Davron Part 4
Davron part 4 © 2014 Gary Weston
All rights reserved
License Notes
Chapter 40
“I do believe you are in love.”
“Can you blame me? She is so sexy.”
Davron chuckled. “Lieutenant Danders. I must admit I never thought of the Romulus as sexy. Whatever turns you on, I say.” Davron passed the juice to Danders then sat in the seat next to her. “I suppose she is one of my father's finest creations.”
Danders had to agree. “The best ship mankind ever built. But you designed her computer. You gave her intelligence.”
“Perhaps. She never fails to surprise me.” A strange look crossed Davron's eyes. “She has secrets.”
“I don't understand.”
Davron sipped his juice thoughtfully, as if wondering what to reveal. “I suppose as you are her pilot now, you'll stumble onto it eventually. Care to see?”
“Show me.”
Davron turned to the controls and accessed the computer. At the press of a button, the screen turned a light blue. Nothing but one simple plain colour. Then it happened. From every part of the huge screen came streams of information. Vast swags of data rolling and flashing at speeds impossible for the human eye to follow.
“This is her conscious mind. If you like, her alpha brainwaves. Computers, including this one, are not sentient beings. You said I gave her intelligence. That was always the greatest ambition of computer nerds like me. To create artificial intelligence. To replicate the neurons and pathways of the human mind into a machine. Even now we are nowhere close. But...”
“But what?”
Davron held up a hand to say she should be patient. “And...Here.”
Everything on the screen had stopped. Frozen.
Danders asked, “What does it mean?”
“Ah! Exactly. I've been asking myself that same question for over two years. See this here? That band represents all stored data in her memory banks. And this long band here, is available memory storage. You and I could spend our lifetimes entering data and never come close to filling her up. But here. This third band. That is what she's not letting us see. And that's the problem and the dilemma. I've asked her to show me all she's got, which she has. Almost. She's also shown me her capacity to have more data entered. But this third band is stored data she's keeping to herself. Her little secrets.”
“No way to get at it?”
“None that I've discovered. And I think I know why. The original mission she was to go on. I believe that is her secrets. This was for the benefit of those going on the mission. Probably only the Commander of the mission knew how to access it.”
Danders said, “You think it's significant?”
Davron swivelled in his seat to face her. “Far more than just significant. That hidden data is what the Romulus is all about. Everything else is just hardware. Think of it this way. If all the known data we can see on the screen is what you referred to as her intelligence, perhaps what we can't see is her soul.”
Chapter 41
Davron left Danders to become one with the ship and joined Belle, Matlock and Akrins in the hold where everything other than food had been stored. It was the weapons they were interested in.
“We'll have to act quickly,” said Matlock. “Have a nice little welcoming party for them.”
Belle said, “If we can prevent the ship being shot to hell, it would be good.”
“Maybe draw fire away from it,” suggested Davron. “I can be on the ship using the cannon, but we can be keeping them occupied with other weapons away from the ship.”
Matlock said, “We could have three firing positions, hitting them from all three at once. Confuse the hell out of them.”
“The edge of the jungle could provide cover for some,” said Davron.
Akrins said, “Maybe I could make a partial shield to cover some of the ship. Anything we can use for materials?”
Pleased Akrins was getting involved, even if for just self-preservation reasons, Davron said, “Yes. We can take their crashed ship apart. Using sections of it would make a damn good cover. Good thinking, Akrins.”
“I just want to stay alive,” said Akrins, honestly.
They spent the next hour planning their strategies. At the end of that, they had worked out exactly what would go where, and who would do what.
“Sounds like a plan to me,” said Belle. “I don't know about you lot, but I could use a feed.”
Leaving the ship to fly itself, Danders joined the others for a meal and to be brought up to speed with the plans.
“That will keep us all busy,” said Danders. “Patrick. How much warning do you think we can get from the ship of impending attack?”
“It depends on the speed of their approach. I'd say between one hour and twenty minutes. I'll rig the ship for the earliest possible detection. I can add an external alarm so we can all hear it outside.”
Belle said, “I wonder what their interest is in Spero. Not enough landmass for anyone to colonise.”
Davron shrugged. “Could be any number of reasons. I suspect it is more about Earth than Spero. They saw me and the Romulus as the one thing standing in their way.”
Akrins said, “It bothers me that Earth is undefended against them. For all we know, they could be attacking Earth right this minute.”
“Nothing we could do to help,” said Matlock. “Our best chance to help Earth was to do what we did do. Lead them away from Earth after us.”
Davron sighed. “I thought about trying to warn them, but as they think I'm an insane monster, I suspect I wouldn't get too far.”
Belle held his arm and smiled. “You did all you could. More than most would have done in your position. We'll give them a fight they'll never forget.”
Chapter 42
“We have to face facts, Rory.” said Burns. “We've lost two of our best ships. The Romulus and Venom. And of course, four of our best people.”
“Apart from Captain Belle, you didn't have much time for the others.”
Burns sighed, feeling the responsibility weighing him down. “Rebellious, perhaps, but that didn't mean they weren't the best we had. I could send any or all of them into dangerous missions, confident they'd get the job done.”
Astron said, “Not on this occasion.”
Burns thumped the desk with his fist, his face twisted in anger. “And who's fault is that? Mine. I knew they had little chance of defeating Davron. I sent them to their deaths.”
'But what was the alternative? We had to make a stand against Davron. You know that. Before the wars, we could have sent an armada against the Romulus. Sir. You made the only decision you could have made.”
Burns filled his lungs and let it out in a snort. “You mean well, Rory. But it doesn't help. And losing the Romulus and Venom has put us right back.” He chuckled, making Astron wonder. “World Space Authority. What a joke. I'm an admiral without a fleet. Just a few battered old relics we would find hard to get crews for.”
Astron knew what was expected of him. “You, Sir, are the glue that holds it all together. We need your leadership more than ever. You may not be feeling like it, but you need to give us purpose.”
Burns stood up and puffed out his massive chest. “Sage like advice as always, Rory. We need to be focussing our energies on rebuilding our fleet. I need to kick-start new projects. Push existing ones. We need to make the W S A into the finest organisation on Earth.”
Astron smiled. He knew what buttons to press with Burns, and just how to press them. “That, Sir, is the General I admire and respect.”
Chapter 43
They sat, watching the screen as they took the Romulus on a slow, low orbit of Spero. Muffin knew all the changes in sounds and mood. He sat on
Davron's lap, staring at the blue planet with the small patch of land.
“That looks like a place I could call home,” said Lieutenant Danders, confident in her ability to land the Romulus for her first time.
“Astounding,” agreed Matlock. “A taste of how Earth may have been once. Some kind of climate change?”
“That's my guess,” said Davron. “I've found no evidence of the planet being inhabited by sentient beings, either now or before the flooding. That doesn't mean there never was. Just that I haven't found anything to confirm it.”
Danders said, “Is that flat patch where I put us down?”
“Yes. Airlock facing away from the jungle.”
Danders lined up the ship as directed and used the landing thrusters to set them down. “Welcome home, people.”
As soon as the ship settled, Danders opened the airlocks. They all stood on the airlock, Muffin wriggling in Davron's arms, eager to fly high and free.
“Off you go, Muffin. Have fun.”
Muffin kissed Davron and jumped into the air and he soared into the sky, showing off his acrobatic skills before disappearing into the treetops. Davron stepped down and the others followed him.
“I'd love to say just chill out, but we have a lot to do.”
Matlock said, “We should get everything we need out of the ship. Get it all organised.”
Davron looked at the sky towards the stunted remains of the volcano, ninety miles north. “It'll be raining within the hour. Rain's just a fact of life here.”
They worked hard and continuously for two hours to get all the weapons out of the Romulus. With the last of the heavy lifting done, they took a well earned break.
“I'd like to look at that thing there,” said Akrins. “To look at a ship built by aliens, will be a first.”
Davron said, “Seeing as how we intend to cut it up into sections, we had better go over there.”
“I'll take a laser cutter with me. See if we can cut through it or not.”
They walked the two miles across the plateau, the grass more like moss, boggy with the constant rain in places. As they crossed it, they realised carrying the heavier equipment would soon have them sinking into the mire. They could see drier, more solid looking ground and planned to use that when the time came. They became quiet and sombre as they reached the damaged ship.
Akrins flicked on the laser cutter and put the tip to the dull grey metal. He had to turn up the power to make a serious impression on it.
“We can get through it, in time,” declared Akrins.” Leave me to cut this up while you get some fire-power set up. I don't want to be caught out here if they attack.”
Belle said, “Ok. You carry on. We'll make a start and join you in a couple of hours or so.”
“I'd like to take at least a quick look inside before we take it apart,” said Danders. “We might never get another chance.”
Belle's curiosity had also been aroused. “Five minutes. No more.”
Davron stood back as he'd seen it all before, letting Belle lead the others onto the ship through the already open airlock. With the others inside, he stared up into the sky, wondering just how much time they had before they would be attacked.
“What drives this thing?” asked Belle. “Anything familiar?”
“Not a whole lot,” said Danders. “And I've flown anything that could get off the ground.”
Matlock said, “This is where the seat was fixed that Patrick fitted in the Romulus. And look at this seat. What the hell do these things look like?”
“Not sure I want to know,” said Belle.
Matlock was poking around in the back of the ship. “Interesting.”
“What is?” Danders asked.
“This. Does this look right to you?”
Fitted to one wall of the ship was a cylinder. It was ten feet in length and three in diameter. The hatch to it was open and they could see that inside the cylinder was empty.
“There is no dead space on board a ship,” said Belle. “And that goes for an alien ship.”
Danders said, “Patrick must have emptied it. We can ask him later. For now we have to get ready for unwelcome guests.”
Chapter 44
Knowing what was at stake, they worked hard and as a team. The undercurrent of distrust Akrins felt for Davron still ran, but ran deep. Subdued for the better good. They set up the weapons they had; mostly taken from the Venom. The Romulus had the most grunt with the modified laser cannon. Davron had already proved how lethal and accurate that could be. It could also be a wide band blaster covering thousands of miles in each hit. That was probably their best chance of defending themselves.
The plasma pulsator could be useful, if forced to use it. As Matlock had already forewarned, it was a potentially dodgy piece of gear thrown in the hold of the Venom that the W S A thought unlikely to be tested, so what the hell. The war had left all nations depleted of worthwhile hardware. Use the pulsator it could either kill the enemy or blow up in their faces.
Matlock and Akrins had the Deevas missiles. Interesting. If used to their best potential, and if an attacking alien ship did the decent thing and just hung in space waiting patiently for a missile to eventually hit it, it could be useful. Matlock wasn't optimistic about hitting anything with it. It had a reassuring effect on Akrins, so Matlock let the engineer sit at the controls. A less jittery Akrins was always a good thing.
They were ready. At least as ready as humanly possible. The alien ship had been dissected and its shell crudely fitted where it would go above the Romulus. It looked as ugly as sin, but with luck it would protect the ship from the worse barrage from alien attack.
Five exhausted bodies showered and ate a meal together. At the back of their minds, they hoped that they could at least rest a few hours before it all got nasty. Davron set the alarms to maximum. As drained as they were, they knew that if trouble came, they would find the strength and the will to respond to it. With all that on their minds, they dragged weary bodies off to their beds.
The following morning, they were relieved to find themselves rested and, more important, still alive! In subdued silence they clattered about the galley to prepare a breakfast.
“Plans for the day?” Danders asked.
Belle replied, “I'm thinking. If that alarm went off this minute, what would we do? We would have minutes of warning to get ready if we were lucky. We are over a mile apart with the weapons. We would be shot to bits before we could shoot back. I say we need those weapons manned and primed to go for as many hours as possible. Patrick. You're already here. I'm with Liz. Matlock and Akrins are together. We need to be in position now. We need to take food and water and get going.”
Matlock stood up. “You heard the captain, Toby. You get the water, I'll get food.”
“How long for?” asked Akrins?
Belle said, “Just before nightfall, we all make our way back here. Come on, Liz. Time to go.”
They got their provisions together and stepped outside, apart from Belle and Davron. Belle paused on the lip of the airlock and turned to face the man she once intended to kill.
“Patrick.”
“Jazz?”
“Are you ever going to shave that beard off?”
“You really hate the beard?”
Belle grinned. “Trust me. I'm not kissing that face until the beard goes.”
“You...You want to kiss me?”
Belle sighed. “Almost as much as you want to kiss me. Shave and it might just happen.”
“Jazz. I...”
“No. Not now. Not now. I know. Ok? I know. But...I have to...shave. I mean you. Not me. I have to go.”
Belle jumped off the ship to walk with Lieutenant Danders to take their positions at the weapons, ready for whatever came their way.
Chapter 45
“Now I thought I looked ok.” Davron stared into the mirror. “Maybe a bit of a tidy up. Hell. I've been a little busy, ok. Lets' face it. I go
t lazy. Beard gotta go.” He picked up the clippers, followed by a good old fashioned wet shave. The beard came off. “Damn. Ten years younger. Hello, handsome. What was I thinking?”
What he did think about was Jasmine Belle. A war veteran. A holder of the W S A cross, and they didn't hand those out just for turning up. But there was something else going on with Jasmine Belle. A vulnerability. Not in any physical sense. One on one, he would be dead meat. But he had sensed it. She was tired of playing the tough guy. The boyish face in the mirror had to ask the hard questions. This woman, the one he had once thought of as being the green lady, was flesh and blood and almost...touchable.
This was all about survival. Feelings had been put to one side for the greater good. Akrins hated and distrusted him. Possibly always would. But Jasmine? In the moments he wasn't physically in her company, he was still thinking of her. It was actually painful for him, to be in the same room as her, to even be breathing the same air as her.
He had felt her kiss. The green lady kiss upon his lips. No mere pressing of the flesh had let go the crackle of positive energy when so many physical contradictions had coursed through every fibre of his being.
Patrick Davron had had a few girlfriends before becoming public enemy number one. One or two had been attracted to him as a person, his intellect being a turn on for them. One had been attracted by the wealthy lifestyle from his father's enterprises. None had lasted long, him finding them too shallow. He was sure that wouldn't be the case with Jasmine Belle. She had seen action and life. She was as smart as she was tough.
What was he thinking? Why on Earth would she find him remotely attractive? But they weren't on Earth. They were on Spero, population five.
She had said something...almost. If he shaved off the beard, she might kiss him. Well. The beard was gone. Hopefully she would notice.
Chapter 46
“Well, he is kinda cute.”
Belle snapped, “Again. Pack it in, Liz. There's more important things to worry about. Like staying alive.”
Undaunted, Danders said, “I'd have a go for him myself, but the way he looks at you he doesn't even notice me. I'll probably have to settle for Dale.”