The Hidden Treasure of Darfor

Saleek gave an uncharacteristic glimpse of his emotional state by inhaling a deep breath and then letting it out rapidly a moment later. Patrick did the same. For a while, all was quiet in the cockpit, save for the hum of various systems working and the now faint rumble of the engines pushing the craft onwards. Saleek glanced at his readouts – short range scanners revealed lots of traffic but no one on an intercept or pursuit course. That was a very good sign. It seemed as if everything had worked out okay.

  ‘Damn, I’m good,’ said Saleek to himself, just quietly enough that Patrick didn’t hear him.

  He examined the artefact – which was now in his lap (he daren’t let it out of his sight just yet. He still couldn’t quite believe that he’d pulled it off) – with his free hand as the other gripped the pilot joystick. True, the onboard computer constantly monitored sensors and automatically made minor course adjustments to avoid any potential obstacles in the ship’s path, but Saleek always liked to have the option to make manual inputs if necessary. He liked technology just fine, he just preferred having control when it came to certain things like piloting spacecraft; some things shouldn’t be automated, he always said. The artefact appeared undamaged and perfectly intact.

  Not bad, considering we were dodging plasma bolts half the time during our escape, he thought happily.

  ‘Is that it? Is it over? Are we okay now?’ asked Patrick tentatively.

  He couldn’t bear the thought of any more heart-stopping moments and near misses. He had had his fill of adventure for the time being.

  ‘Sure looks that way, dude,’ replied Saleek, beaming.

  ‘Thank goodness,’ said Patrick, relief washing over him like an enormous wave. Then, as if suddenly regaining his senses, he added, ‘Hey, wait a minute! Where are we going?’

  ‘Away from Nexus One, for the time being,’ answered Saleek, swivelling in his pilot’s chair to face Patrick as he spoke.

  ‘What? But...all my things are back in my hotel room!’

  ‘Sorry man, we can’t risk heading back there any time soon. Your hotel is only an hour or so away from that dig site that we just robbed. One of Mr Vallan’s contacts is bound to see you and quickly introduce you to a torture chamber. Or worse...’

  ‘But...but....’

  ‘Maybe you can return in a few days. Maybe. Right now, we need to get out of Nexus One’s gravity well, make the super-space jump to the Antorii sector and rendez-vous with my contact. He’s eager to get his hands on this thing.’

  ‘And then what?’ demanded Patrick, his eyes narrowing slightly.

  ‘Then...we hand over the artefact, we get paid a ton of credits and then we both go our separate ways, I guess,’ explained Saleek.

  Patrick stared at the spiky alien in silence and disbelief for several long seconds.

  ‘What?’ asked Saleek, beginning to get uncomfortable with the silent stare.

  ‘That’s it?’ said Patrick incredulously.

  ‘Well, I suppose I could give you a ride back into the Nexus system on my ship,’ offered Saleek, a little confused.

  ‘That’s not it...’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Come on, Saleek. Are you pretending like any of this is normal?’ said Patrick.

  Saleek opened his mouth to respond but Patrick hushed him by holding up his open palm.

  ‘Perhaps this somewhat normal for you. But this is my first time in the central core systems. This is the first time I have ever been away from my home planet and on the very first day I met you. Then on the second day, before I even know what’s happening, I’m somehow involved with stealing from a criminal organization and making my getaway aboard this ship! As much as I hate to admit it’ – Patrick paused for a moment, then continued – ‘if this experience has taught me anything, it’s that I’m not suited to life on these busy planets! You’ve got to help me get back to the outer colonies before I get into any more trouble out here.’

  ‘I dunno ‘bout that,’ disagreed Saleek. ‘You handled yourself really well against those guys in the spaceport fight. I was very impressed! Plus, you handled yourself fine in the room with Mr Vallan and those mercs. I was worried you were gonna panic and break down right in front of me, but in the end you acted well and fooled all of ‘em! I’m tellin’ you dude, you’re all right. You got the skills to survive. On Nexus One, or any other planet for that matter.’

  Patrick stared at Saleek, who was smiling what appeared to be a genuine, warm smile.

  ‘And I know I kinda lied to you-’

  ‘”Kinda” lied?’

  ‘Okay, totally lied to you at first. But I promise ya, I meant what I just said. Think about it. What would I gain by lyin’ right now?’

  ‘So that’s it? No more lies? You’re not keeping anything else from me?’

  ‘I promise. Hell, once I’d got hold of the artefact, I could’ve just left ya there to face the consequences all by yourself. But I didn’t, did I? I took you with me. You helped me get into the dig site and I helped you to get out. I might be a thief, but I’m not a total Ketchwa!’

  In spite of everything that had happened, the lying, being threatened by Mr Vallan, nearly getting shot by mercenaries wielding plasma weapons and the stressful escape aboard the ship, Patrick felt surprisingly okay. In a weird sort of way, he almost felt like he could trust Saleek. Now that everything was out in the open, at any rate.

  That moment was interrupted by the synthesized grating of the computer announcing, ‘Alert! Alert! Unidentified vessel on an intercept course.’

  ‘What?!’ exclaimed Saleek loudly.

  He swivelled his chair back to face his station and instantly began calling up information on his monitor display.

  ‘Damn it! Where the hell did that ship come from?’

  His fingers began flying over the adjacent keypad, entering commands with both agility and ferocity, the latter possibly because had made a mistake. He had quickly checked short-range scans, found nothing and instantly assumed that they were in the clear. He had neglected to check mid-range and long-range scanners as well.

  Actually, that’s not entirely true, Saleek reminded himself. On a cargo ship like this, the operations officer is supposed conduct all scans from their station, not the pilot. Damn, it’s at times like this I really wish I had a crew!

  ‘What is it? Are we being followed?’ asked Patrick.

  He screwed up his features till his face was a mask of concentration; he was fed up of feeling out of his depth and was determined to do something. Even though he was no expert at flying or navigation, he was still capable of using and understanding simple computers and he was determined to find out what was going on without Saleek having to explain everything to him. His eyes searched the display in front of him until he found what he was looking for. He pressed a button and dragged his fingers downwards on a nearby panel. That did it – the display transformed from a picture of overlapping lines, numbers and shapes in apparent chaos to a much simpler, zoomed-out version of things. Patrick could make out a disc shape with some numbers on it travelling across the screen towards the centre of the read-out.

  That must be the ship, he concluded.

  ‘Looks like we got a ship chasing us. It’s closing in on us from portside,’ said Saleek, still typing furiously on his keypad.

  ‘Is it definitely following us?’ asked Patrick, continuing to study his monitor display.

  ‘Hang on,’ replied the lyan, moving the pilot’s joystick to the right and ramping up the throttle. Their ship turned several degrees to starboard and increased speed, still moving away from Nexus One.

  After several seconds, Saleek cursed in his native language.

  ‘Yeah, definitely tailing us. That ship just altered course to match ours and also increased its speed.’

  ‘Who do you think it is?’

  ‘I’ll give ya one guess.’

  ‘One of Mr Vallan’s friends?’

  ‘You betcha. That guy’s got contacts all over Nexus One and a few on
other planets too. He must’ve sent out a communication to any of his thugs in the local area.’

  ‘But how do they know it’s us? Does he know your ship model or something? I mean, we could be anyone aboard this craft, right?’

  ‘Nope, he’s never seen my ship, I made damn sure of that. Problem is, this thing’ – Saleek gestured to the artefact that was currently in his lap – ‘gives off a unique energy signature. If you know what to scan for, this thing will stand out like a painful finger.’

  ‘Um, the term is “sore thumb”,’ corrected Patrick who, in spite of the current danger, could not stop himself from smiling at the lyan’s attempt to use human terms in his sentences.

  ‘Right, whatever. Point is, these guys were onto us way too fast for it to be coincidence. They must be workin’ for Vallan. And it also means that we got no chance of shakin’ them or hidin’. Not as long as we got this artefact aboard. They’ll be able to trace this signal and track us down,’ said Saleek.

  ‘So what’s the plan? You do have a plan, don’t you?’ asked Patrick, worried what the answer might be.

  ‘Same as what we were gonna do anyway. Get clear of Nexus One, jump to the Antorii system. They won’t be able to track us in super-space.’

  ‘But what if they intercept us first?’ pointed out Patrick, growing increasingly concerned.

  ‘Well, they won’t shoot us down as long as we have the artefact aboard,’ said Saleek confidently. Then, less assuredly, he added, ‘I hope.’

  ‘Can’t we go any faster?’

  ‘Not without risking an engine blow-out. We’re still fighting to overcome Nexus One’s massive gravitational pull. If I push the engines too hard too fast, something might overheat, break and then we’ve had it!’

  ‘But the other ship seems to be gaining on us,’ protested Patrick, studying his display once more.

  The numbered disc had changed colour now and was much closer to an intersection of lines on the centre of the screen, which Patrick assumed represented their craft.

  ‘You’re right, it is,’ agreed Saleek gravely. ‘Their engines must be more powerful than ours, at least over short distances anyway.’

  ‘There’s got to be something you can do.’

  ‘Well, perhaps I can buy us a little more time till they catch up to us,’ said Saleek, typing in a flurry of commands on the control panel to his right. ‘Fire all thrusters on current setting,’ he said aloud.

  ‘Thrusters firing,’ stated the computer.

  Patrick found the bored tone of the computer’s voice slightly calming as it was in direct contrast to the way he currently felt.

  ‘I’ve aligned all thrusters with the main engines. They’ll give us a small boost in speed for a while. Hopefully it’ll be enough,’ said Saleek, although he didn’t sound particularly sure.

  I guess we’re both winging it at the moment, thought Patrick.

  A couple of minutes elapsed with neither human nor lyan saying a word. It didn’t seem necessary in all fairness, they both knew the situation and their options were limited. All was quiet except for a few beeping sounds made by the computer and the combined hum and rumble of thrusters and engines, the sounds all overlapping to produce a peculiar soundtrack to their getaway.

  Patrick started to notice that the view screen was largely clear of objects – they seemed to have passed most of the orbiting vessels, space stations and probes without incident. The blackness of space began to loom large, suddenly appearing much darker than before.

  Suddenly, Saleek spoke. ‘How long until we can initiate the jump to super-space?’

  ‘At our current speed, it will be safe to initiate jump drive in approximately five minutes,’ came the digitised reply.

  ‘Disregard standard safety protocols for jump drive use. What is the absolute earliest we can jump at our current speed?’

  ‘At our current speed, it will be possible to initiate the jump drive in approximately two minutes. This is inadvisable, however.’

  The latter part of the computer’s response carried the tone of a teacher addressing an overly-eager student on a school trip. Patrick couldn’t quite work out whether to be soothed by this or creeped out by it.

  ‘It’ll be fine. Begin calculations to jump to the Antorii system,’ said Saleek with the firmness of an order.

  All of sudden, the image of stars on the view screen faded and was replaced by the image of what appeared to be a hologram’s face on a white background. Patrick nearly jumped out of his skin at this; he was not expecting any change in the screen nor had Saleek ordered any. The hologram’s face was round, smooth and composed almost entirely of blue lines and curves. It was somewhat androgynous but Patrick thought it was slightly more feminine than masculine in appearance.

  ‘I must repeat: This is extremely inadvisable,’ said the holographic face on the viewscreen, the lips moving ever so slightly out of sync with the computer’s words. ‘Safety protocols exist for a reason, Saleek. If you attempt to initiate the jump drive too close a planetary body, the gravity could, at best, throw off your calculations so you end up somewhere completely different or, at worst, cause complications that will cause the drive to explode.’

  The face on the screen did not look happy at all.

  ‘You’re such an optimist, aren’t you?’ retorted Saleek, grinning. ‘I already told you: it’ll be fine. We’ll make it.’

  ‘Um...S-Saleek?’ stammered Patrick, suddenly looking as white as snow.

  ‘Yeah, what is it?’

  ‘W-What is th-that?’

  ‘Oh right. I guess I should’ve told you. Patrick, say hello to the ship’s computer! Call her Zeeree.’

  The holographic face turned to regard Patrick. It did so with an air of ‘what have you got into now, Saleek?’ and appeared to sigh (although Patrick couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw this) before flashing the human a seemingly-forced smile and turning back to look at the spiky lyan.

  ‘Actually, that is incorrect. I am not just a computer,’ said Zeeree. ‘I am a sixth generation Artificial Intelligence who is pre-programmed to operate within the confines of a multi-state computer drive, such as the one aboard this vessel. To imply that I am merely a computer hurts my feelings deeply.’

  ‘What do you mean? You don’t have any feelings,’ said Saleek. ‘They’re just pre-programmed responses designed to simulate emotions.’

  What happened next alarmed Patrick greatly.

  The face seemed to narrow its eyes at Saleek and said, ‘You do know I can just open all the airlocks any time I want, right? Maybe you don’t want to upset me, Saleek...’

  To this, the spiky alien simply laughed out loud.

  ‘Man, I miss our little chats when I’m away – you’re so easy to wind up! You know I’m only kidding, right?’

  The face on the screen changed its expression, but Patrick couldn’t tell exactly what the expression was supposed to convey. If he had to guess, he would say exasperation.

  ‘Ah, I forget you have a warped sense of humour, Saleek.’

  ‘You callin’ me warped?’

  ‘I can call you some other names, if you’d prefer...’

  Patrick couldn’t believe what he was witnessing – it appeared to be a couple of old friends arguing, except one of them was an AI construct. It was extremely strange (to say the least) to see a ship’s computer threaten to open the airlocks and kill its crew.

  Nothing back on New Earth could have prepared me for this trip...

  ‘Guys!!’ exclaimed the human breathlessly.

  The lyan and A.I. face stopped and both gave him a hard look that made him feel extremely uncomfortable.

  ‘What about that pursuing ship? It’s nearly caught up to us!’ explained Patrick, flustered and exasperated in equal measure.

  ‘Right! Good call, buddy,’ said Saleek, resuming typing on the keypad with almost comic timing.

  ‘Of course,’ agreed Zeeree, slightly embarrassed.

  The white background fade
d, as did the A.I. face, and was replaced by the sight of stars with overlaid labels and numbers flashing into existence once more.

  ‘Priming jump drive. Jump drive is at forty per cent power and rising. Estimated time to full charge: one minute,’ announced Zeeree.

  ‘OK, that pursuing ship is only one million Drekkma away from us. We gotta do this fast!’ said Saleek as he grasped the pilot’s joystick and called up navigational data on his holographic mini-display at virtually the same time.

  ‘So what’s the plan?’ asked Patrick from his station.

  ‘In one word: guile,’ replied Saleek as he tilted the joystick, slightly altering the ship’s heading. ‘There are no obstacles to slow ‘em down such as asteroid fields or places to hide in like nebulas round here. We gotta try and outrun that ship for the next minute and then we can jump.’

  Suddenly, Zeeree’s voice cut in, ‘Alert. Pursuing ship is closing in on our position rapidly.’

  ‘What?’ exclaimed Saleek, half in shock, half in annoyance.

  Patrick studied his display.

  This can’t be right, he thought in disbelief. If I’m reading this correctly, they’ll be level with us in about ten seconds. How can any ship move that fast?

  Truth be told, Patrick was not at all familiar with the specifications and capabilities of modern spacecraft. The pursuing vessel was simply much newer than Saleek’s ship and consequently was capable of much greater acceleration.

  ‘Damn it!’ cursed the spiky alien from the pilot’s chair, suddenly at a loss for what to do next.

  The pursuing ship pulled up alongside Saleek’s vessel and matched its speed and course. Then it slowly began to edge closer and closer.

  ‘Incoming transmission,’ stated Zeeree.

  ‘Let’s hear it,’ said Saleek.

  A voice crackled over the main cockpit speakers but there was no accompanying video signal to the transmission.

  The voice was hostile and sounded rather pissed off as it said, ‘It’s over, Saleek. We’re taking back what you’ve stolen from Mr Vallan. Shut down your engines and prepare to be boarded.’ Then, as if for extra emphasis, it added with venomous aggression, ‘NOW.’

  ‘What do we do?’ asked Patrick, feeling helpless as he glanced frantically back and forth between his display and control panel, wondering if mindlessly punching some buttons would somehow help matters.

  Saleek looked surprisingly laid-back as he answered, ‘You heard the man. We’ll just do as we’re told and shut down our engines.’

  Patrick looked up from his display and shot Saleek a worried glance before the lyan said, ‘Zeeree, you know what to do....now!’

  In one incredibly smooth movement (proving that Zeeree was just as capable a pilot as Saleek), Zeeree shut down their engines and powered up their braking thrusters simultaneously. The resulting deceleration could be felt even though the ship’s inertial balancers were fully engaged. As the hostile craft shot off at full speed in one direction, Saleek’s ship slowly turned ninety degrees to starboard as it continued to slow down.

  ‘Hang on!’ warned Saleek as he checked his safety harness in the pilot’s chair while Patrick clung desperately onto the arm rests of his own chair and shut his eyes, unable to watch what was happening.

  ‘Initiating main engines....now,’ said Zeeree calmly.

  The thrust was incredible as Saleek’s ship was catapulted forwards along its new trajectory. Patrick and Saleek were both pinned back in their seats as they were overcome by the massive G-forces involved. They began to put more and more distance between them and the pursuing vessel, which had only just decelerated and started to turn around.

  ‘Z....Zeeree....’ Saleek ground out through gritted teeth. ‘What is the status of the jump drive?’

  ‘Jump drive at eighty percent power. Approximately twenty five seconds until we are jump-capable,’ replied the A.I.

  Just a few more seconds... thought Patrick as he once more opened his eyes.

  He was tensed from head to toe and his blood pressure had to be higher than a craft breaking through a planet’s stratosphere. He couldn’t take much more of this. Suddenly, a harsh alarm sounded throughout the cockpit.

  ‘Warning. Incoming projectiles detected. Time to impact-’ began Zeeree.

  ‘Activate energy shield!’ interrupted Saleek frantically.

  ‘-two seconds,’ finished Zeeree.

  The blast was felt a moment later. The impact made the ship roll several times before they regained their attitude but the ship still rocked from side to side for several seconds due to the severity of the impact. Alarms began blaring and warning lights flashed rapidly in a cacophony of noise and light which numbed the senses such was its intensity. Reports began scrolling down displays with great speed and the smell of acrid smoke began to seep into the cockpit.

  ‘Damage report!’ yelled Saleek as he struggled to get the craft under control, both hands firmly grasping the pilot joystick.

  It was all Patrick could do to hold onto the nearby control panel and avoid being thrown from his chair by the rocking motion.

  ‘We’ve been hit,’ said Zeeree helpfully.

  ‘No shit! Has anything been badly damaged?!’ shouted Saleek as he finally won the battle to stop the ship rocking from side to side.

  ‘Impact occurred on our port quarter. Moderate damage to armour in that section. Several pipes have ruptured and we are leaking hydraulic fluids and engine coolant. Repairbots have been dispatched to tend to the damaged areas. However, the engines are still functioning within acceptable parameters.’

  Then she said words which could not possibly have sounded any sweeter to Saleek’s pointy ears.

  ‘Jump drive is now at full power and ready. Course to the Antorii system has been plotted and laid in to the navigational systems.’

  ‘Then secure all systems and jump. Now!!’ said Saleek, yelling the last word with every last bit of air from his lungs.

  ‘Systems secure. Jump drive initiated. Jump in three...two...one...now.’

  Chapter 7