Wanted

When the computer finished the scan, they still didn't know where they were. All they knew for certain was the space lanes around here appeared almost empty. They saw a few ion trails but no actual spaceships.

  Cherry moved Josh back to his quarters so he would be more comfortable and closer to the galley. Afterwards, he left to do a thorough damage assessment. When he finished, he came back to get Josh to take him to the galley. As they ate, he shared his findings.

  "Naca won't fly off of this rock under her own power. I didn't look outside, but from what I checked, one engine is completely shot and the other is damaged. Control thrusters need more attention than we can give here."

  "Could we maneuver into space and head for that planet with the radio signals?"

  "Yes, if we can get out of this asteroid field without being crushed or holed. The shield is pretty hit and miss. I don't want to trust my life to it. Besides, if we got clear, it would take at least a year to get anywhere close to the planet. Maybe even longer."

  Josh took a bite and chewed as he thought. He swallowed, then asked, "What options does that leave us with? We can't see any pirates nearby, but that doesn't mean they aren't close."

  "I think we should launch another remote detector and fly it closer to that planet. It would give us a better idea of what we face. Maybe we can find out where we are. I'm worried about being defenseless if someone comes looking for us. You and I have made several enemies over the years."

  "Yes, we have. Any one of them would give a big pile of credits to catch us now. I wonder…"

  Josh's eyes glazed over as he mulled an idea. Cherry asked, "You wonder what? We've got to do something. We have a finite amount of food, water and air."

  "So, let me restate the obvious. We need to be rescued and fairly soon, but we can't just send out a SOS. We have too many enemies who would like to catch us in just this situation. We really have no idea where we are, so we can't send for help. We're going to have to do something completely out of the box."

  "That sums it up very nicely."

  "Cherry, is the land bridge you described large enough to put the Naca under it? Can we move her there?"

  Looking at his friend to see if the pain might be driving him out of his head, he said, "I told you we could get Naca under it. As for how, I don't know. I'd have to see if we can control any of the directional control thrusters. In theory, we can use them to move us under there with this minimal gravity."

  "Then we need to get moved. Let's do as you suggested and send out another remote detector. Once we're underneath, disguise everything so we look like a lump of iron to a detector. Then we can send out a distress signal from the remote detector —"

  Cherry exclaimed, "We'd have time to check out anyone coming to the rescue. If they don't shake out, we'd just lay here. I would suggest that we move the detector we use deeper into the asteroids to keep anyone from stealing it."

  "OK, you go outside to see what we need to do. I'll take care of the remote detectors. I'm also going to launch a remote sensor to follow you. We can keep track through it. We won't leave any comm frequency tracks either."

  Cherry's face didn't change but the color of his glowing pinpoints did. Josh asked, "What's the matter? Why are your little lights changing?"

  "I just have some doubts about your ability to pilot the one detector deeper into the asteroids. I don't know why my lights are changing."

  "I think they are reflecting your emotions."

  "Josh, androids don't have emotions."

  Waving his hands at his friend, Josh said, "Those things could have fooled me. Keep thinking that. In our spare time, I'd like to play some poker."

  "How can humans think of games at a time like this?"

  "I'm thinking I can read you now. I could wind up winning your half of this ship."

  "Which is worth nothing right now. Just what you deserve – half of nothing."

  Josh put his thumb on his nose and wiggled his fingers at Cherry, "Go. I'll get the detector where it needs to be."

  Cherry walked out chuckling. Josh looked for something to throw at him but couldn't find anything. When he finished eating, he made his way back to his quarters. His right leg hit the door jamb on his quarters causing him to draw in a sharp breath and wince with pain. He floated for several minutes before the pain subsided enough to continue to his bunk.

  After relaxing in his bunk to let the throbbing ease, he launched a sensor to check where Cherry was. Seeing him walking into the opening under the land bridge, he used the android to gauge the size of the opening. He muttered to himself, "Wow, that is big. If Naca was working, I'd have no problem flying in there. I wonder what Cherry will find under there."

  Programming the sensor to follow Cherry, Josh launched another remote detector. He set the coordinates for the planet before he flew it out of the asteroids. Bumping a couple of them on his way out, he muttered, "This is harder to do by voice. I'm used to being able to drive those things with a joy stick or by mental directions."

  Once the detector cleared the asteroids, Josh set it to start searching. Out of curiosity, he looked back at the asteroids using images in different spectrums. He marked the asteroid they were stranded on in green. What he saw shocked him. The rocks in this cluster had formed into a large triangle that looked like an ice cream cone with the end cut off. The narrow cutoff end measured about 5,000 miles in diameter while the other end bowed out. It had a diameter of 50,000 miles. The shape stretched for 250,000 miles.

  Their asteroid sat about midway in the cone and a hundred miles deep. Hundreds of thousands of rocks of varying sizes swirled in the shape. Some were the size of small moons while others only showed as dust.

  Determining the distance from the sun, he saw that the field would have been a little closer than Mars in the old Earth solar system. Josh wanted to fly around the asteroids to see what the shape looked like from all sides, but he knew they needed information on the next planet.

  Josh started to call Cherry but decided his new-found information could wait. With the second detector well on its way to the third planet, he turned his attention back to the first one. Sending a signal from it, he saw on his image from the second detector that it rested near the surface of the cone about five thousand miles from the big end.

  Carefully flying it deeper in the formation, he found a space that didn't block its ability to detect spaceships in the solar system. He did a scan of the composition of the rocks near it. Most were carbon or silicate based as he expected, but three showed traces of iron, nickel and silver. One showed a large deposit of a mineral he didn't recognize. Marking the coordinates, he turned off the scan and cloaked the detector. It would now take a very clever spaceship captain to ever find it.

  The closer the second detector came to the planet, the more radio signals he picked up. He also spotted lights on the dark side of the planet. They were very small and had a lot of empty area surrounding them. Feeding the video into the computer, he tried to compare it to other planets to estimate the population size. The computer kept giving him error messages saying it couldn't access the database.

  Josh gave up and concentrated on the radio signals. Before he could translate the language, Cherry came rushing in. His little lights were jumping from red to yellow and back. Cherry breathlessly said, "Josh, you're not going to believe —"

  "Look at this, Cherry. Have you ever seen anything like it?"

  "Later, listen to what I found. There's a spaceship in there. I also saw a hole leading into the interior of this asteroid."

  "What kind of spaceship? Is there anyone on board? Is it pirates?"

  "Whoa, give me a chance to answer. I didn't go close to the ship but it looks abandoned. It has some exterior damage like it was in a fight."

  "It's not the pirates we were fighting, is it?"

  "I don't think so. This ship looks old."

  "I need to go see. Help me get into my spaces
uit."

  Cherry's lights changed to purple as he stared at him, "And how are you going to get around out there?"

  "You can carry me."

  "What if someone in that ship doesn't like us and starts shooting? You alright with me giving you a shove as I exit? I won't guarantee that you won't shoot straight out into space instead of back here."

  "No, but…"

  Josh turned the sensor around and sent it back under the bridge. He switched to infrared and ultraviolet to take advantage of any natural light. Using the voice commands made the sensor waver up and down as well as side to side.

  Cherry said, "Wait, you're making me seasick. Let me do it."

  He walked to a small desk and inserted his finger into a slot. The view from the sensor steadied. Cherry worked it closer to the ship. As he did, he used all the scanners built into the device.

  Josh said, "I'm not seeing any sign of life or power. That ship looks like it's completely dead. I'll bet if there's any air in that thing you'd still have to use breathers."

  "Just wait. I want to fully inspect it."

  Cherry guided the sensor to the nose and then to the other side. Scorch marks covered the back third of the ship. A hole in the hull became visible. Cherry zoomed in on the hole, but didn't go near it.

  Josh said, "I think you could fly the sensor in there. We could see what the inside of that thing looks like."

  "Not yet. I want to map everything on the outside first. I've never seen anything like this ship. I just wish the database wasn't corrupted so we could run a comparison."

  "Do you think we could get it to fly? I wonder who left it here. How big is it? That thing looks wicked just sitting there on the ground."

  "To start answering your endless questions, I have no idea if that machine will fly. Since I have no database, I haven't a clue about its origin. As for how big, its 250 feet long, about 75 feet in diameter. Those wings are 100 feet long on each side, 75 feet thick at the base and tapers to 15 at the ends. The engines are 25 feet in diameter and are 50 feet long."

  "It looks like there are parts missing. That front, the way its angled then stops so abruptly, says something else goes there. Trying to fly that thing in the atmosphere would be murder."

  Cherry stared at the image for several seconds before he answered, "I agree. I'll bet the way it sits it would beat you to death in the air. Did you notice that there's no scorch marks up there? Must be something else that goes there. Where could it be? There's no sign of anything besides the ship."

  Josh rubbed his eyes, "We could fit Naca in the back of that thing. What do we do now?"

  "I'll explore more of the outside. I want to learn all I can about this ship."

  "Why don't you just go inside? You said we only have a limited time we can last here."

  "Yes, but what if someone put a self-destruct in that spaceship?"

  "How can it work if there's no sign of any power? Don't you think you're being overly cautious? It could take you months to feel absolutely sure about that ship. We need to be under way before then."

  Cherry's stare told Josh he would be frowning if he could. Cherry pulled his finger out of the socket as he said, "I'll go to the cockpit. You can split your view in here and watch what I'm doing. I suggest you check to see what your detector found."

  "Before you go, you should take a look at this asteroid field. There's something unusual about it."

  Josh brought the image of the asteroids back up. Cherry asked, "You didn't look at either end, did you?"

  "No, why should I?"

  "I think what we are sitting on is the remains of a planet. See that small end? I'll bet that it has a hole with nothing in it. Kind of like a trumpet."

  "How would that happen?"

  "Some good-sized projectile traveling at very high speed."

  Josh's mouth flew open, "Do you think it may have been inhabited? Could this ship have come from —"

  "No, at least I don't think so. I think that ship came after the planet exploded."

  "Do you think the debris is radioactive?"

  Cherry's skin turned light green, "None of my readings indicate any. I don't know about in the middle. You might try the detector you've moved in there to see if it shows any signs."

  Cherry walked out before Josh could ask any more questions. Josh ran tests with the first detector, but didn't find any significant radioactivity. Sighing with relief, he turned back to detector two.

  The detector had moved close enough to the planet to give a better view of the day and night sides. From the number of lights on the dark side, he doubted the planet could be more than an outpost. As he watched it turn, even fewer lights came into view. Josh counted only ten widely scattered and very small glowing spots.

  On the daylight side, little evidence of civilization could be found. No large cities came into view. At this distance, any hamlets or villages wouldn't even show. Josh gave up looking for any cities. He used other portions of the detector to look for power grids, nuclear generators or other power sources.

  Josh left the detector searching for power, but stood to go see how Cherry was doing. As he reached the door, a ding alerted him. Turning back, he saw a spot on the planet coming into the daylight outlined in red. The detector showed significant power generation in the area.

  Looking at the other readings, he saw mostly empty land or water. He studied the land masses and oceans. Softly he said to himself, "That's not Avayal. The land and water is all wrong. Where have we wound up? How could we get here? Naca isn't in any shape to travel. According to Cherry, she won't even fly under her own power. What happened?"

  As he strained to remember, he clutched his head and dropped to his knees with his eyes clinched shut. After several minutes, his body relaxed a little. His arms dropped and he cautiously opened his eyes. They quickly closed. Crawling across the floor, he reached his bed and dragged himself in.

  An hour later, Cherry came back to his room. When Josh heard his footsteps, he gradually opened his right eye. A second later, the left came open. Cherry asked, "What happened, Josh? You don't look too good."

  "I feel even worse. I got the detector close enough to check out the planet. There's only one spot with significant power generation. I can see a few lights on the dark side but they are few and far between."

  "But that's not what caused the problem, is it?"

  "No, I – ah – I know that's not Avayal. The land masses and water aren't right. My head about split open when I tried to figure out how we got here."

  "Don't start worrying about it again. Your eyes still don't look too focused."

  "The tunnel vision is starting to clear up. As long as I don't move my head too fast, I think I'll live. What did you find out? Can we fly that ship out of here? Any clue about its origin?"

  Cherry walked to a chair and sat down before he answered, "No, I can't figure out where it came from. As for its ability to fly, tell me what it uses for power. I get zero readings on that. I just wonder how long that thing has been sitting here."

  "My head hurts too much to think of what we do next."

  "Get the detector closer to the planet. Find out what that power is being used for. Are they an outpost? Do they have repair facilities there? How about space travel?"

  "The detector is still approaching. I just slowed it down to see if they have any detection equipment on the planet or around it."

  Cherry's eyes widened in his concern for Josh, "Do you think that spot could be a space port — wait don't answer that. I don't want to give you a headache again."

  "I won't break, Cherry. I can still think. Just not too hard. What do we do after the detector gets closer?"

  "I'm going to try flying the sensor inside that ship. We have a day or two to check things out here and on the planet. If we don't find what we want, we'll try sending a distress signal."

  Josh rubbed his eyes, then put his hand ov
er them. He asked, "If this is an outpost, how many ships a month will come through here?"

  "I can't answer that, insufficient data. What do they make or mine or grow down there? Is it valuable? How long does it take to get a ship load? Is this close to a regular shipping lane or do spaceships have to go out of their way to come here?"

  "I see what you mean. The good news is we know from ion trails that spaceships do come through here. Just not how often or if they will do rescues. They may be scared to death of this asteroid field if it is an exploded planet."

  "Could be, but we have to assume that someone will venture in here if we call. Let's make sure that our unfriendly pirates aren't the ones to answer. The clock is ticking on our air and food, so we have to do something. As for me, I'll start exploring that other ship. You can rest then check the detectors. In forty-eight hours, we'll make up our minds what to do."

  Josh nodded, "I can live with that. At least my head won't hurt trying to answer questions that raise more questions."

  Chapter 4