by P F Walsh
“I can find no system malfunctions. The auto anti-collision system has performed exactly as designed. Therefore, there must have been an object in our flight path. However, we were in ‘no-space’ where we believe objects do not have mass. This is most unusual. Scanning space around us now.”
Sean spoke up,
“Allister, shields up full, and bring our weapons systems online, open the weapons doors.”
“Acknowledged, shields up, weapons online.” Allister snapped back.
“Captain, there appears to be a ship about fifty Earth miles off our port side. It is drifting and not under power. The energy signature is very weak. I have tried hailing it with no response. I believe it is what we avoided hitting. Our particle bow wave extends out double the length of our ship and must have bumped the other ship out of ‘no-space’” Allister reported.
Sean directed,
“Allister put up the visual image on the main screen, zoom in so we can see the ship.”
Allister did as asked, and a ship was displayed on the screen. It was silver in color, tubular with a tapered nose, the center diameter much large than the ends, and using the scale on the monitor screen, looked like it was about one half the size of the Seeker. A good-sized ship.
Hails were not being answered, Allister had tried all his known languages in the database. The shape and style of this ship was unfamiliar to Allister as well.
An hour had passed since the shutdown event and there were no signs of life from the other ship, nor any ideas where it had come from. Allister thought it may have been a ghost ship that they had somehow bumped out of ‘no-space.’ Ghost ships were speculated to be ships that had entered into ‘no-space’ but couldn’t get out because of systems failures. They were very rarely sighted, but reports had been rumored of them for hundreds of annuals. Most thought they were illusions.
Allister and Sean discussed their situation. And both concurred that they could not continue their trip to Earth without examining the drifting ship and rendering aid should it be required. There was some risk of course, ships capable of entering ‘no-space’ just didn’t drift around in space. The prospects of hostile intent were very much a concern, especially since the Seeker had been attacked once already. Still, Allister had to emphasize that the ship was of no known design and definitely not Zakar in construction. However, that only ruled out one possibility. There were others, concerns for toxic environment, disease, radiation, explosion, and a host of other dangerous circumstances may await anyone who enters to inspect the ship.
“Allister, navigation-wise, where are we in relation to Earth?”
“We are much more than half way Captain, and presently within the bounds of what is now chartered as Member Earth space. It is an area of large volume that surrounds your solar system and is precisely defined in your charter. Our present location is within Earth’s jurisdiction, so technically, we are in Earth space.” Allister recited.
“I had a feeling you were going to say that Allister. Looks like it’s our problem to solve. Are there Environmental space suits on board for extra vehicular activity?” He asked Allister.
“Yes, you will find a complete set of those in a room off the engine room in several sizes. Do you plan to go over and examine the Ghost ship?” Allister queried him in a surprised tone.
“Yes, I think we have to, but let’s refrain from calling it a ghost ship for now, shall we Allister? I don’t want the other passengers to become frightened more than they are now with the emergency stop we all felt. Please make an announcement that there is no damage to our ship and our automatic systems detected another ship close by that may need help and we stopped.” He asked.
Allister agreed as Doris went back to her cabin and collected ‘Henry’. Then she went to Maja’s room and asked to borrow his stun pistol. Maja was surprised to hear about the planned excursion and the reason for the emergency stop. When it happened, he decided the best place for him to be was in his room near his couch, so he did not come out to investigate. Now, he was disappointed that he did not come out when he learned Doris was going to get in a space suit and explore an abandoned space ship. He handed her his stun pistol with a fresh cartridge in it and followed her to the engine room.
Sean entered the engine room and started looking for the room Allister describes and found it near the large port side airlock used for bringing in big pieces of machinery into the engine room. Sean opened the door and saw a long row of space suits arranged by size. Not knowing the Hhearn sizes, he asked Allister to convert to U.S. Earth sizes and he told Sean what the equivalent size in Hhearn’s measurement was. He took the suit off its rack and asked,
“Are you sure these are for space work outside the ship Allister? They are very lightweight.”
Allister said, “They are very suitable for outside the ship in vacuum. The material it is made of is virtually indestructible, and air tight. It also has woven throughout its fabric, sensors to measure environmental conditions for every part of the body to make sure that one appendage is not getting colder or hotter than another. The suit is completely self-contained and self-powered, they are all fully charged. Accessory air tanks are on the opposite wall and allow up to 12 hours of air supply, less if the work is energetic.”
“Captain, the suit must be worn over bare skin for the sensors to work properly. You must first disrobe, then enter one of the conduction gel spray booths for your body to be coated, after that process, you may don the suit and close it up. Then attach the air tanks and test them. Finally, the helmet fits over the head onto the suit collar ring, and will click into the ring when the face view plate is opposite your right ear. Once you hear the click, you may rotate the helmet to seal it to the suit. Environmental system will begin to function when the helmet is locked into place.” Allister instructed.
Sean looked at Doris, shrugged his shoulders and began taking off his clothes and hanging them on the wall of hooks near the conduction spray booths. Doris did likewise, opting to ignore gender issues. Maja, watching all this happen, couldn’t take his eyes off of Doris’s lithe, but muscular body, toned and shapely, but usually hidden under loose clothes. He felt he needed to suppress certain thoughts lest he become aroused and embarrassed. But he did notice, she had some tattoos in some very interesting places. He was sure he would bring this up at a later date
Once coated, Sean and Doris slipped into their suits and the attached boots with ease, Doris having found her size with Allister’s help. The suits had a rugged zipper with an overlay flap that sealed itself once folded over the zipper line. When the zipper was closed, the suit initialized and began measuring all the sensor points for body temperature control.
“Doris, you will have to add an outside belt to hold your weapons. There’s some of them on the shelf above the suits.” Allister said.
“Also, on the permanent suit belt, there is a red button for turning on the magnetic boots. Press to engage, press again to release.”
Doris reached up and retrieved an auxiliary belt that had several pockets with closure flaps and Velcro to keep them closed. She put in her weapons, one on each side for easy retrieval.
Before they put their helmets on, Sean asked Allister for the best way to get to the other ship.
“Captain, in the far forward corner of the engine room on the port side. you will see several sleds in charging racks. Pull one out. That will be your ride to the other ship and is extremely maneuverable using the flight stick and foot pedals. Move the stick in whatever direction you wish to go, sideways or up and down. The floor pedals will roll the sled in the direction of the foot pedal. I don’t believe you will need to use those on this trip. Both of you can ride one sled. Each of the two seat positions have a strap that will snap to the center ring in your beltline. This will keep you on the sled. Pull it tight.
On the right side of the sled is a retractable cable with both a magnet and a carabiner This is used to attach the sled to the work site so it does not drift away. Since the oth
er ship is drifting and in motion, be sure you snug the sled up close to the ship before you go inside.” Instructed Allister slowly and carefully.
Sean pulled the sled out of the rack, noticing it looked like an Earth snow machine except for the controlling stick which was similar to an aircraft stick but the top had a ‘T’ handle bar like an Earth scooter with grips. The right grip rotated like a motorcycle handle and controlled forward and reverse motion depending on which way it was rotated. He checked the charge state indicator and satisfied that it was fully charged, moved it on its wheels to the airlock.
Sean and Doris put on their helmets and locked them in place. Immediately Allister’s voice filled their helmets.
“Captain and Doris, there is radio communication between the ship and each of you. Merely talking will trigger the voice activity detector and your comments will be sent to the ship and the other suit. Once you stop talking the vad unit will stop transmitting and await a reply on the receiver built into each helmet. You may converse normally with a slight delay after you finish to allow the system to move into the receiving mode. Notice also the control on your left wrist. Those control other functions including external speaker and microphone to communicate outside the suit without unsealing. Can you hear me?”
Both answered affirmatively one at a time, and each could hear the other. Now it was time to get to the other ship. Sean asked for a safety line and was told to look in the accessory’s trunk near the airlock. He took out a securing line that was a great deal longer than the distance now between the Seeker and the mystery ship. Allister had moved the Seeker closer when it was decided to investigate the other ship. The Seeker was now in station keeping with the other ship, emulating each move so as to stay in synch with it.
They opened the Engine Room airlock inner door and moved into it with the sled. Once inside, the inner door was closed and the air pumped back into the ship and recovered. When the airlock was almost all vacated, a bleed valve vented the remaining small pressure into space. The outer door opened and Sean and Doris could see the other ship which now looked massive since it was only about a hundred or so feet away. The other ship appeared stationary, but the stars were moving because now both ships were moving together. Sean and Doris sat on the sled and Sean turned on the power switch. He could feel the sled lift off the deck a few inches. There was a faint vibration he could feel through his legs and seat bottom, alerting him he was powered up.
Allister told them, “The sled’s autogyro will keep the sled level as it was leaving the ship, unless it is overridden by the foot pedals which should not be necessary for this excursion.”
Sean grasped the grip handles on the stick and a green light lit up on the front panel. He pulled the stick back a bit and rotated the right grip slightly. The sled lifted up and began moving forward into space as the safety line he had attached played out behind them. Sean saw the airlock on the other ship was to the right so he moved the stick a small amount to the right and the sled turned toward the airlock of the other ship.
Sean kept the speed very slow because he understood kinetics, all forward speed would have to be shed right at the other ship or there would be a collision. Doris had a very secure grip on Sean’s suit waist handles and Sean could tell she wasn’t enjoying this. There was endless space above, around and below them, black and empty. Her senses screamed that the danger of falling was everywhere, but without gravity, one would just float.
Floating away was still a major concern in space. Recovery of a moving object increasing its distance uniformly was a tricky thing, and could be unsuccessful by mere inches. The other ship loomed closer as Sean began rotating the right grip in reverse, producing small spurts ahead of the sled, slowing it with each spurt until there was the merest movement forward as the sled touched the ship with a small clank.
Sean reached down and pulled out the anchor line and tried the magnet grabber plate. It stuck securely, and he also snapped the carabiner onto the hand hold that was near the airlock. Then, he reached down to his suit belt and turned on the magnetic foot soles and holding onto the ship’s hand hold bar, pulled himself onto the ship. He felt his boots grab onto the ship’s plating. He told Doris to copy his moves and, in a minute or two, she was standing on the ship alongside Sean. He looked at Doris as asked,
“Did you pee yourself yet?” With a smile inside his helmet faceplate. Doris replied,
“Not so far, but this trip isn’t over yet.”
They moved to the airlock door. There wasn’t any immediately visible door opening latch he could see. So, he began wiping his hand all around the door frame. When his hand slid across the top of the door outline, a red outline of an oval box shape appeared luminous in the metal with a ten-digit keypad of unknown symbols and a blue glowing section in the center. Sean pressed his finger onto the blue section and the outer airlock door began to cycle, but slowly. Sean noticed the panel brilliance dimmed a bit as the door began cycling.
“The ship must be low on power. No telling how long this ship had been stuck in ‘no-space’.” He thought to himself as he watched the door open wide enough for both him and Doris to enter. Inside the airlock there was another panel with two buttons. One was blue with an arrow pointed to the interior door. The other was red with an arrow that pointed outside the ship.
“So far,” he thought, “This is easy to figure out, I hope it stays that way.” He pressed the blue button and the outer door began to close. Once closed, the lock began to be pressurized, but neither Sean nor Doris knew what it was being pressurized with. There was no inducement to remove their helmets. Once the pressurization was complete the blue button lit up and Sean pressed it. The inner door began to open with a slight hiss of pressure differential. Both Sean and Doris watched the door begin to reveal the inside of the ship. Doris took out her stun gun, clicked the safety off, and verified it was set to stun. She held it muzzle down but right by her side.
There was a huge speculation on Earth about the scope of the ‘classified’ welcoming ceremonies announced in Washington, and it spread across the world into every major embassy. They all wondered who could it possibly be since each knew it wasn’t them. The erroneous consensus reached after days of wondering was that it must be the Queen of England. No one could recall when a foreign dignitary or head of state coming to Washington was welcomed with such a production. This was unusual and something important must have occurred. The ideas of what kind of compact had been made were wild and unrestrained. The Media sustained the buzz with increasing pressure on the State Department to ‘come clean’ and tell them what was happening. The State Department offered no comment, further inflaming the questioning.
“John, how is it going over there, getting enough heat?” Asked the President in a phone call to the Secretary. He knew the State Department would be getting bombarded with demands and questions, Congress was even now rearing its ugly head demanding answers for what was likely to be a huge bill of millions for the ‘secret’ welcome ceremony. The Secretary could hear the President chuckling as he finished his question.
“It’s going fine, Mr. President, same old, same old.” The Secretary answered with a smile in his voice.
“Good, good, I knew I had the right man for the job when I nominated you. You can count on me for a big favor someday when you call in this chit. By the way, the Chinese contacted me directly, some new man in their state department called Li Chang, not sure what happened to the last guy. Li says they may have been hasty in not considering our request and wants to meet. I suspect they have heard about our dust up with the Russians and seek to profit by slipping past them. I referred him to your office since I don’t like sidestepping over whole departments.
Anyway, be hard to reach, gains us time.” said the President as he toyed with the floating medallion over his desk.
“You can count on me being the most difficult person in the world to get a meeting with. It will be refreshing.” Replied the Secretary.
The President lau
ghed and rang off. The Secretary leaned back in his chair thinking about what the Chinese just did.
“To go directly to the President stepped over a lot of established protocol. They must really believe they have missed a boat. They just don’t know which one and are trying to get closer to pick up a scent. They’re going to need a very long nose on this one,” he thought smiling, “shortly, if Sean Flynn is successful, they were all going to realize that when you blow off the USA, don’t count on getting a piece of the glory when it comes. We’ll keep it all. The President is right again.”
Chapter Eighteen
Book One
Beztl-Tor wondered why Kastm’n the Elder, the Zakarian Ambassador, would want to meet with me again. He knew he was Tamn-Kar’s shadow-fixer along with a few assassins that Tamn-Kar had used from time to time. Beztl-Tor knew all about Tamn-Kar’s many shadow fixers. There were times when he was tempted to use one of those himself but never broke his rule of mixing shadow fixers. They either worked exclusively for him or he wouldn’t talk to them about anything. Loyalties get watered down in sharing arrangements like that and he avoided them. So, why was Kastm’n coming? He already had transferred the one million kalt to him, the amount he agreed through Tamn-Kar to finance the bungled attack on the Seeker.
He was now wanted for the murder of Tamn-Kar and should have left the planet. It wouldn’t do to have the Zakarian apprehended at Beztl-Tor’s office and then put to the truthmed, so he agreed to meet in one of Beztl’s warehouses under dim light with concealed exits onto different streets for quickly leaving the scene. The night was wet from a heavy seasonal rain that had been falling all day, and the gutters were flowing with runoff.
The night was ideal. In this kind of weather, there were very few, if any, foot patrols to be concerned about. Beztl-Tor would have the Zakarian drive his land car inside the warehouse and out of sight while they met. Beztl-Tor’s pocketcomm rang, it was his street watcher, the expected land car was approaching. Beztl gave the signal for his two guards to be ready to handle the overhead door opening and closing. His third guard, he stationed up above in the darkened catwalk near the overhead crane. He had a sniper rifle with telescopic and infra-red sights just in case things got rowdy. Zakarians were known for their very short temper and raging aggressiveness.