into silence.
“Bring me the control grid.” His deep voice filled the chamber. One of the advisors rushed from the room and returned moments later with the control grid depicting Enlil’s present location.
Then, responding to Leader Sargon’s adjustments, Enlil’s main engines flared, and in the Forward Observation Viewport the familiar slowly turning background of stars rushed towards them and then away on either side.
The prey had at last revealed itself.
It was time to act, and catch Selesta at long last.
* * * * *
Shortly after Kansier informed the entire crew on board that they had lost control of the Discovery, Knightwood and Zhdanov left the Command Center again to speak with the crew personally and bring back their suggestions and concerns.
Meanwhile the Discovery had begun to increase its speed exponentially, and quickly passed out of the asteroid belt and further towards the edge of the solar system.
For a long time, there was only silence on the bridge; then a voice called out, “Message from Titan, sir. The alien ship is moving. She’s on a direct course to rendezvous with us.”
“Wait for news from the Council Head on Mars,” Kansier ordered, drumming his fingers against the side of the command chair.
Minutes passed before a communication was received from the UESF Council representative. Kansier asked that the message be transmitted to all parts of the ship for everyone on board to hear. Finally a calm female voice interrupted the eldritch silence.