Chapter 7
They all stared at the gauges trying to find the cause of the alarm. Suddenly Tik pointed and said, "Look. Something is coming from the port side at about a 30 degree angle. It's quickly overtaking us and will pass very close."
"What is it? The radar shows that it's huge. Is it big enough to be the mother ship?" Gus exclaimed.
"Doesn't Auntie have outside cameras?" Ron asked.
Tik growled, "It's too dark out there for cameras and I really don't feel like announcing our presence with lights. Let me try something here."
She made some adjustments and turned on another system. Suddenly the monitor showed an image. It looked like a giant deformed potato almost like two potatoes had grown together. The two pieces were at a slight angle like a shallow 'v' with the lower portion being larger than the top and both marked with pits.
"It's an asteroid and man is it moving. I'll bet it's traveling two to three times as fast as we are," Tik exclaimed excitedly.
"How close will it pass to us? Will it hit?" Ron asked anxiously.
"Let me see…. I think it will miss us by at least half a mile," Tik said.
"How big is that thing?" Gus asked incredulously.
Tik checked the instruments and did some figuring before she answered, "It must be 3/4 of a mile long and 3/8 mile wide at the widest. It'll be here in 20 to 30 minutes."
"Just for practice, run a spectrograph to see what it's made of," Ron suggested.
Tik turned on the instruments and started working. About five minutes later she started reading the results, "It looks like a lot of it is rock. There is some metal hmmm… I think its silver and zinc. Look right here at the bottom of the v. That's water or I should say ice. Too bad we couldn't get that on board. That would solve our problem of the water shortage."
"Not only water but oxygen as well. Remember our experiments with letting the oxygen pass through the shield but excluding hydrogen?" Ron said excitedly. "Check to see what it would take to match speed with it. Can you plot a trajectory where it's headed too?"
Gus asked, "Even if you match speed, how would you get the water off of the asteroid and into Auntie? We could haul it on the fliter, but how do you put a block of ice into the water tank?"
"I hadn't thought of that. What if we set Auntie down right there on top of the ice?" Ron mused thoughtfully.
"That would take a lot of fuel to do all the maneuvering and would leave a pretty good trail if the Bugs come sniffing around," Gus declared.
Tik broke in, "That's not true. If we just match speed fairly close, why not use the tractor beam to pull us down?"
"Yeah, just like we did with the crippled freighter. Being in outer space, it didn't seem like we were moving but the mother ship was actually cooking along at a pretty good clip. How fast do you think they were going when they did the hyper-space jump? I'll bet the freighter is still there," Ron said.
Tik said as she pointed, "Here's what we need to do to match the speed. We'll also have to move closer. Auntie shows that we need to fire the engines here. I don't know where this bad boy is going yet. I need a little more path to plot the probable trajectory."
Ron quickly sat down in the pilot's seat and told everyone to strap in. He strapped himself in and made the setting suggested by Auntie. Tik counted down for him and at the right time, he fired the engines for just a short period. He looked out the window and could see the asteroid off to his left. He gingerly maneuvered Auntie closer to the big rock. Tik switched on the external lights and he could now see the ice in the bottom of the v. The engines were now off and he was maneuvering with jets of compress air. Gus sat at the controls for the tractor beam and, as they came within a hundred yards of the asteroid, Ron directed him to grab it.
Gus was staring at his monitor and stretched out the tractor beam. The beam grabbed the asteroid and they felt a slight bump as the two matched speed exactly. Gus started pulling Auntie down to the surface. He had to roll her some to make sure she sat down on the bottom instead of her side. They came closer and closer to the surface with Ron calling off the distance. Finally, they gently touched down.
There was silence and the three looked at one another as they realized they were now sitting on an asteroid flying to who knows where. They all wanted to get outside to see what it was like. Tik checked the gravity level and said, "We'd better leave the tractor beam on. There's hardly any gravity and we might float off. I wonder if we stand out like a big black blot on this ice field."
"That's a thought. Would the shield make a difference? Maybe we could set it to reflect about the same amount of light as the ice field," Ron said. "If we set the shield to a minimum, we wouldn't use very much fuel."
Gus commented, "I don't know about you two, but I'm beat. What have we been up, 35 or 36 hours?"
Ron nodded as he said, "I agree. I want to explore but right now I need sleep. Before we explore, we need to unlock the rest of Auntie. There may be other things in the locked area that could help us. Besides, we need to find a way to store the water and air and I think those will be somewhere in the locked area."
"Well, big boys, you don't have to invite me twice. I'm ready for bed now, and then we can tackle these problems when we're fresh. Tomorrow, I'll plot the trajectory for this asteroid."
The trio headed to crew quarters and slept that night like the dead. Tik was the first one up and she was an hour and a half later than her normal time to get up. She was in the galley making something to eat when Ron and Gus came in.
"Morning, big boys. I thought of something else this morning. We need to catalog all of the supplies and other items we took from the freighter and the Bugs. We really have no idea of what we have and we might need to ration some things to survive. Why don't you two do that while I work on unlocking the rest of the doors?"
"Now wait a minute, little red one. I want to be there when you open the locked area," Gus snorted.
"I do too," Ron exclaimed.
"Oh, I promise that I won't open anything until you are there. I'll just get everything unlocked," Tik protested.
"Something just occurred to me. Did you ever find anything that gives a clue about what happened to the Alcantarans? Does Auntie have anything in her computers telling what happened to the crew?" Ron asked thoughtfully.
"I didn't find anything in the Bug's records. I think the part of the memory that tells about what happened on this ship is either damaged or locked in another part of the computer that's only accessible in the computer room. We'll have to get into the locked area to get more answers," Tik responded.
"Do you think they could have caught some kind of virus like the one that attacked the Bugs?" Gus asked. "Would any of the viruses still be alive in those locked areas?"
Ron and Tik looked at one another. No one had thought of that possibility. Ron said, "When we open those areas, we need to be in space suits and we need to seal off as much of this area as possible."
Gus grinned slightly as he said, "I think a couple of the Bug's portable shield generators found their way on board. Maybe we could set up something like we did in the hangar."
"I wonder how those things happened to find their way here. That sounds almost as bad as someone sending a robot with the radioactive fuel canister to the computer room on the mother ship," Tik said light-heartedly.
Gus looked at Ron and asked, "Who sent a robot to the computer room? That won't put Kota in danger will it?"
"Well, I must admit I might know something about that. The computer will still work for everyday things. It will just take awhile for the Bugs to get the mother ship turned around and get back here to search for us," Ron said sheepishly.
The trio laughed together and then pitched into their morning meal. As soon as they had finished and cleaned up, Ron and Gus went to inventory and Tik headed down to the cargo deck to start trying to unlock doors. Ron and Gus finished first with everything except the Alcantaran
relics they had captured from the storeroom. They grabbed the portable shield generators and carried them up to the cargo bay deck. They kept sending thoughts asking Tik how she was doing until she laid down the law. She wanted no more interruptions. She would let them know when she had something to report.
Ron and Gus decided to get the Alcantaran relics to see if Auntie's computer or the database from the mother ship computer could identify any of them. Just before they left yesterday, Tik had copied a lot of the mother ship database. They now had a list of planets the Bugs had visited or traded with and what they used for trade. If there were any notes about the planet and inhabitants it was in the database. There was some information about the Alcantarans and their relics but some of it was pretty sketchy. They were making a little progress when they received an excited call from Tik. She had found the key to unlock everything. She was ready to start opening doors.
Ron and Gus rushed to the cargo bay and up to Tik. She was waiting impatiently in front of one of the doors. Everyone was excited about opening the door. Gus moved a shield generator and programmed it to form a ball around that door. The three of them then went to the rack and donned their space suits. They were thinking about opening the other doors without any protection. Maybe there wasn't any virus. They came back to the door and Gus stepped up to it and swung it open. Ron used his healer unit and checked for anything dangerous. After several minutes the unit gave an all clear.
"Well, do we examine the things in this room or do we proceed to the rest of them?" Ron asked.
"I'm in favor of opening the rest of the doors. It's a pain in the butt to take these suits off and then have to put them back on. Besides we need to get the rest of the ship below opened up," Gus replied.
Tik said, "I agree. We can look this stuff over once we have everything open and get out of these suits. Big Boy, what if we found some more jewelry? I couldn't try any of it on with this suit."
"Open it is then. Tik lead the way. Let's hurry up and get everything open so we can check for viruses or other problems," Ron said.
Gus moved the shield generator and they quickly opened the other five doors in the cargo bay that they hadn't opened before. Everything checked out clean so they moved to the freight elevator in the rear of the space ship. Gus pushed the shield generator into the elevator and set the other one over the entrance to the elevator. They didn't want anything from below to contaminate the rooms they were in. Ron and Tik followed Gus into the elevator and they went down one level and stopped
They were in another cargo bay standing on an upper catwalk. The room was about 40 feet high and stretched for 300 feet toward the nose of the ship and about 125 feet to the opposite wall. They could see a wall that looked like there were four levels. There were stairs and catwalks along each level. Sitting on the deck close to the wall were stacks of something that had been netted down to keep them from moving. Along both sides of the ship were more of the storage doors.
They checked the first side and crossed to the other side. All of the rooms checked out clean and they tried not to spend too long in any one room. Some were empty and others had items that they were going to have to check out on Auntie's computer to find a clue for what their purpose was. They worked up to the wall where they entered the passageway. There seemed to be a row of rooms that sat back to back down the center of the ship. On the other side of the passageway there was another row of rooms. All of these rooms appeared to be very large, luxurious living quarters. There was one cross passage in the middle of the row and another at the nose of the ship. They took the nose passageway to the other side of the ship and then went back toward the rear of the ship looking in all of the rooms. In one room, they found something that Ron thought looked like some kind of exercise equipment. They finished looking at that level and dropped down to the next level.
The passageway on this level was next to the outer skin of the space ship. When they stepped in, they saw a long passageway with some doors leading into the middle. Tik tried the first door they came to and stepped in. She stopped in her tracks as she looked around. They were on a cat walk that didn't look like it was in the best of shape. The metal was badly corroded and some sections had actually fallen. They were looking at a desolate scene in the big room. The room ran about 250 feet toward the nose, was two levels high and the width of the ship except for the two passageways on the outside. The interior was covered with dead plants of all sizes and shapes and it even looked like there might be some small skeletons lying on the floor. The floor was dirt and running down the middle was a small stream that had a very small trickle of water in it. The stream meandered across the floor in a series of loops and right now it looked like it was pretty muddy. There appeared to be a stone path following the stream and there were two small bridges over the stream. In some places, there were long boxes hanging off the catwalk. Ron walked over to one and saw there was dirt in it. There was some kind of tube running from box to box and suddenly Ron thought of a greenhouse. On the floor below, they could see more boxes but these looked different. There wasn't any dirt in them so they assumed they were for hydroponics. They figured out this must have been some kind of conservatory where the Alcantarans raised fresh fruits and vegetables. It could have been a solarium but Ron couldn't see any way that they could pipe sunlight in. He looked at the ceiling and thought he could see lights that might be a type of UV lights.
"Hey, if this is what I think it is, it will fix problems for the two of you. I think there might be UV lights in here and I know there is dirt. I'll bet at one time this place was beautiful. I wonder if those skeletons were some type of bird or flying creature," Ron proclaimed excitedly. "I'll bet they had all kinds of fruit trees and vegetables in here, as well as flowers. These beings spent a lot of time in space and things like this and the luxurious living quarters made up for that. I'll bet somewhere they even moved the ship's air through here to help clean out the carbon dioxide."
Gus remarked, "Well, it looks a little spooky right now but I'll still come here to get my dose of sand and dirt."
Tik wrinkled her nose as she expressed her distaste, "I'll come here if I have to but I would sure like to have some of that stuff growing first."
Ron stated, "We need to preserve some of those skeletons and the plant residue. That might give scientists a clue about the Alcantarans. Some of those rooms in the lower cargo bay looked like they could be sealed to an airtight configuration. Maybe we could move some of this stuff in there. If you're working to clear this stuff out, it won't be so spooky."
They backed out into the passageway and made their way around the center room. They noticed cables and pipes entering but didn't see anything in the passageways that was of immediate interest. They checked the rooms along both sides of the cargo bay on that level. It was much like the level above. Ron's healer unit gave this level a clean bill of health.
They went to the floor of the cargo bay and started checking the rooms there. In one room, they found a machine shop with all sorts of machinery to maintain the space ship. If a person knew how to run the machinery, Tik guessed that they could make about all the parts needed to repair Auntie. The next room had all sorts of steel, aluminum, pipes and other raw material to make repairs. When they reached the back of the ship, they looked closely at it. Ron and Tik decided that this wall would drop and make a ramp just like the one on the level above. You could drive equipment right in to load or unload cargo or materials. It would make for a quick turn-around time if you were trading. They looked closely at the floor and decided it would slide toward the nose to provide a taller cargo space if you needed it. They finished inspecting the doors on the other side of the cargo bay from where they had entered. They walked around the conservatory on this level and it was the same as the level above. They stepped inside and saw that their guess had been right about the boxes next to the wall being hydroponics. There was a small trickle of wat
er running down the boxes now. By the time they were through with this level, they decided it was too late to start on the next level. So far everything checked out fine and they could breathe the air with no problem. Tik suspected it would smell pretty stale because there hadn't been any circulation for so long. Ron wondered where they would find the unit that cleaned and refreshed the air. Their air above on the flight deck seemed to be all right but they needed it to run through a purifier to keep it that way.
They made their way to the upper cargo bay and took off their space suits. Gus turned the shield generator off to conserve fuel. They went to the galley and fixed something to eat. As they ate, they excitedly discussed all that they had found so far. Ron figured the skeletons and plant specimens would be worth a lot of money to the right place. Anyone wanting to know about the Alcantarans would be very interested in these things. The weapons were another matter too. He didn't have enough information about them, but surely there were collectors who specialized in Alcantaran relics. If these weapons worked, they would be worth more than gold.
On the mother ship their only thought had been to get off of it and head back home. Another idea was starting to develop. All this talk of what everything was worth and who would want it stirred a sensation that none of the group had felt before.
After they had finished eating and cleaned up, Ron voiced the idea, "Why do we care what the skeletons, the weapons or any of the other things are worth? If we just want to get back to our home planets, all we have to do is fly Auntie into some advanced civilization and sell her. We could get enough money to set us all up for the rest of our lives back on our home planets. Is that what we really want?"
Gus spoke first in a thoughtful voice, "I really don't want to go back and live on my home planet. I do want to see my mate and to make sure my family is taken care of. I want to make sure the Bugs never come back and kidnap any more of my people. But…I like meeting different creatures such as yourselves and Kota. All I've ever known is the sand of my own planet and I would like to see some of the others, especially your home planets. The way you have described them makes them seem so wonderful."
Tik responded, "I agree with Gus. I have to get back to my home planet to check on my family and to pass the word about the Bugs. Our government will ban them and won't let them land when they find out what they're up to. I've worked on the space ships that have come into our space port but I've never been off the planet. Now that I'm off, I'd like to see your home planets and maybe even a few more. When I downloaded the Bugs trading database, I saw a couple of galaxies that were mind-boggling. I'd like to see them in person if it's possible. How in the world would we be able to do something like that? Do you have something in mind?"
"I agree with both of you. I want to see my wife and family and to make sure they are safe. My planet isn't as far advanced as the Bugs; but with some of the technology from this ship, we would soon hold our own against them. To answer your last question, I really don't have anything in mind. I just know I'm a small businessman on my home planet and when you start talking about what something is worth, my ears pick up. I like the challenge of buying something and then being able to turn around later and sell it for a profit; and like you, I like meeting the different creatures. We three have proven we can overcome a lot of challenges. Would we be up to the challenge of becoming Traders? Could we run this ship and learn the ins and outs of trading between planets? Would you be interested in forming a partnership in that sort of venture?"
The other two sat in stunned silence for a moment while Ron's words sunk in. Tik was twisting her head from side to side as she thought and Gus suddenly developed a far-away look in his eyes.
Tik blurted out, "I'd be up for trying. We still have the immediate problem of getting away from the Bugs. We still need water, air and fuel. The ice here may solve the air and water problem but that leaves fuel. If we don't get that, then this conversation won't matter."
"The fuel isn't the problem you think it is either. I haven't had a chance to really explain but that's why we are headed for that blue giant. When Wurden had me work on the Alcantaran rockets that first day, I found out what the rockets are for. They have their own shield and are actually a giant scoop. They will dive in close to the surface of the star and scoop up fuel. This type of start is supposed to be one of the better ones for quality of fuel…."Ron started.
Gus interrupted, "The Bugs thought they had the rockets figured out too but they lost some of them when they tried. We don't have any rockets to spare on losses."
"I know, but that first day I saw their problem. There is a valve in there that they had set backwards. I don't know if their translators weren't 100% accurate or not. I suspect that's the case, because we unlocked doors that they hadn't been able to open with years of trying. The Bug that had my translator probably stole it from a storeroom and wasn't high enough in the hierarchy to let it be known that he could understand what the Alcantarans had written. When you set the valve to the proper position, the shield absorbs any energy that strikes it. A small increase in current makes a huge increase in shield strength. If it's set the other way, the shield never develops any strength. You could take a hammer and a steel rod and drive it right through the rocket. I think the rockets are programmed to fly close to the star and then open the shield for just a few microseconds to scoop up the fusionable material. The heat is so intense next to the star that anything more would melt everything. The more the star beats down on the rocket's shield, the stronger it gets. The shield also acts as a container for the fusionable material. I don't know for sure yet but I think there are receptacles on the outside of Auntie that hold the rockets and take the fuel directly into her fuel tanks. I suspect there is a place in the lower area that allows you to refuel all of the equipment and robots. It will probably even refuel my translator and healer," Ron declared enthusiastically.
Tik announced, "Well, I'd better find out where this rock is taking us. There should be enough data to predict some kind of trajectory. Also, I'd like to send a burst message for Kota. He already programmed it into the computer. It will be so brief that it will be almost impossible to trace."
Ron and Gus followed her into the cockpit to watch. Tik sent the message first and then worked on her computer for a bit. She took readings from Auntie's gauges and instruments. After a few minutes, she had a trajectory.
"It looks like this rock is in an elliptical orbit around that blue super-giant. It's narrower at one end and we're on the big end right now…."
"When you say elliptical, do you mean egg-shaped?" Gus interrupted.
"Yes, and we're at the bottom of the egg. The top of the egg is closer to the star than the bottom. The asteroid will be about 930 million miles from the star at the top. We'll be at the top of the elliptical in about 10 days. This asteroid is actually traveling at a pretty good clip. How long does it take those rockets to fill up and then dump the fuel in Auntie? How much fuel will each rocket hold?" Tik answered Gus and then asked Ron.
"It'll take about two days at that distance, if we can rob enough fuel from the robots and the fliter. We need to get the rocket to about 60% of the speed of light. Since we'll be shooting the rocket directly at the star, the star's gravity will help us some. I don't know how much fuel each rocket scoops up. I'm still not sure how to translate that measurement to something I know. I'm not sure how much Auntie will take to fill her up either. I thought that once the first rocket has a load of fuel, we could put half of it in Auntie and load another rocket or two depending on how much fuel they will scoop. Then we could have three rockets going. That would make things go a lot faster. At the top of the elliptical, we should be on the opposite side of the star from where we left the mother ship. Hopefully, that will help hide us and the rockets' signatures should be pretty small. If it's against that star, that will help hide it also. Tik, why don't you plot where we would need to get off the as
teroid to stay behind the star? Once we have a load of fuel, we can decide where to go from there. We're going to have to watch pretty carefully, because that could be about the time the Bugs could be back looking for us," Ron answered.
Tik announced, "We need to get off at day eight. That will give us time to decelerate and go into a parking orbit."
Gus thoughtfully asked, "If it will take us 10 days to get in place and at least 4 -- no make that 5 days to get fuel, how long can we stay there and still have food to get somewhere? How will we know where to go to get food? Like you mentioned before, what will we use for money?"
Ron looked at the inventory and calculated before he answered, "I think we have about two months food. I would say that we can't stay any longer than twenty days. That would give us a months worth of food. We don't know if we'll have to lay low somewhere to dodge the Bugs, so I'd like a little cushion. If the rockets only pick up a dipper full at a time, we're in trouble but I think the rockets do a lot more than that. As for money, Tik, where was that silver and zinc that you saw when you were first checking out the asteroid?"
"There seems to be a fair-sized deposit just to our starboard, right at the edge of the ice field. It appears to be close to the surface also. How will we mine it?" Tik responded.
"I don't know. Maybe one of those weapons uses a laser and we could modify it to cut the silver and zinc. If we could cut blocks or slices, we could move that into the ship. There would be a lot of mass but almost no weight on this asteroid. I hope the weapons use the same fuel as Auntie but I don't know where we will get the extra fuel to start the mining," Ron mused.
"What would happen if we launched a rocket tomorrow or the next day?" Gus asked.
"It would take longer to get there and back but I suppose it would meet us somewhere along the asteroid's trajectory. Let me do some figuring," Ron answered.
He worked on Auntie's computer for several minutes and then stated, "It would take five days to get there and back if we fired it in two days. That would only leave one day before we had to leave the asteroid to decelerate."
Tik interrupted, "What if we didn't get off as we approached? What if we got off two days after we were at the apex? We're going to have to burn fuel so why not burn it to come back to a point rather than stop at a point? It would take a little more fuel but it would give us four more days to mine."
"Boy, we're so good as a team it's almost scary. One thing for sure, by firing a rocket early, it would let us see how much fuel the rockets scoop before we're too committed. Then we can go to plan B if necessary. So tomorrow we need to finish exploring the lower deck of Auntie. The next day we need to defuel the robots and the fliter and put the fuel in one of the rockets. After we fire it off, we need to load all the rockets into the pods on Auntie's outer skin to be ready when the first one comes back. We'll have to concentrate for the next five days on getting water and oxygen. Once the rocket has returned, we need to get additional rockets ready to fire and then we need to start mining. Just think, we'll be doing all of this while we are looking over our shoulder to see if the Bugs have found us. I can see right now that I won't be bored and I don't think either of you will be either," Ron said with a laugh.
They all agreed and decided they would turn in early so they could get an early start tomorrow. If they could finish exploring, maybe they could start with the defueling and refueling. Ron thought he might have trouble drifting off to sleep. His mind was whirling with all of the new things they had found and wondering what they were. It had been harder work using the space suit than he thought; however, so it didn't take long to drop off. The others were the same way.
They were up early and rushed through breakfast. They hurried to the space suits and went through the same procedure as the day before. When they were in the elevator, they dropped 9 levels and stopped. The trio looked at one another wondering what they would find today. The door opened and they stepped into their biggest surprise yet.
They were on the upper catwalk looking down on another cargo bay. This cargo bay wasn't empty like the others had been. There was something that looked like a sail boat and another that was obviously some kind of powered boat. There were several land vehicles and a couple of aircraft. They were all of distinctly alien design. They could tell that two of them were boats because of the hulls and the masts on one. The aircraft had wings but that was where the similarity to any planes Ron had ever seen ended. There were a couple of strange-looking tracked pieces of equipment. These pieces of equipment looked like they pulled a cart which had high sides. It reminded Ron of a pickup box with sideboards on tracks. There were mechanical arms on the equipment that looked like it could pick up items and put them into the cart. There were two other arms, one of which had an attachment that looked like a half-claw/ half-bucket. The other arm had some sort of round tube that looked like it had a glass dome on one end. The floor of the cargo bay seemed fairly crowded because it was smaller than the one above. The rooms along the outside walls were deeper and had to be curved to match the outside hull of the space ship. Ron checked his healer unit and everything seemed normal so far. The trio started down the line of doors opening each one and checking them out.
Ron walked over to one long door and opened it. The room must have been 75 feet long, almost 25 feet wide and 9 feet tall. Both walls were lined with racks that held all sorts of different weapons. Some were so strange he had to guess that was what they were. There were all different types of swords, cutlasses and other cutting-type weapons. There were even maces and different types of war clubs. All of the different styles looked like they came from different planets for different types of creatures to use. The handles were various sizes and shapes with several of them decorated with fancy jewels and gold inlays. There appeared to be different types of side-arms from alien cultures and rifles that matched.
"Wow! Let the Bugs come in about a week. Once we know what this stuff does and how to operate it, the Bugs won't have a chance," Ron exclaimed.
The other two rushed over and looked inside the room. Tik cried in awe, "Oh my goodness. Look at all of those weapons."
"Wow some of these look similar to my ax/hammer. Look at these -- they are similar to the war clubs of the Sandghost. Do you know what any of these are?" Gus blurted out in surprise as he pointed to some weapons that looked like the blasters the Bugs used.
Tik suddenly pointed and exclaimed, "Look. Aren't those stingerrays? They look a little different from the ones the Bugs use. The ones the Bugs have now look like the newer and improved version of these."
"I sure hope we can find information about this on Auntie's computer," Ron declared. "I've never even seen anything like some of this stuff and I don't have a clue how it works. But that is a mystery for another day. We need to press on. My healer unit says everything looks good so far."
The second one they opened was full of some sort of electronic equipment. Tik checked out two or three pieces and declared, "I think this is some sort of remote detection equipment. It almost looks like a miniature version of Auntie's radar/spectrometer equipment. I wonder if this would fly out from here and relay information back. I'm going to have to research this. Those smaller units look like a 3-D camera. Look how small they are. If they were flying, nobody would even notice them."
There was way too much 'stuff' to check out at that time. The trio really wanted to check out this lower level and then get ready to launch a rocket. They closed the door and went to the next one. This room turned out to be the water storage tank. There was a small space with pipes, valves and gauges. Ron looked in and thought it was the distribution center for the water. There was an area in the room that was the purifying unit. On Auntie, as much water as possible was recycled. They moved to the wall at the end of the cargo bay. When they entered the passageway there, they saw it was laid out much the same as top level above. The rooms along the side held a lot of the distributio
n equipment for electrical and oxygen. The oxygen scrubber was located there with pipes going through the ceiling and floor. Ron looked at some of them and wondered if they piped CO2 back to the conservatory to help the plants grow. The center rooms were deluxe offices and more luxurious living quarters. The other side was a duplicate of the port side.
They headed down one more level. So far they would have had no problem without the space suits but they all were not willing to take the chance that there could be something bad behind one of the doors. The first two doors had odds and ends in them so they didn't spend any time there. The rest of the rooms on that wall were still part of the water and oxygen tanks with their associated purifying equipment.
The center rooms were where the big surprises really started. Some of the rooms were full of computer, communication and detection equipment. The rooms were obviously climate-controlled. Lights were blinking and the equipment was definitely working. Ron and Gus had to literally drag Tik out of the room. She wanted to start checking everything out but the other two knew they needed to move on.
The next room was a situation/comm room. The walls were covered with giant view screens, one of which showed the asteroid they were sitting on. Another screen showed the ice field and the location of the silver. There were several chairs around the room and a console in the center that looked like it could be the control. Tik sat down and ran her hands over the controls as she stared in rapture at everything.
Ron said, "Gus, you might as well carry her. I know that her legs won't work now."
Gus reached to grab her and Tik growled, "Touch me and you'll lose that finger. I'll bite it right off."
Gus laughed and asked, "How are you going to bite me with that helmet on?"
"I'll jerk it off to get a bite if I have to!" Tik responded.
Ron chuckled as he said, "Now, now you two. We still have another level to check out. What's this?"
He was standing in front of another console. This one had several joysticks and lots of buttons and gauges. It had two screens that were blank right now. Tik moved over to it and studied it for several minutes. Finally she said, "If I didn't know better, I'd swear it's a weapons control center. These joysticks could point the weapons and probably Auntie's computer would track and fire. Hmmm…..let me try to turn it on."
Tik tried the power switch but nothing happened. She moved the joysticks and tried other button but the console was still dead. Ron said, "I'd be leery of pushing buttons you don't know about. It could be dropping bombs or sending out laser beams that the Bugs will be able to track."
"You're right. I forgot myself. Another mystery to solve when I get some time on the computer," Tik cried excitedly.
They noticed two doors that appeared to lead to a closet. When Ron opened the door, there was a shaft that went from the bottom of the space craft to the top. He thought he could see other doors at different levels. Was this another elevator? None of them remembered seeing any small doors like this on the other levels but they had been in a hurry when they looked in those rooms, so it was possible.
Ron led the way to the next room. There was a cross passageway and the door to the next room appeared to be in the center of it. Ron walked over and opened the door. As it swung in, he stopped dead in his tracks. Tik was right behind him and ran into him. Gus was close enough to peer over his shoulder.
There in the room was another flight deck and cockpit. Instead of windows, there were view screens across the nose side of the room. There were more controls, gauges and instruments than in the one above. This looked like the super deluxe model while the one they had been in was the bare minimum stripped-down version. There was another weapons console on the flight deck but Gus wouldn't let Tik touch anything on it. Ron sat down in the pilot's seat and flipped a couple of switches. The screens came to life showing the view in front of the space ship. He felt the controls and knew that they would be live if he wanted to fly Auntie from here. Why would the Alcantarans have two cockpits? Had this been some sort of spy ship rather than just the small freighter it looked like? Tik really needed time to search the computer for some answers.
Ron flipped the switches off and they headed for the other levels. They checked them out and found more mysteries but nothing extraordinary. This space ship definitely had led a double life. The trio was burning with curiosity but they had a schedule to stick to. They went to the upper cargo bay and took their space suits off. They held a council of war and decided they didn't need Tik to help with the rockets so she was going back down to level 3 to see if she could find some answers in the computer. Ron would get the rockets ready while Gus drained the fuel from the fliter and the robots. The first thing in the morning they would take them outside to load in the pods. Ron would program the rocket to launch toward the star and scoop up as much fuel as it could.
Ron and Gus worked late but they were all ready for in the morning. The fuel from the fliter had actually filled two rockets so they still had some fuel left in the robots. They went to the galley to fix something to eat and saw that Tik still wasn't back. Both of them concentrated and said, "Tik, it's time to quit. You need to come eat. Leave something for tomorrow."
In just a short time Tik popped out of a panel in the galley. She startled Gus so bad he dropped his drink. It spilled all over the table and onto the floor.
Tik laughed and asked, "What's the matter, Big Boy? Don't you like my magic lift?"
Gus tried to bluster but his curiosity got the better of him. He asked, "How did you do that? Did you come all the way from the lower deck?"
"Yeah, that's about the only thing I did figure out. See these decorations here? If you push them like this…it will take you to the lower level of the middle cargo bay. Doing this will take you all the way to the bottom and this will bring you up to here," Tik gloated.
"I don't see an elevator. How does it move you up and down?" Gus asked.
"It must work on gravity/anti-gravity. I put a pillow off of one of the beds down there in it and watched it go to the top level. I hit the buttons to bring it down. Then I had to try it for myself. It was quite a thrill the first time, I must say. For me going down is worse than coming up. Here, do you want to try it?" Tik responded eagerly.
"I don't know if it will hold my weight. I think I'd rather be on the bottom floor and only go up one floor to try it the first time. Or better yet, find something that weighs as much as I do and try it," Gus hedged.
Ron laughed, "Yeah, we don't need to have Gus break legs or arms or worse right now. He has to help with the rockets. Not to change the subject, but did you say you didn't get anything out of the computer?"
"I tried everything I could and all I got was what I can get right here. I'll use my mini-computer tomorrow to see if I can do better. Look, when this panel closes, you can't even tell that it's an elevator. I wonder how many other secret panels this ship has. Maybe we'll even find an Alcantaran hiding in the walls," Tik ended in a mysterious whisper.
They talked for just a short while and then decided to turn in. Ron tossed and turned because his shoulders were aching from all the strain of using the space suit the past two days and then the moving of the rockets to make sure the valves were in the right position. His 62 years were catching up with him. Thirty-five years ago, this would have been nothing. Even twenty years ago he wouldn't have felt this bad. He debated about checking with the healer to see if it could do something. Suddenly, he remembered what Kota had said about the bracelet in the storeroom. Maybe it would do something. He quietly got up and slipped out of the room. He went to the storeroom and got the bracelet. He felt the familiar tingle as he put it on. He closed the door and went softly back to his quarters. By the time he got back in bed, he was already feeling a little better. He laid down and in just a little bit, he was asleep. The next morning he felt like a new man. He decided he would keep wearing the bracelet.
Afte
r the group had a quick meal, Tik headed down to the main computer. Ron and Gus were heading for the space suits and outside. Tik reminded them to set the air lock so they wouldn't lose any air. They were debating what would be the best way to get the rockets outside when Gus spotted the grav-sleds tied down on the deck. He suggested that they use them to haul all the rockets in one trip. He said the grav-sleds would also lift them up to the height they needed to load the rockets. Ron agreed and they stacked the rockets on the grav-sled. In short order, they were standing in the air lock at the big rear door. After the air was pumped out, they opened the door and pushed the grav-sled outside.
Gus stopped to check on the controls for the rear tractor beam. Ron forgot they were on a small asteroid with almost zero gravity. Auntie had her own artificial gravity, so gravity was the last thing on Ron's mind. He gave a small push to the grav-sled, leaping on as he did. The grav-sled and Ron shot out the back of the space ship and headed for the shield. There wasn't enough gravity to pull him down and no air for friction to slow him either. He flew across the ice and ran into the shield. The shield bounced him back toward the space ship at the same speed he had left the space ship. Ron let out a yelp as he shot toward the shield and Gus whirled around. Gus saw the problem immediately and flipped the control on his suit to magnetize his boots. When Ron came bouncing back to the space ship, Gus was ready to catch the grav-sled.
Ron grinned shakily and said, "I'm glad we had the shield up. I might be headed off to the far reaches of space on a grav-sled. Thanks for the rescue."
"No problem, it looks like us land-lubbers have some things to learn. I can see we need to talk about some of these problems any time we come outside the space ship. I'll have Tik put in an automatic reminder in the computer," Gus responded with a grin.
Ron flipped his control to magnetize his boots as he stood up on the grav-sled. Gus operated the tractor beam and had it grab the sled. He maneuvered it to the port-side opening. Ron directed him until he could see the pods and then pushed three rockets in. They slid in very easily and once they were in, seemed to be locked in. Gus moved him to the starboard-side and he loaded the other three rockets. He and Gus returned inside the air lock where they closed the outer door and let the air pressure build. As soon as they could, they entered the cargo bay and climbed out of their space suits. They hung them on the rack and hurried to the flight deck.
Ron sat down at the computer console and queried the computer about the rockets status. He was pleasantly surprised to see the two loaded rockets showing on the screen and the others showing that they were loaded in the pod but had no fuel. He explained what he wanted and the computer plotted the burn, flight pattern and the rendezvous point. Ron directed it to feed the program to one of the fueled rockets. He and Gus had decided to only risk one rocket at this time. If it worked and they saw the other rocket returning, they would fire the second. That would cut some time off of getting fuel. Then they would try to refuel the other rockets to get them sent off.
Gus worked the controls to close the shield and then lifted Auntie off the asteroid. He kept hold on the asteroid with the tractor beam though. Ron directed the computer to fire the rocket. There was no noise or any indication that the rocket had fired until they saw the small blue blur of its engine as it blasted off for a journey to the edge of the star. Ron had the computer set a clock that showed a count down for the rocket's return. He also tasked the computer with using the sensors to see the rocket as soon as it came back around the star. He told the computer to see if it could determine if there was fuel on-board the rocket and how much. Gus set Auntie back down on the asteroid and reset the shield.
Ron and Gus were debating about the best way to get the oxygen and water into Auntie's tanks when Tik called them down to check out her discovery. They headed down to the lower level and found Tik working on something from the room that contained all of the electronic equipment.
"I thought you were trying to get into the ship's computer. That's the funniest looking computer that I've ever seen," Ron joshed Tik.
"Ron, can't you see the antenna? It picks up her brainwaves and works just like an abacus. The marbles just roll around," Gus joined in.
"Oh, you two are so funny. You should be on stage; more people would have targets to throw things at. I'm working on the ship's computer. My mini is hooked up to it trying to break in. Right now I’m multi-tasking. I pulled this out and I found the refueling station in there. I put just a little fuel in it and started checking it out. Does anyone but me see a problem when we go behind that blue giant?" Tik rebutted their jokes.
"Well, we have a small window of time to get a lot of things done," Ron remarked.
Tik turned to Gus and waited. Gus finally said, "I don't know what you see as a problem. I have to agree with Ron."
"What happens if the Bugs pop back into space about where we shot them out of here? We're taking a long time to get around that star because we don't want to leave a trail. How long will it take the Bugs to fly around it and check it out? How long would it take for us to be ready to fly out of here? How would we protect ourselves?" Tik shot back at the other two.
"Yeah, I can see where it would be nice to have some advanced warning. Will this thing do that?" Ron asked.
"Absolutely, Honey Child! It has all sorts of detectors and it sends out a coded signal that I'll bet the Bugs can't even detect. Once that rocket comes back full of fuel, we need to fuel this thing up and launch it on this side of the star. I'll show you something else I found," Tik said as she headed back into the electronics room.
She picked up a small item that was about the size of a softball. It looked like it had a tiny hole in it. She went to a computer terminal and spoke briefly to it. The small item leaped out of her hand and flew into the cargo bay. It went almost to the ceiling and hovered there. Tik directed their attention to the monitor. They were seeing a picture of the cargo bay and all its contents.
Tik said mysteriously, "Wait here and listen." She stepped into the cargo bay and moved across it. Ron and Gus followed her movement on the computer monitor. When Tik was on the opposite side of the bay, she whispered, "Hey, Big Boys, can you hear me? How do you like my little toy now?"
Ron and Gus were flabbergasted. Tik came back into the room and walked to the computer again. She directed the small item to zoom in on one of the boats. She waved Ron and Gus back out of the way and told the computer to project in 3-D. Suddenly there appeared a small replica of the boat in the area between them. The details were so crystal clear that Ron could see some kind of pack lying on the deck of the boat. He didn't remember anything like that so he had to go check. Sure enough there was the pack.
"Wow, my apologies, Madam," Ron said with an exaggerated bow and a wave of his hand. "I can see that you have made some startling discoveries even if you didn't get into the computer. How many of these things are in here and how many of the remote detectors do we have?"
Gus was watching Tik and he could see Ron's exaggerated apology kind of embarrassed her. She answered, "There's about three dozen of the little remote sensors and five of the remote detectors. I'm in seventh heaven checking this stuff out. There are a lot of companies on my planet who would give a lot of money for these."
"On mine too. I'm not sure that I'd want all of them to have it though. Some of them might not use it in the best interest of a lot of people," Ron remarked.
Gus spoke, "Yeah, I could see how some people or companies would spy on you and use it for their own advantage. There goes any privacy."
Ron asked, "What seems to be the problem with the ship's computer? I thought you were making progress yesterday."
"I was. I can get started into different levels but it keeps coming up with needing another password. I've tried every combination that I can think of and I still can't get that password." Tik replied disgustedly.
"Could the password be symbols that
the Alcantarans used?" Gus asked.
"I thought of that but I really don't know enough of their symbols to try that," Tik said.
"Where are you trying to get in? Are you in the computer room or somewhere else?" Ron asked.
"I've tried the computer room and the flight deck. I've had the same results in both," Tik replied.
"Well, we'd like to help you but you're the computer expert. Does that remote sensor display its images in the flight deck and the situation/comm room?" Ron asked.
"I don't know. I haven't had time to check," Tik said.
"Well, let's go look. Maybe we can try out the secret elevator to see if it will push me and Gus up. I'd like to find out now because you never know when you might need it," Ron stated.
They all headed for the comm room first. Sure enough the screens in there displayed the video and audio feed. Next they moved to the flight deck. Ron sat down in the pilot's seat and turned on the screens. They showed the outside and on one screen in the center of the nose, there was a small version from the remote sensor. He turned off the screens and moved back to the flight deck. Gus and Tik had taken chairs around the table there. Ron came over and sat down as Tik turned on the computer there. Ron's bracelet not only tingled, it was quivering. He almost jumped out of the chair.
"What's the matter? You look like an Alcantaran just reached out and grabbed you," Tik asked.
"I think it did. Look at this," Ron said as he pushed back his sleeve. The bracelet he was wearing was glowing and the symbols on it stood out in bright gold.
"What in the world?" Tik stared in disbelief.
Gus quickly interjected, "Try those symbols for your password."
Tik ordered the computer to read the symbols off of Ron's bracelet. It took a few seconds and then it opened to a new level.
His translator vibrated. He looked across the table and saw the other two give a start.
"Did your translator just vibrate?" he asked.
The other two nodded in agreement. Tik worked the computer controls and saw that she had entered another level of the computer. This level called for a key but gave no clue what the key was or what it looked like. Tik checked a few things on the different levels that had opened and saw that she had a lot more information.
"It's going to take some time to see what information these two other levels opened up but it looks like we'll know about a lot of this equipment and what its functions are. Now if I could just find the key. I wonder how many more levels there are," Tik stated with conviction.
"Well, little furry one, since we figured out these two levels for you, we'll leave the key and the other levels for you," Gus grinned.
"Read my lips, you big overgrown pile of sand," Tik said as she gave him the raspberry. "Is that the bracelet that was in the first door we opened?"
"Yes, I was aching last night and remembered Kota talking about these things helping sometimes. I couldn't get to sleep so I thought it was worth a try. I feel so much better today that it's not funny. Do you guys mind if I keep wearing it? On Earth I would be considered…well, maybe not ancient but at least an older gentleman. Right now I need every break I can get," Ron answered.
The other two thought it would be a good deal if he kept wearing it. Tik said he could give personal testimonies when they tried to sell others. Everyone looked closely at the bracelet and saw that it had returned to its normal state.
"Well Gus, I'm going to leave her to her research and go see if that elevator will lift me. It's almost time to eat and it sure would save a lot of steps if it worked," Ron announced.
He started to the elevator and Gus followed. Tik stayed behind for a bit to see if she could find any clues to the key. Ron pressed the camouflaged button and the door swung open. He pressed another button to go up one level and stepped gingerly into the elevator. There was almost no sensation of movement and he was standing in front of the next level's door. He stepped through and called back down to Gus, "Come on up. If it won't lift you, you'll only drop one level."
Gus was even more nervous than Ron. He was a lot bigger and weighed twice as much. He pushed the button for the next level and stuck one leg in the elevator. He tried to step on something but didn't feel anything. He pulled his leg back and took a deep breath. He stepped in the elevator and shot to the next level with Ron. Ron was grinning as Gus stepped through the door.
"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Ron asked.
"Once I was in, it wasn't bad. It was just bad stepping into thin air," Gus retorted.
"Well, the next step is up to the upper flight deck," Ron said as he stepped back into the elevator. He shot up to the top and stepped into the flight deck. Gus followed in just a few seconds. Gus closed the door behind him and the two walked to the galley. They were almost finished eating when Tik arrived mumbling to herself.
"It must be bad, she's talking to herself," Ron said.
"Yeah, not only talking to herself but answering too," Gus added with a grin.
"Well, if you'd tried to find that key, you'd be talking to yourself too. I did find out that it will take months to digest what we unlocked today. I'll keep looking for that key," Tik vowed.
"Do you remember those items we took from the Bugs locked storeroom? I felt like they were important then. Maybe something in there will be the key or help identify the key," Ron mused.
They talked about the day's accomplishments and what they wanted to accomplish in the next several days. They talked a little about their home planets and their families. All of them felt homesick and really wanted to see their families.
Ron announced he was headed to bed. Tomorrow they were going to start pumping water into the tank. He didn't know how, for sure, but that was a problem for tomorrow. Gus followed but Tik said she had one more thing to check out. She headed to the computer in the flight deck.