Chapter 8
The next morning Tik was almost purring, she was so excited. Ron and Gus could tell just by looking at her that she had uncovered another secret. She was trying to be coy about it but, finally, had to blurt it out.
"I know what those funny looking machines with the tracks are for," she declared excitedly. "And I know how to get water in here from the ice field."
"I thought we would just hook up to the water faucet out there. We'll have to find a hose first but that should be no problem," Ron quipped as he winked at Gus.
Gus caught on, returned the wink and said, "Do you think we'll have to warm up the faucet? I know we'll have to warm up the hose to get all the kinks out of it."
Tik's head swiveled from one face to the other as she sputtered, "What are you two apes talking about? There's no faucet out there. Is there?"
Ron and Gus almost fell out of their chairs laughing. Tik started to get mad but then she stopped to think about what she had just said. She wound up laughing too. The laughter was a good way to start the day. It helped relieve the tension of Bugs coming, needing oxygen and water and all the things they didn't know about this ship.
Gus said, "'Is there faucets out there?' That reminds me that we need you to program Auntie to alert us every time we get ready to go outside. Yesterday Ron was practicing being a bouncy ball. He forgot about gravity. If you hadn't reminded us about the airlock, that could have been disastrous. Maybe Auntie already has something that would remind us of things we take for granted."
"Yeah, I can see we need that. We just don't have the experience yet. I'll make it my first priority to make that happen," Tik said seriously.
Tik had to hear the entire story of Ron's adventure and Gus was glad to elaborate about it. He made it sound like Ron almost flew off the asteroid and Ron was good-naturedly protesting. After they had another good laugh, they discussed several things that should be included in the warning.
"Tik, what do those machines do?" Ron asked.
"They're miners. Those tubes are lasers that can carve out blocks or bore holes. The arm with the claw/bucket will load material in the cart and then it will dump it wherever it's programmed. Those things could load ice into the carts and then use the lasers to melt it. Hook your hose up to those faucets," she responded as she stuck out her tongue at the other two.
They finished their meal and Tik went to the secret elevator and dropped down to the lower flight deck to continue her research and to program for the warning. Ron and Gus went to the robots in the upper cargo bay. Gus put on his protective suit and emptied some fuel. Gus took it down in the elevator and Ron went to another of the secret elevators to drop down and join him at the miners. They put a small amount of fuel in the miners and started checking them out. They used Auntie's computer to check each system out to make sure they would function all right. They worked most of the day just checking, fine tuning and learning how to operate them. Ron suggested that they move them to the upper cargo bay to finish fueling them since they needed to remove fuel from the robots up there. They moved them up and while Gus was moving fuel around, Ron checked for hose. He found some and a pump. The next problem was pumping the water into Auntie.
Ron was thinking about how cold it was outside and wishing there was some way to load the water from the inside. He started thinking about the conservatory and decided to check there. He hadn't looked very long before he found a valve and an input fitting right on the cargo bay wall of the conservatory. If they ran the water through the conservatory water system, it would be filtered and checked for contamination too. He called Tik to make certain the conservatory was hooked into the main water supply and she confirmed that it was. Ron moved all the hoses, pumps and fittings to the middle cargo bay. He told Gus to move the miners to the middle cargo bay after he finished his fueling job. They would be able to do everything from right in the cargo bay and wouldn't have to worry about keeping hoses warm and water freezing back into ice before they could move it.
By the time everything was ready in the middle cargo bay, they decided it was too late to head outside. Instead, they headed down to the lower flight deck to see what Tik had found that day. Gus reported he had drained the robots. They weren't sure how much fuel the miners would take but they hoped to at least get started tomorrow and then maybe the rocket would have enough fuel to complete the job.
Gus wanted to try dropping down in the secret elevators so they headed for the nearest one. They dropped down and walked into the flight deck. Tik was so absorbed in her research that she didn't see them walk in. She glanced up and jumped when she saw them standing there. They grinned and asked her what she had found out so far. She launched into a long spiel about her discoveries. She had checked out another room more closely than the cursory check they had done before and had found clothes. There were some that were as alien as the weapons in the armory. Ron said the Alcantarans probably wore them on certain planets where they didn't want to stick out. He asked if there was anything in his size. His clothes were starting to wear a little thin. Tik said she had also found machinery in there that could make cloth and then make it into clothing. She said that Ron would just have to go in there and get measured. He said he would as soon as they had some water and oxygen. That was the priority right now.
Tik was anxious to get back to her research so Ron and Gus went to check out some of the living quarters a little closer to this area. They entered a large suite on the starboard side. They entered what looked like a living room that had couches and chairs. One entire wall was a view screen. Ron thought it was strange that there was no reading material anywhere in the room. They found three bedrooms complete with beds and other furniture. They felt a little guilty looking through everything until they remembered how long that Auntie had sat empty. They looked in the furniture and found a few articles of clothing but not much else. One of the bedrooms had a closet. There were some oddly shaped shoes and one garment. Ron put the shoes next to his and saw that they were close to his size but a little narrower. Gus put his foot next to it and the shoes were dwarfed.
"Well, we know whoever wore these shoes was not a Sandghost. I don't think I wore anything that small even as a baby," Gus stated.
"They look just a little small and narrow for me but I have friends I'm sure could wear them," Ron mentioned.
They continued their search, finding odds and ends of clothing but nothing that would give a clue about what the Alcantarans looked like. One of the bedrooms was larger than the other two and had a small bathroom off to one side. One wall had a view screen and there seemed to be controls for some sort of projector. Ron wondered if it was one of the 3-D viewers. Either the occupants didn't use bedding or they took it with them when they left because the beds were bare. Ron and Gus were satisfied that there was nothing of interest to them here so they decided to look at the galley on this level.
They stepped into the room and saw that it was much like the one they were using up above except this one seemed to be the deluxe version. Theirs was pretty bare with just the basic necessities; whereas, this one had extra appliances and other items that would make it a lot easier to prepare meals. Seeing all of the equipment for fixing food reminded them that they were hungry and it was time to eat. They headed back to Tik to see if she was ready to head up above. She was ready so the three of them took the secret elevator to the upper galley. As they ate, they discussed what they had accomplished today and what the plans were for tomorrow.
The next morning, Tik went back to the computer in the lower comm room. She wanted to start going through the equipment in that room to see how it worked as she was doing the research. Ron and Gus went to the middle cargo bay after they had put on their space suits. As they stepped close to the rear door, Auntie ran through a warning list. They made it through the list and took the miners outside.
Tik went back to the computer in the lower comm room. She wa
nted to start going through the equipment in that room to see how it worked as she was doing the research.
It didn't take the miners long to fill the carts with ice and they went back in the cargo bay. The miners used their lasers to melt the ice and Ron hooked up the hose to the fittings going to the conservatory. As soon as the miners were through melting the ice, Gus stuck the hose from the pump into the cart. Ron started the pump and they soon had both carts emptied.
They worked all that day getting water in the tank. They had the water tank almost 1/2 full. The next day, they were outside working when Auntie gave a notification alarm. They rushed the miners back into the cargo bay and closed the doors. Ron called Tik to see what the alarm was about. Tik said Auntie could see the rocket and it looked like it had fuel. The detectors couldn't tell exactly how much fuel it was carrying but Tik knew it was more than it had when it went out. The rocket had only been gone about 72 hours but Auntie was estimating it would be back in the next 24 hours. Somehow it was shaving off at least a half a day getting back to them.
The trio immediately decided to send the second rocket that was fueled. Gus used the tractor beam to lift them off of the asteroid again. Ron programmed the rocket while they were being raised. When they were far enough off the asteroid, he fired the rocket. Gus took them back down and reset the shield. Ron and Gus had only taken their helmets off so they decided to push ahead with gathering water. Some time tomorrow, they would find out how much fuel the rocket was carrying. In theory, the Bugs could be there in a day or two, so they needed to have that water and be ready to leave if they had to.
Ron and Gus worked a lot longer than normal trying to get as much water as possible that day. At last they just had to quit. They were both getting tired and tired people make mistakes. A mistake here could cost them a life and might mean the recapture of the others. They checked the fuel in the miners and saw they only had about 3/8 of a tank. If the rocket didn't get back until around noon, the miners would be almost empty. Ron and Gus decided they would watch and at least move the miners inside the ship when they got close to empty.
Nobody talked much that night. They ate and went straight to bed. The next morning everybody was up early. Tik quickly checked all the sensors before she ate. Every day now would bring more pressure. When would the Bugs get here? Ron and Gus hurriedly ate and suited up. They moved the miners outside and started. By 11:00 Auntie's water tanks were 80% full. They decided that was good enough for right now. They parked the miners and climbed out of the space suits.
They headed for the lower flight deck where Tik was at. Tik greeted them as they came in the door, "That rocket is traveling a lot faster on the way back. I wonder if it's burning some of the fuel it collected. It'll be here in about 30 minutes. Maybe we should get up in the air right now."
Ron nodded, "I agree. Tik, can you tell how much fuel yet?"
"I don’t have a way to measure accurately but it’s a lot. What's the plan for the fuel?"
"We need to fuel the other rockets and get them sent off. Then we need to fuel the miners so we can start gathering oxygen. I guess the rest will go in Auntie's tanks," Ron replied.
"I think we need to fuel the remote sensor and launch it. In two or two and a half days, we will start losing sight of hyper-drive launch point. Right now I don't want to be blind. Maybe Auntie can speed the rockets up once they are filled and we can cut down the time it takes to get them back," Tik said nervously.
"It'll mean we'll have less silver if we leave early. We can't start mining silver until we have the oxygen," Ron stated the obvious.
"If the Bugs come, I'd rather leave without any silver if it means staying free," Gus declared emphatically.
"I agree. If we have fuel and oxygen on board, we'll find something else to make up for the silver," Tik added.
"OK, we fuel the rockets first, the miners and then the remote detector. Anything else, we put into Auntie's tanks," Ron conceded. "Take her up, Gus, and let's get ready to catch a rocket."
Auntie was in contact with the rocket and guided it right into the pod. She asked what Ron wanted to do with the fuel. He told her to fuel the other rockets and then put the remaining fuel in her tanks. Fueling the other rockets took less than a third of what the first rocket had picked up. Ron told Gus and Tik to go fuel the remote detector while he programmed the rockets. They rushed into the cargo bay and started fueling the detector. Ron finished programming the rockets and had Auntie start launching them. Auntie warned that they needed seven minute intervals between launches and Ron told her to go ahead with that.
By the time Ron had all the rockets launched, Gus and Tik had the detector fueled and had run through preliminary checks on the detector's systems. Tik called to Ron and told him they were going to launch the detector. Tik directed the sensor to fly into the airlock and then they drained the air. As soon as it was empty, they opened the outer door and launched the detector. Tik had it programmed to sit in orbit at their current location. It would send information to Auntie when they were behind the star. They returned to the flight deck and Gus set Auntie back down on the asteroid where he reset the shield.
Gus asked, "Where does the air go when we drain the airlock?"
Tik checked with Auntie's computer and found out that the air was pumped back into her tanks and then released when they refilled the airlock. Tik asked, "Why do you ask?"
Gus replied, "We have been trying to figure a way to get the oxygen out of the water and then get it back into Auntie's tanks. What would happen if we mined ice and then had the miners heat it to steam in the airlock? Then, if we had a portable shield over the carts, we could shrink the shield and force the oxygen out. Whatever was left, we could just dump back on the ice field. We could even use two airlocks with one miner in each of them to cut the cycle time."
Ron cried out delightedly, "I like that idea. Auntie says the second rocket will be here tomorrow, so we'll have fuel to push ahead and then, in two days, we'll have all of the rockets back. If the Bugs will just wait two more days, we'll be set to boogie out of here with a fighting chance to survive."
Tik said, "Go for it. I'm going to continue with my research if you two don't need my help."
"We'll be all right. Before you start, send Kota's message again. We want to repeat it until we get an answer back that he's been rescued. When you start researching, you need to concentrate on the communication equipment and some of the weapons. We need to fuel them or reload whatever it takes to make them functional. We need to find out what systems will help us to complete our escape. By the time the five rockets get back, in two days, we'll be hidden by the star; but until we are, we need protection," Ron stated emphatically.
Tik decided to start with the communications room and then do the weapons. Ron and Gus returned to the middle cargo bay where they refueled the miners. They suited up and headed outside. They did as Gus suggested and Ron took one miner and Gus the other one. They used the middle and the lower airlocks just to save time moving into the space ship. They were both working at a feverish pitch to get as much oxygen in the tanks as they could. They wanted to look over their shoulders to see if the Bugs were coming but they couldn't see far enough. All they could do was trust the detector to spot the Bugs first.
They worked late again and were up early to start capturing oxygen. They had to quit about 10:00 to retrieve the returning rocket. Ron worked the tractor beam to give Gus a chance to top off the miners fuel. Ron caught the rocket and emptied the fuel into Auntie's tanks. The needle on the tank gauge crept up but it still wasn't in the comfort zone that Ron wanted. They had a lot of equipment and weapons that would need fuel. Ron reprogrammed the rocket and sent it out again. He lowered the space ship and reset the shield. He and Gus returned to their task of filling the oxygen tank. By the end of the day, both of them were pooped. They got the miners inside and started taking their suits off. Auntie sent a warni
ng that the miners weren't secured. Ron and Gus were so tired that they thought about just leaving them; but they had set Auntie's warnings, so they followed her advice. They had just finished locking the final strap when the alarm sounded.
Ron and Gus looked at each other and ran to the secret elevator. Tik was in the armory loading some of the weapons when the alarm sounded. She beat the other two to the lower flight deck, not only because she was closer but she also ran a lot faster than they did. When they arrived in the comm center, Tik had pictures on the view screens. She was checking all of the data the remote sensor was sending. The sensor had picked up a ship approaching the star. It would be here in about 12 days. The detector couldn't tell if the ship was a Bug ship. The space ship was just too far away to get any details.
The trio looked at one another and worry was written all over their faces. As far away as the oncoming ship was, it probably couldn't detect them because they would be on the edge of the star from its view point. By tomorrow they would be around the edge. Could they risk continuing with the oxygen project? What about the rockets? They needed the fuel and they sure didn't want to lose the rockets, since that was going to be their lifeblood for fuel. They decided to wait until morning to see if there was any change in the on-coming space ship. If there was no change, they would finish gathering what oxygen they could in the morning. They would recover the rockets and wouldn't send them out again. If all the rockets did like the first two, they would have a full tank and then some. If there was no change in the on-coming ship by tomorrow night, they would wait until the next day to retrieve the last rocket. Tik would recall the remote detector and it should be back about the same time as the last rocket. Whatever they had, they were going to leave as soon as the last rocket was secured.
Gus queried the computer and saw that the oxygen level was above the minimum level. If they worked for three or fours hours tomorrow, they would be high up in the safe zone. Nobody was hungry that night but they ate just to keep up their strength. Ron and Gus didn't think they could sleep but went to bed anyway. They were tired enough that as soon as the adrenaline wore off, they conked right out. Tik didn't even go to bed. She spent the night in a chair in front of the view screens and the remote detectors signals. She cat napped on and off but she kept watching the growing threat.
The next morning, there had been no change in the approaching space ship so Ron and Gus ate and quickly returned to work. Tik didn't want to leave the comm room so she stayed there to monitor the space ship and did research on the equipment in the room. Ron and Gus pushed even harder than they had yesterday and by 10:00 when they quit, the oxygen was in the high safe zone. They were through with the oxygen. Gus raised Auntie and they prepared to start receiving returning rockets. Ron told her to dump all of the fuel into her tanks as the rockets came back. Auntie had spaced the returning rockets about 10 minutes apart. That gave her time to secure the rocket and unload the fuel before the next one arrived. In 50 minutes, all the rockets were on board and all but two unloaded. Auntie's fuel tanks were full so she kept the extra fuel in the rockets. Ron directed Gus to set Auntie back down on the asteroid but to move her right next to the silver deposit. Tik called out coordinates and Gus set her down and put up the shield. The deposits were just outside Auntie's rear door.
Tik stayed right where she had been since the detector picked up the space ship. She was trying to find out more information about it but it was just too far away. They knew that they were hidden from view by the star but they didn't want to be taken by surprise. Ron and Gus decided to try mining some silver. They climbed back into their space suits and took the miners outside. Ron closed the lower cargo bay door and they just used the middle cargo bay. They set the miners to use the lasers to cut chunks out of the silver and then to load it into the carts. This didn't go nearly as fast as cutting ice. There was a layer of rock covering the vein of silver and when the lasers cut into it, it crumbled into sand. The rapid heating fractured the rock and then when the laser was through, the rapid cooling did even more. The miners got to the silver and started working in earnest. By the end of the day, there was only about half of a cart full between the two miners. Ron and Gus took the miners inside and moved the silver into a lockable room on the side of the cargo bay. It looked like they had between 2 1/2 to 3 cubic yards of silver. Some of the silver still had chunks of rock clinging to it. All of it would have to be smelted later and poured into smaller ingots to make it more saleable. They secured the silver in the room and then the miners. As soon as they were out of their space suits, they hurried to the comm room to find out the latest news, even though they knew that Tik would have let them know about any changes. When they stepped into the room, Tik greeted them and showed them what she had on the space ship. It wasn't big enough to be the mother ship but she couldn't tell anything else. She was recalling the detector and would lose sight of the space ship sometime during the night. The rocket would be back in the morning anyway.
Ron and Gus dragged Tik away from the view screens to the upper galley to get something to eat. After they ate, Ron ordered her to bed. She had been up so long that she was almost dead on her feet. She protested but about two seconds after her head hit the pillow, she was out.
Ron and Gus stayed up a little longer discussing what they needed to do.
Gus told Ron, "I want to go back out to get some of the sand from the mining to dump in the conservatory. If I have any extra time, I'll grab a little more silver."
Ron said, "I need to pick a destination where we can trade for some food. I'll have Tik check the Bug's database in the morning and we'll pick a place to head for. I also need to make a sweep of the ship to make sure everything is secured."
"Why don't you use one of the remote sensors and have Auntie do a scan? She'll do it a lot faster and probably a lot more thoroughly," Gus suggested.
"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. I forget that we have a lot of modern conveniences and I don't have to do everything myself," Ron responded. "Once we get under way, we need to start on that conservatory. It will help with our oxygen and water purification if we can get some stuff growing in there again. We need to make it pleasant enough for Tik to use it to stay healthy."
"Yeah, if we have a big pile of sand in there, I'm going to stretch out and lay on it. I can feel the need since I haven't been around dust or dirt for several days now. How is your diabetes doing?"
"Since I started wearing this bracelet, I haven't even had to use the healer unit. Maybe there is something to the stories behind them. I know I feel a lot better and have more energy than I've had in the last ten years," Ron said.
"Well, one last check on our unknown space ship and then I'm ready to hit the sand," Gus said as he started for the flight deck.
Ron followed and they saw that there was no change and nothing new about who the space ship might be. They called it a night and went to bed.
They were up early and rushed into their last minute preparations. Gus took both miners outside and hauled in three big loads of sand and rock. He found a door on the conservatory that he could back the miners into and dumped it to one side of the door. He made one more trip out to get what silver he could until Ron warned him that they needed to lift off to retrieve the rocket. He hurried inside and secured the miners. He left the silver in the carts and put some netting over it to make sure it stayed there. He had just climbed out of his space suit when the warning came to prepare for take off. He hurried and just made it to the flight deck where he settled into a chair as the count down to lift off began.
Ron had Auntie search what she could to make sure everything was secured. He had her fly a remote sensor around all three cargo bays to check them out. He and Tik looked at the data bank and decided to fly to Europaische in the Kita Kinabula galaxy. The Bugs had been run out of there in the not too distant past, so they thought they might be nervous about following them there. Acco
rding to the database, they would be able to trade some of the silver there. They were going to trade for food and get out of there pretty quickly. They wanted to put some distance between themselves and the Bugs. They plotted out a zig-zag pattern that doubled back on itself before it arrived at their intended destination. They hoped all of the turns and changes would confuse the Bugs if they followed.
As soon as Gus was in the ship with the miners, Ron lifted off of the asteroid. He noticed that Gus' digging for sand had covered up the silver. You had to look awful close to even see that they had been there. Ron retrieved the rocket first and then Tik retrieved the remote detector.
As Gus sat down and buckled his seat belts, Auntie fired her engines. They were quickly picking up speed and as soon as they hit the threshold, they jumped to hyper-space. They traveled for about four hours and then jumped back to regular space. Ron turned Auntie to the starboard and they jumped to hyper-space again. They stayed in hyper-space for eight hours this time. It gave everybody time to get some sleep. They jumped in and out of hyper-space changing directions each time. Finally after the sixth jump they aimed for their destination of Europaische in the Kita Kinabula galaxy. This jump would take ten days because they were leaving the galaxy that the super-giant blue star was in. All the jumping had disrupted their schedule so the first night of the journey the trio slept like logs. They slept in the next morning and got up to a leisurely breakfast. Gus felt the need to go touch sand so he headed to the conservatory. Tik joined him to get the UV rays. Ron went to the lower comm room to check on things.
Gus took off his kilt and belts. He buried himself up to his neck in the sand and gravel he had mined from the asteroid. Tik sat nearby and couldn't stand the silence so she started a conversation.
"Gus, doesn't this place give you the creeps with all of the dead trees and bushes around here?"
"I haven't paid any attention. This sand and gravel feel so good. What do you think we should do?" Gus sighed.
"Well, I think Ron was right. We need to take some pictures and then take samples, seal them up and store them in one of the empty rooms. When we find someone really interested in the Alcantarans, we could sell or give them copies of the pictures and the samples," Tik said with a shudder.
"Can you get one of the remote sensors to fly in here and take pictures? Could it start at one end and work to the other so we'd have a layout of everything in here?" Gus asked.
"Sure, that would be no problem. As soon as I get through 'sun tanning' in here I'll get it started. After it does a wide view, I'll have it do close ups of everything. I wonder what we can do with the stuff we don't save," Tik replied in a brighter voice.
"I don't know. Maybe Ron has some experience with things like this conservatory. What will we put in here after we get everything cleaned up?"
"I'll have to look in the computer to see if it says. If nothing else, we can get something at Europaische to get started. I'd like to have seen this place when it was in its glory," Tik commented.
"Well, maybe we can make our own space. That is, if we are going to be Traders and keep Auntie. Do you think you'd like to do that?" Gus asked.
"I think I would but I'd like to do a few trades just to make sure we can pull it off." Tik said reflectively. "I'm about done here, so why don't we go talk to Ron about this?"
They got up and Gus got dressed. They stopped off at the electronics storeroom to get a remote sensor. Tik carried it back to the conservatory and placed it inside. She was going to program it when she got to the computer.
Ron checked everything about the flight that he could. Everything seemed to be going according to schedule. When he finished, he started looking around. He sat down at the weapons console and checked it out. He moved to the comm console and was looking at it when he noticed a button he had never seen before. He queried the computer to find out what it was for. The computer said it was to open the storage are for the personal voorwarp units. Ron asked what the voorwarp units were and the computer gave a history of them. 25,000 years ago or whenever Auntie was being flown by the Alcantarans, they were the newest personal safety gadget. They provided a small personal shield that was controlled by brain waves helped amplify sound waves and also acted as a translator. The shield would also deploy if the person was attacked unexpectedly. For anyone in the crew who was wearing another one, it boosted ESP transfer. It made the transfer a lot clearer; traveled farther and instead of just transferring words, it would transfer the image or sense of the word. An example would be; if you referred to a big cat, it could show an image of a lion or tiger if that was what you meant.
Ron was excited the more he read about the voorwarp units. He pressed the button and the side of the comm console opened. Inside were 20 or 30 objects about the size of a baseball. He gingerly picked one up and saw that the shelving it sat on actually kept it charged up. He hadn't read far enough to find out how long they lasted or how they got their energy so he wasn't sure this one was live and ready to go. He read on down about how to activate the unit. The computer said to hold the unit in your open palm and then press on the slight indentation on the top of the unit.
Ron laid the unit in his palm and pushed on the indentation. The unit rolled up his arm and before he could move, he saw a piece come off. He felt something gently slap his head behind his ear. At the same time, he felt something crawl down his back and suddenly there was a warm spot right between the shoulder blades. He felt behind his ear and thought he could feel a slight bump but there didn't seem to be anything foreign there. He walked over to the computer camera and turned his head so the camera was looking at his ear. He directed the computer to display the camera image on the view screens. He couldn't see anything behind his ear! He directed the computer to zoom in closer and he still couldn't see anything. It looked just like normal skin behind his ear. Ron quickly peeled his shirt back and had the computer look at his back. He knew where he had felt something warm but there was nothing showing there. Ron couldn't reach back there to feel, although he tried. He was trying different contortions to reach the area when he heard something coming down the passageway. The sound was so slight that he was surprised he heard it. Just then the door opened and in walked Tik and Gus.
They both stopped and stared. Ron turned red and pulled his shirt back up as he straightened up.
"Umm…I'll bet you're wondering what I'm doing," Ron started lamely.
"Oh no, we expect to see humans doing all kinds of weird things," Tik said mischievously. "Go ahead and continue your gyrations. Don't let us stop you."
"I felt something on my back and I didn't see anything on the view screens so I was trying to touch it," Ron said as he thought 'SHIELD'. "Can you see if you can spot anything or feel anything?"
Tik started to walk over closer and when she was about three feet from Ron, she ran into the shield. It stopped her dead in her tracks.
"What in the world did you just do?" Tik exclaimed. She reached out to try to touch Ron and again ran into the shield.
Gus had been watching with interest and decided to try his luck. When he got within three feet of Ron, he felt the shield. He reached out and pushed. Ron didn't move. Gus gave a huge shove and still Ron didn't move.
"Is that some kind of shield? Where is the unit that generates it?" Gus asked with an intense curiosity.
Ron thought 'SHIELD OFF' and replied, "I found a personal voorwarp unit and was checking it out when it attached itself to me. Can you see anything on my back right there between my shoulder blades? How about right behind my right ear?"
Tik approached cautiously this time and reached out to touch his back. She stared intently at his back for a couple of minutes and then turned her attention to his ear. She moved her finger over the skin behind his ear. Finally she said, "There's nothing there. I can't see anything nor feel anything. What do these voorwarp units look like?"
Ron pulled his shirt back
up and walked over to the console. He removed a unit and silently handed it to her. She turned the unit over and carefully inspected the unit.
"There is nothing like this back there. If you have something like this on your back, it has to be on the inside," Tik declared firmly.
"I don't know because I can't see or feel it but I know I can think about a shield now and it's there. I just put that thing in the palm of my hand and touched the indentation on the top of it. The next thing I knew I felt something behind my ear and sliding down the neck of my shirt. Then I felt something warm between my shoulder blades." Ron declared just as firmly. "Why don't you try it, if you don't believe me?"
Tik hesitated and Ron said, "Ah, you do believe some of it then and you're afraid. You want to use me as the guinea pig first, huh?"
"I am not afraid. I just don't think there's anything there. Where did you say to touch?" Tik declared in a snit.
"Right there on that indentation," Ron answered.
Tik touched the indentation and the unit rolled quickly up her arm. She was almost quick enough to jump out from under it but not quite. It slapped behind her ear and rolled down her back. Ron watched as both spots disappeared under her fur. Tik was wriggling around trying to see her back but she couldn't. She remembered Ron standing in from of the computer camera and she rushed over there. The camera showed her back on the viewing screens and all she saw was fur. She rushed back to Ron and demanded he look under her fur to see if he could see anything. Ron parted the fur and there was nothing. He moved her fur behind her ear and it was the same.
Ron projected a thought, "Think SHIELD." Tik jumped but Ron could see her concentrate. He reached out and felt her shield.
"You didn't speak those words, did you?" Tik said.
"Nope. That's supposed to be one of the benefits of these voorwarp units. The ESP is clearer and reaches farther. Gus, I sent a thought for her to think SHIELD and her shield is up. To turn it off, just think 'shield off'," Ron said.
Gus asked, "How did you find those things? What all will they do and how do you get them off?"
"I haven't read that far yet. I was looking around and saw this button. I asked the computer what it was and Auntie told me it was the voorwarp storage. Here, read for yourself to see what they can do." Ron replied.
Gus and Tik crowded around the monitor to read about the units. They quickly scanned the material until they came to the part that told how to take the units off. It said to think 'back to storage' then 'confirm back to storage'.
Ron said, "Tik, let me check something and then I want you to check me." He pulled out his healer and scanned behind her ear and on her back. The healer unit didn't show anything. Ron handed the unit to Tik and she did the same on him with the same results.
"Gus, do you want to try one? I'm curious how these things work on creatures so different. You have a completely different make-up physically than either Tik or me. I wonder if these units will work with you." Ron said.
Gus took a unit and held it in his palm. He touched the indentation and the same thing happened that had happened to the other two. Gus' skin was the texture of sandstone but the unit still disappeared on his skin. Ron and Tik both studied his back closely and could not find anything. Ron scanned him with the healer and it showed nothing again.
They experimented with ESP and found they could even think like a Sandghost if they were directing thoughts to Gus or they though like a human when they directed thoughts to Ron. It was the same for Tik.
"Wow, these things will give you a definite advantage when it comes to trade. We would understand the culture and I'll bet we can sense intentions in other beings. We are going to have to research these some more. Do you think we can even learn a fraction of 1 % of what's in Auntie's computer? Ever time we find one thing, it leads to a hundred other questions," Ron reflected.
"Speaking of that, that's what we were coming to talk to you about. Are we going to keep trading or sell Auntie and go home?" Gus said.
"What did you two decide?" Ron asked.
"We're interested but Tik would like to see how a few trades come out. We have a little silver. What else can we use for trade? Do we trade some of the Alcantaran relics?" Gus replied.
"I'm against trading any relics. We might trade away the key to unlock the next level in Auntie's computer," Tik declared. "Maybe we can find another asteroid or something and mine some more metals."
"I feel in my gut that unless we are trying to sell Auntie, we shouldn't mention anything about this being an Alcantaran ship. If anyone finds out about the relics we have on board, I think we will have treasure hunters looking for ways to take Auntie away from us. Having Bugs that might be tracking us is bad enough; I don't want anybody or anything else chasing us." Ron stated. "I'd vote to do as Tik suggested. Let's try a few trades to see if we have what it takes and then make our decision."
Tik and Gus agreed and they sat down to discuss what they needed to do in the next nine days to get ready for Europaische. They listed the things for Auntie to place into memory. They needed to smelt the silver down and make small ingots. Tik needed to check out the weapons system on Auntie to see what weapons they had. She also needed to see what personal weapons the people on Europaische carried. Did they wear them openly and what were the rules? Ron would try to select some small, easily concealed weapons that they could carry. If the Europaischens carried swords, they would see about carrying swords but they would still carry some type of pistol. They were all too cautious to trust the other beings when they didn't know anything about them. There were other things but they decided they would do them as they had time.
Gus brought up the conservatory and what they should do with it. He told about Tik's suggestion to start with plants from Europaische. Gus asked about getting rid of the dead material that was already in there. Ron said that somewhere on Auntie the Alcantarans probably had a chipper/shredder. They could use the dead material to enrich the soil that was already in there. They decided to keep the voorwarp units on for now and concluded their meeting when Ron mentioned he was getting hungry. They all went to the upper galley. After they ate, they headed to bed again, ready for a new day and a new challenge.